A useful habit
Winning is a habit, and Arsenal football club are certainly in the zone right now. Following back to back defeats to Man City and Chelsea back in August, Arsenal have since embarked on an 11 match winning spree. Sure, the quality of teams they faced throughout this run were not stellar, and yes they had more than their fair share of luck along the way, but nonetheless winning 11 matches on the bounce is no easy feat.
They are a long way of the class of 2002, who enjoyed a magnificent run of 14 consecutive Premier league wins when capturing the 2002 title. That was a record until last season, when the immensely talented Man City toppled them with a 15 match winning run of their own.
Sitting pretty
The run of form sees Arsenal sitting on maximum points on top of Europa League E, making qualifying from the group all but secured, and with this tricky away tie at Sporting Lisbon successfully scaled, it looks like Arsenal's group to win at the half way stage. Arsenal boss, Emery has serious pedigree in this competition, with a record breaking 3 in a row success with Sevilla between 2014 and 2016. Sevilla will be there or thereabouts again this year, and there is plenty of quality in this years Europa League, with Chelsea and AC Milan, the cream of the crop. The 3rd placed Champions League teams are yet to come, and at this stage it looks likely that arch rivals Spurs will be one of those teams, potentially setting up a huge European night in North London.
Arsenal vs Sporting Lisbon Match
The first thing to note about yesterday evening's game, is that Unai Emery decided to make wholesale changes to the team that beat Leicester on Monday, making 6 changes to the starting line up.
Team Line up vs Sporting Lisbon
Team Line up vs Leicester
It's good to see Emery making use of his squad and one thing is for sure, if we are to have a successful season and challenge for the title or even the top 4 we will need to have a squad with depth and ability.
Last night's game in all honesty was a pretty drab afair, with little goal mouth action or excitement, particularly in the first half, where Arsenal only managed two tame shots on target. They bossed the possession throughout, notching up over two thirds of the total possession as well as completing more than double the passes that Sporting managed, but worryingly there was very little end product. The lack of attacking sharpness was directly proportional to the lack of mercurial Mesut Ozil and with Iwobi and Lacazette also warming the bench, Arsenal could be excused for not being at their best attacking wise.
The tepid first half made way for a second half in which the pace picked up a little, and both sides had half chances. Welbeck had a headed goal ruled out in the second half, as the referee blew his whistle for a foul by Welbeck in the build up. He kept his composure though, and when another chance fell his way fortuitously after a mistake by Sporting's Sebastian Coates, he finished with aplomb, taking his tally to 5 for the season.
The win was Arsenal's first in an away match in Portugal, having fell short on their previous 3 trips to Iberia, so it is a case of job done, and our attention can now turn to a tricky trip to neigbours Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon. Palace may be 15th in the Premier League table, but don't let that fool you, this will be a stern test and we will need to work hard of we want to get to 12 games in a row.
Thanks as always for reading.
Peace Out.
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