Arsenal 3 - 0 AC Milan: We gave it a good go

Before tonight, the phrase "impossible is nothing" was prevelant as Arsenal fans came together and threw their support behind a seemingly impossible cause. It was the sort of night where expectations went out the window and you could just enjoy the game. What did we have to lose? Nothing at all.

With that attitude, the team could play without fear and just go for it. It helped that with only two midfielders, we could play more attacking players. Oxlade-Chamberlain formed a trio in midfield along with the improved Tomas Rosicky and Alex Song, while Gervinho returned to the front three with Walcott and van Persie. The back four from the last two league games remained intact.

If Arsenal were to have any chance of coming back, they needed to start quickly and score early. Arsenal pushed early and got a corner. Chamberlain whipped it in and Koscielny found himself unmarked to nod Arsenal into an early lead. It was horrible marking by Milan.

Tails up, Arsenal kept attacking Milan, focusing the majority of their play down the right hand side where the Milan left back, Mesbah, looked out of his depth. Walcott got away from him time and time and it eventually culminated in a goal. Walcott played a weak ball across, but Thiago Silva made a hash of the clearance by kicking it straight to Rosicky on the edge of the penalty area, who's shot managed to worm it's way in the bottom corner.

At this point, people really began to believe that we could score more. With the way Milan were playing, it was certainly possible. However, Milan came very close to putting the tie to bed once and for all when some sloppy defending lead to El Shawaarawy bearing down on goal. Fortunately, the youngster fired his shot well wide.

The third goal came when, again, we attacked down the right hand side. Chamberlain ran at Mesbah and the hapless fullback blocked him off in a desperate attempt to prevent the Ox from going past him. The penalty was rightfully awarded and van Persie converted with ease. 3-0 at half time, the comeback was well and truly on.

The second half was set-up for Arsenal to complete the comeback, but instead of heroics we got frustration. The collosal effort in the first half took a lot out of the players and Milan regrouped and refocused. Putting van Persie's miss aside, we didn't trouble Milan in the second half nearly as much as we did in the first, and that's down to a few things.

Tiredness played a big part. Song looked laboured all games, while Rosicky had little left in the tank. Chamberlain picked up a knock and had to come off, and the injuries we've accumulated had their say as our only options were to either bring on the young and very green Ozyakup or chuck on another forward. Wenger took the latter and we just lost control and a lot of our attacking momentum.

With just Song and Rosicky in the centre now, Milan had extra men and could keep the ball better. They frequently found themselves with a lot of space in front of our back four and since our front four were pushing so high up, our attacking play became disjointed and Milan could just come straight back.

What's more, Milan made the most out of every little bit of contact that was made, knowing full well that the ref would award them free-kicks. This helped break up Arsenal attacks and it got them frustrated.

This effectively killed our momentum and unfortunately Arsenal didn't have the options on the bench to turn to. Chamakh and Park both came on and did very little (Park moreso than Chamakh), while Gervinho was pretty anonymous all game. In the end, scoring that fourth goal was beyond us and the game ended 3-0.

Pride restored
There's a small sense of disappointment and anti-climax after coming so close to a great comeback, but at the same there's an enormous sense of pride. All the fans could realistically hope for is a good performance and a good result that we could be proud of and we got both. Our winning streak has also been continued and we can go into the Newcastle game full of confidence. What more can we really ask for?

Sure, if Arsenal had snatched an away goal in the first leg, and had our midfield been fit, we might be talking about how we'll do in the last 8 of the competition. But what's done is done, and we got a result we can all be proud of.

Player Ratings
Wojceich Szczesny - 7. Made some good stops and was decisive all game. However, he really does need to work on his distribution. It is shockingly bad.

Laurent Koscielny - 7. Great performance.

Thomas Vermaelen - 7. Again, a great performance.

Bacary Sagna - 6. Solid as usual, but didn't have much work to do.

Kieran Gibbs - 6. A mixed bag, as positioning wasn't great but he managed to make some good defensive plays.

Alex Song - 6. Wasn't at his best. Looked laboured and the game passed him by.

Tomas Rosicky - 7. Another good performance from a much improved player.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - 8. Excellent performance, showing maturity beyond his years and being the real driving force behind our attacks.

Theo Walcott - 6. Had a decent game, helped by how bad Milan's left back was. Faded in the second half.

