By Tony Attwood
One new injury – but hopefully just for this match: Héctor Bellerín. He has been replaced in the squad by Jeff Reine-Adelaide – which doesn’t mean that Jeff is going to play, but does tell us quite a lot about how the young man is seen and valued by the club. Just as Bellerin and Zelalem before him. Debuchy will play at full back.
The press conference also gave us some other updates: Arteta and Ospina will be back in full training on Friday. After the international break, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ramsey could both be back as well.
Mr Wenger also said of this evening he would take a point if offered it before the match, but that he couldn’t adopt an ultra-defensive approach. “To sit off Bayern, with their offensive quality, would be difficult to maintain for 90 minutes. We have to relieve the pressure whenever we can and try to score goals. That is our structure of the team, to attack. If you get our players to defend, then I do not think we will be so efficient. We have to play every time we can.”
Bayern drew 0-0 with Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday, benefiting as usual from the compliance of the German League in helping its clubs achieve the best in Europe. One might guess their players, however, were thinking more of tonight.
Per Mert had an interesting view, saying, “They will be angry. We are the first team that really challenged them and beat them in the end. So they will try to show they are better than us. We showed that we can beat them. That’s a good sign but it will be a different game at their place.
“Both teams have got a good chance to go through to the knockout stages. We improved our position in the last game against Munich but we need to get something out of this game. That puts pressure on us to perform and we need to defend even better.”
Which is what the side have been doing in every game of late. Mr Wenger added, “If you look at our away results since the start of the season, we have won at Crystal Palace and at Watford, who you can see from the latest result are a difficult team to beat, and also at Newcastle and again at Swansea – so overall it looks like the team has stabilised and is growing as a unit.”
So who will be the dominant factor? At the moment it looks like Mesut Özil.
Fortunately the media-fed hysteria about his performance in the Bayern match last year where he got a hamstring injury in the second minute but played on, has ultimately died down as the media has tried to find some other rubbish to throw at Arsenal. The know-everything Paul Scholes went overboard saying Mesut was “going through the motions” and that signing for Arsenal was an “easy option”.
As we were suggesting in the last article Mesut is now quite rightly seen as the best creator of goals in Europe. He has more assists (nine) than any other player in the top five leagues in Europe. He is not only the best, he is at his best. Easy option??? Or is it Scholes taking the easy option by just abusing anyone who has that awful attribute, “foreign”.
“Özil is unique,” said a Mr J Mourinho of south west London. “There is no copy of him – not even a bad copy.” Fair enough. I wonder what Mr M is doing these days.
Joachim Low, the Germany manager, started Ozil in every match when they won the world cup. But no, the pesky little turnips of our media know better. Of course they do. They always do. Ozil is rubbish, until last week when someone found the stats and now they say he is brilliant.
Theo Walcott made a good comment too. “The first thing he does when he has the ball, in fact when he hasn’t even got the ball, is that he looks. He knows where he’s going to play it before he’s even got it. He makes football look easy. I know what he’s going to do now when he’s got the ball – I just need to keep making those runs.”
Meanwhile in other news there is the case of Benzema, the player that more or less everyone except Arsene Wenger and Untold Arsenal said that we were going to sign in the summer. The player that vast numbers of bloggettas and wayward gossip columnists said we were signing and blamed Arsenal for not signing.
Well if we had he would not be available tonight. He’s just been arrested in Versailles as part of an inquiry into an alleged plot to blackmail another player over a sex tape apparently recorded on a mobile phone.
L’Equipe says investigators were considering a conversation between Benzema and the player during a time when they were together as part of the French national team at the beginning of October.
Before Benzema was arrested, his lawyer Sylvain Cormier told Le Journal du Dimanche (which those papers in England who have bothered with the story helpfully tell us is a “French Sunday newspaper”) that his client would respond to any summons. He added that Benzema was targeted by blackmailers in 2011.
So, time to get out a glass of lemonade and a comfortable cushion, and watch the game. In the UK its on the Sprout channel.
