Great article, agree with every word.

i see what you're getting at.

for weeks i've been bemoaning the tedious pattern that arsenal need to go two goals down to show any initiative; tonight was unique in that they started the game two goals down, and we subsequently saw arsenal perform consistently throughout the ninety - perhaps for the first time in 2013. coincidence?

If you allowed me to have a say on the matter in question, i would say tonights game was extremely weired and strange, except the two arsenal goals, there was nothing to show for your team. no creativity, no flair, no midfield dominance and nothing going forward on the contrary Bayern dominated all areas of the game other than finishing and some of thier crossing was disappointing too but they created far more chances, they were more exiting to watch and they had more than 20 shots on goal. you take those two goals out and there was absolutely nothing going for Arsenal. i know Bayren were well below par yet they had much more chances and territorial advantage than arsenal.

Anyway good results for you guys some positives as well defensively. hope you make it again in CL next year and play better.

Nothing to lose so we perform better.

That being said I really don't think we played that well tonight. We were more solid than spectacular. It goes to show that with an organised defence you can win matches even without playing well.

So what has changed in the last 10 days? I highly doubt that the massive difference in the performance was down to swapping TV for Kos?

It just makes me look back to the first leg and the silly goals we conceded. Especially after getting it back to 1-2.

Didn't see the game.

Haven't seen any highlights.

Fully agree with everything in this article though.

Ta.

We can't go into the first leg thinking we are equal to/better than the opposition, we have to be solid and cautious.

Yeah that what I am trying to explain to Batmoanie. Stay solid first and the rest will come. We cant go behind in every game like we did at Spurs and at home against Bayern and then thinking we can turn around things.

If we would be able to defend we shouldnt have lost against Spurs and we shouldnt have lost with 1-3 against Bayern in the first leg.

good article.

Also where the hell has that performance been against utd, Chelsea , spurs away. We've shown that on our day we can be unbeatable but we rarely have that day.

That being said I really don't think we played that well tonight. We were more solid than spectacular. It goes to show that with an organised defence you can win matches even without playing well.
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That's what I was trying to get at. With these solid foundations, we do have the quality to pick teams apart in the PL. We won't be playing Bayern every weekend. I wish we played like this against Spurs.

Even at Barca, we had this sort of plan and it was WORKING. Cesc for some unknown reason (hugging the facking Barca s and joking with them in the tunnel pre-game may have something to do with it though) did that idiotic back-heel in our half and they scored from it. Then RvP unfairly saw red. And we were still only 1 goal away.

So what has changed in the last 10 days? I highly doubt that the massive difference in the performance was down to swapping TV for Kos?
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i actually think fabianski being behind them helped. the erratic performances by szczesny have probably affected the defence psychologically - i think when szczesny's there, they feel more pressure to deal with everything because their trust in him is slowly deteriorating. but fabianski showed some good authority from the start, and maybe eased some of the worries in his defence by showing them they wouldn't need to deal with everything.

Did we learn next season at Milan though? No. We went there thinking we could match them. Silly. We restored some pride in the 2nd leg, but too little, too late.

Did we learn next season against Bayern though? No. They came here and we thought we could match them. Silly. We restored some pride in the 2nd leg, but too little, too late.

We actually looked like we had a game plan for once.

I forgot about Fab who was very solid, didn't make any mistakes at all apart from some dodgy distribution. But again I doubt he was the reason, he has not been pulling up any trees for the reserves so I don't see how exactly he becomes a calming influence at the back.

Perhaps there was a different approach in training? I would love that to be the case.

Yeah, Fabianski looked like he had a point to prove today. I've never really rated Shezzer that high, it's good to see him knocked down a peg or two.

Perhaps there was a different approach in training? I would love that to be the case.
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I hope to God, yes. HAS to be. Wenger thinks his players are so intelligent they don't need to be told things, but it's a must. Repetition, and drilling of tactics is the only way to be consistent.

Good article. I do think silk sums up quite well how the game panned out.

As a neutral is was a boring game with neither team playing that well, but you did look pretty solid at the back.

I think fear might have been in Wenger's mind, hence your approach to the game.

He must have known that were you to go too gung ho you'd get picked off and lose easily.

Fear can be a good thing in these sort of games. The best CL teams are usually the ones that play with caution for fear of losing - bar Barca.

Gibbs also needs to stay fit. Has good competition with Monreal now, I think our full-back situation is fairly healthy tbh. I'm starting to love CJ.

But again I doubt he was the reason, he has not been pulling up any trees for the reserves so I don't see how exactly he becomes a calming influence at the back.
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batmanu, what i meant was this - szczesny's performances have been erratic all season. and i think, slowly, that his defenders have stopped trusting him. and this has increased the pressure on the defence, because they have it in their heads that they are the last REAL line of defence - since there's no telling how szczesny will handle the situation.

whereas they didn't need to worry about that with fabianski in goal tonight - so i think that just freed up their minds and let them get on with their own jobs.

KPPR, perhaps that is the case. I hope it isn't. I would like to think the issues with our defence are tactical and not mental.

If you allowed me to have a say on the matter in question, i would say tonights game was extremely weired and strange, except the two arsenal goals, there was nothing to show for your team. no creativity, no flair, no midfield dominance and nothing going forward on the contrary Bayern dominated all areas of the game other than finishing and some of thier crossing was disappointing too but they created far more chances, they were more exiting to watch and they had more than 20 shots on goal. you take those two goals out and there was absolutely nothing going for Arsenal. i know Bayren were well below par yet they had much more chances and territorial advantage than arsenal.

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A decent summary.

There are some things I'd like to amend though.

In the first half, Bayern were largely restricted to shots from range. I believe we did catch them off guard for our first goal though, and I also agree they weren't at their best at all. Second half they got into the game a lot more and started to stretch us dangerously. Muller played a fantastic back heel which set Robben through, and he (expectedly, for me) missed. I feel that was the only time we were undone by Bayern tonight. The other chances they had were to be expected, we were taking more risks.

Goalkeepers get confidence if they feel they have a solid back 4 in front of them, and vice-versa. If you don't know what the defence is going to do one minute to the next, it's hard to assess what is needed.

Nearly 2 years, still same old shít

Still relevant

Groundhog Day