They're ending this game very strong. If they do get a result tonight, I don't think anyone can complain. They have played well overall.
OMG how have we not scored?! Odegaard had two bites of the cherry. The first is an unreal save from the goalkeeper and the second, the CB blocks it on the line. That's unreal ffs.
Raya makes an excellent save from Chiquinho. We're dropping so deep and giving them space in between the lines.
That was not a handball from Gyokeres - the linesman didn't even give that. This doesn't excuse the mediocre display, but this ref has been awful tonight. Genuinely awful.
2-0. Saka secures the win in injury time. Good pass and move between him and Odegaard. The goalkeeper should save it really, but not our problem. At least we've scored.
Good result. Should have scored more, Gyokeres is trying too hard, Trossard should never start for us. Zubimendi & Odegaard had a good game. We can win this Comp.
FT. 2-0. A good (and important) win in the end, but we were made to work harder for that than we should have. Even though I was frustrated with our profligacy in front of goal, I did think Olympiacos were good defensively and also showed some real threat when they had the ball. Raya made a few important saves tonight to prevent them getting back into the match. They're probably a better side than I gave them credit for. They won a lot of second balls, wrestled possession off of us well, showed a lot of endeavour and pace when attacking us, and whipped in some beautiful crosses. I did think they were allowed to get away with a bit too much and the ref wasn't consistent at all. But hey hp. Happy for Saka to get on the scoresheet after his recent injury lay-off. Thought Lewis-Skelly had a good game. Zubimendi was hit and miss. MotM for me was Odegaard. Thought he ran the game and all our good play came through him. It was a shame he didn't get a goal tonight because it would have capped off a real captain's performance. On a separate note, it's a shame Gyokeres didn't get on the scoresheet today. That's 5 games without a goal now. And whilst I know it's not all his fault, as we're not exactly creating lots of opportunities for him (apart from today where I think he should have scored), I hope it doesn't affect his confidence.
Points is all that matters. We scored 2 having missed a host of chances. Not a great performance but not really an issue. That's basically qualification done - not we can focus on getting top 8.
Gyokeres had a pretty decent first half - not so much in the second half. He needs to do better with his finishing , though. Pants tonight.
Well, last year 3 wins and 2 draws from 8 games was enough. To qualify, we pretty much only need 2 wins from 6 games left.
I get you, and we're in a strong position for sure, but until it's mathematically done, I won't be comfortable. Atletico Madrid (H) and Slavia Prague (A) next. Won't be easy, but if we can get maximum points from that, we're definitely good to go.
Slavia Praha should be a win. and we also play Kairat at home and Brugge away - win 2 of those 3 and we're through - even if we lost at home to Atleti and Bayern and lost away to Inter. So not mathematically done, but I think its pretty safe to say we're going through. Top 8 will be harder though.
I thought we played well overall. Odegaard was outstanding, Gyokeres was very good and so too was Raya. How we didn't score 5 goals is a total mystery, but credit to Olympiacos, they had teeth, every time they attacked they looked a threat and Raya of course made that outstanding save !! Trossard missed 3 good chances to score himself and put in a couple of **** crosses that should have led to goals had they been better. Martinelli missed that early chance when the ball hit his shoulder and both he and Gyokeres were guilty of properly messing up 2 vs 1 counter attacks. Arteta got it spot on today, he can't be claimed for our **** finishing/decision making. Overalls it was a positive performance because it showed a few things, Odegaard needs to be free to roam and not be shackled to the right hand side, Odegaard showed positive play - always looking to move the ball forward rather than looking for the cheap and easy sideways pass. When Rice came on he looked to play progressive passes through the lines. The defence are all looking to get the ball forward quicker, we saw long balls from Gabriel and Saliba and a few switches of play which we hardly did the previous season. We are on an upward trend with our gameplay, its very positive.
We have four top quality players out injured (Madueke, Havertz, Jesus, Hincapie), we bench half our normal starting stars and yet we still put out an XI that start and I'm comfortable at all times thinking we're simply going to win. And we do. We have come SO far in the last few years to be in this position of strength AND depth. We're simply better than so many other teams in every single position on the pitch.
Yeah excited to have Havertz back in the squad soon. Gives us soo much attacking depth. The fact Mosquera, White and Lewis Skelly ar'nt even first choice defenders is crazy. (we've not even seen Hincape)
When you can only have 20 in a PL match-day squad, Arteta has some tough decisions soon when everyone is fit given we have 24 true first team squad players. Four of those below will rotate to not even make the squad in the prem. In reality, I can't see the asterisked players ever not being the match-day squad. Arteta will always have them around. So actually those four absentees are always going to come from that other group of seven players. We're almost at the stage now that we need to have injuries to avoid getting annoyed players... I feel like i'm on football manager where i've bought slightly too many players and they all start complaining to me in private meetings that i'm not playing them and they ruin my team morale. Raya* Kepa* MLS* Calafiori* Hincapie Gabriel* Mosquera* Saliba* Timber* White Norgaard Zubimendi* Rice* Merino Eze* Odegaard* Saka* Martinelli* Trossard Nwaneri Dowman Madueke* Havertz* Gyokeres*
