Arsenal maintained their unbeaten Champions League start with a 1-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk at the Emirates Stadium this evening.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta, though, would ponder why his team couldn’t score more from all their possession in the first half. However, winning is the most crucial aspect in the early stages of the competition, and they have achieved that.
A goalless stalemate at Europa League holders Atalanta has since been followed up by a pair of home wins over Paris Saint-Germain and the Ukrainian champions.
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The hosts broke through after Gabriel Martinelli cut in from the left and his low drive hit the post before ricocheting over the line via Shakhtar Donetsk goalkeeper Dmytro Riznyk, meaning Arsenal have now benefitted from six own goals in the Champions League, but this was the first since Marco Verratti with PSG in November 2016.
However, the scoreline didn’t tell the whole story, as the Gunners were on top, registering 13 shots to Shakhtar’s three, but they finished the contest with a 1.97 xG (five efforts were on target, one hitting the woodwork and Leandro Trossard had a penalty saved), meaning their wasteful finishing let them down.
Trossard’s misstep from 12 yards — when VAR intervened after Valeriy Bondar handled substitute Mikel Merino’s cross in the area with 14 minutes to go — means the Gunners have missed four of their last eight penalties in the Champions League, having scored 11 of their previous 12 from the spot beforehand.
Riznyk became the third player to both score an own goal and save a penalty in a UEFA Champions League match, the first since Benfica’s Mile Svilar in October 2017 against Manchester United.
Clean sheet intact ✅
Another sensational Raya stop for the books 📚 pic.twitter.com/TyUuv9uN9n
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) October 22, 2024
Shakhtar will leave North London the happier side and could have taken something back home if not for the brilliance of David Raya again. As they pushed for an equaliser, the Spanish shot-stopper denied Pedrinho with a fine one-handed diving save in the second minute of stoppage time before Marlon Gomes fluffed his lines with an unmarked header from only a few yards out to allow Arsenal to see out the win.
On a positive note, Raya’s heroics mean that Arsenal have kept a clean sheet in all three of their games in the Champions League this season, which the club last managed to do in September-November 2007 under Arsène Wenger (4).
It also proved to be Arsenal’s first 1-0 victory in a Champions League group stage match in 29 such matches since a win against Borussia Dortmund in November 2013, while they last won 1-0 thanks to an own goal in a European match against PSV in September 2004.
There’s also more historical significance, given Arsenal last tasted a home loss in the group/league stage of the Champions League in September 2015 (2-3 v Olympiakos), winning nine of the ten such games since then (D1). Indeed, the Gunners have kept a clean sheet in all nine victories in that run.