Arsenal will be more than pleased with the way they deal with AC Milan to reach the next stage of the Europa League, in what many had believed would be a difficult task.
The Gunners rose to the occasion at the San Siro to come away with an impressive 2-0 cushion going into the second leg, and would have been weary of letting themselves slip into comfort.
Arsenal started the game brightly despite failing to create any clear-cut chances, but suffered a setback after only 10 minutes when Laurent Koscielny was forced to leave the field, with Calum Chambers coming on in his place. We continued to dominate the majority of possession, but the game took a turn.
Hakan Calhanoglu, the player most well-known for scoring astonishing free-kicks from his time with Bayer Leverkusen, brought the game to life with an outstanding long curling shot from outside the box which left Ospina flapping to try and deny the Italian’s the lead, which he failed.
The hopes of AC Milan were shortlived however, as the referee took his time to make the decision to give our side a penalty within five minutes of us conceding, and you would have to say that it was probably a harsh decision on the visitors, but Danny Welbeck made no mistake in sending Gianluigi Donnarumma the wrong way to level the match-
We went into half-time leading the fixture 3-1 on aggregate, and would have to have felt comfortable at the break, but we didn’t allow ourselves to switch off.
We came out in the second half unchanged, and continued to dominate possession and the tempo of the match, and must have been frustrating our opposition who had no choice but to chase two goals from the remaining time.
Kalinic found himself in space in the box as he looked to get his side back into the game, but Ospina was more than ready to deal with his headed effort, before Granit Xhaka all-but sealed the tie with a driven effort from outside the box. The 19 year-old goalkeeper was unable to match the power and precision of the strike and had to squirm as the ball bounced up into the net despite his efforts.,
Our boys seemed to enjoy the rest of the match, adding a third on the night thanks to a neat team goal which ended with Danny Welbeck heading in after the goalkeeper fumbled his initial shot, and it will be Arsenal who remain in the hat for the next round.
Did Milan fail to turn up or was our side simply too good for them? Will Wilshere and Ramsey get more opportunities to play in a midfield three after this performance?
Milan were less cautious and braver, but still lame. My Arsenal ratings:
– Welbeck: A f**king cheater, but worked really hard as the first defender in the front
– Mkhitaryan: Disappeared for a long time
– Ozil: Supposed to be a playmaker, but produced a lot of bad first touches. As long as his jersey still sells well like Beckham’s in the past, I bet Arsenal are still happy to pay him
– Ramsey: Energetic as usual
– Wilshere: Worked hard
– Xhaka: Finally he scored again. Donnarumma is overrated
– The defenders: Played well tonight
– Ospina: His concentration is very lame. I will be surprised if he stays next season
– Wenger: Good job for preparing his team before this game. It could have gone either way, but they seemed to be well prepared
Subs:
– Elneny: Looked sharp when he came
– Chambers: Good game
Forza Gunners!
Why is Welbeck a cheater? Welbecks balance isn’t the greatest and he clearly took an arm to the upper body before he went down (seems like everyone was focused on feet.) That clearly took him down. There was no dive or flamboyant falling he just fell from the contact. I was happy that this kind of thing actually gets awarded because it’s real and gets ignored all too often. Slow-mo replays make it look much softer as he pulls him arm back after but in real time there is no way Welbeck given his angle and pace can take that knock and stay on his feet but yeah he’s a diver! Embarassed bt can’t employ pundits to spot that, expect it from bitter rivals.
Good game lads! keep this momentum going
And Arsenes back!!! Just made that Milan president regret his words, now we feel sorry for Milan and those who want Arsene sacked midway.
And some guys want that Donnarumma for Arsenal! Either have Oblak or Alban Lafonte. Also its time up for koseilny.Thanks Arsene
Donnarumma?. I’d rather have a Doner Kebab !!
Chambers and a Elneny excellent subs.
We were simply more clinical
Xhaka and Wilshere was great today. Excellent team effort however
Danny the little bobbly dazzler!!
He is renowned as a big game player, because he always worked very hard in big games
Renowned as a big game player? WTF are you talking about? Good job the ref and his fellow dummies were playing for Arsenal. Should have booked Welbeck for that disgraceful dive and instead refereed like a typical ‘homer’, giving Arsenal all the decisions that mattered. On a more positive note Elneny surprised me with his positive play, well done!
Dortmund and Lyon are out. Atletico is the team to beat in this competition. With luck and ability we can win this.
Atletico, Marseille, Lazio and CSKA Moscow are scary
I am sure that they think the same about us.
do not think we could beat Atletico…
they are way too strong with fire power
Costa, Torres and Griezmann…..
and Oblak is a good goal keeper like De Gea
Additionally, their reserves play in the second division…
they have heaps of players to choose from..
