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Match Report: Arsenal 1 – 0 Qarabag

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Arsenal (1) 1 Qarabağ FK (0) 0
UEFA Europa League, Group E, Matchday 6 of 6
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Thursday, 13th December 2018. Kick-off time: 8.00pm
(4-2-3-1) Martínez; Jenkinson, Sokratis, Koscielny, Maitland-Niles; Elneny, Willock; Nketiah, Özil, Saka; Lacazette
Substitutes: Mkhitaryan, Monreal, Guendouzi, Gilmour, Iliev, Medley, John-Jules
Scorers: Lacazette
Referee: Jens Maae (Denmark)
Attendance: 21,500
Our final match in the group stages of the Europa League means that we play the unfortunate Qarabağ FK, who will not only finish bottom of Group E, but are currently at the time of writing second in the Azerbaijan Premier League, five points behind the leaders, Neftçi Baku. If this continues, it means that Qarabağ FK will qualify for the Europa League first qualifying round next season. Their main goalscorer, Mahir Madatov, has bagged six goals this season in their domestic league; we hope that he hasn’t got his shooting boots on this evening, as we would dearly like a repeat score of the 4th October match, when we finished the match as 3-0 winners at the Baku Olympic Stadium.

Tonight we welcome the return of club captain Laurent Koscielny after injury in a team that is basically a reserve side for this, the final match in Group E. Anyway, the game got off to a pace not far short to that of a mid-season testimonial with passing and tackling certainly reflecting that type of occasion in the first ten minutes or so of the match. Having said that, credit where credit’s due, Mr. Emery is certainly not going to risk too many of his top stars in this match, but however, in the sixteenth minute, some clever play from the seemingly forgotten Mesut Özil led to our first goal. Alexandre Lacazette run on to the midfielder’s incisive through ball, and after some adjustment to poor defensive tackling from the visitors, a sweet right-footed shot from the Frenchman easily found the back of the net with no trouble whatsoever. You have to hand it to Mesut Özil, he was certainly showing the young lads tonight how to play in a top team at this level with some superb off the ball running, pulling the opposing defenders out of position time and time again. Of course there’s nothing like a goal to install confidence in a side, and now suddenly everyone started to move up a gear with better passing, movements on and off the ball, and it has to be said that it was also good to see players taking chances with strong shooting from outside the Qarabağ box. For the rest of the first half, Arsenal were in control throughout, with some very impressive play by Eddie Nketiah along with Carl Jenkinson making his presence felt on the right flank at last, moving forward with confidence and strength.

The second half saw Arsenal assert themselves more in midfield, taking advantage of some poor decisions by the visitors. Never really breaking into more than a sweat, it always looked as if Arsenal could score at any point in the game should they so desire. On the hour, Alexandre Lacazette was replaced by 18-year-old defender Zech Medley, whose job was principally to shore up the centre of the defence, which to be fair, he did very well. As expected, Laurent Koscielny was substituted for Nacho Monreal with twenty minutes on the clock remaining; all in all a very satisfactory return from the club captain, and with some important matches on the horizon, it was good to give him a run out tonight against this type of opposition. Eddie Nketiah had a goal ruled out for offside, whilst young Charlie Gilmour replaced a tiring Mesut Özil with ten minutes left on the clock. The match slowed down to its inevitable end, which really won’t go down as one of our great European matches. 

All in all a stisfactory victory here tonight, with some excellent performances by the young players, a few of whom were making their Emirates debuts. Good to see Laurent Koscielny start a match again, and more importantly than that, there were no unecessary injuries to the players, nor were there any cards given out by the Danish referee, who to be fair, like our goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, didn’t have a lot to do tonight either. Arsenal, being Group E winners, will avoid the four Champions League dropouts in the draw on Monday. Onwards and upwards! Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.

Arsenal’s new assist king makes case for new contract

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During the Bournemouth v Liverpool game, a statistic flashed across the screen. It was the “deadliest duo” one that Sky Sports invented. They try and show which two players have been involved in the most goals with each other (ie assist and goal scorer).

Arsenal’s deadliest duo was Aaron Ramsey and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

I was not surprised by the presence of Aubameyang, who has been on fire this season. It was Aaron Ramsey that surprised me.

Ramsey has hardly played in the Premier League this season. His start against Manchester United was his first in the Premier League since September. He ha started just 7 of 16 games – playing just 656 minutes in total.

Compare this to (the currently “injured”) Mesut Ozil.

The German has started 10 games, and played 825 minutes in the Premier League. It is clear who Unai Emery thinks is his first choice number 10.

It was announced recently that Arsenal would not be renewing Ramsey’s contract. Fans were split on the decision but the majority agreed that is made sense. The feeling was that Ramsey did not fit into Unai Emery’s system. That Ozil, the assist king, was more suitable. I agreed with that.

