Match Report: FC Twente 0-2 Arsenal
|Arsenal went into tonight’s vital Champions League qualifier against Steve McClaren’s new side, FC Twente, with a multitude of players injured.
FC Twente bossed the first half with some slick passing but Arsenal gritted their teeth and ground out an ugly 2-0 victory to go into the second leg with a very comfortable lead.
FC Twente Starting XI
Boschker
Wilkshire – Wielaert – Douglas – Braafhied
Brama – Tiote – Janssen
Denneboom – Arnautovic – Elia
Arsenal Starting XI
Almunia
Sagna – Djourou – Gallas – Clichy
Eboue – Ramsey – Denilson – Walcott
Van Persie – Adebayor
First Half
Adebayor and Van Persie got the vital game under way as FC Twente raced out the blocks to put the Gunners under early pressure. The side more many of the early 50-50s and an early attack saw an FC Twente header go safely wide. The home fans were in good voice as FC Twente started to look more and more comfortable on the ball, provoking some inpatient fouls from the likes of Gallas.
Arsenal were finding it hard to muster up an attack, but a good through ball to Van Persie saw Arsenal steal a corner, only for the resultant ball to hit Walcott’s arm. FC Twente had a dangerous break denied confidently by Djourou as Arsenal still searched for much more possession. Djourou displayed why he is a defender when a promising run came to absolutely nothing following a below-par pass as Arsenal struggled to find a foothold in the game. Hearts where in mouths after Van Persie carelessly gave the ball away in midfield and Elia had to be denied by an alert Almunia.
Clichy suffered a rare lapse of concentration as he allowed Denneboom to cut through into the area, but fortunately for the Frenchman, the shot was blasted over the bar. The lack of Fabregas was frustratingly evident as the Gunners found it challenging to string together any effective passing moves. Ramsey attempted an abition long-range drive, but the 17-year old could only watch as it sailed over and wide.
Poor Arsenal defending saw Arnautovic clean through on goal, but the striker who hasn’t scored in 18 games stumbled and allowed Almunia to come out and block to the rushed shot. Arsenal raced back down the park looking to counter and Van Persie snuck in a dangerous cross, appearing to get injured in the process. A very worrying sight. Clichy fancied his chances from outside the area and his well-struck shot nearly bore fruit from the rebound, however a hasty Sagna snatched at the ball and shanked the shot wide.
FC Twente continued to boss the game from the midfield as the referee blew for half-time, to the relief of Arsenal, as a goal just before half-time would have been a hammer blow to the Gunners.
Second Half
Arsenal started the second half by belatedly stringing together a promising move which ended in Van Persie’s stinging strike being shut out by the Twente defence. Arsenal appeared energised after the break but were still being rushed on the ball leading to yet more sloppy passing from the midfield. The Gunners lacked any sense of urgency as Twente were relentlessly bearing down upon the likes of Denilson, luckily Braafheid could only muster up one of the worst shots that these eyes have ever seen.
Twente were beginning to make some careless errors at the back but Eboue’s touch was poor when he was handed an easy break and possession was lost, again. A free kick was won a few feet inside the opposition half and Van Persie floated in a high ball, Twente’s defence failed to react whatsoever and Gallas bundled the ball in the back of the net with the least amount of style possible.
Goal – William Gallas (63 mins)
Van Persie was booked for an thoughtless push on Wielaert, the striker was clearly venting some of his frustration, albeit needlessly. Arsenal were looking to add to Twente’s misery with another away goal achieving a higher percentage of possession, but the cutting edge in the final third was still missing. The Gunners were starting to sit back and focus on defending their narrow 1-0 lead as McClaren’s side appeared to be running out of ideas.
Arsenal’s defence fell asleep again, as a through ball found its way through to the ineffective Arnautovic whose only option was a left-footed poke that hit the side netting. Still Arsenal strived for the second goal and a visionary long ball from back met Walcott’s run on the left who pulled it back simply for Adebayor. The Togo front man kept his cool and calmly slotted the ball past the sprawling Boschker. Every Arsenal fans’ favourite link up.
Goal – Emmanuel Adebayor (82 mins)
The second goal gave Arsenal a much higher comfort level as the team notably relaxed, passing the ball around with ease, something they had made hard work of in the first-half. Randall was brought on for Walcott as the game slowed down considerably with Twente effectively giving up.
