This was a game that could have gone either way, despite our dominance in possession. The collection of young guys and veterans we put out there were hampered by their unfamiliarity with each other in game situations, but all showed their technical superiority. Had we put Elneny in Coquelin's position, we would probably have won this. Francis was a real buzzkill on offense. Heck, putting Jack more centrally (in place of Coquelin) and starting Nketiah wide left would have been even better.
But the perfect home record is gone, and deservedly so. A few comments:
Matt Macey is a work in progress. He's no Szczesny. He did well enough, but made some errors you don't expect to see at this level.
Giroud is a real trouper, isn't he? He never phones it in. It didn't happen for him today, but it was not for lack of effort.
Jack looked GOOD. If Xhaka doesn't step up his game, he may be playing in Europa League instead.
Debuchy still looks to me like the guy most likely to make a defensive error that costs a goal. Yes, he did well, but his confidence is shot and it shows.
Somehow I expect more from Theo in games like this. He looked good, but where's that special something that wins games? In fairness, he is never going to be the answer against teams that sit back.
It would be better to win the group, of course, and that is a virtual certainty. We host BATE, which really should ice it for us. Away at Koln doesn't seem that frightening either, although BATE got hammered there. I hope Arsene keeps the second squad in for these. I wouldn't mind if he threw in even more youngsters.
On to Manchester. It ought to be a good contest.
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