Our CL record under Wenger

[1989]

If Dennis wasn't adverse to flying we might have won the thing. We missed him in some away games where his presence and inspiration could have made all the difference.

[DB10GOONER]

that defeat at home by the chavs in 2004, was in hindsight the beginning of the end for us.

they outmuscled us and defended stoutly if memory serves. Paddy went missing (did he even play ?)

the first time a lack of plan B appeared in N5.

i wonder if that's the game that haunts AW, cos i really thought that was our year, much more than 2005, or 2006.

This ^. Always felt that year was the "easy" one. We should have won it, far more than 06. Most of the big clubs underperformed in 04. I always felt that tie, even though it was Bridge's late goal that actually killed us in the second leg, was effectively lost in the first leg when Lehmann did his usual blind charge out and not reach/clear the ball gifting Gudjohnsen his goal. It was a stupid stupid unessecary goal to give away. It's one of the things that bugs me about the Lehmann lovers - they all seem to forget just how calamitous he could be (and often was). Yes he was a good keeper, no denying that, and better than ANY keeper we've had since, but he was NEVER a truly great keeper. The truly great keepers don't make as many stupid unforced mistakes as he made. His wanky "performance" and rank fucking stupidity in the 06 CL final summed him up perfectly for me.

[northbank123]

Barring the teams that have actually won it in this time that record looks impressive !
To suggest that our CL record is disgraceful is absurd .
Some of you really need to move on or move out because you whine like sniveling cuckolds !

Don't agree that it's absurd Herd - in 16 years we've got near winning it twice. And bearing in mind the complete hiding we took for 180 minutes in 2009 from United I would be inclined to make that once.

If you take out the nine different teams that have won it since Wenger came in, all of whom other than Porto, Dortmund and Inter have reached at least one other final, there are still 4 teams other than us who have been runners-up. We're European also-rans under Wenger despite the fact that we've qualified every year from what has been the strongest and most successful league for most of that time. We've beaten one top team in knockout competition since 2006, and we then blew that by proceeding to defend like dickheads at Anfield against a pretty inferior Liverpool team.

[begeegs]

This ^. Always felt that year was the "easy" one. We should have won it, far more than 06. Most of the big clubs underperformed in 04. I always felt that tie, even though it was Bridge's late goal that actually killed us in the second leg, was effectively lost in the first leg when Lehmann did his usual blind charge out and not reach/clear the ball gifting Gudjohnsen his goal. It was a stupid stupid unessecary goal to give away. It's one of the things that bugs me about the Lehmann lovers - they all seem to forget just how calamitous he could be (and often was). Yes he was a good keeper, no denying that, and better than ANY keeper we've had since, but he was NEVER a truly great keeper. The truly great keepers don't make as many stupid unforced mistakes as he made. His wanky "performance" and rank fucking stupidity in the 06 CL final summed him up perfectly for me.

As much as I loved Lehmann, I always wondered why Wenger didn't buy Van der Sar when he was with Fulham. He was a solid a keeper as ever and I thought that he was better than Lehmann.

[clockender1]

As much as I loved Lehmann, I always wondered why Wenger didn't buy Van der Sar when he was with Fulham. He was a solid a keeper as ever and I thought that he was better than Lehmann.

the ricketts made in 2004 by Wenger was also the first signs of his stubborness. Lehmann made mistakes in both games if i remember right.

two years later that stubborness cost us the CL title - Barca weren't all that that night, only Larssen made the difference even with 10 men. with 11 we would of had them.

[DB10GOONER]

As much as I loved Lehmann, I always wondered why Wenger didn't buy Van der Sar when he was with Fulham. He was a solid a keeper as ever and I thought that he was better than Lehmann.

the ricketts made in 2004 by Wenger was also the first signs of his stubborness. Lehmann made mistakes in both games if i remember right.

two years later that stubborness cost us the CL title - Barca weren't all that that night, only Larssen made the difference even with 10 men. with 11 we would of had them.

Amen. Plus the fact one of those 11 men would have been Bobby. And then The Dennis to come on late too.

[kiwomya]

As much as I loved Lehmann, I always wondered why Wenger didn't buy Van der Sar when he was with Fulham. He was a solid a keeper as ever and I thought that he was better than Lehmann.

the ricketts made in 2004 by Wenger was also the first signs of his stubborness. Lehmann made mistakes in both games if i remember right.

two years later that stubborness cost us the CL title - Barca weren't all that that night, only Larssen made the difference even with 10 men. with 11 we would of had them.

Even though his penalty save got us to the final and he kept 10 clean sheets in the Champions League that season - earning him the Champions League goalkeeper of the season award.

[StuartL]

that defeat at home by the chavs in 2004, was in hindsight the beginning of the end for us.

they outmuscled us and defended stoutly if memory serves. Paddy went missing (did he even play ?)

the first time a lack of plan B appeared in N5.

i wonder if that's the game that haunts AW, cos i really thought that was our year, much more than 2005, or 2006.

