(Football news) On day two of the match, Los Palanganas and PSV Eindhoven played to a thrilling 2-2 draw, while Mikel Arteta’s team lost 2-1 away to Lens.
After another ugly set of domestic results marked the end of Jose Luis Mendilibar’s stint at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, the coach who helped Los Palanganas win their seventh Europa League trophy last month is now searching for a new position.
In his first game in charge, former Uruguay manager Diego Alonso learned the true meaning of a baptism of fire as Sevilla hosted leaders Real Madrid at their headquarters over the weekend, but they came out of it with a well-deserved 1-1 draw.
Although it looked as though Sergio Ramos would score the game-winning goal against his old team, Kepa Arrizabalaga and the woodwork denied the legendary Blancos player. David Alaba’s unfortunate own goal gave Sevilla the lead, but Dani Carvajal saved his colleague’s blushes just four minutes later.
Sevilla salvaged a hard-earned point against Carlo Ancelotti’s team, their third straight draw against the Dutch. In their previous Champions League match, Los Palanganas had let two one-goal leads slip away to draw with PSV Eindhoven, only to have Jordan Teze level the score in injury time.
This season, only Las Palmas and Almeria have lost to Sevilla; nevertheless, the hosts will find some comfort in the fact that both of those victories were achieved in front of their own supporters. They will now aim to win just a third of their 17 games in Europe’s top league.
Pre-match talk at Stamford Bridge mostly focused on the heartwarming reunion between Mauricio Pochettino and Mikel Arteta, but there was another story waiting to be written: Mykhaylo Mudryk, who Arsenal had been chasing since January, nearly sent his former supporters to defeat in an odd way.
Arsenal trailed deservedly to Cole Palmer’s penalty kick in the first half and then saw Mudryk’s cross-cum-shot go over David Raya’s helpless reach and into the net’s side. However, as has happened so frequently in 2023, Arteta’s team turned on a switch as the clock ran out and managed to escape with a share of the points.
With a careless ball to Declan Rice, who dutifully scored from long range, Robert Sanchez spared Raya the whole humiliation. Then, in the 85th minute, Leandro Trossard—the player Arsenal signed as a Mudryk substitute—again proved his worth off the bench with a goal.
In addition to seeing their team destroy Manchester City and take a well-earned Champions League beating at Lens prior to the international break, Gunners supporters have experienced the full gamut of emotions over the last two weeks. The latter result saw the team drop to second place in Group A following their 4-0 demolition of PSV.
Few supporters of the red and white could dispute that a point at Stamford Bridge was generous, but that London derby is now in the past, and Arsenal is now attempting to win a Champions League match away from home for the first time since Basel was humiliated 4-1 by Arsene Wenger’s squad in December 2016.
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