UEFA Europa League

Yassssss, wow this is gonna be one hellavu tie! When we hoist that cup we will have really earned it. Cmon you Gunners!!! Big Weng about to make el cholo his bitch. :grin:

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Are we at home in the first leg?

Also, is it next week or the week after?

To win this now, weā€™re going to need the spirit of a thousand ā€˜late charge to finish in the top 4ā€™'s

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I donā€™t know how I feel about this. I want to be positive, but Iā€™m just so jaded.

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Diddums

https://twitter.com/mrarsenictm/status/984815092624699392

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As others have pointed out, we knew weā€™d have to get through Atleti at some stage to win the competition. They are the main obstacle, and while it would have been nice to only have to play them in the final, if itā€™s over 2 legs then so be it.

The thing that worries me is that Simeone is an extremely pragmatic manager - heā€™ll set his team up to defend and counter us in both legs and Wenger will fall right into the trap. Iā€™m not optimistic at all and could easily see us losing something like 3-0 over the 2 legs. Iā€™ll be right up for it when the games come around but at this point in time, I just canā€™t see Wenger doing anything different / surprising to get us through.

Regardless, it adds some undoubted legitimacy / prestige to the trophy if we have beaten AC Milan, CSKA Moscow and Atletico Madrid to get there (not that I would have complained if we had faced shithouses like Ostersund in each round and Salzburg in the final).

Iā€™m hoping we see a more defensive, disciplined setup against Atleti - if we perform like we did against Milan them it will be interesting but I am already having premonitions of our players being pressed and harried into mistakes in our own halfā€¦

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I just donā€™t see it happening. Wengerā€™s been outfoxed this way in the past and while I think heā€™s now shit, I donā€™t think heā€™s going to make the same mistake of approaching a game heā€™s likely to lose with no adjustments being made for a difficult opposing style.

This is one of the few teams he will adapt against, and when he adapts he generally does alright. So Iā€™m quietly optimistic about our chances. Itā€™ll be tough but if we win itā€™ll be the sweetest thing to happen to Arsenal in Europe for a decade.

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Atletico are rightly favourites and I fully expect a team thatā€™s performed at the level they have to defeat us, itā€™s logical. The only thing going for us are our cup performances last year against Chelsea/City and in other years, United at Old Trafford, Liverpool in 13/14 where weā€™ve toughed out results.

Wish I could believe that heā€™ll adapt but Wenger is going to Weng.

He needs to recapture the spirit of our 05/06 CL run. He was extremely pragmatic in the way that he set us up in the knockout stages that year. It boggles the mind that we made a CL final with the likes of Eboue, Senderos and Flamini (at LB!) in defence, it shows you what his teams are capable of achievingā€¦but then heā€™ll revert to his Wengering and we go back to square one.

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iā€™m hoping with his job on the line he will pull his finger out his arse instead of his usual

Even m,ore amazing was that we broke the record for the longest run of games without conceding a goal with Flamini playing out of position at LB.

Like you say, it shows what he can do, but will always go back to his old ways.

I still think we have a decent chance of going through but must keep a clean sheet at home and hope Costa is still injured.

Itā€™s going to be up to the players to realise the gravity tie and come up with a solutions in spite of Wenger.

Itā€™s the away leg where I think weā€™ll turned over. Canā€™t see us competing with Atletico. Squad just doesnā€™t possess the experience or discipline to get a result at the Metropolitano

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what an awesome name for a stadium as well. Wonder what the story is behind it.

Such a shame we sold out our stadium name to Emirates for some money, a bit of a tinpot move imo, especially because that extra money have given us nothing really.

Hosting the 2019 CL final too

Renamed to Ashburton Grove or Arsene Wenger soon pls

EDIT: Lol, just realised that Wanda is also a sponsorship name lol, fair enough. Still sounds better

Iā€™d be interested to know how Sevilla approached them in the Copa quarterfinals. Atleti have only conceded more than once in five matches all season and two of those matches were against Sevilla in that tie.

https://twitter.com/MrArsenicTM/status/985632825331286016

Really looking forward to the end of our season then.

Mustafi dropping clangers all round that this guy will eat up.

dont think costa will be getting away with as much as he did in the EPL, he fucks around he will be sent off. The EPL refs are fucking garbage and turn a blind eye to things it generally doesnt happen in the european competitions.

Very different era, very different opponents, certainly factors of luck/variance involved. Wenger tries to be pragmatic a lot actuallyā€¦his approach at CSKA definitely was him trying to be pragmatic (incredibly defensive approach, low rhythm (fucking hate this word, always takes me like 5 tries on spell check to get it right) basically trying to waste time from minute one, subbing Chambers on in the 70th minute or whatever. Heā€™s just not a good managerā€¦whereas in 2005-06 we can probably sayā€“though certainly thereā€™s room for debateā€“that the game still hadnā€™t evolved enough to have passed him by.

Fact is a CL run like we had then would never happen in the current day, so Iā€™m not sure how much use it has to us, wishing for it wistfully.

Of course it was a different era, different opponents etc. - the point is that we adopted a counter-attack system despite our team being at a much higher technical level back then than it is now. It was a remarkable sea-change from our usual possession based system. We essentially played in this manner all the way through the competition and set a record of consecutive clean sheets, minutes without conceding etc.

Aside from some isolated examples (e.g. away games v Barcelona, that 3-1 away win over City some seasons ago), we have never mimicked that counter attacking approach. Playing too openly has cost us numerous times against the best sides when it would have been pragmatic to play more defensively / on the counter.

It seems completely random when / where Wenger will decide to use these tactics, but given that it almost brought us the biggest prize in club football, itā€™s baffling that we havenā€™t tried to replicate this at any other time. Well, itā€™s not baffling actually, itā€™s archetypal Wenger.

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Wenger sold half the players from that team as well ffs.

Still donā€™t know why we let go of Sol, Robert and Freddie straight after.

I wonder if it was because of lack of guarantees regarding playing time or something.

https://twitter.com/TyMarshall_LT/status/986181230008913920

Imagine we finish 7th and spend our summer playing Europa League qualifiers. Our fall from grace would be complete :see_no_evil::joy:

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