Arsenal took a point away to the German Champions. In years gone by that would have been Bayern Munich and if you were honest, you’d always take a point away in Germany.
We nearly started with a bang, Gervinho was quick to capitalise on Hummels mistake, he didn’t have enough space to fashion shot.
The ball went straight down the other end, Koscielny made a hash of a clearance and slipped Dortmund in. Luckily they fired over.
The Germans found their stride, they were taking us over the top, round the side… Pretty much wherever they fancied. Gotze capitalised some shoddy Gibbs passing to slip in Lewandowski, the Czech took it round the keeper but somehow Sagna managed to turn the shot over the bar.
We had a fine chance when Yossi fired a Dortmund clearance over the top to Robin who sliced his half volley just wide.
We really struggled to compete with the Germans in the middle. Sven Bender seemed to be first to everything and if he wasn’t he’d find a way of retrieving possession for his side.
Our chance came though, Robin capitalised on a poor pass from Kehl, he laid the ball off to Theo who powered towards goal and slipped in Robin as he peeled away from his defender, the Dutchman took aim and fired in.
A totally deserved lead.
The second half didn’t bring too much excitement until the end. Schmelzer lashed over from a tight angle when he was given a free run at our box. Arteta and Theo both continued our poor run with freekicks by smashing into the wall on separate occasions.
Arteta drew blood after cutting out a free header for Hummels. He put his head on the line, just like he’d put his body on the line a few times that night. Commitment we like.
We had a chance of our own when Gervinho broke the Dortmund back line only to be shoved off-balance which cut out any chance of an attempt on goal.
Dortmund had another opportunity from a corner. Hummels struck from 8 yards out, lucky for us Chezzer’s legs bailed us out.
We couldn’t hold on though. Gibbs cleared a freekick as far as te edge of the box, Perisic volleyed it into the top corner and pulled it level. A quite incredible strike, too incredible to spend anytime debating what we could have done to stop it.
Only a smart save from Chezzer at the feet of Lebandovski kept things level at the end.
A point a piece it finished. Isn’t it nice to be the team who took a hammering but came out with a result? Yes it is… yes it is…
Conclusions
I said before the game a point would be a fantastic result and I still feel the same. We went over there with a team who have barely had two weeks together and we worked hard and ground out a result.
There were some causes for concern though. We don’t have the speed of passing we once had. Arteta is certainly no Cesc Fabregas, he slows play and has so far struggled to dictate the midfield he also gives possession away quite liberally. That was a problem across the park yesterday. Accuracy of passing was way off where is should be. The Arsenal way is out the window for the time being. That doesn’t mean we can’t be effective, it just means we have to adapt. We need to play to the strengths of our personnel. We don’t have the flair for our current system nor do we have the familiarity.
At the back we were exposed all evening. Some serious work needs to be done there. Our highline was suicidal at times. There was far too much last ditch superman defending. We need to build a cohesive unit, only time can allow for that. Time the players should have been afforded during preseason, that’s an argument for another day. Koscielny defender superbly for most of the game, if he can cut out the brain fail he gets at least once a game, he’ll have a very bright future ahead of him.
I thought Alex Song had an excellent night in front of the defence, he broke up play well and showed great strength at times. Keeping him fit this season is going to be of primary importance to our success. Don’t kid yourself Frimpong and Coquelin can come close to what he offers us in terms of experience.
The big worry is the clear lack of quality we have in the side. We managed 2 attempts on target all evening, for an Arsenal team, that’s not good enough. Robin and Gervinho were rarely put in possession and our midfield struggled to make inroads into their half. At times, we even resorted to long ball tactics. Not a good look, but totally understandable given the circumstances.
The question marks raised are important and might come across unfair considering most of the players arrived very late in the window. Trouble is, there is no time to adapt, there will be no grace period. The squad must find its feet quickly and Wenger has to work out a way to get the new players ticking and firing on all cylinders. We know they have it in them, we just need to see it sharpish.
A massive plus point is that we now have a work ethic in the side now. Arteta leads by example. That type of commitment is infectious. Can that subsidise for the glaring lack of quality? Quite possibly. For me, the fans will have a massive part to play in this transition period. We have to make sure we give them our full support at the games no matter how disgruntled we feel about the situation.
It feels like we’re moving into a different era with the club, we’re heading into a storm of season, I just hope we can weather it and come out the other side in tact.
