Looking for highlights to refresh the memory of major incidents in the game, the go-to place is often Arsenalist. The clip descriptions for last night seem to form a decent match report, illustrating the fact that we didn’t really have many clearcut chances whereas Atletico did. Fair reflection or not? Here they are……..
First Half
Ospina punches it away early
Dangerous Lacazette cross
Huge Diego Costa chance
Koscielny injury
Oooo…Monreal almost pulls it back for Lacazette
Good Arsenal play but Bellerin’s cross is poor
Big Lacazette chance, doesn’t get shot off
Atletico volley – Ospina save
Monreal chance
Ooooo…Atletico just wide
Ooooo…Griezmann chance
Diego Costa goal 1-0
Second Half
Welbeck fouled very smartly to stop Arsenal break
Big Ramsey chance – can’t get clean shot off
Chambers bails out Mustafi (who fell) on Costa chance
Dangerous Ozil cross…nobody at the end of it
Ozil wins it back, but cross is cleared
Xhaka chance
Huge chance Costa/Griezmann, they should have scored
Bellerin cross poor
Mikhitaryan chance, over
Monreal heads it down into the box – nobody there
Great Xhaka tackle on Griezmann
Costa and Mustafi double bookings
Ozil doing stuff you expect Welbeck to do
Is this….is this a cross?
Can one of you please effin shoot
Ospina save on Torres
Ratings
Ospina – Made some decent blocks … 6
Bellerin – Wakey wakey for the Costa goal, crossing poor throughout … 5
Mustafi – Shkodran seems a bit thick, left on his backside far too often … 5
Koscielny/Chambers – Poor Laurent, perhaps a career-ending injury/ Calum did well with a few fine interceptions/recoveries … 6
Monreal – Worked hard to find something for us to bite on around the Atletico goal … 6
Wilshere – Seemed to lack belief … 5
Xhaka – Granit gave full effort but is never going to be the one to unlock a resolute defence … 6
Ramsey – Nothing really came off, looked a bit lightweight … 5
Ozil – Some dangerous moments but couldn’t find anyone to finish off his good work … 6
Welbeck – Gave everything but still lacking that last little bit of quality … 5
Lacazette – Plan A requires Alexandre to have some service, Plan B may have been what Arsenal required last night … 6
Summary
Just not good enough on the night against one of the best defences in Europe.
Such a shame for Kos – his Achilles has been an accident waiting to happen. Two new centre backs please, Mr Next Arsenal Manager.
Oh well, on we go to Sunday’s 6th place decider.
chas
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
More fine work Chas, thank you for taking up the Match Report mantle.
Eddie says we were the better team, I disagree. AM are a proper team, we are a group of individuals who occasionally gel. But I would much prefer to watch AFC on a regular basis than the oh-so-dull defensive AM. They remind me of that awful George Graham team with Ian Wright upfront giving us a touch of genius (like Griezmann)
I thought Chambers and Lacazette were our best players. Chambers showing why I have such faith in his future, Lacazette working hard and being the only one who looked in any way a potential scorer.
This morning I see it as an opportunity missed but recall my feelings when we drew AM – I expected us to lose and we did.
And so it cam to pass.Fortunately the fm knew his time was up
even though he was pushed out. To me it had been coming many years ago. He is still stuck in his beautiful and bewitching football style. To him football is an art.
That’s why he has seen better times.Take the gunner attack .Its 1/2/3 passes too many.So when it breaks down you and I will know what is going to happen.
Hopefully the new manager will get to grips with the perennial problem of a lousy defence.
Can’t complain about that report.
We were lacking the cutting edge, the inventiveness and the willpower to unlock the AM defence. As guilty as we were in the first leg of not taking our chances, last night we couldn’t create them when we had created space to do so.
That’s the biggest disappointment from last night.
Second disappointment was the times we fell over looking for free kicks which didn’t come and gifting the ball back to AM in dangerous areas as a result.