A poor first half from the Gunners, but the players dug deep and pulled out a crucial 2-0 victory.
Player Ratings
Almunia: 7 – Very sharp, and had to be due to some sloppy defending from the back four. Did very well to prevent Twente’s one-on-one chance.
Sagna: 6 – Not as prominent as he usually is and could have put the team up 1-0 had he not be so hasty.
Djourou: 6 – Some edgy moments but coped well with the call up and make some solid tackles
Gallas: 6.5 – Offside trap was beaten far too easily but redeemed himself with the vital first goal.
Clichy: 5 – Completely out of sorts tonight. Let Twente players by him far too easily and was careless in possession
Eboue: 5.5 – Quiet throughout the match and failed to make much of an impression on the game.
Ramsey: 6 – Another quiet night from a member of the below-par midfield. However looked tidy in possession.
Denilson: 6.5 – Looked threatening at times, but again, not as dominant as he should have been.
Walcott: 6.5 – Was blocked out the came physically by Twente but showed kept going and supplied Adebayor with a good ball to slot home.
Van Persie: 6 – Let down by the midfield and couldn’t have done much more. Had his shot not been blocked it may have been goal bound.
Adebayor: 6.5 – Had to be patient due to the lack of supply from the midfield but was rewarded with his goal in the dying minutes.
Substitutes:
Randall: N/A – Only on for 5 minutes.
Bendtner: N/A – Only on for 5 minutes.
Man of the Match: Almunia – Looked the sharpest player on the pitch and kept the players’ heads up by preventing some dangerous moments that came from Twente’s attack.
That was a very dull game. We won, that's all that matters. That was possibly the best experience Ramsey could have got, he played alright. So glad we won this by quite a big margin, now it's time for them to come to The Emirates. We will rip them to pieces.
who says we cant win ugly !!
Told you we would win 2-0 Chris 😛
Done alright the Midfield. I was worried before but we managed. Good defensively too. I thought we'd win because we had the players going forward to win the game like Ade and Van Persie. Walcott isn't good on the left. But all in all considering all the players we were missing it was a good night. Also how important is Adebayor gonna be for us this season. Delighted he stayed cause he look like he's gonna have another great season.
hahaha John!
Interesting match, Denilson played very well, Ramsey showed glimpses of his well-known talent and Walcott set-up a goal late on – good result as well!
only saw the last 25 mins and the last goal..
what a pass from clichy .. fckin genius ;D
Forget this score, let's all laugh at the true awfulness of Liverpool (my friend whos a Liverpool supporter was saying how we'd be screwed without a midfield lol, bet he's eating his new Keane shirt right now)
Yep, I agree that he will have another great season. Glad to see that RvP got nearly a whole game under his belt. Bring on the transfers i say!
Thanks for the writye up – boring game but it's the result that counts ! I'm nervous about Saturday – will the midfield hold up ? Poor Twente – what will the umbrellafella do to their style of play. Those poor Dutchies haven't got a clue what's coming.
With all the doom and gloom going into this is a good result, let's hope we get a little bit of good fortune from here on in,
Oh my goodness this was a poor match if I ever saw one.
It felt like watching the Sevilla game in the sense that the central defenders and goalkeeper were our best players, the rest was just.. not good at all. Adebayor was good too, boy did he run, but Eboue was so mind-boggingly terrible. It was a great result in the end though, and, like someone already said in the comment section, who said we can't win ugly?
Now we can't buy alonso or cana both played UCL…..
Forgot Liverpool were playing!
What was the final score?
can someone tell me how did ramsey and djourou perform
to be fair we did play crap for most periods of the game but it just goes to show quality always wins just like arsene said that even though u r young if u have the quality you will b all right anyone else think that
Another thing. Tonight just showed that we need a new midfielder quick. Ramsey and Denilson are good players who are gonna get better and good back ups. They're good enough against teams like West Brom but against the other teams in the top 4 I'm not so sure. I still hope Wenger brings 2 players but I'd say it'll only be the one.
Player ratings will be up soon nishanth, so hopefully you'll get an idea from there!
You have to hand it too McClaren – fu*king useless manager but he manages to wangle himself into these (very well paid) posts without any merit or success. He's a genius. Already he is changing his accent and metamorphosizing into a Dutchman.
liverpool have drawn their match.Really lucky to come out of it with a draw
thanks for the quick match report. much appreciated
Reina saved a penalty apparently, very lucky indeed.
