Morning all.
Happy birthday to Pat Rice and Lee Dixon. Pat is 66 years old today, Lee 51 – a mere whipper-snapper….
Last night Reading blew Bradford away with ease and next up for them is Arsenal in the semi-final at Wembley and they’ll want revenge for that 7-5 loss at the Mad Stad a couple of years ago. That was a great game for the neutral, tough for an Arsenal fan sitting with Reading fans all around me…..
Back to the heading, I mean it….
Run down his contract – yes.
Walk away at any time he chooses – yes to that as well.
But the sack – no! He doesn’t deserve it….
Perhaps talking about Arsene Wengers future today could be considered a strange topic but having seen how Sky Sports spent all day talking yesterday about the sacking of Gus Poyet, does any Arsenal fan really want Arsene Wenger to go through all that, just so Sky Sports can have a field day?
Some might, but not me…..
And just for the record, I really believe he and Arsenal are on the way up, regardless of tonight’s result…..
Tonight’s a funny old game really, win and our confidence will be boosted, lose and who knows what that might do to our Premier League, or top four place challenge…
Saying that, we’ve been good since we got hammered at home by Monaco.
Apparently, no club has ever turned around a three goal deficit away from home in the Champions League before and that’s exactly what we need tonight. A 3-0 victory, or any victory by three clear goals.
Arsenal face a monumental task, of that there is no doubt. Monaco don’t concede goals.
Per Mertesacker is ready for the challenge:
We feel very good, very positive. We have to cope with difficulties and criticism in our job, that is part of it, but we have a good chance to repair it.
We want to do better and make better decisions. We did something wrong [in the first leg], but can we learn from that and put another performance in? We need another performance and obviously it is not going to be easy, but we have to show a different face.
We have moved on and improved a lot, so that’s why we are very confident that, even away from home, we can beat any team in the world.
Olivier Giroud is too:
We were disappointed by the result [at Emirates Stadium] and obviously we have to bounce back and give everything.
We trust in our chance to go through and if we create as many chances as we did against West Ham, we can create hope.
We are on a really good run. I think we learned from our mistakes and we will go there with a lot of confidence but it will be a tough game.
It will be tough, I’d say almost impossible to get the result we need to go through but if we can, it’ll be a wonderful night for Arsenal FC and as Ollie said, all the players can do is create chances and when they come, make sure they bury them. And at the back and in midfield, focus, as a clean sheet is imperative…
Get out of the blocks fast, get at them from the moment the whistle blows and get goals. Lots of them. Hit them hard and fast from the off. Put them in a place where they feel uncomfortable and really cause their defence problems.
In football, you get the chance to come back, so let’s just give everything to do it – Arsène Wenger
Monaco did it to us, let’s go and do it to them…..
COYRRG’S!
Morning Rico, good read…
I will say lets sack AW an hour before the game and replace him with Harry the Geezer or Souness. 😉
Come on gooners; our midfield led by the boy wonder will do Kondogbia, Moutinho and Toulalon like he did against FC Hollywood 2 years ago…
Morning Ts, thanks and all..
Just done some pickled onions, i’m booing before the game… 😉
Talkshite quipped Bould was approached by Sunderland as a replacement for Poyet.. lol
ha ha ha… how many fans will you have in your sitting room …? 🙂
Rico you should do some pickled eggs….. beautiful!
Maybe in the summer Ts, Advocat is only there until the end of the season…
Lee, already have a big jar of pickled eggs – love them….
Brenda wants second place…. We really have to beat them at home….
Pickled eggs……….. No wonder Mrs Lee has his armchair outside on the patio….!
No comment on you Rico, you can always blame the chickens…..!
I blame the chickens for me having to pickle them Wath…
Rico quick question seeing that you re from reading 😀 : where does your loyalty lie 😀 :
Morning good people….
Good Rico, Ts and All.
Nice read Rico but I’d rather have Per and OG12 prove it on the pitch rather than talking. Let them leave the talking to us and we’ll do it for them all day long.
Brenda wants second place???? Hahaha he barely escaped last night. Swansea should have spanked them. Gomis went was definitely “goal missed last night. What a tool. Loserpoop ll qualify for the cl but at manure’s expense.
