Arsenal 0-0 AC Milan: Initial Reaction

Arrrrgh! (*frustratingly bangs fist on lounge room table*). Arsenal absolutely deserved to take a lead out of that one but it was just one of those nights. Anyone who saw Adebayor’s late crossbar hit will surely agree. More later.

In the meantime, any initial thoughts?

Have your say on Arsenal-Milan by leaving a comment.

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Comments

  1. I said it on another site and I will say it here. HOW BOUT BIG FUCKING PHIL SENDEROS HEY!!!!! I take back every word I said about that dopey looking beautiful bastard belonging in the swiss pig league, he was magical tonight… Hleb was just awesome, when he is on no one can get the ball off of his feet. Cesc was the maestro the held it all together and Flamini did what he had to do. I agree that Adebayor is starting to believe that it should all go through him, and I must say the team are supporting that. We are done with the Henry style of 10 + 1. We are a team now. I think the score is perfect for Arsenal, it will give AC Milan a false sense of security, we do best when we chase…

  2. Interesting. Totally agree with the Big Phil comment – he had a great game. I was actually quite pleased (perhaps not the best way of putting it) when Toure limped off and Phil came on. He was too big and strong for Pato and did a great job.

    I’m quietly confident as well – I really feel it is still in our hands. So disappointed with Adebayor’s late header though.

  3. Is Adebayor cursed in the Champions League? Why can he not score? It’s as if fate handed him one of the easiest chances of his career so he could miss it.

    Frustrating night overall but it was still an entertaining game. I think Wenger got his tactics pretty much spot on: if only the players had a little more composure. The ball over the top was putting a lot of pressure on the Milan defence.

    I felt bad for Toure when he had to come off. I wonder what happened to him. I don’t think it was the strike from Pato that injured him, just more because of the way he moved his leg.

    However, Senderos came on very well. That man is great in the air and he helped keep Kaka quiet for the 90 minutes. I just can’t see why pundits continually write him off. Sure, he has his faults but he has been on excellent form recently for us. He also causes the opposition a lot of problems on corners etc.

    Although 0-0 isn’t a poor result, one has to feel that we really should have taken our chances as I think we will have a lot less at the San Siro.

    There are a lot of positives to take from this game so we can now looked forward to the second leg in 2 weeks time which is sure to be an interesting game.

  4. wow that game was quite frustrating… SOO MANY CHANCESSS!!!

    it seemed like Milan were content with just sitting back and defending… lucky for them too because I’m sure if they had tried to breaking into an offensive leaving less men in the back, arsenal would’ve pounced on that and found SOME way through their defense… (unlucky for us ofcourse)

    and im with you guys, im starting to like Senderos in the back…

    it really was frustrating to watch though, ill tell you that.

  5. Senderos definitely suits the European game. He can use his anticipation and positioning to full effect there, whereas in the Premiership he often seems undone by the speed and tempo of the game.

    Milan are a brilliant side but we had our chances. It was alarming how many times we hit the target, unfortunately most efforts were straight at Kalac. However, I never got the feeling of frustration like I got at some stages last season – the boys generally picked the right options and rarely overplayed their passes and the patience Arsenal showed in the last 15 minutes was commendable.

  6. Thought the team played great, however Eboue really needs to learn to a) shoot accurately b) if can’t do A, then learn how to pass it to someone who can shoot accurately.

    How many times did he storm into the box only to unleash a terrible finish.

    In general, most of the finishing of the arsenal players (ade, fabregas, eboue etc) wasn’t up to their usual standards.

  7. I had the strange experience of being somewhat disappointed that Senderos had been dropped tonight to get Toure back in the team. However it wasn’t long before Big Phil was reminding us how much he has come on after a decent run of matches. He was just great tonight.
    Everywhere you looked though, you saw Arsenal players giving a great performance, putting a real scare up Milan.
    However that cutting edge to finish off all the wonderful approach work was sadly missing. I just kept thinking – if only Van Persie had been out there, it would have been a different story.
    What about Theo’s 5 minute cameo – his pace scared the life out of obdurate Italian defenders. Stick with him lads – I’m sure he will come good. If only Adebayor had just nodded in his superb cross instead of going for the spectacular !!!???

  8. I think Eboue did good.He had some slick runs at the Italian defence.But BIG PHIL was definitely my man of the match.Oh my! Eduardo’s performance was underwhelming…………But i think RVP and Rosicky will be ready for the second leg.Cant wait..Arsenal till i rot…

  9. I’ve always been behind Big Phil. Even called the phone in on Arsenal TV saying that everyone is treating him unfairly.

