It was hard not to be full of frustration and even rage as Arsenal were torn apart at the Allianz arena by the German champions Bayern Munich. Yet again the Gunners exit the Champions League at the first knockout stage, with the manner and size of our defeat hard to stomach. I am an Arsenal fan, however, and I always try to find some positives for us, so here goes Gooners.
1. We were up against a side on the longest run of wins at home in the UCL competition. While Arsenal may have been below par they were at full tilt all over the pitch and just about any team would have struggled to cope.
2. Arsene Wenger’s hands were tied to some extent because of the injury situation. His ongoing problems on this front were highlighted and made much worse by the forced withdrawal of our captain and best defender Laurent Koscielny.
3. The referee and his assistants did not help us apart from the penalty and neither did the antics of the home team. They feigned injury, surrounded the ref constantly and with the home crowd in full voice and seeming to influence all of the decisions it made for an even more one-sided game than might have been.
4. We may have rode our luck but after 53 minutes Arsenal were level and had even had a few decent chances to take the lead. Against a brilliant Bayern in full flow we should remember that and maybe recall that there are some great players in our squad and that our team can be pretty damn good ourselves.
5. These things can happen. Just ask Barcelona who were one of the favourites and were also battered by a four goal margin against the club we beat to top spot in the group and they had the likes of Messi, Suarez and Neymar on the pitch.
I know it’s hard, Gooners, but try not to let this one game bother you too much. We still have St. Totteringham’s day to look forward to.
Sam P.
There are no positives from yesterday. We were **** and got taught what a top team really is.
Sad as it is, that is reality. Arsenal, under its current regime is not a top team.
It’s been 7 years since we won a CL knockout tie! Look at a picture of yourself 7 years ago and see how much you’ve changed and then compare things to Arsenal. This is a disgrace. Change is the main word around the club. We need change, and if you want real change look no further than Arsene Wenger.
I’m better looking than I was 7 years ago
Arsenal just get uglier every year
7 years ago I was doing my final year in high school and telling my mares to wait for the next season RVP will be fit nasri will be hot Fabregas will be pulling the strings…. This game has got me on them member berries
Wenger needs to go there no positives from yesterday’s game …. why would he start Ozil Gibbs Iwobi and coquelin? All those guys have been nonsense over the past couple of weeks yer they start every game… we need a manager that’s a tactician, we need players that are mentally strong, we need a new medical team the other big teams hardly ever have as many injuries as us, oh and Ozil must just leace I’m tired of that man he epitomises everything wrong with Arsenal
@Sam P,
Are you ‘effing’ kidding me with your closing statement?
‘I know it’s hard, Gooners, but try not to let this ONE GAME bother you too much. We still have St. Totteringham’s day to look forward to’.
This is not an issue of ‘ONE GAME’. This is an epidemic that has been eating into Arsenal for many years now. Lackadaisical and nonchalant attitude from the board and Wenger.
Have you noticed that for a couple of years, we get beaten with at least 4 goals.
Wenger has to go. He has ruined his record. There’s no way he could redeem himself now. I’ll still cheer for him when he leaves.
These things happen alright and it seems its to us most the time…..
l’d just like to say fair play to the fans that had to sit there and watch it live you got the worst of it .
The difference is, we ALWAYS get beaten in these CL away games.
We don’t adapt, fight or show any desire to compete.
Overpaid, spoilt and deluded players (and manager).
Pathetic.
what a pathetic and laughable article this is . there are still people out there trying to save wengers bacon , crazy .the man is finished, stop this nonsense with these reasons . there are no more reasons , or , excuses for him , he has had his nine lives . long live the new manager , whoever he will be .
Disgraceful article to say the least. We just got thrashed by Bayern and the best we can come up with is looking forward to finishing above Spurs ? pathetic.
There are no positives from that defeat and to kid yourself in thinking this was a brilliant Bayern in full flow is beyond delusion. This team barely got put of second gear and is filled with players that are retiring in the summer and aging. This is a shadow of the Bayern under Pep and an even worse version of the one understand Jupp that won the treble.
Arsenal are no longer a big club as far as football performance is concerned and a change is needed as simple as that. Not this rubbish about St. Totteringham day…
Are you kidding me? The defeat was yesterday and you are already starting to forget. Hands tied? Arsene had a big enough squad to make 3 good substitutions and he failed miserably. Let the man take some responsibility! Why is there such sympathy for a 8.5m pound fraud, who is running this football club?
Same old same old.. .recycle, repeat….Same old, same old
The only positive in yesterday’s game is….. I can’t find any.
