Match Reaction: Arsenal 3 Zagreb 0

[selassie]

Wow. So few comments on last night. Sums it up a bit really. And the reason I think is that so many Gooners half expected an emphatic result last night, followed by a heroic near miss in Greece. I know this sounds negative, but the problem is that our team's serial inconsistency breeds a lack of expection.

I loved seeing our players turn it on last night, but even the required win at Olympiacos will mean little unless we can start to impose ourselves regularly, and show that we have lost our tendency to implode and are able to function effectively with key players missing. Last night was a start. Again. But I've lost count of the times that we have been in this position (of thinking that we can build on a convincing result) only to be disappointed a few matches later.

Last night was a really good performance but I'm still not convinced we'll do what we need to do in Greece. We've left ourselves in a similar-ish position to last season when we needed to produce the goods in Monaco and we fell short. Admittedly the task is a little easier this time round in as much as we need to win by 2 and we are playing a slightly weaker opposition.

To be brutally honest even if we do qualify we are there just in CL to make up the numbers. I was thinking last night we're miles behind the elite in CL these days (Barca & Bayern), sure...we can give either a good game at home but over 2 legs both teams would destroy us IMO. I also think we're behind Real, PSG and possibly Juve so we have quite a small chance of progressing beyond the last 16 if we do make it through.

[IBK]

Last night was a really good performance but I'm still not convinced we'll do what we need to do in Greece. We've left ourselves in a similar-ish position to last season when we needed to produce the goods in Monaco and we fell short. Admittedly the task is a little easier this time round in as much as we need to win by 2 and we are playing a slightly weaker opposition.

To be brutally honest even if we do qualify we are there just in CL to make up the numbers. I was thinking last night we're miles behind the elite in CL these days (Barca & Bayern), sure...we can give either a good game at home but over 2 legs both teams would destroy us IMO. I also think we're behind Real, PSG and possibly Juve so we have quite a small chance of progressing beyond the last 16 if we do make it through.

Sums my thoughts up perfectly, mate. And I'm afraid that this is where we are at as a club. Its often so near but so far for us in Europe, and we've seen nothing this season to suggest any different.

[Niall_Quinn]

Can somebody at the club get inside the players' heads and let them know that last night is the level of performance we need every game and in every competition? Can Wenger do that? He needs to if we are going to get anything out of this season. It's very, very frustrating when you see the team play the way they did last night. Pace, energy, determination to hustle and win the ball back, movement, players wanting the ball, accuracy with the passing, accurate crosses some decent crosses, moving the ball forwards up the pitch fast, players getting up and down the pitch to mix offensive duties with defensive. Zagreb are not a poor team, in the few moments where they got some sort of grip on what was going on they showed they have a bit about them too. But they couldn't handle what we were about.

This is what makes supporting this club frustrating and this is why the fans at Stoke and West Brom and Norwich can fuck off when they say we are precious or spoiled and they'd give a left nut to be where we are. Fact is we're under-performing, season after season, and performances like this and the Utd game and the second half against Swansea and so on show it. How is that shitty performance against the spuds or against Brom last week explained away when we know the team can play like this?

This question, plus the ridiculous injury situation, are jobs for the manager to work on and fix. Time for him to earn his keep. With the gypos fucking up all over the place (and that won't last forever), the chavs out of it and a shitty Utd, if we can't do it this season then when? Should Wenger be getting praise because we played so well last night? No, not in my book, because it asks the question what the fuck was going on the rest of the time. And for those who think a team can't be on top of their game all the time, fair enough, the odd slip will happen. But it has to be the odd slip, an aberration. It can't be 50% of the time - unacceptable.

We play like this against Norwich and we'll destroy them. If we don't play like this against Norwich then Wenger needs to be answering some serious questions and the players will need to take a look at themselves and their wallets and the expectant faces of the fans and ask themselves a few hard questions too.

No more fucking around. Let's get this won.

[milla]

Can somebody at the club get inside the players' heads and let them know that last night is the level of performance we need every game and in every competition? Can Wenger do that? He needs to if we are going to get anything out of this season. It's very, very frustrating when you see the team play the way they did last night. Pace, energy, determination to hustle and win the ball back, movement, players wanting the ball, accuracy with the passing, accurate crosses some decent crosses, moving the ball forwards up the pitch fast, players getting up and down the pitch to mix offensive duties with defensive. Zagreb are not a poor team, in the few moments where they got some sort of grip on what was going on they showed they have a bit about them too. But they couldn't handle what we were about.

