Munich away match thread

[northbank123]

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.

[Bendtners Drinking Buddy]

We slate when he gets it wrong so we should credit when he gets it right (even if ultimately its too late)

Dropping Ches and TV was brave, but correct.

Brave? We were 99.9% out before kick off yesterday he had nothing to lose by dropping them, brave is making these decisions to win the game and then actually getting through. In fact that goes for the whole team these bottling w**kers had nothing to lose and therefore the pressure was off, when it was on we crumbled (1st leg)

Totally correct!

Brave because had we lost twith them playing you would have been slating them!
Whatever the result, people will always have a moan.

If you read my posts you will see im just as critical as a lot on here, but anyone who cannot give credit to that performance last night needs to have a look at themselves.

Is this season good enough? I think we are all in agreement there - but if you can't give credit when the team plays well then there really is no point, your always going to look for the negative.

[flash gunner]

We slate when he gets it wrong so we should credit when he gets it right (even if ultimately its too late)

Dropping Ches and TV was brave, but correct.

Brave? We were 99.9% out before kick off yesterday he had nothing to lose by dropping them, brave is making these decisions to win the game and then actually getting through. In fact that goes for the whole team these bottling w**kers had nothing to lose and therefore the pressure was off, when it was on we crumbled (1st leg)

Totally correct!

Brave because had we lost twith them playing you would have been slating them!
Whatever the result, people will always have a moan.

If you read my posts you will see im just as critical as a lot on here, but anyone who cannot give credit to that performance last night needs to have a look at themselves.

Is this season good enough? I think we are all in agreement there - but if you can't give credit when the team plays well then there really is no point, your always going to look for the negative.

I'm happy to give credit when its deserved but you have to look at the game as 2 legs and the circumstances around the second leg in particular ie it was lost before we kicked off, this is what i've done

[bunch]

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.

Spot on. Last night was the just the second half. We'd have beaten Spurs at the 'hole if you just look at the second half. We lost last night, it was close, but we lost. Who was cheering when the final whistle went? That usually tells you who won.

[Bradywasking]

Sums up the season in ways. reacting when its too late. At the Swamp, Chelsea, home to City, home to victims (got a draw but shouldn't have been 2 down) We play in lost causes or maybe when there is little pressure on. Big call by the manager to drop the keeper and the captain. He can put spin on it but they were dropped. Whatever it was a good call. Not mad about Fabanski but Szczesney needs to realise that he is not the finished article despite what his ego is telling him. I didn't think Wenger was correct in deflecting the attention from our exit by saying it was an English problem. We went out last year at this stage despite heroic second leg efforts but Chelsea won the Champions League. What the other English clubs do is not our concern.
Interesting stat (no consolation though) Arsenal are the only English team to win a Champions League knockout game this season.

[augie]

Wenger say's that no english team qualifying for champs league quarter finals should be viewed as a wake up call for the premier league - it's funny that defeats to bradford, norwich etc hasnt served as a wake up call to him regarding his own team

[Bradywasking]

Wenger say's that no english team qualifying for champs league quarter finals should be viewed as a wake up call for the premier league - it's funny that defeats to bradford, norwich etc hasnt served as a wake up call to him regarding his own team

To quote a famous football commentator "that sums it all up"

[g88ner]

Pity that Rosicky decided to swap touches with Gervinho for the night and Arteta left his brain at home. Ref was a sidgrace as shown by Neuer somehow emerging from the scrum with ball still in hand and no booking and there only being 3 mins of stoppage time. These refs have zero accountability.

Sidgrace!

Finally a word more damning than "disgrace" for those times when someone goes just too far, to the point that they remind you of Goonersid!

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

Fantastic result and got totally pissed watching it

Thought Jenkinson was class and his riposte to geoff shreeves was brilliant...top lad

Thought the whome team battled well although we did give the ball away a lot at times which was a tad worrying, can't quite work out why Ramsey got such a slating, thought he more than did his bit.

