Full-time: Arsenal 2-0 Basel
That was emphatic from Arsenal, and at times brilliant, especially in the first half when the speed and cleverness of their passing and movement flummoxed Basel. What’s more, they played with an intensity that they have often lacked in recent seasons. There’s something happening at Arsenal ...
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90 min: “There is a new feeling about this team but until we finish with a clean sheet I will not be reassured,” wibbles Paul Janaway. Just two more minutes to survive, Paul ...
89 min: Vaclik saves again! Sanchez, who’s craved a goal all night, sees a close-range shot blocked at the near post.
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88 min: Moments after Ospina saves from Sparar at one end, Arsenal break forward and send Oxlade-Chamberlain racing through. He skips past Vaclik at the edge of the area but is forced too wide to shoot. He sizes up his options and tries a cross, but the pesky Vaclik intervenes for the 200th time.
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86 min: Cazorla attempts to curl the ball under the wall, but the players in it hadn’t jumped high enough.
86 min: Sanchez tripped at the edge of the area as he tried to wriggle between several players. Cazorla fancies the freekick...
85 min: Arsenal are showboating, bringing out the flicks and tricks. Only a matter of time before they whip out their iPhones, too.
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83 min: Mustafi down clutching his knee following a collision Steffen, who’s also stricken. But both men soon get to their feet and shake away the blues.
80 min: OK, Arsenal are in cruise mode now. And Basel seem happy to get away with only a two-goal beating.
Basel substitution: Delgado on, Bjarnason off.
Arsenal substitution: Gibbs on, Monreal off.
75 min: Basel clear a corner. Monreal retrieves it. He;s 35 yards out. The crowd chant “shooot!’. He obliges. Everyone laughs. The ball boys begin their search.
73 min: Basel have done well to stay in this game. At times it looked like they were about to be blown away but they’ve dug in and forced Arsenal to remain in top gear. No coasting here.
Basel substitution: Elyounoussi on, Zuffi off.
Arsenal substitutions: Oxlade-Chamberlain and Elneny on, Iwobi and Walcott off. Both of the departing players had fine games and are rightfully acclaimed by the crowd.
68 min: How did Arsenal not score there?! Cazorla played in Walcott, who cut the ball back from the byline, eliminating the keeper in the process. Sanchez ran in ... and sidefooted wide from six yards!
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67 min: Sanchez whips out his pitching wedge and chips a beautiful ball over the top for Walcott, who hadn’t quite read it Valcik scampers off his line to intercept at the edge of his area. “Cries of old London!” hollers Charles Antaki. “‘Theo Walcott on a hat-trick” has a pleasingly antique ring to it.”
65 min: Arsenal should have been out of sight by now. But they’re not, and now Basel are threatening to make things interesting. Bjamason has just slid a shot over following a corner that had Ospina in difficulty.
63 min: Ospina has to make his first save of the match, tipping over a well-hit 20-yard curler by Bjamason. “I’ve just joined,” announces William Hargreaves. “For the avoidance of doubt, the Arsenal home kit is similar to the Dundee United away strip of 1962/63.”
61 min: Decent move by Basel. Lang curls a cross in towards the near post, forcing Koscielny to stick the ball out for a corner.
60 min: That should have been 3-0. Arsenal cut Basel to pieces with more snappy passing, but Cazorla fired the final pass too close to the keeper.
59 min: Stay tuned. Arsenal will be scoring again any moment now ...
57 min: Iwobi collects a pass 10 yards inside the Basel half and lopes forward all the way into the opposing box. As defenders converge on him he tries to stab the ball goalward from 12 yards, but finds only the sidenetting.
55 min: A nanosecond of concern in the Arsenal box as Kosicelny miscontrols after cutting out a cross. But he recovers sharpish and wellies the ball to safety.
53 min: Basel try to regain some confidence by stroking the ball around at the back. But Sanchez isn’t standing for that. He harasses Suchy into losing the ball, and then scurries towards the visitors’ box. They backtrack fast to crowd out Sanchez and concede only a corner.
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51 min: Another Arsenal attack, another chance for Walcott. He dinks it over the advancing goalkeeper ... and wide! But it wouldn’t have counted anyway, because Walcott was offside.
