Match report – Player ratings – Video
When Mikel Arteta’s starting XI last night included Gabriel Jesus, Eddie Nketiah and Bukayo Saka, you’d have had long odds on Granit Xhaka being the man to get the decisive goal, but that’s exactly what happened to secure a 1-0 win and a comfortable place at the top of our Europa League group.
It’s not as if the others didn’t have a go themselves. Eddie had 6 shots, while Jesus and Saka had 5 each, but it was the Swiss midfielder – who had 4 shots himself – who sealed the deal. The goal began at the back when Matt Turner made a smart stop to prevent a PSV corner, and from there we worked the ball upfield, eventually feeding Takehiro Tomiyasu on the right, and his ball into the box fell for Xhaka.
Sometimes you say ‘fell kindly’, but this wasn’t that. It was slightly behind him and on his wrong foot, but Granit swivelled, shot and celebrated the ball hitting the back of the net all in one movement. It was his third goal of the season so far, and on a night when things didn’t really click from an attacking perspective, it was an extremely valuable contribution which guaranteed knock-out football and went a long way to ensuring we finish top of Group A.
It also seems a bit strange to say Arsenal’s attack didn’t click in a game in which we had 25 shots to the opposition’s 4, but it just wasn’t quite where you’d have hoped it would be. The keeper made one or two saves, but in general he wasn’t as busy as the shot-count suggests, and it was a nearly night for our front three. An extra touch here, the ball not quite sitting up for the shot there, it was just a bit off. Which isn’t to say we weren’t the better team, we very obviously were, but we couldn’t quite turn the dominance into goals.
I don’t know how much you can read into the fact the goal came when we brought on Martin Odegaard and Thomas Partey for Fabio Vieira and Albert Sambi Lokonga, both of whom found it hard to impose themselves on the game, but it told you plenty about the manager’s intent. He wanted the win last night to ensure the final two games of the group weren’t high pressure affairs, and Xhaka’s goal – in which Odegaard was involved in the final third – gave him that.
As for PSV, having gone goal crazy in their recent games, I expected a lot more from them – particularly on a night when we weren’t quite at our best. I know there’s a quality gap between the Premier League and the Eredivisie, but they offered very little. A few moments here and there, primarily from the exciting looking Xavi Simons and not the much hyped Cody Gakpo, but not much else. You could say that Arsenal deserve some credit for that because of how we controlled the game, and that’s fair enough. I just found PSV to be far more conservative than I was expecting. Perhaps that’s the way teams approach a game against the Premier League leaders – it’s been so long since we’ve been up there I might need to readjust my thinking.
The lead never really felt precarious, we had sufficient control. Saka could have made it 2-0 after Xhaka scored but the keeper saved, and most of the last part of the game – for me at least – was spent fretting about him after he’d taken a kick to the calf. Eventually he was replaced by Reiss Nelson with just a few minutes to go.
Afterwards, Arteta said of the win:
In general I’m really pleased with the performance with what the boys have shown, and we had some really dominant and good moments in the game, but we lacked a little bit in the final third, final actions, especially inside the box. To put more shots on target and score more goals I think.
He was also asked about Saka and his playing time, informed by the concern over the kick he took, and said:
Look at the top players in the world, they play 70 matches, every three days and make the difference and win the game. If you want to be at the top you have to be able to do that and if we start to put something different in the mind of our young players, I think we are making a huge mistake, because it’s one yes, one no. Now I don’t play now in astroturf and I don’t play. I don’t want that. I want them to be ruthless, every three days, they’re going to be knocking at my door I want to play and I want to win the game. There is not a fitness coach in the world that’s going to tell me that they cannot do it, because I’ve seen it 72 games and score 50 goals, the players that score 50 goals, can’t play 38 games in a season, it’s impossible.
I do think that’s a very interesting answer, and one I’ll dive into with a little more depth on the podcast later this morning. Saka is third for minutes played so far this season, behind Big Gabriel and Granit Xhaka and just ahead of Gabriel Martinelli. I can see exactly where Arteta is coming from, but at the same time, managing the minutes of young players in particular is important.
I think part of it is how we’ve been burned so many times by injuries, and we all know how important Saka is to this team – not least because we don’t really have another option to ease his burden. I’m touching wood here, but Saka plays a lot because he’s available all the time, and perhaps that’s something we should view as a positive, rather than waiting for the hammer to fall. Anyway, as I said, we’ll get into this more on the pod.
So, the win puts Arsenal on 12 points to PSV’s 7 ahead the return leg next week. A point in the Netherlands will secure the group and ensure we don’t have an extra round of fixtures to face in the new year. Now though, we put this one behind us, and turn our attention to the weekend and a trip to Southampton.
The pod should be out for you around midday. Until then.
