Arsenal 3-0 Monaco: Saka shines as Lewis-Skelly impresses on Champions League debut

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video

A 3-0 win sort of does and doesn’t tell the full story of last night’s win over Monaco. Had we scored all the goals in the first half, there would have been little complaint, but two of them came after the break when we struggled to match the quality of the first period, so it felt a little bit strange.

The team was interesting, with Thomas Partey at right-back, and Myles Lewis-Skelly handed a first Champions League start on the other side. That meant Jurrien Timber and Kieran Tierney stayed on the bench. For the former, it felt like a player whose fitness was being managed, and when you saw how the 18 year old played, you understand why the latter wasn’t selected.

It was interesting that when asked about the Scottish international before the game, Mikel Arteta basically said he wouldn’t ask him to play that ‘inverted’ role anymore if he did pick him, because – based on past experience – it wasn’t really something he was comfortable with. Lewis-Skelly popped up those positions straight away, comfortable in possession in tight areas, and able/willing to play high up the pitch if needed.

The visitors had an early pop at goal which went not far wide, but after that Arsenal really turned it on and played very well in the first half. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say we should have been a few goals to the good by the time half-time came around. Instead, it was just the one and what a lovely goal it was too. Lewis-Skelly received the ball from Martin Odegaard under a bit of pressure from the opposition, but showed his midfield prowess by turning away well from his marker and threading a lovely pass through to Gabriel Jesus. His ball to the back post was excellent, and it was an easy finish for someone as good as Bukayo Saka. 1-0.

Either side of that though, there were glorious opportunities. A fantastic long ball over the top from Jakub Kiwior sent Jesus through with just the keeper to beat. He is obviously desperate to get on the scoresheet again, didn’t quite compose himself well enough and the finish – while struck well enough – lacked conviction and the keeper made a save. Minutes later Gabriel Martinelli’s pass saw Jesus fashion another chance from inside the box. He did well to hold off the defender, but this time I think it was more a good save than a bad miss.

Odegaard, who had already seen a couple of curling efforts drift wide, robbed the ball in the Monaco half and scampered through for a one on one chance himself. He put it wide when he really should have scored, and when the captain created for Martinelli in the box, he too was off the mark with his finish, side-footing wide of the post. The positive was that we were creating far more than we did against Fulham (from ‘open play’ too!), but the missed chances made you wonder if they’d come back to haunt us.

Monaco made a half-time change, bringing on former Liverpool midfielder Takumi Minamino and he made a difference. You can see from the attack momentum graph how much the game changed after the break.

I think they were better, I think we were worse, and it meant too much of the game was being played in our half. Still, their best moment only came William Saliba uncharacteristically gave the ball away, they worked it quickly to Breel Embolo who shot beyond the post with Raya at full-stretch.

Arteta made changes with Rice, Lewis-Skelly and Martinelli making way for Jorginho, Timber and Trossard, and we started to chip away at their dominance. I think it was the introduction of Kai Havertz for Jesus that really tipped things back our way though. Immediately we had a bit more presence, not just up front but in our own half, and the German’s first real contribution of note was to hold off Monaco players and use a tricky bouncing ball well to set us away on the counter attack.

He was involved in the second goal, closing down the keeper quickly after an iffy pass back to him from one of his defenders, and Saka was there to make it 2-0, after which the game was basically won. Havertz thought he’d scored the third late on, but UEFA corrected the record and put it down as an own goal for Thilo Kehrer. A bit unfortunate but I think that’s probably right, it was the defender’s toe that poked the ball home from Saka’s shot. I’m sure the Monaco captain would have rather it went down as a goal for his compatriot, but it added some gloss to the scoreline that we probably deserved based on the first half.

Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said:

Very happy with the win, with a clean sheet, with the fact that we had to change a few players, players that haven’t played that much and they still performed really well and put us in a good position in the group.

And while Saka was the star man for us last night, it was inevitable he fielded questions about Lewis-Skelly, saying:

It’s a really proud moment. He’s one of our own, 18 years old. He makes his starting debut in the Champions League and he’s just a joy to watch him you know. It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to give a chance to somebody, to start to change his career, He certainly took the chance and it’s great that we can trust him, that he can play in this environment and on this level and I was really happy with his performance.

I thought this was an interesting selection from a manager who many feel – and often with some justification – defaults to the experienced option. But this time he went with potential and it paid off. It was the kind of impressive performance that would reassure you about the 18 year old’s ability to deal with pressure and the level of competition (something Saka said to him and about him afterwards). And, as I wrote earlier in the week, as long as left-back remains a bit of a problematic position due to injuries, giving those minutes to a player who has the potential to be a longer-term option made sense to me. It might seem harsh on someone like Tierney, but you have to look to the future when you can, and Lewis-Skelly is absolutely going to be part of that.

If you’re looking for other positives, I think there were some green-shoots from Jesus despite his finishing woes. He looked energetic, more involved, got an assist, and worked hard. It was in stark contrast to what we saw against Fulham, which can only be a good thing. Plus, three points, a clean sheet, and a very decent position in this elongated Champions League table with a couple of games to puts us in a good spot to avoid the extra two games in the new year.

Job done, a decent night’s work, now for Everton on Saturday.

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We’ll have an Arsecast for you a little later this morning, recapping last night’s events and more, but in the meantime, why not enjoy the 100th episode of the Arsenal Women Arsecast in which Tim Stillman has an exclusive sit down with Leah Williamson. Get it now in all the usual podcast places, or watch below via our YouTube channel.

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