Match Reaction: Bayern Munich 5 Arsenal 1

[Letters]

Honestly, apart from Flamini and if you're harsh Arteta (both likely to leave in the summer), we don't have any actual dross on the books. Gone are the days of Gervinho, Diaby, Denilson, Bendtner, Chamkah etc all substandard and picking up wages for doing nothing. In terms of quality, the squad's in the best shape it's ever been in.

The problem as P&G points out is a fitness one and relying on consistently injury prone players like Theo, Rosicky and Jack. Like I said on another thread, regardless of whatever happens this season we can't go on relying on these guys to mount a multi front trophy campaign across a season. It's ridiculous and not fair on the other players and so if a good offer comes in for Jack next summer we should seriously consider it.

That and the fact that Bayern are fucking good and had a vendetta to settle last night.

Pretty much

Losing heavily at Bayern with our injury list tells us as much about our squad as had we played Barnet and won comfortably.
Even our first choice players would have struggled there, they're hammering everyone at home this season, although I reckon we could have given them more of a game.
Our squad is pretty decent right now but we are over-reliant on a few key players, if Sanchez or Ozil get injured, even Giroud who has been scoring plenty this season then we're going to struggle. We have to do something about these persistent injury problems.

[Power n Glory]

Honestly, apart from Flamini and if you're harsh Arteta (both likely to leave in the summer), we don't have any actual dross on the books. Gone are the days of Gervinho, Diaby, Denilson, Bendtner, Chamkah etc all substandard and picking up wages for doing nothing. In terms of quality, the squad's in the best shape it's ever been in.

The problem as P&G points out is a fitness one and relying on consistently injury prone players like Theo, Rosicky and Jack. Like I said on another thread, regardless of whatever happens this season we can't go on relying on these guys to mount a multi front trophy campaign across a season. It's ridiculous and not fair on the other players and so if a good offer comes in for Jack next summer we should seriously consider it.

That and the fact that Bayern are fucking good and had a vendetta to settle last night.

Yeah, I don't think we have a bad squad full of wasters. Injuries are really hurting us. We may have to sell the players who have no hope of staying fit if it comes to that but I worry we'll just end up with the same problems further down the road. We have to figure out what's going on in training. The young players we've raised shouldn't be picking up so many injuries. We need to get to the bottom of this otherwise we'll always have this problem regardless of who we sell or buy.

[Niall_Quinn]

It's the manager. Same story with him.

Bayern were the favourites last night for a number of reasons. But the way we went out there, totally unprepared, no tactics, no reaction when it was plain we were in for a hiding playing that way. That's all on the manager. He's playing scared and then shuffling the blame around when his gutless attitude seeps into the team. Kos is supposedly injured, but not injured enough to be left at home. Then Wenger criticises the defending. He already knew we lost Bellerin without the kid even kicking a ball, so what is he saving Kos for? A training injury before the spuds game? Who knows, but why was he on the bench if he wasn't fit? Leave him at home or play him, make a damn decision. Gutless. Wenger gutless against Zagreb, too afraid to piss the #2 keeper off. Gutless against the Greeks, repeats his stupid mistake and it costs us. Gutless in the cup and gets a hiding from Sheff Wed - roll out more excuses. Excuses, excuses. The injuries, the defence, the attack lacking sharpness, being tired, excuses, excuses. How many years of excuses now for all those games in the CL he's fucked up? He's out of his depth in this competition, so scared of it he doesn't believe we can ever win it. Saving up his resources he loses at the drop of a hat anyway, pointless resting and rotation and all for what? No way are we winning the PL with a gutless guy in charge. It's a nice idea but we aren't at Christmas yet but still all the old Wenger frailties are on full display. Sure, it's a tough game against Bayern on their own patch. But taking a beating like that and playing like that? It's shameful - like the manager's record in Europe.

[Xhaka Can’t]

We haven't had a thrashing for a couple of seasons

At least you're happy again now you've got something to whine about, it's noticeable how little you've posted here in our good run, one bad result and you can't wait to log on again.

I vaguely remember the guy.

