Arsenal v FC Bayern München: Cech frustrated, lucid rage and total commitment

Posted on by Tony Attwood

By Bulldog Drummond

The injury league still looks completely unbelievable, and so the media are not believing it, by not mentioning it.  Arsenal are showing 3 “injuries” – although we are told that Ozil’s injury is an illness of some sort.  Looking down the list however he is not the only player with an illness –  Burnley also have an illness.   Perhaps it is catching.

Also interesting that West Ham’s Reid is out with “cramp”.  I am certainly not a medical man but I thought cramp usually wore off in a few minutes, and its effects on movement in about two hours.   Maybe it is a special state aided cramp.  The data as always is from physioroom.com

Pos Club Players out Latest out Injury of last man out
1 Hull City 10 D Mbokani Hamstring Injury
2 Sunderland 7 P van Aanholt Ankle Injury
3 Watford 7 C Kabasele Hip Injury
4 Stoke City 6 G Johnson Shoulder
5 Crystal Palace 6 L Remy Muscular Injury
6 Liverpool 6 D Sturridge Hip Injury
7 Everton 5 D Gibson Knee Injury
8 Southampton 5 V van Dijk Ankle Injury
9 Burnley 5 T Heaton Illness
10 West Ham United 4 W Reid Cramp
11 Swansea City 4 K Naughton Hamstring Injury
12 Bournemouth 4 T Mings Knee Injury
13 Manchester United 3 B Schweinsteiger Muscular Injury
14 Arsenal 3 M Ozil Illness
15 Manchester City 3 V Kompany Muscle Injury
16 Tottenham Hotspur 2 D Rose MCL Knee Ligament
17 Middlesbrough 2 D Ayala Hamstring Injury
18 Leicester City 1 M Wague Dislocated Shoulder
19 West Bromwich A 1 M Phillips Hamstring Injury
20 Chelsea 0

Bayern have Lahm out while Sanches, Costa and Boateng are doubtful.   For Arsenal it is Santi, Elneny and Ozil on the list.

While the UK press has been fairly reluctant to report it, in case it takes the shine off their glee at our 5-1 defeat in Germany, Bayern have been hammering out the same sort of results everywhere else ever since.   You will notice that in this table they play in the Bun, which seems about right for a league in which one team normally wins.  Just need a g on the end.

Date Comp. Home team Result Away team
18/02/17 BUN Hertha BSC 1 – 1 Bayern München
25/02/17 BUN Bayern München 8 – 0 Hamburger SV
01/03/17 DFP Bayern München 3 – 0 Schalke 04
04/03/17 BUN Köln 0 – 3 Bayern München

Here is the league table in Germany – as with Spain, you will notice that the team challenging for a European place is closer to relegation than to the title.

Hertha Berlin look like playing in the Europa next season, are just 14 points above Hamburg in the play off place for relegation.  It is a very screwy league, caused of course by the level of money than Bayern can lay their hands on each year.  Must be rather boring knowing who is going to win the league before you start.

Pos Team Pl W D L F A GD Pts
1 Bayern Munich 23 17 5 1 57 13 44 56
2 RB Leipzig 23 15 4 4 43 24 19 49
3 Borussia Dortmund 23 12 7 4 52 25 27 43
4 Hoffenheim 23 10 11 2 44 24 20 41
5 Hertha Berlin 23 11 4 8 30 25 5 37
6 Eintracht Frankfurt 23 10 5 8 26 24 2 35
7 Cologne 23 8 9 6 31 25 6 33
8 SC Freiburg 23 10 3 10 30 40 -10 33
9 M’gladbach 23 9 5 9 29 31 -2 32
10 Bayer Leverkusen 23 9 3 11 36 38 -2 30
11 Mainz 23 8 5 10 32 38 -6 29
12 FC Augsburg 23 7 7 9 23 30 -7 28
13 Schalke 23 7 6 10 28 27 1 27
14 Werder Bremen 23 7 4 12 30 43 -13 25
15 Wolfsburg 23 6 5 12 21 34 -13 23
16 Hamburg 23 6 5 12 22 45 -23 23
17 FC Ingolstadt 04 23 5 3 15 21 39 -18 18
18  Darmstadt 23 3 3 17 15 45 -30 12

According to the media latest, “Arsène Wenger has urged Alexis Sánchez to channel his anger into the game against Bayern Munich”.   Anyway, one upset story is never enough when reporting Arsenal so the new one is that Petr Cech has “become frustrated by his own continued omission from the Champions League.”

