Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tomiyasu, Jorginho, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Havertz
Subs: Ramsdale, Hein, Kiwior, Zinchenko, Partey, Vieira, Smith Rowe, Trossard, Nelson, Nketiah, Jesus
Arsenal were knocked out of the Champions League quarter-finals after losing 1-0 to Bayern Munich (3-2 on aggregate), thanks to a goal from Joshua Kimmich.
Mikel Arteta made three changes to the side lost against Aston Villa on Sunday, with Takehiro Tomiyasu, Jorginho and Gabriel Martinelli coming in for Oleksandr Zinchenko, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus.
After an early spell of Arsenal possession, it took three minutes for Bayern to register their first shot after Kimmich found himself in space down the right before crossing for Kane who volleyed wide.
Arsenal responded with a shot of their own shortly after, with Martinelli also curling wide after good work from Kai Havertz in the build up.
It was an assured start for the Gunners who were comfortable passing the ball around, although Bayern had obvious threat on the break with Jamal Musiala and Leroy Sane in particular looking dangerous.
On the 20 minute mark, Martinelli was causing chaos again in the penalty box and almost wriggled his way through two defenders although Manuel Neuer was out quickly to smother any danger.
But in the blink of an eye, Bayern came to life and were close to taking the lead when a mixture of Ben White and David Raya ensured Noussair Mazraoui’s cross went wide, before Musiala stung the gloves of Raya from distance.
Arteta’s men continued to sustain pressure and possession in the Bayern third, and had their best chance of the game when Martinelli was found beautifully in the box by Odegaard but hit his left-footed effort straight at Neuer.
Odegaard forced another chance moments later having pinched the ball from Konrad Laimer with his back to goal, although Havertz couldn’t find Saka in the middle and his cutback was intercepted.
It was a cagey first half from both sides who knew the stakes were high, but Arsenal were more than holding their own and will have gone into half time happy with the scores level.
However, kess than a minute into the second half, Bayern were inches away from leading when Leon Goretzka broke from midfield and headed onto the bar, before Raphael Guerreiro’s follow up was deflected onto the post by William Saliba.
There was another nervy moment for Arsenal when Gabriel nearly passed into his own net after another miscommunication issue with Raya, but thankfully for the Brazilian it trickled just wide.
The hosts started the second half well and there was a growing feeling their goal was coming and it eventually did – in the 63rd minute.
Sane drove at the heart of the defence and his initial cross wasn’t dealt with by Raya, White didn’t do enough to close down Guerreiro in the next phase and his cross was met by Kimmich who stormed in and headed past Raya with Arsenal defenders ball-watching. 1-0.
Arsenal were rocked by the goal and Bayern had a chance to double their lead shortly after when Mazraoui got in behind Saka, although Sane skied his cutback when he should have hit the target.
Arteta responded instantly by bringing on Trossard and Jesus, who replaced Jorginho and Martinelli with 25 minutes to play.
The visitors continued to push for an equaliser but struggled to create any clear chances, with Bayern defending well and threatening on the break with added gaps in the Arsenal defence.
Even with the changes – Nketiah was also brought on for Tomiyasu – they were unable to test Neuer despite some encouraging moments.
It’s now back-to-back defeats for Arsenal who look short physically, tired and will have to pick themselves up ahead of a difficult trip to Wolves on Saturday.
This was a Champions League campaign full of great moments but Bayern were the better side across both ties and there will be some regrets about what they left on the pitch in Munich.
That wasn’t nearly good enough. Obviously these are the toughest matches, but they weren’t up to it. Need a rest. Need a goalscorer.
Lack of rotation and squad depth;
100%. Gutted
Which is frustrating considering the calibre of players that we have on our bench, at least in terms of what they’ve been like when in good form. I’m sure plenty of managers in the PL would dream of having a team with those players, but somehow most of them get into some sort of rut when they’re not playing regularly and we can’t seem to rotate effectively. Throughout most of this season we’ve only had 1 or 2 players at most you’d trust to rotate with without a noticeable drop in performance. That’s just not good enough.
True
Problem is half the bench have been perennially injured and have limited match fitness. Jesus, Partey, Vieira and Tomi aren’t up to speed yet. That leaves Trossard, as he doesn’t trust the rest. We’re knackered.
Saka looks like a man dead on his feet. He offered nothing tonight and it is on Mikel and Edu. We need decent cover, especially for the high workload areas on the wings.
Odegaard too. To be honest we can all see holes all over the squad now, how much money do we have in the summer?
