I’ll be honest, that was a lot harder than I thought it would be.
Given how easily we rolled Bilbao over on their visit to the Emirates in pre-season, I didn’t expect a tremendous amount of resistance when we visited the Basque country on Tuesday night.
What I was missing, however, was the full context of this clash. This was no routine European opener for the hosts – this was a watershed moment.
For the first time in a decade, Bilbao were back on the biggest stage and my word were they up for it. The stadium was rocking, the atmosphere was intense and the players were blood and thunder from the outset. It reminded me of our trip to Lens a season or two ago – everyone was up for it.
Against that backdrop, it was an altogether tougher affair for Mikel Arteta’s men and a real physical trial. I suspect a few of them will be sporting impressive new bruises this morning.
Credit to Bilbao, they made Arsenal work from start to finish and stuck to their game plan admirably. There aren’t many La Liga sides who would opt to go shoulder-to-shoulder with this Arsenal outfit but they gave it a respectable go.
In the end, though, Arsenal had too much quality and too much depth for their hosts. When things were looking a little stale, a little turgid, the manager sent for Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard and the move proved an incredibly astute one. In fact, he may make no better set of substitutions in his life.
Within barely a minute of his arrival, Martinelli had opened the scoring (assisted by Trossard) and the second, game-killing blow was landed not long after by Trossard (assisted by Martinelli). As changes go, it doesn’t get any better.
Last year, with a much thinner squad, we may simply have battled our way to a draw – frustrated by an obdurate opponent. Not so this time around. We have the quality and depth in our squad to pose different questions at different times and really squeeze a tiring opponent. Full credit goes to the manager.
And huge kudos also to Martinelli and Trossard, both of whom have been on the receiving end of some rough treatment from certain sections of the fan base of late. While that is very much part of modern football, it has most certainly been overdone and, hopefully, this might ease some pressure. I should say, there has never been any doubt about the attitude or application of either player.
As for the wider team, you have to give credit for the way they stood up to the pressure of the occasion. It is all too easy to wilt in those circumstances but they dealt with it manfully. Try as they might, Bilbao were largely unable to make their physical pressure count and such chances as did come their way presented little problem.
This turned out to be a tougher test for Arsenal than I had expected but it was not the sort of physical examination or test of character that this squad is unfamiliar with. They are no wallflowers.
As for our Champions League campaign, this was the ideal start. Few would have expected any other outcome but Bilbao are not the pushovers I had expected. I think a lot of sides will come unstuck expecting a easier ride. Not so for Arsenal, though, as we move on to the visit of Olympiacos in a few weeks. Bag back-to-back wins and we put ourselves in a very healthy position.
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