So this is it then, the quarter final of the Champions league, the sort of game that the spuds can only dream of.
This time last year we screwed up at the Grove by having all the possession, but no killer instinct, granted the ref helped Liverpool, but we have to expect that, we have to play our own game and go for an early goal, if we do that, they will panic, because we have an away goal and they will come out.
The best way of ensuring qualification is to win both games, it’s not like we are playing Barcelona or Bayern Munich, we are playing one of the two sides that everyone wanted, tonight we should get a win under our belts and make the return game less fraught.
It seems that we will be starting with Theo out on the right wing and Nasri on the left, that should leave Denilson in the middle with Cesc and my feeling is he will play with 5 in midfield, so that means Song or Diaby, if fit I expect Diaby as he offers a more physical presence, and he knows where the goal is.
The back four pick themselves so that means Sagna, Kolo, Gallas and Clichy with Almunia in goal and Ade alone up front.
So more or less the same team that beat Man City, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. We have to keep it tight at the back which means the midfield must keep possession, do that and let nature take it’s course.
If we keep the ball it stops them scoring, if they don’t score, they won’t win, if we keep possession we can score, we can surprise them by frustrating them, then one killer pass from Cesc and bang, it’s all over.
It reminds me of one General James Wolf and when king George sent him to Canada to kick the French out in 1759, they had an impressive fortress called Quebec, we parked our Navy in the Saint Lawrence river and as they had home advantage they just sat back waiting for us to make the mistake of attacking them.
Wolf took his cannons and his entire army and scaled the impossible heights of Abraham at night and when the French under General Montcalm woke up, the entire British army was behind them, two hours of silly French attacking saw Wolf win the match and Canada was back in the hands of King George, Wolf knew how important away goals were, so he got a bunch of them. He did what they didn’t expect.
For Montcalm read Robert Pires and for General Wolf it’s the dashing Cesc Fabregas, Wenger is King George and Canada the Champions league.
Unfortunately Wolf lost his life in that battle, but his last words were ‘thank God I have done my duty’ this was repeated 46 years later by Horatio Nelson, Nelson so loved the picture of Wolf’s final moments, he commissioned the same artist to paint his own demise, really, that’s all true, he even used Wolf’s famous words.
So the moral of this story is we need to surprise them, do what they don’t expect and attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, do that and the day is ours, and then we can start to think about playing Porto in the semis, so Cesc, go and do your duty and we’ll thank God.
Have a great night tonight Grovers, this will be our day, I can feel it, the Arsenal will go to Spain all guns blazing.
evenin All..
great result and and much better performance than earlier this year in Europe we’re still improving and on our way to Arsenal Paradise…
Al agree mate we where slightly better with Theo..but all over i think we’re only gettin better and better…..and what a Brazilian goal by Ade
and one thing to remember ,..injuries kept the choices to get the upper hand as we usually does the last 20 minutes to a minimum..
tonite im proud of Our Beloved Arsenal…
more beers and Irish champers for you once more
tom.
Stu – Bendtner’ll probably play on the weekend, cheer up.
was he not Irish? Must have been someone that could take the weight off the skipper (other than EE)?
Thought Nasri was really poor tonight
we’ve got a very good chance at the semis now. And we might play Porto!!!
Man of the match anyone.
For me Kolo,took over when Gallas went off,he was immense.
Wash your mouth out Irish lol
Wigan Athletic v Arsenal The JJB Stadium English
Wed. 15 19:45 UK Arsenal v Villarreal Emirates
Sat. 18 17:15 UK Arsenal v Chelsea Wembley
Tue. 21 20:00 UK Liverpool v Arsenal Anfield
These are our next games.
Bearing that in mind this is my Wigan team.
…………..Fab/Al………………..
Eboue…….Kolo……Djouoru……Clichy
Walcott……Cesc……Song/Den…..Arshavin
……………Nick……Ade……………
Van Persie….Vela….off the bench.
Sagna gets a rest because surely he will have to play three games in a row
1. Villareal
2. Chelsea
3. Liverpool
He did nothing other than to score us our Goal
3 goals in 2 games? Plus the goal for Togo against Cameroun???
Ade-BadMan-Yor!
Thought that was a decent result, especially after that first half. Good spirit shown by the lads.
