Real Madrid - on the bus. Rice, Rice, Baby!
It was the best ever victory at the Emirates. It was one of the best results I've witnessed as a fan.
Arsenal doesn’t have in their locker many big victories over the European giants. The legendary Champions League campaign of 2006 was more tempered, although it included pretty big victories. I guess the overarching feeling from that team was that we have enough attacking quality to take very few chances we have if we stayed defensively solid.
This time it’s different - Arteta’s team must function cohesively as a unit, both defensively and offensively, because they don’t have strikers of Thierry Henry quality, who could single-handedly break through the whole opponent’s defence. Maybe Saka will become one, but not immediately following a long-term post-surgery absence.
The “before” mood
I wasn’t too worried before the game, because I didn’t think Arsenal had many chances to go past Madrid, particularly with the second game being away. My thinking was that to survive the Bernabeu test we need a really large margin that will kick some belief out of those cocky Madrid faces. “The three goal lead would do that” I thought, but that seemed so much out of the realms of possibility. Who knew the way it turned up in the end.
My other belief was that we need to play with five defenders to have a chance of stopping Madrid's front three. And I was quite hesitant that Arteta would take this approach and not set up more traditionally. Although Martinelli at times dropped pretty deep in our half, I was wrong! And I am so happy about it!
Despite us being a bit shaky in the first 20 minutes and giving Madrid two big chances to open the score, we managed to hold them at bay for the majority of the game. I guess what contributed to this success was Madrid’s 4-4-2 defensive set up, which, on one hand, made Madrid more equipped to stop Saka, and on the other hand didn’t give Madrid’s wingers enough space in behind our defenders to exploit.
The starting nervous patch
I also was eager to look at the faces of our players in the tunnel. Out of the ones the broadcast showed: Odegaard looked a bit irritated, Saliba - chill, Kiwior - nervous and Saka very much determined.
As expected in a match of such magnitude, the initial 20 minutes were pretty shaky. The team doesn't have experience against opponents of such caliber and more importantly our manager doesn't have this experience. He doesn’t have the success record to claim the confidence that we can win these duels. This confidence needs to be manufactured and infused into the players, which is a challenging task by itself.
Luckily, some of our players had their own mentality to step into this game. Saliba was very calm, he was making tackles, winning headers and was very calm on the ball. I think his calmness and confidence made Kiwior grow into the game and gave him the foundation to handle Mbappe. Confidence is contagious, and in such matches, it is vital to have players on the pitch who can infect those around them.
Not only Saliba, but Jurrien Timber was cool as a cucumber. He is just a monster of 1v1 duels. He is a real gem we have taken from Ajax. Even if he doesn't have the attacking chemistry with Saka yet, he was so crucial to silence Vinicius on Tuesday and will be even more crucial next week. I don’t remember him losing a single battle to the big crybaby. We need these kinds of players and these kinds of performances to compete for the highest titles.
But who blew my socks away - was Myles Lewis-Skelly. The 18-year old with his only 30th appearance in the first team against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinal. Saka made a very dangerous mistake, Kiwior misplaced a pass, Rice as well, but not Myles. Not only he didn’t crumble under Madrid’s press, he had the bravery to dribble past the opponents and drive the ball deep into their half.
His mentality is just stunning. He’s really elevating his level against the better opponent and that is the exact sign of a world class player. You can’t be at 100% all the time, it’s just not common in human nature, but if you show up at your best at the biggest stages - then you are at that World Class level. Mbappe didn’t always deliver for France, but he scored a hat-trick in the WC final and is now considered one of the best strikers on the planet. And Myles is definitely on an upward trajectory to get right there.
The other thing is that Myles is too strong of a player to be just on the wing of our defence. He needs to be in midfield - he has both the physicality to win the duels and the vision to open up defences. His bravery with the ball is what we often lack against the well-organized opponents.
Goals are what counts, aren’t they?
In the first half it was visible that Saka didn’t get his fitness back. He was not always quick and fit enough to exploit some of the weaknesses Madrid had. He didn’t have the sharpness to drive past Alaba every time the latter was left without Bellingham’s cover. A fully fit Saka would just tear up Madrid’s defence. Yesterday he was mostly stopped by Bellingham dropping deep to protect the inside movements. And even in such form he produced two big chances in the first half and earned two free kicks that Rice scored from.
Declan, Declan… What did you do to us, mate?
