On the Whistle: Sevilla 1-2 Arsenal - “Divine intervention from Jesus”

Hello, guys. There are some very noisy, very happy Arsenal fans in that corner behind me. Quite touching, actually, when the full-time whistle blew, and once they'd done celebrating that and lording the players who came over to greet them, they were just singing the song for Jose Antonio Reyes. Much missed, of course, and a lot of memories of him this week with this fixture, a poignant fixture between two of his former clubs. Listen, a very valuable 2-1 win for Arsenal, in the context of the group, really important, and one of Arsenal's better results away from home in Europe under Mikel Arteta. It was a game decided by two moments of quality from Gabriel Jesus. Listen, at the Champions League level, you're looking for those star moments from your star players. He provided two of those today, first with a brilliant turn on the halfway line and playing in Gabriel Martinelli, who finished well, and then just the other side of half-time, a sensational goal just down in this corner in front of me here, cutting in from the left and bending it into the far corner. Before the game, I was thinking, is this going to be a big battle between Sergio Ramos and Gabriel Jesus? Well, there was only one winner there tonight, and actually, Jesus spent a lot of time pulling on to the other centre-half, maybe staying away from Ramos and some of the physicality he might encounter one-on-one against him. I thought it was a masterful performance from him. At one point, he had the armband when Odegaard was substituted, and rightly so. He led by example tonight, Gabriel Jesus, and I'm sure a lot of the analysis and a lot of the praise will be heaped upon him. There were other players who were integral tonight. I thought Declan Rice was outstanding. Down in the sort of left-back area of the pitch at times in that final 20 minutes, his one-on-one defending was superb. There was one driving run through the midfield that, you have to say, was Vieira-esque. The power in him is astonishing. The leadership, his dominance of the pitch for 90 minutes end-to-end is something else. Arsenal have signed a top player there, the kind of player where you don't care what you paid for him. He's just that good and has made such an instant impact. I thought Tomi Asu was very good at left-back, William Saliba at centre-half. Jorginho, I thought, had a solid game in the midfield. These players really trust Jorginho. They really listen to him. Clearly, he's a leader in the group and he was needed today with Thomas Partey absent. The club say he picked up a thigh injury in training. So, whenever you hear that, actually, they said muscular injury, so we'll see what it is. But whenever you hear that in relation to Thomas Partey, it's always a bit concerning. But we are fortunate. We're in a position now where we can withstand his absence. We've got players like Jorginho. We've got players like Rice. And that's a big step up on where we were not too long ago. Sevilla did come back into it and I think Miquel Arteta would have been frustrated to see us concede from a set-piece just five minutes after we went 2-0 ahead. It made that Nervy End period what it was, really. A little bit tense, a little bit anxious. But I actually was really happy that Sevilla didn't play through us to any extent. I don't think they created a great deal. The closest they got to scoring was, from what I could see, it looked like David Raya punched the ball over his own bar. But when we set up in our 4-4-2 defensive shape, Sevilla really struggled to play through us. And credit to the team for working hard. Substitutes came on. Players like Eddy Enquetia and Leandro Trossard helped us retain the defensive shape. I'm just smirking because a guy's just walked past me in the Sevilla end. Sensibly a Sevilla fan. He's just undone his jacket, opened it and shown me an Arsenal crest underneath. Fair play to the guy. He was amongst the home fans today. He'll be very delighted that he got a ticket and that he was here for this. The away fans are still going over there. They're being kept behind a little bit. That's the way of the European Tour. They were in fine voice tonight. But the Sevilla fans were in fine voice too. As a player, you want to hear that Champions League anthem, right? It's what you're waiting to hear. Well, tonight you couldn't hear it. The Sevilla fans were that loud. It was a very hostile atmosphere. A club who have been a bit re-energised. New manager, decent draw against Real Madrid at the weekend. This was a tough game and I have to admit, I wasn't confident about Arsenal's chances here. Which makes it all the more impressive that they got the win. Jesus, absolutely critical. Huge contribution. Pleased for Martin Ali to get his goal. He went through early on and didn't score in that situation. His shot was saved by the goalkeeper one on one. This time he took no chances. Waited that little bit longer. Waited for the keeper to go down and slotted it into the empty net. It's interesting. Sometimes you score goals you don't expect. Arsenal set up with a really high press today. They had four or five players in the Sevilla third at all times. Really looking to capitalise on their attempts to play it out from the back. Their goalie looked a bit shaky in that respect. And Arsenal went aggressive, went high. And then lo and behold, you score on the counter-attack. You know, Arsenal may intend to play a possession-based, high-pressing game. But football doesn't always work out like that. Look at Stamford Bridge. The equaliser comes from a long ball from the goalkeeper, Takai Havertz. And today they score with a pure counter-attack. But you've got to have those weapons in your Arsenal, if you'll pardon the pun. You've got to be able to be a bit of a Swiss army knife. That was a guy moving me on, but he saw my accreditation. Let me keep talking. But I'm going to stop talking soon anyway. I think I've said everything you need to hear. I'm going to go and talk to Mikel Arteta now. See if I can get him to wax lyrical about Gabriel Jesus' performance. All right, guys. Take care. Speak to you all soon. They're still going. Huge credit to the away fans who made the trip out here. It's a lovely place, Sevilla, but I know there were some hairy journeys for people. Anyway, they're going to have a good night tonight. Hope you're having a good night wherever you are. Speak soon, guys. Bye-bye.