By Walter Broeckx
Arsenal made two changes to the team compared to last weekend match against Swansea.
Debuchy came in the place of the injured Bellerin and not exptected but Gabriel came in the place of Koscielny who sat on the bench. Acccording to the German commentator Kos had a hip problem. Well this sure is not what we wanted to hear, another injury.
Campbell stayed in the team as exptected. Two young kids on the bench with Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Alex Iwobi.
The team that started : Cech, Monreal, Mertesacker, Gabriel, Debuchy, Coquelin, Cazorla, Campbell, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud.
On the beach: Macey, Chambers, Gibbs, Koscielny, Reine-Adelaide, Flamini, Iwobi.
The first shot of the match was from Giroud but it went wide. Bayern with a shot from Alaba from distance but no problem for Cech. Thiago with a cross from the left, Gabriel stepped up but not in time to put Lewandowski offside and the Polish striker headed it home. 1-0 to Bayern after 10 minutes.
Arsenal immediately reply with a combination on the left. Özil with a ball to Monreal a cross back to Özil who put it over the line. The 5th ref judged he used his arm to score. So the goal was cancelled. It did touched his hand so can understand the decision.
Coman trying to win a penalty for Bayern but the ref judged Campbell played the ball. Cech then with a string of good saves to deny Lewandowski on a few occasions.
Bayern pressing Arsenal back in their own half. Coman then throws himself to the ground before Campbell came even near but he got the foul and a yellow card against Campbell. A cross from Alexis causes a bit of trouble but Campbell and Giroud cannot come to a shot on goal.
Bayern with some space on the left and the cross ends up a bit lucky in front of the feet of Muller and his shot hits the leg of Mertesacker and Cech has no chance. 2-0 to Bayern after 29 minutes.
The ref determined to not give a foul in favour of Arsenal in this moment of the match with fouls on Campbell and Alexis ignored. Cech being the best Arsenal player on the pitch with a few good saves again close to the end of the first half.
But nothing he could when Alaba won the ball back just outside the penalty area and placed it in the top corner. 3-0 to Arsenal after 44 minutes. Nobody really attacked the Bayern player so he could pick his spot.
A bad first half for Arsenal. Too many lost duels and a few players not up to this kind of opposition. The players not putting enough pressure on the Bayern players. Problem might be that if they do they will be called back by the ref.
Arsenal trying to move more forward in the second half but Bayern is like a real machine. Robben enters the field in the place of Coman and the right flank of Arsenal is played apart and Robben scores with his first touch. 4-0 to Bayern after 55 minutes.
A great combination Cazorla-Giroud and back to Cazorla but the little Spanjard managed to shoot the open chance straight at Neuer.
Campbell made way for Gibbs after 58 minutes. Monreal almost with a chance but a defender just got a last touch on the ball so he couldn’t shoot.
Arsenal at least with some better football in the second half but not enough to really make the Bayern keeper be forced in to action.
Alexis with a fine pass to Giroud and he controlled it on his chest and volleyed it home. GOAL!!! 4-0 after 69 minutes.
Cech had to stop an effort from Robben when Arsenal lost the ball in midfield. Something you really can’t do against a team like Bayern. Giroud trying from the half way line after Neuer cleared a ball but a defender could stop the ball in the Bayern penalty area. Coquelin with a good penetration on the flank but Cazorla scuffed his shot.
In such matches it is not only to not make mistakes but also take the chances when you get them and we weren’t good at both today.
Debuchy with a last ditch tackle when Robben had rounded Cech from an offside position that wasn’t given.
With 7 minutes to go Iwobi came on in the place of Giroud. I think the match of next weekend already in the mind of Wenger. Monreal also with a good tackle to prevent Muller to have a shot at the Arsenal goal.
Chambers came in the place of Cazorla with 4 minutes to go.
Just as Arsenal was trying to go forward a bit in the hope to score another goal we ran in to a counter and Muller put the final nail in the coffin. 5-1 to Bayern after 89 minutes.
To be honest I haven’t seen a team of the calibre of Bayern Munich in the PL. They can break down any wall that is put in front of them and if you play too high against them they will hit you on the counter as they have the players to do this also.
