Arsenal fell 1-0 to Inter Milan in the Champions League this evening, missing out on valuable European points.
Inter Milan started brightly, clearly aiming for an early goal to unsettle Arsenal’s players. Within just two minutes, Denzel Dumfries struck a powerful shot that rattled the bar, giving the Gunners an early scare.
This close call served as a wake-up call for Mikel Arteta’s men, who began to assert themselves in the match. However, Inter’s well-drilled defence kept Arsenal from advancing too close to their goal.
Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, and Leandro Trossard worked tirelessly to stretch Inter’s defence and find an opening, but it was the Italian side that took the lead in first-half stoppage time. Mikel Merino was harshly penalised for a handball, and David Raya couldn’t keep out Hakan Calhanoglu’s penalty.
At halftime, Arteta made a bold change, bringing on Gabriel Jesus for Merino, and Arsenal began the second half strongly. The Gunners earned corner after corner, but Inter defended resolutely. Yann Sommer pulled off a stunning save to deny Kai Havertz, as Arsenal kept the pressure on, searching for an equaliser.
Arsenal dominated the second half, and when it seemed certain that Havertz would score from close range, Inter’s Yann Bisseck made a miraculous block to deny his fellow German.
The Gunners outplayed their hosts in nearly every positive metric, controlling the ball and peppering Inter’s goal in the final 20 minutes. Yet, even with the return of Martin Odegaard, they couldn’t find a way through the disciplined Italian defence.
Inter were superbly frustrating in defence – a brilliant display really against the backdrop of an incredible San Siro crowd.
Arsenal lacked the cutting edge as they have done several times this season now. They have no “real” No. 9. They need that kind of player, but they can’t get one until January at the earliest and probably not then as most, if not all, clubs really aren’t going to sell their best players in mid-season, are they. Arsenal will just have to make do and hope they can return to the “team goals” that they had earlier.
When was that Bertie,
All season long they’ve barely looked like scoring in open play.
From what I’ve observed, they look like a set piece team at best.
Is this what the Great Arsenal have become. (Really!).
Yes Arsenal didn’t win but imo it was a much improved performance from the players after New Castle defeat. They dominated interM. On another day InterM wouldn’t have won the match. It’s obvious Pathey is the main pivot in the midfield, Merino is yet to click into Arsenal pattern very well though he was combertive today but not effective. I hope DRice would be fit by Sunday to partner Pathey in midfield. We can’t expect too much from Odegard he needs to pick form. I just feel Arteta should give Nwaneri more minutes Trossard not cutting it yet for me. Refree favours InterM a bit.
Granted Sylva,
It was a better performance from them, but please remember that we were up against an Italian side. And once they got there goal, I would suggest that they were quite happy for us to have possession, because we know that Italian teams love to defend don’t they, in fact they seem to take great pride in it don’t they.
Evidence of this was at the end when the goalkeeper was congratulating his defensive colleague who was flat on his face in the box.
* their
So predictable.
Think that says it all.
Yes, Inter had a lively beginning. The penalty was truly unfortunate and as the commentator said, would never have been given in the EPL.
My only annoyance in the second half was not giving Nwaneri a bigger stab at the game. I am all for the gently, gently approach but he doesn’t look as though he’s phased at all.
Overall, I’m happy with the performance but of course the inability to stick the blo@dy ball in the back of the net is the sticking point. I really don’t think the wheel has fallen off. Odegaard had a few minutes to find his feet again
Sue, while I agree, it was a little unfortunate. I believe it would have been given in the prem because even though it was very close, the reason it would have been given is, the ball was going towards goal. I do think we were possibly denied one the other end though.
We failed to score against Inter, Shaktar, Newcastle and Bournemouth. This is not acceptable. Mikel needs to sort it out – the sooner the better. Conceding an odd goal is acceptable, not scoring bothers me. Mikel’s arrogance will cost him dear.
Lose at Chelsea and the pressure will be on Arteta. How long will Arsenal persevere with him if no trophies are won. Compare his track record to George Graham and Arsene Wenger early years. We seem to have a “Last years Wenger lite” but without the cup trophies. Grateful for clearing out the mess that Wenger left but he isn’t a Pep. Is it time to do a Liverpool and get a manager in who refreshes the team and gets them going?
