Good morning Positives,
What a good result! A 5-1 aggregate score and two legs in which we comfortably ended the games in control is a rarity in European competitions at this stage where the ‘better’ clubs are coming face to face.
Of the game itself I thought we started a bit jittery and out of sorts, not helped by Kosc’s injury. The Frenchman immediately looked uncomfortable after going up for a corner, and not able to run so I was surprise it took 4-5 minutes to take him off.
With Laurent gone the teams traded possession for the next 30 minutes with neither side showing really testing the keeper or creating a clear goalscoring opening. Milan’s final ball was poor, as it had been to the San Siro, and our attacks ran went to the edge of the visitors’ box before running out of ideas.
The goal from Calhanoglu on 36 minutes was entirely unexpected, for me as much as Ospina. Good goal, 30 yards, corner of the net. Could the Colombian have been more alert and at least got a hand to it? Could Bellerin and/or Mustafi have shut the striker down quicker as their shouting match after the goal went in hinted at ? We shall never know.
There was a bit of a groan around me I admit but the goal was exactly what the tie needed and we responded immediately. We surged forward and within a minute it seemed Danny went down in a heap. Even from the other end it looked soft as the referee and the 5th official eyed each other up coyly. The Swedish referee nevertheless pointed spot-ward and Milan players went beserk, as I suspect any group of players would do in similar circumstances. Nessun sente da che parte preme la scarpa, se non chi se la calza. For all the fuss Danny stepped up and despatched the generous gift left and Donnarumma dived right. A collective sigh of relief was heard as far away as Hampstead Heath as we knew it was not going to be one of ‘those’ nights. Referee Eriksson compounded his guilt a few moments later by denying Milan a penalty when Callum Chambers arm was up but that would have been harsh.
The rest of the game I admit is a bit of a blur although as I did not get home until 2 this morning is a bit fuzzy anyway. The main recollection however is of Arsenal largely controlling the game. The pivot of that control last night being our Swiss midfielder, though whom it seemed most ball was channeled from back to front, and against Granit wall the RossoNeri battered to little effect as he covered ground and space, nicked the ball away and put a sly foot in as required. A really professional performance and capped by the killer second goal as far as Milan were concerned, a shocking cock up by a keeper who up until then in the tie had been excellent. Man of the match Xhaka. Enjoy your moment, you have worked hard for it. Merit points for Aaron, Jack, Mustafi, Callum and Danny.
Of the atmosphere 90% of Milan fans in the ground and singing an hour before kick off ! By Kick off + 5 I could see only a few empty seats in the upper tiers in the East and West Stands at the sides but it looked full to me. Plenty of noise throughout and lots of fans stayed after the final whistle to applaud all the players on both teams off the pitch. Arsenal fan next to me left immediately Donnarumma fumbled the second goal into his net – he’d seen enough.
At midday UK time we shall discover who the next opponents are in the Europa League and the hoopla will start again.
Enjoy Friday and the international break.
Positively Arsenal 
Suffering from a bit of a red haze , Merlot and Arsenal combining for a glorious evening. Granit was outstanding as you said Andy, but how about the cojones of Wellbz? Out of form and goals steps up to take a penalty, however right or wrong the decision, and no sweat. Happiness is! Onwards and upwards.
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The referee and the assistant eyeing each other up coyly made me laugh out loud. What a great turn of phrase you have.
I was very surprised we got that penalty. I can see why it would be given. I watch some Serie A and they give such soft penalties more often than in England. But I still think it wasn’t a penalty. Nor was it an egregious dive but I don’t want to see Arsenal players doing that. Unless it wins us the competition and then I shall rejoice in my hypocrisy while mocking that of the press. Cos you know, F*** ’em.
Calhanoglu’s goal was basically unstoppable. No blame attached to anyone for it.
I’ve been learning some Italian. But I can’t quite figure out what that statement literally means. No one feels the part the shoe presses on, except who wears the sock?