Good morning Rico, Ts and All
Goonie, it’s a tough one but Arsenal….
Rico 😀 :
Hi Ng, thanks – and you and me both. Talk is easy, doing it is another thing…
I won’t support Willem II over arsenal. it’s arsenal first then Willem 2nd.
Weird eh Goonster…
Hi Ng…
Goonie… its going to be 10 v 11. with Ozil scoring a scorcher…
Sasta la Le Padraig ar, Happy Patricks day all. I think we all know Wenger is unsackable and is with us for the foreseeable. Ive come to accept it now myself. But cant help feeling it was big,big opportunity this year to progress in this tournament, with Chelsea and City going out ,it could of been all the more sweeter.I was bitterly dissapointed that night, but hey that,s life. Our league form and F.A cup run is turning into a great season ending finale.so things ain,t all bad, its just a shame those games against Swansea and Stoke didn,t go our way. we could of actually been pushing Chelsea all the way to the title.
Me too! Arsenal first, by a long way but Orient second, somewhere on the horizon.
Good read Rico. I applaud your optimism that is tempered with reality. We may win but not by enough to make the tie swing our way! It will depend on hoe the venerable one, not the oldest manager in theEPl any more! That’ll upset him! But how will he set them up, defensively at first and then go for it from. Minute 66 on, with his first substitution? Or will he send them out in guns ho style? Go for it from the first second and play the principalities only team into the car park below?
Guns = gung Ipad thinks it knows best again. The clever dick got it wrong again. If it were me making so many errors I would be really embarrassed and review my position!!
Or is it me? I. Just too gung-ho!!
There gotcha, hahahahahaha
Dg, a happy Paddy’s day to you too.
Now then, I feel there is an air of over confidence here about the FA Cup, we haven’t beaten Reading yet, we should win that game fairly easily but…….there’s many a slip between Guinness and lip! Similarly the final. When we have won the final and then turned out the next year usually we have lost, not a happy thought! However, just making the final will be a praiseworthy achievement, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves too soon?
All teams can and will point to the might have beens through the playing season . Despite the emergence of Bellerin and to a point Chambers the inertia of the pre-season transfer window has been nibbling all season but now is getting close to having a real bite.
Good point Wavy, We of all supporters should know by now ,Not to get ahead of ourselves, which i don,t anymore with this club. just trying to be optimistic on an optimistic day. just cant see past an Arsenal v Pool final. to which would be a fantastic end of season finale,” providing we win of course”.
Yes Monaco have an enviable defensive record in the CL this season…
Only one goal conceded in the Group Stage…
The stats don’t lie…
Or do they???
If the recent Cricket World Cup taught us anything, it was that stats are useful, but it’s what you do on the field of play that counts.
Olivier Giroud had five excellent chances against Monaco…
On another day he probably would have scored two or three goałs…
So it is possible to score against this watertight Monaco defence.
But the stats won’t show that.
Even though we knoŵ that to be true!
Giroud won’t have another mare, like he had in the 1st Leg…
Monaco will play the same way, I reckon, but will they be as lucky, again?
It’s gonna take a monumental effort from this Arsenal team to overturn the monumental balls-up they made in the 1st Leg…
Happy St Patrick’s day Wavy, Micko, Dg and Bt…
Maybe AW will drop le Coq and play Ramsey as the DM.
Can we be the first team to score at Stade Louis this season?
Who knows what tonight will bring, Thats why we all love the game so much. Anything can happen. Chelsea went down 3-1 to Napoli in the 1st leg in 2012. Only to win the 2nd leg 4-1, and went on to win the champions league. all be it they played at home in the second leg, History is against us, but i feel we will know in the first 20 mins, if it,s going to be our night or not.We know we have goals in us, We just need things to go our way.
Dublin, the draws against Leicester and Hull would have seen us top, had we have done what we should have and won both….
Thanks Wavy, just can’t see us doing what’s required to be honest, but miracles do happen every now and again.
