Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video Arsenal secured another away win last night, this time in the Champions League beating Slavia Prague 2-1 thanks to goals from Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyokeres. Mikel Arteta rotated in some areas, with starts for Ben White, Piero Hincapie, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino and Eberechi Eze, but relied too on the foundational stability of Declan Rice with Ezri Konsa and Gabriel behind him. We began in lively fashion, and took an early lead. David Raya played it long, Gyokeres held it up well and hooked the ball forward, and Madueke’s pace took him beyond the defender and into the box before finishing between the keeper’s legs. Solid play from two players who can sometimes be guilty of fluffing their lines when it comes to those key actions. This time they were spot on. We had more chances to score. Eze showed nice skills in the box but saw his shot blocked; Gyokeres headed back across goal for Merino but he headed over; the Spaniard saw a shot from distance tipped over, and his smart near post run and a right-footed shot from a Ben White cutback forced the keeper into another decent stop; and there was a brilliant counter and pass from Rice that drifted all the way to the back post without any Arsenal player attacking it for a tap-in. We did find a second though. Gyokeres combined well with Merino around their box, and when he was played through he opened up his body really well and produced a fine finish from close range and a tight angle to make it 2-0. I don’t think that goal at Fleetwood would have done much for his confidence, this felt much more like the kind of strike he needed to produce – for himself as much as the team. So, we had a good lead at the break, but this was very much a game of two halves. In the first we had 60% possession, out-shot the opposition by 8 to 2, and passed at nearly 90% success rate. In the second, the tables turned. Slavia Prague took 17 shots to our 4, and our pass success fell to 77%. We were sloppy and untidy, they made a tactical change at half-time which worked well for them, and while we weren’t necessarily under the cosh, the entire dynamic of the game changed and we couldn’t get to grips with it. We needed David Raya to make one superb save to keep them at bay, before Gabriel had to head one off the line, but in injury time they found the goal I think their second half performance (and ours) probably merited. They whipped in a wicked ball from the left, the striker applied the close range finish, and the clean sheet was gone. Afterwards, Mikel Arteta was happy with the win, but displeased with the second half, saying: First of all, you have to value the fact it’s very difficult to win away from home. We’ve done it against a very tough opponent, we expected that toughness. In the first half we played at a really high level in terms of intensity, tempo, quality and clarity in what we had to do, and what the game was demanding. We were very efficient – we should have scored three, four or five. But on what went wrong after the break: I already talked about some of the things we didn’t do, and others I’d prefer not to mention. It’s a huge lesson, and we’ll learn from the second half. It’s our third away game in quick succession, and we’re the only team to have played three away games in the Champions League and just one at home – there are a lot of factors – but I don’t like to use that, because in the first half we were at the level we wanted. I take full responsibility for the drop in the second half. I don’t think the team played well at all in the second half, but I do wonder about how we might have done things differently. For example, I feel like Declan Rice played within himself in that second period, and let me be clear, I understand why. Personally, I think it’s a bit mad he did 90+ minutes in a game like this, even if I accept he and the manager know more about his fitness than any of us. Maybe they need him to be like a steam train, going going going all the time, but when you have options of the quality of Myles Lewis-Skelly and Bruno Guimaraes on the bench, surely using them in his stead allows the best of two worlds: some rest for Rice, and fresher legs in midfield when the game is tilting in the opposition’s favour. We have this really strong bench, but I don’t think the changes we made worked particularly well. The question, of course, is if they absolutely needed to. We had a two goal lead until late on, and we secured all three points away from home after a difficult and physically demanding game at Anfield three days previously. I just found the Jekyll and Hyde nature of of the two halves a little concerning, but only a little. Ten of our sixteen games this season have been away from home, we’ve won seven of them, so that’s a decent return, added to by this victory. Ultimately, this is essentially a forgettable Champions League tie that we came away with three points from. Apparently it was a year to the day since we played Slavia Prague last season too, a game I had/have zero recollection of. Which might say something about me more than anything else, but these kinds of fixtures don’t live long in the memory. They’re grist for the mill in this part of the season, we had a job to do, and we got it done, and now all the focus turns to Hull on Saturday and the three points required there before the Interlull. — We can talk a bit more about this game in an Arsecast a bit later on this morning, before I head to London a bit later on this afternoon. For those who have registered to come to the launch of The 22 tomorrow at Big Red, please remember you can purchase the book via the email sent to you (check your junk folders if you don’t see it), so you can simply come and collect on the night. We can also facilitate sales via credit card etc if you don’t want to do that. If you purchased via the Patreon pre-sale, those books are not for collection tomorrow, and will be shipped to you in due course. There is also some scope to come along on spec on the night, and we should have copies available but obviously priority goes to those who registered. We will then have a final batch of books going on general sale online on Saturday evening after the Hull game. Full details of that to follow here on site and via Arseblog on BlueSky. Ok, I’ll leave it there for now. Pod will be out mid-morning, until then, have a good one. 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