Munich away match thread

[northbank123]

Don't get me wrong I'll always value somebody who puts a shift in but that doesn't prevent them from criticism of the quality of their performance.

Rosicky had balls bouncing off him all night and to me seemed by far the most profligate out of a midfield that was giving the ball away for fun. Giroud's movement is shocking and his hold-up play really is nowhere near the level it should be for a striker with his physique and lack of other attributes - much of the reason the ball was being consistently given away last night is that he offered no outlet to the midfielders when they were under pressure.

[ThomasMitchell]

Apologise? For what? You said it yourself in the same sentence, "we are out".

I read from many many posters we would def get battered, that we are the 'whipping boys of europe'. This thread has a poll on how many we will lose by...
Those posters were totally wrong. I expected us to make a big name signing in the winter. Not sure if the Villa thing was a failed attempt to do so or a smokescreen - but I was wrong and admitted as much...

Or does going out constitute success in the modern day world of Arsene Wenger? Reality is the only people needing to apologise here are Wenger and so many of his substandard players who turn on a bit of a performance when they have already blown it in the first leg. Not good enough. But anyway let's cling onto the fact that we are 'proud' of these failures and continue to bury our head in the sand.

Going out is not good enough, undeniable. Lets say we had been battered - like almost everyone here predicted.
Would people have said - who cares, it means nothing, the tie was decided in the first leg...?
No. Here would have been ground zero of an online pitchfork posse, riling each other into competitive states of fury.
We won, it wasn't enough. Embarrassing defeat would have made many on here furious,
A pity that a good victory makes so few proud in any way - it was a brilliant defensive performance.

Let's see what will happen the rest of the season. Will this game be a catalyst for improved performances in the league? Of course not. This manager, this team learn nothing from the past (remember AC Milan? Hopeless in the first leg and then a 'heroic' performance in the second. Ring any bells this season?).

I do remember last season. After AC Milan we made up a big gap and came third. Glad you're not my lawyer - bringing up evidence to disprove your own point

No one game has any influence on the next - just a load of random performances (mostly bad) from game to game. Last night just underlined the reason why Wenger needs to go.

you have decided there is no narrative or interconnectivity, I disagree but OK lets run with that point...
Why, in that imaginary world, does last night underline Wenger must go...?
Why does a good result in a random world underline anything?

Shocked to hear criticism of Giroud and Rosicky - anybody there saw the unbelievable shifts those two put in
they were everywhere, absolutely ran themselves into the ground. Great great performances.

Only thing I'm disappointed about is the terrible delivery of that late free kick (was it Tets?)

You clearly don't get the point I was making about the direct comparison between the champions league defeat to AC Milan and the one last night. We hear from Wenger (and so many of the players) how they will learn from previous mistakes and it will make them stronger. Last night was just another example of how they learn nothing - ever. Hopeless first leg performance and heroic failure in the second leg - and repeat, and repeat.
I take no pride from last night because it is set in the context of failure over and over again. Pride comes from weeks, months, years of strong performances - not one game. We all know that this team flatter to deceive on occasions, last night was just another example of that.
The 'narrative' and 'interconnectivity' over the last 8 years is one man, Arsene Wenger.

[TeeCee]

Embarrassing defeat would have made many on here furious

Errr no it wouldn't. Because most were expecting it so wouldn't have been furious at all. Defeats to Bradford, Blackburn, Norwich etc have dumbed us down, taught us that this failing team of ours is simply not good enough and any defeat.....unless it's by 5 or 6 goals or more is not out of many of our thoughts when playing a top team (and Bayern are a top top team).

Defensively brilliant?? No, the guys did well and did enough. Flappy didn't fuck up for a change, Jenks did well, Kos did even better, but you can't take away the fact that Bayern did not threaten much because of the lead they had and they thought it was enough to just ease through the game.
We are out of every cup and we are 24 points behind the leaders and are in 5th place and could quite easily finish 7th (more likely to finish 7th than 4th). It's been an awful season, dreadful, and one pointless win changes absolutely nothing.

