- Uefa Mafia: supporters win the fight to chant what they like
- At last at last. Uefa defeated, St Tots Day is here
By Tony Attwood
It is not just that this match needs to be commemorated with a video for as long as the video owners want to keep it on-line, but that it is also that the final comment about Real Madrid is, “How stupid is that?”
But there are other bits of fun to have such as the Athletic running with “Arsenal have produced their best result in recent memory with a 3-0 victory over Real Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final.” I think there was a seven-goal game along the way as well which really should not be forgotten.
And this results from a team that on the night dominated possession, shots, shots on target, passes and just about everything else except fouls, red cards and offsides (for each of which Real Mad exceeded Arsenal’s total).
Indeed if Arsenal go on to win the Cup the club ought to put up a monument to the team last night
Raya,
Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly,
Partey, Rice, Odegaard,
Saka, Merino, Martinelli
And let us not forget also that prior to the game, the Daily Mirror ran the headline of “12 players to miss Arsenal vs Real Madrid as Mikel Arteta feels impact of injury crisis” suggesting the game would be a fairly naff affair as, “Both sides are heading into the game after disappointing results at the weekend.”
Their thought was that besides Sterling being suspended because of his booking against PSV, Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz are out until next season, Riccardo Calafiori and Takehiro Tomiyasu have knee injuries, and Gabriel is waiting for his hamstring to repair itself.
But this Arsenal team have a way of doing things which is simple a different way, as shown by the fact that Rice had never scored a direct free-kick in over 400 games from Arsenal, WHAM and England. And not only to do it once, but then even to think about trying it again, was something else.
Real Madrid’s team is thought to be worth double the value of Arsenal’s, so it is nice to see things balanced a bit, although there is going to be an awful lot of pressure on the club to score even more against Brentford on Saturday evening! The crowd will be just over 17,000.
But maybe we also ought to take a few moments to contemplate Merino’s move to a goal-scoring forward – a position that before the recent catastrophe of injuries he had never played in, and which inevitably led to more calls for Arteta to be replaced. Since then Merino has knocked in six goals.
Which raises the question, where are all the commentators now who said that Arteta should be sacked for having left the club in such a parlous position that it couldn’t cope with all the injuries it was getting?
I do think we have to admit that Real Mad weren’t as good as they can be, and we need to be aware that they are going to give everything for the second leg. They are, like Arsenal, second in the league and needing the team above them (Barcelona in their case) to slip – although the difference is only four points in their case.
So maybe they will give up thinking about the Champions League for this season and try and haul Barcelona back. (They play tonight at home to Dortmond).
Above all this feels like Arsenal have been biding their time and building up to a team this good – a team this good without … well, there’s no need to list all the names because you know them.
But what this does mean is Arsenal DO have a squad that can survive high levels of injury throughout one season and yet again suggests that the notion of tearing the team apart to fit in a new centre forward, and sacking the manager is not the only way to proceed.
And also to remember that it was not just about the goals. Real Mad can counter-attack, and in this game Arsenal held off Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior. Not a bad accolade.
Even the media which find it so hard to accept Arsenal as a powerful team were impressed. And when that happens you know it must have been good. As we said a couple of articles back, “maybe this is the moment”.
What is the difference with the present team and previous great Arsenal teams?
With past teams you could predict who would score the goals.
With this team you never know who will score. For me this not knowing makes watching present day Arsenal all the more exciting.
As a neutral supporter I said that this team are capable of winning the UCL.
I stand by that. Well done Arsenal for last nights performance.
What a result. What a performance. That second half is up there with one of the best halves of football ever produced by an Arsenal team. The whole match was absolutely fantastic. Every player at the peak of their powers, or so you would of thought. Maybe not.
Now this is a little churlish, but when it comes to the odious John Cross in The Mirror, churlish is the least the Arsenal hating hack deserves. I know he claims to be an Arsenal fan, but given he’s hardly had a good word to say about them for 20 years I find that very hard to believe.
