AC Milan v Arsenal Post Match

I think everyone is over reacting. OK so we're out of the CL (and we'll possibly win at home) it is not like we were going to win it. Our season objectives have not taken a blow : 4th spot and maybe the FA cup.
Chill everyone.

Very poor condition of the pitch + Little creativity in midfield + A loose defense = 4 x 0

PD: 4-4-2? Really? this season we have not used this formation

ralph avedikian wrote:I think everyone is over reacting. OK so we're out of the CL (and we'll possibly win at home) it is not like we were going to win it. Our season objectives have not taken a blow : 4th spot and maybe the FA cup.
Chill everyone.

It's not just a loss in a regular match though, like throwing away the CC final last year this is really going to damage moral...

Very very poor display. It seems like this season is just full of one low after the other. The league has to be full steam ahead now. Fuck the CL for this year. Tie is over. It's scary how much we have fallen in Europe. You don't lose quality players like Fabregas and Nasri and replace them with Rosicky and Ramsey ( good players, but clearly looked out their depth tonight) and expect to play at a high level. We really miss Gervinho and Ox should have started that game on the left wing instead of Rosicky.

There's losing and then there's putting in one of the most abject European performances of all time and being destroyed. Our heaviest ever loss in Europe, I think.

Still, Rosicky is in talks for a new contract

ralph avedikian wrote:I think everyone is over reacting. OK so we're out of the CL (and we'll possibly win at home) it is not like we were going to win it. Our season objectives have not taken a blow : 4th spot and maybe the FA cup.
Chill everyone.

That's not the point. The point is that it's symptomatic of who we are as a team, and what it could mean for the future of the club. 4th is our goal, it's what we have to work to achieve, it's not guaranteed. With performances like this, and what might occur as a result of this humiliating loss, we could lose our best players and our ability to attract high quality players and to continue to challenge for titles. It's not the loss, it's the context of the loss.

This has been a volatile, topsy turvy seaon, but to come out so flat for a big game.....dunno it just really bothers me how uninspiring and tentative we were in the first half.
Earlier I blamed it on lack of quality in the side , but it could also be getting tactics wrong.
Even when it seemed we had a chance to counter (which should have been the plan imo, )we didn't take it . Was the plan to sit back and stay compact?
Arteta passing poorly... dunno, just disappointing. Because it's not like Milan did it to us,we did it to ourselves. Mediocre side.

Spineless. No leadership. No effort, walking pace and sideways passing. Lack of technical quality tonight. I could go on and on.

Sczezny doesn't reassure me any more. Sagna and Vermaelen seem to have lost pace (understandable) but their performances tonight as the senior players in the backline were absolutely unacceptable and atrocious. Please God don't let our best defender be out for too long

Midfield is not good enough. Song has tailed off dramatically over the last two months he looks very very average. Arteta is just a decent player but doesn't look like a game changer and Ramsey can't be relied on at the moment he looks drained and out of ideas.

Walcott is shit and needs to go. He just isn't good enough. He doesn't have the technical quality to play for us and really can't be relied on to consistently put in a good performance. He can't take players on 1 on 1 and is too 1 dimensional.

Abysmal (again).

Ed Spence wrote:

ralph avedikian wrote:I think everyone is over reacting. OK so we're out of the CL (and we'll possibly win at home) it is not like we were going to win it. Our season objectives have not taken a blow : 4th spot and maybe the FA cup.
Chill everyone.

It's not just a loss in a regular match though, like throwing away the CC final last year this is really going to damage moral...

Champions League exits haven't really affected us that badly domestically though. Its disappointing results domestically that have detroyed our seasons in recent past.

Mario Leontiou wrote:There's losing and then there's putting in one of the most abject European performances of all time and being destroyed. Our heaviest ever loss in Europe, I think.

Still, Rosicky is in talks for a new contract

OptaJoe 4 - Tonight's match was
the first time in 222 European
games (excl. qualifiers) that
Arsenal have lost by 4+ goals.
Mauled.

Jason Morrison wrote:

Ed Spence wrote:

ralph avedikian wrote:I think everyone is over reacting. OK so we're out of the CL (and we'll possibly win at home) it is not like we were going to win it. Our season objectives have not taken a blow : 4th spot and maybe the FA cup.
Chill everyone.

It's not just a loss in a regular match though, like throwing away the CC final last year this is really going to damage moral...

Champions League exits haven't really affected us that badly domestically though. Its disappointing results domestically that have detroyed our seasons in recent past.

I hope you're right!

just me or sagna is having a very poor performance?

Jason Morrison wrote:

Ed Spence wrote:

ralph avedikian wrote:I think everyone is over reacting. OK so we're out of the CL (and we'll possibly win at home) it is not like we were going to win it. Our season objectives have not taken a blow : 4th spot and maybe the FA cup.
Chill everyone.

