Arsenal are not out of the Champions League yet! by Sam P
A lot of you will surely say that Barcelona simply destroyed Arsenal at the Emirates on Tuesday, but the fact is that with a bit of luck we could easily have been two goals up before the Catalans scored their first.
Even the great Lionel Messi admitted as much after the game. “It was a great performance from us, we got a good result against a very good team with really good players,” he said. “The first half was very tough, they were strong, but in the second half we knew they were not going to be able to keep up the pressure.
“It’s a great result away from home and a very important result, but the second leg is still to come.”
Arsene Wenger may have said that Barca are 95% through to the next round, but that means we still have a 5% chance no? Arsenal are famous for pulling the rabbit out of the hat when under pressure in Europe, and even Luis Suarez agreed that the tie was far from over. We are very happy as we got really nice score but we know that it is still not done,” the Uruguayan said. “There are another 90 minutes extra to be played.
“We know that we have taken advantage but you never know what could happen in Champions League games.
“Arsenal is fighting to win the Premier League and they have players who can make differences in the second leg.”
It’s never over until the fat lady bites someone, eh? So what do our players think. Hector Bellerin, who famously got poached from La Masia, is adamant that Arsenal can still do it, and thinks that there was not much between the teams at the Emirates. “We’re going to hope [for a result in the Nou Camp],” Hector said. “We’ve shown that we are at the same level if we want to be because we play great football, defend well with a great solidarity and compactness.
“Even if it’s a different kind of game, we’ve shown that we’re up there and we can fight for it.
“We had more or less the same number of opportunities but the difference was just that they were efficient up front and we weren’t. Maybe they had a bit more luck. I think the team defended really well and we played really well but sometimes these things happen.
“We’ve shown that [the gap between the sides] is not that big. The team played some great football and at some point we thought we had the game in our sights.”
Judging by some of the comments on here, you would think that Arsenal were slaughtered. Maybe they didn’t actually watch the game, because the ones out on the field thought it was quite a close game, and maybe it will be our turn for some luck in the return leg?
Sam
we have achieved the last 16 trophy….
bus parade at 7 tommorow…..technically its the 4 bus route from waterloo to holloway….
but i will bring ribbon …..
Secretly i prayed for the 1st loss and i will pray for a subsequent loss if that is what it will take to send deluded wenger packing…
We need an effective Attacking midfielder, one who can shoot & score goals (Try ramsey der in the next game).
Sanchez has to be a bit unpredictable nd develop his passing game cos i see a walcott type in him..
We have to play Welbeck & Giroud together..
We have to loan chamberlain
Bellerin has to be more effective going forward
Walcott should be sold if anyone is interested
Chambers has to be paired with Coquelin in midfield more ..
It was really close.arsenal had an excellent 70 minutes.if only we took our chances.
Luckily we will be out of
the ECL in 3 weeks.
City will qualify for the quarters
so will have more games to play.
Luckily we have 4 full days to recover before Utd
whereas Utd only have two full days to recover.
Luckily we have most of our players available
whereas Utd are injury ravaged.
Lady luck is shining brightly on Arsenal 🙂
manure are not the problem .
spuds and leicester are the problem.
an while city are in champs league.
they are outta fa cup .
it all balances out
lady luck my wiener
At the camp nou lets be physical and go for the kill.
After all we have nothing to lose
cech
bellerin kos gabriel monreal
coquelin ramsey
welbeck walcott giroud sanchez.
Instructions are simple.
Everyone sit back.
Play long balls to walcott and welbeck.
And let the front 4 put the finishing touches.
Personally, I’d like to see El Neny feature in that game, if fit, the whole match, if not, half an hour. Something tells me that El Neny-Coquelin partnership will work amazingly for us. Start Danny or Ramsey on the right flank and we might see a game where Arsenal doesn’t get bashed.
What should we do if Barca also decides to do the same… sit back …and pump up long balls to their front 3? 🙂
Glad u took ozil out, someone who finally gets what an average player ozil is
I knew this kind of article would come, and I actually thought to write it, however I wondered if I wouldn’t simply be wasting my time. Yes, it’s true Arsenal CAN still qualify, especially if we get the first goal at the Nou Camp however the question is do we really deserve to qualify ahead of Barcelona?
