For 45 minutes there was some vague hope. Then Laurent Koscielny went off, Arsenal – almost to a man – collapsed and we shipped another four goals to lose by the same scoreline as we did in 2015, 5-1.
Much as we’d rather not to do it, here’s how the player rated tonight.
Ozil deserves a fucking 1.
rip up book.
start again.
Knowing AFC we will do a “Milan”.Go 3 up and miss a sitter in the last minute that would put us through.
Can we really have Ozil and Walcott on the pitch at the same time in matches like this?
AW is struggling to get the right team who can be arsed to put in the effort.
Blogs would never give him that. I don’t understand the contempt against people who say he is lazy either. What’s going is he has had a month of producing rubbish and yet he is responding by not even showing any effort. And in return the manager starts him in every single game and never takes him off.
The “something” that is going is that despite playing like he has been he knows he in untouchable. No other decent manager would put up with performances like he had against City or last night.
Wenger: 0/10
Surely both the board & the majority shareholder must be into the triple digit negative numbers by now.
Real change is only going to happen when they all go, regardless of who is managing the club. Top down clear out should be a priority.
If Kroenke goes to heaven before I do, I’m gonna join every person in St. Louis and urinate on his grave
Bit harsh on Gibbs, not sure he needs to move on. The fact he was our vice-captain was a surprise though!
People are far too quick to write people off. Gibbs has given us over 10 years of service and never moaned or complained. Should be worth something, although i agree Nacho should have started tonight can only assume his is unfit. (unrelated but people should give Wenger a little slack for this result, players to blame tonight not Arsene.)
Mate, if someone’s been in the team for 10 years then writing them off is hardly reactionary. He’s an ok LB, good enough for the Premier League sure, in 13/14 he looked the real deal but a player of his ability shouldn’t be enough for Arsenal Football Club.
If 90% of the players put in rubbish performances in every big game (and some ‘small’ games too), then that’s on the manager.
Player for player arsenal just are not good enough. With the exception of Sanchez and Koz. Maybe an inform Ozil, but when is the last time you could say that. The result is not surprising but typical. Arsenal are capable enough to move out of the group stage and that’s about it. Anyone that thinks that we are in the same class as Bayern is deluding themselves. Maybe we can still push for the FA cup. Under Wenger we will never win the champions league.
So, do we put out the first team or the reserves in the 2nd leg?
Dunno. Was that the first team or the reserves today?
play the Southampton FA cup team, cant be worse…
Couldn’t have been the reserves. They would have played like they actually give a f**k.
No. If the players can be arsed, then we’ll win 3-0 or 4-1. As Arsene will say we’ve turned a corner. You know what, though. This time there is no saving grace. It is time for him to set him mind attentively to finding suitable replacements and setting up the infrastructure to bring some articulate and knowledgeable debate in the club by former players that actually care about it. Surely now he must know it is over. As Gunnerblog said, it is palpably observable that even the players don’t believe they will win under him. It is time to leave… Read more »
I don’t think it’s about individuals. Nothing has changed since the denilson/silvestre/Gervinho days. I can’t see many PL sides losing in this manner to Bayern – It’s the lack of an ideological plan, a system, a style. We desperately need a proper cunt like Simeone and then I feel we could win leagues with this squad. The evidence is there that it is not about individuals. These players aren’t even given specific instruction. That comes from the manager and until he goes, nothing changes. Would you rather we won the FA cup, unsure about Arsene’s future, or go out to… Read more »
Does people still think isnt time for a change in this team already? be pro wenger or anti wenger, idc, but just we need something new, is the same over and over again, we not moving forwards but going backwards, with the best team we’ve had we’re still clueless, gutless, tactically inept and mentally weak.
And i dont mean a change for the sake of changing, Either with Arsene on the helm or without him SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE. Enough is Enough. Sometimes isnt even about “winning trophys”, is just about SHOWING MORE AMBITION
I think Walcott, Ramsey and Gibbs need to go.
Walcott is good but not a first choice for a title challenging side.