I thought we were good at how we controlled the game, except we let them cross the ball into dangerous areas. The CBs dealt with it well though. And I’m very happy for Chambers who was written off just because he went on loan and didn’t immediately get game time when back at Arsenal. He was given a new contract extension so Wenger obviously rates him.
Oddly enough, I thought Ozil had a poor game. But the stats show that he created 6 chances for his teammates.. Confused. It must have been his annoyed look throughout the game.
Finally, good game from Welbeck. Lacazette will be back soon as first choice striker in this competition, but if Welbeck is in good form it can only help us. And something tells me we’ll need him.
So, who’s up next? I hope it’s Sporting Lisbon.
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A brilliant write-up about a fine performance, and I shan’t spoil the fun of those who are yet to go scurrying to their book of Italian proverbs. Truly every day is a school day.
I didn’t get home until about 830 yesterday evening and had the extraordinary experience of turning the TV on and seeing the score was 0-1 but also that Danny Welbeck was about to take his penalty: emotions up and down in no time at all, lifetimes passing in front of my eyes and all that. And what a cool penalty it was from a man who has not exactly been in the very prime of goal-scoring form of late. Dat guy’s got nerves of steel, though I suspect he tends not to lie awake at night wrestling with pangs of existential despair. Let me also say how I have enjoyed the righteous indignation from all those, both friend and foe, (though at times it’s hard to tell the difference these days) about its award. As my old tutor used to say, every History essay in the world could be boiled down to “did he fall or was he pushed?”but I’m afraid I am in the Tempestuous Miranda camp of simply observing that for a score of kingdoms Dan could wrangle and I would call it fair play.
5-1 is the sort of scoreline that is very hard to argue with, and anyone who does so whilst still professing to only want what’s best for the club is guilty at best of being a Grade A so and so.
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I have been on Xhaka watch (I recognise his importance to the team structure) I have complained of him being very weak on press resistance, I felt he did not take enough ‘looks’ (Football adage being if you look at one spot for more than 3 seconds you either ball watching or day dreaming) he has definately upped his ‘Look’ count .
Suprise! he is finding more time on the ball, already knows his options before the ball arrives.
His positioning is so much better as is his appreciation of what is going on the field now . For instance he tried to cover Çalhanoğlu shot , it was not his man he rocognised the danger and tried to do something about it.
Plus good bits of reading the game defensively, the talent is there, for me the question was if he had the desire to be the player he could be and the player Arsenal need.
il fait bien au présent
My French is coming on a bit, been a tough few weeks as an Arsenal supporter
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WWWB
Great observation about Xhaka. I shall have to ‘look’ more closely at that. He’s definitely looking more comfortable in his role and he and the rest of the players are passing the ball quicker than in recent months. Hopefully he continues to improve because I think there’s potentially a great player there.
The most impressive part of your comment was the way you nonchalantly spelled Calhanoglu with the right accents and squidges. Class.
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Almost spot on Shard – the rough translation is “you don’t know where the shoe is tight ’til you wear it”
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Welbeck penalty was soft but I’m not arguing about it after seeing what kind of decisions have been given to others.Two wrongs don’t make a right can be said of everyone this season not just arsenal and please pay no heed to journalists I mean the biasm in some articles is just ridiculous.It’s obviously done for clickbait but in the most obvious straight in your face hypocritical manner possible.God forbid we get clickbait with decent honest articles talking about the match in general.
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Grazie mille Anicoll
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I see the hollier-than-thou press is out in full force arguing about Danny Welbeck dive and how its a disgrace to England, the Queen, Europe and the Galaxy.
Such is their disgust that it seriously made me question whether i had been living in some sort of parallel universe for the past three years. Are these really the exact same people closing their eyes at Harry Kane, Alli, Hazard, Lamela, Rose and the rest? Spurs dive a dozen times every game and the heaviest criticism i’ve heard so far is the old trope of “dele ali let himself down”. Please, do fuck off.
What is this double standard? Do they know it will generate outrage/clicks from Arsenal so they do it on purpose!? Do they really just hate Arsenal? Is it the absence of diving in our team in general what makes it so conspicuous when it does happen? None of these seem to be convincing reasons to me.
