Arsenal Vs Basel: Recap, Highlights And Analysis

Arsenal travel to Switzerland to face an underrated Basel side on Tuesday night. Here’s the full recap, all the highlights and analysis from the 4-1 win.

Arsene Wenger took his Arsenal side to Basel to close their Champions League group stage campaign against the Swiss champions. While they were looking for the win, qualification was already confirmed and the chances to finish top of the group, providing themselves with what is likely to be an easier draw in the knockout stages, were out of their hands. Paris Saint-Germain simply needed to beat a poor Ludogorets team at home to secure top spot and Arsenal could simply wait and hope for the best.

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While it was a professional performance from Wenger’s men, especially in the first half, the nerves came from the match at the Parc De Prince. PSG, in true Gunners’ fashion, fell one goal behind the Bulgarian champions, managed to equalise through Edinson Cavani, before ultimately falling to a 2-2 draw, elevating Arsenal into the top spot. As such, Wenger’s men have a much better chance of a kinder draw come February and now have a building momentum heading into the packed festive period.

The first half started with an excellent tempo. Both teams were trying to play their football and Arsenal were looking once again press high up the pitch, leaving the Swiss side with little time on the ball. The deadlock was broken early on with the growing pressure that the Gunners enforced on their opponents eventually breaking through.

Mesut Ozil, who looked very lively early on, fired a ball into the feet of Alexis Sanchez. On the edge of the area, the Chilean turned, waited, clipped a ball just over the head of a Basel defender, into the path of Kieran Gibbs who simply squared it for Lucas Perez to tap in and open his Champions League account for the North London side.

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It did not take Arsenal long to add to their lead either. In a very similar fashion to the first goal, Gibbs once again got in behind down the left-hand side, received a beautiful pass from Ozil, struck a shot towards goal which was poorly parried out to Lucas Perez who simply tapped home to double his and his team’s tally.

The rest of the half played out in fairly sedated fashion. David Ospina made a couple of crucial but expected saves, Alexis Sanchez found himself in pockets of space here and there, but clear-cut chances were few and far between.

It was in the second half that Arsenal were really able to turn on the style. Their third goal came soom after the break thanks to the same duo that opened up Basel in the first half. This time, Gibbs nipped in to intercept a pass, looked up, played a lovely ball, which took an inadvertent flick of Sanchez, into the path of the out-to-in run of Perez. The Spaniard scampered onto the bouncing ball and slotted his shot into the far bottom corner in a neat finish.

It did not take long for Arsenal to find the fourth. This time Ozil made the run in behind with Sanchez dropping deep. The Chilean found him as he met the byline, and after dummying the shot from a tight angle, pulled the ball back for Alex Iwobi, who side-footed home from close range. It was a tremendous goal and highlighted the fluency and the creativity that the Gunners played with throughout the 90 minutes.

The second half petered out with the game all but over. Sanchez struck a wicked, swirling free kick that unfortunately smashed the crossbar, leaving the keeper in absolute no-mans land, Olivier Giroud, Mohamed Elneny and Theo Walcott came on to give some key players some rest and Wenger was happy to see the game out.

Unfortunately, Basel, Seydou Doumbia and Rob Holding had other ideas. After poorly giving the ball away, Holding was then beaten by a fantastic pirouette from the Ivory Coast forward, failing to recover, to see the ball clipped over the onrushing David Ospina.

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It was an excellent performance from Arsenal, scoring some wonderful goals, passing the ball with purpose and precision, while also looking comfortable defensively, bar the one mistake from Holding. Moreover, finishing top of the group is a major confidence booster for the side, allowing them to build a head of steam after a disappointing month. This was a terrific European evening for the Gunners, make no mistake about it.

Highlights