Six-goal mayhem at Celtic Park and a considerably more sedate affair at The Emirates marks an entertaining second night of Champions League football.
Arsenal 2 Basel 0
The Theo Walcott (7.6) renaissance continued apace in a regulation Champions League win for a dominant Arsenal.
The England international hit his fourth and fifth goals of the season, with both assists coming from the equally in-form Alexis Sanchez (11.1).
Arsene Wenger made two changes from the side that humbled Chelsea, with David Ospina (4.9) given his now customary European place and Granit Xhaka (5.3) replacing the injured Francis Coquelin (4.4).
Such was Arsenal’s superiority – they fired in 19 shots to six from 65% possession – the only surprise was that Wenger chose not to give Sanchez some time off ahead of Sunday’s trip to Burnley.
Walcott, who has now scored in three consecutive matches for the first time in three years, was afforded that luxury. He’s starting to look enticing for Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers and enjoyed a price rise overnight.
Currently owned by just 4%, he has both form and fixtures on his side – away at Burnley and Sunderland and home to Swansea and Middlesbrough in the next four – before the North London derby in early November.
Post-match, Wenger praised Sanchez’ display as the lone striker:
“At the moment he looks like he has the ingredients to do very well there. He’s getting stronger in every single game”.
While Walcott spoke of the chemistry between him and the Chilean:
“I think the whole team tends to react well and defend well as a unit and clean sheets are going to win games because we’re going to score plenty of goals. That combination between me and Alexis it’s boding well. We seem to sort of know when we play off each other quite well. If he comes short, I go long and we’ve just got a good sort of combinations.”
Arsenal XI: Ospina, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal (Gibbs 75), Cazorla, Xhaka, Walcott (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Ozil, Iwobi (Elneny 70), Sanchez.
Subs not used: Cech, Gabriel, Perez, Reine-Adelaide.
Celtic 3 Man City 3
The ‘Battle of Britain’ was a proper tear-up, as Man City came from behind three times to share the spoils in a breathless encounter.
The defending was often either of the last-ditch or the non-existent variety, but both sides attacked and harried with intent from the off.
In the cold light of day though, City will wonder how they didn’t win a match in which they enjoyed 61% possession, out-shot their opponents 24 attempts to nine and conceded a goal from all three of Celtic’s shots on target.
Much of that was down to their defending, with Pep Guardiola’s decision to bench John Stones (5.0) merely serving to expose Aleksandar Kolarov’s (5.9) limitations as a centre-half, the Serbian squarely to blame for the hosts’ third goal.
Gael Clichy (5.4) and Pablo Zabaleta (4.8) were drafted into a defence that looked makeshift and played like it.
The other change involved Nolito (8.9). He came in for the injured Kevin De Bruyne (10.7) and was bright throughout, scoring City’s third equaliser from a Sergio Aguero (13.0) rebound.
The Spaniard is suspended for Sunday’ trip to Spurs, however, so the onus will once again be on David Silva (8.7) and Raheem Sterling (8.6) to provide the attacking threat from midfield.
Both excelled at Celtic, Silva releasing the Englishman to score City’s second, but Sterling looked particularly dangerous throughout and could be the logical next move for FPL managers wanting to offload De Bruyne.
Fernandinho (5.5) was the other City scorer, his second goal of the season coming when he latched on to a mis-hit Kolarov shot.
Stones made it on to the pitch with 27 minutes to go. It would be a major surprise if he’s not on from the start at Tottenham.
Despite losing his perfect record as City’s manager, Guardiola was pleased with City’s resilience, if concerned about their occasional habit of starting slowly.
“It’s okay, it’s one point, we didn’t lose. It will maybe be a good lesson for our future how important it is to start well. But talking about the performance, the guys how they fight, it doesn’t matter the mistakes, they tried until the end to win the game.”
City XI: Bravo, Zabaleta, Otamendi, Kolarov, Clichy (Stones 73), Fernandinho, Sterling, Gundogan, Silva, Nolito (Fernando 76), Aguero.
Subs not used: Caballero, Sagna, Navas, Sane, Iheanacho.
