Matchday three in this new format Champions League – and I must confess that it is a format I am starting to enjoy, the whiff of danger and unpredictability palpable in the air, as each game takes on a unique importance of its own, is particularly satisfying – has thrown up some memorably exciting matches full of feisty encounters, goal-fests, scintillating come-from-behind wins, high-octane football.
And then there was our beloved Arsenal, serving out a singularly laboured and joyless performance at home, in front of a surprisingly subdued home crowd, and by the end of the match was almost grateful to be able to get away with the three points that everyone associated with the club – maybe even some players themselves too? – had taken for all but granted before the ball was kicked.
While the entire spectrum of emotions – ranging from relief to apathy to disappointment to angst – can all be understood and empathised with, for this report I would prefer not to dwell on any of those, and neither would I try to draw any conclusion about the team, the tactics, the outcome of the upcoming weekend’s pivotal league match or the long season ahead. It was one of those performances that every top level team have in them even in their most successful seasons, and coming after the international fixtures and then last weekend’s tiring and tiresome loss away at Bournemouth, just returning to winning ways without conceding any goals is acceptable enough not to require any further dissection.
And, truth be told, other than the blatantly obvious ones, the match presented – at least to me – no particular pattern from which to glean any insight about any individual or the collective. The obvious ones being that in absence of Ødegaard, our midfield lacks creative inspiration and sometimes even the ability to dictate the pace of the game, and if you add to that the unavailability of Saka, our overall creativity drops significantly. We still remain a robust, hard to beat, defensively superb, physically and tactically effective team, and find just that enough bit of quality in our passing and movements and in our set-pieces to eke out victories consistently, but with both Martin and Bukayo out of the starting eleven, we are not a potent attacking force. This I always knew to be the case, and the lukewarm 1-0 victory against the Ukrainian champions didn’t present any evidence to the contrary.
I would rather take this opportunity to express what I thought was an admirable effort by the visiting team. As bt8 elaborated in his excellent preview, Shakhtar Donetsk – nicknamed Hirnyky, “гірники”, or “miners” as Shakhtar “шахтар” in Ukrainian literally means “miner”, the name a nod to the origin of the club among the coal miners of the Donbas region – was already living an itinerant existence after the invasion of 2014, and their lives, footballing or otherwise, have been made all the more difficult after 2022, almost impossibly so, along with lives of the rest of the Ukrainians, ordinary or extraordinary. As Mikel Merino said so eloquently in his pre-match interview, it is impossible to imagine for us the daily experience of living through this particular hell of uncertainty and suffering.
Just to play this away match at London, they had to start on Friday from their base in Kyiv, with a break over the weekend in Lviv, before crossing the border to Poland and arriving on Rzeszow to fly from there. But in the pre-match interview their manager Marino Pušić clarified unequivocally that they would rather compete than complain, and even though they started tentatively in the first half and were facing genuine problem to pass through Arsenal’s aggressive front-footed pressing, as the match progressed they started to play with conviction and guile, and sensing an Arsenal not at their very best, became more adventurous towards the end than most would have expected. If they had managed to score an equaliser at the end, I don’t think it would have been undeserved. If not for Raya’s excellent one-handed save, we might have dropped those two points.
Shakhtar in the modern era has had a bit of a Balkan connection. Arguably their best player in recent history is Darijo Srna, the Croatian right back. The Croatian national goalkeeper Pletikosa played for them for a few years. As did our very own Eduardo, of course. That connection seemed to have been reflected in their current managerial team. Pušić, a Dutch-Bosnian, was born in Mostar. And his right hand man, Mario Stanić, was a Croatian international. Once Shakhtar started to feel confident, especially in the second half, their style of play with crisp and quick passing, rapid movement, sudden switches in attack and creative wing play reminded me a bit of the Croatian international teams. Shakhtar, obviously, didn’t have enough quality in the final third for their good build-up play in the second half to count. And then they came up against two imperious central defenders in Saliba and Gabriel who, without having to exert themselves too much, were still just too good for them.
