It was not an heroic failure so time to move on

[Arsenal Tone]

The pace and flow of the game was dominated by Barca. We hardly strung a sequence of passes all game. The team were in a hostile environment, and the referee wass a mess, but we should have been better organised and more positive. Some of our players seemed to bottle it. Some just werent good enough. I didnt think Barca were outstanding, The result we needed was there for the taking.

Spot on IMO

[ProudGooner]

Lets move on now.

What has happened has happened. But what should not happen is for us to hide behind the referee. We need to reflect on ourself as a team. Why were we not able to keep possession in both legs this year and last year. Barca dominated all 4 games in terms of creating chances and possession. This is a fact.

We need to use this now to improve. We are on the verge of something and we have players who are not going to hang around for another 4-5 years to wait for Denilson and Diaby to grow up. There are weak links in our team. There is room for improvement. Wenger needs to fill in the gaps in the summer with quality and ready made replacements so that we improve.

Its good to have young players in the pipeline but they need to be slowly eased into the team.

[AvA]

I think the reason some of the players bottled it was because cesc bottled it. If your captain bottles it it can cause a massive knock on effect. I think thats part the reason why rosick, diaby etc were so poor. we could never get going really. we were outplayed there is no doubt about that. but when its 11v11 you always have a chance. 11 against 10? well 12 rather against 10 rather, at the nou camp? absolutely n o chance. there possession is irrelevant. if games were won by possession we would have won the title for the last 3 seasons. who cares if we hadnt had a shot, it only takes one. had robin not been sent off that one chance might have dropped to him and not bendy. I remember when we played west ham like 4 seasons ago (I think), we dominated the game even more so than barca did last night, and yet they took the 3 points with only 1 shot or something. those things happen in football, but with the ref on their side the whole game, that already slim chance gets eliminated. you can say that they dominated. but you cant say that we couldnt have won had it stayed 11 v 11.

[gzagee]

Maybe i came across insensitive about "moving on" and if so, I apologise to all those still smarting about last night.
However, if the team looks long and hard at themselves i don't think they can say they deserved anything from that game.
We simply did not turn up, for all the hyperbole from our players pre-match, they led us to believe there was a Herculean performance within them. Alas not a smidgen.
They even scored our goal for us.
And yet Wenger would have us all believe we were about to pull off one of European Football's greatest Rope-A-Dopes...
First of all you've got to get a shot on target...
And before that you've got to be able to get into a position to get a shot on target...
Don't quite remember us doing that even before the red card.
Yes the ref was a homer, yes the red card was harsh but I don't share the same sense of injustice most seem to feel.
Purely becuase we didn't show up.

[Libertine]

We were second best the whole game, but we had a chance of holding on with 11 men... with 10 men? Not a chance! The sending off was a huge factor in the result.

I agree E83.
The sending off robbed us of the chance to knock the ball out of defence with the hope of hanging onto it.

[Libertine]

Maybe i came across insensitive about "moving on" and if so, I apologise to all those still smarting about last night.
However, if the team looks long and hard at themselves i don't think they can say they deserved anything from that game.
We simply did not turn up, for all the hyperbole from our players pre-match, they led us to believe there was a Herculean performance within them. Alas not a smidgen.
They even scored our goal for us.
And yet Wenger would have us all believe we were about to pull off one of European Football's greatest Rope-A-Dopes...
First of all you've got to get a shot on target...
And before that you've got to be able to get into a position to get a shot on target...
Don't quite remember us doing that even before the red card.
Yes the ref was a homer, yes the red card was harsh but I don't share the same sense of injustice most seem to feel.
Purely becuase we didn't show up.

I agree with all that Gza.

And yet if Bendtner hadn't fluffed his lines we'd now be talking about a great backs-to-the-wall type victory.

[StLGooner]

We're just not as good as them. They might go down as one of the best teams of all time, so no shame in losing to them. Yeah, we had our chances, but they weren't very good chances. Lets go get that double!!

[Libertine]

Lets go get that double!!

That's the spirit mate!

The beauty of football is that there's always another game!

[GunnGunn]

Lets go get that double!!

That's the spirit mate!

The beauty of football is that there's always another game!

That we can bottle.

[Libertine]

Lets go get that double!!

That's the spirit mate!

The beauty of football is that there's always another game!

That we can bottle.

I didn't think we bottled it last night GG.
I thought they were just by far the better team.

[StLGooner]

Lets go get that double!!

That's the spirit mate!

The beauty of football is that there's always another game!

That we can bottle.

Come on gg, that negative stuff isn't working for us, we've already tried that. Lets try the positive spin now, and give it a go.

We really need a witch doctor or something to break this bloody curse we're in. I'm gonna do a f***ing tribal dance or something.

[ThereIsBearCüm]

Lets go get that double!!

That's the spirit mate!

The beauty of football is that there's always another game!

That we can bottle.

Come on gg, that negative stuff isn't working for us, we've already tried that. Lets try the positive spin now, and give it a go.

We really need a witch doctor or something to break this bloody curse we're in. I'm gonna do a f***ing tribal dance or something.

worked for the Australian national team, had an African witch doctor's curse put on us in the 70's and didn't qualify for the world cup until some TV comedian went to Africa to break the curse... qualified for every WC since
anyone know of any Arsenal players (around late 2004?) pissing off any witch doctors? Toure at the ACON? Maybe his drug bust has something to do with it?

[GunnGunn]

Lets go get that double!!

That's the spirit mate!

The beauty of football is that there's always another game!

That we can bottle.

I didn't think we bottled it last night GG.
I thought they were just by far the better team.

Cesc certainly bottled it as did Bendtner.

I haven't really been negative about this game anyway, i thought we were robbed blind to be perfectly honest.

As i said in the other thread, how many games have we dominated only to be beaten? Just because they dominated, and by dominate i mean several billion million trillion passes before making one move into the box, doesn't mean they wern't beatable.

AW clearly had a game plan that was working for most of the first half, he planned to sit back and then go for it in the second, something that showed when we instantly equalised albeit through a Biscunt own goal.

Seconds after that on an attack, our striker gets sent off in ridiculous circumstances.

We had no chance after that.

It was hard enough defending with 11 men, let alone with 10 when we had no outlet up front.

Robbed all day long.

[StLGooner]

Lets go get that double!!

That's the spirit mate!

The beauty of football is that there's always another game!

That we can bottle.

Come on gg, that negative stuff isn't working for us, we've already tried that. Lets try the positive spin now, and give it a go.

We really need a witch doctor or something to break this bloody curse we're in. I'm gonna do a f***ing tribal dance or something.

worked for the Australian national team, had an African witch doctor's curse put on us in the 70's and didn't qualify for the world cup until some TV comedian went to Africa to break the curse... qualified for every WC since
anyone know of any Arsenal players (around late 2004?) pissing off any witch doctors? Toure at the ACON? Maybe his drug bust has something to do with it?

I thought I heard a rumor somewhere, that a *** buried a *** scarf somewhere under the Emirates when it was being built (apparently he was part of the construction crew). Not sure how true that is, or if that would even be considered a curse, but it can't be good if its true.

[Libertine]

anyone know of any Arsenal players pissing off any witch doctors? Toure at the ACON? Maybe his drug bust has something to do with it?

It's Highbury TIBC.

We never won a trophy before we played at Highbury and we all know the trophy count since we lift.....