Disappointing Second Half: Arsenal's Narrow Victory Over Shakhtar Donetsk

We made hard work of that, didn't we, Arsenal fans? As you can see above my head, Arsenal 1-1 now. I must admit I'm a bit conflicted, and depending on how you view Arsenal, how you cope with the results and stuff, I'm sure you guys are as well. On one hand, I'm happy we got three points, whilst that's seven points from a potential nine in the Champions League. Obviously, when you lose to Bournemouth, the best thing to kind of kick things in a positive motion is to win games, which we did. We did technically get a cliche and pick up David Raya on that, because as I said, we made it nervy. Now, a quick word on the opponents. I think Shakhtar gave a good account of themselves. I think they defended well. I think when we started to look better in an attacking sense in the first half, we were quite susceptible in the transitions. I don't think Ben Wyatt was bad or anything, but he was not struggling, but quote-unquote, for want of a better term, struggling against their Brazilian kind of players. I don't know if he's got an injury. I don't know if he only had 45 minutes. I don't know if it's the fact that he's only yellow, or it was a tactical change from Mikel Arteta in that regard. But it's a game where I think we were going through the motions, and it's one where, if I praise Mikel Arteta for his meticulous planning and how he's assembled the squad, evidently now, if Calafiri's injury is serious to go with Odegaard, Timba, Bukayo, Saka, Saliba, suspension and a bunch of other players that might have fitness issues, it begs the question, why did we build the squad in this depth? And is it as strong as we want? It's all fun and games. Mikel Moreno talking about, we've got basketball players and that, but we're here to play football. And I must admit, manager, I did like the build-up play from Calafiri and Declan Rice and everybody involved in what led to Martinelli having the effort, which is chalked as an own goal, but we're not creating enough. We're not creating enough. Now, I don't think, sorry, Rice is a specialist in the eight in terms of breaking the lines. I think people are onto Moreno a bit. I think he was right off the bench. I think Trossart, you know, he missed the penalty to go with the Bournemouth thing. Obviously, he's going to, you know, he's not flavour of the month right now. I think he was okay. Went through the motions a bit. I think Partey, give or take, you know, with probably David Ryan now and maybe Martinelli, to be fair. I think Partey managed the match for me. Partey was good, especially, I think we lost control when he went right back in the second half. And on one hand, you know, I'll start with, yeah, I'll start with the first half. For me, I think, less so, more so in the second half than the first half, I think there was a couple of lapses defensively, low-level lapses. I think, you know, the players were moving the ball around. They grew into the game. You know, everyone was offering a passing angle. Jesus still didn't score, still had a chance and didn't, but it felt like a Gabriel Jesus of old. Kai Havertz was pulling to the right-hand channel. And to be fair, we're not creating nothing for Kai Havertz in an attacking sense for him to score goals. Although I think he was unlucky after he bravely put his face there to try and get on the end of something. I think we had low, before we scored, we had low efforts, didn't we? Like, you know, Califuria had a couple. Declan Rice shanked a shot wide. You know, Jesus did a thing. You know, there was a couple of half chances, but I think in the final third, we're not creating anything. We're not putting teams under pressure. At no point did I think Shakhtar were under the cush. There were occasions where evidently we pressed high, we nicked the ball back and whatnot, but I don't feel we're putting teams under pressure enough. And then you flip it to the second half now. I like the fact of, in general, in isolation, we're a bit street smart. We know we've got the win. We don't really need to do too much. Recycle the ball. Don't force it, but recycle, move it around, try and create another chance. But, and the low block stuff, but we're poor on the ball. We're not moving it fast enough. Somehow we're inviting pressure. We don't really have specialist technicians in the middle of the park. Second half, there was nothing to really scream and shout about. Yeah, we got a penalty, whether it should have been a penalty or another talking point. Tross Hart missed it and it should have been 2-0 and a bit more gloss on the scoreline, but we should have probably scored 2-3 before that point anyways, even based off the second half where I think the first half, second half, sorry, of the first half going into the second half, I think we looked like we might smell blood and get some goals. So creativity is a big issue. You know, defensively, you know, you are going to have to live dangerously against Liverpool. The main thing is that we won, but it is a bit of a mixed bag and mixed kind of feelings heading into that game on Sunday. Nonetheless, because of we don't know what's going on with Timba, Califuri trying to play what could be his knee or whatever, you know, don't know if Benjamin White, if anything, is there. Obviously, you know, the Martinelli's, the Partey's, the Kai Havertz's, they played a lot of football and there's a bunch of injuries. Saka, Odegaard, we need you sooner rather than later. So, yeah, man, second half was quite, it was a drag really. It was quite boring. There was nothing there really in which I do want to be entertained as an Arsenal fan. I do want us to create chances and not necessarily set up shot, but there's a trade-off. I don't want us to be but it just feels like we're too defensive centric. And I just feel, you know, in the same way, I praise Mikel Arteta for the methodicalness of how we build out play. And if we can't go forward, go back. We don't necessarily force the issue, but I don't think we've got that healthy randomness in the final third. And I think in sheer volume, we're not really creating chances that, you know, we've got an all, we could have made it two-nil with the penalty. We did get an own goal, but 13 shots, five on target, one goal. Ultimately, we did the job, got the three points in tournament football, which is all that matters. But you're scratching your head to really think about those, those efforts that really hit the target essentially, or really put Shakhtar under pressure. So I'll always take the three points. It is a win. You can never not win. It's nice to get out, get the Bournemouth thing kind of out of our system. But I wouldn't say I'm necessarily a hundred. I'm not negative and like, oh, pack up the season. We're not winning nothing. We're not doing anything. But I think there's reasons to be optimistic. I think there's evident reasons for concerns about how we're playing and yeah, I'm not the most optimistic heading into the Liverpool game, but hopefully the boys can put in a performance that does me well. Obviously, this is our second game at the Emirates come Sunday before we go on the road. So yeah, man, everything could always be better, but I always say three points first, everything else second. So yeah, people smash the like button. Let me know your thoughts. It's nice to get three points in the Champions League so far. So good. Still unbeaten and such. You lot check out the content. Stay blessed. Stay safe. Peace.