CL: Arsenal vs PSV Eindhoven | 14/09/04

[Isragooner]

You can't win the CL without controlling your opponets and playing an all attacking game..
arsenal were resting against PSV and if sol was playing it would feel much better because cygan is a clown.

Vieira was great,great tackling and sliding,he is coming back to shape,Reyes was poor because henry took over the left-flank,PSV played too fast for bergy.
Overall,PSV came to highbury only to defend (Forget that dutch-total-football crap),teams will come to highbury and will keep 9-8 players behind the ball,
they are scared of arsenal,and that's why arsenal do much better in away games.

In the CL you have to grind your way out to a win sometimes,and arsenal did just thay,with ease.

ive read some papers and no critics only "Got over psv Easily,sublime passing,Fluid Game..." yada yada yada..

 

[Jinn]

I guess the ghosts of Inter last season were weighing on the players' minds. Hopefully they can get their mentality together, because technically, our team can do it.

We have players like Cesc and Reyes who aren't used to the Arsenal losing in Europe mentality. Maybe they can give us added impetus.

 

[skart14]

3 points all athat matters....bring on bolton...

 

[KoLo28]

Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch the game, but by the sounds of things we dominated the 1st half and got a well deserved goal but as usual in the second half we sat back and let them attack us. In the past when we do this, we almost always used to conceed a goal. I think if we try to sit back against Inter, Barca, Milan or Madrid we will get hammered especially if they can utilise the lack of pace in Cygan(even though he's quality back up). Recently we've been more successful in sitting on our lead, which is a good thing but I fear that this tactic may haunt us further on in the competition.

Very happy with the 3 points

 

[Isragooner]

but as usual in the second half we sat back and let them attack us.

Well,they didn't really attack,the defence held really well,except cygan...
Sibon is a poor striker,and Vaselling of vancouver came on and had one Good chance (a mistake by cole,caught out of position..),but thats it..
there was panic in the last minute,but nothing like bolton and charlton at highbury last year...

 

[Evil Dragon]

Although our past two performances have been weak for our standards, we did something that we usually dont do when we play like that, WIN. Surely that must be an improvement? It would have been interesting to find out how fast Henry's volley and freekick were going, cause they looked powerful.

Insperational performance by Thierry, Vieira is getting better, and a nice Solid performance by Arsenal's most slated players, Gilberto and Lauren. Which followed on from another strong performance from another heavily slated player Freddie.

Things are on the up.

 

[Gurgen]

I thought we hung back far too much in the second half. I had some familiar Chelsea creeps about it, and to be quite honest I expected us to concede a goal. I can't believe we resorted to the same stupid tactics again, but then again on a day like this you just have to take the 3 points and shut up.

 

[siddharth]

Inspirational performance by Thierry, Vieira is getting better, and a nice Solid performance by Arsenal's most slated players, Gilberto and Lauren. Which followed on from another strong performance from another heavily slated player Freddie.

Things are on the up.

ljunberg didn't play yesterday.

 

[Double_H]

Guys The Thing is Friddie wasnt in the bench ...and in CL u need experment ....Reyes,DB and Pires were the worst in the team ....what do u expect ?!!!

The Defence was sold ....

the only thing i hated was when ash let the ball go behind him from Cygan's Pass ..
POOR CYGAN

 

[Gurgen]

Ash was caught day-dreaming twice.

Cygan actually had a decent game, except for the three times he was caught out of position in his usual embarassing way.

 

[kanuuu]

Was there actually anybody in the stadium? I think you could actually hear the players shouting in the second half!

 

[tbbosa]

The players were too nervous, you could see it on their faces before even the match started. The pressure of constantly coming short in Europe is playing on their minds, I believe its a mental thing more than anything.

Vieira was great, him, Lauren and Gilberto. I dont understand people saying he was off.

Cygan did relatively well. I too did not like Cole's reaction when Cygan passed him the ball. We do not need things like these for our team sprit.

Why in hell doesn't Reyes pass the ball more? when is he going to learn this?...he is a great player but his communication with fellow players am afraid is poor. He needs to pass the ball more often, that is the Arsenal way of playing. DB10 and Pires once again went missing.

