Match Day Thread Arsenal vs FK Bodø/Glimt - Matchday Thread

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Venue: Emirates Stadium
KO time: 20:00 BST
Date: Thursday 6th October 2022

No match statistics or pictures because we’ve never faced this opposition before.

Seems like Cedric is back fit for this game. Apart from Smith-Rowe and Elneny as long-term absentees, everyone else seems to be fit. ​

 

Turner
Tomiyasu
Holding
White
Tierney
Lokonga
Xhaka
Marquinhos
Vieira
Nelson
Nketiah

Cedric on for White, and Odegaard on for Xhaka at half-time

 

Yeah I’d go along the lines of something like this - although maybe putting Cedric at RB, Tomiyasu at CB and resting White.

We need to have a strong bench though because I’ve watched Bodo a few times last season and they’re a good footballing side. They have similar stylistic principles to us.

They beat Roma twice last season and drew once, and they’ve followed their strong showings last season with some good results in Europe this season too. So they’re not a joke.

Although I think our second string team should beat them, it won’t be a cakewalk.

 

Some potentially positive news that we are welcome to hear

 

Bit annoying that we can’t rest Xhaka or Martinelli but let’s hope we can get the game done early and then bring them off. We need them for the Liverpool game.

 

1-0. Nketiah.

Good transition - great speed from Martinelli, nicely weighted pass into Tierney, who was left unmarked on the left hand side. Takes a vicious shot which cannons off the post and Nketiah reacts quickly to put rebound in.

Good goal.

We’ve defended quite well and have had them pinned in their own box, but Bodo are well organised in a 4-5-1 shape out of possession and are looking to break fast when there’s a turnover in possession. Need to keep the pressure on and not make any sloppy errors.

 

2-0. Holding. Great weighted ball from Vieira and lovely glanced header from Holding to double the lead.

 

Agh. Nketiah should have squared that to Martinelli earlier. He would have had a tap-in. We are forcing them into mistakes and pressuring their defenders into giving us the ball a lot

 

FT. 3-0.

Second half performance wasn’t as good as the first, but I guess that’s partly to be expected when we’ve made so many changes. Less likely to be as fluid.

Turner made a great save in the second half to preserve the clean sheet, but he didn’t have loads to do overall.

Bodo are a decent team who’ve had a few big scalps over the last two years, so I’m quite happy with a 3-0 win.

We’re in a strong position to qualify from the group.

Happy for Vieira to score again and I thought Marquinhos, though a bit quiet in an attacking sense, did a lot of great pressing, winning the ball high up the field and retaining possession.

Decent runout from some of the fringe players and first teamers.

Onto Liverpool now

 

Oh and a small shoutout to Lokonga who had a good game. Strong positionally, good interceptions, evaded their press well and found pockets of space to advance play forward. Controlled the middle. Perhaps his performance will go slightly under the radar, but he played well tonight.

 

Was at the game again - was a decent first half performance. Felt we could go up a gear or two the whole time.

Turner made a decent save but he's Leno-esque with his distribution.

Viera had a good game I thought.

You can tell things are good at Arsenal at the moment a Thursday night game against Bodo was still a sell-out and atmosphere was good.