Sporting 2-2 Arsenal: It was a draw

game report – Player Ratings – Arteta reaction

A 2-2 draw against Sporting last night exposed some weaknesses at Arsenal but leaves us in a reasonable position going into next week’s second leg.

Mikel Arteta made six changes from the side that beat Bournemouth, a significant number considering he is without his first three options as a centre-forward while also struggling with illness at camp. The home side got the first real sight on goal, Goncalves rolled well back and after that it was pretty even.

In the 21st minute we took the lead. Fabio Vieira rolled into a corner, William Saliba – our standout player that night – nodded home, and there were some post-matches which saw Oleksandr Zinchenko and Sebastian Coates cautioned, a yellow card meaning the tall centre-back got the Missed second leg. Zinchenko forced the keeper to make a decent save after the free-kick hit the wall and it was comfortable enough until we had a period of sloppiness that led to a corner from which they scored.

We’d give the ball away, win it back, give it away again, for no good reason. Sporting might have put a little more pressure on, but we should have been safer. They had a shot, Matt Turner made a good save that gave them a corner to equalize from. New boy Jakub Kiwior hasn’t covered himself in glory, nor has Turner, who looked like he was going to get it – and might have yelled it – but then didn’t come, so they both looked like chumps off when the Sporting boy ran into an empty net. A bad goal.

Turner made a couple of good saves but was iffy with the ball at his foot, especially in the first half. At the other end we almost went ahead again but a half turn of the ball sent him just over the line on another header and then there was a bizarre moment when Gabriel Martinelli was booked. The Sporting goalkeeper was rambling on, the ref had no idea, came over and decided to give the Brazilian a yellow card. Replays then showed that Martinelli did nothing to justify a booking while Granit Xhaka slapped the ball out of the goalkeeper’s hands. VAR checked and then just moved on like they didn’t see it. Very strange.

Arsenal started the second half well. Zinchenko had a good chance for Martinelli but the keeper saved; Vieira fired just wide of the penalty area from long-range; and Martinelli should have done better with a header from 6 yards, but he couldn’t resist it. The pressure then mounted on the other side as Saliba had to make a brilliant defensive intervention to keep the score, but in a couple of seconds it was 2-1. The ball behind our defenders was too light, Turner made a knee-jerk save, and unfortunately the ball fell to a Sporting player who was wedged between two Arsenal players and gave them the lead.

Martinelli tried to repeat his amazing goal against Chelsea with an even better run, passing three defenders and then another, leaving him only to beat the keeper. I think he should have kept shooting from there, instead he tried to go around him but in doing so allowed the defender to come back and make a very good block. Sporting then had a chance to take a 3-1 lead but bungled their lines before a pass from Xhaka, aimed at Martinelli, ricocheted off the defender’s crown jewels and bounced into the back net to make it 2-2. Scrap, but they all count.

Takehiro Tomiyasu came on for Zinchenko and made the left flank more secure defensively. It was good to see after a difficult day against Bournemouth and fitted a lot more to the kind of performances he usually gives us. More substitutions and the introduction of Gabriel and Thomas Partey helped us control the last twenty minutes much better and there were a few more valuable minutes for Emile Smith Rowe.

Bukayo Saka struggled late in the game but overall it’s hard to say that a draw wasn’t a fair result tonight. Of course you’d rather go and win, but in the context of the game, this competition and this season, that’s not a bad result at all.

Afterwards Mikel Arteta said:

When you concede two weak goals, like we did away in Europe today, it’s very difficult to get the expected positive result. We’re conceding too many easy goals and we’ve talked about the importance of boxing, especially in a competition where you’re in or out. Today we didn’t defend that well enough and we need to improve against our opponents.

In the moments when we had to control the game, we lost a little of the threat today, especially with the front players that we lack in our front. We had something positive because we showed a lot of resilience to get back into the game, but we have to defend our penalty area much better and we have to be in the second leg to beat them.

It’s difficult to be fluent in the language when you’re making so many edits, which isn’t to excuse the sloppy moments, it’s to understand them. I also think the fact that this is a two-legged draw, with an important Premier League game on Sunday, has affected some performances. Anyway, to me it felt like a couple of Arsenal players out there made sure they left something in the tank for the trip to Fulham.

That has to be the focus now. The second leg is a straight shootout to see who qualifies but at home and after we’ve shown some decent attacking moments if we can iron out those mistakes you want us to go through. Even more so if we can get one or two of our strikers ready to play again. Let’s see.

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Alright, let’s leave it at that for now. I’m out of action today, so last night we recorded a post-game podcast for you, which you can listen to below or find right now on your favorite podcast app.

Let it be well with you.