Sid Lowe on Manchester United's win in Spain
Read Nick Ames's match report
Arteta's reaction
The Arsenal manager laments his side’s failure to see the game out after taking the lead late on. “The game was under control ... then we played two or three balls that we shouldn’t do and then we conceded the corner. They put a lot of big boys in there and then anything can happen. “ But he remains confident his team can prevail in the second leg. “The final result leaves a difficult taste. But the mindset is to go there and win the game.”
Full-time: Arsenal 1-1 Slavia
The Czechs have the advantage going into the second leg thanks to Holes’ late away goal. Arsenal were sluggish for most of the match but were given impetus by late substitutions. Two of them - Aubameyang and Pepe - combined to make a breakthrough at least and seemingly give Arsenal a precious first-leg lead. But they couldn’t hold on to their lead for even a few minutes, wilting under pressure again. Slavia celebrated at the final whistle as if they think they’ve done the hardest part of this tie. Arsenal will have a job on their hands to prove them wrong.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 Slavia ( Holes 90+4)
Slavia have stolen an away goal in the final seconds! Arteta throws his hands to his face! IT came from a crisply delivered corner by Provod. Pépé could only deflect it onwards from the edge of the six-yard box and Holes beat Soares to it at the back post to send a plunging header into the net!
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90+3 min: Masopust and Provod comebine slinikily on the right and then Provod surprises everyone by unloading a ferocious let-footed shot from a difficult angle. Leno reacts well to push it it for a corner!
90+1 min: Arteta roars at Leno for taking too long over a goalkick, as if the Arsenal manager is the only who realises there is an opportunity to increase their first-leg lead in the remaining minutes.
90 min: There will be at least four more minutes.
Arsenal substitution: Ceballos on, Smith Rowe off.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Slavia (Pépé 86)
The substitutes make the difference and Arsenal have the goal they wanted! Aubameyang did well to outfight Zima to collect a long clearance from Xhaka, and then the Gabon international slipped a pass through for Pépé, who outpaced the retreating Zima and dinked the ball over the advancing keeper!
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Slavia substitution: Traoré on, Olayinka off.
Slavia substitution: Masopust on, Stanciu off.
82 min: Pépé plays lays a square pass off to Martinelli, about 20 yards out. The newcomer shoots first time, forcing the keeper to palm it over for another corner. The pressure from Arsenal is building ...
80 min: Pépé wins a corner. Arsenal are finally playing with the tempo and intensity they should have shown from the start. Can they get the goal they crave?
78 min: Aubameyang almost makes his mark immediately, but pokes just wide after cute play between him, Smith Rowe and Pépé.
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Arsenal substitutions: Aubameyang, Pepe and Elneny on, Lacazette, Sakar and Partey off.
77 min: Kuchta skips past Holding easily down the left and then crosses. From in front of goal Soares hooks it away, but only as far as Sevick 10 yards out. The midfielder bangs a shot badly wide! That could have been their away goal, instead it’s a big escape for Arsenal.
75 min: Good work by Lacazette down the left to win possession and then deliver a useful cross. The ball breaks to Partey, who has been disappointing today, and from the edge of the box the midfielder curls a low shot a yard wide.
74 min: You can almost sense a goal coming in this. Slavia are becoming increasingly confident going forward, and Arsenal have found a little more urgency.
Arsenal substitution: Martinelli on, Willian off.
72 min: Kuchta shows his strength to hold off Gabriel and and then motor into the box. but Gabriel leaps to his feet and chases back to regain possession.
70 min: Martinelli is warming up for Arsenal as Arteta considers ways to sharpen up his attack. No sign of Aubameyang being readied yet though.
Slavia substitutions: Kuchta and Linger on, Dorley and Sima off.
65 min: Slavia seem to fancy their chances of nicking an away goal and have become more ambitious in the last few minutes. That is leaving Arsenal with more counter-attacking opportunities. Saka leads the latest one, firing a dangerous cross whizzing across the face of goal. Lacazette stretches to meet it but can’t divert it on the target.
62 min: Sevcik tries to trick his way past Lacazette near half-way. The Frenchman isn’t fooled. He nicks the ball off Sevcik and suddenly he has a clear run at Slavia’s goal from over 50 yards out! He chugs forward, just fast enough to remain ahead of the retreating defender, and when the keeper comes to meet him near the edge of the area, Lacazette steers the shot around him ... and onto the crossbar! And a defender prevents Smith Rowe from collecting the rebound!
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60 min: Willian gives the ball away. Then he chases back to win back possession in his own half. Then he gives the ball away again with another slack pass. Someone somewhere is counting all these misplaces passes, all I can do is tell you Arsenal have committed far too many of them.