It's not just a loss in a regular match though, like throwing away the CC final last year this is really going to damage moral...

Champions League exits haven't really affected us that badly domestically though. Its disappointing results domestically that have detroyed our seasons in recent past.

Barcelona would like a word with you....

Cyril Karwa wrote:This team doesn't seem like it wants to win anything

i don't know how much you can lay at the feet of the team - lets face it they are not good enough - you can polish a turd but it will never shine.

And it seems to me AW has spent enough time with the pledge multi surface to have realised this.

make no mistake we will the laughing stock of europe even the Apoel have done better.

As for the home leg we'll see who has any pride in the shirt.

Highbury wrote:just me or sagna is having a very poor performance?

very very poor

Stephen Mitchell wrote:

Ed Spence wrote:I have a terrible feeling we'll have to enjoy the return leg, because it's the last we'll see of CL football for a while...

Absolutely, the qualifiers aren't until late August.

Atta boy.

Adriel Williams wrote:

Jason Morrison wrote:

Ed Spence wrote:

ralph avedikian wrote:I think everyone is over reacting. OK so we're out of the CL (and we'll possibly win at home) it is not like we were going to win it. Our season objectives have not taken a blow : 4th spot and maybe the FA cup.
Chill everyone.

It's not just a loss in a regular match though, like throwing away the CC final last year this is really going to damage moral...

Champions League exits haven't really affected us that badly domestically though. Its disappointing results domestically that have detroyed our seasons in recent past.

Barcelona would like a word with you....

We started falling apart after the league cup final last year, which was before the barca 2nd leg game.

.

nick koupparis wrote:

Cyril Karwa wrote:This team doesn't seem like it wants to win anything

i don't know how much you can lay at the feet of the team - lets face it they are not good enough - you can polish a turd but it will never shine.

And it seems to me AW has spent enough time with the pledge multi surface to have realised this.

make no mistake we will the laughing stock of europe even the Apoel have done better.

As for the home leg we'll see who has any pride in the shirt.

There wasnt even any polish today. What grinds me is the WAY we lost. Its not like we can hold up our hand and say ok we played hard but they were better than us. Its we were SHITE!

Horrible result, and we're probably done in the CL this year, but a lot of people are acting like it's the end of the world right now. Honestly, this frees us up to go for the FA Cup and to chase down Tottenham in the league.

We can't be surprised that Milan were good at home. They gave Barcelona two very good matches this year. Their coach also got his tactics right.

But, we were so so bad. A catastrophe that complete takes some explaining. We were so wet and clueless. It's not like we're not capable of this kind of performance though. When we're this bad nearly everyone looks like a lost child, including Sagna, international or not.

Of course Wenger made no effort to adapt his tactics to the opposition or the two-legged tie but this is nothing new.

The starting line-up was wrong. If we were only going to play three forwards, one of the two couldn't be Walcott. I thought we had to replicate our choices of recent weeks, ie Rosicky in for Ramsey. Playing both was strange and didn't make sense within our current formation. Ramsey is in awful form, even if he wasn't the only one tonight. Song was also lost and useless. Djourou is the last person to blame, he was always likely to be weak.

Players that many of us rate very highly, ie Vermaelen, Sagna and co show no brains when defending counter-attacks. How much of this comes from the coach and how he decides to prepare the team?

Ibramovich struggles against the Carraghers and Vidics of the English league. He was never going to struggle against our relatively small CB partnership this evening.


Finally, I'm not sure I'm really that bothered or surprised. As others have said, this is just the logical conclusion of years of weakening, tactical paralysis and lack of ambition or realism at different times. No point pretending that we will do much in the CL this year. We have a more realistic aim to concentrate on. But even then, what good is getting back into the CL if we aren't able to improve?

nick koupparis wrote:

Highbury wrote:just me or sagna is having a very poor performance?

very very poor

The guy just came back from a 4 month injury, give him a break. Not like we had better RB options, and I don't believe coq would have done much better.

nick koupparis wrote:

Highbury wrote:just me or sagna is having a very poor performance?

very very poor

Is very irregular in defense and attack does nothing

Hisham El Mawan wrote:

Stephen Mitchell wrote:

Ed Spence wrote:I have a terrible feeling we'll have to enjoy the return leg, because it's the last we'll see of CL football for a while...

Absolutely, the qualifiers aren't until late August.

Atta boy.

Guys... I really hope you're right! Keep the faith eh?

John Foxall wrote:Of course Wenger made no effort to adapt his tactics to the opposition or the two-legged tie but this is nothing new.

I've come to realize Wenger never adjusta tactics to oppositions, never do we change playing style or formation based on who we play. Always the same tactics with players sometimes shifted around cause of rests or injuries.