By Walter Broeckx
Arsenal with some unexpected people in the starting line up. Flamini wasn’t really expected in the place of Coquelin and with Elneny as his partner this also wasn’t what one might expect. Per on the bench for Koscielny also not expected but as Wenger talked about speed in defence the choice for the two fastest defenders seems reasonable.
Danny Welbeck up front also was not taht surprising as he also is faster than Giroud. But the big surprise was the inclusion of Alex Iwobi in the team. A real first starting place in the CL.
Arsenal starting team: Ospina, Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal, Flamini, Elneny, Iwobi, Ozil, Alexis, Welbeck
Near the Barcelona beach: Macey, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Coquelin, Walcott, Campbell, Giroud
Arsenal with most of the ball in the opening minutes and dominating the play.
The assistant then waiting what looked like minutes to call Suarez offside when he really was meters offside but in the end he raised his flag. Özil stealing the ball and going for the shot from outside the penalty area but it was not on target. Barcelona now playing counter attack football at times but not very precise. Ter Stegen almost missing a back pass but he can recover in time. Elneny with a shot from distance but again wide of the Barcelona goal. 0-0 after 15 minutes and with a good Arsenal performance so far.
A long ball to Messi who is suddenly one on one with Ospina but what a save from the Arsenal goalkeeper! Even Messi congratulates Ospina. An amazing reflex from Ospina. But it was only a matter of time as Barcelona won the ball at the half way line, some suspicion of offside in the build up but no clear replay, the ball to Neymar and he beat Ospina with a low shot on the ground. 1-0 to Barcelona after 18 minutes.
Barcelona now being the better team but not creating new chances. Oh, nice my stream goes down now… Sorry missed a few minutes now. Elneny heading the ball away to prevent danger from Barcelona after a corner. Neymar with a low shot but good stop from Ospina. Still 1-0 for Barcelona after half an hour.
Flamini getting a yellow card for barging in the back of Iniesta. If that would havve been Özil in the PL the refs would have let play continue. Gabriel kicking a ball in corner before Messi can become dangerous. Iwobi being brought down in the penalty area but no foul is the verdict of the ref. I hope they show a replay of that. It didn’t look a foul to me just getting his feet mixed, at least I couldn’t see a contact from the defender on my stream. Gabriel goes in the book for protesting against the ref. Stupid yellow card. Okay a new replay now shows contact from the Barcelona defender. Oh well did we expect to get a penalty at Nou Camp??? Really, you did???? Penalty and a red card as he was the last defender? Really?? Iwobi with a shooting chance after a cross from Bellerin but his left footed shot goes well over.
Özil with a nice dribble, a cross but no Arsenal player at the end of his cross and Barcelona can block the shot from Alexis in the end. A backpass from Messi is picked up by the goalkeeper…. oh well this is Nou Camp. Surely Messi as the God he is only plays deliberate balls even when doing a sliding so that is a deliberate backpass. It’s also Nou Camp. Another cross from Bellerin and a header from Alexis but just wide. A one two between Welbeck and Iwobi but Welbeck just can’t wrap his foot around the ball and the shot goes wide. Another good Arsenal attack but a defender just beats Alexis. Just before half time Flamini is taken off and Coquelin enters the field. Arsenal that had played the ball out to make the substitution gets it back but not really with a lot of appetite. At half time the score is 1-0 for Barcelona and I might be biased but Arsenal surely had a lot of the game and looked very dangerous in the whole first half.
Arsenal pushing Barcelona back in the opening minutes of the second half. A shot from Iwobi is deflected in to a corner. Alexis goes in the book for bringing Neymar down. Arsenal win the ball back in midfield. Koscielny to Alexis who played on the right now who crosses it to Elneny who curls his shot in the top corner. GOAL for Arsenal!! 1-1 after 51 minutes. Well deserved! A really nice goal.
Messi with a shooting chance but again a good save from Ospina who went down quickly on the shot. Barcelona
now going more forward again. Ospina with quick release after he picked up the ball to Welbeck who shoots but his shot is stopped at the last second by a defender… oh that should have been a goal to Arsenal. Messi shoots wide from outside the penalty area. Both teams having the same number of shots up to now. Alexis almost with a chance but a defender cann block his effort after a good pass from Iwobi. And then the difference between Arsenal and Barcelona painfully made clear… one cross to Suarez and he volleys it in the top corner. 2-1 to Barcelona after 64 minutes. They just finish almost everything that comes their way.
Another example Welbeck with a shot from his left foot… hits the crossbar.. and goes over. Alexis tries to take on a defender when a pass might have been a better option and another possible chance goes begging. Some good blockwork from Elney, Kos and Gabriel to prevent Messi finding a little bit of space in the penalty area.
