Arsenal’s much-changed team secured a 1-1 draw in their dead rubber Champions League game against PSV in Holland. The Gunners had already secured their spot in the knockout stage before the game and were certain to be group winners. This gave Mikel Arteta a chance to make changes, and the Arsenal gaffer brought Aaron Ramsdale back in goal, with Mohamed Elneny, Reiss Nelson, and Cedric Soares all earning rare starts.
It was not a team to expect much from, and to some extent, it showed in their performance at the start of the game. The Gunners occasionally lacked coordination and it was evident that these players hadn’t played much football together. This provided PSV with the chance to impress, however, the lads still gave a good account of themselves.
Arsenal took the lead before the half-time break through Eddie Nketiah and needed to protect it. PSV started the second half as they had for most of the first, pushing hard for a goal. Johan Bakayoko, in particular, caught the eye, causing Arsenal all kinds of trouble with his movement.
Five minutes after the break, the Dutchmen got their equaliser, and both teams searched for the winner. Mikel Arteta brought on Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice, Gabriel Jesus, Ben White, and Smith Rowe as the game reached its climax.
Arsenal almost snatched a winner at the death via Odegaard but he was denied thanks to a fine save from the PSV keeper.
All in all, considering the changes made, it was a credible performance and both sides made the knockout stages.
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Odegard must improve his profligacy in front of goals. The Boys did there bit and it was nice to see ESR have some minutes. I think Arteta needs to be given his bench more minutes in Epl games they are becoming rusty. He shouldn’t wait till when his first 11 starts having injury.. 1:1 is a fair result.
must improve his efficiency u meant to say
We should have a look at Bakayoko.
Bit raw but dynamic.
Great finish by Eddie but yet again how many times did he lose possession.
Good draw.
We are the only team to beat PSV this season.
Dominating Erividese
Bakayoko was the standout player in this game. If he’s doing this on a regular basis, he would be a good winger to sign
He’s a right winger and MA simply doesn’t rotate Saka (look at the stats if you don’t believe me)
Why would a up and coming RW willing come to Arsenal to sit almost every game on the bench while having minimal chance to even be subbed on?
I must say, I could not watch the game, but I did read the BBC’s post match report written by Emma Smith.
She made Ramsdale the man of the match,
But what I found interesting was, she rated ESR as the best of the rest, although he only seemed to be on the pitch for a short time.
Was she correct?
Heartening to see Smith Rowe back. It also gives me hope that he could be the player we need to bring some added momentum into the midfield. Fingers crossed.
An important observation, Arsenal have a great dozen players, a highly skilled set of members who can play as a team and they showed it by almost lifting that big mug in the recently concluded campaign.
This year they went all out in the market by signing Declan Rice – beating top teams to get their man, reinforcing the goalkeeper position with the Spaniard from Brentford, they also signed Timber and the big German who is just beginning to find his feet.
Though perhaps obvious is the golden boy is again doing the heavy lifting of goal contributions.
Having watched the game on Tuesday disjointed, most suffering from ring rust, the question is not whether will Arsenal go for another midfielder and a striker but when will they go back in the market, will they wait till the summer or will they strengthen the spine in the Winter.
If reports to believe, Arsenal is at a delicate stage negotiating Brazilian Leonardo, from the club that gave us Pele, but signing Douglass Luiz now is sounding more far fetch each week as the Villan march up the table under the tutelage of Unei Emery.
With some reports Aston Villa value the Brazilian at a ridiculous £110 mill
This PSV team was something else. Their forward passes were so accurate it caused us problems. Also hats off to Bakayoko. Very young, brave and potent.
We were not bad ourselves. I forgot what a gem of a squad player we have in Elneny although he is slightly out of pace when rushing back to defence. Nelson is great too but a little short on the dynamism. He should look to Bakayoko on how to get some aggression. It is his only missing puzzle piece. Special mentions to ESR. Aside from that misplaced pass from defence, his interlink play was nice to watch. Saliba was Royce yet again bar that one crazy error.
Odegard is looking like he is losing his spark. Hope it is just a one off thing. Jesus did nothing noteworthy. Trossard probably had his worst game in an Arsenal shirt. Gabriel a little too clumsy today and Kiwior got bullied by their superstar prospect.
Good result by sub players. PTheir performances shows that Arteta needs to give them game time especially Ramsdale. He should not wait until his first eleven are injured. Happy to see Smith Riwe, Elneny back. Odegaard should should improve. I hope to see Ramsdale between the sticks after man of the match performance.