Arsenal v AC Milan | Champions League QF 2nd leg

[golfinguy]

Just finished watching... f***ing amazing. Should have won... should have allowed a goal or two, both teams left chances on the table.

I will say this. f**k you Wenger. That loss is down to not having anybody other than Chamakh off the bench, he was f***ing abysmal, contributed nothing, looked lost, couldn't hold the ball, was out of position, couldn't win a header... completely useless when we had the momentum he came on and killed it.

All-in-all I'm buzzing after that. I haven't been that over the top excited watching a game in awhile. Tottenham was amazing, but this was just a whole different level of bonkers.

I snuck a peek at the lineups before I headed home to watch the DVR - I was amazed at the bench. Not one midfielder (was Benayoun injured?). We gave it one hell of an effort, but we looked a little tired in the second half. The lack of options off the bench may have made the difference. Maybe it was down to injuries, I don't know. OK, just looked - Benayoun was sick, f**k my life.

[Inchpräctice]

For me the way players run at Milan tonight was the difference,if we did that more against the PL teams we would be seeing huge results,enogh of this tappy crap we have had for years,i want players running at players and directness.that is where our future lies

...and past.

I agree.

(the one that gets quoted the most wins bro's)

[starmandb]

I don't think i've ever seen a better first half ever in my 16 years supporting Arsenal!

has anyone?

42 years going and i don,t remember 1.
older gunners than me[yes there is such a beast ] talk about the legendary night at highbury when we came back from a 3-1 away to anderlecht to win the fairs cup but that was a season before my time.
i have never heard a crowd cheer a team off like we did at half time last night and to a slightly lesser extent full time.
felt like the fans and players as 1.
great night and 1 i hope they all carry it with them for future success

[starmandb]

I don't think i've ever seen a better first half ever in my 16 years supporting Arsenal!

has anyone?

Seriously, regardless if we go though or not!

I'm am so, so proud of this team. everyone, even Theo has been outstanding!

Absolutely brilliant! Just keep it going, DON'T CONCEDE! Just keep going!

absolutely mate.all you can ask for is a shift and we certainly got that

[starmandb]

We need to isolate Chamberlain 1v1 with Mesbah as much as possible, he is absolutely hopeless

That **** Neville made me laugh

"It's bingo time down this right hand side".

i disliked neville as a player but as a pundit he has really brought something to the party.
better than the blandishments of southgate wilkins and co

[Hammered Pizza]

One thing we seem to forget is the clean sheet. Some people have been banging on about it for ages too

[Bristol_Gunner]

We need to isolate Chamberlain 1v1 with Mesbah as much as possible, he is absolutely hopeless

That **** Neville made me laugh

"It's bingo time down this right hand side".

i disliked neville as a player but as a pundit he has really brought something to the party.
better than the blandishments of southgate wilkins and co

Neville can have a tendency to repeat himself a bit but apart from that, yeah he is pretty good.

[CynicalGooner]

The Gervinho bashing is a bit much. All our players gave 100%, did their duties, ran their hearts out and you can't ask for much more as a fan, I'm proud of them all. But if you peel that away and look at their individual performances for a moment, he wasn't the only one who had a poor game. Walcott and Song were both rubbish too. In fact the passing in midfield was almost as poor as it was against Liverpool - which is not a surprise, form takes time to improve.

I don't agree about their engines. Song & Rosicky both have great stamina but not when you're playing your third 'must win with an incredible comeback' game in the space of 9 days. The whole team suffers when that happens.
Song looked tired already against Liverpool (how he had the strength to pick out the winning assist I'll never know) and Rosicky was injured before the Liverpool game and is still injured now.
Song was absolutely knackered today.
Considering the state of them before kick off today I'm amazed that they managed to put in the amount of effort that they did in that first half.
It's a credit to their determination and to the boss for getting them fired up.

It's all ifs and buts but if Coquelin and Ramsey were fit we might've been able to rotate a bit more.