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[Ollie the Optimist]

For me, and I've held this belief since the start of the season, the league is a better and more important trophy to win this year then Europe. Don't get me wrong, I would love to win the champions league, but the league would mean so much more given we would have to perform at a high level for the whole season. Champions league is ultimately a cup competition where you can play badly and still win it (chelsea in 2012). The game last night wasn't a surprise we lost, but it was a shame we lost so heavily, however at half time i would have taken off Ozil and Sanchez, we need them for the league, no point wasting them in a dead half of football.

I thought for the first half we played well, Ozil looked superb to start with and his goal should have stood. I think we still would have lost, but his goal came off his shoulder and it should have stood, the referee overall was suspect. Campbell was booked and 5 minutes later Lahm makes an identical tackle and nothing given. Bayern are the best team in the world right now, they have thrashed many a good team over the last few seasons. If we win the league, and i really think we can and probably will, then no one will care about these games.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Another embarrassing thrashing, seems to have become a fairly reguar thing under Wenger, before he arrived we very very rarely even lost by more than three goals.

He can't hack in in Europe let's face it, decades of failing shows that, we beat them 2-0 at home but it means very little if we can't consolidate that with a good performance away.

Disappointing but no real surprise.

I can actually see you posting this when we win the league.

"we won the league but it means nothing if we can't consolidate that by winning in europe too"

[Maestro]

Me too. Despite that I think a lot of folks are really underestimating the Europa League, there are some very good teams in it this season, CL level teams like Dortmund, Napoli, Villareal, Ajax & Basle, aswell as domestic rivals like Liverpool and Spuds. If we end up in it we have no guarantees of winning it. I'd have Dortmund down as the favourites even if we enter it, they have been very good this season.

This

we will get thumped in the Europa league if you ask me

[Niall_Quinn]

For me, and I've held this belief since the start of the season, the league is a better and more important trophy to win this year then Europe. Don't get me wrong, I would love to win the champions league, but the league would mean so much more given we would have to perform at a high level for the whole season. Champions league is ultimately a cup competition where you can play badly and still win it (chelsea in 2012). The game last night wasn't a surprise we lost, but it was a shame we lost so heavily, however at half time i would have taken off Ozil and Sanchez, we need them for the league, no point wasting them in a dead half of football.

I thought for the first half we played well, Ozil looked superb to start with and his goal should have stood. I think we still would have lost, but his goal came off his shoulder and it should have stood, the referee overall was suspect. Campbell was booked and 5 minutes later Lahm makes an identical tackle and nothing given. Bayern are the best team in the world right now, they have thrashed many a good team over the last few seasons. If we win the league, and i really think we can and probably will, then no one will care about these games.

It's not the result, it's the manner of the performance. The absence of any method from the manager to try and deal with adversity. And it came on the heels of another tragic performance in the Carling Cup. Doesn't matter much if we are in or out of that cup either, but the manner of the defeat mattered. People should care a lot about these games because they explain in detail why we won't be winning any title.

[Power n Glory]

This

we will get thumped in the Europa league if you ask me

Yep. Let's not forgot who we lost to in our opening CL games.

[Letters]

And it came on the heels of another tragic performance in the Carling Cup.

It actually came on the heels of a very good result at Swansea which keeps us in the hunt, for now.
It's results like that, and others in recent league form like the Utd one when they were top and we leapfrogged them which make me believe we have a chance.

People should care a lot about these games because they explain in detail why we won't be winning any title.

Not really, our league form has been much better than our Cup form. You can go on about momentum but poor Cup results have been followed by good League ones so far, there's been no obvious connection. We're not going to be playing anyone of Bayern's quality again. After the Liverpool game you were lamenting the fact we were 5 points off the pace already and it would be 10 points off in the next 4 games and that would be the end of our challenge (well, someone else did but you strongly agreed). So much for that prediction. Will we win the league? I don't know, we'll find out in May. But recent league results have indicated we've got a chance. And it's not just a 'few wins', this good run extends way back into last season. We're calendar year champions so far and while that's as worthwhile as the top 4 trophy it shows a long, consistent run of form good enough to challenge.

Injuries is the thing that worries me most, we've shown we can win important games and be consistent over a long period. A few key injuries - and with our record that seems worryingly likely - and we'll be stuffed.