But often your eyes and mind deceive you, and when you look at the statistics, they tell a different story.

With 6 assists this season, it is Ramsey who is the clubs top creator in the Premier League – not Ozil. In fact, when you compare Ramsey to Ozil in assists, passes completed and chances created, it is the Welshman who comes out on top overall.

Is the real truth that Ramsey actually fits into Emery’s system better than Mesut Ozil? And that he has over taken the German as Arsenal’s main creative force?

Taking into account that Ramsey also has a higher work rate, is better at pressing, and is a bigger goal threat than Mesut Ozil, it is quite easy to make a case that it should be Rambo staying at Arsenal, not Ozil.

Would I be too upset if Arsenal cashed in on Ozil in January (rumours of Inter Milan offering £25million to arsenal) and gave Ramsey a new contract? No.

Would I be upset if Arsenal kept them both? No.

Ramsey is making a case not only to get a new contract at Arsenal, but to be first choice number 10.

It certainly raises the valid point that Arsenal need to revisit Ramsey’s contract…

Keenos

Should Arsenal sign “indisciplined” £122,000,000 star?

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Ousmane Dembélé is a talented kid. That is not up for debate. But he is a troubled star who reminds me of a young Mario Balotelli.

Genuinely two-footed, quick, skilful, strong and technically solid, the Frenchman should be the next global star in football, following Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar.

It is his natural attributes that saw Barcelona pay Borussia Dortmund €105 million plus a reported €40 million add-ons for the then 20-year-old after just a single season with the German club. He was supposed to be a short term replacement of Neymar, a long term replacement for Messi.

Dembele had gone on strike at Dortmund in an attempt to force the deal through, with team-mate Roman Weidenfeller saying the Frenchman did not even bother to collect his boots. There were warning signs.

In fact, his issues were prior to his days at Dortmund when he refused to sign a professional contract with boyhood club Rennes.

Despite getting his desired move, things have not really gone to plan for Dembele in Spain, with injuries and apparent attitude problems hampering his progress, regardless of a recent upturn.

Dembele is reported to have turned up late for training more than once – including turning up 2 hours late earlier this week.

Last month he was left out of the side for their Champions League clash against Inter Milan after skipping a team meeting.

A few weeks ago the 21-year-old was left out of the squad completely for a game against Real Betis after failing to show up to training.

Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc has recently commented about Dembele having ongoing “indiscipline”.

Urbano Ortega, who was key in bringing the player to Barcelona, blamed his “entourage” in a recent interview – which brings back memories of another talented and temperamental young Frenchman. Nicolas Anelka.

“We already knew about how he was and about his entourage. In fact he had already had problems at Rennes, where he didn’t want to sign the professional contract at first. We had good information about him at the technical level and some facts about his indiscipline due to his youth and because of the people that surround him, which do not help him at times,” recalled Ortega in an interview with Catalan radio programme, Esports Cope.

The hope with him is that he is young and naive, and if he grows up he will be a world superstar. But the same was thought about Anelka and Balotelli. Neither had the career they should have done.

In 2017 Barcelona took the risk and went big on him. If he is available in the summer, should Arsenal repeat that risk?

Despite his problems at Barcelona, he will still cost a huge amount. We are talking about £70-80million. This is a huge outlay considering his issues.

You also have the impact he could have on squad moral.

Arsenal currently have a fabulous team spirit, but one bad apple can soon change that. With the side have so many talented young players – Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Emile Smith Rowe and the returning Reiss Nelson – would it be sensible to add a problematic player with attitude problems to that group?

Arsenal do have some senior French-born players. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette have taken Guendouzi under their wing. The hope would be that they could be a positive influence. That if he befriends these players, they could clip his wings a little, and maybe move him away from the troublesome entourage that Ortega speaks about.

But the risks are huge.

Like with Balotelli, the clubs willing to take a risk reduces every time a player moves but his behaviour remains unchanged.

Liverpool ended up releasing Balotelli after 2 seasons. He had played 16 league games; scoring just 1 goal. They wrote off £16million and a huge chunk in wages.

Dembele is currently reportedly on £200,000 a week at Barcelona.

Would Arsenal really want to invest a huge transfer (£70million) and tie up a further £52million (£200,000 a week on a 5 year deal) in Dembele? It would be a huge £122,000,000 risk

At those wages, Arsenal would struggle to recoup too much of the transfer fee if he does not settle, if he continues with the same behavioural issues as he has shown in Spain and Germany.

Looking forward 2 years, if he is still a problem child, who would pay Arsenal big money to take him on? The fear is Arsenal end up with a bad apple on huge wages that we are unable to sell.

If he does grow up, we would have a world class player on our hands. But Dembele is 22 at the end of this season. He has to grow up sooner rather than later.

Signing Dembele would be a huge financial risk for Arsenal. I am not sure if we should take it (but would be excited if we did).

Keenos