Arsenal Balls: ‘Gunzalo’ Higuain Weeps For ‘Dire’, ‘Superb’ And ‘Assured’ Gunners
HOW bad or good were Arsenal in last night’ Champions League defeat to Napoli? The Gunners qualified the contest’s knock-out stages in second place.
Daily Mail: “Napoli 2 Arsenal 0: Slack Gunners are let off the hook after Higuain and Callejon bag a goal apiece as Arteta sees red”
Arsenal had looked so assured, so accomplished as they saw off the threat of Napoli’s braying mob up in the stands and the willing figures doing the running for them on the field. Then it went wrong — badly wrong. Gonzalo Higuain scored for Napoli after 73 minutes and Mikel Arteta was sent off two minutes later for a second booking. As captain of Arsenal he ought to know better.
The Serie A side began brightly, but were restricted to few opportunities by a resilient Arsenal defence in the first-half…
Arsenal started to become more of a threat and in-form striker Olivier Giroud had a superb chance to silence the home fans, but saw his shot stopped by Napoli goalkeeper Rafael Cabral. As the first-half went on the Gunners continued to frustrate and restricted the home side to few clear cut chances.
As the match entered the final 18 minutes, Arsenal began to unravel slightly as Higuain turned Metesacker and struck a low effort into the bottom corner to give Napoli the lead. Only three minutes later Arteta, already on a booking, brought down Callejon and was given his marching orders by referee Viktor Kassai.
Arsène Wenger’s team are in the knockout phase of the Champions League for the 14th season in succession and, in truth, their progress was never in doubt…
Arteta and Flamini exerted their influence, Santi Cazorla delighted in little bursts and Laurent Koscielny showed his composure on the ball, Arsenal gained control…
Arsenal kept their composure and, although Callejón went through to lob Szczesny, the die was cast.
Arsenal stood firm early on. Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny were stoic in central defence, while Mathieu Flamini, Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky marshalled the midfield with quiet defiance.
Or as the Mirror puts it: Arsenal were “dire” and have suffered a “devastating” set back”.
If you want to see just how devastating it all was for Arsenal, look at Gonzalo Higuain weeping in the above photos. And, of course, as the Sun tells us, Gonzalo is a Gunzalo the Gooner…
Posted: 12th, December 2013 | In: Arsenal, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