Many maintain that we got the tactics spot on against Barcelona, however, I felt starting Giroud was a mistake in this game. How could we commit such an elementary tactical blunder? Barcelona will push us high all day, how could you play Giroud who neither has the pace nor the ball retention skills up front? It simply had to be one of Walcott, Welbeck, Sanchez or even Campbell to play #9 on that day. Heck, even Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who isn’t a striker would have been a better fit against Barcelona.
And of course we have left our striker issues unsolved since Van Persie left. How could you begin to explain the signing of Sanogo? How?? How on earth did we miss out on both Higuian and Suarez? Was it Mike Dean that offered £1 to Liverpool? You know, even when Liverpool rejected the £40,000,0001 bid, we still had sufficient time to go higher, but we kept waiting thinking Liverpool would somehow have a change of heart!
For these reasons, we deserve NOT to take anything out of the two legs. We not only play for our current tactical blunders but historical transfer mistakes as well.
At one goal down I felt this way, but two is out of reach. To go over there and sneak a 1 – 2 would be tough to say the least but possible, pushing forward at the new-camp and having to win by two clear goals is suicide.
Nou Camp
not only *pay
This time forget it, lets just play the reserves and under 21, just like mancity did against chelsea and we focus on the league.
agree or not?
I thought one thing was curious, sort of good and bad. Before the game an article came up which mentioned how Arsenal are better or are doing better than Barca in almost every position behind the front three. I thought the game proved exactly that point but another thing Barca are better is know-how and experience with how they buy their yellow cards and fowls, and us proving we never learn. Imagine if it was Giroud who leaned his head forward, no doubt they would have manipulated on that, also they stuck to their game plan whereas we opened up and allowed the best attacking threat on planet to move in on a defenceless goal area. Good and bad aspects, we are a solid team if we aim to be one, but how often are we underdogs?
Something also I want to mention, I heard Wenger speak of Kante and feel or I got the impression that Wenger will make a bid for him. He went on about how he got news/wind of him since he was a ten year old and ever since that age he kept rising to the challenge and earning his place. He said he didn’t realise how quickly he could adapt to English football and then spoke of how one of his best friends is also an acquaintance of Kante’s too. I might be reading something into nothing but if am right I would happily take Kante. I think it was Henry who likened him to Makelele and must admit the similarity is there for all to see, here’s hoping.
Arsenal need to go back to the black board to understand how to get the ball from long kick out from goal keeper we hardly seem to get the ball because the line up to receive is totally wrong when long ball are sprayed more likely the defense will head back so a line of pick up to face the incoming ball from header must be there to pick up the rebound and passed into the runner
I read that no team has ever turned a 2-0 home defeat to qualify to d next round…. It gives me a light of hope that arsenal are going to make it to the quarter final and further than that. Maybe I’m a deluded fan, but hey, records are meant to be broken and recreated,… 3 FA cups in a row, turning a 2-0 home defeat to qualify, and winning a treble in a topsy-turvy season,…. I’ll say yes to that!!! COYG, keep the faith.
It’s highly unlikely but not totally impossible!
That’s ‘IF ‘ we find our scoring boots by then.
If we had any luck, we would have been 2 nil up within the first 20 minutes! … But Hey! .. That’s the way the cookie crumbles… Let’s not get extra deluded and Just except that it’s over!…. And Focus on the premier league.
Barca weren’t lucky
They were QUALITY
We played the best we were capable of playing
We just lack a good finisher up front
I agree it was a close game but in the knockout stages of the UCL quality makes the difference and our striking options are not world-class. IMO Wenger had fairly good tactics besides starting Giroud and Ox but it’s now time to focus on Man U and the EPL. We should still go to the Camp Nou looking to advance but 2-0 is a steep mountain to climb and Barca will more than likely not be shut out at home.
Kind of off topic but I just read Flamini is leaving at the end of this season.
Flamini asked for a contract extension and Arsenal blanked him… Thank god for that!
Rosicky and Arteta will more than likely retire at the end of the season… Pep Guardiola wants Arteta to coach at City ?
The question is.. Will we see new signings replacing these 3 player’s or will our Youth players step up to replace them?
Elneny will be filling in one space for sure and probably Iwobi too… Maybe we will see one new midfielder signing in the summer? …. Old Rumours of Wanyama supposedly already being agreed?… But Everyone apart from wenger knows that we need a top top Striker! ?