Anyway 3 points will do...I believe we will do well in the next games!!

Proud to be a gooner!!!

 

[Sammer]

Heheh, just goes to show eh, Serip thought Gilberto was crap and Cygan our best player... didn't look like that to me!

3 points when playing poorly is not to be sneezed at. We will improve

I subsricbe to that.

There is a reason for Arsenal not having performed well in the past in the CL: there is no back-and-forth-attacking-play like in the EPL, which Arsenal is perfect for.
CL means, that you get to play (especially teams that play us) very cautious, toughly defending teams most of the time. Playing at highbury makes it even worse.

We need to find a tactical key for the different style of play in the CL as well as some confidence in our strengths to perform well in this tournament.

I am truely convinced, that this was nervous start in the CL...we will improve !

 

[KingReyes]

After match comments.

Vieira: We've learned from last season

Wenger's comments

 

[Jinn]

Thanks KingReyes.
I would rather see the positives in this, but not forget the negatives. We played far below our best, yet still won. That is something all great teams do.

 

[jeromelee]

True it is only our first match, but it's really difficult to describe how dissapointed I was with the way we placed last nite. At half time I switched over to the Barca game and also after our game I watch the Barca game and I can tell you now, if it was Barca against us yesterday we would've let in at least half a dozen goals. For the past couple of weeks many people were talking about how they'd cherish a game between us, but I tell you now, please hope we improve more in europe before hoping to meet Barca or we'd end up on our face.

Here's what I think and I don't care if the others don't share my views. These are the positive points I gathered from last nites match:

It was our first European game this season so we might've been a little shaky cause there was tremendous pressure place on us all thorough last season as well as during our break and even when this season started. So we looked nervy and disoriented.

Sol wasn't in the heart of our defense as he's still injured. He'll definitely strengthen our backline when he's fit and ready. He would form the pillar in our defense from which we could launch our scintillating attack.

Kolo made a couple of mistakes but probably cause Sol wasn't around to guide him or to cover him as he ventured upfront. Again, I'm sure we'll improve here when Sol's back to replace Cygan.

Lehmann had an outstanding game I feel as he marshalled the defense well and there were no real miscommunication incidents between him and his wall. I'm sure many know I must have thought he had a great game yesterday as I'm not really such a huge fan of his.

Titi was my MOTM. I feel he did try to lift the team all by himself at times. Probably to shut those who said he chokes in big games. I think he really tried to lead us forward but was really tightly marked.

Paddy finally looked stronger in midfield compared to the last game and tried to take control of the centre. A little of his usual flair in ball control and was even right up in the middle of goal a couple of times to provide support in attack. Seems to be warming up to the gooners game finally.

Gilberto was also one of the better players on the pitch wearing our red. Did some nice runs up to provide attacking options as well as defended deep when required.

Reyes had a good start to the game but somehow lost his positioning in the second half. Had a couple of nice runs and had a couple of shots on goal. Too bad he didn't get to add to his tally of goals. Was taken off appropriately I felt but bringing in Edu seemed a bad choice for me. I'd have rather brought in JP and pushed Pires back to the LM position as he wasn't really doing much in RM.

The rest didn't really impress me or made much of an impression on the game.

These are the negative points I gathered from last nites match:

We may claim to attack as a team and defend as a team last nite, but all I could see was that we really looked disjointed.

The game started off well, with us dominating play, giving each other an opportunity to touch the ball and testing the PSV. A couple of neat passes saw us nearly take the lead a couple of times with shots from Reyes and Henry. We took a lucky goal but I felt we thoroughly deserved it at that point as we were proving to be what we always seemed to be.....champions. We controlled the game, although PSV closed the door in our face, we probed and probed often. And then the second half started. And all hell broke loose.

IMHO, I felt it all started with Cygan. I'm definitely not a professional footballer but I have played competitively for my school, high school, college, university and even till today I play a few times a week so I do have some idea of how the game of football is. Anyone who plays football long enough knows how the game can be. One minute one side can dominate only for the other side to take charge a while later. Its a momentum game. A team under siege will slowly lose their shape and confidence and start conceding silly mistakes.

