In a dramatic match at the Emirates on Tuesday night, Arsenal came from behind to clinch a critical 2-2 draw against Bayern Munich. There has been much discussion about the game, but in this article, we will discuss the three Gunners who impressed me the most.
Oleksandr Zinchenko.
The former Manchester City defender did not start, but his introduction at halftime improved the team’s build-up play. He played like the Zinchenko that we’ve always adored.
Mikel Arteta opted to start Kiwior at left back to ensure the team’s defensive stability, but the Pole struggled to handle Leroy Sane.
Zinchenko, after coming on, demonstrated his defensive prowess by effectively containing Bayern’s dangerous winger, Sane, in one-on-one situations. Kingsley Coman, who replaced Sane, also didn’t have an easy time facing the Ukrainian international.
Bukayo Saka.
The Hale End graduate delivered an outstanding performance; he was immense.
He was a constant threat going forward and finished his effort with a well-taken goal. Saka’s ability to challenge Bayern’s defense, particularly Davies, one of the most difficult fullbacks to face one-on-one, was brilliant to watch. In the dying minutes of the game, Saka could have won Arsenal a penalty after Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer tripped him, but the decision went against him.
Leandro Trossard
He took over for the struggling Gabriel Martinelli and performed admirably. The Belgian winger came in again and changed the game; he always seems to find himself in scoring positions. He equalized to ensure that Bayern did not leave the Emirates Stadium with a victory.
Ultimately, the ex-Brighton star and Gabriel Jesus’ introduction revived the Arsenal attack, keeping Bayern’s defenders on their toes.
Those are my three Tuesday night Gunner heroes. What were yours?
Sam P
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
Well said at SamP.
Actually, Arteta has no need to be rigid in his team selection Epl is no Ucl. I wonder why Havertz started ahead of Jesus. Jesus did so excellent in group stages and has good experience playing in Ucl. Matinelli is yet to pick form why should an inform Trossard be benched for him?
Levekuseen beat BMunich with a skilled trickery pacey forward.
We need Havertz &Rice to play Xhaka role in midfield because of Havertz strength while Rice seat deep. Jorginho is slow for Bayern fast midfielders while Pathey is yet to pick form. Tomiyasu can also play left full back.
I hope the Gafar-Arteta, gets it right in second leg the game is winnable.
Sometimes, substitutes play better than the starters, because of their coaches’ game analyses and instructions
Odegaard’s unreal high-press and work rate forced Bayern Muenchen to release the ball quickly, which eventually made Arsenal won the ball possession
We’ll also need Martinelli’s pace to play counter-attack at Allianz Arena
We have Aston Villa game before second leg in Alianz Arena.
We can only hope Matinelli is in good form. He usually pick form very slowly and there shouldn’t be sentiments in team selection.
If you ask me Gai, as a No9 Jesus has a good record for Arsenal in UCL. Havertz may not be able to break through Bayern defence with his height or physicality alone. We need him and Jesus together in the game.
Yes, we’ll also need Jesus’ quick feet in Germany. His movement gave us a penalty against Brighton, so he might be able to do so against Bayern
Saka was good until he embarrassed himself with that dive ,he literally just had to sidestep the keeper and it was a goal .
Personally thought Jesus was our standout player ,made that goal for Leo .
You are going to get persecuted for telling the truth about the penalty. What irritated me about that was the poor mentality, stay on your feet and it’s a goal done the right way!
Gabriel also cleary picked up the ball 😅 glad the ref showed some logic but by the letter of the law we were very lucky
On the other side Kane could’ve easily gotten a red card for that elbow.
Also think Jesus looked good from the bench
the only truth here is that you two have never kick a ball in your life
Ok little man, if you think so keyboard warrior!
From your extensive experience, how can a player’s left leg be going towards the ball to the left but the right leg is going in completely the opposite direction….or does Saka naturally run like a crab?
Checkmate 🙂
Keyboard warrior coming from you…. pot kettle black comes to mind haha
I once kicked a medicine ball , does that not count Pep Guardiola
?
Totally agree, it was easier to go around him and put the ball into an empty net than it was to try and con the referee and potentially get their keeper sent off. I was so angry when he did that and I had to wait til I got home to look at the replay, Kane should have seen red, and what was Gabriel thinking of when he picked the ball up. Raya had no need to come out so far and panicked the defence in what he did. It was probably the worst I had seen of Saliba and Gabriel who seemed over whelmed by the occasion I thought we learnt our lesson against Porto and we would have been a bit more mature in our approach, but alas no, the team is still young and learning, if we did the impossible and beat BM, I may start to believe. White was our best defender pulling off that goal saving tackle. If he had scored when he had his one on one with the keeper then I think we would have thrashed BM, but they are an experienced team and we allowed them to dictate the game. Jesus should have started, Rice had a quiet game, maybe the thought of getting a second yellow ruling out in the replay played on his mind. Trossard what can you say, when we played down the flanks we worried BM. For me Saka and Martinelli didn’t do enough to help. We were lucky for a draw and now it is game on next week. I will be flying off to Stuttgart on Tuesday morning then the train down to Munich arriving midday where four of us will be enjoying the tankards of beer in the beer kellers with some German sausage, I can not wait, I hope we do it, last time we beat BM at their ground we won 2-0 when Giroud scored early and I think Koscienly scored, and Arteta was in the team…you never know
Arsenal play well but jorgiho is wick in marking and too slow in passes and also given ball backward, Raye should stop coming out, havertz should be benched for Gabriel Jesus while tomiyasu should start before introducing zinchenco.
Sport on. You’ve just exactly what’s on my mind.