Ramsdale, Nketiah , Cedric, Zinchenko, Kiwior, Vieira, ESR, Nelson, Elneny, Jesus
That’s a crap bench
We need better squad players. True that Arteta should maybe use them more but he doesn’t seem to have faith in their abilities. Nelson and Nketiah should be sold in the summer. Smith-Rowe still has potential if he can stay injury free. Partey should go along with Cedric. Sell Tavares too. Maybe put Vieira and Lokonga out on loan. We could get a bit of money for them and invest in some new blood. Big ask, yes to expect all that to happen but the most successful teams have real strength in depth.
and a goalkeeper
Raya has one of the worst save % of the of the PL.
That’s why we also have the best Dede record. Which stat do you prefer?
Best defensive record. I like goalkeepers who don’t let in goals.
“Probable golden glove winner 23/24 season David Raya is a problem that needs solving”
Helpless display, especially towards the end. Certainly, the plan was to score a goal?
Not so sure judging by the lack of balls put into the box
Summed up last minute, free kick in a dangerous position and take a quick one passing to a defender.
10-2 over 2 legs was helpless. This is our current level after a long season and playing with what is 100% a beat up group on that field right now. Def need more real options in midfield and on the wings to stay healthy enough to do this level of business.
Not good enough, but not *nearly* is harsh. How much ever of a bad season they might be having, Bayern have a lot more experience in this tournament. We’ve lost by a single goal in our first campaign back in five years. We do need a couple of additions/replacements to the forward line. Jesus is a good footballer in many ways (including weirdly his heading ability), but I’ve often wondered why he consistently scoops his shot. I thought it was due to being hurried in the box, but he had a decent bit of time today (albeit it was offside)… Read more »
While, I agree Bayern are not mugs, but the team attacking performance was tepid. Also, this was the first big test in the CL this campaign and we cracked.
Porto was the first big test and we passed.
How many Porto players would you have in this Team?
the point is that Porto were a good team, it’s not so much about the individuals
It’s a team game. They were a good team against us.
I’m not trying to be especially harsh, but we were not competitive in this match. We did not put a glove on them and they beat us precisely how they said they would before match. I realize they have the experience, but we have a talented enough side to be threatening in big away games.
Also have to wonder if Trosser would not have slotted Martinelli’s early chance into either corner… or anywhere but straight at Neuer?
He is just more predatory than Gabi.
Like against Villa?
I really, really hated the substitutions tonight. Two similar players coming on at the same time with 30 minutes still to play. What was that about? I get it they combined for the equaliser last week. But it completely unbalanced us.
MA took off our ball controlling midfielder and our most dangerous threat on the counter. From then on we couldn’t keep the ball and had next to zero threat. Absolutely idiotic.
Should’ve taken Saka out for Jesus, then added Trossard for Martin if we did not score We had players with lead in their boots and still on the pitch ffs
Take of Saka and Odegaard, replace them with Jesus on the right and troussard in midfield. Good plan.
Bad
Eerily similar to Villa on Sunday: get big chance(s) to get into the lead, but don’t take it. If Martinelli had put that chance away in the first half, it changes the complexion of the game, just like Villa on Sunday.
I am really gutted that yet again the tires are coming off in the home strecht. We have to learn lessons from these, surely?
I agree this does feel disquietingly similar to what happened last season. Both times we’ve been flying high only to suddenly start bursting screws at the critical moment. I hope we can pick ourselves up and go again in the league. Regardless of whether or not we win it I think it’s important for this team that we finish the season strong.
We burst screws because it gets harder. We over achieve and get to the point where we reach our limit. But we always get better. Some teams are bursting screws in November and not so long ago, we were one of them.
I think it’s a little naive to assume we can bring that blistering domestic form into European football. It’s a whole different kettle of fish.
It even took City until last year to win the CL. The invincibles never did it.
I’m still mourning the Villa game. If we’d won that but been kicked out of the CL, we would have been looking really good to win the league.
Feck it. Season over in 4 days.
Man, it’s fun when it’s good. But this shit really, really hurts.
COYG!!!
Still love these boys and this club.
At least that mouth breathing cunt Kane didn’t get the satisfaction of scoring against us. We can all can imagine the narrative if he had.
Good chance a Kane win has kept spuds out of the CL next year. Its a dark bright side.
Now that Bayern are through here’s to Real spanking them in the semi. Spuds must be kept out of the CL and Kane absolutely must remain trophyless.
LOL at Man115ter City!!!
Like your comments, except that season over part. We keep going in the league. It’s tough but not over yet. Gotta learn to overcome setbacks and perform in the next match.
I may be clutching at straws, but genuinely believe how tonight has played out, will win us the league….
Exactly whatbi said!
