Hello and how are you?
Theres no point in me trying to add anything to the wealth of material that’s already been panned out since Saturday, from my perspective, everything’s been covered 100% in all forms, in the media and here on PA.
I’ve also read utterly conflicting reports about who’s available and who isn’t, so except Merino who’s crocked in the foot, we can’t really be sure until Mikel puts up the team sheet. Although Declan, Bukayo, Timber! Calafury and Mr Norgaard were all worryingly absent from training.
As in the first leg, The Zube and Mr Norgaard will miss the semis if they chalk up another yellow…
Hjulmand, a key for figure Sporting, is back after paying of his suspension dues. Ioannidis, Guilherme and Fresneda are AWOL for the Green and Whites.
The eggheads at Statto HQ sent over the figures and they’ve reckoned up : The Arsenal have a 65.1% chance of victory, hopefully through harmony, and our visitors have a 14.1% chance. Next up we climb aboard the Arsenal charabanc and make a day trip to the sunny city of Manchester, for spring time frolics with our favourite team, Manchester City. SO COYG!
Mills
Positively Arsenal 
Well done Mills writing a preview after last Saturday must be difficult.
65% chance of a win and a 20% chance of a draw, enabling us to go through, means we should feel very comfortable.
Unfortunately as you all know I don’t put much store in stats alone even though I have an O level in statistics (how old am I)
In the Champions League in recent years home advantage has meant less and form has to mean more.
I thought I saw Christian in the training pics so I think he’s fit but as usual Mikel will not play him from the start even if Declan is out.
Myles or Leo might be better fits playing behind Eze at ten.
We need to win this as a moral booster as by next Wednesday evening there is a chance we could be second in the league.
We have however been able to separate setbacks in the league from our CL form so if that continues we can expect an enjoyable game tonight COYG.
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Arsenal: Raya, Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie, Rice, Zubimendi, Eze, Madueke, Martinelli, Gyokeres.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Setford, White, Jesus, Norgaard, Trossard, Havertz, Dudziak, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman, Salmon.
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Nervy first half, we could do with a goal to boost the confidence, but we still seem thwarted. Shadow of ourselves?
Amazing game in Munich.
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HT: 0-0
we started well, but have dropped off a lot as the half went on and are lucky they did not score. We seem to be caught in two minds, want to attack but are afraid to over commit.
the other qf is bayern 2-3 real madrid, 4-4 on agg
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the standard of our dead ball play tonight has been very poor, straight to the keeper so often
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Havertz on for Gyokeres
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has Madueke had a game yet where he didn’t run the ball out of play
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Dowman on for the injured Madueke, it looked like a knee injury to Madueke, a clash of knees
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that will be a penalty, and a needless one, musquera panicked
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lucky that wasn’t given against us
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Arteta booked
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God our football is awful
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we have been so much poorer in attack since Madueke went off
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Jesus and Trossard on
Martinelli and Eze off
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80 minutes in and both teams have only had 1 shot each on target, us from 13 and them from 7
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Trossard heads onto the post from a deep Dowman corner
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4 minutes of stoppage time to be played
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holy fuck they were inched wide with a powerful shot as the last kick of the game
Arsenal into the semi final of the CL where we play Atletico Madrid, 29th of April and the 5th of May
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Bayern Munich 4-3 Real Madrid
Bayern win 6-4 on agg
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our football tonight was not good, but I really don’t give a shite cos we got through, and if we manage a draw on Sunday coming with poor football I will be ok with that too. Of course I want to see, and believe we should be playing much better football with the players we have, but we are at the point of the season where in some games its only results that matter. Sunday v Man City is a must not lose game, that way the league is still totally in our own hands and that is all that matters with games running out
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Madueke was limping badly after the game, but he was out celebrating on the pitch with the rest of the squad.
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Alex Manninger got killed in a train/car accident in Salzburg. RIP. COYG!
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That’s absolutely terrible news about Alex, his first club are saying it was a car accident.
He brilliantly saw us over the line in our double season in Arsene’s first full season. Imagine losing Raya at this stage of this season and that’s how we felt.
He was only 48 so his family must be distraught, this can be a really shit world sometimes but it does put our grumblings about football into perspective.
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awful news about Alex Manninger, he was a key part in us winning the title, he firstly lost a bit of confidence cos the old guard asked Wenger to reinstate Seaman despite Manninger’s brilliant displays. Then the next year he broke his wrist in training and it took him a long time to recover from that, more mentally than physically.
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Thats how I remember it too Ed. Shame he never got that form back. A lot of clubs have a lot of affection for him though, and thats a good thing to be remembered well…legacy lives on.
Ian, sorry I didnt back to you yesterday…stats, I dont really like them too much, I put it in the preview as a laugh, lets face they dont tell us much, our stats in the last two were better than our oppenents, but as witnesses we observe somthing else. The percentage rate for Sunday is the first time we are behind this season.
