West Bromwich Albion (0) 0 Arsenal (3) 6

Carabao Cup (EFL Cup) Second Round

The Hawthorns, 9 Birmingham Road, West Bromwich B71 4LF

Wednesday, 25th August 2021. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Calum Chambers, Rob Holding, Sead Kolašinac, Nuno Tavares; Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka; Nicolas Pépé, Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Substitutes: Bernd Leno, Pablo Marí, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli, Alexandre Lacazette.

Scorers: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (17 mins, 45 mins, 62 mins), Nicolas Pépé (45 +1), Bukayo Saka (50 mins), Alexandre Lacazette (69 mins)

Yellow Cards: Rob Holding, Sead Kolašinac

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 75%

Referee: David Webb

Assistant Referees: Andrew Fox and Mark Pottage

Fourth Official: Sam Allison

Attendance: 26,850

After our dreadful start to this season, tonight’s match against West Bromwich Albion is truly a “must win” for the club. Leaving the competition at the second round stage is almost unthinkable for a club of our stature, but as we have seen over the past few weeks, nothing is a given for Arsenal anymore. All we can hope for tonight is an exemplary performance from the boys which leads to a much-needed victory. Fingers (and everything) crossed. By the way, please remember that there is no VAR in this competition until the semi-final stage.

The match started in a frenetic manner, with both sides making their intentions clear to end tonight’s game as the victors here at The Hawthorns. Our debutant keeper Aaron Ramsdale was called into action twice within a few minutes when Kenneth Zohore pressurised him, but thankfully, he was able to clear the danger fairly easily. As expected, the match became physical with some fairly heavy tackling from the home side’s defenders which started to take their toll on some of our players; after some clumsy defensive play on the edge of the box, Bukayo Saka lost his marker, and his accurate strong shot was pushed into the path of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang by goalie Alex Palmer, who made no mistake in opening the scoring for us. Of course, there’s nothing like a goal to inject some confidence into the team, and a few minutes after the goal, Martin Ødegaard was unlucky not to score when his sterling effort hit the outside of the post from a difficult angle after Bukayo Saka’s shot was deflected into his path. Rob Holding was booked for a clumsy tackle on Kenneth Zohore after twenty-six minutes, and as the match went into the last quarter of an hour of the first half, Arsenal looked in control. The match was held up for a while when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, goalkeeper Alex Palmer and defender Cedric Kipre collided, with the latter needing on-field treatment. Sead Kolašinac was booked for a heavy tackle on Ethan Ingram seven minutes from half-time, and the resulting free-kick was cleared confidently by the defence. Just before half-time, a superb shot by Nicolas Pépé hit the post, and our man Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was on hand to place the ball into the net; just a mere minute later, our third goal of the night was chalked up when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ran in from the halfway line, and had a shot saved by Alex Palmer; he then acrobatically volleyed the rebound but instead of hitting the back of the net, it landed at the feet of Nicolas Pépé, who simply slotted it home. Three up at half time!

Five minutes after the restart, we grabbed our fourth of the night when Bukayo Saka ran down the left-hand channel and found Martin Ødegaard, who simply backheeled the ball into the path of Bukayo Saka, who coolly cracked the ball into the back of the net from the edge of the penalty area. The home side came back at us after the restart, and Aaron Ramsdale made two fantastic saves, but unfortunately he injured himself landing awkwardly, but after some attention by our medical staff, was able to continue. On the hour, Martin Ødegaard was replaced by Ainsley Maitland-Niles and a couple of minutes later, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang got his hat-trick when he received a ball from Nicolas Pépé, cut inside the WBA defender, and scored a truly fabulous right-footed shot from just inside the penalty area which curled around Alex Palmer and into the net. Superb. Now, our confidence was there for all to see, and as Granit Xhaka was being replaced by Alexandre Lacazette with twenty-five minutes of the match remaining, the Arsenal supporters in the stadium sensed that even more goals could be scored tonight. Indeed, just after Nicolas Pépé’s twenty-yard chipped shot bounced off the crossbar with only Alex Palmer to beat, Alexandre Lacazette nabbed our sixth of the night when he scored with a firm shot after receiving a pinpoint pass from Nicolas Pépé. We had a penalty appeal denied when Nuno Tavares was tripped in the box, and with fifteen minutes of the match remaining, Gabriel Martinelli replaced our hat-trick hero of the night, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with an eye on the Manchester City match on Saturday lunchtime, no doubt. Bukayo Saka was the recipient of a heavy tackle in the eighty-fifth minute, and although he went off for a while after treatment, he returned and thankfully looked okay. The rest of the match was a mere formality, and going back to London with such a large winning margin, certainly put a smile on everyone’s faces at last.

A great result, and congratulations to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for a well-deserved hat-trick in a match that we were the dominant side almost from start to finish, and of course, it’s fantastic to chalk up our first win of the season, even if it is in the Carabao Cup. A true reflection of our status will come on Saturday lunchtime of course, when we meet the current Premiership champions; although tonight’s result was important, Saturday’s will be more so, of course. By the way, we meet AFC Wimbledon in the third round at the Emirates on Wednesday, 22nd September.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Manchester City at the Etihad on Saturday, 28th August at 12.30pm(Premier League). Be there, if you can. 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 (0) 0 Chelsea (2) 2

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 22nd August 2021. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Bernd Leno; Cédric Soares, Rob Holding, Pablo Marí, Kieran Tierney; Albert Sambi Lokonga, Granit Xhaka; Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli; Nicolas Pépé.

