Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey, Ozil, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexis, Giroud
Subs: Ospina, Chambers, Gibbs, Flamini, Campbell, Walcott, Welbeck
—
Arsenal battled valiantly against a brilliant Barcelona this evening, but two goals from Lionel Messi gave them a 2-0 win to take back to Spain for the return leg in three weeks time.
After the 0-0 draw with Hull in the FA Cup, there were lots of changes with Arsene Wenger selecting the same XI that beat Leicester 2-1 just 9 days ago.
Arsenal began brightly trying to put some pressure on the visitors, but a 6th minute yellow card for Nacho Monreal was a worry early on – especially as it seemed harsh, the Spaniard slipping as he made the challenge.
Aaron Ramsey showed some attacking intent early on, feeding Ozil and seeing a left footed shot blocked. The game then settled down into a lot of Barcelona possession, with Arsenal maintaining a defensive shape to deny them space.
Despite the fact they had most of the ball, Arsenal had the best chance in the 22nd minute. Nice work down the left saw the ball spread wide to Ozil. He pulled it back to Bellerin whose left footed shot was saved. The rebound fell to Oxlade-Chamberlain but his effort was tame, shooting straight at the keeper, he really should have scored.
It took until the 31st minute for Barcelona to have their first effort on goal, Lionel Messi heading a Neymar cross well over the bar. The Argentine tried a cute free kick when Koscielny was penalised for taking him down on the top of the D, but it was easily blocked when he tried to kick it under the wall.
Oxlade-Chamberlain had a great chance to deliver a ball as he broke down the right, but overhit it and ended up being clobbered by Mascherano, a collision which left him limping afterwards. Ramsey blocked a Messi shot, and in the final two minutes there was real danger from Barcelona as they had two great chances to score.
When Oxlade-Chamberlain ran away from a Ramsey pass, they came forward and it took a clearance from Monreal to prevent the goal. And with the 1 minute of injury time almost up, Alves got away from Alexis down the right to deliver a cross which found Suarez unmarked in front of goal after Koscielny switched off, but his header drifted just wide.
It had been pretty solid from Arsenal until then, but they’ll have been thankful they went in at the break with the scores level.
There were no changes from either side as the game began again, but that was a problem for Arsenal as Oxlade-Chamberlain clearly couldn’t continue. It left us a bit exposed down the right, and Barcelona took advantage creating a great chance for Neymar who found himself one on one with Cech – but the keeper made a fantastic save with his legs to deny the Brazilian.
That saw Arsene Wenger make the necessary change with Theo Walcott coming on to replace the Ox. Great defending from Bellerin and Mertesacker helped prevent dangerous situations, and when Jordi Alba pretended Giroud had him, he got to his feet and put his head into the Frenchman’s face – without so much as a card from the referee. Had it been an Arsenal player, it would surely have been red.
The game was bubbling, with Alves next to feign injury, and when Arsenal came forward Giroud saw a header well saved by Ter Stegen in the 59th minute. Alexis had a shot blocked by Iniesta, then at the other end Mertesacker again made a huge block on Messi inside our box, before Suarez fizzed a shot just wide of the far post.
Giroud and Walcott found themselves on different wavelengths in their area, and as Arsenal prepared to make a change, they found themselves behind. Barcelona launched a seriously quick counter attack down their left, Neymar fed Messi, he cut inside then flashed the ball into the net to make it 0-1.
Arsene Wenger made his second change, bringing on Danny Welbeck for Olivier Giroud, but it was only the width of the post that kept the lead to just one when Suarez almost capped another scintillating break with a goal.
At the other end Welbeck’s nod down almost found Ramsey on the stretch but the tiniest touch from the defender put it too far ahead of him. Mathieu Flamini then replaced Francis Coquelin on 82 minutes, and within a minute he’d conceded a penalty with a foul on Messi. The Barcelona number 10 stepped up, sent Cech the wrong way, and made it 0-2.
It might have been worse only for Cech saving strongly from a Neymar header in injury time. Arsenal will have regrets, both in terms of the goals they conceded and the way they did that, and the chances that went begging – especially that Oxlade-Chamberlain one in the first half.
It’s an uphill task in the return leg in three weeks time, and Arsenal have to pick themselves up for a trip to Old Trafford on Sunday.
Not to worry boys, we got the 2-0 out the way so now we can win 3-1 at the Nou Camp and go through on away goals.
Groundhog Day in the Champs League,
out to the first top tier team we play
Creditable performance but did anyone think we’d really do anything in this competition?
Forget this pipedream, we’re not good enough, lets concentrate on winning that title and FA cup – We have all our players coming back to fitness and form, we can do it
COYG
Ach, just fucking beat it.
