It was impossible to avoid thinking about the ifs, buts, and maybes of Arsenal’s season as Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard slowly destroyed Ipswich.
If these two players hadn’t been sidelined by injuries, we’ll never know how the Gunners would have performed in the Premier League this season; there would have undoubtedly been a much smaller difference between first and second place.
However, they were obviously agitated by the prospect of postponing Liverpool’s inevitable championship by a few more days, as they dominated the game in a manner reminiscent of their previous seasons.
Saka had a couple of excellent chances and should have scored at least twice by halftime, but Arsenal scored the goals through his two crosses in the first half, Leandro Trossard’s second goal, and an Ethan Nwaneri goal in the second half.
Every time the England player had the ball, especially when driving to the byline, the Ipswich defense went into a frenzy. With his studs going down Saka’s right Achilles, Leif Davis made a terrible red card challenge, but fortunately for the north London team, he was allowed to continue the game.
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Odegaard, a Norwegian who has had a disappointing season due to an ankle injury in September that kept him out for two months, was at the vanguard of Arsenal’s most effective offensive play.
The recipe for defeating Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich, who spent a lot of time in retreat with their life support now more reduced, came from his skill at getting into dangerous situations while off the ball and splitting passes out wide to players like Saka. All it takes for West Ham to demote the Tractor Boys is one point on Saturday.
The north London club’s elation from defeating Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate to secure their first Champions League semi-final in 16 years was still in full force, and their decline in domestic play has essentially given Liverpool the championship.
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However, a second-place finish is advantageous financially and aesthetically. Millions of dollars separate second and fourth place. It still needs to be finalized because teams like Manchester City and Newcastle are still in the running.
Trossard made his third straight league start as a false No. 9, while Declan Rice was paired with Mikel Merino in the midfield.
It served as a trial before the Gunners’ matchup with PSG in Europe. Mikel Arteta had a good chance to try out the possible midfield and attack because Thomas Partey was suspended and couldn’t play that game.
Liam Delap’s rib injury kept him on the bench, which hurt Ipswich’s hopes of winning.
As anticipated, the visitors quickly pinned Ipswich in their own half, and Zinchenko looked excellent with the ball. The tone was set early on as the full back pinged a couple cross-field passes.
At 14 minutes, Odegaard broke forward on the right to feed Saka with a cross, giving the Gunners the lead.
Under pressure from Sam Morsy, Trossard dropped on his buttocks and then poked the ball home through Dara O’Shea’s legs after he crossed the ball into him. Odegaard received a slight touch on the way.
Ten minutes later, Mikel Merino could have equalized the score with a header after finding himself free at the back post for a Saka corner kick.
Gabriel Martinell quickly found the net, so it didn’t matter. After bringing the ball down with a brilliant touch, Trossard raised it to Saka. Mikel Merino backheeled his cross to Martinelli, who finished with ease.
Saka quickly wasted two chances first giving up after Merino played him through the middle and then missing Trossard’s cross from a distance.
Despite lacking a player, the home team tried to salvage something in the second quarter by throwing extra players forward.
After finding space around William Saliba, George Hirst made a decent effort and whistled past David Raya’s right post after 57 minutes.
Other than this, they were not very happy. On minute 69, Odegaard returned a short corner ball from Declan Rice to him, and he assisted Trossard in scoring his second goal.
Ethan Nwaneri, a substitute, also scored after his shot ricocheted off O’Shea’s leg and into the net.
With the help of Arsenal’s two key players, it completed a strong day’s work and made Liverpool wait a little longer for their championship moment.