Match reaction v Bayern

[Ollie the Optimist]

awful from ozil, shocking from the ref. the penalty was right, but bayern should have been down to ten men before that and he bottled it. proud of the team. Koscienly is an outstanding player. didn't deserve to be on the losing side. bayern deserved the win but for all the money in football, when will we get decent refs? all of them are shocking. not biased either, just shocking for every side.


we weren't going to win the game or the tie, but we got a performance to be proud of. gutting at the end but proud of the team and the fans. superb stuff from them.

Up the Arsenal

[GP]

Frustrating. It's particularly hard to take because we were deprived of the opportunity of competing.

We were the better side in the 1st half and should have made it count. We had 10 players really up for it and fighting for the cause, and then there's Ozil. If he's not motivated for this, he won't be motivated for anything.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Oh well.

[Niall_Quinn]

Cunt ref wasn't up to the big stage, or he was aid. One or the other. Swung the game 100% in their favour. Rotten blind cunts in the studio don't seem to see anything bar our red. Ignoring theirs, like the shit ref. these decisions make all the difference.

Ozil,not good enough. Nor Cazorla.

Monreal is a massive liability.

Rest of the lads did what they could. Better team before the ref changed the rules. Hung on well against an overhyped Bayern after that.

[selassie]

Sighs.....

All things considered we did very well tonight, I felt we were the better team up until around half an hour, then Bayern started to put us under pressure which resulted in Chez's red and the Pen.

Really frustrating, because there was only going to be one winner once we were down to ten men. Shame we couldn't keep it down to 1-0 but to be fair, we defended very well 2nd half.

[Marc Overmars]

Disappointing result obviously, but I thought we gave a better account of ourselves than last year at least. If Ozil had any bollocks we would have been right in this tie, now it's going to take a minor miracle to get through. Why an earth did Wenger leave him on in this type of scenario? Surely you want a bit of pace and energy to ease the pressure.

Anyway, bollocks to the CL. I'm not going to dwell on it, we were beaten by a far superior side. Hopefully we actually bother to win our groups in the future so don't have to endure this sobering defeat every season.

We've got a good chance in a cup and still have everything to play for in the league. Lets go Gunners.

[Darknight02]

There's no doubt to my mind that referees really seem to favor European sides. I mean how can you not even send off the Bayern player.

There's no doubt. If we have a fully fit Ramsey and Walcott this Bayern team were absolutely there for the taking.

Glad to see Per really up and motivated and really not giving up the fight. Because these lads can take heart from this performance to the League and FA Cup.

Away tie is a lottery. But Wenger now must focus their minds on the league and FA Cup. We are in with such a great chance this year for the trophies. They really need to focus and get this in.

PS - Wenger, please bid for Toni Kroos. What a player he is.

[gunnerrrrr]

Wenger out.

This club needs a new manager, fresh blood.

Otherwise its the same old shit.... great to okay against average teams..get tested/beat by decent teams and generally fucked by the best teams.

Awful awful management to play a kid up front, not take off the worst player on the pitch (Ozil) and generally going back to Jan/last summer, buy a world class striker who was actually available eg Higuain.

[Gooner23]

Per just gave a great interview, absolute gent. Club captain next season for sure

Very proud of the boys tonight, just didn't go our way. Can't complain about the pen and red, but the rule is crazy. Heart break with the 2nd goal.

As for Robben, vile player. So greedy. Kroos is quality though.

[Ollie the Optimist]

with 11 men, have to say Sanogo stood out. first two starts for him in two of our biggest games he gave a very good account of himself. some dodgy touches in the box but outside it, he really has shown some wonderful stuff. that take, control and pass to the Ox today was superb. very raw player but clearly a lot of potential, offers a better option then bendtner and giroud has to fight for his place back. a good talent

[Özim]

Good effort by us, but ultimately beaten by a better side, I expected to lose this tie so I'm not too downbeat.

Chesney's was a red and he saved us a goal by taking him out (they missed the penalty), but after that we understandably couldn't compete.

As far as being "deprived of the opportunity of competing", we weren't.

[gunnerrrrr]

with 11 men, have to say Sanogo stood out. first two starts for him in two of our biggest games he gave a very good account of himself. some dodgy touches in the box but outside it, he really has shown some wonderful stuff. that take, control and pass to the Ox today was superb. very raw player but clearly a lot of potential, offers a better option then bendtner and giroud has to fight for his place back. a good talent

Sanogo stood out? Are you serious? So this is what it has come too.

From watching Bergkamp, Henry, Wright...hell even Adebayor and RVP.....we now believe runnig around like a useless chicken makes you stand out?

[Chippy]

Frustrating. It's particularly hard to take because we were deprived of the opportunity of competing.

We were the better side in the 1st half and should have made it count. We had 10 players really up for it and fighting for the cause, and then there's Ozil. If he's not motivated for this, he won't be motivated for anything.
Really proud of the boys tonight, but thanks to the referee and Ozil, we are almost out of the CL for this season. Why can't Ozil be arsed? 42m FFS :(

[Marc Overmars]

with 11 men, have to say Sanogo stood out. first two starts for him in two of our biggest games he gave a very good account of himself. some dodgy touches in the box but outside it, he really has shown some wonderful stuff. that take, control and pass to the Ox today was superb. very raw player but clearly a lot of potential, offers a better option then bendtner and giroud has to fight for his place back. a good talent

He looks like a complete amateur but it's quite endearing because he also a bit of ability.

[Özim]

He looks like a complete amateur but it's quite endearing because he also a bit of ability.

Thought he did OK early on, he's barely played so based on that got to give him some credit, certainly a better option than Giroud as we have more pace up front with him and are more direct. Top class striker might have put some chances away though, a must buy in the summer.

[selassie]

He looks like a complete amateur but it's quite endearing because he also a bit of ability.

Kind of reminds me of Ade when he first came here. I see a lot of potential in Sanogo but it's criminal that he was our starting forward out there tonight.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Good effort by us, but ultimately beaten by a better side, I expected to lose this tie so I'm not too downbeat.

Chesney's was a red and he saved us a goal by taking him out (they missed the penalty), but after that we understandably couldn't compete.

As far as being "deprived of the opportunity of competing", we weren't.

we were when the ref bottled sending off boetang for a second yellow before our red. I really don't think Szcezney is a red card, the ball had gone away from robben, a penalty for sure, but not sure its a red. yellow would do.

and that cunt neuer kicking sanogo in his follow through (which is fine) but going down as if sanogo kicked him and got him booked. ref was appalling and did deny us a chance but we did well. didn't expect a win, we all want the league or fa cup so gutted but as you say not to downbeat. this side beat barca 7-0 last season, europes best and we did well. if the ref got all the big calls right, then who knows but he did deny us a chance

[Master Splinter]

Excellent start. Had enough chances to take the lead. Ozil killed the momentum. Then the match was ruined after Szczesny was sent off.

Can't expect to do much against one of the best teams in the world with ten men, a depleted team and a passenger like Ozil.

We showed we can match them in the opening stages, but 0-2 is a difficult scoreline to overturn at any time. And now we have more injuries and suspensions.

Can't fault most of the team though.

As long as this doesn't affect the PL run-in, we should be fine.

[RomfordPele]

They need to sort out the double punishment rule for fouls by goalkeepers. Award a goal if need be, but don't effectively end the tie after 35 minutes when a goalie has legitimately gone for the ball.

Massively disappointed as we were genuinely competitive at 11v11 and could have got a good result even coming from a goal behind.

Kroos's finish though was fucking special. What a player.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Sanogo stood out? Are you serious? So this is what it has come too.

From watching Bergkamp, Henry, Wright...hell even Adebayor and RVP.....we now believe runnig around like a useless chicken makes you stand out?


except he hasn't just run around like a useless chicken has he? he played a key part in our first goal v liverpool and had some very good touches and passes at the start of the game that made him stand out. if you want to be angry and not give any praise to anyone then fine, but sanogo has made a good start. very raw, especially in the box but there is clearly some talent there and he is showing it. lots of work to be done, but he's done ok.

[Özim]

we were when the ref bottled sending off boetang for a second yellow before our red. I really don't think Szcezney is a red card, the ball had gone away from robben, a penalty for sure, but not sure its a red. yellow would do.

and that cunt neuer kicking sanogo in his follow through (which is fine) but going down as if sanogo kicked him and got him booked. ref was appalling and did deny us a chance but we did well. didn't expect a win, we all want the league or fa cup so gutted but as you say not to downbeat. this side beat barca 7-0 last season, europes best and we did well. if the ref got all the big calls right, then who knows but he did deny us a chance

On the sending off's/non sending off's I don't agree. Chesney took him out, Robben's touch was brilliant and he would have scored IMO, the rules say that's red.

Would need to look at Boateng, but noone has complained about that, not even Wenger in his interview.

Wenger said we made big mistakes, we had the chances to be well ahead and missed them, the penalty was a big blow and the sending off killed us.

Great effort by us but in the end I think we just missed our chances when they were there, sh*t happens as I said didn't expect us to go through.

[Munchies]

Ozil is a fraud

We need Cesc back


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSlPhlSNBxA

[KSE Comedy Club]

Once upon a time

Wenger left podolski on the bench.

Again.

The end.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Once upon a time

Wenger left podolski on the bench.

Again.

The end.

bringing podolski on today would have been stupid. rosicky was clearly needed as he gives the team pace and energy. it didn't work today, but podolski isn't great at tracking back, would have left us exposed and as we saw, we barely had any chances. you can't blame arsine for not bringing him on today

[selassie]

Once upon a time

Wenger left podolski on the bench.

Again.

The end.

He'll be gone in the summer. The fact that Wenger prefers Gnabry, OX then Sanogo over him tells us all we need to know.

[BOBN]

Hope we dont pretend weve got a chance in the second leg and rest players. Important set if games around the second leg.

12% of possession in the second half :haha:

[Gooner23]

Once upon a time

Wenger left podolski on the bench.

Again.

The end.

He didn't really have much choice in the end with the way the match panned out. Pod needs to start next game though.

I don't think there's much debate about the red, unless the rules change that will always be a sending off.

[BOBN]

Once upon a time

Wenger left podolski on the bench.

Again.

The end.
Hes shyt, get over it. Another Wenger flop buy.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

I'm gutted tbh. Won't even bother throwing blame at anyone. Just an unfortunate series of events which knocked the wind out of our sails.

Oh well, I reckon that's it for the CL this season. Smart thing to do now is to channel our energy at the only trophy I think we have a realistic chance of winning this season, the FA Cup, whilst making sure we finish in a CL spot.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

On the sending off's/non sending off's I don't agree. Chesney took him out, Robben's touch was brilliant and he would have scored IMO, the rules say that's red.

Would need to look at Boateng, but noone has complained about that, not even Wenger in his interview.

Wenger said we made big mistakes, we had the chances to be well ahead and missed them, the penalty was a big blow and the sending off killed us.

Great effort by us but in the end I think we just missed our chances when they were there, sh*t happens as I said didn't expect us to go through.

I disagree that Robben would have scored. His touch was terrible and the ball was clearly heading for a goal kick.

He's always a chav, and I wish Szczesny had actually properly taken him out, snapping his leg like a twig and all.

[Letters]

I'm gutted tbh. Won't even bother throwing blame at anyone. Just an unfortunate series of events which knocked the wind out of our sails.

Oh well, I reckon that's it for the CL this season. Smart thing to do now is to channel our energy at the only trophy I think we have a realistic chance of winning this season, the FA Cup, whilst making sure we finish in a CL spot.

:gp:

[RomfordPele]

I'm gutted tbh. Won't even bother throwing blame at anyone. Just an unfortunate series of events which knocked the wind out of our sails.

Oh well, I reckon that's it for the CL this season. Smart thing to do now is to channel our energy at the only trophy I think we have a realistic chance of winning this season, the FA Cup, whilst making sure we finish in a CL spot.

That would be the sensible thing to do.

What I suspect Wenger will actually do is go hell for leather at bayern so our first team is knackered for the cup game against Everton.

He wants the champions league and only sees fa cup as a nice to have. For me though, it's by far our best chance of a trophy this season and something we should actively prioritise.

[Özim]

I disagree that Robben would have scored. His touch was terrible and the ball was clearly heading for a goal kick.

He's always a chav, and I wish Szczesny had actually properly taken him out, snapping his leg like a twig and all.

They replayed it on Sky quite a few time and to be honest his touch was very deft, IMO he would have scored that, but we'll never know for sure.

:lol: He might be a former chav but he's still one of Bayern's main threats, thought he gave us a lot of problems tonight.