I hope Monaco are over confident and it backfires, a bit like us at The Emirates…
Jeez, how did we only draw those games, At least, for a change we seem to be taking advantage of Chelsea and City,s recent dips in form , all be it too late. Chelsea looking tired,with Hazard the only player of note playing well, and i dont know whats going on at city, but both teams are definitely looking over their shoulders now, We have Mourinho even stating, We are now contenders. We are definitely regretting those early season draws and defeats.
Nice post Rico, who knows what could happen tonight imo all the pressure is on monaco. … if we can manage to get in front ie 2-0 I think monaco will panic…. altho we don’t need to win by 3 clear goals… 4-2 til the gunners would do…
Kel- If AW decides to go with pace we will lose…; players like Theo, Ox or Welbz should not be anywhere near the starting XI imho
Jardim’s team have always struggled when teams are ready to be patient and move the ball left to right in midfield.
Carvalho struggles against players like Ramsey who run from deep; Toulalon will be earmarked to mark out Santi or Ozil tonight.2 yellows;
So far as AS17 plays like a team member and not hold on to the ball for too long we will cause their back 4 trouble.
Against Psg Motta and Rabiot kept things very simple in midfield and Monaco could not counter.
This is a night where possession football will count.
I’m not so sure tsgh, I think welbeck could get in and about them imo. .. Walcott I agree I personally wouldn’t start him but later in the game if we are in with a shout he could win is a pen or something….. i agree with Ramsey I think he could unlock them tonight. ..
Ur right tho possession based game tonight. … will frustrate them imo. i don’t know why but I think we could go close tonight. ..maybe I’m just being boisterous lol being Irish… lol
I dunno,I think the pressure is all on us to go and attack tonight. Monaco just have to do their job right, soak up an early onslaught of pressure from us, Defend as they have been all season then play their way into the game and catch us with a sucker punch on the break, saying that, an early goal from them would not mean so much as We,d still have to score 3 goals that could take the tie to extra-time. here,s hoping.
I hear what ur saying dublin, the reason I say I don’t think the pressure is on us is because we’re more or less out… imo we’ve nothing to lose… that’s just my take on it.
Agreed Dg re soak up the pressure. But if you watched Monaco vs Psg and the changes Blanc made you will realise Monaco’s weakness…
Imho, what our players have to do is take responsibility tonight and do a job that may not be their primary job…
We will definitely get chances tonight; it depends on if OG12 plays like Inzaghi or Rebrov;
Sanchez will offer his usual busy, tricky, bundle of perpetual motion but he can’t hold on to the ball for eternity like he does most times;
I like Welbz but I think in the first half we need to keep possession; Monaco like to pack the bus in 2 banks of 4 but like to sit deep and so you need players who are able to dribble in a telephone box. imo.
If Sege was fit this game would have suited him as he would be disciplined tactically but allow Bellerin to bomb forward .
In the first leg the chances OG12 got came from us stringing passes together and getting into the box whilst they scored their goals from us carelessly losing possession.
If Monreal can keep Silva quiet we will have a superb night.
Also this is the night Le Coq has to show he is a proper player imho…
In the first half he played like he had not even seen a UCL stadium in his life…
Kondogbia who had played less UCL than Le Coq and Rabinho who had not played CM before in the UCL bossed our midfield.
Of course Ozil was slated by the idiots such as Souness wrongly..
Talking of gnabry what happened to him. .. also pity the ox is injured also. … if it’s dribbling we need tonight tsgh then santi must be key. ..
Tbh tsgh the whole fuckin midfield was brutal at the Emirates… not just Le coq tbf
Kel- I think Santi will shine tonight…
AW’s predicament will be decide who he drops out of Le coq, Ozil, Ramsey. It depends on how Aw things the game will unfold. Does he go in for a quick goal and get sucker punched or allow Monaco to believe they have no pressure and make Monaco make errors as Monaco are not a possession team….
If I was AW I would start Santi in the no.6 role and get him to handle Silva or Martial in the hole; Toulalon is a solid player and has been underrated for over 10 years but at his age I think he will struggle against Ramsey’s engine tonight. If the right Ozil turns up Kondogbia will struggle imo.
