Sevilla V Arsenal - Tuesday November 27 - 7.45pm

[qs]

In fairness to Senderos I thought he was very good after he made the f*ck up for the first goal. He's been out a long time and was caught flat footed so I'll forgive him and put it down to a lack of match sharpness.

Gilberto was awful all game though. Defensively he did very little, he didn't shield the defense at all, with his expereince I'd have expected him to help out Traore a bit more. Traore got hammered though, really, really hopped off. Alves and Navas were way too much for him and I think playing a striker on the wing in front of him was a real tactical f*ck up, I suppose Wenger though Eduardo might be able to pin Alves down, he didn't. Its a good learning experience for Traore though, he still has the potential to be better than Clichy and Cole. Rosicky was really poor when he came on, didn't effect the game at all. So much for him being better in the centre, I never want to see him anywhere but the wing again.

Considering Eduardo was played out of position I thought he'd a good game. He was fairly involved and he took his goal well. He's so composed in front of goal. Bendtner was outstanding though. I think on current form he should be very close to taking Ades place, especially when Robin is back. His passing game is class, I never realised he could be so creative. Most off all he's a monster in the air though, he wins an unbelievable amount of balls and centre halfs must absolutely hate him. I'd love to see him get a run of games along side Robin, I think they'd be an amazing partnership.

Eboue had another good game as well, he was sh!t against Wigan but I think in the last 3 or 4 before that he's been really good. He's starting to grow into the role. Still a whingy b*llox but now its when he actually get its hit. I reckon he could become a really good winger.

As for not topping the group I don't mind that. We usually do better in Europe when we get big draws.

 

[clockwork orange]

Yep we do well against big teams and 2 seasons ago we reached the final despite having to play home first in the QF & SF.

I hate loosing, but yesterday was the best match for it. Hope we learned from it, 3 away EPL matches coming up.

 

[Clrnc]

this is the first time arsenal lose this season. if given a choice, would you prefer to lose here when there is no real incentives left other than top spot, or in the league and later in knockout stages?

imo, wenger was right in resting players. although our reserves can't match up to a rampant sevilla side, i saw many positives in this game. our first teamer can rest well and be prepared for later season so we will not suffer from many injuries and fatigue.

eduardo was outstanding in scoring that goal. its a goal only his kind of composure can score. bendtner's cross was superb as well. other than the first 15min, we were outplayed TOTALLY by sevilla. they did what we often did to many teams. kudos to sevilla, there aren't many teams in europe that can do that to us. i mean they could have scored so much more goals which they failed to take.

its been a long time since we have been totally outplayed by our opponent. sevilla is a good team and i would choose to lose against such a well played team than any others later on in the season.

eboue is improving in the wings position and i am glad to see that. but he should stop the antics tbh. traore can't defend and he needs to be converted a winger tbh. almunia is as shaky as ever, he is not very confident.

i feel sevilla put in a very committed performance. we should have no grudges against them, nor any arguments. i fully agree with toure and wenger that they deserved to win fully.

losing top spot might be crucial, as now we might face the likes of barcelona. think about positives, if we are going to win the CL, we will need to face big teams sooner or later. so no problem facing them earlier.

what i am a little worried about is when the first teamer comes back, will we lose our fluency?

 

[marco]

i think playing fabregas last night could be wengers biggest mistake since taken the guy off in the champions league final.

it was a nothing game and the thought t hat we might be missing him in the month ahead is very very scary..

we can say what we want about how wonderful the adebayors rvps and hlebs are but without fabregas in that midfield we are not title challengers simple as..

in terms of winning the group it means nothing. won the group last 2 years one year played psv the other year played real madrid.. so its a lottery either way..
as for home second im not sure its an advantage the chelsea game in 04 keeps coming back to me

 

[qs]

we can say what we want about how wonderful the adebayors rvps and hlebs are but without fabregas in that midfield we are not title challengers simple as..

If Robin and Hleb were fit losing Fab wouldn't be anywhere near as bad. Its the fact that without the 3 of them we have very little in the way of creativity.

If Fab is out the next 3 games will be a real slog and we'll need the much talked about character of the team to come to the fore. It wont be fancy, it wont be beautiful and it sure as hell wont be easy but if we could take 7 points from the next 3 I'd be very, very happy.

