Thanks Ludogorets! by Konstantin Mitov
Incredible night for Arsenal in the Champions league! We went out to Switzerland knowing that faith of top spot sits in the hands of PSG, but regardless to have had any hope, we had to win the game against Basle and we did it again in spectacular fashion!
And in no less spectacular way, Ludogorets took the lead twice against PSG in France to eventually get a draw, which means we finish top of group without a defeat (the first time we do that in the group stage since 2005). I am so happy, I really am. And I think Arsene got rewarded for the fact he put up his best players.
We failed to beat PSG, but Arsene never rested Ozil and Sanchez, which is something he has done with key players in the past and it has cost us. I can remember a few times where we had similar situation where we could finish top if results go our way and we kinda fielded weak squads.
Yesterday we rotated and we did it good. Gibbs had an outstanding game! Dangerous forward, recording 2 assists! Ospina made some good saves and overall he has been much better this year than he was last time in the same competition. Ozil and Sanchez were their usual brilliant selves, and last but not least Lucas Perez.
It’s incredible to score a hat-trick in your first Champions League game for Arsenal! Despite the fact some poor defending and goalkeeping gifted him the goals, he was there to take them. He was the only other player in the box apart from Sanchez and he pounced on them. He was anticipating a mistake and got rewarded. Excellent stuff! I really hope we see more from him.
We have a huge squad of good players. It’s so refreshing to see the number of strikers we have – Lucas Perez has 5 goals and 2 assists in 3 appearances – not too bad. Olivier Giroud also has 5 goals and a few assists from 7 appearances from the bench in the league and one start in Bulgaria in the CL.
Theo Walcott has scored 9 goals (6 shy from 100 at Arsenal), Mesut Oezil has 8 and need I mention a little old Alexis Sanchez who already has 13 goals, 11 in the league and we haven’t had a 20 goals in the league striker since you guessed it, Van Persie’s last season with us. And the champions of England have a 20 goals a season striker almost every year.
December is a tricky month. We have a must win game against Stoke and very difficult away games at City and Everton. It’s make or break time, but our last 2 performances were much improved and I keep saying this – we have a huge squad, which if managed correctly, should be able to get us through the tough months in a good fighting position.
Finally I’ll finish with the fact we’ve topped the group only for the second time in the last 7 years, the previous resulting in a draw against Milan which we all know how it ended. This time we could still draw Bayern or Dortmund/Madrid, but we’ll have the second game at home which is huge.
Enjoy the good Arsenal week….
Konstantin