Takehiro Tomiyasu coming in at left-back ahead of Oleksandr Zinchenko was the only change Arteta made from the side that drew with Chelsea on Saturday. It was much better performance from the team with Gabriel Jesus leading the line with quality and brilliance.
Warning for what’s to come for Sevilla came in the 8th minute when Jesus fed Gabriel Martinelli, who went through on goal only to be denied by the keeper. It was evenly contested match until the injury time of the first half. It was time for Jesus to weave his magic wand.
A clearance Gabriel Magalhaes was brilliantly controlled by Gabriel Jesus before sending the defender wrong way with a beautiful turn. The Brazilian played gorgeous pass through the centre to the onrushing Gabriel Martinelli who rounded the keeper to make it 1-0 to Arsenal.
Arsenal started the second half well and had a couple of half chances before it was time for Jesus to get onto score sheet. After a driving run Declan Rice found outstanding Brazilian outside left position, just outside the 18 yard box. He drove inside, took a touch to make a space to fire a shot into the top corner. A stunning goal to go 2-0 up.
We looked in control but a goal headed in by their central defender from a corner kick made the rest of the game a bit uncomfortable. They weren’t creating many clear cut chances although there were a couple of dodgy moments but we survived.
Raya is still looking a bit shaky and our captain Odegaard’s current form is nowhere near his best. Jorginho was solid in midfield but did not have the legs. Declan Rice was very good yet again and Tomiyasu was excellent when the going went though.
The manager made few changes towards the end of the game one of which was enforced when Jesus seemed to have an issue with his hamstring. His replacement Eddie Nketiah looked lazy and uninterested which I did not like to see. Let’s hope his Jesus’ injury is not serious.
Afterwards Arteta had praise for him:
“You need magic moments in big games, and you need the big players to step in and create those moments. And we had a big opening in the first few minutes as well with Martinelli through to score. We did it and we need that. We need the players to perform at their best and to let him do something special.”
And for the very important 3 points away from home in the Champions League the Manager said:
“That’s the Champions League, that’s the group stages and that shows you the difficulty of winning, and how much you have to value that. Against Lens, obviously, that result put us in difficult position and the team had to react. We are coming off the back of a period of very difficult games, and the team constantly has to step in, and go against adversity as well, and injuries that we’ve picked up with some big players. The team is so willing and so determined to at least try their best.”
Onto the Premier League this weekend with Sheffield United at home and next weekend Newcastle United away.