[Niall_Quinn]

What is this bizarre shit on sky now the footie as finished. Some woman who allegedly knows something about sport is chatting shit with a bunch of old buffers. This is what happens when I don't smash my TV after a bad result.

[Munchies]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg3s20_CcAAfeDX.png

Ches just put this out. That look.

[Niall_Quinn]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg3s20_CcAAfeDX.png

Ches just put this out. That look.

He should have jammed two fingers down that wop bastards eye sockets, maybe it would help him see better.

[Ollie the Optimist]

They replayed it on Sky quite a few time and to be honest his touch was very deft, IMO he would have scored that, but we'll never know for sure.

:lol: He might be a former chav but he's still one of Bayern's main threats, thought he gave us a lot of problems tonight.

his touch his deft but the ball does go quite far away. no arguing its a penalty, but i don't think you can say 100% he is in control of the ball and therefore will score and because of him not being 100% in control, while it might be an opportunity it is not a clear goalscoring opportunity.

when you look at our penalty, Ozil would have had a shot on goal or a clear pass to sanogo for a tap in and that is a clear goalscoring opportunity. if szcesney is a red then the bayern penalty is also a red.

[Marc Overmars]

Syn had the right idea for chucking this tbh.

Play a full 2nd string in Munich. They'll probably do ok anyway.

I won't forgive Wenger if he tinkers with the cup team and we fail to progress there.

[Munchies]

Flamini having a go at Ozil,vid
https://vine.co/v/MZpnJj0vL9F

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg3ulAQCYAAfW65.jpg

:lol:

[Özim]

Flamini having a go at Ozil,vid
https://vine.co/v/MZpnJj0vL9F

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg3ulAQCYAAfW65.jpg

:lol:

Flamini was ball watching for the 2nd goal so he can f*ck off tbh.

[RomfordPele]

his touch his deft but the ball does go quite far away. no arguing its a penalty, but i don't think you can say 100% he is in control of the ball and therefore will score and because of him not being 100% in control, while it might be an opportunity it is not a clear goalscoring opportunity.

when you look at our penalty, Ozil would have had a shot on goal or a clear pass to sanogo for a tap in and that is a clear goalscoring opportunity. if szcesney is a red then the bayern penalty is also a red.

Yep, but technically there was a defender who could get across to ozil so by letter of the law not red. But the law, as they say, is an ass.

Bigger talking point was the blatant second yellow for boateng - amazing nobody mentioning it. Pep and Wenger being very respectful to each other - is guardiola after the arsenal job down the line? *clutches straws massively

[Ollie the Optimist]

got to laugh at those headlines. we've blown it city were unlucky and plucky underdogs despite producing a worse performance :lol:


oh and spending 500 million too

[Munchies]

got to laugh at those headlines. we've blown it city were unlucky and plucky underdogs despite producing a worse performance :lol:


oh and spending 500 million too

Pretty much lol.

I said it before the game in the thread, for all of City's millions, they got trounced by Barca. Bayern are far better than Barca, and we played fairly well until the red card. Wasn't expecting to go through, but all I wanted was a good performance from them , and most did produce it.

[Munchies]

oh and RObben is a cunt

[milla]

Flamini was ball watching for the 2nd goal so he can f*ck off tbh.

If you watch the game from the stand, you could forgive Flamini, he was doing a lot of left back work from the KO. Ozil is lazy and he just doesn't take criticism so will.

[Munchies]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg3wqmBCQAAeskQ.jpg

OH WOW

:haha:

[Letters]

You are shitting me. Is that really tomorrow's back page?
The media can fuck right off tbh

[Munchies]

That fat, halifax man lookalike wrote that headline.

What a fucking idiot.

-
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-on-red-card-penalties-and-ozil

Press conf vid and transcript

[RomfordPele]

Wow. That's all I can say. Wow.

The media REALLY hate us, don't they. Nice hatchet job on chesney too - that'll be good for another two or three matches from uefa (who are equally never slow to lay into us).

Fuck em all. Let's hope it generates a bit of fire in the squad to shove it down their throats come the end of the season.

[Niall_Quinn]

Big sigh of relief for the cunts in the media. Some great distractions from the real story which is how big a prick Maureen is. But we all know about the special relationship that has developed in that particular sewer. Corrupt euro refs who apply polar rules depending on the team will not get a mention, I suppose.

Good for Ches calling that ref a wanker. A bit mild for my tastes but still true. Somebody needed to say it. Yes, the corrupt queers at UEFA will be forced to act. An Arsenal goalie tells the truth - ban and fine. A queer, child molesting negro steals millions - carpet, brush, ban Wilshere. Fuck UEFA and the skanky whore they rode in on.

[RomfordPele]

Oh and the sun lead on it being Wenger's 100th red for added impact

Chesney is stupid, but is it really the job of the British media to attempt to hobble a British club's chances by acting as uefa'a disciplinary committee?

Fucking joke. We should ban these arseholes from our press conferences - ole red nose had the right idea.

[GP]

That's what I don't understand. Fergie and mourinho are utter arseholes, and the press lap it up. Wenger is nothing but respectful and they can't wait to stick the knife in. Fuck 'em, Siege mentality needed now.

[KSE Comedy Club]

bringing podolski on today would have been stupid. rosicky was clearly needed as he gives the team pace and energy. it didn't work today, but podolski isn't great at tracking back, would have left us exposed and as we saw, we barely had any chances. you can't blame arsine for not bringing him on today

I don't blame him for not bringing him on.

I blame him for starting him. Very likely it would have been him taking the penalty.

[JonasTC]

Wish our manager would show some balls and ban those media outlets who are that disrespectful. Shouldnt the english media be on english teams side? Writting about no red for Boateng, Robben spitting on Sagna, Robben diving, etc?

[Fist of Lehmann]

Well that was a bollocks.

FFs don't let Ozil take pels. Had a sinking feeling when I saw it was him. He stepped up, fair enough, maybe everyone else pussies out, but he shouldn't take them. He's not good at them.
Goals change games. In big games you absolutely cannot afford not to miss those.

Gibbs injury was a real kick in the sack as well, Monreal does not convince.
Hope he's is not out for long.

Everyone else did what they could, no blame attached there.

[Niall_Quinn]

The trouble is, fat, drunk, incompetent ambulance and celebrity chasers who enjoy pawing little girls and vomiting after their 12th pint on the job - or sports journos if you prefer - would have been very offended by that gesture. Shocked probably. And think of the little children who avoided being petted by Martin Samuel and instead managed to watch the game. Think of the children. In between the respectable wars and slaughter, the cunt in your face 12 cert video games and before the watershed, tasteful tits and arse toilet TV, imagine them being subjected to a gesture like that.

I would throw the book at Ches. It's the only thing that book is good for. Certainly they don't use it to apply the rules of sport or read up on what it really takes to be a proper journalist.

[bunsco]

That's what I don't understand. Fergie and mourinho are utter arseholes, and the press lap it up. Wenger is nothing but respectful and they can't wait to stick the knife in. Fuck 'em, Siege mentality needed now.

:gp:

WUM does piss me off at times, but your spot on there.

[Niall_Quinn]

That's what I don't understand. Fergie and mourinho are utter arseholes, and the press lap it up. Wenger is nothing but respectful and they can't wait to stick the knife in. Fuck 'em, Siege mentality needed now.

Journalism.

Respect.

DUH.

[RomfordPele]

I don't blame him for not bringing him on.

I blame him for starting him. Very likely it would have been him taking the penalty.

In place of who? Sanogo? (Podolski is no front man. He's a support striker or winger.)

Or ox (our best player tonight)?

Or ozil... (no chance that was going to happen!)

Genuinely interested to know who you would have dropped.

[Fist of Lehmann]

That's what I don't understand. Fergie and mourinho are utter arseholes, and the press lap it up. Wenger is nothing but respectful and they can't wait to stick the knife in. Fuck 'em, Siege mentality needed now.

Arseholes sell papers.

Why do think English journalism is so knee-deep in the kind of rancid, diseased anuses who write this stuff?

[KSE Comedy Club]

In place of who? Sanogo? (Podolski is no front man. He's a support striker or winger.)

Or ox (our best player tonight)?

Or ozil... (no chance that was going to happen!)

Genuinely interested to know who you would have dropped.he should have just gone for it and yes not played Sanogo.

He did ok the other day against pool, but starting him over pods against Bayern????

Why not just change the formation a little and really go at them with ox and gnabry too.

Baffling tbh.

[RomfordPele]

Think giroud would have been more credible as a lone frontman, not podolski. He's tried it before and the game just passes podolski by.

Sanogo did well for a 20yr old rookie making his champions league debut. But that's precisely your point I know. I have to agree we needed someone with a much higher pedigree and experience leading the line tonight.

What a shame we don't have a massive cash reserve to spend on a world class centre forward, and that we didn't have the chance to sign one from Real Madrid in the summer...

[Munchies]

All credit to Sanogo, the lad put in a great shift and never stopped running. First 2 games in 6 months and he was decent. Nearly fed in Ox aswell.

But as above, it's Wenger's failure to sign a top striker last summer which is why we're having to rely on Sanogo in the first place.

With Ozil, I just saw this,
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg35oGmCcAAX8CX.jpg

I guess we'll have to wait until next season to see how he does really.

[Power n Glory]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg3wqmBCQAAeskQ.jpg

OH WOW

:haha:

They're taking the piss! We didn't even play badly considering it was 9 men vs 12! We need to make a few critics eat their words.

[Niall_Quinn]

Proper headlines:

ARSENAL BOSSED BAYERN UNTIL THAT FUCKING CUNT OF A REF PICKED SIDES!
In other news, all sports journos found dead after contracting a killer flesh eating STD from Maureen's putrid cock.

[Niall_Quinn]

And here they are defending that despicable cunt Robben. Nice cover story but he sure did take careful aim with that "sweat". Can you imagine if that was Wilshere?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arjen-robben-spit-bacary-sagna-3164300

I hope Sagna knocks the cunts teeth out in a couple of weeks

[Bumble]

Let's stop blaming everyone else. we really have ourselves to blame. We had chances and blew them. The media actually like Wenger. They love his press conferences.

[Globalgunner]

All I can say is that we've been here before and from the look of things, this is where we will be again for the foreseeable future. Wenger can't crack the CL. When are you guys going to learn.? Oh well, we'll probably go to Munich and win 1-0. Then everything will be alright with our world again.

[Gooner23]

No point in getting worked up about the tabloids, they are mainly for morons who believe every word.

Sky are wankers though. Couldn't stop banging on about Wengers 100th red card, as if that has any significance whatsoever. He's the longest serving manager in the league, of course he'll have more reds than the others. And Jamie 'always on the ball' Carragher, why hasn't Wenger used Sanogo up until now. He's been injured you mong.

We don't really have the squad depth to go in 3 competitions so going out the CL at this stage to the best side in Europe may not be the worst thing. I just hope Wenger is pragmatic enough to see the FA Cup as our best chance. If he throws that I'll be fuming.

[AFC Leveller]

First 15 minutes, we were all over them and had them on the back foot. We looked dangerous everytime we went forward and then got a penalty which would have changed the game completly. Ozil's Pel against Marseille was terrible but this one was even worse, no run up, no conviction, no desire to bury it.

Bayern are a very good side yes but 11-11 we were well in it and would have score a couple at least. Sanogo is raw but i was really please with his performace, won a lot of headers, ran his socks off and tried his best. Playing him instead of Giroud meant we could play a high tempo game and go in behind Bayern's back line. I'd play him from now on as i think he has lots of potential and gives our play makers options.

At 0-1 i thought we could go there and get a result but 2-0 is a bit too much if im honest.

Well done lads.

[Ernesto]

I don't think we can win 3-0 or 3-1 in the reverse fixture.

Really need to put all our eggs in two baskets now...

[Japan Shaking All Over]

he should have just gone for it and yes not played Sanogo.

He did ok the other day against pool, but starting him over pods against Bayern????

Why not just change the formation a little and really go at them with ox and gnabry too.

Baffling tbh.

I can go along with that.....Ox and Gnarby out wide could have been more effective. I have been a major critic of Theo's in the past but I do admit he has definitely come on and is an import any cog of our current team. In essence we missed his pace and experience and it could have been a slightly dufferent story if he was around and Ches stayed on pitch

[cricketsi]

Having paid an arm and a leg for a ticket I feel very cheated that Szczesny's sending off ruined the contest. I don't blame the referee so much as the rules that allow them to always make that double punishment. To my mind, the last man/clear cut chance thing exists to stop a cynical pull back from a defender taking a yellow card as a punishment. This should not apply to goalkeepers. In these situations the penalty is the punishment, so a red card is not warranted. Not the first time this has stung us, and wish the powers that be would see fit to amend the laws to serve the best interests of the game. Sadly looking out for the good of the game is the last thing we can expect from FIFA.

