Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction Arsenal’s first home game in this season’s Champions League ended in victory, with a 3-0 win over Lille. Mikel Arteta made changes, with starts for Jurrien Timber, Mikel Merino, Bruno Guimaraes, Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres, with Myles Lewis-Skelly shifting to left-back in the absence of Piero Hincapie. It wasn’t a scintillating first half by any means, we felt a bit sluggish going forward, and the plan appeared to be quite limited: give it to Noni Madueke on the right and see if he can produce a decent cross. Which he almost did quite a few times, but not quite. Still, there were chances. Merino headed straight at the keeper after good overlapping work from Timber, the Spaniard also hooked a shot over the bar, and was in position for a tap-in from a Lewis-Skelly cross after he’d worked it well with Eze on the left, but unfortunately he could only hit it at the keeper. Guimaraes put one wide of the near post, and Eze had a good opportunity too, but his finish lacked some conviction at the keeper made a save. Not brilliant, and with obvious room for improvement, but the way the commentary team on TNT Sports were going on about Lille, you’d swear they were tearing us apart for the entire half. They were defensively disciplined, fair enough, but offered little or no threat beyond a ‘goal’ which was rightly disallowed for offside. The pattern, and the Arsenal domination continued after the break too. We had 75% possession, and upped the intensity. Lille’s pass success rate fell from 85% in the first half to 61% between the start of the second half and our breakthrough via Jurrien Timber. At that point though, the manager was already readying changes because we were past the hour mark without scoring. What a lovely goal it was too. His first touch from Madueke’s pass was superb, dragging the ball away from the defender and into a position where he could have a shot, and he clipped the ball beautifully over the advancing goalkeeper to make it 1-0. We got the triple sub immediately afterwards, with Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard on for Madueke, Gyokeres, and Merino, and talk about making an immediate impact. After Odegaard and Timber hassled the defender into a mistake, Guimaraes played a first time pass to Saka who delivered an early ball across the box for Eze to apply the finish and make it 2-0 with his first goal of the season. At times I think Arsenal have a tendency to err towards control in possession rather than risk the more difficult pass, but here we saw the benefit of using the ball more quickly, because it opened up the space for the goal. The third came shortly afterwards too. We saw sharp movement from Havertz, Odegaard’s pass behind the defence to find the German was precision personified, and when he pulled it back for Saka he made no mistake from close range to absolutely settle game and make it 3-0. Afterwards, Arteta talked about making a tactical adjustment which gave the team more control, but also spoke about increasing the techincal level. When you turn to your bench and you bring on Havertz, Odegaard and Saka, you do exactly that, and it paid dividends in a big way. I think we could have scored more. Eze really grew into the game – which was good to see – and ended up with 5 shots, as did Bruno whose determination to make things happen in the final third isn’t always met with perfect execution, but he is the kind of player who will look for the more difficult pass if he thinks it will lead to something dangerous. I have to assume that’s a key part of why we brought him in, and it’s a quality in his game I hope we look to maintain because it’s something we really, really need. There was a late cameo for Max Dowman with the game done and dusted, Olivier Giroud came on for Lille and got a nice enough reception and a big hug from Arteta afterwards, and overall I think this is a game we absolutely dominated and deserved to win. I was especially pleased to see Saka score and produce an assist after what was a poor performance against Leeds at the weekend. I’ve noticed a groundswell of discussion around him that, while understandable on the one hand, has felt a bit over the top on the other. We know he can do better, he knows he can do better, but I’ve really disliked some of the commentary around him and hopefully this effective cameo will remind some people he’s still a player with lots to offer. More consistency from him is important, of course, so let’s hope that’s what he can produce. So, overall a solid win, decent minutes for most of the players who came into the side, and solid prep for Sunday’s visit to Nottingham Forest – a game we’ll talk about a bit more later in the week. — However, despite the victory, it was a sad day off the pitch for Arsenal with the news of Ken Friar’s death. Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said: It’s a really sad day for everybody that loves Arsenal Football Club, anybody who loves football, and anybody who has come across him. I had the privilege, the honour, to meet him and to spend time with him, to learn from him. There are people at football clubs who have a role and fulfil it, and others who create an identity, values, and they have a vision to create that future for the football club. The legacy Ken is going to leave, to all of us, to our football club, to everybody that has been close to him, is going to be forever. I want to pass on all our love to his relatives, his family, so they know that the way we feel about him cannot be anything but extraordinary. The word ‘legend’ is one which is bandied about a bit too easily, but there’s no doubt Mr Friar was one of those. He spent almost his entire life at Arsenal, literally from boy to man, and that kind of service is extraordinary. Football is an industry where almost everyone becomes a target in one way or another, players, managers, board members, owners, but there are just countless stories of his decency and goodness from anyone who ever encountered him, and it’s probably fair to say this football club will never see his like again. How wonderful that he got to witness us winning the title after such a long wait. For more on why he leaves such a legacy, we republished a piece from Nick Ames, written for our 2012 book ‘So Paddy got up‘, in which he outlines his connection with Arsenal from such an early age, and how he endured across so many years in the ever-changing landscape of football. You can read that here. RIP Mr Friar, and thank you for representing the club in the way every fan could understand and connect with. — Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. More here tomorrow, including an Arsecast. Until then, have a good one folks. The post Arsenal 3-0 Lille: A second half flurry and a deserved win appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.