Napoli vs Arsenal: Gunners Make Champions League Statement Before Sunderland Test
Arsenal came, Arsenal saw, and Arsenal conquered.
The Gunners travelled to Naples and came away with a massive Champions League win against Napoli. It was more or less one-way traffic. The Gunners were completely relentless in the way they went about taking on Napoli at the Maradona Stadium. The scoreline may not look like it was a dominant display, but it was definitely, definitely complete control. Arsenal did what they do best: took possession of the ball, kept it well and popped it around just to make sure Napoli couldn’t get close to our goal.
Now, onto Sunderland at the weekend. Let’s see how we can deal with the Stadium of Light.
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| Image Credit [Arsenal.com] |
Review: Napoli vs Arsenal (#UCL)
We were WASTEFUL!!! Ok, that's the negative out of the way, without being too critical. Raya probably had maybe just one or two saves. There was one that he parried, which he cleaned up, but apart from that, he was pretty much walking from home. He cut the crosses he needed to catch, did his distribution as usual, and had just his usual day at the office. Martin Odegaard was at the centre of everything good at Arsenal, controlling the tempo, passing incisively and getting the Gunners to play on the front foot. Eventually, it was his goal in the seventy-fifth minute, assisted once again by Tzolis, that separated the two teams. Three points, clean sheet and an away game confidently navigated. What’s not to like?
Of course, you would want a scoreline that’s more reflective of how dominant Arsenal were. But for profligate finishing, Saka was uncharacteristically wasteful in front of goal. The rest of the team also had opportunities. Merino had a nice header after Eze popped the ball back into the dangerous area for Merino to just bury with his header. Unfortunately, Merino, of course, just coming back from injury, doesn’t seem to be as sharp as he should be.
Then we also had that one-on-one chance by Madueke. Again, as usual with Madueke, his finishing was totally weird. His decision-making in the final third needs to be better, or else I see a young man on loan at Dortmund at the moment who is gonna eat his lunch. Hopefully, we may be able to get even more minutes with this loan spell, and he comes back a different animal.
The first half ended nil-nil, with the Napoleons definitely the happier of the two sides.
Arsenal were so wasteful in front of goal. Saka should have scored. There was a cross that Gyokeres made with his outside instep foot, and Saka did an overhead kick, which didn’t really trouble the goalkeeper. But besides that, he had two glorious chances or opportunities to bury in the back of the net.
For some reason, Saka’s shooting boots were off today. Apart from the Merino chance, we also had a glorious opportunity for Hincapie to put the ball in the back of the net just three to four, five yards out, and somehow he just ballooned it into Row Z. In fact, it was more difficult to miss that goal than to score. And, of course, the more difficult one was what happened. One would have been forgiven to think it was gonna be one of those days for Arsenal were in control, but we just couldn’t finish.
But Mikel Arteta rang the changes at around sixty to sixty-five minutes. On came Tzolis and Bruno Guimaraes, and off went Merino and Eze, who in particular had, if you ask me, a game to forget. Besides one or two speculative shots, it was just that header back to Merino that was one of his best creative contributions to the game. Eze really needs to do more. He is capable of it. If he wants to lock down that left side, left hand, left wing, which is all for grabs right now with Martinelli out, then he definitely needs to show up more. Of course, besides Eze, Hincapie was not exactly as dynamic going forward as our usual dependable Ricardo Calafiori. And that also showed. So the left side was not really doing the business. When Tzolis came, they upped the ante, you could see a difference in how the gunners played, it was better. The Greek international seems to be developing this telepathic relationship with Odegaard. He assisted him for the goal, and that’s his third goal contribution and his fourth assist contribution in five games this season. If he continues at this goal contribution rate, he’s proving to be a bargain find.
So, all in all, not the best scoreline, but the display will be very encouraging for Mikel Arteta. And what we need right now is to make sure that once we get back to England, the lads find their shooting boots.
Declan Rice, who also got into good positions twice only to sky the ball, same with Saka, same with Eze. We need these guys contributing goals and assists from midfield so that the likes of Kai Havertz, the likes of Gyokeres, they can also... they can have the burden lightened on them. In all, it was a good game of football. We were in control, we got off to a winning start in our Champions League campaign. Winning start. Onto the next one.
A quick look around, you could see Arsenal needed this win. Man United won, of course, somebody would say, oh, it’s that unknown team from wherever. We don’t know. But a win is a win. Funny enough, City also went away at Porto, two-nil on the night. We know that Liverpool also won at Anfield, beating Atletico Madrid two-one, and of course Arsenal needed to get that win.
Anyway, back. Now it’s time for us to segue quickly to the Premier League.
Preview: Sunderland vs Arsenal (#EPL)
And see, when sitting down, like everybody is sitting down and focused to do your work, else I will calm you down the way that I know you quickly understand.
