Arsenal vs FC Bayern Munich (UCL 1st K/O Round 2nd Leg)

Yep, xenophobia at its finest :xhaka:

He’s continued to make top class saves, and although he has indeed made a few mistakes, I think you have to look to our inadequacy in other areas of the field which have left him open to those mistakes. Any keeper can be made to look poor if the players in front of him aren’t producing, and our play has been suicidal at times this season.

In any case, there was a huge gulf in class between him and Ospina when he signed, and there’s no way that gap has been bridged. Ospina wasn’t good enough to be first choice when he was first choice. He’s a good backup but nothing more and he should not be playing in a match of this magnitude.

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There’s nothing quite like the CL and the first knockout fixture is always the most exciting game of the year for me. We normally turn up for at least one of the legs and it is always big opposition and there’s always a twinkle of optimism, even if it’s unrealistic.

Even though we always go out, some of our performances against Barca, Milan etc. are really memorable nights. When we nicked that win against Barca I think I was more hyped than when we nicked that win against Hull in the cup final.

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I think the prestige of our European ties has been knocked by the groundhog day season we’ve had the last seven years. If we were to break the cycle though, that magic feeling would certainly be back.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve felt it at times over the last few years, especially when we nearly turned Milan over when they were 4-0 up or beat Barca at home, but I don’t look forward to European games in the way I did when I was a kid / in my early twenties.

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Despite all the other games, victories, and trophies that I’ve been lucky enough to witness as a fan, nothing quite stands out as that game against BarƧa in 2011.
The optimism I had for our season after that game was unreal. We were strong in the league, in the Carling Cup final, and I thought we would knock BarƧa out.

I think if we were knock Bayern out the feeling around the club would change dramatically.

Going by the team going round Twitter at the moment, it looks like Welbeck isn’t starting after all.

Feel free to share the lineup… :smiley:

Well I was only off with iwobi and Welbeck in my prediction

Xhaka and Coquelin in central midfield could be horrible.

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I’m one of the people who was always adamant that the gulf in class between Ospina and Cech was never as wide as people tried to make it out to be. Cech has been on a downward spiral for a few years now and whether it’s club or country he’s been conceding soft goals for a while now. His reflexes are noticeably slower and he’s a lot sloppier when attempting to save shots as well, as evidenced by him just flopping to the ground against City instead of him trying to make himself big.

Ffs. Wenger knows how to kill any excitement. Welbeck??

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https://twitter.com/FCBayern/status/831935074144833545

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/831937410640576517

ARGH! Not a good line-up!

When you see Welbeck on the bench again.

Not happy about this. Why Arsene, why :xhaka:

The irony is we have some good options on the bench, but the way we’re setup, it’ll probably be all too late by the time we use them.

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Iwobi is a mistake with his absolutely non-existent defensive contribution.

Xhaka-Elneny or Xhaka-Coq is more or less the same.

We’re still getting raped though

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I’m certainly prepared to entertain the idea that Cech is on the decline, but that Ospina should be starting instead is still way too much of a stretch. Look at the goals he conceded, particularly last season in the group stage before he was dropped. He’s nowhere near good enough.

Did want Welbeck starting tbh, touch disappointed

Welbeck is always a good shout for a big game. Ferguson always seemed to pick him for United for the massive games. There’s a reason for that, his movement adds so much to a frontline.

It isn’t really though.

Absolutely no idea how he can justify playing Ox over Welbeck–except that Ox is a pet project who is ā€œā€ā€œin good formā€ā€œā€ and Welbeck isn’t–in a game like this but oh well.

You’re as naive feeding Oli’s trolling here as you are in thinking Ox is in good form.