AC Milan 0-2 Arsenal – Europa League R/16 – San Siro/Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, Milan
Wow. We WON A GAME…..
Facetiousness aside, it’s good to win.
And despite the doom and gloom in our midst, we played pretty well overall.
There is one negative for me. In that it shows how well we can play, when we wish to.
However, it’s good that we have two away goals, and bar a calamity at home, we are at least favourites to proceed into the quarter-finals.
In the first-half, we bossed it overall. We bossed it over the game, in both halves.
Milan started well, and looked lively, but then we managed to get back into the game well.
This culminated in Mkhi getting his first goal for us, as a great ball over the top reached him, and he curled a shot from the left-hand side into the net. It took a deflection off Bonucci, though it was a warranted lead.
1st Gunners goal
Ozil had a chance, as did Welbeck. But then Ramsey added another, from an excellent through ball from Mesut. He rounded the goalkeeper, and slotted in with great style.
The second half was pretty dominant from us, as Milan looked to get balls over the top, but our defence and GK were very resolute.
Welbeck and Mkhitarian had more chances to score, though we were able to contain them, and saw the game out.
And we kept a clean sheet too, which is pleasing given our usual defence-less play.
The Ostersunds second leg should give us some caution, as we nearly threw it away, and with a bigger lead than now. But then should we be as contained at home, it looks like a quarter-final appearance this year. It’s a shame we couldn’t do it for years in the Champions League, but should we beat Milan very soon, it could happen.
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Impressions/player ratings
We looked more resolute than usual, and against a good and improving Milan team.
We showed that an English team can defeat an Italian side. Our good “friends” should watch and learn, naturally…..
It’s always good to win. However, it must be said as it’s a near elephant in the room. Why can we play like this now, and abominably vs. Swansea, Bournemouth, City (twice), the lilywhite scummers, and Ostersunds (H)? I don’t mean to cloud this with negativity, but then this performance begs this immediate question.
Nonetheless, we looked like we had a resolute discipline. And in a way, it mirrored that of the League Cup semis vs. Chelsea.
If we can play like this more often, we’d have far less issues.
Milan overall were poor, but then I think we made them poor to a large extent. It was in summation a pretty professional performance, and against an improving Milan side.
In this battle of the fallen giants, we have the first strike.
The defence/GK was very good. Ospina’s cross handling is always not the best, but overall he did very well in shot-stopping. Mustafi, Chambers, Kolasinac, and Koscielny were all strong too.
Ospina 7, Mustafi 7, Chambers 7, Kolasinac 7
Ramsey had a great game, as did Xhaka. Wilshere too looked good, though Ozil/Mkhi were both creative and contributed in defence.
Ramsey 9, Xhaka 7, Wilshere 7, Ozil 7, Mkhi 8.
Welbeck, as usual, lived up to his billing – “a lot of hard work, but not much finishing ability”. 6/10
And, no, that’s not meant disparagingly. I like Welbeck a lot, though at 27 it’s clear he may never be a top scorer, despite holding many other positive attributes to his game. This may make some balk, or laugh, but if he could finish he could be as good as Kane, PEA, Aguero, or Salah. He gets into positions, but lacks end-product.
MOTM
Man of the match
Ramsey
After some bad injuries of late, he scored a wondrous goal to help us be in pole position in the tie.
MarbleHallsTV is an Arsenal social media account on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Been a Gooner since the 90s, inspired by Ian Wright, then Bergkamp, Vieira, Henry, Pires, Campbell, Rosicky, Koscielny, Ozil and Sanchez. A digital marketer/entrpreneur by profession, born in UK living in the Americas now.
I`ve read recently that Ramsey may be on the way out and I want to emphasise that we have to keep him. On his day, he can hold his own against any team and he is a reliable scorer and constant danger when our forwards are not scoring. Had it not been for his injuries, he could have been the top midfielder in Europe. Thank the Stoke City philosophy of how to play football for that.
Altogether a great performance and one which was owed to the fans. I thought that Chambers put in a very solid performance and it pleased me to see that he has not lost his confidence. He and Holding have suffered very badly from the erratic selection policy from Wenger. Mustafi was disciplined and focused so that he cut out the crazy mistakes he has been guilty of lately.
We must focus and concentrate on the next games we have in the Europa League as a last chance to rescue our season.
Ramsey has been hot and cold in his career, but I wouldn’t want him to leave us.
It’s about time we won another European trophy though.