The Gunners are travelling to the Stadium of Light to keep a date with Sunderland.
Regis Le Bris’ side have been, for the first time in a long while, engaged in the Europa League in Europe. So the Thursday-Sunday dynamic is hopefully going to affect them, meaning Arsenal has had more time to rest and also recuperate, even though we did a lot of travel as well.
Last season comes to mind, where Arsenal drew 2-2, losing or dropping two points in the last, the very last or dying minutes of that game when there was a mix-up between Gabriel and David Raya.
Hopefully, we have learned from our mistakes and we are more up for it. Arteta in his press conference before the game kind off alluded to my thoughts exactly;
“Last year, we dropped points there, especially in the last minutes. We experienced and learned a lot from that game for the previous one. Tomorrow, again, we'll discuss many things that we need to be aware of and where we want to take the game, what their qualities are and how we’ll try to nullify them.”
Make no mistake, this is gonna be a tough one. Regis Lebris has made Sunderland a very good side in their stadium, going unbeaten through 2025 in there and for the better part of last season, only losing 4 times there all through 2025/26 season. What they lack in technical quality which isnt much, they make up in grafting and work rate, plus their physicality in both boxes. The likes of Brobbey, Ballard, Mukele all have that fighting graft in them. We have to be on our game, hard as nails.
There’s also that plot twist or subplot of Granit Xhaka, who was a former Arsenal player, who Chelsea wanted to buy this season but chose, out of respect to Arsenal, to stay with Sunderland.
How are they gonna play? How are they gonna set up against the Gunners? Can the Gunners make it four wins in the EPL in a row? That remains to be seen. We have to get our midfield right. That battle in the centre of the park, trying to control things. Of course, they also have players who are very good, and then they have a very, very physical probably up front. There’s also the former Arsenal player in their defence who did very, very well in our meeting with them last season. There are just so many tiny subplots here and there, and we hope that the Gunners are ready to take the game to the Black Cats. In the game, I’d expect a little bit of rotation. Of course, maybe give Eze another run on the left wing and start Bruno as well as Declan Rice in the middle of the park.
Captain Fantastic, Martin Odegaard, would be, of course, leading the line from that attacking creative number ten role. Saka keeps his place on the right-hand side while in the defence, it picks itself. Calafiori comes back into the lineup for Hincapie, Gabriel and Gabriel in central defence and at right-back. I am a bit hesitant about playing Ben White because he has actually racked up minutes. Maybe, maybe this is where we bring in Marli Salmon.
I know that Timber is not exactly fit enough to start, so we’ll gradually ease him. There’s a league match in the middle of the week that he can come in, and he’s not even likely to start. He’s gonna come in, get some maybe twenty, thirty minutes and gradually build his match fitness back. So Arteta has to be very, very smart with his squad, rotating as the need needs be. I also believe that, you know, the hunger and the fire in the belly of the boys will make them want to definitely put this game to bed in quick fashion. Saka especially should have the bit between his teeth. Same with Eze.
Saka had an okay game, but his finishing during the Champions League match was something to be very disappointed about. And I wanna believe that he’s gonna be challenged, he’s gonna be fired up, and he will be like, man, I have something to prove. Gyokeres, unfortunately, is not getting the balls that he needs to be able to be a difference-maker, and he is not as technically gifted as Kai Havertz. And that does not bode well. That does not do well for him.
If I was Arteta, I would still find a way to play Gyokeres just to keep his confidence going because you don’t wanna isolate or you don’t wanna alienate a player who you know is capable of getting goals, especially against physical sides like Sunderland. Because these are kinda games that you would say suit Gyokeres very well. So if Havertz is not doing it in forty-five, fifty, sixty minutes of play, I’ll bring Gyokeres on and tell him, look, go there. Go show me why I should start you ahead of Havertz. And I know that you can do it. So go on the pitch of play and do it.
All in all, I hope that the Gunners are able to get another clean sheet, get three points and come back to London with it so that we can maintain our momentum, or keep our winning momentum going.
Because City play against Manchester United in the Manchester Derby this weekend. It’s an opportunity for us to start racking those points up. Liverpool drew, Chelsea, who may be potential title contenders, are coming to the books because of that, their rapid attack of Joao Pedro. Also drew, dropping two points at home to Hull. Hull is another club or another team to watch. They have been flying high, and they’re currently sitting in third place. So all these dynamics happening, people, with teams, potential competing teams dropping points, Arsenal should put that foot to the floor and continue racking up those points so that you build up that cushion until the business end of the season and, you know, just make sure that you’re able to win this league a second time for the first time in Arsenal’s recent history as a Premier League team.The last time we won the league back-to-back was in the thirties, where we were quite dominant. And at this hour, we would more than love to be the first EPL-era manager to do that for Arsenal. See my team sheet for the game below:
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| #SUNARS |