Serge apparently had some issues with AW before his injury last season; he is back though but not match fit…
things=thinks*
Arteta is back as well but he won’t be ready…
tactically this is the type of game he is made for…
Maybe Aw will start Gabriel and push for a high back line
Kel in that sense your right, we have nothing to lose. tsgh, there is definitely signs, West ham game included that we have upped our passing game an extra level in the past few weeks, which is encouraging, and above all I really feel the Manager and the team are going into tonights game with a real belief that they can turn this tie around.
So much for a 30 minute dental appointment!
One hour ten mins later, I finally left the chair…..
Its all the gold you have in your mouth.. 😉
Don’t worry tomorrow is the new hip.
Totally opposite Ts, porcelain… 😉
Really Potter? That’s fab news – I wish you all the best and hope everything goes well….
Good luck Potter…..you can finally reignite your break dancing career!
Team: Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Welbeck, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud
subs: Szczesny, Gibbs, Gabriel, Chambers, Ramsey, Flamini, Walcott
Surprised to see Ramsey on the bench…
Good Evening Lovelies and Hunkies.
That is a good line up…..except I would have began Gaby in the line up. But I expect the expertise of Per is needed tonight.
Good read Lady.
Lee…..have you ever tried pickled quail eggs??? Simply superb. And with cocktail pickled onions.
Coach they sound delicious!
Thanks Devil..
Never tried a quail egg….
Rico they are lovely hard boiled and dipped celery salt…..
Lee, do they taste like chickens eggs?
Rico, more like quail’s eggs. 😉
Cheeky Lee 😉 😉
They are a pain in the Khyber to peel but are worth it……
Kev, a point of order on your 2.27pm……
The World Cup is only “recent” if you’re a pom.
For us Aussies, it’s the ” current” World Cup 🙂 🙂 🙂
Morning all.
A win is what we need, first and foremost.
I’ll take 1-0 just to keep the momentum going.
I think Adam prefers dodo’s eggs.
COYRRGS!!!!!!!!
Be a real effort to go through….
I might try them Lee….
Shite line up…
Because Ramsey us missing… Lol
Og12 goal
Strap yourselves in, here we GO!!!
Good lick with that Potter. I know a little, well quite a lot, third hand about hip replacements ! Years ago they weren’t too successful, my mum suffered for years with hers and the spouse is little better, however, they have made huge strides forwards in recent years I if you are lucky you may be in and out in no time at all! I wish you all the best and a mobile and pain free future.
As for Arsenal tonight I wish them the same, well leaving me pain free at the end of 90 minutes!!
I’m off behind the sofa…. 😉
Ts, OG 12, 3 goals! And none conceded
Midfield is porous
Of course they are delicious.
The only plate which will be more delicious than that will be qualification tonight. 😉
Lol wavy
Best stick with the quail eggs then Devil. lol
Blimey what a turn and shot by Kos. 😮
Seriously Rico….you should try them. They are similiar to chicken eggs….but the taste is slightly different.
Get in!!!!!
Yes…you beauty
GRODDDDD!!!
Right footer
Baaaaaaaaangggggggggggg
I will Devil..
That was bloody good from ollie….
One in two more to go!!
Lee, it’ll be 2-0 – one short as always…..
Bollox! Never!
That was a push on Alexis.
Allez
COYRRGS…..
What is shirt swapping all about, disgraceful…..
Shirt swapping at half time what the fuck is that?
Ozil wtf are you doing man?
Ditto Lee, Ozil is stupid..
Wenger will be livid… So will Ozils team mates!
So far so good…
Two goals 2nd half, none conceded.
Job done!
Kiwis for the Cricket World Cup…
You know what, get Ozil off and get Ramsey on, that shirt stuff stinks!
Santi is immense….Lord God in heaven this is the best I ve seen arsenal play in a while. Everyone is putting a shift in. Oh if only we didn’t concede thst third goal.
we need to keep a clean sheet and score two in the last ten minutes. otherwise we will have a good amount of pressure on us. Then again…….if we score three more it would be better.
the secret is not to let the foot off the gas
How are you Kev???
Take em if and when they come.
What a save…
We are lucky
Alexis is close to being off….
Book him for diving ?
