Arsenal had to work hard for their win in Czechia on Wednesday night.
The Gunners, who breezed into a first-half lead, survived a late Slavia Prague rally to see out a 2-1 victory.
From Viktor Gyokeres‘ (£7.0m) two attacking returns to an Ezri Konsa (£4.8m) injury concern, here are our latest Scout Notes from the midweek UEFA Champions League games.
GOALS/ASSISTS
| Result | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|
| Slavia Prague 1-2 Arsenal | Madueke, Gyokeres | Gyokeres, Merino |
SELECTION/ROTATION
| Team | No. of starting XI changes made from GW9 | Players who kept their places (mins played) | Mins for other players |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | 6 | Raya (90), Gabriel (90), Rice (90), Madueke (90), Konsa (62) | Hincapie (90), Zubimendi (90), Merino (90), White (78), Gyokeres (78), Eze (62), Mosquera (28), Tzolis (28), Timber (12), Odegaard (12), Dowman (1) |
ARSENAL SCOUT NOTES
- It’s not been a great two days for Konsa owners. First came the news that positional rival William Saliba (£5.9m) was fit again, and now this: a 62nd-minute withdrawal. Initially, it seemed to be a welcome development; perhaps Mikel Arteta was preserving him for Saturday’s visit of Hull City. Konsa was also on a booking. However, the former Aston Villa centre-back was feeling his knee in the first half in Prague, and his manager suggested there were “some issues” in his post-match presser. If we’re trying to cling on to some optimism, Arteta did cite the workload initially when asked about Konsa’s withdrawal.
“He’s playing a lot. He’s played so many games in the last few weeks, and he had some issues, and we decided to take him off.” – Mikel Arteta on Ezri Konsa
- It was Cristhian Mosquera (£5.1m), and not Saliba, who came on for Konsa. Was Saliba not quite fit enough, maybe, despite Arteta’s Tuesday assertion that he was “available to play”? Or was he perhaps being preserved for Saturday…?
- Elsewhere, there was a welcome complete rest for Riccardo Calafiori (£5.9m). Surely, you’d think, he starts in Gameweek 10 now. Kai Havertz (£7.4m) also remained unused, while Jurrien Timber (£6.5m), Martin Odegaard (£6.7m) and Christos Tzolis (£6.1m) only contributed second-half cameos.
- Someone who didn’t get the expected breather was Declan Rice (£7.4m). Not only did he start, but he completed 90 minutes. Given that Bruno Guimaraes (£6.7m) and Myles Lewis-Skelly (£5.3m) were left warming the bench, could Rice get his rest this weekend instead? The visitors’ skipper appeared fatigued towards the end of his full-game run-out.
“The game required it, and he did it. He was as well rested against Fleetwood. So, he had a very good week to recover [before Liverpool]. It was the second [consecutive game] that he played, not the fifth one, so we expect our players to be able to do that. I think he had some very good moments throughout the game.” – Mikel Arteta on whether Declan Rice playing the full 90 minutes was the plan
- As for the match itself, the proverbial game of two halves – as the below graphic shows:
- Arsenal were utterly dominant in the first half, going two goals up and having plenty more chances besides. Gyokeres set Noni Madueke (£6.2m) away for the opener, before the impressive Swede curled in a goal of his own. Mikel Merino (£5.7m) spurned a couple of very decent opportunities in between, and the Gunners finished the first half 8-1 up on shots and 1.28-0.11 ahead on xG. Complete control.
“I thought he was really good. It was a game that we believed would be really good for him, for the demands that the opponent puts in, for the spaces that he could use. He’s done it really well, not only for the assist and the goal, but he was really connected to the team. Great news because I think he needed that performance.” – Mikel Arteta on Viktor Gyokeres
- However, the pattern of the game changed almost instantly after half-time, with Slavia having a shot within 22 seconds. David Raya (£6.2m) had to make four second-half saves, including a superb stop to tip a header onto the post, while Gabriel Magalhaes (£8.0m) cleared another effort off the line. The hosts got a deserved consolation late on, setting up a tense finish. After posing negligible threat before the break, Slavia ended up ahead of the Gunners for shots (18-12) and xG (2.22-1.83):
- An uncharacteristically shaky second-half performance from the Gunners, then, but the reality is that Arteta did rotate his squad here, with the likes of Mosquera, Merino, Martin Zubimendi (£5.2m) and Piero Hincapie (£5.2m) on the field in place of the regulars. Indeed, the Arsenal boss cited the disruption his line-up changes may have caused after full-time.
“Two very different halves. The first one, 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 scored two goals; it should have been three, four or five.
“We didn’t make that gap, and at half-time, the message was clear: there is still a lot to do in the game. This is a [Slavia] team that has huge spirit, huge conviction, and if you give them something, they will grab it. Right from the beginning [of the half], we were extremely far from our standards in everything that we had to do: in every basic, in every concept, and in everything we discussed to avoid the game that we played in the second half.
“Very far from the standards that we expect from each other, but we found a way to, at the end, hold onto the result and win the game.” – Mikel Arteta
“We made six changes, which is a lot in a line-up, but we know the quality of the players that we have. Whether it was lacking something, I don’t know, but I would have done the same thing because those guys deserve to play.” – Mikel Arteta
