Only Arsenal. On Thursday, Arsene Wenger took a side full of squad players and a perfect record in the group stage to Cologne to face the Bundesliga’s worst team this season. Even without the majority of the club’s first team stars, the match was still expected to be a relatively straightforward affair. Of course, things are never as simple as they should be for the North London club, as the team surprisingly dropped the match 1-0 to a dogged Koln side. It was a largely uneventful match, with both teams struggling in the final third, but a questionable penalty call gave the German hosts the lead that they would not relinquish.
Got What We Came For
Despite the loss, the Gunners still left Germany having clinched their group with one match still to play in the first stage of the competition. Arsene Wenger has been able to make it through the first part of the competition without using any of his typical Premier League side, allowing the whole squad to remain fresh through rotation. The final match of the group stage, a home game against the Belarussian champions BATE Borisov, will give the Gunners at least one more opportunity to play their youngsters in a European match without all of the pressure that comes from needing a result. The 4,000 or so Arsenal fans that made the trip to Cologne were not exactly treated to a world-class display, but the Gunners put in a dominant defensive shift for the majority of the match. As ever, the reaction to defeat was typically harsh in some circles, but it seems many fans have been able to look past the disappointment and see that the team ultimately succeeded in winning their group, which in the end is all that matters to Wenger and his men.
Blooding the Youth
Every time Ainsley Maitland-Niles plays, he makes at least one play, either in attack or defence, that gives fans a glimpse into the young Englishman’s potential. For the first hour of the match, it could even be argued that he was the best player on the pitch. The Gunners were finding acres of space down the left-hand side due to his hard work and interplay with first Danny Welbeck and later Alex Iwobi, with the young midfielder also combining effectively with Jack Wilshere throughout the match. It was Maitland-Niles who helped create several of the team’s closest chances in the first half, and the commentators were effusive in their praise of the versatile England U21 international.
Though he was unable to make much of a difference after subbing on for Danny Welbeck in the second half, Alex Iwobi’s confidence continues to grow with each passing match. What he lacks in pace and work rate, he makes up for with his vision and technique. His inclusion for the second half might have given the Gunners more of a midfield presence, due to his versatility to drop into those spaces to receive and distribute, but the Gunners never seemed to threaten as much on the left side after Welbeck’s substitution.
Creating more of an impact when coming on than the Nigerian was Reiss Nelson, who went fully into wunderkind mode at one moment, almost levelling the match with a brilliant individual effort. For a 17-year-old, his skill on the ball is incredible, and his self-belief is perhaps his biggest asset. There is little doubt about Nelson’s potential, and his ability to make such an indelible mark on a match as a substitute at his age spells great things for the future. Eddie Nketiah also made a brief cameo toward the end of the match as the Gunners were chasing the lead, but he was given very little time to leave his mark on the match. Win or lose, the valuable European competition experience will only help the young players make the jump to first-team regulars.
Good Shout Southgate?
Since Gareth Southgate took over as manager of the Three Lions, he has made a point of not allowing those players who haven’t been performing well (or consistently) with their clubs into his team. For some players accustomed to walking into the team when healthy, the snub has got them desperate to play and perform as much as possible for their clubs in the hope that Southgate might recall them. One such player is Jack Wilshere, whose positive public comments after the North London Derby were at odds with the forlorn, embittered figure he cut on the bench, buried deep inside his puffy stadium coat, a dead stare in his eyes.
Against Koln, Wilshere was obviously intent on making an impression on the England manager with his performance. As a result, the one-time national team saviour, and possibly still the most technically gifted English midfielder of all time, spent the match trying to force the issue, often leading to poor decisions in the final third. A player of his quality and football IQ should be playing instinctually, and when he starts to press, he often tries to play outside of himself to the detriment of the team’s attack. It seemed that he and Olivier Giroud were trying to recreate Wilshere’s miracle goal against Norwich City a few years back, squandering many of the Gunners’ most threatening moments with cute, misplaced one-touch passes.
On Thursday, Wilshere played in an advanced role as one of the front three, but he found himself moving deeper and deeper into the midfield as he tried to drag his team back level after conceding the penalty. Watching him approximate an inverted number 10, one could not help be reminded of Southgate’s words, in which he called Wilshere a deeper lying playmaker/box to box midfielder, not a number 10. At least in this match, his logic is hard to refute, as Wilshere didn’t have his best moments of the match until he started dropping back into the midfield. It was probably the first time Wilshere has regressed from his previous performance this season, and for a lad desperate to get games in the league for his beloved club, his case was not helped.
A Generous Call
Unlike the Gunners’ experiences in the Premier League, Europa League referees thus far have not done too much to hurt the team and kill momentum with bad calls, but that all changed on Thursday. Russian referee Vladislav Bezborodov gifted the home side the victory with his highly questionable penalty call on Mathieu Debuchy in the second half. With young French striker Sehrou Guirassy going down in a heap after Debuchy appeared to get the ball with his challenge. The players simultaneously went shoulder to shoulder, with the taller, more top-heavy attacker taking the tumble.
I don’t doubt that in real time, it looked a foul to the ref, but in that position in the box, and with the defender actually in a decent position to make the challenge, it would not have been unreasonable for the Russian to wave away the penalty shout. The less than certain nature of the call was made even worse when the resultant goal became the difference in the match. Arsenal fans hopeful that last weekend’s victory being aided by a blown referee decision was a sign of the “levelling out” myth that many seem to subscribe to, this match served to quell the notion.
Hell Hath No Fury Like A Scorned Journo…
Get ready for it Gooners. Just 5 days removed from the club and its fans thoroughly humiliating and eviscerating (respectively) certain members of the media, the Gunners have dropped an easy narrative right in their gleeful laps. It doesn’t matter that the team dominated the course of play, the penalty was questionable at best, the side was comprised entirely of backups, or that Arsenal still clinched their groups. The British football media will have an absolute field day reporting that Arsenal have lost to the worst team in the Bundesliga.
While Koln may be in last place, they have been far better in Europe, and the competition has taken on even more importance for the club, as the path to European competition next year has all but been put out of reach by their atrocious start to the league season. In other words, if the club want to maximise their revenue to improve over the summer for next season, it is imperative that they play as many of these lucrative, internationally televised matches as possible this season. Their urgency showed, as they fought the Gunners tooth and nail to stop them from scoring and the three points will be a boon to their chances. As for Arsenal? Well, it’s only three days until they have an opportunity to change the subject away from their alleged failure against Koln.
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