Match Reaction v Bayern

[Kano]

Man City are a top side, so are Man U both will challenge...Man U did pretty well this season against the best side in the competition. I think you'll see that next season they will progress further that's unless they get drawn against the best sides in which case it's a bit of a lottery.

The German teams have improved a lot and Barca and Real are certainly better than ever in terms of quality, then you have Juve who seem to be leading an Italian recovery and PSG who have the spending power to bring in top quality, that's a much stronger line-up than 4-5 years ago when there were maybe two other teams other than the English teams who could challenge.

Now sure we've had better English teams however the current best sides in England can and will compete, it's the likes of us who should worry because we're being left behind, devoid of quality, devoid of that hunger to succeed we're going to struggle unless we start bringing in world class players.

The cream of the English sides will always be up there, they have the financial muscle and the quality of players to compete.

so basically you're basing it on perception, rather than anything factual or historical from the past couple of seasons. guess we'll see.

[Özim]

so basically you're basing it on perception, rather than anything factual or historical from the past couple of seasons. guess we'll see.

Last season Chelsea won it, there's your evidence and you can't write it off as "luck" etc etc because that's not tangible, after all we have managed to win it with luck in 15 years.

I think the top English sides have the money and quality to win it and will generally always be up there with a chance.

[Kano]

so as i said, you are basing it on perception, not on the lack of qualifying from 8 teams over two years.

also, why is it that people just do not read posts on here? have a look for the word 'luck' in my post. i said it was a unique victory against the odds that is an absolute rarity in this competition, i can't recall another team that has defended their way to the trophy. it gets so dull repeating the same things every other posts because people are too lazy to read. no wonder nobody debates anything on here.

[Özim]

so as i said, you are basing it on perception, not on the lack of qualifying from 8 teams over two years.

also, why is it that people just do not read posts on here? have a look for the word 'luck' in my post. i said it was a unique victory against the odds that is an absolute rarity in this competition, i can't recall another team that has defended their way to the trophy. it gets so dull repeating the same things every other posts because people are too lazy to read. no wonder nobody debates anything on here.

Once again, you can't ignore Chelsea winning it though they are still English after all and you can't do better than win it. You can write us off as we're sh*t, we always know we're going out when the knockout stages (if another team made it they'd probably make a better effort of it) arises so make it 6 teams in 2 years.

Man U faced the best team in the competition, they are undoubtedly in the best 8 teams in Europe. Man City aren't far behind either, they are a bit like us when in the early years, we were a great team yet never progressed far enough, but that wasn't because we weren't good enough.

I think the best English teams can undoubtedly compete, they have the quality as Man U showed, those below the top 2-3 perhaps not so much however.

[LDG]

Also depends on which way Sepp and Michelle are betting each year, tbf.

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

English football isn't where it was 4-5 years ago when it dominated however European teams have got better IMO, 4-5 years ago there didn't seem to be a huge amount of quality, this season there seems to be a lot more quality teams around.

I don't think there's anything to worry about anyway, they'll be back next season for sure.

the overall quality of the premier league has improved, but the top 4 have got worse.

[IBK]

We've won 13 out of 28 league games and we're 5th, not a million miles away from 3rd, especially if we win our game in hand.
I think that tells you everything you need to know about the quality of the PL this year.

Kind of - but to play Devil's advocate it could also be that the EPL is becoming more competitive throughout. I know that Manure are running away with the title - but they are managed by possibly the best manager in history.

I'm in the camp that says that as far as this season's CL is concerned, its something of an aberration - a couple more years of non-CL quarter final participation is required before judgments can be made. Yes the Bundesliga is becoming better - and the Germans have deliberately planned for this, but with the money in our league, let's wait for a little longer before passing judgment.

I am inclined to ignore Wenger's transparent attempt to put us on a par with our more illustrious EPL rivals - as I ignore everything he says these days. He is nothing but a politicking weasel with his constant PR speak - and I'm bored with it. He shouldn't lament the falling standard of our league when he has done more or less everything he could deliberately to weaken his own side.

A few more points.

Re Wednesday's game - I can understand totally those who are completely ambivalent about the result - and agree that in the context of our general decline and the unlikelihood that it will change anything going forwards it means nothing. Personally, I drew satisfaction from the fact that we weren't made to look like chumps as I had predicted, (and I'm with Terry in this regard) but its really sad that the way in which our club has been run and managed for years has resulted in many Gooners being unable even to enjoy what was a good one off result.

I disagree that Bayern handed the win to us, for the reasons that have been given, but also because football doesn't work like that. If one team is under-cooked, or has the wrong mental approach (which BTW I do not accept Bayern were) then that's all part and parcel of losing a game - as much as being bested in pure playing terms. We won the game because we scored 2 more goals than them, and kept a clean sheet. Again, its sad that our disgust with our team generally now prevents us even from praising a performance - it has to be because the other team threw the game. Do people think Bayern fans felt the same way after the first leg? Do people think that Blackburn fans felt that way after their FA Cup win against us? Of course not. They would have taken pride in their team's performance. Oh - and if we had played a game with as many shots as Bayern had on target and not scored, but they had scored with 2 out of 4 attempts on goal, we'd be slagging off our team - not praising the efficiency of the competition.

