Like the cogs in a luxury Swiss watch, Arsenal’s luck may finally be turning. Few thought it was possible, but somehow they have finished top of their Champions League group.
How? Well, the Gunners thumped Basle here as Lucas Perez scored a hat-trick to secure a comfortable win in this final Group A game.
But the miracle came 354 miles away in France, where Bulgarian side Ludogorets grabbed a gutsy 2-2 draw against Paris Saint-Germain which allowed Arsenal to move above PSG into top spot.
For years Arsenal have bemoaned their luck in Europe’s elite club competition. It has been a tale of tough draws and near misses.
Their luck changed here and credit Arsene Wenger for his part in making it happen. If fortune favours the brave, Wenger was repaid in full here.
The manager was bold in his team selection, picking Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil for a game many considered meaningless.
Wenger had spoken this week of maintaining the momentum built by two consecutive Premier League wins. He put those words into action by selecting his biggest hitters, when there was surely risk attached to including them on a bitterly cold night at St Jakob-Park.
It proved to be a masterstroke as Sanchez and Ozil turned in supreme performances and Arsenal completed their mission impossible.
Wenger knew he would face flak if either was injured in a match when the likelihood was that their efforts would amount to nothing.
After all, beating Basle was the easy bit. Ludogorets grabbing a historic and unlikely result against group leaders PSG was the real key to them finishing top.
Whether finishing first is a major advantage in Monday’s draw for the knockout stages is a different matter, with Bayern Munich among the group runners-up and Real Madrid currently second in their group, too. ‘I don’t know the other results yet, but we can still have a difficult draw,’ admitted Wenger.
‘Anyway, it will be difficult but with less guilt when you finish first. You feel you’ve done the job and can play the second leg at home. So we have achieved that.
‘But the draw is not much different (in terms of the potential opponent), certainly at the moment. And I cannot complain tonight. I’ve had bad nights in football and tonight was a good night.
‘Overall, we came here wanting to do the job, wanting to play well. On top of that we were lucky with the result at Paris Saint-Germain, so it was a positive night.’
The Gunners took their lead from Wenger’s bold team decision by making a flying start and they took a deserved lead on eight minutes. Who were the goal’s orchestrators? No prizes for guessing.
Arsenal were already in the ascendancy as Ozil and Sanchez exchanged passes in the centre circle. Suddenly Sanchez put his foot on the accelerator, before finding Kieran Gibbs with a sumptuous lofted pass. The left back kept his composure to square to Lucas, who hammered the ball beyond the back-tracking Eder Balanta and into an empty net.
Wenger’s gamble had paid off. Arsenal were ahead, in no small part due to their dynamic duo.
Lucas had not scored a Champions League goal before his opener, but his second took only another eight minutes to arrive.
The Spaniard rounded off a free-flowing Arsenal move involving Sanchez, Ozil, Gibbs and Aaron Ramsey to make it 2-0.
And as news filtered through to the Arsenal bench about Ludogorets taking a first-half lead in Paris, you could almost sense Wenger’s glee at his throw of the dice with Sanchez and Ozil paying off in glorious fashion.
The Chilean and the German were certainly in the mood. No-look passes, reverse through balls — they displayed their full repertoire.
That is not to say the Swiss were embarrassed, at least not in the first half. They tried to muster a response and Adama Traore fired an audacious shot with the outside of his left boot inches wide of keeper David Ospina’s far post.
Basle continued to threaten but they clearly lacked the cutting edge necessary to cause Arsenal’s defence — even without first-choice trio Hector Bellerin, Shkodran Mustafi and Nacho Monreal — any serious problems.
Ospina did well to stop Renato Steffen’s curling left-foot effort in the 40th minute as Basle looked for a route back into the match before half-time.
So it was a relief of sorts when Basle goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik gifted Lucas his hat-trick just two minutes after the break.
The former Deportivo La Coruna striker latched on to Sanchez’s cheeky flick and aimed a tame shot towards the far post, only for the Czech keeper to make a hash of his attempted save as Arsenal increased their advantage.
Now the floodgates were open and Ozil set up Alex Iwobi to tap home from two yards in the 53rd minute.
Inevitably, Sanchez had been instrumental in the goal, finding Ozil before the midfielder’s killer pass. What a night these two were having.
If Arsenal fans had questioned Wenger’s wisdom in playing his two aces, Ozil and Sanchez were emphatically answering for him.
There was only one moment of concern for the manager as, in the 66th minute, Sanchez was left in a heap by a meaty challenge from Balanta.
The forward looked in major discomfort as he clutched an ankle and picked himself up gingerly.
Wenger quickly ordered Olivier Giroud and Mohamed Elneny to get stripped. He had seen enough.Sanchez had not, though, crashing the resulting free-kick against the underside of the bar before trudging off smiling from ear to ear.
Substitute Seydou Doumbia reduced the deficit in the 78th minute but by then all Arsenal eyes were on Paris — and the result there left Wenger and Co beaming.
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