Arsenal made it 10 straight wins across all competitions – keeping a clean sheet in each of the last eight. Slavia Praha became their latest victim.
The Gunners have won 10 in a row for the first time since August – October 2018 and eight straight without conceding for the first time ever. They haven’t all been pretty, but it’s hard to point to one and say it wasn’t deserved.
This win over Slavia Praha in the Champions League followed the trend. Mikel Arteta didn’t have Viktor Gyokeres, Martin Odegaard and Martin Zubimendi at his disposal. Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus were all out as well.
Christian Norgaard, Ethan Nwaneri and especially Mikel Merino stepped up and gave Arsenal another safe win. However, that’s not to say there wasn’t an interesting challenge for them at first.
How did Arsenal beat Slavia Praha?
Bothered but never threatened
Arsenal are what they are – and have been for quite some time. They played their game and there was nothing really new about it.
So let’s shift the focus to Slavia Praha for a second instead. The Czech side presented a different challenge for the Gunners in the first 15-20 minutes. Manager Jindrich Trpisovski leaned heavily on his team’s height and overall size to try and ‘bully’ the opposition.
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Lots of long balls for 6 ft 2” right-winger Lukas Provod and 6 ft 7” striker Tomas Chory to get on the end of, bring teammates into the play and finish it quickly. Even if they didn’t win the battle in the air, subsequent throw-ins and corners were also part of the strategy.
The idea was to catch Arsenal off-guard, since Slavia Praha didn’t have enough individual quality to develop long passing sequences and patiently break their defensive line down. They did manage to bother Arsenal and start the game on the front foot, but had only four attempts (from awkward positions) and 0.20 xG to show for it. And it was like that for the rest of the night as well.
With that, we revert back to Arsenal with what may be the best compliment of their defensive strength. Even during their opponent’s best-case scenario, the Gunners weren’t comfortable but at the same time were in no true danger of conceding. If you’re Mikel Arteta, you have to be happy with that.
| Match stats | Slavia Praha | Arsenal |
|---|---|---|
| Possession | 43% | 57% |
| Shots (on target) | 9 (1) | 14 (8) |
| Big chances | 0 | 3 |
| Expected goals | 0.46 xG | 1.78 xG |
Corners yet again – though not as usual
Rival fans will love to make fun of it, but we may have reached a point in which you have to expect it will happen at least once a game. Arsenal’s set pieces might be a sustainable source of attack and goals.
Tonight it wasn’t directly, but they did score from a corner (more like after/because of one). They may have been lucky to get the penalty called for a Lukas Provod handball, seeing as the ball touched his head first. Bukayo Saka converted it brilliantly.
And even if that shouldn’t have unlocked the game, the Gunners were already much better than the Czech side at that point. It felt like an opener was a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’.
And they basically sealed the deal 30 seconds into the second half. Merino walked his way into the six-yard box unbothered and made it 2-0 completely unmarked right in front of goal. A terrible mistake from goalkeeper Jakub Markovic allowed the Spanish midfielder-turned-striker to grab a brace in the 68th minute.
Best-case scenario for the Gunners
All things considered, it’s hard to imagine Mikel Arteta wanting more from his team than what he got. Seven unavailable players – including three or four starters, depending on who you ask, an away win with a clean sheet with what felt like 75% effort.
He also managed to rest a few important players, rotate the squad and let some youngsters get game time.
This means that Arsenal will only have Sunderland left to face before going into the international break, when they will try to get players back on full fitness and ready to contribute. Then, towards the end of the month, a tough three-game run against Tottenham, Bayern Munich and Chelsea.
Things look good at the Emirates right now and they haven’t even had all of their main players available at the same time.