By Walter Broeckx
Lots of youngsters starting and on the beach today.
Starting line up: Cech, Lichtsteiner, Jenkinson, Holding, Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Elneny, Willock, Ramsey, Smith Rowe, Nketiah.
On the beach: Martinez, Osei-Tutu, Medley, Gilmour, Saka, Mkhitaryan, John-Jules
A free kick for a non existing foul against Maitland Niles in the opening minutes gifts Vorksla a first attempt on goal but the ball went well over. A corner results in a shot that Cech has to stop in two times. A first shot from Willock from outside the penalty area but not really dangerous. Ramsey and Nketiah combine on the right flank and Nketiah wiggles himself past a few defenders and then a defender tries to play the ball of his feet but he passes the ball to Smith Rowe who makes no mistake and finishes the attack. GOAL! 0-1 to The Arsenal after 12 minutes.
A free kick for Arsenal but Ramsey shoots well over. Arsenal having the ball most of the time but not really creating a lot for the moment. Maitland Niles making a decent run but the ball goes to far off his feet and the keeper can smother the danger. Smith Rowe plays the ball to Ramsey who goes past a defender who clips his legs and the ref points to the pot. Ramsey to take and he scores. GOAL!! 0-2 to The Arsenal after 27 minutes.
Skiliar from Vorskla gets a yellow card for a strong challenge on Maitland Niles. Jenkinson with a good defensive header before Vorskla could become dangerous. Another booking against Vorskla for Sharpar who stopped Willock in his attack. Willock the forcing the keeper to a good stop with a shot that would have gone in at the near post. Vorskla then with a slightly better period but they use a bit too much their arms when trying to win the ball back. Smith Rowe with a bad touch almost letting a Vorskla player in after a free kick but the ball went to Cech. Elneny wins the ball high up the field and gives it to Willock who is in some space. Willock runs towards the penalty area, cuts the ball to his right foot and from just outside the penalty area curls the ball out of reach of the goalkeeper against the net. GOAL!!! 0-3 to The Arsenal after 41 minutes.
Arsenal playing some lovely football at times. Arsenal then being a bit careless when playing out the ball and giving Vorskla a shooting chance but the ball goes some 10 meters wide of the post. Arsenal lead 0-3 after 45 minutes after an amazing display from the youngsters.
Arsenal with some lovely football on the left handside but only winning a corner that is put wide by Holding. Nketiah with a lovely move but he can’t find Ramsey with his cross who was given offside. Not a minute later Willock to Nketiah but the keeper saves his shot for a corner. Holding gets a yellow card for using his arm when he tries to win a header in the Vorskla penalty area. He will not play in the next match in the Europa League as a result. After 59 minutes Holding comes off and Medley comes on to make his debut. I think the change is to avoid a second yellow card for Holding. Arsenal still lead 0-3 after 60 minutes.
A cross from Lichtsteiner goes past everyone and much to his surprise Smith Rowe can put the ball over the line but the the assistant gives an offside against Nketiah who didn’t really came close to the ball. Oh well. Medley showing great skill and composure when playing out form behind. After 68 minutes Ramsey comes off and Saka comes on to make his debut. Vorskla with a chance suddenly but Cech with a good stop. Arsenal attack and the keeper has to punch a shot from Smith Rowe from under his crossbar. Kolomoets gets a yellow card for a hard challenge on Maitland Niles. Sake with some nice movements on the left flank but the keeper can save his shot…just. Cech has to come a long way out after a long ball from Vorskla after an Arsenal corner and isn’t too happy about that. Arsenal still lead 0-3 after 75 minutes.
Guendouzi comes off after 76 minutes and Gilmour also makes his first team debut. Arsenal losing their cohesion a bit with this very young team out on the field. Vorskla gets a chance but the shot is blocked by Jenkinson. Vorskla putting Arsenal under pressure now. Nketiah with some nice footwork and his low cross is cleaered by a defender against the head of Willock and the ball goes wide. Willock felt the hard shot on his face in the cold weather in Kiev and needs treatment but he can carry on.
Arsenal with a great counter in the last minute of normal time and Sake gives the ball to Willock but the keeper with a great stop. 4 minutes of extra time is signalled. Nketiah turns his man but his left footed shot goes wide. Vorskla with a quick reaction but the shot goes just wide.
Arsenal win 0-3 and is now also certain of being top of the group. An amazing display from the youngsters who played in a great and mature way. I think all the players have to be congratulated for their effort and hard work.
How to go Smith Rowe! Good work Ramsay!
Eight minutes of nothing on UEFA.com, and then Ramsey gets taken down in the box? For sure Mike Dean will not give us a penalty on the weekend now. Nice conversion Aaron!
Eddie, your turn. 🙂
COYG!
The Vorks are playing a good passing game but are rather aggressive for their own good without the ball. The ref has been very soft with them but has booked a couple to slow the aggression a bit.
Arsenal passing a little poor but on occassion a few well strung passes break the Vorks down.
Ramsey getting involved when he should let the kids play their game. I suppose it’s his opportunity to showcase his talents.
A lovely 3rd goal for Arsenal by Willock.
Arsenal would never send a bunch of kids to play Vorskla, would they? I don’t think Vorskla has studied all the youngsters Arsenal has.
Now Willock scores! Assist to Elneny I believe. (Smith Rowe was assisted by Nketiah?)
Lots of empty seats.
COYG!
Half time stats from UEFA
Shots on target 1:5
_off target 4:3
Corners 2:4
Offsides 1:1
Possession 41:59
Passes 186:281
_Completed 150:253
Balls recovered 15:15
Blocks 0:1
Fouls 8:6
Yellow 2:0
COYG!