Great constructive insights there, well done you…
Turns out, Arsenal, the team we all love, are not quite as good as one of the best Barca teams ever to play. That’s hardly being negative, it’s just true; we are really are pretty good generally.
Let’s push on, have a second leg to be proud of, and crack on in the League and FA Cup. COYG!
Even Las Palmas got themselves a goal against Barcelona, just saying.
We did not really take it to them, we were in a hurry when in possession heading nowhere most times.
Its painful but expected.
And you
One nil and out. The usual shit glorious failure just like every year for the last five years (last 16 and out).
We gave a good fight, proud of our boys.
Not blaming Wenger here but perhaps maybe he could have just slightly thought differently about his subs tonight. Theo does not defend and Flamini against Barca is like a 3year old in an antique store…def gonna break some shit.
I said to my mate as soon as Flamini came on, “he’s gonna concede a penalty now” and he did, so sorry folks it was my fault, I jinxed it.
I didn’t even get the chance to say For Fuck Sake before he did it.
Sorry to say this but Flamini has really been been shit for us of late. The only good things he’s done in the last 6 months:scoring the double against the Spuds and trying to save the world!
Thanks for your service to the club over the years Mathieu, but I never want to see you in an Arsenal shirt again
I thought theo was ok today. Mert, not Flamini was to blame for the penalty. Got to clear that ball.
A world class striker would NEVER try and pass that like Giroud did. Oh, and we got Flamini on a free transfer. Shocking
http://www.arsenal.com/match-menu/g832646/first-team/arsenal-v-bayern-munich?tab=statscentre
Spot the difference between this.. and tonight?
Efficiency. Chances just were not taken.
We did not deserve to win against Bayern. We made the most of the very very few chances we created, which some may call lucky. Tonight, though, we did not deserve to lose. Before the goal, we gave as good as we got, and before the Ox got injured, Barca were nowhere near our goal. I see progress, but we are nowhere near good enough to do something noteworthy in this competition.
I’m more optimistic (slightly anyway!) – I saw a lot of good things from Arsenal tonight and for 70 minutes we equalled Barca, one of the best teams on the planet. The scoreline could easily have been 1-1 but for a silly penalty and a bad Ox miss – would you then be saying we’re “nowhere near good enough”? Overall, Barcelona had the edge, it’s obvious over the full 90 mins, but with a less twattish ref and a bit of luck going our way the result could’ve been a draw easily, which would then have left Barcelona clear favourites… Read more »
As usual, blame the ref everytime we lose.
It’s the ref’s fault that we missed our chances.
It’s the ref’s fault Walcott is a waste of 140k
It’s the ref’s fault Per decided to have a brain fart.
Blame the ref.
I agree that we’re getting better, just not that we’re good enough to do something in the CL. Just look at what you wrote: ‘…but with a less twattish ref and a bit of luck going our way the result could’ve been a draw easily, which would then have left Barcelona clear favourites at home but surely slightly nervous’ Relying on luck and nervousness on their part just so that the playing field is a bit more equal is exactly what inferior teams hope for. We are one of the worst teams in the CL and we have been for… Read more »
Spot on – by my maths, that’s 9 games out of 38 games we have t scored in this season – shocking really At the risk of appearing knee jerk, there’s 10 players I would get shot of this summer…11 if I include Wilshere. Debuchy BFG Rosicky Arteta Ospina Walcott Ox Flamini Sanogo Campbell If we are lucky – very lucky – we got £50m across this lot. Time to bring 4 players who I think improve the current bunch, even though it might cost £200m to do it. And I think all of these are gettable Stones Kante Lukaku… Read more »
Agree with all except BFG, Ox and maybe Campbell. Ospina is probably the best second choice you could ask for, but he’ll probably want to leave so yeah. Ox needs to knuckle down and work hard. It’s about time he fulfills his potential.
Well, conceded 2 was still a great defensive effort considering the quality of their attacker. What do you expect?
Now we should focus on Manu next weekend, fix our terrible goal scoring drought!
Las palmas also conceded 2 and managed to score one themselves, don’t see them making a big deal out of it.
The difference being that Las Palmas do not labour under the illusion that they are challenging for the league title
I feel like I’ve watched that exact same 0-2 home loss, like, three times before.
Four.
Shot in the foot, again.
Love Wenger but why buy elneny and still play this headless chicken flamini. The worse player in the squad. Absolute torture watchin him play against Hull but against Barca??!! With our luck we’re gonna go out trailing just one goal and gonna kick ourselves for conceding that stupid fuckin pen.
isn’t Elneny cup tied?
I also think we should have put Campbell or Welbeck on for Ox. Then again, OG worked hard and with united to play it might have been the smart decision.
Walcott actually made several good plays, even made some great runs off of Giroud. Unfortunately we tried to make passes without picking our head up first.
I thought Walcott did very little. I would’ve brought on Joel.
