If you were expecting Arsenal to come out flying to take this Champions League decider against PSG by the scruff of the neck then you will have been disappointed and dismayed by the first half display, apart from the final two minutes which saw Olivier Giroud score a penalty to level the score.
Until then the Gunners had not had even an attempt never mind one on target and we seemed to be struggling in every part of the pitch. No doubt the French club were expecting to be more tested and they soon settled down and started coming forwards and it took less than 20 minutes for them to score.
Mustafi left his man and it was just one error from the below par defender. THey had it easy from then as well until the penalty but Arsenal did get better after the break as we worked harder to close them down and looked sharper on the ball.
It was a bit of luck that got Arsenal in front though, with Verratti putting into his own net after some pinball in the box. For a while we looked quite comfortable but as we began to drop off they pressed and got the equaliser thanks to some awful defending from a corner and then Iwobi heading the ball away from Ospina’s waiting hands.
After that it was PSG that looked most likely to win it and all in all it was another poor performance from Arsenal as November takes a familiar turn and we head for another runners up spot.
Bob.
second in group same as every season. disappointing to not hold on to a lead , cant shut games down. did mediocre overall. cavani is an enigma, in both games tore kos and mustafi a new one repeatedly but didnt finish . strange. i look forward to barca in the round of 16
but hey unbeaten in November- every cloud……
Guys what is wrong with our midfield. The PSG players just seemed to walk past us like our players did not exist. is it the brilliance of PSG or were we that bad?
Every time they attacked, they did so through the middle and cut us like a knife through butter with the defenders having to make last ditch attempts to save us- that is just not good enough !!!
Ramsey was in the middle. That’s why we over ran. We spend a fortune on Xhaka (3rd most expensive player we ever bought) and we play Ramsey who has no discipline as a DM. At least bring Xhaka on when we are 2-1 up.
Not sure what Xhaka has to do to get a game. He has only 5 starts this season in the PL. Compare that to when Ozil or Sanchez just signed.
I understand playing Santi ahead of Xhaka but mediocre Ramsey???
Before the game started I said we would not win if we play both Giroud and Ramsey and I was right. Not because I have crystal bowl but because we all saw th e result of playing them last season and before. Ramsey slows games down as does Giroud.
This is the last season we might finish in the top 4. Sanchez will leave and no equivalent player will join.
btw Ramsey is a disgrace as a football player for what he tried to do to Cavani, pretending he got punched in the face. We as fans should never condone that type of sissy behavior. When Costa does it we hate him, Ramsey is not batter.
If you have not noticed, Ramsey obviously have Wenger permission to run forward, this is not a discipline issue else he would be benched long ago.
BTW why is no one criticising iwobi? He and Jenk were both poor today, both offered little going forward and equally responsible for the 2nd goal.
Utter s*it performance once again. I can’t remember the last time we played a good, solid 90 minutes of football.
Well not too bothered. Finishing 1st would’ve meant drawing Bayern, 2nd will mean we draw Barca.
Or doesn’t matter who we draw, we will bow out anyways. I don’t know what would make this team good, as on paper we look good. On pitch we look scared, trembling, clueless and spineless.
Luckily there’s life outside football, otherwise I would be depressed as hell!
even on paper we aint that good mate
depends what paper your indicating:
a4?
rizla?
toilet ?! how dare you!!
Arsenal claim they are a possession team yet,we cant keep hold of the ball ‘maturely’..
Against European giants we are always a disgrace….
No co-ordination, we can’t defend well, we can do nothing well, always all over the place…
We have spent money but right now, there is no massive difference..why?? Wenger is still in charge…
Said it before…Jenks is an accident waiting to happen. Need solid RB back up in Jan.
Debuchy (or as a bolt out of the blue, see if Wenger can turn Ox into a win back a la Moses). Our options at RB are the least of our current problems
Once again we see the difference of commitment from the PSG players closing down space right up to the last seconds of the game. This happens when you have a manager living and breathing the game from the touch line.
meh i prefer managers bench sitting and getting up once a half for two minutes
wheres my jacket zip fondlers at??
can i get a amen!!
They ran at our midfield with ease..
Won’t blame Iwobi. I saw him running alot on the pitch and tracked back on some occasions. Trying his best to defend but end up deflating the goal. Ospina would have caught it..
