Arsenal 1-0 Shaktar Donetsk: Three points and an unconvincing second half

Match report – Player Ratings – Arteta reaction – Video

Arsenal returned to winning ways last night with a 1-0 victory of Shaktar Donetsk, but it’s fair to say it wasn’t the most convincing victory we’ve ever had.

Mikel Arteta played a strong side, with only two changes from the side that lost to Bournemouth on Saturday. Mikel Merino and Raheem Sterling dropped out, Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli came in. I thought we started brightly, playing with decent tempo, and we should have been ahead early on when Riccardo Calafiori had a great chance, but scooped the ball over the bar from close range.

It wasn’t vintage stuff by any means, but there were decent chances in the first 45 minutes that we failed to make the most of. Kai Havertz set up Leandro Trossard but he completely miskicked with a clear sight of goal; Trossard put one wide at the near post after good work from Martinelli; Havertz was denied by a brilliant piece of defending after Jesus set him up, again a chance that stemmed from a Martinelli delivery; while Jesus himself had a brilliant opportunity to end the goal drought that goes back to January, but there wasn’t enough conviction in the finish and the keeper saved with his feet.

By that point we were a goal to the good though. Martinelli shifted the ball well inside the box and his deflected shot hit the post, then the goalkeeper’s arse, and into the back of the net. It was a touch fortunate, I suppose, but also reward for the Brazilian’s decisiveness. He was probably our best player on the night, drawing praise from the manager afterwards who said:

He looked really sharp, he looked really fresh, fresher than anybody else on that pitch. You noticed that against Bournemouth, you could tell that was different. He had another gear, he added another level of threat, he started the game really well and he had a great performance today.

So, while it wasn’t brilliant, we were set well for the second half which was, by any measure, dreary stuff. Afterwards, the manager said the team looked tired, citing the fact we’d played with 10 men for over an hour just two and a half days ago. And look, I don’t think that’s an unreasonable observation by any means. We think about a red card and its impact on the game we’re playing in that moment, but there are physical consequences too when you play again so quickly – and 9 of last night’s starting XI played against Bournemouth too.

There was a half-time change with Merino coming on for Ben White, who was on a yellow and the manager decided a zero-risk strategy was the order of the day. I don’t think that necessarily helped as Thomas Partey moved to right back after what I thought was probably his best midfield 45 minutes of the season. The Spaniard is still feeling his way into this team also, so it wasn’t perhaps as fluent as we needed it to be, while I thought Trossard was having another game where his influence was not as positive as you’d like.

Raheem Sterling came on for Jesus (lively and effective in general, but desperately in need of a goal) and produced another nothing display. So far his performances have been pretty indifferent in an Arsenal shirt. There’s time and room for improvement, obviously, but he offered basically nothing. I’m conscious of the fact that my own desire to see Ethan Nwaneri can make his lack of minutes disappointing, but it’s a shame he didn’t get on to offer some spark.

I think, perhaps, the fact we lost Calafiori to injury may have played a part. He was replaced by Myles Lewis-Skelly and I suspect in a tight game like this Arteta felt two 17 year olds was probably a bit too risky. I don’t necessarily agree, I’m just trying to see it from his point of view. On that change, it’s interesting that Lewis-Skelly got on while Oleksandr Zinchenko did not. It’s probably a fitness thing, but he’s been on the bench for the last two games and you’d have thought his seniority and experience might have been useful.

Also, can we please be a bit more decisive about players when it’s clear they have done *something* potentially serious, even if we don’t know what that is. The nature of Calafiori’s slip had me wincing watching on TV, so make the change immediately. They have replays on the sideline, have someone look at that while the physio is on and communicate that to the pitch while he’s giving the player treatment. Calafiori tried to play on, went down again immediately, and all I could think of was Jurrien Timber last season. Hopefully it’s not anything as serious as that, but surely we can do more to minimise the risk.

Speaking of risk, the one goal lead was always a bit precarious. It shouldn’t have been, because we were awarded what I thought was a fairly generous penalty for handball after a VAR intervention. I’m surprised Kai Havertz didn’t take it. I wish he had because Trossard’s effort was really poor and the keeper saved with his legs. It meant that we had to thank David Raya for a fantastic save late on that might have earned a point for the visitors, those are the fine margins in games like this.

Afterwards, Arteta said:

I think there were two very different halves, first one we were very dominant, we created four big, big chances we should have converted them and put the game to bed with the amount of dominance we had, the second half very different, we look tired, we lacked that sharpness with and without the ball to regain the ball in the right moments as well in the right areas and giving certain balls away that allow certain transitions.

Overall it’s Champions League, get the win, clean sheet. Let’s move on.

Clean sheet, three points, all good. Overall performance, potential injury to another key player, not so much. As I said, there are some mitigating circumstances, and maybe it’s a good thing that we can play like that and still win. However, it was hard not to look at last night and pine heavily for what Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka bring to this team in terms of creativity and attacking efficiency. Any team would miss them, of course, but the sooner they’re back the better for all of us – most of all how this team can cause the opposition problems in the final third.

Arteta promised in his press conference the team would be ‘flying’ when we face Liverpool on Sunday, so let’s hope that’s the case, because a performance like this one probably won’t enough to get the result we want. For more on last night, join us a little later on for a post-game Arsecast, which should be out mid-morning.

For now, have a good one, and keep everything crossed for Calafiori.

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