Another Big Match

I think the gooners were hard done by. The ref seems to have sorted the game for Barca.

I think Barcelona's 13 shots on target to Arsenal's 0 sorted the game.

All the pundits and BBC live text are all focusing on that sending off as the reason they lost.

Lets be honest here, the OG was a complete fluke a lucky break for Arsenal who had been dominated and hadn't managed a single attempt on goal, and still didn't for the entire game. Since RVP was seeing so little of the ball due to Arsenal not being able to get near it did the sending off really make that much difference.

Then there is the completely forgotten fact that they was saying he should have got a red just before Messi scored in the first half.

Ezekiel 25:17 wrote:I think Barcelona's 13 shots on target to Arsenal's 0 sorted the game.

not really darlin.. the Spuds had about 100 shots at the Blackpool goal a few weeks ago and still lost 3-1

IT was 1-1 and suddenly they are deprived of one of their best players due to a very very poor decision.. At that point the Goons were through.

I do tend to think that there seems to be an undercurrent of ensuring the right team wins the CL. The powers that be were not at all happy when Manure and Chelscum were in the final.

FrenchSpur wrote:

Ezekiel 25:17 wrote:I think Barcelona's 13 shots on target to Arsenal's 0 sorted the game.

not really darlin.. the Spuds had about 100 shots at the Blackpool goal a few weeks ago and still lost 3-1

IT was 1-1 and suddenly they are deprived of one of their best players due to a very very poor decision.. At that point the Goons were through.

I do tend to think that there seems to be an undercurrent of ensuring the right team wins the CL. The powers that be were not at all happy when Manure and Chelscum were in the final.

Nothing to do with the best team in the world, one of the best in history, being on top of their game then?

Ezekiel 25:17 wrote:

FrenchSpur wrote:

Ezekiel 25:17 wrote:I think Barcelona's 13 shots on target to Arsenal's 0 sorted the game.

not really darlin.. the Spuds had about 100 shots at the Blackpool goal a few weeks ago and still lost 3-1

IT was 1-1 and suddenly they are deprived of one of their best players due to a very very poor decision.. At that point the Goons were through.

I do tend to think that there seems to be an undercurrent of ensuring the right team wins the CL. The powers that be were not at all happy when Manure and Chelscum were in the final.

Nothing to do with the best team in the world, one of the best in history, being on top of their game then?

I am just trying to keep the gooners from being depressed. We all know Arsenal are the best in the world...

FrenchSpur wrote:

Ezekiel 25:17 wrote:

FrenchSpur wrote:

Ezekiel 25:17 wrote:I think Barcelona's 13 shots on target to Arsenal's 0 sorted the game.

not really darlin.. the Spuds had about 100 shots at the Blackpool goal a few weeks ago and still lost 3-1

IT was 1-1 and suddenly they are deprived of one of their best players due to a very very poor decision.. At that point the Goons were through.

I do tend to think that there seems to be an undercurrent of ensuring the right team wins the CL. The powers that be were not at all happy when Manure and Chelscum were in the final.

Nothing to do with the best team in the world, one of the best in history, being on top of their game then?

I am just trying to keep the gooners from being depressed. We all know Arsenal are the best in the world...

plenty for them to moan about until they play man utd anyway.

Its been a tough couple of weeks for them... Carling Cup defeat to one of the best teams in England if not the world and now this. Defeat to a second string foreign team..... Still at least Wenger didnt see it



Oh and before anyone says it... I would not be surprised to see us going out tomorrow as well..

Feel completely demoralized by that game last night. Barca played us off the park - the best team won, no doubt. However I do feel the Swiss ref was completely sucked in by the occasion.
First minute, Clichy goes for a ball with Xavi. Xavi goes down, rolling around, holding his leg. "Christ" I thought, "that was a bit heavy, even for a first tackle". Replay actually shows that Clichy didn't make contact with Xavi, only that Xavi went over Clichy's hip - an excellent piece of theatrics which certainly fooled me, the ref and probably everyone else. Set up the way the game would be played, "We'll have possession and you won't dare to tackle us".
Later, when RvP is supposed to have caught Alves in the face he actually didn't, it was his shoulder but Alves went down clutching his face. Ref gives a yellow to RvP, presumably for the push - if RvP had actually hit him it would've been a straight red. Later Abidal had RvP by the throat - no card. Whenever Arsenal had the ball (which wasn't often) the crowd were whistling, as they were when RvP broke through with the ball and had a shot at goal. RvP gets a second yellow - a very poor decision. It was 1-1 then, who knows how it would have gone?
Most of the shots that Barca had on target were after we were down to 10 men - Almunia played very well and kept the score down to decent numbers.
Quaduple? Treble? What now, oh yes, "We're gonna do the double!"
My concern is how many fit players we'll have for Saturday's cup match at Old Trafford. Fabregas and Nasri looked off the pace last night, we've lost our keeper - oh well, that's the way it goes (The Arsenal Way)!

