Arsenal vs Paris St Germain - 29.04.2025 - KO 20:00 GMT

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

Sometimes you just have to admit you weren’t anywhere near the level of your opponent and this was one of those nights for me. They were much sharper and confident than us, popping the ball around with ease and making us look like statues.

Conceding so early definitely rattled us, if we had weathered that early storm then we may have grown into it but after that we just looked distinctly average because the gameplan had gone.

Saying all that though, we still forced a couple of good saves and on paper 0-1 is hardly a disaster. Pressure is all on PSG to finish it off in front of their fans.

Probably ends in tears for us but let’s fucking leave it all out there. Don’t want another limp dick effort like we saw in the Bayern second leg last year.

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Great post, agree on all fronts

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Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...

Again like I said before, I care about what works for US, not other teams.

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What works for us apparently is not having a semi fit Saka, Rice not acting like an effeminate Nancy boy when asked to play his natural position, Merino in central midfield and Timber playing like an actual slag.

I wanted to beat Palace as much as you did, but again I just can’t see any connection between that game and tonight.


I’m sorry I just can’t.

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

Trouble is, Odegard is un-droppable (though he shouldn't be). He's not just been off-form for months, he's had NO form for months. So we had to carry him AND compensate for Partey's absence, double whammy. I'd have put Nwaneri in for Odegard, left Merino up top and brought White into the line-up somehow - or even played Trossard in there because that's where he ended up playing anyway. Did you see our bench? Kids and Sterling. Nothing in reserve really. Do we have any more 5th place challenge matches in-between? Play the fucking kids, we CANNOT afford to pick up a single injury.

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Agree with this too

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

Trouble is, Odegard is un-droppable (though he shouldn't be). He's not just been off-form for months, he's had NO form for months. So we had to carry him AND compensate for Partey's absence, double whammy. I'd have put Nwaneri in for Odegard, left Merino up top and brought White into the line-up somehow - or even played Trossard in there because that's where he ended up playing anyway. Did you see our bench? Kids and Sterling. Nothing in reserve really. Do we have any more 5th place challenge matches in-between? Play the fucking kids, we CANNOT afford to pick up a single injury.

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Nwaneri coming on fucked me off unimaginably, why the fuck wasn’t this done at least twenty minutes sooner

And yes absolutely think we should have dropped Odegaard and used the league games to give Nwaneri game time in central midfield

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

What works for us apparently is not having a semi fit Saka, Rice not acting like an effeminate Nancy boy when asked to play his natural position, Merino in central midfield and Timber playing like an actual slag.

I wanted to beat Palace as much as you did, but again I just can’t see any connection between that game and tonight.


I’m sorry I just can’t.

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Sure ok. Speak again next season when the same scenario comes up.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

Don’t normally see this from you….but it’s good to see you’ve got a bit of fire alongside your vidiprinter duties

Yeah I think we were pussies out there, but your problem is you have no substantive evidence that this has anything to do with a game six days earlier.

I think the bigger problem (and god help me for saying this) is as Mac pointed out the lack of Partey and Arteta had two weeks to come up with a solution and he chose the safest option with Merino.

This season there has been very little overlap between the league and the champions league in terms of both performances and results.

Also, if what you say about momentum is true. How come PSG who lost 3-1 at home to Nice made us look like a bunch of Charlies?

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HCZ there is no way you are going to win an argument against momentum in football as their is more than a 100 years of stats to show it exists and is a real thing.

Anyway, one thing I think you are failing to consider is the Home and Away element to our performances this season.

What I mean is we had spells where we had a few games at home in a row, and one bad result just kept pulling more of the same.

If I am correct, the crucial period earlier this year (or was it late last year) where we had like 3 or 4 home games in a row and we ended not winning any (or was it winning one), which I think resulted in us exiting one of the cups.

Anyway, its difficult to come to the same stadium where you inexcusably let people down 7 days ago and pull out a world beating performances in front of the same crowd especially when the opposition has scored within the first 4 mins..... come on, both the fans and the players are actually human.

