Arsenal made an emphatic statement with their 3-1 win over Bayern Munich to become the sole club with a 100% winning record in the UEFA Champions League in their top of the table clash in London on Wednesday evening.
The atmosphere electric, tension palpable, the build-up to the game as first placed in the UEFA Champions League took on second place in an icy North London on Wednesday evening, was dominated by the talk of set-pieces.
So it came as no surprise to see the opener, ironically, the man who appeared in the pre-match press conference, Jurien Timber, opening the scoring, prodding home Bukayo Saka’s corner.
The Dutchman’s popularity and influence in Mikel Arteta’s starting XI has soared this season since recovering from a long-term injury and the celebrations, particularly from the technical team, showed the togetherness and potentially the hard work behind the scenes with the club’s set-piece coach Nicolas Jover.
The bright spark in the early stages for Bayern, was their teenage sensation Lennart Karl , who has sprung into the limelight under Vincent Kompany this season, and the suspension of Luis Diaz, placed even further importance on his attacking influence on the evening.
Deft touches, anticipation and understanding of half spaces beyond his years, made for event the staunchest of Gunners supporters stand up and take notice of the 17-year-old, who levelled the scoring mid-way through the half, slotting home former Arsenal winger’ Serge Gnabry’s delivery – once dubbed a wonderkid of the North London giants.
An evenly fought opening half, that probably was fair to be square, with both sides only having one shot on target from their three attempts, but created a rather tense atmosphere, where event the minority of away supporters could be heard from the Clock End of the arena.
But the second half proved different as the home supporters and a barrage of set-piece deliveries towards Manuel Neuer’s goal – Mikel Arteta, animated as usual on the touchline, had his former player Vincent Kompany’s Bayern on the ropes – for well over 20 minutes.
Once his assistant coach, as he captained City in the the beginning of the Pep Guardiola era at the Citizens – both now coaches, at the highest level and not shy to admit, disciples of the iconic Spaniard’s vision and ideology of football.
But even purists would admit, there was not much beauty in the way that Arsenal and most Premier League teams have seemingly adopted this season of looking to exploits dead-ball situations – simple, direct and effective.
The injury of Leonardo Trossard was one of the blips perhaps of the game, having been replaced by Noni Madueke, after the Belgian proved a live-wire on the left side of the attack – but Arteta would have been pleased with how his changes from the bench impacted the game.
Madueke finished, albeit, fortuitously, was on the end of Riccardo Calafiori’s delivery, just seconds after the Italian replaced Miles Lewis-Skelly to restore their lead and 10 minutes later, Gabriel Martinelli, another recent returnee from injury made it 3-1.
The Brazilian rounded Neuer, found in no-mans land after coming out of his area, and slotted in a tap-in to send the home support into raptures and comfortably secure the three points that keeps them top of the table – and the only side with a 100% record in the competition this season.
