Today we have a guest post by Double Canister.
Never won the European Cup, Right? Well, until 1992 teams had to win the league to enter it.
My hypothesis here is to argue that apart from the bleedin’ obvious fact that yes we have not won it (and thank you koppites, for reminding us of the fact every 5 minutes) Arsenal have not been too shabby in this Competition. In fact I will argue that Arsenal have very often run into the eventual winners of the competition, and given them a bloody nose in the process to think about.
England is an insular place; however since the European Cup was founded in 1955 English teams have entered, albeit half-heartedly in the early years. The FA cup was seen as far more glorious than some Johnny Foreigner concoction.
Chelsea won the league in ’55 and believe it or not but the FA asked them not to play the European Cup.
Manu and the tinies reached semi-finals in the early years of the tournament, but did not appear to be that happy about it, United’s tragic air crash in Munich seemed to put off the appetite for the competition in Britain for a while.
Unfortunately Arsenal’s chances of entering were severely limited because of a domestic downturn in our footballing fortunes compared to the great years of the 30’s. Adolf and Benito had also decided to change the football landscape of Europe in the late 30’s and 40’s so I’ll skip that bit. United and even bloody Wolves (!) entered a few times each in the 50’s but didn’t have much luck, to say the least in United’s tragic case.
The 60’s Arsenal side were nowhere near European football. Arsenal’s big chance with the double twinning team in ’71-’72 was no disgrace. They reached the QF and got beaten by Ajax 2-1(a) and 0-1(h) but it was Ajax’s greatest ever team that beat us. No surprises Ajax went on to win the old big ears against an also superb Benfica.
Then we enter the weird era as I call it, this is when for some very strange reasons English teams were regular winners of this completion whilst being utterly pants as a national team. When the Cup seemed to be used as a prop to hold up the charity shield by English clubs in the late 70’s to 80’s again Arsenal’s domestic form was wanting and we couldn’t get in on the party. Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest are the only English side I consider really worthy of holding the European Cup with dignity during this time.
In ‘89 we were not allowed in. The bastards from Merseyside got everyone banned from European competitions so we will never know how good GG’s side could really have been. The behavior of some gooners in Copenhagen was less than gentlemanly too.
In ‘91 – ’92 it was UEFA’s new exploratory group stage format but we got knocked out by Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Benfica in extra time, despite Colin Pates scoring (?, no, me neither). Benfica had Rui Costa and a certain Stefan Schwartz who looked good at the time. Fergie pretty much owned the early years of the PL before the Champions League format was created but despite this Arsenal have managed to enter the completion 16 times, and even with winning 3 domestic titles under Wenger.
Now let’s look at the details of Wenger’s CL efforts.
The first 3 years when we played group stages in Wembley I will discount – this was a revenue generator to fund the new stadium and a tester to see if there really was demand for 60,000 plus capacity for more Arsenal supporters. In reality, Arsenal were very unfamiliar with the idea of group stage European football and it showed. Being homesick for the cup night atmosphere normally created at Highbury didn’t help either.
People look back now at the perceived weakness of the teams that Arsenal played in those groups and could think we should have rolled them over, but Hunter13 is right – Wenger has raised the bar of expectations at this club so far by now it is hard to look back and see how weak some of the players he inherited were (and I admit, some of the ones he initially bought).
From ’85 to ’04 no English teams were good enough to reach a final, with the singular pox-bottling exception of Sir* Bacon Face’s shower of nasties in ’99 who mugged-off Bayern. Following this era, when teams fitness levels, running pace and passing speeds hugely increased, (guessing a lot of drugs , anyone?) the CL basically turned into a round robin of English teams reaching the final plus the odd Barca, Milan, Madrid effort to win it and where it was perceived that throwing several hundred million euro at the club squad budget was the only way to win it, or in the English teams cases having a Foreign manager and needing to have the key, nay THE ESSENTIAL match wining players in the team being from continent Europe.
Many Gooners moan that Arsenal have had year after year of unlucky draws in this completion after the group stages. I am one of them. We have often come up against some of the the strongest teams in the completion at early stages and been knocked out by the eventual winner or runner up, even after Arsenal giving them a game far better than the team they meet in the final.
