Arsenal are through to the last 16 after a stirring comeback from 2-0 down, Mesut Ozil scoring a wondrous late winner, but they’ve still got work to do if they’re going to win the group. They’re still top but they’re level with PSG, who left it late to beat Basel 2-1, and host the French champions on 23 November. That should be a cracker and the outcome will decide the group. Arsenal can be confident, though. This was a big victory given that they made a dreadful start, conceding twice in the opening 15 minutes. Yet they demonstrated their character, levelling the game before the interval thanks to goals from Granit Xhaka and Olivier Giroud, and they’ll be feeling pretty damn good about themselves before Sunday’s game against Tottenham. Thanks for reading. Night.
Paris Saint-Germain have scored! They lead 2-1 at 10-man Basel.
Full-time: Ludogorets 2-3 Arsenal
What a win for Arsenal! What a winner from Mesut Ozil!
90 min+2: A corner to Ludogorets on the right. In it goes. Arsenal lose the first header. But eventually shovel it clear after a moment of panic.
90 min: There will be three added minutes. Alex Iwobi is on for Sanchez,
BRILLIANT GOAL!!! Ludogorets 2-3 Arsenal (Mesut Ozil, 87 min)
Mesut Ozil has surely won it for Arsenal and sent them into the last 16 with a magnificent goal! Out of nowhere, he’s released through the middle by Elneny, making an instant impact, Ludogorets getting it all wrong with a dismal attempt at an offside trap. Borjan hurtles out of his area and the ball is bouncing awkwardly. So Ozil simply scoops it over him with his left foot, a little like Messi against Arsenal in 2011, and advances towards the area. Two defenders are covering, though. So Ozil keeps his composure, drops the shoulder, shakes the hips, leaves both of them on their backsides, takes his sweet time about it and strokes it into the empty net! What a player!
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87 min: Granit Xhaka, on a yellow card, is replaced by Mohamed Elneny.
86 min: Mohamed Elneny will be on in a minute.
84 min: Minev’s tame cross is easily claimed by Ospina. Arsenal counter. Ozil picks out Oxlade-Chamberlain, who cracks one wide.
81 min: It’s now Basel 1-1 PSG. That means neither Arsenal nor PSG will advance tonight if it stays like this. But Arsenal will remain top of the group.
80 min: Keseru, who scored the second for Ludogorets, is replaced by Virgil Misidjan. “Ramsey gives the ball away so frequently and disrupts Arsenal’s momentum,” says Angus Macaskill. “He also takes far too many touches and slows everything down. Yes, he’s a talented payer but I don’t think he suits Arsenal.”
78 min: Gibbs arrives on the overlap on the left. And runs the ball out of play. Arsenal have lacked inspiration in the second half.
76 min: Jenkinson lets a pass run under his feet and out for a throw. He’s tiring now. But Arsenal quickly win the ball back. Oxlade-Chamberalin skips into the area and prepares to shoot, only to be denied by a covering tackle. Nothing comes from the corner.
75 min: Arsenal bring on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for Aaron Ramsey.
73 min: Xhaka threads a brilliant pass through the eye of a needle to Sanchez, who lets himself down with a slightly loose first touch. Borjan races out to pinch the ball.
72 min: Ludogorets are threatening at the moment. Wanderson wafts one over from the edge of the area, though, wasting a promising position.
70 min: Arsenal are losing their discipline a little here and Jenkinson, showing his rustiness, pushes the rampaging Wanderson over. He’s booked.
66 min: Sanchez clips a ball into the area from the left. Ramsey completely mistimes his volley, though. He was unmarked. Ludogorets try to break and Xhaka brings the counter to an end with a cynical foul. He’s booked.
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65 min: All of a sudden, Arsenal are living dangerously. They’re carved open again and Wanderson is through on goal for the second time in the past few minutes, but his touch is heavy, allowing Ospina to smother the chance.