Will be interesting to see what the media will say about Man U. tomorrow, (not that i read English media but still) probably that Rooney had amazing vision to “create” the first goal and that Porto actually is the best team in the whole wide world so 2-2 at home is not such a bad result.
Evening Trindle, good to meet you and Trindle Junior the other night.
I fancy us big time at the Emirates… Senna hits a shot doesn’t he!
Who can understand what Ade is saying?
trindle – nope very defensive bench to be honest
reggie – LOL I like swearing during and after football games – leaves off tension ha ha
Bobby manu was abit lucky to draw…
tom
A little adjustment at half time and we looked much better, I swear the injuries we’ve had are starting to tell a little, towards the end we started to tire, we’re mornally flying at that point.
Supposedly the pitch is narrow, or some such, and it leaves the midfield congested, hopefully we’ll have more width in the second leg.
If we win this tie we will probably face Porto. Who would have thought.Are there any our players suspended for the 2dn leg?
Or maybe rest Ade.
Wigan Game
…………..Fab/Al………………..
Eboue…….Kolo……Djouoru……Clichy
Walcott……Cesc……Song/Den…..Arshavin
……………Nick……Vela……………
Merchant banker not very ladylike haha
QOS – May very well be Porto, United were so terribly awful
Btw i think Nick would do very well over the weekend…he always does against lesser teams.
For those who think it’ll be easy at the Emirates, just have a look what Porto did today. Rooney’s goal was a total brain freeze from Bruno alves and they also had a clear pen. denied.
ha ha ha reggie – merchant banker doesn’t leave off much steam, I’m not much of a lady anyway ha ha
How was Djourou playing guys?
Kelsey mate
been my opinion all year…give Toure the respect he deserves buy Hangeland and let Toure run the defence..gallas well good player but will never be a team player…sorr gallas..
tom
Clichy, Cesc, Ade, Nasri have to be careful at the Emirates. No stupidity and no diving, please.
Pat – but United were crap from 0-90, we had some good patches United had none, we beat Porto 4-0 remember
Happy with ManU score…!
If that Senna shot at the end had gone on I would have literally began weeping.
wenger and bobby having a good old laugh together in the warm up before the game, good to see!
Fat Dolan on setanta thinks united were poorly treated because they played on sunday and werent given enough time to recover. Boo-fucking-hoo
Irishgunner have now seen the bench! Was late home (awful fucking day) and started watching at 9 mins – great timing – just when my I thought my mood couldn’t get worse… Senna.
“i think its a digrace that manchester united have to play such a big big game on Sunday and then have to play again on Tuesday that is just so unfair”
How do these clowns on Setanta have a job?
After keeping so many clean sheets…Manure’s defense has turned into a seive lol.
Long may it continue.
Also if I were a coach I would be 99.99999999999% against back passing….I would rather tell the players to put the ball out for a throw…if there is no pass forward.
I hate passing back to the keeper..look what happened to Porto because of it..Silly …….I hate back passing.
Hi Pedro – great to meet up with you, franchise and what seemed an endless supply of Rasputins. Gallas will be a loss – sounds serious – but we shoul have enough to turn them over at home.
shit gallas ligament damage!!
hi guys
what a goal.. man of the match SONG
lol David, exactly, but in all fairness Fat Dolan is always fucking clueless. Always talks shit!
Stu – It was Ferguson who decided to play the game Sunday, they are slating him on RTE over it tehehehe
medial ligament damage for Gallas. Thats 4-6 weeks I believe
Looks like Gallas has medial ligament damage
wasnt the greatest away performance ever tonight… song and denilson were made to look very average first half…. i was suprised song and cesc never got sent off… i thought cesc was gone with that sliding challenge…
we didnt really offer much at all. But thats when you look to your captain and your 80k a week striker to come up with something special….. which they did… and fucking ITV were showing a reply of something totally insignificant missed it! cunts!!!
