Girona 1-2 Arsenal: Nwaneri announces himself to Europe

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video

Arsenal finished the Champions League group stage in third place after a 2-1 win over Girona last night.

I don’t think it’s a game that requires a great deal of analysis, because we were there to do a job ahead of a big game on Sunday, and we did just that. The team reflected the schedule to some extent, with starts for Jorginho, Jakub Kiwior, Mikel Merino and Raheem Sterling. Worryingly, there was no place in the squad for David Raya, who Mikel Arteta declared ‘not fit’ beforehand, and wouldn’t really expand on that afterwards.

It meant a first Arsenal start for summer loan signing Neto, and he got lucky. A poor touch early on could have cost us a goal, and when some defensive sloppiness provided Danjuma the chance with which he put Girona ahead, the Brazilian was very fortunate he didn’t make the save … because he was about 5 yards outside his area. I know the way we set up requires our keeper to play quite high up the pitch, and if you’re being generous he temporarily lost his bearings, but he’s 35 years old with huge experience and that shouldn’t be the case.

He dived, and thankfully missed the ball, because otherwise we’d have been down to 10 men for the second game in a row – this time completely justified. To be fair, the defending wasn’t great. Kiwior stepped up and left a big space, Partey lost track of his man who simply ran off the back of him, while Riccardo Calafiori played the goalscorer onside. All in all, a bit of a mess.

We responded well though. Partey was fouled in the box for an obvious penalty which Jorginho stepped up and tucked away very nicely, and then the highlight of the night came when Ethan Nwaneri fired us 2-1 ahead. I love this goal – like many of the best goals it looks really simple and makes you think ‘Why don’t we just do a bit more of that?!’, but the quality of the movement and strike were outstanding from a 17 year old.

This was his first Champions League goal on his first Champions League start, and I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say it won’t be his last. It’s quite something that at his age, and with just 22 first team appearances to his name, he’s already developed something of a trademark. Not necessarily the finish itself – which was powerful, controlled and unerringly accurate – but that ability to shift from right to left and open up a shooting position on his left foot.

It was a sensational goal, one that deserved to win any game, and as we contend with the continued absence of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus, as well as the complication of the transfer market, the emergence of Nwaneri as a genuine goal threat is very, very welcome indeed. You can see there’s so much more to come, and that’s really exciting.

We had other moments, Trossard hitting the bar, some danger some set-pieces that didn’t quite manifest itself into clear-cut chances, but it felt clear to me this was a side playing somewhat within itself – for obvious and understandable reasons. Girona had a goal disallowed for offside which seemed to break the hearts of the TNT Sports commentary team for some reason, but that was a view I did not share.

Late on we were awarded another penalty for an obvious handball, and with Odegaard and Kai Havertz on the pitch I fully expected one of them to take it. It was given to Sterling though, and while I understand why, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy who looked more like he was going to miss a penalty than him. And so it transpired: the keeper got down well to his left to push the ball around around the post. Instead of being a slight boost in confidence for a player who so badly needs it, it ended up being something which will have sapped him of any of that quality. He looked distraught at the end, and although he had some brighter moments in this game than in most others he’s played, the miss basically summed up his time at Arsenal since his arrival at the end of the summer window.

In the end though, we took the three points, ended up third in the table, pocketed some nice prize money, and we’ll find out in due course which of AC Milan, Juventus, Feyenoord or PSV get when they make their way through the extra knock-out qualifier we’ve done well to avoid thanks to a very solid Champions League campaign to date.

Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said of Nwaneri:

That’s what we love about him, he’s willing to take the initiative to make things happen. He’s very aggressive when he’s got the ball and so confident because before that he had another action, a very similar one, he made the right choice, he went for it, he has the capacity to finish from every angle basically and it was a very important goal.

While the 17 year old himself told the official site:

To come here and win Man of the Match on my starting debut, It’s a special feeling. I’m happy. This is where I’ve always wanted to be, so I’m grateful that I’m here.

It was a great night for him, and every performance like this increases his chances of playing more regularly. Even at such a young age, you can see he has the ability to impact games, so let’s hope we see plenty more of that between now and May.

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Meanwhile, the other big story from yesterday was news of an official Arsenal bid for Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins. From what I understand, our interest is/was very real, but hinged on what happened with Jhon Duran who has attracted interest from Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr. There’s little chance of Villa letting both of their main strikers leave this month, even if they do have to make a sale to stay the right side of PSR regulations, and with developments in the Duran case, it looks as if any deal for Watkins is dead in the water as things stand.

It certainly sparked a lot of debate, and for good reason. I can fully understand why Mikel Arteta would want him – an experienced Premier League goalscorer who would be a signing for NOW. He’d give depth, a different option up front, and in the last season and a half has 60 goal contributions for Villa (38 goals, 22 assists) – with the majority of those coming in the league. For a manager who feels like his team might need that bit extra in the final third, it’s not difficult to see his point of view.

On the other hand, spending that much money (a fee of £60m was mentioned although Arsenal’s bid was some distance below that), on a 29 year old would make people a little uncomfortable. Shades of Aubameyang, for example, although with all due respect to our former captain, I think Watkins is a more solid professional and character if you do make that investment. Spending that much now would obviously have an impact on the summer too – even if financially we could manage the outlay for another forward, when you add a senior player on a big contract, it means you no longer have the pathway to bring in the ‘younger model’ that so many crave.

Perhaps that discussion is now moot. If Duran goes, Watkins stays at Villa, and that was certainly what Unai Emery was saying after their Champions League tie last night. In classic fashion, his words weren’t exactly 100%, but the message was fairly clear: He’d be happy to sell the Colombian (who is a bit of a ‘character’ behind the scenes), and keep Watkins.

If that’s how it plays out, Arsenal will have to look elsewhere. There is interest in Bayern Munich’s France U21 international Mathys Tel who wants to leave Germany, and who can play across the front-line. Bayern reportedly are open to loan but with an obligation, and there are other clubs sniffing around, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens there. There’s not long left in the window though, so we’ll have to be decisive.

What the Watkins bid does tell us though is that money is there, the ownership have obviously made those funds available, so perhaps we can view that as positive if we focus our efforts elsewhere. 3 days, 13 hours, 36 minutes (at the time of writing) … the clock ticks on.

Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. We’ll have an Arsecast for you a bit later too, so stand by for that. Until then, have a good one.

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