Photo from Freepik.
Morning all.
Arsenal welcomed one of the most dangerous, resilient and consistent teams from La Liga to North London yesterday evening, a damp, wet evening at that. Considering Arsenal’s participation in the Champions League over the past 25 years it’s odd that we’ve never faced Atletico before. Both clubs have met in the UEFA Cup where we lost 1-2 on aggregate in 2018.
The manager of Atletico has a kind of legendary status, not least because of his refusal to move anywhere else. Atletico is his club and he isn’t shifting anytime soon. Mikel Arteta had already commented on his anticipation at facing Diego Simeone and that’s because Arteta thrives when contesting his ability against the best in the game and Simeone is definitely falls into that category.
Atletico know how to manipulate opponents and win games from the minimum of opportunities and with that in mind Arteta made two changes from the weekend, cavalier Calafiori was replaced by the more pragmatic Myles Lewis Skelly and Trossard dropped out for the hardworking Martinelli, signalling an approach to Atletico’s street-wisery and a match up in the dark arts. This game was going to be fascinating but not full of flowery football. Piero ‘Winterburn’ Hincapie was on the bench and I really wanted to see him in this game because he was made for these kinds of contests.
But I was wrong, because what I thought would be a cagey affair was nothing of the sort as Arsenal went for it from the off imposing their style onto Atletico. As early as the 4th minute Arsenal should have taken the lead as an Eze shot was deflected and spun past the helpless Oblak but onto the bar, the ball eventually ended up at the feet of the normally reliable Declan Rice but his accuracy deserted him and he hit his shot wide. No problem, Arsenal just continued their high intensity game and even though occasionally Atletico looked dangerous on the break the pressure was relentless.
10 minutes after the Eze shot he was again involved. The masterful Saka drove into the box but his shot was deflected to Ebs who found Myles on the edge of the area, he drove past the Atletico defenders in his way and put in a delightful cross into box but nobody could connect. A few minutes later another great Eze pass found Saka bursting into the box but Oblak saved.
Two seasons ago David Raya came charging out of his goal and caused Gabriel to lose possession which in turn led to Bayern scoring a goal in a crucial game and he almost did it again as his attempt to play left-back whilst challenging an Atletico player left his goal wide open which in turn led to a quick Atletico restart where Simeone junior almost scored in our empty goal but thankfully Junior put his shot wide, just. That was during a period when Atletico came into the game strongly. The Gunners defence was severely tested during this period but didn’t buckle then on 36 minutes Zubimendi won yet another crunching tackle and put Saka away. Bakayo surged into the box yet again and slid a perfect crossfield pass to Martinelli, who scored but he had just gone too quick and was offside. This game reminded me a little of Real Madrid last season, Arsenal’s first half domination not resulting in goals. Half-time 0-0.
Arsenal initially started the 2nd 45 a tad slowly and Alvarez almost opened the scoring when he turned inside an Arsenal defender and with Raya grasping air bent a lovely curling shot onto our bar, too bloody close for comfort that one. Then on 53 minutes Gyokeres was almost in after good work by Eze but the enormous Oblak smothered his shot.
Finally the dam was breached on 56 when a free kick expertly delivered into the box by the amazing right foot of Declan Rice and was headed home by the equally amazing King of Brazil. Oblak got his fingers to it but he couldn’t stop it and the party began.That free kick had been awarded for a foul on Martinelli who was having one of his best games for many a month.
Just after we had gone ahead, Atletico almost struck back when Simeone Junior shot wide leaving his Dad looking as if he was going to cry.Another close call and I thought we needed to slow the game down and make some subs but fortunately Mikel doesn’t take any notice of me. Atletico made 3 subs but the killer came on the 64th minute, Myles Lewis Skelly picked up the ball on the halfway line and just drove past three Madrid players before laying on the perfectly weighted pass to Martinelli who fired across Oblak and into the far corner. Again Oblak got fingertips to the shot but it wasn’t his night. The Emirates exploded.
Then between the 67th and 70th minutes our hardworking and much maligned centre forward silenced the haters as the Eze/Martinelli combo set Viktor up and he scored a scruffy goal, which is exactly what we want and need from him. I’m not interested in aesthetics, I’m interested in the ball hitting the back of the net. Then another Exocet corner from Rice found Gabriel careering onto the ball at the far post and he headed the ball back for Viktor to score with his thigh, the perfect finish for me and the stadium went full party mode.
Photograph: David Price/Arsenal FC/Getty Images
The teams’ celebrations told me what they think of their introverted Swedish centre forward, he just gets on with his job minus any histrionics and they fully appreciate the job that he does and so did the crowd that got behind him for the entire game.
There was still time for Ethan Nwaneri to clear a deflected cross off of the line from under the bar with Raya beaten and make a full-blooded tackle in added time to stop a turnover. It was good to see Arteta use his squad again with Mosquera (Gabriel), Nordgaard (Zubimendi), Nwaneri (Eze), Merino (Gyokeres) and White (Timber) all coming on and contributing, finishers all of them.
For Atletico this result equalled their worst ever defeat in the European Cup/Champions League and for Arsenal, we march on…
By Kev