As for Flamini…FFS
Arsene knows LOL.
Well He obviously doesn’t know everything but he certainly knows more than Cygan’s Magical Left Foot LOL.
Bless Flamini but he’s giving it all he’s got. Notice how he screams when Neymar headed the ball at the death to put him off. He cares about the team. I’m a big fan of the BFG but I think he sold Flamini a bit short tonight and he’s getting a lot of stick for sticking out his leg like 95% of other footballers would’ve.
Nah, Flamini didn’t need to do that
Flamini I hate, that’s to be expected. Mertesacker I expect better of…
Wenger touched Flamini on the shoulder and told him to help get a goal…………for Barcelona.
Tie over. Premier league and F.A cup focus, Wenger is a genius.
Get over Wenger mate, we played the best team in the planet and gave a decent account of ourselves. Crappy finishing by the Ox and some bad luck in their penalty box was the difference between a decent and a poor result.
anyone else tired of the same old self-capitulation
One more year of this shit if he doesn’t renew his contracts.
Clueless manager too old to understand the modern game.
Arsene IS the problem.
If only he was in the 6 yard area like he should be…unforgiveable.
If only he built squad to get us out of the last 16 for six years instead of signing cohesion!!!!!!.
If only he’d spent the ~£400m required to match the quality of a team like Barcelona!!!!! #arseneout
If he’d only bought a World Class Striker!
the tactic from wenger was spot on till the 70 minute mark, we had a glorious chance, after that one more with giroud with and excellent chance, and before the goal I said ok lets now dig in and park the bus for 20 minutes and go for 0-0, and the opposite happened we started to attack like we were losing 0-2, what was that I think it was more down to the players abandoning the tactic the wenger gave instruction to attack and be caught on counter like that, i really didn’t understand that 70 minutes we were on… Read more »
Exactly the same thing happenned v Bayern last time we face them in knockout round we equalise 1-1 at home then Kos goes charging up pitch leaving a huge gap at the back. I know Kos is a great defender but he does make some costly errors. Should have taken the Barca player out and got a yellow especially with Monreal, Bellerin and Mert out of the game. As for the second goal, the less said the better. There is a mentality issue with this team. Look at the Juve result they were 2 – 0 down to a vastly… Read more »
I thin we were out of shape this time. Coq was between halfway line and their goal when Pique made the clearance. Per and Coq rushed up and failed to stop Neymar there which created a hole which Kos had to cover. Just thinking if Monreal couldve stayed with Messi as Bellerin was just a fraction behind Neymar.
For me Wenger got the subs wrong.
and for the second, Flamini happened
Its very very disheartening to lose this way
Mentality issue or a Flamini issue?
Coq was there to stop Neymar, with 2 others. He was not aggressive enuf … take the yellow and move on. the penalty was pure Per …. not purr, Per. We needed to sign a world class DM and world class striker last summer. still can win league and fa cup though. Nuff said.
Classless and witless comment as usual. You are making a good case for yourself in not understanding the modern game, Arsene brought the modern game to England.
Cygan was shit too … show some respect laddie. WE could easily have drawn … now we play for the league and FA cup double.
why has my comment been downvoted? anyone care to elaborate on their downvote?
Of course we are tired of going out in the last sixteen every year, you don’t need to state the fucking obvious!!! No offence..
You missed a crucial question mark at the end of your sentence.
I didn’t realise a requirement for posting a comment in the comments section was that it has to be profound. GTFOH
Play the ball not the man, mate!
Get over yourself, at this point you got 5 thumbs down!
eat me darling
Why flamini why?. We just cannot score goals at the moment. And ox is really awful.
Ox was good! His miss was bad, but he doubled up on Neymar effectively and his dribbling with the ball from our right back was very effective, and we missed that when Theo came on
Ox just offers no end product. That miss was terrible and the scene where he sprints down the right and has 3 players clear in the box and ran into Mascherano. It’s just not good enough. I really like this boy but he’s in an age where he needs to start to deliver regularly. Hes got everything and a perfect role model in Alexis and a manager who’s shown a lot of faith in him. It’s up to him now.
I thought Ox offered quite a bit more than Alexis, who kept trying the same move of cutting inside on Alves and losing the ball repeatedly. Plus, Alexis was shirking working back in the last 20 minutes, which led to a lot of dangerous breaks.
Thought Ox had his most disciplined 45mins (or so) I can remember and was always lively looking for the ball and an outlet. Disappointed with how he took the chance and also heavy touch when he picked up the injury, I also thought Ramsey had a very good game, really worked hard and he has the ability to inject some pace and intnet into are game and did so on many occasions tonight, hope he can start putting the ball in the back of the net soon because someone needs to.