Ozil should not have been taking the penalty. He's not the best penalty taker and who better to face him in goal than his international 'keeper? What happened to our old policy of he who wins it doesn't take it?

Sanogo looked bright with his movement and ideas, but was worryingly slow. Hopefully he's got a better turn of pace when fully up and running.

[selassie]

Despite getting beaten I do think we can take plenty of positives out of yesterdays game. For the first half an hour I thought we were excellent, best I have seen us play for quite some time and we had them on the ropes at times.

I really liked the way we attacked, it was with purpose and plenty of pace, I felt OX and Ozil both looked very dangerous, Jack was playing very well too.

I think OX should be guaranteed first choice for the remainder of the season, I really like the way he is playing, he injects much needed pace into our attack and is very direct.

I personally think we are out now, of course we can beat them in the 2nd leg, but I don't think they will be half as complacent as last season.

[AFC Leveller]

Also, what a performance again from Koscielny. The guy is becoming a monster of a CB, really aggressive and alert.

It was no coincidence that their 2nd goal came when he was outa position having gone up for the freekick which Wilshere basically passed to their goaly.

[GP]

Kos is the best CD in the country tbh.

[LDG]

No shame in last night for me.

Game was ruined by the sending off.

Some positive performances out there....real shame we conceded that second, as I'm not sure we deserved that kind of punishment.

This competition is full of fucking shit as far as I'm concerned. It stinks.

[LDG]

BTW. Szczseny. Brilliant :haha:

[Zerlathon]

No shame in last night for me.

Game was ruined by the sending off.

Some positive performances out there....real shame we conceded that second, as I'm not sure we deserved that kind of punishment.

This competition is full of fucking shit as far as I'm concerned. It stinks.

I agree, we played well up until the sending off. If we were like the Arsenal of old, things could have been far, FAR worse.

We can't win them all, and some of the comments I'm reading from some people this morning are a little disappointing.

[Dein-machine]

A lot of us on here don't seem too bothered about losing last night because ultimately we aren't good enough to win the C.L. - the only problem is how many years into Wumgers reign will we be saying the same. Our seasons now seem like deja vu, we can already look at next years C.L & virtually know that we will finish 2nd in our group because Wumger decided NOT to win it followed with being knocked out by a team with a new manager ( confirming that Wumgers age old reign is doing us no favours )but with world class players in every position. They don't have to play a lad upfront who hardly knows how to get to the Emirates let alone play football at C.L. level.
We played so well for 25 minutes last night. Why, because we attacked them. Its what they work at in training. Reminded me of the 1st half against Napoli. Bayern struggled to get into out half. If we can do this to the best team in Europe why aren't we playing like that against the Chavs & the Mancs. Why do we sit back so much with a team of attacking midfielders, it doeasn't & can't work.
Ozil needs to change his game if he ever wants to be a success. He needs to stay central a play in the strikers running behind the defense, like Courtinho was doing against us. Its useless for him to wander wide like he does. The English game does not allow time on the ball for wide men & he doesn't have the pace to get passed people.
Kos was excellent again. It shows why Bayern are after him & to be honest unless Wumger finally relents & realises we need WORLD CLASS PLAYERS all over the pitch instead of his bargain buys, then again you could not blame him if he leaves - it must be so frustrating for certain players to be at Arsenal under this manager.

[LDG]

A lot of us on here don't seem too bothered about losing last night because ultimately we aren't good enough to win the C.L. - the only problem is how many years into Wumgers reign will we be saying the same. Our seasons now seem like deja vu, we can already look at next years C.L & virtually know that we will finish 2nd in our group because Wumger decided NOT to win it followed with being knocked out by a team with a new manager ( confirming that Wumgers age old reign is doing us no favours )but with world class players in every position. They don't have to play a lad upfront who hardly knows how to get to the Emirates let alone play football at C.L. level.
We played so well for 25 minutes last night. Why, because we attacked them. Its what they work at in training. Reminded me of the 1st half against Napoli. Bayern struggled to get into out half. If we can do this to the best team in Europe why aren't we playing like that against the Chavs & the Mancs. Why do we sit back so much with a team of attacking midfielders, it doeasn't & can't work.
Ozil needs to change his game if he ever wants to be a success. He needs to stay central a play in the strikers running behind the defense, like Courtinho was doing against us. Its useless for him to wander wide like he does. The English game does not allow time on the ball for wide men & he doesn't have the pace to get passed people.
Kos was excellent again. It shows why Bayern are after him & to be honest unless Wumger finally relents & realises we need WORLD CLASS PLAYERS all over the pitch instead of his bargain buys, then again you could not blame him if he leaves - it must be so frustrating for certain players to be at Arsenal under this manager.

Tbf, Kos was a bargain buy. I think Wenger got that one little bit right.

For a manager supposedly shit with buying defenders, we have an outstanding back four. One of the best IMO.

Again......WE ARE MISSING A WORLD CLASS STRIKER. And as it happens, Ramsey and Theo.

That is all.

That was Wengers summer "failing". failure to buy a worldy up top....

And in all fairness...with our resources, we have to be sure if we're going to spunk 30-40mil on a striker. Sure that he's not going to be shit. Like that spurs penalty taker bloke. Who is fucking shit.

World class all over the pitch :haha:

We need one player. That one player opens the whole team up.

[Munchies]

Kosc is bloody great, when he charged forwards towards the end with the ball , and the whole stadium roared. Wow. I felt it from my tv.

Our back 4 is the reason as to why we're still 2nd, however, Monreal isn't going to cut it as a backup as Gibbs is injury prone, and we need atleast another 2 decent CBs now that Tommy V is leaving.

I honestly do believe, if we had a Higuain sort of striker in place of Yaya, Ramsey in place of Wilshere, and Theo starting, we could've won this game.

Having a Suarez/Higuain sort of striker makes the world of difference. In the case of Suarez, if he's not getting involved, he's able to drift wide and all over the front, which would massively help in getting the best out of Ozil. Sanogo/Bentdner/Giroud hardly move around up front, which makes it easier for defenders to defend against. FFS Wenger :( , Higuain would've been perfect.

[Grebbo]

Monreal is crap isn't he :lol: He's just constantly caught out of position.

Was one way traffic in the second half but tbf we were playing against the best or second best team on the planet so of course they're going to dominate against 10 men.

[Marc Overmars]

As each year passes, I find myself caring less and less for this competition.

[Dein-machine]

Tbf, Kos was a bargain buy. I think Wenger got that one little bit right.

For a manager supposedly shit with buying defenders, we have an outstanding back four. One of the best IMO.

Again......WE ARE MISSING A WORLD CLASS STRIKER. And as it happens, Ramsey and Theo.

That is all.

That was Wengers summer "failing". failure to buy a worldy up top....

And in all fairness...with our resources, we have to be sure if we're going to spunk 30-40mil on a striker. Sure that he's not going to be shit. Like that spurs penalty taker bloke. Who is fucking shit.

World class all over the pitch :haha:

We need one player. That one player opens the whole team up.

One player!!!! - Sagna s possibly off & Jenks is useless, we do not have a quality left back, Merts is not getting any younger & we need another decent CB cover, we do not have a quality defensive midfielder, we do not have a quality left sided attacking midfielder & all 3 of our strikers would struggle to make an impact in the Champoinship. We need rid of Bentdner, Monreal, Arteta, Vermaelen, Rosicky & Jenks as they do not have the quality required. Therefore, to have a similar sized squad next year & to add the quality required we're should be looking at 6/7 players, some of them squad players.

[Dein-machine]

As each year passes, I find myself caring less and less for this competition.

Totally agree, its like going shopping in Harrods knowing you won't be able to buy anything.

[Özim]

As each year passes, I find myself caring less and less for this competition.

I'm not that bothered about going out to be honest, but I never expect us to do anything in it so I'm not disappointed when we don't get into the latter stages. I'll be disappointed when I believe we have a team capable of winning it I think, but right now don't really care about it.

[Munchies]

Totally agree, its like going shopping in Harrods knowing you won't be able to buy anything.

True :lol:

The team did us proud though. 10 men against the best team in the world is a tough ask.

I've never felt rollercoaster emotions like that since the CL final in 06, the early pen, the miss. Red card, then their miss .

Lol at Spuds playing Dnipro tonight :haha:

[Dein-machine]

True :lol:

The team did us proud though. 10 men against the best team in the world is a tough ask.

I've never felt rollercoaster emotions like that since the CL final in 06, the early pen, the miss. Red card, then their miss .

I agree. Nothing wrong with the effort & the sending off ruined the game.

[Dein-machine]

Why is it they we have signed the only German who misses penalties?

[Globalgunner]

Why is it they we have signed the only German who misses penalties?

hes been infected with Wengeritis. The other German whom would definitely have scored the pen was on the bench watching the fantastic postman at work

[Munchies]

Why is it they we have signed the only German who misses penalties?

He's Turkish :coffee: . No German in him.

I don't know why he does that stuttered run up, just put your foot through it ffs

[Marc Overmars]

As soon as I saw him stepping up I called it he'd miss, from the sounds of it so did many others. Body language was completely wrong. That Marseille penalty alone was enough reason to ensure he should never take one for us again. Why do players try that stupid run up? I've never seen anyone have success like that.

[GP]

Santi should have taken it.

[Munchies]

Santi should've never been taken off tbf, Ozil was shattered after the miss.

[Dein-machine]

As soon as I saw him stepping up I called it he'd miss, from the sounds of it so did many others. Body language was completely wrong. That Marseille penalty alone was enough reason to ensure he should never take one for us again. Why do players try that stupid run up? I've never seen anyone have success like that.

Messi does but his brain has already spotted which way the keeper is going. Neuer went to his left quite early, Ozil should have seen it & shot to his right. You would think out of all the footballers alive, Ozil would have better vision than most.

[dazthegooner]

Didn't see the match and judging by what's been said glad I didn't.

[LDG]

One player!!!! - Sagna s possibly off & Jenks is useless, we do not have a quality left back, Merts is not getting any younger & we need another decent CB cover, we do not have a quality defensive midfielder, we do not have a quality left sided attacking midfielder & all 3 of our strikers would struggle to make an impact in the Champoinship. We need rid of Bentdner, Monreal, Arteta, Vermaelen, Rosicky & Jenks as they do not have the quality required. Therefore, to have a similar sized squad next year & to add the quality required we're should be looking at 6/7 players, some of them squad players.

Next year...

We're talking about this current year where we still have Sagna, Vermaelen and Merts. Unless you are talking parallell spending with Oil barons earlier THIS season, having two squads etc.

I fail to see why you are berating the manager in your earlier post for a summer yet to come?

Like I said. We are missing a world class striker, THIS season. And Theo and Ramsey.

[selassie]

As soon as I saw him stepping up I called it he'd miss, from the sounds of it so did many others. Body language was completely wrong. That Marseille penalty alone was enough reason to ensure he should never take one for us again. Why do players try that stupid run up? I've never seen anyone have success like that.

Yeah me too. It was pretty much a carbon copy of the Marseille miss.

The thing that disappointed me more than anything was I felt his head dropped after that penalty miss.

[Dein-machine]

Next year...

We're talking about this current year where we still have Sagna, Vermaelen and Merts. Unless you are talking parallell spending with Oil barons earlier THIS season, having two squads etc.

I fail to see why you are berating the manager in your earlier post for a summer yet to come?

Like I said. We are missing a world class striker, THIS season. And Theo and Ramsey.

Doesn't matter what year, we are nowhere near being 1 player away + Walcott & Ramsey. We have defensive issues when we come up agianst the better teams, we dont have quality left back or left mid & no striker - THIS IS NOW, NOT NEXT YEAR.
As you agree that we are missing a world class striker who should we be berating after 2 full transfer windows & £140 million in the bank?

[selassie]

Monreal is crap isn't he :lol: He's just constantly caught out of position.

Was one way traffic in the second half but tbf we were playing against the best or second best team on the planet so of course they're going to dominate against 10 men.

Yeah he was awful yesterday, got torn apart by Robben. He really needs to work on his positioning because it's a major flaw in his game.

He doesn't have the pace to compensate for his poor positioning so really gets exposed in the big games/against decent opposition.

[Özim]

Robben was brilliant yesterday, a handful for anyone, but Monreal struggled as well.

