"coulda been a contender"
Current
contenders
Zenit 3 v 2 Benfica
Milan 4 v 0Arsenal
CSKA v Real Madrid
Napoli v
Marseille v Internazionale
The EUFA
Champions League now has a combination of fifteen teams standing in Arsenal’s
way. That’s technically true but realistically stupidity to suggest. A first
leg loss of 4-0 is insurmountable, pure and simple.
Was I being
realistic when I said I thought we could win the tournament that has eluded us?
I think I was. I believed that this Competition was there for any number of
teams to win, so why not us?
Barca, based on
last year and the quality of certain team members are favourites, but what of
Real Madrid who currently lead La Liga under Morinho. Bayern are a club who
have European triumph entrenched in their roots. The French Italian clash has
two teams both of whom are capable as does, perhaps, the tie between the light
blue and dark. With the spread of teams that were left, and crucially, only one
English team in the pot I felt it not unfeasible that we could go all the way.
I believed that our
spine looked better than it’s been with Szczesny, Vermaelan, Koscielny, Arteta,
Song and RVP. The return of Sagna at right back would only be a good thing and
the pace offered by Oxlade-Chamberlaine & Walcott might have proved
effective. Add to this mix the experience of Rosicky, Benayoun and the
unpredictability of Arshavin and there may have been potential for a fair
amount of uncertainty in our opponents. This was an acknowledgement of what we have player wise, not what we should have as a top club.
We are a top Club, just a top club with an average playing staff.
I was wrong
though wasn’t I? I was wrong because I didn’t predict that this set of players charged
with representing the Arsenal, would not turn up at The San Siro. I didn’t
predict the schoolboy errors, lack of desire, inability to vary the play. I
didn’t bargain for players not wanting to shine on one of the worlds great
footballing stages. Let’s not kid ourselves; AC Milan were a pretty good team
last night, no more than that, made to look like Brazil 1970 by our abysmal
performance.
A performance
lacking character, and that is something that has been absent for a number of
years.
Arsene Wenger and the board receive criticism on a regular basis with each disappointment and I am not going to go into that here. However, there comes a point when you have to be critical of the players themselves. Tonight was one of those points.
Regular readers know of my opinion that this squad is simply not good enough and ultimately the reason that this squad has been assembled is out of those players' control, but they are supposed to show more than they did last night. Time and again Arsenal have been found wanting on the pitch, this has been a regular pattern for over a year now and we are currently where we deserve to be; not where we think we should be. This is a crucial truth; we are where we are because that's how good we are, that's where this squad are at.
The rhetoric that we left Highbury in order to give us the ability to "Compete with the top teams in Europe" looks more and more like bullshit.
Before our humiliation last night I felt that it
really could be ‘up for grabs’ for a team outside the usual suspects to win the
Champions League; I still do, but it won’t be us, not ever with this current version of the Arsenal.
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so I said...