Thomas Vermaelen says a lack of luck has again played its part in Arsenal’s latest Champions League exit although the Belgian believes the Gunners can take heart from last night’s battling 1-1 draw against reigning champions Bayern Munich.
Arsene Wenger’s side worked tirelessly to overcome a two goal first-leg deficit at the Allianz Arena last night only for Bastian Schweinsteiger’s 54th minute strike to extinguish any realistic hope of an unlikely comeback.
Reflecting on a night when the Gunners at least found an equaliser and forced the hosts onto the back foot, the club captain told UEFA.com:
“You need a lot of luck in this competition. I thought we played well in the first leg. We put them under pressure for the first 15 minutes but we missed a penalty and got the red card as well. We know it’s not easy in the Champions League. I feel we can compete, but obviously this is the top level.
“It’s difficult to say exactly what the problem is. We’ve not had the best of luck in the draws after the first round and, as I said, you need a bit of luck in this tournament. We’re still in the title race and the semi-finals of the FA Cup, though, so there’s still a lot to play for.”
Vermaelen’s two vice-captains, Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta, also spoke of the positives that can be taken from staying unbeaten on a second successive trip to Munich.
“I think we played well in the two away ties against Bayern over the last two years but it’s obvious that over the four games it wasn’t enough to go through,” said the German defender.
“We have to look at what went wrong. We tried everything, especially in the last ten minutes. We tried to track them all over the pitch. We got the ball in some good positions but didn’t manage to score. We had to score twice, so we were two goals away from the quarter-finals and that’s a lot. Overall they deserved to win, especially after the first game.
“We want to finish the season strongly now and achieve something. We have to get the Champions League out of our system and take the positives into our next game.”
Arteta added: “We knew that nothing is impossible. I think we saw that much in London. We had to try and you never know in football. When they scored we kept on believing. We equalised through Lukas [Podolski] and there were some situations where we could have made better decisions or made the final pass. Then it would have been game on. But we’re talking about the best team in Europe here.
“Every team that has been here recently has been battered five or six-nil, so I think it’s encouraging. I think we were very good in the second half. We can take a lot of courage from that. We kept them pretty quiet as well.”
I think there’s nothing to take from this match *but* positives (minus Ozil’s injury, of course). Genuinely can’t believe my eyes and ears on how the press is covering this. It’s like they have watched a completely different match. If Chelsea has Bayern in the next round and draws at the Allianz everyone will be creaming themselves about what an impressive result it is.
Our lads acquitted themselves really well last night and we can hold our heads up high at this result.
(Ok, ok, maybe also minus a sluggish performance from Giroud. But you know what I mean)
Last night proves we’re not far away. Couple of tasty additions in the summer and we’ll be right there with the best. Done the Arsenal way. No oil money funding any of it. Be proud.
You know, honestly speaking, I don’t think there is much difference in the quality, ability or technicality of Arsenal and Bayern players. I feel it’s all about confidence. If we went out there with no fear and only expectation of a win, then it would be Bayern with 30% possession. All the media hype about the indomitable Bayern has subconsciously affected our players, however much they try to avoid the news.
you’re delusional
Well everyone expects us to try & win games because of the football we play. Considering Chelsea & JM they don’t expect more than a draw hence the creaming for achieving their goal.
Couple of tasty additions has been the usual story with most of AW’s Arsenal teams. Adding that would make us the favourites for both the PL & CL.
AW always seems to be banking on better luck with injuries because if we had Theo & Rambo (the tasty additions…er…LANS!), I guess atleast within our fan base we would been value for money in getting a result last night.
Given up reading the Press for an accurate portrayal of what happens in a match.
I prefer to watch the match for myself and read Arseblog for the post-match analysis.
Now we have to focus on the league and FA cup.
It’s the very time we make an every effort to get the cup.
Plus, Aaron is back and nothing stops him
Except for injuries, no one is immune from injuries, unless your mental and play on until your foot breaks off.
I think your foot falling off technically counts as an injury.
i believe we belong up there after that fair result,a couple of summer additions esp. Upfront would do
Although its a shame about Ozil, he just seems like hes not there majority of the game after half time Rosicky seemed to brighten up the team all round. The Ox had a good game aswell. But Fabianski has definitely improved somewhat!
disagree with the ozil analysis.
