I'll be honest i've never looked closely at it this way before but the list of teams listed there is shocking.Kvltman wrote:This is from football365.com. Apologies for the cut & paste but it simply sums up exactly how I (and I'm guessing a lot of others!) feel...
“I knew since I [found out] our schedule that I have a squad of 20 players, all experienced and every decision I make is very difficult,” said Wenger in pre-match press conference. “It is quite easy to change two or three players, more than it was in years before because they are all at a very good level.”
Ah, here we are again. So lovely too see you, take a seat. You’re right, this event is a little earlier than normal this year, but go with it.
Any Arsenal supporters filing out of the Stadion Maksimir on Wednesday night would be forgiven for shouting “f**k cohesion” at the empty stadium, continuing the fine tradition of football supporters screaming obscenities at inanimate objects. If this was Arsenal’s first step along the road to Champions League success, they tripped over their own lace and smashed their face on the gravel.
Arsenal are not losers because their Champions League campaign is in tatters (because it obviously isn’t), but due to the message this defeat sends out. If Arsene Wenger’s decision not to buy a single outfield player (the only club in Europe’s top five leagues, remember) was because he thought he had adequate cover in vital positions, he was wrong.
Individually, this squad is good enough. If all are fit and all are gelling together they are among the most capable sides in Europe. But that status quo is so rare that it barely bears mentioning. It’s something we’ve said before, and will no doubt say again: If this is the performance of the team which well be needed through the cold winter months, a title challenge looks a laughable prospect.
This has been a fortnight so utterly Arsenal that it may as well be christened Thierry Gunnersaurus Adams-Chapman. A silent deadline day was followed by serious injury to Danny Welbeck and another to Jack Wilshere, both suffering setbacks in their recoveries from existing knocks. On both occasions Wenger issued a ‘let’s wait and see’ message but, within days, three months was issued as the hopeful estimate for both. Then, on the first occasion Wenger was permitted to display Arsenal’s strength in depth, they fell woefully short.
Each one of Arsenal’s changes fell short in their bid to impress. Mathieu Debuchy has regressed badly from his Newcastle days, Mikel Arteta offered a dire impression of a holding midfielder and David Ospina looked like a rusty reserve goalkeeper. Olivier Giroud went one step further, missing a presentable chance before being sent off for two yellow cards even before half-time. To add a red bow to a night soaked in pure Arsenal, their inability to defend set pieces again reared its ugly head.
Unexpected failure is hard to take, but there is nothing as frustrating as predictable, and avoidable, downfall. Take one step back, respond impressively, fall short of top spot, get knocked out in the last-16 – it’s Arsenal’s Champions League Groundhog Season. Supporters used to worry that they would never achieve European glory with Wenger in charge. Now even the quarter-finals seem a distant dream.
Wenger this week aimed to curb expectation on Arsenal’s chances in this competition, urging realism through the poetic insistence that “We are not dreamers”. Here’s a list of clubs to have reached the last eight since Arsenal did: Shakhtar Donetsk, Tottenham, Schalke, Internazionale, APOEL Nicosia, Marseille, Benfica, Milan, Malaga, Dortmund, Galatasaray, Atletico Madrid, Porto and Monaco. In this competition, Arsenal have not just been overtaken by the best, but the rest too. And that’s not a dream.
The manager will stress that this is just one defeat, neither catastrophic nor indicative of a terminal decline. Wenger is right on that point, but there now follows a run of games which will truly test Arsenal’s credentials, and put their summer inaction into a more relevant context. Chelsea (a), Spurs (a), Leicester (a), Olympiacos (h), Manchester United (h). Gulp.
There's not one team on that list i'd ever have rated as better than us over the last 10 years if asked except maybe Dortmund.
It show's how arrogant i'd become as an Arsenal supporter after our years of success in the 90's and early 2000's.