The best option for saka to have scored. It wasn’t a penalty cos saka tried to trick the keeper and the ref. After rounding up the keeper, then score
The best option for saka was to have tried to scored. It wasn’t a penalty cos saka tried to trick the keeper and the ref. After rounding up the keeper, then score
I thought, White and Odergaard were our best players all game.
Jesus is always going to be effective against tired legs and can change a game completely if used correctly. His low stamina and poor finishing is the reason hes not first choice cf as he cant press like Havertz and isnt quite as good linking and holding however he tricky and dribbling are second to none
Last night highlighted, we need a proper striker, like Kane. The guy is so good and so clever.
Kane wouldn’t have had a sniff last night or we didn’t gift him the opportunities. Plus I would say Kane is the best cf in world football so it maybe difficult to find someone to replicate what he brings to the team. My issue with the out and out striker is when we can’t play him through they offer nothing like in the two games against Manchester City this season where halaand was the worst player on the pitch In both games.
Haarland helped City win the quadruple. He was bought to win the CL for City and they did.
They didnt win the quadruple, they won the treble.
And yes haaland was brought in to help them win the ucl, but now that every epl defender knows who he is and how he plays, he is marked properly and doesnt score that much anymore especially against the top 6.
But Kane is not like Haaland you know
Kane many times drop into midfield and start releasing other attackers with passes like a number 10
I believe it was him that gave that through-pass with which Gnabry scored against us
I also don’t like out-and-out Strikers, asides scoring they offer little in other departments
I’ve always been telling my friend I don’t want to hear them linking is with Victor Osimhen, not even Ivan Toney
But Kane
He’s that type of Striker like Aguero (Rooney/Thierry/Persie etc)
They can score plenty
Yet they can do many other things
De Rice should play box to box instead of jorgiho
Beste players yesterday Trossard, Jesus, Saka
This trio to start next week to München, hopefully.
Hopefully they start, i mean. Sorry for my English, i’m from Belgium 😉
The team that ended the game can start while the rest can come in as subs. Martinelli’s pace can be useful in counter attacks.Trossard can play as false 9
I don’t think Saka was that good. Lost all of his 1v1 vs Davis, and had this ridiculous dive. Great goal and some good ball-carrying, but overall got shut by Davis.
Raya – 4.
Made the wrong choice to come out for the ball instead of trusting Gabriel to meet the ball and easily pass it back to him.
He dived too early for Kane’s penalty kick.
White – 5.
Had a good game with his assist for the first goal and his defensive play.
His rating reduced as he could not pick either of the spots to direct his shot at, instead he shot it straight to Neur.
Saliba – 5.
He gave them a penalty.
Gabriel – 5.
He would have put the ball out for a throw-in or kick the ball as far as possible instead of passing under pressure to Kiwior.
Kiwior – 3.
Was not aware and ready for the pass under pressure from Gabriel.
Allowed Sane turn him easily and he should have just fouled Sane and got a yellow card instead of letting him run through on goal.
Rice – 6.
Wasn’t his best game as he did not win many duels like he used to but he did not make any huge mistake either.
Jorginho – 5.
Looked very tired and did not win much duels either. Allowed the opponent to run pass him easily.
Did not give any precise pass like he does when he has the ball.
Odegaard – 6.
His pressing was good as usual. Gave some nice passes when he could.
Saka – 5.
Took his chance for the goal very well.
Didn’t really dribble past Davies much.
Made the wrong decision to round the keeper and hit Neur’s legs.
He would have chipped the keeper or just tried a shot like he did with the opening goal.
Martinelli – 5.
Did nothing notable or remarkable at all.
Havertz – 5.
Held up play upfront pretty well.
Did nothing remarkable.
Zinchenko – 6.
Improved our grip on the game with his risky passes and did pretty well defensively to contain Sane and Coman.
Jesus – 7.
Caused a little chaos with his movement and dribbling that led to the goal with his assist.
Trossard – 7.
Ice-cold in front of goal as usual.
Partey – 5.
Came in too late and didn’t really do anything remarkable.
If Sake had scored the last goal the assist would have been Partey who gave a forward through to Sake in a tight space.
Just saying
So Martinelli did nothing of note and got a 5
Saka scored and got a 5 also
We overplayed his wing
We were so one-way going to his side Everytime
The whole team trusted him as our route for creativity, he almost got a winning goal
And you think he didn’t perform well
He wasn’t been marked by Kiwior
That was Alphonso Davids
You thought Saka would just be breezing past Alphonso easily
In this UCL competition we are playing against much better opposition than in most of our EPL matches..
I think this game showed us where the some of holes are in our current team.
If we really want to be as good as city, we will need
a young solid, quick “up and coming” DM.
We will need a real goal scoring presence up front , to take the pressure off of our wingers.
And we will need some speed in our ranks, in the form of a new left back, maybe?
I have come to terms with Arteta and his fondness for Raya, but I should mention , that against Brighton, who played a high press against us. Raya was forced to kick long and many, if not most, of his kicks were won by Brighton!!!
One of the reasons put forward for replacing Ramsdale was that he was a little scatterbrained at times, but I cannot remember him coming 30 yards out of his goal into no mans land!
Still Raya is now the man, so let’s hope he calms down before the Villa game!!
Jorghino’s lack of pace was evident was
Ramsdale ???
How about the goal Sporting scored us in Europa last season
Was he not in no man’s land
Don’t even go there
Ramsdale has special moments and brain-fart moments in every match – every match that he plays
Tomiyasu Gabriel Saliba White
Rice Jorgino Odergard
Jesus haverts saka.
2nd league line up.