3 positives and negatives from Arsenal’s win over FC Zurich

Arsenal began their European campaign on Thursday in the Europa League with a 2-1 win against FC Zurich in Switzerland.

This is an exciting opportunity for the Gunners to enjoy a deep continental run and they’ve got a great chance of reaching the competition’s epilogue in Budapest next May.

3 positives and negatives from Arsenal’s win over FC Zurich

Here are three positives and negatives from their Matchday 1 victory.

Positive #1: Marquinhos

A full debut from the young Brazilian and what an entrance!

This was the first look at him other than a few cameos in pre-season and boy did he make an impression. A goal and an assist for the 19-year-old and he looked great deputising for Bukayo Saka on the right wing.

His passion after scoring the opener was also really awesome to see, you could tell it meant a lot. Arsenal didn’t bring in a winger this summer other than the Brazilian, so he could end up being the guy pushing Saka for minutes in the Premier League if his debut doesn’t prove to be a mere flash in the pan.

The tools are definitely there.

Negative #1: No clean sheet

Unfortunately, a clean sheet was not achieved for Matt Turner on his Arsenal debut with Eddie Nketiah conceding a penalty right before half-time to help FC Zurich restore parity.

Given how much better Arsenal was despite their rotated XI and failure to take full control, it was unfortunate to let them score to put the pressure on.

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Positive #2: Eddie Nketiah

Despite giving up a penalty, it was a great match from Eddie.

Like Marquinhos, he also had a goal and an assist with his goal being the decider in this match. He just does so much every time he plays, and I have no doubts that he’ll be in the running for the golden boot of this tournament.

Negative #2: Lack of ruthlessness

Once again, the scoreline did not represent how Arsenal played in the match. Arsenal accumulated 2.47 xG but only scored twice. It could and should have been way more in a match like this and if the team wants to go far in this tournament, they must be able to turn it on a bit more to be more ruthless against inferior opponents.

Continued on the next slide…

Positive #3: Fabio Vieira

We were treated to a cameo introduction to the Portuguese midfielder against Manchester United and we got a full debut in this match.

It’s clear that he’s a pretty raw talent like Marquinhos, but he’s got a very good skill set. He needs to improve his strength on the ball but his vision and passing are both at a great level, no better exemplified by his pass to Nketiah for Marquinhos’ opener. Very excited to see him develop in this team.

Negative #3: Substitutes

We now know that games won’t be played this weekend, but the subs were a bit odd at the time. This could have been a great time for our very important players like Saka, Martin Ødegaard, and Gabriel Jesus to get much-deserved rests but instead, they were brought on. Saka is always a bit worrying with his direct style and he took some hits in the match which was not fun to see.

I know that our depth isn’t crazy to where we have that many options and it was too close of a game to bring on academy products, but Saka’s sub, in particular, was odd.

Overall, a good start to the campaign. Bring on PSV next week!