Wouldn't be right for me to show up before the game and not afterwards. I'll keep some of my opinions to myself as this is your thread. 1-0 isn't as bad as it could have been, but I would have much rather have had it end at 2-1. The commentary on the squirrels actions were hilarious, have a good week.
Q: Why was the Gooner Squirrel hanging around the goal? A: He knows Mad Jens goes Nuts! Ba da da dummmmm!
Rqieuelme also couldnt really beseen at the San Siro. However come El Madirgal it was a different kettle of fish. he was immense. he is a world class player, but one who needs everything in his favour if you get me. the ref didnt suit his style. i feel in spain the ref will be more strict, favoruing romanand his teammates. also he gets extremeely motivated at home, by the fans. he is a weird character. but we will see in the 2nd leg how he can come to life.
As soon as that Henry goal was ruled offside - when it clearly wasnt (what the hell are Austrian pipsqueak league refs doing in the CL semis?) - it was obvious that it was not to be Arsenals day. Hell the tie should have been dead and buried at Highbury with a 4-0 score. Now there is a chance this boring "take the air out of the tires" yellow submarine getting to the final. I will have to be on tranqulizers for 6 days now........
The 2nd leg cannot be take for granted, that is for sure. But it does help going into the match up by a goal.
The boys (and Gilberto in particular) shut down Riquelme, therefore they shut down Villareal. They had nowhere else to go once their playmaker was taken out and they should have been beaten by more. There was nothing in the Villareal performance that makes me think it will be anything other than a cruise to the final next Tuesday. All they seemed to do was roll around on the floor looking for free-kicks and to not create a single chance worthy of the name in 90 minutes is pathetic for a team in a Champions League semi-final. With Reyes back next week to give us a bit of speed on the wing (which I felt we missed last night) I think we can win in Spain too playing on the counter-attack and picking them off as they have to come at us.
so its pretty safe to say your team list should be: real madrid, anyone playing Arsenal. lol! what a homer for villarreal you are. "the ref didnt suit his style".. wha??? you mean he was completely marked out of the game. he wasnt even one who was diving, he just got abused by gilberto, period. gimme a break.... cry me a river.
Did we forget where Arsenal beat Real Madrid??? At the Bernabeu. And im not just talking about 1 brilliant goal by Henry. Im talking about how Arsenal completely outplayed Real in Madrid. I dont think Arsenal playing at Villareal would be a big difference. Hell, if not we may play better, Cesc and Reyes will be right at home
Lehmann 1- Squirrel 0. In a post-match interview, Lehmann declared: ""I shouted at it - it wasn't tackling - and it ran away."
How happy i was to see Toure score. When he scored all of a sudden so many things popped in my head: Finally, he's scored!, Finally he's scored at Highbury!, oh, it's the last euopean match at highbury! There's only a couple of games left here!, he scored, where's Henry celebrating* (bonus thought), oh he so deserves the goal, more than anyone... then about 3 minutes later when I started to assess how this affected everything else, I remembered we were playing in the Champions League semi and he scored a home goal for us and we were up by one
Mad Jens to the rescue. That should come in handy if/when we qualify for the CL but have to play a qualifier in the summer against some team in e.europe with wild dogs running onto the pitch (really happened to Liverpool this season).
No kidding...now being marked out of the game is called "the ref didn't suit his style" by anti-Arsenal sympathists. Nice euphemism .
there was a few times that riquelme lost gilberto and he still couldn't do much at all. just face it. gilberto frustrated him to no end and put him off his game.
Yes, Gilberto dealt with Riquelme. And when Gilberto was busy pissing someone else off, i can remember Fabregas and Hleb on him like little mosquitos. Hleb really, really surprised me how effective he was yesterday with defense. He was the main transition between defense and offense yesterday.
I agree. Hleb's defending is really starting to show. He is valuable at the quick transition from offense to defense. I think this is a big reason Wenger spent the cash on him. He really fits into our team well.
He reminds me of Henry of 3-4 years ago, where he needed everything to be right for Arsenal to win the champions league... Now Henry has changed. Ever since Vieira left he has taken a larger responsibility in the team, at least in Europe and his game is much better.. He helps his teammates a lot more now, from 2-4 years back. Yes he led the team in assists back then, but there were plenty of times that Henry didn't pass the ball to a player in a better position. Now, since our undefeated season he has grown leaps and bounds. And it's still amazing how many goals he scores without being selfish. Take our goal versus Villareal. He could've gone on to have a crack with his right foot, from the left just a tad outside the box. Instead he puts Hleb into space, and it results in a Toure goal. If you notice on the replay Henry made the run forward for the return ball, but it wasn't needed.. And he wasn't angry, a true testament how far he has grown this season in my opinion.
I keep saying give him time... Ballack last summer: "If Hleb came to Bayern Munchen, we would've won the Champions League."