UEFA has a quote up from former women’s Gunner Karen Carney on Willock’s goal. And she doesn’t bash Arsenal, she credits Willock with good skill.
COYG!
You can see why Arsenal are prepared to let Aaron Ramsey go ERS , I said this a few months ago .
Gord
That’s true enough but she still reckons it wasn’t a foul on Ramsey for the penalty. Apparently he was ‘already going down’.
Utter crap. I concede once he was fouled he made sure he went down, which never looks great, but it was a foul without a doubt.
If you want to see someone who was ‘already going down’ take a look at Liverpools penalty last night.
I didn’t hear a single question over that one (if there was my apologies).
At the end of the day neither really affected there respective games but it’s just typical of how ex Arsenal pundit and ex Liverpool pundits comment on their own respective teams.
Anyway now I’ve got that off my chest, what a great display from the lads.
Really good from back to front. Smith Rowe and Willock deserved their goals. Shame Nketiah didn’t score as he deserved a goal.
And I must mention the young centre half Medley who came on near the end, what a cool classy looking playing.
What could of been a tricky game made to look easy.
Well done BOYS.
COYG
A thoroughly professional performance tonight from the whole team. I thought it helped that there were enough youngsters who have been used to playing with each other for several years as they have come through the academy teams.
Zech Medley came to us two years ago as a reject from Chelsea – their loss our gain! He struggled a bit at first but has really blossomed this last year becoming a mainstay at U23 level this year. He is 6ft 4in tall so would be the tallest we have.
I gather Jenkinson was the other centreback. How did he look playing there?
As near as I could find, Zech Medley is 1.95m tall. Cech is 1.96m (according to Wikipedia. For someone young, that data could easily be wrong (out of date).
UEFA said briefly that Smith Rowe had scored a second goal, so thanks for clearing that up Walter.
Nitram, UEFA only presented part of Carney’s quote then.
6 teenagers on the pitch to end the game. 18 games unbeaten. How to go Gunners!
Andrew
He just looked so calm. Is that his normal demeanour ?
Gord
She was ok over all, it’s just it gets on my goat when ‘our own’ are always so willing to see it against us.
Funny how Liverpool’s mob didn’t see there player ‘go down early’ last night, that’s all.
On a night like this shouldn’t bother me but it does, sorry.
I have not been able to find attendance figures.
The average age of the starting line-up was 24 years and 322 days, what was the finishing average age?
Zech Medley for Rob Holding
1995/09/20 – 2000/07/09
Bukayo Saka for Aaron Ramsey
1990/09/26 – 2001/09/05
Charlie Gilmour for Matteo Guendouzi
1999/04/14 – 1999/02/11
I get average age at end is about 23 years, 189 days. I just did this sloppy, so I could be wrong by a month or so.
There doesn’t seem to be any record close to this, in 2017 there were teams significantly younger in Champions League (but that is average of 22 players).
Lovely victory for our young players. Top of the group is good too.
Be interesting to meet the spuds in that competition.
Arsenal.com in their # things we noticed, mentioned the attendance was about 5000.
Supposedly, there were 800 Arsenal supporters.
Vorskla is pissed. They seldom get the opportunity for a big team like Arsenal to visit, and to have the game moved was a big disappointment.
Apparently should the game have been played in Vorskla, it would have been an unofficial holiday, and the stands would have been packed with home supporters.
Under the circumstances, to play a game with 5000 spectators in a 70,000 stadium is very much like playing behind closed doors. And Vorskla didn’t deserve that. Not the fault of anyone in football (to me), but the fault of some trigger happy Russian sailors who generated an International Incident at an inconvenient time.
I don’t think Vorskla was expecting the starting lineup/bench that Arsenal came with. Does a better home crowd make up for not having the right game plan for playing Arsenal?
The Sun has a wonderful article about how Tony Penis orchestrated the breaking of Aaron Ramsey’s leg.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/7862037/arsenal-ramsey-leg-break-stoke-wenger-pulis-dave-kitson/
Tony Penis and Ryan Shawcross should be banned from football for life, just like Hackett wants for the 3 players who recently beat a referee.
For me, Tony Penis and Ryan Shawcross need to spend time in jail.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevemccaskill/2018/11/29/arsenal-and-forest-green-rovers-lead-way-in-english-soccers-sustainability-revolution/#7f48ae4181d0
WOO HOO , HOO ! Well the lads . And to keep the unbeaten streak going. Hope this continues on till the end of the season !
Up the Gunners !
i do think that pulis was ultimately responsible for the way he decide he would play the game. shawcross was just a victim of his mentality
I would put the blame on the billionaire president of the Ukraine. He is facing serious unrest at home because living conditions have become so bad. Imposing martial law stops all demonstrations and other forms of protest. He is coming up for re-election and this will give him a better chance of winning. He is allowing his country to be used as a tool by the EU and NATO in their aggressive policy towards Russia – a policy which is a serious danger to world peace. It is important to remember also the role of the USA in ousting the previous elected president of the Ukraine and installing a regime which includes outright fascists.
Thanks for the Dave Kitson article Gord. I’m so glad Kitson has come out and said that.
Gord
“For me, Tony Penis and Ryan Shawcross need to spend time in jail.”
I agree.
And even if it’s not jail time at least severe punishment within the football World, but I tend to agree with you as this is surely ‘criminal’.
It’s at least a pre meditated plan to injure a fellow professional.
Absolutely disgraceful.