[Kano]

Ozil screwed the game up, not the ref. Put that penalty away and it's a completely different game. By the time their penalty arrived the game was finding its rhythm with us penned back into our half. Not a sending off but we blew our chance before that, they are few and far between against teams this good.

Ozil should've come off but Wenger hasn't got the gumption to take off a 42m player in the first half. He said after that he could see the penalty affected him ten minutes later and even with that feeling he still neglected to take him off. Ozil can cover all the ground in the world but that's not what Wenger left him on the pitch for. He was hoping his star man would be able to pull something out of the bag but Cazorla was more likely to do that. We just have to hope we're not too leggy for Sunderland and don't get a savaging in Munich.

[Munchies]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg6tB8rCEAAAQ1s.jpg

[JonasTC]

Anyone who follows him on facebook, knows he's a genuinely a nice guy, that really care for this team and his fans.

[Letters]

We have defensive issues when we come up agianst the better teams
No we don't. We've had 2 freak games where we've got a pasting, the rest of the games - including games against the better teams - we've been solid.


As you agree that we are missing a world class striker who should we be berating after 2 full transfer windows & £140 million in the bank?

We're a point off the top of the table, got through a tricky CL group and we're in the FA Cup quarter finals. Not sure we should be 'berating' anyone right now.

[Letters]

Ozil screwed the game up, not the ref. Put that penalty away and it's a completely different game.
Little bit both tbh

[Munchies]

If we only win the fa cup this season, and finish in the top 3 I'd be extremely happy !

Get past Everton, which is a home tie, and we're at Wembley, and one away from the final.

We'll probably meet City in the final though. Rather get them in the semi-final for that reason.

[selassie]

Robben was brilliant yesterday, a handful for anyone, but Monreal struggled as well.

Yeah I agree, Robben is still a top class player.

[Globalgunner]

Yeah I agree, Robben is still a top class wanker.

Fixed

[Dein-machine]

No we don't. We've had 2 freak games where we've got a pasting, the rest of the games - including games against the better teams - we've been solid.

How many more freak games do you need, if Suarez & Sturridge had finshed as per usual last Sunday we would have conceeded another 5 or 6. How many times have City or Chelsea conceeded 5 or 6 this year. Against fast attacking teams we are there for the taking, Merts cannot run, poor defensive full backs, too much pressure on Kos.

We're a point off the top of the table, got through a tricky CL group and we're in the FA Cup quarter finals. Not sure we should be 'berating' anyone right now.

Where would be with a few more quality players that we have had both the time & the money to find - the fact that we have too many similar players in midfield & not one decent striker will show over the season, lets see where we are at the end of March. I would suggest we will be 5th.
We threw away the lead in that group with disaster tactics in Napoli exactly as we have done in previous years to be then matched against a team we need not have played at this part of the season - Wenger knew our league games at this time & in March, surely winning our group to get a weaker team would have helped with squad rotation.
We are in the qtr finals thanks to Daniel Sturridge not finshing us off inside 10 mins. This would have been for the 2nd time in a week which should worry the life out of us as to our defensive qualities against pace & whatever they were working on that week in training. You can't fight pace with Merts, he's fine to have against the Adebayor's. Crouch's & Lambert's of the league but not against Aguero/Negrada or Suarez/Sturridge.

[Globalgunner]

Every time we get blasted by a superior team it gets conveniently labelled a freak result. How many of the top teams in Europe get as many freak results per season as us. So beating Liverpool where all of our fans had soiled underpants from the 75th min till FT now showed that we are up there.
We don't strategise. Every former player has said it Wenger just sends his boys out to play their game, irrespective of the opposition. If it was Wenger yesterday, would he have taken Dante off at HT knowing the risks, Nah, sure as clockwork, there would be no changes until the 65th or 70th min.
In every game there will be an excuse to blame the refs, the lino, Eileen drury, the planets alignments, etc. We salve our bruised spirits with these excuses but in reality. You are either good enough or lucky enough to win these great prizes. Wenger is neither.

[Niall_Quinn]

Doesn't matter what year, we are nowhere near being 1 player away + Walcott & Ramsey. We have defensive issues when we come up agianst the better teams, we dont have quality left back or left mid & no striker - THIS IS NOW, NOT NEXT YEAR.
As you agree that we are missing a world class striker who should we be berating after 2 full transfer windows & £140 million in the bank?

Sagna, Kos and Merts were outstanding last night. It would have been a solid unit had Gibbs not given way to the sub-standard Monreal, the latter being clueless at this level. Both keepers are great too. Nothing wrong with our defence that a decent offer to Sagna and some cash on the table for an injury free quality left back won't solve.

[Niall_Quinn]

Robben was brilliant yesterday, a handful for anyone, but Monreal struggled as well.

Back to your WUM ways. Robben is a technically gifted player but a despicable cheat. He's in the same bracket as Rooney and Suarez in terms of his overwhelming flaws. To praise his performance is like praising a rapist for bringing flowers. Hopefully something bad happens to him, preferably when we next meet him on the pitch and that matter concerning Sagna can be properly addressed.

[Dein-machine]

Sagna, Kos and Merts were outstanding last night. It would have been a solid unit had Gibbs not given way to the sub-standard Monreal, the latter being clueless at this level. Both keepers are great too. Nothing wrong with our defence that a decent offer to Sagna and some cash on the table for an injury free quality left back won't solve.

Wasn't posting about last night NQ, it was general. We have been hammered twice by the better teams & got away with another one last week. We are not good defensively against quick attacking sides. Bayern are not this, they played with Mandukic uptop who is not fast but rely on good wide players & attacking midfielders. Basically they are a better version of us when we play with Giroud. The reality is that Merts can run, our full backs are poor defensively & therefore too much pressure on Kos. We get away with this against the poorer teams because most of them are defending, not attacking us at pace.

[Niall_Quinn]

Erm, wait a minute. We DIDN'T get blasted by a superior team. We were the superior team in the first 35 minutes of that match. Having to play more than a half down to 10 is not exactly a standard arrangement. It should have been Bayern down to 10 of course, not us. But the ref wasn't competent or professional enough to apply the rules.

[Dein-machine]

Back to your WUM ways. Robben is a technically gifted player but a despicable cheat. He's in the same bracket as Rooney and Suarez in terms of his overwhelming flaws. To praise his performance is like praising a rapist for bringing flowers. Hopefully something bad happens to him, preferably when we next meet him on the pitch and that matter concerning Sagna can be properly addressed.

Robben, Suarez, Rooney or Sanogo, Bendnter, Giroud - Give me despicable cheats with overwhelming flaws any day of the week.

[Dein-machine]

Every time we get blasted by a superior team it gets conveniently labelled a freak result. How many of the top teams in Europe get as many freak results per season as us. So beating Liverpool where all of our fans had soiled underpants from the 75th min till FT now showed that we are up there.
We don't strategise. Every former player has said it Wenger just sends his boys out to play their game, irrespective of the opposition. If it was Wenger yesterday, would he have taken Dante off at HT knowing the risks, Nah, sure as clockwork, there would be no changes until the 65th or 70th min.
In every game there will be an excuse to blame the refs, the lino, Eileen drury, the planets alignments, etc. We salve our bruised spirits with these excuses but in reality. You are either good enough or lucky enough to win these great prizes. Wenger is neither.

:gp:

[Niall_Quinn]

Robben, Suarez, Rooney or Sanogo, Bendnter, Giroud - Give me despicable cheats with overwhelming flaws any day of the week.

Well there you are. For an Arsenal fan to favour Rooney over Giroud so you can see that shiny silver despite that dive on match 50 - that say a a lot.
Bendtner and Robben I'll give you - both mercenaries, neither desirable.
And remember the despicable Pires, who dived once and we never heard the last of it? Or the renowned cheat Henry, who handballed it? Yet for the shiny silver we'll applaud the likes of Suarez who cheats in EVERY match.

All for the shiny silver.

[Letters]

To praise his performance is like praising a rapist for bringing flowers.
:haha:

Brilliant

[Munchies]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg6gRboCYAA6Gan.jpg

Straight swap ? :getcoat:

[Özim]

Back to your WUM ways. Robben is a technically gifted player but a despicable cheat. He's in the same bracket as Rooney and Suarez in terms of his overwhelming flaws. To praise his performance is like praising a rapist for bringing flowers. Hopefully something bad happens to him, preferably when we next meet him on the pitch and that matter concerning Sagna can be properly addressed.

:lol:

He was giving us all sorts of problems last night, love him or hate him he's probably the player that has the most influence over what happens in the Bayern team, you can't entirely blame Monreal for not being able to stop him, noone could.

[Özim]

Erm, wait a minute. We DIDN'T get blasted by a superior team. We were the superior team in the first 35 minutes of that match. Having to play more than a half down to 10 is not exactly a standard arrangement. It should have been Bayern down to 10 of course, not us. But the ref wasn't competent or professional enough to apply the rules.

We were great for the 1st half hour I agree and Bayern wobbled, however being down to 10 men was down to our mistake. The fact is they are a better side then us, no shame in it, we were down to 10 men but we had 12% possession in the 2nd half which says a lot.

I never expected us to go through and even if we'd got a narrow win last night (no guarantee we would at all with 11 men) I still would have fancied Bayern to knock us out, simply because at this stage they are the superior outfit, that's why they're European champions.

[Özim]

Well there you are. For an Arsenal fan to favour Rooney over Giroud so you can see that shiny silver despite that dive on match 50 - that say a a lot.
Bendtner and Robben I'll give you - both mercenaries, neither desirable.
And remember the despicable Pires, who dived once and we never heard the last of it? Or the renowned cheat Henry, who handballed it? Yet for the shiny silver we'll applaud the likes of Suarez who cheats in EVERY match.

All for the shiny silver.

Henry handballed it in an International game that knocked Ireland out, it's not really surprising there was upoar.

[Özim]

Robben, Suarez, Rooney or Sanogo, Bendnter, Giroud - Give me despicable cheats with overwhelming flaws any day of the week.

Nevermind Rooney, I favour Sanogo and Podolski over Giroud because the only time Giroud seems to score these days is after midnight.

Giroud is a backup striker, I think anyone with common sense would prefer to see a World class striker come in ahead of him, cheat or not, if we did sign one of these "cheats" as you label them you'd be supporting them anyway, so what you're saying is pretty hollow to be fair.

[Dein-machine]

Well there you are. For an Arsenal fan to favour Rooney over Giroud so you can see that shiny silver despite that dive on match 50 - that say a a lot.
Bendtner and Robben I'll give you - both mercenaries, neither desirable.
And remember the despicable Pires, who dived once and we never heard the last of it? Or the renowned cheat Henry, who handballed it? Yet for the shiny silver we'll applaud the likes of Suarez who cheats in EVERY match.

All for the shiny silver.

Yep - coz at the end of the day thats what its all about. No one remembers a team of choir boys who win fuck all for years.

[JonasTC]

Yep - coz at the end of the day thats what its all about. No one remembers a team of choir boys who win fuck all for years.

How can there be football fans, if only winning trophies counts?

[Dein-machine]

Well there you are. For an Arsenal fan to favour Rooney over Giroud so you can see that shiny silver despite that dive on match 50 - that say a a lot.
Bendtner and Robben I'll give you - both mercenaries, neither desirable.
And remember the despicable Pires, who dived once and we never heard the last of it? Or the renowned cheat Henry, who handballed it? Yet for the shiny silver we'll applaud the likes of Suarez who cheats in EVERY match.

All for the shiny silver.

Also, if you are an Arsenal fan who would prefer Giroud to Rooney after what you have witnessed recently, then you are an Arsenal fan with no ambition - a bit like our manager.

[Dein-machine]

How can there be football fans, if only winning trophies counts?

Because that was what we were promised when our directors & manager ( all shareholders ) wanted to convince us to leave Highbury to a shiny new stadium that would double revenue etc. With this promise in mind we have gone from Henry & DB10 to Sanogo & Giroud in 10 years - and some of you still think we're progressing.

[Özim]

How can there be football fans, if only winning trophies counts?

Different size clubs, different ticket prices, different expectations.

It's all relative to where you are in the game, for a smaller club winning is being in the PL, for larger clubs the goals are different and ultimately success is this goal.

[IBK]

My thoughts on last night - FWIW.

I have little or no criticism for the team or the manager on last night's performance. I thought Wenger got his initial tactics spot on, and we were all over Bayern in the first 20 mins or so (Kroos' shot notwithstanding).

