Arsenal’s trip to Slavia Prague was tailor-made to expose their “weaknesses”, but their emphatic response is bad news for Liverpool and Manchester City.
Mikel Arteta promised an “interesting game” when his team visited the Czech Republic to face Slavia Prague in their fourth Champions League group game, and the backdrop for this match certainly suggested that this could be the case.
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Regardless of the opposition, an away game in Europe is rarely easy, and Slavia Prague asked, at least for a little while, questions about Arsenal on Tuesday night.
Inspired by a passionate home atmosphere, Slavia Prague had Arsenal on the defensive in the opening 15 minutes when they adopted an aggressive man-to-man approach.
Arsenal’s best starting eleven has proven time and time again that they no longer break down in such games, but this time it was their B team that was tasked with resisting, as Arteta chose to rest and rotate.
Arteta sort of had his hands forced, with Viktor Gyokeres, Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz, Martin Ødegaard and Gabriel Jesus among the absentees due to injury, while Martin Zubimendi was suspended.
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But the timing of Arteta’s decision to maintain “proper freshness” in the squad was perfect on Tuesday night, with Piero Hincapié, Christian Nørgaard and Ethan Nwaneri getting rare starts as Arsenal went into Tuesday’s game with a perfect group record.
Ahead of the match, Slavia Prague coach Jindřich Trpišovsky stated that Arsenal have a team with the “best sporting level” and “no weaknesses”, and that their enormous depth of strength is one of their strongest qualities.
Arsenal seem to have reached their final form after their £250 million summer spend to secure all of their top transfer targets gave Arteta a complete squad with quality options at every position, and this was the first real indication of their insane width.
The first 15 minutes against Slavia Prague gave Arsenal’s Premier League title rivals hope that there are weak spots to exploit when Arteta’s team is weakened by injuries and targeted by intense pressing, while the attacking areas were crowded at times due to their fluidity in the absence of their “flat-track bully” at the top.
But Liverpool and Manchester City would have clung to straws, just like we did, desperately searching for an Arsenal weakness to ignite a proper title race. All of their opponents were silenced as Arteta’s heavily altered team took control of the game and completely dominated for the final three-quarters of Tuesday’s game.
There was a sense of inevitability about the outcome of this game as soon as Arsenal piled up attempts at goal and set-pieces from the 20th minute, and the result was beyond doubt as soon as Bukayo Saka broke the deadlock via a penalty kick just after the half-hour had been played.
Captain Lukáš Provod was penalised for touching the ball with a raised hand, and Saka clinically slotted the ball into the bottom corner before stand-in striker Mikel Merino eradicated Slavia Praga’s remaining optimism less than a minute after half-time.
Merino has done a terrific job every time he has been asked to fill in as a number 9 and has proven to be a great finisher, although the Spaniard’s task this time was made easier by a precise pass from Leandro Trossard and a lack of close markers in the penalty area.
Later, he scored his second goal when he beat goalkeeper Jakub Markovic, who was forced to look rather foolish in no man’s land, to Declan Rice’s deep cross from midfield and headed home with a smart flick.
As is the case with Arsenal, the story was overeigned at 1-0, but their later goal ensured that they delivered their final kick in a game that was tailored to expose their weaknesses – something this inevitable bunch doesn’t seem to have, as they kept another clean sheet and didn’t meet a shot on target until late in the game.
They even scored two goals from open play…