[StuartL]

JD - going out on away goals to Bayern is no disgrace in itself. And as I've said last night was the first performance in a long long time that I felt I could be really proud of.

But it doesn't change the fact that we more or less played ourselves out of the tie in the first 25 minutes and allowed Bayern to come and fucking embarrass us on our own patch as United, Barcelona and Schalke have done in the competition in recent years. Great effort but ultimately too little too late and a crying shame that the performance ultimately counts for fuck all.

Exactly the same as last season - lose the first leg soo badly then save a bit of face in the 2nd leg. Why not give yourself a chance.

As for Wenker saying that English football has to learn a lesson

HE needs to learn a lesson from the last 4/5 years - WE ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH AND NEED STRENGTHENING NOT WEAKENING EVERY SEASON !

[MK Gould]

As for Wenker saying that English football has to learn a lesson

It would have sounded so much better if it had come from Ferguson, but I think Wenger was 100% right on this. No Premier League team knows how to defend for a start... Citeh and Chavs dumped out at the Group stage of the CL. Citeh even managed to finish bottom FFS. Ok, so all those with vested interests - i.e. other PL Managers etc - will then quote that Chelsea won it last year. But everyone and their dog knows that they fluked it. No, gone are the days when we had 3 teams in the semi, 2 in the final.

Unfortunately, part of the proof that Wenger is right is that a side as poor as his Arsenal team are still capable of challenging for 3rd/4th spot....!

[highburyJD]

Embarrassing defeat would have made many on here furious

Errr no it wouldn't. Because most were expecting it so wouldn't have been furious at all.

Really surprised by this...
TC you truly believe if we had been thrashed by Bayern posters on here would not have been bothered?

[northbank123]

Embarrassing defeat would have made many on here furious

Errr no it wouldn't. Because most were expecting it so wouldn't have been furious at all.

Really surprised by this...
TC you truly believe if we had been thrashed by Bayern posters on here would not have been bothered?

Agree - had we lost 3-0 there would have been twice as many posts as there were.

Just because you expect something doesn't mean it won't royally piss you off when it happens.

[MK Gould]

There was a real feeling of anger amongst the travelling fans when the rumour (I thought it was fact at the time) went around that Cazorla and Walcott were being rested.... Think if that had happened and we'd then lost badly then Wenger would have got real abuse.

Difficult to get annoyed though - online or in the flesh - after winning 2-0 at the home of one of the best teams in Europe. The time for that was after the first leg. It was then that we lost the tie.

[LDB]

Embarrassing defeat would have made many on here furious

Errr no it wouldn't. Because most were expecting it so wouldn't have been furious at all.

There are people on this forum who expect us to lose every game and still manage to get angry when we do

[I Hate Hleb]

Better that than total apathy, surely? At least it proves that despite all the criticism, they care.

[StuartL]

Embarrassing defeat would have made many on here furious

Errr no it wouldn't. Because most were expecting it so wouldn't have been furious at all.

There are people on this forum who expect us to lose every game and still manage to get angry when we do

That's only because they didn't put money on it.

[highburyJD]

Better that than total apathy, surely? At least it proves that despite all the criticism, they care.

constant unremitting fury doesnt makes me think - they must care
makes me think - they need therapy

[MK Gould]

Anyone know whether the guy with the flare was arrested/ejected...?

[Dan_85]

Anyone know whether the guy with the flare was arrested/ejected...?

Heard him & his mates were taken out by police, not sure if it's true though. Couldn't really see from where I was. Fair play to him, coulda done with about 10 more but it looked decent.

[Poldi]

it looked as if the police came in instantly when the flare got started, but waited untill it had burnt down and then ejected him.

An another note, I felt really proud for the support everyone gave on the night , not that it mattered from a sportive perspective... Met some Bayern fans after the game, who were embarressed by the 'support' or rather the non-existing support the Bayern fans managed to create during the match. Their cheer at the end was more like a sigh of relief...

Hope everyone got home savely (lucky me - airport security staff in Cologne went on strike last friday and again today so that many flights were cancelled- the days in midweek they worked, so it was business as usual and I got to Munich and back without any hassle.)