Report and reaction
Martin Keown on BT: “If we accept this as Arsenal fans and former players, then everything that has gone before wasn’t worthwhile. Certain standards have been set at this club and they aren’t being met.”
Arteta's reaction
“We are devastated, really disappointed but we have to congratulate Villarreal. ... I think we deserved to win the game but the details ... When we had opportunities, we didn’t score. In the final moments we had to have a better ball.
“[The injury to Xhaka in the warm-up] changed our game plan completely because we prepared everything with Granit in the position. But no excuses, it is what it is. So many player injured, one with malaria ... We were very imprecise with the ball. The process at the back wasn’t clean and then everything is more difficult. Probably we were bit tense too ... But we created more chances than them over the two legs and deserved to win it.”
Pressed for an explanation, he continues: “It was various things. The way we started wasn’t good enough. Set-pieces. ... And we we didn’t arrive here with everybody in top condition, to be at our best ... We had a really young team. For 90% of them it was the first semi-final in any competition.”
Asked whether he feels under pressure, he replies: “I feel the pressure all the time because I want to do as good as I can for the time.”
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Speaking on BT, Martin Keown wonders whether Arsenal will persist with Arteta. “He was outsmarted by the previous manager, which is a bit of an embarrassment.” Freddie Ljungberg says: “Something was wrong ... I felt like they didn’t know what to do ... It felt very passive.”
This is a momentous day for Villarreal, who have never previously reached a European final. Yet they looked like old hands today compared to Arsenal, and even after losing one of their best players - Chukwueze - to injury in the first half. Arsenal looked timorous and clueless, a team of questionable character led by a novice manager.
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Full-time: Arsenal 0-0 Villarreal (agg: 1-2)
Villareal will play Manchester United in the Europa League final. Unai Emery has done a number on Arsenal! It was a lamentable display by Mikel Arteta’s team, who lacked gusto and cohesion for most of the match.
90+3 min: Villarreal are managing the closing stages well. Arsenal can’t work up anything close to a storm.
90+2 min: A yellow card for Nketiah for bumping into an opponent just seconds after replacing Bellerin.
90 min: There will be at least five more minutes ...
Villarreal substitution: Alberto Moreno on, Pedraza off.
90 min: Dainty work on the right by Pépé, who then picks out Bellerin at the edge of the six-yard box. Coquelin makes a terriffic block!
89 min: Willian’s cross. Lacazette fights for it in the box, then wins it and lays it back to Bellerin, who has a crack from 18 yards. One of the many yellow-clad men in front of him make a vital block.
88 min: Williams scoots down the left but Albiol blocks his cross.
87 min: Mari concedes a freekick for shunting Pino to the ground from behind. Pino tells the ref to book the Arsenal defender ... so the ref instead books Pino for not knowing his place.
85 min: It was a heck of a call by Arteta to withdraw Aubameyang. Maybe it was a fitness concern, but Aubameyang had twice gone close to scoring even though Arsenal had struggled to get him involved. Lacazette hasn’t been given much useful service yet either.
84 min: Threatening cross from the left by Willian. The keeper comes for it ... but Torres evidently does’t trust him so heads it behind for a corner.
83 min: Beautiful turn by Moreno on the left. He carries the ball deep into Arsenal territory ... and then turns around and nudges it backwards, inviting his teammates to just keep possession.
82 min: Arsenal have eight-plus minutes to save their season ...
Arsenal substitutions: Willian and Lacazette on, Tierney and Aubameyang off.
78 min: Bellerin collects a pass from Pepe and hurtles down the right on the counter-attack. He delivers an ideal cross. Aubameyang leaps brilliantly between two defenders and guides a downward header from seven yards .... against the inside of the post ... and out! Agonisingly close!
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77 min: Martinelli runs on to the ball after it’s only half-cleared from a corner. But he shanks his shot 10 yards wide.
76 min: Arsenal are starting to play with more tempo, but that’s making them even less precise.
74 min: Arsenal plea for a penalty after Partey goes down in the box ... but the referee gives a freekick the other way, deciding that Pino poked the ball off the Ghanaian’s foot before being kicked. The replay proves him right.