Some good teams will finish second. I want to top the group but does it matter? If we don’t play well in round of 16, then we will bounce out as usual no matter where we finish in the group.
Three tough games, three draws in a row in November. Still unbeaten but a win would have been good in those games.
Anyway….Bournemouth next!
I really missed our speedster bellerin in that right back position today!
yea, but carl did a good job today
What? He was responsible for the second goal…didn’t know where he was himself never mind where Lucas was
Losing your men on corners happens at times, but during the game i thought he did okay. Iwobi deflected the ball, bec there was no danger from that header.
I thought Jenkinson did well enough. It was not his fault we didn’t win today. Nor was it his fault when we conceded against United.
People love to look for escape goats. But the real loser here was Wenger once again.
No passion, at ALL. Who’s responsible for rallying the players? Honestly, he has failed in that for the past 10 years. Didn’t some Arsenal player say that Wenger doesn’t give pep talks in the dugout?
Nah, Jenks is not up to it.
When you badly lose your player at a corner, it really DOES matter.
If you want to hear what Wenger does mid-game there’s an interview with Sol Campbell, Ian Wright and someone else who i forget… He doesn’t not do pep talks he doesn’t say anything for a while at half time to let the players regroup and emotions die down.
Again we were lucky to get a point out of this, thats 3 draws in a row in all competitions (2 at home), we need to get out of this rut before we do serious damage to our title chances.
Positives from tonight was that ramsey looked a million times better in central midfield and i think he was arsenal’s best player tonight. We didnt lose, even though we easily could have, i like the resilience from the team.
However, we need to start putting teams away at home if we are gonna get anywhere in any competition.
Anyway, lets hope for a stronger performance v bournemouth.
Ramsey we horrible and undisciplined. Slowing the game down with back passes when we needed to speed it up, losing the ball for no reason and always leaving the back 4 exposed by running after the PSG midfielders when they had the ball because he was too for up the pitch.
Ramsey is a disaster. If he has too play ok, but with Xhaka on the bench???
Xhaka is starting to look like wasted money and a lot of it if Wenger refuses to play him. We might as well bought a decent striker for the money we spend on Xhaka and Perez, 52 million. This would have kept Sanchez happy who doesn’t want to play with Giroud. They didn’t even congratulate each other after the penalty that Sanchez created and Giroud scored.
You don’t know what will make this team good???
Bring a decent,young and hungry manager(someone like Pochetino) in and you will see massive changes…
That team is a perfect reflection on Wenger….
Give the man a UCL final passport and he still won’t win…
Academy players will surely use the ball better than we do….
yes feel no matter who we buy some things will never change
but we know wenger going no where
such is life accept it
So true. Third game in a row, where we come out looking only half motivated and on top of that a really poor team selection. To have 3 players Özil, Iwobi and Ramsey, who can’t defend is suicidal. And sure enough, Ramsey failed to put pressure on the ball at the first goal, and Iwobi was all over the place defensively, capping it with a part in the second goal. Same old, same old.
Iwobi was running tirelessly in 2nd half, Ramsey was all game. He had six tackles today. I swear people are incapable of saying Ramsey played well. Arsenal never press as a team, it’s always one player and nobody else and that must come down to how they are instructed to play off the ball. And Ozil was our worst midfielder, am I gunna have to be the one to say it? Another game he doesn’t show up in. No consistency.
Yes, Iwobi was running tirelessly. Unfortunately it was also in all the wrong places. And Ramseys part in their first goal was quite obvious, if you watched the game.
And the 1st goal is not down to one player. You’re seriously trying to say Ramsey had a bad game because the team as a whole doesn’t press, backs off and gives him time to make a pass. Watch again and Ramsey is moving back with Coquelin and the rest of the 2nd bank. It’s the same thing I said before, we don’t press and when we do it’s one player at a time. Wenger needs to teach this team how to force the opposition out of posession instead of just hoping they don’t complete the pass.
How the f@@@ did Ramsey stay on the pitch for 90 mins … Clueless from start to finish … Should pay madrid 25m to take him … Without carzola there is no creativity in midfield and no quick turnaround … We are as always at least 2 quality players short of the top european teams … Ok for wenger’s 4th place and last 16 strategy but awful for fans …
How did Ozil stay on the pitch for 90 minutes? Oh wait I already know the answer, only one is the scapegoat.
