Arsenal
- Thread starter Robbie
- Start date
Looks like he will do it again though, Wenger is a master in securing a cl-spot.
Semi-Neutral
Sir Alupp Heynrguson
....
....
I have never seen a team shoot itself in the foot, time and time again, this badly. Ludicrous performance. Literally what even. You compare it to the City game, and it's night and day apart. City were outclassed in the first half, played off the pitch, Barca looked a level above. There was a feeling that they couldn't do anything no matter how decently they played, and after 30 minutes it looked like not just the game, but the tie was over (of course, we then proceed to stroll around the pitch in the second half and make it much closer than it should be, but that's a whole different story
).
This game... This was all down to Arsenal playing completely terribly. Giveaways in dangerous positions for the entire game, laughable defending, midfield vanishing in face of Monaco's kick and run attack... Don't get me wrong, Monaco executed their game plan and did everything they were supposed to, but losing to a team like that
Their gameplan was literally to win possession and then kick the ball and run and somehow our defense and midfield had a nuclear meltdown. Gibbs and Bellerin played decently, although Bellerin was way too eager to try and change the game and ended up caught up in their half far too often, but Koscielny looked embarrassingly casual even when we were 2-0 down and Mertesacker was pretty much directly at fault for the second goal. But it was nowhere as bad as our midfield performance. Cazorla, Coquelin, Ozil, Ox (in the 90th minute, after scoring that beautiful goal), Alexis, Rosicky... all of them, sloppy giveaways, poor defending... I hadn't seen something like this since our last season defeats to City and Chelsea and Liverpool. I thought we were done with our midfield simply disappearing.
But even with all of that, we still had plenty of chances, and of course, this is the first game of the season Giroud actually plays badly in, and misses a handful of chances that he would have scored on any other day. Welbeck played decently, ran around as usual, but he's not a match winner and it showed. Alexis still hasn't gotten into form after coming back from that injury, he played a decent game but was guilty of a few bad giveaways as well. Walcott didn't do much except get a handful of chances but he was pretty unlucky not to score, he made some great runs. And of course, Monaco's first goal was ridiculously lucky, that deflection
Maybe this is me being biased, but despite the score being 3-1 I don't see us out of this tie at all. One of, if not our worst game this season across the board, while Monaco played well and had luck to go with it... I will say that I do not like Ospina in goal, I've noticed lately that he seems nervous in bigger games and almost has a Pinto-like quality with him somehow making the defense seem weaker despite not actually doing anything wrong. Never really had that feeling with Szczesny. Paulista also deserves a run out, he looked rock solid the one time he played (against Middlesbrough, but still). I'd also like to see Theo getting game time over Welbeck, I feel he has a much higher ceiling. But most importantly, our midfield needs to not give away the ball every five seconds and actually do something productive in the opposition's half
I'm pretty mad right now, so I probably worded this post pretty poorly and repeated myself a bunch of times but whatever
....
I have never seen a team shoot itself in the foot, time and time again, this badly. Ludicrous performance. Literally what even. You compare it to the City game, and it's night and day apart. City were outclassed in the first half, played off the pitch, Barca looked a level above. There was a feeling that they couldn't do anything no matter how decently they played, and after 30 minutes it looked like not just the game, but the tie was over (of course, we then proceed to stroll around the pitch in the second half and make it much closer than it should be, but that's a whole different story
).This game... This was all down to Arsenal playing completely terribly. Giveaways in dangerous positions for the entire game, laughable defending, midfield vanishing in face of Monaco's kick and run attack... Don't get me wrong, Monaco executed their game plan and did everything they were supposed to, but losing to a team like that
Their gameplan was literally to win possession and then kick the ball and run and somehow our defense and midfield had a nuclear meltdown. Gibbs and Bellerin played decently, although Bellerin was way too eager to try and change the game and ended up caught up in their half far too often, but Koscielny looked embarrassingly casual even when we were 2-0 down and Mertesacker was pretty much directly at fault for the second goal. But it was nowhere as bad as our midfield performance. Cazorla, Coquelin, Ozil, Ox (in the 90th minute, after scoring that beautiful goal), Alexis, Rosicky... all of them, sloppy giveaways, poor defending... I hadn't seen something like this since our last season defeats to City and Chelsea and Liverpool. I thought we were done with our midfield simply disappearing.
But even with all of that, we still had plenty of chances, and of course, this is the first game of the season Giroud actually plays badly in, and misses a handful of chances that he would have scored on any other day. Welbeck played decently, ran around as usual, but he's not a match winner and it showed. Alexis still hasn't gotten into form after coming back from that injury, he played a decent game but was guilty of a few bad giveaways as well. Walcott didn't do much except get a handful of chances but he was pretty unlucky not to score, he made some great runs. And of course, Monaco's first goal was ridiculously lucky, that deflection
Maybe this is me being biased, but despite the score being 3-1 I don't see us out of this tie at all. One of, if not our worst game this season across the board, while Monaco played well and had luck to go with it... I will say that I do not like Ospina in goal, I've noticed lately that he seems nervous in bigger games and almost has a Pinto-like quality with him somehow making the defense seem weaker despite not actually doing anything wrong. Never really had that feeling with Szczesny. Paulista also deserves a run out, he looked rock solid the one time he played (against Middlesbrough, but still). I'd also like to see Theo getting game time over Welbeck, I feel he has a much higher ceiling. But most importantly, our midfield needs to not give away the ball every five seconds and actually do something productive in the opposition's half
I'm pretty mad right now, so I probably worded this post pretty poorly and repeated myself a bunch of times but whatever
F
Flavia
Guest
You're biased. You're out. Monaco conceded only 2 goals in this cl. I really can't see arsenal scoring 3. I wouldn't want Barça to face them in a hypothetical quarter final, they're a tough nut to crack.
Semi-Neutral
Sir Alupp Heynrguson
Considering how we could have had 3 goals today even though we played absolutely awfully, I think it's fair to say we could score 3 if we played well
KingMessi
SiempreBlaugrana
Indeed. Arsenal conceded 3 away goals. If Monaco scores just 1 in the return leg, Arsenal will need 3 goals. Good luck with that. Good luck scoring even just 2 goals against them too.
xavi_the_Boss
New member
Monaco could also have had more then 3 though and you are playing away.I think it´s over.
F
Flavia
Guest
They need 3-0 to quality. 2-0 qualifies monaco. 3-1 go to penalties.
KingMessi
SiempreBlaugrana
Ah yes. 2-0 win for Arsenal, would mean Monaco go through on away goals. I did my math wrong.
I
instinct
Guest
What an absolute joke of a football club, seriously.
Arsenal always had the potential to keep up with the big teams in Europe but how the hell are they able to reach this level with a clueless coach? It's unbelievable that the fans and the club are happy with the 4th spot and the round of 16 in the CL every damn season. It's a result of terrible mismanagement as well as stupid transfers. How is it even debatable that Arsenal needs a new coach? How is it possible that a team with such good players get exposed every damn time?
I can't understand the mess that is Arsenal. Ridiculous.
Arsenal always had the potential to keep up with the big teams in Europe but how the hell are they able to reach this level with a clueless coach? It's unbelievable that the fans and the club are happy with the 4th spot and the round of 16 in the CL every damn season. It's a result of terrible mismanagement as well as stupid transfers. How is it even debatable that Arsenal needs a new coach? How is it possible that a team with such good players get exposed every damn time?
I can't understand the mess that is Arsenal. Ridiculous.
F
Flavia
Guest
You are deluded IMO.
Home of Barca Fans