In order to beat them you must have a complete team and we didn’t have that today. Too many players just watching and not attacking the Bayern players so they had too much freedom on the ball and that is something you cannot allow them that. Not enough healthy aggression from Arsenal and then you pay the price.
But we aren’t the first team to suffer a heavy defeat at their ground and we will not be the last one.
The other result means that we have to win our last 2 matches and in the last match I think we will have to win with two goals difference against Olympiakos. So not an easy task.
Thank you for a really quick and realistic report, Walter.
Stupid Dinamo Zagreb made it all complicated by losing once again to Olympiacos. Dinamo had the lead on the break but conceded a last-minute goal to make our task pretty difficult. We have to beat Dinamo, hope for Bayern to beat Olympiacos and, finally, beat Olympiacos with either 3:2 (provided that we will have superior goal-difference after Week 5), 4:3 (more away goals scored which would give us better head-to-head) or 2:0.
A good report Walter. Unfortunately we couldn’t perform at the right level tonight & the ref was fairly awful.
Lets hope we have no new injuries – any further news on Kos?
Arsenal weren’t at their best.
But, to be clear:
Bayern are currently the BEST TEAM IN THE WORLD. We were playing at their ground.
Arsenal were missing TEN first team squad players injured, including 4 likely starters. Two of the defence were injured very late before kick off.
Excuses, yes. But need to have a sense of perspective.
It is still possible to qualify and I continue to feel positive about it. The key result was to win at home against Bayern.
So not feeling too peed off.
If anyone thinks the end of the world has come because of that result in those circumstances then I feel very sorry for you.
How embarrassing, imagine we go onto win the Premiership.
The winners of the EPL got smashed 5-1 by Bayern, now how poor will the EPL look?
Who cares about Olympiakos getting beat by Bayern, us beating Zagreb etc.
It doesn’t matter, we just got beat 5-1 in the CL, our 3rd loss in 4 games, we have no hope of winning the CL whatsoever so lets just get out of it so we can get back to making the EPL look terrible.
Oh and it wasn’t the fact we lost, its the manner in which we lost that really angers me.
Just letting them have the ball, no tackling, no heart, no passion.
Basically just let them walk all over us….
Chris, how would you call it for La Liga to know that their Champion Barcelona lost 7-0 on aggregate against Bayern Munich? Was it an embarassement for La Liga?
On aggregate the result between us and Bayern was 5-3.
Or maybe it should be again a wise lesson for the PL that we aren’t as good as we think we are?
@Chris – there is a bigger picture you have been missing.
Arsenal have a lot of players on the sidelines. Seven out of nine options for the right side of the pitch (Bellerin, Ramsey, Chamberlain, Walcott, Rosicky, Wilshere, Welbeck) plus our best central defender. We have a close battle for the top spot in the league with a realistic chance of winning all of our matches and opening some gap ahead of the chasing pack before the big match against Manchester City at home.
Before Bayern, we played a difficult match to Swansea away. After Bayern we have a big match against Tottenham. Bayern don’t have a serious rival in their league. In a way, Arsenal’s European results and the results of other English clubs suffer – among other reasons – due to strength of Premiership.
In 2007-08 English clubs were eliminated in Champions League only by other English clubs. Arsenal lost to Liverpool, Liverpool lost to Chelsea, Chelsea lost to United in all-English final. Four English representatives in that Champions League season had had fifteen domestic league defeats combined. Current four English representatives in Champions League have already collected 12.
My point is, if we beat Tottenham, nobody will ask how did we fare against Bayern. And, the truth is, we did better against Bayern than any other club will – a victory and a defeat.
“how would you call it for La Liga to know that their Champion Barcelona lost 7-0 on aggregate against Bayern Munich? Was it an embarassement for La Liga?” – in a word, YES. I thought it was embarrassing at the time (as well as very funny), and continue to think so.
The only time losing 5-1 is not an embarrassment is if the opposition is in a higher league (and that’s being charitable). The PL may not be as good as it thinks it is, a point also proved by this result, but it is notionally at the same level as the BL, and it doesn’t take away from the embarrassment.
