Arsenal rounded off the Champions League group stage with a 1-1 draw away at PSV Eindhoven tonight.
Both sides knew going into the game, whatever the result was, that they would both be going through to the knockout stages with Arsenal topping the group.
Arsenal made eight changes from the side that lost at Villa Park on Saturday, with the likes of Reiss Nelson, Cedric, Mohammed Elneny and Aaron Ramsdale getting rare starts.
It was a dull first half for Arsenal, with the much changed team struggling to find a creative spark to open PSV up until some good work down the right hand side from Cedric and Nelson led to a neat finish from Eddie Nketiah with his weaker foot just before halftime.
After the break Arsenal came out poorly and the scores were level after just five minutes of the second half. Their defence was all over the place which allowed for Yorbe Vertessen to curl home past the helpless Ramsdale.
The rest of the second half did not see much of an improvement from Arsenal as they kept giving the ball away and were struggling to create any sort of chances.
Trossard really struggled tonight and Nketiah could not build on his first half goal as he failed to make any real impact in the second half.
Arsenal were unlucky not to nick it at the end when Kiwior saw his header ruled out because Gabriel was in an offside position and was perceived to be interfering with play.
But, the game ended 1-1, leaving Arsenal without a win in their last two games.
Mikel Arteta chose to throw on the likes of Odegaard, Rice, White, Jesus and Smith Rowe much to the bemusement of Arsenal fans as youngsters Reuell Walters, Lino Sousa and Ethan Nwaneri miserably watched on from the bench.
There will never be a better chance to give the youngsters some valuable minutes for the first team so I can’t get my head around Arteta’s substitutions in that second half. Why risk some of your best players in a dead rubber?
Those youngsters must be questioning if they will ever get a real chance under Arteta if he would not even trust them tonight, when players like Cedric were given a start.
Overall, it was a very lacklustre performance by Arsenal but at the end of the day they are already through so it can be excused.
However, the fans will be hoping for much better on Sunday against Brighton as they look to get back to winning ways after two games without a victory.
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