Yes a great game but it's easier when the opposition mids are average. Lucky he didn't have to play against kroos and modric
Madrid did rather go out with a whimper, commentators suggestion of the third goal in the 1st leg taking any fight out of them may or may not be true, had they netted first maybe they would have sparked to life but all a bit too easy in the end be interesting to see how third English club in a row (rubbish format this season) fare against PSG shame Bayern couldn't turn their tie around, and that two of the four ties were pretty much over after the 1st leg (wouldn't have been certain at the time, but 3-0 and 4-0 are not easy to overturn)
Yeah I didnt think villa would give PSG as much as a game as they did, I guess it gives Arsenal hope, but still can't see past PSG. The other game is an interesting one, I did predict a PSG V Barcelona final but always had a niggle that Inter might do it,
PSG will be a much sterner test for Arsenal ,I think they kind of let their guard down a bit against Villa and looked a touch complacent sitting on their lead from the first leg. Add to that, then going 5-1 up on aggregate by slotting the first goals of the second leg ,so there was always going to be a drop in their level of concentration. So it was understandable the drop off in their pressing game ,but if they reach the levels of football they showed against us in their yard then I doubt Arsenal will get near them.
Still getting over last night. For all the focus on how we slapped Real Madrid for 180 minutes, it is only the third time ever that we've made it this far in this competition. I'll be the first to appreciate and accept our European pedigree is not as high as it should be but this is history for the club and that alone will be cherished a little. I don't really have much to say about the performance outside of the professionalism of it (bozo moments aside). It should really have been a 6-0 over the two legs. PSG next for us. I think we're the best suited team in England to beat them. We're significantly better at defending than Villa and we're psychologically better suited to suffering and being without the ball than Liverpool. I have reason to have confidence, this team has struggled all season with teams that sit in, restrict space and put the challenge to us to break them down. But the teams that don't do that? We've put seven past City, five past Sporting, nine past PSV and another five past Real Madrid. Give us space and we'll have no problem putting goals past you. The omens are with us too. The last time we made the final of this competition, we beat Real Madrid along the way. The last time Arsenal won a European trophy, they beat a certain Parisian team in the semi-finals Only two weeks away. Cannot wait.
You were great. As i said at the draw time I didn't expect villa to be able to match psg at all. They fought hard though,to their credit. Having seen us play both real and psg and having seen real simply not stepping up or being able to live with you my opinion is thst this will be a really high intensity fast paced tie. Forget who else you've played though. This is about the specific opponent. None of the above you have mentioned are anywhere near this one. (And I've seen lfc play every one of them bar sporting) If arsenal can break their intense press and deal with the pace then imo you can get at them. Both villa and us could get at them quite a few times despite being dominated as there was that space. The same can be said for arsenal defence, you have to deny the space for them to run in and force them to play in front. If you do I think you will do OK. This one is the tie of the round.
I agree with most of that, but in the crunch games you need a striker who is on it to get you over the line. You don't have that.apparenty.
Final PSG vs Inter M. Inter will beat Barça with counters and thwarting Flick's offside traps, and Arsenal won't beat PSG.
PSG comfortably beaten by Nice at home 1-3 in their first one horse race defeat of the season. Could end up being a good or bad thing for Arsenal on Tuesday. I reckon Arsenal need a two goal lead going into that second leg.
Seems like they put out a full strength side too, so it wasn't a case of resting players ahead of the Arsenal match.
In the end I still expect it to be two teams going hammer and tongs at each other. Real were disappointing. We ran them off the part at anfield but I think everyone expected them to pick it up in the home straight but arsenal blew them off the park. Psg on the other hand blew us off the park so the assumption i have been under is that it'll be rewlly high intensity between two sides
I imagine it's s difficult to keep up the desire when the French one horse race is already run. I suspect the players had one eye on Tuesday.
Champions League and League only Arsenal - P46, W27, D15, L4, G93, GA36, GD+57, Clean Sheets - 17, Blanks - 7 PSG - P45, W32, D7, L6, G114, GA44, GD+70, Clean Sheets - 12, Blanks - 4 Not too dissimilar to the Real Madrid tie for Arsenal. Playing a side that is electric going forward but are leaky and do struggle to keep clean sheets. Partey is going to be a huge miss because the solutions are either playing Lewis-Skelly there which is going to be a big ask or putting the leash back on Rice and playing him deeper when we'd all agree he's at his best covering ground and pressing in that further advanced position. If you drop Rice deeper, you also drag Merino deeper too and I don't really want us to move far away from what has worked.
Yeah but. These are completely different sides on completely different trajectories. As i said before, we played real and blew them off the park in the league stage. They were no better innterms of ability to get round and defend as a unit when they played you. You deservedly thrashed them. Psg in the other hand had a weaker stsrt but used January well and were flying when we met.they absolutely hammered us but couldn't score. They did the same to villa who caught them on the break but we're otherwise we'll dominated. I think you'll make a better fist of competing with them than we did. I think it'll ne a top quality game. You've a big chance to break that press and get in at their back line, even we managed that 4 or 5 times in our first leg and villa did them too. They have such pace and work that they will hit you hard. If they had a central striker I'd.makenthemnhed hot favourites They have 3 wingers. They let us away with it so fornme this is 50/50. Best of luck
This is going to be tasty tonight A quick gsme and if arsenal can break the press they will be in open country all the way to goal. But the pace and intensity of psg has to be respected Arsenal cannot afford a stupid moment of indiscipline anywhere in this tie
