Arsenal 1 – 0 Roma – Match report
Arsenal won 1 – 0 against Roma at the Emirates last night, in an interesting first leg game in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Van Persie celebrates his goal
Here’s how the Gunners lined up at the start :
Almunia
Sagna,Toure, Gallas, Clichy
Eboue, Denilson, Diaby, Nasri
Van Persie, Bendtner.
Arsenal started the game very well and at a fast pace, zipping passes around the Emirates pitch.
Beast's got wind
Wenger had clearly decided to pack the midfield, and in an interesting experiment, Bendtner was spending much of his time wide on the left while Nasri played more through the middle and just behind Van Persie. This certainly seemed to have its desired effect of shaking up the Italians as Arsenal took command of the game from early on.
Nasri got free down the right on the 6th minute, and pulled a good pass back to Bendtner in acres of space in the box. Bendtner showed the first touch of an elephant though, and missed his chance to shoot as the ball rolled lamely away from him.
Arsenal were really on top of the game in the first half. Nasri and Diaby, who was returning from injury, were commanding through the middle of the park, while Eboue and Sagna were running amok down the right against Riise, who was frequently stranded.
One thing you couldn’t call Italian teams is sportsmanlike (diving, fouling, match fixing, bribery, Berlusconi – pick any!) and Roma showed plenty of this in the first half, putting in plenty of fouls as Arsenal ran rings around them.
It was this side of Roma’s game that lead to Arsenal’s goal. Mexes, who had already received a yellow card, bringing down Van Persie in the penalty area. Somehow Mexes was not given a second yellow card, but Van Persie stepped up to the penalty spot and drove a powerful shot into the bottom corner.
Van Persie took his penalty well
In an incredibly bizarre start to the second half, the referee started the game before Gallas and Toure had even come out of the tunnel. Toure was booked for belatedly running straight on the pitch, but I have more questions about this incident than answers. Why did the ref start the game without 22 players on the pitch? What was going on with Toure and Gallas; were they having another lovers tiff in the dressing room? Very strange indeed and a scrappy start to the half for Arsenal.
Arsenal didn’t seam to let the messy start to the half sit on their minds for too long though, and Arsenal were soon dominating again, attacking Roma with impressive pace and power, in particular Diaby and Eboue striding forward from midfield.
Bendtner had a chance to make amends for his earlier lack of finishing, but blasted a shot over the bar, after some neat Arsenal passing and a pass from Van Persie. Another missed chance as Eboue picked up on a defensive mistake, turned on to his right and shot wide from close range. He really should have scored.
Diaby had a good shot well saved by the keeper, turning on the edge of the box to hit a low left foot shot, which the keeper was stretched to get fingertips to.
Diaby was forced off by injury though, to be replaced by Song, and Arsenal almost immediately were missing the attacking edge that Diaby had provided.
Eboue battled well
Ramsey came on for Eboue late in the game, Eboue was given a good reception by an Emirates crowd in much better cheer than late.
Roma had a couple of long range efforts but really it wasn’t much of a contest for large periods of the game. You will remember however that Roma showed a similar performance away to Chelsea in the group stages, and performed much better back in Rome.
The main worry for Arsenal fans after a match that saw Arsenal put in a much better performance than recently and created a lot of good chances to score, was that Arsenal will travel to Rome with just that 1 goal lead, when it could have been much more and the tie should have been out of Roma’s reach. Still the main thing is that Arsenal did not concede, and there were much better performances all over the pitch.
There are still players to return for Arsenal, and tonight’s performance highlighted what a key player Diaby is in the absence of Fabregas in midfield. When he was forced off injured, Arsenal were showing the same lack of ideas going forward that we are all so familiar with, Song only seems to ever look for a sideways pass.
Still a win is a win and it was a good performance. I’m sorry if recent events have made me pessimistic, but I hope Arsenal do not rue all those missed chances.
Tags: champions league, roma, van persie, win
