The Gunners Outplayed, Outclassed and Out of the Champions League

Don’t you just love Arsenal Football Club?

This week, the club would make you have the sweetest dreams after a scintillating performance, the next week, the club would make you feel better off shooting your foot with a rifle.

As a fervent Arsenal fan, it’s fair to say that I’ve seen it all. The club has gone unbeaten, gone trophy-less, lost a game against a team that started with seven recognizable defenders, lost a match despite scoring five goals, managed to draw a game despite going four goals up and has won a couple of trophies.

Thomas Vermaelen whined about not playing in his favored center back position and Per Mertesacker’s unfortunate injury paved the way for the Belgian to strut his stuff. Kieran Gibbs returned to the first team after an eternity out.

Arsene Wenger wanted to use a conservative approach to the game so he decided to give Tomas Rosicky a chance ahead of the Ox.

Rosicky drew first blood with an effort that drifted wide. It’s also noteworthy that Rosicky has scored only one Champions League for Arsenal and that came on his debut against Hamburger SV six years ago.

The old hag Sir Clearance Seedorf pulled up short after releasing a rocket so he was replaced later on by Urby Emanuelson. AC Milan were gifted the match-opening goal when Wojciech Szczesny’s poor clearance found Antonio Nocerino whose chipped pass found KP Boateng and his volley was sumptuous to say the least.

Milan went two up when a simple pass from Emanuelson caught the defense on the back foot. Zlatan Ibracadabra waltzed into the box and crossed the ball to Robinho whose header placed it past Szczesny.

The wrinkles on Arsene Wenger’s face probably increased when Laurent Koscielny was replaced by Johan Djourou for what seemed like an injury. With Mertesacker out, Arsenal’s next center back in line for a starting place is…Seb Squillaci. 🙁

Wenger rightly brought on Thierry Henry for the ineffectual Theo Walcott and he certainly doesn’t play like a man that deserves a pay rise of £85,000 per week.

Rosicky lost the ball far up in the middle of the park and a Milan attack saw Zlatan tee up Robinho that drilled his effort past Szczesny. It’s also worth noting that Thomas Vermaelen slipped at the vital moment.

Feel free to blame the pitch all you want but 11 AC Milan footballers played on the same ground with Wenger’s men. It was no where near the harsh conditions at Petrovsky Stadium when Zenit hosted SL Benfica.

Despite being pretty putrid all match long, Arsenal produced a moment of intense quality when a cheeky Henry flick was volleyed goalwards by Robin van Persie. Up stepped Christian Abbiati to make a save from the top drawer. The screams he let out could be heard on the Moon.

Wenger tweaked his tactics a bit when he introduced the Ox for Kieran Gibbs but AC Milan put the game beyond doubt when another Rosicky error from midfield saw an attack that made Djourou want to swap jerseys with Ibra in the box.

Ibrahimovic got the goal his play deserved from 12 yards even though Szczesny guessed right. Van Persie still gave his all with a good header that was saved by Abbiati while Pato’s effort was palmed away by Szczesny.

At the end of the ref’s whistle, the final result showed that Arsene Wenger’s men where outplayed, outclassed and out of the Champions League.

To those that would want to give themselves some unrealistic hope, AC Milan crashed out of the Champions League in the 2003/04 season despite scoring four goals at home in the first leg.

The last time I checked, Deportivo scored one away goal.

Arsenal didn’t.

Sayonara.

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About enigma106

An Arsenal fan with a good sense of humor

Posted on February 16, 2012, in Arsenal, Champions League, Football, Match Report and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink. 14 Comments.

  1. This might probably be Arsenal last involvement in the UCL for years to come!

  2. So so furious. Its a win 4 arsenal in the second leg, but its definitely not a qualification.

  3. thrashed deservedly. hope this teaches aw something . false hope, though.

  4. For years i have be denying that AFC is getting worse as a team, and this season looked to be a new start, but i can now see that the playing style taught in training is not efficient anough.
    Our players are knocked down likw small children from opposing players, thought to be weak by ref, so no card.
    Our players try to play the same way at trying to score, there is no imagination, this is why all teams can now play against AFC so easily.
    Unless a miracle happens, AFC will get nothing again this season, AND we will end up without Euro football, maybe, just maybe end up in Europa league, and we aint gonna win that either, not untill AFC changes.
    The team has gone from a team that everyone feared to play, to a team that everyone wants to play to get a few easy points.
    I have nothing against AFC losing a game, this happens, BUT when the team might as well have stayed home, the selections completely wrong, AW is grasping at straws now, he must now know something has to give way soon.
    AFC is now a mediocre mid table team, and they have progressed to this state only over the last 3 seasons.
    I see no fight, except for Oxe and Kos.
    Everyone else does not seem to do the extra needed, they wait for the ball to come to them, some one nicks it, in fact i have seen players loosing the ball because “they did not seem to realise that players were allowed to take it off of them”, because of being too careless.
    SO, whatever good AW has done for the club, it is clear that AFC players need a new paradigm, they now need to regroup, and re-emerge as an exiting team again.
    This really means a new coach, a proper coach(es) who is(are) pure football.
    There is something really wrong with AFC training.

    • Something has to give mate…

      I don’t understand how things have become so bad at Arsenal. We need a change of style and tactics.

      We need the 4-4-2 back.

  5. Wenger should just go… Hes twisted up inside and has caught his head in d ‘2003/2004 invincibles’ trance. I think he doesnt know quality anymore… He gave djourou another contract? Hes trying to re-sign walcott? Damsey is still starting? Hmmmm! IM STILL IN SHOCK! OH MY ARSENAL! R.I.P. (crying)

  6. Its frustrating,how i wish AW lives around my area where we as gunnas fans undergo a lot of bulling & verbal attacks bcos of how ARSENAL PLC iS being runned.it humiliating dat after those coments KP BOUTENG made yet he was the person dat opened the scoring.how can ARSENAL attract a big name in dis club again, dat is the question,the board & AW have placed dis club where they want it to be.if we continue feilding players like JOURU,GIBS,WALCOT,CHAMAKH,RAMSEY & the rest they will always make us average team bcos they are average players & nothing more.

    • The fact that KP Boateng scored that goal after making those comments was a bitter pill to swallow.

      We’ve been very mediocre this finish and it’s no less than what we deserve.

      This was Arsene Wenger’s doing

  7. Do not blame RVP if he finally decids to look elsewhere.its high time the fans realize the club its not 4 dem.d board & selfish STAN sits comfortably as if everything is OK bcos their account gets swelling @ the expence of fans emotion,what a shame.

    • We already know that the Board will always be satisfied with Wenger, irrespective of the outcome this season.

      Painful
      Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

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