Full-time: Anderlecht 1-2 Arsenal
Arsenal laboured for long period and seemed set for a deserved defeat until nabbing all three points with an incredible turn-around at the death. Gibbs’ goal was magnificent, Podolski’s an opportunistic treat. But Anderlecht fans wouldn’t dare complain of robbery in the Constant Vanden Stock.
GOAL! Anderlecht 1-2 Arsenal (Podolski 90+1)
Incredible! Arsenal have been mostly awful but they’ve nicked victory at the death! Unsurprisingly, Sanchez was instrumental in the winning goal, his cross bringing a panicked attempted clearance from Mbemba, who knocked it straight to Podolski. The substitute took one touch and then slammed the ball into the roof of the net from five yards!
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GOAL! Anderlect 1-1 Arsenal (Gibbs 89)
Arsenal snatch an unlikely equaliser with a goal straight out of Everton’s playbook! One full-back, Chambers, delivered a superb cross and the other, Gibbs, applied an immaculate finish, thundering a crisp shot into the net from 12 yards.
Anderlecht substitution: 20-year-ol Praet goes off after an excellent performance, to be replaced by defensive midfielder Dendoncker.
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86 min: It’s all Anderlecht. Arsenal are in disarray. Their defenders are as dazed and jaded, like toddlers after too much pop. This is not how Arsene Wenger’s birthday party was supposed to unfold.
84 min: Unbelievably shambolic defending from Arsenal - especially Monreal - means that Suarez gets his first touch 20 yards and with no Arsenal player other than the keeper between him and the goal! What’s more, he has a team-mate to his right - this must be a second goal for Anderlecht! But no! The new arrival is so shocked by the opportunity that he mis-controls and Martinez is able to snaffle the ball, after two attempts.
Arsenal substitution: Wilshere off, Podolski on.
Anderlecht substitution: Cyriac off, Suarez on.
81 min: Freekick to Arsenal in an inviting position 20 yards. Sanchez fancies it .. and justifies his confidence by curling a sumptuous shot around the wall ... and inches wide.
79 min: Ooooh! What an escape for Arsenal! Najar led yet another searing counter-attack, romping into space left by Gibbs, who was stranded upfield. As Arsenal scramble in their box, Najar picks out Praet, who mis-hits his shot over Martinez ... and on to the bar! Najar then hammers the rebound into the sidenetting.
77 min: There’s a brashness about Anderlecht now, the product of their goal and Arsenal’s mediocrity.
76 min: Najar forages down the right again and bursts between two Arsenal players before firing a low ball across the face of goal. No one there to meet it.
Substitution: Welbeck and Flamini off; Campbell and Oxlade-Chamberlain on.
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73 min: Now can Arsenal summon some fluency, vim and ideas? They’ve been drably short of all three so far.
GOAL! Anderlecht 1-0 Arsenal (Najar 71)
That has been coming. Another rapid, imaginative counter-attack from the hosts. Monreal’s meekness enabled Praet to dig out a lovely cross from the right, and Najar sent a header past Martinez from eight yards!
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69 min: This is all very laboured from Arsenal. It’s as if they’re playing in wellies.
67 min: Anderlecht’s confidence is rising and so is their threat. Wenger’s inactivity is starting to look negligent. Where is Oxlade-Chamberlain?
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65 min: Welbeck gives the ball away and then earns a yellow card for chopping down Mbemba as the defender tried to lead a counter-attack.
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63 min: Cazorla should score .... but doesn’t! He made a cute run behind the full-back and into the box and was rewarded with a perfect through-ball from Sanchez. But the Spaniard’s shot was weak and enabled Proto to make an awkward save.
62 min: This Tielemans really is a tidy player, the sort of deep-lying midfielder with which Arsenal could so.
60 min: Arsenal are starting to dominate possession play but Anderlecht are mostly keeping them at bay without too much trouble. There’s a lack of sparkle about the Gunners that may best be remedied by a substitution. Oxlade-Chamberlain needs to be on here.
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57 min: A lightning counter-attack by Anderlecht culminates with Cyriac, who initiated the move, firing a decent shot in from 22 yards. And that gives Martinez his first proper save to make, which he does with no fuss.
54 min: Lovely move by Arsenal. Cazorla, Ramsey and Sanchez all swapped intricate passes around the Anderlecht box before Sanchez shrewdly teed up Ramsey for a shot from 10 yards but, under pressure, the Welshamn couldn’t make a true connection and prods the ball wide.
51 min: Solid defending by Mbemba to dispossess Sanchez at the edge of the Anderlecht area. The Belgians then rip forward and Conte has Arsenal in trouble at the other end. But after a wriggly run into the box, the forward falls over before he can deliver a killer pass.