Anyway, churlish as I say, but you would of thought, given the magnificence of the performance, every player would at the very least of been worth an 8, possibly 9, but no, Cross was having none it. Despite his opening statement that “This will go down as the best night the Emirates has ever seen”, it appears it was no thanks to most of the players.
In football these are what the ?/10 mean:
6/10: An adequate performance, neither particularly good nor bad.
7/10: A steady and reliable performance throughout the game.
8/10: A player who has a significant impact on the match, such as a match-winning goal or outstanding defensive performance.
9/10: A player who delivers a truly exceptional performance, decisively swinging the match in their team’s favor.
This is how Cross thought the guys performed. I’ve put The Suns ratings, who are never usually overly generous themselves in their appraisals of Arsenal, in brackets next to Cross’s for a bit of perspective.
Raya………..7 (7)
Timber……..8 (7)
Saliba……….7 (9)
Kiwior………6 (7)
Skelly……….7 (9)
Party…………7 (8)
Rice………….9 (11)
Odegaard…..6 (8)
Saka………….7 (8)
Martinelli…..6 (7)
Merino………6 (9)
So 4 players were no better than ‘Adequate’. 5 Players were ‘Steady and reliable’.
Incredibly, according to Cross, in this, the best night in Emirates history and one of the best performances I have ever witnessed, only 2 of our players managed to put in a performance he adjudged to be better than ‘Steady and Reliable’.
Remarkably, according to Cross, we only had ONE player he considered ‘Exceptional’
As I am quite happy to concede, I am being churlish. I mean, what does it matter what Cross thinks. Well, nothing really.
I just wanted to show what a pathetic excuse for a ‘journalist’ this guy is. I am embarrassed that he has the audacity to claim he is actually an Arsenal fan. Even by the standards these gutter level hacks go, he is embarrassing.
From Adrian Clarke brilliant match analysis on arsenal.com
“On a night when every Arsenal player delivered at least an ‘8 out of 10’ level display, our magnificent midfielder (Rice) was a perfect 10”.
So one has to ask, why would a supposed ‘Arsenal fan'(Cross) give such insulting marks to players that clearly played well above the standard that his marks represent? Why would an Arsenal fan do that, especially on such a night?
Answer? He is a charlatan. He clearly is not an Arsenal fan. And more than that, he clearly hasn’t got a clue about what he is paid to watch and analise.
Again, I know people reading this may think ‘so what’. But the ‘so what’ is the fact that Cross is a main player in the never ending, shameful, and harmful abuse we get in the media, day after day. When a so called Arsenal fan can be so consistently negative to the point he cannot even give a fair appraisal of the players he supposedly supports, on such a night, what hope have we got of a fair shake in the media?
Cross is a big part of why I eventually found Untold Arsenal. Over 25 years ago I was so sick of the negative media, especially Cross, I wrote to The Mirror about him, only to be fobbed off by one of his ‘subs’ telling me he was an Arsenal’ fanatic’. I could not believe it. Again, if he was an Arsenal fanatic what hope have we?
Utterly disillusioned by the ‘Main stream’ media I eventually found Untold arsenal.
I suppose I should thank him really.
He hasn’t changed in 20 years.
Nitram,
Self-styled Arsenal “fans” are often the worst, especially if they have a voice in the media. Remember Amy Lawrence?
Also, Piers Morgan who is free with his uninformed criticism if Arsenal don’t live up to his expectation or meet his demands. I have read a great report of an occasion when Hector Bellerin was in conversation with Jeremy Corbyn at a local event in Islington, in which Morgan tried to rudely butt-in. Hector and Jeremy continued their conversation in Spanish.
John L
Exactly. You mention another 2 of the worst. Tony in particular has called out Lawrence on many occasions.
We also have too many ex players, many of whom were dancing around like lunatics last night, that have cut us no slack for our terrible injury woes, let alone the disgraceful treatment we have received from the referees and VAR this and many seasons before.
Mark my words they will all revert to the anti Arsenal narrative the second they can.
If you are a real fan. If you are a true supporter. Through good bad and indifferent. Through thick and thin. Untold Arsenal is the only place to be.