Arsene Wenger was never going to come out and say that Arsenal are out of the Champions League, as we still have the second leg against Barcelona at the Nou Camp to play in a couple of weeks. But after we conceded that penalty and Lionel Messi converted it to give the Spanish champions a two goal cushion, the Frenchman had to accept that everything points to another European exit at the first knockout stage.
As the boss admitted in his post match comments reported by the Arsenal website, Barcelona are almost through, although he did also say that the Gunners would travel to Spain with the idea of beating Barca and going through, no matter how unlikely that is.
Wenger said, “Barcelona are certainly through, 95 per cent, but we want to go there and play. We are Arsenal Football Club and we will not go there to just have no chance. What we want is to focus on our next game. It’s a shame that the players have not got any satisfaction tonight because energy-wise we put absolutely everything in.”
I do think, however, that the manager’s approach to the second leg might have changed over the last couple of days and as the match gets closer I would not be surprised if he changes his mind about resting some first team players. With an FA cup replay and hopefully a quarter final against Watford to play before then and with the most important task of staying in the race for the Premier League title to consider, would it not make more sense to save our energy?
The final factor could be the fact that the ever helpful TV companies have decided to give Arsenal the early Saturday kick off for our EPL game away to Everton on the weekend after we play in Barcelona on the Wednesday night. Is it really a good idea for our first choice players to have a draining game in Spain and then just two days to rest before a crucial away clash at Everton?
Wenger may well get some stick for playing a second string side at the Nou Camp and if we had a realistic chance of going through I would agree. As it is though, should Wenger just accept that we are out of Europe?
Forget abt CL. We have to win PL this season, this is our chance, I don’t think next season will be easy.
for too long we’ve been the ones who took the high road, did the “honorable” thing and ended up second best. we need to be ruthless. PL is going to be super tight. in may we may wish we hadnt lost those 2 or 3 points at everton or MU or swansea. we focus on PL. we cant win CL. sorry. maybe if AW decides to spend some of his 200M kitty next summer, we can talk about CL.
OT
New managers,new players and new money for Chelsky, manure and city for next season is giving me cause for alarm.Spuds and the scousers +Leicester ,if they can keep it up next season also.
Well we can rely on good old Arsene and his usual last ditch foray into the transfer market, possibly, and his patched up over the hill players again..
Still we should be used to it by now.
still cant believe flam/arteta got a contract for 2015-16. what a tool wenger is.
and then he actually brings flam on. maybe even now there’s hope that wenger learns his lesson and we dont see flam anymore. elneny couldve done much better than flam (not to mention AW shouldve bought a real CDM summer 2015)
the UCL replay at camp nou is a done deal
who wants to dodge a bullet?
Call me deluded but this is why this sir must go, we can still win in the second leg. Dortmund did it to madrid in similar way we could do to them im sure.
Or you think if real madrid got beaten in the first leg 2 nil , zidane would come up and say “we are practically out” i think not.
Its wengers job to make a team that can compete in all fronts and he has failed year after year and im not saying this based on the bpl im saying this because we have failed to pass through the last 16 round year in and out.
nobody can say for sure that we couldnt win at camp nou. but by far the more prudent thing would be to focus on PL. we arent scoring now. lets figure that out first.
Never Arsenal dare to give up the big fight to knockout Barca at Camp Nou in about a month time. Arsenal are never out of the 2016 Ucl until they are out. And they could still be in it.
The Barca big knockout fight aside, Arsenal MUST be careful of the Man Utd big game on Sunday. A Man Utd whose confidence is now on the rise after scoring 8 goals and conceding only 2 in the process to win 2 back to back Cup games shouldn be a cause of worry for Arsenal whose confidence is on the low after been beaten at home by Barcelona in last Tuesday night Ucl game.
LvG is on a rescue mission to rescue his reputation which is at all time low as his United team had suffered numerous defeats in their recent outings but until in the last few days.
Arsenal MUST be disciplined and maintain organizational team discipline in all aspects of their game as soon as they stepped on the Old Traford football playing pitch for the 90′ + of the entirety of playing the game. Not to forget Arsenal have not beaten Man Utd at home in the Barclays Premier League for quiet a longtime. The best we have done in our recent outings at Old Traford was to forced a LvG Man Utd side to a 1-1 draw last season.
Arsenal don’t have the luxury of dropping points in the League table anymore. Such a drop of points to Man Utd could be punishd by Leicester, Spurs and even Man City as they may win their games to force Arsenal down the Premier League ladder.
I’ll be glad if we get back from Spain without humiliation. Two times in a row, it was 3-1 and 4-1 for them. Just normal lost by 1 goal margin or even a draw will be good achievement. PL is our top priority, but I hope we can get double winners with FA Cup.
bob: lets have an article on how we can start scoring. i think we’re close: campbell hit the post vs leicester. but ox and giroud both rush. and theo lost a 1:1 a few weeks ago. maybe have welbeck pair OG at CF ?
I think it was wise from AW to say so. I dont really believe him though. AW never said anything like that before even when we lost to milan 4-0 several years ago. I think he thinks that the only way we will convert chances in front of goal against barca is to mentally reliefs his players from pressure. He can achive this by saying what he said. Mark my words: AW will send the best players to spain. He is just not the kind of coaches surrendering against big teams. Even if it was stupid. Hope it works.