Arsenal made a winning start to their Champions League campaign with a 2-0 victory away at Athletic Club, thanks to second-half goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard.
First half: Arsenal held by disciplined Athletic
The opening stages at San Mamés were cagey, with Athletic pressing high and the home crowd in full voice for their side’s first Champions League appearance since 2014. Declan Rice picked up an early yellow card, while Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze both threatened without finding a breakthrough.
The Gunners grew into the contest around the 25-minute mark, with Viktor Gyökeres testing the goalkeeper and Riccardo Calafiori creating chances from the left. However, a collision between Gabriel and Gyökeres briefly stopped play, and Athletic nearly capitalised before the interval with a chance that went wide. The sides went into the break level at 0-0.
Second half: Substitutes make the difference
Arsenal came out stronger after the restart, with Madueke forcing saves and Gyökeres going close before being replaced by Leandro Trossard on 64 minutes following his earlier head injury. Athletic introduced fresh legs of their own and continued to compete, but it was Arsenal’s substitutes who proved decisive.
On 70 minutes, Gabriel Martinelli scored less than a minute after coming on, finishing well to silence the home fans. Both Mikel Merino and Unai Gomez were forced off injured in the closing stages, leaving each side temporarily down to 10 men.
Arsenal sealed the win in the 86th minute when Martinelli provided the assist for Trossard to make it 2-0. Christian Nørgaard made his first competitive appearance for the club, while Piero Hincapié also came on for his debut late on.
Full-time
After six minutes of added time, the whistle confirmed a professional performance from Arsenal. The victory provides Mikel Arteta’s side with the perfect start to their European campaign, overcoming a spirited Athletic side in front of a raucous home crowd.
Final score: Athletic Club 0-2 Arsenal
Anything to add Gooners? I enjoyed the game, did you?
Michelle M
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Well that was a bruising encounter. The way we played was not right, not very intelligent BUT credit to the manager and the subs, that won us the game. A bit Liverpool like. Not right for most of the game but found a way. A massive shout out to Mosquera AGAIN what a talent and very very intelligent. I still do not understand Artetas treatment of Eze. While Odergaard was out, he hasn’t had one second in his favoured position, WHY? At least he put Trossard there who can but surely Eze needed to have been tried there. Or is he never going to play 10? A bit disappointed with Zubimendi and still don’t know his best position for Arsenal. But great win at a hard place. In the end.
We didn’t need a howler from one of their players giving us a penalty late in stoppage time. Yeah, it was a way but the difference between how we won today and LP’s win on the weekend is like night and day. We found a way to win from what we earned not what we lucked into on this occasion.
I didn’t mean just the weekend?
Just a recent example of LP not having some kind of special ability to “find a way”, as opposed to luck, to win even when they haven’t otherwise earned it.
But they do, thats why they won the league and are 4 unbeaten. It wasn’t luck against us or Bournemouth, but they won. That was a little bit like us last night. Thats the point. We found a way, it needs to be more often.
We won because we put the ball in the net twice and didn’t allow AB to score. If LP is the best team on the pitch they will likely win. If LP is not the best team on the pitch that day, they are just as likely to lose as we are.
So when Liverpool win they are lucky but when we do its because we put the ball in net.
That’s not what was stated as you should know.
But it was close😂😂😂
It’s good we found a way to win
Liverpool best Burnley in the 95th minute. Champions find a way to win when they aren’t playing well
Martinelli was good today
1 goal and 1 assist
Trossard is probably our 2nd or 3rd best finisher
Why 3rd
He has always been our best finisher
We can now place only Gyokeres hears of him
Argh Trossard got an assist and a goal also? Why is he 3rd best finisher?
To Stephanie
Well said!
Brilliant result against a very good team. Resilient, hard fought, finally deserved.
As expected,on to the next .
First half dreary,second half after a few changes what you would expect from a team with spending power way above their opponents.
Are you a Spurs fan? You cant take any enjoyment from Arsenal can you its like your obsessed with being negative about afc no matter what
So we have a ready made excuse if we lose to city115, chelski, manure, newcastle, pool,PSG, RM, Barcelona then DK?
After all, they all have spending powers way above ours.
In the past perhaps Ken. If I am not wrong, we are the highest spending club in the last five years?
And the point I think Dan was making was that Bilbao spending power is lesser than us while the clubs you mentioned are equal to us.
However I watched only the first half and they are a really good team and far from an easy opponent.
HH, Chelsea are the highest spenders in the last five years, having paid out £1.52b.
HH, we do not have the spending power of city and newcastle, as they are backed by the Saudi government / family.
The consortium that run chelsea are richer than Mr Kronkie.
The only PL side that I mentioned, manure, might be seen as a red herring, simply because of the debt they are in and the state of their ground, neccesitating the plans to build a brand new stadium costing, it’s estimated, billions.
As Dan likes to remind everyone, our spending big, has only happened in this last window and as a result of the Kronkies keeping their promises to back MA and the club with their money.
A good win, 2 goals and none conceded. It was nice to see Martinelli score and have an assist, and Trossard to scored a goal and an assist.
Why Eze didn’t play the number 10 role was disappointing though. And I’ve said in a previous post regarding Zubimendi, I still have questions on him away from home. He’s yet to play well away, that for me needs to improve.