49 min: Cazorla produces his best delivery of the night from a freekick outside the area. Sanchez meets it after making a typically canny run but the goalkeeper shows smart reflexes to parry the Chilean’s close-range back-header.
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47 min: A let-off for Arsenal as a Conte snapshot after dome shoddy defending takes a nick off Mertesacker and goes out for a corner, which come to nought.
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46 min: We’re back. No changes in personnel. Arsenal tear straight into their opponents and Welbeck makes a tricky dash into the box, before running out of space.
Paul Merson has just made a good point on Sky. He says that, other than Sanchez (and, I would add Welbeck), Arsenal’s players are not doing enough to make themselves available for a pass. “If they go 1-0 up, you’ll see a completely different Arsenal,” he says, suggesting - would you believe? - that Arsenal have a surfeit of fairweather players.
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Half-time: Anderlecht 0-0 Arsenal
The scoreline reflects an even half in which Arsenal have shown glimmers of quality but mostly stuttered and seldom looked superior to their snappy hosts. This could go either way.
43 min: Wilshere tries to slide a ball through to Ramsey, who has struggled to get involved so far. The ball was well-intentioned but fractionally too long.
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41 min: Arsenal’s lack of inspiration is encouraging Anderlecht’s young bucks. “Oh man, Arsenal’s guys really need to start putting on their big boy pants,” groans Michelle Peters-Jones. “Don’t any of them wear any lucky undies or summat?” I’ll dispatch our best investigative immediately with instructions to find out what type of undies Arsenal players are sporting.
38 min: A good spell of play by Anderlecht, with young Tielemans pulling the strings. The 17-year-old played four canny passes as Anderlecht probed, then flipped a lovely one into the path of Praet, whose shot from an acute angle was pushed behind for a corner. Arsenal defend it well.
36 min: The relentless Welbeck wins a corner. Cazorla’s finally finds a decent delivery but Mertesacker’s back-header at the near post flies over the bar.
34 min: Arsenal seem marginally the more likely scorers but - surprise, surprise - are lacking a solid platform in midfield and looking very vulnerable on the counter-attack.
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32 min: Chambers is caught out again as Acheampong hares in behind him in pursuit of a clever pass. The Anderlecht player’s pace is a permanent menace for Chambers. Luckily for Arsenal, Achemapong’s team-mates couldn’t keep up with him either so no one was on hand to turn in his dangerous low cross.
30 min: Sanchez is looking Arsenal’s most likely source of inspiration, with Welbeck constantly providing him options with smart runs. But so far the pair have not been able to complete their connection.
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28 min: Acheampong hurtles past Chambers down the left and pings in a dangerous cross that Flamini is forced to put behind. Mertesacker clears again.
27 min: A hopeful Tieleman’s shot from 33 yards is deflected behind for a corner, which Mertesacker clears as far Praet, who has a ging on the volley from 20 yards. Over the bar it flies.
25 min: Arsenal have plenty of the ball but. There ... is ... a real lack ... of .... fluency. In their play.
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23 min: Don’t think of sending any Christmas presents via Santi Cazorla this year: his deliveries are mostly woeful if tonight’s display is anything to go by. He has wasted all of Arsenal’s corners so far and has just sent a promising freekick into no-man’s land.
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20 min: Arsenal getting increasingly bogged down in midfield.
17 min: So far the Anderlecht strategy is functioning well. They’re preventing Arsenal from finding any space when in possession, with the result that most of the visitors’ bouts of possession peter out. And the Belgians have shown an appetite to attack with speed when they get the chance.
15 min: Sanchez latches on to a long crossfield ball and then flights a decent cross into the centre. Welbeck meets it with his head on the run but fails to direct it on target from 10 yards.
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14 min: Cazorla curls a dangerous freekick into the near post, where Mbemba heads it away. Corner to Arsenal. In this group’s other match, Pierre Aubameayang has already put Dortmund in front at Galatasary.
13 min: Flamini goofs in midfield to allow Anderlecht to put more pressure on Arsenal’s defence. Conte skitters down the left and feeds Praet, whose shot from 20 yards is deflected into the arms of Martinez.
12 min: Tielemans sprays a fine ball out wide to Najar, who tries to skedaddle into the box but is foiled by Gibbs, who kept his eye on the ball rather than the forward’s whirring legs.
10 min: Neat feet by Welbeck fool the defender, who brings the striker down to concede a freekick on the edge of the area. Cazorla donks it straight into the wall.
8 min: Anderlecht are working up some confidence here and starting to get a strong foothold in midfield. Cyriac is a proper nuisance up front too, showing strength, speed and directness. Monreal has just been shown a yellow card for hauling the Ivorian down after being beaten by him just inside the Arsenal half. The Spaniard on a highwire now.
6 min: Cazorla takes down a fetching pass from Chambers and attempts to nick the ball through to Sanchez, but Deschacht read his intentions and rumbled the ploy.
