Which I most likely will. Which is even worse cos we'll then get dumped out in the next round. It's same old ****. We'll get points off Bayern and squeeze through. Or be soooooooooo close to going through after beating Bayern and drop out due to H2H. For me there's no point. It's a waste of time. But I guess its all about the marafackin mullah
I have to say. I disagree with the whole premise of this thread and the argument some of you are making is ridiculous. For a start I would say it's easier to win the Champions League than it is the EPL. So the concept of getting knocked out of Europe being beneficial to a league run is ridiculous. Sure you face better sides in the CL but its a knockout comp. Once out of the group stage a few big performances and a stroke of luck can be enough. After all its only 4 games to reach the final at that point. The league is 38 games, the technical level of the competition may vary but physically and mentally its a bigger challenge. Winning the league is FAR harder IMO.
Give me an instance, please. I can't think of any big performance that got us a much needed result. Only FA Cup beating Utd comes to mind.
That stats don't back that up. The majority of CL winners have won more league titles than they have champions leagues.
When I said big I meant a hefty thrashing, like what we periodically get handed from Man Utd, Chelsea. 5-0, 6-1. 8-2, etrc. I for one, want these days to be avenged.
Sigh well.. Im sure Im missing a few but here's some. 2014/2015: Arsenal 0 - Manchester City 0 - League. Manchester United 1-2 Arsenal FA Cup Semi Arsenal 4-0 Aston Villa . FA Cup Final. 2013/2014: Arsenal 3-2 Hull. Not a big side but a Cup Final. Pretty high pressure game. We had to win this. Arsenal 1-0 Dortmund. Arsenal 3-1 Manchester City 2012/2013: Not a lot special about this Season that's for sure. We thrashed a lot of the smaller teams but no real results in the 'big games'. Arsenal 5 - 2 Tottenham 2011/2012: This was a weird Season. Some terrible results mixed in with some good ones. Arsenal 3 - 0 AC Milan Arsenal 2 - 1 Liverpool Arsenal 5 - Tottenham Arsenal 1 - 0 Manchester City Arsenal 2 - 1 B. Dortmund 2010-2011: Arsenal 3 - 1 Chelsea Arsenal 3 - 0 Manchester City Arsenal 1 - 0 Man Utd 2009/2010: Arsenal 5 - Porto 0 Arsenal 1 - 0 Liverpool Arsenal 2 - Barca 2 - Was a good result. Lionel Messi was unplayable in the second leg. 2008/2009: Arsenal 3 - 0 Villareal Arsenal 2-0 Manchester City Arsenal 2-1 Man Utd Arsenal 2 -1 Chelsea Arsenal 2 - 0 Manchester City Arsenal 1 - 0 Roma 2007/2008: Arsenal 1-0 Manchester City Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea Arsenal 3 -0 Seville Arsenal 7-0 S.Prague Arsenal 2 - 0 AC MIlan 2006/2007: Arsenal 1-0 Man United Arsenal 3-0 Liverpool Arsenal 3-0 Tottenham Arsenal 2 -1 Man Utd Arsenal 2 -0 Porto Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool Arsenal 3-0 Zagreb 2005/2006: Arsenal 2 -1 Liverpool Arsenal 1-0 Real Madrid Arsenal 2-0 Juventus Arsenal 1-0 Villareal When we go beyond this the number of key games we win increases significantly. To claim we don't ever win any big under Wenger games is not only wrong it's ridiculous. Im definitely missing a few here but I can't be bothered right now to check.
What did these games result to? Cup finals? Title deciding matches? We have not been competing for trophies. Apart from the FA Cup game vs. Utd I don't consider those games as big. We are expected to be beat teams like Hull and Villa. I'm talking trading blows with the Barcas, Chelseas, Bayerns, Utds, Madrids, Citys, etc at vital stages of competitions.
My point is merely sometimes Wenger gets his **** together. Changes things up and we give good performances. Other times we just naively go into games with no strategy just the standard 'tikka - takka' approach (like our 8-2 loss to United or 5-0 to Chelsea - these where games where we set up to attack with an open midfield and a high line) What I really don't understand is why its soo rare that Wenger does actually make these kinds of tactical changes. If you take our last league win against City. The team was set up to sit deep and play on the break - It worked well and we won the game. Against Chelsea a few weeks back there was no such set-up.
Just watched the news and it's not only Maureen losing his rag, looks like Arsene is getting annoyed with the press after questions about our CL defeat. Elite managers seem to think they are immune to criticism. They get paid a lot of money to manage top European teams that have a large fanbase and generate a great deal of money. Like any other employee of a company has to answer questions on failure, they have to also. Least the fans deserve an explanation!
