CL: Arsenal v Barcelona - 23/02/16, 19:45

[General]

Also anyone who thinks we shouldn't bother at the Nou Camp is having a laugh. It's a mountain to climb but a bad result could easily have a knock on effect on our season. I'm sure Wenger will take the game seriously and give it a go. Don't forget Pique will also be suspended and I think this Barca defence can ship a few goals. We've won our last 3away games in the last 16 I think so nothing is impossible.

 

[ChampagneFootball]

Did anybody notice after the 1st goal Messi scored how we progressively begun to push men forward and how that resulted in us being more exposed when it came to the transition? Where is the logic in that?

It's a single away goal, carry on as you had been, hold tight, and hopefully you get to the Camp Nou an away goal down with us still to play the away leg where anything could happen.

Instead we keep on pushing men forward resulting in us conceding the 2nd away goal which essentially extinguished what little chance we would have had in the 2nd leg.

Chasing the win at 0-0 at the expense of defending properly was utterly naive and their first was so undoubtedly predictable. I was losing my head when we started to attack more and more because I could see it coming. How could we not? It's happened year on year during Wenger's reign. Our priority should have been to keep their score to 0. A win to zero is dreamland of course, but not necessary.

This throwing everyone forward against the best team in the world in order to score is not how you play the first leg in two legged football. It's simply stupidity and will cost us time and time again in the CL.

 

[AVENTUS]

To be honest Barcelona "got rid" of Alexis (and also Fabregas) because he never performed at very important games, as a Barca fan we never questioned his commitment but most of the time he used to run like a headless chicken, i thought he would improve with Arsenal by not having the pressure/obligation of being the striker on a team that must fight for the UCL trophy every season, seems like he didn't change that much.

It's crazy to think Alexis was a Barcelona throw away yet so important for Arsenal. Shows you the difference in the quality of the sides.

I envy your success and just hope you know how lucky you are maybe one day Arsenal could be as big and successful as Barcelona

 

[sammyvine]

It's crazy to think Alexis was a Barcelona throw away yet so important for Arsenal. Shows you the difference in the quality of the sides.

I envy your success and just hope you know how lucky you are maybe one day Arsenal could be as big and successful as Barcelona

they got rid of him for neymar right or was it for suarez?

no offense to alexis but their front 3 looks much better than it was when he was playing alongside messi.

 

[Jasard]

https://streamable.com/9kv6

Hate them, wankers.

 

[Ceballinhos]

In the end we lost because of lack of quality upfront. Our technique has been very poor.

We were great in defence till we decided to kill ourselves at the en of the game.
I thought Barcelona were really poor yesterday, we make them look so compared to what they're able to achieve.

But upfront we're terrible. It's as simple as that. Modern football relies on great attack.
We beat a much better barcelona with Eboué, Clichy, Chesney, Djourou.
But we had up front Nasri RVP. Wilshere was so much better than Ramsey yesterday.
When we needed to score a goal Rosicky & Arshavin came on. This time, Walcott & Flamini came on. That's the difference.

Think back at 2011 game at the Emirates.
Now replace Nasri by Ox for our 2nd goal! As much as I hate Nasri he did that night the perfect run, great technique, everything was perfect.
When Ox had a similar situation he just ran straight to mascherano ffs.

Remember RVP's goal. And now put Giroud in the exact same situation. He wouldn't have scored.

That's just the sad truth. Our attacking players are poor. Nowhere near CL level except Alexis & Özil. But they can't do anything by themselves in such huge games.

As much as I love & respect Giroud, he did everything he could yesterday.
But we need a modern striker. Not even top class. but a more complete CF. A guy who can make runs. who can go past defenders. Who can provoke Piqué & Busquets.
Giroud isn't good enough with his feet. He's too slow. I'm not talking about running like walcott. But at this level you need to react very fast. A perfect 1st touch. Be able when you're back to the goal to face it very fast. be able to dribble your opponent.

Frustrating game. We looked so close to win this game & so so far from it at the same time.

(sorry for my english I'm french lol).

 

[Jazz]

Did anybody notice after the 1st goal Messi scored how we progressively begun to push men forward and how that resulted in us being more exposed when it came to the transition? Where is the logic in that?

It's a single away goal, carry on as you had been, hold tight, and hopefully you get to the Camp Nou an away goal down with us still to play the away leg where anything could happen.

Instead we keep on pushing men forward resulting in us conceding the 2nd away goal which essentially extinguished what little chance we would have had in the 2nd leg.

Word for word what I said we must not do before the game. Defense is always more important than attack at home with this dumb away goals rule. 0-1 is not that bad. Just need to score once in spain and it's level pegging again. We just let our emotion get the better of us, felt we should have scored (especially after we conceded) and like typical niave Arsenal we went for the attack vs a team with MSN, lol.

 

[celestis]

I had no hopes before the match, but was positively surprised with the first half performance. We were disciplined and seemed to be executing a game plan which was a nice change. Both Ox and Giroud contributed defensively and I think the goalless draw was possible. However at no point we were competing with Barca as equals. It was more like a bottom half la Liga team being able to steal a point of Barca occasionally. I can't understand why obviously unfit Ox was kept on the field and more so why was he not substituted with Campbell. The moment I saw Flamini I knew we were fooked. At the end we did not shame ourselves which is a pretty sad thing to be satisfied about with this once great team.

I remember being the 1998-2004 side being stuffed in Europe by various teams including Depo . Fair enough you had no hopes but the level of the full squad is even higher than what we showed last night . As it is we should have scored at least two last night .

 

[Tourbillion]

Barcelona were absolutely rubbish. Not even 50% as good as the previous times we played them.

