LOSS UEFA Champions League Semi Final: Arsenal 0 - 1 Paris Saint-Germain (1st Leg) | Tuesday, 29th April | KO: 20:00 BST | Amazon Prime Video/TNT Sports

So here it is…



5th May 2009

The biggest movies of the year were Inglorious Basterds, Avatar and the Hurt Locker. Dizzee Rascal and Kanye West (ahem) dominated the charts and David Cameron was still sat in opposition.

Lionel Messi was about to win his first Ballon d’Or AND Arsenal last played in the semi finals of a Champions League. We’ve waited almost 16 years… so many false dawns and even a half decade in the footballing wilderness of the Europa League but now…

WE’RE BACK!

You have to go even further back for our last winning semi final effort with this heart stopper against Villarreal in 2006.



That’s right almost 20 years since that famous night in the then Madrigal. Hopefully the spirit of Jens won’t be needed by Raya over the two legs…

Predicted Team



After the last round the line-up pretty much sets itself. The big hope is that both Merino and White come through their injury scares.

Whilst obviously it’s Merino who’s most important the bench is looking very light with this game probably arriving too soon for Calafiori and Jorginho even though they should be back for the return leg.

The threat of the team depending on whether it’s Trossard or Merino up front is night and day. In a few short weeks Merino has proven to be our signing of the season raking with both goals and assists.

The Opposition

After defeating the biggest name in club football in the quarter finals we now face probably the most in form.

From the new year they’ve won 23, drawn 2 and lost 2 with those two losses coming in legs against Villa and Liverpool when they still managed to progress regardless.

Now whilst as per usual they have steamrollered Ligue 1 their form in the CL has been iffy. A lot of people point to their form post January when they’ve comprehensively slapped up City (although so did we and even Real Madrid managed it) and Stuggart but to my eyes they have looked very uncertain at times against Villa and Liverpool.

Villa in particular had them fully on the ropes looking dazed and PSG needed a dodgy injury time allocation to really get them over the line.

PSG are one of the four other clubs that our manager has played for, and we have an unbeaten record against them having won twice and drawn three of our previous competitive matches, a record we extended earlier this season in the Group Stage when we comprehensively put them away.



Notice both goals coming from crosses… set pieces have proven to be a constant weakness for them this year so hopefully Joever has been cooking something up in the lab.

There are a few former players who’ve played for both clubs ranging from the ridiculous (David Luiz and Kaba Diawara) to the sublime with our once upon a time teenage phenom Nicolas Anelka sandwiching his time at Arsenal and Real between two stints with the Parisians.



Danger Man

extended. Again this isn’t necessarily the star studded PSG team that’s so embarrassingly flattered to deceive in Europe over the years.

Gone are the “Galacticos” of Neymar, Mbappe, Messi, Ramos and Cavani now replaced with a glittering array of youngsters such as Zaire-Emery, Barcola and in particular Desire Doue who looks scarily good.

We could also say Kvaratskhelia who’s arrival in January has coincided with a higher level for PSG but in terms of danger men it has to be the man with more goals than starts this year…



Ousmane Dembele who has been in frightening form in both Ligue 1 and Champions League.

COYG LETS SMASH THEM

 

[HagnSprayGooners]

The most worrying thing for me today was that PSG “managed” the game after going 1-0 up.

I didn’t think they had it in them. Young team, full of super talent, I thought they’d just continue trying to ball out but nah man these ****ers are smart and disciplined.

It’s gonna be tough in Paris. We will need to press them like craaaaazy because they’ll be more than happy passing it around at the back. Rice will be

Missed the Rice press from higher up the pitch today, so important for us.

 

[db10_therza]

You are very arrogant. Just because you wrote a lot of words doesn’t mean you are right. I mean, you said chance creation doesn't matter for a start. Now you enjoy the rest of your night.

Actually what I said was “it’s not all about chance creation”. Not that it doesn’t matter, of course it does. You just invented that sentence in your head, why I have absolutely no idea. Perhaps you can enlighten us.

 

[Synical]

Naw man **** another window. All I’m giving him is the 2nd leg. If he doesn’t win it, Cheerio

If Arteta gets sacked for not winning the CL it will be a cheerio from me. I'm sick of this toxic "fan" base

 

[db10_therza]

Missed the Rice press from higher up the pitch today, so important for us.

Yeah it’s why I said this pre match:

I’m confident we won’t go for a full on high press. Not with Rice having to play at 6 and unable to join in.

We will set up with a mid block and overload the midfield with both Trossard and Merino and suffocate them.

I was very very disappointed when I saw us using a high press. We got picked apart like a kids Lego set ffs. Mikel fluffed that up idk what he was thinking.