And yup, no Cazorla no creativity, it’s not like we have a 42mill playmaker on the team. The burden is solely on Cazorla when it shouldn’t have to be!
Ozil always looks of the pace when he has to play with slow Giroud. How many times did we get in behind the PSG defense yesterday? When play Walcott and Sanchez it gives Ozil more options.
It was a waste to start Sanchez and Giroud. We should have rested Sanchez.
Me watch arsenal. Arsenal in first half fell amost asleep. Boring boring football. Second half they woke up and played some good football. I mean Sanchez was playing some good football. After the 2:2 we again fell asleep.
Instead of us going out there in the end pressure psg for the win, we where forced to defend for the 2:2. Kinda tells a lot about our club.
One thing i am sure. 1rst place or second, it means nothing. We are not good enough to win the cl. bec we lack the quality, the mentality, and the tactics to do.
Man of the match. Lucas Moura. A player i wish we had running up and down on the flanks at arsenal instead of Ramsey.
That is it bro, ‘No matter who we buy, we just maintain our status quo’….
When the players come, they are so good but all of a sudden,things will change,whether you wanna admit it or not,we need brand new ideas in that team!
And Wenger can’t bring that..its a shame..,Nuff said….
Fair result. 1st half was terrible but we came up with a clever move to draw level. I thought we were better for 2nd half, but then we gave Cavani probably 4-5 chances just like in Paris. It easily could’ve been a loss. Arsenal just seem to lack intensity at times. Many of the problems PSG have Arsenal seem to have as well. Mainly a lack of focus which is what led to maybe 3 of the goals tonight on both sides. Likely to finish 2nd this time around, but the 1st and 2nd place teams are actually pretty even for once in this competition. Obviously 1st is still better, but no complaints from me if we end up 2nd. Both matches against PSG had fair results. Ramsey was great today, and so was Gibbs I thought. Ozil…missing these past several matches. Iwobi, lacking confidence yet again. Onto the next one I suppose. At least let us get one win this month?
I really wanted this win!
i like milk
I pooped mi pants
– Rod Stewart
It was a good game. Giroud worked really hard. Ramsey stepped up in the second half. Gibbs did well too. Sanchez is a workhorse. Ozil can do better. Ospina is too damn good. That save where he risked being hit in the head. COOL
But there is a problem to be addressed and that is regarding starting slow. A direct correlation of this is that we are run over in midfield when we start slow or is it the opposite? Hope they analyze this data.
thats all you saw – we started slow?
your being serious? football really is subjective lol
It’s “you’re” not “your”. I never claimed that’s all I saw. You’re making that ignorant assertion.
sorry spellcheck…while we’re here (see what i did there we’re not were -go me!)
i thoroughly love your optimism , rainbows have to start somewhere my little pony!
I don’t think I am being optimistic in the sense that you think. I still think a managerial change is needed if no major honours are won this season. I can still see this Ramsey obsession that Wenger has, and his tactical naivety especially with substitutions. These are the good things I saw and put them in the comment. The other problems are age old problems and they will be here as long as Wenger is there, but everybody has problems.
If we don’t get cazorla or a replacement back soon enough, we will start to lose games soon enough as in the long run you can’t see out games with a poor midfield.
Am I the only one seeing this ? That when Giroud is upfront it seems there is confusion to who should put pressure on the defense, people seem lost……. Just my opinion on Justarsenal
Can someone please explain why we are placed second in the table? Is it because they scored 2 against us at home and we could only score 1 at there home? Have they applied that rule where scoring away from goal is considered superior to scoring at home?
Yes, that’s correct.
yes
We shouldn’t agree to this rule since Brexit…therefore we won the group..
Make our own competition. Emirates Cup, featuring all teams sponsored by Emirates 😀
Cool idea
😀 Top banter lad.
In all honesty I think the good ol’ goal difference should still be the indicator. Enough with this current liberal, feminist, leftist, vegan, atheist, crossfitter method.
The reason why we are in second place, is because we are second best.
In both ties, PSG has clearly shown they’re stronger than Arsenal. We were lucky to get draws in both ties. We miss Cazorla badly, have I said that before?
no never heard that before.
you new here?
What’s a cazorla?