Coming soon to Untold
Ex-player and the agent who discovered Joel Campbell, Danny Karbassiyoon, will be writing a regular column on Untold Arsenal.
Two more anniversaries
- 4 November 1972: Final appearance for George Graham; Arsenal 0 Coventry 2. Graham then moved on to Man U. He had made 219 league starts for Arsenal and scored 59 league goals across seven seasons.
- 4 November 1989: David O’Leary beat George Armstrong’s appearance record. In the end he made 523 league starts and won the league twice, the FA Cup twice, and the League Cup twice.
Half time in the U19s game in Munich 1 – 1. We could be ahead but missed a penalty (too high).
For somebody who at best was a reluctant monosyllabic as a player, Paul Scholes has become quite the little chatterbox now that he’s in the media.
This will be an interesting game tonight.
We have to use a team(most of them) that we probably would not have played. One good thing is, that Bayern could probably not prepare for this team, not knowing many of them. If Bayern are firing, we will have it tough, but it is a baptism of fire for those who are playing, AND if they manage to seal it, then what a massive boost for them. 🙂
We really do not want to be in that other EU cup, or do we? 🙁
Come on Arsenal, this game is there to take if our defence is on top.
I hope to see Jeff-A playing, and would love for him to manage to score. Of course anybody scoring tonight will be a hero anyway if we win.
COYG, this is it.
Full time in the U19 game no further score one – one. Qualification secured. One more win for top of the group.
Come on seniors win needed this evening!
COYG
Karbassiyoon also helped AFC pick up G.Zelelam?
Looking forward to the new addition.
Looking forward to tonight’s match!
Serge.
Paul Scholes is another pundit who likes to talk and act like he knows better than any of the managers, without ever having done the job.
He is another of those Fantasy Football Managers that drive me bananas. Unlike most of the ‘I Know Best’ crowd at least he has worked in the game – BUT lets face it anyone can be a hindsight manager. Best thing for him to do is go get his coaching badges and prove he is the expert he likes to think he is.
I’ve said it before but I will repeat it:
Germany are the world-champions and England can’t win anything for 50 years because over the years Germany have had midfielders like Möller, Scholl, Özil, Schweinsteiger and Götze…while English pundits don’t see farther than Paul Scholes.
The UEFA team for tonight’s game is mostly from Italy.
Referee Gianluca Rocchi — (ITA)
Assistant referee — Elenito Di Liberatore (ITA) , Mauro Tonolini (ITA)
Additional assistant referee — Antonio Damato (ITA) , Carmine Russo (ITA)
Fourth official — Andrea Padovan (ITA)
UEFA Delegate — Claude Runavot (FRA)
UEFA Referee observer — Paul Allaerts (BEL)
Am hoping to watch the match early in the morning here. Slow , steady and watchful and then hit them on the counter attack . A clean sheet is a must .
Come on guys , make us proud !
Up the Gunners !
Gianluca Rocchi — (ITA)
He is a strict referee. He was in our game against Galatasaray at home last season which we won 4-1. Where he correctly sent off Szczesny and failed to sent off Felipe Melo for a horror tackle on Sanchez in the first half.
Presently he and Nicola Rizzoli are the two top selected referees by Italian FA for FIFA and UEFA games.
Tonight is the night when lightening strikes twice in the same (place?). Come on guys, you can do it. Why not? Can we hurt their pride by beating them….again on their own turf, before their own crowd? Make no mistakes, they will come at us like wounded lions. Our own BFG put it like it should by saying they will be angry. That will probably be true, and also their undoing. We need to be calm and confident, defend as a team and play to our strength.
They don’t have the monopoly of talent (and luck)and it will do them no good to think they will win just because they are Bayern. Arrogance tonight will make Bayern careless and prone to mistakes, which will lead to nervousness and self-doubt, and more anger and then a red card etc. Whoever wants it more tonight will get it, provided they keep their heads and find a way to defuse pressure so they can play. Whoever keeps their strength and composure for 90 minutes will likely carry the day.
