Arsenal face Club Brugge at the perfect time | OneFootball

Arsenal travel to Belgium this week to face Club Brugge at a time when the Belgian champions are visibly sliding, short on confidence and searching for answers after another damaging domestic defeat that resulted in their manager being sacked.

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Brugge head into this Champions League fixture on the back of a third loss in four league games after being beaten 2-1 by Sint-Truiden at the Stayen, a result that saw them surrender second place and deepen concern around their recent collapse in form.

What began as a promising early spell in the match rapidly unravelled as errors, loose passing and a lack of cohesion crept into their performance.

After taking the lead through Andreas Skov Olsen following a neat counter-attack, Brugge collapsed inside a chaotic 10-minute spell that included a costly penalty conceded after a poor defensive pass. From that point, the shape and authority that had marked their early play disappeared.

Captain Hans Vanaken was blunt in his assessment afterwards, accepting responsibility for the collapse.“After our good start in the first half, we are giving yourself the way due to wrong choices, among others, and to myself, and with that drop the ball where the penalty will last,” he said.

He insisted the scale of the problem was not yet terminal but acknowledged his side’s inability to sustain control. “Should we worry? I will only do that if we don’t create anything and we are beaten 4-0. But that was not the case now. The second half was good. We have to try to reach that level for 90 minutes.”

Brugge briefly responded after the break through the substitutes Carlos Forbs and teenager Kaye Furo, who scored within five minutes of coming on, but the revival was short-lived. A late winner for Sint-Truiden sealed another defeat and left Brugge with 32 points from 17 matches, already worse off than at the same stage last season.

After the match, coach Nicky Hayen acknowledged the growing strain on his squad, even while resisting any talk of crisis. “You can say that we are in a dip, but we just continue to support each other. We are going to need everyone, even in the difficult moments. We continue to do our best every day to reverse this as quickly as possible. Is this a crisis? Other people are better placed to judge that.”

With confidence clearly dented, Hayen accepted the immediate psychological challenge before facing Arsenal, Europe’s in-form side. “It is now my task to clear the heads of my boys as quickly as possible. I try to get fire in my team every day.”

Less than 24 hours later, he was sacked and Club Brugge appointed Ivan Leko to replace him.

Arsenal remain the only team in this season’s Champions League with a perfect record, and they encounter a Brugge team that is leaking belief as well as points. How much can Leko do in 48 hours to turn that around? It’s impossible to say but instead of a tense European cauldron, Arsenal will hopefully walk into a stadium still gripped by this chaos.

In elite European competition, opportunities must be taken when they present themselves. This is one of them and Arsenal will be hoping to get themselves back to winning ways after a rare defeat in the league.

Brugge are currently 26th in the Champions League table with just one win, one draw and three defeats.