We’ve built up a phenomenal record in “big” games in the league by playing a mid block. Dunno why he thought PSG of all teams didn’t deserve that same respect.

And now we have to press high in the second leg because of this result, aarghh

 

[dino bravo]

Actually what I said was “it’s not all about chance creation”. Not that it doesn’t matter, of course it does. You just invented that sentence in your head, why I have absolutely no idea. Perhaps you can enlighten us.

I asked what chances they created vs what we created and you conveniently ignored it and dismissed that chance creation is a big deal.

I can’t be arsed to argue with an arrogant forum prefect who speaks down to people like they are superior. Half of this forum rejoice when we lose anyway. F*ck it. Delete my account if you want.

 

[MD3 Gunner]

If Arteta gets sacked for not winning the CL it will be a cheerio from me. I'm sick of this toxic "fan" base

Dude wake the **** up. Dortmund sacked their manager even though he led them to a CL final last season.. what has Arteta done this year to justify another season ?

 

[MD3 Gunner]

We will never progress as a club as long as people still worship Arteta. I would’ve loved the guy to have succeeded but he’s just not a winner unfortunately. Arsenals approach all season is playing like they don’t want to lose rather want to win

 

[Synical]

When you think about it, it is ridiculous that we are all so angry over some elite athletes playing football and not producing the result we want.
It makes me feel embarrassed when I see the fall outs on here. I hope a lot of you actually play the game.

 

[Synical]

Dude wake the **** up. Dortmund sacked their manager even though he led them to a CL final last season.. what has Arteta done this year to justify another season ?

So what?
Who cares what other teams are doing?
United have sacked 12 managers in 10 years and they're still relegation fodder

 

[MD3 Gunner]

So what?
Who cares what other teams are doing?
United have sacked 12 managers in 10 years and they're still relegation fodder

This manager hasn’t won a trophy in 5 years despite spending £700m

 

[TriniGunner]

Really appreciate that man. How was the second half in your view?

We were caught between wanting to score and not wanting to concede. Tricky position to be fair as we know we've got another 90 mins of football to get to a final. I can see why Arteta didn't really want to make any subs but again, he risks injuries with the players he's playing for close to 90 mins. I really wished the game ended 1-1 as it would have set up a really interesting chess match next week.

 

[TriniGunner]

Disappointed. Not too confident we can win by 2 in Paris.

Notice they didn't allow us to get any free kicks in the centre of the pitch. They were always smart enough to drag our players wide.

 

[TriniGunner]

But when is the cut off point? You can't go into every season and make excuses towards the end if it doesn't work out.

We are now 5 years without a trophy. We've never won a champions league and we haven't won the league in 20 years. TWENTY.

There comes a point where you simply have to let someone else have a go.

Enrique?

 

[viktor]

Arteta should deliver despite having none of his first choice players available for most of the season and having received lots of ridiculous biased refereeing?!

you want to know how much bullshite mix excuse from your comment above, because the fact is


1. tuchel only need half season won ucl trophy at chelshit club in 20/21 without spent money especially at that time chelshit club in crisis because number 8th on epl table when tuchel took over that squad on february 2021 + that chelsea squad lose against arsenal worst squad in season before in 19/20 at fa cup final

2. benitez only need 1 season to won ucl trophy at liverpool in 04/05, he inherited liverpool bang average squad who finished 4th & 5th in last 2 season in 02/03 & 03/04 + liverpool never won any major trophy in last 15 years + benitez first season at liverpool have crisis situation because liverpool finished 5th at epl end of the season in 04/05 but benitez still can deliver ucl trophy end of the season with only spent 50m pounds


also so far ucl referee not make major issue for our club

 

[Synical]

This manager hasn’t won a trophy in 5 years despite spending £700m

We would have won without PGMOL interference. Probably 3 in a row. So I reject your protest

 

[MD3 Gunner]

We would have won without PGMOL interference. Probably 3 in a row. So I reject your protest

We are 15 pts behind the title because of refs ?? What was the excuse tonight ?

 

[MD3 Gunner]

Was absolutely shocked how **** this ‘tifo’ was.. whoever came up with the idea should be sacked immediately

 

[Synical]

We are 15 pts behind the title because of refs ?? What was the excuse tonight ?

Funny how you only pop up on this forum when we are not doing well. Fake, negative fan. You must be fun in real life,,

 

[viktor]

You have an agenda against Arteta.

Please tell me which manager you would replace him with

agenda ?? LOL if arteta win ucl this season i am ok if this club make statue for arteta at emirates , even i agree if club make billion statue for arteta lift ucl trophy at emirates stadium

 

[MD3 Gunner]

Funny how you only pop up on this forum when we are not doing well. Fake, negative fan. You must be fun in real life,,

You ain’t serious G. Need some serious mods to give their thoughts