Monreal nèeds real competitio
The only players that can walk away today with his head held high are Ospina and Kos (we were holding them off good until he came off), the rest i dont think are as shit as some people think, is just that we more often than not, lack a game plan, or never “train” (or at least seems so) different tactics (or tactics at all). Is just the same, time after time. I agree some players need to go, to make place for new, hungrier and better players.
Spot On. Wengerball was worked out by other managers years ago. AW never changes and never prepares any other game plan.
Time for AW to go, and most of the board and Kroenke. The problem is all these people want their easy money from the club and won’t give it up.
This is very true. Unfortunately, I don’t think our players are trained on the mental side or tactical side much. As soon as our goal went in, Neuer’s head didn’t drop. He was not just whining and throwing his arms up either. He was protesting the lack of focus(it seemed like that atleast) and talking to his teammates. The first goal was classic Guardiola. Overload one wing with three players(lahm robben and someone else, pardon me I can’t remember about who the players are). Lahm and the other guy make runs, occupy the full back and winger. Old bald turd… Read more »
Spot on analysis
We have a decent squad but sadly the same story time and time again, I was a Wenger fan but it seems that every year we are predictable and poor I am no longer surprised as it seems that ‘some’ players just don’t turn up, Sanchez presses every game and looks around to see nobody with him, who is telling him what to do because nobody is on the same planet.
We are a big name, not a big team. Any more of these and the name is in the tubes as well. Collective failure.
Despite what blogs says, Ozil IS lazy. And overrated. And mentally weak.
I think his ratings are spot on today, though. Ozil did not deserve a 1. Definitely deserved a 3 though.
We should sell him to China while he can. I’m sure he would thrive in the less physical and less competitive Chinese league where he could show off his ‘technical ability’ (yawn) and make plenty of dosh.
PS the rest of the team are overrated too, as is our ‘squad depth’
Honestly, I’m starting to wonder if Ozil is tanking to engineer a low price exit. Otherwise he’s not 100% fit.
If you really believe that about Ozil, then presumably you’d be fine with him doing a Van Persie and going to Utd next season as well, confident that he’ll be lazy and useless. Hmmm. He’s badly off form, but at the same time he has a free role at Arsenal. He’s not in the team to tackle, criticise him for not doing what he *is* in the team for. He got 18 Prem assists last season ffs, you don’t go from that to overrated and lazy in 2 months. Hazard was unbelievably shit last season, meanwhile Ozil nearly broke the… Read more »
Hi Vino, I’d love to know if there are any stats that tell us the opposition he got his assists against, and the manner of assists.
I’m specifically looking for
How his stats look like against the other top 5 teams in the PL (chelsea, city, liverpool, spurs, united)
How many of his assists are from dead-ball situations. This takes nothing away from his skill, but its pretty obvious ozil can’t keep the ball under physical/tight pressing which is a very important thing in the PL.
Not sure why any of our players have a free role against Bayern Munich tbh
its wengers job to understand the kind of player hes buying. Ozil cannot play the way fabregas did for arsenal, or say the way a modric plays. They are different midfielders. I think ozil is another player who enjoys cazorla’s presence because he gives him a solid base. I really dont understand the lazy or coward narrative. Watch ozil in previous teams. Nothing has changed about him. Put him in a team with vidal and alcantara behind, through balls be flying all around the place
This team/squad/club is so obviously in need of new direction. Yes Bayern may well be the better team, but we were hopeless bar 10-20mins in the entire game. Notch this up as another embarrassment. We’re one of the supposed big clubs in world football but we’re a laughing stock. I hate to be reductive, but the players need a rocket up their @rse! Some fans fear change, but surely we deserve more than this. It’s the SAME story EVERY season. I don’t want to see Wenger destroyed like this, but he has to make the right decision for the club… Read more »
No player came out of that game with any credibility with the sole exception of Koscielny who gets a pass solely for getting injured before the collapse. Everyone at the club looks drained. The players are not trying and the one leader in the squad, Alexis, will no doubt be off in summer and who could blame him. Responsibility lies with manager for not walking years ago when his decline wasn’t as evident, and the board for offering him a new contract. Sad state of affairs.
