By Walter Broeckx
Arsenal starting with : Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Xhaka, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Lacazette
On the beach: Macey, Holding. Chambers, Kolasinac, Elneny, Iwobi, Welbeck
A good start from Arsenal with Özil almost finding Lacazette. And hardly a minute later Özil picks out Mkhitaryan but he shoots wide. Özil with a one to with Ramsey and the latter scores but the flag goes up for an offside in the build up. Arsenal and Özil in full flow so far. But minutes later again Arsenal with a good attack. The ball goes to Bellerin who picks out Ramsey and this time the goal is given. GOAL! 1-0 to The Arsenal after 9 minutes. What a start.
Moscow then with some attacking play and their number 7 looks very quick. Mustafi with a bad clearance, Xhaka with another bad clearance and then Koscielny goes in too wild and concedes a free kick just outside the penalty area. Golovin behind the ball and he finishes the ball in the top corner. Unstoppable. 1-1 after 15 minutes. All because of some bad defending.
Moscow now having the upperhand and Musa is clear but he shoots wide. He really is a handful. After some 5 dodgy minutes Arsenal step it up again. Özil goes past a defender in the penalty area and then the defender goes in from behind, he doesn’t touch the ball but brings Özil down and after some hesitation and talking to the 5th ref behind the goal the ref gives the penalty. Lacazette behind the ball and the keeper goes the wrong way. GOAL!! 2-1 to The Arsenal after 21 minutes.
Both teams playing very open now and we have to keep an eye on Mussa but with some combined efforts from our defenders we can shut him out. At the other end…. well…well….well… what can you say about that. Özil with a sublime chipped pass to Ramsey who lifts the ball with the outside of his foot over the keeper who came out and was sublime lobbed. GOAL!!! 3-1 to the Arsenal after 28 minutes.
Wernbloom goes in the book for Moscow and Arsenal continue to play some sublime football. Özil, who else… on the left flank he finds Lacazette who controls with his right foot and finishes with a low shot with his left foot. GOAL!!!! 4-1 to The Arsenal after 35 minutes. Wow, wow and wow.
Musa on the left flank escapes but lucky Dzagoev misses the chance for Moscow. Stay awake at the back! Xhaka then with a great cross to Özil but the German maestro can’t keep the ball down and it goes over the crossbar. 4-1 to The Arsenal after 45 minutes. What a half.
Arsenal continue their attacking play and Özil finds Mhkitaryan but his control lets him down a bit and he misses the shot under pressure from the defender. Musa goes in the book. Monreal with a low cross finds Ramsey who thinks he scored his hattrick but the ball bounces off the leg of a defender and goes out for a corner. Mkhitaryan has a shot from outside the penalty area but the keeper can’t keep hold of the ball and Ramsey shoots the chance over. Xhaka then with a strong challenge and he also gets a yellow card. And Shennikov also goes in the book a minute later. A strong challenge on Mkhitaryan who needs treatment and has to go off minutes later. Iwobi comes on after 61 minutes.
A few minutes of adjusting to the new situation and Moscow score but the player was already in an offside position when the shot was given that was saved by Cech and then fell to Dzagoev. Keep awake please! Özil gives a great ball to Iwobi who should have had a shot himself but he picks out Lacazette who misses from a tight angle. What a miss. The Moscow keeper also gets a yellow card. Don’t know for what to be honest. The TV cameras are too busy showing things I’m not interested in.
Özil with a low shot but Akinfeev saves it and then Ramsey is offside. After 73 minutes Wilshere and Lacazette come off and Elneny and Welbeck enter the field. And a minute later Iwobi gives the ball to Ramsey whose shot had beaten the keeper but it bounces of the goalpost and goes to safety for Moscow. It looks as if Lacazette and Ramsey don’t want to score a hattrick today?
Bellerin with a strong challenge that wouldn’t be given in the PL and he even goes in the book. Excellent refereeing this evening by the way. A cross from the right finds Welbeck but his effort is straight at the keeper. We should have scored more goals today. But we had to keep an eye on that Mussa fellow from Moscow who looked dangerous but had no end product. Ramsey again with a chance but this time he shoots wide with his left foot. Both teams going for another goal but some tired legs now.
3 minutes of added time but no more changes in the scoreline. Arsenal win 4-1 and goes to Moscow with a good advantage. But still don’t sell the skin of the bear until you killed it is a Dutch expression. But we sure had a great 45 minutes but forgot to completely kill Moscow in the second half to make the return match completely a non event.
