Morning guys.
45 minutes of really good football. Some of the best this Arsenal team has produced I think. The Emery press, slick passing and really good goal scoring opportunities created. We took two of them. Ramsey and Torreira, although the latter took a deflection to beat their young keeper. BT Sport seemed disappointed that VAR wasn’t in use because there was a minute chance Lacazette would have been penalised in the buildup for a foul. They replayed the incident several times. Idiots.
The pace of our game dropped a bit in the second half yet still we created numerous amount of chances to put the game, and probably the tie, out of Napoli’s reach but those chances went begging. Ramsey probably had the easiest. He fired high over the bar. He knew what a big mistake he’d just made. Aubameyang was even more wasteful and Ozil just seems to bottle taking a shot just as much as he bottles a tackle. He’s great to watch when his passing is good but the rest of his game is weak. If he’s in the first eleven next Thursday for the return leg I’ll be very surprised.
Napoli had chances to nick an away goal, too many really and but for their inability to stay onside, or to shoot on target, the score line would have read quite differently. That’s certainly the picture the media will paint. Ifs and buts aren’t real though, they’re just a way of fitting ones own agenda into something and in this case, the agenda is anti Arsenal as it so often is in the media. We were good on the night, very good and for every chance Napoli might have had to score, we probably had two.
After the critics of AMN had a field day after Sunday’s loss at Anfield, I hope they are equally as vocal after last nights performance. In a positive way though because he was good. He was heavily involved in our first goal and was unlucky not to have scored himself. Torreira and Ramsey were really good all over the pitch, and together with, Ozil, Lacazette, Aubameyang and AMN were exciting to watch going forward, especially in the first half. They looked together as our passing was slick and often quick. As said, just the end product was missing on too many occasions.
The Emirates seems to finally look like home, a place where we’ve seen some of our best football in a long time and once Unai Emery can find a solution to our dreadful performances on the road, we can really make challenge for something better than a top four spot. Perhaps we’ll find a better performance next week in Napoli. I think we’ll need to. 2-0 is a great score line to take with us but the tie is far from over. The stadium will be full or noise and hostility, the atmosphere electric. The Napoli fans will fancy their chances, as will Carlo Ancelotti and his players.
My heart says we’ll score and nick it, my head says we’ll be left thinking ‘if only.’
Now though it’s back to our league challenge where another away trip looms. Just a few miles though on Monday night as we take on Watford in a game we really must win to have a chance at securing Champions League football.
An excellent post-match report, Rico, and I agree on your reading of the game.
From a personal perspective, I did not think we could achieve a performance of that level, after Sunday’s disappointment, so for me I feel really good about the result, and the chance it gives us in the 2nd leg, altho nothing is yet decided, of course, as you said.
Morning all.
Rico, some players will have their critics no matter what.
AMN is a baby with Immense talent who could be a long term star for us.
Ramsey has been a terrific player, certainly a little inconsistent, but as often as he scores goals, he still is criticised for missing chances even though he’s not a striker.
Most clubs-certainly Juventus-would love a creative midfielder who never stops and creates chances as well as finding himself in goal scoring areas all the time but alas, he’s not good enough???
For all of Ozils talent, imo he isn’t lazy at all and his mileage covered shows that, but every since he joined us, imo, his biggest negative has been the lack of pulling the trigger.
We all know he can score goals, but too often, he either isn’t selfish enough, or takes the soft option, depending on your opinion.
No question, though, he could’ve been much more prolific in front of goal, for mine.
Anyway, job done last night and a single away goal will see us through.
Thanks Ra, at home we have all season pretty much so I k8 d of expected a strong performance but just think the away game might be a bit too much on current form.
Seems that way Scott. It’s the same old discussion re ground covered by Ozil. He might look busy but what does he actually do?
There was one particular incident where he went round a couple of players, played the ball in front of him and then a Napoli player was clearly going to challenge him for the next bit of possession. Ozil didn’t even bother going for the ball, walked away huffing and puffing.
If he plays in Napoli, we might as well play with ten and all in hope that he can produce a moment or two of magic.