Substitutes: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Nuno Tavares, Calum Chambers, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Folarin Balogun, Sead Kolašinac, Aaron Ramsdale.

Yellow Cards: Pablo Marí, Rob Holding, Albert Sambi Lokonga

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 35%

Referee: Paul Tierney

Assistant Referees: Constantine Hatzidakis, Neil Davies

Fourth Official: David Coote

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Chris Kavanagh; AVAR Sian Massey-Ellis

Attendance: 58,729

Welcome to the Emirates for the first home game of the season; today our opponents are Chelsea. The good news is that we have secured the services of Martin Ødegaard and Aaron Ramsdale, although the former is not available to play today because he is awaiting visa clearance. The bad news is that Ben White has been taken ill and Alexandre Lacazette, Alex Rúnarsson and Willian have all tested positive for COVID-19, and as such are unavailable for this match, but the fourth member of this particular group, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, has since tested negative, so he will be on the substitute’s bench this afternoon.

Within a minute, we had the first shot on goal, as Emile Smith-Rowe’s effort brought on a comfortable save from Edouard Mendy in the Chelsea goal. As expected, both teams spent the opening minutes of the match probing each other’s defence, and out on the left hand side, Kieran Tierney was finding spaces in order to get some low crosses into the Chelsea penalty area. The pace of our forwards were causing the visitors issues at the back, and it was against the run of play, when after fifteen minutes, Chelsea took the lead when their new striker Romelu Lukaku had the easiest of tasks to shrug Pablo Marí away to tap it into the net from point-blank range. Chelsea now had their tails up and their confidence on the ball became evident to see with constant raids on our goal. However, after twenty-three minutes, we managed to break out and Nicolas Pépé released Bukayo Saka in the left channel with a superb ball, but he was unlucky not to get a snap shot on the Chelsea goal, as a strong block from Cesar Azpilicueta meant that the chance had gone. Every time the visitors came forward they exposed our weaknesses at the back, and at times things look quite messy and disorganised. Ten minutes from the break, Kieran Tierney was exposed out on the left, and as Mason Mount slotted the ball over and into our penalty area, Reece James was left with the simple act of scoring the second goal of the match for the visitors. Shortly afterwards, we had a surefire penalty call denied when Bukayo Saka was clumsily brought down in the Chelsea penalty area by Reece James but unbelievably referee Paul Tierney ignored our pleas. Just before the break, we started to apply pressure on the Chelsea goal, and won a couple of hard-earned corners, but we ended the half two goals down, sadly.

Chelsea started the second half in earnest and almost immediately placed us onto the back foot by pressurising us into our own half. Kieran Tierney lifted the crowd with some inspired play, and using his example as a lead, we took the match to the visitors, and a long-range shot from Bukayo Saka was tipped over the bar by Edouard Mendy. Pablo Marí was unlucky not to score when his header went over the bar, and a few minutes later, Bukayo Saka was replaced by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and almost immediately his presence lifted the team; in fact within a minute or so, he had an excellent goalscoring chance which was pushed aside by the Chelsea goalie. We started to look a little more lively, and sadly Kieran Tierney picked up an injury which left him with a limp. Minutes later, he was replaced by Nuno Tavares, who promptly got himself booked for a foul on Romelu Lukaku. Somehow, a header from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang into the penalty area gave a chance for Emile Smith-Rowe to score, but sadly Edouard Mendy was first to it. Bernd Leno made a fantastic save from a header by Romelu Lukaku when he pushed the ball onto the bar and over, and with ten minutes remaining, Folarin Balogun replaced Gabriel Martinelli, which invigorated the team, as we started to push the ball around better and created chances in their penalty area. We appeared to run out of steam towards the end of the match, which the visitors sensed and tried to grab a third goal, but thankfully we managed to stand firm at the back. In the three minutes’ injury time, we simply did out best to contain the ball and keep Chelsea out, which we achieved, but either way, the two goals that were scored in the first half were the difference between the clubs today.

Not surprised at the result, but disappointed overall. Despite spending more money than any other club in Europe on transfer fees in this window (£130m), the hard and bitter truth is that clubs such as Chelsea are so much ahead of us now, and with no European football in the near distant future at the Emirates, it’s hard to see how we can attract top, experienced players to turn this around. Never in our history have we been in this position quite so early in the season, and with Manchester City being our next opponents in the Premiership, this situation is starting to look bleaker every week now. What is to be done? We know that we have several players to return from injury and illness, but even so, they may not be enough for us to finish in a high enough position at the end of the season in order to be in Europe for the next campaign. The senior players are not stepping up to the plate, there are no on-field leaders and the team appears to be directionless; even if Mikel Arteta stepped down tomorrow, we would still have the same set of players and as it stands, that may not be enough to get us where we should be historically, as many of our squad are young, inexperienced players. This is truly going to be a more difficult season than most of us ever imagined. Tough times ahead for us all.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns on Wednesday, 25th August at 8.00pm (EFL/Carabao Cup). Be there, if you can. 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.