 

[Alfonso]

seriously which team do you fear the most?
milan is well past it, i dont think they can handle our pace

That's what people said last year and Milan ended up winning the CL. The fact that they are so experienced and have that proven record in the comp is their competitive advantage. They know when to raise it up when they have to.

If we were to finish second, I would rather face one of the two big Spanish clubs than one of the Milan sides. The Spanish sides are more flaky.

 

[qs]

seriously which team do you fear the most?
milan is well past it, i dont think they can handle our pace

That's what people said last year and Milan ended up winning the CL. The fact that they are so experienced and have that proven record in the comp is their competitive advantage. They know when to raise it up when they have to.

If we were to finish second, I would rather face one of the two big Spanish clubs than one of the Milan sides. The Spanish sides are more flaky.

United should have beat AC last season. They were by far the better side in the first leg. They can't handle the pace of the English teams, especially us. We can do that to them and then hold them to a draw away.

 

[vin de guerre]

I am not worried whether we finish first or second. Nor does it make me break out in a cold sweat having to play the first game at home. What keeps me up at night is praying that all our players are fighting fit and in form when the knock out stage comes round. Oh and sticking needles into voodoo dolls of every other player in the CL!

 

[entropy13]

seriously which team do you fear the most?
milan is well past it, i dont think they can handle our pace

That's what people said last year and Milan ended up winning the CL. The fact that they are so experienced and have that proven record in the comp is their competitive advantage. They know when to raise it up when they have to.

If we were to finish second, I would rather face one of the two big Spanish clubs than one of the Milan sides. The Spanish sides are more flaky.

Inter not "flaky"? They always do f**k all after the group stages.

 

[Alfonso]

Yep we do well against big teams and 2 seasons ago we reached the final despite having to play home first in the QF & SF.

I hate loosing, but yesterday was the best match for it. Hope we learned from it, 3 away EPL matches coming up.

Regardless of what occured in the past, its always best to top your group, so you have no regrets. Anyway, the Real Madrid side we faced was one of the worst Real Madrid sides of recent years. And Juve were not exactly great either. The current Real Madrid side is much tougher and the Juve equivalent of this year, Inter Milan, is a lot tougher as well.

It does not make any sense to me ppl saying playing Fenerbache is not that different to playing AC Milan. In the FA Cup, would you rather face Man Utd or Middlesbourgh? But lets see what happens, we could still finish first.

 

[Alfonso]

seriously which team do you fear the most?
milan is well past it, i dont think they can handle our pace

That's what people said last year and Milan ended up winning the CL. The fact that they are so experienced and have that proven record in the comp is their competitive advantage. They know when to raise it up when they have to.

If we were to finish second, I would rather face one of the two big Spanish clubs than one of the Milan sides. The Spanish sides are more flaky.

United should have beat AC last season. They were by far the better side in the first leg. They can't handle the pace of the English teams, especially us. We can do that to them and then hold them to a draw away.

Milan controlled the game at OT untill Gattuso got injured. Anyway, did you not see what Milan did to them in the second leg? When was the last time you saw Man Utd get destroyed like that?

Playing them away in the San Siro in a knock out stage is prob the toughest game in club football.

 

[qs]

Yep we do well against big teams and 2 seasons ago we reached the final despite having to play home first in the QF & SF.

I hate loosing, but yesterday was the best match for it. Hope we learned from it, 3 away EPL matches coming up.

Regardless of what occured in the past, its always best to top your group. Anyway, the Real Madrid side we faced was one of the worst Real Madrid sides of recent years. And Juve were not exactly great either. The current Real Madrid side is much tougher and the Juve equivalent of this year, Inter Milan, is a lot tougher as well.

It does not make any sense to me people saying playing Fenerbache is not that different to playing AC Milan. But lets see what happens, we could still finish first.

Well if we can't beat milan in the first knock out round we wont beat them in a quarter or a semi or a final.

And its easy to say AC will be tougher than Fener but I could say Porto are no better than Roma or Lazio. And if Fener don't qualify that tie suddenly becomes PSV, I'd rather play Inter or Real TBH.

 

[Alfonso]

Wenger took a gamble to give the youngsters experience and we ended up losing the game. You speak about playing our best side last night, what divine right do we have that we would have won if they we played our best side? What makes you think we wouldn't have lost anyways?

