There are very people that predicted an easy Arsenal win last night considering that Napoli are the second best team in Italy and had only lost once at home to Juventus all season. But we made it look easy and controlled the game from the beginning, and once Lacazette scored the opening goal it was like a walk in the park for the lads.
Petr Cech kept his second clean sheet against the free-scoring Italians and sounded quite surprised at how easy it was! “It was a very difficult game but we made it look easier because we played really well.” Cech said. “We controlled the game really well and we defended really well too. We scored the goal which was very important for us and it gave us a big advantage after the first leg. Then we defended really well and created some good opportunities going forward, so we could have scored a second goal.
“Napoli are a fantastic team who always score a lot of goals, especially here at home, so to keep two clean sheets is obviously something [positive]. We’ve done really well and we can be happy with our defensive organisation. We scored in an important moment today and we scored in the first half at home too, which was almost the perfect game in the first leg, so this is something that we want to carry on. Today is a perfect example that when you play as a team and you’re ready and help each other, you will be fine.”
So now we are in the semi-finals against Valencia, where Emery was coach for four years. It may be a sentimental return for our manager, but he seems determined to make history by becoming the first coach to win four Europa Leagues and also to bring a European trophy to Arsenal, a feat our previous manager couldn’t manage in 22 years…