Arsenal cannot give up before the fight
Donnarumma is only 19yo….hes still learning and will have a great future ahead…if he works hard
Not sure why some ppl are so hard on him? He can become only better and better. Already a great goaly.
Like Iker Casillas, but Casillas was a lot better than him when he was 19
casillas were great at 19yo cause real madrid has a B team playing in the second division…
he gets the preparation and experience while playing there..not saying hes bad but hes a great goalie as well..
can you imagine if we have a B team playing in the championship? players like Reiss, Nketiah and etc…can get quality games and experience
Now that Dortmund is out of the europa, doesn’t that mean we can use Auba? Good win by the boys, they played hard i think, chambers didn’t disappoint either. On to the quarter!
where are those who predicted a Milan qualification before the first leg?we produced an almost perfect first game in Italy but this time around and against Watford we conceded a lot of chances wish could be costly against better opposition
Athletico will win this Europa league.Go and write it down.
Go on tell me who do you support?
Go tell them on just Atletico forum
Great effort, very nice to win
Can Aubameyang play in the next round now that Dortmund are out? I think so
Danny really came through tonight
Great job
Cant believe we beat Milan 5-1 on aggregate
Amazing
I don’t think he can. Hopefully Laca will be back for the next round
1 player can be added (Europe) in January, because Mkhi signed first it was him
he cant….
UEFA rules only allow 1 player to be registered for Europa…
and we registered Mki…..
If we are barca or Real they may change the rules immediately….
Messi don’t even get a card for pointing at the ref….
Happy we won! The draw tomorrow then, be interesting……
Please who help me tell xhaka to stop passing ball backward again? He needs to be more creative, he gets me irritated each time he pass the back to keeper from midfield.
Xhaka should stop passing the ball backwards? Yeah, better he gets caught in possession all in the name of forcing issues unnecessarily.
Xhaka should watch the video of Ngolo Kante, Casemero, Toni Crops even Dembele of Tottenham
Not a bad team effort. I thought Xhaka did well after a nervy start.
I would like to see the penalty incident in slo mo. It wasn’t a penalty but I don’t think it was a dive. Welbeck seemed to clip his own heels together and then just sat down as the ball ran away. I could be wrong though.
It’s going to be an interesting draw let’s hope we don’t pick Athletico.
Well deserved win to the team.
Rather than discussing the game I would like to pose a discussion about Mesut Ozil’s performance today. Can someone tell us what has happened in the life of Mesut? He was so down in the dumps today that he made me cry. Honestly, you can’t show yourself in public like that, people will notice. He is really having a bad time. I never saw him so depressed before. When he left the pitch and sat on the bench I really thought he was crying, I mean, he looked like he was going to crumble at that very moment. Really guys, I’m very worried about him. now I can understand the way he behaves on the pitch, he is just not happy, I just saw it clearly today. I don’t know, maybe I’m just guessing here, but honestly for the look in his eyes, he is definitely going through a very difficult time in his life. How do you go and lose all the courage and love and all the happiness that it is to play a sport; to be a professional athlete player. To play a game and make a living out of that fact. That is a gift from the Gods and this guy is wasting incomparable talent as well as the best years of his life, precious time. I am really sad honestly because I admire him so much. The first touch and the quality of dribble that he has, the vision and the capacity to resolve in very small spaces. That first clinical pass to leave the striker alone with the keeper is just world class. And he even has defending skills. I never saw him like today when he played for Madrid. He was much younger and you could clearly see in his eyes that he admired the players he was playing with. Always looking at Cristiano trying to predict what the Portuguese would do next, or connecting with Xaby Alonso and creating an amazing play in the Midfield, or simply setting up the greatest passes for Benzema’s clinical finish. Honestly I like more his hairstyle at Madrid wearing the band on his head and his attitude towards the game back then as well. I hope he recovers soon or find out what’s going on because wasting so much talent is just unbearable. Thank you.
Totally agreed. He signed a new contract and decided to stay. But he looks very isolated, alone, not happy at all. It’s just sad.
Agreed he looked out of sorts and Insufficiently interested still has those world class touches and lay offs inc a perfect tee up for Ramsey who like a donkey skied it over the bar … Wasn’t helped by having wilshere playing a weird forward position and while wilshere played well it seemed to destabilize ozil … Stupid to play ozil miki wilshere and Ramsey … Latter is a bench player but wenger’s darling so he’s willing to disrupt team to get him on the pitch … And it seems xhaka has entered the chosen circle as it is clear that elneny right now is a better alternative
Not a Welbeck fan but he scored two so how can anyone say he played poorly?. With some more precision I thought Milan could have gone up but that “penalty” call was pivotal. Oh well… we are through and that is what matters. Good job boys before this tie started I doubted your hunger. Man I can’t wait for Laca to get healthy….