Arsenal played their first Champions League quarter-final in 14 years against Bayern Munich last night, and to say that it felt quite chaotic would probably be an understatement.
Mikel Arteta’s side were undoubtedly favourites to get their revenge against the Germans going into the match, but errors at the back and perhaps the magnitude of the occasion saw them falter and fall behind by half-time.
Luckily, the substitutions of Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus midway through the second half changed the game for the hosts, and the Brazilian’s excellence saved one of his teammates from more criticism.
The former Manchester City star made way for Gabriel Martinelli in the starting lineup on Tuesday evening following his somewhat underwhelming showing against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
However, with the Bavarians in the lead halfway into the second 45, he was brought on in place of his young compatriot and made quite an impact.
The most significant thing he did was provide the assist for Trossard’s 76th-minute equaliser, an assist that came from some genuinely immaculate close control and the sort of technical brilliance that gets fans off their feet.
It might sound like hyperbole, but it’s an opinion shared by GOAL’s Matt O’Connor-Simpson, who awarded the São Paulo-born ace a 7/10 on the night, writing that ‘Arsenal desperately needed a moment of magic and the Brazilian provided it with his fine assist.’
The 27-year-old’s statistics from the night back up this perspective as well. In his short 28 minutes of action, he provided one assist, succeeded in 100% of his dribbles, played two key passes, created one big chance, won 100% of his duels, lost the ball just once and even made a tackle.
In all, it was pretty much the perfect substitute appearance and really saved one of the starters from getting a lot more stick at full-time.
The player in question is centre-back sensation William Saliba.
The Frenchman has been one of Arsenal’s best players for almost two seasons straight now, but his performance against the Bundesliga behemoths last night was arguably his worst in red and white.
Alongside Gabriel, the 23-year-old ace looked uncharacteristically unsure at certain points and nervous at others. However, his big mistake came halfway through the first half.
His poorly-timed challenge on Leroy Sané saw Bayern awarded a penalty, which Harry Kane duly slotted home because, of course he did.
O’Connor-Simpson was not impressed with the Bond-born titan and gave him just a 4/10 on the night, writing that he was ‘so far off his normal, composed standards’, which was reflected in his statistics.
In his 95 minutes of action, the usually impeccable defender was dribbled past once, gave away one penalty, won just five of his 11 duels, lost the ball 13 times, committed four fouls, was accurate in just one of his five attempted long balls, and maintained a passing accuracy of only 88%.
Overall, it really was a performance to forget for the incredibly talented Frenchman, and while he was bailed out by the sheer brilliance of Jesus and the finishing of Trossard, you can be sure that he’ll endeavour to return the favour in Munich.
