Normal service resumed as Martinelli and Saka return to form

Arsenal 2 Sevilla 0       
Champions League Group Stage Matchday Four   
Wednesday 8th November 2023 8pm    

1 – Injury hit Gunners. The list is getting longer. Timber and Partey go without saying. Jesus has joined them as another who needs time to recover. Odegaard has a hip injury, Smith Rowe also unavailable, and even the normally reliable (well, in terms of fitness) Eddie Nketiah had to sit this one out. 

 

2 – So, who plays centre forward? The absence of Smith Rowe as potential cover for Odegaard meant Mikel Arteta had to pick two from Trossard, Havertz and Vieira. The Portuguese midfielder was the one to miss out. Havertz played in the club captain’s position, with Trossard as a nominal, but very mobile centre forward. 

 

3 – Sevilla weakened too. It’s been a wretched season for the Spanish side, who as Europa League winners only last May, were expected to provide a stiffer challenge in this group. Mind you, they generally seem to struggle in the Champions League itself, a curio given their historic success in UEFA’s lesser competition. They were without two of their key defenders, Ramos and Acuna, but also demoted Jesus Navas and Rakatic to the bench. Sounds like a manager chopping and changing in the hope of getting a reaction of some sort from his players. Good luck with that.

 

4 – Martinelli unplayable. Sevilla’s right back (the youngster Sanchez, who came in for Acuna) will be reliving this game in his nightmares for weeks to come. Martinelli had him on toast from early on and never let up until his withdrawal in the second half. The Arsenal wide man created innumerable chances, but never seemed to find a colleague. Maybe if a more orthodox finisher was in the box, this game could have neared double figures. Nevertheless, the Brazilian just seems to be getting better and better. Expect a silly bid for him next summer from one of the more moneyed clubs and be thankful he’s on a long contract. 

 

5 – Saka shines. On the other flank, Bukayo had an excellent game, setting up the opening goal for Trossard just before the half hour after receiving an excellent through ball from Jorginho, before scoring himself in the 64^th minute after Martinelli had put him through. 

 

6 – Arsenal dominant. 2-0 probably wasn’t a fair reflection on a game they dominated so completely. With a first choice eleven you must wonder how many they might have scored against a Sevilla team that would have made their traveling fans’ journey home a miserable one. Still, third place gets Europa League for them, so they have something to play for in their last two games. Arteta felt things were so comfortable defensively that he brought on Zinchenko for Tomiyasu at half time.

 

7 – Saka crocked again. I’m not sure why Arteta waited until after 80 minutes had been played to make further subs. And why bring Trossard off and leave Saka on the field? The game was safe. It felt kind of inevitable when Saka had to limp off with a bad knock. The manager must protect his star assets more. Don’t play them for longer than is necessary. Fortunately, Saka sat on the bench rather than went down the tunnel, any maybe there could have been an element of clock eating given he went down twice in a short space of time. If he was faking the limp, he is one hell of an actor.

 

8 – A strange forward five for the wind-down. Once Saka, Martinelli and Trossard were removed, things got a bit surreal up front. The attacking five were Rice and Zinchenko behind Nelson, Havertz and Vieira. A combination I’d put good money on never seeing again. The bench was a little on the weak side on Wednesday evening, such was the injury list. Sevilla had two more subs than Arteta.

 

9 - Qualification a formality? It would take a strange combination of results for Arsenal not to go through to the last 16. PSV and Lens would have to win both of their remaining matches, and you’d have to imagine Sevilla could deny PSV all three points at home. And the Gunners simply need a draw from their last two fixtures in this group. You’d imagine they’ll wrap things up at home to Lens in just under three weeks’ time and would top the group should they win.

 

10 - Back to winning ways. Granted, different competitions, but Arsenal had lost their previous two matches, and needed to stop that run. It feels important to go into the international break off the back of some decent performances, and we didn’t see too much of that at West Ham and Newcastle, at least when it came to goal threat. A win at home v Burnley on Saturday is what’s required now. The Clarets are on a run of five defeats, but let’s hope Vincent Kompany has them trying to play football rather than pack their box in the hope of getting a point. 

 

11 - The Champions League Group Stage. Make the most of the long-standing format people because next season, it’s all change. Two extra games. One giant group of 36 teams. If Arsenal are involved, they’d play eight different teams, four home, four away, including two top seeded sides. There will be more variety, and who knows how many dead rubbers. More details on Wikipedia if you are interested (including a fair chance England might have five teams competing). Given how staid things have become, it’s a shake-up that may be worth a try. We won’t know until we try it. The downside is that the cost of season tickets will rise with the extra group stage home match. As ever there is a financial motive for this! More games, more money. Of course, the classic format of pure knockout football featuring the domestic champions only (plus the trophy holders) went south at some point in the early 1990s. Those were the days – no groups, the crème de la crème, and no shortage of drama. Maradona’s Napoli playing Real Madrid in the first round in 1987-88. High stakes so early in the competition. There is a view that it was this match that led to the development of the Champions League. You can read more about that theory here.

 

12 – A decent crowd. In the old days, there would have been a crowd of under 50,000 for this match, with plenty of empty seats dotted around. People aren’t too fussed about group stage European matches, even in the Champions League. They are on TV, you don’t have to worry about getting home (a half-full stadium at full time revealed how much people wanted to get away, and with the kick offs now at 8pm rather than 7.45, who can blame them?), and often, it’s a chilly evening out. However, the fresh policy whereby your seat must be used (or at least offered for sale) a minimum of 17 times out of the 22 guaranteed home matches has seen people using ticket exchange far more, or giving tickets to friends, so as to keep their season tickets going forward. Given how easy it is to post your ticket on the ticket exchange, with no fee charged to the seller by the club, it’s a good policy that allows people who struggle to get tickets normally to go. Very nice to see full houses again, as the habit of not going and leaving your seat empty was becoming the norm for a while, which was never a good look. 

 

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