Ade was having a shocker all night… constantly offside but that goal made up for it all.. he has earned his 80k this week… and that was just about his only chance of the game… are we seeing a new non-wasteful adebayor??? i hope so… then i will back him. Awful game up til the goal and i guess moments like that is why he is in the team… pity we havent seen more of them this season! But none of this would be possible without cesc fabregas… he didnt have best of games and looked tired.. but like ade he can produce moments of inspiration when they are playing shite… only two players played well over the 90 minutes for me first is fabianski.. did really well when he came on and didnt have much to do second half but claimed the ball well from crosses and did all that was asked. The other is Kolo Toure…. he defended like a god tonight!!! Our defending from set pieces is poor and still needs to be sorted out though… Just watched the manc goals and the commentators were fucking gutted when porto made it 2-2!! wankers!!!
Is senna really that good?
Dave, I know that You are over the moon but against Wigan Ade will take a breath so we can expect Your “beloved” Dane. And aside from THAT goal Ade did almost nothing.No offence mate.
that was absolutely incredible, ade had one of the worst performances by any arsenal player all season, then came up with THAT goal!! very good result, puts us in a very good position and utds result makes it all the better!!
Gallas has ligament damage? Okay, Djourou is playing for the rest of the season, Silvestre promoted back to the bench.
Trindle – ha ha what an awful time to turn on but worth it for Adebayor’s goal
Fuck me are we the most injury prone team this season or what
When did we beat porto 4-0 irish?
Medial knee ligament damage for Gallas apparently! For fuck sake!
Feck we really needed Gallas
who has said wat about Adabeyor??????. He is the reason we are still in the CL. People were sayin he dont deserve a place in the team . Bendnter does. Please !!!!!!!!!!!. Worship him as an arsenal suporter. Cos he proved all of you peiple wrong.
JD did very well when he came on, we should cope without Gallas and we’ve got Silvestre on the bench
i think on the bigger pitch at the emirates we will dominate play the second half showed we are a better side.
I’m not too fussed about seeing Fabianski in goal though! Almunia didn’t even come for that corber that fell a yard in front of him! He shits himself in big games I think!
Beginning of the CL, it was 4-0 wasn’t it at home or am I raving?
the guys on itv are saying that man u are favourites to go through???? how can they be??? no english team has ever won on Porto turf…. If man utd can only muster a 2-2 at old trafford then why are they favourites to win at porto when porto have 2 away goals!!! I dont understand these itv manc cunts!!!!
david group stage!!!
maqit who said medial ligaments?
pedro
Sonny says that he can read the Grover comments telepathically
he was sitting in church one day and suddenly strange voices started ringing in whispers in his head.
Then he realized, it was Le-grove’s twitter feed
Lewyd24 – You have to admit that apart from that goal he was fucking terrible tonight! The goal was pure magic but he still had a shocker for the rest of the game! Learning the offside rule is a good place to start followed by how not to foul a defender when trying to win a header…..Thank fuck we had him though!
Kenny – From a bookies poin of view (thats me) yes Utd will still be favourites to go through….I think thats a given.
A, ITV4, right at the end of their broadcast
A – ITV got news in just before their show finished. Almunia 2 weeks. Gallas medial ligaments which means a long spell out like Cesc.
Lewyd… dont get too carried away… ade was having one of his worst games ive ever seen up until he scored… great goal and yeah we are in a much stronger position than we would of been had it stayed 1-0… but you watch villareal come to the emirates and crumble… if it finished 1-0 tonight my money says we wud of gone through in the second leg comfortably
So if JD or Kolo are injured we are finished.
Gallas has been a ligament injury waiting to happen in all fairness. The guy is a cripple and seems too tense physiologically.
Without him we can kiss goodbye to any chance of doing well in europe or the F.A Cup I’m afraid.
Shit, the significance of his loss is sinking the more and more I type!
Kenny
agreed very strong performance by Fabianski..great job…Toure is a Master….and i stress it one more time buy Hangeland(Adams type player,honest,always givin it all,and would resolve our probs def.set pieces) and to explain ..villareal is probably one of the best defensive teams in Europe this year still i thought we had them hanging all second half…so for me it was a very good performance by Our Beloved Arsenal….i dont even care to mention what would happen if we where at full strenght Eduardo,Van Persie,Diaby,Rosicky…it would have been a field day…future is more than bright..
and i think we would have killed the match if we didnt have to use two of our subs due to injuries..
ill slepp like a happy camper tonite thats for sure…:)
have a superb evenin All Proud Gooners !!
tom.