A vegetable.
If no one is available this window and Carloza’s Achilles remains his Achilles, can we recall Wilshire? He’s not perfect but he’s a better back up then anything we currently have
I was thinking the same thing, funny enough.
or can we just play Xhaka, the third most expensive player we ever bought??
That was a shocker. Was watching in a pub and people here were mocking us. Yes we are unbeaten and all but where has our identity gone. In the past at least we used to play fearlessly, but now we play like bunch of cowards. ozil as usual goes missing from big games. I am tired of defending him now, he has to stand up in those big games and not go missing.
>Last 180 minutes we had 2 shots on target.
>There is no hunger in this team, unless 4th or 3rd place in the league is at stake.
>Today we had a chance to finish top of group, we failed.
>Two weeks in a row before international break we had chance to go top, we failed.
>Litmus test failed, no League title or UCL trophy this season.
>Manager makes subs after we concede in the last two games. You can clearly see we are pinned in defence 5 minutes before we concede thats when he should be making changes, but his first tactical change only come in 68-73mins.
>Get that guy Ramsey out the team. Since he came back we have created far less chances. Better of putting Xhaka in AMF and Ozil on wing.
> You have players who cost you more games than they win you.
Like I said before, the attacking player we have fit now will only play good when Sanchez and Ozil are playing good. If you stop them and Cazorla+Bellerin (when they are fit) your chance of getting result against Arsenal is almost done!
Wenger just said post match that ‘we gave a lot tonight’. Really 1 shot on target? In the reverse fixture it took something like 60 minutes to get first shot on target.
We don’t even play good football anymore.
So unfortunate we lost Carzolar wen we needed him most, his position is a vacuum in d team. Anyway, d result is fair, n either 1st or 2nd anyone goes bcos some big team will b in 2nd position too.
I agree with this. He is like a magnet when he is on the ball there are players who want a pass from him in defence and attack.
Why everybody is misspelling CAZORLA’s name?His name is not Carzola,Carzolar and so on……is Santiago CAZORLA.What’s so hard?
Santi?
Out downturn in form seems to correspond to Ramsey coming back. Yes he did a few good things tonight, but he is not the link we need in that position. I don’t see why Ramsey automatically starts every game, we have a few noticeable absences HB, SC, which is also part of the problem but we also have faster, more accurate people than Ramey is at the moment. He needs to work his way back in, slowly. Wenger did the same with Sanogi, Gerviniho etc, play them every game even though they were not performing.
Yes and no. Even when he wasn’t playing did we create chances against Sot’on, Burnley, Leicester? But I agree since his come back we lacked creativity in every game. Too many times we are scraping results this season.
Not just Gervinho, Sanogo but Denilson also was played every game and awarded a 5 year contract after 4 useless years in the team when all he did was try to bring Fabregas down to his level. Within a year or so of being awarded that 5 year contract by Wenger he was playing on loan with Al Wahda in the Arabian Desert League. An example of Wenger’s more recent talent spotting and player grooming abilities.
Lmao, Ramsey the scapegoat again, how original. Ozil was pants today and Ramsey was the best midfielder actually. Where are all the people who defended Ozil’s crappy performances on the wings because he was “out of position” but they won’t do the same for Ramsey when he gets put on the wings. He comes to center and does well for us, gets no credit. Same people who slam Giroud when our wingers do nothing all game. Guy didn’t get one good chance today. And what was the better option today, since Ramsey is such an awful option and has done nothing to merit a start? Coquelin and Xhaka together? Yup, we needed 2 CDM’s in a game where we couldn’t create chances. And Elneny? Nothing but short passes to his name. Ozil has been inconsistent this whole YEAR yet people give him a pass. Alexis and Koscielny are literally the only 2 reliable players in the entire squad and probably Coquelin as well. If you’re going to insult a player make sure it’s not after they just did well.
I keep saying 4-2-3-1 won’t win us games, so keep sticking with it Mr wenger, you’ll get the same thing you get every year.
We have to change formation, since we have no real wingers in this team. PLay with two up top with three behind them (they don’t need to be Walcott, Ox, Iwobi or Ramsey).and a DMF. 4-1-3-2.
Even in 4-3-3 we rely on wingers or Sanchez and Ozil to go to the side to create chances.