If we had beaten Villa on Sunday, today’s result would hurt less. Because it would mean the players can now fully focus on those last six games left while being a point ahead! I would have put money on them then to cross the line successfully. Alas, Sunday was sh*t too!
Just like on Sunday, another extremely disappointing second half that cost us dearly.
It pains me to say but we might have just destroyed our whole season in the span of 3 days.
Great teams rise to the occasion when push comes to shove, yet this is the third year in a row when we collapse so close to the end.
We have a habit of destroying a seasons hard work in 1 week….the wolves game is a big worry
At this point I’d rather not fool myself into believing again. Considering our schedule I don’t see us winning 6/6 and city would realistically only drop points against sp*rs.
It’s done mate. This lot don’t have the mental fortitude to achieve anything. They’ll drop points every week and stink the place out until it’s mathematically impossible for them to win the league before turning in some world beating performances towards the end. I think you know this already.
I don’t think it’s a lack of mental fortitude. I think the players are physically exhausted.
This team is knackered and are fighting on willpower at the moment. To call them mentally weak is idiotic. We’re in a Champions League quarter final for the first time in about fifteen years and you get so shitty over the players that have given us some really good times this season. I think the only ones stinking the place out are “fans” like you, perhaps you should just focus on aftv, seems more your level.
Well said mate.
City lost too. Do they not have the mental fortitude?
No more bitter demonstration than City right now. If they go out at least its swinging.
That’s just how matches pile up in this part of the season. If you’re at the top of the PL and in the CL in mid-April, you’re generally having an above average season. Continue some of the good transfer and tactical work they’ve been doing, and we’ll be able to cope with the crunch better next year.
If you asked me to list great teams, I wouldn’t include this Arsenal side. I think it is unfair to judge them on what great teams do.
Arteta is still building the team; we are lucky to have a group who are regularly punching above their weight in spite of their relative youth. In two seasons and more astute team building, a great team might emerge.
Meanwhile, kudos to Arteta and the lads for bringing life and anticipation back to the Emirates.
No runners in that team, far too many similar players as well.
Everything has to be perfect & intricate.
Arteta getting Arsene’s bad habits
And there goes the European dream 🥲
With 10 minutes to go you HAVE to be willing to take risks and lose 2-0 and get them under pressure. Get it in, create some chaos. Arteta has this team performing at a very high average but doesn’t have that in his locker like Fergie did or Klopp does or even City do.
Soft.
There have been so many games under him where we go a goal down with plenty of time to get back into the game and the team shows no urgency, gradually letting the game peter away. There’s obviously a message that comes through from him. In a similar vain, I think that’s why we never seem to play on the counter. The players are too scared to give the ball away and have it come straight back. We only seem to be able to be a front-runner under Arteta. He needs to develop that other side to the game if… Read more »
Did nothing in the 30 mins we had left to get an equaliser. Very frustrating performance. The worst Bayern team in years and we made them look like world beaters
Exactly the same against villa second half. Toothless, clueless and just keep recycling the fecking ball. The times we got the ball in front of five of their players, went down the wing only to come back to defender and go across and back again with all Bayern players behind ball. I was more disappointed on Sunday as we were top of league. After that performance I didn’t expect to go through tonight. Resigned meself to defeat . Oh well, I have enjoyed the ride.
And they could’ve nicked it at the Emirates too
but for a couple of mistakes, so could we.
We tried but it was also important to stay in the game and not let them run away with it. Boring but true.
Proud of that performance, could have easily gone the other way over the two legs. Looks like we lack that little bit of ruthlessness in the finishing that they have and that’s about it.
Proud of how we started the first match and didn’t stop after going behind. Proud of the first half tonight, thought it was very mature. But the second half, especially after 1-0 down, was just bad. Really bad. Collectively and individually.
I thought the first half was engrossing, balanced and evenly poised. It was a very enjoyable watch. In the second half a lot of sloppiness and lethargy crept into our play. The players looked like they could barely do more than jog even when chasing an equaliser in a Champions League quarter final. As with Aston Villa I thought the players looked physically spent. After seeing the same thing two games in a row I’m beginning to think the long season with little rotation is finally catching up with us.
There was nothing to finish
We’ve come on a bit, certainly as not much between the teams, but that second half attack wise was rubbish.
I don’t know if I’d call it “ruthlessness”, I think we’re plenty ruthless. We just don’t have the quality honestly. Even if you ignore us lacking a clinical striker, the three players we’ve most relied on for end product, Saka, Odegaard and Martinelli, simply aren’t delivering the goals right now at the most crucial point in the season, two of them I think because of exhaustion and one because he never quite found that form this season. Extremely difficult to win trophies like that.