We were superb defensively for 70 minutes, and I'm delighted we have such a solid foundation as Bellerin, Kos, Nacho and Cech on which to build.

We do need to replace Mertesacker, though.

The rest of the team? A different story. Our midfield without Cazorla/Wilshere (and the latter is just unreliable, as much as I think he's world class and simply brilliant) is just abominable. Ramsey's pathetic technique and composure belongs at Everton.

Up front? I've been depressed for 4 years now. Giroud, Ox/Walcott, even ****ing Sanchez with his braindeaditis right now. It's just not even close to good enough. Any of it. We need a MASSIVE revamp up front.

I'm fed up of the lack of quality.

 

[TriniGunner]

Chasing the win at 0-0 at the expense of defending properly was utterly naive and their first was so undoubtedly predictable. I was losing my head when we started to attack more and more because I could see it coming. How could we not? It's happened year on year during Wenger's reign. Our priority should have been to keep their score to 0. A win to zero is dreamland of course, but not necessary.

This throwing everyone forward against the best team in the world in order to score is not how you play the first leg in two legged football. It's simply stupidity and will cost us time and time again in the CL.

This is what upsets me the most about our loss. We were 70+ mins executing a game-plan which went to shreds in 20 minutes. What kind of management is that?! We're playing Barcelona and at no time did anyone expect us to have more of the ball. At the end of the day we paid the price for being naive, indisciplined and not having a proper striker. The chances we got in the 1st half were just criminal to miss at that level of the game.

 

[A_G]

Becoming a familiar sight in these big games.

 

[Tourbillion]

I remember being the 1998-2004 side being stuffed in Europe by various teams including Depo . Fair enough you had no hopes but the level of the full squad is even higher than what we showed last night . As it is we should have scored at least two last night .

We used to lose to teams like Deportivo regularly because the foreign clubs were much smarter tactically - even more so than they are today.

I remember we used to attack dangerously through Henry, Pires, Vieira, Bergkamp et al in those games but not score and then concede to really smart, sneaky play from those teams. I remember they used to target a young Cashley a lot back then, too.

 

[Vibra]

****ing Santi, come back already

 

[Tourbillion]

Becoming a familiar sight in these big games.

* as ****. ****ing ******.

 

[samshere]

Becoming a familiar sight in these big games.

LOL... That's the way Wenger teams attack. It was the first period of sustained possession that we had that half and it led to the goal. Lose the ball deep in opponents half and concede goal in 30 seconds is the story of Wenger's second stint.

 

[albakos]

Becoming a familiar sight in these big games.

Another angle of this siatuation.

I was furious on Koscielny on why the hell he didn't foul Suarez.
FFS, think tactically for once ! Take a yellow for the team and prevent a very obvious counter.

It looked like Wenger was equally shocked to see the same naivety occur right in front of his eyes as he was quite animated on the touchline

 

[Rex Stone]

I think that was the only time we went completely all out on them.

Wenger looked really pissed off!

 

[Vinci]

No one cares about Messi, **** that card waving ****.

 

[The_Playmaker]

Becoming a familiar sight in these big games.

This is why I really believe we lack preparation tactically. We have barely pressed all season. We don't actually know how. It is why Sp**s are much better than us defensively. They know how to press. They are coached how to do so.

Everyone still blame Mertesacker and Flamini for the goal. They do make errors, but they are not the reason why Barcelona get into the position they do.

I ask those of you who think its down to Flamini and Mertesackers error to watch from the 79th minute. After Welbeck runs the ball off for a goal kick Barcelona get into position to take a goal kick. We have three players on the outside of the box lined up like idiots. Sanchez left, Özil in the middle, Welbeck right. This is to prevent the ball going to the split centre halves. Fine, but what is Özil doing? During the entire match he only needs to mark one man and that is Busquets. But he was no where near him. That is the managers fault.

They then play the ball into midfield where Walcott is dragged infield. It gets moved up to Suarez who is fouled by Koscielny. At this point in time our earlier stupidity with our pathetic attempt to press is not a problem. Why? Because the game has stopped. It's 1-0. We have no reason to be switching off as 1-0 isn't that bad of a score. However, we have our back four in place. Some of them not even facing the right way. Flamini Ramsey central and Walcott just getting back into position.

We then do something which I can't understand. It is why these players are not winners. They don't try to win at all costs. They don't pay attention to detail due to the manager. They do worse than Sunday league football and they get paid millions.

Monreal gives the ball to Flamini who just flicks it to Suarez who then takes a quick free kick to Messi on the right. The Barcelona players are alert. They want to score. At this point we have our back four and 3 midfielders. Where is Sanchez? Walking back. He isn't even jogging. We have left the best player in the world with time and space at a set piece. Let that sink in. I'm angry at Sanchez for not tracking back, which he didn't do all game by the way. I'm angry at Monreal and Flamini for giving them the ball to take the damn free kick. However moSt of all I am angry at Wenger. The players have been like this for years under him. Even the invincibles did this.

There is no way they should have taken that kick quickly. We should have easily held the ball and let our players get into shape to deal with them. If they scored from that point, fair enough, but we do not give ourselves a chance.

And ps. We don't bounce back from losses with wins. We play for draws. Those who think we will go to Old Trafford to give a backlash are mistaken.

 

[MaraDon]

Another angle of this siatuation.

I was furious on Koscielny on why the hell he didn't foul Suarez.
FFS, think tactically for once ! Take a yellow for the team and prevent a very obvious counter.

It looked like Wenger was equally shocked to see the same naivety occur right in front of his eyes as he was quite animated on the touchline

fault neymar, cut the transition, get a yellow card, avoid the goal.
But no, we are the Arsenal, we play fair.