Arsenal’s player of the match – and I would say the player of the match – was Gabriel Martinelli. After an inconsistent start to the season, he is (thankfully) coming back to his sharpness in and around the penalty box, and Shakhtar’s right back Konoplya found him nearly impossible to contain in the first half. In the second half, the central defenders Bondar and especially the captain Matviyenko did well to help out Konoplya in handling Martinelli.
The only goal of the match came from a typical Martinelli movement. He gathered the ball facing the Shakhtar goal, Calafiori made a fine overlapping run to drag Konoplya away just for a short moment, but that was enough for Gabi to move inside and get his shot away. The finish was sharp and powerful enough to beat goalkeeper Riznyk, but unfortunately for him the ball ricocheted off his back into the goal.
Arsenal 1 (Riznyk OG, 29’) – Shakhtar Donetsk 0
This was a well-deserved lead as Arsenal had started sharply, especially in our pressing and willingness to move the ball quickly through vertically, and it felt like there would be an enjoyable attacking display for the entirety of the match. There were some moments of brilliance, especially from Martinelli and Havertz, and Jesus looked tidy enough even though not yet at his pre-injury best. Trossard, despite having some nice moments on the ball, was uncharacteristically wayward in front of the goal especially in the first half, and that tame penalty in the second half which Riznyk saved so easily underlined his day.
Shakhtar’s starting eleven had two Brazilians – far cry from the pre-2022 days when a few Brazilian stalwarts started their European club football journey at Shakhtar – on the left side, more experienced Pedro Henrique as the left back and young Equinaldo as the left winger. Equinaldo gave Ben White a few difficult moments, and I don’t think White is back to his full fitness yet. His yellow card was unnecessary, and even though Mikel later claimed that his decision to take White off at halftime was because of that card (to avoid having to play again with 10 men, just in case), I suspect that White’s fitness may have played a part in it. The resultant move to RB for Partey, now rapidly getting back to his best form and excellent in his familiar midfield role in the first half, reduced our attacking potential noticeably.
Shakhtar had chosen to start this match without their regular captain and the anchor in defensive midfield, Stepanenko, who was on the bench, and their first half performance betrayed a lack of nous in holding on to the ball and occupying space in the middle of the field. However, in the second half Bondarenko and Sudakov combined well, and with Partey removed from the midfield duels, Rice and Merino both playing well within themselves, the Ukrainian champions started to see more of the ball, and had a much better control of the midfield. The match ended with possession stats distributed 56%-44% in Arsenal’s favour, and passing accuracy comparison of 89%-87%. Much of that evening out happened in the second half when Shakhtar started playing their football with greater confidence and freedom, and Arsenal became less dominant in midfield.
It was good to see all the Ukrainian flags in the crowd, and the Shakhtar players evidently enjoyed the spirited support of their compatriots. These players gave a good account of themselves, especially on the ball, and can be really proud of this performance. Best wishes to them for the rest of their matches this season.
The refereeing was refreshingly good. No unnecessary drama, no controversy, no strange attention grabbing decision, nothing for either side to complain about or feel aggrieved by.
Three games into the CL, 7 points on the board, with zero goals conceded. We can and will play better. We have a couple of tough away matches coming up in the competition, against Inter and Sporting, where we will need to raise our performances. Let us hope Ødegaard will be back to full fitness by then.
Excellent stuff Doc. I thoroughly agree with your sentiments.
Constant unnecessary breaks for internationals have led (and will continue to lead) to more injuries, less cohesive performances and less enjoyable matches. In such attritional seasons, these games become an exercise getting the points and nothing more.
We had some big chances in the first half, and a penalty (the XG stats were strongly in our favour) so I think it is generous to say that a Shaktar equaliser from a long range shot would have been anything other than a bit lucky, but fortunately it didn’t happen, so doesn’t matter.
Ref was good. He was also consistent in the level of physical contact he allowed. He did give Martinelli a dodgy yellow when the Shaktar player pretended to get an elbow to the face, but that’s exactly the sort of human error in a generally good performance that is almost the hallmark of top refereeing.