63 min: Sanchez goes for goal with the free-kick, but it hits the top of the wall and goes over. Nothing comes from the corner and Ludogorets break forward with ominous intent, Arsenal outnumbered at the back. They charge down the right and they move it over to the left, the ball eventually coming to Wanderson on the left of the area. He has a clear sight of goal, but his finish is weak and Ospina saves easily before gathering the ball at the second attempt. A let-off.
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62 min: Now Ludogorets are penalised for handball, this time 25 yards from goal. It didn’t look deliberate by Palomino.
60 min: Coquelin picks up a booking for dissent after being harshly penalised for handball in the middle.
58 min: Now Arsenal have Ludogorets pinned back. It’s not quite right to say that a goal’s on the way, but it’s difficult to see Arsenal failing to score the longer this goes on.
55 min: After such a frenetic first half, the pace has been slower since the break. Both sides are making too many errors.
54 min: “It’s saying the obvious - but anyway: Ramsey is looking uncertain and imprecise, perhaps a millisecond or two off optimum brain- and legs power,” says Charles Antaki. “Shouldn’t Oxlade-Chamberlain come on before Arsène’s traditional 70 minute mark?”
Too many injuries and he still doesn’t know his best position, does he? Where does he fit in the long-term?
53 min: It’s been a quiet start to the second half. If Arsenal aren’t careful, they’re going to lose their grip on first.
50 min: Gibbs appears to have recovered.
48 min: A period of scrappiness ensues. Kieran Gibbs is down with an injury, some heavy tackles going in from both teams. Moti caught Gibbs, who’s holding his left shoulder.
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46 min: Off we go again. In the other game in this group, PSG lead 1-0 at Basel. As it stands, both Arsenal and PSG are going through tonight, but the Parisians are going top of the group.
Half-time: Ludogorets 2-2 Arsenal
At the end of a breathless half, Arsenal will be feeling much better about themselves than they did when they trailed 2-0 after 15 minutes. They’re back in this thanks to Granit Xhaka and Olivier Giroud, and will feel that this is their game to lose now. But don’t rule out Ludogorets. They’ve got goals in them. See you in 15 minutes.
44 min: In comes the corner from the right. Moti has a free jump at the ball but can’t make clean contact with the ball and Ramsey, standing by the left post, hacks clear. Arsenal’s defending has been woeful at times.
43 min: This is a cracking game, neither side paying much attention to defending. Marcelino pops up in the Arsenal area now, but his shot is deflected wide for a corner.
GOAL! Ludogorets 2-2 Arsenal (Giroud, 42 min)
Two goals down after 15 minutes, Arsenal have shown their character by levelling the game before half-time! Aaron Ramsey is given too much time on the right to chip a cross into the area and Giroud gets in between his markers, sees Borjan coming off his line and heads it into the gaping net!
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41 min: Ozil winds up for one of those nonchalant volleys as the ball loops towards him on the edge of the area. He catches it sweetly with his left foot and it’s on target, heading for the bottom right corner and possibly past Borjan, but it hits a Ludogorets defender and bounces to safety.
40 min: Ramsey tries to set up Sanchez on the edge of the area, but he’s halted by a fine challenge.
38 min: Minev pointlessly slides through the back of Sanchez, who was trapped by his own corner flag on the left. He’s booked. An absurd decision by the Ludogorets player.
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36 min: Sanchez opens up his body on the left and tries to bend one into the far corner from 20 yards. He forgets not to lean back, though.
35 min: Arsenal come alive again and Sanchez releases Gibbs on the left. But his low cross is diverted behind by Cafu. Ludogorets deal with the corner, Giroud unable to make anything of it.
34 min: Arsenal aren’t offering at the moment. I wonder whether they might attack with more fluency if they get Alex Iwobi on.
30 min: A corner to Ludogorets on the left. Wanderson curls it dangerously into the six-yard box. Ospina looks uncomfortable again but Arsenal just about survive. Ludogorets aren’t done there, though. Cafu provides more trickery on the right and whips in another intriguing cross, but Koscielny intervenes with a firm clearing header. The Bulgarians fancy their chances going forward.