    Man of the match in my opinion. Vital headers, vital tackles, great positioning.

  10. As usual pundits wrote us off going through after this result.There are positives to take out from this game we didn’t concede and that is a massive advantage all we need is a score draw to go through while Milan will have to win and that means they will attack more and leave spaces at the back to exploite. Kaka is a fantastic player very rarely loses the ball it sticks to his feet apart from him I didn’t see any danger from Milan.We still on.

  11. Oh yeah, That was a great game as most Arsenal games are, I’m just disappointed that we didn’t have any goals to show for it. Senderos, Clichy, Hleb, Cesc, and even Walcott were the stand out players for me.Its was Walcott’s run and cross lead to the missed chance, why doesn’t Wenger bring him on earlier, his is much more effective than Eboue. After watching the match, I heard a lot of talk about how Milan were excellent (Graeme Sousness) and how we were substandard. Milan were only good a defending, which is what they came to do, they could not come at us and they hoped to sneak one in.

    I’m starting to acknowledge the fact that other fans/pundits/managers/websites don’t really show Us the respect we deserve. Think about it.. we have to play the most beautiful football capped with 4,5,7-0 scorelines to be truly recognised for our abilities.

    Anyway, i personally think that we will get greater quality chances at Milan as they have to actually play, even though they have home advan., we have to be more compact and efficient.

    If only Van P was playing.

    Arsenal4life

  12. Well said Jonson…..Hopefully Van Persie and Rosicky will be present for the second leg.Walcott was impressive for those few minutes.But BIG PHIL is still my man of the match.And someone tell me……..doesn’t FLAMINI ever get tired.Arsenal till i rot.

  13. LOL at Flamini is a robot. Maybe that should be his nick. Or perhaps Terminator. He really is a little guy who thinks he’s huge. And if he re-signs with Arsenal we could quite possibly see a challenge to Gallas for that armband.

    The “blog” pretty much sums up my feelings but I think everyone of the Gunners had a solid performance except for Eduardo. But lets be honest he can’t put in clinical finishes in every game. Footy just doesn’t work like that.

    Let’s just keep the solid form going and give Brimingham a good thrashing this weekend.

    Oh yes and I’m stealing the following from Man U Killa to end my post as well.

    “Arsenal till I rot…”

  14. Its time to unleash our frustrations of the past week on Birmingham.They play it tight just like Milan does….but it’s time to hit the back of the net..too bad they are the prey in sight…..Arsenal till i rot………..

  15. Flamini really is vital to this team now. I hope he stays fit for rest of the season because Gilberto is nowhere near his level. Hopefully we will have Van Persie back for the return leg. I’m glad Big Phil has really come into form because Toure is out for 3-4 weeks apparently. Toure needs a break anyway, only a couple a weeks ago he spoke about how he was fearing burnout.
    The media will paint a picture that we are up against it now. Not in my opinion. A 1-1 draw would have been much much worse. We didnt concede an away goal which is hugely important. If we can score out there and i think we will, then we have a great chance. Come on you Gooners!!

  16. What a performance from the Gunners!Didnt the boys atone for themselves well.I agree with Jonson what have Arsenal got to do to gain the respect from the Sky Sports pundits they deserve.Graeme Souness(Kaka Lover), David Platt (What kind of Gooner are you) and Ray Wilkins (Chelsea lover)actually thought Milan played better showing there mettle and tip Chelsea or Man U to win it!Perleez!Where they watching a different game? AC Milan were played of the park and only saved by the bar and the immense 39 year old Paolo Maldini last night. Did you see how the Milan players were puffing and panting at the end of the game!..Seedorf. Kaka…Pilro anonymous.I cant remember them getting a look in.If thats not a potential Champions League winning performace I dont know what is. the only guile they showed was in falling over and playing for free kicks.

    We cant always expect to bang the goals in all the time. And I think the stick Ade is getting is unfounded with some papers actually calling for Henry to come back. Give the guy a break.. The guy terrorised the Milan defence and worked his socks off. I think the whole team including Eboue played like they were possessed. Cesc.Flamini and Hleb bossed the midfield like it was a joke and the defence bolstered by Big Phil senderos immense OMG.Cesc played as if he was the World Player of the Year .

    Milan will have to play better than this. Arsenal will have to be just a little more composed in front of goal. But I believe Milan are there for the taking.Gooner till I die!