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Shard
Having grown up in Hackney I was exposed to very early on to the diversity of languages in the world .
In the last year of primary school a lad joined my class he came from Switzerland, he spoke seven languages fluently, he absolutely blew my mind . Ever since I have been motivated to learn and always tried to be correct with spellings and pronunciation.
Funny, I could speak decent Italian once upon a time (that is what I used as my base language when I first went to mainland Europe for hoildays then work), but like a muscle it becomes flabby.
I think my best foriegn language is now Spanish.
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Suzie #YaGunnersYa
@Suzagooner
Robbie Savage,the man who said last week if he was that Milan player he would have dragged his leg to ‘cheat’ a pen from Ospina,seemed a bit angered that Welbz was given one he thought wasn’t. Agenda?
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Dele Welbeck, you can take the player out of Manchester United, but you can’t take Manchester United out of the player
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Jeez
Some precious Milanistas around, so touchy about their AC Milan chant,they seem to fell that the wrote the new MacArthur Park and Arsenal fans have sampled it and are not paying them royalties.
The fuss, like all Arsenal fans are not aware they were singing for their club, they have no understanding of the Arsenal gallows humor (Also known as navel gazing) and how funny everyone has found it.
Get over yourselves
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Arsenal Vs. CSKA.
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Atlético Vs. Sporting.
Lazio Vs. Salzburg.
Leipzig Vs. Marseille.
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might not be the best time for an English club to play a Russian club, and I would fear for any of our traveling support
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cl draw
sevilla v munich
liverpool v city
juventus v real madrid
roma v barcelona
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Shard
A good comparison for the Xhaka ‘Look’ debate is to compare him to someone like Cesc.
I used to say Cesc could see Dead People (Maybe because he has a slightly lazy eye) his head is constantly on ‘The Swivel’
Someone like Ozil is more comparison to Pele because they have protruding eyes which helps with peripheral vision.So it is not as easy to notice, when they are field scanning.
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can we possibly get all the AFTV lot to the away leg v CSKA, you know with them being all tough guys and what not.
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Oh dear. Russia bashing posts will be incoming
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Shard, When we were boring
Mesut doesn’t scan. Mesut knows.
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santi_cazorler
Agreed
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Excellent performance over the two legs, and an interesting draw in the current climate especially.
Granit is going to be a wonderful player, just hope it is with us, unless the fools drive him away
If Danny dived, I done condone it but do note the hysterical media and malcontents reaction to it, when compared with players at a club not a million miles from our own.
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I have already told Mrs May if she wants to get Mr Putin’s attention she should dock Chelsea ten PL points Shard.
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In a world in which footballers are presented in and by the media, and sometimes present themselves, as cartoon characters I come across this;
https://twitter.com/EPLBible/status/974626230715736065
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Gigi Buffon
It seems incredible now but I remember his first game for Parma a debut 1995 against The New Black Panther (La nuova pantera nera) and il divin codino what a front line that was.
He kept a clean sheet
At 17 (and change) he did not look out of place and did not flinch, he was not Lo zio Bergomi(Who cracked my up when I saw him at 15, I am older than him but he looked to have a moustache thicker than my dads) he seemed to have a presence. Now he is probably the most experienced player in European football and he cannot be ‘shook’.
This is what is known as a legend.
A legend of World Football
Respect
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Oh BTW just in case some genius comes in here with all this unfair penalty bullshit show them this.Remember it as if it was yesterday I just looked at my friend(milan supporter) and he was just shaking his head.
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Milan manager Gennaro Gattuso, wasn’t as shrill and hysterical as elements of the English press, saying:
He is a striker. He has to do what he does, but we can’t use that as the entire influence of English football. Even when I was a player, I always tried to get away with something.
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Sad to hear Coquelin has ruptured his achilles. Nasty injury and many not the same after it. Wish him well
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Echo praise for Xhaka. Not going to add anything except he’s been good the last few games. I thought he and Wilshere were decent against Brighton even. There were a few things in that Brighton match that augured well, in hindsight. If that makes sense.
