Just to assure everyone that not all is lost after our string of recent domestic disappointments featuring the unwelcome interventions of PGMOL officials, I will begin this Shakhtar Donetsk preview by pointing out that no PGMOL officials will be involved in this contest. That’s right, UEFA will assure it by appointing UEFA-sanctioned officials who have no particular known or identifiable agenda against Arsenal. Thank you very much indeed for this welcome relief!
UCL’s revamped “league phase” resumes this Tuesday evening when Arsenal will host the defending champions of Ukraine, Shakhtar Donetsk. The Arsenal-Shakhtar rivalry has a bit more history to it than you might remember, not to denigrate the memory of any fine ‘holic who’s reading this of course, but my research brought up a few tidbits I had long forgotten.
We have played the Ukrainians four times in this competition, including twice in 2010/11 group play when each club won at home. Shakhtar won 2-1 in November with the winner scored by ex-Arsenal favorite Eduardo, after Arsenal won by 5-1 at home one month prior on goals by Song, Nasri, Fàbregas, Wilshere and Chamakh to overcome the obligatory Eduardo score for the visitors. Arsenal previously faced Shakhtar on two other occasions in the 2000/01 competition, when Arsenal overcame two early Shakhtar goals in September at Highbury to win by 3-2, with one goal scored by Wiltord and two late ones by Keown (of all people), before Shakhtar defeated a Lee Dixon captained Arsenal side away by 3-0 in December. The picture above features Arsenal’s Rosicky and Shakhtar’s Mkhitaryan, who made his Ukrainian league debut in September 2010 when he was substituted for the very same Eduardo, one month before the last occasion when the Ukrainian side faced Arsenal.
Oleksandr Zinchenko was captain of the Shakhtar youth team before he moved to Russia with his parents in 2014 due to the war in Donbas. Until 2014 Shakhtar’s home was the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, but due to the Russian invasion the club was forced to move their domestic home games to Lviv from 2014–16, to Kharkiv from 2017–20, and to Kyiv from mid-2020 before moving back to Lviv for the last two seasons as the war continued to rage.
Shakhtar
I haven’t researched Shakhtar’s current players but suffice it to say that their squad is still highly competitive at this level despite all the hardships the club has been through during the last decade. In their two UCL contests this season Shakhtar drew 0-0 at Bologna before defeating Atalanta in their “home” match (played at the home stadium of Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany) by 3-0, so Shakhtar and Arsenal are level on four points apiece in the table, but Arsenal trail their opponents on goal difference.
In this season’s Ukraine league table Shakhtar sit fourth after their away win last Friday at Kolos, six points behind leaders Dynamo Kyiv after nine matches played.
As to the mentality of the Shakhtar team coming into this match I recommend this BBC article by Alex Bysouth that was published today: War, exile, hope – how Shakhtar continue to overcome adversity, and in particular this description of the trek that the club will have made to London for this game: “Champions League football at least gives Shakhtar a chance to play away from the threat of war, but travelling abroad brings its own challenges. When they face Arsenal at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday it will be on the back of a long-haul journey. On Friday, Shakhtar travelled from their base in Kyiv to Lviv by coach, stopped over for a day to train and then on Sunday went across the border to the city of Rzeszow in Poland, from where they flew to London.” As Shakhtar’s chief executive Sergei Palkin commented, “When you arrive you are already less competitive than your opponent because of physical conditions, mental conditions. To spend two days in a bus, in a plane, is very difficult.”
Arsenal XI
The Gunners come into Tuesday’s match having drawn 0-0 away at Atalanta on 19 September, and defeated PSG 2-0 at home on 1 October in their first two Champions League matches this season. With their European pedigrees our new recruits Merino and Calafiori could be decently equipped for this kind of match so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Arteta putting them right into the fray, but Ukraine’s own Zinchenko could also be an interesting choice at left back for the Gunners. Unfortunately, news reports indicate that Bukayo Saka remains a serious injury doubt so I wouldn’t expect to see him risked for this one. Instead of Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus could come in on the right wing, leaving us with a team that looks something like this:
Raya
White Saliba Gabriel Zinchenko
Rice Partey Merino
Jesus Havertz Martinelli
Saliba’s dismissal at Bournemouth was Arsenal’s third Premier League red card of the domestic campaign, after Trossard and Rice were previously sent off for delaying match restarts. But Saliba’s ban does not apply for this European match, so he should retain his starting spot. Let’s hope some Euro footy is just the tonic that Saliba and the Gunners need to refocus their mentality going forward. Barring any unexpected interventions from UEFA officials, I would expect Arsenal to bounce back from their defeat at Bournemouth, and to emerge with a comfortable win in this one.