Fuck, not Gallas!
so Silvestre or Djourou, suppose Song can play there too
well i think the bookies will be missing out here then… there is not much hope they will win in porto… if porto can get 2 against them at old trafford then what will they do at in portugal… hostile atmosphere, and united have to score and porto will rip them to shreds on the break
Lewdy my friend… calm down!
He scored a great goal, but I don’t think we need to be hailing him or saying he’s proved anyone wrong… let’s see him do it consistently.
O sorry!
Thats right!
song is an ok defender..
I feel sorry for him, I really do. He kept his head down after the captaincy situation and this is what happens.
He deserves to play in cup finals for us. I’m devastated for him.
We should get Senderos back if Gallas is out for a long period. FACT!
Gallas has been amazing this season. Big loss
Gallas is a huge blow…but i think JD will do a job for us…Gallas does score some important late goals for us tho….huge blow guys….
But the other good news is….EDUARDO IS BACK!
Kenny – I dont think that Porto will play that wel against them again plus Utd will have Ferdinand back too. I bloody well hope you are right though!
I’m off to calm down, that was too much for the heart
night all
Djorou is a certified plank. He just doesn’t cut it. Silvestre is shaky at best as well.
What the fook are we gonna do?!
Choy – We all know what Senderos performs like in the final stages of the Champions League…….Header…..Hyypia…..wrong way looking……
Thank god the 2nd leg is at the Emirates.
I really couldn’t have taken another decider at El Madrigal.
Paulinho – I thought JD looked very assured when he came on. Some great tackles! I just hope he can keep that up!
Porto have great counter attacks and no english team has ever beaten them in Portugal. United have to attack and Porto are certainly capable of scoring. They destroyed us in Portugal and should have had much, much more.
Paulinho..
its a blow to lose gallas,i think the overall best solution would be to play Song…at least him and Toure works well together …
tom.
El Madrigal is a strange pitch. There’s no in between. Your either defending your box or attacking the other.
Lets hope that Gallas’s injury turns out to be not as bad as it seems now.
Maybe he can make it back for May
but Taig
have to agree with you mate, Djourou looked confident..and im no fan of the lad..but tonite he did very very well
tom
I worry for Clichy, he might need a break this weekend, he’s lacking confidence big time!
Cesc, Ade, Denilson, Song and Nasri were all very poor in the first half. Ade was too isolated in the first half. Villareal were too dominant in the midfield meaniing theo, nasri and cesc had to sit back defending for most of it and ade was as isolated as gordon brown.
What about bloody kolo, cant head the ball ala crucial games at the end of last season and his 1v1 defending is appauling. I wished it kolo that injured not Gallas. Sagna needs to change is footwear as well.
Tony, Djourou always looks assured when he first comes in, then it’s a gradual decline over the following games.
I think I might prefer Silvestre in there actually.
Toure was awesome!!!! well from open play anyway!!!!
naw i dont want song playing in defense please please please… JD should be
Clichy really pales in comparison to Sagna.
Sagna is no world beater but it appears he is superior to Clichy both defensively and offensively.
It takes Clichy far too long to warm up and start going forward. Nasri relies on him doing that and he’s rendered impotent until Clichy does.
Sagna was motoring up and down like a good un.
Djourou was solid today IMO. I just couldnt understand how we were being outplayed in our crowded midfield with two holding midfielders. Song’s lack of pace was exposed today. the pair of denilsong improved in the 2nd half as did the others
Neither JD nor Song…should be Senderos
No disrespect but you must be blind or u dont watch the game closely, Kolo is worry in aerial duels and 1v1 defending, even McCormark from Cardiff was giving him the run around never mind what a world-class attacker will do to him. @ least JD gets games now
Like I said at half time AW should have moved Nasri to play behind Ade after thos eto enforced changes, with Cesc playing midfield with Song. Denilson should have tucked in at left mid. Cesc’ presence in midfield would have improved our ball retention and distribution in central mid. AW got that wrong in my view
Pires look sublime when he came on.mmmmmm
Both Denilson and Song seem a gear short of what is required. They come on strong when the other team drops physically but at the end they were getting out hustled again.
Walcott was very lively and the substitution of him for Eboue was a terrible one from Arsene.
Paulinho
Thats cuz Sagna has played every single game for Arsenal this season….
