Arsenal shot into an early lead in their Europa League tie with Napoli tonight, and ended up taking a 2-0 lead into the away leg in Italy, but is it enough to be confident of progressing?
Aaron Ramsey carried on his emphatic form in 2019 by opening the scoring from around the penalty spot, putting the ball neatly past the keeper after the lay-off by Ashley Maitland-Niles.
This goal was just the beginning as we spent near enough the entire first 45 minutes attacking the Azzurri goal. Amazingly it was our main goalscorers who were wasting our best chances, with Aubameyang failing to challenge the keeper with his best opportunities.
We did manage to double our lead in the opening half however, with Rambo’s partner in the middle of the field Torreira finding the net, having missed a number of recent fixtures for our side.
The second half wasn’t quite so one-sided unfortunately. The visitors slowly began to find their feet in the second half, and you would have to say was a very even 45 minutes.
Napoli were getting in behind our players with long balls, and we were getting in behind, mostly down the wings, and Emery decided that he wasn’t happy after 20 minutes. Lacazette and Ozil were replaced by Iwobi and Mkhitaryan.
The duo did help us to assert ourselves once again, although not enough to see us extend our lead, and you have to be happy with the scoreline.
No away goals has to be a huge deal, and a two-goal advantage will surely mean our opponents will have too much to do in Naples.
Do we simply need to set up on the counter and snatch a goal in Italy? Or do we simply need to stay balanced and keep things simple on our travels?
Pat J