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Héctor Gómez
Verified account @Generaldepie_
Marcelino confirma que parece que Coquelin se ha roto el tendón de Aquiles. QUE PUTADA. #fuerzacoquelin
Marcelino confirms that it seems that The Coq has torn his aquiles tendon.
What a shame (Putada in this context is a big swear word, it does not mean shame but I think you get the drift)
7 months recovery time
Tough on the lad
He has really grown into an important player for Valencia.
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so Jose went on a 12 minute rant about how great he is today, and the journo’s lapped it up, all nodding dogs
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Arsenal v Southampton moved from Monday, 9th April, to Sunday, 8th April 2.15pm KO.
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John Cross, we need answers! Please tell us you are as you say an Arsenal supporter and not an agenda ridden media whore
https://mobile.twitter.com/AFCAMDEN/status/974674993794764800?p=v
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I vaguely remember when Jose went into a similar nutty rant in his final Autumn at the Bridge he lasted about a month until he was sacked. Anyone listening to his babbling nonsense today might think he barely had much idea what word was next.
Good fucking riddance – the man is a stain.
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by jeorge bird
Arsenal midfielder Josh Benson is on trial at Burnley and provided an assist for the Clarets’ U23 side in their 2-1 defeat to Hull City last night.
Benson, a graduate of Arsenal’s Hale End academy, sees his scholarship deal expire this summer and has been informed that he won’t be offered a professional contract by the club.
The 18-year-old played 80 minutes for Burnley and will hope to earn a permanent deal with the Premier League side.
This season Benson has made 14 league appearances for Arsenal U18s, scoring twice and setting up six goals, while he also featured in the FA Youth Cup and made his U23 debut away to Everton.
However, with Arsenal having several talented young central midfielders at their disposal, Benson is set to be released.
Arsenal have five other remaining second year scholars – Daniel Ballard, Jay Beckford, Robbie Burton, Tobi Omole and Dominic Thompson.
It is anticipated that Beckford will be let go but the others will hope to be retained.
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Report – Saka strikes and McEneff opens account as Arsenal U18s thrash Norwich
by jeorge bird
U18 Premier League
Norwich City 0 Arsenal 4 (Swanson 6, Olayinka 34, Saka 79, McEneff 81)
Swans U18 v Arsenal U18 21×9.jpg
Schoolboy substitute Bukayo Saka scored and provided an assist as Arsenal U18s thrashed Norwich City 4-0 away today to keep their feint title hopes alive.
Following this victory, which also included goals from Zak Swanson, James Olayinka and Jordan McEneff, the young Gunners are now nine points adrift of leaders Chelsea with a game in hand.
They secured this win without some of their usual players as the likes of Joao Virginia, Vontae Daley-Campbell, Danny Ballard and Tyreece John-Jules weren’t involved, perhaps with tomorrow’s U23 game against Chelsea in mind.
There was a rare start for Daniel Barden in goal, while Swanson was deployed at right-back and Tobi Omole moved into midfield.
McEneff was also given a start, with Arsenal’s depleted resources emphasised by the fact that they only named three substitutes, with no goalkeeper on the bench.
Barden
Swanson-Clarke-Olowu-Thompson
M. Smith-Omole
Olayinka-McEneff-Coyle
Balogun
Subs: Saka (for Balogun, 64), Beckford (for Omole, 70), Spencer-Adams (for Coyle, 80).
Arsenal got off to a flying start, with Swanson opening the scoring after just six minutes.
It was 2-0 before the break when Olayinka, who will hope to now establish himself as a regular starter at this level, scored his third goal of the season.
There was more to come from Arsenal and Saka was at the very heart of it as the lively winger finished adroitly in the 79th minute before teeing up McEneff shortly afterwards, with the latter scoring his first official goal for the club.
This win sets Arsenal up nicely for Tuesday’s FA Youth Cup semi-final, first leg tie away to Blackpool, although some of the players who will feature in that game will be in action or the U23s tomorrow.
