Arsenal Vs CSKA Moscow: Highlights and analysis – Squeaky-bum time

Arsenal travelled to face CSKA Moscow in the second leg of the Europa League quarter-final trying to protect a 4-1 advantage. Here is the full recap, all the highlights and analysis of the 2-2 draw.

That was far from convincing, wasn’t it? Arsenal squeezed their way into the semi-finals of the Europa League on Thursday night, drawing on the night but protecting that precious 4-1 advantage they held from the first leg. Arsene Wenger made a myriad of tactical changes throughout the 90 minutes to solve the growing problems that CSKA Moscow were posing. Some of them worked better than others, but, in the end, it was the decision to switch to a back-three and push Danny Welbeck into a wide-left striking role that paid dividends.

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The first half was horribly boring. Almost nothing of note happened in the first half an hour or so. CSKA had a couple of faint openings here and there, Arsenal couldn’t quite link up through Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Danny Welbeck on a couple of occasions, and other than that, there was not much football to speak of. The ball was almost exclusively played in the middle third, chances were nigh-on non-existent, and the entertainment value was low to say the least.

But then it didn’t get boring. Then it got interesting, and suddenly the horrible boredom of the first half-hour was all that any Arsenal fan could hope for. CSKA scored. It was, inevitably, a poor goal to concede. Mohamed Elneny failed to close down the cross. Nacho Monreal was beaten in the air. Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny were sleeping. Fedor Chalov was not, alive to return Petr Cech’s good, low save and slam it into the net. Not good.

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Suddenly, the Russian’s tales were up. Aaron Ramsey was stretchered off — he later returned but left Arsenal with only ten men on the pitch for a good five minutes or so –, his teammates couldn’t play through the lines and escape the CSKA pressure, and another goal looked worryingly likely. Vitinho fired over the crossbar. Aleksandre Golovin, who was the best player on the pitch by some distance in the first period, flashed a couple of crosses into the box, one of which struck Aaron Ramsey on the arm, though it would have been harsh had a penalty been given. Arsenal looked rattled. They needed half-time. They got it, thankfully. But, suddenly, boring was a long, long way away.

The lack of boring, sadly, continued in the second half. Wenger shifted to a 3-4-3 formation, with Mohamed Elneny splitting Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi, but the pressure only grew. The second goal came shortly after the break and again, Golovin was the source. Picking up the ball in midfield, he took a couple of steps of forward and uncorked a dipping, diving, swerving shot from distance. Petr Cech couldn’t handle it — he should have — and Kirill Nababkin was on hand to tuck away the rebound, beating Nacho Monreal to the loose ball.

There was then, predictably, a period of a couple of minutes where Arsenal really struggled to gain a foothold in the game. CSKA pressed them high up the pitch, they couldn’t evade the opposition and get out of their own territory, and attack after attack began to flow. Golovin came close from a free-kick, Petr Cech did well to turn it away, and several crosses caused the Gunners problems.

Then Arsenal did something smart. It was a little weird and not all that convincing, but they did it nonetheless. They proceeded to keep the ball. They actually had the ball in the back of the net, though Mohamed Elneny was rightly adjudged to be offside as he angled his header into the bottom corner. What was more important, though, was that they kept possession, at least for a period of play. It didn’t kill the game per se, but it did allow the clock to run down.

That is not to say that there were not moments for CSKA. A couple of low crosses, one marginally intercepted by Aaron Ramsey, looked dangerous, and Petr Cech was scrambling to cover Sergei Ignashevich’s vicious volley from the edge of the penalty area. But then the crucial moment of the game, and it was that man Danny Welbeck once again.

Picking up the ball on the left-hand side, Welbeck brilliantly turned away from his defender, powered towards the penalty area, played a slicing one-two with Mohamed Elneny, whose return through-pass was beautifully weighted, and curled a first-time shot into the far corner in a surprisingly composed and clinical finish.

That goal killed the game. Arsenal were able to sit deep as a back-five, with Calum Chambers having been introduced for Jack Wilshere, keep the ball when they needed to, and then simply use the counter-attack to create their opportunities. The atmosphere died in the stadium, with CSKA fans aware that their challenge had ended, and the result was secure.

Aaron Ramsey levelled it up on the night with a late dink over Igor Akinfeev, Elneny picking up another assist, though CSKA’s defence was non-existent given their desperate chasing of the game. It wasn’t Ramsey best performance, but he showed diligence, energy and discipline throughout and was rewarded for his efforts.

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Ultimately, this was far less convincing than it should have been. Arsenal played extremely poorly throughout the pitch. There was not one player who I could single out as impressing. This was certainly squeaky-bum time for the Gunners. Oh how I long for the beauty of boredom once more.

Highlights