Exactly, people can talk about mentality and ruthlessness, but ultimately the quality is where we lack. Maybe no so much in the first but the squad.
Definitely. Two more top quality players short of really competing. At this stage of the season it shows. You only find out by getting here and failing, unfortunately
It was a big gamble not buying a striker in the summer. Hasn’t paid off.
No it hasn’t… if you assume the cash was there for it. But we did spend a ton so maybe it wasn’t? So maybe the gamble was to choose to spend that money on Rice and Havertz instead of swapping one of them for a striker? In that case I don’t know, I mean both of those players have delivered quite a bit for us this season… I probably wouldn’t swap Rice for almost anyone, and Kai sure, maybe for a top quality forward, but usually you won’t be getting one of those for 60mil these days anymore… Maybe, given… Read more »
Agree with that, maybe Kai was purchased as we couldn’t identify the right striker at the right price, and he’s done OK. We absolutely need one this summer though!
100%. That and central midfielder are no. 1 priorities now, after those are sorted we can think about a backup winger and LB.
If two are exhausted, take them off the pitch,
Showed our lack of experience at this level. Just make sure we at least get 2nd or 3rd because I the league looks a tough ask now given our remaining fixtures. We go again the UCL next year, more experienced and maybe with a proper striker.
3rd??? Will take some bottling, to not even finish 3rd in the league!
Bro how could we not get 3rd place? The pessimism is unreal.
2nd half fades are worrying. No teeth at all today.
In a parallel universe, the linesman went to specsavers, we got a corner, scored from it and then went through to the Semi-finals.
Not if saka was taking it
I have seen people coming for Saka a lot. We were told that he is nursing an injury and it’s quite evident. It makes me mad that we are running him into the ground season after season. How many seasons is it now that he has arrived at this stage of the year looking spent?
It was the same with Jack. Used him game after game at such a young age, watched him get kicked and all of a sudden, his career was over.
I’m so with you on this… when it’s going well and he’s playing well people will get furious at your for posting that sort of thing. Until one day he gets that injury that he never fully comes back from to be the same player… really hope we get someone we can really trust in his position, and Odegaard’s too.
And maybe we already have that player in our squad, if it’s Nwaneri or by some miracle Vieira or ESR, even better. But if you’re Arteta and Edu make sure you really believe one of those players could be “it” and then trust them and play them, and if not, then you have to be ruthless and go buy someone.
Doubt fitness has any relationship to taking a corner!
Probably haven’t played football before. If you are half-fit and have to play a game for 90 minutes, your exhaustion will be on another level that even something as easy as a taking a corner becomes a herculean task.
Taking a corner a ‘Herculean task’? Maybe for Sunday leaguers who had too many pints the night before, not for a professional footballer at the the top of the game, come on!
Lol. Whatever you say, man.
If corner taking is truly such an exertion, I posit that footballers are rather grossly underpaid for their profession.
Those Sunday leaguers are also not exerting themselves even a fraction as much as Bukayo Saka day in and day out and during the game itself, so have to agree with Henkamp on this. Even the fittest footballer can reach their limit, and to kick a fast and accurate corner you need those leg muscles to be at lear near their best
Honestly! If a player is so toasted that he can’t take a corner he shouldn’t be taking that corner and shouldn’t even be on the pitch, what’s he going to be able to do?!
This isn’t criticism of Saka. I feel a lot of love for him and he’s our future. He’s been overplayed and kicked from pillar to post all season so I have a lot of sympathy for him. A good backup is necessary for next season.
I mean, yes, 100%. Then again yesterday he simply had to be on the pitch because even at that toasted state he’s still more likely to have a moment that gets us a goal than anyone else we could play instead in a game of this magnitude. But if our squad was right he shouldn’t have been on the pitch vs Villa, honestly even with our current squad I might have trusted Nwaneri or Vieira to provide more threat against Villa than a depleted Saka, and then Saka would’ve had a full tank for Bayern. Of course it’s easy in… Read more »
We certainly need a wide player that can rotate with Saka and martinelli.
That’s corruption not an oversight. Not possible both officials missed it
Corners were rubbish all night.
That quick free kick as well. Just showed we didn’t believe we could score. CF has to be priority in the summer
Agree about the lino complete cnut. Even b4 the corner that he didn’t give gave offside in the melee in the box and don’t know y?
Just a minor thing but it really grinds my gears when we give away a foul from our own corners and free kicks. It happened maybe 3 times tonight, we take a corner and the ref just blows his whistle…
The stream I was watching showed no replays or gave no reason for these “fouls”. It looked like pretty standard corner routine shenanigans. I would even say it looked like they were grabbing and pushing us more, with Big Gabi being held multiple times.
