For the last day or so Arsenal fans have been in a state of shock and I expect the same is true of Arsene Wenger and the players. It has been a painful time as we agonise over the mistakes made against Monaco that leave us teetering on the brink of yet another early Champions League exit.
Arsenal were truly awful from top to bottom but instead of cheerfully accepting that and enjoying the fact that they got the Gunners on a bad day, the Monaco manager Leonardo Jardim and striker Dimitar Berbatov chose to rub salt into our wounds by claiming that it was their tactical nous that caused the shock result. No mention of luck that we missed our chances and they got a wicked deflection for the first goal.
Instead they both gloatingly claimed that Arsenal played exactly as they expected and fell into their devious trap. Yeah right guys, apart from the fact that we missed a hatful of chances and completely lost the plot at the back. That was us, not you. Their tactics were not a surprise, we just failed to turn up.
But as annoying as their gloating claims are, they could also be the perfect motivation for Wenger and the Arsenal players when we travel to Monaco in a little over two weeks. So I hope that the manager keeps a copy of their words and brings it out before we play the second leg and then hopefully the Gunners will be fired up to ram their words back down their throats.
By the way during our home matches are those tourists or arsenal fans?
Can we get an article on this? How we were playing at home and it doesnt feel and looked like it. No flags, lights, smokes, songs, NOTHING! It is supposed that when our rivals come to the Emirates they will pass thru hell
The club seem to be doing their upmost to prevent any kind of atmosphere. Blocking flags and banners being brought in, refusing a ‘singing section’, some stewards even tell me to be quiet sometimes, and it’s really awkward when you’re the only one chanting and everyone around you is sat silent thinking you’re some kind of fool. I get the comment about ticket prices too, the rowdier fans are generally the same fans that complain that they can’t afford to come often.
Oh, those are actually members of “the queens bench”.
AW said “judge me at the end of the season” I just hope he succeeds by winning a trophy cuz 4th place with no Trophy is failure. So if he fails 2 deliver a trophy he should just honour his words and retire.
“Perfect motivation”, Bob???
“Instead they both gloatingly claimed that Arsenal played exactly as they expected and fell into their devious trap.” YYYYEEEEESSSS!!!! We did fall into their devious trap. In fact, we actually played as they supposed expected.
Everybody bombed forward, and we left our dishevelled ASS exposed. Even Mertesecker thought he could plays as a Right Winger, perhaps a False 9.
You have to be fair, out of the back four only Koscielny stayed back and kept some discipline. Gibbs is a big defensive liability, always bombing forward, and nowhere to be seen when dealing with counter attack, 2nd and third goal can be blamed on him. Bellerin since cementing his place, does less defending and more attacking and Mertseacker, being the Captain should really know better and organise the defence, instead he also follows the fullbacks in pushing up. How can Koscielny cover both Mertesacker and Gibbs at the same time?
Still after two days , I cannot understand them, being so eager for a equalizer when they should’ve settled for the 2-1. Do the not realize there is another game?
Oh yes. Those few frank and correct words will surely Stoke Wenger and his zombies fires..
– plating for AFC doesn’t do it
– £60k+ a week won’t do it
– adoration of fan base wont do it
– wenger can’t do it
But this will. Yes of course, we will go there a completely different set of players and head coach with a semblance of an idea and will score 3 without reply.
Ahhh..and relax. Everything will be ‘OK’..
Oh and I forgot
– getting beaten like a Sunday league team by them in the 1st leg.
I blame coq gibbs per bellerin ozil welbeck sanchez ospina giroud wenger bould supporters. The only two who werent really to blame are kos and santi, they didnt do anything great but they would have needed something from there teammates.
When we got the two one i was happy but then said this is still awful… little did i realise what awful really looked like.
” No mention of luck that we missed our chances and they got a wicked deflection for the first goal.”
Really?luck? The defeat has nothing to do with being unlucky.Its all down to poor performance.
And they have right to gloat, after all they were the underdogs when they came to Emirates and they won 1-3. Besides everybody at Arsenal were gloating from the CL draw till the game that night.