Give Ospina a little credit 😉
Been saying it for years. Ozil is the definition of a fair weather player . Our best player against ludograts and the like . One of the worst against big teams
Otherwise known as a flat track bully
AKA a luxury player
I HAVE NO ENDGAME!!!
Ozil is fucking lazy and will never win a 50-50 tackle as he’ll always cower out of it. He’ll never pressure a defender as he NEVER EVER sprints on the press, always jogs but the stats will say he covered the same distance. Ditto Theo which is even more criminal considering his pace. Watching Arsenal play is so fucking painful these days, even when we win games I can’t see our identity, our tactics, what is our formation does anyone even know? I see Sanchez pressing high then looking round in bewilderment at his team mates 50 metres downfield who… Read more »
Mesut outackled everyone of our midfielders tonight. He was playing in a free role up front where he played for Germany. We played a 4 man midfield. The job of those midfielders was to disrupt Bayern and get the ball to Ozil quickly to orchestrate the counter. The midfield failed dismally and Mesut dropped back and made 5 tackles at 80%. That’s far better than Coquelin managed. But hey, let’s blame Ozil because he’s a soft target and just ‘walks’ around the field magically finding himself in pockets of space because he’s ‘lazy’ lucky and all those high km run… Read more »
It’s not just the tackles though it’s the space he should be occupying in front of the Bayern midfield. Because he doesn’t run those couple of yards and let’s Vidal and Alonso forward unchallenged, it forced one of Xhaka or (usually Coqulein) to press from very deep. By the time they’re even close, Bayern have easily bypass that and swarmed the space left in behind, looking for Robben or Lewandoswski. It’s not just tackles, it’s positioning and pressure
If I was Mesut Ozil, convinced to come to Arsenal on the basis of a certain plan for where the team was going, and then four years into it found myself in a midfield surrounded by the same crappy group of players like Ox, Walcott, Iwobi, Ramsey, I would also be upset.
And yet that’s not an excuse to stop working for the team, nor does that excuse his inflexibility. After all, Ox, Iwobi and Ramsey are mostly played in unsuitable positions and formations because of Ozil. Away to Bayern I’d rather play those 3 plus Walcott in a tight 4-3-3 than have a no.10 sauntering around the pitch in a “free role”. A lot has been made of the 5 tackles he made but seeing as Bayern had 75% possession I’d say that’s not a lot, even if it was more than others. So Ozil might be upset by the players… Read more »
Finally at least one voice of reason.
The stats don’t tell the entire story. It might say that he runs but, have you noticed when Ozil starts running?
Only after the 50/50 ball has been captured by opponent and has been passed on. After the ball goes away in fair distance, then he starts pretending as if he’s running. I’ve been watching him on recent games.
He’s not nicking his living… Neil Ashton is wrong…
He’s a fraudster!!!
Stats are only one tool of analysis and useless if not coupled with informed subjective analysis
Sorry, down voted you purely for even mentioning the complete & utter knob end that steals a living with the Daily Mail.
Özil is a fraudster. Let Billy Enfield tell you because you’ve all been defrauded for long enough. Billy knows.
The formation was yet another tactical change from Wenger who is trying to find balance and form from his team but has failed with this change too. It was Nominally a 4-4-2 but more a 4-5-1 with Sanchez dropping into midfield and allowing Ozil to find space as the furthest player forward. It obviously changed once we were 3-1 down and he made changes. Against Chelsea we started in a 4-3-3 with Ozil fwd on left. Against Hull it was the 4-2-3-1.
Indeed the structure of the team in big games is hard to define. We started off seatibg deep (which just doesn’t seem to suit us at all), then towards the end of the half we seem to have stumbled on the press an found a way back into the game (albeit with a controversial penalty and three bites at the cherry for Alexis before it went in). Second half starts and am not sure whether we were pressing or sitting back. Look back and you’ll notice the same pattern in most-if-not-all the big games we’ve played. When you go three-one… Read more »
Wow! Cannot believe this season. I think it’s best we finish fifth in the league because my heart is going to fail at this rate. 5 1 is flattering though. FML.