  17. Typical Sky Sports!! Souness, Wilkins and Platt! What the fuck does Wilkins know for starters. And Souness is one of the worst managers ever. As for Richard Keys, after 15 years of Sky i’m positively sick of listening to him and Andy Gray. Christ the Man United arse licking that was going on was making me sick to my stomach. Typical media and sky sports in particular,..one bad result for Arsenal against United and suddenly United are the world beaters. No premier league game for a couple of weeks and they all forget we are 5 points clear of them. And Darren Fletcher has one good game and suddenly he is world-class back-up.
    Leave them hype up United. We were wrote off at the start of the season and look where we are. This is our year!!

  18. Tony.U took the words right out of my mouth..thanks man.Come April Manure will be telling Arsenal “who is their daddy”……Arsenal till i rot………

  19. Is Adebayor cursed in the Champions League? Why can he not score?

    Pedrag, I think there is always an element of luck in scoring. But Ade shows his nerves more than most players. I think he is a player whose goals will always come in bunches because when he scores he is a bit more relaxed and a bit more precise in his passing and shooting, and so more goals come. In other words: if he scores in Milan, watch out!

  20. Spot on Gooner4life
    Let me shed some light on Souness’s dislike of Arsenal it goes back to1988-89 league championship decider at Anfield where we snatched the title from them in the dying seconds. Obviously he is still bitter about it after all these years so he’ll never say something good about Arsenal. Also as a manager he dragged liverpool through their worst league run for many years.
    Souness and his Manu lovers mates were pathetic they were watching the M.utd game then he said from what he saw from 5mins highlight that Milan played better. How can you come out with that without seeing the full game. Also they showed the replay of Eboue’s penalty shout and it shows clearly the defender caught Eboue on his toes and yet they still refused to admit it was a good shout for a penalty. let be fair the way Milan played is simply parking the bus in front of goal if that was Wigan they’ll be slaughtered for playing negative football. Milan will have to come out more in the second leg if they want to win and that is where we can cause damage.
    Wenger suggested that the San Siro pitch is not good. it sounded like he is making an excuse already so I didn’t really like that. Good or bad pitch he should’ve said we will do the job end of the story.

  21. What the hell is it with Arsenal and the Champions League – why does it always seem to go wrong for us. Okay we played well but never really tested the goalkeeper. The same thing happened last season against Eindhoven-had good possession but failed to take our chances and it came back to haunt us. Milan did what they had to do if they tried to play – we would have ripped them apart, its all about tacticts and rather then us moan about them being defensive it is the teams responsibility to break them down. We are all set for Milan in two weeks time and in all honesty a lot of our best performances in the Champions League have come aginst Italian opposition i.e Inter Milan, Juventus, Roma. The thought of getting nocked out drives me mad – if only we had been more clinical – Go on you GUNNERS – its time to show Europe we are capable of winning the trophy.

  22. 0-0 – Not many teams can say they dominated a game in the champions league with their opponents being AC Milan. You can see the difference having Flamini, Clichy, Sagna and adebayor does to the arsenal performance. If RVP is back for the 2nd leg I would play Eduardo and Van Persie just because Ade cannot score in Europe, so bring him on as a sub. Talking about subs, SENDEROS. How many times on this blog have you seen negative comments about Senderos, not any more and rightly so. Did brilliant, stopped Kaka and Pato which i admire him for that. Go Sendy.

  23. I don’t see why folks don’t give Eboue his deserved credit for last night. The entire team did very well but there was too much respect for their defence. It is no coincidence that Adebayor didn’t hammer them, with the exception of the crossbar miss. That is where their experience comes in. Size, pace and strength can be well neutralized by good game reading and positioning, which is what Milan defense did. For defenses like that you need creativity. Long balls and high crosses are very easy to defend if you position yourself well. I still think if we had RVP and Eduardo in the center we can open that defense almost at will. I feel for Eduardo. He is getting desperate for a goal at the moment so he has become less composed. To get him back he has to be played centrally and bang a couple of goals. Out wide is a lot more work for him. We played with a 4-5-1-1 for the most, if not entire game, which is good for not getting us hammered but it is not providing us the cutting edge we need to score a lot of goals.

  24. dont expect visitor team to play like their home ground. of cos u dominate the game.. at the end of the season, it matters whether u win something or not.. at some stage u are fighting for 4 competitions and now down to 2. what else will happen then? are u good enuff to win at Milan?
    can u score at Milan, something that u failed to do at ur own ground? hmm depends..

    pray that u have a fully fit squad for that battle. and make sure u have ur best back 4. it happend to MU last season when we played them with only one of our back 4.
    if u have fully fit squad and i reckon u can make it.. u just have to keep the score level for 30mins and play u game at later stage. if u try to hit them early, i’m afraid
    u are goin to get caught with their counter attack play.

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