Morning Rico and all. It was a good game and unusually it was played with a decent spirit, unlike most niggly, cheating opponents we face in the PL. I hope the missed chances won’t come back to haunt us.
Morning Gooners
Morning Rico, good post but a tad pessimistic or maybe realistic?
I listened to Arsenal Player on the radio, so I’m at a disadvantage although I saw some highlights on You Tube. From what I saw the worst Arsenal misses were from Ramsey, probably the worst miss I think I’ve ever seen from him considering his position, the time and space he had and where the Napoli goalkeeper was. Equally frustrating was how an unmarked Monreal headed over, that one was very poor from a player who is usually so clinical. Our other chances, whilst good, weren’t as clear cut imo.
What was equally worrying was the excellent chances that Napoli missed and from really great positions, every bit as inviting as the Ramsey miss. We could have easily drew 2-2 so I’m certainly not writing off Napoli, Ancelotti will have his team fired up and the Naples crowd are known for their vociferous support and we are known for crumbling in those environments so this tie isn’t done yet…
Emery has a real selection headache for Monday, he needs to rotate but also needs to protect his starting XI in Naples, one two or three from Jenkinson, Lichtsteiner, Willock, Nketiah, Mavropanos into the squad for Watford maybe?
Does he also rest Koscielny and Torrieira (Lucas on the bench?) and bring in Xhaka?
Maybe go to a back four at Vicarage Road, put more bodies in midfield?
Rest Ozil, go with Mkhitarayan and Iwobi at Watford?
How does he rotate Aubameyang and Lacazette, maybe give them 45 minutes each depending on the state of the game?
Regardless of how important the Watford game is, something has to give, Emery must have in the back of his mind one from the EPL and EL that is his priority, George Graham was always good at that…
Morning Adam, Kev.
Realistic I think. We’ve missed a go,den opportunity to take a strong lead to Italy. If Napoli score early, our away mental issues will be our downfall imo.
Never known no added minutes to a first half.
I think Mustafi would have buried that Monreal chance Kev, it’s about the only thing he’s good at, heading in our attacking penalty area. Lol
Good Morning to The Lady of the House and all fellow Gooners in residence.
Rico – Another great summation of a great game. A real game of football as it should be. A refreshing change of gears after Sunday’s disappointment.
I was so deflated after Sunday’s game, I couldn’t drop into the House. While I’m still elated from yesterday’s game. I was very glad to see Capt. Koscielny back.
As for “…After the critics of AMN had a field day after Sunday’s loss at Anfield, I hope they are equally as vocal after last nights performance.” I doubt it. I’m sure they’ll find some way of downplaying or minimizing his contribution, if they mention it at all.
If the team can keep playing like yesterday till the end of the season, they could double qualify for the CL.
Rico – “I think Mustafi would have buried that Monreal chance Kev, it’s about the only thing he’s good at, heading in our attacking penalty area. Lol” Its that thick head of his, ideal for heading the ball, but not made for thinking. Hence, his boneheaded tactics and resultant mistakes.
It would have been great if we could have scored another goal or two to really put the screws on for the the away leg, but a clean win with a clean sheet isn’t to be scoffed at.
Morning Cg, thank you. It was a good game of football, enjoyable apart from seeing so many chances go begging.
Re AMN, I agree. its easy to criticise but sometimes, players need to be praised too. I’m not a huge fan of Ramsey because of all his flicks and tricks which briefly appeared again last night but I thought he was excellent. Torreira too.
I thought Ozil was good too.
I must see something very different when watching Ozil… 😆
I thought that Suarez had a good game…
I think so Rico. 😃
Well I’ve recently had an eye test Adam, so I’m ok… 😜
As you know Rico, I am a poor judge generally. 😂
I was surprised to see at the end of the game that we only had 42% of the possession , I assume that we could not have touched the ball in the second half. However as usual it’s the lack of clinical finishing that catches us out , 23 shots for 2 goals their keeper having to make 6 saves . The return is not good enough yet we played for an hour with both of our top stikers on the pitch . We also had 8 corners as we slaughtered them in the first half .