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Arsenal next 5 fixtures:
Stoke (h)
CSKA Moscow (h)
Southampton (h)
CSKA Moscow (a)
Newcastle (a)
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Having seen the ‘penalty’ incident close up, I still don’t think Danny was diving or looking for a penalty. It looked like he tripped and the referee made the call so he just took it. I guess he could have deliberately missed it, but how would that have gone down with the boo boys? Thankfully there’s the international break and maybe he’ll score a goal for England so the media can move on.
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I’m surprised Cross and co have time to worry about Welbeck pen.
They must all be working on long pieces of apology to Wenger for all the years they ignored or downplayed the role of money in determining success in football.
Or if not that, then articles targeting mourinho to tell him he has it all wrong in saying catching City will be very difficult for him unless he can spend as much or more than them, and I’m sure he means for a few years not just one.
What’s it to be for them? Tick tock tick tock. Honest men. Passionate. Credibility at stake. Giant issue, surely the most important in the game, from top to bottom. Tick tock- I guess they’ll bash Welbeck some more.
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Here’s something different to cheer you up.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/16/romanian-court-tells-man-he-is-not-alive
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I am far from convinced Danny did dive, if he really did, he shouldn’t have, but in his case , would be a rare event. But the reaction against him, compared to the encouragement by the media when it concerns Hazard, Sterling, Alli, Kane, Vardy and before them, Rooney, Gerrard, Owen….is telling, don’t let anyone tell you there is no agenda against the club and/or manager.
Spurs cheat to instruction, not just the dive twins, but son, lamella, the slightest touch in the area, they go down, apart from mild rebukes for DA, there is media silence.
Nobody saying Danny was ” clever” ” playing to the rules” ” there was clear contact”
On this note, Arsenal, their manager and coach have seriously upset the powers that be over the Eduardo situation , and the Marseille scandal. UEFA have long memories. Geopolitically, ,we have the worst draw possible, it will be a brave ref that goes too far against moscows finest. That game aside, I am quite sure should we progress, we will find ourselves up against twelve men, again, in Europe. Only the bravest of fans will travel to Moscow, but I suspect the team will need all the backing they can get as this team will at some vital point find themselves up against it. After all, isn’t that thing that sent off Rvp in Barca the Mike Riley of Europe?
Rich, I strongly suspect Cross is pretty bitter against the club, Ornstein and Wilson are clearly their journos of choice, cross is reduced to feeding off scraps, guesswork, making things up and spreading anger against those who have scorned him.
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69 today
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Mandy the most annoying thing in all the Welbeck thing is not the hypocrisy of John Cross and co, but that not one Arsenal blog, not even Positively Arsenal(I would hope someone with a better turn of pharse than I can offer would do it) has done an article calling the media out on it. Where is Arseblog, LeGrove, She Wore, even AFTV, why are they aiding and abetting the media in this attack on Danny and Arsenal. Why are none of them standing up for the club they claim to love.
is being twitter buddies with John Cross more important to them than calling out the hypocrisy of the media, or are they just too afraid if they do call him out, that a bit of digging by him and other media outlets would reveal these bloggers own hypocrisy in all the times they have attacked all things Arsenal.
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Arsenal U23 v Chelsea u23:
Iliev
Osei Tutu-Medley-Mavropanos-T. Bola
Dasilva-Willock
Dragomir-Nelson-John Jules
Nketiah
Subs: Barden, Amaechi, Gilmour, Ballard, Fortune.
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Arsenal 0-1 #CFCDev! Kyle Scott opens the scoring inside 15 minutes after dispossessing Dasilva and finishing past Iliev.
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Goal to Arsenal, 1-1. A period of pressure from the hosts pays off as they keep a corner alive and Nketiah lashes in from close range
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Goal to Arsenal, 2-1. The hosts have turned it around here as a scramble in the box leads to John-Jules poking the ball beyond Bulka.
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Chelsea FC
Verified account @ChelseaFC
1m1 minute ago
HALF TIME: Arsenal 2-1 #CFCDev. Scott’s strike gave us the lead but the Gunners have responded well to turn it round.
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