- Szczesny 8
- Sagna 8
- Mertesacker 6
- Koscielny 7
- Gibbs 6
- Arteta 6
- Walcott 6
- Song 8.5
- Benayoun 6
- Van Persie 6.5
- Gervinho 7
1-1
Aargh >.>
Nasri off. Johnson on!
Johnson shudda started
Nasri was shit throughout…since when did Clichy learn to cross a facking ball?
WTF @ Trabz leading Inter
inter losing to trabzospor
He’s already set up Dzeko, and had a pop at goal!
Nasri might fade quicker than he did for us.
Haha, we did good business to sell our dead wood. Barca learing to throw away leads, Fat Nasri reverting to normal
nasri hasn’t the bottle or heart to play for a top top team, never stands up when they need him the most
I hope they play Nasri more often…Aguero is facking immense
Lol…shitty are cracking under presure
i layed down some cash on napoli winning this game – and it looks like city are about to win. FUUUUUUUCCCCCK.
cska came back to 2-2…….
Benayoun is one ugly fucker
Mancini is the only cunt who’d draw that match with the squad he has…luv it
you bet on napoli?
nutter
Seeing manure struggle and limp to a draw almost more satisfying than our draw last night?
Tell you what… Dortmund are easily a better side than Benfica…
Footnote for shitty… money can’t buy you 11 aguero’s… you even gets some nasri’s just to make it all a bit more interesting for us… good riddance @ nasri
SO city get a 1-1 draw at home with thier £500million pound squad
against a team thats played one game this season.
We get a 1-1 draw AWAY against the German champions with our £75 squad.
Watch the press blow sunshine up Citys arse tmmrw.Makes our draw seem a bit better now!!!
CowleyGooner
Dont kid yourself mate.
now shame on you who said 1-1 in Dortmund wasn’t good
haha red nose getting all touchy over his shit £17-20 million pound keeper
No team has been trashed so far…the results have been quite close.
If that team manure put out is their second team then fack we ain’t got a chance have we? They beat us with a weaker squad in last year’s FA cup didn’t they?
Dortmund would rape Napoli and Benfica.
Gunner786.
Not trying to defend Wenger and his shit transfer dealings, but it kind of shows if you’ve built a team who are all just in it for the dough your gonna struggle when the going gets tough.
Not that i think we’ll win fuck all this season, AGAIN!!
It was City’s first game in the CL.Maybe the nerves got the better of them
How good to see Cesc and Nasri do what they did for us last season? it’s like they’ve infected their teams with CL bottle.
Love how all the giants are drawing their games too, makes our result satisfying and hopeful..Inter are more a joke than we are, Grovers chin up, we aren’t that bad compared to some European giants.
Mancini’s got a shit record in the CL. As long as Mancini’s their manager we’ve got a chance of finishing higher than 4th in the league. He is chasing a result with 10/15mins to go and what does he do? He takes off Dzeko for Tevez. What a clown. he should have taken Barry off, let Silva play deeper and play both Tevez and Dzeko upfront…
@ gunner786
or maybe they were just shitty…
don’t kid yourself mate
napoli were better, considering they were playing away… and unlucky to have not won it
gunner 786—
they are all ChL players
Clichy, nasri, toure, tevez, silva
GUNNER786, u making excuses for City?? but it’s ok to slag Arsenal?
Tevez, Aguero, Nasri, Toure, Silva, Dzeko, have all played CL footy before
gunner 786—
they are all ChL players
Clichy, nasri, toure, tevez, silva
….add Dzeko, Aguero
Jay,Cph gooner
City will go further than us in the CL.
daledagooner spot on mate… people find excuses for City and ridicule our team… what kind of logic is that??
Mind you Dortmund would fuck Shitty up any day.
For Fuck sake, change you nae to Citizens786 and do us all a favor, better yet, TinyTots786 FITS YOU BETTER
I just knew Benfica would give an account of themselves versus Yoonited.
i’m not so sure about that with that group… nice to see tou have confidence in your team though…
OOO ARSENAL WE LOVE YOU
Inter Milan are becoming a disgrace to themselves…losing to Traps n sores???? and losing a game to a minnow in their opening league game?? I still feel better about my team.
Dale
I will slag off Arsenal until that cunt Wenger and the board do one.
The bastards have RUINED our club.
I just don´t get it why Theo always plays on the wing. He is just wasted there. He is not to blame for not performing but maybe the manager is! Wouldn´t have rated him at 6 because apart from the pass for the goal he i didn’t even notice him!
we would have to miss out on the CL twice in a row for the board to consider wengers position most likely.. unless there is huge fan unrest
runied our club?? when did you start supporting Arsenal??
