The Good, The Bad & The God Damn Ugly!

I think last night was one of the worse Arsenal matches I have ever seen! Obviously qualification was vital to both teams but the display was a non-existant. I feel sorry for the Arsenal fans who actually travelled over to Porto!

The good was qualification, the bad was effort from the players and the watching the whole 90 minutes was god damn ugly!

But the main thing is we qualified and finished top of the group.

The match reminded me of the Villarreal match were if we conceded we would have been in real trouble, since we had no attacking momentum whatsoever and it would have been impossible to equalise if Porto actually scored.

Luckily for us Christiano Ronaldo clone Ricardo Quaresma only succeeded in hitting the post. Twice.

The man of the match was surely the referee who blew the whistle at full time!

Luckily Hamburg beat CSKA Moscow 3-2 in Germany anyway so the Arsenal ‘match’ was academic anyway.

But as far as I understand if CSKA actually won then they would have been equal on points as us – so why wouldn’t they qualify ahead of us if they had a better record (a draw and a win) over Arsenal?

Maybe someone can explain that one to me!

Anyway, enough about that now – the sooner I forget about it the better. The possible teams we could face in the last 16 are:

Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Roma, PSV Eindhoven, Celtic and Lille.

Looks like finishing first wasn’t that much of an advantage after all!

 

14 thoughts on “The Good, The Bad & The God Damn Ugly!

  1. We would have qualified above CSKA because Porto had a better head to head against CSKA, and we had a better head to head against Porto.

     
  2. surely cska had a better record against us and we had a better one against porto so if cska actually won last night they should have qualified with us then? and left porto in 3rd place?

     
  3. it would go like this:

    we’d all have 11 points so it would go on points gained against each other. however we all had 5 points from game s against each other. so it would’ve gone on goal difference in those games against each other. we had plus 1, porto had level and cska had -1 which is why us and porto were guaranteed had cska won and we’d drawn

     
  4. If Moscow had won it would have been a three-way tie. In such cases the results of the games against the fourth team are excluded. In this case this would have been irrelevant (Hamburg would not have taken any points from anyone), so then it goes on goal difference, with the order being Arsenal, then Porto, then Moscow (unless Moscow had got a hatfull against Hamburg).

    Simple enough really.

     
  5. Surely it was better finshing the top of the group than not. imagine if we didnt finish top, this would have been the possiblities.

    Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lyon, Milan. (I dont think we would have been able to be drawn against Enlish clubs yet)

    I would rather knowing we can get drawn against Lille, or Roma, or Celtic or PSV than any of the above.

     
  6. look they scrapped the results against each other (head to head) it went straight down to GOAL DIFFERENCE if it did come into play

     
  7. I don’t know if conveniently forgetting that as top seed we may draw Inter, Madrid or Barcelona is going to negate it from happening. And, Real Madrid are an entirely dfferent matter this year. I’d rather we draw Baraca from from the two.

    First or second makes no difference

     
  8. For me ,this is the time to play Barcelona when they don’t have Eto’o and Larsson. The current squad is good for Europ and we can beat any team. Forget about yesterday’s display. It was designed to be played that way.

    My formation to play Chelsea on Sunday with regard to injury news.

    4-5-1.

    Lehman.

    Flamini(or Hoyte)- Sanderos- Gilberto- Clichy.

    Eboue.

    Lehb- Fabregas- RVP- Freddy.

    Adebayor.

     
  9. Barcelona look deadly, and they haven’t even got Eto’o or Messi in the side! Unfortunately for every other team than Barca Ronaldinho has started to hit some form.

    Real Madrid don’t look that impressive especially since Capello took over. We could beat Real over two legs, but Barca would be tough. To be honest I think we could get past any of those teams – with Henry back to his best next month.

    lc, are you suggesting playing Eboue in defensive midfield and Gilberto at the back!?

     
  10. Weng’ I, yes. Eboue ‘s got better ball control and passing then Gilberto. He doesn’t lose too many balls and he is not the sort of a player who would give away the ball under pression. And don’t forget; he was a defensive midfielder when he was brought to Arsenal.

     
  11. I definately expect to see Hoyte at RB but I don’t know where Arsene will use Eboue. I don’t like to think this will be Wenger’s line up but you may be suprised:

    Lehmann

    Hoyte Eboue Senderos Clichy

    Gilberto

    Hleb Flamini Cesc RvP

    Adebayor

    I can bet this will be the line up.
    And in a way, maybe, given the current news, this team may be able to compete. I just hope we give a good account of ourselves.
    The best thing I like about this game is that we are not expected to win. In that way, we are under less pressure than Chelsea. They must win. I’m sure Arsenal fans will be happy to avoid defeat.

    I feel it is better for Gilberto to retain his position and protect the back 4. If Eboue can retain possession like lc says then he should stay at CB. Eboue will do a better job at CB than at DM. And I also think Flamini will start because Wenger believes he can fight and Flamini is seen as a player who can get stuck in in the middle.

    You never know. I just hope a miracle happens.
    I have a sneak feeling that Gallas will make it and that this is only a smokescreen. Gallas knows Mourinho and would have advised that Wenger say he has a small chance of being available.
    Just watch WG10 run out on Sunday. You heard it first from me!

     
  12. It wouldn’t have been the first time a player started who was very doubtful – I wouldn’t be surprised if Gallas at least made the bench on Sunday, and I think he’ll probably start.

    The only position Eboue can play is at right back or right midfield. He doesn’t have the disipline to play at centre back or midfield, and more importantly the temprament – he moans at even the slightest tackle so playing in the middle where most of the tackles happen is a non-starter!

     

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