I think Ramsey’s a great footballer with heaps of potential but sometimes he tries to be too complicated for the sake of it. Sad to see him twist and turn trying to shake off an opposing player only to end up running backwards and having to retreat. Not elegantly,either. I think he’d be better sometimes just simplifying his game a bit. The Ox played well but should have scored. Alexis had moments. Wasn’t a vintage performance from Mesut.Per did well, as did Hector. We pressed and harried, and had chances, but we got done by arguably the best team in… Read more »
Solid first half, some excellent performances. Ox unlucky yet again, but I still believe there’s too much talent there and he’ll get there soon. 1-0 was probably fair considering we have forgotten how to score properly and Ozil and Alexis weren’t at their best.
Flam though… Jesus. Best repeat his recent performance against Spurs soon, saving the world or not.
For how much longer can his apparent ‘potential’ justify him starting games of this magnitude? Zero end product – even managed to injure himself in an incident in which he should have done far better.
Fair call. Not sure how to fix the situation but I still think he’ll be a key player in coming years. U21s for a while? Don’t know.
Flamini you plonka
It was a poor challenge from Flams, but let’s not forgot the equally poor header from Per to set that situation up.
header i would be much more happy if he headed the ball like that maybe awkward bounce on something ? it was his leg bringing down the ball with depth touch like a striker trying to score.
It looks so easy in slow motion. This is Messi we’re talking about… Screw your head on mate
Can we just discard Flamini now? He really should be nowhere near the squad for a game against such opposition. Why not have Iwobi on the bench instead? Alexis needs to learn to release the ball earlier. He can be really frustrating sometimes. I think we played well and deserved at least a draw… We’ll lose 3-2 on aggregate. Same thing every year.
Introduction of Walcott changed the game. He is just invisible. Nicking a living.
Nice dig at Walcott.. especially as no one is mentioning the most awful thing I’ve ever seen in football – giroud passing inside the 6yard box when he should’ve scored
Giroud’s pass to no-one hurt, but at least he’s in the mix and trying to make stuff happen. Theo’s just incredibly anonymous at times and I think he knows it. Doesn’t look like he has any confidence. 100k a week just seems ridiculous in the extreme.
I bet if we sold him to someone like the Mugsmashers he’d start banging them in for fun. I think that’s why Arsene puts up with him, that and the little spark of something we sadly see little of these days.
I thought he did reasonably well, myself. Just because he’s usually poor doesn’t mean he has to be described as such all the time.
I would have taken a 0-1. But Flamini had other ideas
If we play like this against untied,we will hammer them.
I’m not so sure. Poor finishing let us down again tonight.
Still, need to pick ourselves up, we’re not out of the league race yet – very much in it as a matter of fact, but we need to start taking scoring opportunities sharpish.
Alexis and Ramsey were piss poor. Flamini, not sure what he was doing there. Dat Guy needs to be starting.
Neither Alexis nor Ramsey were piss poor in any way. Honestly can’t fathom why anyone would, or how they could think Ramsey was anything approaching poor today.
All he did is run, which he always does. He seemingly forgot how to pass the ball.
Were you watching the same game dude? Best Arsenal player on the park for me today.
Starting to get concerned about Alexis’form. Just not the same player since the injury. Love the guy, but can’t figure out what has happened.
Ramsey was good & bad. Some excellent tackling, but very wasteful on numerous occasions. I’m so glad I’ve spent around £500 to get out there for the 2nd leg… All I hoped for was a chance of going through. Now we’ll need one of the all time great European nights to get a sniff of the next round.
Were you watching the same game? Ramsey ran his heart out and Alexis tried every time he got the ball. Why not have a GI at Özil, the Ox or Giroud as well? You cannot doubt the team for effort. If the Arsenal chances had gone in, this may be a different proposition. I think some of you guys on here just want to knock people and have nothing constructive to say about anyone. Such negativity is poor and the team deserve better supporters. There is no disgrace to be beaten by a better team. I think we saw some… Read more »
Agreed the team gave everything and were excellent in the first half. But scoring is a huge problem for us. I think it’s down to AW’s inflexible approach. No shooting from outside the box. Passing around the box. Trying to poke the ball into the net from close range. Opposition teams are primed. They just need to block everything. Hull did it. Barca have a reputation for a slightly suspect defence. We had chances last night but they were able to repel us. We are so predictable in front of goal. When will we spring a surprise from a swift… Read more »
This might not go down well but back when our team was still comprised from an austere budget, and Barcelona were at their absolute peak under Guardiola, we played far better football against them. Several years on with a supposedly better team and squad and against a Barca that lack the same intensity they once had, we were barely capable of stringing a few passes together. I don’t care about losing so much if at least we played some decent football, but we were incapable of that. A lot of players found out tonight imo.