58 min: Slavia play their way out nicely from the back, and suddenly Provod is romping into Arsenal’s territory with Boril bombing forward to his left. He duly slips the ball through to Boril, whose shot from 18 yards is a little bobbly. Leno blocks, to Arsenal’s relief.
56 min: Saka remains Arsenal’s most threatening outlet but he has just ruined a dangerous break by overhitting a cross from the right when Lacazette and Smith Rowe and Soares were waiting for a presentable delivery.
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53 min: Gabriel is down receiving treatment on his left ankle after being caught by Sima as the pair contested a high ball/
51 min: Gabriel dashes across to cut out a through-ball towards Stanciu, at the expense of a corner. That could have been averted if the communication between Gabriel and Leno had been better. The corner triggers a flurry of pressure but Arsenal eventually scramble the ball away.
49 min: Willian curls the freekick from the right-hand corner of the box around the wall ... and it crashes against the outside of the post!
48 min: Bellerin curls a low pass around the right back, giving Saka a chance to chase. Zima resorts to pulling the winger back, a blatant foul just outside the box. Arsenal have a freekick, Zima gets a booking.
47 min: A sloppy start to the second period by Arsenal, as they are forced back by Slavia’s pressing and then Leno kicks the ball straight out of play when attempting a simple pass to Soares.
46 min: No moves from Arteta yet but Slavia have made a change for the second half, with Sevcik replacing Hromada.
Half-time: Arsenal 0-0 Slavia Prague
The score is the same as it was at the start, and not much has happened since then. It’s been a disappointingly low-key affair so far. Slavia have not had to strain themselves too hard to keep Arsenal at bay and have not offered much of a test to the Arsenal defence. If either manager can stimulate even a little improvement for the second period, his team could win this. Maybe Aubameyang will come off the bench to make the difference, after all?
42 min: Smith Rowe hasn’t been able to exert much influence so far. But Lacazette comes deep again to receive the ball in midfield, then he turns and plays a clever pass through to Saka on the right. Saka’s cross is cleared behind for a corner, which is probably the best he could have hoped for, since there were no Arsenal players in the box.
39 min: Soares beats his man down the left and digs out a useful cross. Holding’s header from 10 yards is touched over by the keeper.
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38 min: Lacazette booms the freekick into the wall.
37 min: Lacazette comes back to sabotage a Slavia attack. Arsenal counter quickly, Bellerin leading the charge. Inevitably he feeds Saka, who tries to skip his way into the box but is chopped down, giving Arsenal a freekick about 23 yards out, a touch to the right of the D.
35 min: Slavia build their way forward for the first time in a while and manage to fire off a shot, but Olayinka’s piffler from 20 yards is easily stopped by Leno.
34 min: Arsenal have got the upper hand in the last 10 minutes or so, with Slavia barely threatening. But there’s still not enough intensity or sharpness about Arsenal’s attacking.
32 min: Bellerin knows what time it is. He feeds Saka. But this time the 19-year-old gets curl when none was needed and his cross from the right floats into the keeper’s arms.
29 min: Holding releases Saka again. The young winger runs into the right-hand side of the box, draws out the keeper and then tries to curl a left-footed shot into the far corner ... but he fails to get any curl on it and drifts harmlessly wide. A poor finish but it’s clear that Saka is Arsenal’s most dangerous player and they should keep supplying him. Holding twigged that a while ago.
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28 min: Partey burst through midfield then feeds Lacazette at the edge of the box, coming in from the right. The Frenchman takes a touch to tee himself up for a shot ... and then blasts the ball high over the bar.
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26 min: A lovely pass by Holding sends Saka scampering down the right. He clips the ball back from the byline but Bah does well to get to it before Willian. Slavia then hurtle forward but their attack comes to a half when Holding gets involved again.
24 min: Lacazette does well to collect a ball into the left-hand channel by Gabriel. Then he lays it back for Willian, who’s bundled to the ground by Bah. That gives Arsenal a freekick wide on the left, a few yards short of the corner flag. Saka delivers an outswinger. Gabriel backpedals to meet it near the penalty spot but can’t get much power or accuracy into this header. Goalkick.
21 min: Gabriel gives the ball straight back to Slavia after breaking up a move by the visitors. He’s been far from the only culprit.
19 min: Slavia play their way out from the back under hotch-potch pressing from Arsenal. Coordinated pressing was one obvious thing that Arteta brought to Arsenal but it’s looked more haphazard - and thus less effective - recently, including in this match so far.