You could see that at first we looked so confident. Making nice passes here and there, cleaning up where we lost the ball etc. But if you scrutinize the game, you'd notice that Cygan was really making silly mistakes. He was caught out of position a few times. And there were a number of crosses that just seemed to float over him eventhough he looked like he got it covered. But at the start we managed to clean this up. But as the second half progressed and he continued making a mockery of the arsenal jersey, you could tell the team seemed to lose confidence. We daren't move forward as we used to. True you could say that AW may have instructed the team to play deep in our own half and not attack at pace. That's where my own football experience comes in. Any of you of played football will know what I'm talking about. You could see the players slowly hesitating. More players started making mistakes. Like a domino effect. And the team slowly crumbled. As we did last season in the CL and FA cup. You could practically feel the fear in the team. Even seasoned players like Ash and Bergy and Kolo who almost never have a bad game seemed to be losing the plot. And more and more players start making more mistakes. Again I repeat like a domino effect. And I believe it all started from Cygan. His mistakes made the team hesitant. His mistakes made the team shaky and worried. Suddenly we were fighting for our lives. Against a team with the might of Sibon or Park Ji Soon in attack???? What the f*ck I ask you???? How the hell could any one think Cygan had a good game???? He was f*cking up so many times, missing so many easy interceptions, running out of position, practically playing like a true dumb*ss. Trust me, when a defensive wall slowly crumbles, the whole team crumbles. It creates a sense of fear in the players. They can't play their usual game because they're suddenly thinking too much. You can see Ash getting out of position so many times trying to cover Cygan while he never does if Sol was there. If it was Deco, or Ronnie, or Larsson we'd have been creamed. We'd be creamed so damn badly that it'll take us some time to recover from it.

I just hope that eventually, when Sol slowly returns to the game, we can feel a little more sense of relief. I don't want to have to hold my breath each time a long ball floats harmlessly towards our backline. Cygan, if you're reading this, please fake and injury and excuse yourself from further humiliating us and giving the opposition hope. Manure was so successful in the past because they practically bled confidence. After 5 games this season it seemed as though we were headed there although defensively I still felt the opponents knew they could just nick a couple of goals past us. But if any opponent was watching us last nite, they'd definitely won't be fearing us as much as before last nites game. Hope you Bolton boys were sleeping last nite.

 

[tbbosa]

True it is only our first match, but it's really difficult to describe how dissapointed I was with the way we placed last nite. At half time I switched over to the Barca game and also after our game I watch the Barca game and I can tell you now, if it was Barca against us yesterday we would've let in at least half a dozen goals. For the past couple of weeks many people were talking about how they'd cherish a game between us, but I tell you now, please hope we improve more in europe before hoping to meet Barca or we'd end up on our face.

Here's what I think and I don't care if the others don't share my views. These are the positive points I gathered from last nites match:

It was our first European game this season so we might've been a little shaky cause there was tremendous pressure place on us all thorough last season as well as during our break and even when this season started. So we looked nervy and disoriented.

Sol wasn't in the heart of our defense as he's still injured. He'll definitely strengthen our backline when he's fit and ready. He would form the pillar in our defense from which we could launch our scintillating attack.

Kolo made a couple of mistakes but probably cause Sol wasn't around to guide him or to cover him as he ventured upfront. Again, I'm sure we'll improve here when Sol's back to replace Cygan.

Lehmann had an outstanding game I feel as he marshalled the defense well and there were no real miscommunication incidents between him and his wall. I'm sure many know I must have thought he had a great game yesterday as I'm not really such a huge fan of his.

Titi was my MOTM. I feel he did try to lift the team all by himself at times. Probably to shut those who said he chokes in big games. I think he really tried to lead us forward but was really tightly marked.

Paddy finally looked stronger in midfield compared to the last game and tried to take control of the centre. A little of his usual flair in ball control and was even right up in the middle of goal a couple of times to provide support in attack. Seems to be warming up to the gooners game finally.

Gilberto was also one of the better players on the pitch wearing our red. Did some nice runs up to provide attacking options as well as defended deep when required.