Sure Bayern is a fantastic team and each position is arguably filled by a proper world class player, leader who will to win can’t be questioned! But weren’t we supposed to move to the Emirates to spare pound for pound with them it felt like a light minimumweight fighting against an heavyweight. We spent 100+ on the market and we look like we have regressed not the other way around
Many things went wrong:
1-Why wasn’t Welbeck & Walcott playing from the get go? I mean we were set up to counter attack and what better way to do it than with pure pace!
2-Why was Ox who played is best football in the middle shut out to the wing where he is clearly less comfortable and limited! he would’ve created trouble with his pace, power and dribbling skill in that midfield and Alonso even Thiago would’ve had a bit of trouble.
3-How is it possible that one guy goes out and we take 3 goals? I know Gabriel hasn’t been near good enough since his arrival and I’ve always been skeptical but that doesn’t explain it all!! Mustafi talking to Bellerin instead of blocking the passing lane is comical.
4-At 1-1 there is everything to play for and heck had Xhaka strike gone either side I don’t care if it’s Neuer out there it would’ve gone in and we would’ve been up 2-1. Either way at halftime you play with a 4-4-2 overloading the midfield and playing even more on the counter not chasing the game trying to outplay Bayern at there own game and leaving yourself exposed.
5-Finally as much as I love Coquelin hearth and fight he isn’t good enough to play at that level. Not technical enough, bad positional awareness, vision is decent but not world beater. I mean if your the destroyer of the team but a small player like Hazard muscles past you and Thiago weaved past you like your not there than what purpose do you serve?
6-Same thing come up all the time lack of leadership, mental focus, fight, discipline…it isn’t a coincidence that the common factor in all of it is Wenger.
The players let Wenger down and gave up on everything he tried to do but so did he. His tactics & subs were to predictable like Giroud coming off the bench in the dying minutes of game that was already over.
It’s shocking. Bayern were not as great as the score suggests. If we had got another goal (we nearly did) and had Koscielny not got injured it might all have been different…
In response to these five ridiculous points:
1) Bayern were only in about 3rd gear throughout the entire match, yet they still managed five goals, and it could have easily been more. Yes, they are very strong at home, but conceding five, and playing so poorly, was more down to Arsenal, not Bayern.
2) Stop using the injuries excuse again. We were only missing ONE player (Santi) from the starting XI. Welbeck would probably start as well, but Wenger decided not to use him even though he was available. Koscielny going off was a big blow, but we still shouldn’t have capitulated with such ease. Bayern had players missing as well.
3) I thought the refereeing was okay. Gibbs looked like he moved his hand towards the ball, so that easily could have been an injury. Of course the crowd are going to get involved, what stupid excuse! Yes they feigned injury at times, but what team doesn’t? We’re too nice, that’s our problem.
4) For 53 minutes, we arguably had the better chances, although Bayern were dominating the game. But here’s the point, a game of football lasts 90 minutes, not 53 minutes. I’ve been saying for a long time that Arsenal are only a 45 minute team, and we saw that again last night. We had the better chances in the first half, despite Bayern dominating, but had our usual 45 minute display where we have a total melt down, and cannot even string two passes together! You claim that ” our team can be pretty damn good ourselves”…when? You cannot make a claim like that without backing it up with examples. This season I think that’s now one win in 10 in the big games, which also contains eight horrific performances, despite Wenger spending nearly £100 million during the summer.
5) This is one thing that really annoys me about Wenger apologists, when they try and deflect the attention away from Wenger by talking about other clubs failings. Yes, Barcelona took a beating as well, but one can afford them that luxury because they usually win. If you want to compare ourselves to Barcelona, then look at their record in Europe compared to ours. I think you’ll find a slight difference.
Overall, a typical Wenger apologist, straying more and more from reality in search of excuses to cover up the biggest fraud in football! I am not even angry with the writer of this article, I just feel sorry for him.
3) I meant penalty, not injury, for the Gibbs incident.
Sam P
Were you working or something, since you missed the game?
Just imagine the crap article, after a terrible performance like that u wanna come up with stup*d excuses do u have any love for this club at all or are u so much in luv with Wenger that ud turn a blind eye to his failings year in year out, the ref was probly an arsenal fan did everything to help us, gave us a penalty that should have never been, refused to give Bayern their obvious penalty thrice, this article gets really crazy with saying the home fans didn’t make it easy for us like really what did u expect #wengerout no matter what happens
I disagree about the penno. It doesn’t matter if he intended it or not. Kos would have been on his feet and therefor the defender stopped him from having a chance. I thought it was stone wall penno. I was amazed that the commentator said he didn’t mean it, sure that doesn’t matter, that only matters with the ball to hand thing. It’s like saying a defender who mistimed his tackle didn’t mean it, that won’t stop him getting carded or getting a free against.
