Arsenal clinched a 1-0 win over Bodo/Glimt in Norway to move clear at the top of their Europa League group.
The Gunners have been in a confident mood this term, winning all but one of our matches in all competitions, and there was nothing different today.
Whether we are in top form or not, we are able to find a way to get over the line this term, and while we were the better side today, we could only the one goal, and a lucky one at that.
We struggled to get a strong rhythm together today, and our finishing was certainly lacking today, but there was some standout performances. Bukayo Saka was potent down the right, continually putting pressure on their left-back Brice Wembangomo, and it was no surprise that his hard work was integral to our goal.
The England international ran at the defender, before playing a neat one-two to break into the box, but when placing his effort past the goalkeeper’s right, a deflection off the incoming defender sent it past into the opposite side of the net.
Bodo did attempt to come back at us in the remainder of the half, but our defence proved strong enough to deal with the threat, and Matt Turner had little work to do in reality.
Things were different after the break however, with the home side enjoying much more success against our back line. They were looking much more dangerous after the interval, and looked a real threat to our 100% record, and it was no surprise that Arteta moved to bring in the big guns with Thomas Partey brought on to shore things up.
In the end, we had to hang on for the three points with us very-much second-best in the second half, but a wins a win, and getting through the match without any injuries on the artificial pitch, and we can probably thank our rivals failures in front of goal for the win.
Patrick
Limp over the line? I thought it was a good performance against a very plucky side that holds the record for home wins in European competitions. Artificial pitch, north of the Artic Circle, a win is a win. Well done the Arse.!
Bodo/Glimt made gazillions of mistakes, yet our B team couldn’t capitalize on them. Attacking wise, I think our team’s abilities are still far away from Liverpool’s latest display in Scotland
We win and still you are negative ffs.
I just expected more threats from our attackers
Only partly a b team.
We had Saka, Oodergard, Saliba, Lokonga, White
Yeah, I think we could score more goals if Jesus played
Jesus not playing still doesn’t make it the B team.
@ GAI there’s something definitely wrong with how u see things. What makes u think Liverpool’s B team won’t struggle on that pitch just as Arsenal did today?
Based on what their main players did to Rangers, I think their attacking system is more creative than ours
And yet they are 14 point behind us….. In ur head the grass is always greener in ur neighbours compound.. Fulham could wake up one day and beat up Bournemouth 7-0 that doesn’t mean u can then Compare Fulham to arsenal.
Did Liverpool play on an artificial turf in Nothern Norway as well? Before tonight’s game Bodø/Glimt had 14 straight wins in European tournaments at home. In February this year they won against Celtic home and away. In October last year they trashed Roma 6-1. We did just what we had to do to secure the points and prevent injuries.
Are you comparing their main players to our main players (who has scored more goals and conceeded lesser goals in epl )or our team b. Its really mind boggling how your mind works man. How can you compare the failure of our makeshift team to win convincingly under extreme conditions, which home team is used to by the way to liverpool’s first team players (who are badly in need of a win ) performance away to rangers . Give it a rest mate.
You may think you’re being circumspect in your analyses here but you are becoming toxic.
Stop being negative all the times.
Why don’t you go and join Liverpool’s team then since you’re always out to undermine our wins and praise rivals own? It’s so obvious you’re only focused on the negatives of the team. Your consistency in disparaging our team regardless of whenever we win or lose has not gone unnoticed.
@ GAI……. Ur comparison never make sense….. U seems to leave in a fantasy world. Are u comparing us to the Liverpool we are 14 points ahead of in PL.
What makes u think bodo (with their style of play) won’t beat Liverpool if they meat.
Maybe you should change your name to “gotanoddidea” GAI because you have become so negative lately. Is winning 11 out of 12 games this season not enough for you to say something positive? And perhaps you have forgotten that a few days ago we deservedly beat Liverpool, who lie 14 points behind us.
And yet we beat Liverpool a few days ago… seriously you are the most negative person here!
One positive …you didn’t get the first post in ! 😊
Gai, sometimes you over-rate Liverpool. Applaud our boys. It’s not a mistake they are at the Top they are doing something right.
There were three absentees in this game ; Nelson, Eddie
and Fabio !! You could include one Sambi Lokomga also..
These are sadly not to be relied on ??
What Sambi? Sambi was outstanding Tonight as was Turner, White and a few others.
It’s better to win on Thursday without much stress or breaking much sweat cuz we still have to play again this weekend….3 points and nothing to proove against bodoglimt….
On Sunday , we can go all guns blazing without tired /worn-outplayers …
So it’s a job Weldone from the team for me, no need for complaints
Sambi Lokonga was very impressive including tunner
Samba was decent to be honest.
Don’t know what you people are complaining about.
I’m happy with the win and that none of our players got injured, most importantly we got the important 3 points we need.
