Sheffield 0-3 Arsenal: Lacazette, Martinelli score to pile further misery on the Blades

Alexandre Lacazette-Arsenal

Arsenal picked up a 3-0 win over Sheffield United in the Premier League earlier tonight. 

Goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Gabriel Martinelli earned all three points for the visitors and the Gunners are now up to 9th in the league table. Sheffield United are at the bottom with just 14 points. 

The Londoners came into this game on the back of just one win in four league games and the win over the Blades will give Mikel Arteta’s side some much-needed belief to go on and end the season strongly now. 

Meanwhile, Sheffield United had lost three in a row before this one and they are overwhelming favourites to go down. 

The Gunners started the game brightly and they enjoyed ample possession in the first half. They had the better chances as well and Aaron Ramsdale produced a couple of smart saves to keep the home side in the game. 

Saka, Ceballos and Lacazette combined in the first half to give Arsenal the lead. The three players produced a sequence of exceptional passes to cut the home side open. Martinelli could have easily scored the second of the game in the first half as well.

However, the youngster did get on the score sheet eventually when Ramsdale parried a shot from Pepe onto the path of the striker and Martinelli scored a tap in. 

Lacazette completed his brace five minutes from time after being played through on goal.

It was a complete performance from the Gunners and the fans will be delighted to see the tempo and the intensity at which the game was played. Arteta decided to drop Willian in favour of Martinelli and the young forward was sharper and hungrier.

The former Chelsea star has been criticized for his dip in form this season and it will be interesting to see if Willian can get back into the lineup after tonight’s display from Martinelli. 

Arsenal are famous for their free-flowing football with neat link-up play and Arteta’s side rolled back the years against a poor Sheffield United outfit tonight. 

It remains to be seen whether the Londoners can build on this and win their remaining games now. 

Statistics and Reactions – Sheffield United vs Arsenal

We know we have the quality. Sometimes we miss in both parts of the pitch and today we were really efficient so we’re really happy.

I think tonight was a great game for us. I missed an easy chance on Thursday, today I wanted to score to give back the confidence.

Alexandre Lacazette

We had a really strong performance. The clean sheet was needed and we were very composed with the ball. Overall I’m very happy.

Mikel Arteta
Alexandre Lacazette becomes the tenth Arsenal player to score 50 Premier League goals with a double at Sheffield United.
Arsenal have beaten Sheffield United away from home in the Premier League for the first time in the competition's history. The Bramall Lane curse is lifted.
Only six French players have scored 50 or more goals for a single club in the Premier League:
Thierry Henry
Robert Pires
Olivier Giroud
Eric Cantona
Anthony Martial
Alexandre Lacazette
Goal involvements for Arsenal last two seasons all competitions 
48 Aubameyang 
33 Lacazette 
31 Pepe 
28 Saka 
15 Martinelli

Line-ups

Sheffield United

Aaron Ramsdale, John Egan, Enda Stevens, Ethan Ampadu, John Fleck, John Lundstram, Oliver Norwood, Ben Osborn, George Baldock, David McGoldrick (Oliver McBurnie) (Lys Mousset), Oliver Burke (Rhian Brewster).

Substitutes 

Phil Jagielka, Wes Foderingham, Kean Bryan, Max Lowe, Jayden Bogle, Iliman Ndiaye.

Arsenal

Bernd Leno, Pablo Marí, Rob Holding, Granit Xhaka, Calum Chambers, Bukayo Saka (Willian), Dani Ceballos, Thomas, Alexandre Lacazette (Edward Nketiah), Gabriel Martinelli (Mohamed Elneny), Nicolas Pépé.

Substitutes

Cédric Soares, Mat Ryan, Héctor Bellerín, Reiss Nelson, Gabriel, Miguel Azeez.