Arsenal ensured qualification for the knock-out stage of the Champions League and also confirmed their place as group winners with a 2-0 victory against Standard Liege last night.
The first half started very well for Arsenal, the opening 15 minutes in particular providing multiple chances, unlike the tie in Liege in September. The opening goal looked inevitable as Arsenal showed once again the pacy attacking football we have become accustomed to in recent times. However our defensive frailties were apparent throughout the half and at times Thomas Vermaelen looked like the only defender who was concentrating as a number of poor passes and missed tackles allowed Liege the opportunity to attack. The first half was overshadowed after a clash of heads between Gallas and Arshavin, the former having a very swollen eye and the latter with a bloodied head as a result of the clash. This reduced Arsenal to 9 men whilst both players received treatment and Liege looked to capitalise, however a defensive slip allowed Nasri to cooly finish for our opening goal.
However Liege could easily have been back in the game not long after our goal, a challenge in our area by Gallas looked a clear penalty and replays merely confirmed this. However the referee waved play on and we were lucky to get away with that. As the half continued we looked to press home our advantage but the goal didn’t seem to arrive, this was all to change when Denilson hit a screamer from 30 yards out which went into the top of the net. 2-0 just on the stroke of halftime. The game was well within our grasp.
Gallas was replaced at halftime by Sylvester, I suspected due to his eye injury, he fitted in well but his challenges were initially mis-timed and you could see he lacks match practice. The second half was not as high tempo as the first but we looked to control the game as time went on. However we continued to make defensive errors that a more capable team would clearly punish us for, hopefully this is enough warning for Sunday. Late into the game Kieran Gibbs went for a shot and the Liege defender left his leg in which Gibbs collected on the follow through, he went to ground and when he initially mouthed “ok” to the bench all looked well, but as soon as he stood up and put weight on it you could see he was in agony and came straight off.
It was confirmed this morning that he fractured a metatarsal in his left foot and will be out for 3 months, yet another injury for us!
Arsène in the press conference spoke of how we had a good first half and controlled the game but eased off in the second half, I think the players could sense they had the game under control. However had Liege scored a goal I wonder how the players would have reacted, I suspect we will get far sterner tests of a lead in the latter stages of this competition.
Arsène also confirmed that Gallas had an eye and ankle injury, the eye will be fine for Sunday and he “hopes” the ankle will be fine as well. Andrey Arshavin received staples in his head at half time, he will be available on Sunday.
So for the 10th season in a row we are in the knock-out stage of the Champions League, top of the group means a more advantageous draw, but given some of the teams who could be second I think our only benefit will be the second leg being at home. We can now look to the game on Sunday against Chelsea, more on that in the next few days.