Good Result But I Must say they kinda Outplayed us with some slik Football In The First Have and Good thing is they didn't Take their Chances , But im Glad we won doesn't matter if it was ugly or not , Im sure with our injured Players Im sure we won't be Boring Boring Arsenal 🙂
Thanks For the Post Mate 🙂
Djourou – MOTM. Was great – esp. coming forward out of defence
I agree that Denilson had a good game again -really hope that he show's his true potential this season however we need an experienced tough tackling spoiler alongside FAB4.
* First Half Not have ,Sorry about That lol
When you compare this result to that of l'pool's nil nil draw, one wonders why all the doom and gloom
i thought denilson was good.walcott was completely anonymoous except for his assist.eboue was rubbish.good result but not a very inspiring performance. djourou did alright. rvp seems far from his best
Adebayor and van persie paring doesn't work Ramsey was poor i forgot wallcot
was on the filed much better from Eboue but still lacks with that final ball
Amazing meteorite showers over the SE of England tonight. Apparently happens every 10 years or so !! Tried to take photos but it doesn't do it justice.
Djourou reminded me of Campbell running the ball out of defence (and taking it one player too far and losing possession)
cant undr y wenger believe that we have defence balance with eboue as attacking midfilder LOL
we need at least 3 signings but wenger says we need 1 BALL SHIT
What does ball shit mean? Isn't it bull?
Clichy's lapses of concentration don't seem to be very rare, he had at least two, the one you mentioned and the one where he passed a sloppy ball to the striker deep in our own half.
Bendtner had a chance to score with his first touch.
I was dissapointed that sometimes we had the ball at the edge of the area and chose not to shoot, ending in us losing the ball (Djourou in the first half and Eboue in the second).
Djourou played well in defence but apart from Denilson our midfield was very poor (especially in the first half), although eventually Theo did good work defending and Eboue wasn't too bad. Hopefully Ramsey can learn from this game.
Van Persie was disappointing and Adebayor wasn't great either (though in the second minute he was given offside when he was on, where would we be now if he had scored that and given onside?).
James, I thought we weren't going to win tonight? BALL SHIT
We need a midfielder and possibly a centre back, we don't need to go out and buy players for no reason as Wenger's reiterated several times.
yeh midfield wasn't very good tonight but with so little experience it's not really a shock. they did okay. van persie didnt have one of his better games but at least he played full game which is always a good thing. lets just hope nasri and co are back against west brom cos we will need them to get a good result
JAMES FUCK OFF PLEASE
Look A Good Half Our Team Is Missing And We Still Managed To Pick A Good Result And Inler Is Gonna Sign In A Couple Of Days
If I Was I Liverpool Fan I Would Be Concerned Fernando Torres And Robbie Keane ANd Yet You Cant Find The Back Of The Net LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
I Suggest Dont Buy Barry Save Embarrestment
I expected more from van Persie tonight because I thought he'd be the source of most of our creative game as he'd have to drop into midfield to help the youngsters but he created very little (although he got the assist for the first goal but his set piece taking was pretty poor tonight).
I hate to say it but we missed Hleb tonight because if we were playing a better striker (N'Kufo even) they might've taken their chances and we didn't have much creativity in terms of going forward which Hleb provides. Still, Cesc, Nasri and Rosicky should provide that when they return.
Good result but boring match..
Did anybody hear what merson had to say on sky sports news after the game?
I have to agree with everything he's saying, its a both honest & realistic view about afc.
im really looking forward to seeing nasri playing more. From what ive read and seen on youtube videos(even though they can make many bad players look amazing) he looks a very skillful direct player. Really cant wait
Read my match report on my website: http://arsenalcolumn.wordpress.com/
Includes stats and ratings and analysis of performance. Recommended reading! Seriously
Player Ratings up 🙂
my ratings are coming, bizzatch.
Or you could stay here at Gooner Talk and read our Report and Player Ratings. 😉
haha, good job mate!
I always get suspicious when people end their sentence “seriously”
ahassan100 – we like the amateurness and superficial qualty of Gooner Talk – it adds character !!
