A first Arsenal goal for Yaya Sanogo early on combined with a superb curled effort from Alexis Sanchez in the 2nd half was enough to a lacklustre Dortmund side who lacked pace and creativity on the night. This was Dortmund’s first loss of the season in the Champions League and it looks as if their poor domestic form is now starting to translate into the Champions League as well.

This game saw the under-pressure Arsene Wenger come up against a coach in Jürgen Klopp who is hotly tipped to replace the Frenchman at Arsenal should Wenger be sacked or decide to leave. Both sides came into tonight’s game looking to put their poor domestic form behind them. Arsenal lost to rivals Manchester United at the weekend and sit 15 points off of leaders Chelsea, with Wenger already conceding that his team are out of the race for the title. Dortmund are even worse off, they drew 2-2 away to newly promoted SC Paderborn, having been 2-0 up; now finding themselves 19 points off of leaders Bayern Munich and in the bottom 3 of the Bundesliga.

Dortmund, however, have been dominant in the Champions League with 12 points from 4 games. They controlled the entirety of the reverse fixture back in September, winning 2-0, with goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ciro Immobile enough to see off the Gunners. There have been 7 previous competitive meetings between these sides with both teams on 3 wins, whilst Arsenal just edge it with 2 wins when at the Emirates.

All 3 changes for Arsene Wenger’s side were forced by injury. Jack Wilshere suffered an ankle injury against United, Wojciech Szczesny suffered a hip strain in the same game whilst Danny Welbeck is suffering from a knee problem. Santi Cazorla, Damian Martínez and Yaya Sanogo replaced them. Klopp also made changes for tonight’s game, Marco Reus suffered another serious injury so he was replaced by Immobile and Erik Durm, Sebastian Kehl and Shinji Kagawa were swapped for Marcel Schmelzer, Sven Bender and Kevin Großkreutz.

An entertaining opening 20 minutes was played out for the Arsenal fans as their side took the lead just after the 1-minute mark. A throw-in on the near side found Sanogo on the edge of the box and the young Frenchman did well to control it before back heeling the ball to Cazorla who jinked his way into the box and playing the ball back to Sanogo who finished through Roman Weidenfeller’s legs.

The 21-year old then had another chance in the 8th minute, Alexis Sanchez won the ball in the centre of the park before over hitting the ball to Aaron Ramsey but the Welshman managed to touch it on for Sanogo. The striker ran clear but rather than shooting he tried to cut inside and was dispossessed although he did gather the ball again before having his second effort blocked.

Neven Subotić was then booked for a challenge on Alexis Sanchez who was a thorn in the Dortmund defence all throughout the match before Mikel Arteta was booked for a silly challenge on Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Dortmund subsequently had their first major chance of the game in the 18th minute when Łukasz Piszczek fired in a cross after one of his trademark runs forward. It managed to evade Martinez in the Arsenal goal but was just too fast for Immobile who was unable to get a touch on it.

A quiet 10-minute period followed where neither team had any significant chances despite Arsenal having a series of corners but nothing came of them with Weidenfeller comfortably dealing with them all. The crowd then saw their 3rd booking of the game when Piszczek was booked for holding back Kieran Gibbs after the England left-back rounded the Polish full-back far too easily.

Dortmund started to assert their control towards the end of the half with a brilliant chance for Mkhitaryan in the 38th minute when a cross-field ball from Ilkay Gündogan found Piszczkek level with the goal-line and he headed it back for Mkhitaryan who controlled it before having an effort well saved by Martinez. Sven Bender then had a chance from the edge of the area 3 minutes later but the shot wasn’t powerful enough and was easily collected by the Argentinian goalkeeper.

Arsenal began the 2nd half as they began the first, on the front foot. Alexis Sanchez had an attempt from the edge of the box but it was palmed away by Weidenfeller for a corner that came to nothing. Then Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain hit the crossbar after superbly controlling the ball and hitting it on the half volley from around 20 yards out that left the German goalkeeper with no chance. Wenger’s side didn’t have to wait long to double their lead because a minute later Per Mertesacker regained the ball in his own half before passing to Cazorla who passed it on to Sanchez. The Chilean found himself well marked by Piszczek on the edge of the box but managed to knock the ball to his right to create just enough room to allow him to unleash a beautiful curled effort into the bottom corner giving Weidenfeller no time at all to react.

This forced Klopp’s hand tactically as he immediately sent on Shinji Kagawa and Adrian Ramos for Immobile and Aubameyang respectively. Arteta was then forced off with what looked like a calf strain in the 65th minute and Mathieu Flamini replaced him. Sanchez and Oxlade-Chamberlain combined in the 75th minute when the Chilean winger sent an accurate cross-field ball to the English youngster who controlled superbly before sending his effort just over.

Dortmund subsequently made their final change with Milos Jojić coming on for Kevin Großkreutz who had been pretty ineffective throughout the game before Sanogo was forced off with a hamstring injury and was replaced by German Lukas Podolski. Gündogan then had a chance to get his side back into the game in the 81st minute when a corner was only cleared as far as the edge of the box to where he was standing but his shot was low and straight at the keeper.

Oxlade-Chamberlain was brought off in the 88th minute for Joel Campbell before Dortmund had their final chance of the evening with the ball bouncing off of Kagawa’s arm into Ramos’ path but the Colombian’s shot like Gündogan’s was straight at Martinez.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Ryan OGrady
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and Japan fan who lives in NI. Aspiring Football writer on all things European Football and some Japanese football as well. Email- [email protected]. Currently writing for Total Dutch Football, World Football Weekly and Bundesliga Fanatic.