49 min: Iwobi, playing with great maturity as usual, stays cool in the box as he waits for Monreal to provide an overlap. When the Spaniard arrives he slips the ball through to him, and Monreal flashes a cross into the six-yard box. Vaclik pounces on it before Sanchez did.
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48 min: Bjamason gets in the way of an Ozil cross, ending another Arsenal attack.
46 min: Arsenal are back out for more. No changes by either side during the break.
Half-time: Arsenal 2-0 Basel
Arsenal have been brilliant and would have been farther in front if not for fine goalkeeping by Vaclik. With Sanchez as a roving mischief-maker up front their movement is spellbinding. Every player has contributed and the visitors can’t cope. Walcott’s hot streak is continuing: he’s on fire.
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43 min: Koscielny keeps his eye on the ball as Doumbia dances, then steps in to relieve the Ivorian of it. They’re in no mood to let anyone else have fun tonight, Arsenal.
41 min: Another glorious multi-pass move by Arsenal. Sanchez tries to crown it with a lovely ball towards Ozil at the back post. The German, having crept in behind the defender, volleys into the sidenetting.
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40 min: The home crowd are loving this. Ozil elicits affectionate cooing with a delightful pass to Sanchez.
38 min: Arsenal are making Swiss cheese of the visiting defence. But Vaclik is starting to irritate them: he’s just made another fine stop to deny Sanchez.
36 min: Arsenal are rampant. Ozil, the most inconspicuous of their midfielders so far, is presented with a wonderful change to join in the fun ... but he finishes horribly from 15 yards.
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35 min: Vaclik to the rescue again, this time blocking a shot by Bellerin after the Spaniard was put through by Walcott. Tell you what, this Walcott could be the new Raheem Sterling.
33 min: This is caviar football from Arsenal! A sumptuous move featuring quick and clever passes and movement from Bellerin, Walcott and a couple of others takes them from one end of the pitch to the other. Cazorla joins in to play a cute through-ball to Sanchez, only for Vaclik to spoil the fun by charging off his line and blocking the Chileans dinked shot.
31 min: There’s a real intensity to Arsenal’s play even when they don’t have the ball. Have they finally discovered their missing ingredient?
29 min: Ozil and Sanchez conspire to create a chance for Walcott to plunder a rapid hat-trick. But Traoré slid in to thwart that dream with a fine tackle.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-0 Basel (Walcott 26)
Way to kill off a revival! That’s a brilliant goal by Arsenal. The buildup featured zippy interplay even before Walcott pierced the defence with a perfect one-two with Sanchez. Then he took time to steady himself and choose the right option, which he executed impeccably, firing a low shot in off the far post from 16 yards. Man really is on song.
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24 min: Traoré outmuscles Bellerin, sending the Spanish waif crashing to the floor with a strong shoulder. That put paid to Arsenal’s best move in a while. The visitors are starting to make a match of this.
22 min: Suchy takes a moment to admire the scenery. Sanchez steals the ball and starts heading for the Basel half. Suchy pulls him back by the shorts. It’s all getting a little Beano. The ref steps in to give Suchy a metaphorical whack of a slipper, in the form of a yellow card.
21 min: Bellerin races past Bjamason but his cross is cleared.
19 min: Basel have reacted well to falling behind and are starting to carry a threat going forward.
17 min: Monreal is caught dozing by a quick freekick but recovers in time to divert Doumbia’s cross behind for a corner. Zuffi curls it in at the near post. Cleared.
15 min:Corner to Basel, and a rare chance for them to pose a threat. Zuffi sends over an out-swinger, and Suchy heads wide from 10 yards.
12 min: Marvellous interplay by Arsenal, with Iwobi instrumental again. Basel are almost entranced by the one-touch exchanges. They are saved by Sanchez straying offside.
10 min: No sign of Arsenal relenting here: they want to wrap this up as early as possible. It’s been a textbook start so far.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Basel (Walcott 7)
Another fine move by Arsenal. Cazorla clipped a pass in to the left-hand channel for Sanchez, who sent an inviting cross into the centre. Walcott was determined to accept the invitation and leapt between two defenders to power a header into the net from close range.
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7 min: Iwobi swaps passes with Sanchez and then feeds Monreal, whose shot from the left is beaten away by the keeper. Lovely move, though.
