march 10th
Well I know it was YANDNIEFA®™ but I don’t really feel like breaking out the YADNIEFA®™ template. We’re out of the Champions League yet again but I didn’t find last night’s exit as hard to swallow as some of the others. We paid for the two mistakes in the first leg, end of story.
The first half was pretty much all Bayern as they pressed and harried and pushed and pressured us all over the pitch and looked to exploit our defensive frailties from set-pieces. They didn’t count on Philippe Senderos though who was absolutely fantastic from the word go. He won headers and tackles, made blocks and defended like a guy who’d been playing at this level for years and not someone who was making his first Champions League start.
So for the first 40 minutes it was Bayern who looked most likely break the deadlock. Arsenal’s only effort on goal was a long range volley from Vieira after a goalmouth scramble. Then we put together a decent bit of play in the last 5 minutes of the half, Thierry went through down the left and Oliver Kahn made a decent save to deny him. It boded well for the second half though.
And in the second half it was mostly Arsenal. Bayern had run themselves ragged in the first 40 minutes and couldn’t keep it up. We had more of the ball but we didn’t really create a huge amount. Fabregas came on for the excellent Flamini to add some craft to the midfield while Robert Pires came on for José Antonio Reyes who was quite awful. People talk, wrongly in my opinion, about Thierry Henry going missing in big games well they should look at the Spaniard first. Time and time again we expect and hope for a big performance from him and each time he disappoints. I love the little guy as much as the next man but maybe we have to accept that English culture and English football just doesn’t suit him.
Then we scored. The lifeline we were looking for. An long ball by Ashley Cole was controlled brilliantly by Thierry Henry and he fired a left footed shot past the albino gorilla in the Bayern goal. All we needed was one more goal and I really thought we’d get it. Robin van Persie came on for Freddie, Kolo had a header saved and in the last 10 minutes I wanted us to throw men forward and lump the ball into the Bayern box but we didn’t, Bayern held on and we went out. Over the course of the two legs I suppose they deserved it but as I said earlier we paid for two silly mistakes and a poor performance in the first leg.
There were positives from last night. Senderos has shown he’s more than up to the task with one of the finest central defensive performances I’ve seen for ages. He’s got to stay in the team now until the end of the season and let him build his experience. I am extremely impressed with him and he’s the kind of defender we’ve needed for some time. No-nonsense, strong and unafraid. Well done, Sir. Mathieu Flamini was very good in midfield too. He just never stops and his enthusiasm and running coupled with his willingness to get stuck in will make him a very important squad member in the future.
What about the negatives though? A number of the ‘big name’ players underperformed last night. That was possibly the worst game I’ve ever seen Ashley Cole play, José, as mentioned above, was brutal and Dennis Bergkamp just didn’t get into the game at all. If we were to have had any chance to go through we needed those guys to step up and they didn’t. Tactically I thought we were fine but when it came to the last 10 minutes I thought we could have crowded their box and just tried to pressure them more. I know it’s difficult when you only need one goal, you have to try and keep playing your normal football, but lots of sideways passing will never amount to a goal. A long ball into the box just might.
Anyway, we join Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United as Champions League spectators for the rest of the season. All in all though I’m not as disappointed as I was last season against Chelsea when I felt we had a real chance to win the thing. Or as in previous seasons, especially Valencia away. It’s not the disaster some people seem to think it is and some journos are only too happy to try and make it seem worse than it is. Have we really fallen below expectations this time around given how much experience we lost from the squad in the summer and how much we’ve had to rely on the kids?
We won last night and there’s no question that this season has been transitional in a way. We’ve blooded a lot of young and inexperienced players who will be better next season. That’s not making excuses, that’s just the truth of the matter. We’ve seen the emergence of Fabregas, Flamini and Senderos and although van Persie hasn’t convinced anyone yet I think there’s lots of potential there. Some judicious signings in the summer in the right places and I think our squad next season is going to be very, very good.
Post match reaction: Thierry Henry (who says we have to make ourselves busy in the transfer market this summer), Arsene Wenger, Jens Lehmann.
Next up it’s Bolton in the FA Cup so there’s no time for feeling sorry for ourselves. This is our last chance at silverware so we really have to go for it. Finally I have to wish good luck to my mate Chris who’s going back to -20C in Sweden today. That means I have to drink his share of the mojitos each weekend. Oh the humanity. Good luck, you cunt.