The only way we can show that we we are capable of scoring 3 or more in Monaco is to proove it in the next 4 domestic matches before then by scoring 3 against 2 or more of the following opponents which are Everton, QPR, Westham and Manu. If we can score 3 or more in atleast 2 of those matches whilst keeping it tight at the back it will show we are capable. Other than that 3 goals in a one of cup game against Manu should also demonstrate that we have the ability.
Why don’t you blame Kos?Every body blames Mert ( yes he should take the blame, since he is the captain).
where was Kos for both the second and third goal.He was further high up the pitch than Mer.For the third goal he was almost standing next to Ox.He didn’t even run when the broke into counter attack he just stands there looking.I am not defending Mer but Kos should also be blamed for the mistakes.
I have to disagree there. If you look at the 2nd and 3rd goal you can see Koscielny is the defender staying in position or tracking the run of one player. Where were Gibbs, Mertesacker and Bellerin? Even for the 2nd goal, before Mertesacker goes in to make the failed interception you can see Koscielny pointing to someone, most likely Gibbs, to come and pick up on Berbatov. If that happened, Koscielny could’ve afforded to go with the player that eventually gave the assist, and Gibbs could’ve tracked Berbatov.
Third goal, straight after our throw in, Gibbs clearly sees Chamberlain in trouble, but doesn’t retreat into position. Instead its just Chamberalin trying fix his own mistake by back tracking to chase the goal scorer and koscileny tracking the player, who again Gibbs should’ve tracked, this takes Koscileny out of the pitcure as far as the goal scorer was concerend. Rosicky was also guilty here, he sees the eventual goalscorer run straight past him, and doesn’t even bother to track him which is really bad since he just came on as a sub. Mertesaacker is too high and wide of this incident, so his fault is his positioning, same with Bellerin his also high up at the other side of the field.
I know those goals wouldn’t have happend if Paulista and Monreal were playing, becuase Paulista trying to get his own place in the team would’nt have risked that playing that high and is faster than Mertesacker, and Monreal is way more disciplined than Gibbs. The only reason I can think of him be dropped for this game was because he was beaten by pace against Zaha at the weekend, it happens sometimes.
@kam, ha559 basically spelled it out and i agree. The only time i seen kos totally out of position was when he chose the correct moments trying to inject some life into our game, per on the other hand was a fish out of water hence a total liability.
Per –> OUT Gabriel –> IN
Ozil –> OUT Ox –> IN
Gibbs –> OUT Monreal –> IN
With these changes, we will definitely hammer three past Monaco, no problem.
Counterattack goals are so fun to watch
But so painful if they’re against you 🙁
No chance, just move on and fight for the 4th place again
Where’s haywill?=P=P=)=]
hahahahahahaha.
That last goal which I believe might be our undoing falls onto Mert. We are pressing for a goal which we should at home so a victory is all that it would take to go through on the second leg. There is a break and instead of going to the attacker he just stays in the middle not making a commitment either way. The cross was going to be covered but he is so used to playing a section of the field he just basically watched the player put one in far post. If your CB doesn’t want to attack a player going one on one with your keeper then, I just don’t know what to say.
LOL! People were actually shocked we lost? There’s no more surprises with Wenger at the helm. Same sh#t, different season.
I can’t remain rigid crying over split milk and I will get up from where I fell down to start moving forward to where I was going. AFC vs EFC is a semi-big game coming up on Sunday afternoon at the Emirates stadium. And that is the game I am now focusing on. MY FOCUSIN GUNNERS STARTS: Szczesny. BellerinDeAbreuKoscielnyMonreal. CoquelinChambers. WalcottOzilSanchez. Giroud. MY BENCH: MartinezRhino’CazorlaGibbsRosickyWelbeckAkpom. All to start from the bench and rest for QPR. Coquelin and Chambers to start as 2CDMs. The boss should please not repeat the Monaco game mistake to start only one CDM for the tough to beat Toffees.
I honestly don’t want to think about Champions League again until the 2nd leg comes.
Right now the only thing to lift my spirits after that nightmare night is to Win all 4 matches before that game.