UTA
I’m not sure about Rice’s role in the team. Clearly he is suffering a bit from the sheer volume of games he has played, almost without a break. His passing is not as strong as other areas of his game but having Odegaard in the team offsets that. Without Odegaard, Rice at left 8 looks unbalanced to me, especially given Merino is adjusting too.
Partey was excellent in the first half (he looks fitter than he has for a long while too) but the midfield has excellent players in an unbalanced system, as least to my eye.
Merino needs a little bit of time but he’s fine and will go from strength to strength.
Great Write-up, Doc! Good perspective.
Good points too, GSD. And yep, the referee was good and consistent, small human errors in this context didn’t feel bad.
Nice report Dr F. As with TTG, people losing their shit on phone ins (Arteta out! I kid you not), led me to switch to music before I reached the M11 on the way home.
To lighten the mood, who put the Vamos! banner up the wrong way round?
Nice photo, C100, but no no no, it’s new banner : 20MAV! Not sure what its meaning is though 🙂
A typically erudite and thoughtful match report, Dr. F. You capture well how Shaktar grew into the game as it progressed. We need to start turning first-half superiority into more than a single-goal lead at half-time to discourage these second-half revivals.
Any team would miss players of the quality of MØ8 and Saka, and Benny Blanco is not back to his best. The right-sided triangle that was our attacking spearhead last season is not there — with predictable effect. As GSD notes, Merino is still finding his way, and will be fine, but a midfield of him, Partey and Rice offers efficiency and control rather than flair. I would have liked to have seen Nwaneri being given a chance to inject some creativity for the final half hour.
Calafiori’s injury is concerning. I would not relish the prospect of either Zinchenko or Kiwior up against Salah next Sunday.
An excellent , detailed report Dr F with a sense of the occasion and the pluck and courage of Shakhtar and their fans.
As I approached the Emirates I noticed a huge number of half and half scarves , foreign ( not Ukrainian ) supporters and people taking selfies . These are sure signs of a different fan base and a larger than usual number of tourists , so beloved of club owners as they buy more merchandise and consume club food . This accounted for the subdued atmosphere. Around Block 100 I would say 50% of the spectators were non regulars .
As to the game you describe it well although you are more sanguine about Merino than me. He looks as if he is really struggling to adjust . I thought Martinelli and Partey were excellent and the team worked hard but we are short of top quality to replace our star men.
There really is no need to panic. But this season is a slow burner and we need some luck with injuries and red cards to build some momentum
TTG@7: I am with you that Merino is still finding his way, but with Dino@2, that he will be fine once he does. Sterling is the more underwhelming of the new arrivals. Given he is PL-seasoned, I was expecting him to have more impact from the start than he has. He has mostly been anonymous.
For those of you casting doubt on Merino I remind you of judgements made in this bar on Havertz twelve months ago. A certain Dennis Bergkamp took eight games to settle in. Patience mon braves!
Thanks for your left-field take on last night’s game which is a considerably more enjoyable read than the game was to watch – particularly in the SH. Your love for all things Ukrainian shines through and as a nation, their stand against the unspeakable Russian hordes commands huge respect. I would like to think that it was out of such respect that we restrained ourselves to the minimalist 1-0 win but I would be deluding myself. While we probably deserved more than a single goal lead at half time on the basis of the chances we made and spurned we were by no means the well oiled machine we were used to watching with Øde and Saka in the team which would be far too much to expect. MA8 put the dire second half performance down to tiredness from the hour plus with 10 men against Bournemouth and guaranteed a high energy performance on Sunday. I hope that his optimism is justified and that Timber and Saka at the very least get the green light to leave the treatment room and that the pessimistic noises about Calafiori are misplaced.
Did you say Merino got a few minutes on the field? 😘.
To clarify my views on Merino I was very excited by his signing and thought he was excellent at the Euros . I understand and agree with the need for patience . Artetaball is hard to learn but he really did look out of sorts in the last two games . But so did Havertz this time last year .