Giroud and Walcott come on in the place of Welbeck and Iwobi for Arsenal after 72 minutes. Corner to Arsenal and the ball ends up in front of the feet of Walcott but his shot is blocked. Arda goes in the book for bringing Monreal down a few times to prevent Arsenal making a quick attack. Alexis with the free kick, a great save from the keeper, the rebound to Giroud and again the keeper saves… and then the next rebound is saved from the goal line. The difference about taking the chances once again made clear…
Barcelona now in counter modus and Arsenal pressing forward. The referees making sure that Arsenal cannot get some attacks going by inventing some fouls… leading to Giroud getting booked from anger. Walcott one on one with the keeper but the angle favoured the keeper. Arsenal take too many risks and lose the ball close to the own penalty area and Messi can profit to score the 3-1 in the 88th minute. Taking your chances….
Walcott with a run, a pass to Alexis but his shot if blocked in to a corner by a defender. Again there was more in to this attack.
Arsenal played a great match but the difference between the 3 teams was in the quality of their forwards. They scored when they got the chance and we once again wasted the chances. If we take the quality of this match in to the PL we should be fine but then we have to step up our finishing.
Barcelona 13 shots in total, Arsenal 12… this match was much more even than the final score shows. These stats were on the Uefa website at the end of the match.
Our shooting is poor.
There is NO doubt that Barca are the best team in the CL with a 5-1 overall win BUT at least we gave them a game this time. We are far too profligate and nothing has really changed since I started following the Arsenal back in 2000. That said, I have the feeling that our forwards will finally start to score when we return to the EPL this weekend.
Now we can focus on the EPL and while I doubt we’ll catch Leicester, we can win 2nd if we remain focussed and start finishing our chances. there is no shame in going out to Barca, but I am sure the aaa will come screaming their joy at us getting knocked out and that Wenger is to belame for everything…..with plastic fanbosy like this, who needs terrorists?
Our scoring will return, I suspect not for Saturday. With many of our players then away on international duty I hope the change of scenery and colleagues will do the trick.
A lot of heart and spirit shown.
Even Howard Webb saying iwobi should have had a penalty.
Despite the score, overall, we looked a lot more switched on than in some recent games.
But as you say, really need to find our shooting boots, although that is now 21 times we have hit the woodwork this season.
Well done elneny, hopefully the first of many
In the context of the game, the team were impressive in many ways.
Interesting watching a different style of refereeing too. And Iwobi clearly seen to be a forthcoming star. Getting more impressive in each game.
Munich scored, what a great goal- Thiago
Off topic but Bayern have just taken the lead at the start of the second half of extra time.
Now 4-2 to Bayern
Our possession was much lower and created near enough the same as them, just praying Ozil doesn’t call it a day with us.
Think we needed Juve out for the coefficient thing?
Ozil…those worries are for another day….lets just wait and see what happens this season.
Just seen another replay…..can see why the ref didn’t give us the iwobi pen , it looked like he clipped his own ankles, and needed slow mo to prove that Mascherano touched him. Mascheranos last ditch tackles are certainly a source of frustration for us over the years, maybe we should sign him.
A mention for Ospina…thought he did well overall against certainly the best forward line I have ever seen
We were not disgraced but the two-goal deficit from the Ems was simply too great a burden to convey to the away leg against the best team in continental Europe…..and it showed.
Too often, having gained possession, we promptly lost it.
So now, all that’s left is the EPL title and/or qualification for next season’s CL.
A bit disappointing from our position a few months ago but all is not lost.
Over 95% of our rivals in Britain continue to give their eye-teeth to be in our position.
Remember that….
Play with passion and commitment and show our talent – that is what Arsene Wenger wanted Arsenal to do in tonight’s match and I think we did.
As so many have said, the difference was Barcelona’s three attacking stars. We could have had one of them if Liverpool’s owner and manager hadn’t been a pair of lying cheats.
Supported the club for 58 years.Would liked to see what would have happened if we went 2-1 up. Well played the lads and Arsene leaves went he wants to leave, he’s earned that right.
Arseblog claims we had 20 shots at goal is no mean feat against Barcelona, hitting the target with only three is nigh on criminal.
Oh well, it was always going to be a tall order to qualify after the first leg.
Elneny, now you have found your range, i hope to see many see more of those goals. 🙂
So, we got some good practice against a good team, hope we learnt much and will use it in our games.