Sue,
If Odegaard has to find his feet, that posies a big problem for him being a footballer 🤣.
😂
SueP
Am in agreement this performance in no way indicates the wheels has fallen off, the champion went down to a 4 : 1 defeat and you will never hear such sentiment express.
So they did and Villa lost to Club Brugge too. 👍
In Arteta’s mind, starting Havertz all this while in midfield is because he is ‘the creative replacement’ for Odegaard.
He kept starting him in that position game after game despite this guy showing no creative tendency all through.
He lacks every single quality of a creative midfielder at the moment.
He still starts ahead of a certain ‘boy’ who in the words of some in here, still needs time to grow and gradually integrated in to the team. Whereas his mates in other teams are already been nominated for FIFA Golden Boy award for the same potential and performance he has shown he’s capable of.
For the sake of the long term a whole lot need to change about Arteta.
Else the success of the likes of Slot and Moresca is sure to create frustration among fans, which I believe will force the owners to act eventually even if they don’t want to.
Big mistake tonight not playing Haverz Striker.
Twilight
Am in full agreement, the gaffer is as stubborn as a mule.
The gaffer needs to developed some levels of trust for his kids.
didnt play badly tonight but this is becoming a bad season. We definitely not for the first time, missed a striker tonight. We played ok but are looking toothless and not very confident. We need a massive win against Chelsea and need to go on a run, before this season is over before it has begun.
Reggie
I thought we grew into the game after a lively start from Inter and the fact that their only goal came from ‘a no fault’ penalty speaks for itself. If that is a penalty by the letter of the law, then I’m disappointed that the GK got away with a two fisted punch to the head of Merino
Toothless is fair about not scoring but chances were made and sometimes a tinge of luck is needed instead of Dumfries playing a blinder. That’s football and we’ve all seen matches like last night before. I think Arteta was right to be proud of the players who showed resilience after a difficult couple of months. For fear of being repetitive, it wasn’t just Odegaard being injured but so many others too and the red cards. It was like everything rotten was thrown our way in quick succession. City have faced a chronic number of injuries and look how that’s affecting them.
It’s the short memories. We started the season well and I think we can regain that momentum I was just gobsmacked by the level of negativity post Newcastle
Sue,
I agree with your toothless toothless comment, but this is a recurring theme.
And all you get from Arteta game after game is the same old rhetoric, of we must do better in both boxes. And make better decisions in front of goal.
As you know from my previous comment’s, that I’m certainly not an Arteta fan, and to keep hearing the same drivel coming out of his mouth game after game, Isn’t going to change that.
There’s something seriously wrong with Arsenal’s attack, and it’s not just one player. As a group they just don’t look like scoring. In fact they look like a set piece team these days, they never look like scoring in open play.
And to say they look like a set piece team is sad to me, the great Arsenal a set piece team very sad indeed.
Match was a joke, if I were still on we would not have scored!
Can we rely only on corners to score now?
Are we a one man team for crearivity? Seems thst without odergard we are nothing
Yes we can control possession with boring football! V disappointing and, well, boring
Pat, if you read my piece I’ve said exactly the same thing.
What is becoming of this great club, set piece team, (Really sad).
Reminds me of Stoke City; we are more likely to score on a corner kick than open play.
Havertz in midfield, Trossard proving he is not a starter, and stubbornness about a real striker is costing us.
Arteta really struggling to find any solutions. So far he is struggling to overcome adversity with reaching for the checkbook.
I think this season is really testing his managerial chops, a test to see what he is made of, is he capable of righting a floundering ship of his handpicked players.
A good, mature performance from Arsenal in very difficult circumstances.
Apart from the early part of the first half, we absolutely dominated, which was reflected by the stats. I think Inter had only one shot on target, which was the joke of a penalty! Never a pen in a million years. Almost zero gap between the ball leaving the Inter player’s foot and hitting Merino’s hand which was in a natural position.
Obviously a frustrating result as we didn’t deserve to lose at all. A draw would have been a fair result.
Hopefully that performance will give us some confidence going into the Chelsea game.
Also, I forgot to mention corrupt VAR at their best yet again!
