The line-up is in and it’s a very strong team today.
Leno, Bellerin, Luiz, Gabriel, Tierney, Xhaka, Ceballos, Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe, Aubameyang
Clearly too soon for Thomas Partey, so we revert back to a centre midfield of Xhaka and Dani Ceballos.
Attack wise, we have all the tools in the box on display. Our best central defender for passing. Kieran Tierney prowling down the left. With probably the idea from 4 moving forward.
It’s the gun show today.
What are we looking for?
Goals, goals, goals.
The main worry is that we’ll be leggy after chasing shadows against Manchester City over the weekend. Post-Leeds, we weren’t really at peak physical condition, even though you’d be hard pushed to say we didn’t create enough to win.
We need a performance today. There needs to be an answer to their offside trap. We need to keep our midfield and defence super tight so we don’t give up an away goal. Everyone needs to give a 90 minutes of concentration.
I also want to see us take risks. Auba isn’t the only person that can score goals. Odegaard is capable, the same is true of Saka and ESR.
… but Auba does need to show up. We need a captains performance. Lead by example. Be the sharp shooter we need.
We need a big win.
We need to start a run of tough games positively.
This has to be a run.
So let’s see where it goes.
Enjoy the comments. See you there a little later. This will be fun.
They put us through the ringer tonight lads
Saka keeps our season alive. Brilliant goal from KT.
What was Dani thinking? Headed backpass from 35 yards out !!
Willian was Arteta’s throw of the dice is concerning stuff.
Yes!!! Yes!!! Yes!!!
What. A. Night.
Got through in the end!!!!!
A shame we weren’t at home to watch this live.
Only one of ode and ESR can play at a time
We go through but after watching this game, it would take a massive miracle for us to be in Europe next season.
Solid enough performance.?
But the big clubs will be dangling
big carrots to SAKA. MOM.
Divine intervention.
We made it difficult for ourselves through that second goal by Benfica.
Odegard I doubt can ever in this life be up to ozil’s standards, sorry to say. Can’t shoot, can’t play telepathy passes, he only either keeps the ball moving by playing it to the nearest player or he plays the ball back even when we have chances to attack yet this fraud of a coach plays him ahead of Esr
Anybody has any confidence in the next tie?
Am i the only.one who felt this game was rigged?
Napoli on the edge of going out. One big gun potentially gone.
They should drop ceballos off at Madrid on their way home tonight.
Trouble is we won’t win this competition, so just delaying the inevitable.
Saka will move on he’s too good to stay with us.
Yes I knew we had it all the way… hahaha ha.. Cold beers taste a little better now at least.
Glad we won but Benfica are pretty shit. The babe in the BT studios called it right “Arsenal could only lose to themselves in this match”. They nearly did.
“He’s fired blanks in his previous 2 games before tonight”
So 5 goals in 4 games. Yeah, he’s shit. But Elneny is vastly improved.
Arteta back in? Can’t keep up.
Our players are not in sync with Odegaard yet. He played 2 or 3 delicious Through balls which our forwards failed to judge or mistimed the run.
Esr needs to play through the middle.
The win is great 👍
But need a royal inquest to understand why the undermining, self destructing starting team formation.
Phew!!!!!!
Phew that was an escape. It had shades of olympiakos. I am glad we won. But this game is a huge red flag regarding arteta. He was bailed out by his best players. Saying otherwise is disingenuous.
The moaners will be queueing up to criticize this Arsenal victory.
But it’s still a victory.
When there’s still loads of british teams left in the competition, i have no faith that we’ll win the trophy
I did not like the Sauce tonight.
I do not like this new standard.
We made Benfica look like world beaters. We were playing at home too.
Very squeaky for Teets but what a bit of great quality play from Saka under pressure circumstances to set that goal up for Auba near the end. And of course he assisted Auba’s first goal as well.
Tierney also making a telling contribution with the equaliser.
These two are gem players for Arsenal Saka and Tierney and if we don’t buck up as a club and start truly progressing we will lose these two players to other clubs sooner rather than later.
I presume this is the start of an impressive run now which was spoken of beforehand.
Still not clear what the fuck i just watched.
Told you we would win.
Odegard a massive disappointment.
Saka is truly majestic, and it may be ignoring reality but he seems to have excellent natural fitness. A few select players can play every game to a very high level, perhaps he is one of those few. Certainly good for us, his influence on our games is huge.
Wow that was much closer than I would of liked…. Great character after some silly mistakes. We march on! COYG!!
Ceballos is our new Mustafi.
Both Ajax and Villarreal score at the end of their respective game to keep my acca alive.
Just need a United win now, could be a very good day after all !
Yeah agree ode and esr can’t play together. Esr is wasted on the wings
Is it true we’ve never beaten an English side in European competition?
The more difficult is the game, the sweeter is the victory. So they say.
Delighted with the win, but ffs….La liga is crap including real Madrid and we have two of their cast offs. What the hell are we!
Stop this loan crap.
See the problem is Arteta.
Like it or lump it he STILL makes decisions based on emotion and favouritsm.