If we can play with the same spirit and attacking quality for the rest of the season there really is no reason why the league is beyond us – apart from finishing! If you want one reason why we have misfired this year it is just that – finishing. Don’t think we can blame the manager for that can we ? When you look at the the games we have dropped points in over the last three months all of them would have been wins with just half decent finishing. Nor do I agree before anyone says it that our forwards are not good enough they have simply all underperformed at the same time. Maybe we should sack Wenger for not buying Messi and Neymar with all that loot he has stashed behind the sofa!
Arsenal have gone out at the last 16 stage of the Champions League in each of the last six seasons. Routine.
@ Jalan – Seems like the copy and pasters are back! Just a excellent example of how the media spins things negatively, whenever it comes to Arsenal. At least we have made it into the last 16, for 18-odd consecutive years; something only Real Madrid have achieved. No mention of this of course, because that would actually sound like a compliment!
wasn’t able to watch the game, heard the boys gave a good fight. now we can concentrate on…………concentrate on what actually? overtaking spuds? next season?
Well done Walter. Not surprised about the shot stat, though not aware of it until I read it here. Badly disappointed that we failed (again) to score as much as we create. Sad but that’s what it is. Chances created mean nothing if the ball doesn’t end up in the opposition net. Somehow, for us, this has been the summary of our season. Maybe even from last season. We create loads of goal-scoring opportunities and half chances, yet strangely fail to score. What is it with our players, especially the strikers? Why can’t they just find the net? Why couldn’t the Ox just beat the keeper in the first leg, instead of just ‘passing’ the ball to him? That to me was ominous. If only he had scored that goal…
Tonight summed up what I’ve always known and believed. That, Barcelona might be the best in the world and have the most fearsome strike force in football, but they are not unbeatable as far as Arsenal are concerned. I still believe in this club, and daresay, the manager that assembled it. With one or two additions, this team will do great things. It has taken so much and took so long to get this far. But we are closer to the end-product than the beginning of the process. It takes time and a lot of other factors to build a team from scratch that is extremely potent and capable of winning major titles. Am sorry that we got knocked out, but we need to reappraise our goal-scoring ability and do the needful to remedy this situation. If some guys have to go, they have to go. But not the manager. No. As long as he is willing to continue. The board has to back him all the way in this. All this talk of ‘Silent’ Stan not planning for trophies is disappointing and if true, may be totally tragic.
But suffice it to say that we are a great team and I don’t even care what ‘they’ say. I love the Arsenal, I love Arsene and I always will. Everyone that shares my sentiments cannot afford to be silent now. Or else, the enemies of this club, be they former players, or so called fans, must not be allowed to have the last say. Not that they by their action single-handedly run Wenger out of town. They can make his job a little harder. Let’s counter that by speaking up.
Jalan, and on MOST of those occasions, we have gone out to one of the two best teams in the world
A good effort from our guys, at times we carved Barca up quite nicely and created some good chances, our finishing is unfortunately not quite sharp enough – not that anyone gets much time to be calculating against Barca.
But, a good effort and some good performances out there tonight.
Hear hear Stan the man – it is time for true fans to stand up and support the club and drown out the naysayers. I had to watch the game with the sound turned down to avoid listening to the usual negative tripe that gets served up by BT Sprout and their like at least that way I could see how the team were playing without being told an endless list of reasons to be dissatisfied with the manager/team/life
Stan , some great points, we are well down the journey of something pretty special. Yes, Leicester may yet pip us to it…..but they strike me as a freak, black swan event, who have been given a hell of a lot of help on the way. Their injury record suggests some amazing luck, amazing medics, or something else.
I don’t think Stan was saying he does not want trophies, just that he wanted to run the club as a responsible business, apparently he also says he wouldn’t interfere with the manager on signings. but like you, I really hope they are backing Wenger to the hilt…..maybe they need to be a bit more conspicuous in doing so. If they are failing this great manager in any unreasonable way, letting him take their blame in anyway, as much as it pains me, Wenger should walk and expose them, but I have neither seen or heard any evidence they do anything other than support him…..and as a Stan sceptic, I have looked
If there is something a bit wrong, they need to work together and put it right, maybe over the summer…..but for now, all we can do is back the team and manager
@Mandy Dodd, yep. You can say that again. The team that knocks us out probably go on to lift the trophy. Maybe not every time, that’s why I said probably. But we’re not as bad as the English media make us look. As a matter of fact, we are by far better than our results show. We are still under-achieving simply because we fail to put away the chances we create, which imo, is always loads, and against any team.
The tide has turned.
Joyful to watch Arsenal, the lads moving forward, football being played. Iwobi starting to look the part, Elneny is getting seriously into it. Introducing him Mr Wenger mentioned something about Tigane and you can see why.
That line up of Messi, Suarez, Neymar, will score whereever they play, whoever they play. I can’t remember such talent in an attack since Brazil 1970, Real Madrid 1960.
