More Arsenal Statements With Bayern Win – Suburban Gooners

Maybe I went too early this week with my “winning declaration” statement?

No. I’m happy with what I said. I’m happy with what this Arsenal team is doing at the moment and if you’re someone who questioned the idea of ​​Tottenham being a decisive win given how shocking they were, I bet you’re not questioning that this morning, are you?

It was such an impressive win and I think it was such a fascinating game to experience because it had so many subplots worth talking about.

Battle of the Teenagers

Myles Lewis-Skelly got his first start in a while, as did Christina Mosquera, but there was another teenager who outdid him last night, namely that little Bayern playmaker, Karl, who I thought had a pretty good first half, it must be said. Bayern’s goal was well worked and Kimmich’s ball was followed by an equally impressive cross from Gnabry, only for Karl to smash past us.

Myles was guilty of looking at the ball a bit, I think, on that one, but for the night in general he had a very tough night, as Gnabry and Olise both beat him on several occasions. Hey, he’s still young, he’s probably a little rusty, plus you’re playing one of the in-form teams in Europe that hasn’t lost a game in Bayern Munich. I think we can let him go. But Karl certainly won the match between the two, I thought.

A tale of two divisions

At half time I went for my usual pint in the concourse and chatted to a few guys and the talk was about second balls. We didn’t win many of our games and Bayern seemed to benefit a lot from those loose balls due to their intense pressure.

I asked why and one of the men reminded me that although we had the intensity of a North London derby (yes, The Scum from the Lane was crap, but the atmosphere, the game itself and everything around it is intense), Bayern secured a 6-2 victory over Freiburg. This is a German league that doesn’t have the same levels of physicality, intensity and hype as the Premier League every week. The Premier League is relentless in every game and it’s accelerating for an NLD. I don’t think the same can be said for Bayern against Freiburg.

So that might explain why in that first half I thought we looked a little bit leggy and I thought Bayern had probably taken the lead overall.

Wood is up to par again

Ben White is fantastic. We all love him. But Jurrien Timber got over him. He’s overlapping now, he’s winning aerial duels, he’s not usually beaten for pace, and what’s more, as he showed last night, he’s also an aerial threat. I loved his header, although why Bayern left him unmarked seems a bit strange to me. A case of “he’s just a little guy, focus on the center halves” perhaps?

Either way, we don’t care because it kicked the ball (into the net) on what would become a great night of football for Arsenal. I also appreciated Manuel Neuer’s complaints about Timber’s little bump as he passed him from back to front. Then when you watch the replays you see that Neuer was just bad on goal and went off into no man’s land. And it wasn’t the last time that evening.

Second half speeds

While we looked so leggy in the first half yesterday, I was wondering what we would do in the second half as the legs started to get even more tired, but what I took to be a bit of fatigue from the Arsenal players, turned out to be just our boys taking out Bayern in the first half because our second half was Arsenal stepping up a gear to just put their foot down on this game.

From the first minutes of the second half, you could tell we were going to be better. We had the ball a little more, we were behind Bayern on the flanks and players like Declan Rice were just starting to purr. There was a moment where the ball was passed to him left and sideways and with a touch to the outside of the boot, it slipped past the Bayern right-back. It put them out of position and we created a chance with that effort. But it happened all night and when we finally took the lead in the second half thanks to Madueke and his first Arsenal goal, no one could deny that it wasn’t fully deserved.

Impact from the bench

This second goal was scored from the bench. A lovely ball to put Calafiori behind the full-back, was met by the Italian, with a superbly whipped ball, Madueke arriving in front of his man to do the trick and slot it home. Great job and you could tell how much it meant to him as he shouted to the sky right in front of us in block five.

Good job my son.

But this ability to sign high-quality players and have them make a tangible impact was not to stop there, as a superb ball behind Eze’s back was met by Martinelli, whose touch once again took him beyond Neuer stranded in no-man’s land, for the Brazilian to tap into an empty net.

He is used to scoring these kinds of goals when the match is tense and I think it is no coincidence that he is flourishing in the Champions League. The teams come to face us in this competition and as a result, especially later in the matches when they attack a little more if they are behind, spaces become free. We saw it against Real Madrid last season as an example. Which player can you hire to test tired legs, eh?

It was such an impressive evening. I feel like I could go on and on, but just like Arteta and his charges, it’s now done and we have to watch the very tough away game against Chelsea on Sunday to see if we can complete a hat-trick of wins in just over a week, which could have a huge impact on our season.

Back tomorrow as preparations begin for this huge match.