Reyes had a good start to the game but somehow lost his positioning in the second half. Had a couple of nice runs and had a couple of shots on goal. Too bad he didn't get to add to his tally of goals. Was taken off appropriately I felt but bringing in Edu seemed a bad choice for me. I'd have rather brought in JP and pushed Pires back to the LM position as he wasn't really doing much in RM.

The rest didn't really impress me or made much of an impression on the game.

These are the negative points I gathered from last nites match:

We may claim to attack as a team and defend as a team last nite, but all I could see was that we really looked disjointed.

The game started off well, with us dominating play, giving each other an opportunity to touch the ball and testing the PSV. A couple of neat passes saw us nearly take the lead a couple of times with shots from Reyes and Henry. We took a lucky goal but I felt we thoroughly deserved it at that point as we were proving to be what we always seemed to be.....champions. We controlled the game, although PSV closed the door in our face, we probed and probed often. And then the second half started. And all hell broke loose.

IMHO, I felt it all started with Cygan. I'm definitely not a professional footballer but I have played competitively for my school, high school, college, university and even till today I play a few times a week so I do have some idea of how the game of football is. Anyone who plays football long enough knows how the game can be. One minute one side can dominate only for the other side to take charge a while later. Its a momentum game. A team under siege will slowly lose their shape and confidence and start conceding silly mistakes.

You could see that at first we looked so confident. Making nice passes here and there, cleaning up where we lost the ball etc. But if you scrutinize the game, you'd notice that Cygan was really making silly mistakes. He was caught out of position a few times. And there were a number of crosses that just seemed to float over him eventhough he looked like he got it covered. But at the start we managed to clean this up. But as the second half progressed and he continued making a mockery of the arsenal jersey, you could tell the team seemed to lose confidence. We daren't move forward as we used to. True you could say that AW may have instructed the team to play deep in our own half and not attack at pace. That's where my own football experience comes in. Any of you of played football will know what I'm talking about. You could see the players slowly hesitating. More players started making mistakes. Like a domino effect. And the team slowly crumbled. As we did last season in the CL and FA cup. You could practically feel the fear in the team. Even seasoned players like Ash and Bergy and Kolo who almost never have a bad game seemed to be losing the plot. And more and more players start making more mistakes. Again I repeat like a domino effect. And I believe it all started from Cygan. His mistakes made the team hesitant. His mistakes made the team shaky and worried. Suddenly we were fighting for our lives. Against a team with the might of Sibon or Park Ji Soon in attack???? What the f*ck I ask you???? How the hell could any one think Cygan had a good game???? He was f*cking up so many times, missing so many easy interceptions, running out of position, practically playing like a true dumb*ss. Trust me, when a defensive wall slowly crumbles, the whole team crumbles. It creates a sense of fear in the players. They can't play their usual game because they're suddenly thinking too much. You can see Ash getting out of position so many times trying to cover Cygan while he never does if Sol was there. If it was Deco, or Ronnie, or Larsson we'd have been creamed. We'd be creamed so damn badly that it'll take us some time to recover from it.

I just hope that eventually, when Sol slowly returns to the game, we can feel a little more sense of relief. I don't want to have to hold my breath each time a long ball floats harmlessly towards our backline. Cygan, if you're reading this, please fake and injury and excuse yourself from further humiliating us and giving the opposition hope. Manure was so successful in the past because they practically bled confidence. After 5 games this season it seemed as though we were headed there although defensively I still felt the opponents knew they could just nick a couple of goals past us. But if any opponent was watching us last nite, they'd definitely won't be fearing us as much as before last nites game. Hope you Bolton boys were sleeping last nite.

Thank you for being so negative...as ussual!!!
Excatly that is what we need to win and succed ..thank you.

 

[Soler]

I'm just pleased that we didn't replicate last year.

 

[Aussie]

Well im very happy with the result. Sure i would have like to turn it on however 1-0 to the Arsenal. Just like the good old days. Off to a good start.

 

[slapz]

We won and thats all that matters. We can have a bad performance here or there and still win the game. Dont want us to peak too soon