Still I suppose that’s standard Arsenal .We don’t seem to be able to put games out of reach when we are dominant. However they will have to come at us and last night showed that even when they have the lions share of the ball they can get caught .
1 goal and they need 4 , we need to play a balanced team that is not sloppy in defence but dangerous in attack and it should be fine and following their result last night we can look forward to Valencia
I do Adam. 😜
If we could take our chances Potter, the defending wouldn’t be a problem. Lol
Napoli might defend better next week if their injured recover. Ospina could be in goal too so you can bet he’ll have a good game.
Nice post Rico. Yes, I am humble enough to credit a player when he plays well and slate him when he doesn’t. That’s the way of the game. Criticism should actually have a positive pull to it. AMN did so well yesterday and today we must celebrate him. After all , if he does well, it is all to our credit. So well done AMN and in fact, the whole team. But I ask, must we only play well at home. What demons must we exorcise to get this team playing to their full potential away from home? Seeing them play at home and playing so well, one must ask what really is their problem. May be, we should label away games as “another match at the emirates.” What makes a MAN to forget to do what he knows how to do well – lack of confidence? Poor self esteem? Psychological problem? Fear? The answer can’t be too far from these.
Thanks Daniel. I know I must sound like a broken record but I think it’s spilled over from last season and early last year when we won just one game on the road. Apart from three/four, it’s the same players in this team. I’m hoping as others join, the mental block they seem to have disappears…
Rico, our finishing hasn’t been great this season, considering the amount of shots we take and miss the target entirely, but it kind of works both ways.
If our defence works, it usually only takes one goal, if our strikers shoot accurately, we could concede 3 and still win lol
Ozil is a player you either love or hate-seems very few are in between the two.
On occasions I could just slap him but he’s just so easy on the eye, and for me, his talent level is what I’d go out of my way to see.
His technique and vision is pure football.
Evening all and thanks Rico for a great post.
We start the second leg with a two goal start ………….whats not to like about such an advantage ?…………………..should be a breeze. 🙂
As secretary to Scotts Ramsey Club I can concur that he will be a massive miss and so would he who walks on water Ozil if he gets let go.
It`s a mistake to say his (Ozil) unseen lots of running is not an impressive stat to his game, now if he did no running at all then people would have a point . 🙂
Our finishing has been woeful Scott. When we signed Auba and Lacazette, I thought they’d get 50 goals a season, ish, between the two of them…
We’d have died for this result after Everton. Trouble is if you are looking for perfection then we are doomed to disappointment. These guys are human like the rest of us and this actually adds to the unpredictability.
Rico, nobody has scored a hat trick this season…
Losing Welbeck has been so costly, both for him and Nketiah. Eddie has basically wasted a year of his career because Emery doesn’t really trust him and he isn’t going to get a game because he’s been retained for emergencies , whilst he could have really developed his game out on loan instead.
Mkhitarayan is the next highest goal scorer after the dynamic duo with 6 goals in all competitions and that’s our problems, Iwobi, Ozil, Torrieira, Xhaka, even Ramsey, none of them have contributed enough goals and the defenders have also been really poor in that dept.
Arsenal have been at their best when we share the goals around and we have four or more getting into double figures.
That’s a worrying fact Kev. Long gone are the days of Freddie, Bobby, or Santi, Cesc etc etc chipping in. Another reason Ozil frustrates me because he gets into great scoring positions but usually opts for yet another pass, Iwobi to but to a lesser degree.
Agree on Eddie. What a waste of talent so far..
Naples will play differently. It was a mistake (for them!) To have 2 advanced mobiles in the front And still on top of equal features. Fortunately the Tioda team lost a lot of balls.
Arsenal has a big problem: the front line defends badly. Fortunately there was Torreira and not Xhaxa and ghendouzi who are different players.
Change team to Monday? yes, but it seems to me that we will lose again …
Just what we need Jm, a bit of positivity…. 😂
New post up now
We’re all doomed…