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Dortmund v Arsenal review – Gunners go missing AGAIN!!

Despite Arsenal going for an attacking and adventurous line up, we knew that Borussia Dortmund were going to come at us like a train and give us no time on the ball. So the early and correct call from the ref to book Mikhitaryan for diving rather than give a penalty was a massive relief.

But Dortmund kept the pressure on and we were struggling to get out of our half and they were getting chances and corners. You ned a cool head to cope with their tactics but there were not many on show for Arsenal. Another way is to make them worried about conceding and we did finally start to do that after about 20 minutes.

Our passing game was far from slick, though, and needed to improve if we were to get anything from the game. The Germans missed a couple of great chances and Gibbs nearly got Welbeck in but it looked like a matter of time before we went behind as we kept losing the ball in key areas.

Just before halftime there were signs of improvement and Welbeck got a decent chance after good work by him and Ramsey but disaster struck when we somehow managed to concede after having a throw in near their corner flag and just needing to run the clock down.

After the defence went missing again soon after the break and Dortmund doubled their lead, the game was over and the only real positive is that their finishing had been poor, or else we could have had a serious hiding. As it is, the Gunners have still not got going this season and it looks like we are not going to win our Champions League group yet again.

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336 Comments

  2. What really irks me is everyone knowing our defence is decidedly shaky, but our manager pretends there isn’t a problem, as if that is going to stop Dortmund from hitting us with aggression from the off.

    It’s obvious to anyone that we are there for the taking. Without defensive grit a team is nothing, yet our manager thinks we can manage with the glaring deficiencies of our thin first team defence at the moment, let alone the fact that EVERY football pundit / fan / next doors dog knows we NEED a proper CDM, and NOT Arteta or Flamini.

    Rant over!

    1. Just hope someone in next board meeting grows a pair and puts Wenger on the spot….this just can’t go on year after year, FA Cup win or not!

        2. What’s also clear is that Wilshire n Ramsey cant play together in our midfield.. I can’t recall a game they both started n excelled..they r both similar players n this hinders their game when on d field together so Wenger needs to find a way of getting d most out of them

          1. They CAN play together if we had a DM like Mascherano behind them. But that sacrifices Ozil by pushing him onto the wings. Wenger needs to build the team around Ozil by playing 4-2-3-1 or sell him and buy a DM and another CF if he wants to stick with 4-1-4-1. As of right now we have too many players that are played out of positions and maybe they will adapt, maybe they won’t. But Wenger has the patience to wait it out appearantly.
            Our “strength” is the fancy attacking midfield options, but without a clinical striker to finish off the chances created and a solid defense to stop the counters, all we’ll have is “fancy”, and never any trophies.

    2. We can blame any player we want in our team but manager is the one responsible for the players in our team and and responsible for who to play.

      Mert, Arteta and Flamini are not good enough to be starters for Arsenal but they can’t help it – they are what they are. Fault lies at Wenger who keeps them and plays them. The only +30-old player who have pace and can make a difference doesn’t even make the bench.

      1. Could not agree more..we have some serious talent in the attacking positions which we are somehow not able to leverage, and real lack of talent in the defensive areas which we do not acknowledge- the buck stops with the manager.
        Arteta v/s a pacy forward gives me nightmares- we all know whats the end result of that!
        But for yesterday – everyone is to blame- the 11 just did not turn up! We got hammered by a B team of an opponent!

  3. Watching the highlights of the other champions league games and after tonight we don’t even look good enough for the Europa league

    1. Ha ha so true… Let’s hope we finish 4th

      Oops better not wish for that.. We can still win the group.. Positivity..!

  4. Welbek cost us d game, he had three great chances, poldoski had one, making four clear chances, if we had scored just two out of it, d game can still ends up draw. Arsenal lack gr8 striker, Chelsea for instance has scored many goals dis season yet d blue has conceded more goals than most top team, if we had scored 1st, pressure may be on them.

  7. I watched ten minutes of the second half, that was enough, I went back to bed. There`s a blog that says “five things we`ve learned” after each game, well make that eleven plus a manager twelve. Go play golf Arsene.

    1. Ma younger bro reminding me of his experiences with Welbeck, being a MUFC fan. #smh…. What I find most embarrassing is LvG categorically saying that Welbeck was not up to MUFC standard, yet he was bought at a huge cost by Arsenal.

