we were far too negative going into this . We are where we are because of NOT playing negative in the league . Wenger needs to have a look at himself . he dodged a bullet for real tonite... it COULD have been a fucking disaster . Lets hope he has learned something.
Or, you get lulled into a false sense of security by getting past rubbish like Leverkusen and then get smacked by a proper team in the last 8. It can work both ways.
We did the hard work early in this group. If we'd had lost our first two games and won the rest including tonight, people would be jizzing about how we're going to win the comp. Need to see this result in context with the whole of the group.
In general, we need to play much better away from home in Europe, I know it sounds strange, as we were perfect away from home before 2days game winning them all, but our away wins in Europe so far have all been ugly wins, none of them was a game were we looked solidly dominant, and if we want to do well in Europe, we're really going to have to step it up away as we saw today, because eventually you can't win every game ugly or get away with playing average in away games. Against the likes of Barca-Madrid, and even PSG-Athletico, we will have to really play far far better if we want to give ourselves a chance, similar to 2006, when we were excellent at Madrid and could have scored 3.
There was always a good chance of losing away to napoli, ultimately it's that late goal at home to dortmund that did the damage
Well taking a positive spin on it, if we beat one of the favourites in the last 16 we will gain massive confidence that we can go all the way, if we lose we have less games to play midweek than our rivals for the league. I would personally have prefered to get an easy draw and play a harder team in the quarter or semi finals. But it's not all bad and it means we get a proper CL tie.
nah .. bring em on mate ..bring em on .......... this is what its all about ! This is the test , this sorts the wheat from the chaff. Test yourselves against the best , and if you are good enough , KNOCK THE FUCKERS OUT ! come on !
It was exactly a year today since we last lost away in europe and that was a game against Olympiacos when we played our reserves as we had already qualified. And in that time we have beaten both Dortmund and Bayern (last seasons finalists). Despite some scrappy results we have very good away form overall in europe.
I do not want either Bayern or Barca. Bored of playing those Barca ****s, and we played Bayern last season. PSG would be interesting, and we have not played Real Madrid in a while.
I think he felt that Ramsey was the best right-sided defensive midfield player he had, to play in front of Jenkinson. Rosicky was switched to the left where he thought Gibbs was more solid.
Theo is very good defensively & offers a great counter attacking outlet, especially against a tiring defense. Wenger got this one wrong I'm afraid.
meh, beating the quality sides to get there will provide a big confidence boost, and if you get knocked out you can concentrate on trying to win something domestically, either way it's a win win for you
The wins at Dortmund-Munich were excellent, but at the same time, we have to be honest, they were very ugly wins and us just managing to make goals from our bare thin chances, you can't rely on that, on other days, the home team will convert their chances and will make things happen, we're going to have to be far more adventurous in our attacking play away from home.
Yep. I thought he should have brought Walcott on when he took Cazorla off. He would have offered an outlet and helped sure up the right side in defence.
Why are you guys so negative about big games? You should look forward to playing barca bayern in the next phase
I dont really care who we get as long as its not barca again. Not in the mood for listening to another commentator masturbation session over messi at nou camp again
In hindsight perhaps we are reading a little too much into this game. We evidently went into the match and thought we could knock about for draw which obviously cost us this match. However I think the main objective was to qualify from the group, which we've done, by scraping through, but we've qualified nonetheless. To me it makes little sense in trying to avoid the major sides now, the best you could hope for is an easier side in the round of 16, there are no more easy sides after that. Better to face them now and if we can't beat them, we don't deserve to progress. Simples. And if we wanted easier sides, we should have applied for permission to play in the Europa league. Bring on the best I say.
we are , well I am . Look forward to beating them again when people said we would get SLAUGHTERED ! Seems that people have forgotten . You only have to win the next game . Thats all it takes. Chelsea were not in the same league as Barca and people said they had no chance . Silly , just silly , you would think that by now , after all this time they would realise . its a funny old game , and ANYTHING can happen .
