Emery’s men gave the kind of powerfully disciplined performance, which we didn’t believe they were capable of
RESOLUTE Arsenal made it a quadruple of English teams doggedly refusing to leave Europe. And now the rest of the continent is fearing a Premier League whitewash of both their top club competitions. With Liverpool and Spurs already through to the Champions League semi-finals and Chelsea odds-on to make it to the last four of […]
RESOLUTE Arsenal made it a quadruple of English teams doggedly refusing to leave Europe.
And now the rest of the continent is fearing a Premier League whitewash of both their top club competitions.
With Liverpool and Spurs already through to the Champions League semi-finals and Chelsea odds-on to make it to the last four of the Europa League, only Arsenal’s progress was still up in the air.
Yet on a strangely drama-free night in southern Italy, Unai Emery’s team gave the kind of powerfully disciplined performance which we didn’t believe they were capable of.
Their victory was never in doubt from the moment Alexandre Lacazette’s 36th minute free-kick ripped into the back of the Napoli net.
Now UEFA are sweating over the nightmare prospect of 60,000 fans travelling from London to Baku for next month’s final.
Arsenal still have to overcome the not inconsiderable hurdle of Emery’s former club Valencia in the semi-finals before they can book their flights to Azerbaijan.
And few Gunners will forget the way their team were dismantled by Atletico Madrid at the same stage of last season’s competition.
But there is a new-found steel about this team and they will take huge belief from the professional way in which they controlled both legs of this quarter-final.
Emery knows that it is one thing to see off the likes of Qarabag, Vorskla Poltava and BATE Borisov when your opponents are more interested in swapping shirts than winning the match.
But it’s a completely different proposition to overcome serious European players like Napoli, a team who were only edged out of the Champions League by Liverpool on goals scored this season.
Emery accepted that it would be too much of a risk to defend their first-leg advantage for 90 minutes and boldly picked a team to threaten on the counter-attack, knowing that one away goal would leave Napoli needing to score four.
To that end, he made only one change to the team which had won 2-0 last week, with Granit Xhaka replacing Mesut Ozil to provide a bit more bite to the battle.
FANATICAL CROWD
Having lost their last two away games in Europe after having a player sent-off, Emery made it clear to his players that there could be no room for indiscipline this time.
It was a warning which would not have been lost on Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal, who were all involved when Arsenal lost on their last visit to Naples in 2013 following Mikel Arteta’s red card.
But he need not have worried about his players keeping their cool in spite of the giant banner unfurled by the Napoli ultras demanding Lotta e Vinci (fight and win).
The Stadio San Paolo was by no means full yet the noise generated by the fanatical crowd still made it difficult to hear yourself think.
That didn’t stop Emery from barking out orders from the touchline to ensure his players remained alert to the danger to Napoli’s ploy of playing quick balls over the top of their three-man defence.
Lorenzo Insigne should have taken advantage of just such a pass into the channel but his poor touch let him down and Petr Cech was able to gather safely.
And there was an even bigger let-off for the visitors in the 17th minute when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang carelessly lost possession on the edge of the Napoli penalty area to allow the Italians to launch a lightning-quick counter attack.
The charge was led by centre-half Kalidou Koulibaly, who raced the length of the pitch to put Jose Callejon clean through on goal.
But the Spanish winger was too hasty unloading his shot and Cech was able to make a crucial block at is near post.
Another good chance for Napoli to pile on the pressure went begging when Arkadiusz Milik glanced wide from Pitor Zielinski’s 28th minute cross.
Arsenal were pressing all the way up the halfway line in a concerted effort to keep their opponents at arms’ length.
But it was a brave tactic to employ given their lack of pace at the back.
And their prospects were hardly helped when Aaron Ramsey, scorer of their first goal at the Emirates last week, limped off with a 34th minute hamstring injury to be placed by Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Yet just when it was beginning to look grim for the visitors, they grabbed a goal out of the blue to completely silence the partisan crowd.
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Nikola Maksimovic’s 36th minute foul on edge of his own area handed Arsenal a rare shooting opportunity and Lacaztte took full advantage with a magnificent free-kick curled into the top corner from 30 yards.
It was as good a goal as any of the 16 he has scored in all competitions this season and one which effectively finished sealed Arsenal’s passage to the semi-finals.
Aubameyang should have made the victory even more comfortable shortly after the break but his shot was tipped over from point-blank range by keeper Alex Meret.
It was a miss Arsenal could afford to shrug off. There was no way Napoli were coming back from there.