A calming influence is needed among the players and Per is best placed to do that. Goodness me, this has all the hallmarks of a cup final. Win this, and we send a warning to every big team that we are out to do ANYBODY. But then, a draw is also like a win for me. So boys which is it going to be?
Excited about Danny Karbassiyoon´s participation, Tony. Untold continues to grow and look for ways to give better insight into modern football, which is all I want as a reader. As for tonight´s game, even if victory would be amazing, I´m aware a draw would be a major achievement by itself. On their turf, after being the first team to beat them this season? A huge feat, regardless of what the media would say. I hope Özil shines like rarely (you´d better believe I enjoy each and every one of his moments of brilliance extra due to the campaign of media ineptitude that was for the longest time directed against him).
There’s no reason for being skeptical of Arsenal beating Bayern Munich tonight at the Allianz Arena, Arsenal are masters and master beaters and they will master the Bavarian club side tonight and trounce them by 3 goals to nil to the amazement and disgust of the watching eyes of Kaiser Franz Bekenbauer and his companions who will all come to watch how Bayern Munich will beat Arsenal. But unfortunately for the Kaiser, Arsenal Gunners have been correctly programmed by the Boss and Installed with an Uninfestable Game Unlocking Key of: UNDO(scattered) BAYERN MUNICH’S GAME IN THEIR GAMES. which the Gunners will play on the field of play to unlock and infest with Trojans to render to obsolete state of the Pep Guardiola’s LOCKED GAME APP DATA RUNNING PLAN of: ATTACK ARSENAL RELENTLESSLY TO SCORE GOALS AGAINST THEM. The Gunners MUST scattered the game organizers of Bayern Munich game to disorganized them in their games and punish them for any error committed by them. Every Gunner MUST constitute himself to an interim defender throughout the game to intercept, block and ubstruct any Bayern player or players incursions into the Gunners 18 yard box to test Petr Cech resourcefulness to catch, parry, punch and tip over shots and headers. Campbell MUST track back to cover Debuchy when he overlaps to score or gives assist to score. So too are Ozil&Sanchez SHOULD track back to cover Monreal when he does overlapping work to score or give assistance to score. The duo Gunners wing backs MUST overlap intelligently and be productive in their overlappings. And they MUST jet back to their positions when any of their overlappings did not workout as they intended. No Gunner should switch off to have any momentary rest time on the field of play during the entire course of the match. All Gunners MUST eschew any form of momentary loss of concentrations. And they MUST have an eagle eye to sight any move by any Bayern and foil it before he does any harm. The Gunners MUST be as fast as the lightning to kill any dangerous moves by the Bayerns. And the shooting and heading Gunners MUST be precise with their efforts in front of Neuer’s goal mouth. Their shots and headers MUST be directed to the impossible angles of Neuer’s goal to make them difficult for him to save. And they MUST equally tried to lower their goal scoring efforts to avoid skying the ball or hitting the woodwork. The Gunners MUST crediblely defend any free kicks and corner kicks by Bayern Munich and be careful no to deflect the ball towards their goal. And finally, the Gunners MUST resist any intimidation to intimidate them to commit fouls or cause any penalty for Bayern Munich.
In 2012-13 we had started our brilliant run-in by beating Bayern in Munich. We were one of two teams to do so in the whole season and only team to avoid conceding at AllianzArena. That game came between our defeat against Spuds and convincing victory at…Liberty Stadium against Swansea. We play Bayern away between a victory over Swansea and a NLD again.
I see that one of the USA networks (CBS) is predicting 3-0 to Bayern. Two Arsenal experts had written in to UEFA.com, saying that Debuchy wasn’t good enough to wear the shirt. ESPN (worldwide leader in being ESPN) thinks so much of the game, that it is only live on their Spanish language network.
I will hope for a win, but I expect a tie is more likely. So, 2-1 or 1-1 to Arsenal.