The penalty miss was a crushing blow, however, from which we never really recovered, and it was compounded by Gibbs' injury which again disrupted the team balance. After the sending off there was pretty much nothing Wenger could do as far as giving us any kind of attacking outlet was concerned. The Kroos goal was a wonderstrike, and to concede so late after defending heroically for so long against the European Champions was a crying shame. The boys can hold their heads up despite the result.

But...it is saying something when we face a knockout CL game against the CL holders and the best team in Europe with a rookie Ligue 2 player as our sole striker - I mean really, think about it! And Ozil should have been subbed after 20 mins when it was obvious that he had been destroyed mentally by his penalty miss. As for the penalty - there is a truism that the player who has won the penalty should never take it - and this is particularly the case when you are facing the best GK in the world who pretty much knows you inside out. If Ozil was a demon penalty taker, then perhaps let him go - but he ain't. A big mistake for me there.

Heroics aside - the game was a microcosm of Arsenal's recent history. We simply cannot seem to beat the bigger teams when it matters.

[fakeyank]

Because that was what we were promised when our directors & manager ( all shareholders ) wanted to convince us to leave Highbury to a shiny new stadium that would double revenue etc. With this promise in mind we have gone from Henry & DB10 to Sanogo & Giroud in 10 years - and some of you still think we're progressing.

That made me shed a tear, literally.. :crying:

[JonasTC]

Because that was what we were promised when our directors & manager ( all shareholders ) wanted to convince us to leave Highbury to a shiny new stadium that would double revenue etc. With this promise in mind we have gone from Henry & DB10 to Sanogo & Giroud in 10 years - and some of you still think we're progressing.

Then why are you still a fan? :D

[Globalgunner]

Different size clubs, different ticket prices, different expectations.

It's all relative to where you are in the game, for a smaller club winning is being in the PL, for larger clubs the goals are different and ultimately success is this goal.

I think what many believe here is that whats good for Wenger is good for the club, trophies are those things that rich clubs buy. We are known paupers in the real scheme of things

[Dein-machine]

My thoughts on last night - FWIW.

I have little or no criticism for the team or the manager on last night's performance. I thought Wenger got his initial tactics spot on, and we were all over Bayern in the first 20 mins or so (Neuer's shot notwithstanding).

The penalty miss was a crushing blow, however, from which we never really recovered, and it was compounded by Gibbs' injury which again disrupted the team balance. After the sending off there was pretty much nothing Wenger could do as far as giving us any kind of attacking outlet was concerned. The Neuer goal was a wonderstrike, and to concede so late after defending heroically for so long against the European Champions was a crying shame. The boys can hold their heads up despite the result.

But...it is saying something when we face a knockout CL game against the CL holders and the best team in Europe with a rookie Ligue 2 player as our sole striker - I mean really, think about it! And Ozil should have been subbed after 20 mins when it was obvious that he had been destroyed mentally by his penalty miss. As for the penalty - there is a truism that the player who has won the penalty should never take it - and this is particularly the case when you are facing the best GK in the world who pretty much knows you inside out. If Ozil was a demon penalty taker, then perhaps let him go - but he ain't. A big mistake for me there.

Heroics aside - the game was a microcosm of Arsenal's recent history. We simply cannot seem to beat the bigger teams when it matters.

Agree with your comments IBK but in fact you do go on to criticise Wumger. Its his fault we had to play Sonogo, its his fault we didn't bring off Ozil when everyone else in the stadium knows he's not going to create much when having to defend & he can't defend. Its his fault he didn't take penalty duties off of Ozil after his pathetic attempt in group stage.

[IBK]

Then why are you still a fan? :D

Because he's not a plastic glory hunter?

[Dein-machine]

Then why are you still a fan? :D

I will always be a fan, long after Mr Wenger has departed.

[IBK]

Agree with your comments IBK but in fact you do go on to criticise Wumger. Its his fault we had to play Sonogo, its his fault we didn't bring off Ozil when everyone else in the stadium knows he's not going to create much when having to defend & he can't defend. Its his fault he didn't take penalty duties off of Ozil after his pathetic attempt in group stage.

Fair point - in terms of team approach and performance I can't fault manager or players in general. Re Sanogo - its Wenger's fault that we are reduced to playing him in such an important game, but that's to do with his transfer policy rather than his approach to last night. Similarly, I agree 100% with your comments re Ozil.

[Özim]

Taking Oxo off was a shocking decision IMO though, he has pace an eye for goal and was working hard, don't get why he took him off at all when others should have been taken off instead.

I think overall Wenger did well yesterday, as pointed out perhaps not taking Ozil out of the line of fire and us relying on a kid up front due to him not signing as striker together with the Oxo sub were the only mistakes (us relying on a kid up front due to him not signing as striker was a mistake but one made last summer/january).

[Dein-machine]

Taking Oxo off was a shocking decision IMO though, he has pace an eye for goal and was working hard, don't get why he took him off at all when others should have been taken off instead.

I think overall Wenger did well yesterday, as pointed out perhaps not taking Ozil out of the line of fire and us relying on a kid up front due to him not signing as striker together with the Oxo sub were the only mistakes (us relying on a kid up front due to him not signing as striker was a mistake but one made last summer/january).

He took Oxo off against Liverpool aswell with the score at 2-1. He was the only one looking to go forward at the time. If they had scored an equaliser, he had taken away our only chance of winning the game at home.

[IBK]

Taking Oxo off was a shocking decision IMO though, he has pace an eye for goal and was working hard, don't get why he took him off at all when others should have been taken off instead.

I think overall Wenger did well yesterday, as pointed out perhaps not taking Ozil out of the line of fire and us relying on a kid up front due to him not signing as striker together with the Oxo sub were the only mistakes (us relying on a kid up front due to him not signing as striker was a mistake but one made last summer/january).

Wasn't the Ox carrying a knock? Anyways probably wouldn't have made any difference at that stage given we were hemmed in by superior numbers/talent by then?

[Letters]

With this promise in mind we have gone from Henry & DB10 to Sanogo & Giroud in 10 years - and some of you still think we're progressing.
:lol: you're comparing our best EVER team to this one and you think that means you have a valid point?
Last year was horrible, we were awful and just about scraped into the top 4.
So far this season we've competed, stayed right up there so far. We have a horrible run coming up which may see us drop off but so far yes, I do see plenty of progress compared with last year which is the most immediate and valid basis for comparison.

[Dein-machine]

That made me shed a tear, literally.. :crying:

We all should.

[Özim]

Wasn't the Ox carrying a knock? Anyways probably wouldn't have made any difference at that stage given we were hemmed in by superior numbers/talent by then?

Don't think so no. Thing is a 1-0 down you may as well keep him on, in the hope you might get a break, he's got pace and an eye for goal so you always have a small chance of a goal.

We were completely outplayed 2nd half, but if you harbour any ambitions of salvaging something you have to keep your best players on.

[GP]

Wasn't the Ox carrying a knock? Anyways probably wouldn't have made any difference at that stage given we were hemmed in by superior numbers/talent by then?

Yes, Wenger confirmed that post game.

[Özim]

I've not seen any mention of Ox carrying a knock (just looked online), he certainly didn't mention it in the post match interview.

[JonasTC]

I will always be a fan, long after Mr Wenger has departed.

But why be a fan, if everything is just miserable... I've never seen you say anything positive, considering we havent won anything in almost 9 years, you have been miserable for atleast 6+ years?

Are you like that in your normal life aswell or do you do a 180 and go super positive when its not about Arsenal? :d

[Munchies]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg7joDBCAAARWX1.png

Edit:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bg7d80JCIAAQPM-.jpg
Mesut and Neuer

[JonasTC]

King Poldi :bow:

[Dein-machine]

:lol: you're comparing our best EVER team to this one and you think that means you have a valid point?
Last year was horrible, we were awful and just about scraped into the top 4.
So far this season we've competed, stayed right up there so far. We have a horrible run coming up which may see us drop off but so far yes, I do see plenty of progress compared with last year which is the most immediate and valid basis for comparison.

Why are you comparing to last year, why not throughout Wumgers reign. We are miles off the Henry & DB team which is the team that we had when we were asked to move. If we were moving to improve our chances of competing at the top level, we should therefore expect a better team. True or not. However 10 years on, we are weaker up top than we've ever been, possibly the weakest in the EPL with a manager that doesn't see the need to buy quality or spend the extra 10 mill to get a player we really need.
You can only compare this to last if the manager was new, Wumger has had years to get it right but is really no closer than several years ago. Forget our current position, we really could be 5th or 6th by the end of March because we play against teams who are improving & we continually shit oursleves in these games.

[Marc Overmars]

Nice to see Poldi protecting his son.

[Dein-machine]

But why be a fan, if everything is just miserable... I've never seen you say anything positive, considering we havent won anything in almost 9 years, you have been miserable for atleast 6+ years?

Are you like that in your normal life aswell or do you do a 180 and go super positive when its not about Arsenal? :d

yep - I am quite miserable, I don't listen to others, always think I am right, blame everyone else but myself, far too stubborn, not getting any younger & I can't do my fucking zip up - OH No its Wengeritus.

[Letters]

Why are you comparing to last year, why not throughout Wumgers reign.
Because in order to determine whether the club is heading in the right direction the most relevant comparison is to the previous season.
Do you think that any football manager in the history of football, no matter how good, has year on year built better and better sides?
That team 10 years ago was just about the best team I've ever seen, if you thought we were going to stay at that level or just get better and better then you were being extremely naive. I think most of us realised we were being spoilt and were just enjoying it while it lasted.


We are miles off the Henry & DB team which is the team that we had when we were asked to move. If we were moving to improve our chances of competing at the top level, we should therefore expect a better team. True or not
Not. For several reasons. One I've mentioned above, no team just gets better and better. Secondly, the move necessarily meant a period of belt tightening, I think most of us here agree Wenger was too cautious and possibly remains so, but there was always going to be a time when we were going to be less competitive and needed to think longer term. Thirdly, the move was around the time that the billionaires started coming into the game and pumping silly amounts of money into clubs. If City win their game in hand then the top two will be two clubs bankrolled by billionaires. Co-incidence? New stadium or not, it'a always going to be difficult to compete with sides who can assemble squads with a blank cheque book.

If you want to talk about the stadium move then riddle me this: would we be better off were we still at Highbury and our income was significantly less than it is now? If you're frustrated at our failure to win trophies over the last 9 years then many of us share that frustration but I'd be interested to know how you think we could have better competed back at Highbury. The new sponsorship deals we have signed should now give us more financial muscle, the Ozil signing was hopefully the first sign of that. Was it enough? No, but it's a start and the results this year so far indicate we're heading in the right direction again. Whether we maintain that remains to be seen but I'm not going to pre-emptively moan about how bad things are based on what our position 'could' be in a month or so's time. Let's get there and then see where we are.

[Dein-machine]

Because in order to determine whether the club is heading in the right direction the most relevant comparison is to the previous season.
Do you think that any football manager in the history of football, no matter how good, has year on year built better and better sides?
That team 10 years ago was just about the best team I've ever seen, if you thought we were going to stay at that level or just get better and better then you were being extremely naive. I think most of us realised we were being spoilt and were just enjoying it while it lasted.



Not. For several reasons. One I've mentioned above, no team just gets better and better. Secondly, the move necessarily meant a period of belt tightening, I think most of us here agree Wenger was too cautious and possibly remains so, but there was always going to be a time when we were going to be less competitive and needed to think longer term. Thirdly, the move was around the time that the billionaires started coming into the game and pumping silly amounts of money into clubs. If City win their game in hand then the top two will be two clubs bankrolled by billionaires. Co-incidence? New stadium or not, it'a always going to be difficult to compete with sides who can assemble squads with a blank cheque book.

If you want to talk about the stadium move then riddle me this: would we be better off were we still at Highbury and our income was significantly less than it is now? If you're frustrated at our failure to win trophies over the last 9 years then many of us share that frustration but I'd be interested to know how you think we could have better competed back at Highbury. The new sponsorship deals we have signed should now give us more financial muscle, the Ozil signing was hopefully the first sign of that. Was it enough? No, but it's a start and the results this year so far indicate we're heading in the right direction again. Whether we maintain that remains to be seen but I'm not going to pre-emptively moan about how bad things are based on what our position 'could' be in a month or so's time. Let's get there and then see where we are.

Not really - how you can compare 1 season when you've spent £42 mill on a world class player against the previous.
The comparison should be against what we were promised " A new stadium for us to become the best in Europe ". 10 years ago. We're not even the best in London.
This year we have tightened up at the back but are still shitting ourselves against the better clubs, even Everton. We have never been humiliated by Liverpool or by Man City, so I would actually suggest we have regressed against top opposition.