C’mon Chris
if we win the Premier League ( as is quite likely ), getting beaten by the probable winners of the Champions League will not deflect negatively on us.
We had some key players out and the replacements are not quite up to speed in this particular competition.
This was no disgrace.
Obviously, in the pantheon of things that are embarrassing to a football club there are things that are more embarrassing than losing 5-1 to the best team in Europe (losing 8-2 to anyone, losing 5-1 to your local rivals, losing 3-0 to a championship team, losing the league cup final to Birmingham, or to Swindon for that matter), but then there are things that go beyond any mere football result in terms of embarrassment, for example humiliating the team doctor and then being sued for it, having a racist captain who sleeps with the wives of his team mates, having a ‘star winger’ who sleeps with his brother’s wife – or for that matter having a manager who accepts a ‘bung’. At the end of the day it is just a game, worse things will happen. But it is embarrassing.
Chris may have a point on the quality of football in the Premier League at least, it can be seriously poor. Kids are not allowed to develop, there is mass short termism, teams who like rotational fouling can sometimes be rewarded, even against technically, far better teams due to the risible standard of coaching and refereeing in this league.
Some, like Wenger have tried to improve technical quality, only to see players leave the field with snapped limbs.
It is no coincidence England lag a long way behind, and not only in football. Maybe we need to look at who is running these highly profitable sports in this country. As for Bayern , they look head and shoulders above anyone in the EPL in terms of quality, it is not so easy to develop such quality in the English league at the moment, and all the agendas with the media and others that surround it.
We were obviously not good this evening, at all, but it is to the eternal credit they beat them two nil at home , not many will do that this season. The ECL looks to be Bayerns to lose at this stage.
Yes, at the moment, Bayern are a better team, and certainly better squad than Arsenal but we can still make some major steps this season. Luckily, we will not come up against anything remotely like that in the EPL or FA Cup this year.
Everyone stop making excuses we we garbage they had Robben and Ribery out the better team won FFS picking out pathetic excuses about the ref doesn’t wash either dislike all you want because you will because you cannot and will not accept any format of criticism against Wenger. If as some think he is tactically astute then he proper fu#$ed up tonight didn’t he? I am as stated before one of his fan’s and thank him for all his endeavours and hope we accept his limitations and our limitations in a world of corruption and cheating !!!!
@Walter
Thanks for the match report. I was unable to watch the match. Can you please let me know if you think the referee was tilting the game and if it had a significant impact on Arsenal’s rhythm and performance?
I notice that you mentioned fouls not given which usually means the referee is allowing the opposition to break up Arsenal’s rhythm and therefore Arsenal ‘seem’ to be having an off day when in fact it is the constant fouling.
Also, I noticed you mentioned an off-side not given for Robben – was that the only incident of such?
And you mention “The players not putting enough pressure on the Bayern players. Problem might be that if they do they will be called back by the ref.”.
So I am wondering if the referee displayed the sort of tilting we are all too familiar with in the EPL in favour of one of UEFA’s chosen teams. This is not to acknowledge the opponent was not a good team, just to enquire as to the effect of tilting by the referee.
Yay!
We like to do it tough us Gooners.
That was the 3rd lackadaisical display in Europe, a competition which we have got no real prospect of winning and have not done since 2006, when we came within 15 minutes
Football is a team game and with 9 regular players unavailable tonight, a pragmatic manager would say,
“Go out there, run around a bit, try not to get booked or injured, we’ve got the Spuds on Saturday, that one we must win so take it easy lads.”
I thought Arsene played the media really well afterwards. They tried to ask him what he said at halftime and he side stepped it. And when the interviewer then tried to interpret that as he had given them a rollocking, he again smiled and said, Let’s not make that the story?
Most of us would’ve all liked a 0-1 win away, gutsy performance, backs to the wall, with the opposing captain sent off just befire full time.