  8. Iā€™m not an AKB, neither an AOB. I simply
    call a spade a spade: Wenger is tactically
    redundant, mentally disabled and
    generally overly incompetent to live up to
    the modern requirements of a football
    manager.

  10. Good managers get the best out of average players but Wenger manages to get the worst out of quality players. His stubbornness in playing people out of position and persisting with naive tactics and a system that doesnā€™t work is slowly killing the club. Mind you the board are still making plenty of money so who cares!

    1. Don’t forget Wenger managed to sign an injured player in January to shore up our midfield.. Thinking about it…
      He’s clueless … He’s taking us all for a ride.. No other club that has ambitions to become a force in Europe or win the PL would behave with such egotistical stubborn arrogance.. Wenger epitomises all the traits of a man so far up his own self he’s blind to see the real problems of our beloved team.. The problems are at the top.. Corrupt is an understatement.. Wenger and all the cronies in the same hat…

      He should resign.. As the whole fekin board..Yet We all know they won’t..
      Painful season ahead..

    2. @fender797. complelty agree. Wenger looks like he is killing so many good players with his rusted tactics. unbelievable.

    1. Wenger (SaOG) don’t have to retire,
      regardless of when that may be.
      He can and should be FIRED!!!

      The club, its fans, and especially its players should not have to suffer any longer having this circus MONKEY having any control of the club we’ve loved for so long.

      If Wenger (SoAG) loved Arsenal (the football club), as much as any (ANY!!!) fan does, he should agree to leave with immediate effect.
      Give this clueless French TURD anything he’s due in his latest contract and have him JUST LEAVE.

  14. Analysis: from back well I think is high time wenger try ospina yes szceszny saved us some few today. But he cnt cut. Those erors off his game. Hector bellerin I cnt really blame him I will blame wenger 1,for playing lazy ozil who has no work rate in front of him. Mertesacker I think he has been awful since the seasn started and he is making koscielny cover up all the back. Koscielny I think was at fault for the first goal but he was the only one in this match that can held his own. Gibbs well u can see the reason why he hasn’t been giving a chance in the english team. Very average was out of position all the time. Coming to the middle. It is fine if wenger is tryin to do to wilshere what he did to ramsey but not at the expense of ozil. Ozil was awful lacklusture perfomance. He should be dropped for santi. Ramsey should be dropped as Well for rosicky.why rosicky can’t get a game I don’t knw. Wilshere should still retain his position. Flamini should be starting ahead of arteta in my opinion. Sanchez had a poor game for his standard. Welbeck should have buried those chances. No doubt he is a good player but a top goal scorer no way. Overall I think the injury we already have is crazy few weeks to the season and we have such amount of injuries wtf is wrong with our training Techniques or what. Then again wenger is to blame for everything why he refused to acknowledge the. Obvious reasons. Why loan jenkinson, why sell vermalean. I think coquelin would have done a better job than bellerin. Or even isaac hayden but one thing with wenger he doesn’t read the game,he favors some players over some even if they are plaaying bad. Solution:WENGER OUT

  15. New chant!!

    YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DOING !!
    YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DOING! !
    WENGER OUT WITHOUT A DOUBT!
    WENGER OUT WITHOUT A DOUBT!
    YOU DON’T WHAT YOU DOING!
    YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DOING! !

  16. I think some of the negativity towards Welbeck is really harsh, it is only his 2nd game in an Arsenal shirt and is still young!

    I don’t usually slate Wenger as I probably would not be able to manage a Sunday league team myself but I do feel when you put Arteta on his own in the DM role we will always get punished and Ozil should have been benched anyway as he has not turned up all season, would much rather have Joel Campbell who will work his socks off!

    Maybe we needed this reality check as our performances all season have not been great to say the least!

    Step it up!

  17. You know the manager is a clown when:

    1) He shows up to the game in his business suit as though he’s some sort of ‘professeur’ and somehow manages to lose to Klopp who shows up in a hoodie.

    2) He goes MIA to Rome on deadline day; only to manage the all-star team ‘Scholas’ comprised of Maradonna and Baggio who lost 3-6 to ‘Pupi’. The picture of him giving out instructions in his business suit is hilarious.

    Useless manager!

