Ludogorets 2 Arsenal 3
Cafa 12, Keseru 15, Xhaka 20, Giroud 41, Ozil 87
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Matchday 4 produced lots of goals, as expected.
Five in Sofia and Ludogorets scored the first two.
Then Arsenal took over and won in style.
PSG won 2-1 in Basle, so Arsenal and PSG have both qualified after 4 games in Group A.
That was what everyone, including UEFA, expected.
So the real challenge is: Who wins the Group?
Arsenal usually go out in February’s Round of 16 because they haven’t won their Group.
Last night Jonathan Cafu, the guy I touted as a Brazilian Asprilla, scored the first goal and made the second, a sweet near post finish by the recently prolific Keseru.
Yes, Arsenal are saving their strongest eleven for Sunday’s derby against Spurs.
Here we saw that Gibbs, who is a lot better than Jenkinson, is nowhere near as good as Monreal.
When Ozil gave Xhaka a really nice pass, the midfielder knocked in a tidy goal to make it 2-1.
When keeper Borjan came for a Ramsey cross it was instantly clear he wasn’t gonna get there. Giroud, who started, headed in at the near post.
The score stayed at 2-2 for a long time, almost the whole second half.
Alexis Sanchez, playing wide but roaming a lot, was not as effective as usual.
When sub Elneny provided a searching ball over the Bulgarian back four, Ozil zoomed beyond the defenders, lobbed the advancing keeper, sat down both the centrebacks as they scrambled to make a block, and slotted with sublime confidence.
Mesut Ozil provides more quality than quantity.
VERDICT: Sloppy start but slick goals.Can do better.
Matchday 5 is on November 23rd.
Arsenal play PSG knowing that a win gives them a good chance of topping Group A. They have a superior goal difference.
That game is bigger test than Spurs on Sunday.
I’m expecting Arsenal to win the derby and will explain why tomorrow. Or whenever I catch up with everything I’ve gotta do……