Apparently Cech is “bewildered” by the reasoning.  Well, yes, it is pretty difficult this notion that “In order that the back up keeper gets some games and so keeps match fit we will play him in the cup matches otherwise when suddenly called upon, he is going to find it tough.  Anyway, you can’t keep a good international keeper as a reserve and not have him playing at all.  If you do that, he leaves and we end up with a junior as backup.”   Sort of post-graduate stuff really.  Doctoral even.

But such nonsense allows the Telegraph to write, “Cech’s frustration adds to the acute tension at Arsenal after four defeats in six games”.   And this of course is  the problem that will face whoever the successor to Mr Wenger is going to be.  The media make their money out of attacking Arsenal, because it boosts their audience and so boosts their advertising revenue, and they are not going to stop just because the manager changes.   Has everyone really forgotten the way they used to treat George Graham or the way they ignored his achievement of going the entire season with just one defeat – itself unknown at the time.

Mr Wenger said that he expected of his players, “That they go out there with a mixture of lucid rage. Total commitment, but not a silly one because you have as well always to make intelligent decisions.”

Mr Wenger also mentioned the recent capitulation of Tottenham – the current media darlings – in the much more competitive environment of the Europa.   As he said, “Basically, the teams that have gone out in the group stage are happy but we have gone through and we are in crisis.”

Of the argument with Sánchez he said, “The true warrior fights not because he hates the ones in front of him, but because he loves those behind him.  The only failure is not trying.”

 

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18 Replies to “Arsenal v FC Bayern München: Cech frustrated, lucid rage and total commitment”

  1. Don’t you just hate Bayern for their ability to buy or coerce the best players in Germany to join them , and then like clockwork attain their annual success ?
    Almost very year before Christmas they would have practically wrapped up the Bundersliga title ; go for a long winter break , come back refreshed and warm up by pounding some poor clubs senseless in January , then knock out poor old Arsenal in the CL round of 16 in Feb.
    How do they manage to do that ?
    Its almost like it is fixed !
    Nah !

  2. Medical facts ?

    Did you know that , if you bathe at least twice daily , avoid alcohol , avoid smoking tobacco and go to the gym everyday to maintain your fitness , have sufficient sleep,eat fruits after each healthy meal , avoid stress , stop using all manner of drugs , including caffeine that is found in coffee and tea , as well as practise safe sex regularly ,..you will still die when you time comes ?

  3. Thanks for calling out the FAKE news. Arsenal have to fight against the media, the refereees and the authorities. Thanks for being true Arsenal supporters. Winning against all the odds is sweet! I think that is why Arsene keeps going. His press conferences are becoming better – he is really having a go at the media. Shame he can’t say anything about the crooked referees.

  4. I suspect the media will stop their attacks on Arsenal when Arsenal stop feeding them with news like “four losses in six games”.

    The media are doing their jobs, picking on popular teams that are shooting themselves in the foot.

    COYG.

  5. FAKE NEWS ?

    I’m sure that when finally the Donaldisation of Grater USA takes place , he will insist that all Americans will have to sell off their shares and holdings in foreign countries and repatriate all the money back home , we will be seeing changes in the Arsenal shareholding .

    Come on guys , building a massive wall takes a lot of money and you can bet your sweet ass that the Mexicans aren’t going to pay for it ! And since there will be no foreigners building it (due to security issues ) the locals will have to do it and most will have to start learning from scratch! Booyah!

    So Stan will probably sell it to the highest bidder or (logically ) to the person with the next highest holding . And maybe then David Dien would then make a triumphant return to change Arsenal’s fortunes once again . As it is said ,’Never say never !”

    And from here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Dein .. , are some eye catching excepts ….

    ‘ Former Arsenal hero, Ian Wright described David Dein’s departure as follows:

    “I know the players aren’t happy. I know Thierry Henry’s not happy. We’re talking about a man [David Dein] who goes into the dressing room after every single game, shakes every player by the hand and who knows all the youth team players.”

    Thierry Henry claimed that David Dein’s departure as vice-chairman had dismayed him and left him in no doubt that it was time to move on.’

  7. So it appears that David Dein is the one they all love/loved professionally and not Arsene Wenger?

    What ever, the team can alleviate their shame tonight and show some fight or just not turn up.