No way should Ceballos be in a must win starting line up
No way should Willian be a rescue sub (today notwithstanding)
No way should David Luiz be a starting defender
No way should the likes of Martinelli. Balogun and Lacazette not be starting regulars.
In short the buck stops with Arteta and he is clearly not good enough.
Not at all impressed with Odegaard. The boys Saka and Tierney are our fucking saviours. Love them both
Don’t want to see Ceballos play for us again.
ESR is better than Odegaard in the no10 position. I know it’s early days but I wouldn’t sign him either. We don’t need another no10.
We need a CM, RB, LW and ST.
Pepe was doing so well LW, should never have been dropped.
Partey is immense. He played for only 30 or so minutes but I’m sure he completed most long passes for us. Some of those were majestic. Ceballos doesn’t do that. And when playing against a defensive side we need to be able to switch ball quickly from one side to the other.
Xhaka can do that but today he seemed to select the safer option most of the time.
Saka is generational.
Phew!
Great comeback for a Change, didn’t think the boys would do it!
Tierney, absolute warrior, stepped up and dragged us back into this match. Auba found his scoring boots. Two errors by Ceballos 2nd one the worst just so unnecessary, trying to be cocky. He’d played alright up until those moments.
We didn’t deserve to lose tonight, thought it wasn’t gonna be our night after the offside goal was ruled out.
Fought for it, deserved to progress.
👍
I think Bukayo Saka is the most interesting young prospect Arsenal has produced since Cesc Fabregas.
Berg10kamp
Yeah agree ode and esr can’t play together. Esr is wasted on the wings
I think they can. Play ESR behind Ode. ESR can be our new Cazorla and Ode an improved version of Ozil
Buzzing after that. Haven’t had this feeling for what seems like ages.
Must change formation. Won’t get far in rest of EL otherwise. Almost self destructed tonight.
Why o why Ceballos thought he’d head the ball back to Leno from that fucking far literally with his dickhead？？
Karim _
..You know I love you man., .. But I hope United fuck your acca. hahaha They have a huge lead though don’t they?
I’m exhausted. What was that? I thought we left that behind last season after loosing to Olympiacos. Have we learnt any lessons? Auba missing those chances in the first leg cost us. And another DOUBLE fuck up by ONE player. He can fuck of back to Spain. Maybe he is a hairdresser after all …
Mid
Cold beers taste a little better now at least.
Cheers!!!
Onto my 4th to celebrate….😀
“You’ll just have to crawl under your rock and hope we lose on Sunday. Now pipe down and let those of us who enjoy winning to savour it a while you waspish little man”
10 minutes ago you were crying “Arteta Out.” Show me a single comment where I’ve wanted us to lose, boy.
We are just living off the consistency and brilliance of Bukayo Saka
You can pretend its all Arteta if you like but privately you know
It was a poor choice no doubt by Arteta to play Odegaard and ESR together like that.
It’s got to be one or the other.
But he escapes that poor decision tonight with ultimately victory.
Not at all impressed with Odegaard. The boys Saka and Tierney are our fucking saviours. Love them both!
That was an atrocious performance from ceballos tho
Also Auba was back to his usual self. Good to see.
Major_Jeneral
We did not produce Cesc – He was signed from Barca
Cesc never had Arsenal DNA – We never won anything after he anchored the midfield. No pace, no physical presence. Just tipy tapy football
How much is saka worth… 125m ?
Legendary –
Yep.. I’m on 4 too.. Cheers!
Radio
We neally did eh.. beat ourselves. We play with so much fear at times, ponderous play out of back not willing to expose space ahead opting to play back.
Hard to knock the subs when they work but fucking hell man good thing Willian was involved in equaliser.
Written we draw Villareal next.
Auba had his shooting boots on tonight, 2 quality finishes and an easy header.. Saka KT and Auba along with Partey had good games, others disappointed
I’ve not been an arteta out whiner but that was fucking garbage. what is going on? is it just confidence? I’ve really come around to arteta having SERIOUS squad problems. whatever philosophy he’s using needs some serious correcting or he will be gone if not by the summer then by october. extremely disappointing match. yes the refs were garbage and took every opportunity to make it hard on us but that is what refs do to arsenal retirement community, shouldnt come as a surprise to anyone.
“Auba cost us a draw vs city and a win in the first leg”
Which City?
When is the draw for the last 16 ?
Very true. Had Saka not broken through this season…Arteta would be sacked and we’d probably be 17th and out of the EL.
Horror show by Arteta. He made sure the players he picked got tired in the last couple of weeks. He is making sure that our fans think of this progress Vs the likes of Benfica as a huge thing. Emery kicked Napoli 3-0, Valencia 7-3. We have saucy Arteta here – next level is the next level – dropping from the competition Vs Olympiacos and scrapping a hugely fortuitous win Vs Benfica. We are in for a rough ride. The quicker some people realize that the experiment has indeed ended up as a failure, the faster our club can get… Read more »
Draw is tomorrow at midday I believe.
Partey changed the game completely…Along with Saka and Maybe KT, the only world class player we have
Useroz
February 25, 2021 19:57:38
Why o why Ceballos thought he’d head the ball back to Leno from that fucking far literally with his dickhead？？
—————————————————-
Exactly.