In the Early Wenger Era this is what transpired:
’99 & ’00 were learning experiences in the group stages and we ended up on a long detour into the UEFA Cup.
’01, we got beaten only on the away goals rule, in the QF by Rafa’s quality Valencia side who went on to the final and lost to Munich on penalties.
’02 Real Madrid beat Leverkusen and in ’03 Milan beat Juve
’02 & ’03 was the crazy second group stage idea, results against Deportivo done us on ’02 and then Valencia did the damage in ’03. (Thanks again Rafa). The decisive games leading up to the final that year were strongly dominated by the big Italian teams.
In the Pre-Paris era we saw a build-up of European momentum in the club:
’04 Porto beat Monaco. Maureen is let loose on the world.
’05 Liverpool beat Milan. The 3rd biggest fluke of all time. (See Manure vs. Munich ’99 for the 2nd).
The run in the Champions league from ‘03-‘04 to Paris in ’05-‘06 showed that Wenger was building from strength to strength in the competition.
Thanks to Wayne Bridge (seriously WTF?) we got knocked out at the QF in ’04 by the blues. The Chavs were done by Monaco and then Moe felt he was very special when Porto won the bloody thing, and not in a beautiful way. The Squid, our former useless CB was in this final on the loosing side.
’05 was Munich beating us in the first leg at their home which did the damage. However – if we got another goal in the last 24 minutes the Bavarians would have been out on the away goal rule. Chelsea beat them in 2 ridiculous games, and then Liverpool fluked their way to Istanbul.
I don’t need to tell anyone here how we got to Paris.
Since our last (yes, and so far only) CL final this results have happened:
Milan ’07 beat Liverpool. Arsenal lost against PSV in R16 because of a late winner. Liverpool Beat PSV. Everybody blames Denilson, but not Fabrigas. The Arsenal team were a shadow of the team from the Finals of the year before, serious rebuilding was afoot which was coming along very nicely until in February 2008 when Eduardo was murdered. Only slightly exaggerating there. Arsenal fucked-up but it was a season of such high hopes that fell apart for us. Mainly due to evil bastards.
United ’08 beat Chelski on their home turf. I am still bitter about the scally shoplifters mugging us in QF. Arsenal were done by Refs in both games with the shoplifters. Liverpool were found out later to be shite. The only pleasure in the final was seeing John Terry loose when he could have won, even if it meant watching Sir Bacon Face smug winning grin.
Barca ’09 beat Manu. Adebayor not picking up John O’Shea for a corner, then Ronaldo running the show in the second leg of the Semi Final. Arsenal had to rebuild yet another team.
Inter ’10 beat Bayern where they parked the bus in a truly horrendous display of negativity by Moe. Messi was unstoppable in the QF against us in Barcelona.
Barca ’11 beat United yet gain, Cesc and JvC did a lot to help Barca on their way but we had the beating of them and don’t let anyone tell you we didn’t. United were brushed aside quite easily in the final.
The 2012 final did not happen. Flukes like this can very occasional happen in a quantum random universe, but so can a unicorn come out of John Terry’s backside; Sideways. Wearing shin-pads. Arsenal had suffered some poor reffing in the San Siro. in R16. Milan were found out to be a weak team later on.
Bayern Munich ’13 beat Dortmund. I will argue that despite 15 minutes of poor concentration, at home in the first leg of R16, Arsenal had the measure of BM in Munich and Theo was clearly onside and going 1 to 1 with the their goalie when the offside flag was wrongly raised. (Arsenal have a tragic litany of wrong offside calls done against us over the years, mainly because we rely so much on quick counterattacks against high line defenses.) BvB shouldn’t have even been at the final at all but only for some horrendous officiating that sent Malaga home in the QF.
Now there are new, richer kids on the block, with owners who are desperate to glam-up their own despicable images with a bit of magic stardust from the top table of Europe’s most popular sporting contest, especially in an area of the mass media market with the thickest, most sycophantic and laziest journalism going.
Human right abusers, slave labour runners, national fraudsters, criminal pasts? – no problem if you buy a couple of super stars and a run down club with a big marketing potential.
