CL 2015/16 Arsenal vs. Olympiacos : Preview/Live/Post-match

Don't think I've felt so angry after a defeat. The players are a disgrace. I just can't wrap my head around how we can score a goal, then proceed to switch off entirely and let them - emphasis on let them - score again straight after, therefore undoing all the work we had to put to get level. Hard work, incidentally, that we needed to put in because our keeper decided to drop the ball into his own goal. You can't make this shit up.

Zagreb hadn't won a group game since 1999. Olympiakos have been to England 12 times and have lost each time, only scoring three goals. Arsenal are just so generous, aren't they? They also let Anderlecht come back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3, and gave Monaco a 3-1 win last year and an easy route into the quarter-finals.

We're an embarrassment in Europe. We go to Zagreb and play terribly. We play Olympiakos and defend like that. Imagine what Bayern are going to do us.

Seriously, Bayern won't even need to play their best to beat us. They can just whip in one dangerous cross and let our shoddy defending do the rest.

Only one team ever has qualified from the groups after losing their first two games. We're in deep trouble now. We have to beat Zagreb and Olympiakos (which as we've seen is apparently very difficult for us) and hope they don't pick up any bonus points against Bayern, because I just don't see us picking up any points against them. Even then, if Olymiakos pick up four points against Zagreb (or the other way around) and get to seven points, we're screwed.

I would say EL here we come, but we'll probably finish bottom.

Sorry for the melodrama but I'm really disappointed tonight.

Nothing over-dramatic there. Most if not all is truth in that post.



Only Arsenal could embarrass themselves like this. Feeling absolutely shit after this match

That third goal is just...

I don't get it at all. The game kicks off, Olympiakos play a pass to their forward, and there's like a twenty yard gap between the defence and midfield. What are Ramsey and Cazorla doing? Wandering around, forgetting they still need to be disciplined, not thinking they might need to do some defending and leaving it all to the backline.

Then after that, their winger has two players around him. He beats them both, runs into our box, pulls it back to the edge of the box where there are two players waiting to have a free shot. The shot is blocked, Arsenal have a chance to recover their shape... midfield is nowhere. Cambiasso has so much time and space to play the ball over the top. We had four players back dealing with four of theirs. How does that even happen? Did our midfield just think we would deal with it and play it forward?

It's like the third goal against Monaco last year. Just score, everyone floods forward, leave all the space in behind. Who cares about defending?

We defend like a team who's just starting in Europe. You wouldn't know that we had been in this competition for however many years straight it is now. You can't play in this competition with such indiscipline.

if we are not going through then i hope we finish 4th
Dont want Europa league!

Before all that we've the small matter of Man Utd on Sunday, and Koscielny has done his hammy.

Another chance to show our mental strength.

watched every game in our group and think Olympiacos will get 4 or more pts vs Zagreb imo which means there is not much we could do from now on
in which case i hope we finish 4th,and not 3rd in our group

also wish Man utd match was away from home
less pressure to win and our Bleep home crowd wont help matters when things not going well

Remember how the Zagreb players accused of his disrespect and the their manager said it was easy to beat us?

Well...

“The first corner is something we practise on the training pitch because we know they have no man on the edge of the box,” Finnbogason said. “When you play against this team you know they’re going to have a lot of the ball. You have to defend well, have the lines tight and use your time when you have spaces. And you know you’re going to have spaces because they don’t want to defend. So our plan worked.”

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/30/arsenal-defend-olympiakos-alfred-finnbogason-champions-league?CMP=share_btn_tw

And Wenger keeps bringing how much possession we had, he still cant see they allow us the ball so they can take advantage of it.

1st goal of Olympiakos was partially luck and partially them exploiting Arsenal not having any one closing down the edge of the box quickly. The player arrived there too late.

2nd goal was Ter stegen esque, over anticipating goalkeeper positions himself way forward thinking scrub players will only cross to his hands The guy that took corner clearly saw Ospina out of position and purposefully took a curving perfect shot from corner kick. This is my greatest problem with these over anticipating keepers, they gives a lot to chance.They just under estimates the opposition with their bs positioning.

3rd goal your RB and RW gets completely destroyed.

Playing to your strengths worked in 1990s and early 2000s.

Now it is about taking a deep look into the opposition and playing to exploit their weaknesses.

Wenger is a great manager, but in the wrong era now.

I think I will switch to WOB when United wipe the Emirates pitch with us this weekend.

Why can we not perform at home in a big match? For us to win a big game it seems that everything ahould go right otherwise we panic and lose. Can't afford going a goal down or the referee being against us or the oppositions goalkeeper be in great form or getting an early injury. One misstep and we're done. Well big games are decided in these little things so it is not surprising that we lose them so often.

Big games, or must win games, require being well prepared and managing the game well, two things we evidently struggle to do. All well and good saying "just focus on your game and you'll win" but it's far too risky a strategy to have in these games, because the increased pressure and intensity leaves no room for error. Add in the fact that we're at home and expected to win and you can see why we struggle.