28 min: It’s so cold in Sofia that they’ve all covered themselves with blankets on the Arsenal bench.
27 min: Sanchez drops deep and pings a diagonal ball towards Giroud. Moti glances it behind for a corner. That was a crucial touch. The corner comes to nothing.
24 min: Arsenal were rocking after those two Ludogorets goals, but they’re looking more confident again now. I can see them equalising before half-time.
23 min: Gibbs forces his way into the area and wins a corner. Ramsey flicks it on at the near post. To no one. Ludogorets need to steady themselves.
GOAL! Ludogorets 2-1 Arsenal (Xhaka, 20 min)
There’s one. Mesut Ozil bursts down the left and manages to clip the ball into the area moments before it crosses the line. It evades Giroud, who appears to knock a Ludogorets defender over, creating space for Xhaka, who sweeps a low left-footed finish into the bottom left corner. What leadership from the Swiss midfielder; that must be why he was given the house keys instead of his brother when they were kids.
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19 min: Arsenal look a tad shocked. No wonder. But if they can get a quick goal back, I fancy that Ludogorets might yet panic.
17 min: Ludogorets smell blood here and Keseru scampers down the left, trying to turn inside Mustafi. The German’s having none of it, though. He easily shrugs off Keseru, who goes down looking for a free-kick that he’s never going to get.
GOAL! Ludogorets 2-0 Arsenal (Keseru, 15 min)
Arsenal are all over the place here! What on earth is going on? Ludogorets counter superbly after winning the ball in their own half, Wanderson spraying a fantastic ball from left to right for Cafu, the scorer of the first goal isolating Gibbs. He runs at the Arsenal left-back, who hasn’t got a clue how to handle him. Cafu torments Gibbs, leaving him for dead with a sharp piece of skill to beat him, and his low driven cross is turned past Ospina by Keseru at the near post! Where was the marking? November, eh?
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14 min: Arsenal need to gather themselves quickly and rid that goal from their system. It was such a poor one to concede, especially after they’d made a fairly encouraging start. But...
GOAL! Ludogorets 1-0 Arsenal (Cafu, 12 min)
Wanderson lifts the resulting free-kick deep into the Arsenal area, Ospina stays on his line and the marking is shambolic. Cafu makes light of the chaos and takes advantage of Arsenal’s doziness by volleying past the static Ospina and just inside the left post.
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11 min: Cafu tries to prod a pass down the right, but it’s stopped by Xhaka. The referee penalises him for handball, though. And...
9 min: Ospina confidently claims the corner.
8 min: Arsenal sweep forward and Ozil breaks into the area from the left after fine work from Coquelin, but the angle is against the German and he shoots straight at Borjan, who makes a simple save. Ludogorets respond with an attack of their own and Jenkinson puts Nataneal’s cross behind for a corner.
7 min: A free-kick to Ludogorets on the left, Mustafi needlessly committing a a rash foul. But the set-pieces comes to nothing after a wasteful cross.
5 min: Arsenal work the ball around carefully on the left, Gibbs and Sanchez scheming and combining. They precisely move it into the area and Sanchez lifts a cross into the middle. Ramsey tries an ambitious overhead kick, but his effort flies well wide.
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4 min: Arsenal have total control of the ball at the moment. Ludogorets have dropped back very deep.
2 min: The Ludogorets look a lot like the kit, which is troublesome. “Arsène is of an age where he might have bought Fleetwood Mac’s bestselling single, and perhaps the tune is going round his head even now,” says Charles Antaki. “Don’t…. Stop…. Thinking about tomorrow…. Don’t …. Stop …. It’ll soon be here. That’s bad enough to have as an earworm, but he’ll probably be substituting “November” for “tomorrow”, poor devil.”