European refs don’t buy into the shenanigans. We should have adapted
Because we have a set piece specialist on the bench teaching them to wrestle instead.
No, but maybe a team like Bayern with their experience and probably studied our set pieces knew how to take advantage of our inexperience and position themselves in a way where they could get those fouls from us
my writing skills are exhausted and need to be rotated
Absolutely, got to stop doing it. Refs are looking for white on the keeper so need to change it.
I feel like that’s a Europe thing though. All good European teams know how to buy a foul from any contact at all while defending their set pieces – in the prem that stuff seems to be refereed differently..
On that note, it grinds me why we don’t have at least one man front post to knock it on when the crossed ball is too short. At least it would stretch the defenders line a bit too. So often lately it breaks down there.
Overall the team who deserved it went through. I think both results reflected what was shown in the respective game. Congrats to Munich. Hope now that City goes through so they are at least distracted with 2 or 3 more games and might have a slip up in the league.
We gave it up in the home game
We still have to play Chelsea, Utd and Spurs. Wish I could believe we could still nab the title but on reflection we’ve had exactly what I asked for at the beginning of the season: QF Cl and top two at least
Unfortunately Real Madrid are through, so Pep’s bunch are undoubtedly going to win every single league match from now on. Wake me up if they lose points, otherwise I’ve pretty much already accepted our trophyless fate this season ☠️
It is unfortunate we don’t have the silver lining of them being distracted by the Champions League for another few games but the league is still there to play for. Any one of Arsenal, Liverpool and 115 can win it. Let’s see how the remainder of the season unfolds.
Disappointing result tonight. As much as we can praise the first half performance and how solid we looked, we never looked like threatening. I completely understand the concept of “snatching” a result but we never looked threatening on the break, I cant remember a single chance you would say is is clear cut, and against top quality sides you can sometimes ride your defensive luck one too many times and get caught. We look a team with absolutely no depth, and we have players like saka who looks absolutely burnt out , and when it comes to the crunch games… Read more »
Fair enough but you can’t buy 5 Fodens in one window. It takes time.
If only Arteta worked with what we have in our bench. There is time to strengthen the bench and then there is where you have to get best of what you have. If Eddie, ESR, Viera etc are what we have as bench then perhaps we sud play them on lesser games and manage better.
Heartbroken. Had it not been the screwup in the first leg between Raya and Gabriel… may be
That Martinelli chance in the 1st half was pretty clear cut, he should’ve done better. And it’s not just about clear cut chances, it’s also about clear cut chances to create clear cut chances if you get my drift. And we had plenty of those and just lacked the sharpness to make that final pass just right, or for someone to move into the dangerous area that the pass did go to (like Kimmich did on the other end). So many times we got a pass into space in the middle of the box and no one was there! Otherwise… Read more »
Devastated. We weren’t ballsy enough I’m afraid. Total lack of cutting edge and creativity and our attackers are running on fumes. I’d genuinely take Saka and Odegaard out this weekend and bring them on as impact subs they are cooked. Feel sorry for the team. Terrible night and ominous for things to come. I know it’s terribly defeatist but it really feels like our season is finished.
Never mind, gave it a good go. CL football is a big step up for them and Bayern are no mugs. Still, a good improvement on previous years when Bayern was thrashing us 5:1 over 2 legs, being back in the CL is a big improvement anyway! And we will be in it again next season with more experience of it plus squad improvements over the summer again!
“Wait til next year” is loser mentality.
Not sure what else we can do. Don’t think uefa will allow a replay
Did you realistically expect us to go deep in the CL? I didn’t. We had a good run and narrowly lost to a strong team who are better than us. The villa defeat stings more for me. But we’re not done yet!
So you are saying you didn’t realistically expect this Arsenal team that has taken 4 points from 2 matches against current CL winners to go deep in CL? While I too am more gutted about the Villa result, I firmly believe this Bayern team was very beatable, and we had them in the first half of 1st leg, so not going in semis is a big failure.
Unfortunately as our last two scorelines say, we are losers
I mean in the sense that we’ve lost our last two games and probably both trophies, not that we have losers’ mentality. But I agree, you shouldn’t wait till next year, I suggest you go out there to the semi final and get on the pitch and try to win it for us, we’re all right behind you, you don’t even need to turn around and check.