Nothing to do with luck. We just ain’t good enough! If we don’t get a world class CF in the summer then this will be the same story next season too.
This. Giroud is not a bad forward at all. He needs some serious competition though. Someone who can do the stuff he can’t do. Shame we didn’t get Suarez (btw, why did we not do more to enforce his buyout clause? Apparently we knew it existed despite those cunts denying it. Pretty sure other clubs would have been more persistent.)
we should have offered the 50M+ that they wanted, before publicly pissing them off with derisory offers meant to trigger nonexistent clauses. Now he is worth 80M+
Did you really expect us to be the best team in Europe this season? Give it time my friend, we’ll get there!
The best team won, but the boys did well.
One can only wonder what might have been if the first leg had not been so calamitous. Guardiola said last night that Bayern were the better team in both legs. Hmm, I think playing against 10 men, gives you just a bit of an advantage Pep. Still we came away from the Allianz with some pride restored. We did struggle to really produce in the final third and I know we tend to get plenty of goals from midfield but please Mr Wenger, buy a 20 + goals a season man this summer! We need a classy finisher to get… Read more »
We scored one, and they only scored one. 4 points from 6 at the Allianz arena in 2 seasons is pretty good going
0 points from 6 at home is the opposite
Giroud is at 18. With 10 League + FA to go yet.
Unless you mean just league. There is only one (ratface) so far, though Sturridge looks a foregone conclusion.
Sitting at 12 in the league if he goes on a run (yes, please) he could surely hit 20.
But yes, another is always welcome!
Giroud has scored 18 this season. It is his second season in English football. I doubt there are many out there that would do better.
Am pretty sure if there was really a clause, this would be grounds for us to sue.
There was but its too late since he signed a new deal
He was misquoted.
The press, pundits, so called fans, trolls and rest of the cretins banging on about how Arsenal weren’t good enough, no shit Sherlock Bayern Munich, the best team in Europe by a country Fuckin mile are better than Arsenal at the moment, we know that, they’re better than just about every other football team on this planet at the moment and will pump anyone else that visits the Alliance Arena this season. There’s no disgrace in the way we went out of the competition this year, over two legs we were outplayed but for most of the first we had… Read more »
Pretty soon The club will be rolling out Gazidis to tell us about how rich the club is, increased revenue, gonna compete with the biggest in Europe, attracting top stars yadda, yadda. Hopefully this summer they actually do something and show some ral ambition. The club needs to start backing up Gazidis’ huge promises. Oh and please no more already injured players or prospects.
Easy problem, easy solution. Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid are regularly better than us like it or not, also they usually qualify as firsts of their group. Avoid twatting around in the last matches of the qualifying, like we have been doing recently and we would probably be facing Milan or Olympiakos instead of Bayern or Barsa.
I dont understand the Boss complaints about our lack of luck with the draws recently. Avoiding loss in Napoli would have done just right.
Or not letting in the late goal at home to Dortmund would have meant topping the group and facing poorer quality opposition away from home first. You get through to the next round and then build your confidence. Players talk about being less naive and wanting more luck. Well the 2 go go hand in hand. The players are still naive in Europe and thus we get shitty draws against the top teams.
I don’t think they’re that much better than us either. Technically we’re probably even more gifted than them! The challenge, for me, is confidence. And yes the media do influence things like this (crowds, pundits etc) which affects the whole. I wouldn’t use newspapers to wipe my arse with or switch a TV on. It’s been like this for years and I’m so much happier on a day to day basis. Untouched. But I do still feel the angst at games and read a lot of the comments on here. It’d be nice if people realised the affect of their… Read more »
They are the best team in Europe, we are not. They are much better than us in so many ways. We can get close but their financial muscle will mean they will always pull away. We can get close to City and Chelsea as well but the same thing goes.
Our bench last night was very ordinary and shows the lack of depth.
It shows a depth of injury
walcott
sanogo
bentner
ramsay
wilshere
diaby
gibbs
monreal
If you take that out of any squad you will have a thin bench – thats 3 strikers three midfielders and bothe left backs
plus we were missing our no 1 keeper.
The problem is not squad depth – and it hasnt been for years – it is about injuries and recovery from injury.