EDIT: Found what I was looking for, it was in January, 5 games at home in a 2 week period

LLWDW

Started of with Newcastle beating is in the 1st leg of the semi (CC), Man U dumping us out of the FA cup 3 days later, our 3rd best performance this season in front of the fans at home against Spuds (IIRC), A draw against Villa and an expected win against Zagreb in the CL.

Make of the stats what you will, but I see a pattern.

I’m sick of Odegaard this season tbh, don’t know what’s happened to him. Yeah bad injury but that was 8 months ago, he’s had enough game time to play himself back into form but he’s just gone into hiding. Won’t win anything with him as a central figure. Weak personality and wouldn’t look out of place in those joke teams Wenger had in his latter years.

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Originally Posted by 21_GOONER_SALUTE

HCZ there is no way you are going to win an argument against momentum in football as their is more than a 100 years of stats to show it exists and is a real thing.

Anyway, one thing I think you are failing to consider is the Home and Away element to our performances this season.

What I mean is we had spells where we had a few games at home in a row, and one bad result just kept pulling more of the same.

If I am correct, the crucial period earlier this year (or was it late last year) where we had like 3 or 4 home games in a row and we ended not winning any (or was it winning one), which I think resulted in us exiting one of the cups.

Anyway, its difficult to come to the same stadium where you inexcusably let people down 7 days ago and pull out a world beating performances in front of the same crowd especially when the opposition has scored within the first 4 mins..... come on, both the fans and the players are actually human.

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It’s a very online thing to do, to argue from binaries

I’m not arguing momentum doesn’t exist, but there’s also clear examples of teams (including us) playing dreck in one competition and putting in top performances in another.

Our history shows of course that poor form in one game bleeds into another no matter what the competition. This season indicates that there’s been a degree of compartmentalisation. And I simply don’t see how you can argue Momentum is not a factor when we win in Europe and it is a factor when we lose.


The last time we were in a European cup semi final, we lost the away and home leg but we won the premier league games before and between the ties.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

What works for us apparently is not having a semi fit Saka, Rice not acting like an effeminate Nancy boy when asked to play his natural position, Merino in central midfield and Timber playing like an actual slag.

I wanted to beat Palace as much as you did, but again I just can’t see any connection between that game and tonight.


I’m sorry I just can’t.

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There's literally two decades of examples. Even with the Invincibles, we fucking knew when they were slacking off, and they did. And they were innvincible by the skin of their teeth, some of those games were knife-edge because the boys took a day off. Then there are the world famous collpases. Usuaily ushered in by not bothering to turn up for cup games. Then there goes the league followed by Europe all in the space of weeks - you never saw any of that?

Best streak of momentum I can recall is when not just the first team but also the reserves were putting it out there, 100%, game after game and you couldn't tell the difference between them. I remember going into games KNOWING we'd win - that was a given. I;d be pissed sometimes because the performance was not all it could be, or because we'd slack off after the 4th goal.

I get injuries and season demands - but we have a fucking ton of injuries anyway, playing pitter patter! Throw it all on the line and see who's left standing. Only way to play sport, every time. It's what winners do. It's the reason everyone KNEW we wouldn't catch City, or City would overhaul us, because we all said - they won't lose a single game.

MOMENTUM. Counts.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

It’s a very online thing to do, to argue from binaries

I’m not arguing momentum doesn’t exist, but there’s also clear examples of teams (including us) playing dreck in one competition and putting in top performances in another.

Our history shows of course that poor form in one game bleeds into another no matter what the competition. This season indicates that there’s been a degree of compartmentalisation. And I simply don’t see how you can argue Momentum is not a factor when we win in Europe and it is a factor when we lose.


The last time we were in a European cup semi final, we lost the away and home leg but we won the premier league games before and between the ties.

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Its fine, I don't think either of us is going to move on this.

I've updated my post to show the period I was talking about.

Like I said earlier, I am ok with this result, all things considered (and by that I mean the self imposed limitations we have with the kind of manager we employed).