Wenger bleats about Cologne spot-kick gift
COLOGNE have a goat for a mascot and two players named Horn so it was apt that they ram-raided Arsenal into a state of mild embarrassment last night.
But quite how they pulled it off is anyone’s guess. This was a performance that was so unambitious, it was something of a shock to see Sehrou Guirassy go for goal when he won a soft penalty on 62 minutes.
Yet shoot he did and with that strike Arsenal’s unbeaten run in this competition came to an end.
They still progress as Group H winners, which is impressive enough when you consider the fringe men, academy boys and recovering souls that have made up Arsene Wenger’s sides in this competition.
But there will be an acute sense of disappointment that they were quite so helpless here in the face of Cologne’s approach, which was to defend for their lives while spying for scraps that might justify crossing the halfway line.
Four shots, the home side had in all, and just 33 per cent of the possession. Yet somehow that was enough to beat Arsenal, who surged forward at every opportunity but found only lead in their boots and static in their brains. It looks all the worse when you consider Cologne have taken only two points from 12 Bundesliga games this season, so beyond the positive aspects of Jack Wilshere’s latest European performance, and the continued promise of Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Reiss Nelson, there was woefully little that could be termed encouraging.
Even Wenger was stumped in trying to add gloss to the result, saying: ‘We had a lot of possession and we lose a game where Cologne had one shot on goal. And it was not a penalty at all.
‘We just missed a little bit in the final third, we missed always a little something to finish our chances.’
There was at least a return from injury for Danny Welbeck as one of 11 changes to the side that beat Tottenham at the weekend, but even that only lasted 45 minutes, during which the striker was largely ineffective.
Wenger said: ‘It was planned before the game that he would play 45 minutes. Medically the risk was a bit too high to play him for longer because he’s been out for a while. He was frustrated to come off, but he’s in a good shape.’
On winning the group, Wenger was only marginally more enthusiastic.
‘I will tell you how it feels after the draw (for the knockout rounds),’ he said.
‘You feel you have done the job if you finish the group top. What does it really mean? I don’t know. But it’s what we wanted.’
How much they wanted from this game is open to debate after their derby exertions.
With their progress to the knockout rounds guaranteed before kick-off, meaning only the clinching of top spot was up in the air, they were sloppy. The only blessing was that Cologne tried so little.
Indeed, the single moment of attacking intent from Cologne came in the first five minutes, when Jhon Cordoba drew a semichallenging save from David Ospina, but thereafter they were done.
In response, Maitland-Niles had a shot to the near post diverted for a corner and Francis Coquelin cracked another wide. Coquelin later had the closest shave of the first half, when he hit the outside of a post.
Beyond that, Arsenal just could not hold possession long enough for it to be worth anything. A consequence of the opposition’s effective defending and frustrating attitude? Certainly. A product of the occasion, with no great need for busted guts? Quite possibly.
Wenger attempted a jump start by swapping Welbeck for Alex Iwobi but, if anything, Arsenal delivered less. Cologne engineered
one chance out of Arsenal’s complacency around the hour, with Guirassy side-footing rather meekly to Ospina, before he won the penalty.
It looked harsh, given it was an easy tumble after a gentle tussle with Mathieu Debuchy, but the call was made and Guirassy put his kick down the middle.
It was only the second home game in which Cologne have led this season. A set of horns to the backside for Arsenal.