    Win it and become instant heroes, lose and continue to be the losers. A draw is not even considered.

  8. I believe Arsenal can knockout Bayern Munich from this season’s UCL competition in the 2nd leg round of 16 match tonight at the Emirates Stadium.

    Let me in my armchair coaching tell the Gunners to please play as a compact team with of course individual brilliance in the game. They should cover the space on the field adequately so as not to allow the Bayerns room to operate to do what the like. The Gunners should not give up in their marking their opponent Bayern players even if they are beaten to the marking at first, they must keep on chasing who is with the ball that they are marking so as to still have the chance of dispossessing him when other Gunners join in defending against him. Hazard’s run and goal in our away PL game against Chelsea is an example when Hazard’s Gunner marker lost his marking him and gave up standing and watching him instead of to still be chasing after him and as other Gunners joined in marking him, he might have been dispossessed in his dribbling run. The Gunners should please be confident on the ball to keep possession – ball control and weigh their passing correctly before making them so that they can accurate in their passing. And they should please avoid back passing back but forward passing mostly. It’s only when they pass forward that they’ll score. Since Ozil may not play to take corner kicks for us, which ever Gunner that can take corners correctly as good as Ozil should be allowed to take them. Because good corners taking can lead to goals for us in the game if they are correctly attacked by the Gunners.

    My starts and bench for our home Ucl match against Bayern Munich are as follows:

    Ospina
    Bellerin Mustafi Koscielny Gibbs
    Coquelin Xhaka
    Chamberlain Sanchez Perez
    Welbeck.

    Bench:
    Cech Paulista Holding Monreal Ramsey Walcott Giroud.

  9. There is much chatter these days about the alleged power of Arsenal fans to get rid of a manager, by (a) not attending home games or (b) demonstrations inside the Stadium.
    While the Liverpool result is still raw, it will be interesting to see tonight’s attendance figure, together with the reception given to the manager.
    (And ditto for Saturday’s game). 😉

  10. @ Brickfields Gunners – 07/03/2017 at 9:19 am – FAKE NEWS ?

    Addendum – All foreign property ,shares , holdings and other assets held by Americans will be first offered to ‘friendly ‘ parties ,not only as a gesture of goodwill , but also to ensure that friends are rewarded for services rendered during the resent USA election campaign .

    President Putin , after taking off his shirt, clenching his fists in the air and then beating his chest , said that it was very kind and generous of Donaldovich , and that the Cold War IS finally over , before jumping onto his horse and riding off to the strains of Rossini’s The William Tell Overture –
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUpDG680uew

  11. Ancelotti got kicked out of CL in 2004 with Milan after having 4:1 from the first leg. To put things into a perspective, Milan lost 4:0 to the same team they had beaten 4:0 only a season earlier (an eight-goal swing). He also got famous for bottling 3:0 lead against Djimi Traore and Jerzy Dudek. He has won the competition 3 times. Ancelotti had helped Arsenal a lot in the past as he was the one who couldn’t get the best out of certain Thierry Henry.

    I’d take a 2:0 victory, simply because it might be an injection of confidence our team needs.

  12. “Apparently Cech is “bewildered” by the reasoning.”

    I don’t blame him. I would have thought that the best chance of success comes from playing your best fit players in their best position. Ospina is a decent goalkeeper but (despite recent criticism) Cech is still world class. Maybe having a good international goalkeeper as reserve is not such a good idea for exactly this reason. Most teams don’t.

  13. Have to agree with Cech here, at least on principle. Once Arsenal get to the knockout round of the Champions League, Wenger should be putting his best keeper in there. It’s the same basic point that was raised repeatedly this weekend…play your best players in the toughest and most important fixtures.

    That said, I’m not sure there’s a whole lot separating Cech and Ospina at the moment. I’d still be more comfortable with Cech in an important match, but I don’t really love any of our current options. I’d hope we at least look at potential upgrades this summer, even if that should be nowhere near the top of our priority list.

  14. I’m not sure what all this is about keepers. Ospina was not to blame for the 5-1 defeat.

  16. Let’s blame the media for losing 5-1 to Bayern 3 times in a row.
    10-2 on aggregate this year, and we’re still scared of change!

  18. Nine of Bayern’s 10 goals in the tie were scored with Laurent Koscielny off the pitch.

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