As I've posted before. The stadium is wonderful & gives us the future we need - no doubt. But go back to all the interviews you can find when Danny Fitz came up with this move backed by Wenger. Find one where they warned about "tightening our belts".
You won't, they told us the extra capacity would increase our revenue to enable us to compete for top signings WHILST paying off stadium debt. How many years did you hear the press or AST ask Wenger & the board did we have money to spend, it always came back with "Yes, but we need to find the right quality". It was only a couple of years ago when we heard that the financial constraints of the stadium were nearly over & money was in the bin.
Its bloody obvious Wenger & Fits weren't going to sell us the move out of Highbury by saying " oh, by the way after all the recent success, this new stadium will mean we'll win fuck all for 10 years & we'll have to regularly sell our best players. However like it or not that was exactly what happened. Even with £80 mill to spend last year Wenger tried to get away with spending nothing in the summer, he bought Ozil to save his job especially after the Villa result. If we have been lied to an the shareholders have amassed their profits whilst multiplying Arsenal's worth at our expense - is it not right that after 10 years we get what we were promised. If it is obvious Wenger can't deliver that in modern football, someone needs to have the balls to get rid & stop treating him like he is a mesiah. His legacy will be the stadium but his legacy has turned us from regular title contenders into regular 4th place contenders & champions league finalists into last 16 cannon fodder. Unless he changes his transfer ideals, he will be remembered as the manager who got worse as his time went on.

[Ollie the Optimist]

why are some arsenal fans acting like spoilt brats? we have been involved in fights for 4th place for the last 8 years, we suddenly sign a world class player in Mesut Ozil, are really challenging for the league title and one game away from a semi final at Wembley yet some are acting as if anything other then the treble is a sackable offence.

[JonasTC]

why are some arsenal fans acting like spoilt brats? we have been involved in fights for 4th place for the last 8 years, we suddenly sign a world class player in Mesut Ozil, are really challenging for the league title and one game away from a semi final at Wembley yet some are acting as if anything other then the treble is a sackable offence.

Because we were promised!!! :fury:

[Niall_Quinn]

There's a middle ground. We were, indeed, promised gruel today and caviare tomorrow. Competing with the big boys and all that. But obviously it has taken time to build a new stadium, move, sort out loans, sponsorship deals and all the while try to stay in contention at the top.

BTW, let's not forget the rats who really deserted the ship, the old board. They put nothing in and took a fortune out, so fuck them as usual. For the ones who stayed, all indicators point to the summer of 2014 as the point where the plan STARTS to yield the benefits we were promised. So in some ways we are ahead of schedule with signing of Ozil.

The middle ground is this. If stuff really does begin to happen in the summer then we're in good shape. If not and the board sits on the money, then all bets are off and everything gets fucked into the air.

Until then, it's a bonus we are competing so effectively this season. I think most of us expected to scrape 4th again after a dour campaign. I'm satisfied and enjoying it at the moment, but stand ready to hurl excrement in all directions if anyone tries to run off with the cash like the last lot.

[Fist of Lehmann]

Nice to see an Arsenal player protecting another Arsenal player.

From Arsenal fans.

[Letters]

Not really - how you can compare 1 season when you've spent £42 mill on a world class player against the previous.

But you think it's valid to compare with 10 years ago when it was a completely different set of players and the footballing landscape was so different as to be recognisable? Obviously the board will have spun the benefits of the new stadium and maybe they were over-optimistic and didn't anticipate to quite what obscene levels the billionaires would push the market.
End of the day it was the only way we could hope to compete and but for the billionaire-fuelled clubs we'd have a very good chance of being champions this season.

Also, what NQ said

[Power n Glory]

And Flamini. :lol:

He has to rise above it. Big price tag, big expectations. It would be 10x worse if he was the record signing at Real Madrid. He had a poor game and that's partly down to the circumstances but Wenger should have subbed him. But maybe getting subbed after that miss would have compounded the problem. He's not helping himself. Not sure how he can be helped from here on. It's all down to him to perform.

[JonasTC]

From Arsenal fans.

From retarded Arsenal fans*

[The Emirates Gallactico]

From retarded Arsenal fans*

Don't think any Arsenal fans have been that OTT about him, at least for the time being. There's been some dissapointment yes but we're hardly chasing him out of the door like we were with the likes of Almunia, Denilson, Squillachi, Bendtner etc etc.


Pretty sure Podolski was referring to the media more than anything with their sensationalist headlines calling him a flop and what not. He's fighting a losing cause at any rate.

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

Ozil was woeful. When he missed that penalty his head went down and that was it, might as well have substituted him.

Sanogo more promising than Giroud which says a lot about our striking options.

Robben is a cunt.

Redaction deserve a medal for their effort last night.

Losing was a blessing in disguise. We don't have the depth to challenge on 3 fronts. Focus on the FA cup and league.

[Fist of Lehmann]

Don't think any Arsenal fans have been that OTT about him, at least for the time being. There's been some dissapointment yes but we're hardly chasing him out of the door like we were with the likes of Almunia, Denilson, Squillachi, Bendtner etc etc.


Pretty sure Podolski was referring to the media more than anything with their sensationalist headlines calling him a flop and what not. He's fighting a losing cause at any rate.

Disgusting, Pathetic, Disgrace - Ozil received a trashing on Twitter from Arsenal fans.

To me Podolski's tweet reads like a call for unity. He knows full well that the media aren't interested in helping "the collective", nor is he naive enough to think that the English football press could be considered "friends" or that they could be counted on to stand together for the good of the club.

He is right however to expect some support from supporters.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

[Niall_Quinn]

Disgusting, Pathetic, Disgrace - Ozil received a trashing on Twitter from Arsenal fans.

They aren't fans. Most of them are leftovers from the time when Arsenal was a highly desirable fashion choice. You'll see the ranks swell again if some of this money starts being rolled out. I bet a few are even here for the name Ozil and are a bit pissed they didn't get their Real Madrid fix. But they aren't fans because real fans would have learned some lessons over the last couple of years and real fans want success for the club rather than their moment basking in reflected glory. It's a me, me, me, now, now, now and let's trample the wide and kids to be first society we live in. Real fans are being priced out so these shits can grab the seats. I think the players will have more than a good idea who to pay attention to and who to laugh off. That's why I can't go any more, the fucking price. That and the fact I;d punch half the fuckers there in the head, no doubt.

[Niall_Quinn]

And here's a thing. We (myself included) were:

Wrong about Kos.
Wrong about Ches.
Wrong about Merts.
Wrong, wrong and wrong again about Ramsey.

So I wonder, is there even the slightest chance the fans could be getting it wrong with Ozil too? I expect to see great things from this player once he settles in and gets used to the overly vigorous nature of this league.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

Throw in wrong about Theo somewhere there too.

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

Cripps was right about Theo.

Cripps :bow:

[Niall_Quinn]

Throw in wrong about Theo somewhere there too.

I'm winging it on the off-chance nobody does a "Right about..." post.

[Power n Glory]

People need to distinguish between criticising a performance or a string of performances over bashing.

[Niall_Quinn]

People need to distinguish between criticising a performance or a string of performances over bashing.

Were all talking about shitheads who are on Twitter I assume? Fuckheads called Faisal from London or Mpongwe Mbu-Ebola from Croydon.

[Globalgunner]

We were right about Ramsey, up until he made a pact with Beelzebub at the start of this season.
Ramsey:" Make me the best midfielder in the world"
Devil: "Okay, but it will only be for 3 months and it will cost you the life of one Cripps on GW"
Ramsey "Thats fine by me"

[Letters]

I have decided, having had a couple of days to calm down, that the ref wasn't to blame for ruining the game on Wednesday. Refs are told to send players off in these situations and actually get demoted if they don't. Well done UEFA/FIFA/whoever.

The intention of the sending off law is sound – stop defenders who know they’re the last man from cynically chopping a player down who would otherwise be bearing down on goal alone. The trouble is so many managers were whining about consistency than the powers that be made the rule hard and fast. The result is you still don’t get consistency because...well, situations aren’t identical, the ref still has to make a judgement about whether the defender was the last man, whether it was a clear goal scoring opportunity, whether there was another defender who might have got across to make a challenge.

The bottom line is a penalty is a clear goal scoring opportunity (The outcome of Wednesday's two not withstanding!). Any offence in the area which means a penalty is given is punishment enough unless it’s a particularly nasty 2 footed challenge but they rarely happen there.

[JonasTC]

Well, Boateng should still have been sent off before that situation, which would have made it a whole other game, at that time we were the best team... So i still think we can blame the ref for forgetting his balls. You're still right in that situation though :)

[Globalgunner]

The law is an ass, because it clearly prejudices keepers, whom have a right to come out and confront the player. How is is that in the majority of cases it is the keeper who is deemed to have fouled the player and not the other way round. Same happens when a player is trying to round the keeper and the keeper pushes the ball away at the feet of the player.

Player falls and keeper is sent off for basically doing his job.

The keeper can hardly win unless there are oceans of space between player, keeper and ball.

This is not simply because of Wednesdays incident. The law needs to be reviewed because it hamstrings the keeper into having no option but to stay on his line and watch what happens.

[Letters]

Well, Boateng should still have been sent off before that situation, which would have made it a whole other game, at that time we were the best team... So i still think we can blame the ref for forgetting his balls. You're still right in that situation though :)
Well there's the inconsistency, I guess the ref thought there was potentially a covering defender or that it was less of a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
In the name of consistency they've made a blanket rule but the ref still has to make a judgement call as to whether the rule applies.

[AFC Leveller]

I dunno if anybody has mentioned this but Koscielny was about to track Robben's run and was obstructed by that Manzukic ****. I know its late now but thats another decision that went against us.

[JonasTC]

Well there's the inconsistency, I guess the ref thought there was potentially a covering defender or that it was less of a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
In the name of consistency they've made a blanket rule but the ref still has to make a judgement call as to whether the rule applies.

Oh no, im not talking about that, i think that was a yellow. Im talking about a later situation, were he made a freekick that usually are a yellow (and therefor should have had his 2. yellow).

[Letters]

Oh no, im not talking about that, i think that was a yellow. Im talking about a later situation, were he made a freekick that usually are a yellow (and therefor should have had his 2. yellow).
Oh I see. Well, that's another thing about refs, a challenge which is a stonewall booking is often not one if the player has been booked already. I don't like seeing sending offs left right and centre but it is another inconsistency.

[Özim]

Oh no, im not talking about that, i think that was a yellow. Im talking about a later situation, were he made a freekick that usually are a yellow (and therefor should have had his 2. yellow).

Well if the 1st shouldn't have been a yellow then he should have only had 1 anyway.

You're clutching at straws, we got beaten by the better side, that's it. We were never going to win this tie against Bayern, we had our chances early on, missed them and that was that.

[JonasTC]

How should him, leaving his leg out to take Özil down not be a yellow? Even the cunty commentators said that :d

I dont agree, before Gibbs injury i think we were the better team and that is with us missing our 2 best players (and i know bayern are missing Ribery, but they have world class reserves, so i doesnt hurt them as much as us).

[Letters]

No-one is clutching at anything.

Over two legs Bayern probably have too much for us but on Wednesday we were actually playing very well and then one moment and decision killed it. It's not asking much to expect us to play on a level playing field. 11 vs 11 was a contest, 10 vs 11 wasn't.
It wasn't a two footed, dangerous challenge. It was a split second decision which 'keepers have to make all the time. When they get it wrong they're facing a penalty. Do we really need the triple punishment of penalty, sending off (which renders the remainder of the game extremely difficult at the best of times, downright impossible when you're playing a side this good) and subsequent ban.

It's a stupid rule and I've said this before, it's not just a reaction to how it affected us in this one game.

[Özim]

How should him, leaving his leg out to take Özil down not be a yellow? Even the cunty commentators said that :d

I dont agree, before Gibbs injury i think we were the better team and that is with us missing our 2 best players (and i know bayern are missing Ribery, but they have world class reserves, so i doesnt hurt them as much as us).

Refs always give the players a bit of a chance before sending them off from what I've always seen, it's rare for a player to be sent off without a warning.

We played well for half hour, after that it was all Bayern. Bayern didn't start well and we had some good chances to score a couple goals, once we missed the penalty the game change somewhat and Bayern settled.

You're not going to dominate a whole game against a team as good as them, even with 11 men I doubt we'd have been able to keep them quiet all match, reckon it would have perhaps been a draw.

[Özim]

No-one is clutching at anything.