Scholes, who couldn’t talk and chew gum at the same time as a player, is a real chatterbox now.
This world-class tackler should be listened to by all who find insomnia a problem. 😉
Excellent article Tony! I especially enjoyed the part about Mesut Özil and the opinions of some of these pundits like Scholes, reminds of the multiple articles on Untold supporting him and the one I wrote last year. Philipp Lahm recently said that Mesut Özil is the most intelligent player he has played with and in Europe today. It’s joy watching Özil play and his creative ability.
Germany TV reckons that Robben is only a sub tonight…COYG! If Mesut can handle the pressure thats on him tonight and steps up he certainly could change this game.A lot of eyes on him over here tonight.
A fair section of the broadcast tonight so far was concerning the “20 is plenty” protests and the price of tickets.
COYG!COYG!COYG!
Lineup from UEFA
Čech(GK)
Debuchy Mertesacker(C) Gabriel Monreal
Santi Cazorla Coquelin
Alexis Sánchez Özil Campbell
Giroud
COYG!
The corrupt UEFA officials strike twice in a few minutes. An offside ignored & a pseudo handball given by a moron with xray eyes!!
no offside as no handball
1 but big misstake
Was it handball!!!
Come on ARSENAL.
Looks like it hit the shoulder, and now Ozil got a yellow card for it as well. Two wrongs don’t make a right!
That’s bullshit of a card for Joel.
For running in the direction of the ball!!
nice…
pizza guys know what to do…
This ref is determined to make bayern win eh?
Keep solid lads, and close down a little more.
We are playing like Bayern played last week.
They make it look so easy !!!!!
This could be 10 for them
We cant let them play their game
Can someone please tell Owen Hargreaves to stop crapping his pants for fuck sake. We can all see the game. He isn’t doing radio commentary.
Listen the german commentry:
They are surprised that Arsenal has not reacted yet to how Bayern are playing, and letting them have the ball too much.
@Usama,
It looks like Gianluca Rocchi is only strict against Arsenal!
Judge – anyone can if the officials let you!! The MoreOn was blocked by a defender yet he ‘saw’ Ozil use his hand!! Biggest visual corruption. Now they can sail on calmed sea with slope towards the Arsenal goal.
Nobody gave us any chance to get 1 point from this tie. We already have 3. All I want from this game is for none of our players to get injured. If Bayern beat Olympiacos in their next game (as they should) and we win the next 2 games (as we must), then we still qualify.
Come back home injury free boys and let’s continue our run in the league.
I’ve never done this before but I can’t watch any more it’s too painful to watch , feel for the guys out there getting slaughtered .
It’s a mountain to climb now. Best defence is attack we learn tonight.
Bayern are good, but we are playing bad by defending only. If we keep the ball and make them work they would have had it not so easy.
Awful performance in the first half deserves to be roundly criticised. Lazy and inept. A complete humiliation and our players not for the first time seem happy to take it.
Menace they are in a different league , were good very good , there fucking superb !
Bussaca at work. Simples.
Its that kit. Nothing to do with Bayern playing well and all….its the kit.
Total footballing lesson, we’re just admiring their play. Too much ball watching and we can’t seem to string a pass together. Seriously need some leadership and direction before this turns into a cricket score!
Bayern with their full power, ok
We with all those injuries, ok.
But the refs helping them, come on! No yellow for them, although they stopped many counters by fouls, look how they defend? The. English. Way, while we. Are not allowed to touch any of them?
Its a shame, campbell gets fouled, and bayern has the foul for them. Ozil and sanchez get fouled on the. Counter, no fouls even…. Even the so obvious!
Have to agree, blue has always been unlucky for us.
I get the impression Lineker is rather enjoying it.
Must admit the ref seems to be letting Bayern off.
Really missing pace upfront. Giroud has to hold the ball for an eternity for us to get forward. Could really do with Theo on nights like this, always draws at least 2 player with him.
Got to start watching the curling crosses that are just cutting our defence to pieces.Hope we can get some dignity out of this game.