This ^. Always felt that year was the "easy" one. We should have won it, far more than 06. Most of the big clubs underperformed in 04. I always felt that tie, even though it was Bridge's late goal that actually killed us in the second leg, was effectively lost in the first leg when Lehmann did his usual blind charge out and not reach/clear the ball gifting Gudjohnsen his goal. It was a stupid stupid unessecary goal to give away. It's one of the things that bugs me about the Lehmann lovers - they all seem to forget just how calamitous he could be (and often was). Yes he was a good keeper, no denying that, and better than ANY keeper we've had since, but he was NEVER a truly great keeper. The truly great keepers don't make as many stupid unforced mistakes as he made. His wanky "performance" and rank fucking stupidity in the 06 CL final summed him up perfectly for me.

Also in the away leg at the score 1-1, Vieira chose to go down and get Desailly (I think) sent off, rather than stay on his feet and go through for a 1 v1 on goal. A 2-1 victory, may well have seen us through

Barring the teams that have actually won it in this time that record looks impressive !
To suggest that our CL record is disgraceful is absurd .
Some of you really need to move on or move out because you whine like sniveling cuckolds !

Doesn't look very impressive to me, especially if you consider that we are / were ranked about 6-8th in Europe during a large part of that time period and therefore have underachived most seasons against our Eufa ranking / co-efficient.

[Jumpers For Goalposts]

Once again Wenger's supposed brilliance doesn't stand up to proper scrutiny. We should have won the CL (or European Cup to give it it's proper name!) at least once, possibly twice. And nobody has pointed out the abject failure in the UEFA Cup Final in 2000 - another European f**k up for Wenger.

Two words spring to mind :-

Tim

&

Henman

Henman's record at Wimbledon was 4 quarter final defeats and 4 semi final defeats - indicating that he was either
a) Good but not good enough - or
b) A serial bottler

Wenger should get him on the coaching staff!!

[SteveO 35]

What an embarrassment his record is

The whipping boys of Europe as confirmed last year and this....the Bayern fans voted overwhelmingly for us when asked who they wanted to face in the last 16 of the CL and so it proved

When Benfica beat us 3-1 in 1992 we were slammed as being outclassed and the English media went into overdrive about how English football had returned to the dark ages (although conveniently forgot to blame Liverpool for the 7 year ban they imposed upon us). The reality is that Benfica weren't much better but pushed us out in extra time

I certainly never saw us humiliated in the way that Lord A-hole's teams were last year in the San Siro and at the Soulless Bowl sponsored by Carlsberg by Bayern last week

[Clash]

I still wonder how we would have got on had we played out first 2 CL seasons at Highbury instead of Wembley. Especially as when we did revert to Highbury we go all the way to the UEFA cup final - admittedly an inferior competiton but not as much as it is now.

I certainly dont think we would lost to Lens or Fiorentina at Highbury. Thi used to bug me but with years of hindsight I expect Wenger's tactical limitations would have stopped us going all the way at some point so it doesnt bother me so much anymore.

as has been said, 2004 was the real killer year. We really should have gone for Chelsea in the away leg having got back to 1-1. They were there for the taking. My memory of the home leg is that we murdered them in the first half. We played really well but ran out of steam in the 2nd half - or dropped a little bit physically using the current term.

[VoiceOfReason]

Two semi-finals in 15 years, says it all.

[Clash]

Two semi-finals in 15 years, says it all.

Indeed. And to put 15 years into perspective, thats pretty much the length of a players entire career.

The nature of the competition has also favoured us too. Only having to finish top 4 in recent years to qualify. Then in addition to that there is the seeding system that allows us to avoid getting the sort of group Man City got this year (Ajax, Madrid and Dortmund (although personally I'd prefer a group like that).

Bascially its is weigthed in our favour to do exactly what we have done in the CL. The fact we havent done better than this in at least half of those 15 years is criminal.

[Arsenal Till I Die]

That record, on reflection is piss poor if you look at the quality of the team we had during the Arsenal years (02-06). Arsenal were good enough to win the competition at least twice between those years, 04 being the year we could of pissed it with EASE!

Arsenal's failure to win the Champions League isn't the issue so much but what is, is the fact that we've only reach the semi-final TWICE. The final ONCE. For a team who donned Bergkamp, Pires, Henry, Viera, Adams, K.Toure, Campbell, Lauren etc the fact that we never at least made the final more than once is shocking. A team who was perhaps the best in the world at that time failed to do it.

Why?

Why did the double winners fail? Why did the mighty invincibles fail?

[Barriecuda]

How the ownership sees it:

1998/99 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
1999/00 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
2000/01 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
2001/02 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
2002/03 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
2003/04 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
2004/05 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
2005/06 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification and almost won
2006/07 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
2007/08 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
2008/09 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
2009/10 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
2010/11 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
2011/12 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification
2012/13 - Played in Champions League following prior season qualification

The point I'm trying to make is the club qualifies to play in it, accumulate the wealth of CL football, and add the CL branding to the club's product. I don't think we are trying to win it.