Enjoy the match, ‘holics.
Cheers, bt8, well researched history of our confrontations.
However, you might amend your more recent research as Shakhtar LOST 3-0 at home to Atalanta. Which I remember well as I do follow Atalanta’s results in general.
Nice one bt8. An interesting preview, and with just the right tone after the weekend’s disappointment.
I’m definitely on board with the ‘look forwards’ attitude, although I am as glad as you that PGMOL won’t be involved in this one. I didn’t see the Atalanta game but the ref for PSG was excellent and I’ll be hoping for another performance which allows a fair contest between the two teams.
Or, at least as fair a contest as Shaktar’s current situation allows.
I am sure it will be a top atmosphere at our place tomorrow and I hope all of Ukraine knows they have our support.
As for the match, we need to keep picking up points, preferably all 3 of them. Hopefully Nwaneri gets a decent chunk of the second half. Is it mad to suggest leaving Rice on the bench (or out of the squad)? He looks a bit leggy, and I reckon we will need him to put in a shift against Pool.
Anyway, the gaffer knows best, and he’s said the right things about how to move past the bad result at the weekend, so let’s hope the players look refreshed and ready to go.
UTA!
Bt8
Ollie beat me to the punch regarding Shakhtar’s Atalanta defeat. A draw at Bologna is decent, a 3-0 defeat is a less impressive performance.
I remember the two Shakhtar home games . When we first played them we expected them to be a knock off and were 2-0 down early doors . Keown’s double was a very late one and the game was tough. We’d won the group before deciding to send a weaker team to Ukraine .When we played them again there was huge love for Eduardo and I’ve never heard more home applause for an away goal than then .
I think Zinchenko would be a very emotional choice and he might be on the bench . Trossard will play and I think if Saka doesn’t make it I think it’s a toss-up between Jesus and Sterling . I think Merino needs time on the pitch and I hope we can see quite a bit of Nwaneri. I think a two or three goal win for the Gunners is in store- and a proper referee!
A very therapeutic opportunity to focus on the forthcoming game and our track record against Shakhtar, bt8, despite the continuing fallout from Saturday. I’d make a few changes to your selected starting line-up though yours may prove closer to MA8’s.
I’d use this game to blood our enforced CB combo for Liverpool, either moving BW4 inside and playing Timber, if he’s fit enough to play Tuesday-Sunday or preferably rest Timber and play Calafiori at CB alongside Gabriel with Zinchenko at LB and White at RB. I was underwhelmed by our midfield’s lack of creativity on Saturday, even with 11 on the field so wouldn’t play that trio again unless enforced by injuries or suspensions and would start Nwanei in the Øde role alongside Partey/JG and Merino. Like GSD, I would rest Rice who looks very leggy indeed (but MA8 probably won’t).Upfront I would rest Saka and possibly also Havertz (though MA8 won’t if they are out of the ‘red zone’), and I’d start Sterling-Jesus-Martinelli with the heavyweights (if fit) on the bench.
COYG
I believe that for the 5-1 match, the authentic ‘holic pound was on the correct score, and with a bonus flutter of Eduardo scoring a goal.
There may even have been Champagne involved in the Tollington afterwards (though I’m not 100% certain I’m not confusing two different matches with the latter statement).
(And now I’ve remembered ‘conflating’ was the world I was looking for)
Ollie @6. Hey Bobbie! What’s the French for conflating?
Re: Ollie, TTG and Shakhtar’s 3-0 home LOSS to Atalanta.
I can’t get anything past you can I? 😉
I am also intrigued by Bath’s idea of giving a game to the central defensive combo that will face Liverpool whoever they turn out to be. The strategy could be beneficial for our defensive cohesion, even if not immediately.
Thanks bt8 for an insightful and informative preview.
Shakhtar’s rise to the top of Ukrainian football, replacing Dynamo Kyiv, was achieved by the strength of many foreign players, particularly of Brazilian origin. Willian, Chelsea and Arsenal, started his European career with them. I think so did Fernandinho. Historically speaking Shakhtar was more of a cup specialist in the days before Ukraine’s independence.
Shakhtar’s current owner Rinat Akhmetov is likely the Ukrainian billionaire to have suffered the most amount of financial loss because of the invasion once it had started back in 2014, and of course after 2022 much more.
History of Donetsk has a British connection, as the original city was founded by Welsh businessman John Hughes in an existing mining settlement, and the city was first called Hughesovka.