  18. This performance sums us up so far this season. We’ve struggled to get going. Didn’t sign players in the positions we’ve been desperate for. No defensive cover.
    Arteta is pony, there’s a reason he never received a phone call from the Spain squad. As nice a bloke he seems, he’s not good enough. And we’re playing him in champions league in a position where a general is required. And it’s all one mans fault.

  20. Arsene Wenger is very misunderstood.

    He has certain principles, values that he feels he must not deviate from.

    He is actually a genius.

    You are not being fair. Give him a chance.
    Be patient with him and he will come through

        1. Why shouldn’t he? (Not even sure it’s a he or she, the fella must be a shemale, or better still, a she-he. Dumb AKBz

  21. No wonder Cazorla has been poor.. He has been treated so poorly but Wenger.. The guy has one bad game and he is benched for the next 2-3 games..

    Ozil has a whole first poor season and he continues to play.. Cazorla had a bad game a few weeks ago and he has not stared a game since then..

    If all the other under performing players are treated like this I would be happy..

    Ramsey has been diabolical this season so far. Mertesacker just looks out of place, Flamini does not know what he is doing, Arteta just looks like an old man..

    We are in trouble if our players keep playing like they played last season..

  22. I think we owe Szczesny a big thanks tonight. Was caught out on the second goal and almost gifted them a third, but he stopped it from being four or five. Also stopped it from being a defeat to City at the weekend.

  23. negatives (-)
    – terrible result
    – wengers team selection (arteta + ozil in particular)
    – generally poor work-rate across the pitch and nothing like the backbone we showed against man city
    – handing dortmund initiative to top the group (we all know what finishing 2nd means)
    – lack of hunger + desire
    – welbeck misses
    – still no joel campbell (who in my personal opinion is a big game/stage player)
    – in all our ‘set-piece’ training we totally forgot about the bread and butter of football which is making an impact in open play

    positives (+)
    + though bellerin had a bad game he held his own for such a high profile game to make a debut start
    + wenger sub’d early taking off ozil and arteta early enough and the bleeding stopped
    + with the way we played it could have been a LOT worse than 2-0
    + szczesny is still pretty good in goals though the defense left him exposed a lot
    + a much needed rude awakening to the squad as the season begins to take shape
    + nothing is decided still everything to play for and 4 trophies to challenge for, same as before kick-off

    Overall
    despite a shambolic start wenger showed he can make big decisions in withdrawing under-performing players. Sadly though his stubbornness will prevail as I assume he will start the same 11 against Aston Villa.

    bad day to be a gooner

    1. why we have to be rudely awakened every month or two? If anything, the Leicester, Everton, City matches shouldve been rude awakenings, espicially for our defense. Why do things always have to blow up before Wenger does something. And i doubt Wenger will do anything. Season after season he continues to lose it. If we play a 4141 against Villa, and I see the same starting lineup as the past two games i’ll go absolutely mental

  25. I am always surprise to see a football manager that started his career with brightness and pride but doesn’t mind to rubbish all towards the end, Wenger doesn’t feel the pain for dragging this club back, he doesn’t ready to prove he can achieve the best again, he doesn’t feel ashamed, wenger is not competitive, it looks like wenger is above anybody corrections, what planet was he from, so adamant, even the football novice can see clearly what arsenal problems were for past couple of years, but it is wenger ways or no way, by the grace of God, his days are numbered.
    Fans are ready for the challenges ahead, a new manager can encounter series of problem but if he is a winner, a champion, if he never ready to be second best, if he aim high, if he can be so bold to tell the shareholders to give him what he need to work or take your job, the Arsenal family will be proud once again. for sure it can’t be this dead head wenger again.

  26. the team better lick their wounds quick because villa will not be a easy game villa are ready to fight .
    the question is does wenger stick with the same kinda team because after that embarrassment the team confidence must be hurt because they got outplayed which is worser than just losing so its a oppurtunity for them to regain some pride back vs villa or does wenger change the team about and bring in whole sale changes i dont really know only wenger does he gets paid enough for it

  27. Wenger is so Good, I expect this formation in our next game, like someone rightly called it, the in-your-face formation:

    Sanogo

    Wilishere________Snachez____Rosicky____Ozil______Welbeck

    Arteta________Debuchy_______Gibbs______Monreal

    Sceszny

  28. When our passing game clearly wasnt working and dortmund was pressing us so high up the pitch why didnt we just tell welbeck and sanchez to run down the channels and hit diagonals to exploit the space behind their back 4. Instead of tika-tika into brick wall.