Met up with an old mate who won a small fortune backing Greece back in 2004. He quoted stats before the Euros started, quoted stats all the way through it. He’s a Bradford City fan. He was of the opinion the worst damage to Arsenal from the ‘get Wenger out movement’ is the effect on the players. Why should anyone want to stay after they have been dismissed and reviled in public?
Who would want to play in front of those fans? More – which manager would want to take Wenger’s place after seeing how Wenger was railroaded out of the club?
Stan The Man’s post is spot on.
It was great to watch a game without the tension and poison. Football as football. The game is a joy. Roll on Saturday. I want to see more.
If we can just exorcise that demon of wastefulness from Arsenal, and find a way to score more than we are doing, I am sure every team, inclusive of the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich will really hate to play against us at any stage. This team is dangerous, believe me! Breaking it down, sending Wenger packing, and building again will take years and we may never get it this right. I laughed aloud when I read somewhere that an ex-Manure player (was it Scholes?) said he feared that their club must not become like Arsenal! I had to go check the table again, only to see what I already know, that we have a healthy gap over them and have always done. Even with our wobbling and fumbling. They are living in the past and they know it. When was the last time they won ANYTHING? When was the last time they reached the last 16 of the CL? How many times have they been in Europe’s elite in the last few years?
If he was comparing their struggling cub with Liverpool! yes, I would have understood. But Arsenal? Give me a break… Maybe he’s seeing another league table from years gone by. Not surprised, if so. His head is stuck so far up his own arse, he’s seeing things.
Even Liverpool is kicking them in the teeth and they can’t seem to able to do jack about it. With all the help they have got from the refs, they still cannot manage to overtake us and keep themselves up there for more than a few hours. Jokers!
Did not see the game , but did see three of the goals . Glad to hear that we played well , but for some poor finishing .
Hope this spurs the boys on this weekend .
As for ‘them’ complaining all the time , this is a true story on why they do it. Things are not too well at home apparently !
A husband visited a marriage counsellor and said, “When we were first married, I would come home from the office, my wife would bring my slippers and our cute little dog would run around barking. Now after ten years it’s all different,
I come home, the dog brings the slippers and my wife runs around barking.”
“Why complain?” said the counsellor. “You’re still getting the same service!”
Management Consultants call it Job Rotation.
Case two –
A husband put down the newspaper and said to his wife, ” I just come to know in South Africa a man is paid $8.00 after making love. Wow! I’m going to South Africa, can’t wait for such an opportunity.”
“I’m going too,” his wife responded.
“What for?,” her hubby asked.
“Well, I’m curious to see how would you survive with $16.00 a month?” so said his wife.
I bet AW would just luv it if he could go each and every expert critic of his and ‘teach’ them how to do their respective jobs !
A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband.
Suddenly her husband burst into the kitchen.
“Careful … CAREFUL!! Put in some more butter!! Oh my Gosh!! You’re cooking too many at once. TOO MANY!! Turn them!! TURN THEM NOW!! We need more butter. Oh my Gosh!! WHERE are we going to get MORE BUTTER?! They’re going to STICK!! Careful … CAREFUL!! be CAREFUL!!You NEVER listen to me when you’re cooking! Never!! Turn them! HURRY UP!!
Are you CRAZY? Have you lost your mind? Don’t forget to salt them.
You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt. USE THE SALT! THE SALT!!”
The wife stared at him. “What the hell is wrong with you? You think I don’t know how to fry a couple of eggs?”
The husband calmly replied, “I just wanted to show you what it feels like when I’m driving”
Definition of stupid : Knowing the truth , seeing the truth , but still believing the lies .
A good performance with mental strength ,toughness and togetherness being shown.We were unlucky with refering decisions and if it wasn’t for bad luck we would be in the quarter finals of the champions league and 10 points clear in the league.But as it is lets all celebrate the 4 th place trophy and getting to the last 16 and with saving stan a fortune in transfer money, all in all its been another sucessfull season for us .More of the same next season and hopefully wenger will sign a contract extension till 2070.The only downside to this is i bet Ozil and Sanchez are thinking what the hell am i doing here.
The usual pointless negative spin post from John the Troll. I think you may suffer from depression akin to Marvin the Paranoid Android, except he had a brain the size of a planet.
Pat:
Do not think “teeth” was ever seriously considering going to Arsenal, not at all.
One thing i’ve noticed whan we play against Barca, our football looks indecisive, whereas Barca looks settled and confident in their game.
I mean the overall view watching the 22 players scurry across the field. We look like pupils of Barca when it comes to the aura emitted.
Before you all shout me down, this is not meant to be disrespectful at all.
