Morning all.
A hostile stadium, raucous fans, a top class performance played with heart and aggression. That’s what we were promised by Carlo Ancelotti. Certainly something much better that his team produced last week. Well if that was it, Arsenal coped very well. Easily really. I’m sure ‘some’ will say Napoli were rubbish, after all not everyone can see good in the Arsenal team.
I thought we were excellent. We hassled, harried from the off and apart from the goal they scored which was rightly ruled offside, Napoli barely troubled Cech, who had to make just the one real save.
Yes they got through us a few times and as far as possession stats go, they bossed us in that department but as many of us have said before, possession means very little if a team can’t score. We had chances to score, didn’t take them though which gets more frustrating each time. But when Lacazette was fouled outside the box, the fire in his eyes was clear. He’d already worked his socks off non stop for thirty odd minutes and poor Xhaka didn’t have a hope in heck of taking the free kick. Not with the Frenchman in this mood. A stunning strike left the goalkeeper rooted to the spot. We were in the lead, Napoli need to score four without conceding if they were to go through.
No chance. It was our night. I’m not even going to moan about Elneny, Iwobi or Mkhitaryan. Shame about Ramsey though, for him especially as if his hamstring injury is a bad one, he may have played his last game for Arsenal. Hopefully not though.
Valencia now stand between us and a place in the Europa Cup Final. Both Gabriel and Francis Coquelin play for the Spanish side who breezed past Villarreal 5-1 on aggregate.
Before then though, we play Crystal Palace at home on Sunday and then both Wolves and Leicester away. So three ‘must win’ matches over the next ten days.
Have a great Easter guys….
Morning all.
I thought we played very professionally last night. Nothing flamboyant or gang ho just steady and controlled football. Few alarms and not much danger from a fairly toothless Napoli team.
We will, however miss our big Greek defender in our next two games. He is an impressive and commanding player, a good organiser too.
Of Valencia, I think it’s a great shame that Gary Neville is not still their manager. If he were, I’m sure beating them would be absolutely nailed on! Sadly he’s not and their form and team is a much better one than the embryonic failure he left behind. As Kev said we owe them one or two, results in our favour that is.
Still, ever onward………
Blue skies and warm here. Very pleasant.
Morning Wavy, all.
I quite like that Emery seems to have knocked all the empty promises our players used to make to the fans, on the head. We see far less rubbish from them on social media which is how i5 should be imo.
Morning Rico and all. Napoli were quite ordinary over the 2 legs and perhaps this shows where the Italian league is right now. Same with the German one.
Still, a great victory for us and now the semi where I believe Coquelin is banned for the first leg at least.
Happy Easter everyone.
Morning Adam. I agree re Napoli and it seems Italian football is still full of diving cheats.
Shame about Le Coq he could have been useful getting caught out of position and then pointing out where everybody else should have been . Gabriel and Lacazette could be interesting , both are physical players but not in the way that Costa was but Gabriel can be wound up and lets hope he is..
No doubting that Emery will be prepared for them and were we still under Wenger the inside info from our two wx’s would have been a problem but we have changed , lets hope that they have’nt noticed.
should ex’s
teach me to read it through before I post.
That’s true Rico but they have the £50 million Koulibaly too. From the 2 games I saw, that looks way, way over the top to me. Still, as you mentioned last night, let’s hope that OGS buys him.
Good point re Coq and Gabriel actually, unless he’s calmed a bit. He’s much better now though imo. I still think he’d have been good under Emery.
I wouldn’t give £5m for him Adam.
I like Insigne though… 😝
Rico. The way that Man Utd are thrashing about these days I wouldn’t be surprised if they spend big on him.
Me neither Adam, in fact I bet they overspend big time in the summer. Personally, I think Ole is going to be another flop.
I really can’t imagine why the MU board fell into the trap of naming him when they did. Surely you would say that we will name the new manager at the end of the season in order to keep your options open and study a number of candidates. That’s the way a proper business operates. If they got coerced into it because he had a decent run of results or because the journos kept on asking why he hadn’t already been confirmed I don’t know. Seems to me that they have boxed themselves into a corner and it all looks pretty amateurish from the outside. The MU manger, one might imagine, needs to have something about him, above and beyond the norm. Then again, perhaps it was just a reaction after the unmitigated disaster of Mourinho.
Whatever, I am glad they did what they did.
Just what I thought too. It’s easy to get carried away when they were winning but since we beat them, they’ve been extremely lucky in a few games. Any sensible person would have waited until the honeymoon period was over and certainly until the end of the season.
Like you though Adam, I’m glad they appointed him. 😅
The Sao Paulo Stadium, Napoli’s home ground, has a capacity of 60,000+, last night the attendance was some 40.000. Did the locals know they were in for a beating?
Emory’s first 50 games managed best for any Arsenal manager ever. 32W 7D 11L and it could have easily been better (missed pen v Spurs and first loss to Chelsea. Also two losses in Europa. Wenger only won 23 out of his first 50.
Great win last night,yes Napoli were poor but surely we deserve credit for keeping them so quiet.
Its going to be hard to stay focused on the league,I trust Emery to do that.
We have to get revenge on Valencia for 1980 though.It was our second cup final defeat in weeks.I was 13,listened to it on the radio,an agonising penalty shootout – the worst way to lose.
We were the butt of media jokes even back then:
Have you heard about the Arsenal bra ?
Plenty of support but no cups!
We owe Valencia for the penalty shoot out loss in Brussels, in 1980.
I went to that game. Ive never seen so many Arsenal supporters at an away game.
Great experience, but the wrong result.
Brady and Rix the two guys who missed their penalties.
I was there as well VCC, only days after seeing an exhausted Arsenal team flop at Wembley vs West Ham, easily the most miserable season of my Arsenal supporting life…
I hate Valencia, they’re like an itch I just can’t scratch.
I hate Valencia almost as much as I hate Real Zaragoza, luckily I saw that shitty final on TV at home.
I also hate Galatasaray, that was another miserable experience in Copenhagen in another poxy penalty shoot out.
So yes, european competitions have left a scar on my Arsenal psyche…
Morning all.
City to redeem themselves.
I hope they belt the tripe out of that lot!!
Teased them to death Scott. Early goal and then let them show how bad they can be at taking gilt edged chances.
Did anyone notice this morning that Liverpuddle have been allowed to reschedule the game before their CL Semi-Final, to give them more recovery time? Now the Spuds are asking for the same permission. I wonder what the reaction will be if Arsenal try it?
! rule for the champions league and another for Europa I reckon .
Job Cicero,
Once we’d scored first, it was just a case of sitting back and making no errors.
Job done, professional performance and little risk taken.
Dare I say our lads are learning how to play in Europe?
New post up now