Clichy was out for some a time too right?
And JD…if anything when he first comes on he looks dodgy but settles down as the game goes on…When Kolo was injured he did a job for us!
Mandanda the 3 in the middle at times was crowded cos Cesc kept going into the midfield to get the ball out as Sond and denilson’s distribution wasnt always successful. cesc was also very guilty of loosing ossession cheaply but u dont take ur big moment players off especially in a game of that magnitude. those that cant stand Ade u better get very used to him because Wenger trusts and believes in him. Nasri is still someway off from being as effective as hleb or rosicky were. even arshavin seems to be more effective than him after a few months. he’s still young still
we were dominated in midfield because Senna and Aguire were better in retaining and distributing the ball, they were better technically. However both our central midfielder got stronger late on in the match being obviously younger…Senna-Aguire simply could not keep that pace up for 90mins
Dont think Clichy had an injury. He may have missed one game maybe two but no more than that because of injury. Usually plays unless Gibbs plays in the CC.
Great point Paulinho
I still think Cesc was too far upfront!
If he was dropping deeper we wouldve released walcott on the counter attack…but so far with the lack of intelligence from Denilsong…we do the crab thing up the pitch or the booted long ball to Ade.
SuperGunner..
either youre not watching Arsenal games or you look at it complely different than i do..Toure has been and is a world class CB ..and you get a hard time finding anyone who wouldnt agree…
the problem in the heart of Our Beloved Arsenal’s defence is lack of communication and the fact that gallas and Toure is just to much alike …and me well fuck gallas ill choose Toure t lead the way anyday…
buy Hangeland…solve the probs…keep >Djourou after tonite he deserves another chance…Senderos..hopeless…
tom.
Great point Stu
I do think Senderos should come back now though.
Franchise, I thought Cesc played to far forward tonight. He seemed to be playing in the hole, a position I don’t think he has mastered. His assist today like the weekend came when he moved to a deeper position
Pires i dont think even wanted to come on after we equalised
and i dunno about the sagna thing… he wasnt great tonight either.. i think the humididy or something played a part in tonights game… we looked very very tired in the midfield… anyway… its a positive result we got our away goal… lets just leave the critcism tonight and enjoy the strong position we are in… when the match report and ratings go up tomorrow then its probably a better time to have a rant
Supergunner, don’t insult people.
If you disagree, disagree nicely.
Le Grove is a blog of love…
@ Tomstoned, please watch Kolo closely next time and for the rest of the season then you will see what i mean, for how many aerial duels that he wins and success rate in 1v1s then
When cesc let rip that through ball for ade to expertly finish, i swear i had a fabergasm
Gallas is out for the season, bad luck, but a great job by the boys, night all!
Mandanada when we were defending the midfield trio were too close together and it didnt stop villareal picking holes in them. Everytime we won the ball we couldnt counter properly cos the players were too close together. it meant at times that the defensive mids had to go ahead of cesc and several times song tried to force passes that were not on. Ade was very isolated for most of the game.
Well that was a bit close
Thought we were really poor in the first half. I dont like this formation, I think we got away with it against Man City as they lose their bottle at the first sign of losing a game, but the same massive gaps were there today and this time we did not get the early goal.
But like Saturday, we grew stronger in the 2nd half. And what a goal. I dont like Ade the individual but that goal was World Class. I know he is a marmite player but surely even his biggest critics must be applauding that. On the other hand, just as well as he struggled to get into the game.
Now I have praised Song and Denilson for their improvement in recent weeks, but tonight was a step back. I thought both were accidents waiting to happen and both gave the ball away too cheaply.
I am struggling to pick out a player of ours as a MOTM but maybe Theo or Nasri for their Effort, or maybe Toure who I thought played really well.
We are in the driving seat though, and we should get into the semi-final. Great result, poor first half, better 2nd half.
Good to see super bob again, I miss him.
supergunner kolo was great tonight and has been great since the wobbles in early january!!
David mate
have you seen much of Senderos lately..he’s not makin it at Milan..and well not playing well at all,he’s seems like a good lad(and got a great heart)but i think he should be content with playing in a level below the very best…there he will be great..he just doesnt have what it takes to be contending at a top level..im sorry ..i like the lad
tom
SSN just said it could be the rest of the season or it could be a few weeks. Too early to say and more known tomorrow.
