Epic night for Arsenal – Hungary here we come!

It’s been a memorable last few hours in the life of this Arsenal fan, I don’t mind saying. On Bank Holiday Monday I went to work mainly because it took my mind off of the Everton vs Man City game, only in the end I found myself parked up outside of the Novatel Hotel in Tower Hill following the game on my phone via the BBC website. That was a lot of stress, but I was delighted in the end with the draw because I sensed that something may have been breaking in the North West of England.

Yesterday, for the first time this season I experienced a kind of European stress, a new kind of stress, because up till then the CL had been like some kind of a mild relief from the monumental tension of watching Arsenal fight for the Premier League. Monday’s result and the sudden realisation of what our club was close to achieving brought this new European anxiety that only football can provide, but what a beautiful anxiety it turned out to be!

Before the game a crowd of Arsenal fans congregated by the roundabout by the two canons and greeted the coaches as they approached the ground. Whoever organised this deserves a major pat on the back because all of the players and staff mentioned how great it made them feel pre match.

The match itself was an exercise by both teams in exhibiting the highest level of tactical organisation and mature defensive discipline at the top level. For Arsenal it seemed that the teams’ performance against Fulham had given Arteta a lot of food for thought and he hinted as much afterwards. Instead of doing what most of us expected he went with an unchanged team. Calafiori at left-back although he spent a lot of the game in midfield and attack, Arteta also retained the technical security and quality of Trossard and Saka on either side of Gyokeres, whilst in midfield he pulled a big surprise by retaining Myles Lewis-Skelly, and none of them let him or us down!

It meant that Arsenal went into this game with a quality on its bench which was frightening with Zubimendi, Martinelli, Madueke and Hincapie joined by Odegaard and Havertz. Not bad eh? Given his season to date it was an astonishing turn around in the fortunes of Lewis-Skelly and a timely reminder to all of us what a talent this 19 year old lad surely is.

The game kicked off with an electricity in the air, an atmosphere which sparked quite like it had never done before at the Emirates, sparked by anticipation. But Atletico had not arrived to be the sacrificial lambs, they meant business and in those opening minutes Alvarez almost broke our hearts but fortunately he stabbed his effort wide under pressure from the King of Brazil.

Arsenal began to exert some dominance in possession but on 12 minutes another lightning break caused me more consternation. Atletico, fresh from a weeks rest, were chasing and pressing likes dervishes and stifling the Gunners from building up from the back. Up front Gyokeres was a man on a mission, he was fighting the Atleti defence and creating havoc as much as he could to take away the strain from our defenders, it was like that until the 19th minute pretty much and beyond.

Then Ben White, whose form has improved exponentially, pushed a teasing pass to Saka who beat his marker and fired across a low drive which caused panic but was partially cleared to Gabriel who blasted a low drive across goal and narrowly wide.

From then on Arsenal exerted sustained control but this was a tactical contest of the highest order and clear openings were at a premium – as well as a fussy referee who let a lot of shirt pulling go. Gyokeres as usual enjoyed scant protection as he was routinely roughed up but nothing seems to upset our unruffled Swedish centre forward who whilst clearly frustrated at the reluctance of the official to award him fouls, just redoubled his efforts to give his markers a night they won’t forget anytime soon.

Myles found himself doing a ‘Bakayo Saka’ around the 25 mark getting free on the wing and driving the ball across the goal area, it looked inviting but it was cleared to safety before a red shirt could react and so the tactical contest continued. It was enthralling if a little terrifying because any mistake could spell curtains.

Finally the deadlock was broken as the half-time break approached, a great pass was fired up the right wing to Gyokeres who had pulled wide ‘a la Fulham’ and as he drew defenders to him he crossed to Leo Trossard, who had had another massive 45 minutes. Leo shimmied and then fired low drive past a wall of Atletico defenders and Oblak got down amazingly to make a great one-handed save, meanwhile Saka, showing the intelligence of a world class footballer, feinted one way and then darted in to stab home the rebound from Oblak’s save before anyone else could react. Cue bedlam.

I waited for VAR because I didn’t want to enjoy the goal only to then get a nasty kick in the gonads, as is the case many times with VAR theses days, so the immediacy of the goal was lost and taken away. But I guess the feeling that I most felt at the half-time whistle was one of relief. Now we had something to hold onto and nobody is better at that than this Arsenal team. Half-Time 1-0.

All we had to do now was to keep a clean sheet for the next 45+ minutes and we’d be on the Orient Express to Buda and Pest. But Simeone, no doubt devastated by conceding on 45 minutes, had got into his players and they came out determined to turn things around and for about 15 minutes they put Arsenal under a lot of sustained pressure. On 51 they almost equalised when Saliba misguided his clearance and it fell to Simeone jnr who looked sure to score but HRH Gabriel got In a last ditch challenge and Simeone scuffed his shot wide. Inexplicably the referee awarded a corner but Raya came out flying like Superman to punch clear and the Arsenal defence dug in.

I felt we needed fresh legs as the hour approached and as Simeone made some changes Arteta acted and on 58 Odegaard came on for the fading Eze and both Saka and Calafiori were rested following their fitness issues with the fresh legs of Hincapie and Madueke replacing them. Almost immediately Noni got free on wing and set up Odegaard whose powerful drive just cleared the bar. Then I lost my feed…

Griezmann, who was a threat all game got in a stinging drive which Raya saved and as Griezmann tried to follow up the rebound it was cleared. Then what could have been his crowning glory, as following great work by Hincapie and a brilliantly whipped cross, Gyokeres hooked his shot over the bar with just Oblak to beat. Apparently the ball reared up as Gyokeres addressed it but it was a big big chance missed. On 74 minutes Zubimendi replaced Myles and a minute later Gyokeres fought off his markers to get off a shot that flew over the bar. Despite the big miss Viktor didn’t go into his shell he just battled on as normal.

Atletico had a couple of chances in the last quarter of the game, with Raya making a few saves but he wasn’t in any trouble and the one decent chance Madrid had was when well place Soloth decided to kick fresh air instead of the ball – and that was that. Martinelli replaced Trossard on 83.

Arsenal managed the remaining minutes and the suspiciously elongated added time with a couple of bookings for either side as it got a bit tetchy and the referee blew up. For a few Gooners the end might have reminded them of Highbury, Anderlecht, 1970, but I missed both so all I could say was that our team and coaching staff celebrated hard on that pitch.

We now stand only 4 games away from a season of unimagined historical glory, but there still much to do and much to achieve and as of now we’ve won nowt. But by heavens it does feel good to be an Arsenal fan just now..

We March On

By Kev