At 1-1 I would have put elneny on for ozil and just shut up shop.
Exactly my thoughts, our midfiled was overunned an we got to half time with great result knowing bayern will put us with big preassure and knowing our mentality sub ozil put elneny park the bus run the time put monreal 60min instead of ozil double the flank do the same 80min with the rigt flank even they won they woul won it by one goal whic will be great result to start at the emirares. Murinho would done those changes simeone woul done the alegri also, wenger is believing too much in the players tought the goal would lift us… Read more »
I meant 45min elneny for ozil run the time then 60min monreal for iwobi.
Right? Away goal, keep it tight, get ten men behind the ball, take it back to the Emirates.
Somehow, I doubt they spend much time on this in training. Or on any tactical adjustment to different in-game scenarios.
Play our Under-23’s for the second leg
I wonder what’s going to happen this summer..
To whoever it may concern, Tonight the franchise I support was heavily beaten by another franchise from somewhere in Germany. As such, I wish to withdraw my interest from all of my franchise’s future activity until further notice. To be honest, this has been coming long before tonight. After many years of supporting my chosen franchise through peaks and troughs, I want to be clear this was not an easy decision. Over time, I have had to remind myself how silly I was, being so emotionally invested in a plc which clearly had no interest in even acknowledging my existence… Read more »
Very eloquent, mister.
Were you watching during the end times of Terry Neill and Don Howe? They were pretty bad.
That was a bit shit.
This is going to be an overly dramatic comparison. As an American, one of the worst feelings about the Trump situation is feeling completely helpless about anything improving. Despite a great deal of public outcry, it seems he can just make up whatever narrative to fit whatever he wants. Even when he does something completely, shockingly, unbelievably horrible, he’s still the president. So many have no faith this administration has a chance to get better. I’m devastated at what has become of my country. We’re only watching a game, but it kind of feels the same with Arsenal. No matter… Read more »
Comparing Wenger to Trump is beyond moronic.
I equally called out the players and the board, not just the manager.
And I was simply comparing the frustrating feeling of being helpless, not comparing the men.
Kroenke, on the other hand….
(cue “Apprentice” intro music)
You know the worst is Wenger’s failed team building has wasted a lot of money on overrated players, and now we are stuck with a squad of deadwoods again, bar 1-2 players. I’m confident we can still salvage something from the likes of Mustafi and Xhaka, since they are young but I hope we have enough money for the next manager to rebuild.
‘It was obvious ages ago that he is a player who has plateaued and needs to move on. Tonight was more evidence of that.’ Same could be said of Chamberlain and Walcott. And if you swap the word ‘player’ for the word ‘manager’ it would be just as true for Wenger.
Arguably not chamberlain in that list. He’s younger, has more ability than Theo(bar finishing) and Gibbo so I’d say he deserves chances.
I really hope that this is the last time we need to lose in such embarassing fashion for the club to realise they need to make some serious changes
Mutiny YET AGAIN.
We’re the laughing stock of the football world because we lost to Bayern?
*We are the laughing stock of the football world because our fans turn on the manager and players as soon as we lose. Disgraceful loyalty.*
This one was tough to take. But we support AFC win, lose or draw.
And we are loyal to our most influential manager in our history.
Thumb me down but you’ll only prove once again that the problem with the clubs reputation has as much to do with the fans as the management.
Christ, its a game of football…
TheBeautyinMan : Are you ty from Arsenal fan TV ?
Whoa, don’t go blaming the fans. At least some of them actually showed up in Munich. Didn’t see anyone else from the club show up bar from perhaps Koz, Ospina, & possibly the kit man.
You do also realise that for the last 3 games, the player that has been given the most pressure by the fans going into the game has also put in the best shift on the pitch? (eg: Ox & Ospina). Just food for thought.