They don't have good stamina, Wenger used to note that as Song's weakness, I remember well, it was when he first moved him into midfield and he said he hadn't thought it was a good idea before because Song has poor natural stamina but it was worth a try, and clearly it worked. But Song's game isn't about tearing round the place, he doesn't run that much compared to bulldogs like Essien, Tiote and Flamini. Rosicky always looks exhausted, even after 10 minutes. He is the type to run around like a mad thing in the first half and pay for it in the second and ends up barely able to trot.

If it had gone to extra time they might have keeled over and died. Now that would not have been good for our midfield injury crises.

JACK I MISS YOU

[Leody]

One thing we seem to forget is the clean sheet. Some people have been banging on about it for ages too

I will say, as one of his biggest critics mind you, I have been very pleased with Szczesny the last few games. Still some areas for improvement though.

The defense hasn't really looked all that much better as a whole, still allowing to many breakthroughs, but Szczesny has looked much better. Bailing out his back line a few times when they've left him exposed, something I've said he hasn't done enough.

His distribution has been just as crap as ever though, not happy with that. And he's left a couple crosses go that I don't think he should have. One against Liverpool bounced 4 yards off his line at his back post...

[ivan itchybum]

if only we had played half decent in the first leg, this fixture would have been a breeze

[Gunflash]

I was so glad that the team stood up and fought their way back into contention. The tie was lost with that non-performance at the Giuseppe Meazza. When did Rosicky become a footballer? The Ox was magnificent and Koscielny has the makings of a great defender. Another key factor was the lack of quality we had on the bench. Our midfield started to look ragged in the second half, without Arteta, Ramsey, Wilshere or even Diaby to bring on. Chamakh and Park were hardly the men likely to make a difference. But anyway, we got a clear win on the night and salvaged some pride. That's three big wins in a row now.

[Leody]

if only we had played half decent in the first leg, this fixture would have been a breeze

I don't know about that, because the way the first game finished influenced the second leg massively. We have never played so aggressively in the midfield before last night, closing down everybody everywhere on the pitch as soon as they got the ball, defenders stepping up so quickly on every forward pass and so on. The tactics last night were a huge departure from our normal style. Honestly, I'm not that surprised that the second half wasn't as good because the amount of effort spent in the first half probably left most of the team hazard for the second half.

Things would have been very different had that first leg gone differently, and Milan may have been able to break us down easier had we stood off them a bit in the midfield and allowed them more time in possession.

Anyway you slice it though, it was a great match and even though we came out on the short end, it will be a tie that sticks in the memory for a long time to come.

[Bristol_Gunner]

if only we had played half decent in the first leg, this fixture would have been a breeze

I don't know about that, because the way the first game finished influenced the second leg massively. We have never played so aggressively in the midfield before last night, closing down everybody everywhere on the pitch as soon as they got the ball, defenders stepping up so quickly on every forward pass and so on. The tactics last night were a huge departure from our normal style. Honestly, I'm not that surprised that the second half wasn't as good because the amount of effort spent in the first half probably left most of the team hazard for the second half.

Things would have been very different had that first leg gone differently, and Milan may have been able to break us down easier had we stood off them a bit in the midfield and allowed them more time in possession.

Anyway you slice it though, it was a great match and even though we came out on the short end, it will be a tie that sticks in the memory for a long time to come.

I think at worst it would have been 3-0 if Koscielny had stayed on in the first leg. As soon as he was replaced by Djourou It was curtains for that match. That was especially true considering Vermaelen didn't look his best that night.

Its all if's and buts now but we got a great result and can hopefully continue this rich vein of form for the rest of the season.

[Leody]

Haha, damn auto complete...

I meant to say the first half probably left most of the squad gassed going into the second half, not hazard...

[StLGooner]

Loved the effort, but just ticks me off a bit that they couldn't do that in the first leg. Hopefully if anything this will help the overall confidence of the squad, which hopefully propels us above the scum.