The Arsenal vs. Olympiacos CL Matchday Thread: December 4, 2012

squillaci did nothing wrong tbf.
ramsey, on the other hand, was absolutely atrocious. did he do ANYTHING right?

Coquelin is another who ads nothing to Arsenal. He was unbelieveably weak in all his attempted tackles and his reading of play is just as bad. Midfield was porous, no power or strength.

This is a culmination of bad purchases and releases in the last 4-5 years. The damage is nearly beyond repair

Yea, if anyone starts picking on a guy who has had zero minutes this season then this thing is way over their head

Gervinho- C (indecision, bit of a turnover machine.. his pass did lead to our only goal)
Chamakh- B (full of hustle, won many headers, involved throughout)
OX- C- (tries to do way too much)
Ramsey- F (AWFUL AGAIN, TURNOVER MACHINE, he is turning into a comedy bit now)
Rosicky- A (excellent goal, great movement, slick passing)
Coquelin- C (not his best effort, tried to get sent off with some lunges)
Meade- B+ (what a great 1st start.. smart, fast, intelligent movement of the ball)
Vermaelen- B+ (he almost had to play the entire center of the backline by himself)
Squillaci- D- (why is he even playing for us?)
Jenkinson- C- (nice movement up the right side, but once again his usual lack of awareness nearly caught us out.. his man missed a sitter)
Sczcesny- C- (didn't stop the ones we needed, and wasn't tested otherwise, nearly allowed a goal with poor distribution)


pretty obvious that it wasn't a corner kick which allowed their 1st goal... but this team looked like a bunch of guys who never play and lack any type of cohesion.
Arsene, once again you are making the fanbase question what the ******** you are doing with this thing.

Can't. We already have Santos.

Given Wenger's reputation as a talent evaluator, you've gotta question some of these acquisitions. Chamakh, Gervinho, Santos, Squillaci. All quite bad.

We could be top of the group but AGAIN, dropped the lead we had. No surprise here so i'm not gonna say much... I know we already qualified so... well, if we could win it, why not? The answer is: we are not good enough to win it. This team is so boring to watch now.
ARSENE, PLS FIX IT. I have always had big hope in you. Please don't let me down.

you must have the patience of a saint. haven't the last 4/5/6/7 years taught you nothing?

Because i'm not sure if it's all Wenger's fault or it's because Ivan is a greedy cow who wants to turn AFC into a money machine.

Do you know the line-up we played against the Greek champions? The fact that we had the lead was a surprise.

id rather not top the group this year. There are some super teams sitting in the 2nd pot

Should I bother watching the match or not?

no, it was a terrible match with terrible skills on show (bar 2 goals...and rosicky's is in a gif here already). meade was the only properly interesting thing.

I know we brought all youngsters and 2 string players but since we got the lead, i hoped we could keep it. Oh well, call me greedy if you like cuz i always want to see a victory no matter who we play

well, no real shock. I did think this second string (or whatever) squad played with a bit more purpose--i guess fresher legs will do that.

Rosicky looked great and the first have was a decent watch for me. They had some chances, so did we.
Ramsey and Gervinho were the standouts--and not in a good way. Gerv had the assist which maybe is enough to redeem him, but Ramsey did nothing useful except work hard. Sometimes too hard, watched him chase down a pass to their CB from deep midfield only to walk back while they countered.

Ox seems to be hitting a bit of a sophomore slump or something. That said, he was free on the right at least 4 times when Ramsey and Gerv had the ball only to go unoticed.

Our midfiled woes are summed up in that pretty much the best play from midfield was Chamakh's crosss to Arshavin...CHAMACKH...OMFG

Anyway, didn't expect anything and wasn't dissapointed. I'm happy to have Rosicky back...Cazorla needs a break. So, what are we looking at? If Rosicky is back, how will we shape up? We have Jack, Rosicky, Arteta, Santi, Ramsey. If we want to get our possession game going again, maybe:

------------Pod-------------
Rosicky--Jack--Arteta--Santi--Theo

Bring on Giroud, Arshavin, Santos when we need a bit of change-up and want to just put balls in the danger area? I have to believe that Rosicky, Jack, Arteta and Santi should be able to hold the ball well against most sides.

So I forgot the game was on (work caught up with me)- Before I went to check the score, I said to myself "Lost 3-1 but Schalke probably won, so no big".

A small chuckle followed, as a game that meant nothing somehow still ended badly. this team is in a really bad place, mentally, right now.

Understandable

thinking Schalke was an automatic win is very naive...
Arsene sent a B/C team to Greece for a chance to win the group.
Unacceptable. Who does he think we are??

whats more important? winning the group, or the next game in the prem?

Our B team was good in the way that our A team is good and bad in the way that our A team is bad.

What does this mean?

Generally we look like gamers til we bring the ball up to the chalk line surrounding the box at which point everybody looks up and goes "what are we supposed to do now?"

Chamakh looks like somebody who understands the game but isn't allowed to play which suits him fine and the rest just look like people who shine in scrimmages and drills and have no idea how to score the ball.

That goal by Mitroglou was a beaut if you watch it from where he launched the ball.

Source?

Or did you see something I didn't. (which wouldn't surprise me since I watched the game on fast forward)

Or are you just assuming that because he got subbed at HT he must've taken a knock.

It sucks that we weren't that dangerous.

It sucks that we went 1-0 up then took our foot off the gas and let them back in.

But what really sucks is that when a team pressurizes us we just can't seem to handle it and oftentimes end up just retreating to our keeper.

That depresses me like nothing else.

I'd say our chances of getting barca are about 95%. We suck, Rosicky did well and Szczesny had some good saves, that's about it. Gervinho is beyond terrible.

I understand your frustration, phishy. I, of course, have been ticked off at B teams playing in the Carling Cup for years.

However, who else could we send? Arteta and Santi both had to have a break. Gibbs, Wilshere and Sagna are still easing into full fitness, and didn't Giroud get a knock last time out? Only guy I'd have wanted to see there was Podolski, just because I am supremely puzzled by Wenger never allowing him to go a full 90 minutes...

Well...

...That was a fun run at threadstarter...