It’s just that Barca are willing to try anything while on the football field, and Arsenal are not. We tend to stick to routines we know.
If we start to interject spontaneous things in our game, it makes it harder for the opposition to defend us. This is the mark of a true master, who knows his stuff, but can vary what he knows to become something new. Ozil is this type of player, always looking to surprise the opposition, sadly he surprises some of our players too.
Sometimes we are attacking and it peters out going sideways. Take a run at their box, who knows what may happen, take a shot, it may get deflected, do something other than retreat!!! Do something spontaneous.
Markyb
Whilst you carry on being positive and wanting the same year after year and happy with the way we are going and our manager.Zero ambition.either that or you have allowed yourself to be brainwashed by Wenger and his bull.Im glad there is only a handful on this site can really see what is happening at Arsenal and the rest of the world is wrong!!
You know what John: as long as Kroenke is the majority shareholder at Arsenal nothing will change. Wenger or whoever will be the next manager will always be restricted in his dealings.
As Kroenke said the other day: we will always have a handicap against Man City and Chelsea as they have unrestricted money available (as long as their owner wants to pay for it of course…). That is the reality of live.
Strange night. I was quite happy with our play until the first goal, then down in dumps for a while, then started to enjoy some of our play before half time.
Started second half impressively, scored a great goal, then for 15 minutes or so it was as absorbing and exciting as nearly anything this year (not quite like how I felt for a lot of the first leg, but good nonetheless). Then the goal and that ended the hoping, but at least we continued to play ok afterwards.
All the while the issue of finishing was lurking or to the fore. Realism tells me there is simply not much you can do against that front three. Playing them you just have to rely on your defending being near perfect, your goalkeeper in top form, and then pray they will, for one game, be less deadly than normal.
As for our finishing: it was a painful contrast. Alexis’ header was probably the only great chance, but there were a number of other good situations. Where we needed Barca’s finishing to be below their normal standards, we needed ours to be above our standards of this year. Not to be.
Cue the debate, again, for me at least, about strikers. Same answer again: would be great, would increase our chances, team seems to be crying out for it…but who, who is out there that we can get who is a next level (the final one : top, top,top) finisher?
The game ended up being a great one for me in terms of thinking about things. It proved for me how hard I will find it should we switch our playing style and try play a version of football 95% + teams play now, that of ‘against very tough or superior opposition, play conservatively, concentrate on making life hard for the opposition, wait for mistakes’. Defend and counter, basically.
We weren’t a million miles from that at times yesterday, as you have to be against Barca, but there was also plenty of the other, where we tried to take the game to them, tried to be bold, brave in possession, creative, skilful. There was some really good play in there.
Once again it seemed clear to me that if you could switch our front three with theirs, we’d be clear favourites; and if you could just take out one of their three and slot it in our team our chances would improve tremendously.
Playing them forces you to think about every area of your team and game and how you could hope to close the gap. Anyway, it left me dreaming of a striker first, but also with a general sense that our team might be just a player or two away from being very special.
As I said, it also left me thinking I really don’t want us to abandon our playing style. I’ll hope we can get through this period and the serious threat I believe the fans currently pose to our immediate future, then dream of the addition of another piece or two and the team taking a big leap forward.
We certainly played with a lot of freedom last night. Ozil and Alexis had their best games for weeks.
I’m just hoping, when we return to The Emirates, we don’t go back into our collective shell, just because a few idiots hold up a stupid banner.
@ Jalan,
Lets assume that Leicester win the PL or even the very tiny Totts. And they get the opponents we’ve been getting in the last 6 seasons of the last 16 of the CL, do you think they would advance? Everyone derides us now, I wish Man C gets drawn against Barcelona in the QF, every one’s favorites to win PL at the beginning of the season. Then we will see how they fare. Good play Iwobi, the lads did well, we still have another chance next season.
@ John – ” wanting the same year after year and happy with the way we are going” Why is this the argument, always pushed out by the WOB? It’s completely unsubstantiated and it’s very telling, that the only argument you put forward in an attempt to put down supporters of the club and manager; is completely fabricated.
In what world, is not moaning and whinging like a spoilt little brat, because of few results don’t go our way; the same as being happy with 4th place? We support the team no-matter what, because teams thrive on this and when you have so many moaners like yourself, it only has a negative impact on the team. That is literally all you are doing. Whether you see it as a good thing or bad thing, you”ll never get Wenger to step-down prematurely. All you are doing is harming the team and club. Although unfortunately, i get the distinct impression that this is what you what.
As for Wenger being a dictator; once again a completely fabricated argument, which the WOB real out, time and time again. What makes you think, you have even the slightest idea of what goes on behind the scenes at Arsenal? You have no clue, so please stop talking as if you are so well informed that you can make a comment like that.