*Yes, they actually gave him a knighthood for this statistical improbability of a result.
Positively Arsenal 
Very nice writeup old man. Right conclusion too, to boot. How are you feeling anyways?? Or do you have to pass a fitness test before the game against chelski??
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Thanks DC, that was fun.
The record over a few seasons of the team built around Cesc in the CL tells us how good that squad was before what Adrian Clarke (another tip top Breakdown on the .com) described as a “Storm of Change” began.
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DC, your old mate Moe has had a revelation:
“It’s something I don’t want to do, to play more counterattacking, but I’m giving it serious thought. If I want to win 1-0 I think I can as I think it is one of the easiest things in football. It is not so difficult, as you don’t give players the chance to express themselves.”
Hallelujah!
Who could have imagined that he would be sending his team out in a league game against the leaders to kick and to play for the first goal and then on the counter? What I did not expect was for Moe to admit that he struggles to get his teams to play football. Heh. Cheers Moe.
*No need to scar these pages with mention of that uncredible bungler Mike Dean who will facilitate such a spectacle, let’s hope it all goes the same way as the first 5pur2s game when Bale’s dives and Dean’s jumping joy were of no help.
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Quality post!
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An encyclopedia of European frustration DC – perhaps the highlight of utter desolation was the 04 QF against Chelsea – at half time in the second leg we were THROUGH – THROUGH DO YOU HEAR ME – and with only Porto, Depo or Monaco to sweep aside to pick up the trophy !
And we would have – no doubt in my mind although Depo were the best of the three still in
Ten years on nearly it gets no easier
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many people suggest we are designed to play in Europe however it could be argued that our consistency in the league during this time, bearing in mind we have never had the money for two squads or to be in a league where we can fail to put a side out before a European tie, has hampered our success in this competition.
Although we have picked up silverware in knockout competitions I do not consider us a cup side, as opposed to transversely the bus driver who plays every game like a cup game and has won leagues almost by accident and this is why he finds it difficult to change his sides in cup completions.
In 2006 we were going through a transition in our league side and become a cup side for a season much the same way as what happened in 93 when having found ourselves half way down the league won two cups.
It will always be very difficult for a club like ours, without the money for two squads and being in a very intense league, to be successful in domestic and European competition at the same time.
As DC has pointed out the fact we have faced the form sides in Europe and still had relative success and still managed to maintain consistency in our domestic league shows just how well we have done in the past twenty years.
Hopefully it is time for our success across the board to be rewarded with silverware however the facts remain our club and our present manager has a high level of achievement against the modern money clubs
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Fantastic stuff DC,we’ll win Big Ears one of these days without having to buy it-only 2 teams have ever won the PL for instance-us and United,Blackburn,Chelsea & City have bought it.
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PD 2 Gold stars for the report…1 red ink comment “please see me re correct spelling of lose vs loose; losing vs loosing.” Pedantic old sod that I am, these (and it’s vs its) drive me to drink. Maybe I should just say thanks and pass me another beer please.
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Good piece, DC.
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Great digest of our participation in the CL….thanks
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Hay DC. Nicely done. Great read. I thought PG had written it at first since the first line was missing from the post in the beginning. You figure if the next two to three years we will make it back to the final of ECL.??
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Solid work on your post DC. Thanks.
GK, why not this year!
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Nice one DC, more of the same please.
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GF60
Point well noted, darn those computer autocorrects!
Thanks everyone for your kind words.
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I said you were a twat DC, what is kind about that you masochist !
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Well, at least you didn’t say a complete twat PG.
Small mercies. I blame every failing on the Editor.
Now that you have set a nice low entry level for new posters, George there are no more excuses for some of the other regulars not to write something up.
Arse_or_Brain’s summation is excellent too, I wish I had written something like that bit in.
Arsenal are not rich enough to have a whole extra cup squad for Europe, and another one for the domestic league, and the PL is unlike La Liga or the Bundesliga where the European placings are normally a foregone conclusion.
Look at the fixtures for February and March in 2014, we will have to fight tooth and nail with other title rivals just maintain our top 4 status, nevermind a full-on title challenge and having to play the best team in Europe over 2 legs as well.