For me the team lacked courage last night, courage to attack wholeheartedly and courage to fight for the right to play, you can’t just fall over and hope for a whistle.
Great work, chas, you’ve captured the essence perfectly as usual.
I have no complaints about the performance, poor crossing, little service to the strikers and calamitous defending is our norm, so no point in blaming individuals.
I agree with Raddy, Chambers is coming of age and in my view a better defender than Mustafi.
I also agree that our problem is that we haven’t been a balanced team ….. for years …. we haven’t recruited the right type of personnel. Our spine is weak and we lack a replacement for Cazorla, we need a midfield maestro to be able to thread the ball forward to Lacazette and Auba.
We can still make Sunday a special occasion for celebration of the great man ….. May the 4th be with you all 😂
I am pretty sure there wont be another Arsenal manager who can last so long like Wenger without fighting for the epl.
Arsenal is a premium brand and has been allowed to drift to mediocre status by the US owner.
Hopefully he will be more ruthless in the quest for success and wont let another underperforming manager last more than 5 years.
wolfgang – give it a rest. Almost all Gunners agree that AW overstayed his welcome.
However, he has resigned now, it is over, no point going on and on, and on, and on, and on about it. Move on
Eddie, I’m afraid we might have to get used to it, because as you can see the focus has already shifted to the board, we will still have the doubters and vociferous opposition to whatever the club does unless we are up their competing. Problem is there are a lot of clubs vying for that top spot so we are going to have to define what competing means. That’s going to be a fruitless discussion so I have taken the decision to just sit back and watch. We aren’t going to change minds or set the parameters for the debate.
Only one thing to do, go to games, enjoy what you get and forget it until the next time.
There really are some a-holes in Goonerdom. John Williamson needs a damned good thrashing
As the allegedly biggest team in the biggest city in Europe we have the resources necessary to compete for titles. That expectation is a de minimus.
Getting the right manager for the job is another question but the basic expectation is not, should not be up for debate.
Cheers chas
Last night was a tragedy, we deserved to win that.
I reckon Arsene should be given a three year contract to put it right. To appease his naysayers it can have a clause in it saying that if we are still crap at 2020, any further extensions will be limited to two years only
i have recently become a part time Tarot Reader. You can catch me on youtube under the alias “Terry predicts a shit time”
Just done a quick reading for the Williamson bloke. He drew the ‘two of cups’ which is an offer of impending love? Using my spiritual guide i foresee Williamson finding love in a public toilet which is against his will. His next card was the ‘devil upright’, which basically means hes pretty buggered by it.
if any one else wants to know what shit times they have in store, I will be more than happy to oblige.
The Ghosts of the Thirties are Stirring.
Brilliant Terry. LOL
Wally my point is “competing” will mean different things to different people. We got to the semi finals of a major European competition, is that “competing”? If we came second in league, crashed out of all Cups in round 1/group stage, is that competing?
I think unless we win things those who say we should be “competing” will always say we aren’t competing.
Many thanks Chas. A nice contemporary style to your post.
I think we have to be realistic with how we define competing GIE. The quadruple in an unbeaten season is not too much to ask for. Anything less than this and heads will have to roll.
If we are not on course for this by January next year we will seriously have to look at Wengers position.
Terry 🙂 I wouldn’t mind min tarot being read. Can you see anything involving a chained up terrified looking GoonerB, spandex, dog collars, and a dodgy looking swarthy Mediterranean type with an evil smile and a Donald Trump Barnet, with a cheap Brandy in one hand and a cattle prod in the other?
I feel really badly for Arsene, I was hoping that the players would give him the performance of their lives – but sadly it was normal service in front of a determined packed defense. I find it to be a tad strange that Arsene was never able to build a squad that had the ability to penetrate the type of defense that Fat Sam fielded against us at Bolton.