I’m a Cleveland Browns fan here in the States. I know this won’t mean anything to 99% of you, but “wait til next year” has become the motto for us for 60 years. It’s engrained in our fandom. I see parallels with Arsenal and I worryingly see a lot of fans who act like it couldn’t happen to them. On the flip side, Urban Meyer came to Ohio State, a football program with an already good winning tradition, and brought with him a championship-or-bust standard. Now, we’re ready to fire our coach after 3 seasons that 99% of college teams… Read more »
maybe in college it’s different due to the very rapid player changeover, but I would argue in pro sports those standards make a difference more negatively than positively, and you only need to look at Chelsea and Man U to see the sort of destructive short term thinking this leads to. I’d much rather support a club like Arsenal whose patience with its managers has sometimes led to stale periods but mostly allowed us the stability to build proper playing and development systems and the great team spirit that makes us more than the sum of our parts. You just… Read more »
So is lashing out at someone offering a very realsitic summation of the situation we’re now in. Our upward trajectory continues – albeit more gradually than you and your mates in the Insta-grat crowd would like.
Mate – if it was that easy, Spuds would be doing it.
We’re on the way but not quite there. Lack of experience and lack of that elite CF presence.
Let’s hope we can pick ourselves up and not have another end of season slump
End of the line for another year. Have to wonder what’s going on in that we have collapsed in April for a 3rd year in a row. Boys look done for the season, nothing in the tank left. Are we not rotating enough throughout the season?
You’ve got it! But Arteta can’t rotate with this squad and stay in the title race!
He can rotate, he doesn’t want to rotate, his mantra is players need to be able to play 70 games a season and play through pain. The intensity of the game is so high that You break players if you do that, or they get gassed out at the end of season.
Got lampooned for suggesting that (not using the squad enough) after the Porto game. After what happened last year, I paid a keen attention to what Guardiola does with his line-ups all season. Sure, he has a ridiculously stacked squad and that helps, but he knows how to rotate really well and that’@ the reason they can compete on four fronts even deep into the season every year. To be fair, one issue we had this year is that pre Dubai break, MANY of our games were too tight. Even in games when we led, we were either leading by… Read more »
It is different with Guardiola as most of his subs are worth 50m or more. But that’s the fogging standards these days with nation-state owned clubs and one/two club leagues like Spain, Germany etc (Leverkusen this season aside). We need to adapt a bit like Klopp, find some plug and play characters to fit Saka and Ø sized holes to give them a rest. Not to mention our left back and midfield issues. I think there’s a 300m sized depth chasm between us and City that is the 2 point difference today – and why Klopp is a genius to… Read more »
our backups are mid table at best.
We don’t have the depth to rotate, We need a good clear out in the summer and get some more players that actually perform on the pitch.
Clear outs are never easy. Who wants to buy mediocrity on high wages?
If you rotate, you put players in the shopping window and sell the at good price, if we want to offload Viera, Nelson Esr who is going to play top dollars?
Or put them in the window and let the world see how poor they really are, and lose points in the league because they’re not good enough. I’d give Vieira another year, he was improving before his injury, the others need to go, even if they’ve been here since they were six and are Arsenal through and through.
Palyers need to be rested and Arteta needs to trust the squad or get rid of ESR, Nelson, Nkethia… This end of season collaps got to stop. We can’t affotd passengers even if they are from the Hale end.
Maybe there’s some hope for the title but I think Liverpool are a bigger threat to City as Arsenal are completely broken at the end of the season. Again.
I just hope, I can keep myself away from watching the last 6 PL games. Been following the club for about 13 years, and it’s been tough following. Life is tough, following Arsenal is making it shittier. In thirteen years, Leicester have lifted the PL, Liverpool have lifted PL and CL, hell even Spuds made it to the CL final, and here we are always coming short some way or the other. Campaign almost over in a space of 4 days. I guess not much against the team, they tried, but it’s just the pattern, always.
We’re playing against a hugely experienced elite club with a very fast, confident attacking ability on the break there. Our lack of experience at this level showed. We need to not let being ‘the winners’ of the completions we’re competing for overshadow all the good moments and progress. It’s clear our manager is still learning, our squad needs more high quality depth and that our goalkeeper installs little faith in the masses still haha.
Go find something else to do then. This is the football supporters’ experience. Most clubs win fuck all ever. If you can’t enjoy the best side we’ve had in the last 20 years, hate to break it to you, but the next 20 years might not be any better.
Expected first half, neither team willing to openly attack. Second half again abysmal though. They scored with plenty of time left and we still played with the handbrake on, pass, pass, pass, pass mentality. Neuer had a very easy night.
Look like we’ve fallen off again, earlier in the season everyone kicking off about a lack of rotation and look knackered again.
