Armed with hindsight at kickoff, many a Gooner would have settled for a share of the spoils with Borussia Dortmund but the Germans, well renowned for their efficiency, proved to be real spoilers on Arsene Wenger’s 64th birthday; a night which would be remembered for the little pops and fine margins. Or forgotten altogether by Arsenal fans.
Arsenal came into the 3rd round of their champions league group fixtures riding on a crest of imperious form with an enveloping air of invincibility around the team – having not lost an actual* football match since Bayern Munich came around to the Emirates. (We should all agree the A.Villa match was a fluke by now). But like the Bavarians before them, BvB left London with 3 points although the win was just about the only similarity in this match with that.
Most notably, while the gulf in class between Arsenal and Bayern Munich in February was so wide that it appeared all the petrol-dollars in the world stacked together couldn’t bring us on par with a top European side, last night Arsenal gave as good, if not better, than Dortmund did. Arsenal’s new lease of life, since whenever it was found was obvious from the start, we were knocking the ball around like actual Premier League leaders and looked unfazed by the size of the giant before us…until our confidence cup ran over: Aaron Ramsey who hadn’t put a foot wrong all season attempted to dribble his way out from the edge of the box before getting dispossessed by Lewandowski who side-footed it to Mkhitariyan before the Armenian slotted it past Scezceny. Dortmund were a goal up, having not really deserved it but ahead nonetheless and one could easily fault Ramsey’s complacency for not choosing the easier option of passing the ball to a ‘free’ teammate or just blame it on fatigue as he looked like he needed some rest.
The goal seemed to add an extra spring to Arsenal’s foot as they grabbed the match by the scruff and put Dortmund on the back-foot, though BvB remained a threat on the counter but Mikel Arteta was doing a good job of mopping the midfield area off any spilt ball while effectively working as a glue himself. Not long after a brilliant left foot shot from Rosicky was stopped millimeters away from the goal line, Aaron Ramsey released Sagna on the right and his resulting cross caused a mix-up between Weidenfeller and Hummels with the ball falling kindly to Giroud few yards away from goal – he made sure he registered a top contender for ‘the volley that came closest to ripping the net into shreds’, if ever there’d be any award like than on Sky.
Like a friend noted on Twitter, losing possession to concede the goal and feeding Sagna down the right for the cross exemplifies the Old and the New Ramsey; dare I say, good riddance to old Ramsey?
Second half and the impetus was again on our side, we were launching waves upon waves of attack (even as/like the rain poured) and it looked like a matter of little time before we break Dortmund’s back-line open again. More so, with Santi Cazola’s effort coming just inches off the cross bar just moments after coming off for Jack Wilshere – who I feared might have picked a knock.
As you well know by now, sadly so, Dortmund got the equaliser off a counter-attack; with both of our full-backs having sauntered forward, Grosskreutz cross was fired in from close range by Lewandowski to restore Dortmund’s lead in the match with full-time approaching. It looked like the kind of goal that we’ve scored so often this season when we invite and soak up pressure just to hit our opponents in their blind side. Arsene Wenger threw Bendtner and Gnabry on but neither got a touch as our opponents close the match.
Post-match reactions have seen the obligatory vile knee-jerk comments but even in the midst of the unwarranted negativity, I can’t help but wonder if we were a bit immature in the way we played; the gung-ho style of going all out against arguably the best counter-attacking side in Europe and passing the ball around carelessly in our half of the pitch against a high-pressing side which resulted in both goals is highly regrettable. Our lack of width to stretch their back-line also made our attack fizzle out too often, too soon especially as neither of Gibbs and Sagna, despite being good defenders, could deliver dangerous crosses to trouble the Dortmund goal.
But as with matches at this level and against such opposition, there are no rooms for much error. Our knack for conceding cheap goals ultimately proved costly today and with three teams (Napoli, BvB and Dortmund) all standing on 6 points in our group, we can hope this would serve as wake-up call to keep the boys on their toes.
Not to take anything away from our performance and from Arsene Wenger who looked just about 63 years old, then again, we’d surely have preferred 3 points with the wine bottles. I say we should take the party to Selhurst Park.
’til next time, be a fan…and a supporter.
Campus Gooner 