What did they say mate? i wasn't watching it on sky. hope nothing too bad about Afc?!! 🙂
I jest of course
STEVEN you are such a prick and joey boy or Todd tosser what ever Ur name is i told u to be in bed at nine u know its way past Ur bed time Chris for you to say we don't need any more players well Ur just a stupid wanker that don't know any thing about football that's the thing i probably know more about football
then u 3 drag queens put together
The two most consistent players last season were poor
tonight.
It's not often Clichy or Sagna have bad games, the were both below par tonight.
James, not only can you not spell or use correct punctuation, you fail to read what I said properly as well!
I said we only need a central midfielder and a defender, I DID NOT say that we shouldn't get any more players in.
As for your petty “wanker” insult, I recommend you grow up, or get some sleep.
Thanks 🙂
OI MUG, go back to school and learn how to spell and use full stops and commas.
He was just saying what sort of players we need & why we will come short at the end of the season if we cant add in the areas we need to
Your rating of Denilson is poor. He was shocking tonight and both he and Ramsey were extremely soft in midfield and provided nothing of service to Ad or RVP. At best, Denilson was a 4.5 and though Ramsey wasnt much better he improved in the second half. Denilson was extremely soft and should have allowed a goal when he let one of their big fuckers waltz through in the first half.
To me, RVP had a very subpar match. He dribbled much too much and fell down and almost injured himself four times.
Ad looked pretty good even though he had limited opportunities and service. He held possession several times and provided some nice service for runners who never seemed to make it (see Eboue and Denilson)
Quite right to say Alumnia was man of the match. He was very solid except for coming out late in the first half on the half chance involving Sagna.
– ARSENE please sign another midfielder. Also, maybe substitute prior to the 80th minute and how about Vela vs. worthless Randall.
– On a final note, I have to say that although Willie is a child at times he does play with heart and emotion – cannot fault the lad with that; we need some of that in our side from time to time.
TODD the tosser just go to bed mate, and just keep dreaming of that season ticket
Ricky , I'll Have to agree..
CHRIS did u manage to have Ur tea and supper before the game. LOL
This is our first competitive match and also with two central midfielders who are under the age of 20 so good job in the end. I do have to say, I remember about 4 yrs ago we played Chelsea with Flamini and Fabregas because Vieria, Gilberto and Edu were unavailable and the did an amazing job and we drew 2-2, not sure if these two have the same understanding but as I said it was first game of the season and also we had the mighty Henry then!
When do the summer holidays finish for you boy?
Back to school! :O
James I Guessing U Dont Like Being Proven Wrong Wenger Aint Gonna Buy All The Players That You Think We Need Wenger Said He Is Buying One More Player Thats It And Think That Player Is INLER AnyWay I Know You Wanted ZIDANE AND BECKHAM In Are So Squad Try Supporting Chelsea They Perform Transfer Miracles
YES INDEED CHRIS
Sorry James, I can't but help having such a wide range of vocabulary that you fail to posess.
STEVEN we need a winger a centre back and a DM. u
ass hole i don't even like Beckham as a footballer u idiot and who wouldn't want ZIdane Ive never seen a better player than Zidane In my opinion Steven u listen to wenger to much any one that knows about football would disagree with the way arsene wenger is handling the club at the moment and if u don't then u don't know any thing about football and that goes for any other arsenal fan that disagrees with me.
CHRIS go to bed you nerd
the guy needs to stop signing youngster's
Come visit me at the East Stand Upper and we'll have a nice chat..
Thanks for all the comments guys, greatly appreciated.
So you go on blogs, try to start arguments, then have the cheek to call the creator of the blog a nerd? Go see your boyfriend maybe he'll cheer you up.
Belated congratulations for the win Chris, and other Gooner Talk readers!
Cheers Meraj, owe it to you mate!
James, thanks for the comments, keep em' coming!
great win
JAMES YOU GAY CUNT WHERES UR MUMMY I KNOW FUCKING HER BOYFREIND DID SHE TELL SHE WAS GOING OUT LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
YOU RETARDED CHILD
A rather poor game, but nevertheless found the needed results. 2 away goals with a makeshift team! what more can you ask for?
However, had Twente's players been sharper, it could have been a large deficit. Flow of the game look similar to the one against Sevilla. Wenger cannot depend on this line up in the long term.
Chris, your blog's make-over is magnificent. Keep up your fantastic work bro!
It takes a lot to do this. I'll come here more often
Chris, your blog's make-over is magnificent. Keep up your fantastic efforts.
It takes a lot to do this. I'll come here more often.