Over two legs Bayern probably have too much for us but on Wednesday we were actually playing very well and then one moment and decision killed it. It's not asking much to expect us to play on a level playing field. 11 vs 11 was a contest, 10 vs 11 wasn't.
It wasn't a two footed, dangerous challenge. It was a split second decision which 'keepers have to make all the time. When they get it wrong they're facing a penalty. Do we really need the triple punishment of penalty, sending off (which renders the remainder of the game extremely difficult at the best of times, downright impossible when you're playing a side this good) and subsequent ban.

It's a stupid rule and I've said this before, it's not just a reaction to how it affected us in this one game.

According to the rules it's a red card and penalty, so it doesn't matter whether it would have been better 11 vs 11 (obviously it would have been), the fact is Chesney made a mistake and we got punished to the letter of the law.

I personally think they should award a goal, because penalty's can be missed (and often are) so if you're clean through with a tap in and then brought back and you miss the penalty you've been punished and the defending team get away with it, so you could just foul the player to give yourself a chance of stopping the goal.

Yes the double punishment is harsh, but those are the rules. If you had this chance missed the penalty and then lost 1-0 it was also be unfair to some extent.

Even if we'd played 11 vs 11 I couldn't see us going through, so I'm not that bothered to be honest, we started very well though but after the penalty we ran out of steam a bit and the game settled down. Bayern would have had spells in the game anyhow and with the players they have a draw probably would have been a good result for us.

[Xhaka Can’t]

The law is an ass, because it clearly prejudices keepers, whom have a right to come out and confront the player. How is is that in the majority of cases it is the keeper who is deemed to have fouled the player and not the other way round. Same happens when a player is trying to round the keeper and the keeper pushes the ball away at the feet of the player.

Player falls and keeper is sent off for basically doing his job.

The keeper can hardly win unless there are oceans of space between player, keeper and ball.

This is not simply because of Wednesdays incident. The law needs to be reviewed because it hamstrings the keeper into having no option but to stay on his line and watch what happens.

You have totally nailed it with that post. There have been countless situations now where a keeper has played a blinder and got hos fingertips to a ball to make a wonderful save. Yet the attacker can just leave a trailing leg and just like that, you have a penalty and the keeper is off. And to compound this you have dickhead commentators saying that the player was entitled to go down 'because there was contact.' It is ridiculous.

[Letters]

I personally think they should award a goal, because penalty's can be missed (and often are) so if you're clean through with a tap in and then brought back and you miss the penalty you've been punished and the defending team get away with it, so you could just foul the player to give yourself a chance of stopping the goal.
There was an incident in the World Cup where someone made a save on the line at the death, the penalty was missed and the team went on to lose a shootout.
I do think there's a case for a penalty goal rule where if a defender handles the ball to stop what would otherwise have definitely been a goal then just award the goal.
IMO that doesn't apply to a player going through on goal. Yes, penalties can be missed but so can chances and I don't buy in most of these cases it's a foregone conclusion that the player would have scored.

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

The law as it stands is indeed an ass.

I believe it's actually UEFA who want it changed. I guess Platini can't be wrong all the time.

I don't know how they'd solve it though, because I do think there should be a distinction when it comes to "goalscoring opportunities". Maybe a yellow card and a penalty/free kick would suffice? :shrug:

[Letters]

The law as it stands is indeed an ass.

I believe it's actually UEFA who want it changed. I guess Platini can't be wrong all the time.

I don't know how they'd solve it though, because I do think there should be a distinction when it comes to "goalscoring opportunities". Maybe a yellow card and a penalty/free kick would suffice? :shrug:
IMO it's about common sense although I realise that is not as common as the name implies.
Player is bearing down on goal, the last defender 'takes one for the team' by fouling them then what is an appropriate punishment?
It depends where the offence is and whether there is any chance of a covering defender getting there.
If it's in the box then I think a yellow card and penalty is enough, the team still gets their goal-scoring opportunity - arguably a better goal-scoring opportunity than the original chance.
Outside the box then it's trickier because a freekick with the defence back and a wall is not a clear opportunity to score. What do you do then? Send the player off? Award a penalty anyway on the basis that the player would have had a chance to score?

[Özim]

There was an incident in the World Cup where someone made a save on the line at the death, the penalty was missed and the team went on to lose a shootout.
I do think there's a case for a penalty goal rule where if a defender handles the ball to stop what would otherwise have definitely been a goal then just award the goal.
IMO that doesn't apply to a player going through on goal. Yes, penalties can be missed but so can chances and I don't buy in most of these cases it's a foregone conclusion that the player would have scored.

You're talking about Suarez and him jumping up and down celebrating when the penalty was missed (was it Ghana?).

It's a difficult one but I'm not sure a penalty is entirely fair either in some scenarios, maybe they could introduce a system where players can be sin binned for a certain period of time if it's not so clear cut.

[Shaqiri Is Boss]

IMO it's about common sense although I realise that is not as common as the name implies.
Player is bearing down on goal, the last defender 'takes one for the team' by fouling them then what is an appropriate punishment?
It depends where the offence is and whether there is any chance of a covering defender getting there.
If it's in the box then I think a yellow card and penalty is enough, the team still gets their goal-scoring opportunity - arguably a better goal-scoring opportunity than the original chance.
Outside the box then it's trickier because a freekick with the defence back and a wall is not a clear opportunity to score. What do you do then? Send the player off? Award a penalty anyway on the basis that the player would have had a chance to score?
That's the problem. When you leave it up to referees to decide there is inevitably inconsistency and people want a clear rule. When you have a blanket rule people want there to be a level of interpretation. Knowing FIFA they'll make it worse.

Maybe you could leave it up to the fouled team. Do you want the penalty or the guy sent off? :lol:

[Letters]

:lol: "And Liverpool have played their Joker..."

[Fist of Lehmann]

That's the problem. When you leave it up to referees to decide there is inevitably inconsistency and people want a clear rule. When you have a blanket rule people want there to be a level of interpretation. Knowing FIFA they'll make it worse.

Maybe you could leave it up to the fouled team. Do you want the penalty or the guy sent off? :lol:

Interesting. You'd almost always go for the sending off unless it was late late on, it's a big advantage and it pretty much ruins the contest.

That for me was the big shame of the night, that we never got to see how things might have been 11 vs 11.

It's also why you can't read too much into any of the performances, it was a game under exceptional circumstances.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Disgusting, Pathetic, Disgrace - Ozil received a trashing on Twitter from Arsenal fans.

To me Podolski's tweet reads like a call for unity. He knows full well that the media aren't interested in helping "the collective", nor is he naive enough to think that the English football press could be considered "friends" or that they could be counted on to stand together for the good of the club.

He is right however to expect some support from supporters.

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Niall Quinn already touched on this point but twitter really isn't indicative of the general mood of Arsenal fans. As a wise man, now banned, on here once said, "Twitter is for idiots". It's infested with over reactionary and moronic posts regardless of what the reality is. And all famous people get dogs abuse on twitter (see Jimmy Kimmel's hilarious videos). If Ozil is really that affected by comments online he really should remove his online social media prescene or man up. The day Ozil starts getting boos and groans within or outside the stadium will be the day that he's lost the fans and that's a long way off.

Anyway, all in all Ozil does seem like a confidence player who needs to feel loved. It would be good if we he had a really good chant that the fans could sing next game to inspire him ........ as Syn said, we really should have saved Hey Jude for Ozil.

[JonasTC]

IMO it's about common sense although I realise that is not as common as the name implies.
Player is bearing down on goal, the last defender 'takes one for the team' by fouling them then what is an appropriate punishment?
It depends where the offence is and whether there is any chance of a covering defender getting there.
If it's in the box then I think a yellow card and penalty is enough, the team still gets their goal-scoring opportunity - arguably a better goal-scoring opportunity than the original chance.
Outside the box then it's trickier because a freekick with the defence back and a wall is not a clear opportunity to score. What do you do then? Send the player off? Award a penalty anyway on the basis that the player would have had a chance to score?

Me and my dad actually had a talk about that and we agreed that if you could somehow get non-corrupt refs, awarding a penalty and a yellow, even if its outside the box, would be optimal. It would make sure that defenders in most cases wouldnt foul the last player and the fans could get to see a wonderful goal/save or a penalty kick if the defender is stupid enough, and we would still be able to enjoy a match afterwards. Of course other rules still need to be upheld, so if the foul is too violent, he needs to be send off and so on.

[JonasTC]

Niall Quinn already touched on this point but twitter really isn't indicative of the general mood of Arsenal fans. As a wise man, now banned, on here once said, "Twitter is for idiots". It's infested with over reactionary and moronic posts regardless of what the reality is. And all famous people get dogs abuse on twitter (see Jimmy Kimmel's hilarious videos). If Ozil is really that affected by comments online he really should remove his online social media prescene or man up. The day Ozil starts getting boos and groans within or outside the stadium will be the day that he's lost the fans and that's a long way off.

Anyway, all in all Ozil does seem like a confidence player who needs to feel loved. It'd would be good if we he had a really good chant that the fans could sing next game to inspire him ........ as Syn said, we really should have saved Hey Jude for Ozil.

I think you're right, if the fans had a song for Özil i think it would do wonders, seriously.

[Power n Glory]

Were all talking about shitheads who are on Twitter I assume? Fuckheads called Faisal from London or Mpongwe Mbu-Ebola from Croydon.

From your last few posts, I assumed GW was included, unless you were on Twitter sending abuse to Ramsey, Merts and Ches. :lol:

[Kano]

According to the rules it's a red card and penalty, so it doesn't matter whether it would have been better 11 vs 11 (obviously it would have been), the fact is Chesney made a mistake and we got punished to the letter of the law.

I personally think they should award a goal, because penalty's can be missed (and often are) so if you're clean through with a tap in and then brought back and you miss the penalty you've been punished and the defending team get away with it, so you could just foul the player to give yourself a chance of stopping the goal.

Yes the double punishment is harsh, but those are the rules. If you had this chance missed the penalty and then lost 1-0 it was also be unfair to some extent.

Even if we'd played 11 vs 11 I couldn't see us going through, so I'm not that bothered to be honest, we started very well though but after the penalty we ran out of steam a bit and the game settled down. Bayern would have had spells in the game anyhow and with the players they have a draw probably would have been a good result for us.

In reality it's a triple punishment as you have a suspension for a straight red. Awarding a goal instead, for not actually putting the ball into the net, would then increase the chances of diving. It's an inherent rule within the game that you are only awarded a goal once the ball crosses the line, changing such a fundamental rule would be madness. Of course, the likelihood is that the player would have gone on to score of course, but balance and momentum can affect the easiest of chances as we have seen many times. There is no certainty of a goal until it actually crosses that white line.

[Power n Glory]

In reality it's a triple punishment as you have a suspension for a straight red. Awarding a goal instead, for not actually putting the ball into the net, would then increase the chances of diving. It's an inherent rule within the game that you are only awarded a goal once the ball crosses the line, changing such a fundamental rule would be madness. Of course, the likelihood is that the player would have gone on to score of course, but balance and momentum can affect the easiest of chances as we have seen many times. There is no certainty of a goal until it actually crosses that white line.

If a player intentionally handles the ball off the line like Suarez did, then it should be a red and automatic goal. That's just flagrant.

[Kano]

Football is full of immoralities, I'm not convinced that comes into the argument here. In a case like that, a red and a penalty works just fine. If you start to tinker with the most fundamental rule in football then everything is up for grabs. Players have done the very same thing before without the fuss, due to it being on a smaller stage.

[Özim]

In reality it's a triple punishment as you have a suspension for a straight red. Awarding a goal instead, for not actually putting the ball into the net, would then increase the chances of diving. It's an inherent rule within the game that you are only awarded a goal once the ball crosses the line, changing such a fundamental rule would be madness. Of course, the likelihood is that the player would have gone on to score of course, but balance and momentum can affect the easiest of chances as we have seen many times. There is no certainty of a goal until it actually crosses that white line.

Well yes true but you know the rules before you commit the foul so if you do it you know what's coming, the onus is on the players to be more careful, if you're rash and make a mistake then you have to accept what's coming.

People aren't happy about the rule but every knows about it, best way to avoid it is to think before you act I guess.

[Syn]

Anyway, all in all Ozil does seem like a confidence player who needs to feel loved. It would be good if we he had a really good chant that the fans could sing next game to inspire him ........ as Syn said, we really should have saved Hey Jude for Ozil.

Yeah but this is all getting a bit silly now too. Podolski saying everyone should not blame Ozil and get behind him (we are many miles away from Ramsey abuse levels here), Wenger saying today that Ozil hasn't mentally recovered and needs time. If you really have faith in your ability (and he fucking well should because he's got incredible talent and has proven it on the biggest stage of all) then man the fuck up, accept you're going to have to put in a shift at times, and make something happen - because that's what world class players do. Enough with the sympathy. God knows what he'd do if he faced a real tragedy.

