Match Reaction v Barca (home) 15/16

[Munchies]

Olivier Giroud has now failed to score in EIGHT consecutive games across all competitions for Arsenal.

[Niall_Quinn]

Because you fail to mention them. Neymar didn't give us much trouble. The two chances I recall from him was down to Kos mistake sitting too deep and a shot Merts blocked but the ball found it's way to Suarez who hit the post.

Be fair in your judgment. The blindspots and over criticism of Merts is almost as bad as the job you were doing on Monreal when he first arrived. Not once did I feel like our defence were wobbling in that game. A few mistakes and I think Bellerin could have done better on attack but all in all, I think Cech, Monreal and Merts had good games.

Hold on a minute - I didn't say the defence was bad tonight. I was responding to some post in defence of Merts and apart from a few incidents he was fine along with the rest of them. That's because Bellerin, Monreal, Coq and Ramsey did an awful lot of work - a huge amount. Ox too, defensively in the first half.

I'm saying time is up with Wenger and his lower shelf shopping bargains - Merts being one of them. Proper manager and proper players needed now. A decade of this stupid shit is enough.

[Power n Glory]

We defended mostly quite well. We Dortmunded ourselves again though.

Wenger did mention the Monaco game in his post match comments. Too gung ho on attack and it sounds like it's something he warned them about.

[Letters]

The first time?? What on earth have you been watching all these years? A horrible non-tax contributing club, wrapped up in this 'more than a club' bs, full of horrible, diving footballers, no matter how talented they may be. Real Madrid are exactly the same.

I don't watch loads of football these days, I guess.

[Niall_Quinn]

Wenger did mention the Monaco game in his post match comments. Too gung ho on attack and it sounds like it's something he warned them about.

Has he managed to find an angle to shift the blame - again?

[Marc Overmars]

Oh well, at least we always qualify from the group eh?

I thought we played ok in patches but always ran the risk of getting picked off if we didn't take any chances. Textbook really.

Hard to care about the result but what I do care about is how woefully out of form our forwards are. As I said after the Hull game, if we don't win the league this year it will be because our attack is garbage.

Season is in the balance. We need to shape up quickly.

[Niall_Quinn]

I don't watch loads of football these days, I guess.

You don't remember that hilarious CL tie where their ref was so outrageous I ended up hoping a bunch of chavs would win? The one where Drogba went ballistic? That's Barca's finest hour. Or when RvC was sent off by their ref because the crowd was too noisy? Plus many. many more greatest hits from the second biggest cheats in the business.

[Power n Glory]

Olivier Giroud has now failed to score in EIGHT consecutive games across all competitions for Arsenal.

Predictable. Best moment from him was when he got a header on the ball. Other than that, it wasn't his sort of game. Wenger should have been looking for an alternative option and preparing as soon as we drew Barca. It was always going to be a game where we'd have little possession but could create from quick counters.

That spell in the 2nd half where we started to get on top of them and hold possession was our undoing. Well, that and poor quality in the final third.

[Power n Glory]

Has he managed to find an angle to shift the blame - again?

It's crazy. We did our homework for this one and he knew what to expect from Barca and this type of game but he made some silly decisions. Giroud was never a fit for this or game or the tactics we were going with. Ox has no end product. Doesn't assist or score but he gets the start. Ox was obviously injured but he kept him on for the 2nd half and that could have costs us when Neymar broke down the right to have a shot on goal.

We looked to have Barca rattled with the early subs we made but he then decides to sub off Coquelin for Flamini? Why? Plus why wasn't Elmo on the bench and how comes he's not getting games at all?

We had a good chance to get something from tonight. Players have themselves to blame in certain areas but I really don't know what Wenger was expecting with that team selection.

[Letters]

You don't remember that hilarious CL tie where their ref was so outrageous I ended up hoping a bunch of chavs would win? The one where Drogba went ballistic? That's Barca's finest hour. Or when RvC was sent off by their ref because the crowd was too noisy? Plus many. many more greatest hits from the second biggest cheats in the business.

Obviously I remember those but the Chelsea one was hilarious because it was Chelsea.
The RVC one...that was just the ref cheating to be fair, not the Barca players.