But overall, a good solid start.👍
Great minds Derek, great minds😁
Reggie,
Good morning.👍
Ha! Haters wanted Trossard sold off to Turkey and Martinelli returned to Brazil! Anyway, now what do we do about Mosquera? He’s definitely too good for the bench but I don’t want that “3 at the back” Amorim nonsense. Maybe Saliba should be his back-up! 🙃
The kid is special!!!!
Saliba is still on another level compared to Mosquera. The lad is really good but has yet to be properly tested.
Let’s just say our defense present and foreseeable future is very secured with the young quality all around.
HH,
You say Mosquera is yet to be tested, he will be at the weekend. 🤷♂️
Mikel’s subs saved the game have to say. The team is still clearly more comfortable with forward dropping into midfield, Leo did a great job changing the game, and Martinelli great to see him more confident today. He has to fight for his position and I hope this has woken him up. Not the best performance but job done. Hoping Mikel makes some midfield tweaks for City because Rice/Merino/Zubi hasn’t exactly been lighting things up. Surprised we didnt see Ethan at all
Our midfield so far has looked dodgy and all over. Who is playing where?
Cohesive is definitely not a term I’d use to describe our new look squad. yet.🤞
What a super subs with the way merino,zubi,noni play today, i don’t get their thinking. After all they tried their best to bring out something out of the game.
Thank God for the win, arteta almost cost us the game with his rigid midfield trio, I was expecting to see nwaneri, the trio that played forest, he could play merino and choose between rice/zubi
Creativity is needed and it seems the club and fans take the number 10 (AM) with levity coz that’s where nwaneri comes in, eze too(but I’ll rather have him in the LW) and odegard but arteta chose to play the same trio of liverpoor game and trust me it’s a poor combination.
Arteta is making things difficult from start, I won’t give credit to him just bcoz his sub kinda worked today knowing he didn’t play to our full strength (arsenal football), no wonder he exile ozil😂
That said, Good reaction from duo of triosard and martineli, I hope martinelli will keep it up when he is summoned
I doubt that anyone would “trust you” when your analysis is so poor.
You are crying for Ozil who was part of teams that were horribly exposed in Europe.
Martinelli’s goal and assistant silenced both the home fans and his haters on this site. We tend to get too excited surrounding our favorites and those in my case who I would rather see go also where. With me it was Ramsey, Xhaka and currently Hartvetz and Merino. Not always because they are bad players but simply not good enough to take us to another level. Regarding the game, it was an important win agaya team that will always come out fighting.
It didn’t silence anyone. We all know Martinelli has pace to burn and let’s be honest it was poor keeping. We would be fuming if Raya let in that goal !!
A lovely win, buying us much breathing space while our new recruit gel.
It was so refreshing to see that old spark from Martinelli. This should give him the confidence to re-establish himself as a starter, although we don’t regularly score goals from that position.
Atletic Bilboa is not an easy place to go, so a 2-0 result and resulting clean sheet is a very good result. Strength and depth came to the fore, with Mikel Arteta making appropriate substitutions to impact the postive result.
Surprising how poor the current Spain national team keeper was one on one with Martinelli.
My take outs from the game:
1. Martinelli’s goal was not convincing, it looked like a goal from someone who is not on top form. However, it is a well needed catalyst for him to find that form again, especially with the assist. I would like to see a confident Martinell starting on the left and Eze rotating with Odegaard in midfield.
2. Very impressed with Madueke once again, so refreshing to see we have someone capable of filling Saka’s shoes. One thing I will say is, it’s one thing getting into a dangerous position, but making it count is another, and that is where Saka is the difference.
3. What to do with Mosquera, he has been absolutely brilliant! Saliba will surely walk back into this team, but I hope Arteta rotates enough during the season. Mosquera has shown he can be trusted. With that said, we have only conceded 1 goal this season, and that was that worldie against lp.
His goal convinced me. Had the ball under control in two touches, held off chasing defenders, and still beat the keeper while under that pressure.
I suppose you’re right, to get to the point of scoring, that first touch to get it under control, almost bringing it from behind him. I just think a fully confident Martinelli would have put that right in the corner. As mentioned in my previous comment, I am sure this game will propel him to the confident Martinelli we once saw.
Not being negative, just an observation.
👍
I think his goal was well taken. Very harsh for a goalie to stop that under his body at that pace…if he has tried for the corner goalie would have got a finergtip
Why are we debating this though.. he scored and probably only one on the pitch who cpild have with his pace.
Let’s stop nitpicking every single element of the game …enjoy the win and great start to CL campaign !
The point about Martinelli is interesting. He’s tended to try and find the corners before but he’s often had few chances and hasn’t been accurate enough. In this case it seems that he simply focused on getting the shot on target.
Mosquera will get his chances.
I was actually more impressed with Martinelli’s endline magic. If he can again be confident in his ability to successfully make those runs, we will find a lot of joy. I don’t think we have to be concerned with Mosquera not being a regular starter as I expect he didn’t come to us expecting to immediately take Saliba’s place. He will be patient, at least for now, while taking full advantage of the opportunities which present themselves.
No need to mention Trossard, he’s just a game changer every time (well most of the time) when coming off the bench. A luxury to have on the bench. Hopefully he will be content playing that role throughout the season.
I’m not a die-hard Arteta fan, but I liked that he gave Nørgaard a run in the match. He had said he’d lost hope of ever playing in the UCL, so he must have been anxious just to step onto the pitch.
👍Timmy