Taking off Coquelin is a big big risk
Monaco are gonna catch us on the break…
Why don’t our players have a fcuking shot?
Come on Theo…big game player
Agree re Coquelin Kev..
Two goals Theo and we’ll love you!
Ozil!
Theo, ramsey – awesome…..
Boy wonder.
Initially I thought the same about Coquelin Rico and Kev. However i seem to sense that Monaco players are tiring and Coquelin would have been a liability in there. So Santi plays the Pivote now and let’s Aaron attack
and he scores
Credit to theo Ts….
oyyyyy we are 2-0 up mates
Five mins, COYRRGS
Is Theo playing???? i thought he was on instead of DW23. or has he been subbed again immediately????
Come on lads!
Kisser: beuchenbauer
Kisser.
Allez og12
It’s all a bloody fix!!
Same old…
Ox’s last minute error…
6 consecutive elimination at his stage
Said all along it would be 2-0… Not that I’m trying to sound like a know it all…..
just knew that last goal at home would haunt us….
Night all…
But what about Ox goal to give us hope Ts, you can’t lump the blame on him!
Ho hum!
Another glorious failure.
Ho hum!
Good performance from the boys, keeps the momentum going. .. The tie was lost 2 wks ago. .. time to move on now.
It is a fix Rico..
What was bono doing cheering on Monaco?
Not blaming Ox…just saying 3rd goal was too much…
Gutted, absolutely gutted. They gave everything. The best team went out tonight, but as the norm. we lost it in the first leg. If we,d of shown half the effort in the first leg as tonight, we wouldn,t of been in this situation.
Next season AW needs to try 3 at the back in the ucl.
Add Morgan S. in midfield then we will be there…
Positives…….no more energy sapping and injury provoking CL! We can now concentrate on winning the Double! (If we beat Reading) and don’t lose or draw any more of our remaining Epl games.
Win? Win?
Shame though I thought we had a good chance this year of reaching the CL Final, well we’re not now, but a shame.
The bloody chances we missed in both games we could have won six games.
How did Sanchez miss that header within the six yard box I think he needs a rest he’s not playing well at the moment.
Giroud got in his way Joe, Champions league tactics are different to other cup competitions we are better off drawing at home . We do not set up right , we need to keep it tight and play on the break at home instead of the gung- ho approach that lost this tie again.
We have 3 incompatible players , Ozil wants runners , Cazorla wants to give and go and Sanchez wants to run from deep. We are too stereotypical the last 10 minutes required urgency but we kept the same old restrained pattern until it was too late,
Did Walcott come on for Welbeck ? I thought he did.
Not sure that bringing on Theo actually helped?!
Santi was superb again, our best player imo.
A good team performance.
I thought that Monaco were lucky again.
If they only conceded one goal in their Group, then they must have been in an easy group…
We go to Newcastle now, replicate tonight’s performance up there and we’ll be ok…
Nah, Kev! Before he went off I reckon I’d give it to Le Coq again. He’s like that T.S. Eliot cat, the “hidden claw”. He was magnificant, again. He broke everything up when they came forward, they just didn’t get passed him, and I think he only gave the ball away twice. Pretty good really. But like the “claw” you don’t really notice what he does! Having said that they were all heroes really.
Ospina would be second, he never had a shot to save, so he performed perfectly! Lol.
Morning all.
Predictable outcome, pretty much everyone I spoke to pre-game said we’d win 2-0 and go out. Can’t fault last nights performance, we were excellent. Just makes the first leg all the more difficult to swallow, Monaco are not great, the better team are out.
Hardly progressing in Europe are we? 5th year on the bounce out at the same stage….
How the fuck did we lose to that shower of shite 3-1 at home?
Sanchez had a bad day at the office…. Onwards and upwards bring on the Geordies!
My Sentiments exactly Lee.
Naivety and lack of a game plan cost us again.
Morning Lewis, Lee and all..
Just writing the same in the post- we make the same mistake every year and lose it in the home tie. As Potter said last night, 0-0 at home would suit us better as we always play well away..
Strange really….