Merino has zero time to react and his hand is in a natural position, and it’s a pen. In the other box, he gets to the ball before Sommer who then misses the ball and punches Merino in the head with two closed fists, and no pen!
The reason I say “corrupt”, is because you cannot actually be that incompetent. How can a punch to the head not be punished at all, yet accidental handball is punished in the harshest of manners?
VAR got both these decisions the wrong way around. Useless!
So now European VAR is corrupt?
Jax, please don’t open that can of worms, we’ll be here all day.
Didn’t we get a pen at home to SD for handball ?
Was that corruption?
People just can’t wait to bang the “corrupt VAR ” drum can they!
TBH, it was two very poor decisions, but Euro refs are usually of very high standard. This one was poor throughout.
And Arteta himself was lucky only to receive a yellow for picking up the ball while it was still in play. Was that corruption?
No Jax, it was a mistake by MA and punished accordingly.
No Jax,
Arteta just wanted to see what that round thing was🤣.
No Dan, it was a stonewall penalty.
@Lucy78 👌I always give an applause when a statement makes sense. Arsenal players gave their best in the game fee teams often bet intM at home.if many fans watch other leagues apart from Epl. Any team will find difficult breaking down that interM defensive wall. They played a draw at Ethihad against City. IntM was lucky to win. We move and look forward to Chelsea game in Sunday.
Lucy78,
Lets stop with this corruption rubbish. Yes you can argue with the decisions, but fans keep bleating on about corruption is getting ridiculous.
What needs to be done is direct a good part of the blame to a certain man named Arteta. He seems totally clueless, and if things don’t turn around soon, the owners need to get him to follow Edu out of the door.
He says the same thing after every game, that suggests to me, that he and his team are not learning from there mistakes, and that cannot and shouldn’t be ignored by the powers that be.
If I review this game in isolation we didn’t play so bad, and with a bit of fortune we would have taken something from it. However, through a wider lens, it’s another loss where we did not score or really create a lot. We really need a performance at Chelsea, we really need a win. I am not feeling confident we will because we have lost our edge, and that winning – not losing at all coast, mentality. Hopefully Odegaard is the spark that ignites our revival.
After so much investment. No player from academy. Arteta is playing all his bought players. Still so fa behind in EPL and loosing matches left and right. With Arteta stubbornness we are going nowhere
Trossard does not work at CAM his body language says it all, he need to come off bench to confuse LW position when Martinelli is tired. Cross a free cross all wasted no end product.
We lack options on the left side when benching Zinchenko, and Martinelli keeps running nonsensical stuff on the sideline!
Havertz won’t be able to do anything if nobody gives him any chances, and we kept trying to give the ball to Saka all the time.
We need MA to use his brain, and with Odegard being back, it’s time to bench Marti + Trossard and start using Jesus/Raheem and Nwaneri
Hopefully this will trigger a bit of activity to bring in a much needed world class striker
I hope so but it’s highly unlikely that the likes of Gyokeres and others will be available in January. If so, that means next summer and that’s a long way off unfortunately.
It also depends upon whether Arsenal has the resources in fee/wages to compete with the likes of, among others, Utd (who will be overhauling their squad) and Chelsea (who always seem to have money available regardless).
Victims of the appalling hand ball rule which is ruining our game I’m afraid, and needs changing asap.While we played much better than we did at Newcaste our need for a natural striker is clearly obvious and needs addressing at the end of this season.
Grandad,
While I agree with you regarding the hand ball rule, in the current climate it’s not wise to have your hand in the air, which Merino did.
And rightly or wrongly, your asking for trouble if you do. (Sad but true).
Very hard problem to solve, because we’d have to start teaching players how to jump, turn, block in un-natural ways.
If Merino had his hand on his chest or down by is side in relation to his body movement, that would have been un-natural.
It’s a shame there’s no context applied to handball, yet you can punch a player in the face, and it’s all good! Or if you VVD, just kick out at a player off the ball and no action. Sick of these blatant errors.
Lucy78,
While I agree with you to a point, Merino had his hand up, and from his position it didn’t need to be in the air like it was, unfortunately.
But that aside, the team just doesn’t look right in so many area’s, some of Arteta and Edu’s transfer decisions are now coming back to bite them.
The fans have known for three seasons that we need a proper number 9, something Arteta and Edu have ignored.