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6 min: Beautiful take and turn by Sanchez, but he then has the ball nicked off him by a pair of Basel defenders. The five-man defence has given them safety in numbers so far, preventing Arsenal from turning dominant possession into chances.
4 min: Bellerin hurtles back to dispossess Doumbia and nip a counter-attack in the bud. “I don’t suppose you could explain how Arsenal’s home (mostly) red kit would clash with the all-white kit that Basel is sporting,” demands JR. “That seems like a pretty garbage excuse they’ve come up with.” Arsenal’s home kit has white sleeves, like Rotherham United’s in case you’re more familiar with that one.
2 min: After 75 seconds Basel get their first touch, Traoré poking the ball off Walcott’s foot at the expense of a throw-in deep in Basel territory.
1 min: We have kickoff! Arsenal do the honours.
Out march the teams. Basel, dressed mostly in white but with three narrow black lines down the sides of their trunk and trunks, are greeted by around 2,000 travelling fans. Everyone else has come to support Arsenal or enjoy the food.
“Nice to see the Arsenal Stadium Mystery get a plug,” declares Allan Castle. “George Allison played himself as the Arsenal Manager in the film. Not enough of that in recent years. Who wouldn’t want to see Wenger and Fergie in ‘PIZZA! The Old Trafford Story?” Any other suggestions for movies that managers could appear in? Given current events, the cast of the Usual Suspects might have to be widened to make a gang of eight. But let’s steer clear of putting names forward for those particular roles, eh?
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Wenger has just been speaking to BT’s Matt Smith and his remarks about Walcott suggest that that epiphany that the 27-yyear-old had about hard work may have been promopted by a manager who felt he lacked commitment and finally got around to telling him:
His best position is when he’s committed, like he was on Saturday. It doesn’t matter where he plays. Sometimes the position is important to express the talent of the player but in his case he can play on the flank or up front so long as he has the commitment.
Basel, accustomed to lording it over teams in their own league, are prioritising solidity tonight. They’ve switched to a back five to give goalkeeper Vaclik extra protection. So don’t expect to see goals like the one in the clip below (go to 1min10secs).
Arsenal will be wearing their away kit tonight even though the Emirates is not, in fact, an away ground for them (it’s the monument to Arsene Wenger’s presidency, like that glass pyramid in the Louvre is to François Mitterand’s tenure at the helm of France). The reason that Arsenal are wearing their yellow strip is that their home one clashes with both Basel’s first and second kits, so rather than force the Swiss to play bare-chested, the hosts have done the gallant thing and agreed to change. Time was that teams travelling around Europe would have to fret about being stuck in freezing changing rooms, kept awake all night by disruptive fans and fed poisoned food by conniving hotel staff - this new generation have it far too easy.
Preamble
Hello and welcome. Today Arsenal host Basel in the first home match of their 19th consecutive Champions League campaign. The Londoners know they need to win to build on the respectable point they earned in Paris a couple of weeks ago and thereby improve their chances of topping Group A. And they come into the game in encouraging form: that draw at PSG was the only one of their last six matches that they have not won, and their most recent performance was a very satisfying 3-0 spanking of Chelsea. Mustafi looked strong in that match, Walcott is in rare form (apparently having had a belated epiphany about the usefulness of hard work), Iwobi is emerging as an imperious midfielder, so too is Xhaka, and Sanchez is wreaking havoc up top. Those are some of the reasons why Arsenal can expect to enjoy relatively serene progress to three points today. But it’d be foolish for Arsenal players to think like that (again), so expect them to get stuck into the visitors early doors to sap the confidence of a team that has won 10 out of 10 domestic matches this season but had to scrap for a 1-1 draw at home to Ludogorets in their opening game in this group. That’ll be plan, anyway.
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Teams
Arsenal: Ospina; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal; Cazorla, G Xhaka; Walcott, Ozil, Iwobi; Sanchez
Subs: Cech, Gibbs, Gabriel, Lucas, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Reine-Adelaide, Elneny
Basel: Vaclik; Lang, Suchy, T Xhaka, Balanta, Traoré; Bjamason, Zuffi, Fransson; Doumbia, Steffen
Subs: Vallati, Gaber, Sporar, Delgado, Elyounoussi, Hoegh, Calla
Referee: D Makkelle (Netherlands)
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