Bayern Munich 0 - 2 Arsenal: Clean sheet is like a trophy

This week I have lost a substantial amount of respect for Bayern Munich. Jupp, Dante and the Bavarian organization as a whole continually taunted the London club throughout the 3 weeks and it was near sickening to see an Elite club of their stature, be so classless and full of needless contempt as if there is a deep enmity between the clubs.

The 3-1 drubbing of Arsenal at the Emirates was just a disgrace. Pure and simple it was a gutless performance from Wenger and the squad, along with the frustrating home support.

Throughout the 3 weeks leading onto the 2nd fixture, much hype was given to Bayern for their players (rightly so) and then the 85k+ Allianz Arena which was thought to swarm the Londonese squad with their Bavarian tones and chants.

What I saw was different. Arsenal looked comfortable and in control of the game bar a few shaky moments. It has brought enlightenment to the supporters that Arsenal play at their best when under immense amounts of pressure, incidentally, circumstantially and in footballing terms. Does anyone remember Milan at the Emirates last season? Yes we had an injured squad and Allegri experimented but Milan never choke in such situations with such a lead and Arsenal, with nothing to lose put them to the test and lost the tie by a hair's length. One of many examples.

Arsenal's team and foundational catalyst is pressure situations in which time is of the essence and there is little to relax about. Forget the squad weaknesses and individual tactical shortcomings. Arsenal thrive in situations where they are forced to play as a collective unit in which the situational basis provides a cohesive fuse in their mentality and stimulates the inner teachings of Wengerism, to bring about what they are capable of. Arsenal have their tactical shortcomings yet football is a mental game as evidenced by a tactically astute Milan being dismantled through their choke at the Camp Nou. Wenger through the years has been eroded and grown weary yet tonight it is obvious he sparked an inner incentive to go out into the Allianz and inherently acknowledge a dangerous "nothing to lose" mentality which brought more focus, clarity and mental fortitude to their game.

The English fullback pair of Jenkinson & Gibbs must have full praise for their dominant performances in defence along with displaying an iron hard mentality despite their little experience.

Arteta was frustrating defensively and was run ragged but with the armband he displayed a courageous side to his game which allowed him to control a semblance of the centre midfield while also brilliantly spurring his team on.

Rosicky is absolutely brilliant. The Dortmund legend who was known to trouble Bayern showed why he should be starting and putting an equally good Santi in contention for a spot (could they work in harmony?) as Little Mozart, is one of the few examples of class is there to remain when it is inherent and imbued within your footballing DNA.

Koscielny showed why he is Arsenal's best CB and I've been saying it for years. Mertesacker is brilliant but we all know his physical shortcomings just deduce his ability as the highly underrated Laurent is the complete CB who seems to amp his game within the higher echelons of football. He is made for Champions League. Been saying this all for years. Vermaelen, who I used to love needs to f**k off to the bench with his psudo-captain role and on field dozing off.

Fabianski, who I always believed in needs more chances. I never was a fan of the arrogant and complacent Szczęsny who lacks the killer GK technique and raw ability of Fabianski despite his command. He needs to be put in contention to start.

As a whole, there was a fear of Arsenal being mentally demolished through humiliation of crashing out to Bayern. The Bavarians resorted to disgraceful time-wasting tactics & Neuer being a classless Cazzo but All I saw was a clean sheet and 2 goals for Arsenal at the Allianz, Arsenal's brilliant away support outsinging their famous Süd Ultras by quite a distance, and the Arsenal squad (despite some deserved tears) walking out with their heads held high.

Just like all of you.

Vamos Arsenal.

There is no shame in going out on away goals to this Bayern Munich. That was the kind of consistent and (mosty) disciplined gameplay we should see more often with this squad. Don't know what Arteta's late fouls were about, but I'm very happy with the back line, I think Fabianski deserves big credit for performing well in a tough situation, and it's always a pleasure to watch Cazorla and Rosicky at work.