And we’re off! Ludogorets, all in green, get the game underway. They’re kicking from left to right in the first half. Arsenal are in navy shirts and yellow shorts.
Here come the teams! There’ll be football soon. It’s rumoured to be freezing in Sofia. This isn’t Ludogorets’s home ground by the way. They just have to use this stadium in Europe. Apparently there are quite a few Bulgarians in attendance who are supporting Arsenal this evening.
Apparently they got this eagle in to make Dom feel like he’s watching Crystal Palace. He’s glad all over.
Ludogorets' bald eagle, Fortuna. A Bulgarian equivalent of #cpfc's Kayla. Not flying tonight as is "unfamiliar with this stadium" apparently pic.twitter.com/jCpu2Qqu69
— Dominic Fifield (@domfifield) November 1, 2016
This is a big night for Olivier Giroud, who starts up front for Arsenal for the first time in a while. He’s had injuries and suspensions, but there’s also a growing sense that he’s no longer Arsenal’s first choice striker and that they are more fluent with the mobility of Alexis Sanchez in the middle. Giroud showed against Sunderland that he can be an important player, though, scoring twice after stepping off the bench. If he can accept a lesser role this season, he could be a very handy option. I don’t think that he should be in the starting line-up against Tottenham on Sunday.
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The teams!
Ludogorets: Borjan; Minev, Palomino, Moti, Natanael; Abel, Dyakov; Cafu, Marcelinho, Wanderson; Keseru. Subs: Stoyanov, Cicinho, Sasha, Quixada, Plastun, Lukoki, Misidjan.
Arsenal: Ospina; Jenkinson, Mustafi, Koscielny, Gibbs; Coquelin, Xhaka; Ramsey, Ozil, Sanchez; Giroud. Subs: Cech, Holding, Gabriel, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Elneny, Iwobi, Maitland-Niles.
Referee: Bas Nijhuis (Netherlands).
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Preamble
Hello. Breaking news: it’s November. Fine, it’s not news. But that doesn’t mean a chill didn’t go down the spine of every sensible Arsenal supporter this morning. This, after all, has traditionally been the month when a few things start to go wrong in their season and a fine, encouraging start gives way to angst and anger and the occasional level-headed debate on ArsenalFanTV about whether Arsene Wenger is a TREACHEROUS DISGRACE WHO NEEDS TO GET OUT OF MY CLUB NOW or AN UNDISPUTED LEGEND WHO CAN DO NO WRONG. If Arsenal happen to lose to Ludogorets tonight, do keep an eye on YouTube later, it’s bound to be entertaining.
The stats aren’t too encouraging. November has long been the worst month in Arsenal’s season under Wenger, their points per game in the Premier League dropping to an average of 1.59. How to explain it? Some put it down to injuries, others say it’s because they’re too often gripped by the need to avert catastrophe in their Champions League group. Maybe it’s a protest against daylight saving. Whatever the reason, though, they could do without another mini collapse this time, because they’ve been building some impressive momentum since losing to Liverpool on the opening day of the season. Unbeaten in all competitions since that 4-3 defeat, they’re level with Liverpool and Manchester City at the top of the Premier League, lead their Champions League group on goal difference and have been playing some scintillating football.
Don’t stop now. That’ll be Wenger’s message to his players. A big month begins with them taking on Ludogorets in Sofia and they need to keep accelerating. Victory over a side who were walloped 6-0 at the Emirates a fortnight ago will keep them above Paris Saint-Germain in the battle to win Group A, thus improving their chances of an easier draw in the last 16, and ensure that there’s no loss of confidence before Sunday’s North London derby. With games against Manchester United and PSG to come later this month, Arsenal can’t afford to let bad habits creep back into their system. There haven’t been too many signs of their focus dropping in recent weeks – but they would be foolish to approach this game with a complacent attitude. They might have thrashed Ludogorets in London, but the Bulgarians did create chances and can be tricky at home. This is Arsenal. Be careful when making predictions.
Kick-off: 7.45pm GMT.
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