Fuck that. Only one Arsenal!
Remember that 4th is a trophy!
Genuinely think we can challenge for third if we can get it together pronto.
Jay,Cph gooner
City will go further than us in the CL.
————–
I don’t think so but would you bet your house on it?
your clown because of Wenger, Arsenal are now a world reknown club. Despite that he is at fault sometimes. Nobody is perfect…
But please don’t tell me Arsenal were a global brand before Wenger, because we certainly weren’t
CPH
Since we won the old Barclays title in 1989.
‘Thomas its up for grabs nowwwww’
Those were the days.
Bring back George Graham.
gunner786,
no hope in hell for shitty to get further than us…
they don’t look good enough to get out of their own group… wtf kinda progress are you talking about? getting into europa cup quarters or something??
Im looking forward to the Blackburn game now, as my expectations
have lowered dramatically so a draw feels like a win and a win
feels like when you see Fergies face when Utd lose (in other
words fucking fantastic). Time to shrug off a dissapointing summer
and get behind the boys as im fed up with feeling deppressed all
the time.
Oh, but Wenger can still fucking do one!!
What happened to De jong? Barry doesn’t seem up to it in the CL, they’ve got the toughest group of them all aswell, not easy to call who will qualify atm.
I find Fergie making 8 changes a bit drastic though, I think he did the same last season but the WC was last summer aswell.
de jong is injured?
Gunner786.
You called?
Bayern will qualify, second position is up for grabs
Gunner786 please shut your mouth & stop making excuse for those dirty cunts. Oh poor city, it was only their first champs league game, geez your braking my heart. Are we the the only supporters defend other teams? is this what we’ve become? I wonder if shitty, united & the chavs are defend us and finding excuses on their blogs…. I doubt it
We’re we ever in for benzema this summer?
He woulda made such a big difference to our front line.
Cowley Gooner, totally agree, at half six tonight man city still had 1,000 tickets left unsold for their first ever champions league match in a ground that holds 45,000 on cl nights and talksport wankers were saying ‘ well bless em they’ve probably got a lot of games to pay for’ if that was us a thousand short in our much bigger stadium paying the highest prices in the world for the 15th year running they would be saying what a disgrace us fans are! Utter cunts
chamahk is a good player, and one can’t expect a player to score if he’s not having a run of games. which he hasnt had since when he was scoring…
tumbleweed…
I fell asleep just as the second half of lasty night’s game began…
with both ManYoo and Chavs resting players, it should be quite a game this weekend, no?
benzene doesn’t want to leave madrid.
R.S.P.C.Arsenal says:
September 14, 2011 at 15:13
Dear sir, I understand the limitations within our squad and terrified what this season holds for us, but honestly mate……I would rather cry than laugh and I would rather look for any positive than focus on the negatives.
this is our team until Jan and if AW decides to purchase additional stock. I know that is a MASSIVE “if”, but who knows, AW might surprise us.
STRANGE RATINGS AS BENAYOUN WAS ONE OF OUR BEST PLAYERS
The prophet, why would we expect AW to buy decent players in January?
He waited until the last moment in the summer window to buy anyone, as he was apparently pleased with the squad before we got hammered by Man Utd. The only way we buy in Jan is if Wenger is sacked and a new manager is given rescue funds…
Surprise us? That’s a laugh, selling our best players in August and not buying in June was as dumb a management decision I have witnessed.
Even Barca are taking the piss out of the price Wenger allowed Cesc to go for, what a joke. Putting his poster boy ahead of the team, great.
Still that’s it until Christmas so I for one will get behind the team, but don’t expect me to be behind Wenger, the only thing he can do that will surprise me is leave.
If Man Utd can’t fill out the stadium for their first CL game, then something in football is about to break.
There is a real feeling of overkill. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting old or because i am now in a different timezone, or because our team is not very competitive. And i don’t bother to watch internationals any more. Maybe it IS just an age thing…
Geoff, does your presence here mean you’re posting today?
No Moray but I’ll be back soon, there’s lots to talk about with Wengernomics right now.
One site suggested that Gazidas may go to City, why would they want him, he is just a Wenger Kroenke butt kisser, his deals are piss poor as well.
I’ll be back later.
Pedro/Geoff I may not agree with all you say in this blog…but i think Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis need to bookmark this blog and read the posts religiously….you never know…it may start/enhance the Arsenal revolution we all want!