Complacent 2nd half! (Melissa) | Slavia Prague 1-2 Arsenal

Big, big news. AFTV are coming to America for the Champions Tour, where we celebrate Arsenal winning the league and do some mega watch parties. We're coming to LA, we're coming to Las Vegas, to Dallas, to New York, and also to Toronto. You've got to check this out. This is going to be huge. Click the link in the description or scan the QR code on the screen to get more information. Marty from AFTV, I'm here with Melissa, Cannot wait. we just watched Arsenal beat Slavia Prague. 2-1 away from home. Please, give us the information on the game. I know. Yeah, I mean, look, it was a really dominant first half. Really enjoyed it. Great to see Nani get the goal super early. I think that was actually the earliest goal that we scored in the Champions League for quite a stretch as well. So that was really, really positive. It was a Jørgen's assist as well. Great that Jørgen's got a goal as well. Not like, you know, the Fleetwood goal, just actually... Good goal. Yeah, it was a really good goal. We're finished. Really good finish, yeah, and that was very positive to see. Also positive to see just his general game, particularly in the first half. Obviously, second half was a bit more frustrating. As an Arsenal fan, it kind of felt like we went into it with a bit of complacency, probably because of... You know, the dominance we had in the first and then obviously Slavia Prague scored and it was starting to look a little bit touch and go towards the end of that second half. And we were just getting a bit worried, like, are they going to equalize? But luckily that didn't happen. And we came away ultimately with the win, which is what we wanted. Yeah, we've got three points and I think we're third in the Champions League table. Let's go into that second half a little bit more. Obviously, like you said about the complacency, a half time, I was pretty like, you know, this is we were completely in drive and see two nil, And it looked like Slavia were dead and buried and they come out, we didn't come out and they came out and, you know, talk to me about that second half. Yeah, as you say, you know, they came out and I understand it as well, because I think in the Champions League, they've only got a point on the board so far and it's from a draw that they had earlier on in the campaign. They had a bad start to the campaign, but, you know, credit to them, because if you're already above your problem, you're 2-0 down at halftime, you know, a lot of teams. could potentially come out in that second half and just be like oh it's done it's already done but they came out and they they actually you know they grit their teeth but we've seen that from them before in the in the Champions League campaign they've come back recovered well from actually being down a scoreline so you know they have that character about them and they showed that in the second half but we you know I wouldn't say we were lucky not to you know not for them not to equalize In a way, we were lucky. Well, you say that. I mean, look, David Raya pulls off a fantastic one-handed fingertip save to deny them, keeps the ball on the goal line. So, I mean, were we lucky? Yeah, I mean, listen, David Raya, this is... I know some people would be like, oh, you know, you can't have a goalkeeper as your favourite player, you know. I think Khalifa, I believe that Harrison said that earlier today. I think he did. Yeah. But I do think that when you're looking at a player like David Raya, him being that last line of defence and proving today why he is, you know, that was an unbelievable save from him, as you say, you know. So, yeah, it was amazing. Yeah, listen, and that could be the difference in these games between drawing and winning. And that's what we saw. But at the end, you know, Slavia Braga were putting balls in the box that were going, finding space in behind, you know. And if I'm honest with you, I think we were lucky in the end to hang on and get the result that we did. Yeah, listen, I think we can kind of look at that second half and be like, you know, why were we under so much pressure? And I think some of that comes from the midfield, you know. Rice looked visibly tired. He, at some point, was standing with his hands on his hips. He was standing before throw-ins just looking like flushed in the face. And you're thinking to yourself, this guy needs a bit of rest. Do you know what I mean? And we have squad depth. Real, real depth of squad that we can call on. We have Bruno Guimaraes sitting on the bench, Myles Lewis-Skelly sitting on the bench. Why are these guys not getting subbed in? And Rice being taken off to get a little bit of rest that he well-deserved rest as well. So I think there's a bit of a question around that that I have for sure, and I would have liked to have seen him substituted. Definitely, and you make some good points. Let's go back to one of the players that you were talking about, Viktor Gyökeres, that scores a goal. How important do you think that goal is for him in an Arsenal shirt? Obviously, it hasn't featured that much this season. When he has, he's been very ineffective, but a really well-taken goal. And how do you think that's going to help him moving forward? I think that that was an invaluable moment for him and also for us, you know, because ultimately when you're looking at players like Viktor Gyökeres and even to a certain degree other players as well, when they're getting these opportunities in these games, you need to see them step Stepping through those gears and that's what Gyökeres did today. Not just the goal, but also the assist and the link-up play in the first half. I think it was really wonderful to see. I think it's going to help him with his confidence as well. And hopefully it's going to put a little bit of a question for Arteta about who starts on Saturday against Hull. I was just going to say, coming on lastly to Arsenal facing Hull in the Premier League at home on the Saturday. How do you see that going and what changes would you make if you were Mikel Arteta? Well, it's really, it's hard to say, to be honest with you, but I think that, you know, a game like today is actually going to give him a little bit more pause in terms of the starting 11. And I think that, you know, Yiorgo's performance, his performance, you know, is kind of the thing that would give him that type of pause because... If you kind of look throughout the rest of the season, I don't think that he would have been in a position where he's going to scratch his head too much about the starting 11. But I think you're looking over this week and you've got, obviously, Havertz that scored that amazing early goal at Anfield, Yiorgo's game today. So you're going to be thinking, OK, who am I going to put forward against Hull? So we'll see. But it's just interesting to me that he didn't, going back to Rice, he didn't sub Rice off because obviously you're expecting him to start on Saturday and he didn't actually get any rest today. So, yeah, we'll see. Thank you very much. You've been watching Superstar. She's been Melissa. I've been Marty. It's been AFTV. Signing out. Big, big news. AFTV are coming to America for the Champions Tour, where we celebrate Arsenal winning the league and do some mega watch parties. We're coming to LA, we're coming to Las Vegas, to Dallas, to New York, and also to Toronto. You've got to check this out. This is gonna be huge. Click the link in the description or scan the QR code on the screen to get more information. Cannot wait!