Using this as a dress rehearsal for the central defensive pair for Liverpool match sounds like a good plan, but I have two concerns: one, for our CL progression this and the home game against Zagreb are two we must win to have some margin for errors in matches like the away at Sporting, and whatever defensive duo we use against Shakhtar, ‘Pool will be able to have a clearer idea of our tactical adjustments that we will need to make in absence of Saliba. I think keeping our option for the CD pair in the weekend a surprise has benefits.
Also, I would start Jesus centrally, flanked by Gabi and Sterling. And plan on getting Nwaneri on early. Jorginho can start in a deep lying role. Agree with those who feel that it may be too emotional for Zinchenko.
Best wishes to the Shakhtar team for their journey to London and back, and their time in the city. Except for the couple of hours in the match when Arsenal should look to build some positive goal difference. 🙂
The GHF Predictathon leaderboard for Match Week 8 has been posted. You know where to find it, although, this week, you might not like what you find there…
My two cents is that Arteta will start much the same team against Shaktar as he did against Bournemouth. Trossard could drop back into the midfield with one of Merino, Partey and Ricd starting on the bench. No need to rush Saka back if he is not 110%. I’d be happy to see Nwaneri given a start, but I doubt he will be. It would be nice to see him given half an hour rather than a few minutes towards the end, though.
@10 thanks Ned, I didn’t totally hate the predictathon Leaderboard this week though it still makes fairly depressing reading
Excellent – thanks, bt8. An interesting recap on past encounters and the disruption Donetsk have suffered at Putin’s hand.
I remember those matches from 2010 on and how the Donetsk side was built on Brazilian flair up front and hard-as-nails Eastern Europeans in defence. We use start early in Donetsk to counter the frozen pitches later at night – a long and difficult trip even then and impossible, of course, in recent times.
I would also give Rice a rest – he’s going to have to be in top nick on Sunday – and bring in Jorginho with Partey in the middle, allowing Metino to continue a bit further forwards.
It’s unlikely Arteta will start Nwaneri on Sunday so why not give him a start tonight. He has looked assured and unfazed so far and loves to drive forwards.
If anyone is staring at the TV schedules wondering why we’re not on TNT , it’s because the game is on Amazon Prime. Come on you Reedddss !
Excellent preview and some superb tactical suggestions in the drinks for Mikel (who is an avid GHF reader) to take on board as he deliberates tonight’s starting line up. I’m going along to the game tonight and hoping to see Nwaneri start.
Anyone interested in an early evening beer may well find me at that favourite old watering hole ‘The Faltering Fullback’ (Kolasinac’s place) around 5.00 beer time.
And, of course, in the 2000/01 game mentioned in the preview we had our own Ukrainian, Oleg The Horse Luzhny, signed from Dynamo Kiev as the no-nonsense successor to Lee Dixon.
Thanks bt8
Still flat after the weekend so any win will do to raise the spirits. Maybe big Gabi can knock a couple in as homage to Keown, warriors both.
UTA.
The Times says we are thinking of expanding the Emirates
Arsenal explore Emirates expansion to match rivals’ income
https://www.thetimes.com/article/42de0cf8-5cc0-4c1d-bdf4-451d48b431c4?shareToken=ec78422a2f0e8a13498470b14f9beb52
I’m worried that after the whole ‘at least the PGMOL is not involved tonight’ talk, there will be some horrendous refereeing decision tonight.
Hey Ollie – just been announced that Michael Oliver has even given dual Finnish nationality …. ?
heh, Trev!
even given = been given (ffs)
Ollie @18, that’s very sensible cautionary advice. Whilst we are all too familiar with the failings of the PGMOL muppets which has been emphasised by two excellent performances by European referees in our recent Champions League matches, we would be extremely naive to believe that European referees are all of an excellent standard and that European countries do not have erratic, incompetent and inconsistent individuals amongst their referees. In European competitions we are quite likely to see referees who display a similar lack of quality to those who strut their stuff in the Premier League; indeed, we have plenty of experience of that type of European official. I think we have been lucky with our two recent European officials. Sadly, it appears that in the Premier League we are extremely unlikely to see refereeing of the standard we have experienced recently in the Champions League.
Little Jack Wilshere off to join Norwich City as their first team coach.
https://x.com/skysportsnews/status/1848713517295100152?s=61&t=cVFjCyGkt4y-Ne45LtfqkQ
Best of luck Jacky boy.
A good move for LJW. I hope that he proves very successful and has a stellar coaching career.
C100@23: ‘Scoop’ OM relayed that news three days ago.
