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Europa League: Two things we learned with Arsenal’s win over Qarabag

By Amanda Paula

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN - OCTOBER 04: Matteo Guendouzi of Arsenal celebrates with teammate Alexandre Lacazette after scoring his team's third goal during the UEFA Europa League Group E match between Qarabag FK and Arsenal at on October 4, 2018 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images)
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN - OCTOBER 04: Matteo Guendouzi of Arsenal celebrates with teammate Alexandre Lacazette after scoring his team's third goal during the UEFA Europa League Group E match between Qarabag FK and Arsenal at on October 4, 2018 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo by Francois Nel/Getty Images) /
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Scoring their first ever goals for the club Sokratis, Emile Smith-Rowe and Matteo Guendouzi, all on target for Arsenal to get their Europa League win.

It was an incredible night for any Gunner in the world as Arsenal banged Qarabag by three goals to zero, away from home. With this result, Arsenal reached the mark of eight straight wins in the season across all competitions.

From this I’ve picked up two things that was learned with the aforementioned match. Studying it closely and seeing the change in Arsenal’s play was quite refreshing, even for a neutral.

Unai Emery’s philosophy

Perhaps the most disappointing thing is PSG fans expected too much from Unai in the Champions League. He went to the French giants as a winner who lifted the Europa League trophy in three consecutive seasons. They expected that he could repeat the same formula as an ambitious club for UCL glory. And we all know how that ended.

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At Arsenal, the fans are not expecting to win the Europa League, not even close. Emery has tried to replace a legend at the club, Arsenal Wenger, who has 22 years at the club. But already we see so early on in his maiden season, changes being made and experiments paying off.

Tonight, he started inserting a 3-4-3 formation with Lichtsteiner, Guendouzi, Elneny, and Kolasinac in the midfield. That helped the team transfer from defence to attack more efficiently and created good play, engineered by the fullbacks. They helped in the middle as well, stopping some threats in the early phases.

This could work extremely well to throw their opposition off later on in the season, when they start clicking better together and have a better understanding. His stance on wanting to keep the side a certain age, and a young age at that, is a good one. He has an athletic team, who can shape shift in formation with ease once the mentality is correct.

There’s a first time for everything… Arsenal’s goal scorers.

Next. The Top Flight FPL GW8. dark

Guendouzi isn’t only for the future, he is the present!

Against Qarabag he scored his first goal as a Gunner, with a great finish at the edge of the area. He completed 63 of his 69 passes, plus put in 27 crosses as graphed by YankeeGunner.

Guendouzi isn’t only for the future. He is one to look at now. He has played astonishing football so far. It would be a surprise if he starts for France’s national team, ahead of Paul Pogba and Blaise Matuidi in the nearest future. He has been the better midfielder of the three.

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