{"id":30180,"date":"2023-03-17T07:50:15","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T07:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=30180"},"modified":"2023-03-17T07:50:17","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T07:50:17","slug":"europa-league-sporting-eliminated-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/03\/17\/europa-league-sporting-eliminated-arsenal\/","title":{"rendered":"Europa League: Sporting eliminated Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the light of day Arsenal will not be too hard on themselves, and nor should they be. Elimination from the Europa League to a commendable Sporting side will hardly register as a regret if Mikel Arteta\u2019s players use a cleared schedule to succeed in their push for domestic glory. Nonetheless the novelty of seeing\u00a0late drama work in an opponent\u2019s favour\u00a0was unwelcome and a night that stretched to the bitter end may yet have further unwelcome consequences.
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Nuno Santos\u2019s emphatic penalty, settling a shootout that had tilted Sporting\u2019s way when Antonio Ad\u00e1n repelled the previous kick from Gabriel Martinelli, sparked delirious scenes among the green and white-clad away contingent. Large numbers of the home support stayed to chant defiantly, aware that this surprise setback should not dampen anything that has passed before. Arsenal did not quite deserve to go through over the two legs but would have still navigated extra time successfully had Ad\u00e1n not saved magnificently from Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es; the fine margins cannot go your way every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Marcus<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The real pain may be physical rather than emotional.\u00a0Arsenal took some almighty blows here, even though Sporting\u2019s challenges were generally fairly contested until Manuel Ugarte was shown a second yellow card for clattering Bukayo Saka at the very end. They lost Takehiro Tomiyasu and, more inconveniently, William Saliba to injuries inside the first 21 minutes while Gabriel and Aaron Ramsdale were among those to need treatment during the game. Trossard and Oleksandr Zinchenko also appeared to pick up knocks. These were consequences of a tense, bruising, engaging cup tie but Arsenal cannot afford to lose first-teamers for their title drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomiyasu looks pretty serious, from his reaction straightaway and what he said to me,\u201d Arteta said. The right-back had appeared to overstretch after being left for dead by Francisco Trinc\u00e3o early on. He was less clear about the significance of Saliba\u2019s ailment, which saw him replaced straight after Granit Xhaka had given Arsenal the lead, but losing the Frenchman for any length of time would be a sizeable blow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his absence Arsenal were unconvincing at the back although it did not help that the defence was exposed by a negligent midfield. Sporting had shown flickers of danger in the first half and begun the second period strongly when they punished Granit Xhaka and Jorginho for overplaying near halfway, although nobody could have predicted the consequence of their laxness. Pedro Gon\u00e7alves was six yards inside Arsenal\u2019s half when, from nothing, he elected to shoot and caught Aaron Ramsdale off his line. The ball sailed over his head and in; it was a stunning goal and Arsenal, who had refused to turn the screw, had it coming to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA huge blow,\u201d Arteta said of the disappointment that followed. \u201cWe really wanted to go through, fight and go for it. We tried for 120 minutes and it wasn\u2019t enough.\u201d For the final hour Arteta fielded his first choice front six, assuming Trossard is part of that for now, but while they stemmed Sporting\u2019s flow they rarely clicked. Trossard should have won it when D\u00e1rio Essugo\u2019s disastrous backpass sent him through but Ad\u00e1n diverted on to a post; Gabriel was agonisingly close with two headers at the death, one cleared off the line, but when you court jeopardy so often it will not always fall for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sporting
Sporting celebrate their penalty shootout win over Arsenal.Photograph: John Sibley\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Arteta will simply be relieved if Ramsdale, who took a whack to the face when denying Marcus Edwards a winner late in normal time, and his hobbling colleagues are fit to face Crystal Palace on Sunday. A straightforward evening\u2019s work had seemed likely when Xhaka swept in emphatically after Martinelli, sent away beautifully by Jorginho, had shot too close to Ad\u00e1n. Sporting had started with intent but did not appear especially equipped to come back until grasping that Arsenal were a shadow of their usual intense selves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news came in the form of a successful full comeback for Gabriel Jesus, who started for the first time since returning from injury and departed at half-time as planned. Jesus looked sharp enough and almost doubled the lead when, after twisting into space, his angled drive was stopped by the inspired Ad\u00e1n. His availability will look especially timely if Arsenal\u2019s collateral damage transpires to have been heavy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta\u2019s task is to ensure confidence does not take a hit and he said Martinelli, disconsolate at the end, would \u201creact well\u201d to his fluffed penalty. Clear heads may be able to take advantage of free midweeks over the next two months. \u201cThe disappointment is not going to go away,\u201d he said. \u201cBut there\u2019s also a clarity. There are 11 games to go and we have a final against Palace.\u201d Win that, and the impossibility of a May showpiece in Budapest will feel all the more palatable.
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In the light of day Arsenal will not be too hard on themselves, and nor should they be. Elimination from the Europa League to a commendable Sporting side will hardly register as a regret if Mikel Arteta\u2019s players use a cleared schedule to succeed in their push for domestic glory. Nonetheless the novelty of seeing\u00a0late […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":30182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[285,10855,7556,8587,10507,305,6083,7234,8240,746,4918,12377,7090,9692,11525,11294,7970,302,3874,10634,10481,4807,12187,11973,1565,13256,12337,9230,9761,11259,5470,9691,7419,8206,3316,11494,6571,3954,10415,594,9294],"class_list":["post-30180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-arsenal","tag-blows","tag-budapest","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-court","tag-crystal-palace","tag-dead","tag-death","tag-europa-league","tag-feel","tag-gabriel-jesus","tag-gabriel-magalhaes","tag-games","tag-granit-xhaka","tag-injuries","tag-injury","tag-jesus","tag-jorginho","tag-lead","tag-lost","tag-midfield","tag-mikel-arteta","tag-n","tag-one","tag-pedro","tag-players","tag-rio","tag-santos","tag-shoot","tag-shot","tag-space","tag-sporting-lisbon","tag-the-game","tag-treatment","tag-trossard","tag-ugarte","tag-white","tag-will","tag-work","tag-who","tag-yellow-card"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}