Someone commented on here earlier about not giving credit when it's due, by implying that those that don't have an agenda and will stick to it no matter what..........then said poster went on to slag off Walcott as they always do....irofuckiny

Shame we couldn't have given them a better game at the Emirates, I suppose it could all go back to one moment in that game when giroud missed a sitter to make it 2-2...........now I don't want to sound like stevo.........but I blame giroud

[MM99]

In fact that goes for the whole team these bottling w**kers had nothing to lose and therefore the pressure was off, when it was on we crumbled (1st leg)

Just out of curiosity, which of the players last night did you think was a 'bottling wanker'?

[ThomasMitchell]

In fact that goes for the whole team these bottling w**kers had nothing to lose and therefore the pressure was off, when it was on we crumbled (1st leg)

Just out of curiosity, which of the players last night did you think was a 'bottling wanker'?

I suspect he was making a more general point about their performances over many months/years e.g. Bradford, Blackburn, 8-2 to the Moaners etc, etc, etc.

[MM99]

In fact that goes for the whole team these bottling w**kers had nothing to lose and therefore the pressure was off, when it was on we crumbled (1st leg)

Just out of curiosity, which of the players last night did you think was a 'bottling wanker'?

I suspect he was making a more general point about their performances over many months/years e.g. Bradford, Blackburn, 8-2 to the Moaners etc, etc, etc.

Even so, I'm interested to know who out of the team falls into the category of being a 'bottling wanker', especially last night, as Flash refers to the pressure being off them for the Munich game so he is referencing recent events rather than the loss to United last season.

[highburyJD]

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?)

[northbank123]

Pity that Rosicky decided to swap touches with Gervinho for the night and Arteta left his brain at home. Ref was a sidgrace as shown by Neuer somehow emerging from the scrum with ball still in hand and no booking and there only being 3 mins of stoppage time. These refs have zero accountability.

Sidgrace!

Finally a word more damning than "disgrace" for those times when someone goes just too far, to the point that they remind you of Goonersid!

Posted on my mobile and I thought I'd got away with it

[g88ner]

JD, I agree with the general tone of your post but I don't agree with a couple of the things you said, so - with this being a forum and all - I thought I'd address them

So...

A pity that a good victory makes so few proud in any way - it was a brilliant defensive performance.

It's a strange one this. We got a clean sheet in Munich, and that's fantastic for morale - I'll certainly admit that!

But I'm still not sure exactly how good we needed to be to keep them out. I thought Bayern played "with the handbrake on" and seemed more concerned with keeping their lead than adding to the score. Yes, they had possession and yes they attacked, but I'm not convinced they were desperately trying to unlock us in the same way Barcelona were trying to unlock Chelsea last season, for example.

Of course, I hope I'm wrong and that - in the 10 days we had off - we've managed to work out the key to defending properly against world class opposition, but deep down, I think it'll prove to be a false dawn, and that our defence was made to look better than it really is by a lucklustre, hesitant Bayern team that was trying to see the game out as much as anything.

Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted by the way the team grafted and largely kept Bayern at bay, and I genuinely feel the confidence it'll bring could be a catalyst for success in our remaining games, but I do wonder whether we would have got a clean sheet if Bayern needed to score because, for me, it didn't look like a very convincing Bayern performance

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

They did ok, and certainly worked hard, but a great great performance??! really?!

I'm genuinely surprised by your assessment. I know we've been starved of world class players of late, but surely you demand more quality - more end product - than what Rosicky and Giroud offered last night before you label their performances not just great, but "great great"?

In fact, perhaps it's a sign of just how little effort we often put in that when a player puts in a proper shift (which should be a given) we go overboard in praise even though - quality wise - it wasn't really all that spectacular?

Anyway, other than those 2 little points, I liked your post as it's in line with my thoughts on last night - disappointed, but upbeat and positive about our battle for top 4