By the way, a thought on Koscielny & Vermaelen. I've said before that Koscielny is my choice for the best CB at the club (not world class, but very very good). But something occurred to me - Kos and Verm are fairly similar players, but I think Kos' man-marking abilities and his knack for a last ditch tackle are a cut about Verm's. And when Koscielny makes a mistake, as he is prone to doing in spells, it's usually some silly error that is instantly capitalized upon by the opponents. Whereas Vermaelen's mistakes are more likely to destabilize the Arsenal defense as a whole because of his choices for positioning, when to lay back vs come forward, things like that. (This is something that, for instance, Michael Cox pointed out in that Zonal Marking article a few years ago, and which we've seen ever since.) Basically I think that Vermaelen, for all whatever captain-like qualities Wenger sees in him, nevertheless through his very style of play doesn't organize & cohere his defense, but instead opens it up, makes it guess too much. Whereas Koscielny's are more on the side of weird individual errors. Just a hypothesis, nothing more - anyone think there's any sense to it?

Arq

You're the man!

We have won something from this game.

The spirit of old Arsenal is back.

I hope we keep this up for the rest of the season.

Very, very proud to be a Arsenal fan tonight.

We showed some backbone which we've been lacking for ages and hopefully this propels us into a strong finish for 4th.

Koscielny has easily been our best defender for years and its about time he took Vermaelen's spot permanently despite Vermaelen being the captain.

Of course as a fan I'm gutted to be knocked out, but this is a very impressive result and Wenger, this team deserve so much credit not only for the win, but grinding through the bullshit the media and the press has been spouting for weeks now.

Ladies and gentleman...Flappy is dead.

Long live Fabulouski!

Please don't call him Flappy anymore, guys.

Chez may be a bit worried tonight.

What about Verm? Massive decision to leave him out imo. It worked (well kind of) but...jeez.

I thought Ramsey was alright, his energy and discipline was crucial to our defensive performance and he was involved in the build up to our first goal as well .

Do you guys feel we would have defended as well had wilshere been playing ? I like wilshere but i think that when he plays arsenal are a little un balanced, im not saying he shouldnt start but i think we should play him in a position where when we are defending all he would have to do is press the ball .

I thought Jenkinson and carzola bossed it . Rosicky had some good moments as well . koscielny was great, his decision making was very good all game apart from in one situation, The BFG was good too.. i loved the block he made to deny robben ( who is such a twat... that dive at end was one of the most disgraceful things i've ever seen on a pitch )

All in all a really good performance, aided by poor bayern finishing and a lack lustre bayern performance . I think they missed Schweini really badly today . I think it proves my point that kroos is just a little above average when he schweini isnt playing .

Clean sheet is like a trophy, and to think Arsenal used to be a great club. Oh well, go for your next trophy and find a way to finish in front of Chelsea for fourth place.

Motogp69 wrote:Clean sheet is like a trophy, and to think Arsenal used to be a great club. Oh well, go for your next trophy and find a way to finish in front of Chelsea for fourth place.

You obviously have not been here long enough to understand half of Jay's titles are play on Wenger's words along with half of the Arsenal section who parody his quotes.

Arquitecto wrote:

Motogp69 wrote:Clean sheet is like a trophy, and to think Arsenal used to be a great club. Oh well, go for your next trophy and find a way to finish in front of Chelsea for fourth place.

You obviously have not been here long enough to understand half of Jay's titles are play on Wenger's words along with half of the Arsenal section who parody his quotes.

I think you're wrong.

He's just retarded.

Really proud of the team. But in a way, this game poses questions too.

Why does the team not play with this focus, particularly in defence, in more games?
Is Mertesacker-Koscielny the best CB partnership?
Should Rosicky start every game/more games?
Should Jenkinson replace Sagna now, after his last two displays?
Do we stick with Fabianski after a fine display?
Can Vermaelen, the captain, really be left out?

Not getting too carried away - we played against an under-strength Bayern, who were complacent and in a difficult mindset after opening goal inside 3 minutes. But we were excellent, and without players ourselves - Szczesny, Sagna, Wilshere & Podolski (though, the first two must be wondering if they are first team anymore after performances of Fabianski & Jenkinson)

As I tweeted earlier, the most important thing now is to go on a run in the league. After we beat Milan 3-0 last season (a game which left us with a similar feeling to tonight's game, we won 5 of our next 6 league games, we MUST do the same again.)

Next 5 games:

Swansea (a)
Reading (h)
WBA (a)
Norwich (h)
Everton (h)

The three home games are all must-wins, that's for sure. The two away games are tricky, 100%. In most seasons a point at those places wouldn't be too bad, but of course, we are in a must win situation. We play Swansea on Saturday, Chelsea & Spurs don't pay until the Sunday. It's a great chance to put pressure on them, but most importantly, we have to win for ourselves.