The Moscow keeper got a card for. Kicking a spare ball into row Z of the stand rather than being a god boy and handing it back to one of the ballboys!
Good game, both teams could easily have scored more goals but overall I’m happy with four one. Should make next weeks second leg comparatively safe.
A great first 45 minutes, Ozil and Ramsey completely dominated CSKA. Shaky defence but we got away with their poor finishing. Wenger should know by now that if you need goals don’t play Iwobi and Welbeck. Wilshere probably had his worst game of the season, gave the ball away umpteen times and produced one good pass at the end of the game and his lack of pace is worrying. He was as bad as Ozil was brilliant. Ramsey was excellent, a great attacking midfielder who knows how to finish. Get the defence right and we might have a great team next season.
From the post-game interviews, OOOOOOOOOOOSspina is out 2-3 weeks with a sprained ankle from training yesterday. Mkhy has a knee problem, not sure how bad. Will miss Sunday at the least.
Thanks for the report Walter, and for the info Andrew.
There were times in the game, especially in the first half , when , because of the pace and directness of our play that I was reminded of Arsenal past.
It is moments like these that one’s faith in our team gladdens the heart. And in the beautiful and delightful form that the game should really be played.
I like to think that each and everyone played well and contributed to the overall performance . But they had their chances too ,and we did make some mistakes.
Their fans cheered them on even when the game was way out of their reach .
Thanks Andrew. Was watching on a (legal) stream from my TV company as my wife wanted to see something else on our TV. Decent HD stream but had turned the sound off to avoid the stupid commentators. The images didn’t show the yellow card itself it only came on top of the screen.
The difference between the PL and European football is that in most European matches you get a more open play as both teams are more used to play in an attacking way than in a park the bus way. Combine this with better refereeing in general and you get to see excellent matches most of the time. Both teams looking to score more goals during the whole 90 minutes. Football as it should be played. I must say I enjoyed it a lot and credit must be given to CSKA Moscow. They could have scored a few goals but then again we should have scored at least 2 or 3 more goals in the second half. We have a good advantage but still we must stay focussed in the return match next week.
Excellent report, Walter. Yes, I was impressed with the level of refereeing as well. Kralovec is not on the World Cup list but he did a great job, especially given that he had to manage this end-to-end stuff.
Özil (especially Özil), lethal Ramsey (insert your Ramsey-killed-someone-again joke here), Xhaka and Lacazette were brilliant. I have criticized Xhaka a lot but he was superb again. He made a few delightful Özil-esque passes last night and hopefully he’ll get only better. Lacazette seems to be a better player than Aubameyang who, in return, is a better goalscorer (Bergkamp v Henry comparison might be far-fetched so let’s leave it there).
We could have easily won the game with, say, 8-3 and it wouldn’t be undeserved result. Our defending was poor which is, maybe, understandable given how many attacking players we had on the pitch.
OT
Did anyone notice that West Ham has still not been charged by the FA for their fans’ behaviour nearly a month ago?
Plenty of noise in the Clock End yesterday. Many appreciative chants for Ozil. I agree with your comments about CSKA’s style of play, Walter. It certainly made for a more entertaining game. Maybe that’s why there were a lot more people there than when we played Stoke!
So much to comment on the match last night but just gat a message from the Arsenal app –
GOAL! -Lacazette scores! (22 pen) Arsenal 5-1 CSKA Moscow.
Technology with its quirks!!
The foul by Kos that gave them the goal didn’t look like a foul from behind the goal but seeing it on TV it was clear & poor from a quality player. The defence seems to be unsure of positioning and their jobs. There were too many errors & chances given to an unfortunate attack. Musa was better than Hector all night but just didn’t have the teammate to support him.
We were also unfortunate in attack or perhaps just not ruthless in front of goal. The passing into the net does not work sometimes. It needs a blast rather than the softly directed placement. It’s back to kicking technique Mr. Wenger.
I was very near the Moscow fans. There weren’t enough of them to fill the space, probably because it is a fair old distance to come, maybe also because given the recent Russophobic hysteria in this country they did not expect to be welcomed.
They caused no trouble that I could see. They chanted and sang a bit. At the end some of them took off their shirts and waved them at the players. They clapped their team off the pitch. They received the customary abuse from certain British Arsenal fans. Churlish to say the least since we were winning.