I took one positive thing from last night, aside from a clean sheet, and that was towrads the end, fifteen maybe ten mins before the end we got hold of the ball and kept it in their half, I know they had a close chance on a break, but for me that was the most psoitive thing going into the situ up in Manchester…that maybe we can close it down, of course I know City arent Sporting. I know Im clutching at straws but I cant give up hope as I would watch any games anymore!
They have so much hubris that theres a weird chance thats walked in. We didnt lose, clean sheet, The Zube was much better, ok the rest wasnt so good, but its not like it was on Monday morning, but the hangover was still there. I dont think anyone expects us to win and thats leaves the door that little bit open?
Dont get me wrong Im terrfied of having to emotionally soak up a five-nil drubbing and all the punidts gloating…
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our dead ball delivery last night was the worst I’ve ever seen it.
our attacking play went down a level when Madueke went off, we had no one to do any hard running at them. Although as usual he ran the ball out of play. but he had them in panic stations many times.
Dowman who replaced him had some good play but was inclined to try and over do it or hold on to it too long and look for frees that the ref was not giving.
There was one incident in the first half where Madueke was on a mad quick break up the wing and he suddenly stopped and turned back despite there being 40 yards of open space in front of him to run at and the sporting defence struggling to get to him, yes he had I think only one team mate up in their half at the time. Lots of Arsenal fans went mad at Madueke for stopping the breakaway, but they for some reason ignore that Madueke stopped and turned back after Arteta roared at him as he passed our Manager, I have no doubt he turned back on instruction, it might have been the sensible thing to do with only one team mate up the field, but I would have thought it would have been better to have Madueke try and go all the way on his own. We had a similar one man breakaway near the end when Raya made a great catch and dispatched the ball out to the left wing and our forward once again turned back as soon as he passed by Arteta.
I see many online critical of Trossard, but I thought we finally got control of the ball when he came on, yes he didn’t cause them much problems per say, but he gave us control, we had a few passages of possession and he was at the heart of it, he probed well.
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what do you predict for Sunday Ed?
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I think I’m going mad Mills but I’m predicting an Arsenal win.
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LOL! Dont worry Ed you dont come across as mad! I remember back in 89 after we had collasped and West Ham got thrashed by Liverpool and nobody gave us a chance, I didnt think we would do it. But this kid I knew in halls( it was a converted old hotel) who was a Chester City fan thought we would do it, it all being such a strange set of odds and needs. He came in the next day saying :” I told you!”.
Troube is one of the themes that been going on this year: which Arteta Arsenal will turn up? We can beat anyone on the day…and lose to anyone too.
What a season that was in 89. The guy in the room next to mine was a scouser, he went to Hillsborough ( I was at Highbury that day v Newcastle) and he got there early and chose not to stand where everyone died. Saved his life.
Thing was he didnt come back after the easter break. I was the tool elected to phomen his family, his Mum answered crying, I thought oh fk hes dead, but he was ok and she said he’d be back soon. he certainly had some stories to tell.
He also went to the game at Anfield, next day he came back shook my hand! Decent bloke really. I met a few other scousers who were at that game and not so sporting about it all!
What a night that was, like no other really…
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Yep you’re going mad Ed, if you look at all the logistics of the game there isn’t a metric which would point to a win.
Since beating the spuds, on the 22nd February, we have been playing badly our at least not playing well. In fact we have been getting steadily worse.
There has been no reaction to losing the final and our full backs have struggling, our midfield base looks knackered and our attack is blunt and out of ideas. Even the dead ball situations are not bringing in the haul they once were, that has not been helped by the short passes we have suddenly started to take from those situations.
We have never been great on the counter but having constantly talked about the difficulty in breaking teams the reverse half way through breaks that Ed has highlighted is infuriating and pure crazy. At one point last night Zubi was going diagonally forward just over the half way line on the break he had a five yard ball wide that would of created an overload and kept the break going, instead he opted to take it around a player on our goal side to pass it backwards. I was screaming at the anti football attitude of which I have never seen in over half a century of watching the ARSENAL, yes we have had worse teams but never that attitude.
As the game went on we did have more possession in their half but that wasn’t control that was because they were having to throw more players forward and so they were giving up control.
To have control you have to have your game management head on and we have not been good at that either. We had a corner in the 88th minute which Rice overhit and it went straight out of play. That’s when you should keep it short, keep control, keep possession and in the corner.
The Raya quick throw was another opportunity to go into the corner but again we chose the wrong option and that is why they got the ball back and had another chance.
I certainly haven’t given up any hope of a result at city but if we are logical we shouldn’t be putting any money on it. It’s a good job its football and anything can happen even when you don’t expect it.
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