COYG!
We need to keep the ball and make them work to get it, at the moment we are letting them have the ball, and a team like Bayern will score. Hope 2nd half we keep the ball more, but it may be too late already.
Looks like we do not want to win tonight, as we are continuing the same thing. Where is our possession masters today? If we keep on sitting back it will be 5 or 6.
Nobody is closing bayern down, or is it just me seeing this?
Oh, i cant watch anymore, we keep going back when bayern gets the ball, from deep in their own half, all the way up to our goal, no closing down at all!!!
Rantetta,don’t understand that goal not counted,im watching on bein spit we have no replays against Arsenal even there first goal?Even the cameras are against us. Yes bayern is playing good but don’t we deserve any replays instead they show us people in the stands, i was not so sure if the germany’s bought off the morons in FIFA to host thAT WORLD CUP BUT NOW AFTER THIS,I BELIEVE IT NOW 100 PERCENT.
Totally clueless. We may not have much on the bench we need to change this now.
No no no, going more defence???????
Ok, Bayern are good but the standard of refereeing going on here has got to be a joke.
It is amazing how many Bayern players appealed for Ozils handball. None of them saw anything but yet their Referee gave them what they paid for. Anyone saying Germans don’t bribe? Wait for it all to come out with the other maggotts from the wounds in football.
WTF is it with Menace? For the first goal Lewendowski’s movement and finish were sublime and fitting for the world class player that he is. Ozil deliberately used his hand in a yellow card worthy attempt which was justifiably overruled.
I understand that that if we lose this game there is still some hope for us to continue. Whatever the outcome I really hope we don’t finish in third place and have to endure Thursday night football.
Menace…..how do you manage to make it through the day?
No pressure from us at all. Normally i would be furious to see us play this way, but not tonight for some reason. Still….
Notice how their referee only books Arsenal players when they cheat? He is a prize for the World Cup winners.
Girouuuuuuuu yyyeeeeaaahhhhh…..
Yes Giroud.
Now the comeback is on. hahahahahahahaha
Not offside or am i seeing wrong
its the hope that kills ya
We’re going to win 4 – 5!! Their ref is cheating.
Olympiakos have equalized, a draw there is probably best
Their assistant ref is also a cheat!! He gives offside when it isn’t
Flippin’ ref is a total pain! Rolling free kick FFS! COYG!
tonight showing how costly those injuries against Wednesday were. Losing Theo, Ox, Kos, Bellerin and Bastin just too much really
Kiev equalise at the bridge…
now we have a replay?????
We are just letting them play. I cant see the point of defending when you are 3 goals down when defending caused the goals in the first place.
Iwobi and Jeff should have come on at 70 mins. Hey, nothing to lose.
chavs back in front 2-1
and that’s it – knew we shouldn’t have upset Bayern at our place. Pay back. Never mind, we move on – Spuds at the weekend so need to refocus
All i can say is:
Bayern werent brilliant, but we played a different game tonight, not Arsenal at all.
Look at that last goal!!!!
Disgracefull from us.
I suppose payback was necessary tonight.
danm olympiacos scores a second
and now its Thursday nights. at best. Greeks scored in the last minute so Tony will need to get the Untold abacus out to see what we have to do to progress.
Bayern needed their referee to help them. It was not all perfect football. gardiola already trying to win Alexis over. He does his share of tapping up (another maggott).
Just one of those bad nights all round. Have to beat Zagreb and then Olym by 2clear goals I think. We showed some heart in the second half, but we’re also very sloppy at times .
We are not out yet but that home game against Olym could prove fatal.
We need some of our players back
Thursdays here we come. 🙁
It doesn’t need an abacus. We have to beat Zagreb, beat olympiakos by 2 goals and need Munich to beat olympiakos.
Better second half and some pride salvaged but well beaten by the much better side.
If Bayern beat Olympiakos we will need to win by 2 goals in Greece and win our next game at home to Zagreb. I get the sense we will end up going out on away goals again.