17 min: Holding tries to drop a pass from half way over the top of the Slavia defence and into the path of Saka. But he overhits it. The team are showing each other plenty of respect so far, with each quick to fall back in number and make it difficult for the other to find a way through.
15 min: Provod spanks a lovely diagonal pass to the right. When the cross comes in, Bellerin does very well to beat an attacker to it and nod it away. But it breaks to Provod, who tries to drive it at goal from 20 yards. HE catches it nicely but the ball whizzes just over.
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13 min: There’s another positive - a smart pass by Saka, who has been Arsenal’s most inventive player so far. He slides a pass through to the overlapping Bellerin, but that’s as good as it gets, because Bellerin’s low cross fails to beat the first defender.
11 min: “Arsenal still have a clean sheet? Good,” writes Charles Antaki, finding a positive amid a drab start to this game.
9 min: Saka tries a clever pass forward from the right-hand touchline. Lacazette scampers after it but goalkeeper was alive to the danger and beat him to the ball at the edge of the area.
7 min: There’s a confidence to Slavia’s play, you can tell they are a team accustomed to winning. But Dorley’s shot from the edge of the area hits his own man after a clever corner kick routine.
5 min: Holes, a midfielder deployed in defence because of injuries, rushes across to make a good tackle in the box on Saka, snuffing out Arsenal’s first attack.
4 min: Very circumspect from Arsenal so far. Slavia have had most of the ball but not been able to pick a way through their hosts.
2 min: Soares, not Bellerin, has started at left-back. Arsenal defenders have been the busier so far, as Slavia make a bright start, without threatening.
1 min: The visitors do the kickoff thing, and Arsenal-Slavia Prague is go!
The players are out on the grass, lining up for the tournament jingle. The Slavia goalkeeper, Ondrej Kolar, is sporting a Phantom of the Opera-style protective face mask as a result of the injury suffered against Rangers.
Arteta speaks
The Arsenal manager says the weekend’s defeat to Liverpool is “out of the system - now we have to play with the ambition and passion that the game deserves.” An and asked why Aubameyang is out of the system today, Arteta replies: “We had to pick the right team to start the game in the best possible way.” He suggests the captain may get the chance to make an impact later: “We have the option to make five subs and that’s a big thing. We want to use our squad to the maximum.”
“As a Gooner, I’m unsure about this one,” write Bill Hargreaves, echoing the sentiments of thousands. “Which Arsenal will turn up? The one represented by Saka at his best (his usual mode), or the one represented by one of Willian’s less good days? I have a good feeling, believing in Mikel’s ability to rouse the troops after the lame showing against Liverpool. Whatever happens, I won’t be celebrating too hard for some time, I suspect. Hashtag iffy re-build.”
Teams
Kieran Tierney hasn’t made it, so Hector Bellerin is expected to play at left-back. But Bukayo Saka is back after missing the last three matches - none of which Arsenal won - and so are Emile Smith Rowe and Granit Xhaka. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been dropped to the bench. Captain Dispensable.
Arsenal: Leno; Soares, Holding, Gabriel, Bellerin; Smith Rowe, Xhaka, Partey; Willian, Lacazette, Saka
Subs: Ryan, Aubameyang, Azeez, Ceballos, Elneny, Hein, Lopez, Mari, Martinelli, Nelson, Nketiah, Pépé
Slavia: Kolar; Bah, Holes, Zima, Boril; Hromada; Dorley, Stanciu, Provod, Olayinka; Sima
Subs: Kovar, Kuchta, Lingr, Masopust, Sevcik, Stejskal, Tecl, Traoré, Visinsky
Referee: A Ekberg (Swe)
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Preamble
Hello and welcome. Fourteen months into Mikel Arteta’s reign there are still more questions than answers at Arsenal. But one thing is for sure: winning the Europa League would be an honourable achievement, because it will be hard to do. Their opponents today are pretty much everything that Arsenal are not: reliable, powerful and truly in synch with each other. Those qualities, plus a splash of flair, enabled them to oust Leicester and Rangers in previous rounds and should help them poke at Arsenal’s well known frailties. It’s anyone’s guess as to how Arsenal will cope: they unquestionably have the ability to beat the Czech champions, even heavily, but that will require them having one of their good days, where they operate as a real collective in which their individual flourishes. Do that and they could earn a nice first-leg lead and take one step towards a semi-final meeting with either Villarreal or the conquerors of Spurs, Dinamo Zagreb. But fail to do that and Arsenal will find themselves facing the prospect of a joyless campaign. The stakes are high. Will Arsenal rise to them? that’s what we’re here to find out.