Each year the same?
Yeah I like that in fact. Each year we get to see a new young kid banging on the door to become a star. Last season my favourite Bellerin and this year it looks that Iwobi will be a big player for the future.
Please let this continue as long as possible as I find no greater joy in seeing one of our youth players making it in to the first team.
So, we lost… but it was a big task anyway considering the 2 silly mistakes in the 1st leg that gave away 2 goals. That day Barca did not play well, but managed to beat us because of our own mistakes, but did we learn? Now we did play well, no doubt about it but then our age old excuse is that we did not convert our changes. One thing you need to do is that if your strikers are not finishing, the defence should be tight and the team should not make silly mistakes. That’s exactly what we did, make silly mistakes.
Lets look at the 1st goal. We had the ball on the left side of our defence with no pressure, but know Barca’s pressing tactics, we should have played the ball early, but no, what we do it try to take on 2 players and then loose it. Then we have the right wing back almost towards the ½ line leaving none other than Neymar in acres of space behind. So, now our defensive shape is lost, exposing ourselves and the right back chasing back to cover the space he left open in the 1st place. Result? Goal.
Then the 2nd goal… brilliantly taken by Suarez but the position of our players is wanting. The ball comes across and we have our defender tight with Neymar, as he should be but slips. We have Suarez standing free in the box…does anyone want to mark him? Is there Anyone out there who takes responsibility and does the job?
The 3rd goal and here you need to see the build-up. The barca players runs with the ball through the middle of our ½. Ozil make a really really ridiculous effort to track back by jogging about 5 yrs and gives up. The result? The move ends up with the ball at the back of the net.
It seems that Barca does not need to play well, we just hand them over the goals.
So we have 2 holding midfields and 4 defenders where-as the 3 attacking midfield cant be bothered tracking back. Now just go back and watch the Watford game, how their entire team defended till the final whistle…..until we get that work ethic….its hopeless.
Lets not forget the many misplaced passes when we could have easily played it simple and kept position.
Some of the language being used to describe Wenger, is simply mind-boggling. “Brain-washed” “Dictator” – the man is a manger of a football team, for christ sake; not the leader of a fascist regime! What is wrong with some Arsenal fans?! Jesus..
@ Gourash – Why is it, that whenever we beat or play well against a team like Barcelona or Bayern, it’s only because the other team didn’t play well?
”What is wrong with some Arsenal fans?!”
Jammy J
They leave their seats early when the team is losing. Why don’t they stand up and sing, ”Stand Up If You Love Arsenal?’
There was even someone who came on here last week and called the FA Cup a ”good day out.’
Just a trip to Wembley is a highpoint for fans in clubs around England. Have they never seen the coaches coming on the motorways for a Play Off? To win the FA Cup is the event of a lifetime.
As for calling Mr Wenger a ‘dictator,’ ‘Fuehrer,’ calling his supporters ‘brainwashed,’ these people shit and piss on the people of this country who did stand up to a real life Fuehrer. The WOBS are people without history.
Anything means anything to them. They have no solidarity with anyone or anything outside the last thought that crossed their minds.
Jammy: do you really think that Barca were at their best over the two legs? really? and even if there were, can we defend like the way we did against teams like them? we have actually gifted them the goals…they didn’t have to work half as much for them.
Some fans just love a whinge, if anyone really expected us to win by 3 goals without reply at the Nou Camp then I’d say they need their head examined. Yes, we could have won yesterday, but more like a 2-1 type of thing, certainly not the required 3-0, 4-1 or something like that.
The boys did very well last night. I challenge anyone to go and find any team that mamanged 20 shots against Barcelona this season, even at that team’s home ground, and you’ll find there’s probably noone anywhere near that. So to do it at Barca’s own patch is nothing to be sniffed at.
Yes we could have scored more, but sometimes luck is just that extra little bit you need. I maintain Suarez attempted an audacious volley which luckily for him came off from his shin. Was it a good goal? Definitely. Did luck play a part? Definitely. Now look at Sanchez’s free kick or Welbeck’s strike. They were both well hit strikes, and the keeper and defender happened to make a good save/block. Could we have got a penalty for the trip on Iwobi? Definitely. Were we unlucky in any of these three of these incidents? I’d say yes, possibly on all three; with a bit of luck two of those may have gone our way. Sometimes you need a good slice of fortune, regardless of how well you’re playing.
Gouresh
Can u tell us why Barca decided to ‘take their foot off’ in both legs?