I recall that we discussed expanding the stadium’s seating capacity in the drinks a while back. Perhaps that was in mid-summer when Josh Kroenke told ESPN that the club had started looking at the options but that adding seats in significant numbers wouldn’t be easy. There is some space behind the goals to add safe standing, but it wouldn’t be a capacity game changer. Adding seats in the tens of thousands, which would be needed to make the addition cost-effective, would require upgrading transport infrastructure, so the costs would spiral.
Ned – what a well informed blog this must be !
All the regular writers are in a cluster occupying all the bottom positions in the Predictathon with only Steve/Hyperdee bucking the trend. Gulp !
Ned @ 25. Remember the old promise about Holloway Road upgrade when moving to the new stadium? Instead HR is closed just before/after matches.
Wonder what they could do now.
Apparently I was wrong about Oliver getting dual Finnish nationality.
All I can tell you is that tonight’s French referee is called Michel Olivier ……. 😳
Ollie@27: I’ve read that there was a suggestion at one point during the stadium’s planning that it should have its own, part-time Tube station. Trains would stop only on match days, and all the exits would come up inside the ground. The Tube authorities nixed the idea because they couldn’t cope with staffing a station part-time and wouldn’t countenance the club’s offer to use its match-day crews to staff the station because of union concerns.
Trev@26: The regulars make their corn from giving their advice, not from taking it…
Heh again Trev. Although he certainly has something in common: a Last Name that could be a First Name.
I was not aware that part-time station with Stadium exits, Ned, wow! There was something mentioned about the Drayton Park train station too, wasn’t there?
Raya
White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori
Partey, Rice
Jesus, Martinelli, Trossard
Havertz
Subs: Neto, Setford, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Monlouis, Robinson, Lewis-Skelly, Jorginho, Merino, Nwaneri, Sterling, Butler-Oyedeji.
Ollie@31: Here is a moderately informative article from the civil engineering trade press that mentions Drayton Park station:
https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/arsenal-emirates-stadium-expansion-conversations-starting-to-occur-06-08-2024/,
Thanks Ned! That will interestingly spend some of tne time before kick-off.
Pretty much the side I would have picked.
COYGs!
Why does this game feel like it has banana skin written all over it?
Going ok so far, Gabi did well for the goal and a little bit of luck went our way but he earned it
Scoring that pen would have settled the nerves nicely.
My nerves that is.
Wins a win and on we go, I hope Saka is back for the weekend,
I’ve seen more convincing performances, but as OM says, a win is a win and on we go.
Driving back from the match I’ve heard someone on a phone in purporting to be an Arsenal fan suggesting it’s time to boot out Arteta because he sold Nelson, Smith Rowe and Nketiah. He should talk to Fulham and especially Palace fans about that .
I didn’t hear him toot a klaxon so don’t know if he was Coco the Clown 🤡
On a more serious note the structure of the team in the second half was much looser. Merino is not up to speed at left 8 yet and will need more games . I thought Partey had a great first half and Martinelli was good all through but we were indebted to a magnificent save from Raya at the end
A very soporific performance somewhat like at Bournemouth though watching the game on Prime now I’m home, we certainly should have had more than a one goal lead at HT though that goal was a tad fortunate. Partey was his old self and excellent in the first half though he wasn’t too bad as an emergency RB and Martinelli was excellent throughout. I was somewhat underwhelmed by Jesus in the stadium but his contributions in the FH looked better on Prime. However he faded badly in the SH but Sterling was sadly not much better. I’m also still waiting to see Merino’s contribution.
It’s perhaps unsurprising that we lack pizzazz without Øde and Saka given how the Norwegian is everywhere on the field and so involved in every move when we are in possession and the latter carries such a threat with his pace, assists and goals. However their absences seem to have a negative impact on every cog in the machine. I pray that Saka is fit for Sunday and Øde is not far behind him.
As the SH evolved I thought we were giving them territorial possession to suck them in and hit them on the break. However I am still waiting for that break. I thought we were lucky to be awarded a pen – I really didn’t see a deliberate handball which apparently occurred directly in front of me but Trossard’s pen was very poor – perhaps justice was done.
As the game wound down we sat deep and a better, or less travel-weary, team than Shakhtar would certainly have taken advantage of our inability to win second balls or get out of our final third, and at least equalised in the second half and we really couldn’t have complained if Shakhtar had stolen a late equaliser. As TTG observed, we can be grateful that Raya has no concentration issues and made two excellent stops to preserve our lead.
Prayers for Calafiori’s knee.
>>>>>>>