@Arq: Yeah, admittedly I was just trolling Arsenal fans, because at this point it's just fun. However, it's sad that a thread title like this unfortunately probably hits way to close to home for some Arsenal supporters.

@Samuel: Because it's easier to play when you've got nothing to lose and you are able to just focus on the task at hand knowing the world expects nothing out of you.

Moto trying to convince himself Munich played this shit on purpose

Oh brother

Lex wrote:Moto trying to convince himself Munich played this shit on purpose

Oh brother

I'm not remotely saying they played this way on purpose. I'm saying since they didn't sit on their laurels in the first leg, they were afforded the opportunity to do so in the second. However, risky a proposition that reality eventually became.

Given all the talk by the team prior to the game I fully expect they believed they would win again by 3-1. Hopefully they take this as a lesson and learn from it.

You conveniently forget that a blind linesman gifted you an out. Munich were far from comfortable and had Walcott been allowed to continue, the game would have been tied 3-3, leaving us another half to score the winner. Munich rested nothing, our defence had them on lock down all night, despite Robben and co's best efforts

Does the away goals rule make any sense?
by Jonathan Wilson

http://t.co/9RfjB3PYmC

Sina wrote:Does the away goals rule make any sense?
by Jonathan Wilson

http://t.co/9RfjB3PYmC

2-0 to me is same as 3-1.

Neuer is such a dick

Pissed me off when he was on the ball and wasn't letting you guys have it.

Went to No. 2 on my douche list, right after douchesteiner

What a game, proud of the boys. Lets carry on this momentum and get that 4th spot. Neuer >.< dude is such a dick

unlucky arsenal , good job

one thing to notics is that the opponent CBs get worn down by Giroud as the game moves along. That's why you see Arsenal get more dangerous in the second halves of most games... he leans on them all game long. Very hard on a CB.

In this one, Cazorla and Walcott weren't very good. We just didn't create many chances. Alaba is a bad defender and i thought more danger should have come from that side... i think we scored 2 goals and 5 opportunities, which is highly efficient.

Walcott has to become more consistent. Giroud forces CBs to play up on him and there's a ton of space behind them. He didn't make enough runs last night.

Was on duty and missed the match..
Tbh, i didnt have much expectations from this match.. But when i saw the result, i am proud..
and one thing many fail to acknowledge is Wengers courage for taking such a team away to Bayern.. And when he said that he believes in this team.. Imagine what would have been the fuss if this team got humiliated 2-0 or 3-0..
And whenever Jenko and Gibbs play together our defensive performance is good..
Start Kos and Rosicky in all remaining matches.. Play Jenko continuously which keep him in form.. And Cazorla should be kept at wings and Wilshere/Rosicky at CAM.. And Giroud as CF..

Wilson37 wrote:Was on duty and missed the match..
Tbh, i didnt have much expectations from this match.. But when i saw the result, i am proud..
and one thing many fail to acknowledge is Wengers courage for taking such a team away to Bayern.. And when he said that he believes in this team.. Imagine what would have been the fuss if this team got humiliated 2-0 or 3-0..
And whenever Jenko and Gibbs play together our defensive performance is good..
Start Kos and Rosicky in all remaining matches.. Play Jenko continuously which keep him in form.. And Cazorla should be kept at wings and Wilshere/Rosicky at CAM.. And Giroud as CF..

And Podolski?

^


If only

Hmmm, i think you guys are overrating Jenks atm. I mean before Bayern (and this is true) you all said that Jenks isn't ready to start over Sagna just yet coz he's too rash in the tackles and he's just not at that level yet. Now after the Bayern game everyone rates him. All i'm saying is don't just rate a guy straight after one match, be it a good or bad performance because that seems to be the case with Jenkinson, and i don't think it's the right way to go about things. I've rated Jenks since the day i first saw him play for us, but i still don't reckon he should start over Sagna just yet. But anyways i was thinking of this:

Sagna-Merte-Kos-Monreal
Walcott-Wilshere-Diaby/Arteta-Podolski
------------------Cazorla/Rosicky--------
---------------Giroud---------------

or maybe

Walcott-Wilshere-Arteta/Diaby-Cazorla
-----------------Podolski--------------------
-----------------Giroud---------------------

or even

Walcott-Wilshere-Arteta/Diaby-Cazorla
-----Podolski-------------Giroud-------