Marseille 0 – Arsenal 1: The View is Nice from the Top of the Group
By: Homey | October 19th, 2011
Finally, a late goal goes in our favor, we keep a quality opponent from scoring, and we secure a huge win in the Champions League. Aaron Ramsey, who only came on in the 78th minute, coolly fired home in stoppage time after a nice cross from Djourou was deflected by Gervinho, right onto Ramsey’s path. Although the match wasn’t always a beautiful thing to behold, we’re now sitting on top of our group with seven points, one ahead of Marseille. Perhaps more importantly, Dortmund lost today, leaving them at the bottom with just one point. All that means that after three matches, we’ve basically assured ourselves a spot in the knockout rounds. It’s hard to see it getting away from us at this point, although of course there’s work to do to win the group.
The first half saw us starting a bit slowly, without threatening the Marseille goal much at the start. Song picked up a yellow in the 4th minute, when he prevented what would have been a pretty good scoring opportunity. In the 9th minute, Walcott put in a good ball to RvP, but it was ruled offside, even though the header was wide anyway. Marseille threatened again in the 13th, and Jenkinson could have easily given away a penalty kick when a cross went off his hand. We were lucky to dodge that bullet. That no-call by the ref was cancelled out about seven minutes later, when Arteta’s corner was knocked away by the hand of Diawara in the box. The deflection went to RvP, whose header was cleared off the line. At the time I saw it, I thought Mert got his head to it, but the replays clearly showed what should have been a handball decision. In the late stages of the half, we were fortunate to avoid danger on a few occasions. In the 31st minute, Remy schooled Mert in the box, and then Jenkinson looked clumsy in trying to win the ball as well. But Wojo wasn’t really threatened in the end. Kos had to make a desperation tackle a few minutes later when our offside trap was beaten. And then finally, just before half, Santos could have been sent off for a clear handball. He was already carrying a yellow from a body check on Valbuena in the 16th, and he also had another late challenge for a foul as well. So we entered halftime fortunate to still have 11 men on the field, to be honest.
The second half didn’t really feature as much action as the first. As an example, we took eight corners in the first half, while they had one. In the second, I believe there was only one total corner taken, which was ours. In the 58th minute, Song eventually took a ball away from danger after it fell into a dangerous area and bounced around among Mert and Jenkinson, although with a couple of Marseille players. Jenkinson, who had a pretty good game up until his injury, went off for Djourou in the 62nd. Shortly thereafter, we had perhaps our best chance up to that point, when N’Koulou gifted Theo a chance to break in on goal, but his shot was kicked away by Mandanda. The next good chance I can recall was taken by Marseille, when Valbuena made Mert look like a statue, while creating a chance in the 82nd minute. However, that chance was cleared from danger, and it looked like not much would happen from there on out. Like many fans, I was starting to tell myself that 0-0 away from home is a good result, and it sets us up fairly well for the rest of the group stage.
But then Ramsey collected the deflection from Gervinho, took a few steps, and slotted it past Mandanda. I really enjoyed watching the camera shot of the Arsenal fans’ celebration after that goal. They were letting out the shout of relief that a lot of us felt after a disappointing start to the season.
While not all the news was positive, and we await the news on the Jenkinson injury, this will hopefully be a good shot in the arm for our league campaign. And with the return match with Marseille coming at home, I think we’re pretty well set up to hopefully win the group. That means that, unlike last season, we probably won’t be matched up with Barca, Real Madrid, or Inter in the first knockout round. So yeah, the stoppage time goal was good for us on a few different levels.
Full time stats:
Marseille … Arsenal
7(2) Shots (on Goal) 6(5)
14 Fouls 13
1 Corner Kicks 9
4 Offsides 4
45% Time of Possession 55%
3 Yellow Cards 3
0 Red Cards 0
4 Saves 2
Player ratings are a bit difficult to do for this one. The goal was created by the three players who came on as subs, and it’s hard to give players an adequate rating after limited action. And all of our defenders had shaky moments, but yet we didn’t allow any goals. Anyway, here’s my best crack at some ratings:
Wojo – 7.5. He didn’t have much to do, so I can’t rate him higher. But he also didn’t make any wrong moves either, and looked assured every time he was called into action.
Santos – 4.5. His first half was particularly poor, where he made several mistakes and could have easily collected two yellow cards. He just makes too many defensive mistakes, and doesn’t seem that smooth with the ball at his feet either. At least things got better in the second half.
Jenkinson – 6.5. Overall, a solid effort. There were a couple of times when he looked clumsy – when dealing with Remy in the first half, and the scrum in the box in the second half. Also, he could have easily conceded a penalty kick for handball in the first half, in which case his rating would be lower. But still, I like his work rate, and his crosses are usually good. Is it crazy that he seems to touch the ball twice as much as our so-called attacking midfielder, Arteta?
Koscielny – 7.5. He was our best defender by a long way on the day. There were a couple of shaky moments from him as well, but overall, he dealt with danger and had a few important clearances.
Mertesacker – 6. His clumsy moments started early on and continued from there. He obviously is going to have trouble dealing with small, agile players like Valbuena. But even still, he was completely undressed a couple of times and could have cost us a goal.
Song – 7.5. He didn’t have much of a start, picking up a yellow card in the 4th minute when he was beaten by Remy and forced to pick up a foul. He gradually got things going, helping out on both ends and breaking up attacks. I’m sure many fans were worried about a second yellow, since the first one came so early. But he never really came close to being sent off, so credit to him for that too.
Arteta – 5. Yawn. If it weren’t for the fact that he takes half the corners, would anyone notice him at all? I honestly didn’t know he was on the field most of the time. I don’t recall any horrible mistakes, but we also need to have our central midfielders creating more chances, and he didn’t do that today.
Rosicky – 6.5. I liked his work rate, as usual. He did quite a bit at both ends, and picked up a few Marseille fouls as well. But just like with Arteta, there was never any end product – either a decisive pass or shot on goal.
Arshavin – 5.5. He tried to link up with RvP a few times, and had a few moments. But still, he was never a real threat to the Marseille goal, and his final touch was a wasted cross that amounted to nothing.
Walcott – 5.5. A sequence in the 26th minute summarized his day. He put a long ball ahead to himself and raced onto it, but then he didn’t make much of the cross, despite earning a corner. In the second half, he didn’t do much that I can recall, and was rightly taken off for Gervinho in the 67th minute.
RvP – 6.5. It’s hard to give him a proper rating. I can’t blame him for wasted chances, and he did have a header cleared off the line at the 20 minute mark. A few times, he lacked the support to create chances. Overall, he didn’t really do anything wrong, and put in a nice effort. But it’s hard to give a center forward more than the rating I have, when he didn’t score or assist.
Subs:
Djourou – 7. He played out of position at RB after the Jenkinson injury. The yellow he picked up was wrongly given, in my humble opinion. He was average until the final cross that set up the goal.
Gervinho – 8. Man of the Match. He only played about a third of the match, but he looked lively from the time he went on the field. He didn’t really create any great attacks from all of it, but did finally deflect the Djourou cross to set up the winning shot from Ramsey. I guess that’s enough for MOTM on a day when it was hard to determine.
Ramsey – 8. The goal was well-taken, and will hopefully boost his confidence going forward. I’m not sure how to rate him other than that, since he was only on for a short period of time.
Well, that’s it for today. I need to post this quickly so I can move on to some other things that need to get done. We’ll be back later in the week with an update on various news items, injuries, and so forth.
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My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Proverbs 1:10.
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