The other thing we can do in 4-3-3 is pack the three Midfilelders with Coquelin, Elneny and Xhaka (since Cazorla is injured) and play Ozil and Sanchez on the wing This gives greater creativity on there, lets face it they are the most creative players in the team. Xhaka can chip in a few to play them through every now and then.
I meant to say in 2nd section that even in 4-3-3 we rely on wingers or Sanchez and Ozil to go to the side to create chances or full backs.
I think we need to pass THROUGH midfield and not TO it, if you know what I mean. This is were Cazorla is amazing imo. Things just flow with him around. In Jan we better look for an option similar to Cazorla, not to replace him, but cover him. I like Elneny but not sure why we bought him? Or Wenger should do what most of us think and play Coq and xhaka until Caz is fit. GET WELL SOON SANTI! WE MISS YOU!
Xhaka can play Cazorla role but in AMF instead.
I think this is better with Ozil and Sanchez on wings. But truth be told, there is hunger lacking in the team. Giroud came in strating 11, when did he start running in the game?
I don’t expect anything special this season, except that maybe after 38 league games we would’ve conceded less than that, less than 38 goals. I see a small improvement there. Mustafi seems to be more of a leader lately.
With Cazorla and Bellerin we win.
Wenger needs to get a RB in January, I think
He needs to play Xhaka and Coquelin
No Ramsey and Eleney except in League Cup /FA Cup matches
The problem of Arsenal not holding to their lead is Wenger not even the players, Coculine have collected a yellow trying to avoid another by marking not too hard and Wenger was waiting to his usual 70 something minutes before making changes, knowing fully well that the presure is on him. And also knowing that Iwobi is tired and keep on waiting for his usual changing time. Another reason why we are doom today is that Wenger inability to select the right player in our first eleven giving preference to some players without puting the team first into consideration but interest of some players. This match would have been a match that require pace, for that Iwobi, Sanchez and Walcott would have lead our attack exept he want to rest Sanchez because of the injury fear he is nursing, and also droping Ramsey from our first eleven for Xhaka. The team tried but Wenger put us in were we are.
I have a feeling this is the season Arsenal don’t make the top 4. When that happens, Wenger will be to told its time to go upstairs while a new manger from Spain would come in.
Only thing Wenger knows how to do is get top 4, we’re fine. Problem is the contract talks that have probably already been completed. 10 year deal. Wenger’s negotiations with himself were successful
Reading through these comments you’d think we’d lost three on the trot… Stop with the constant negativity. We haven’t lost since first game of the season, unbeaten in the CL and 3 pts off the top of the table. Anyone who knows anything about football knows that every single team on the planet has good patches and bad patches and we are playing nowhere near the level we are capable of and still knicking and grinding out points.
Get behind the team FFS!!!
I hate to say it but our attacking football has regressed every season as much as our defense has improved. The only performances in last 2 seasons against big teams, I remember where we played good football are Man U home(2015), Leicester Away(2015) and Chelsea home(2016). That doesn’t exactly scream title winning form when you can only replicate it twice in 10 games in a season. I think this season’s title race is between Liverpool and Man City. These last three fixtures proved that we are still not up for it. Unless there is an upturn with Cazorla and Bellerin returning, we will finish where we usually do 3rd or 4th and bow out of CL in the round of 16.
Off topic: Can someone please explain why Cazorla has still not been offered a new contract?
I don’t understand why the team performance is getting down when it matters. No creativity in the middle of of the park at all. Cazorla’s void is not covered well. The attack lacks eagerness to press forward. As to me, this game had to be played with a higher tempo and pressing commitment. If so, It would have been a win for Arsenal. I didn’t see any proper readiness for the game.
Bellerin was a big miss last night. We needed his pace and attacking nature. Jenko just looks heavy. I don’t think Ramsey was that bad – made some decent tackles. Yeah, he killed the momentum occasionally with his back-passing, but far from shocking. Iwobi’s passing was dreadful, and he doesn’t release the ball quickly enough for me. Would have preferred to see the Ox or even Walcott start ahead of him. Overall, just way to many mis placed passes and poor ball control (even from Sanchez). Not a fan of faffing about inside our own half either – with all these short passes. Sometimes a good heave is whats needed. But I still feel we can do something big this season. Anyway – my first time posting, thought I’d give it a go.