Arsenal are back on track in UEFA Champions League, thanks to a brilliant performance for Danny Welbeck. He notched his first hat trick in a Gunners shirt in their 4-1 win, but his side did suffer a bit of a setback against Galatasaray. They'll be without goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny through suspension for a bit after he picked up a straight red.
Arsenal vs. Galatasaray final score: 3 things we learned from the Gunners’ 4-1 win
Arsenal had a man sent off in their Champions League match against Galatasaray, but managed to hold on for a win thanks to Danny Welbeck’s early heroics.
Paul Gilham
The opening 15 minutes were wide open, with both teams looking equally capable of scoring, but the Gunners’ quality ultimately won out. Welbeck scored the first of his three goals in the 22nd minute, taking advantage of some lax defending and a brilliant through ball by Alexis Sanchez. He sprinted past the defense to get on the end of it and hit a composed shot, first time and low, to beat Fernando Muslera
It only took eight more minutes for Welbeck to score again, this time aided by a bad mistake by Aurelien Chedjou. He tried to head a long ball clear, but instead played a perfect flick-on for Welbeck, who pounced and scored a second time.
Understandably upset with their team’s play, Galatasaray fans took to doing what they’re known to do, which is throw flares. A decent number of them managed to get onto the pitch, and there was a delay in the game as they were cleared away.
Arsenal's third came in the 41st minute, with Sanchez turning scorer on this occasion. No one picked up his run onto a through ball from deep by Mesut Özil, and he scored by running onto it and placing a composed first-time finish into the back of the net, notching a goal in similar fashion to Welbeck.
The Gunners took a 3-0 lead into the halftime break, and it only took them six minutes to add to it, with Welbeck completing his hat trick in the 51st minute. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlin set him up with -- you guessed it -- a through ball that Welbeck could run onto before scoring.
A potential blowout turned a bit more interesting in the 60th minute when Szczesny picked up a red card for denying Burak Yilmaz a clear goal-scoring opportunity, but it wasn't an avenue for the Turks to get back into the game. Yilmaz converted from the spot, but his team didn't score again, despite their one-man advantage. The closest they came was on a chance for Yilmaz in the 80th minute, but substitute goalkeeper David Ospina made a great save, and was tidy in relief of Szczesny during his half-hour on the pitch.
Arsenal: Szczesny (red 60’), Gibbs, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Chambers, Cazorla, Flamini, Sanchez (Ospina 62’), Özil (Wilshere 77’), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Rosicky 68’), Welbeck
Goals: Welbeck (22’, 30’, 51’), Sanchez (41’)
Galatasaray: Muslera, Kaya, Melo, Chedjou, Telles, Dzemaili, Kurtulus (Altintop 46’), Sari (Bulut 69’), Snejider, Pandev (Bruma 69’), Yilmaz
Goals: Yilmaz (pen 63’)
3 things
1. Arsenal's defense made their superiority possible - Midfields don't get any flimsier than Santi Cazorla and Mathieu Flamini, and Galatasaray were able to attack through them easily in the opening minutes of Wednesday's game. But the Arsenal defense was flawless, cleaning up after them every time. Once Arsenal scored, Gala had to play a bit differently, and Arsenal's midfield was less exposed.
2. Don’t play a back three against Arsenal - Formations seem to matter a bit less in the modern game than they did a couple of years ago, and teams have learned how to account for the inherent matchup problems one formation might present against another, but a formation mismatch had a lot to do with Arsenal’s goals in this one. Their back three was confused pretty frequently by Arsenal’s 4-3-3, didn’t know how to track runners, and got torched because of it.
3. Gala were saved embarrassment by the red - Without Szczesny’s sending off, this game probably would have ended 6-0 or so. Their defense was terrible, and Felipe Melo was lucky not to be sent off on a couple of occasions.
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