It’s all part and parcel of attaching ones hopes fears and dreams on a cause and long may it continue to be
Hmm. The deed is been done. Instead of Arsenal to play to their given game application of: UNDO THE BAYERN GAME IN THEIR GAMES. They were doing other things to put Bayern offside. Offside traps does’t work against a mobile team like Bayern. I’hv watch those traps backfired before. Why should the Gunners play like that? Or didn’t they study very well their given game app to underrtand it ? Or they think it’s all nonsence? It’s not, it’s real. Pep has confirmed his game app will be to attack Arsenal relentlessly to score goals against them. And yet the Gunners allowed him to do that. injuries to the Gunners 2 defenders is not an excuse for the Gunners to concede 5 goals. It’s an indisciplined performance by the Gunners reminiscent of that their woeful outing at Sheffield Wednessday. From all indications, Arsenal became half prepared for this game because the Boss said he will be happy if he’s offered a draw. Nevertheless, there’s hope for a dried tree. By the sent of water it will bud and bring forth branches.
We have an excellent first 14 or so players , however when we are forced into changes, if there are too many, then we are likely to implode and when we do it ,usually,it is quite catastrophic.
Consider this scenario – what if last year’s EPL runaway champions were to win the CL this year , while at the same time being relegated ? Wouldn’t that be more embarrassing ?
It could happen you know , especially if the Premier League starts to deducts Chelski points for inability to control their players and for their manager’s ‘nothing’antics . If I were the EPL chief , I would dock any club that hires the Moaning one , 10 points per season !
One can always dream you know !
Before you get all excited and crap your pants , just remember that Chelski were the first CL Champions to be knocked out in the group stage and ‘dropped’ into the Europa Cup and went on to win that .
You just cannot make that up !
Sometimes you get more than you bargained ( or hoped ) for !
A SPAGHETTI LOVE STORY
For several years, a man was having an affair with an Italian woman.
One night, she confided in him that she was pregnant.
Not wanting to ruin his reputation or his marriage, he said he would pay her a large sum of money if she would go to Italy to secretly have the child. Furthermore, if she stayed in Italy to raise the child, he would also provide child support until the child turned 18.
She agreed, but asked how he would know when the baby was born. To keep it discreet, he told her to simply mail him a post card, and write ‘Spaghetti’ on the back. He would then arrange for the child support payments to begin.
One day, about 9 months later, he came home to his confused wife.
‘Honey, she said, ‘you received a very strange post card today.’
‘Oh, just give it to me and I’ll explain it later,’ he said. The wife obeyed and watched as her husband read the card, turned white, and fainted.
On the card was written:
Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.
Three with meatballs, two without.
Send extra sauce
Now that the madness from the FFM and the AAA has gone down a bit, I like to say that Bayern were good but got help from the officials. We could have lost squarely but the ref and his line men made sure of it with some diabolical decisions.
Did anyone see that world class goal from the world class Giroud? Me, I saw it and that’s the highlight for me from the match.
I really don’t care about the permutations to qualify for now. Let’s have the tiny Tots for dinner on Sunday.
COYG
We’ve met Bayern 6 times in last 4 years?? During this period they were/are considered the one of the best (if not THE) team in the world. And ARSENALs record against the best team is not bad. We’ve won 2 and drawn 1 against them. This is our first defeat at their place in those encounters.
We may not be Bayren Munich,
BUT we still are the best team in the world. Come on Gunners.
Lost in translation –
A young woman was taking golf lessons and had just started playing her first round of golf when she suffered a bee sting. Her pain was so intense that she decided to return to the clubhouse for medical assistance.
The golf pro saw her heading back and said, “You are back early, what’s wrong?”
“I was stung by a bee!” she said.
“Where?” he asked.
“Between the first and second hole.” she replied.
He nodded and said, “Your stance is far too wide.”
I do agree that Arsenal did not play last night like we wanted to win at all. We completely “forgot”,”misplaced” our game, let Bayern play theirs and were kept mostly in our own half. I have strong deja-vu feelings that we’ve been here before and done just that. The game following CL are usually the more important ones, especially if the opponent is Spurs!
All said and done now, let’s get out of CL and concentrate on PL this year.
//
On another matter Remi Garde now in UK to carry out his PL “training” as manager.
//
Spuds to come on Sun, and i am going to feel sorry for them. Naw, i wont. 🙂
The smartest people are successful because they’re sarcastic, Harvard researchers conclude.
http://www.oregonlive.com/living/index.ssf/2015/11/the_smartest_people_are_succes.html?sf14924001=1
So where does that leave the sneaky , the snarky , the slimy and the moaners ?