GN5 I am sure your stats will show that we did indeed have an answer for those kind of defences on more than one occasion during AW reign, but they were also the teams most likely to stifle us and so we remember those games rather than the countless wins. The thing is because of the way we played it was the only way for a lot of teams to setup to think they had a chance on counter. But let’s be honest as we have heard recently even SAF set United up differently when they played us and they didn’t do that for many teams. Maureen made it even more acceptable, defend and counter. He had luxury of better players to take advantage of the defensive exposure. Most did not, unfortunately in Griezman AM also have it.
We also have to remember why he changed from power, pace and guile to guile and possession, AW didn’t like getting beaten by Barca and became obsessed with emulating it. Unfortunately changing our side to small passing intricacies also led to the team becoming unsuited to an EPL title challenge and the physical challenge of the EPL on that team led to many injuries that meant they were not available for Europe.
GIE, you are correct chasing the holy grail of perfection became AW’s Achilles heel.
The poor man looked devastated when his last chance of a European Cup with his beloved Arsenal disappeared.
We are in the midst of a huge storm with winds of 110km, hydro has been on and off all day.
I didnt want to read this post and was planning to take a break of all things Arsenal for a while.
Lasted about 12hrs
The match report was just the tonic.
Chas you wrote a difficult post in a brilliant way, thank you.
As for Eddie, your comments are awesome. They are unpredictable and cut deep.
Terry, I searched youtube but no luck finding your shit channel.
Agree with GIE and CD14
I plan to go for a long run today and listen to Bishop Briggs new album Church of Scars
Morning All,
Over my depression caused by some Spaniards.
Method? Went to see Tommy Emmanuel in concert. Small auditorium of just 500 people to see possibly the finest acoustic guitarist in the world.
VP, he is an Ozzie.
Stevie Gerrard to manage Rangers??!! Really?
I give him 6 months in the job, he is not even very bright. Well, let’s face it – he is thick. And, will Jokes understand him? I don’t
a must win game tomorrow.
If we want to play on Spursdays of course. i do, my favorite competition this season. Great shame it’s over
BR
Australian Guitar Magazine’s Definitive Top Ten Australian Guitarists of All Time
Angus Young (ACDC)
Tommy Emmanuel
Ian Moss (Cold Chisel)
Chris Cheney (The Living End)
Rick Brewster (The Angels)
Slava Grigoryan (Slava Grigoryan)
Deniz Tek (Radio Birdman, The Visitors)
Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil)
Lobby Loyde (Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs)
Ross Hannaford (Daddy Cool)
Sadly, out of the above list I used to really like Slava
Eddie,
Tomorrow’s result is irrelevant for Europe. Both 6th and 7th will qualify because the FA Cup final teams are already in Europe next year.
Football is really starting to annoy me these days. I’m sick of the robotic players with their greed and lack of personality. I’m fed up of seeing fans boasting about every little thing regardless of how shit their club is performing. The media outlets are a disgrace and pump out pointless bollocks all over social media and in the press just to get clicks and likes. The pundits try to outdo each other by saying more and more controversial things just to stay relevant and sound like they have an opinion.
Then you have a manager like Arsene retiring after 22 years of dedicating his life to the club. He is one of the last few gentlemen still left in this game and our own fans still want to have a pop at him.
‘The beautiful game’ they call it! Bollocks.
GIE, I think most people understand what ‘competing’ means. Competing does not mean winning titles per se. It’s about putting forth your best effort consistently, fighting for the victory. It’s about being in the race and not merely part of the race, which is where we’ve been for too long now.
Winning titles is a matter of hard work, great skill, teamwork and a bit of luck. One almost always needs a bit of luck over the course of the season, whether it’s injuries, a call or non-call, timing of games, a strange bounce….
I don’t expect a run of titles like manure or ‘pool had. That’s ridiculous and those days are gone. What i expect, and i think most people expect is to fight hard as we can, like Thurs, (even if we don’t win) and look like a team that has been coached up and not dropping games over and over again due to the same, repeated mistakes. I expect to see progression in teamwork and results which would, hopefully result in a title(s). We’re just nowhere near that at the moment and haven’t been for awhile.I want to be once again excited about waiting for and watching the team play
the difference between 6 and 7 is, I believe, that you have to play a qualifying game at the end of July, a week or so past WC.
