LFL: ARSENAL

Of course none of us ever like us to lose but to lose away to the likely champions is no disgrace. You can’t afford to make mistakes against a team like Arsenal and a few errors cost us the game.

BEFORE

Most people are saying we have no chance this afternoon but not many thought we'd get anything from the Chelsea away game either. So, we can relax and try our best without heavy expectations being laid upon us. The home fixture was a tremendous game and we put in a great performance. I think we'll be taking a good crowd to the match and they'll no doubt be trying to create a mini SoL atmosphere to roar us along. It seems possible that new signing Nilson Angulo will be included in the squad today and it would be great to get a glimpse of him as he sounds very promising. It'll have to be a radio commentary only for me today as I rarely have a sniff of an away ticket these days. As for a match prediction, my heart says 1-1 but my head says a 1-3 defeat and then a win against Liverpool on Wednesday.

I got the team-news around 2.00 and there were no changes from Monday's starting eleven but I was pleased to see Angulo on the bench along with Ellborg. I had no wifi at home so I had to get down to the local library in order to connect with safc.com. No other members of the Faithful were present. We were playing in blue and white. Commentator Nick Barnes informed me that we haven’t won away at Arsenal since 1983…

THE MATCH

Arsenal were quick off the mark and within a minute Havertz had a header from a Trossard cross. In the opening stages Ballard was shadowing Jesus while Alderete was close-marking Havertz. We’d been soaking up a fair bit of pressure but in the eighth minute we had a real chance when Brobbey shot from close range following a free-kick but Havertz was in the right place to block it on the line. The play became much more even and when Arsenal came forward we were sounding solid at the back. Barnesy said we were by no means parking the bus and as we passed the fifteen minute mark things were sounding good. Arsenal started to press forward more and we’d have to maintain concentration to keep them out. All in all it had been a good first quarter for us.

Hume conceded the first corner of the match in the twenty-third and Roefs managed to palm it away for another corner. We blocked a shot arising from the corner and kept a subsequent attack at bay. Saliba became the first player to go into referee Samuel Barrott’s book for a foul. Reinildo was getting a lot of praise from commentator Benno for great defending. Le Fee was injured and while he was recovering Geertruida started to warm up but no change was made as Enzo was able to carry on. Rice had a good shot that went not far wide of the right post and that sounded their best effort so far. The thirty-minute mark came and went and things continued to go okay for us but we soon conceded another corner. Roefs punched it away and a follow-up shot from Trossard rebounded off one of his team-mates. Again poor passing was letting us down at times but so far it hadn’t had serious consequences. 

We won our first corner about five minutes before the break and it only resulted in a yellow card for Diarra for a bit of argy-bargy. Brobbey soon joined him in the book though it sounded like Brobbey himself had had his shirt tugged, presumably for an infringement slightly beforehand. In fact the ref showed Brobbey the card again just for good measure. Arsenal took the lead in the forty-second when Alderete gave the ball away and Zubimendi found some space before hitting a twenty-yard shot off the inside of the right post. It sounded like we were going to concede a second when Jesus broke through and then went down in our box but he was judged to have been offside and we breathed again. Four minutes of added-time were announced and then both Diarra and Havertz had decent attempts but it remained 1-0 as the half-time whistle went. After a very disciplined performance we’d gone behind right near the end after a piece of sloppy play. Anyway, we’d played well on the whole and there was plenty of time to get a goal back.   

There were no changes as we kicked off again. A few minutes in, Talbi had an effort that Raya in goal struggled to hold and very soon he was forced into another save as we enjoyed a good attacking spell. In the fifty-third a long-distance shot from Havertz wasn’t far wide. Benno said that we’d started the second-half well and I was wondering which changes, if any, Regis might make soon. As it happened it was Arsenal who soon made a couple of changes with Martinelli and Gyokeres coming on for Madueke and Jesus on the hour. Next thing we had a substitute ball. We brought on Mundle, a former Spurs player, for Talbi in the sixty-fourth and he received a token boo from the home fans. We went two-nil down in the sixty-sixth when Mukiele failed to clear properly and after Havertz had found Gyokeres he shot home. Arsenal promptly swapped Havertz for Eze and Calafiori for Hincapie. 

We replaced Sadiki with Geertruida in the seventy-first. I still felt that there’d be another goal in the game and Arsenal were sounding the more likely to get it. Benno and Barnesy wondered whether we’d bring on Isidor for Brobbey as the latter had been well-marshalled since his very early attempt. Isidor did come on, accompanied by Angulo, with about five minutes to go and they replaced Brobbey and Hume. Surprisingly six minutes of added-time were announced and then a Diarra header from a free-kick landed on the roof of their net. We certainly hadn’t given up and that was great to hear. Martinelli and Gyokeres broke away after we’d backed away from the ball and Gyokeres made it 3-0 from six yards out. It ended 3-0.