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Arsenal dominated to win 3-0 against Dinamo ZagrebAlexis Sanchez inspired Arsenal to a morale-boosting 3-0 win over Croatian outfit Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League at the Emirates. The goalscoring was started by Mesut Ozil near the half hour mark, with Sanchez adding two to his tally. The Chilean has now managed to score 8 goals in all competitions for the Gunners, behind only Olivier Giroud (9).On a day, when the Gunners needed to win to maintain their pursuit of a place in the knockout stages of the competition, Arsenal provided much joy to their fans as they outclassed the reigning Croatian champions. With the game wrapped up and a chance to qualify when they face Olympiakos in Athens in December, we look at the major talking points from the game at the Emirates.
#1 Comfortable win for Arsenal
Arsenal kept their Champions League hopes alive with a routine victory over Dinamo Zagreb. The Gunners held up their end of the bargain to qualify as Mesut Ozil opened the scoring before an Alexis Sanchez double sealed a comfortable 3-0 win. With minimal fuss and barely a trace of drama, they completed the first part of their Champions League survival plan. Part two will have to wait until December 9 when they face Olympiakos in Athens.
Zagreb had stunned Arsenal in their last meeting, rocking them back on their heels and giving them such a crisis of confidence that they managed to lose to Olympiakos in their second game of the Champions League group stage as well.
After what happened at West Bromwich Albion at the weekend, it didn’t seem beyond the realm of possibility that Arsenal might lose this game too. But their defeat in the Premier League was the result of catastrophic individual errors. This was a performance far more in keeping with their season thus far.
For nearly half an hour, Zagreb had the game under control. They barely threatened on the break and were quite content to sit deep and track runners. But there were just so many runners.
Mesut Ozil was an irritant for which Zagreb could find no soothing cream. Joel Campbell produced his best performance in an Arsenal shirt so far. But the stand-out performer was the Chilean who never stops, Alexis Sanchez. He was involved in all the three goals.
First, he turned provider as he lifted a tempting ball in the box, which was found by Ozil’s header. Four minutes later, it was Monreal who pounced on a loose ball from Leonardo Sigali outside his own half. The Spaniard cut it back for Sanchez, who did the rest.
His second, and Arsenal’s third goal arrived with 20 minutes left to play, the result of a sensational reverse pass from Campbell and a poacher’s finish from Sanchez. Zagreb kept battling, Petr Cech was forced into a fine save from Marko Rog late on, but it was all too little, too late. Zagreb were chasing shadows and it was only a matter of time before the shadows escaped.
Overall, Wenger will be happy with the comfortable win which will give them confidence as they play Norwich at the weekend.
#2 Dinamo\'s miserable away record continues
The 3-0 away loss to Arsenal means that Dinamo Zagreb have now lost 9 consecutive away games in the Champions League. The inability to cope up with the quality of other teams has been a major factor for Zagreb in the Champions League.
The Croatian champions must have been expected to play better and produce better performances when they play away from home, but in recent times, the club’s policy has been bent on developing prodigies into professionals and selling them to bigger European clubs for big money.
Dinamo’s last away victory in the Champions League came at Ajax 16 years ago. Their record in London has also been poor as they have played four and lost all four games.
The loss to Arsenal means that Dinamo will have lots to ponder upon when they take part in the Champions League next season if they manage to win the League with the emergence of Rijeka.
But whatever happens, as a team that has won their domestic league for ten straight seasons now, Dinamo should be looking at improving their squad and quality and must focus on Europe, such as the likes of Porto and Sevilla have done over the years.
For Zagreb, if the same process is to continue, their fans can forget about getting past the group stages in the Champions League or the Europa League.
#3 Return of Aaron Ramsey
If Arsenal had already qualified for the knockout stages and had not had a miserable European campaign, the headline news regarding the Gunners would have been the more injury woes and continued talk surrounding doping in football as they headed into Tuesday night’s must-win encounter against Dinamo.
But with their Champions League run, the injury woes had taken a back seat. However, the return of Aaron Ramsey to the team would have been a major boost for the Gunners who were short of 9 players before Ramsey’s return.
The return of the first of the casualties to operational duties in Ramsey has made the Arsenal fans happy. Ramsey, who got injured in Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Bayern Munich, emerged from the bench for the final 22 minutes and in doing so, reduced the club’s injury list to eight.
But while the queue outside the physio’s room remains long, Ramsey’s return to the squad is a bonus in more ways than one. While he will probably return to the right where he’s played for much of the season, his natural position is more central. And Arsenal do have some gaps there with the recent Coquelin tragedy.
The situation in the central defensive midfield role is so desperate now that Calum Chambers was given eight minutes in midfield at the end, another test to see if his versatility might extend out of the back four.
The last time Chambers played there, in the New Year’s Day defeat to Southampton, he was hooked after an hour. It is not a preferred solution to the problem as Chambers does not look ready for that job and with Mikel Arteta, Francis Coquelin, Jack Wilshere and Tomas Rosicky all out, Ramsey could provide much-needed relief in the middle.
#4 Dinamo out of Europe
The defeat to Arsenal now means that Dinamo Zagreb have now been eliminated from the Champions League this season. With Dinamo’s club policies, it is obvious that their main aim isn’t qualifying for the knockout stages and nor do they possess the quality to.
However, Europa League should have been their main target. The loss now means that the Croatian outfit will not even be able to finish 3rd in the group even if Arsenal falter in Athens and Dinamo manage a highly unlikely win over Bayern Munich on Matchday 6.
The head-to-head with Arsenal now means that Arsenal will finish above Dinamo, which ultimately means that the European run for Dinamo is over. Europa League is also out of the reckoning.
The Croatian champions must now shift their focus on their domestic league where they stand at the second spot behind leaders Rijeka with 33 points from 17 games. The two point gap between the two sides has opened up due to Dinamo faltering at the wrong moment.
They have now managed two wins and two losses in the last four games in the league, which has robbed them of the top spot. Manager Zoran Mamic will be expecting his side to concentrate on their pursuit of the domestic league.
The reigning champions have a tough task ahead of them as they will be without their star midfielder Arijan Ademi for four years as he serves his doping ban. But with players coming back from injury, and a highly unlikely win-able game against Bayern in December, it is time for Dinamo to concentrate on the league.
#5 Arsenal\'s chance of qualifying
Arsene Wenger will be delighted with the way things have panned out coming into the midweek game after their 2-1 defeat to West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League. The 3-0 comfortable win against Dinamo now means that the Gunners have a great chance of qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition.
On the night, the key marquee players turned up as Mesut Ozil showed just why he became the club’s record signing two summers ago, and Alexis Sanchez grabbed his first goals since mid-October.
Arsenal’s carelessness in the opening games of this competition could still prove costly, though, but at least qualification for the knockout rounds is back in their hands. The gravity of the thrashing handed down to Olympiakos by Bayern Munich means that the Gunners can progress if they win in Greece by a margin of two goals, or if they win by one, but score three in doing so.
This is hardly an open door into the last 16, but it's a far more pleasing position than it seemed when they had no points on the board and two games with Bayern Munich next on the itinerary. It's taken some hard work, and it will take a bit more still, but perhaps Arsenal's long record of Champions League group success isn't quite over yet.
And with Olympiakos having 9 points from their five games, Arsenal will need to win against them to take their tally to 9 as well. The deciding factor will be the head-to-heads, which will only favour Arsenal if they manage to better the 2-1 loss margin they were faced at the Emirates against Olympiakos.
