Match Day Thread Arsenal vs Bayern Munich - Matchday Thread - (Champions League - QF - 1st leg)

It's true that Saka does leave his leg out BUT Neuer is moving right towards the ball - the contact is unavoidable. Stonewall for sure.

Ah well - gonna have to beat them at their gaff.

 

Sorry but the Ref & VAR ****ed that up big time!! Thought the Ref had a **** game too! We can beat Bayern away, we just need to be up to our usual defensive standards, thought tonight we were sloppy! They are 100% there for the taking! COYG!

 

FT. 2-2.

Mixed feelings. Based on how the game went, I would take a draw. And we’re still in the tie. Huge improvement from the 5-1 .

I do feel like this was an opportunity missed. A stadium full of Arsenal fans, Bayern in poor form, all the momentum with us and we have to take a draw.

Based on the chances for both teams, I think it’s a fair result, The tie is still in the balance, but will take a big effort in Munich to get through I think.

We were defensively better in the second half, it’s a shame we made so many unusual technical and individual mistakes in that first half. Unlike us. But like I said, we let the occasion get to us.

All to play for now in Munich…

 

The only thing I’d say is I think when Saka was in that position, he should have just gone for goal. He virtually had an entire goal to aim at and he tried to be too intricate by going around Neuer.

Ah well, hopefully we learn our lesson for the second leg.

 

Honest question...if we are given a penalty like that in the NLD what would your reaction be?

I honestly think it would have been a joke to give it as a penalty.

 

Kane, Son, Vardy and Ashley Young have been given penalties for less than that throughout their careers.

I know Saka tries to initiate the contact, but look at Neuer's leg, he sticks it out when Saka tries to go around him. When you look at what penalties are given for nowadays, that was more of a penalty than others which have been given. Neuer's facial expression said it all, too. He was expecting a penalty to be given.

Rio Ferdinand is hardly an Arsenal fan, and when he's saying he's in disbelief it wasn't given, I think that says something.

 

Look at it from the other angles Neuer is moving in the direction of the ball. Saka's leg makes contact first but the collision is inevitable due to the goalkeepers movement. It's definitely a pen.

 

I have say I think Partey might be past it.

He's making errors everytime he comes on now and looks to have lost a yard of pace. He wasn't great at the tail end of last Season.

How longs it been since we've seen Partey at his best?

 

It's difficult because he's only recently come back from injury (after 5 months out) and he's still not starting many games. So Arteta clearly feels like he's not ready yet for more than 30 minutes per game currently. And it's hard to throw someone into high-pressure/high-stakes matches with such intensity when they've not really got into the rhythm of playing for that long.

That being said, his cameo was not good today. Giving the ball away carelessly, weak duels, underhitting passes and getting bypassed in midfield.

It's frustrating because Jorginho's lack of athleticism and running power was a problem OOP tonight. So we really needed a fully-fit Partey to be starting in that midfield along with Rice at the base and Odegaard slightly higher up. In theory, this would have given us more balance, but obviously Thomas is still working his way back to full match fitness.

 

Jorginho pace was only an issue tonight because Saliba and Gabby positioning was all over the place. I'm not sure what was going on with the back line but they got caught out multiple times.

Agree in regards to Partey - it's hard to tell but if you think about it, it's been a good 14-15 months since he's been playing at his best level. Does he still have it?

 

That wasn't the only reason imo. Jorginho was playing deeper as a lone 6 and Rice was slightly more advanced as an 8 to start off with. I don't think these dynamics worked and it made us look a bit wonky. Jorginho doesn't have the legs to play the lone 6 role in the same way Rice does. As soon as Jorginho comes off, Rice gets shifted to the no.6 role, Partey plays higher up and you see the difference for the goal where Rice wins that crucial duel seconds before we score.

Arteta's subs were good, but he didn't get the balance of the starting XI right IMO.

 

If you were given a pen like that in the NLD it would be a travesty

If we get one like that in the NLD I will laugh long and hard


























































at you.

 

I thought we were a bit naive in that game tbh. We went gung ho trying to win it and we could have easily lost it.

Bayern were really dangerous on the counter and we didn't really learn from the first goal

That said, both of their goals, we gifted to them

I would have just liked us to have shown a bit more maturity after they scored their first, as I think we could have got control of the game again and gone on to score our second without chasing the game like we did.

In the end 2-2 was about right, but we could have ended up losing that one and would have given ourselves a mountain to climb in Munich.

 

Shout to Trossard, who again has popped up with a really important goal

He's a key player in this squad.

 

At 2-2 I think we go to Munich with a similar gameplane to City away. Shut them out and look to hit them on the break.

 

Apparently Kane has more goals as an opposing player at The Emirates than anyone else - his penalty last night meant he surpassed Jamie Vardy and Didier Drogba.

Across all competitions, he’s played at our ground 10 times in total for Spurs and Bayern. Guess how many times he’s been on the winning side? Once.
A League Cup game in 2018 where Spurs won 0-2.

People talk about how often he torments us, but he never beats us on our own turf. And that includes when Spurs were at the peak of their powers and we were declining under Wenger.

 

That's the NLD for you.

From 1995 to now there's been 29 premier league NLDs at our place.
You've won 4

Your best team ever 1997/8 to 2006/7 (when we were ****ing awful apart from the last 2 seasons) only won twice at our place.

The NLD is a weird match where form means **** all.

I can only watch it if I am there. It's a horrible game that has me nervous from the minute the previous game ends until kick off. Then (if I ain't at the match) I feel sick from the first whistle till the final whistle.

No other match is like that. Kills me when Chelsea and West ham fans say we're their rivals...I don't ever feel like that for those games.

After Saturdays match v toon we have no distractions for two weeks ... two ****ing weeks contemplating you beating us on the way to winning the league...

Why the **** do we do this to ourselves????????

 

You're completely right in what you're saying. I guess the point I'm making is the media nowadays (even when they were interviewing Kane yesterday) were like 'you've frequently broken Arsenal fans' hearts' or 'You are the man who always turns up against the Gunners' when it isn't true. There's been a number of games where he's basically been anonymous and got gifted penalties (which were won by other players), he's scored and then he's gone missing for the rest of the match. Yet the penalty basically glosses over what was a tepid display from him.

He's played against us 20 times in his career. He's won 7 games, lost 7 games and drawn 6 games. That's an ok record, but people act as if he gets the better of us more often than not and it just objectively isn't true.

Compare this to Didier Drogba - featured against us 15 times in his career, he won 10 games, drew 4 games and only lost just the once. Now THIS was a player who frequently gave us nightmares.

 

I was desperate for Spurs do sign him.

Instead we spent £28m + Erik Lamela and got Bryan Gil in return.

 

You also spent £60m on Richarlison