What did the youngsters actually learn last night? Playing a stronger side and increasing your chances of getting a point/win would have been more of a valuable experience. A good result in Sevilla would increase our momentum. One or two changes and we would have had a far better chance of getting a result last night. The defence was far too inexpeirenced, and Diarra should have started.

And whats with this "We'll finish second and f**k up our chances"? If we are good enough to win this competition then we will have to play the best teams eventually. We finished first in the 05/06 season and who did we get in the knockouts? Real Madrid, not some average pub side from Eastern Europe. if we want to win this comp we will need to beat the best sides whether its in the final or earlier stages.

Im pragmatic. I want us to win the CL. Porto won the CL without playing any 'big' teams remember.

You also talk about this "If we lose then we'll just keep on losing" like what we did last year against Blackburn and PSV. Thats because we were simply not good enough, especially mentally. If this team falters just because they lost to Seville then we are just simply not good enough, plain and simple. Not because Wenger decided to rest some players against Seville.

Tbh we should have played a strong team away to Prague, and then this result wouldnt have mattered as much. That was where Wenger ****ed up. But I dont understand why he did it? It was bordeling on arrogance to think a Carling Cup side can win away from home in Europe. Its best to finish top and then do your resting. If we beat Prague then he could have played as many Carling Cup players as he liked for the next two games. Also, its not just loosing that is bad, its the manor we got beat. It's not good for the confidence.

And what team will we play in the last game? If it is a strong side then all you can do is laugh.

Anyway, what is done is done. We could still finish first. And we will only find out the effects of his decisions and 'opportunity costs' of the last two CL games come Feb/March. Time to put this to bed and concentrate on Villa.

 

[qs]

Im pragmatic. I want us to win the CL. Porto won the CL without playing any 'big' teams remember.

Man Utd and Lyon.

 

[irishgoooner]

i think we,re better off getting a big team in the next round,as last season we got psv and thought we,d just turn up and win.in 2006 we played big teams,beat them and went all the way to the final.bring them on i say,when the real madrids,milans and barcelonas are watching the draw and see us as potential opponents they,ll ****e their pants if they get us.

fear no one,let them fear us :twisted:

revenge against barcelona has to come sometime,why not this season :evil:

 

[Macho]

Yep we do well against big teams and 2 seasons ago we reached the final despite having to play home first in the QF & SF.

I hate loosing, but yesterday was the best match for it. Hope we learned from it, 3 away EPL matches coming up.

Agreed.
No better time in my opinion. Sevilla are a good side, no shame there at all.
Kinda glad this whole unbeaten thing is nipped in the bud aswell. The added pressure of protecting an unbeaten run and comparisions to the invincibles won't do us much favours.

 

[Illusion]

Yep we do well against big teams and 2 seasons ago we reached the final despite having to play home first in the QF & SF.

I hate loosing, but yesterday was the best match for it. Hope we learned from it, 3 away EPL matches coming up.

Agreed.
No better time in my opinion. Sevilla are a good side, no shame there at all.
Kinda glad this whole unbeaten thing is nipped in the bud aswell. The added pressure of protecting an unbeaten run and comparisions to the invincibles won't do us much favours.

Although we are still comparable to the invincibles, since they went 49 games unbeaten in the league, and we are still unbeaten in the league

 

[Zico]

It's amazing how people can say that the team that won the Champions League last season is not a threat to Arsenal.

Another amazing opinion is that it does not matter whether you play a team like Milan in 2nd round or quarterfinal because you need to beat the good teams to win. Goodness! Two reasons why you want to exit as late as possible if you don't win the Champs League:
1 - UEFA Champions League Coefficient;
2 - TV money

 

[Clrnc]

i just finished watching the replay of the match.

sevilla was great because they did not give us a single space, they closed down all sectors. they have learnt they lesson from the first leg.

its no shame losing to such a great side. i also began to realise why everyone wanted alves

 

[Rohit]

Sevilla still have to go to Prague so its not over yet. I'd prefer us to finish first and play a relatively weaker team but we will have to face a big team sometime in the tournament, may be better pre quarters than quarters, we don't need to fear anyone.

All we need to do it beat Villa on Saturday and get back to winning ways, we've won in Europe before only to lose in the EPL, it doesn't matter, we'll have a different team out on Saturday and a different captain.