    1. we dont play wing: nobody went near the dortmund corner flags : all our play was down the middle today.
      wenger is a gentle-man: probably he doesnt tell his players what to do ; he’s a congenial dad-type that the players love bc he wont drop them if they are his faves, and bc he stays with them even when they stink.

  29. i wonder why wenger plays arteta and not flamini.yes they are not the best of DM but who would you choose over the other? why play ramsey and ozil if they are not match fit?we have players who can play full 90min without looking tired (ox, rosicky, cazorla) and would not cost us a game.defensively we were pathetic not because their strikers were good but because they took over our midfield (congrats to bellerin he tried to play well).im not an AKB but to say wenger should leave now is totally redundant.reason is 1.its too early into the season and 2. the board adores him.so weve been in a shit hole for a long time.we need a better way to make him realize we pissed off or make him see what his not.any one with any ideas?

    1. even if they did start i bet you it would be same kinda performance all the player are too similar to each other. we tend to make the players not playing into heroes , the issue is a bit deeper than why isnt xyz not playing , personally i blame the formation and the balance

      1. Didn’t say it would have changed the result. I’m saying when players aren’t performing, why aren’t others getting the chance.

  31. We need to play that diamond formation which Martin Keown mentioned. And play all the hardworking players in the lineup. For some reason now Welbeck doesn’t close players down opposition players like he used to when he was at Manu.

    ———-Sanchez—————Campbell————
    ———————— Rosicky————————–
    ———–Wilshere—————Coquelin————
    ————————–Flamini————————–
    Monreal—Koscielny—Mertesacker—Chambers
    ————————–Ospina————————–

    I would get the out of form players out, and give a try to players who haven’t played this season. Obviously there is no other CB so we have to play with them.

  32. Funy enough wen wenger sign new contract, i revolt against it i got thumb down nw evry is cryin..lols it is just d begining u guys ar complainin u hv nt seen anytin yet

  33. My summary after an abject performance. Up front: welbeck not clicking yet, he will. Mf: some quality players but clearly they were tired after a hard fought game against mc. Why did wenger not rotate with cazorla, rosicky, ox, capmbell and poldi available? Dm: arteta too old and too slow for pacey CA sides. Back 4: pushing up again and leaving cbs exposed, (kos doing all the work as per may as well not be on the pitch). Gk: WS made some good saves but looked nervy once the onslaught started. I think having per in front of him makes him nervy. My biggest gripe is arsene must have known this would be a high energy game today, why not rotate? Oh ozil lack lustre again. Cant really think of any positives we should be thoroughly embarrassed and someone should get a plane to barca to try and do a bfg tv5 switch. How did we get to this from the invincible days?!

    1. how the heck can you pick out ozil from that performance when there was clearly other players who had a much worse game .

      ozil pass compltion 87% — 20/23 passes

      wilshire pass completion 79% 49/62 passes

      ramsey pass completion 67% 25/37 passes

      alexis sanchex pass completion 69 % 24/35 passes

      1. they’re all bugg*rd from sat (and remember: on sat they played 96min, v.little subbing)
        and their manager doesnt know he has to use his other squad players today.
        he’ll prob play the same XI against villa so they’ll stink bc they wouldve played 3 times in 7/8 days.

  34. We lost the game because of the Arsene, we had to rely on inexperienced teenager then Gibbs and Arteta straight from injury play such a competitive game with no sharpness. All because the manager made poor dicisions during the transfer window.

  35. We won’t win anything this year. We did ok in the transfer market but not enough.
    1. We should have got Fabregas and anyone that thinks Ozil is better then they are wrong. He scores more goals, has more assists and is a better defender.
    2. We had to get a world class striker. Nothing more.
    3. We need a quality defensive midfielder.
    4. Mert is too slow. We at least needed someone to compete with him for the CB position, not a back up.
    5. Give Carzola a go at AM again and Rosicky and Campbell a start.
    At times it really is frustrating being an Arsenal supporter.

  36. so even maestro wenger himself is beginning to doubt ozil the awful then , and about time too . he is a liability and what an expensive one as well . that 42 million pounds would have bought a world class striker at the time and what do we get ! a lame dock . good old wenger does it again , wenger out now .

