Arsenal held their nerves late on to see out a 1-0 win over FC Zurich and qualify to the knock out stage of the Europa League despite PSV winning their game against Bodo/Glimt. The Gunners defended resolutely in the end after Kieran Tierney gave them the only goal of the game in the first half.
Despite a strong start to the group games, Mikel Arteta’s team came into this match knowing they had to win or match the result of PSV to avoid having to play a two legged play-off in March with a team dropping from the Champions League for progression. It was the visitors who started the game brightly but Fabio Vieira and Tierney worked hard to ensure the Gunners took the lead and wrestled back the game at the Emirates.
Aaron Ramsdale made two smart saves, one in the first half and another in the second half to keep the lead intact while Gabriel Jesus would feel he should have scored after being put through one on one with the goalkeeper. To be fair, the save from the Zurich goalkeeper was impressive but the Arsenal forward would should have put the game to bed and avoid the nailbiting end.
Another positive from the game was that Bukayo Saka who limpedd out of the win against Nottingham Forest over the weekend returned to action in the second half of the game and Arsenal now begin preparation for their game against Chelsea in the Premier League with the winger. Here is how we rated the performance of the Arsenal players.
5. Aaron Ramsdale
Made two unreal saves in the first half and followed that up with some magnificent saves in the second half too. Top performance- 9 | Arsenal FC via Getty Images
6. Mohamed Elneny
First start after a long injury lay off and did not look out of place-5 | Getty Images
7. Kieran Tierney
Some technique to score his first goal of the game and just looked unplayable all game-9 | Getty Images
8. Ben White
His overlapping run gave birth to the first goal and looked so comfortable at right back than most would have thought at the start of the season-9 | Getty Images