While Arsenal were very poor, I don't myself think that Man City, Man U, Tottenham or Chelsea would have fared much better at the San Siro last night. Milan were fantastic and if they can maintain that form I think they are well capable of dethroning Barcelona. (1) Like many English fans, until last night I had never actually seen a performance from Ibrahimovic that would justify the superlatives frequently used to describe him. His record speaks for itself, but when I've seen him in the past, "lazy", "disinterested", "selfish" seemed the most appropriate adjectives. Last night he produced one of the most complete individual performances I can remember seeing (and at the risk of touching a few raw nerves, one that should lay to rest for ever the idea that, in the modern game, the No.9's place is central, in the penalty box -- cf Milan's second goal, created by Ibrahimovich taking possession on the left touchline). (2) Arsenal never got going because, like City against Swansea, Milan pressed them high up the pitch. Instead of dropping off and defending deep in the familiar "continental" way, for three quarters of the game they denied Arsenal the freedom to build from the back into midfield, and kept the Arsenal back line pinned close to their own penalty area. On top of that, Milan instantly surrounded the player with the ball, cutting off the passing options. I have never seen Arsenal give away possession with such regularity. It was only in the last twenty minutes when Milan began to tire that Arsenal were able to put any passages of play together. (3) Even when Milan were forced to defend deep, their discipline was impeccable. The BBC commentators were making the usual "three passes too many" criticism of Arsenal around the Milan penalty box. Truth is, Milan skilfully cut off the passing options forcing Arsenal to keep playing sideways passes. When Arsenal did get the ball into the box, from the occasional cross but mostly from corners, the Milan defence was rock solid. Van Persie was limited to two real strikes on goal, both late in the game. (4) Wenger will no doubt get a lot of flack for not putting Oxlaid-Chamberlain on sooner. But the truth is that when he did come on, he was no more effective than Walcott had been; both were neutered by the disciplined Milan defence. Arsenal fans are in no mood to accept excuses, and Wenger to his credit didn't offer any. But the fact is that they went into this tie with a back line containing three players (Sagna, Vermaelen, Gibbs) only just returned from long term injury and well short of full match fitness, a midfield deprived of players of the quality of Fabregas, Nasri and Wilshere, and a front line missing the left-side probing of Gervinho. It's no surprise to me that they were trounced by a Milan side who got everything right on the night. Robbie
I think another case in point is, when Clarence Seedorf went off injured so early in the game, it made absolutely no difference to Milan's passage of play! A superb all round performance from a very good team!
i tend to disagree robbie. as well as milan played, and i do think they played well, i do not think they are a great team. their front three were excellent but arsenal were absolutely dreadful at the back! milan are a pretty average team at the moment and it amazed me how they tore the gooners apart seemingly at will. i expected arsenal to go there and get a result but their approach was negative and uninspiring. milan have so many weaknesses yet you'd never have known it from that 90 minutes. milan pressed them high and you are right that this made them a force but they are very weak down the flanks, yet arsenal didn't use the flanks - admittedly the pitch was awful out wide but milan coped with it better than arsenal. in my opinion, as soon as milan face either barca or madrid, they will get beaten. mind you, the same could be said of most teams in europe!
Here am I trying to comfort myself Superman and you come along and rub salt in my wounds . The proof of the pudding will be in how things pan out in the latter stages.
I too though Milan were good not great. Plus they've already lost to Barce this champions league and were 7 point behind them in the group.
it reminded me a bit of the sunderland vs norwich game a few weeks ago. if you'd only watched that one match you'd think norwich are crap and sunderland are world beaters. in actual fact, it was one team playing at the top of their game and the other failing to turn up!
Well put! I rarely look at the league tables of the Spanish and Italian leagues and I was very surprised to see Real Madrid 10 points ahead of Barcelona and AC Milan at the top of the Italian league. Last time I had looked, admittedly last season at the latest Barcelona were dominating the Spanish league and Inter were doing very well in the Italian league with AC Milan struggling to get a Champions League spot. But then you could probably say the same for the Premier League. Man City 4th last season to being top this season and Chelsea dropping down to 4th.
this is the one that worrys me most. if wenger goes, PL may be the sort of manager arsenal board would be prepared to take a gamble on. does things in a similar way to wenger, brings in untried players and improves them (though it's doubtful wenger is doing this anymore, wallcott is worse now than he was at 17 ).
@Bath-Canary. I didn't mean to imply in my OP that I thought Milan were "a great side". What I meant was that, as their manager later said, they were faultless on the night, and that if they were able to maintain that level of performance in later rounds they were capable of winning the competition. The fact that they didn't push Barcelona in the group stages doesn't really matter IMO; competitions are won in the later stages, not the "qualifiers"! @Superman. Yes, the similarity to the Sunderland--Norwich game was not lost on me. It will be interesting to see how Arsenal respond tomorrow. I'd like to think that Sunderland will be swept away, as Chelsea were after Arsenal's thrashing by Man U. We know how the Canaries react to a bad perormance; what about the Gunners? We'll see.
well i'm afraid i can't stand wenger so i'll be cheering for a sunderland win. it'll also give us a better chance of getting further without arsenal being in the draw
I cannot understand the mentality of Wenger when he goes to play an Italian team with an Italian coach in Italy. You cannot let them dictate or dominate the game from the off and I thought Wengers team smacked of hope rather than a clear mission. You cannot go away anymore and play for a draw or low scoring loss. To play Robin Van Persie on his own up front against a defence that can afford Nesta on the bench and to not stretch them with much width, (Walcott was an attempt but awful), played into Milans wish to narrow midfield and allow their fairly flambuoyant front runners to exploit the channels. Ramsey was the main support for RVP in the first half and his control is from the Steve Morison school of football skills (no offence Steve). And the Milan defenders just ate it all up. PS: Andy Townsend made me laugh when he suggested Arsenal shouldn't chase the game after going one down as they might get a hammering!