Meek and ineffective. Arsenal deserved to go out. No complaints, we are just not good enough yet.
I thought we did okay in the first half. Lots of good possession but how many times did we have the ball taken off our toes before we could hurt them. At half time I was thinking about the Villa game and how that got away from us and it happened again. They had another gear and we didn’t. Also what was Jesus doing when he got in behind and hit the back row of the stand ?
Same game as Villa, we couldn’t reply , did no win any second ball, went back to tactics by horseshoe
We didn’t look like scoring and they did. We had a free kick from a score able position with a minute to go and tried to do something clever. Hopefully the experience will make them better but we need a goal scorer.
Across the two legs, Bayern was there for the taking. We have missed a golden opportunity to put the Bayern hoo doo behind us. No time to sulk though; Wolves and Chelsea await in the next 7 days. It’s time to regroup, get the 6 points and hope City slip up.
1:1 Would be good in regulation time then to win in extra time but if we lose by a 1 goal margin at the Allianz i’ll consider it a worthy excursion. We were never expected to get this far anyway.
The disappointment will have a wee bit less bite if Manch115ter City get bundled out too
Thank god we didn’t play Zinchenko!
Phase 4. Striker and midfielder who can pass like Partey and we will be ready next season. Oh and Portos goalkeeper.
Yeah. Bayern are awful, can barely kick the ball. So back in reality, basically one run of the ball sank The Arsenal. A couple of different bounces and we win that game. We were good they were good. That’s how it goes.
Bugger!
First of all; it is wonderful to once again be playing matches like these again – being among the best teams in Europe. The fact that most of us is probably bitterly disappointed after this match just goes to show that we have not finally gotten to a point where we expect wins and have gotten used to Arsenal playing well. Our entire offensive line was nowhere to be seen in the second half. In fact they barely created any chances today. Ødegaard once again tried his hardest. But where was the sense of urgency after Bayern scored? We should… Read more »
*have now
2 games in a row, the team looked dead and buried after going a goal down, worrying! What was the last game we won from a goal down?
Well our defence has been so good we haven’t had to for quite some time.
I thought exactly the same, although to be fair we haven’t been behind often to test out the theory !
A tepid, sterile performance that got exactly what it deserved.
We were fairly solid defensively but creating nothing going forward. We NEVER looked like scoring against a team that were weak at the back.
Our “star” players like Saka and Martinelli were anonymous and Jesus and Trossard both did nothing when they came on.
Massively disappointing to go out of this competition to such an average side. Bayern will be destroyed in the semifinals.
Our season is turning into s**t.
How relatively poor this Bayern team is is what is most difficult to take. I don’t give them a hope in the semis.
I have to disagree on this being a poor Bayern team. They have real quality throughout – a shitty coach, yeah – but they ain’t no mugs on nights like this.
Didn’t say they were ‘mugs’, just poor by their own standards.
Either city or real would have eaten us alive tonight
We don’t know how to win cups..
Tell tell sign was when Trossard said “We’ll take the point” after the first leg. Cups aren’t on our DNA right now, when we need to score we revert to the same old tired patterns. MA needs to loosen the reigns, stop the joystick coaching, and let the players play and figure things out!
Not be afraid to make unexpected changes; we needed Saka to come off for Jesus and later Martinelli or Martin o for Trossard if no score, no points having dead legs on the pitch
Unlike the villa game, I’m proud of the boys. Speaking of which you just have to wonder how much of the Villa game factored into the mentality of our boys. I thought we were over-cautious, no one was willing to make the risky pass, always taking the extra touch and ultimately unadventurous. Even the few times we got into their box we were quite hesitant. I believe we will learn from this. I believe our season is far from over as some may think. We need to shake off the disappointment and beat Wolves. Who knows citeh might just drop… Read more »
Supporting Arsenal is the most exciting & depressing thing you can ever do. The team looks so so tired, and out of ideas, it is like the Wenger era at the end. Since the Bayern game at home you could see the lack of fluidity in our attack, the lack of ideas, a mentality change. I said after the last game against Bayern, Jesus should start over Martinelli on that wing, but yet he only got 20 mins, Arsenal fans if you really sit back and think, like wtf how is Nketiah still at Arsenal? He is a championship striker… Read more »
Disgusted because we’re not winning the Premier League and the Champions League? Grow up.
