Morning all.
Did you expect that? I did, kind of, but I didn’t think we’d concede five!
With our list of walking wounded, made worse by Bellerin and Koscielny joining it, things were always going to be tricky on a night when Bayern wanted revenge in front of their home fans.
Scoring five goals in a game is nothing new for the German club but it hurts when it’s Arsenal conceding them, especially the way in which we conceded them. We just weren’t a match for Bayern and the defensive display we witnessed two weeks ago was nowhere to be seen.
I guess sometimes one just has to admit that the opposition was better, much better. Their squad is littered with stars, the depth and strength is incredible and as Bayern brought Robben and Arturo Vidal on from the bench, Wenger sent on Alex Iwobi, Kieran Gibbs and Calum Chambers…. Says it all really doesn’t it?
Our squad depth/strength has been an issue for years now, but most of us know that and we knew it was only a matter of when, not if, the lack of outfield players signed in the summer, would bite Arsene Wenger on his backside.
The chances of us progressing are now slim to none as Olympiacos beat Zagreb last night, a game we could have done with being a draw but to be honest, even if by some miracle we manage to win our last two fixtures, and score at hat full against the Greeks, we don’t really deserve to go any further in this competition.
I’m not going to bother going through the game, what’s the point? It was painful enough to watch, let alone relive…
The biggest concern is how the players now react. Will they be able to pick themselves up in time for the North London Derby on Sunday, a game which matters so much to every Arsenal fan?
I hope so….
That’s it for Thursday….
Has anyone noticed how BT sport are very anti Arsenal but sky very pro Arsenal? strange imo but last night was not a night to be worried about 10 first team players out and all with pace and quality it’s a shame but we’ll get through and then get knocked out in the qrt’s if we’re lucky, unless we get stronger squad players in Jan
Can’t stand the pundits on BT, especially for the PL matches…
Owen Hargreaves had me believing we were playing against Gods rather than men last night with his incessant nonsense about how incredible BM were and how they really should have won the game at the Emirates. He must be keel hauled immediately.
It’s a good job that Pep is so useless though. I bet he couldn’t win the CL with Scunthorpe.
Owen Hargreaves is an irritating little shit.
Isn’t he just. And Owen!
Quiet here today…
Good post rico must be tough writing it after results like that…
but then again 5-1 Liverpool… 6-3 city, 8-2 utd, 6-0 Chelsea… I suppose you have experience lol…
I expected to be beaten tbh I honestly thought we had no chance due to the injuries, but it was the manner in which we got beat is truly embarrassing for a club like Arsenal.
Now I know why Arsenal was 13/2 in the betting.
🙂 Kel, that made me laugh….
What can we do rico other than laugh. 🙂 What about this europa league then as much as I don’t care about it, I don’t fear it at all regarding more games etc.. most of the boys will be back from injury and will need playing time.
Of course we could still qualify for CL, I just doubt it.
What really cheeses me off about last night, other than the performance is why when we are getting spanked anyway, did AW leave Santi, Ozil, Cazorla on the pitch, or Coquelin?
The irony is, Roma and Szczesny will probably go further in the CL than Arsenal…
Laugh or cry Kel… 😉
Last thing we need is Sunday/Thursday. I’d rather finish bottom…
The Europa League…
Adam and I will go on a European tour following the boys to the arse end of the world and beyond.
I’ve always fancied visiting Trabzonspor…
3-0 down at HT rico and wenger still made no changes ffs we needed to think about damage limitation at that point Gibbs for Alexis should have been done at that time imo.
I’d rather finish bottom myself, but that ain’t gonna happen we will beat zagreb and that will more or less guarantee 3rd… at that point we might as well go all out to do the Greeks.
Back to work for me, Have a good day guys stay away from newsnow it’ll only depress ya.. 🙂
Afternoon Rico and the house.
Europa League football would be a disaster. we didn’t build a state of the art stadium to play in shit tournaments.
No depression here Kel just an acceptance of the position we not only found ourselves in but suspected that we would. We are still a team that put on the back foot early are likely to implode badly. Last night 2 or 3 players played for personal pride the others wilted and died , strangely the three were the “” big “” players in the team . Ozil, Sanchez and Cech. This is the standard we have to aspire to , we still need two or three more then we can carry the better of the rest .
Don’t be surprised to see Bayern put out a weakened team and draw with Olympiakos
Bayern have got a lot more “big” players in their team than us….
Good afternoon HH’ers
Good post Rico.
While like Kel said, we expected to get beaten , the manner was pathetic.
Team selection was wrong for me.