Cant believe some said he had a good game…..
I hope we have a ￡200m exit clause inserted in Sakas contract to fend off the vultures that would no doubt be circling the North London sky
The wailers sniffing around for something to get their teeth into. There’s plenty of that for them, if we’re honest. But who cares? Benfica were no pushover, and right now all that matters is we made the last 16.
Lol Mid !
I knew there was something wrong as I was typing it !
Yeah, they won 4-0 the other night, might be a concern in terms of who’s gonna start for them.Hope they will find their way to a pen or two
We should get Molde again hopefully 🙂
I do like odergaard but he needs to believe in himself a bit more. Take more responsibility. He’s meant to be a senior player trying to prove himself. His value is dropping every week. No way would I pay Madrid big money for him.
How come Manure are playing at Old Trafford and we pkay in Greece????
Anyone would think we’ve just beaten Barcelona.
The only abiding memory of this game is Arsenal’s keystone cops defending.
MG
Thought about that but that would waste esr attacking threat so Id prefer esr in 10 and partey and xhaka behind him. We definitely need a xhaka replacement asap. Not sure who tho…
Today Arteta had all his zippers and buttons in such a perfect order to match his perfect hair.
That’s how I knew we’d go through.
Why is Don not IP banned?
Guy has proven to be a racist, unpleasant person and that he will never change time and time and time again
Literally bringing the blog’s quality to the sea bottom on his own.
I stopped posting cause this thing is here picking up fights on an hourly basis.
“I hope we have a ￡200m exit clause inserted in Sakas contract to fend off the vultures that would no doubt be circling the North London sky”
My worry is that the club will end up having to sell SAKA to pay Willian’s and Aube’s pensions.
Partey is different class.
If anyone is coming in tor bukayo saka we are asking 100 mil +. Honestly rightnow he is only behind Sancho, Haaland and Mbappe as the best young players in the world. He is invaluable to us.
I’m so happy to be through to the next round.
Going out tonight would have been seriously depressing.
We didn’t play 10/10 but we have to be happy to get through. We have proven we can beat the odds in cup competitions. We have a burgeoning world class talent in Saka. This is hopefully a sign of Aubameyang getting back to his best. Let’s see some more optimism. As has been said earlier, a result in this manner can work wonders for a teams confidence and be a huge difference moving forward.
Sal-
Yep.. you know somewhere right now a Europa league official is icing down the ping pong balls… so we have an Emery v Arteta showdown. The Le Grove Bowl.
Odegaard has a great player in there. Perhaps he is playing a little shyt to drop his stock and force a move. Lol
Partey is brilliant.
Good news. Partey survives 20 mins without problem.
There are only five or six players that care in this team. If Ceballos didn’t screw us on purpose then he is a vegetable and we need to get rid of him. Like a poster above said Odegaard is a poor man’s Ozil. If the original isn’t good enough then neither is this guy. Esr is our most two footed player so playing him in the middle gives him the option of going both ways. If Auba is playing thru the middle then Pepe and Martinelli should be playing on the left. Of course Arteta will be playing Martinelli at… Read more »
And can all the wet blankets just eat something long, thick and hard…. let’s enjoy the win and support our boys!!! COYG
Boys, that last few minutes was pure stress!
I need a drink.
Odegaard had a decent game for me. So did ceballos until that horrendous mistake. I would pay money for odegaard but not ceballos. Odegaard is a different breed of 10 than ESR. We would need both. But not at the same time. ESR is being wanted on the wing.
Used to be last 16 in the EC now it’s last 16 in this competition.
We are going downwards whatever the spin is
Best football we’ve played all season had Saka Esr Pepe & laca as a front 4.
I maybe understand Auba coming back in for laca with his pedigree but Ode shouldn’t have a starting spot at CAM over ESR. Especially considering the later hadn’t put a for wrong before ode’s arrival.
Does Ode have the quality to make that CAM his? Yup. Is he the best player for the position rn? Nope. ESR is.
You fight to be a starter. You shouldn”t get it handed to you on a platter.
Wasted on the wing*
Midwest
The Legrove Bowl would rival the Super Bowl for interest in English media for sure.
Berg10
Listen mate, this game was supposed to be a stroll in the park, so I won’t be wetting my pants.
Great win but what was Arteta thinking bringing on Willian rather than Pepe to chase a game. Looks like pepe will leave at the end of the season if we can find a buyer,
Ceballos can go back to Madrid, just not good enough.
Bellerin was so poor on the ball that Saka just gave up passing to him
Bellerin was so poor going forward that saka just gave up passing to him !
Black
Nobody wetting trousers. Just not pissing on the team every chance u get
Keown doing his best Jeff Goldblum impression with that attire.
Wishing death on a football manager is one of the sickest things I’ve seen on le grove even if you think it’s in jest.
Regardless of what you think of him.
Good thing I wasn’t here during the game
I would have lost my rag.
Feel Arteta would def want to buy Ode at the end of seaso thl
So he sort of has to play the lad no matter his form.
Ridiculous it’s at the expense of ESR who’s not that effective on the wing so far.
Hopefully Ode picks up. He’s way better than what he’s showing.