Ramsey doesn’t possess that technical ability to play the football we used to. Wilshere, Cazorla and maybe even elneny from the few games I’ve seen him play seem to possess that ability but need to see more of him. Cazorla is a massive, massive miss. We need a ball playin midfielder on the right side cos Theo is not a winger. Chambo, he’s not ready for first team football for a club of our stature as much as I love the guy.
Cazorla in the middle and Ramsey right is ideal for games against big sides. The problem is not that Ramsey doesn’t possess the technique. It’s that he lacks the easy pass option that Cazorla gets when Ramsey plays on the right. That’s he he has to go back to Monreal, Bellerin or try a risky forward pass
Completely agree. Barca’s can be got at, defensively they looked weak yet we didn’t take our chances and we couldn’t string two passes together. I really hope we do not try and go for the second leg. We should rotate and focus on league and fa cup two realistic chances of silverware
i know emotions are flowing right now and so i will be in the minority……but i think we played well tonight, consequently, i am not in the dumps as i normally am when arsenal loses……why? I am never sad when my team played well and lose. sometimes you just have to take it on the chin and move on. it is what it is. For me, arsene’s tacticts worked to a T tonight, which was why we were able to keep them pretty much quiet for 69 minutes. The strategy for the match, i am sure, was for us to… Read more »
We simply arent as good as Barcelona. And we have Flamini as a sub.
Onwards and upwards, the double is still on.
Didn’t have to bring him on though.
Fuck knows what that substitution was about. I thought Coquelin still looked fairly fresh at that stage, whereas Sanchez looked (understandably) knackered.
I’m guessing the coaching staff and manager might Have a better idea of how tired someone was
Anyone else but Flamini. He is slower than any tired player we have
Flamini’s introduction was to protect the Coq. Remember we manure and the spuds to smash. In managers term it’s called fig leaf strategy in case you didn’t know
I think Coquelin was on yellow from a previous game and Wenger thought Flamini could make it 10 minutes so we would be sure to have Coquelin for the return fixture. I thought it was smart, but unfortunately Flamini had other ideas.
I personally believe the “Flamini is crap” narrative is completely overblown, he’s an average backup CDM, but that was a shockingly bad play.
I thought it was just Ozil and Giroud on yellow cards, no?
But for 70 minutes they were frustrated, you could see by how they celebrated how relieved they were that they broke through. I feared a thrashing that would derail the Club’s season but tonight just oozed of hard work and team spirit against a side that can frigging stroke a ball 30 yards foot to foot like nobody’s business! One or two dips in concentration let us all down. Really think they can step up and be counted this weekend, the team and fans deserve nothing less.
I had no expectations when we drew Barcelona. We made quite a number of chances and managed to rattle their cages a couple of times which was nice to see
I can say though that Welbeck is looking to be a very useful weapon to have.
Let’s just obliterate manchester united on sunday.
Pique out suspended. That means we can tear The Verminator a new one. No hard feelings towards him, but I’d like to see us score at least 5 with him in defence at the Nou Camp. Even if he doesn’t play I’d like to see us score 5.
Oh, and fuck Alves. Nasty little cunt. One day he’ll get hurt for real then let’s see him roll around like a pussy.
Did you hear him and Ozil having a bit of a coming together? Was funny to hear Alves saying ‘fuck you mang’ to Ozil before Mesut basically blew him a ‘fuck you’ kiss.
Alves is OK, don’t get me wrong, he just looks and sounds like a tattooed Tony Montana after all the coke and when Michelle Pfeifer’s left him. Bloke looks like he’s had a hard life.
They will play Mathieu, not TV
I was thinking about the classic commentator line “the chance just fell to to wrong player” about that Ox miss.
But then I thought, which player would you want it to fall to right now? Ramsey? Alexis? Even Giroud hasn’t scored in ages.
Sanogo?
Eboue?
TGSTEL
We played well. I was calm. Created three clear cut chances but couldn’t put it in the net. No real complaints with the first goal. The second one is criminal and made me angry. Now I’m pissed off. Game over. At 0-1 we were in the tie. Ffs
My only complaint with the first goal is that I felt Coquelin should’ve taken one for the team and just fouled Neymar. We don’t do enough of that cynical fouling and often bites us in the arse.
It’s the CL. This is Barcelona. He would’ve got a red card for sure.
Don’t be silly – no way would a foul on the half way line be a red card.
It’s the CL. This is Barcelona. He would’ve got a red card for sure
I can never get behind their achievements as a club because of how for over a decade they have been granted such impunity in this competition.
Yes, it’s all a conspiracy, clearly. Nothing to do with them having some of the best players on the planet for the last 5/6 years.
If you think that a foul on the half way line with 2 defenders between the ball and the goal could be given as a red card just because “they’re all out to get us” it says more about you, I’m afraid.
All this based on one bad decision for which RVP should not have been sent off. Get over yourselves.
