Arsenal scored and conceded late last night to give Slavia Prague a huge advantage going into the second leg. The Czech giants only need a clean sheet now to go through to the next round, and that is a serious possibility.
Gunners fans were frustrated for a ton of reasons after last night. The performance was nowhere near the level required, we bottled three fairly easy chances and conceded a completely avoidable goal a minute before the final whistle.
Mikel Arteta is usually on the good side of Arsenal fans as it’s the players who let us down – not his management. However, the Gunners boss has received a fair chunk of criticism after last night and rightly so.
Arteta didn’t make his first substitution until the 72nd minute.
He waited until the 78th minute before bringing on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe, and that was arguably the biggest reason why we didn’t score until the 86th minute of the game.
The timing of Arteta’s substitutions annoyed a number of Arsenal fans, including club legend Ian Wright. The Englishman’s 10-word tweet perfectly summed up every supporter’s feeling after the game last night.
The Insider’s View:
The criticism Arteta has received is warranted but last night’s result is not completely down to him. Had Bukayo Saka and Alexandre Lacazette converted their chances, we wouldn’t be talking about the substitutions now.
Slavia’s late goal puts us in a very complicated position.
Arsenal now have to score in the second leg to go through to the semi-final, and although we are more than good enough to do that, we simply cannot play like how we did last night.
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