Why do you keep saying it's the 'Arsenal Way'?

It's the same for every club.

Bad decision by the ref but over the course of two legs the best team won the match. Barca had a perfectly good goal ruled out in the first leg which was an equally bad decision IMO.

Wenger and Nasri charged by UEFA for improper conduct.

Tilton wrote:Why do you keep saying it's the 'Arsenal Way'?

It's the same for every club.

"The Arsenal Way" is a self-deprecating view of being a Gooner - we always expect the worst, even when things are going well and we always manage to make hard-going of anything positive that might happen. It's got nothing to do with any other club, I'm not whingeing I'm being self(and Arsenal)-critical!

Tilton wrote:Wenger and Nasri charged by UEFA for improper conduct.

Oooh. There's a surprise. We don't like what we see, we complain, we get punished. I know, they're the rules but you'd have to be an effin angel not to complain sometimes!
Do you realise that in that match last night not a single yellow card was shown to a Barca player? So, Abidal didn't grab RvP by the throat (red card), RvP wasn't obstructed en route to goal (a foul which Squillaci was recently red-carded for) - I dunno, if that ref last night wasn't a homer I've never seen one!

jpr60 wrote:

Tilton wrote:Why do you keep saying it's the 'Arsenal Way'?

It's the same for every club.

"The Arsenal Way" is a self-deprecating view of being a Gooner - we always expect the worst, even when things are going well and we always manage to make hard-going of anything positive that might happen. It's got nothing to do with any other club, I'm not whingeing I'm being self(and Arsenal)-critical!

to be fair jpr...west ham fans say that a lot too....oh west ham won....yes the west ham way ...ie the hard way

jpr60 wrote:

Tilton wrote:Why do you keep saying it's the 'Arsenal Way'?

It's the same for every club.

"The Arsenal Way" is a self-deprecating view of being a Gooner - we always expect the worst, even when things are going well and we always manage to make hard-going of anything positive that might happen. It's got nothing to do with any other club, I'm not whingeing I'm being self(and Arsenal)-critical!

Most fans of most clubs will say the same thing. And fans of most clubs have got more to moan about than Arsenal fans have.

Challenging for the title most years, Champions League, Cup Finals.......................

Poor old Arsenal. Doing it the hard way? Yeah, right.

Arsenal fans really don't know when they've got it good.

I have to say JPR, that this is the first time I have seen you actually criticise your team. You usually are not particularly self deprecating.

As to make a point I will be resurrecting the 'Embarrassment' Thread from earlier in the season should Les Patates manage to proceed to the next round tonight.

Jack Wilshere was awful as was Fabregas and Sagna.

Almuina Koscielny Djoru and Clichy were class.

diaby, van persie, nasri were anonymous

mikeyff wrote:Jack Wilshere was awful as was Fabregas and Sagna.

Almuina Koscielny Djoru and Clichy were class.

diaby, van persie, nasri were anonymous

I'd agree with most of that, except I thought Wilshere put in a fair shift - he was what little we had of a midfield, given that the others weren't up to much.
I believe Fabregas and Nasri aren't 100% fit which might explain their relative absence from proceedings.

Tilton wrote:

jpr60 wrote:

Tilton wrote:Why do you keep saying it's the 'Arsenal Way'?

It's the same for every club.

"The Arsenal Way" is a self-deprecating view of being a Gooner - we always expect the worst, even when things are going well and we always manage to make hard-going of anything positive that might happen. It's got nothing to do with any other club, I'm not whingeing I'm being self(and Arsenal)-critical!

Most fans of most clubs will say the same thing. And fans of most clubs have got more to moan about than Arsenal fans have.

Challenging for the title most years, Champions League, Cup Finals.......................

Poor old Arsenal. Doing it the hard way? Yeah, right.

Arsenal fans really don't know when they've got it good.

I believe you're not quite aware of what I mean. Did you see (or read) "Fever Pitch"?
Arsenal have scored the first goal at Anfield - they need two to win the title. The Gooner moans along the lines of "Typical bloody Arsenal, scored one but won't score another! Why do I support this bloody team, every year it's the same............etc". That's a Gooner anticipating the worst, seeing the worst-possible scenario for him.

jpr60 wrote:

Tilton wrote:

jpr60 wrote:

Tilton wrote:Why do you keep saying it's the 'Arsenal Way'?

It's the same for every club.

"The Arsenal Way" is a self-deprecating view of being a Gooner - we always expect the worst, even when things are going well and we always manage to make hard-going of anything positive that might happen. It's got nothing to do with any other club, I'm not whingeing I'm being self(and Arsenal)-critical!

