Morning all.
Thomas Partey overcame whatever injury he had to make it into the starting eleven last night although Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori remained absent. Jurrien Timber was on the bench as was Kieran Tierney. Instead, Myles Lewis-Skelly was handed his first Champions League start and Gabriel Jesus started in place of Kai Havertz.
This was a big match in the Champions League as whichever team won, would climb back into the top eight with just two fixtures remaining.
The opening half an hour brought a couple of chances for both sides with Jesus poking the ball straight to their keeper and Martin Odegaard unable to find the target.
Then things livened up a bit as we created two big chances in succession. A lovely ball from Jakub Kiwior found Jesus but his slightly scuffed shot was saved. Jesus had another chance to score almost immediately. He did all the hard work, holding off the defender as he ran towards goal but again, his shot was saved.
Then came our goal. Lewis-Skelly played a lovely ball into the path of Jesus down our left side. Our number 9 then crossed a superb ball across the box towards the back post to Saka who’d timed his run into the box perfectly. He made no mistake.
We should have tripled our lead before the break but poor finishing from both Odegaard and Martinelli meant it remained 1-0.
Monaco stepped their game in the second half and had a couple of early opportunities to level the score but wasted them. Thankfully!
With around 15 minutes to go and after a few nervy moments beforehand, we doubled our lead. Monaco were faffing around whilst playing out from the back when Kai Havertz made an absolute nuisance of himself which caused their keeper to pass the ball to Saka. Again, Saka made no mistake. 2-0 which soon after became 3-0. A shot from Mikel Merino was blocked with the ball ending up with Saka. His shot was helped over the line by Havertz.
What a great result for Mikel Arteta’s team and what a super first half performance too. With better finishing, we’d have gone in at the break with a 4-0 lead. The spurned chances weren’t difficult, not for players at this level of the game and then when Monaco stepped things up in the second half, it looked like we might pay the price for missing them. However…..
I thought Arsenal’s passing was a bit sloppy in the second half but once Saka had scored his and Arsenal’s second, Monaco were beaten. But for a Havertz toe, he’d have had a hat-trick.
Myles Lewis-Skelly looked nothing like an 18 year old playing in his first even Champions League. He played really well in my opinion. Finishing and a few stray passes aside, Arsenal as a team were very good. They had to be to beat a strong Monaco side.
There’s a great video of Lewis-Skelly and Saka on Twitter from afcstuff. It’s worth watching….
Catch up later…