73 min: That’s better from Arsenal! Pepe fires in a dangerous cross. Holding gets a glancing header on it .... just wide from 12 yards! “A lull within a lull would certainly be called a ‘lullapalooza’, no?” quips Henry Zatarian.
Villarreal substitution: Bacca on Alcacer off.
71 min: Saka lures Coquelin into a foul. Arsenal have a freekick wide on the left, near the byline. Saka arrows it into the area. Holding jumps to meet it eight yards out, but his header wafts over the bar.
69 min: Leno misfields a backpass but recovers sufficiently to smash the ball into touch. But this is not the end where Arsenal want to be playing.
68 min: Arteta runs to retrieve the ball after it goes out of play. If only he could inspire his players to show similar urgency.
Arsenal substitution: Martinelli on. Odegaard off.
65 min: Villarreal are growing in menace. They pop the ball about in the Arsenal half with a much better tempo than Arsenal have mustered. They win a corner, which is headed clear.
64 min: Villarreal stroke the ball around at the back, under no pressure whatsoever.
63 min: Play has resumed, I think. It’s hard to tell, to be fair.
61 min: What do you call a lull in a lull? Well, there’s one here, because the ref has stopped play to allow treatment for Mari.
58 min: Leno dives to his right to push a low cross by Pino behind for a corner.
58 min: The vim Arsenal showed early in the second half seems to have faded. Villarreal are enjoying a spot of keep-ball.
56 min: Partey picks out Smith Rowe with a fine long pass. The youngster tries to take it on the half-turn and spin his way past the last defender, but said defender is too canny for him.
53 min: A mistake by Partey opens the door for Villarreal. But Moreno fails to connect properly with his shot from the edge of the area, leaving Leno with a comfortable save.
52 min: A pause in play as Pepé and Gaspar receive treatment after clashing heads.
50 min: Partey sends Bellerin scampering down the right. The full-backs hoists over a high cross. The keeper flaps at it, dabbing it down to Smith Rowe about eight yards out. Smith Rowe chips it over the floundering keeper ... and just wide of the far post! If taht doesn’t incite Arsenal to attack more - and test this ropey-looking keeper more - then they are beyond hope.
47 min: Tierney collects the ball from Odegaard and then scoops it over two defenders and into the path of Pepe. The Ivorian whacks the bouncing ball from 12 yards out, to the left. It swerves just wide of the far post.
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46 min: Arteta decides no personnel changes are needed just yet. Arsenal kick off. In other news, I just spilt tea on my damn foot. Foot! Footing foot! Foooooot!
“Absolute waste of time, this match,” snorts John Ryan. “Villarreal clinging on and Arsenal not good enough; would be a miracle if both teams scored, first one to score goes through.” And, of course, if no one scores, Villarreal go through. That first half’s got me wondering whether Arsenal actually know that.
Half-time: Arsenal 0-0 Villarreal (agg: 1-2)
That was a non-event of a first-half. Villarreal were barely ruffled. Arsenal were too ponderous and too imprecise to pull the visitors out of shape. And they themselves are amorphous and incoherent. Does Arteta have a hairdryer? A better plan? Carry on like this and his team are going out with a whimper.
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45+2 min: Odegaard delivers an outswinging corner. But some Arsenal player commits a foul, gifting the Spaniards a freekick.
45 min: Arsenal will have at least three more minutes to wake up before going into the dressing room for a cold shower at half-time.
43 min: Awful cross by Saka after a decent move on the counter from Arsenal!
41 min: Villarreal exert some pressure, winning two corners in quick succession. The second is cleared for a throw-in, which the visitors are in no rush to take. When they do so, they give the ball away.
39 min: That was nearly the critical mistake! First, Smith Rowe attacked like he really meant it, driving through midfield before spreading the ball wide to Aubameyang on the left. The Gabon international unleashed a right-footed curler from the left-hand corner of the box. It should have been an easy stop for the keeper ... but he fumbled up it! But he had time to leap backwards and pounce on it before any Arsenal player could punish him.
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38 min: Arsenal lob a long freekick towards Mari in the box. It skins the top of his head before drifting way wide.