If you support a club you want whats best for it. Don’t go and try and put down other fans loyalty and support because they think change is in the best interests of the club, this is a football team not an Arsene Wenger tribute, not supporting Wenger is not he same as not supporting the club. Yeah we lost to Bayern and theres no shame in that as they’re a good team, but the manner of it and predictability of it married with the repetitive failures in the last however many seasons is what causes the bitterness. Why should… Read more »
Think Ospina is under rated, & everyone else vastly over rated in their scores.
Do feel a bit bad for the Ox to be honest though, as he probably would have scored higher if it hadn’t been for that shocker.
Can someone explain to me why he was the last man playing out from the back when that happened? Sorry, but had completely switched off at that stage & missed what lead up to it. Still, the Ox, playing last man out from the back? FFS.
That reflex save Ospina did with his wrist (basically off the line) was amazing!! Here in the US it certainly didn’t get the credit it deserved. If anyone else had done that anywhere they would have been gushing about it being “world class”.
Thank you David for keeping the score down to just an ambarrasing 5 – 1.
In premier league matches wenger shuts up shop with both Gibbs and monreal playing on the left ( around 70 minute mark why not today at half time isobi wasn’t playing well, few good passes to Sanchez aside, should have played that tonight . against robben. Elneny in for coq. Why doesn’t Xhaka play long passes or balls over the top like he did at start of season, pace was ,/ is bayerns weakness at back with no boatang.
Credit to Bayern for annihilating us twice in a row. We couldn’t beat Sunderland by 4 goals twice in a row.
Why can’t we buckle down and defend?
If the Burnley boss were in charge,the team could ,I repeat could,put up with more of a fight. This defeat shows the fm has to go.Year in and year out the same thing is happening.Of course some clubs will be happy to lick the boots of the qualifying teams but don’t forget Arsenal are a premium club.Its 5th/7th richest in ws. There is no guarantee anew boss will win every game or most games but I do know the defence will be in better shape. So as we come to spring the perennial stat of qualifying for the cl comes… Read more »
This is the end of an era , it is really sad
The fact that BFG is the club captain speaks volumes, last year was it not Arteta?
Are those inspirational guys?………….one a guy with ZERO caps for Spain, the other a bloody snail in terms of speed, yet our genius of a manager thinks they should be captain, after the joke of captain Fabregas?………..
We play parts of the game like we are down to six players. Too many luxuries out there.
If we are going to keep a luxury player like Ozil on the field, then we can’t afford several more luxuries that are less talented as well.
I love Arsenal and always will. And I love Arsene, and always will. But the club is more important and it’s time to move on.
Barcelona: God that was awful last night, nobody could possibly put in a worse first leg performance than that
Arsenal: Hold my beer.
My goodness ??.
WENGER it’s time to wake up and clear out the dead wood and admit some players haven’t shown their potential and are just not good enough to play in this team. Also Sanchez is not a team player. Instead of trying to get the glory and score, instead of running sidewaysacross the goal with the ball to try and hit a shot, only to be muscled out, he should pass it. Tonight it seemed we were in awe of Bayern, giving them space instead of closing down and putting tackles in. Against a team like Bayern, we needed men not… Read more »
And bring back Campbell. At least that guy gave it his all…
The only good news is that Ozil hasn’t signed a new contract
this is no longer frustrating seeing this year in year out , it’s just become really boring now
I’m at the point of acceptance of our mediocrity that until wenger fucks off we will see the same performance trends same times every year
I miss Hillwood! Wenger is doing his job but I think at the moment it is more than he can handle, his basically also the Chairman!!! No one is giving him the backing he needs!! Tactical wise 0/10 we are too stiff and predictable. Him leaving without proper transition will send this club into free fall. All the fare weather fans and the media will move on. If you love Arsenal FC support a smooth transition if not all will be really lost! Trust in what has got you so far
Its Wenger’s fault that he is good enough to lead Arsenal to top 4 finish, and the consequent income influx from CL, but not good enough to win games in the knock-out stages or the crunch/important matches in the EPL. The board (Stan Kroenke) is happy from financial perspective and is not arsed about what winning matches and trophy actually means. Wins, trophies are for fans, and obviously, there is a conflict of interest.
