Arsenal 1-0 Shakhtar Donetsk (Riznyk og 29′)
EMIRATES STADIUM — Arsenal won and avoided any red card controversy against Shakhtar Donetsk but the night was far from perfect for Mikel Arteta, who has fresh injury concerns ahead of Liverpool’s visit to the Emirates on Sunday.
Riccardo Calafiori hobbled off after twice receiving treatment. A weary looking Ben White was also withdrawn at the break, although Arteta later clarified that he was taken off after picking up a yellow card. “We have played enough with 10 men in this period!” joked Arteta.
But with Calafiori potentially joining Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka on the sidelines, who were both absent from Tuesday’s matchday squad, Arsenal risk being depleted for an early title test against Arne Slot’s pace-setters.
“Riccy [Calafiori] had to come off because he felt something,” Arteta said. “I don’t know the extent of it but it’s not good news.”
Arsenal fared better without their walking wounded in the Champions League than they did during Saturday’s shock on the south coast, winning thanks to an own goal from Dmytro Riznyk. But Leandro Trossard’s penalty miss was symbolic of their travails against a team they would expect to beat comfortably.
Shakhtar Donetsk are not as strong as they once were, understandably so. Displaced from the Donbas region in 2014 and ransacked by opportunistic European clubs after Russia’s illegal invasion in 2022, Ukrainian football’s dominant force this century has been severely weakened.
They are currently fourth in their domestic league and are yet to score in this season’s Champions League after three games.
“Our life is completely different from the lives of all the European clubs,” the club’s chief executive Sergiy Palkin said before the game. He has a point.
A significant portion of income raised through player sales and Champions League revenue is set aside to aid the war effort. The club donated £20m of Mykhailo Mudryk’s transfer fee to soldiers and their families.
In that context, Arsenal were always likely to win but it was less straightforward than their supporters would have expected as a controlled first-half gave way to a scabby second.
It was a strange performance from a strong starting line-up, with Arteta accepting afterwards that his team looked “tired”.
Arteta’s scope for rotation was limited but plenty of fans would have felt a pang of disappointment that Ethan Nwaneri, the precocious 17-year-old, wasn’t handed a chance to deputise for Odegaard.
Arteta made two personnel changes from the Bournemouth defeat, with Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli drafted in for Mikel Merino and Raheem Sterling.
A lively Arsenal start should have yielded an opening goal after six minutes. Calafiori scored a stunner from 25 yards out against Manchester City a month ago but was much less assured from six, sending a half-volley into the Clock End.
Shakhtar were camped in their own third, with lively Brazilian forward Equinaldo occasionally proving a useful pressure valve, and inevitably succumbed to Arsenal pressure after half an hour.
The Arsenal stadium announcer charitably credited the first goal to Martinelli but he was never keeping it. The winger’s crisp strike pinged off the base of the post but rebounded in off keeper Riznyk’s backside. It was a fortuitous opener which prompted a sympathetic response from the home crowd after seeing the replay on the big screen.
Riznyk soon redeemed himself, denying Jesus with his right boot after he had been smartly teed up by Havertz. Moments later the pair linked up again, with a defender thwarting Jesus after some neat footwork. The stand-in skipper threw his arms up in frustration as another chance to end his scoring drought slipped away; it’s now 23 games and counting.
Arsenal’s injury list pre-Liverpool
- Bukayo Saka (thigh)
- Martin Odegaard (ankle)
- Jurrien Timber (muscle)
- Riccardo Calafiori (unspecified)
- Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee)
- Kieran Tierney (thigh)
- William Saliba (suspension)
The indecision impacting Jesus’s game was not evident in Martinelli’s. He drew a smart save from Riznyk moments after hurrying him into a botched clearance. Martinelli has struggled to recapture his thrilling 2022-23 form, when he struck 15 Premier League goals, and his performance was undeniably the high point from an otherwise indifferent evening.
“He looked really sharp, fresher than anyone else on that pitch because he didn’t start against Bournemouth,” Arteta said. “You could tell that he was different and had another gear. He played really well and it was a great performance.”
The final 15 minutes were more fraught than they might have been. Minutes after Jesus was substituted, Arsenal were awarded a penalty after a ludicrously harsh handball decision against Mykola Matviyenko. Jesus may have been handed the ball had he been on the pitch but instead the responsibility fell to Trossard who telegraphed his spot-kick to Riznyk’s left.
The Belgian had David Raya to thank in the dressing room after the Spaniard made a flying stop to deny Pedrinho in added time. “We are lucky to have him,” acknowledged Martinelli.
It was unconvincing but Arsenal maintained their unbeaten start in Europe. Whether it came at a cost will become known after Sunday’s top-of-the-table showdown.
