Match report – Player ratings – Video

After the last couple of games I can’t even begin tell you how nice it is to sit here after a good performance and a good result. A 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund secured qualification for the last 16 of the Champions League for the 15th consecutive season, and while nobody is going to suggest all of our problems are solved by one game, there was enough in there last night to take some encouragement for what lies ahead.

Maybe it was best illustrated when at 2-0 up we had a free kick which was going to be put into the Dortmund box. Per Mertesacker moved to go forward, Mikel Arteta waved him back. There was no need to over-commit and lose our shape. When play broke down late in the game, when they were putting some pressure on, it wasn’t a desperate chase to get men behind the ball, they were there already. Lessons learned? Again, we’ll wait and see how it goes over the next few weeks, but there was a cautiousness and common sense to our play which has been missing in recent weeks.

The absence of Danny Welbeck and the ineligibility of Olivier Giroud saw the manager hand a first European start of the season to Yaya Sanogo. I think I lost count of the ‘FFS’ replies when I Tweeted that before the game, so it was nice to see him make an immediate impact with his first ever Arsenal goal. He combined well with Santi Cazorla, got a little bit of a break when the offside flag didn’t go up, and rolled the ball between Weidenfeller’s legs after just 72 seconds.

His selection ahead of Lukas Podolski and even Joel Campbell raised some eyebrows but in terms of size and style, he is much more a ‘centre-forward’ than either of them, and the manager said afterwards:

I decided tonight to got a bit longer from the start and he protected the ball well and won many challenges.

After such a poor run it was definitely something of a gamble but then in his short time at the club he’s been thrust into a number of difficult situations by Arsene Wenger. Last season he was brought in against Bayern Munich and Liverpool, chucked on the cup final too to make a difference, and you can only imagine what the reaction would have been like this morning had we not got a result last night. He’s a tall lad but that doesn’t mean he should be the lightning rod for all our ills, which is probably what he would have been.

Anyway, maybe the goal will do him good. Like the team he’s got a long way to go to convince people that he’s up to it, but overall I thought he had a decent game and held the ball up well at times. That he limped off with a bit of a hamstring injury seemed a bit cruel but then I’m sure if you’d asked him beforehand if he’d swap that for a goal he’d have snapped your hand off.

Credit too to young keeper Emi Martinez who benefitted from a much more solid defensive performance, but who made a fantastic save with his legs late in the first half to keep us ahead. It was one of the only clear chances we allowed Dortmund on the night and being pegged back just before half-time would certainly have had an impact on our brittle confidence.

Instead it meant the Alexis goal 12 minutes into the second half gave us the cushion we needed. It began with a first time Mertesacker pass to Cazorla in space between the lines, he fed Alexis in the left hand channel and the Chilean cut inside before curling a fantastic shot into the far corner. I couldn’t love him any more if he came over to my house with a bottle of Maker’s Mark, a bacon sandwich and said ‘I’ve got Phil Collins in the boot’.

While he might lose the ball from time to time, his sheer desire to make things happen more than offsets that. I’ve said before that he’s an example to those around him, none more so than Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who was great again and so unlucky not to score one of the goals of the season when he took a high ball out of the air and volleyed a shot onto the top of the bar with the keeper well beaten. His all-round game was excellent again too and although this season has provided its frustrations he’s one of the bright spots.

Even the loss of Mikel Arteta with another calf injury (worryingly the manager called it quite serious and suggested he could be out for a while), didn’t have a negative effect on us. I feel sorry for the skipper, he was having a very, very good game but his season has been punctuated with a series of injuries which surely point to some underlying issue. It’s not just his age, but to do your calf that many times in a couple of months suggests there’s something wrong somewhere.

Dortmund did apply some pressure at the end but it was nothing we couldn’t cope with. The back four were protected but also well disciplined, Nacho Monreal had a very efficient game alongside Per, while Kieran Gibbs was outstanding, particularly in the first half. Afterwards, the boss referred to a changed Arsenal mindset which proved important:

We were more under pressure because on Saturday we played well but maybe we were victims of our generous attitude going forward. Here we had a bit more urgency to defend, especially when we were 1-0 up. We were highly focused to defend well together from the first to the last minute and we always looked dangerous.

As I said above, the win is hardly a panacea to all our ills, but it’s most definitely just what we needed. We controlled the game as well as we have all season, we kept a clean sheet, we looked to have addressed some of the recent flaws in our game, and we’ve qualified for the knock-out stages. It also leaves the door open, very slightly in fairness, to the possibility of winning the group. We’ve got to beat Galatasaray and hope that Anderlecht beat Dortmund. Unlikely but not impossible.

It also sets us up nicely for the trip to West Brom at the weekend. The injuries are a bit of a worry, but then again, when are they not? All in all, it’s nice to be able to enjoy a win and hope that this is a step in the right direction.

Back tomorrow with an Arsecast. Until then.