In the big scheme of things, if we beat PSV even once, we’re guaranteed the number 1 spot in group A.
That way we won’t have to face 2 extra tough European games later in the season.
Dead right Eddie, some of the comments on here I do not get!
We won people, we won!
And Edie and GB, Mikel Arteta has s squad for a reason; Arsenal can’t run certain players into the ground in a long campaign in multille competitions!
The most boring match we’ve played so far the season, but they got the job done. That’s all that matters.
A wins a win. 3 points to keep us top of the group, couldn’t careless how we played.
It looked like the plastic pitch gave us trouble but job done. Let’s remember Bodo Glimt was riding a 14 game winning streak at home in Europe.
Good to see Nelson get 60 minutes under his belt. I thought he had some good moments. As did Lokonga who had some Partey like turns on the ball but also gave it away cheaply at times. Nice assist on Saka’s goal.
Disappointing night for Viera and Nketiah, neither seemed to be able to get into any kind of rhythm.
Arteta’s substitutions were spot on tonight.
I may be alone in seeing this as a very good result.
If Bodo had won this, they would’ve equalled Barcelona’s record of 15 consecutive home wins in the CL.
It also puts the group comfortably in Arsenal’s grip. A win v Zurich at home means Bodo can’t catch up, so sharing the spoils vs PSV over two legs will be enough to top the group, which is all-important with this year’s format changes.
Hmmm when I typed/sent the above it seemed I was the only poster on this, then the page refreshed and… there’s 17 comments!
So – it seems I’m not alone in seeing this as a good result 🙂
lol idkwic – we almost all saw it like you. Boring game but in the right way as there were a lot of reasons we could have tripped up tonight. I love that winning is becoming a habit, and having such a great system now gets us results even without either great finishing or particularly outstanding individual performances. And always by playing attacking football.
We were not playing in the CL
Europe – typo. Thanks.
Come on man dilly ding, dilly dong.
A good win, this winning mentality is taking root.
I seriously don’t understand gotendia a very strange supporter if he is an arsenal fan
Professional job done imo
And the bbc reporter is of similar opinion
“There were five changes from last week’s 3-0 home win over the same opposition, and seven from the team that beat Liverpool, but the result and resolve they showed to keep Bodo/Glimt out in the second half is another example of the more gritty and disciplined side that is being moulded by Arteta.
Rob Holding made a key interception in the first half, while Lokonga completed 97% of his passes and made more interceptions than any other Gunners player.
With a potential Premier League title challenge on the cards, Arteta will be keen to get top spot wrapped up as early as possible so he can rotate players and avoid the extra play-off round in February”
Agree on your last paragraph in particular. Finish it off early
Good win under less than typical conditions. Considering the results Bodo have under their belt then credit must be given to the team
Congras Arsenal for the win. More grease to your elbows,
I am glad we did not literally limp over the line, always a worry on plastic pitches.
Decent performance and Sambi Lonkonga is coming back to dorm after his disaster at the end of last season. Hope it continues as we need back up there.
The regular misleading headlines on JA are becoming more and more surreal as time goes by.
I do not think any REALISTIC fan could possibly seriously think that we “limped over the line”.
I thought it an impressive win against a determined home side who had won all its previous fourteen CL home games. And that with a largely second string, backed up by several key players, some of whom only came on as very late subs.
My firm belief is these untrue and blatantly controversial headlines are there for no other reason than to provoke comments . And on that basis, it could be said they succceed in their deceitful aim.
But that is not a tactic I can ever accept as being anything other than deliberately dishonest, made entirely so for reasons of more JA readership and more posts.
And nothing whatever to do with truth or reality. Sigh!
@Mr. Fox – I agree with you.
It was a professional performance and we did what we had to do to secure the points. Mourinho and Roma went to Bodø in October last year, and the arrogant man expected a walk in the park. Roma got trashed 6-1 😉
For christs sake Jon. Stop your vendetta and just talk about the bloody football. Go join a grammar police site….
And yet we beat Liverpool a few days ago… seriously you are the most negative person here!
One positive …you didn’t get the first post in ! 😊
PAT ,what you wrongly(quelle surprise!!) call a “vendetta”,is simply my own truth seeking resolve not to accept deliberately misleading headlines, OR TO PUT IT MORE PLAINLY, LIES, in those headlines..
It is quite an easy thing to stop me commenting on them, by making your OWN resolve not to use lies anymore. Why not try it sometime!!
See my comment on othe article…
I thought some of our best players today were Turner, Lokonga and Saka. Honourable mentions to Saliba among others The only slightly disappointing players were Nketiah, Vieira and, though he tried hardand put in a real shift, also Nelson, who looked far worse when Martinelli replaced him, by comparison.