4 min: Anderlecht win a corner after a slack pass by Mertesacker gives Cyriac the chance to run at Chambers. Fortunately for the visitors, the corner is feeble.
3 min: A great early chance for Arsenal! Sanchez shimmied his way past Acheampong down the left and then pulled a low cross towards the penalty spot. Santi Cazorla ran on to it with no one near him but failed to make proper use of the time and space, blottering the ball high and wide.
1 min: It is on! Arsenal quickly ease into steady passing, virtually every player getting a touch as they play their way from one side of the pitch to the other and back again.
Anderlect, in fairness, have a proper foxy kit, a hellotrope jersey with a broad white sash. Arsenal are in their familiar Rotherham United number.
Out march the teams to the familiar Champions League theme followed by raucous cheers in this cramped ground.
So Anderlecht boss Besnik Hasi has made significant changes. After being overwhelmed in midfield during the 3-0 defeat last time out, he has elected to deploy more men in the middle, going for a 4-5-1. He also appears to have lost faith in the strikers Suarez and Mitrovic and has therefore decided to turn back to Cyriac, who has not started a game for two months and is still working his way back from injury.
Teams:
Moderately surprised to see Monreal at centre-back, where he seldom looks safe. Chambers would probably have been a surer bet, especially as young Bellerin has look good (and incredibly fast) at rightback in his few senior appearances. Guess Wener has gone for experience, even if it is not particular good experience.
Anderlecht: Proto; Vanden Bore, Mbemba, Deschacht, Acheampong; Tielemans, Defour; Najar, Praet, Conte; Cyriac
Subs: Roef, Suarez, Colin, Kljestan, Dendoncker, Kabasele, Mitrovic
Arsenal: Martinez; Chambers, Mertesacker, Monreal, Gibbs; Ramsey, Flamini, Wilshere; Sanchez, Welbeck, Santi Cazorla
Subs: Huddart, Rosicky, Arteta, Podolski, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Campbell, Bellerin
Referee: C Velasco Carballo (Spain)
Here’s the beginning of what could become an interesting trend: tonight Anderlecht midfielder Steven Defour is wearing customised shinpads featuring cartoon images of himself and his girlfriend. Pretty groovy, in my opinion. Let’s not start suggesting other way that players could modify their protective wear, particularly when it comes to imagery on jockstraps.
Steven Defour will wear customised shinpads with his & his girlfriend's face on them vs Arsenal. (via @HLNinEngeland) pic.twitter.com/eByckjeexw
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) October 22, 2014
Preamble:
Hello and welcome to the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium in Brussels. Actually, this chronicle is not being written from that arena at all, because your scribe is not allowed out at night taking a principled stand against grounds named after people who bribe referees to influence the outcome of big European matches, as the aforementioned Vanden Stock did 30 years ago. For further information, accost the nearest Nottingham Forest fan (or read this). Quite why Uefa allow Champions League matches to be hosted in a stadium glorifying a match-fixer is anyone’s guess, but it would be interesting to see how far the game’s governors would be willing to let their morals slide: perhaps Arsenal should test the waters by re-naming the Emirates for the return match. The Ronnie Biggs Bowl, anyone? Jack the Ripper Grove?
Tell you what, let’s concentrate on the football. Because there’s already plenty enough there for Arsenal fans to fume about. Just look at the state of that defence! Everyone from Hercule Poirot to absurd fictional characters such as Igors Stepanovs could have told you before the start of this season that Arsenal needed to substantially reinforce their backline, but did Arsene Wenger pay heed? No, because heed was asking for the market price. So now the Gunners go into an important Champions League game with an inexperienced defence held together by Sellotape and spit – and one, to boot, that is charged with the heavy responsibly of providing protection to Emiliano Martinez, the third-choice goalkeeper who has not played for the club since an alarming contribution to the chaotic 7-5 League Cup victory over Reading two years ago. Anderlecht may never have a better opportunity to beat an English team legally again.
And the Belgians need to win. They have a solitary point after two matches, having drawn with Galatasaray and been given the big slipper by Dortmund, although that defeat was their only loss in 15 matches in all competitions this season. Anderlecht have finished bottom of their group in their last seven appearances in this stage of the competition but their young team (look out for the nifty 17-year-old midfielder Youri Tielemans, in particular) are intent on improving on that record and, on Wenger’s 65th birthday, could do worse than summon the spirit of Jose Mourinho, a man who appears to find extra motivation from the prospect of pooping Wenger’s parties. There could be larks ahead. Or there could be another run-of-the-mill European victory for Arsenal against middling opponents, in which case we may have to keep ourselves entertained by nattering about naming stadium after objectionable characters, perhaps tasteless ones rather than villainous. Parc de Piers Morgan?