Down vote all you like – it’s clear that’s the popular opinion.
Or Mert, he had him back t gaol on the half way line, just push him over and we don’t concede. He was more at fault than Flamini for the penalty too, why pass to him there ffs…
Arsene finally fucking buys a player in January, even one that addresses a need. We get cover in DM… Yet he still insists on playing Flamini. For his hubris, Wenger kinda deserved that.
We, as fans, did not.
I just thought it was funny that Flamini was brought on to help keep the score at 0-1, presumably. Sheer irony.
Which, fine. Get out 0-1 and give yourself a chance in the return leg, but don’t pull Coq to bring Flamini in. Take off an offensive player.
For a smart man, Arsene seems really impervious to induction.
When I saw Coquelin coming off I thought Arsene was doing something crazy like putting Campbell on for him (and was ready to chastise him for going too attacking when 0-1 wouldn’t have been bad).
I didn’t for the life of me think Flamini was going to replace him – was it just me that didn’t understand that sub? I even thought it might be to rest Coquelin ahead of the Man U game – any ideas?
Exactly what I was thinking.
I thought it was going to be an attack minded player but ffs flamini? I still don’t get this substitution. Plus I do like Giroud but ffs he really needs to be stingy once in a while especially when you are right there infront of the post.
Chamberlain really really needs to work on his end product.
Man u up next I except nothing but a win with all the injury they have.
I think some were surprised enough that he made a direct substitution rather than a positive change. Can you imagine the howls if he’d brought off Ozil for Flamini? Outrightly settling for a 1-0 defeat wouldn’t have gone down well but obviously hindsight changes everything.
Well said.
It was a pretty poor pass from per though.
When you loose chances, you get punished. Simple
No composure, and were far to star struck when we got any where near there goal, seen it before de ja vu….
Please Flamini warm the bench and give high fives in the dug out just don’t ever tread on a football pitch again you clown.
We did give it a go which I’m proud of thou.
Come on boys just try believe you can score and you might just get a goal or two
I think all 11 players played particularly well in the first half, even Ox was switched on defensively. In the second, I was most disappointed with Mertesacker (he’s got a big role to play in causing both goals watch the replays closely) and Sanchez and Ozil; disappeared completely.
Not too saddened, by I must admit I am frightened by our finishing (or lack thereof). We create more chances than before this season, but seem to have forgotten how to score.
RVP was the last elite finisher we had.
The sooner Wenger signs a lethal finisher the better. Giroud is not the answer.
Ssssshhhh! #whispers please do not say that here, you’ll get 250 thumbdowns
I would also say that podolski was a lethal finisher .
He just did not fit into our team/ style .
Rvp – complete asshole but a great player , when fit. He sure could finish.
Finishing is an issue with all our attacking players at the moment (definitely not just Giroud.) For me he’s actually had a number of good efforts very well saved over the past few games and could’ve had a decent 2 or 3 goals in his past 3-4 games were it not for some very good goalkeeping. His efforts haven’t been particularly woeful, which is more than I can say for a number of our other attacking players. The biggest concern for me is how the absence of Cazorla has completely fucked us over as an effective team for the past… Read more »
Nah, like someone said on another article, our attackers make these goal keepers look good.
I agree on Santi…if Wenger is going to play Ramsey as a cm, he needs a ball playing DM alongside him. Now this would’ve been Arteta back in 11-12, but Wenger failed to replace him and instead offered him a new contract when it was obvious he was finished.
Agree with you – all are guilty of not putting away chances they should have recently (including Giroud) just wouldn’t single him out as more culpable than Ramsey, Alexis, Ox or Walcott. I also feel he’s had more bad luck with his chances than the rest (who have all been guilty of more simple, painfully woeful execution.) Don’t get me wrong – always up for improving the team in any way – RVP was way better than Giroud and if anyone better than Giroud came in – I’m all smiles. Agreed 100% on the ball playing DM for Ramsey central… Read more »
Only three positives today: Cech, Coq and Welbeck. We need to start scoring goals, and OX, Giroud and Walcott does not do that at the moment
As good as Barcelona are, we had the chances and were naive in the last 20 mins. Seems like history repeating itself.
We were absolutely fantastic for 70 mins we just needed some luck to help. Fair play to Barca best 3 players in the world up front. Dani Alvez is a lump of samonella.
Alves is an embarrassment to mankind itself
Finishing was poor as usual.
Arsenal lack killer instinct…today was another example. We did everything right in the first half but once again our poor finishing let us down.
When you play against a team like barca, you’ve got to be very clinical. Unfortunately, we lack that with the options we have.
Giroud needs to stop giving interviews before a big game. Everytime he gets interviewed and he talks big, he ends up doing something extremely stupid.
Less talk and more action.