I predict MARTINELLI will become a huge name in world football and we need to recognise this reality quickly and act accordingly, contract wise, Also SAKA likewise!
Though SAKA is already wisely recognised as being so, throughout football, whereas MARTINELLI is still slightly going under the radar, except to we Gooners and, more ominously ,to those top managers like Klopp, who are firmly in the know.
Bit toothless but its a win..
Yeah I prefer arse over tit too
No injuries hopefully. I wouldn’t have risked so many of my recourses in going all out for a for a win. Even if we had lost, I couldn’t see Arsenal not topping their group. Arteta got away with it which is what counts. Things will become more interesting in the knock out stage with the likes of Juventus, AC Milan, Seville and possibly Atletico Madrid joining the competition.
The brazilian national coach isn’t yet convinved neither by Martenelli nor by Jésus….Weird…..He may have a lot of talents at his disposal but for us gooners the quality of these lads are obvious and he may regret as Capello once felt sorry for himself by not bringing Walcott to the World Cup
Who said he isn’t convinced of those players quality?
He only omitted them for his own personal reasons.
Since last year Gabriel (defender) and Martinelli have always been called up by him to the national team, Jesus is a household name in Brazil.
So the coach doesn’t need convincing
Well, we won, so that helps.
However, If I was Arteta I would worry about how we played.
Bodo harried us for much of the game and we consequently made mistakes.
We were lucky that Bodo were not good enough to capitalize on those mistakes.
I see Leeds doing exactly the same on Sunday, and they are good enough to score goals.
Leeds have not played in midweek and will probably be wound up and ready to go, by their coach.
This Leeds game might just be our biggest hurdle so far this season!!!
One other comment is about Turner, our keeper. When he hit long balls in the game he appeared to be using a seven iron. I would not like to be under one as an attacker!
I wouldn’t worry at all, we played on an artificial turf and we struggled with the pitch. Just like Mourinho and Roma in October last year, they got trashed 6-1. We did just what we had to do to secure the points and return without injuries.
Exactly how I saw it Didrik!
So according to you Leeds are a bigger test than Spurs/Liverpool?
We have defeated better teams than Leeds but you are acting like they are City?
You think we will have the same players that played tonight against Leeds?
How do you guys understand football?
And we are definitely not playing on an artificial turf on Sunday 😉
The answer is that he DOESN’T understand football Easyguy. Either that or he is a propagandist hired by Leeds to spread disinformation. Because that is an surreal post…
Well maybe not a bigger test but… So I will start with one statement in his post that made sense.
“This Leeds game might just be our biggest hurdle so far this season!!!”. I agree with that one but probably not for the reasons he said that. My reason is yes, ofcourse because we already passed all our hurdles this season and next match is all we should be focusing on. Should we expect Leeds to just roll over and let us comfortably win? Are this 3 points already on our conto just because we beat Spuds and Pool? Where does Man City lose points? In most times against teams like Leeds and others like it that everyone think should be won easily. Do I think the way we played against Bodo is indicator to how we are going to play against Leeds. Hell no. Do I think that we will beat them? Yes. But I don’t think that it is walk in the park and we shouldn’t underestimate them.
So, yes Leeds are the biggest hurdle until we play them, and then the next game will also be the biggest hurdle.
Every footballing game is a test of how well you applied your game against your opponent, in football whether you play Liverfool or Leeds it doesn’t matter you still have to knock goals past them and defend in the opposite end enough about this, next match will be a test nonsense it annoys us real fans.
Are you gotanidea under an alias? You are in a minority of two in theses comments for a reason. It was away in the arctic circle on a plastic pitch against a team thet don’t lose at home. It was a Europa League game not a Champions League Final. We played in second gear because we didn’t need more, and we won more easily than you seem to think. And suddenly you think a team who have won 11 from 12 and frankly were the better team in all 12 should be worried about playing Leeds? Are you simply reliving last season on an endless loop?
@guy-nice saying.
Even some Norwegian elite teams playing on grass are struggling on artificial turfs. We have lots of modern artificial turfs on all levels. Teams playing and training regularly on artificial turfs do have a benefit. In Northern Norway it’s not possible to play elite football on grass because of the climate.
Arsenal delivered a professional performance in Bodø and did exactly what they had to do to get all the points, on the artificial turf.
Before tonight’s game, Bodø/Glimt had won 14 home games in a row in European tournaments. They could have got another win tonight, but didn’t manage to capitalize on their many big chances.
We can be satisfied with three points, a clean sheet and no injuries 🔴⚪️
A good team is that which wins even on an off day and Arsenal just confirmed it is that good team. But the audacity to compare Arsenal to Liverpool now is galling.
The audacity to compare Arsenal to a team they just beat… how dare anyone do that?
@A.K. Kahi
Agree. It wasn’t the best performance, and some of our best players underperformed somewhat.
