Arsenal v Bayern – When a plan comes together!

We turned up with a plan and it worked!‏ by KM

How are you my fellow jubilant Arsenal fans! What a great win against a supreme side. The telling goes that on our day we can beat anyone. I said that – with a little bit of luck, we might surprise Bayern and we did. Now it wasn’t like the performance against Man United where we destroyed them and every pass was slick and going, but it was a performance of no less importance.

I have to give this one out to Wenger, the manager totally outsmarted Guardiola. We let them have the ball, and when we had the chance we tried to counter them and it almost worked. The tendency to win games with less possession just continues to prove itself correct, and I continue to believe we are no longer a possession based team.

The highlights of the game for me were the saves. That save from Neuer was outrageous! Now i believe Theo could’ve hit the corner, but take nothing away from how Neuer restored his position and how strong his left hand was, because the ball had good pace.

Petr Cech. I mean he is by far man of the match for me. He denied Lewandowski numerous times, made a terrific save off Thiago and was overall sublime! The back 5 need a real pat on the back because they were excellent. We started with what is our best back 4 for me, and Mertesacker and Koscielny were the kings of our box.

Monreal had another great game, where without being noticed too much he shut down Muller completely and his cross for that Theo Header was sensational and deserved a goal. On the other side Bellerin had some struggles with Costa (a gem of a player) in the first half, but he was solid and that run after 93 minutes was incredible and was the icing on the cake!

Up front Theo, Alexis and Ozil worked really hard, though they faded in the second half. Not all passes were great, with Alexis giving sloppy passes outside our box that cost me a few nails, but luckily we survived. Ozil despite his goal, didn’t have the best of games. He was sloppy in possession, but again, Ozil is brilliant when we have runs and pace and some space, his game is not based on working with the ball too long, but nevertheless he was there at the end to get the ball past the line, despite Neuer almost pulling off another sensational save.

Now I have some sympathy for the Bayern keeper, because mistakes like that happen. It happened to Cech too against West Ham. The ball and 15 players chasing it are running at you, and if you mistime your jump it’s almost a certain goal and mistime it he did. Luckily for us Giroud was there to pounce and with a combination of face and hand he scored. Olivier needed that goal and the race for who is our main striker is really on.

Now we got a little bit lucky, but luck can be forced and we forced it yesterday. We had a game plan and although we weren’t brilliant in every pass, we were tactically in it and we were aware of what we had to do.

The only 2 negatives from yesterday were that one – Olympiacos won at Zagreb, despite the Croatians being the better team, a silly goal puts us in a position, where we might need points against Bayern in Munich again, and second Ramsey got off with a hamstring injury which means he’ll be out for at least a month.

I cannot say I’m surprised with this, although I expected it from Alexis. The internationals ruin players, because they play in awkward days, travel a lot and return to their clubs, who keep them in shape and pay them their salaries, with knocks or injured, or run down to the ground. We are already missing Jack, Rosicky and Welbeck and our options are running thin up front.

I really hope we give Alexis a break, but with Everton looking for a response after a terrible defeat to United, I’m not sure we’d rest him. We might introduce Arteta and shift the front 4 a little bit and maybe give Sanchez a much deserved rest, at least until half time.

Anyway this win was much needed and well deserved. It is a confidence boost as well as it brings responsibility to perform like this in every big game. We played for the pride of the Arsenal shirt and I feel proud this time. With our best and a game plan we are a match for anyone.

Onwards and upwards!

Konstantin

Tags Cech Neuer Ozil

28 Comments

    1. how on earth was the back 5 excellent when cech had so many saves to make.
      how is that a good performance when each one of us were slating our players before giroud scored
      we have lady luck to thank coz none of those goals would have been awarded by other officials and another keeper would have kept both those goals out.

      1. @tatgooner
        Luck does not exist in the real world dude. Nuer is considered one of the best, if not the best stoppers in the world. He just got beat “twice” last night. It happens. A large percentage of goals scored are due to uncorrected defensive errors, not luck.

        1. dont bother bro.

          non arsenal fans coming on here, acting bitter or trying stir trouble is not a new phenomenon
          tatgooner- i see u

      2. Blah.. At fault for the first but nearly pulled off another world class save to deny the second, adding to the quite breathtaking save from Theo. So any way you cut it still would’ve been 2 NILLLLL TO THE AR-SE-NAL!

    2. bayern are still a top and strong force in europe……… Just that yesterday was our day and we were unstoppable!

  1. I woke up this morning feeling like I won ‘A Million Dollar’….Thanks Arsenal!

    On another note, let’s support our players always. Let’s try not to insult any player wearing the red jersey… Players do have an off day and at times they are out of form. When a player does well, we appreciate him. If he fumbles, we criticise him professionally and not pouring insulting words on Him..

    Having said that, I’m enjoying the great run we are in now and I believe we will enjoy more winning run but let’s remember that we might lose a game or so during the season. When our run comes to an end, then we start another brilliant run…

    Arsenal All The Way!