@ Barca – I don’t know whether Barca were at their best, because i don’t watch them regularly enough to know what they look like when playing poor/average/good. How can you differentiate when a team isn’t at their best or when the other team is stopping them from playing their best? All i know is, that Arsenals achievements are always belittled when playing these teams, by saying they weren’t at their best. This is no coincidence; teams don’t just happen to suddenly drop below par when they play Arsenal.
What i saw, was a fairly even contest over both legs and if it wasn’t for some poor finishing and the odd (albeit fatal) lapses in concentration, things could have easily turned out differently. You can’t even begin to imagine how much constant concentration it must take, to defend against arguably the best attaching trio in the history of football. To do that over 180 minutes would be neigh on impossible.
Sorry, mean to say @Gouresh!
When I was in the TV studio a few weeks ago I talked with Jan Mulder, the Dutch pundit, and he said that Arsenal was equal in the first leg with Barcelona, they just made 2 mistakes in the match and paid for it in cash.
Now of course Barcelona might have taken their foot off as Gouresh tells but why on earth would they have done that when the score being 0-0? Doesn’t make sense to me unless you want to discredit what Arsenal did?
I agreed with what Mulder said about it. We could have been in front if not for our bad finishing and then the Ox springs to mind but that is the story of us since the turn of the year.
We have around 20-25 shots each match but the quality of the shots is below par for the moment. Players should relax more when shooting. But that is easy to say sitting in my comfortable and relax chair of course…
Jammy J & Walter
Exactly. How can one attribute a team to being poor/average without crediting the opposition for making that team look poor/average? Barcelona are chasing honours on 4 or 5 fronts this season, and the CL is the biggest of them all. It therefore follows naturally that’s the one they would want most. Most desire=best effort…
I urge many of our fans to follow Pedigree Gooner’s tip, watch with the sound muted/down, then you might be able to interpret what you’re seeing with your own eyes differently rather than listen to the constant negativety being spouted by the blinkered commentators.
Para
“It’s just that Barca are willing to try anything while on the football field, and Arsenal are not. We tend to stick to routines we know”.
You stick Neyma, Messi and Suarez in ANY team and you see what happens.
They are European Champions for a reason. We put up a good show and but for poor finishing who knows. But had we had that front three we would have demolished Barcelona.
@ Al, Jammy and Walter: I really don’t give a toss, on how Baraca or Bayern or for that matter any other clubs plays, what matters to me is how we play. now I haven’t criticised the way we played, in fact we were brilliant in the 1st leg and the 2nd, so get off my back. my main criticism was the mistakes we made at the back and the fact we did not learn from them. if you go back and see the 5 goals, you will see my point.
For information, Barca have averaged under 11 shots against home and away this season. 11 in the CL and 10 in La Liga. So for those who think we didn’t create much with 20 shots it purely proves the old theory that the WOB’s have nothing but unsustainable opinions cos the facts disprove their arguments every time.
For the record, home and away, we have averaged 13.1 shots in the CL so 20 away at Barca isn’t bad I’d say. Similarly, we have conced3d an average of 14.9 against in the CL so 17 by Barca on their own turf is hardly a disgrace.
If I get time I’ll try and find out the last time a team was good enough to have 20 shots at the Camp Nou but don’t hold your breath cos I’m sure I’ll have to go back through a lot of games!
To John @ 7.30 am, I’ve been told by Walter/Tony that I’m not allowed to be offensive to individuals who talk complete rubbish so I have nothing to say to you………..
I really enjoyed the football in this match. There have been one or two comments about the officiating but for me the ref was saying ‘play football not rugby’. Two sides going for it, creating. Terrific. That is not allowed in England. For the Arsenal, Elneny is a player and it looks like Iwobi is right there. Lost to the best side in the world with goals from, arguably, three of the top five goalscorers in the world. My fellow supporters: the sky is not falling.
@ Gouresh – What do you mean get off your back? You asked me a question and i answered it.
You asked: “do you really think that Barca were at their best over the two legs?”. You specifically asked and commented on how the other team played, so it seems like you do give a toss. No need to get so defensive..
it was a joke Jammy. but as i have said, my concern was the mistakes at the back.
It would be great to have 3 top forwards like Messi, Neymar and Suarez(minus the teeth) but there are not that many out there and with a weekly wages of (~250K, 200K, 150K) few teams can afford this. The reffing was not great in the tie .Barcelona were not much better than us but they were better … and they won. I thought we played OK, just not well enough. On to the next match.
Jammy J
March 16, 2016 at 10:59 pm
@ Jalan – Seems like the copy and pasters are back! Just a excellent example of how the media spins things negatively, whenever it comes to Arsenal. At least we have made it into the last 16, for 18-odd consecutive years; something only Real Madrid have achieved. No mention of this of course, because that would actually sound like a compliment!