But at The Ems we had chances Lewis, had Ollie converted a few more he had, the tie would have been all but over – i’m not sure that this time the plan failed, just the performance by a few was off…
Still, all if’s and buts…
Giroud has been a good value for money signing BUT we need a world class striker to compete at the highest level. Another European ground hog season, why don’t we learn?
And that isn’t Sanogo or Campbell…..
All round good performance…
Ozil getting bagged again is laughable
Good Morning Lovelies and Hunkies
Another sweet and sour pill to swallow. Yes we did fine yesterday. A superb performance. But not enough. we are out once again.
some points to savour and ponder………….
1) The players and AW himself are to blame for the first leg debacle. AW with his gung ho tactics, while the players let themselves and everyone down. Just to remind you that none was given a mark superior to 5 in any player ratings.
2) Over two games Ollie had enough score chances to become the competition’s topscorer. Yet he bagged only one. Can we lay the blame on him? yes. but not fairly an squarely. Had he buried just two more chances the chances are we would have been through comfortably.
3) Gibbs and Bellerin are incompatible. Both are good players. Both can attack and defend. Both have a good level of speed. But to have them both in the team at the same time is not good. especially in the first leg.
4) Tactics. Tactics and more tactics. Why gung ho in the first leg? when we had to play over 180 minutes. Why not be cautious? why go and chase an equalizer when there is still the second leg and leave the backdoor open. That third goal was a killer and it should not have been allowed by the team.
4) Are we going to be happy with glorious defeats all the time?? This is not the first time in this competition. we have to find who is responsible for this situation.
5) Were Bayern, Bayern and Barcelona better off than Monaco in the same round of last 16 in the last three years? Over two legs? Imo a resounding NO. We outplayed them in the second leg. We even did the same to Milan. So based on that YES we have had good teams in the CL. Yet carelessness and maybe arrogance cost us.
Yesterday I agreed with removing Coquelin to replace him with Aaron. Simply because Francis was not needed during that particular time. His role was rendered inadequate against the tiring Monaco players.
I thought Ozil had a good second half and Sanchez was fairly dire all game, he was having lumps kicked out of him though….. all in all it’s getting fucking tedious this European gig!!
The only thing Ozil got wrong was swapping shirts at half-time. Tit!
Morning all.
We conceded three goals at home….that is not Girouds fault.
We missed a stack of opportunities…that’s not the defenders fault.
Wenger almost had the tactics right as we created so many chances but then again, we conceded too many, so almost wasn’t good enough.
This time we got it all right.
I’m just disappointed so many all over the net are spending more time focusing on the 1st leg performance.
We all saw it….we all knew we were up against it but as it stood, it was more important for us to win and play well so we could keep some momentum going.
Wenger must do something different in first leg ties, but that’s for next season to worry about…..credit to the lads for a super performance.
Yeah Scott I agree but it’s not like it’s the first time we fucked it in the first leg is it?? We never seem to learn do we?
Conceding that 94th minute goal in the first leg was our downfall….. amateurish from Arsenal.
Morning Rico and Lee. The 94th minute goal was indeed a killer.
Brudder what was your take on the lad’s performance last night from the sofa?
Morning Adam.
Sanchez is obviously having a bit of a rough time of it, learning to play with Ozil in this swift ball-moving midfield. The rest did pretty well I think but I agree that an injection of quality would be nice, particularly up front and wide. All teams make mistakes but we do seem to get heavily punished. After Ox scored to make it 2-1 in the home tie it is clear that we should have settled for that. That does however ignore the fact that the crowd was really urging the players on and they went for it but lost out. I do get a bit tired of the constant post-mortems over games where we blew it but would also say that on-field game management and the occasional dose of pragmatism would really help. Yes, we went out to an inferior team and we got a terrible ref in the away tie but we were shit in the home tie so I completely accept that we are not yet ready to dine at the CL high table, yet. Another couple of astute signings though and we could be.
Darren Bent?
Agreed, Adam.
We still lack one or two quality and proven players…guys who know how to win.
Lee, no question we keep making silly mistakes.
Agree too Adam which is why I truly believe Arsene Wenger has to sign them in the summer… If he does that, we will finally be in for the league title next season.
New post up now..