Quote Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn View Post
We are seeing this performance and result through Wenger lenses. Hardly a surprise given how long we've had to put up with the bloke and his pointless football (literally pointless on the road this year).

That was NOT a good performance lads. Sorry. But it just wasn't. It wasn't even a good enough performance to force a 10 man Madrid to commit Costa. Instead they emerge with an away goal and their main man waiting in the wings for the next match.

11 vs 10 for 83 mins and the Madrid players stroll off the pitch grinning, rather than crawl off it exhausted? That shows you exactly what sort of performance we put in. Another one paced, over passed, sideways, excessively complicated, inefficient farce. If lions or tigers hunted like we play they'd be extinct.

Last night was a BETTER performance BY OUR STANDARDS. Which isn't saying much I'm afraid. Yes, we had all the possession and 27 shots. One goal. Familiar story, isn't it? The lack of ruthlessness in front of goal. It doesn't matter who's up there, Theo, Bif, RvP, Ade, Arshavin, Alexis, Laca, we've got used to shouting, "Ooooh, unlucky!", every 5 minutes. We haven't been ruthless, like we used to be all those years ago, for over a decade.

It should be speed, pass, speed, pass, bang, GOAL. Like that Salah bloke we were cooing over, or that Griezemann bloke when Madrid lumped it (so vulgar but effective) and he did what he had to do to force the fucker into the net. People are saying he was lucky. Bullshit. He had to control the ball, he had to grab it again when Kos did his comedy routine (again), he had to recover it one more time when Ospina tried to outdo Kos and finally he had to hit the target while the Keystone Mustafi was sliding around as he usually does. Perseverance, getting the job done when the chance came along.

It took us 27 chances to get the job done. A hallmark of Wenger's Arsenal. We play at Wenger's tempo so we always give the opponent a chance and we always invite the opposition defenders to be comfortable. On the break, we'll stop and play it sideways and the move dies right there as the opposition get back into shape. We do it all the time. Our generosity knows no bounds. Defenders must love playing against us. There's always that stupid extra touch or that ridiculous desire to run into the congested area of the pitch. We have become masters at it.

For every pass Madrid played last night, we played 5. Tip, tap. Tip, tap. Almost all of it was played in front of their comfortable ranks of defenders who let us have the flanks, because Simeone did his homework (many managers do that) and knows that even if we get a cross in we won't have anyone in the box to meet it. The one time we broke that rule, we scored. Other than that, Madrid's wall shuffled left, shuffled right, defended the centre at a nice, leisurely stroll and watched our little triangles. Easy. Their ten could have played another 90 minutes at that pace.

In the second half Madrid had no midfield at all. Just their defensive wall and their one outlet striker stuck miles away up top. Of course we had a lot of the ball. Of course we had a lot of attempts. That's how Madrid played it. Our pea shooter and an endless supply of peas against their brick wall. I wonder will it be the same in Madrid? I'm thinking yes.

Or look at it another way. If it had been the other Madrid, or Barca, or PSG, or Bayern, or Liverpool or even the spuds, up against Atleti's 10 for 80 mins last night, would that game have ended 1-1? Honest answers only please.

It wasn't a good performance. It was Wengerball and that's the main problem the new manager faces when he comes in. How to disinfect the squad after years of exposure. Anyone who thinks that was a good performance is looking at this in a Wenger tinged light. Normal teams, normal fans wouldn't be walking away from that talking about great performances, or being unlucky. They'd be calling it like it is. We fucked up. Big time.

If Wenger decides to change EVERYTHING next week we have a chance, because we have some decent players. But he won't do that, will he? He'll do the same thing again and therefore so will Madrid. Maybe we'll get Oooooh, so close, or be really unlucky, or almost do it. But we've been there before, haven't we?

The new guy has a hell of a job on his hands.
I agree, a lot of people are saying we played well, we didn't. We played most of the game against ten men and we were in their penalty area for most of the first half, but couldn't score. We had to score when we were on top like that. We weren't ruthless with our chances and we were worried that that would come back to bite us and it did. Now we'll see if this team has mental strength or not.