I thought only 3rd place teams play on Thursday…might be best to…er…perhaps not gain a positive result in our last two games…frankly the Europa Cup/league is about equivalent to the League cup and playing on Thursdays and Sundays does not help our league performance.
That’s assuming of course neither get a result against Bayern.
The haters will soon be on here, along with a few hopeful spuds, Wenger will be insulted, but worth remembering even if we fail at this stage, 15 times past the group stages isn’t bad, a record all but very few would envy.
Over to the haters, Spuds and the desperate.
Jamram, or one could say, awful performance from the ref in the first have deserves to be roundly criticsed. Lazy and inept. How can you possibly know that the Arsenal team were “happy to take the humiliation” that you saw? I simply can’t see how you can believe that you know these things.
If the worst come to the worst and we get the Thursday night problem, then we should only treat it as a try out for our unexperienced players.
inexperienced players.
who’s cares! we can win the premier league and FA cup that would do me fine!! watching live for the first time I wonder how refs miss it and I can see it! hmm wonder how much he was paid? ?
maybe…just maybe if pizza man let ozil goal be, maybe it game was different
bu t we missed aaron and hector pretty much.
debuchy just not good enough
Tony Attwood
Can you support that “awful performance from the ref”.
i expected something like this from you and I was not let down.
Give credit where it is due, we were roundly and fairly beaten, and you know it.
Much much better second half; we could easily have scored 2 or 3 (esp if one looks at Santi’s chance and the incorrect referee calls on Giroud).
The injuries really cost us tonight, both in defence and attack. If it were in one department alone then it wouldn’t be so bad but for it to happen at both ends left us with no chance really. No team can suffer such injuries and not be affected (damn that stupid league cup!). To add to that it just turned out to be a bad night all round, even results everywhere conspired against us.
Skiing uphill is not easy!
We have no issues to contend with when it comes to injuries in the league. Hopefully Atkinson will have some mega misshap & not make it to the Ems.
Where is this “beat Olympiacos by 2 clear goals” coming from?
One of the 2 idiots yapping on BT said it without thinking. Innumeracy is a terrible thing.
Here’s the deal:
If Bayern beat Olympiacos and we beat Zagreb, all we need to do is win by scoring at least 3 goals, not MUST WIN by 2 goals as being spread. Bayern’s and our hypothetical victories in the next game will alter the balance of goal diference in the group and until then, no one can say with any certainty how much goals we need to score. If after the next game we are level or better on GF than Olympiacos, then a 4-3 win will see us through. Of course, any +2 goal victory will definitely see us through but I object to this being peddled as the only route to the knockout stages.
That’s the thing about the AAA, they can never be let down. If we lose…”I told you so” If we win…”yeah!…I support my team”
And by the way…the refs can be crap even if we didn’t play well.
Debuchy is not fit yet? am scared of another Eduardo here..
No really the ref was awful, they were brilliant, we had way too many injuries to players we really need. all our fast players were out, including Bellerin. Cech could have dine better. And Cazorla showed today how much he carries the team, when not to his best , we suffered. Everything went their way.
If we get to Europa League, we should go and win it, why not? if that does not hurt our league status for sure.
Tony we were thumped thank God they gave up when 4- nil up it could have been a lot worse
jayramfootball,
Your wish has finally come true! Lucky guy. Now, just rub your palms together in anticipation of Arsene being sacked as you’ve always wanted.
Christmas has come early for you. Enjoy!
Bootomee here’s the deal we need to come last in the group fuck the CL we can’t win avoid Europa Cup and concentrate on PL
Anyone who says Bayern were brilliant, are not seeing that Arsenal were not playing our game at all at any time tonight, if we did, it would have been a different game, but our players would have been so much more tired!!!
Bayern were good because we let them be good, that is my view and i’m sticking to it.
AW said he wanted to attack, but i only saw 3-4 attacks from us, the rest of the time was spent in our half, forming two lines, one 4, one 5, and not closing down at all.
