Arsenal didn't make as many substitutions as predicted at half time with Arsene Wenger introducing Jack Wilshere, Fran Merida and the only senior substitute Gael Clichy for the second half lineup.
Unlike the end of the first half, Arsenal started the half very brightly and dominated with their counterattacking prowess but couldn't get past the very impressive Asenjo saving clear goal chances from both Aaron Ramsey and Merida. The lack of finished product forced Arsene Wenger to introduce his three big guns on 66 minutes Arshavin, Fabregas and Eduardo.
The game started to slow down near the end with Jack Wilshere probably the most threatening of the Arsenal players to try and make a breakthrough, twice jinking his way through the Valencia box only for his end product to be blocked.
Shortly afterwards though it was Valencia that almost scored when Mannone made a meal of a Maxi Rodriguez shot which he almost palmed into the goal from his inital block. The deadlock was soon to be broken when Andrei Arshavin got on the end of a Cesc Fabregas chip in the box which he volleyed in the bottom left corner of Asenjo's goal. The celebrations caught Arsenal out and almost instantly Athletico equalised when German Pacheco intercepted a poor pass to slot cooly past Mannone.
At this time it looked like Arsenal would only scrape a draw but Andrei Arshavin made sure that wouldn't happen. On the 90 minute mark He latched onto a short back header, skipped past the keeper and slid the ball home from a ridiculously tight angle to win the game 2-1.
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