I would have played no offensive players whatsover and parked the bus. 2-0 would be a respectable defeat.
He should have picked: debuchy Mert Gabriel and monreal, with chambers in front of debuchy. Coquelin infront of BFG, Flamini infront of Gabriel and Gibbs infront of Monreal. Then picked 2 really raw youngsters like Kamara and O Connor to run around like headless chickens snapping at them and toe punting the ball into far corners, just for the hell of frustrating the fkrs.
I would have enjoyed watching them banging their heads against the 10 defenders.
Bayern will put strong team versus Olympiakos. they want to be 1st in the group and they have their pround to defend.
In normal way, we can win Dinamo and Bayern can win Olympiakos. Then we must win in Greece with a better score then they won in emirates. Very difficult. Moreover, they have a Portuguese coach.
Good words Rico…
There was a time in yesterday’s match when Sanchez was so disappointed and stopped running, just stand in the middle of the pitch and watched the ball… I think it was 70 mins then… That should have been a clue to Wenger that the game is over and take off Alexis to put some one else on…
Sometimes Wenger is either truly believe and trust the players will turn the game around or too optimistic to expect too much from the players to turn the game around when we’re 4 goals down and there is only 20/15 mins in the clock…
This quality of Wenger is something to Love… But our clouded disappointment of losing a game don’t let us see him for what he truly is trying to do there…
Evening all,
Football is becomingso predictable now; only 13% of games in which a team has scored the first goal has gone on to lose in the EPL over the last 2.5 seasons…
In the UCL its under 8%…
AW should have known we could not afford to conceded the first goal. I would have started with Flamini and le coq myself to frustrate BM. He tried to o toe to toe when pound to pound FC Bavaria are far superior to us…
You know you got problems when your keeper has more touches than his team mates in the first 45 minutes !!!
It was like a training session for the Germans last nite, don’t think they’ll let up in their next two games either, it’s not in their dna, Xabi Alonso’s corner was the only highlight for me, never seen a player kick a corner flag before….classic.
Evening all.
Evening all..
A few injuries for the Totts would be most welcome tonight….
Micko, good thing is they play the Greeks next and they’ll want top spot. No resting players for that one, although and eleven they field would win…
12.40 Kel, spot on.
Where’s Tai today I wonder, he was so sure we’d not lose….. He must be dreadfully disappointed…..
George, in hindsight, we should have played the under 21’s, shame they were busy…. Lol
Yesterday game prove that Debuchy and Campbell haven’t class for this level.
If was a quarter-final game, with 2-0 in the pocket the final score was 3-5 for Bayern…
We must concern if we want to go through the CL, go to the Europe League or finish our season in Europe. I think we must try harder to go through for every reasons.
Out of Europe, sure we haven’t new players n January.
It’s time to think in next game.
Thr rigth side without Bellerin-Walcott/Ox and be Debuchy/Campbell is completely different and much more weaker
If AW wants the PL Jm, he must sign one or two players in Jan….
What we need is players with the quality Walcott, Aaron, Tommy and Jack possess that STOP GETTING BLOODY INJURED.
MORNING ALL.
Maybe we do have decent squad depth, but the fact we have so many guys who have lengthy injury issues every single season means we look thinner than we actually are.
The worse thing is some of them keep getting pay rises once they string 4 or 5 games together.
Based on what?
Potential?
Past glories?
Unless they can give us 30 games plus a season, piss them off.
JM, do Olympiakos dive and cheat a lot, especially at home?
Where’s our depth though Scott? After the first 12/14 players, the rest are sub-standard….
AW doesn’t do a squad bigger than 17 deep…
If true, what a fool he is Ts!
Night all….
Evening all.
Had a long and tiring day so this is short.
Ginge there is a lot of talk about our squad size, do you know just how big the B/M squad is and are they restricted to the stupid 25man rule.
Kev are you going on Sun I hope so we always seem to win when you go
Night all
Hi Rico…
I was only being brave. No team survives such decimation by injuries against Bayern at the Allianz Arena…not even Barca. But I never expected such battering.
Without Bellerin and Koscielny our defense is reduced to half-strength.
But I hope they pick up and subdue Spurs on Sunday.
Sorry Rick, I’m not going Sunday mate…
I’ll be up North, at a wedding…
Wish I was as I think we’ll stuff ’em…
Gabriel will have many better days than he had in Germany, it wasn’t his day, it happens…
But the Scum are right up his street…
If he plays, I reckon he’ll do well…
Bollocks! All that proved is Campbell is not good enough and Debuchy still looks a shadow of the player we bought. It looked a game to much for several players. Santi and Alexis in particular, both looked worryingly knackered. Still, once Bellerin was announced injured I think we all knew the game was up, the loss of Kos was the nail in our coffin. We should have subbed Santi and Alexis at halftime, there was no way we could seriously expect to get anything at that point and it would have been better to rest our 2 stars for Spuds IMO. All will be forgotten as long as we get 3 points this weekend.
