Gunners set up 4-3-3, goalkeeper somehow by Brentford again
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Raya started at center back with Saliba and Gabriel, Zinchenko at left and Ben White at right; at midfield were Rice, Jorginho and Ødegaard; up front, due to Saka's injury and Martinelli's benching, Trossard was at left winger, Nketiah at center and Gabriel Jesus at right winger. Gabriel Jesus on the right.
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With Kevin De Bruyne injured and Rodri missing due to a red card, the same 4-2-3-1 was put in place with Ederson in goal, RubenDias and Aké at center back, Gvardiol at left guard and Walker at right guard; the double backs were Kovacic and Rico Lewis; and the second row was Bernardo Silva, Alvarez, Foden, and Haaland in the second row.
Starting lineup (thus click)
At the beginning of the match, it seemed that Pep Guardiola's intention was to play Rico Lewis on the books, but in reality, he put Bernardo Silva at the back of the net in an attempt to control the game. Three minutes into the first half, Raya made his first mistake when a long pass was played directly to Gvardiol, who then made a mistake of his own, or else a counter-attack could have been possible.
4th minute by
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The first corner was taken and Foden kicked it to the empty spot where Gvardiol tried to shoot; this resulted in an empty net because of Raya's strike and Rice's very well timed header put the ball over the bar. The ball was very close to the goal line and Rice was a very important centerpiece for the Gunners. After that, the ball fell outside the box, and Gabriel and Alvarez fought for the ball, and the ball fell to Aké, who was only guarded by Saliba, and Aké finally kicked the ball away, which was a good thing for the whole game.
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The most threatening wave of offense.
At the 8:00 mark Jesus received a long pass from Trossard and pushed forward to create a corner, and at the 10:00 mark Jorginho swallowed his first yellow card for pushing and shoving as he fought with Foden for the ball.
In the 16th minute, Zinchenko gave the ball back to Gabriel, who was being pushed by Alvarez and gave the ball back to Raya, but he didn't seem to control the force of the ball well enough (it was a bit too small), and Alvarez went up to push him again. He could have passed the ball directly to Ødegaard, who was in the open space, but he chose to stop the ball first and then tried to kick the ball, which almost caused Alvarez to break through the goal, fortunately the ball was deflected to the side netting and went out of bounds, and the commentaries of the match mentioned that Raya was too relaxed at this moment, and he should have kicked the ball more quickly and cleared the ball away.
In 22 minutes, Bernardo Silva gave the ball to Alvarez at the back post, but he didn't make a good judgment here because Rice was beside Alvarez at that moment, Rice also noticed the situation and made a decision to break the ball directly to Nketiah, and then Bernardo Silva realized that he had made a mistake, if Nketiah got the ball and gave the ball to Ødegaard, it would cause a counterattack immediately; so he instantly shoved the ball, but he didn't get the ball, instead, he shoved the ball to Ødegaard. Bernardo Silva realized that he had made a mistake, if Nketiah got the ball and gave it to Ødegaard, it would cause a counterattack, which could lead to the loss of three points in this round; so he instantly cut off the ball, but instead of hitting the ball, he hit Nketiah, and Bernardo Silva swallowed his pride.
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First yellow card.
Around the 23rd minute Raya again made a second out-and-out error (his third individual mistake), sending the ball into a simply unoccupied area with a two-on-three of Gunners players in the area in front of him (
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Both Haaland and Rice went up for the ball, Haaland broke the ball, Bernardo Silva got the ball and pushed forward, then passed the ball to the right to Alvarez, whose cross was cleared by Rice.
In the 24th minute, Zinchenko passed the ball to Ødegaard, who turned his back and passed the ball to Jesus on the right. After Jesus-Ødegaard-Jesus-Jorginho (pass), Jorginho saw the gap and passed the ball to Jesus who was running without the ball, and when Jesus was in the position, Ødegaard was actually running towards the defense. Degaard was actually running towards the defense, so it would be very dangerous for Jesus to push forward and pass the ball to the center of the field. Luckily Foden realized it (and he was the only one who realized it) and Jesus was called for a foul during the confrontation with Foden.
Towards the 26th minute Zinchenko made a big pass to Nketiah and Gvardiol didn't seem to have his eyes on the ball allowing Nketiah to get the ball forward in an instant, at which point Nketiah chose to shoot straight up but missed, wasting a chance. Nketiah should have held the ball and looked around first, he should have realized it instantly.
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The whole of the back six were focused on him, while Trossard was completely unmarked at the back, leaving a huge gap, which was actually a very good opportunity. This is one of his shortcomings, he is often not observant enough on the field, which is why he has been invisible these past few games.
