Marsbar100 wrote:That game was anything but boring tbf, i would love to see arsenal back in the cl group stages
It was the only cl games we had that were worth watching tbh. Cos we always got through groups.
It's the knockouts that turned us to shit
Angelito wrote:
He really doesn't help himself, does he?
Southampton's starting XI cost lesser than what City paid for Grealish. These results are normal.
He has this victim-complex that really makes it hard to appreciate his philosophy.
The quote does make it look worse than it is. Nonetheless, Pep is a privileged manager. Ironically, he speaks like those ultra-privileged people who believe people wouldn't be poor if they had more money.
Imagine if he were at Arsenal during the transition years. He'd probably have cried.
The man is a fantastic manager. Issue is, everything City does is for PR. They care more about their "image" than the reality of the game.
Angelito wrote:Ach wrote:Marsbar100 wrote:That game was anything but boring tbf, i would love to see arsenal back in the cl group stages
It was the only cl games we had that were worth watching tbh. Cos we always got through groups.
It's the knockouts that turned us to shit
What's weird is the manner of our eliminations in the UCL since they restructured the competition with one group stage.
Lost to Bayern and Barcelona 4 times each (not counting the group stage loss). Were eliminated by defending champions Liverpool and finalists ManU. PSV beat us and the eventual champions went on to beat them. Finally, Monaco and Milan knocked us out.
We did have a series of tough luck in the UCL. There was a time when Real Madrid wouldn't face a major club until the SFs, whilst Arsenal would end up with the worst possible draw even if we topped the group.
We should have done better. There's no excusing that. Especially from '01 until '04. We could have made it to the semis or even the final with that team. That was a period of criminal underperformance.
Apart from that period, however, we were hard done. The Monaco result was a farce. That aside, we'd almost always end up with the toughest draws. Sometimes, you need luck to win this competition. We rarely had those strokes of luck.
Going further back, a club of our size never won the European Cup or even the UEFA Cup. We have two European trophies to our name. That's shambolic for a club like Arsenal. We're really doomed in European competitions. Even the mighty Emery couldn't win us the Europa League when he's the greatest manager in the tournament's history.
Arsenal Tone wrote:Not winning the CL with Campbell, Cole, Gilberto, Vieira, Pires, Bergkamp and Henry shows that Wenger was lacking in the tactical department imo
I put that down to Wenger refusing to do tactics. By that I mean not adapting the team for different opponents and only having one way of playing. He basically gave players freedom to express themselves which stopped the top players going on to the next level (at club level at least). If we were better organised we'd have won more titles and a Cl or two imo.jayramfootball wrote:Arsenal Tone wrote:Not winning the CL with Campbell, Cole, Gilberto, Vieira, Pires, Bergkamp and Henry shows that Wenger was lacking in the tactical department imo
I actually think this was the early indicators of the attitude problems that would come to the fore much more in Wenger's later years.
It's telling we never won titles back to back also.
I think the players mentally took their foot off the gas even in our glory years under Wenger.
That team should have won more.