Bellerin, I don’t think that was stone wall either, the ball came at him too quick and he was too close for the ref to be sure if he meant it or not.
Ospina, I think that was a penno, but Bayern played on and only argued it afterward, so that was right call by ref in my opinion.
I’m not sure what instance you mean the third one. I think the calls were fair, yes we could have had an unkind ref, or a homer as they say. But I think they were all fair calls.
Have a day off Sam P.
I’m starting to wonder what the “P” stands for?
Is it Piss-taker? ?
Goal now reporting Perez might want to leave. Will you blame him? Why is Iwobi playing ahead of him? Iwobi isn’t a winger, Perez is. Perez has the best goals + assists / minute stats for us this season.
“Perez understands competition for places should be expected but remains confused as to why he hasn’t been rewarded with a run in the team despite impressive cameo appearances throughout the campaign.”
I have to agree that there are no positives to take from last night, it’s a little bit insulting to say that there are. People are pissed and they have every right, nothing from last night’s game fills me with anything beside anger. What was said at half time I’d love to know.
Fans need to forget about Wengers Past glories after all other clubs don’t think about it when they defeat us.. what is past is gone you can’t call back those years, we no longer have Petit, Over Mars, Henry, Viera and the likes what we have now is Ozil, Walcott, Ramsey e.t.c.. so why are we looking back? Let’s move ahead I don’t see people going to war with bow and arrows those times are gone, the Roman Empire was great using bows and arrows but now it’s guns and nuclear weapons but in our case we go to war with sticks and wipes hoping to defeat teams with Guns and nuclear weapons.. Let’s organise a farewell party for Wenger and some players like Ramsey, Walcott, Gibbs, Ox, Ozil, D list goes on.. Wenger signs one player every year by my calculation it will take him 11yrs to sign a team that can compete..
@N4NICOLAS
Why be selective in what you remember? Past loses are bandied about on the daily, used to flame negative sentiment Past wins seen as flukes.
If you’re going to attempt being”analytical” about it all, then use the whole picture in the context. Not pick and choose to bolster your argument.
And in that vain. Time to put this loss to reat and move onto the next match. Nothing more to see here. You guys have exhausted all avenues of negativity surrounding it, too much.
We all are fans and want the success of the club and as I see it, we don’t need to hang on to the past results or successes of d club as those times are long gone.. ask Liverpool, Bro Arsenal is a football club not a series movie where we have to wait for the next season. Am stating the facts no club wins trophies based on their past glories, fan base or wealth the earlier we move ahead the better.. my dad had a car but he no longer has it anymore does that make him a car owner? NO
guys , do i get the feeling that NYbummer is hurting from this latest defeat !?.am i alone , or do some of you also think he is hurting . so, even the most loyal of wenger wordshippers is feeling the pinch , lol. what goes around comes around .his toothless comments are sending shivers up and down my spine right into my slippers and pipe.be afraid everybody , there is nothing worse than an injured nybummer.he will lash out at everybody, just watch out for his outburst when we lose our next game , lol.
@ger burke
I’m an AFC supporter since 83/84 season. Every loss affects me dude…Just as every draw or win does. The fact that we don’t share the same opinion about AW does not change that.
Real b*tch move also, to have to rely on back up from your rump ranger buddies in order to gain some cred. Or were you just after them “up thumbs”?
Keep whinin an moanin dude. You’ll get some relief, one day…
nybummer, that really hurt dude, really hurt lol. you are suchan amazing supporter of wenger. i assume there is something deeper there than football. i am only guessing mind .and here i was hoping that maybe you and i could hitch up someday soon and feel the love . oh well , you will never know what you are missing bummer.
It’s comments like this that disappoint me hugely. At the end of the day we are all Arsenal fans and it’s just sad to see such disrespect when ultimately we want the same thing. I was going to post, only half joking, that the one positive is that Arsenal fans are finally united in one camp for Wenger to go but honestly, if that camp includes insulting fellow fans that are keeping a positive outlook then leave me out.
This is how low justarsenal sink to allow such posters to call names. Not sure why this guy is not banned but hey, in the end of the day it is not my job to keep this board as clean as possible. We are all adults and can do with a bit of swearing but calling names should be a big no no.
Oh how I wish fans won’t enter the stadium but hold banners of wenger out on the streets for the remainder of the season, I can’t blame some of us as we’ve got season tickets ……
Oh, just wait for the game at Sutton or Liverpool. Wenger is the main focus now but players deserve just as much stick as the manager. Yes, manager is a huge part of the problem but let’s not pretend the players have nothing to do with this.
you can’t suck the players, but these days managers are getting sucked every 4 seconds, so yes let’s start with Wenger then the players will be sold when the transfer window arrives