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The trouble is that we’ve never got close to winning it since 2006.
Anyone who believes that getting to the last 16 is something to be proud of needs to ask themselves exactly when did they settle for mediocrity?
Arsenal under Arsene Wenger have undoubtedly been consistent with top 4 PL finishes and last 16 in the UCL each season but is this good enough for a club with such resources at their disposal?
I maintain that given a different manager these same players would achieve better results. You only have to look at Leicester’s achievements under Ranieri this season to prove that it’s Wenger that’s the problem. Vastly inferior players outperforming Arsenal in the league, what is astounding that of their 3 defeats 2 of those are against us!?!
Something in Wenger has changed, long gone are the days when he could instil belief in the players. Admittedly we lack the Vieira’s, Adams’ or Keown’s of old but there are too many poor performances and too many statements that we must focus, or we must believe, or we must learn from this defeat.
It must be a journalist’s dream to write about Arsenal because all they need do is dig up the same article 2 or 3 times each year about us lacking leaders or lapses in concentration costing us.
I would dearly like to thank Arsene for everything he has done for our club and shake his hand. I’d thank him for the great memories, the transformation on and off the pitch, the new ground, keeping us in the top 4 for all those years when he had no money and we sold players every summer. But I would beg him to step down in May before he destroys his legacy and status as our greatest manager.
I realise that replacing Arsene will be a herculean task and we may well stutter like Man Utd for a season or 2, we may even need to do without UCL football for a while but give a younger, hungrier manager the chance to build another dynasty lasting 10 or 15 years. After all how much longer can Arsene genuinely expect to keep going?
khitb 77 posts
”You only have to look at Leicester’s achievements under Ranieri this season to prove that it’s Wenger that’s the problem.”
Not when 99% of the media never predicted the success of Leicester Ciy, 80% of them predicting Leicester City would be fighting relegation.
When they can get it so completely wrong, and nobody has stepped forward with an analysis of how Leicester City did it, the success of Leicester City has nothing to do with Mr Wenger at Arsenal.
”It must be a journalist’s dream to write about Arsenal because all they need do is dig up the same article 2 or 3 times each year about us lacking leaders or lapses in concentration costing us.”
You can write that about every club every season that never win anything.
When it’s about Arsenal it’s not a dream, it’s the easiest number on the planet.
You don’t have to leave the office. There’s several hundred so-called Arsenal fans who will ring you day and night to give their opinion, or the very latest.
Mr Wenger is the constant red herring. As long as Mr Wenger is there, there is no need to go to Leicester and provide background on the success of Leicester City, or an analysis of how Leicester City have done it, or even look at the proximity of the FA’s St. George’s National Coaching Centre in Burton to Leicester City – are Leicester City making any use of these facilities? for example. Nor do journalists have to go further afield.
Read any articles about the PGMO? Read any articles about corruption in FIFA and corruption in the FA?
Mr Wenger fills newspapers and nobody who makes their daily bread from filling newspapers has to bust a gut to provide copy on Mr Wenger, courtesy of so-called fans.
The permanent red herring. There to fill your brain with the constant drip of poison. What is great about this site – the aaa, the WOBS, the sheer toxic poison of this so-called Arsenal fanbase, is nothing new. It runs all the way through Arsenal history and you can read about it here.
I kid ye not – go to Huddersfield, take a walk around, contemplate that Herbert Chapman won the FA Cup, won the old Division One title, over ninety years ago in Huddersfield, and then he went to Arsenal, and even winning everything at Arsenal, he still had to deal with fans jeering him, – he called them the ‘Boo boys’ – and that is even before real bombs on the orders of a real Fuehrer dropped on London.
What would Mr Wenger call the fans?
It doesn’t matter who the manager is. It doesn’t matter the success they have had. There is a real gripe against the authority presented as the face of the club, the establishment of the club, that runs through the history of Arsenal yet – nobody actually does anything about it.
The board does not get overthrown. Arsenal is not a club owned by the collective of the fans because at a point in history the fans overthrew the board and the structure of authority and replaced it.
That’s too much work for them. That’s reality. That’s asking them to take responsiblity for their own actions and for their own thoughts. So it’s a constant moaning session and Mr Wenger fits the bill.
Last 16 of CL/EC no “is this good enough “? .. Remind me how many times we managed this pre-Wenger? Ever.
Some carry on about Wenger being sacked as if that will suddenly solve all of humanity’s problems. Let them leave the man alone. He has been doing his best and if it is good enough for his employers, then those who want to bust a gut can go jump in a lake, or two. Am just sick and tired of hearing the same dross about a man that is the dream of many clubs and players being dragged in the mud all day by some morons.