Yaya Sanogo opened his Arsenal account in stunning style, scoring 70 seconds in, Alexis scored his 13th goal in 20 matches, and Arsenal dominated in long stretches on its way to the 2-0 win. It sends us through to the knockout stage and keeps alive a slender hope that we could still win the group. If we beat Galatasaray in Turkey and Anderlecht beat Dortmund in Germany, we’d finish on 13 points, one above Dortmund. There are other scenarios which we can examine later. For now, savor a strong performance from top to bottom, marred though it may be by a light knock suffered by Arteta. Everyone seems to have turned a in solid performance, with some stellar ones from Gibbs, Ramsey (yes, Ramsey), Chambers, and Cazorla. I’m not omitting Alexis on the assumption that it’s safe to assume that, yes, he again scintillated. We’re through to the knockout stage for the 15th time in a row. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the highlights!
Woolwich 1886, an Arsenal site
A life-long Arsenal fan shares from his limited store of insight, humour, and wisdom…
that was about as good as we've played all season, aside from a stretch of time after halftime when BVB seemed to come out with more intent and drive. even after Arteta went out and the chicken littles worried that we'd see Flamini lead us to another capitulation like against Anderlecht, we played really well. Gibbs was for the story of the match, he was so good. He'll be England's leftback of the future sooner, not later, if he keeps this up. I think we're gathering strength even if this is the 1st positive result in a few weeks.
That silly draw last time out is going to haunt Arsenal in the next round. We would be even now with an easier scenario for top of group. Of course, another goal would have helped today because that would have been the tie-breaker.BTW was absence of Jack the difference or was it a weakened Dortmund, among other factors?