Oh well, the treble is still on as far as I’m concerned!
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@sensational ARSENAL
if it happens this year it will be most welcomed too. The two to three year window covers this year two.
I’m most hopeful that we can take the EPL title this year. Lady luck has to give us a helping had but I do have a feeling it might happen this year.
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For what it’s worth
League title in 2014, or 2015 at the very latest.
UCL Semi Final 2014, Final 2015 and Winners 2016.
This is as doomer as I get.
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Arsenal are a shadow of their former selves and it is all because of that French bloke with his stupid zip who won’t spend our money that is being ripped off from us from greedy Stan and his Hench-man Ivan. We won’t even get into the Champions League next year unless we sign a striker and a DM plus also what happens to our painfully thin squad if Kos gets injured. What was the point of leaving Highbury if all we get is no silverware and Giroud who is not good enough to wear the shirt let alone carry the cannon. We must sign Suarez or Costa or Cavani (who are all available but Wenger won’t sign them because he is French and has lost it) or we will end up below the Spuds again. And we need another keeper too because Chesney has let in 9 in the last 3 so we should sign Hamlet or Castella because he knows what silverware means to us fans who have to pay the highest prices in the league and now the evil board has put the prices up by 3% which is a joke because it means that blokes with fake norf laanden accents are going to flood twitter with self-righteous and idiotically argued videos.
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Stoke vs Manu paused because of some hailstones.
The soft Northern jessies.
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FOREVERHEADY
so sorry but are you by any chance jonjon in disguise. lol
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GK
hehe, you only see that troll turning up on the other blog when Arsenal loose a game these days.
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Foreverheady
I couldn’t agree more. These deluded bastards on here get on my wick with their positivity…..bunch of twats
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Bollocks just lost the signal to my Sky box…..the storm over Stoke has arrived in Chesterfield….
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Hahaha. What else is new. Mind you he is knowledgeable . Just enough to manage the under-10 $ pub team.
Your post took me on a trip down memory lane mate. So many moments of elation and also down right frustrating times , at times. Magic nights , loved and cherished players and coach’s come and gone.
Wonder how PAT is doing? Can you believe the last year we begged him to stay one more. I wonder if he knew then and if that had anything to do with him trying to retire.
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That goes same for our illustrious ex chairman. Hope they are both well.
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It pleased me no end seeing Maureen’s face yesterday. He must have thought ” oh sh••, not to Sunderland” . ” gosh , daddy will be so pissed”
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GP
had to tell which team was Stoke.
Must be the hail….
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1-2 to the Hammers.
They should be moving home to the lane, not to the Olympic stadium.
We all know Pat is a fighter, but cancer is a random killer. No doubt the Club will make sure he gets the best possible medical support.
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Why would you read the comments section there?
It wont bother you if you don’t read it.
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Post up soon by me on Armchair Gooners site on fickleness of fans.
Don’t know when though, taking him a while to get round to posting it because he’s been stupidly busy lately.
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If only to read some of our friends posts from time to time. C, LIMESTONE, NICKY, HARRY FLOWERS AND IRISH even bill.
All others posts are bypassed as ever due to foul content GEORGE. don’t tell me you don’t miss some of your friends there. Like that dukee dude.
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As it is only HARRY ( get me coat ) comes for a regular visit. Even LIMESTONE is too preoccupied these days.
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Nice post here today also.
Tragically unlucky with officials in Europe.
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GK
Without the bile and hate, most of the rest them haven’t much to say.
It’s dull as dishwater these days over there. The schoolyard bullies are in hiding, waiting for Arsene’s next big trip-up, so that they can be proved right.
Speaking of bile and hate — here is some unintended hilarity from our real enemies, and I don’t mean the l’grovers:
http://www.thefightingcock.co.uk/
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GK
Sorry: don’t know who jonjon is so promise I’m not him in disguise.
