BUKAYO SAKA’S double fired Arsenal a step closer to the Champions League last 16 as the England forward inspired a 3-0 win against Monaco on Wednesday.
Saka netted late in each half and Kai Havertz struck in the closing minutes at the Emirates Stadium to lift Mikel Arteta’s side into third place in the revamped league phase.
The Gunners have won four of their six European games this term and, with two matches remaining, they control their destiny in the race for the top-eight finish that guarantees automatic progress to the last 16.
Clubs that finish ninth to 24th in the 36-team first phase face a play-off to determine if they will advance.
With games against Dinamo Zagreb and Girona to come in January, the north Londoners will be confident of avoiding that unwanted obstacle.
After a damaging 1-1 draw against Fulham in the Premier League last weekend, Arsenal’s fifth win in their last six games in all competitions was a welcome tonic.
With Arsenal’s defensive injury crisis showing no signs of abating, Gabriel Magalhaes, Ben White, Riccardo Calafiori, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Takehiro Tomiyasu were all absent.
That meant Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey started out of position at right-back despite missing training on Tuesday.
Myles Lewis-Skelly, 18, came in at left-back for just his second Arsenal start, with his other coming in the League Cup against third-tier Bolton.
The youngest player to start a Champions League match for Arsenal since Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2011, Lewis-Skelly rose to the occasion with a composed display.
In contrast, Gabriel Jesus has gone 32 games without a goal for Arsenal and the Brazilian’s lack of confidence was clear in the hosts’ first dangerous attack.
Picked out by Gabriel Martinelli’s pass, Jesus should have hit the target but could only muster a tame shot straight at Monaco keeper Radoslaw Majecki.
Jesus failed to time his run well enough to reach Mikel Merino’s teasing cross moments later.
- Saka sparkles -
Aleksandr Golovin nearly caught out Arsenal keeper David Raya with a long-range strike that fizzed just past the far post.
Jesus’ travails showed no signs of ending as a raking long pass sent him clean through for a low shot that was too close to Majecki.
The 27-year-old was having a torrid time and, teed up by Martinelli, again he couldn’t beat Majecki with a close-range effort that drew a fine save from the ‘keeper.
But Jesus’ clever movement was at least causing Monaco problems and he played a key role in Arsenal’s 34th-minute opener.
Lewis-Skelly slipped a superb pass to Jesus, who ran in behind the Monaco defence and delivered a low cross that presented Saka with a simple tap-in for his fourth goal in his last six games.
Martin Odegaard squandered a golden opportunity to double Arsenal’s lead just before half-time as he robbed Soungoutou Magassa, but fired wide with only Majecki to beat.
Thilo Kehrer should have made Arsenal pay for their profligacy early in the second half, but his header flashed wide from 10 yards.
Arteta’s men lost concentration for a long period after the break and Takumi Minamino tested Raya before Breel Embolo drilled inches wide following sloppy defending from William Saliba.
But Arsenal emerged unscathed and wrapped up the points in the 78th minute.
Majecki didn’t clear his lines quickly enough when Havertz put the ‘keeper under pressure, allowing Saka to steer his shot into the empty net from close range.
There was still time for Arsenal to put further gloss on the scoreline in the 88th minute as Havertz turned in Saka’s shot.
Uefa Champions League results on Wednesday:
Atletico Madrid (ESP) 3 (Alvarez 16, Griezmann 42, 57) Slovan Bratislava (SVK) 1 (Strelec 51-pen)
Lille (FRA) 3 (Sahraoui 37, Bakker 45+2, Haraldsson 81) Sturm Graz (AUT) 2 (Kiteishvili 45+4, Biereth 47)
AC Milan (ITA) 2 (Leao 42, Abraham 87) Red Star Belgrade (SRB) 1 (Radonjic 67)
Arsenal (ENG) 3 (Saka 34, 78, Havertz 88) Monaco (FRA) 0
Benfica (POR) 0 Bologna (ITA) 0
Borussia Dortmund (GER) 2 (Guirassy 60-pen, 78) Barcelona (ESP) 3 (Raphinha 53, Torres 75, 85)
Feyenoord (NED) 4 (Trauner 8, Paixao 10, Moussa 30, Gimenez 63) Sparta Prague (CZE) 2 (Rrahmani 43, Beelen 79-og)
Juventus (ITA) 2 (Vlahovic 53, McKennie 75) Manchester City (ENG) 0
Stuttgart (GER) 5 (Stiller 25, Millot 53, Fuehrich 61, Vagnoman 66, Keitel 76) Young Boys (SUI) 1 (Lakomy 6)
Highly doubt a guy of 27 years of age in a position like outhalf will make any huge addition to the ulster team when he has never played a game in the top division of any league. Surely they’ve an academy outhalf that they’d be better off promoting to the senior panel?
The problem is highlighted by the number of Ulster Youth in the Irish representative teams. 5 in the schools and 0 in the youth. Ulster rugby do not match their aspirations with investment in youth rugby to ‘find’ players such as Tagdh Furlong and SOB. Would rather see the IRFU go further by requiring the provinces to match their investments in foreign players with the same amounts in youth rugby.
I wouldn’t think much of junior team numbers really, of the irish u-19 team that won the world championship, how many can you name? it’s a professional sport and the brutal fact is a lot of those guys won’t break through from underage teams, they need to be a prodigious talent like Bo’D or the colossus that is Donncha O’Callaghan.
He’s played in the NRC. He’ll be fine for the pro 12.
The point of junior teams is to feed senior teams. Without the numbers at junior level there is nothing to come through at senior level. Case in point Munster.
Realistically though Christy, Munster have never had a significant presence in underage teams. I don’t put much stock in u-20 numbers as representative of the talent coming through provinces, mostly because arguably the two best players in this years championship, Zach McCall and Stephen Fitzgerald, came from the two least represented provinces. It’s quality not quantity basically. I’d be much happier to get one Jack O’Donoghue rather than a bunch of lads that’ll never play beyond the AIL, as we see in Leinster.
I’d imagine that the only thing He needs to do to be a permanent starter at 10 for ulster is not miss in front of the posts.
If you want to be trolling Ulster better try the Uafc forum where they might be interested.
I didn’t mean to troll, really, but if Kelly Haimona is the only pro12 kicker with a worse percentage than jackson, you desperately need backup for Pienaar.
Where are you getting your statistics from Eoghan. I assume you are making no allowance for Jackson suffering a bad back injury at the end of last season and being injured for a good part of this season. He has hardly kicked at all.
http://www.pro12rugby.com, look for the longlist of golden boot contenders. You know kicking percentage doesn’t get affected by the number of games he’s played in the season, only the number of kicks he’s hit/missed? Or are you thinking that his injury hampered his more recent performances? never assume. Realistically though when was the last time you saw a senior, capped international miss a kick in front of the post?
I’m talking about literally in front of the posts about ten yards out but thanks for your input as always Quinner.
Again Quinner, Madigan’s kick wasn’t directly in front of the post, ten yards out. He’s on the shortlist actually.