Most fans of most clubs will say the same thing. And fans of most clubs have got more to moan about than Arsenal fans have.

Challenging for the title most years, Champions League, Cup Finals.......................

Poor old Arsenal. Doing it the hard way? Yeah, right.

Arsenal fans really don't know when they've got it good.

I believe you're not quite aware of what I mean. Did you see (or read) "Fever Pitch"?
Arsenal have scored the first goal at Anfield - they need two to win the title. The Gooner moans along the lines of "Typical bloody Arsenal, scored one but won't score another! Why do I support this bloody team, every year it's the same............etc". That's a Gooner anticipating the worst, seeing the worst-possible scenario for him.

Are you saying that other fans don't act like this? I'm always like that at matches, it pisses my mate of no end.

jpr60 wrote:

mikeyff wrote:Jack Wilshere was awful as was Fabregas and Sagna.

Almuina Koscielny Djoru and Clichy were class.

diaby, van persie, nasri were anonymous

I'd agree with most of that, except I thought Wilshere put in a fair shift - he was what little we had of a midfield, given that the others weren't up to much.
I believe Fabregas and Nasri aren't 100% fit which might explain their relative absence from proceedings.

I acknowlege that Wilshere put in a good shift work rate wise but he kept trying to run the ball out of defence and kept losing it. his passing wasn't great either.

I think its more a show of barcelonas excellence rather than wilsheres ability that made him play so poor.

mikeyff wrote:

jpr60 wrote:

mikeyff wrote:Jack Wilshere was awful as was Fabregas and Sagna.

Almuina Koscielny Djoru and Clichy were class.

diaby, van persie, nasri were anonymous

I'd agree with most of that, except I thought Wilshere put in a fair shift - he was what little we had of a midfield, given that the others weren't up to much.
I believe Fabregas and Nasri aren't 100% fit which might explain their relative absence from proceedings.

I acknowlege that Wilshere put in a good shift work rate wise but he kept trying to run the ball out of defence and kept losing it. his passing wasn't great either.

I think its more a show of barcelonas excellence rather than wilsheres ability that made him play so poor.

We were played off the park, no question. We still could've won the tie with that Bendtner chance (put in by Wilshere) but hey, the best team won despite rank bad refereeing and a general niggly feeling that whilst Barca are The Best they've got a couple cnuts in their squad!

jpr60 wrote:

mikeyff wrote:

jpr60 wrote:

mikeyff wrote:Jack Wilshere was awful as was Fabregas and Sagna.

Almuina Koscielny Djoru and Clichy were class.

diaby, van persie, nasri were anonymous

I'd agree with most of that, except I thought Wilshere put in a fair shift - he was what little we had of a midfield, given that the others weren't up to much.
I believe Fabregas and Nasri aren't 100% fit which might explain their relative absence from proceedings.

I acknowlege that Wilshere put in a good shift work rate wise but he kept trying to run the ball out of defence and kept losing it. his passing wasn't great either.

I think its more a show of barcelonas excellence rather than wilsheres ability that made him play so poor.

We were played off the park, no question. We still could've won the tie with that Bendtner chance (put in by Wilshere) but hey, the best team won despite rank bad refereeing and a general niggly feeling that whilst Barca are The Best they've got a couple cnuts in their squad!

i despise bendnter.

i know its all hypothetical but just imagine if it was van persie instead of bendnter on the end of that chance...i think we would be celebrating one of the greatest victories in arsenals history.

mikeyff wrote:

jpr60 wrote:

mikeyff wrote:

jpr60 wrote:

mikeyff wrote:Jack Wilshere was awful as was Fabregas and Sagna.

Almuina Koscielny Djoru and Clichy were class.

diaby, van persie, nasri were anonymous

I'd agree with most of that, except I thought Wilshere put in a fair shift - he was what little we had of a midfield, given that the others weren't up to much.
I believe Fabregas and Nasri aren't 100% fit which might explain their relative absence from proceedings.

I acknowlege that Wilshere put in a good shift work rate wise but he kept trying to run the ball out of defence and kept losing it. his passing wasn't great eithe

I think its more a show of barcelonas excellence rather than wilsheres ability that made him play so poor.

We were played off the park, no question. We still could've won the tie with that Bendtner chance (put in by Wilshere) but hey, the best team won despite rank bad refereeing and a general niggly feeling that whilst Barca are The Best they've got a couple cnuts in their squad!

i despise bendnter.

i know its all hypothetical but just imagine if it was van persie instead of bendnter on the end of that chance...i think we would be celebrating one of the greatest victories in arsenals history.

Well yes, but it's water under the bridge now. Onwards and upwards, eh?!