This is what makes supporting this club frustrating and this is why the fans at Stoke and West Brom and Norwich can fuck off when they say we are precious or spoiled and they'd give a left nut to be where we are. Fact is we're under-performing, season after season, and performances like this and the Utd game and the second half against Swansea and so on show it. How is that shitty performance against the spuds or against Brom last week explained away when we know the team can play like this?

This question, plus the ridiculous injury situation, are jobs for the manager to work on and fix. Time for him to earn his keep. With the gypos fucking up all over the place (and that won't last forever), the chavs out of it and a shitty Utd, if we can't do it this season then when? Should Wenger be getting praise because we played so well last night? No, not in my book, because it asks the question what the fuck was going on the rest of the time. And for those who think a team can't be on top of their game all the time, fair enough, the odd slip will happen. But it has to be the odd slip, an aberration. It can't be 50% of the time - unacceptable.

We play like this against Norwich and we'll destroy them. If we don't play like this against Norwich then Wenger needs to be answering some serious questions and the players will need to take a look at themselves and their wallets and the expectant faces of the fans and ask themselves a few hard questions too.

No more fucking around. Let's get this won.

[Bumble]

Arsenal are 15/8 to qualify from the group which I think is pretty decent odds as I would imagine we will do the business in Greece in a couple of weeks although I fancy we will need to score 3. Olympiakos are not a good side we were just embarrassing on the night. Zagreb aren't good and we comfortably won last night.

In a couple of weeks Ramsey, Ox and Walcott could all be available to give us some options which would be nice.

[Özim]

Good win but make no mistake they are nothing special, so this results is only what we should expect.

We should beat Olympiakos as again they are nothing special but you never know with us, having said that when 4th place or last 16 is up for grabs we always manage to scrape home so it wouldn't surprise me if we do, once we get there though expect the customary spanking from one of the games giants.

Have to say to have lost 3 games and performed as badly as we have done and still qualify would reflect poorly on the competition, a side that has performed as badly as we have shouldn't have the opportunity to advance.

[Letters]

Have to say to have lost 3 games and performed as badly as we have done and still qualify would reflect poorly on the competition, a side that has performed as badly as we have shouldn't have the opportunity to advance.

If you finish in the top 2 you deserve to advance
We only have the chance to because we beat Bayern - something no-one else has done this season, in fact they've won every game but 2 this year, a recent 0-0 in the league and when we beat them. I don't think that result should be underestimated.
If we qualify we'll have deserved to.

Edit: As for Olympiacos not being all that, they've won every game this year - I guess the Greek league isn't that strong but they've not just won every league game, they've won every CL game too apart from the 2 vs Bayern who...are quite good.
A 2-0 win out there would be a pretty good result.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Good win but make no mistake they are nothing special, so this results is only what we should expect.

We should beat Olympiakos as again they are nothing special but you never know with us, having said that when 4th place or last 16 is up for grabs we always manage to scrape home so it wouldn't surprise me if we do, once we get there though expect the customary spanking from one of the games giants.

Have to say to have lost 3 games and performed as badly as we have done and still qualify would reflect poorly on the competition, a side that has performed as badly as we have shouldn't have the opportunity to advance.

I like how you write off Olympiakos as nothing special when it suits you in this instance, but if anyone questions Joel Campbell you point to his success there as how he succeeded in a good club/league and deserves his chance. That is top quality goal post shifting

[fakeyank]

Can somebody at the club get inside the players' heads and let them know that last night is the level of performance we need every game and in every competition? Can Wenger do that? He needs to if we are going to get anything out of this season. It's very, very frustrating when you see the team play the way they did last night. Pace, energy, determination to hustle and win the ball back, movement, players wanting the ball, accuracy with the passing, accurate crosses some decent crosses, moving the ball forwards up the pitch fast, players getting up and down the pitch to mix offensive duties with defensive.

I am more frustrated with last nights result than happy, and the above post is exactly the reason why! To me, the PL is our realistic target of a major trophy this season and we showed none of that against West Brom. Anybody who says otherwise did not watch the game against West Brom... the lethargic ball movement, lack of energy and ideas was just baffling on Saturday (especially when you consider that we were losing)! WTF happened since Saturday and why is this trend so common at Arsenal?! It happens season after season without explanation... one game we play like we could realistically beat the best teams in the world and the next we look like all we ever learnt to do was pass sideways!

I will try and not get my hopes up after such a brilliant performance yesterday.. just leads to more disappointment.

[Letters]

Do you really think that only happens to us? Maybe the issue is how often it happens, I think that's very hard to quantify objectively.