Arsenal may have ridden their luck at times but Arsene Wenger will not mind that at all after his side got their daunting Champions League campaign off to a fine start with their 10th successive win on their travels.
Wenger had claimed the quartet of Marseille, Rafael Benitez's Napoli and last year's runners-up Borussia Dortmund made Group F the hardest of the competition. The Frenchman also conceded that unless their injury situation improved - currently eight first-team squad members are out - then they would struggle to make it out of the group for the first time since the 1999/2000 season.
Wenger will therefore have been all the more relieved to see his side pick up yet another win on the road on the French south coast. Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey's second-half strikes proved the difference at the half-finished Stade Velodrome, where the hosts dominated for large periods of the match.
"It was important for us not to give the first goal away and I thought Marseille had an excellent first half," Wenger said. "We were a bit timid overall and in the second half they dropped and we took advantage of our good moments in the game. It was a victory linked with patience and experience, even if we were not flamboyant. But we start with three points and that is good. I knew that it would be a difficult game. Marseille is a good side, they can beat anybody here."
Marseille, back in the competition after a year's absence, edged the first half, with Andre Ayew and Andre-Pierre Gignac coming closest. Rod Fanni was inches away from opening the scoring moments into the second half, before Kieran Gibbs saved Per Mertesacker's blushes by clearing his miskick off the line as Gignac waited to nod into an empty net.
That proved decisive as another defensive mistake at the other end put Arsenal in the driving seat. Jeremy Morel misread a Gibbs cross, allowing Walcott time to rifle into the roof of the net and quieten those who had criticised his finishing during Saturday's 3-1 win at Sunderland.
The hosts pressed for a leveller but Ramsey's low strike seven minutes from time put the game out of reach for the hosts, who pulled one back through substitute Jordan Ayew's stoppage-time penalty. "It was vital to get three points and get off to a good start here," Ramsey said. "It was a difficult night, the pitch was sticky and slow, we didn't quite get the rhythm in our passing going. I think we deserved it."
Ramsey now has six goals this season and he added: "I'm happy with the way I'm playing. I'm playing with confidence and I'm getting into positions and putting them away."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article