Frankly comparisons with Bergkamp were a bit superfluous. His first touch ( a brilliant drag back against Middlesbrough) was suffused with class.The Sun May have got into him but anyone who appreciates football coukd see how good he was from the outset. Merino won’t reach that level but we’d love him to be a good left 8 with Declan on the other side in a holding role .
I do think Ned’s point about Sterling is good . He is nowhere near as oven ready as we hoped and needed and reminds me how much he frustrated playing for England .I’m much more optimistic about Merino than Sterling
Thanks Dr F, An interesting read as always.
We started relatively slowly last season and people started to panic then
as I recall. I don’t mind Timber at LB against Liverpool as I think he is a
better defender then Zin or Cali. But it depends who MA wants to pair up
with Gabriel I guess. I hope he doesn’t move Ben across and play TP5
as right back but he must be considering that option too.
An excellent summary, Dr F, which I must say I found more entertaining than most of the match itself. I’ll take the positives of three points gained and a clean sheet recorded and resist much commentary on some of the more negative aspects.
I thought TP5 was excellent in the midfield, less so at RB. Martinelli worked hard and probably deserved the MOTM award.
I tried to watch the match again on A.com – but frankly, it didn’t merit any more of my remaining life minutes. In the first few moments I did watch, Jesus looked sharper than I recalled he had been in real time. Nevertheless, both he and Sterling are well below Saka’s performance level – hurry back, Starboy and hasten Martin O along with you when you come. We are a lesser team in your collective absence.
Thank you Dr. F for the detailed and readable match report on a match I didn’t see and may never get the chance to see. Three points you say? I’ll take that and move on to the next one. Who are we playing next again? Oh.
I’d really like Sterling to do well with us. So far, as a direct Reiss Nelson replacement, he’s given us about the same attacking output (not much) and less defensive output (Reiss knew where he was supposed to be and was very concerned not to let the team down so always worked hard).
To be honest, I don’t see Sterling improving much defensively. He doesn’t have the hunger for it that, say, Martinelli does. Sterling wants to attack and score goals. That’s the area we need it to click. He’d be great for games against teams with less budget, who won’t put us under as much pressure and who cede the ball to us a bit more. No reason why he could get 10-15 goals once he works out the runs he needs to make (and he’s a smart player with a top coach, so I’d expect him to get there). But I can’t ever seeing him get the nod in big matches, unless injuries force it.
I think Rice is best as a 6 and Merino as a left 8. So Merino watching Rice play left 8 is a bit odd. Ultimately though, Rice would be wasted as a 6 if he never got forward. So, I think we need a Petit/Vieira combo of two players who interchange a bit, with Odegaard on the right. At the moment Rice and Merino don’t look like they have any understanding, and Partey looked even more excellent in the first half because he brought some cohesion to the awkward positioning of the other two.
Rice/Merino is made even harder to adapt to as the LB is often in the mix too. It must make your head spin playing CM for Arteta!
We don’t currently have the captain, and that midfield will need some time to figure itself out anyway. So, unfortunately, I rather expect a few more slightly laboured but competent midfield performance before Christmas
Hopefully we keep getting results and then in the second half of the season we have everyone fit and Rice/Merino have got used to each other.
I have to say that, once they figure it out, I think it will be fantastic. Two big strong lads who can tackle, intercept, win duels, and who have great positioning defensively. One a better passer, one better at driving forward with the ball. Both with goal threat, sitting behind the maestro maelstrom that is Odegaard (Maelstro? Maestrom?) Once they get the hang of covering each other, so defences don’t know who to mark as they break forward, it looks like it could be monstrous.
Thanks everyone for the kind words.
After Liverpool we face a series of away games including trips to Inter, Newcastle and Chelsea. Will be great to have Timber, Saka and Odegaard back, at least the first two. It might be a blessing in disguise if Martin takes the extra time to fully recover such that Norway doesn’t call him for the November internationals, and he is back on the field fully fit after that break to help us see through the winter fixtures.
I agree with everyone that it’s too early to make any judgment on Merino. He has been a consistently high level performer for La Real, but his role in our team was meant to complement Martin’s, not compensate for it.