[Özim]

Football is full of immoralities, I'm not convinced that comes into the argument here. In a case like that, a red and a penalty works just fine. If you start to tinker with the most fundamental rule in football then everything is up for grabs. Players have done the very same thing before without the fuss, due to it being on a smaller stage.

IMO the problem with penalties is the pressure on the player, a lot of penalties are missed suggesting it's not easy to put them away with the pressure involved. If the defending team make the mistake they need to be punished for it, a penalty that is missed is basically no punishment at all and if anything it acts as a tonic to the team that fouls.

[Syn]

Wenger had a good way of judging what he thought a fair red card is under the last man type ruling. If the player would have the team would have a better chance of scoring from the penalty spot than if the player wasn't fouled then a yellow card is good enough. Otherwise, give a red. That's quite logical but refs will be too stupid to apply that. By Wenger's idea, Suarez's handball would be a red card.

I don't have any problems with the rule the way it is. Yes goalkeepers have much less margin for error; by the rules they can be sent off even if it's not really their fault, but this is such a rare occurrence. I think that's the first time Szczesny has been sent off for us and only the 2nd time out of 100 that a goalkeeper has been sent off under Wenger.

[Letters]

I don't have any problems with the rule the way it is. Yes goalkeepers have much less margin for error; by the rules they can be sent off even if it's not really their fault, but this is such a rare occurrence. I think that's the first time Szczesny has been sent off for us and only the 2nd time out of 100 that a goalkeeper has been sent off under Wenger.
The issue with the rule is not whether it affects 'keepers more than defenders, the issue is it's an unduly harsh punishment.
You've denied a goal-scoring opportunity, but the other team have a penalty which is a pretty good goal-scoring opportunity.
Additional to that you get sent off which means your team has to play out the rest of the game with 10 men.
And you get a subsequent ban for what was probably a pretty innocuous foul and that affects future games.

You can't just call it a goal, plenty of good chances are missed too. Just give the penalty, possibly give a yellow card too and get on with it.

The only case for a 'penalty goal' rule is in the cases I've mentioned when the ball was clearly going on but a defender handles it on or near the line to prevent the goal.
If it's clear enough the ball would have gone in then IMO the goal should be awarded because in that instance a penalty is not equivalent as they can be missed.

[dazthegooner]

:gp:

[Özil's Panoramic View]

According to the rules it's a red card and penalty, so it doesn't matter whether it would have been better 11 vs 11 (obviously it would have been), the fact is Chesney made a mistake and we got punished to the letter of the law.

I personally think they should award a goal, because penalty's can be missed (and often are) so if you're clean through with a tap in and then brought back and you miss the penalty you've been punished and the defending team get away with it, so you could just foul the player to give yourself a chance of stopping the goal.

Yes the double punishment is harsh, but those are the rules. If you had this chance missed the penalty and then lost 1-0 it was also be unfair to some extent.

Even if we'd played 11 vs 11 I couldn't see us going through, so I'm not that bothered to be honest, we started very well though but after the penalty we ran out of steam a bit and the game settled down. Bayern would have had spells in the game anyhow and with the players they have a draw probably would have been a good result for us.

So the rules should apply to Szczesny's 'mistake' but not on the rash challenge that Boateng made on Gibbs, which had booking written all over it, eh?

Ok for the ref to give Boateng 'a chance', right?

Do you ever argue in favour of The Arsenal?

[Özim]

So the rules should apply to Szczesny's 'mistake' but not on the rash challenge that Boateng made on Gibbs, which had booking written all over it, eh?

Ok for the ref to give Boateng 'a chance', right?

Do you ever argue in favour of The Arsenal?


Well no, the last defender would also get sent off if denying a goalscoring opportunity as well.

Outfield players don't get booked for every challenge, they never have they never will, refs use their discretion and you often see them warn players a few times. Not me who makes the rules or applies them so it's got nothing to do with arguing in favour of one or the other.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

Well no, the last defender would also get sent off if denying a goalscoring opportunity as well.

Outfield players don't get booked for every challenge, they never have they never will, refs use their discretion and you often see them warn players a few times. Not me who makes the rules or applies them so it's got nothing to do with arguing in favour of one or the other.

Warning normally comes prior to 1st yellow, which he was already on when he smashed Gibbs.

That challenge was a yellow any day of the week, so the cunt should have been given marching orders.

[Munchies]

Flamini - Ozil one of my closest friends


Mathieu Flamini says Mesut Ozil is one of his "closest team-mates”.

The pair were spotted exchanging words during the final stages of Wednesday night’s Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich.

It led to speculation in the press, but Flamini played down the incident when he spoke to Arsenal Player on Friday.

Mesut is a winner, I'm a winner; we were both fighting because we just wanted to give everything to the team to make sure we defended properly
Mathieu Flamini

“When you're a journalist or you're a fan seeing it from the outside, it's difficult to interpret it,” he said. “But Mesut is one of my closest team-mates and we were on the pitch.

“It was not about arguing it was just about communication. Mesut is a winner, I'm a winner; we were both fighting because we just wanted to give everything to the team to make sure we defended properly.

“It was about communication, but at the end of the day it proves to everyone that we really wanted to win and we're winners. It's important, as you want a team with character, not a team who doesn't react.”

Flamini also defended Ozil's performance against Bayern.

“He is one of the players who ran the most [in that game],” he said. “He's a very offensive player and he's not used to doing so much dirty work but he did it and I'm very proud of him because he gave everything until the last minute.

“Everyone is behind him and, like I said before, he's one of my closest team-mates. We do everything together here and I feel close to him. On the pitch and outside the pitch.

“Everyone is very happy to have him here because he's such a talented player and I don't understand why people are hard on him.”

[Özim]

Warning normally comes prior to 1st yellow, which he was already on when he smashed Gibbs.

That challenge was a yellow any day of the week, so the cunt should have been given marching orders.

I've seen several warnings come before 2nd yellows regularly as well tbh. Rosicky in a game recently had one yellow and put in 3 iffy challenges and got away with it (without even a warning), it happens.

One on one keeper situations where the keeper brings down the player are relatively rare and thus when they happen it more often then not results in a red card if they're preventing a goalscoring opportunity, challenges in the middle of the park go on all match as outfield players will put in more tackles so they will get more leeway naturally (since keeps rarely tackle players).

These incidents are so rare I don't think this is a big deal, there's much more important issues in the game than this that need sorting out.

[Niall_Quinn]

Wenger had a good way of judging what he thought a fair red card is under the last man type ruling. If the player would have the team would have a better chance of scoring from the penalty spot than if the player wasn't fouled then a yellow card is good enough. Otherwise, give a red. That's quite logical but refs will be too stupid to apply that. By Wenger's idea, Suarez's handball would be a red card.

I don't have any problems with the rule the way it is. Yes goalkeepers have much less margin for error; by the rules they can be sent off even if it's not really their fault, but this is such a rare occurrence. I think that's the first time Szczesny has been sent off for us and only the 2nd time out of 100 that a goalkeeper has been sent off under Wenger.

But that's what the rule is supposed to be. It has to be a foul (not just a touch) to be a penalty and it has to be a clear (not partial) goal scoring opportunity or what has been vaguely classed as a "professional" foul. That's why the first penalty vs Liverpool was not a penalty, that's why Ozil's engineered fall wasn't a penalty and that's why Robben's outrageous dive wasn't one either and certainly never a red card. No clear goal scoring opportunities in any of those and all three barely touched plus running into their opponents to make the contact happen. In hidsight Boeteng shouldn't have been sent off because it was 50/ 50 with Ozil, at least it would be in a bloke's world. So no penalties and no red cards was the correct course for that appalling ref who only got the one decision right because he was so bad he dug himself into a hole so deep he didn't have a choice. When you see incompetent muppets like him on the pitch it really makes you wonder what they authorities are trying to achieve by hiring these cunts and by resisting technology so fiercely.

[Özim]

Robben got the ball past Chesney and Ches took him out, Robben would have put that away he's a terrific finisher and his touch was brilliant.

It was a penalty and a red card, everyone bar a small minority recognise it as a penalty and red card as it stands, not sure why you insist on disagreeing, even Wenger who is always the first to disagree didn't.

[Niall_Quinn]

Yes of course it was a penalty and a red card - who is disputing it? We all saw it. But according to the rules neither decision was correct. Perhaps a yellow for Robben would have been fair because he was the one trying to cheat the ref and there are clear rules for that too.

[Özim]

Yes of course it was a penalty and a red card - who is disputing it? We all saw it. But according to the rules neither decision was correct. Perhaps a yellow for Robben would have been fair because he was the one trying to cheat the ref and there are clear rules for that too.

I'd hardly think a yellow for Robben would be right seeing as it was Chesney who caught him, had he not there would have been no penalty and no red card, it's not like Robben threw himself at Chesney as sometimes happens in football, he went for the ball, got the ball and then got caught by Ches.

[IBK]

why are some arsenal fans acting like spoilt brats? we have been involved in fights for 4th place for the last 8 years, we suddenly sign a world class player in Mesut Ozil, are really challenging for the league title and one game away from a semi final at Wembley yet some are acting as if anything other then the treble is a sackable offence.

Because we are yet to see whether the many issues that have plagued us for years have truly been resolved. And Ozil's done nothing to show they have. Yet.

[IBK]

Yeah but this is all getting a bit silly now too. Podolski saying everyone should not blame Ozil and get behind him (we are many miles away from Ramsey abuse levels here), Wenger saying today that Ozil hasn't mentally recovered and needs time. If you really have faith in your ability (and he fucking well should because he's got incredible talent and has proven it on the biggest stage of all) then man the fuck up, accept you're going to have to put in a shift at times, and make something happen - because that's what world class players do. Enough with the sympathy. God knows what he'd do if he faced a real tragedy.

Best post I've seen re Ozil's current situation. :gp:

[Niall_Quinn]

I'd hardly think a yellow for Robben would be right seeing as it was Chesney who caught him, had he not there would have been no penalty and no red card, it's not like Robben threw himself at Chesney as sometimes happens in football, he went for the ball, got the ball and then got caught by Ches.

He got tapped by Ches, no man would go down from a tickle like that. Robben went down as if he'd been shot with a hunting rifle. There's no excuse for it and surely there's no excusing it. His simulation was a magnitude worse than the tap Ches put on him. If Ches had dived up in the air and then rolled around bawling his eyes out everyone would laugh. So why does anyone take Robben seriously? Very odd, when a goalie runs into the strikers it's a penalty and when the striker runs into the goalie it's also a penalty. No wonder players like Robben thrive.

[IBK]

Best post I've seen re Ozil's current situation. :gp:

Plus - there is a reason why, particularly with Arsenal's parsimonious history, the most expensive foreign signing in EPL history is being compared with the best players in the league.

[IBK]

From Arseblog...


You said: “And a lot of Arsenal fans will say: While it was eleven v eleven, we were good. We held on well with 10 men, we were unlucky.”

Bingo, this is just what I was thinking when I heard Wenger's post-match whinge.

This is almost a perfect expression of the narrative fallacy.

“The narrative fallacy addresses our limited ability to look at sequences of facts without weaving an explanation into them, or, equivalently, forcing a logical link, an arrow of relationship upon them. Explanations bind facts together. They make them all the more easily remembered; they help them make more sense. Where this propensity can go wrong is when it increases our impression of understanding”

- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan

Or, to put it another way, we always look for the explanation which confirms our prejudice.

The trouble with most Gooners narrative is that they must accept that Sanogo was there on merit, Monreal doesn’t leave a huge gap on the left, Ozil is a fantastic addition to the squad and Podolski is only useful as an impact sub.

If you don’t agree with all of that then how can it be purely down to the red card?



:wacko: or food for thought?

[fakeyank]

From Arseblog...



:wacko: or food for thought?

Arseblog is a cunt.

[IBK]

From Arseblog...



:wacko: or food for thought?

Sorry folks - it was a post from ANR...but I agree that Arseblog sees no evil!

[GP]

Oh, it's ANR :lol:

I wondered why it was so full of shit.

[IBK]

Oh, it's ANR :lol:

I wondered why it was so full of shit.

Yep - fair comment. I wondered whether I was losing the plot when I read that piece.

[LDG]

Arseblog is like what fans used to be before the interweb.

Everything else is pure bollocks usually.

[IBK]

Arseblog is like what fans used to be before the interweb.

Everything else is pure bollocks usually.

More measured?