Neuer is mental.
So happy to have to have a great keeper of our own though. Cech has been exceptional minus the West Ham disaster.
Cheers Roman.
Neuer is mental.
So happy to have to have a great keeper of our own though. Cech has been exceptional minus the West Ham disaster.
Cheers Roman.
Although BT have lost me the ability to watch these game live, listening to the game and the end result was great......hats off to the boys for never giving up and always believing! Wumger lives on.....a cat has fewer lives than he does (lol at my own joke)
Still
It's better to burn out, than to fade away.
It shows that on our day we can go toe to toe with anyone.
The sad thing is even before last night, apart from in the minds of hardened Wenger out people I think we all know we are capable of matching anyone on our day.....and that Wenger is tactically capable of matching many of those around him (still hasn't quite mastered the midget sociopath)Originally Posted by Letters
It shows that on our day we can go toe to toe with anyone.
The sad thing being is that we don't see it consistently enough, how many times have we seen turning points only to bafflingly revert to type....so frustrating we have a coach who clearly is far from being stupid or inept and yet he seems to at times will fully make amateurish errors.
Last night proved for me that our failings are down to Wengers stubbornness not incompetence
Said we didn't have a sniff, feels so good to be wrong on that score!
Bellerin's assist
Fuck, we really must challenge for the title this year (CL is beyond us I think).
We are capable, and we have a great squad. It's all about the mentality, preparation and hard work. That, and strengthening key areas when we need to.
If Wenger can keep us in touch by Christmas, he MUST strengthen. If he does, we can win the league. I really hope this isn't all another false dawn.
It's better to burn out, than to fade away.
Tactically last night, Wenger was spot on. Listening to BT, they went on and on about us not closing down Alonso and letting him have the ball, while completely ignoring the fact we blocked off all his options. It was an intentional tactic and the players performed brilliantly. They stayed compact and closed off the space. Of course, a team as good as Bayern will always create chances, but most were long shots from tight angles. Cech made some brilliant saves, but most of those saves were ones you expect a keeper of his quality to make. Koscienly and Mertesacker were oustanding, Monreal is one of our best players this season. Almost every match he is giving an 8/10 performance. Bellerin started slowly, Costa was a menace but the way he came back into the game, shows just how good he is and will be. The pace he showed yesterday towards teh end of the game, not just for Ozil's goal but earlier on when he chased a lost cause and won us a corner. It just kept the pressure on Bayern and kept our fans going.
it was the right decision to start Theo upfront as his runs kept Bayern further back and he caused some problems. Should have done better with some of his chances, but the save from Neuer was outstanding. His pace gave us the chance to counter effectively whereas starting with Giroud would have allowed Bayern to settle but his impact as a sub was much better. Bayern just didnt know what to do with him and some of his hold up play last night was superb, if only he can play at that intensity everytime.
Thats not the first time this year either we have won a game having less possession, (i think its the 7th), it shows that Wenger is making tactical decisions to play the game that way. City and United away, Liverpool at home and now Bayern at home, we all had less posession yet these games have produced our biggest wins. Its not luck, its brilliant management. Wenger has his faults of course, but arguing he doenst do tactics is just wrong. Last night showed he does, and it was one of the best arsenal performances i have seen.
Up the Arsenal
Nice to be able to read the papers this morning rather than avoiding them at all costs.
It was an odd game. We played in the most un-Arsenal like way and as it turns out that was the precise method to diffuse an on-form Bayern. Essentially we turned them into us, they were tippy tappy (albeit stunningly good at it) without doing real damage in the final third.
I don't think we were on top form ourselves. Sloppy passing. Lacked confidence until the game wore on. Not so hot in the final third either. And a rare occasion where Alexis succumbed to fatigue, not surprising really considering how much we rely on him.
What really stood out was the pre-game planning, the tactics and the discipline of the players in conducting those tactics. Very un-Arsenal. Very un-Wenger. But credit has to go to the manager. He figured out what was required, laid the deception beforehand with his "all out attack" message, and then set us up to counter, but not only that we were set up to carefully balance energy over the 90 minutes. That showed at the end when we stormed past a tiring Bayern defence. Bellerin was playing like it was still the first minute. And Ozil was sprinting into the box.
I'm betting Bayern arrived assuming they knew how we'd play, that we'd be guilty of being as predictable as so many opposition managers, notably our last two CL opponents, claimed. It was very encouraging to see Wenger shake things up and catch Pep wrong footed.
Cech showed why he must start every game in every competition. He exudes confidence and experience at the back. He has winner written all over, the best keeper in the PL and the best signing of the summer. And a chav legend pinched from Maureen despite his protests - transfers really don't come better than that.
Then there's Coquelin. Surely the most improved player in Europe? He's a captain in the making (a proper one, not an afterthought like our recent captain's role). He spotted the problems early on yesterday and he made the adjustments himself. At least it very much looked that way. Maybe he got a call from the sidelines, but anyway he was instrumental in shutting down Bayern's game in the final third when initially it looked like they were going to slice us to ribbons.
We desperately needed this result for so many reasons. These are the occasions why players like Cech, Ozil and Alexis have come to the club.
That's TWICE now. The demolition of Utd with an effective game plan and now the diffusing of Bayern. This is the standard we need to keep up.
Now we need to do it all over in the return leg. Bayern will be well up for that, it'll be the biggest test we have faced in a long time. Pass that test and we are in business.
Hopefully the injuries aren't going to sweep in and take this momentum away.
Für eure Sicherheit
I was about to say something similar about matching the best teams. It’s why I’m done stating such games are the ‘defining moment’. We’ve had this conversation on GW before. We beat Bayern on their own ground when they were at their best and won the CL. Weren’t we the only team to beat them there that year? Didn’t we go on to have some strong run on the league after that victory? We’ve always known we can beat the best teams. We’ve beaten them all. Barca, AC Milan, Dortmund…when we’ve been written off and things look hopeless we show up with a solid performance. We just need consistency.
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