1. Everton (home)
2. QPR (away)
3. FA Cup: United away (God help us)
4. West Ham (home)
FA Cup match against United is a must win/draw
A loss will almost guarantee us a failure year.
Now that we can spend money 4th place is not good enough. We need to Win trophies to make up for 8 trophy-less seasons
Monaco play PSG this weekend at home.
Monaco have the lowest goals (scoring 26 in 25 games) in the top 10 of ligue 1.
But they have the joint best defence (conceding 19 in 25 games).
The Emirates stewards are a disgrace…
You cannot even express yourself.
They ask you to sit down and you can basically stand only when goals are scored…!!
This a 60,000 stadium seats and it is so quiet…!!
This club looks nothing of a “big” club.
The seat’s prices are just a joke and the return is lame and ridiculous.
I feel sorry for the ones going to the stadium and follow the team game after games… They must feel like real mugs !!
Braise yourself… 2 more years of that rubbish…!!
Wenger said we will the league in 2017… I wonder how he is going to do that.
I reckon, Lionel Messi would look average if he was at Arsenal under Wenger guidance.
A few seasons back we did it against the eventual winners Bayern Munich and some seasons ago we did it against Inter Milan. So it isn’t far fetched to suggest we can do it again. What is needed in this kind of game is to have players who will go for it. I completely agree with Twig on his proposed changes: Gabriel for Mertesacker, Oxlade for Ozil, Monreal for Gibbs and I may add Walcott for Welbeck. Much as Welbeck is a good player and fighter he is not a sharp shooter while Walcott is. We need people to be hitting at goal on all cylinders. Those who make it to the starting line up should be determined to do the following: Defend as a team and attack as a team; give Monaco no chance to catch us on the counter; aim to score an early goal and keep attacking so as to get 3 goals before half time. At least all defenders should remain in their positions all the time. Even when they venture forward they should return to their positions very quickly. If we surprised Monaco with two early goals we can even beat them by 4-0 so long as we maintain our collective defensive game. Arsenal should also learn to keep a strong defensive posture at home because we have a tendency to relax our defence at home. Martin Keown put it very aptly when he said that our players lack professionalism. This lack of professionalism is exhibited in wanting to play to the gallery at home so as to impress the fans. There should be the same intensity both at home and away. If we go with a very positive attitude Monaco is very beatable and we can progress. It is not too late.
2 more years folks and we’ll be a completely different club. Until then we’ll continue to see the same old arsenal, beating lower tier teams 2-1 and getting top 4, crashing out in the round of 16 in CL.
Wenger built this great stadium, continued to get that funding by getting into CL for 17 consecutive seasons so i mean what else do you want. He even gave us the invincible. Everyone has an Achilles heel or a ceiling, we’re all human. Wenger will never win the CL or the Premiership again but the good news is when he retires we will get a simeone that will take us into new heights. what’s 2 more years really?
If getting humiliated on the biggest stage of all, at home to a lesser side isn’t motivation enough, I don’t know what is. Do we have the quality to go to Monaco and win 3-0? Yes. Will we do it? I certainly can’t see it happening. I can’t imagine the depression if we lose to Everton at the weekend.
And don’t give me all this rubbish about ‘seeing Monaco as a lesser side is what cost us in the first place’. No it wasn’t, it was our players being useless on the night that cost us, Monaco didn’t really even play that well, we were just shocking in every concievable way. If we performed anywhere near our usual form, we’d be cruising into the quarter finals already.
Arsenal is so predictable that its very easy to beat them. All you need to do is. Watch them play, adjust your tactics against them, beat them. The end.
He first needs to show them the horror movie they manage to produce and there oscar winning performance 3-4 times in a row and put them in front of there responsibilities!!!Some tactical changes definitely have to be made: like a guy said before: Just keep one of Cazorla/Ozil not both!Walcott could also be brought to play on the wing and have Welbeck play in front Rosicky/Ox can play in midfield and Gabriel and Monreal must be in and BFG and Gibbs out!!And a 4-3-3 would be better