I am far from happy with what is happening at AFC - but the carping can go too far sometimes.

[Power n Glory]

Once again, you can't ignore Chelsea winning it though they are still English after all and you can't do better than win it. You can write us off as we're sh*t, we always know we're going out when the knockout stages (if another team made it they'd probably make a better effort of it) arises so make it 6 teams in 2 years.

Man U faced the best team in the competition, they are undoubtedly in the best 8 teams in Europe. Man City aren't far behind either, they are a bit like us when in the early years, we were a great team yet never progressed far enough, but that wasn't because we weren't good enough.

I think the best English teams can undoubtedly compete, they have the quality as Man U showed, those below the top 2-3 perhaps not so much however.

Point taken in that respect because I can’t imagine the Prem suffering a serious decline in the same way Italian football was struck unless the big clubs ran into serious money problems. At the moment they have can just continue to build and build until they get better. If the money were to get cut and owners ran into money problems, then we can talk seriously about the English league dying. As said before, I think most teams are in state of transition.

[Kano]

Re Wednesday's game - I can understand totally those who are completely ambivalent about the result - and agree that in the context of our general decline and the unlikelihood that it will change anything going forwards it means nothing. Personally, I drew satisfaction from the fact that we weren't made to look like chumps as I had predicted, (and I'm with Terry in this regard) but its really sad that the way in which our club has been run and managed for years has resulted in many Gooners being unable even to enjoy what was a good one off result.

I disagree that Bayern handed the win to us, for the reasons that have been given, but also because football doesn't work like that. If one team is under-cooked, or has the wrong mental approach (which BTW I do not accept Bayern were) then that's all part and parcel of losing a game - as much as being bested in pure playing terms. We won the game because we scored 2 more goals than them, and kept a clean sheet. Again, its sad that our disgust with our team generally now prevents us even from praising a performance - it has to be because the other team threw the game. Do people think Bayern fans felt the same way after the first leg? Do people think that Blackburn fans felt that way after their FA Cup win against us? Of course not. They would have taken pride in their team's performance. Oh - and if we had played a game with as many shots as Bayern had on target and not scored, but they had scored with 2 out of 4 attempts on goal, we'd be slagging off our team - not praising the efficiency of the competition.

I am far from happy with what is happening at AFC - but the carping can go too far sometimes.

good shout there - agree with you all the way.

[Power n Glory]

Kind of - but to play Devil's advocate it could also be that the EPL is becoming more competitive throughout. I know that Manure are running away with the title - but they are managed by possibly the best manager in history.

I'm in the camp that says that as far as this season's CL is concerned, its something of an aberration - a couple more years of non-CL quarter final participation is required before judgments can be made. Yes the Bundesliga is becoming better - and the Germans have deliberately planned for this, but with the money in our league, let's wait for a little longer before passing judgment.

I am inclined to ignore Wenger's transparent attempt to put us on a par with our more illustrious EPL rivals - as I ignore everything he says these days. He is nothing but a politicking weasel with his constant PR speak - and I'm bored with it. He shouldn't lament the falling standard of our league when he has done more or less everything he could deliberately to weaken his own side.

A few more points.

Re Wednesday's game - I can understand totally those who are completely ambivalent about the result - and agree that in the context of our general decline and the unlikelihood that it will change anything going forwards it means nothing. Personally, I drew satisfaction from the fact that we weren't made to look like chumps as I had predicted, (and I'm with Terry in this regard) but its really sad that the way in which our club has been run and managed for years has resulted in many Gooners being unable even to enjoy what was a good one off result.

I disagree that Bayern handed the win to us, for the reasons that have been given, but also because football doesn't work like that. If one team is under-cooked, or has the wrong mental approach (which BTW I do not accept Bayern were) then that's all part and parcel of losing a game - as much as being bested in pure playing terms. We won the game because we scored 2 more goals than them, and kept a clean sheet. Again, its sad that our disgust with our team generally now prevents us even from praising a performance - it has to be because the other team threw the game. Do people think Bayern fans felt the same way after the first leg? Do people think that Blackburn fans felt that way after their FA Cup win against us? Of course not. They would have taken pride in their team's performance. Oh - and if we had played a game with as many shots as Bayern had on target and not scored, but they had scored with 2 out of 4 attempts on goal, we'd be slagging off our team - not praising the efficiency of the competition.

I am far from happy with what is happening at AFC - but the carping can go too far sometimes.

I think most people are ambivalent to the result in Munich because we’ve beaten better teams in the past and it rarely changes anything. We’ve beaten the big teams in the Prem and Champs League in the past and it means nothing in the end. Bayern didn’t play well and neither did we if we’re honest about it. It wasn’t an entertaining game or as thrilling as some of our past victories so I can understand where some folks are coming from. You can only hope this result does something for the teams confidence but I highly doubt it.