  2. I agree with the conclusions but I would like to point one thing now: people here are ready to listen about what causes a mistake only when we come on top. If we lose, they point fingers and dismiss anyone coming with a more than reasonable explanation. When we say that luck is really part of the game we are dismissed saying that luck has no place in it and it is the value on the market and the fact that Wenger should have bought Lewandowski or Benzema.
    The game yesterday shows that in football things change within seconds (I believe there were less than 10 seconds between Bayern loses the ball on the excellent Thiago and Ozil’s goal). Remember that right before the goal when we broke forward Lewandowski had a huge chance to kill the game. No amount of planning can prepare you for these, the team has to perform to perfection if possible but in the end there have to be some individuals that rise above and raise the stakes. Yesterday we had Cech and Bellerin doing this. I am not going to bother now and point to the fact that Sanchez was about to cost us three goals because we won in the end and Alexis more than made up in EPL for any mistake he will make from now on. What I want to point though is that people here forget too easy mistakes from some players and give stick to others for doing the same. I will not give names but imagine it was Giroud missing the header Theo did. Just let that sink in. Imagine it was Ramsey losing the ball Coq did when Lewa was about to score. Just let that sink in. All in all, a great victory. I just hope Ramsey injury will not come to bite us this week. People will understand now why Ramsey plays (on the right) in the team.

    1. Even on a glorious day like this you are more concerned with having a pop at your fellow fans. Unbelievable Geoff!

      I’m sure you’re going to say if Ospina was in goal we’d have still won the game!!

      Aren’t you? Come on, you know you want to…….

      1. Clearly, we have a different definition for what a fan means. I am not going to comment on your remarks because I will just lose my time and you will still not get it. Be happy in your world.

      2. he is damn correct . what he is trying to define is duty of a fan what you are calling a glorious day and wholeheartedly supporting the team just continue this support after defeat don’t come out of shell abusing our own players and calling for managers head.
        and don’t get to ospina we know that ospina sometimea struggles at setpeices but ask youself ,he is an excellent keeper ya me may have won game with him also but don’t say that we would have definitely lost. All the saves which cech did were mostly reflex saves and ospina is also good at those saves. That guy was important part of our turnaround since new year day give him some respect

    2. It’s great that we won. But from what I have seen so far, Arsene does beTter under pressure. He really does; and when Arsene does well, we must not fail to appreciate him, even the players (particularly the ones who used to be characteristically average).

      The way we play these days, you just feel relaxed knowing that we have higher chances of winning. When we lost to Chelsea, I never complained, I mean I never blamed Wenger or the lads, it was that Deanious devil and the Spanish thwart called Costa. Even when we lost to Olypiacos, u could see it was pure bad luck (I never blamed Ospina as much as some did, people make mistakes, it’s only bad when such mistakes are habitual).

      We have beaten Bayern, we can beat anyone, we just have to stay calm at all times and take our chances when we have them.

  3. Our players showed alot of discipline in defence and even though Bayern had so much of the ball, you could sense us getting a goal with our swift counter attacking style…
    We played well as a team, and that’s whet we needed to win this game…Also loved the fact that we went direct from the free-kick that resulted in the goal, when on another day we would’ve opted for the short pass..

  4. Funny how first half Costa sent Bellerin to running up and down the right back …. and when karma comes knocking, Bellerin sent the whole bayern Munich back to Germany. Woooooooooopphooooooooo!! am so happy

      1. I remember only one action where Costa outdone Bellerin in a dangerous position. After Bellerin adjusted his sight when Costa passed him it was already close to the line, too narrow to cause real trouble. Oddly enough, this was the game when you could actually see in the same frame Ramsey and Bellerin. At Watford Ramsey was actually seen on the left flank as well but yesterday when Bellerin was in the frame you could have seen Ramsey and the other way around. Defensively, the block was functioning pretty good.

        1. people need to bare in mind costa has been bayerns best player along with lewandowski this year- no ones even mentioning ribery-hes that good

          bellerin is the truth – he showed that yesterday- astounding performance
          monreal on muller- damn thomas …found your way out of his pocket yet?

      2. Yes, Costa was good yesterday (I mean, FFS, he’s good), but don’t sound hyperbolic), Hector too was outstanding and it’s not like Costa completely destroyed Hector, that happened just once.

  5. Let’s thank God we won the game. And also hope the Gunners have learnt their lessons from this game, because there are lessons of errors some of which are school boy error to be learnt and corrected. Sanchez handling the ball in his box would have been costly had the referee awarded Bayern a penalty. Look at that school boy error Oxchambo commited in front of Bayern’s goal by skying the ball over from Neuer’s rebound of the ball. Had the referee not awarded Ozil’s goal that is adjudged to have crossed the line, that’s how Oxchambo would have missed a sitter. And missing a sitter is fast becoming Oxchambo’s habit. And we are saying (including me) the Boss should not start tired Alexis for the Everton game? Walcott should direct his headers to the far post next time to make them more difficult for kepeers to save. Had he done that in front of Neuer’s goal, Neuer might not have saved his goal bound header. I want these lessons to be leant and corrected before we host Everton. And also for our upcoming games.

  6. The way I saw it, the ball came off Oliviers face and his arms were out to break his fall. FFS when will Theo and Olivier play up top together?

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