Arsenal played to their usual standard at home and dispatched Napoli quite comfortably but the question has to be asked, is 2-0 going to be enough for us to progress to the semi-finals?
I think it will be, however, there are two significant factors that give me enough reason to be concerned.
The first is our away form, it is simply not good enough, we all know that and we cannot kid ourselves that it is not.
The second factor is Napoli at home, on occasions they can be formidable as some of their home results this season have shown.
In the Europa League alone they have won their last two games by at least two clear goals without conceding and in Serie A they have quite a few wins by two or more goals, five of 16 in fact, not prolific but still shows what they are capable of on their own turf.
Of course, a 2-0 win is excellent, no away goal conceded and the performance deserved even more goals, but when you combine our away form with the capabilities of Napoli at home then it is only right that we congratulate the lads on a job well done but remind ourselves that we are only at half time and we have to see this match out in the second leg.
What will help is an away win in the Premier League before we travel to Italy, it will give the team the confidence they are lacking when away from the Emirates, a loss on Monday to Watford would be a serious blow in that regards.
But all things considered, I am very happy and do believe we have done enough.
Very good game from the lads today. AMN really excelled for me, so did Ramsey. The sitter in the 80th minute would have been a game changer.
Have we done enough?
No way.
We have a long 90 minutes in a cauldron of a stadium with intense fan pressure coming up.
So a great result for us, but job not nearly done.
Job well done..the second leg will take care of its self…I can’t believe we are letting Ramsey go for free …of late he is showing his class and value big time.
Ramsey, Walcott etc always play very well towards the end of their contracts. I am not saying there are not good players but maybe some new faces that will give it their all regardless of their contract situation is what we need.
Good game though, I am just hoping for an away goal in Naples. That will likely guarantee us a spot in the semis
What the hell has Walcott got to do with anything, unless you are a student of “ancient” history! Zero MEANINGFUL comparison between him and Ramsey in EVERY respect.
Anyway Theo, thank you for those two glorious goals Arsenal 5 Spurs 2
Arsenal Home phone since 28th Feb.
3-0-Bate
2-0 Southampton
5-1 Bournemouth
2-0 Man U
3-0 Rennes
2-0 NewCastle
2-0 Napoli
Total scored 17 and conceded 1. 6 Clean sheet out of 7. Total Dominance.
At this home for we can even beat city and liverpool.
It’s absolutely amazing .
Do not know what happens away from home.
Hope we get a win at watford and see through Naples
Wow. Looks impressive on its own.
Our Away performances are weird.
No longer weird because we lack still organisation and leaders to bring us through tough moments in games!
Honestly feel organisation is getting better but lack of leadership is palpable… Mustafi is always giving away chances and Xhaka is supposed to lead from his position and stature but simply isn’t up to the task.
That’s why we need a new true leader alongside Torreira next year to improve along with a new top defender!
Please?
Away games selections have been something else. Imagine the line up against Everton. Yesterday’s line up in Italy next Thursday can see us through.
Very good performance but I just hope all the missed chances don’t come back and bite us on the bum.
I actually think 2-0 is enough because of the clean sheet which is the most important thing. We will score at napoli, very sure of that, i just can’t see them beating us 3-0, maybe we will lose 2-1 or 3-1 but those results will see us through.
I agree Lupe, an away goal should be enough.
If we adopt the same approach as the game away at Spurs, I think we will be fine. We were very compact in that game and threatened on the counter. I would use Torreira, Xhaka and Guendouzi in midfield to win the duels in the middle of the park and rotate Laca and Auba up front to maintain fresh legs for the counter when the opportunities arise.
Napoli will have no choice but to bring the game to us, that should present us with a few opportunities, we will just have to be more clinical than we were last night.
I thought all our players were great bar Monreal, who made mistakes and Auba who did not do enough in the game. MOTM either Ozil, Ramsey, Torreira or AM-N. I cannot choose betwen ALL four. To qualify we need a perf like we had at Spuds; otherwise we are REAL DANGER IMO.
It wouldn’t be far from the truth to say that 90% of the forumites here would have gleefully taken the 2-0 scoreline had it been offered to us, prior to the match.
It is a testament to how dominant we were(particularly in the ist half), & how relatively ineffective we rendered Napoli, that a sizable majority of us feel a tad unsatisfied with the eventual outcome..
We fluffed our lines in front of goal & wasted quite a number of decent chances to literally make the return leg a mere formality. Now we have a huge second leg in front us, & considering our away form this season, then there is a justified reason to be concerned.
However, i believe the clean sheet would come in handy as i can’t see Napoli stopping us from getting at least one goal in Italy, & therein would lie our salvation & their quicksand as a goal for us automatically means they’d have to score four to progress..
Onwards & Upwards guys!
We got this.
COYG!
I agree with you JF.The gaps which appear between Monreal and Kolasinac worry me and have done for weeks.They need to get their act together in Naples otherwise we could be exploited just as they were against Everton..I understand he has been”sick” but Auba has brought little to the party recently and I suspect he will not feature in the return leg.He does not have the all round quality of Lacazette in my opinion.