Arsenal starts their Europa League with a win and an impressive overall performance.

Arsenal being in group A of the Europa League 2022/2023 kick-started the tournament this season.

As the favorites in this fixture, Arsenal began the match as the dominating side. It was a good passing display with ball possession from Arteta’s side. Arsenal was playing quick 1-2 passes to evade Zurich press and was quick on their transition game with good link-up play. Arsenal players were moving heavily on the pitch to evade Zurich’s markers, stats would show a good work rate from Arsenal players. Arsenal had taken the lead before the 1st 30 mins of the game in a counterattack. The move was quick but a composed one.

Zurich also had their attacking moments through long balls when Arsenal was losing the ball in their attacking half. 3 minutes before the end of the 1st half from such a chance Zurich got a penalty when N.Ketia fouled a Zurich player inside the box after the box was forested with legs. M Kryeziu converts the penalty, to change the scoreline to 1-1 before half time.

Without the ball, Arsenal was closing the passing lanes and had good interception rates to recover the ball back to Arsenal’s possession.

As the 2nd half unrolled with the death of Queen Elizabeth II, for which players from both sides stood to have a moment of silence and wore black arm bands.

Arsenal began their 2nd half in the same dominating way, creating waves of attack through quick build-up play and fast transitions only to see shots either saved/deflected off target as Zurich switched to full defensive mode to protect their goal. Finally, in the 61st minute a beautiful cross from the right flank by Marquinhos the 19 yr old Brazilian forward, was headed home by NKetiah, to take back the lead again and redemption for the scorer as well as he conceded the penalty before.

Arsenal kept on knocking on Zurich’s door, played a beautiful passing game in the final third, and operated with composure in small spaces but failed to find the net for the 3rd time as substitute Gabriel Jesus came closest to scoring. Zurich went numb in the 2nd half till the 86th minute after which they showed some spirit and tried to create a few chances, but Arsenal was able to defend the lead successfully till the last whistle blew off.