My broadcast lagged about half a minute behind, so I kind of knew something grand had happened from notifications before I actually saw it on TV (stupid phone temptation - I looked at it whenever there was some pause in the game like, for example, during a free kick preparation). But even knowing that - I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I didn’t know that the goals would be so spectacular. Especially the second one - the power, the trajectory, the top bin where it ended up? Not in my wildest dreams. I can only imagine what it felt like in the stadium, although sometimes you can’t grasp the greatness of the goal without seeing replays from multiple angles.
I don’t think Rice’s first half performance was very good though. He didn’t really have a great influence on the game, except the header at the very end of it. But the second half.. that was so massive. The first free kick gave him loads of confidence and reminded that he’s in contention to be the best midfielder on the planet.
His midfield partner Thomas Partey also delivered a superb performance. He was sharp, he made crucial tackles, he gave those saucy long passes. I seriously believe that we need to extend his contract at least by one year. Despite his salary, we won’t find anyone better now on the market. We need players who can produce a top performance in midfield in the best games. And even with signing a player who’s technically gifted, I am doubtful they can soon start to produce an output of Partey’s quality yesterday.
The only negative impression I have is about Odegaard. Unfortunately, he has lost all the threat in front of the goal. In the first half he just didn’t know how to proceed without Saka. It looked like the opponent box was surrounded with an electric fence for him and he wasn’t allowed to enter. He didn’t dribble into the box, he didn’t take a shot when he had no defenders in the immediate vicinity, he just waited for Saka or someone else to run into the space.
Martin used to score the opener with a 25-meter shot on St James Park. Where did this player go? Where did all his goal threat go? Yes, his work rate was amazing. But he doesn’t look like a number 10 that is a part of a title winning team. He needs to return back to his levels. Otherwise we need to attempt to play different players there with Saka being the first candidate. Arsenal of the last three seasons doesn’t have any other option at this position and this is our weakness. We need to plan for a dip in the form and we need to be less predictable as the team.
The Fotmob match ratings agree with this assessment by the way:
Mikel Merino deserves a separate mention as well. While he was silent in the first 45, he again found his chance in the second half. What I can confidently say - at this point there's no other player in Arsenal who can launch those two shots in the box on target (the ones that Alaba and Courtois saved in the second half) and finally slot one into the corner. He’s by far the best finisher in the team. Better than Kai Havertz, better than Martinelli, maybe close with Saka. At the same time, he doesn’t have the pace to give troubles to defenders constantly and we again suffered yesterday without having a good mobile striker in the team. However, in the Champions League if you can find a single moment in the game that you convert into a goal it could be already enough.
I was a bit gutted that Nwaneri didn’t get a sniff of this atmosphere. I believe getting 5 minutes on the pitch of the game of such magnitude could shape his character and push his career even further forward. Just as he entered the Man City game at 4-1 and scored a stunning goal five minutes later, he could have tasted a bit of Real Madrid pie. But let’s not get into negatives here. I understand that the stakes yesterday were very high and hopefully he can get his time at the Bernabeu.
Brentford home on Saturday?
I don’t care honestly. I don’t care about the result. I don’t care who plays. I don’t care if the team plays Rondo’s all the game. I don’t care if the players just search for a foul every two minutes to try and replicate Declan’s free kicks.
I don’t care if we lose 0-3. A 5-0 win or a 0-3 loss will not in any way affect the trajectory of this team. But what will definitely affect it - is the reverse fixture in Madrid. If we get past them in the semifinal, it would be monumental. We will have a large boost of confidence for the competition chances itself, we will build another foundational brick for next season, we will have strong arguments for players to renew their contracts. If we fail to do that, the consequences would be devastating. The bottlers narrative will pop-up again, the best players like Saliba will be considering an exit.. I don’t even want to get in there.
I just want no injuries, I want nobody tired on Wednesday. Make in the team as much rotation as possible! After seeing some players hobbling off on Tuesday, definitely none of Saka, Rice, Timber, Partey should start. I would also give Merino a breather, since he plays every game now.
The back four of White/Saliba/Kiwior/Tierney looks both reasonable and capable of doing the job. The front three of Nwaneri/Trossard/Sterling already started against Everton and I see no reason why they shouldn’t do it against Brentford. And the midfield of Jorginho, Zinchenko, Odegaard - while not being physically imposing has all the capabilities to control the ball very efficiently. Mikel Merino can get his minutes replacing Odegaard in the second half.
Now I am trembling with the mix of excitement and anxiety before Wednesday. How calmer was the time we were underdogs. 😀 COYG!
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