  37. Wenger would have left Arsenal with the FA cup,instead of insulting this club like this. It would have been understandable if this is happening under a new manager but for someone who has stayed over fifteen years in this club without building any team in the last ten years,that’s unacceptable. I really wonder how our players would feel about what Wenger is doing,its beginning to affect their performances,those on the bench or couldn’t make the bench feels rejected,yet they haven’t been given the chance…..enough said.

  38. Since the Everton game its been painfully obvious nothing has changed this season. We are still vulnerable to pace and power. ļ»æ

    We’ve then drawn with Leicester and got away with a point by the skin of our teeth against City.

    I was chuckling when fans actually thought we’d win at Dortmund.

  39. Completely outplayed, could have been a major thrashing. Yes we could have scored 2…they could have scored 4 more.
    If players were not fully fit after Man City why play them?
    It was an insipid performance.

    Wenger – you decide the team that plays…you take the blame.

    Annus Horribilis

  40. I have had enough of ozil & wenger time to pack your bags & get to fack out the emirates ur killin this club slowly but surely

  41. …And the lack of DM & lack of replacement of Vermalean biting us. We need to survive until the transfer window opens in January. Total mismanagement this!! šŸ™ šŸ™

  42. United lost to Swansea. Liverpool lost to Villa. Man City lost to Stoke. Arsenal lost to Dortmund, a recent Champions League finalist.

    Pull your f*cken collective panties out of your arses girls.

  43. Reality check people.
    DM position was killer not filling in summer.
    Gotta do what we can with who we got.
    Need the workers and strong players in.
    Welbeck will be ok .

    Team v Villa should be
    Scz– chambers, mert, kos,gibbs- flamini, wilshere- Sanchez , cazorla, ox- welbeck .

    Campbell , Poldi , rosicky should COME ON for playing time.

    Rest Rambo /oz for a couple of games.

    There is a lot of power strength and skill in this team.

  44. the sad part will be if we beat villa this weekend , wenger will forget dortmund and there wont see a need to alter tactics against big teams .. we have 5 games in about 30 days where we have villa (a), southampton (h), spurs(h), gala(h) and chelsea(a)… players will need a breather every other game, especially sanchez (we will need him throughout the winter period) and ramsey

  45. The 2-0 score was highly misleading. With even moderately clinical finishing, Dortmund could have scored 6 or 7 goals. There were long stretches in the game where every Dortmund possession ended in a good goal scoring opportunity.

    This defeat was every bit as lopsided as the away losses to Chelsea and Liverpool last year. At it came from an opponent that was missing most of its best players and half its starting lineup. Pathetic!

  46. Its soooo amazing how things can just change all of a sudden..roll back to deadline day last summer when it was announced a certain Mesut Ozil was joining Arsenal for a record fee…we didnt care about the price on him, we cared that such a player of Ozil’s quality was joining us, how on earth had Wenger managed that?? Well he did join and his first game, WOW..remember that wonderful pass he gave to Giroud, remember those assists (sublime passes) he made to Walcott, Giroud and Ramsey who were scoring for fun….We sat pretty ontop of the league for sooooo long cant even remember..we played tiki taka, goals galore, went on a terrific run winning games, with a fantastic formation and tactics that were working….and THEN..Ramsey got injured, Walcott joined him and Ozil followed, suddenly we were fighting for top 4, we lost drastically to The top 5 away from home but managed to get points at home…We then managed fourth and were a mere 7 points from the Champiuons, thats 2 games ( you can try and figure out which 2 games we could have won but drew or lost)…we were not far off the pace, just needed to add and strengthen (Chelsea got Cesc for creativity and Costa for goals-rest are backups- look at them now) but we change everything altogether from transfers, tactics, formation and even naming the captain…Ozil yes has not been performing in his last 4 games this season, so has Ramsey, Per and Arteta….but is it really their fault, can we now call upon to sell Ozil, what were we saying about Ramsey 2 seasons ago, Wilshere a season ago….do we really know where the problem is or we look for somewhere or someone to blame because we can’t bare losing or drawing when others are winning (Chelsea only have shown signs of being Champiuons)…Wenger should just address this issue, him and his team….we want the real Arsenal back and regardless of whom he fields, lets hope its the right team playing at the right moment and those selected should come to the party…True Arsenal fan

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