I am disgusted at the attitude and decision making of some of the players & the manager. Disgusted that we threw away this tie at home. Disgusted that we lost to villa at home and away, & to west ham at home and away, and to Liverpool at home, disgusted at the lack of fluidty in certain games, disgusted at the team trying to walk the ball in the net, disgusted that we are out of the CL when Bayern were there for the taking. Disgusted we did not sign a striker. Disgusted with fans like you that doesn’t feel… Read more »
Look up the meaning of disgusted in a dictionary, I think and hope you’re confusing it with “disappointed”. I certainly don’t feel disgusted at anyone except idiots like you who hate on the team every time something goes wrong. Waiting in the shadows storing up grudges. This is real life, with real people, but then I guess you never have anything in your life that doesn’t go to plan.Pathetic.
I don’t think we should keep Raya. Also we need to be ruthless with CF, need an upgrade to Jesus.
When’s gonna our time, Lord?
He won’t answer, too busy shagging taxis.
Tell our star boy to take his fingers out of the piri piri chickens arse and focus on what you were put on this earth for. You got a very substantial pay rise with your new improved contract but just like Sir Rashford who dedicated his time to feed the poor during covid ( very noble btw) you BS have lost sight of what you are at AFC for. Total bollocks. Jesus, Tross, etc all did nothing tonight. After BM scored we were totally schooled. Love the team and love the effort up until BM scored.. but 100% effort coupled… Read more »
Doubt Saka’s reading this. Probably too tired after playing almost every minute of the whole season, having the shit kicked out of him, and performing beyond what almost every other 22 year old player in world football is capable of.
He needs a rest;
Saka needs a full season off! He’s totally burnt out.
They simply have a sharper front four and more experience. I was proud of the first half but very disappointed we didn’t kick on in the 2nd. A lot of them looked like they didn’t know what to do to wrestle the game back. It’s a gut punch for sure but another summer changes things. Some astute buys in certain positions will take us to the next level again.
Same substitutions every week weak bench first eleven flogged to death every week
Commentator: in the last six seasons, team that knocked out Porto have gone all the way to Champions League Final
Arsenal: hold my beer..
In PL we feel superior to most teams and equal to the top teams.In CL we lack the mentality to play our game, we play the occasion. And our offensive players are not good enough at this level, even Saka seems tired and out of form
Started pretty well, then ran out of steam. But not anywhere near as badly as against Villa.
Look, it’s Bayern at home…can’t be too upset given recent history. If things had gone a little differently in the first leg or if Martinelli had taken the great chance he had in the first half…might have been different.
Despite the awesome run we had in the first couple months of this year, we need another scoring threat. The two attacking Gabis aren’t getting it done.
And we need to be able to rest Saka, Odegaard and Rice.
Yawn. Let’s celebrate the fact we didn’t get thrashed?
Looking at 5 quality signings just for the midfield and attack there. Costly.
The sparks just aren’t there. It’s all functional, but the dip in energy levels means that cutting edge just isn’t there anymore.
We’ve gone a step further than last season, but without proper rotation throughout a campaign this will always be where, when and how we fall short; just not enough legs to go the distance.
Season done. They proved all of their critics right again didn’t they? Sorry, but we deserve nothing. Sod signings. This lot need therapy. Fuck it, have a good summer all.
Is it good that we got to the quarters and didn’t get pumped 5-1? Or is it bad that we lost in an amateur fashion to a painfully average Bayern side? I don’t know. Despite everyone hailing our defence this year, all 3 goals were embarrassing. What is obvious is the step up from being a good team to winning the bug stuff is a step too far for this team right now. Why is that? Probably a combination of a few different factors. Arteta and Edu are going to have to work hard to figure how to make that… Read more »
Like it or not Wenger degraded the team way too much in his latter days that, rising up is so difficult for the club. We don’t know how to attain success anymore.
What a pathetic comment. I cannot believe anybody has upvoted this.
Incredible feat of Arsenal blogosphere commenting to be doing a Wenger Out post in 2024. I’m honestly genuinely impressed.
They looked knackered, playing almost the same team for the last 2 months.
Great effort,delighted to be a Gooner supporting Arsenal. A few additions needed.
3 and half months,
Buy Viktor Gyökeres.
Saka and Martinelli have reached their level. Upgrades needed.
Martinelli maybe, but Saka? I seriously hope not.
There was a gulf in class on the wings over the two ties. I still put that down to fatigue with Saka but Martinelli has struggled to impress for a while now
We didn’t keep the ball and play football in that second half. I do worry that Arteta’s lack of rotation and faith therefore in other squad players has hindered us as the season has progressed. A Double-sided sword not having played Reiss Nelson, Viera, Nketiah as the season has progressed. We’ve missed a fit & happy Partey (or that like for like kind of player), an anchor and player to relieve some of the onus on Rice no? I also worry Raya is gonna be found floundering in set piece situations too easily (he’s a short keeper) and that our… Read more »