35 min: Arsenal don’t need to win this match in the first half .... but at some point they’re going to have to summon more urgency if they’re to inconvenience Villarreal. The way things are looking at the moment, it’s going to take a mistake by the visitors to let Arsenal in.
33 min: A moment of discomfort in the Arsenal box as Villarreal break with speed. Torres- the visiting centreback, if you please, would have had a clear shot on goal from 16 yards if the pass to him had not been overhit.
32 min: Arsenal play their way into a promising position wide on the left. But then, as too often, their moves peters out, and Villarreal step in to dispossess them easily.
Villarreal substitution: Santos on, Chukwueze off.
29 min: This is a blow for Villarreal and their most dangerous-looking player: Chukwueze went down with no one near him and immediately gestured that he needed to be replaced. It seems he has torn, or at least strained, a leg muscle. He is carried off on a stretcher.
27 min: Villarreal fail to deal with an Arsenal corner. And when Parejo hooks the ball to the edge of the area, Aubameyang meets it with a lovely volley with the outside of his boot. It swerves low and promising ... but clips the outside of the far post and carries on wide.
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25 min: Bellerin injects a welcome bit of pace into Arsenal attacks. When Pépé pings over a cross from the right, it’s cleared as far as Tierney, who tries to lash it first-time into the net from 25 yards. HIs shot hurtles way, way wide.
23 min: Parejos curls the freekick over the five-man wall (six, if you include Bellerín in the ‘draught-excluder’ role) but the ball whizzes just over the bar.
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22 min: Twice in two minutes Arsenal get caught trying to play their way out from the back. In their eagerness to make amends, they concede a freekick near the edge of their own box, Partey bringing down Parejo. The victim looks set to be the man who takes the freekick, in a dangerous situation ...
20 min: Tierney’s cross from the left is headed away by Albiol. Arsenal regain possession and feed it wide to Smith Rowe on the left. He bustles his way to the byline and then chips over an inviting cross. But Albiol gets to it first again.
18 min: Partey sweeps a long diagonal towards Pépé, who has swapped with Saka and is now on the right. But he miscontrols it, allowing the defender to intervene.
16 min: Odegaard swings in a corner from the right. The keeper comes out of his six-yard box to try to punch it away but doesn’t get a clean connection on it, merely dabbing it a few yards in front of him. Luckily for him, a defender in on hand to welly it to safety.
15 min: Coquelin supplies Trigueros mid-way inside the Arsenal half, as the Spanish side launch a counter-attack. But it founders when Trigueros misdirects a through-ball.
13 min: Villarreal remain very comfortable when Arsenal are in possession - the home side are still too ponderous. And when the visitors get the ball, they look dangerous. They, too, build slowly but with more purpose - usually to feed Chukwueze, who’s making life difficult for Tierney on his return.
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10 min: Saka collects a pass from Mari but can’t make any gains down the right wing. “I’m in two minds,” confesses Roy Gillett. My wife is a Man United fan. I’d almost rather go out this evening than endure the stress and inevitable crushing disappointment of losing to them in Gdansk.”
8 min: Chukuweze flies down the right past Pépé, but Tierney slows him down and pushes him backwards. Villarreal try to recycle possession but wind up donking it out of play on the far side.
7 min: Arsenal knock the ball around for a spell, but it’s too slow to dislodge Villarreal.
5 min: After a measured buildup, Villarreal work the ball wide to Chukwueze. He tries to bend a shot into the top corner from the right-hand corner of the box. It’s ca fine effort, forcing Leno to tip it over for a corner.
4 min: Villarreal are looking composed. They’re not doing anything too hastily but nor are they sitting back.
2 min: Tierney starts with typical enterprise, combing with Aubemeyang down the left and then digging out a useful cross from the byline. It’s put behind for a corner.
1 min: Arsenal-Villarreal is go! The visitors kick off. Arsenal appear to be in a 4-3-3 pattern, with a front three of Pepe, Aubameyang and Saka.
The teams have lined up on the pitch, either side of the turquoise-clad officials.
LATE TWIST
Granit Xhaka has suffered some sort of injury during the warm-up, forcing Arsenal into a change. So in comes Kieran Tierney, who will presumably start at left-back. Let’s hope he’s fit enough to last as long as needed.