You’ll have a new manager with a new way, some new faces, who will be playing without some of his best players maybe in a strange place. You’d expect we’d still win but…..
No idea if this is true.
FGG. There will always be some dick who needs attention or click-bait. A kick in the kishkas is the only answer.
I agree that it is becoming harder to focus on just the sport and not the peripheral bullshit.
I guess it is the price we pay for the chance to watch as much football as we wish from the sofa
It’s a damn fine day in England.
Wish I was at the coast.
BR,
As an armchair fan, I don’t think it’s a price worth paying. I rarely watch live football these days and if I do I watch only the game and non of the other 2 hours of pundits talking bollocks that accompanies it. Even the commentators need turning off from time to time as the ‘expert’ next to them is usually talking nonsense.
The finished baked product!
😀 😀
Is the Ladies FAC Final on TV?
What a horrible person I must be ….. I’ve cheered up enormously from the totts losing today. And if you read any of their stuff on twitter they are not a happy bunch 😁
Raddy, I see you were cheered too 😁
Where are we drinking tomorrow? FFB? Irish is here, let’s party 😁
Stoke are gone, Spuds might not make top 4 which will be funny, would rather Swansea drop than Sorhamlton but think they’ve both lost their way and it would be funny to see Hughes effectively relegate two teams.
Sad to hear SAF not doing too well. Obviously has his haters outside of Manchester but still a legend of football regardless of your allegiances.
A brain haemorrhage according to reports.
Evening all, sad news about SAF, he was a big part of our finest years under Arsene … and only a week ago, generous in his praise of AW.
The totts losing is funny, I doubt they’ll finish outside the top four, but if you think we’re bad supporters you should read the slagging off they’re getting from some of their fans 🙂
I wonder what Claude will have to say tomorrow on Arsenal TV? …. twat 😦
I’m pondering how I feel about Fergie’s misfortune. Same as a manc would feel about AW becoming ill, I suppose
Eddie,
A 76 year old having a brain haemorrhage should go beyond football allegiances, but in this day and age I doubt it will.
Rasp,
They’ve won nothing under Pochettino and are having their usual end of season wobble. If we can be pissed at Wenger then they should definitely be pissed at Pochettino. The ‘new manager’ excitement has worn off and they are now expecting results which are not really forthcoming. Decent football and ‘nearly’ winning things is not good enough these days.
Wally and GiE were having a chat earlier about what is challenging and what is acceptable. Wally said that competing and being the best we can be is good enough, but that’s not the case. Spurs are better than they’ve ever been and it’s not good enough because it hasn’t led to trophies. We could improve 10 fold over the next few years under a new manager but if it doesn’t result in silverware then eventually it will become not good enough. It’s sad, but that’s modern football.
It would have been a tragedy if it had happened to a 26 year old. Fergie had a long, brilliant life, not many can match that.
Old people get ill and die, that’s life I’m afraid. A sexually transmitted deadly disease
Should be at FFB by 2.15pm if trains are on time.
Morning All,
Horrible news about SAF but even he is mortal.
Peaches. It is true. Spurs losing cheered my day – it always does 😀
FGG. 9.53. So true. I guess it is a Me-Generation thing when being number one is paramount and anything else is losing.
We have forgotten the basic ideals of sport.
It has become impossible to lose with honour as we did in Madrid.If the team give 100% and lose to a better team then let’s applaud both the victor and the loser – unless it is Spurs.
white trousers.
I’ve never liked white or khaki trousers as they show splashback.
khaki is still better than white – at least you wouldn’t notice shit in them
thanks for that
is that Wenger?
no, this is Wenger
I think it is time for
A New Post