Lets hope its more of a Walcott than a Rosicky!
Night pedro, I look forward to your match report manana!
It is a shame about Gallas, I just hope it is Djourou that is given the spot instead of the returning Silvestre (Who?). I would rather Song than Silvestre.
Almunia could be back for Chelsea but will miss the 2nd leg.
This is Fab’s chance!
Liverpool play this formation to perfection. Gerrard, Torres and Kuyt are normally close together sm1 (in midfield or defence) wins the ball passes out to one of those 3, a few triangle passes here and there and they are off
Well regardless of Senderos’ current form from not playing at Milan he would be a better option than Silvestre and Song there. Easily better than them…
Night Geoff, catch you tomorrow!
fuck me but VillaR game out swinging…they took us apart from the kick-off And we still got a result!
Whats that smell……………..hmmmmmmmmmmmm. It smells like maturity.
Fabianski has his deserved chance as no.1 for a while so should grasp it and shut Almunia out for the rest of the season. I dont see what he cant do that. But Wenger being true to form will duly drop Fab when Manu is fit again.
tom
Id rather play Senderos than Silvestre.
But we all know Arsene will play Silvestre.
he calls him his “I suprised everyone with him” signing.
*heavy sigh*
Fabianski looked more assured than amonia
never needed to change me pants at all,
good performance from him
Sorry Kevin… I think that was an earlier blog fart of mine…
Apparently Senderos has been playing really well in recent weeks
Franchise, in essence, Cesc was either going to deep thus leaving a wide gap between midfield and Ade or going too far hence we were unable to retain the ball well enough. The main point is ‘playing in the hole’ is not Cesc’ best position at the moment. Nasri, I feel would have played that position better with his style
lol.
sometimes our play is so predictable. Attimes in the 1st half Villareal were unstoppable because we couldnt anticipate their passes
well off
night all….still a great result
tom
Fabianski always looks good when he plays…unless he has the odd rush of blood.
and David on that we agree…later mate
Great result for us Tom
Till next time!
Nasri holds on to the ball too much somtimes Mandanda if we had sm1 capable to play on the left he could have done the job though. the problem was if u moved denilson to the left its almost guaranteed that he wouldnt give us width. Armand traore might well have an Arsenal future. Left footed, pacey, good crosser and fierce shot. Cesc was suffering more from fitness than anything else IMO.
Franchise, it’s only predictable when we’re playing badly… I think our game requires high levels of confidence from everyone to work…
this was one of the games where we needed genuine width on both flanks. Arshavin if only haaaaaaaaa
I think that sums it up tomstoned
It is a great result, and one that will continue to build the morale and momentum going into what will be a rough encounter on a mud bath against Wigan this weekend.
I hope we stuff Wigan, we could not break them down in 90 mins of negative football from them last year, and I expect the same again. get an early goal and we will stuff them. Villa play 24 hours behind again, so we could be 9 ahead before they play
Im just wandering what is happening with the likes of Fran Merida and Bischoff?
I liked the look of Armand, but when you look at our current options, I dont think he has a future at the club, we already have Nasri, Rosicky, Vela and of course Arshavin that can play LW. And we already have Clichy and Gibbs as RB’s.
Oops its late, that should say Clichy and Gibbs as LB’s
Pedro one short coming of this current side is they are not very fluid with their passing and movements in the final 3rd. if we were theo’s pace would be more of an asset. Past Wenger sides were better at this. Its still a young side though in time things should fall in place. Villareal really toyed with us attimes in the 1st half i was in awe.
Bischoff can go fuck himself. After we took the gamble to save his career, he is now pimping himself around Portugal to find a club there. Great Loyalty
Not sure about Fran.
Armand wont be an option as a left back. Gibbs has been moved back there while Traore is not a midfielder.
*now
Franchise, I don’t think Nasri gave us much width on the left either. Denilson’s job on the left would have been a mainly defensive one like he did curtailing Bosingwa earlier in the season. He’s got a fantastic work ethic and would have ‘done a job’. Cesc in the middle would have improved our distribution and ball retention from the middle.
Anywayz, got to hit the sack nice debating. Goodnight