Morning lads, and rico.
Missing yesterday due to manic loss depression of bayern thumping humiliation.
Hi Allan, greetings. Interesting comment of yours above.
I wonder if anyone here have an analysis data of how come that our nit so far away ANNUAL PLAYER TOTAL WAGES nearly 190m quids if not mistaken with the mighty bayern so sniffed FRAUD.
I heard that ours not so high in personal star wages per week, but we have social wage structure that so many average players overpaid from range 50k – 140 k.
It’s disturbing if just near bayern total annual wage structure, but they have the depth even from the bench that they even can field 2 strong first eleven.
Is there a fraud in finance?
Please anyone care to explain?
Wenger relies on Walcott, Wilshere,Welbeck,Arteta,Rosicky, Ramsey and Chamberlain they all have pathetic injury records.
I don’t advocate getting shot of them all but surely some of these sick notes need replacing with more robust players?
Bayern’s wage bill is less than ours apparently, FFS that if true needs seriously addressing!
Morning All
Rosicky given all clear to start training again.
Interesting to see that Bayern paid some £50m in total to sign Costa, Comon and Vidal…
I’m sure that Arsenal could have afforded£50m…
Morning Rico and all. We had BM executives visiting Arsenal many times last season and our money men spent a long time over there too. I heard we were basing our business model on theirs. But that club seem to be able to spirit money from nowhere whereas we like to run huge bank balances because it makes our management feel good. They have massive ambition, as does their manager. We are somewhat more conservative in this respect. They are football men who treat their supporters with something approaching respect and we have money men with little time for the fans.
Morning Orf, Lee, Kev, Allan, Adam and all…
What a miserable morning it is too…
Welbeck is an odd one, I don’t think he was injured very often at Utd yet as soon as he gets to us, he suffers…
Just heard that Walcotgs injury may take longer to mend…
How can a calf strain take two months to heal ffs..?
Kev, doesn’t that prove that Arsenal don’t have to spend £200m to turn us into a top top side. The just need to be smarter, a lot smarter….
Deep joy! Didn’t see that coming eh…
Morning Rico…
Welbeck, I’d forgotten about him…
£16m to knock ManUre out of the FACup!
Apparently Arsenal had several bids for players last summer, but we aren’t aggressive enough, and most clubs don’t wanna do business on the 31st August…
It’s about time the club/manager acted more professionally in the arena of transfers.
Adam, Arsenal clearly learned nothing from the experience…
Oh I don’t know Rico. The Emirates is (almost) full most games and they have a fortune in the bank. It’s lucky they don’t have Pep though. He’d spend it for them but I bet he couldn’t take Colchester FC to the CL final.
Wasn’t like that in David Deans day was it. Does make one wonder where the problem is amongst the club when it comes to signing players…
Yet they have proved when signing Alexis, Cech and even Ozil, that they can get transfers done. After all, Ozil was wrapped up in hours rather than months…
Adam, but they didn’t learn how to be ruthless in the transfer window and sign the right players, nor have they learned how to treat the fans with respect etc…
And I agree, Pep couldn’t take Colchester FC to the CL final as he wouldn’t have lots of money to spend… 😉
Wenger has his favourites and won’t upset the apple cart by buying players to displace them……the squad needs an overhaul, in fact it needed one in the summer!
It’ll be interesting to see whether Pep signs a contract extension at Bayern…
I’d say the squads needed an overhaul for the last 6/7 years…
Pep said he gets bored after 4yrs….. doesn’t fit the Arsenal plan, methinks!
Looks like he’ll be be on the move then this summer.
Perhaps Arsenal will make a move, could be a good thing that any new manager doesn’t want to hang around for twenty years…
Many would like to see him replace AW, but as so often the case, many don’t…
I’d like to see Pep at Arsenal…
I’m undecided really, but history would suggest he’d get a top squad in place and get us back to winning ways.
In many ways I’m looking forward to when AW goes because then we’ll finally get to see whether he really is the one who refuses to spend money…. Kroenke will have to give any new manager a lot of money for his own signings..
But if they want Pep, surely AW has to go next summer…
New post up now..
Rico, that’s when we’ll know for certain, that is true…
Although it does depend on the kind of manager the club appoints when Wenger leaves, possibly in three years time…
Remi Garde???