I’m not even going to mention the ref in any way anymore, we just played unlike Arsenal tonight, and i hope we are out completely, do not need Thurs night football this season. 🙁
Spurs can expect to be thrashed on Sunday though. 🙂 🙂 🙂
“Bayern were good because we let them be good, that is my view and i’m sticking to it”
Now why didn’t I think of saying that?
Of course we did ( let them be good ).That can be the only reason the probable winners of the CL beat us.
Around 7.30pm, if any Arsenal fan had been offered 3 of the 6 points of the 2 legged tie with Bayern Munich, not many of us would have hesitated to grab the offer and run.
This talk of Thursday night football is nonsense and it shows the lack of spirit from those spouting it. We demand heaven and earth from the players but at the first sniff of adversity, we turn to negative nellies and start crying into our cereal. We want our players to be warriors on the field but we lack conviction behind them. It is not for nothing that we are regarded as the most fickle around. Cut the crap about Thursday football and just support your team.
If we beat Zagreb and Bayern beat Olympiacos, we are going to have a massive game in Greece. I am not a betting man but I am putting money on Arsenal to qualify.
@Bootoome,
“We want our players to be warriors on the field but we lack conviction behind them. It is not for nothing that we are regarded as the most fickle around”
Very well said, this should change into an article
Around 7.30pm TWO WEEKS AGO…..
Judge,
You are going to have to sell that bullshit to other fans of your disposition. We are in a difficult but definitely not impossible position.
I am an Arsenal supporter and I stick with my team to the end.
Replace fickle with realist , warriors didn’t see any out there tonight .
I repeat Europa will screw up any chance we have of winning the PL we’ve already got enough injured players to make a team
Bootoomee
“Cut the crap about Thursday football and just support your team.”
All very grand and worthy of a couple of “likes”
Sorry, but I’ll continue to support my team to continue on and win the Premier League, but only without the Thursday night albatross.
Judge,
If you truly want to be a realist, you need to stop supporting a football team. True sports fans love nothing more than “David vs Goliath” pairings and nothing can beat the joy of our teams producing results when all have ruled us out. You know, kinda like how you felt after the final whistle 2 weeks ago.
You and Serge need to calm the fuck down. Unless you don’t understand numbers, I have no idea where you are getting the Europa nonsense from. I know you both enjoy rubbing it in when the team is struggling (while somehow being absent here when they are doing well) but wait till the child has died before you bury it and call its mother a witch.
No one is asking for your brand of realism here. We all know where the team is in the group – and it is not where you continue to insist it is because you are apparently more realistic than the rest of us ‘deluded’ optimists.
Common guys, can’t put this on the referee- that’s sort of becoming a default option after every loss- quite like the cry for ‘Wenger Out’ from the other side. A couple of offside decisions notwithstanding, didn’t see too much wrong. Ozil’s equaliser shouldn’t have stood even though it wasn’t intentional. He was yellow carded for claiming it- fair enough. Bayern were in a different league tonight but then again, we were 10 first team players short. Had Gibbs been injured, we would have had a very fine injured eleven (Arteta would count as a Centre-Back in that eleven though).
I was much more gutted with the result of the other group game- was following it on a broken stream with our match playing on TV. I was as disappointed after their second goal as I was happy with ours two weeks ago…
Winning by two, or scoring at least three (while winning) is definitely harder than just plain winning- especially at a place where we haven’t had a good record of late. And all that’s assuming Bayern don’t screw up against Olympiakos at home- probably a safe assumption- but would have preferred a little more control over things….
@Tony
If you read what i said you will see that I said SEEM “happy to take the humiliation”. So I am not proclaiming to know what hey are thinking.
Actually the second half was much better and the players seemed to want to salvage some pride. I think they did. A fair second half would have seen Arsenal score 2 or 3 goals. Still, playing in the one half of football is not good enough. It has to be 90 minutes. After the game Mertesacker said it best. He was honest and said openly that the team played without courage. That is something that the manager and players have to address.