Arsenal Gets Crucial First Leg Victory Against Napoli to Put Themselves on the Front Foot

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It was the first part of this week’s Europa League matchday action, as Arsenal who aiming to secure champions league football next season locked horn against Napoli at the Emirates Stadium, a game that ended in a solid and at the same time a crucial first leg victory for the gunners and they head over to Naples with the upper hand.

Arsenal have their eyes in this competition as it is another avenue to secure their main target this season. This season is going well for them, better than what a lot of the Arsenal fans expected considering that this is Emery’s first season in England and the difficulty to quickly adapt to the premier league.

They have crossed the first stage of the hurdle, and will be looking forward to the next difficulty level that awaits them in Naples. For them, it is a massive victory and a win that increases their chances of progressing to the semifinals.

Napoli went into the game with lots of expectations on them to get something in this first leg tie, but the gunners had their plans well executed. It was a disappointing result that they didn’t manage to get hold of an away goal, but it is not the end of the world as they can still overturn the tie at home. Winning the Europa League isn’t too much a priority for them, but they still want to win it and will do everything possible to achieve their aim.

Brief Post-Match Analyses

It was a fantastic atmosphere at the Emirates Stadium, the fans were all cheering and chanting.
Arsenal lineup in a 3-4-1-2 formation, while Napoli setup up in a 4-4-2 formation. The game began and both teams had good spell early in the game, but it was the gunner who got the early goal and before needing the help of an own goal to seal the crucial first leg victory.

Ramsey opened the scoring just 14 minutes into the game, to give the gunners a much needed advantage.

Koulibaly scored a goal in his own net in the 25th minute to gift Arsenal the cushion of the tie and an all-important first leg win.

Match Stats

According to the final stats of the game, both teams weren’t far away from each other in terms of overall performance. Arsenal had a total of 16 shots, 7 of them were on target and finding the back of the net twice. Napoli, on the other hand, had a total of 9 shots, only 2 were on target and no goal scored.

Arsenal had 42% of the ball possession, 430 passes, and 79% pass accuracy, while Napoli had the remaining 58% of the ball possession, with 595 passes and an 81% pass accuracy.

Arsenal committed 16 fouls in total in the game with no yellow card received. Napoli, on the other hand, committed 6 fouls and had just 1 yellow card.

Arsenal were ruled offside twice in the game while Napoli had 7 offside calls. 8 corner kicks was played by Arsenal and Napoli had played 1 more.

It was a great game of football, a fantastic result for the home fans and a disappointing outing for the away fans. The win puts the gunners in a great position for the second leg in Naples, but nevertheless, the tie isn’t over yet as it is still possible for Napoli to turn the table around in Naples.