Morning all.
Arsenal take on Sporting Lisbon tonight in the Champions League. Portuguese clubs are invariably difficult to play against as they often use any and every trick in the book to stop their opponents from finding any kind of rhythm.
At the beginning of this month, Sporting battered Man City in Portugal but the 4-1 scoreline didn’t really tell the whole story. Two penalties were included in the scoreline and a whole lot of missed chances by Man City. Guardiola’s side registered 20 shots and 72% possession. Haaland missed his penalty whereas Gyokeres converted both of his. Goncalves and Trincao, both once at Wolves, were the players who caused City’s defence problems. As well as Gyokeres of course.
The defeat of City was Ruben Amorim‘s final home game in charge of Sporting before his move to Manchester Utd. Sporting’s reserve manager and former player Joao Pereira has since replaced him. His first match in charge ended with a 6-0 victory over a club three leagues below them.
Our last fixture in Lisbon took place in March 2023. It was the first leg of the Europa League knockout out stage and we came away with a 2-2 draw. A penalty shootout at The Emirates saw us knocked out though.
In his pre-match press conference, Mikel Arteta said he has watched that away fixture back recently and he barely recognised his team which shows just how much the team have progressed over the past 18 months or so.
“It’s normally a good exercise to see the team a few years back and I watched both games back to have an understanding. How we prepared them, what worked well and what didn’t, it’s difficult to recognise the team two years later. You tend to see and look at the game and other stuff in a different way, but it was good. It seemed longer ago to be fair, in a way, but here we are again. The good news is we are now in a different competition, a competition that we really want to win, be dominant, be important and this is where we are.”
“Every team evolves and talking about Sporting and what they’ve done, it’s been unbelievable. And we have, as well, progressed very much compared to where we were two years ago so it’s going to be a good test.”
A good test and a tough test I think. Arsenal hadn’t been at their best for a while but on Saturday afternoon, it looked like things were changing. I’ve read much about how Arsenal should be beating a club like Nottingham Forest with ease but I think that’s unfair. Certainly on Forest who just days before our fixture were being heavily praised for the way they’re playing this season and the results they’ve already achieved.
Mikel Arteta rested/rotated a few players at the weekend but I’d imagine they’ll be back for this one. A start for Thomas Partey I’d imagine as well as return for Declan Rice, Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz. Kieran Tierney is back in full training and in Lisbon I believe which is great news I think, especially with Ben White ruled out for a while and Riccardo Calafiori in and out with injuries.
Sporting manager Pereira :
“We are lucky to be taking over team that already have the principles we have used, but it takes time. The players are in good form, they understand things well and anything that changes will be for the better, but it will come little by little.
“We know that we won’t be able to press the entire game all over the pitch, because it’s difficult and you can’t even do that in Portugal. There will be moments when the opponents will have more possession of the ball and we will have to close the spaces well and choose the right moment to break out from the pressure.”
Mikel Arteta is right when he said we should have beaten Inter Milan earlier this month because we should have. We didn’t everything right bar putting the ball in the net which has been our Achilles heel for a while. If we’re to beat Sporting tonight, we’ll have to be not only at our best in every department but especially clinical in front of goal.
To end on a positive note, the referee in charge of tonight’s match is the much respected Szymon Marciniak of Poland. Let’s hope he’s not a fan of the dark arts in the game.
Catch up in the comments.
Great post Rico, when pundits/bloggers say that Arsenal ‘should’ be beating Forest to me it’s just a ploy to knock Arteta and downplay our performance on the day – did these same critics also attack and berate Liverpool after they lost at home to Forest, I wonder?
Personally I rarely watch/listen/interact with those types, we all know where they’re coming from and tbh I have better things to do, there’s plenty of other blogs/pods you can visit. YouTube is full of time wasters, just be selective, even so I still click on some of them by mistake and it just amazes me how anyone takes them seriously?
The Different Knock on YouTube is pretty good for those who are more tactically minded. If you just want team news and transfer rumours then Charles Watts or Harry Symeou are pretty good light listening, all do podcasts and all are on YouTube if you want to watch at home. I listen to them on the Tune-In app when I’m driving. For more in-depth chat there’s Arsecast twice a week, Arsenal Vision twice a week and Handbrake Off twice a week – and that’s enough to be going on with…
Good point on the referee Rico, we all know that there will be a whole host of Sporting players diving, falling over and simulating when defending corners so our players need to be careful about contact and the ref has to be brave…
Gyorkeres vs Saliba and Gabriel will be intriguing but we have to be aware of the Sporting players looking to go to ground in our box and we have to do the same.
There would be a certain irony if Arsenal were to win on the back of a contested penalty in the Sporting box!
Good morning Rico, Kev.
It will be interesting to see our starting line-up. Pretty sure Tierney won’t featureless on the bench though.
I’d be happy to see Raya behind a back line of Timber, Saliba, Gabriel and Calafiori. The rest is guess work but Partey, Rice and Odegaard in midfield seems likely with a front three of Saka Havertz and Martinelli. Sounds all right to me, but what do I know? 😉
Morning Cicero, Kev, all.
Thanks Kev and you’re right. It does my head in, no fixture is easy in this league. Look what West Ham did to Newcastle last night. Probably not re Liverpool, the current media darlings.
As we know Kev, the referee in this type of game is crucial. Against Porto last season (I think) they got away with so much play acting. The kind of stuff far worse than ours against City when down to ten men. A sending off no other club would get for kicking the ball away…
Youth League: Sporting 3 Arsenal 0