Ah look 2 nil against barca is no shameful thing. They are a at a different level to us. But we created chances that we need to put away. That’s a problem it needs to be addressed. Those who are not up to it need to be replaced / upgraded. Time to move on. There is a league to be won.
I’m really starting to worry about our lack of efficiency in front of goal. Barca are amazing, but tonight the difference between the two teams was that ruthlessness. We really do need to buy a striker in summer IMO.
To be fair, they missed:
A header from right in front of goal with just the keeper to beat (Suarez first half)
A one-on-one with the keeper to beat (Neymar start of second)
A near open-goal (Suarez after the first goal)
They weren’t super-efficient themselves.
I like Giroud, but when you combine him with non-scoring attacking midfielders like Ox, Ramsey, and Ozil, it often makes for pretty grim viewing. Combine that with Sanchez being in toilet form, and it was always going to be uphill.
Flamini, though. Hard working, passionate, etc., but shouldn’t be near the pitch at this level.
Love Wenger, but it’s really hard to figure out what he was thinking this summer.
Could do with a clearout end of season, I think. Too many players in their comfort zone who haven’t developed sufficiently.
Couldn’t have said it better.
This is obvious to anyone with half a brain. Truth is we simply do not have a consistent goal scorer in this team.
It’s okay to lose against Barcelona. It’s not okay to not score the chances we had. It’s not okay to concede two very avoidable goals. We better not have a mental breakdown after this defeat. Now that we are (almost) out of the CL and we can concentrate on the league. Keyword is “concentrate”. Stop fucking conceding foolish goals.
Disappointing for the tie to be out of sight without even being thrashed.
I am not really bothered about the CL; the epl is it for me.
Welbeck has to start on Sunday; give Giroud a break. I hope Ox and Ramsey’s injuries are not bad. We’ll need them for the run in.
Flam should not have played again for the club. When he played every match in January, our midfield became very unsettled, he backs away from challenges in midfield, and whenever he runs forward to the box, we all scream “No!” inside. Hopefully today settles it for Arsene.
Arsenal needs a tricky + speedy winger. the right side of our attack contributes almost nothing.
Was still a great night, difference at the end of the day was that Barcelona had a great goalscorer on their chances.. we had good players on ours. Good doesn’t beat Barca unfortunately, but still not a performance to be ashamed of.
so frustrating, like always in this competition we have no intelligence and nuance to play a two leg tie. All we had to do was set up tonight to not concede and then take the tie to the Noe camp and make Barcelona have to beat us. we do it for 60 odd minutes and next thing you know 70% of the team is in there half trying to score a goal. once again in the champions league we lack the intelligence to compete.
‘All we had to do was set up tonight to not concede’ against the best team in the world. Yeah, easy
Mate we basically did that for 60 minutes plus, we only conceded when we decided we wanted to take the game to them, yes fair point they are brilliant but you could see how we could have kept them at bay if we continued the way we started ( bringing walcott on in that regard didn’t help either in my opinion) . Intelligent play could have gotten us a good draw from this game, then the pressure is on barca to beat us in front of there own fans. we most probably would have been knocked out but its so… Read more »
Yeah, we got sucked up field. It’s shit. But we’re Arsenal, not Van Gaal’s Man U. We try to score. I’d rather that than suck the football life out of a game. Fuck it, we had a go when we could and with a little bit more, it could have been different. You can’t go for two nil-nils against Barcelona.
Splitting hairs here i know but surely keeping the first leg at least scoreless and then trying to nick something in Barcelona would have been a more intelligent play. Wenger himself alluded to that in his post game presser. Losing isn’t really the problem they are a better team than us to be honest, the problem is the obvious lack of intelligence we’ve seen year in year out in the champions league. In football being the better team isn’t what counts, its being the more intelligent that really makes you the best and sad as it may be to say,… Read more »
The injury to Ox killed us. Thought he and Ramsey were both exceptional, but Ox especially kept Neymar quiet and was our best outlet all game. His attitude was exemplary, and unfortunately it showed up Alexis’ defensive frailties on the opposite side. Overall, very good performance, but Barcelona are the best team in the world so not a disaster. Welbeck also looked good in his cameo, looking forward to his Hat-trick at the weekend
Exceptional? like the sitter he missed and lack of concentration when he decided to play the ball forward instead of crossing to two wide open players and embarrassingly injuring himself in the process?
I should probably clarify – he was exceptional in playing his role, which was to shut out Neymar with Bellerin and run with the ball on the counter attack. Yes the miss was poor, but it was a snapshot while he was falling – Suarez and Giroud both missed easier chances tonight. Yes he could have passed the ball, but if he is 2 inches quicker (and lets not ignore some extraordinarily brave defending from Mascherano) then he he is at the byline with two players to cut back for a tap in, which is a far easier pass for… Read more »
all that to say basically the same….he provides nothing worthy in the final third for the team.