Wenger (in who i trust) needs to examine how he trains and reintegrates recovering players
In all honesty Mr Nuts all you seem to have done there is state the obvious. Perhaps if we had more fans like the Yank in the West Stand or Danger Mouse instead of supporters like yourself, We would create an atmosphere in the stadium more conducive to winning football matches. I couldn’t be more proud of the way the team performed last night against unquestionably the most effective side in world football. You point to a lack of depth on the bench, there is some validity in this point however when you consider Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, Kieran Gibbs,… Read more »
“Bad luck, bad refereeing, Robben diving..blah, blah,blah…” What a load of bollocks. It just amazes me how Wenger and the club manage to spin all this shit year after year. was it bad luck that we started the game in London with a 21-year-old rookie up front? was it bad luck that we had nobody with pace and quality to come on last night, just an 18-year-old boy? was it bad luck, or an inept performance in our last group game that left us in second place? Now is a good time to take stock. For the 3rd successive year… Read more »
We didn’t suffer a spring collapse last year now did we? Or the year before that either. I wouldn’t have started Sanogo but hey could’ve worked. As always its easy to be smart after the event. I see definite signs of real improvement this year and if anyone expected us to win the CL this year then they’ve been suffering from TGSTEL delusional syndrome. Next up is sp*rs this week and that’s what is important.
Well I thought the lads gave a really good account of themselves. It’s no shame going out to Bayern, although after the groups we should not have put ourselves in a position to draw them so early. Imagine we had scored Olympiakos? We would’ve done a number on them, unlike Man Ure (who by the way have not won a trophy since August 2013). Not sure if we’ll have the legs for the title this year, but I’d bloody love it if we could have the cup. Just don’t for Christ sake turn up at Wembley and think, Oh it’s… Read more »
The fickleness of some fans really winds me up. Didn’t hear anyone slating Giroud after he scored the crucial 3rd and killer 4th to take us to the FA Cup semi.
I’ve got more respect for people like fatgooner, if only for the fact he is at least consistent in his moaning.
One of the things that frustrates me the most is our lack of pressing the ball.its easier to counter when you win the ball higher up we all know that. Oh one other thing we need someone upfront who isnt gonna jog around for over half the match like a hairdresser.
I am 100 percent sure fat gooner is piers Morgan’s son
It should be a crime for some people to procreate.
Vermaelen played well last night. I thought.
You make your own luck. That being said sans the ref decision in the first leg, thought we were competitive. OTOH no surprise we are out and maybe a blessing in disguise. The squad is not short on depth as the media would have you believe but we are about one player light to truly compete on all 3 fronts, and in particular in Europe considering opposition given. The player we are short of is a striker (again no surprise) Wenger knows this which is why the Suarez bid (now seems so foolish) and Higuain pursuit (again…) I understand his… Read more »
I’ve said it before here and I’ll say it again; Arsenal are the English media’s number one target. Even in a season where Moyes has had a bit of a nightmare he and UTD have got off pretty lightly. Media prey on Gooners obvious anxiety and any negative result or occurrence is pounced upon with sensational garbage, full of non truths and contradictions. It’s a case of relatively uneducated hacks writing for dicks, so my advice is don’t get sucked in, don’t be one of their dicks. From my perspective the fact of the matter is we clearly lost this… Read more »
Re the Suarez episode in the summer. At least AW is vindicated now, the club was correct in it’s information, the bid made did activate a release clause in the contract, the fuckwipes just chose to lie about it and ignore it. I would like to see a tie against a Bayern where we have an unbiased ref and diving fuckwits get yellow carded for diving … Robben and Ribery would last about 10 minutes. Lastly Fab is just too good to let go. He is better than most first choice keepers in the PL. Surely we can get him… Read more »
Was fascinted to see how Bayern used their keeper. The outfield 10 were able to push very high and smother us because of his ability to play outside the box. Very smart.
Stephen, each time their keeper dribbled, I kept wishing for someone with pace to make him play actual football with it–about the only time he was directly pressured, he shanked a kick into the dugout.
Luck? In my experience there’s no such thing as luck.
The more I practice the luckier I get 🙂
he’s up all night ’til the sun
I’m up all night to get some
She’s up all night for good fun
I’m up all night to get ????
We’re up all night ’til the sun
We’re up all night to get some
We’re up all night for good fun
We’re up all night to get ????