One thing that everyone can agree about the Arsenal v Atletico Madrid game is that it was an absolutely glorious chance for the Gunners to take a big hold of this Europa League semi-final, and not many would argue that we did not do it, but I’m sure that the debate about why is a bit more complicated.
I reckon that a lot of people will be laying a large portion of the blame at the feet of Laurent Koscielny it was a horrendous piece of pantomime defending from the Frenchman. To be fair to him, though, he is not the only current Gunner to have had such moments.
Martin Keown suggested that we just need a bit of luck in Madrid and you could argue that we deserved much more than one goal at the Emirates, but I think the big problem we have is all about game management. Of course we could have done with a second against Atletico and it looked like we could get it, but with 10 minutes to go against a tiring but dangerous team there had to be common sense and patience.
Which other big team but Arsenal does this on a regular basis? Barcelona, maybe? They do tend to win more games though, while Arsenal never seem to learn.
D.N.