Looking forward to the post on fickle fans. Thinking that young Jack will probably be their next target. The Fickle Finger of Hate etc. While it is probably not right to feel sorry for a 21 year old with the world at his feet I do feel a bit sorry for Jack at the moment: the Meeja seem to have him right in their tainted and oh so corrupt crosshairs and it won’t be long before those brave ex-Ramsey haters pick on him as the next whipping boy.
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That was really fucking good dc. Wenger upgraded arsenal to the point where we would be mentioned/compared/compete with names of world football that were way bigger and more historical than arsenal. He has also managed the club at such a level as to be considered an institution of football……without winning it yet.
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Hunter
Don’t forget that the 1971 double winners went head to head with one of your old favourites Ajax when Cruyff and Neeskens were at their best.
That was one hell of a team!
Oh, and Ajax weren’t too shabby either I suppose 🙂
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/may/22/great-european-cup-teams-ajax
Point taken and I agree with you, Wenger and the board have established Arsenal as one of the European superclubs and nowadays Bayern Munich and the likes really worry if they get Arsenal in the draw.
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and who was in the final with ajax that year? 😉
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I have heard that the Henry documentary is not available to download for those outside the UK? That’s not good enough is it?*
Three days till the game against Gazprom Fulham Franchise. I’m not sure of the value in reading about a documentary screening for bigwigs and celebrity “bloggers”? We’re going to have help all those beautiful Gooners out there get through the weekend…
…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGzI38BF-FI
*I’m tempted to spend some farking money on a billboard outside the ground with the eternally embarrassing legend: “What has happened to our beloved documentaries?”
I have heard this film was orignally scheduled to be realeased in 2008. Why the delay, eh? I blame AW. Clearly the power hungry tyrant clamped down on such stuff. He would never allow one of his players to get the praise. Lots of examples. Just who does he answer to….clearly not me!
The IT manager, and the board and the football manager out! Doris too.
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Crap. I’m not sure if that is the latest film above? The link was sent to me by a filmmaker type…says here in the emwil that it is the film in question, only now is it getting an official release, after having been made ages ago.
Don’t ask me, I haven’t clue. The link above has one and a half hours of Henry. Can’t be bad.
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The one and only FINS. all us beautiful ones thank you sir. Can’t wait for the Monday game. Clearly the marquee clash of the weekend, therefore scheduled for the Monday.
?????
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GK
a Laundawwn derby on Christmas Eve is kinda a big deal. It also was set up knowing Arsenal would be chasing back to re-gain points after our rivals played earlier at the weekend.
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Find,
I’m pretty sure Doris is a Russian agent.
It’s the secret knives in her shoes that gave it away.
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FFS. Two games for a finger gesture yet nothing for a potentially career ending high tackle.
It really is time the FA was dismantled. Then we might be able to start again with rules that had to be applied consistently
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DC
I’m pretty sure your thinking of BORIS not DORIS. Unless of course her middle name is NATASHA. anywho, that reminded me of our AA. I wonder if things are well with him and he is happy at zeint. There was a poster here that used to visit his blog or was it his twitter account. Can’t remember who it was.
I find no game scheduled for tomorrow to be interesting enough to watch. Hopefully come Tuesday morning we are still TOP OF WORLD.
looking down on creation
And ..
…………….
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All you pious ones place a little prayer request through that we get the rub of green and the referee stays awake and sharp the whole game. All I want is a decently supervised and overseen game. That said , given a level playing field I have no doubt about the eventual outcome on Monday or for that matter any other day and any other team. We haven’t even hit 70% or our potential and what we can achieve this year and the next.
UP THE GUNNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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lets do our best to reach 50 replies to DC ‘S wonderful first post so that we get one from him once a month. For crying out loud its been three days.
Get HINTER AND GAINS in the house.
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Oh boy, for someone who wanted out of Dodge like a bat out of hell, Luis was pretty quick signing a four and half year extension. 200000/ week. Damn, nice work if you can get it. I guess he feels pool will make it to the big dance next year. I doubt you will be playing champions league next year ,son.
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GK
We badly need a top quality Steww, Andrew or GP post this morning.
Even a media update from George will do!
Don’t worry about mcbitey, the ‘mousers are only making sure they earn £60m+ when he’s gone after the World Cup. I bet this contract DOES have a but out clause!
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