Dundalk Resistance Eventually Caves In At Sadly Empty Emirates

Arsenal 3 Dundalk 0
Europa League Matchday Two
Thursday 29th October 2020  8pm

The great shame about this Europa League group game was that Dundalk’s fans were not able to make the trip to witness their team play at the Emirates. They don’t get too many chances for this kind of experience. Granted, Gooners would have enjoyed trips to Vienna and Ireland themselves, but they’ve had plenty of opportunity to see their team in some amazing venues over the years. 

Europa League and Champions League matches on the continent are going on with fans in the stands, appropriately distanced from one another. And here’s the thing – the virus does not spread so easily in the open air. So we have fiascos like Norwich fans gathering at Carrow Road on a home matchday to watch the game being played on the pitch outside on screens in hospitality areas… where the spread of COVID-19 is far more likely. Madness. 

My own view on the virus is that the vulnerable are protected and supported (maybe a maximum of 5% of the population), and suffer the misery of total lockdown for three months while the rest of society just gets on with it as we always did. Everyone gets it (and I suspect most of us have already and been asymptomatic), herd immunity is developed, the virus largely disappears, meaning everyone can get back to normal including the vulnerable. And the Emirates would get back to the normality of 30,000 attendances for Thursday night games as autumn turns to winter. 

Onto the match last night anyway. I liked the shade of the Adidas training windcheaters the Arsenal coaching staff were wearing, so during the match, saw that the Arsenal store were not selling them in that colour (would have been around £70), so then found them for £40 elsewhere online minus the Arsenal crest. I can live with saving £30 not to have that. The order was placed during the second half. Yup, the game was that captivating. I did try and make it a little more entertaining by sticking a bet on both teams to score before kick-off, but Dundalk rarely threatened, in spite of Mustafi being the only orthodox central defender (and he was removed in the second half, such was the lack of danger to the Arsenal goal).

When Arsenal attacks broke down, one of Xhaka or Elneny would drop in next to Mustafi – Kolasinac very much a left back on the night, although spending most of the game in the opposition half. When Mustafi was replaced by Ceballos, the central midfield that started the game were the de facto centre back pairing. This won’t be happening at Old Trafford, although Areta (and indeed Unai Emery before him) has played Xhaka as one of a three in defence. Centre back injury crises tend to lead to such improvisation. Not convinced it works against top teams though, as the defeat at home to Leicester made all too clear. If either of Xhaka or Mustafi is in the backline (and it's likely at least one will be), things could get painful in two days' time.

Nevertheless, with Sunday’s game against United in mind, it's obvious that most of the players that started last night will almost certainly not at the weekend. It was an exercise in match fitness, a mix and match team giving a mix and match performance. The goals came eventually and credit to Dundalk for working hard to prevent a deluge. Eddie Nketiah got the first, but missed a fair number of chances before that. Sadly, I don’t get the feeling Eddie is going to work out. He doesn’t always make the right runs and his finishing is erratic. Sure he is young, but I don’t see major improvement ahead. I think he’s a Championship level forward, although I hope I am proved wrong. It was interesting to see Arteta give the highly rated youth striker Folarin Balogun a runout, coming on for Nketiah. The shape of things to come? In the short term, Gabriel Martinelli would look the better option if Arteta is looking to phase out Alex Lacazette. There looks to be no new contract on the table, and one suspects if a reasonable offer had come in, the Frenchman might have gone already. His stock has fallen since he joined the club at the start of Arsene Wenger’s last season in 2017.

Joe Willock’s goal before half-time put any thoughts of an upset to bed, although Pepe’s unwitting assist exposed a lack of vision on his part, a straight pass to set up Willock being the obvious best choice for the move. As it was, Willock controlled it well and shot beautifully. He was probably the standout performer, although we have to remember the quality of the opposition before anyone thinks he is going to get ahead of the current first choice players. 

Pepe compensated a little for his desire to shoot under any circumstances in the build-up to the second goal with a peach shortly after the re-start, and from that point on, it was simply a matter of seeing the game out and ensuring no-one got injured. Astonishingly, Dundalk did not commit a single foul during the entire match. Arsenal were pulled up 20 times on that count. Accusations of too much respect could be leveled at the visitors, but you would hardly be surprised. They were probably a bit disappointed Aubameyang didn’t get on the pitch. 

In summary, job done, points in the bag, run-out for the stiffs and onto Old Trafford. At home to Molde next week should be a little more competitive. 

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