Gervinho - 5. Game passed him by completely. Very disappointing.

Robin van Persie - 6. Wasn't as influential as he should've been.

give a fishcott a rating of 2.

I am pretty sure a goldfish has a mass of 2kg

Proud of the Arsenal today.

All the odds were against us, yet we put in a fabulous attacking display while maintaining a clean sheet. I certaintly didn't expect us to bag 3 goals without conceding, especially against such an experienced side like Milan. I felt as soon as Oxlade-Chamberlain was taken off, we lost control.

I really don't want to hate on players, but Chamakh and Park are very useless players. No impact in the game whatsoever.

And before some of you take a swipe at Van Persie, you can't really fault him, he thought the keeper would lunge to the side to stop him, leaving the top of the net...too bad it didn't pan out.

Now we've got to deal with even more injuries to key players.

Great effort thats it cant complain
Proud TO BE GOONER

I have to say Gervinho did next to nothing.

Rozza played great.

Overall fantastic performance. Shame that a 3-0 win over Milan is gonna be overlooked by that 4-0 loss...

aleumdance wrote:give a fishcott a rating of 2.

I am pretty sure a goldfish has a mass of 2kg

Can't you look at the big picture for once

Spider wrote:

aleumdance wrote:give a fishcott a rating of 2.

I am pretty sure a goldfish has a mass of 2kg

Can't you look at the big picture for once

I AM TRYING...but You don't know how painfuul it was seeing Fishcott losing the ball evrytime?

The players played with their heart, and passion. In the end they couldnt run but still kept on going.

This is the team we love

Utterly devastated but holding my head high with pride either way.

but our Defense today was solid

Played like we should of in the 1st leg and how we did against Liverpool and Spurs. Hopefully Walcott and Chamberlain one of them is fit vs Newcastle although I doubt it.
Players played their hearts out and while it would of been a dream to make it through we can now focus on consolidating 3rd place off Spurs and CL football for next season.

Be proud Gunners.

aleumdance wrote:give a fishcott a rating of 2.

I am pretty sure a goldfish has a mass of 2kg

Theo was crucial today. He made one or two poor decisions, but without him we wouldn't have even scored 3. He used his pace well, even defended well, and it was very obvious that all of our best attacks were coming from his side.

What I think hurt us most was that we needed more options from the bench once AOC and Walcott came off and everyone got tired, but we simply didn't have them. Everyone tried their hardest though and can hold their heads up high, even though it really hurts to go out after coming back from the dead like that.

Robin should have put his foot right through it...you can't fault the players, they gave everything and ran out of steam in the end.

great effort..hopefully we can get everyone fit for monday

TOP TOP Spirit. Cannot fault RvP. If you carry a team so far and then mess up ONCE its ok.

No doubt if we had played with this attitude in the first leg then we'd be progressing, which is exactly why I think we're a better team then Milan, just much much much less consistent. That's what we need, consistency and some better luck.

RealGunner wrote:Be proud Gunners.

We always are

Second half went so fast isn't it

Blood was spilt on the pitch, passion was shown, the stadium was f**king ROCKING, the goals were flowing and the clean sheet was present

BRILLIANT

if we play like this on a regular basis the old times could roll

julias wrote:Blood was spilt on the pitch, passion was shown, the stadium was f**king ROCKING, the goals were flowing and the clean sheet was present

BRILLIANT

if we play like this on a regular basis the old times could roll

Exactly, we're one of the best teams in the world but one of the most inconsistent best teams in the world. If we keep this play up then we're witnessing the genesis of an Arsenal dynasty.

Koscielny is easily one of the best defenders in the world.

Chamakh did well, he held the ball up effectively and picked out the right pass every time. Park, on the other hand, looked far from convincing, and I couldn't make it where he was playing. He did very little to aid his cause, whatever that is, I forgot.

Overall, Arsenal were the better team, but AC Milan definitely made it an easy task, just the way Arsenal made it easy for Milan in the first leg, because of the complacency that was present within their team - two keepers on the bench says it all, really.

You brought Milan down to Earth

After the first leg, Milanisti thought we were invincible

Good game and good luck in the Premier League

Walcott assisted the 2nd goal ffs you fickle, fickle people

Very brave performance, couldn't ask for more . I hope the game today put our players in the right mind with confidence & passion instead of bitterness & regret.