But winning even when you ate not at your best is also a great quality.
As Joe Biden would say – let me start with three words: “plastic pitch” – it was way too quick and we were over-hitting passes all match. Players were probably told to be careful not to get injured on it by going to ground or twisting too often. And once we had the goal they were also ordered to conserve energy. Yes a poor game but we did what we needed to do.
Several below par individual performances (Nketiah, Nelson and Ode stood out for me), Vieira didnt see the ball until he moved from 8 to 10, but I thought Turner (perhaps due to more experience of plastic pitches?) had his best game, whilst Lokonga, although unable to be a Partey clone, was pretty faultless.
We got an away win with minimum effort and no injuries, against a team unbeaten at home since Churchill was Prime Minister, playing on a trampoline at the north pole. What’s to complain about?
lol nice one 🙂
I only saw highlights (probably the 2nd best option, right behind watching paint dry) but I agree that Lokonga nd Turner seemed to do really well. Turner seemed to read the game well which allays a few concerns – maybe he just needed a bit of time to settle in and get over early nerves.
I think Ode was playing because a lot of the Norwegians went to see their captain playing club football – and it seems that we obliged. Probably a lot of Arsenal fans in Norway so in a way we may have been playing for two sets of fans.
I’m sure you’re right about Ode. The game was a NICE dull, like watching a B&W film with a chocolate bar – one of those games where I never thought we wouldn’t win although we weren’t very good. So enjoyed it at the time even without the adrenalin, but will definitely refuse to ever watch it played back!
Let’s call a spade a spade. Arenal’s performance this season overall is exceptional. Even the Liverpool boss himself has been vocal about Arsenal’s improvement this season on many occasions.
Let’s put aside this mindset of NEGATIVITY and learn to be positive. Believe it or not, this Arsenal team is ready to go a long long way this time around. And the best we can do as fans is to be prepared to go along with them.
Well done to ALL POSITIVE MINDED ARSENAl FANS out there…!!!!!!
You are right, Arsenal has much support in Norway, top three or four in the PL.
The perfect tonic before we head off to Elland Road.
The hungry gaffer will head to Elland Road with his tail high over his back.
As I predicted we scoring a minimum of three goals at the office so am seeing no fewer goals than three against the Lilly whites.
First and foremost a great win considering everything. Secondly, I am disappointed at the headline words”limp over the line”. It was a hard fought win on an artificial turf and considering that Bodo have not lost their last 14 matches at home, it is a tremendous effort by the lads and one that increases our confidence to greater heights. If we beat PSV next Thursday we top the group and avoid the play off stage to the next round. That will give our team more rest to focus purely on the PL till the European matches restart in February. Over to the PL and Leeds on Sunday.
I think the skepticism we see in so many posts on whether Arsenal are there yet or not mostly stems from the past experiences of inconsistent runs and the tendency to bottle down when it mattered the most.
I don’t see that as negativity. We are creature of habits and most of our thoughts are shaped by our memories and the memories haven’t been kind to Arsenal fans over the last several years.
I’m confident many skeptics will turn around when winning performances become a regular thing for Arsenal and not occasional things. We have seen so many things go wrong in the past which have scarred the Arsenal fan base so much so that it will at least take no less than a season full of such good performances to turn the skeptical fan base to the confident ones.
And talking of the Bodo match, I am surprised we managed to hold on for a win against such a confident side, against several odds. It was a good grind. This game must have given a lot of confidence to the players and the coach no doubt. It was a test of grit and Arsenal showed that.
Get in, grab the win, get out! Job done and no injuries from what I could tell so happy with that.
Can someone please tell me what Eddie brings to this team? He runs a lot, but so does a marathon runner, in terms of a football he seems like he’s just not cut out for this level. He’s already 23 so by no means a youngster anymore either.
He’s had a couple of good cameos this season PJSA, and each time I think he’s turned that corner, and then he has another game like this. As basically a six yard box striker there’s no way he should have missed that one across the box – that’s a bread and butter and GJ would NEVER not reach that ball. He is so inconsistent still – not just across a season but even within games he runs out of steam and disappears. As a back up as long as Jesus stays fit he can serve a purpose but for me that regular lack of involvement (he never even looks interested) and inconsistent finishing are a real concern.
Let’s call a spade a spade. Arenal’s performance this season overall is exceptional. Even the Liverpool boss himself has been vocal about Arsenal’s improvement this season on many occasions.
Let’s put aside this mindset of NEGATIVITY and learn to be positive. Believe it or not, this Arsenal team is ready to go a long long way this time around. And the best we can do as fans is to be prepared to along with them.
Well done to ALL POSITIVE MINDED ARSENAl FANS out there…!!!!!!
Huge change in personnel, crappy field, and tough team on the road-take the Win and move on!