I feel Arteta may be too conservative in not giving Nwaneri more match time, as he seems to be the closest we have in terms of playing the Ødegaard role. But who knows? Maybe we will see him being unleashed against an unsuspecting Liverpool? 🙂
@Bathgooner: thank you for your support!
Dr F@18: I doubt we’ll see Nwaneri against ‘Pool. Preston in the league cup, perhaps.
Thanks Dr F.
If Norway take Odegaard for the November Interlull it would be a bloody cheek at the very least. I don’t believe they will because I can’t see Arsenal declaring him fit before then as he hasn’t played a single minute since the break when the injury was incurred.
I haven’t worked out how many weeks that had been to date but I said when it happened that the limited information we got pointed to a grade two ligament tear. As such I thought he would be out for 10 weeks – or 8 if we were really lucky. I don’t think he will play until at least the week after that November break.
Can any keen Arsenal Kremlin watchers interpret this? Good news or bad?
https://x.com/eduardohagn/status/1849504924473721199?s=61&t=cVFjCyGkt4y-Ne45LtfqkQ
On the other hand, Trev, if the timing is right, it means he might get some useful match-fitness activity.
C100@21
I know nothing about this fellow but if someone as shrewd as Garlick with people like Lewis and Kroenke endorsing his decision wants him back at the club ( and they worked closely together) I would be very confident that he will be an excellent appointment . It may be that he saw his way blocked by Garlick, or that he didn’t like/ rate Vinay or he may just feel the club is better placed now but we don’t know this as he is an internal apparatchik . He may also have been frustrated working with the PFA !
I sense it’s a positive move but that’s based on my own business instincts which have become dulled by age and sex . Well age anyway
Bt8@21: He has a pretty impressive legal CV; his PFA experience will be useful, as will his work on the FA council for women’s football. I’m sure Cambridge ‘holics will be able to overlook the fact that he is an Oxford man and ‘merkan ‘holics be pleased that he has a Harvard MBA.
What does it say about the state of the game that we are now running the rule over the lawyers we hire?
TTG@23: Reading the PFA’s announcement about hiring James King, it seems that they head-hunted him and offered a career step-up to General Counsel, so I assume he did not leave us before for reasons of dissatisfaction on either side.
That sorted, you can get back to sex.
My mother grew up in a house on the Great Cambridge Road but I am not 100% sure that qualifies me as a Cambridge man.
It was c100 that asked the question @21 m’lud 👩🏼🦱 he adds pedantically 😉
Anyway, I have always liked The Return of the King and look forward to the defeat of Mordor.
On a less legal note maybe we might employ Trev at great cost to run the rule over our defensive signings. Calafiori now has his second injury having joined with an injury, Timber has splintered easily ( Geddit?) , Tierney , Tomayisu and Zinchenko are almost permanently injured but touch wood Gabriel and Saliba have proved pretty robust and Benny Blanco has actually played through injuries . We are struggling to put a consistent defence on the field
Trev sort it mate !
My apologies to the inquisitive C100.
What about playing Rice at CB against ‘Pool, making space for Wnaneri in the midfield?
I’m on it, TTG. Credibility seems a bit of a problem as I’m the biggest crock in the room at the moment. Anyway, 10 press-ups before breakfast followed by a quick rub down with the Sporting Life is a start ……
For all going to the game HollowayRoad Tube is closed from 6.30am to 10.30pm tomorrow
https://x.com/afcfixturenews/status/1850202914439974940?s=61&t=cVFjCyGkt4y-Ne45LtfqkQ
Lots of late goals today. Hold tight until the final whistle tomorrow.
Cheers for the info, C100.
Cheers Doc!
And cheers C100 for dinner invitation tomorrow, which sadly I cannot make. Hopefully another time soon.
As we are making public service announcements, the clocks change in the UK overnight Saturday/Sunday, so for ‘Merken ‘holics, the Liverpool game kicks off at 12:30pm Eastern. The Preston and Newcastle games will be similarly impacted before the clocks are back in sync transAtlanticwise.
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