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“That is some top, top-class trolling from Ozil, which brought a broad grin to my phizzog,” chirps Alex Whitney. “If only he’d put the same level of effort into making the first team those last 12-18 months.”
Mesut Ozil obviously had fond memories of Unai Emery ....
Good ebening, Gunners! 😉 I hope my former teammates will turn this game around tonight - let's go! 💪🏼🔥🔥 #YaGunnersYa #COYG #UEL
— Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) May 6, 2021
An audience with Arteta ...
He doesn’t say much of interest and amuses himself by dodging any question about his formation, although, upon being pressed, he does disclose that “Bukayo is playing, as always, in the front line.” That rather suggests Xhaka is at let-back.
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Arsenal's formation
The people on BT think Saka will be deployed at left-back in a back four, with Xhaka in midfield. Others reckon Arsenal are going with a back three, with Xhaka as the left-side centreback and Saka as a wing-back. Does no one think Xhaka will be at left-back like last week?
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Our man Nick Ames is at the Emirates, and here’s how excited the fans were to see him arrive:
Arsenal team get the welcome Arteta had hoped for #AFC pic.twitter.com/U4EVhuWuTR
— Nick Ames (@NickAmes82) May 6, 2021
Reasons for cheer: “The Arsenal fan has learnt, over this season and the previous one, to wrap themselves in several thicknesses of pessimism going into any game,” explains Charles Antaki. “Multiply that up by a factor of 10 for a semi-final. But there is Saka, there is Smith Rowe, and, whisper it, Pépé has been quite good recently. Perhaps a red card and a comedy own goal can be avoided, too. There may be a distant beam of optimism somewhere out there.”
“I think that this game has come a year too early for Mikel and his merry band of ne’er-do-wells (well, apart from that FA Cup),” parps Bill Hargreaves. “They’re a team in huge metamorphosis, I hope. Quite which is the direction of change, only the gods of football (Florentino Perez et al?) know. But that success last summer, Auba’s proclamations of personal turn-around, Saka’s cheeky self-belief, and the unpredictable qualities of certain players the die is far from cast. Play up! Give the ghost of Gunnersaurus something to smile about. I saw that your prediction of LFC’s demise of about this time last year came true. Any tea-leaf readings for the Arsenal?” I fear extra-time.
Teams:
No false nine malarkey today from Arteta, as Aubameyang returns to the starting lineup. But Kieran Tierney is only not fit enough for a place on the bench. Villarreal makes a couple of changes, notably at right-back, where Gaspar replaces the injured Foyth, the Tottenham loanee who tormented Arsenal last week; and in midfield, Francis Coquelin features at his old stomping ground.
Arsenal: Leno; Bellerin, Holding, Mari, Saka; Xhaka, Partey; Pepe, Smith Rowe, Odegaard; Aubameyang
Subs: Tierney, Willian, Gabriel, Okonkwo, Martinelli, Rya, Nketiah, Elneny, Chambers, Nelson, Soares, Lacazette
Villarreal: Rulli; Gaspar, Albiol, Torres, Pedraza; Parejo, Coquelin, Trigueros; Moreno, Alcacer, Chukwueze
Subs: Nino, Rodriguez, Santos, Gomez, Costa, Ena, Moreno, Estupinan, Raba, Bacca, Asenjo, Funes Mori
Referee: S Vincic (Slovenia)
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Preamble
Hello and welcome to who knows what. Arsenal could be glorious today; they could be ridiculous; or they could be a bit of both. One wonders whether even Mikel Arteta knows what to expect from his team – and whether his players know quite what to expect from him after last week’s tactical jumble. It’s remarkable that they still have a good chance of reaching the Europa League final - and thus next season’s Champions League - after the way they performed for most of the first leg, but Gdansk is still very much in their sights thanks to Bukayo Saka’s “moment of magic” (as per Arteta) or “the most surreal penalty I’ve seen for years” (per Manu Trigueros). Will they make the most of their reprieve? Or will Unai Emery have the last laugh on his return to the Emirates? It’s going to be fun finding out.
