He went with almost the exact same team that was so leggy late on against Everton on Sunday and was more than a little fortunate to hold on for the 3-2 win. Right from the start it looked like they still hadn’t managed to reinvigorate themselves and their game lacked appetite. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea not to bring in some fresh legs to a team who obviously needed them.
I think the performance was also influenced by having a lead from the away leg though as the players weren’t exactly sure how to approach the game. They were playing with Arsene Wenger’s famous “handbrake” on and I have to wonder if the manager urged that caution in them. As long as Olympiakos didn’t score we were going through and I think that had far too much influence on how we played the game.
As it was we probably should have gone ahead in the first half, but Alexandre Lacazette missed a very good chance yet again and Granit Xhaka had a goal disallowed for offside. I hoped for better in the second half, but in truth it was worse as Olympiakos became more adventurous in their attempts to get a result. It was obvious the game was going away from us before they scored and the manager really should have done something to counter it.
When their goal came it was another lesson in how not to defend from Arsenal with the tallest player on the pitch given free reign from a corner and he really couldn’t miss. Everton exposed a weakness from set pieces on Sunday and Olympiakos did so again last night. We had a pretty good record defending them before Arteta arrived while City aren’t exactly the best at it so it looks like it’s something he has to put some serious work into very soon.
We still lacked focus after the Olympiakos goal and we were thankful to Bernd Leno for keeping us in the tie with a good save. Eventually we went to three at the back and began to exert some pressure in the last 15 minutes of normal time. We never really looked like getting the decisive goal though and it came as no surprise when the game went to extra time.
Extra time went much like the last 15 minutes with us huffing and puffing, but very little really happening with the exception of Olympiakos missing a reasonable chance on the break. With less than 10 minutes to go a piece of magic from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang gave us the goal we craved and that really should have been it. Olympiakos tried to push forward, but never really looked like creating anything until Leno was too casual with a back pass and was closed down which resulted in him conceding a corner.
We managed to clear the initial ball into our box, but when the second ball came in we were caught flat footed and their leading scorer stabbed home to surely send us out of the competition. All that was left was more or less the added time for their celebrations and somehow we managed to create a gilt edged chance in that time. If there’s any player you want the ball to fall to six yards out in the last minute to put you through it’s Aubameyang and when he hit it I was certain he would score, but somehow he missed and that was that.
The loss in revenue could be up to €40 million compared to last season when we reached the final when you consider the TV money, prize money and matchday money too. That’s the price of a fairly good addition to a squad that really needs to be strengthened in the summer and it pushes us even further down the list of the top earning clubs. As someone said on Twitter we have gone from a Champions League last 16 team to a Europa League last 32 team very quickly.
We have also lost one of our routes back into the Champions League for next season which only leaves us hoping to finish fourth or fifth if City lose their appeal. To be honest the thought of our current team playing in the Champions League is one that scares me, but going out in the last 32 of the Europa League is bloody embarrassing. On the plus side our players will be nice and fresh for the rest of the season with no nasty Thursday night football to worry about.
Our next game is against Portsmouth in the FA Cup on Monday night and we need to see a reaction from the players and the manager too. As much as things have got better under Arteta last night was horrendous and Unai Emery would have been lashed from pillar to post if he was the man in charge. Arteta has to show he knows what he’s doing and is capable of getting the best out of these players game in and game out.
I thought the lack of rotation last night was a factor in the result and I cannot understand what Gabriel Martinelli was doing on the bench for so long. We were so tired in the second half on Sunday that maybe the manager should have considered players like Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi, Reiss Nelson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles or Sokratis Papastathopoulos from the start to put some energy in the team.
Hindsight is a great thing though and he paid a price for putting too much faith in some players who have let other managers down in the past and seem willing to let him down too. His inability or unwillingness to change things when we clearly weren’t at the races didn’t help and his tactics or the team’s inability to implement them on the night didn’t help either. I think a lot of it came down to not knowing how to play with a one goal lead from the first leg and then being unable to up the tempo enough after Olympiakos scored.
Having said all of that we’d be talking about who we got in the next round at this stage if Aubameyang had put that late chance away like we all expected him to do. Olympiakos will play Wolves in the next round and I’m not sure if we could have played another English team so we probably would have drawn someone else. It will be interesting to see how they can do against a Wolves team who still look head and shoulders above us in terms of knowing how they want to play and doing so and who have some good players too.
That’s it for today.
See you tomorrow.
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