I do genuinely feel for wenger no matter what players or how much he spends his teams away have this kind of performance in them, I feel for him because all he knows is Arsenal and he can’t let go. The poor man keeps trying to drag his teams forward but it’s the same results in the games that really matter, I wish he could find the strength to tell us all he will leave at the end of the season, then we could all unite behind him and see him of in the right way, he looked so old… Read more »
For all the talk of players letting him down, he’s just as much at fault for letting the players down by sending them without proper tactics and preparation.
To go to Bayern with the same 4-2-3-1witj Ozil doing his usual disappearing act with no game plan was just stupid. Even Bayern, big as they are, had a game plan to attack our weaker left side.
Damn embarrasing
Sorry, can’t muster the enthusiasm to vote. After the faux controversy of Wenger playing Ospina; he turned out to be the only one who turned up! Don’t understand why Gibbs started ahead of Monreal and surely it’s obvious to anyone who cares that Gabriel is simply not good enough for this team. Beyond that, I’ve been convinced for some time that there is some serious discord among this squad which is manifest in these repeatedly listless and half-hearted performances. I’ve never been a Wenger-outer but it’s evident that some serious moves have to be taken to get this club back… Read more »
It makes me sad to say but. As a team we were very poor. I went into this game with no expectation and I was still disapointed. At no point otnight did ANY player show any of us that they happy, proud, and willing to fight for the shirt they wore. I know venting on here means nothing but tonight showed me that we are willing to just roll over at any point and give up. I challenge any onlooker to show me a single second we pressed as a team, the ref tonight was incredibly fair and lenient and… Read more »
Groundhog Day again. Likely a few more “wenger out” converts after this tactical debacle. My wenger out moment was last season vs Southampton, a 4-0 hammering.
The grass isn’t always greener…at this point who cares. Wenger out.
This is pretty heart breaking. I do feel its Wenger’s last season. Its a shame that this is how it will end. Whether you are wenger in or wenger out, the players are not good enough at the moment. Wenger at the very least deserves to leave at the end of the season. Fans should respect the man and voice their opinion another time. Too much negativity right now. Although i know its hard to be positive.
10/10 for me watching for the whole 90 minutes. I did have to apply some Clockwork Orange-esque techniques but i got there. Now i’m off to punch something
It was a total shit performance from us we literally set back and let bayern walk all over us , we did not take the game to them we are better than this , we played really crappy hardluck to Ox , Sanchez was lucky with the rebound , Hummels is food in their defence we did not explore their weakness , we played Bayer many times before oh gosh robbed does always cut back on his left to score , we were bullied today cuz we let them Arsenal was friggin bad today there was no one who took… Read more »
The simple fact is that for this system of Wenger’s to work, players need to own up and take responsibility. They consistently fail to do so. Arguably the manager’s philosophy doesn’t cut it in this day and age, possibly because players aren’t what they once were – I.e they are mollycoddled from a young age in youth teams and given everything on a plate. I didn’t even watch this match but I had a feeling this would happen. This ‘soft centre’ is, in my opinion, partially the managers fault, he should be walking in at half time of games and… Read more »
Why can’t Wenger put out a team that knows how to park the bus? For once, forget the beautiful football, and defend like your life depends on it.
Why no change in tactics, ever? At half time today, we are 1-1. Change the shape of the team to hold onto that precious score. Is it arrogance, or stupidity, to keep thinking there is only one way to play?
I seem to remember comments that it was the players – rather than Wenger – who decided to play defensively and counter attack at Manc in the cup a couple of years ago. That game aside, we just refuse to plan anything for what the opponents will be doing. This is pure arrogance by AW in saying that he will let them worry about us. This mental block worked when he was ahead of the game but now everyone has caught up it’s just embarrassing. We’ve yet to visit Scousers, Spuds and with Manc coming soon too, our league position… Read more »
I dont believe changing manager solves everything, it seems all the ppl in the club works like someone from hierarchied out of fashion corporation. Better not sell Ramsey cuz I will lose face if he goes to other team and plays well. Better not buy expensive player to avoid risk of undeperformance…such a corporate attitude(salary man)
Well done Bayern.