But who has been clinical in the final third recently? It just seems strange to me to criticise Ox for not being clinical when nobody in our team has been, whereas at least Oxlade Chamberlain played very well in the other aspects of the game
Can’t agree more people criticising the OX for not being clinical when the whole team finishing has quite frankly been s**t lately is silly. I thought he personally had a great game with bellerin and nullified the ever dangerous Neymar. Didn’t have a sniff until the OX came of. Theo was great going forward and worried their back-line but didn’t offer near the same amount of protection own tat right hand side exposes us. Flamini well no words what he was doing there. Mertesacker no words. Sanchez played ok worked hard but needs to release the ball quicker the same… Read more »
I agree. Mascherano took Ox out and got rid of the thorn in their side.
Same old shit. 1. Why did we start with the out of form Ox? He missed a sitter then failed to cross to two on-goal players. Why did Campbell play no part in a game suited for him? And what was the point of bring on another waste of space in Walcott? 2. Why were we pushing so hard at 0-0? We got done with the sucker punch yet again. A goal-less draw would have been a good result. 3. Why did Cech go down so easily for the Messi goal? If he stayed on his feet he may haved… Read more »
Apart from No.3 I actually agree with you.
Jeez
Good questions a la point 3 and 4.
I expected per to boot the ball out, perhaps he wanted to try and build from the back. Flamini of course can’t really be blamed, but he’s always been rash.
P.S, who else saw almost our whole team line up on their penalty area and thought: ”oh shit” only to have that thought interrupted by Messi wanking it in?
Embarrassing the number of empty seats at the end. 180 minute match. De ja vu 3 years in a row. Groundhog Day anyone?
How badly is Ramsey hurt? Any news yet?
I’ve been saying this for ages but I truly struggle to see what Walcott, Ramsey and OX bring to the team???? Many people won’t agree but seriously if they weren’t British would they be playing so often? Can’t wait for Cazorla to get back Ramsey does not hold the midfield nor does he do anything when he bombs forward leaving a lot of space behind.
Walcott especially is a waste of time and resources. Why wenger would give him a 140k a week contract i’ll never understand.
He should’ve been this summer.
I should have been this summer too
Dont agree. Ramsey has been on of our better players today. Ox created good opportunities, but inexperience shows.
Walcott though, totally agree. Been with us 10 years, and still not a first team player. Must have really good agent.
all that to say basically the same….he provides nothing worthy in the final third for the team.
all that to say basically the same….he provides nothing worthy for the team in the final team.
two chances in 2nd leg: None, and fuck all
I fucking despise Flamini at the moment. He should not be in the 25 man squad, he would not make the squad at Hull, and we give him a run out in a match like this. I’d feel more confident if we played Elneny, he is not a retard with half a brain like Flamini obviously is.
It was always a very long shot, but still, now we made a 2nd leg completely irrelevant, as there is no way we get anything out of it now.
Oh Mathieu…
The first goal was a quick breakaway but conceding the penalty was effing unnecessary! WTF was Flamini thinking? Oh yeah, he wasn’t!
Which leaves us with a mountain to climb in the return leg yet again. Same old, same old…
I thought Ox, Ramsey, Coq, Kos, Cech, and Welbz all had stellar games. This game was more or less to see if we could show up against a team despite how poorly we’ve been playing this season. 1-0 would have been a fair result, all things considered……… But I cannot abide this Flamini stuff. El Neny has CL and International experience. Truly, how far “out of his depth” could he have been? Aren’t these opportunities for players to step up? Not to shield them from? El Neny has got to be blooded at some point. Also, somebody please help me… Read more »
Definitely agree with you that Elneny needs more playing time… he’s not perfect right now but he is quite good and has shown promise and attacking intent while still managing to do his job properly. We really should be seeing more of him at this point. Concerning Sanchez, I really thought he should have gone off around the 70min mark or ideally before, like at halftime or something. He looked worn out, and it became very apparent that he simply hasn’t found his Form again. No sense in beating a dead horse in a game that requires a clean sheet,… Read more »
A fair result. We did play the best team in the world with the best tax dodgers, sorry strikers. We did well to get to 0-0 at half time. Some of their passing and movement was sublime. Every ball drops to a player’s feet. That rarely happens with us. It was only a matter of time before they got the breakthrough. They knew how we were set up defensively and teased us out and hit us on the counter attack. I think it was Per Mertesacker that caught up field trying to make a challenge when he should have ran… Read more »
Missed the game today due to work, and apparently that was a good thing. Really curious as to what happens at Camp Nou. I would just as soon have the U18 squad out there and save our strength for the league, or throw out the ‘B’ team that played vs. Hull. Hell, is there something in the rules that prevents us from sending the Arsenal Ladies squad out there?