Accurate report Walter!
Not an ideal situation to be in – at all. However, there is now a big responsibility and urgency (one would hope so), that the players who have been called in to cover for the regular starters (absent through injury) – several throughout the field; must now prove a point. They have to, since there is a high probability that they have been or at least should have been ‘itching’ for their opportunities and perhaps even making it known from time to time (that they deserve more game time).
They should feel wounded and out for justification of their belief in their talent and potential!!
Their best opportunity will most certainly be on Sunday.
COYG Onwards and upwards!!
Speaking of the referees, the worst offside decision was the one when Giroud was ready to go through on goal. It would have been 4:2.
Ozil was magnificent. Giroud also gave a great performance. He outscored Lewandowski in two matches.
On the negative side, Santi hasn’t scored a goal from an open play in an official game since Newcastle in December 2014 and it’s not like he didn’t have a chance to do so. Both of his chances last night were clear-cut ones.
Have to say I turned TV off at 3-0. All goals until that point were soft, uncontested and preventable. The defence looked like they couldn’t be bothered. So I thought, neither can I.
Saw the Manager later on, post match, and thought he got it right in terms of his honesty. But he wasn’t particularly bothered either was he? Quite relaxed really. Just sense the team have relegated this completion to League Cup status. Gave us a great night at home to Bayern though.
Seems Mertasacker does not like blocking shots.I felt he could have put in a better block for the second goal. Its obvious that Koscieny is our best defender, and without him,we are never the same.We also missed Bellerin yesterday, Debuchy was very average, and Alaba and Cobam gave him a torrid time.I rate our defence this way: Koscieny>Bellerin>Monreal>Mertasacker. To me, our 2 best defenders didnt play and our back ups were awful, while Mertasacker, who was suppose to be the leader, was missing.Only Ozil, Giroud, Cech and Monreal(bcos he was made to face Costa and Lahm alone, Sanchez offered no help at all), deserve some credit yesterday.
Well, it was probably (a) the closest I’ve ever got to being able to appreciate the good football of a team who happen to be soundly beating us, and (b) the nearest I’ve been to being able to look at such a game objectively and therefore experience something other than dumb pain.
Close, but not that close. It still had a strong nightmarish quality to it.
Simply, I think we needed to be very near full strength to stand a chance. Beating them at home required our best team, ultra concentration, near perfect play from the centre backs, a little luck, good cover for the full backs, patience, and great speed on the break.
With so many key players out, and having lost a lot of speed in the team, well, it was hard beforehand to imagine how we could do it. We would have needed fortune to be totally on our side and an even better performance from the defenders.
Not to be. The positive was a beautiful goal, the narrow miss of one that would have been even better, a third good opportunity created by great play from Coquelin. Plus a few more decent chances.
I think truly getting close to Bayern’s level is a possibility if our rate of progress of the last few years is matched in the next couple. A tough ask but a possibility.
Meanwhile, we’ve a premier league to fight for. Our injury situation needs to improve quickly.
Syd
Robben was “Out”?
Amazing that he managed to score then!
Have to say I applaud Wenger for publicly berating the players for their defensive performance last night. They fully deserve the criticism. Wenger has been extremely supportive of his players over the years and he has not really been repaid for that support. The lapses of concentration and the repeats of games where Arsenal just seem to switch off may just have finally become too much. It’s about time the players were slated each and every time their performances are not up to scratch. Iwould like to see Wenger drop a few of them too.
Just had another look at the permutations for qualification. Have to say I am worried that the Bayern vs Olympiacos game will be a staged draw. That would leave Bayern atop the group with a better head to head vs Olypiacos and only having to beat Zagreb in their final game to win the group. It would not surprise me in the slightest if as part of a deal to agree a draw and put Olympiacos through, they in turn agreed to lose the match vs Arsenal, thus ensuring Bayern win the group regardless of their Zagreb result.
If football was not so corrupt from top to bottom, the above scenario would seem unlikely, but in todays football I think it is a very real possibility.