Arsenal vs Napoli: Aaron Ramsey and Lucas Torreira help Gunners take box seat but nerves will remain in Naples

Arsenal 2-0 Napoli: Unai Emery's side produced a superb performance, but will it be enough?

But is it enough? A superb performance by Arsenal Home put them in the driving seat here, but now it’s over to their colleagues, the team of impostors otherwise known as Arsenal Away. Their fans will travel to Naples with a few nerves, but if they play as fluidly and confidently as this, even the foothills of Vesuvius should hold few shocks for them. It’s 25 years since Arsenal won a European trophy. Too early to start dreaming? Perhaps. But led by the inspirational Aaron Ramsey, and buttressed by a strong defensive display, this was sterling, excellent stuff: certainly a good deal better than the thin fare Chelsea were serving up in Prague.

If there was any lingering regret, it was that Arsenal didn’t have even more to show for their efforts. They certainly created enough chances over the 90 minutes to pull out an unassailable lead in the tie; perhaps even the sort of lead that might have seen Denis Suarez get a game. But the clean sheet, secured despite a few nervy moments in the second half, was the biggest prize of the night, giving them a handy cushion in Naples, even if their opponents surely won’t be as meek or disjointed as they were here.

The game was always going to hinge on how quickly and how accurately Napoli could move the ball. Napoli, to be fair to them, did both. But to paraphrase Dr Johnson, the passes that were accurate were were not quick, and the passes that were quick were not accurate. Before long Ancelotti had emerged from the dugout in his expensive tailored coat, brow furrowed in frustration like a diner who’s just spotted a Dairylea triangle on his luxury cheeseboard.

Not until the last 20 minutes, as Napoli pressed for a vital away goal that would give them a fighting chance at the San Paolo, did they even remotely display the slick vertical football of which they are capable. The overall impression is of a team in flux, holding their own in a weak Serie A but still a couple of notches below the marvellous team that Maurizio Sarri assembled last season. Dries Mertens was anonymous, the midfield a grave disappointment and the celebrated Kalidou Koulibaly uncharacteristically loose. He’s much, much better than he showed here.

But then it was often hard to see what on earth Napoli were playing at: tight and compact after 10 minutes, far too open after 30 and a curious melange of the two thereafter. “I don’t want my squad to have only one identity, I want it to have many,” Ancelotti said earlier this season in response to accusations that he was diluting the sharp passing football that Maurizio Sarri had so successfully instilled before him. At times, you suspected his side were trying several of them at once.

But Arsenal deserved plenty of credit. Some of the football they played at times was truly exceptional: the sort, in fact, that would have had Arsene Wenger leaping off his chaise longue in approval. The tempo was brisk, the attacking combinations intelligent and well-drilled, the defending awkward and physical. They were smooth on the ball and an absolute nuisance off it. Unai Emery’s 3-4-1-2 offered plenty of outlets in the final third, and their two goals were a fair reflection of a dominant first 40 minutes.

All over the pitch, there seemed to be a determination to put things right after Sunday’s debacle at Goodison Park. Ainsley Maitland-Niles slalomed up the right flank with intent. Mesut Ozil offered his usual measured touch and some fine flourishes on the ball. The pair combined for Ramsey’s opening goal, a delightful quadrangular move which also saw a superb pass from Alexandre Lacazette and a fine low finish.

Torreira impresses on his return to the team (Getty) (Getty Images)

Lucas Torreira hasn’t started a Premier League game since February, suspended since the north London derby, but here he offered a strong case for an extended run in the side. It wasn’t just his part in Arsenal’s second goal, a deflected shot off Kalidou Koulibaly after robbing Fabian Ruiz high up the pitch and then beating him again with a devastating Ronaldo chop. As a collective, Arsenal seem a tougher, spikier prospect with him in the side.

It all seemed blissfully straightforward for Arsenal. But then, with Arsenal it never really is that straightforward. Napoli began coming into the game towards the end of the first half, and began to assert themselves more in the second. Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan arrived as Emery switched from a 3-4-1-2 to a 3-4-2-1, a formation built for the counter, yet just as Arsenal should have been looking to tighten the game up, it began to open out.

Ramsey celebrates scoring the opener (Getty) (Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Had it not been for the superb Laurent Koscielny, Napoli might have created even more than they did. Piotr Zielinski had the best chance of all, missing a sliding chance from six yards after some good work by the otherwise disappointing Lorenzo Insigne on the right flank. But Arsenal had their fair share of counter-play too, Ramsey looking distraught when he ballooned a glorious chance from 10 yards that would almost certainly have put the tie to bed.

As it is, Arsenal will travel to Italy with a few nerves, but in the box seat. The next breakthrough will be crucial: with Arsenal’s pace on the break, even an improved Napoli will have their work cut out to prevent an away goal. But only once the final whistle has blown in Naples, you feel, will Arsenal truly begin to believe. It rather comes with the territory these days.