Yes Merino’s hand is in the air, but it’s in a natural position.
His three other options would be hand down by the side, hand on chest or hand behind his back. None of which are natural in slightest. Also, it’s not even as if his arm was outstretched to cover more area for blocking. It was close to his body.
And like I said, how you can punch someone in the head and not be punished is not even incompetence. It’s goes well beyond that.
Lucy,
Were going to have to agree to disagree on this one.
I have to agree with Lucy on this one, Derek. Sometimes it’s just natural to move your arms to keep balance or attain more power through the legs. I wish we could just revert to the “ball to hand rule”. Common sense always prevails..
Interestingly Derek, you don’t address Lucy’s point about punching with clenched fists into the back of an opponents head – would you say that’s a natural position, especially when nowhere near the ball?!
No I call that assault Ken1945🤣
Common sense and the officials don’t go together unfortunately GunnerRay.
Merino was jumping and leaning – try doing that without putting your arms out as counter-balance.
Even if you don’t fall flat on your face, you’ll not be able to land and move off in a new direction quickly.
Merino’s arm was exactly where I’d expect it to be based on what he was doing at the time.
The old “hand to ball” rule would have got the obvious outcome from a natural justice viewpoint – this was clearly ball to hand. The deflection onto his hand was a nanosecond before the contact – clear as day it was not handball in the true football sense (i.e. it was not an act that could reasonably be construed as deliberate, to gain an advantage).
The new rules are stupid and need to change rapidly.
Why we didnt buy a striker in the summer and put all our proverbial eggs in the basket by relying on Kai to get the job done when he is not a natural 9 is beyond me…Arteta is proving to be a good manager..just not elite…too rigid tactically and too predictable….Martinelli has been off it for 2 seasons now…Nwaneri looks a very good player and yet he still sticks to the same starting 11
We don’t have a striker issue. We’ve just been struggling to get the ball forward quickly enough to cause problems. Ode is very good at opening up defences but his absence has highlighted our shortcomings. We rely on him too much and our offence is too slow when he is not playing.
Haven’t seen a game this poorly officiated outside the premier league in awhile, but I will reserve my comment.
Not the worst game but not a good result either.
The gaffer may well had one eye on the clash at the Bridge .
The mentality Monsters will now have to get a result at the Bridge to maintain the name.
Arteta’s Arsenal remind me of a modern day version of Keegan’s 90’s Newcastle, came so close to winning the league but blew it and never got close again, I can see Arteta doing a similar Keegan style rant at some stage, “I’d luv it if we beat them, luv it!”
A bit harsh Dave😊
Maybe a bit harsh but can gooners see similarities between the two teams and managers? Keegan was a young manager who had a great side that pushed United all the way but ultimately came up short, Arteta reminds me of Keegan, you don’t get many chances to win the league so when a chance comes along you have to take it, his Arsenal side has found a way to blow it two years in a row, I can’t ever see them winning the league or Champions league under this current set up, I certainly hope I’m wrong.
Dave,
I to have the same fears as you do.
I’m not an Arteta fan in any way, as you will see from a fair few of my previous comments to be fair.
Yes he’s improved them over the last two seasons, but under him, I think Arsenal’s chance has come and gone, and it’s time that Arteta followed Edu out of the door.
Something I don’t think these weak owners will do sadly.
Agree with you DEREK, I think Arteta blew his chance to make himself an Arsenal legend by not only blowing the league once but twice in consecutive years, we won’t get a better chance for some time to come.
Italian sides are a different challenge. They play a “defence first game” – they even have a name for it “catenaccio”, literally “door bolt” in Italian, although the system is known as “The Chain”.
Even that was based on “verrou” (lock in French), a system devised by Karl Rappan who was Austrian coach back in the 1930s and 40s, so the Italians have been masters of playing this way for decades.
Teams playing against it need a different approach. European experience is hard-won, but as I say, they’ve been playing like this for a long time so it shouldn’t be a aurprise to anyone.
Neutral,
I said that although Arsenal’s performance was better than of late the other day, I also said that all the possession that we had was in part due to Milan being quite happy to let us have the ball.
And lets face it, 46 crosses and no end product just about sums us up so far this season really doesn’t it.