Supporters Forum

AmericanGooner · **#500521**

Zagreb could give Sperz trouble. Likewise Milan and Man Utd.

Lincoln gooner · **#500522**

Bernard wrote:

old man of hoy wrote:

Must be favourites playing at home twice?

They can’t have Arsenal’s home leg played at the same venue as Olympiacos’ home leg, surely? Even if both games are behind closed doors, Arsenal would be able to object about Olympiacos’ familiarity with their normal home pitch and so on.

Yes Bernard surely that would be the case.

Hazuki · **#500523**

A little thing I haven't seen discussed about last night, but I think Leno did well not going all in on the Benfica player who scored the second goal. If Leno brings him down, and it wouldn't have taken much contact, it's a penalty and a red card and we're left trying to turn the game around with ten men. It was a very smart split second desicion on Leno's part.

Bernard · **#500524**

Hazuki wrote:

A little thing I haven't seen discussed about last night, but I think Leno did well not going all in on the Benfica player who scored the second goal. If Leno brings him down, and it wouldn't have taken much contact, it's a penalty and a red card and we're left trying to turn the game around with ten men. It was a very smart split second desicion on Leno's part.

Couldn’t agree more.

long time gooner · **#500525**

Bernard wrote:

old man of hoy wrote:

Must be favourites playing at home twice?

They can’t have Arsenal’s home leg played at the same venue as Olympiacos’ home leg, surely? Even if both games are behind closed doors, Arsenal would be able to object about Olympiacos’ familiarity with their normal home pitch and so on.

Am I missing something here? Given that football travel is allowed between UK and Greece (as per last night) won’t both teams just be able to play at their actual home grounds?

old man of hoy · **#500526**

long time gooner wrote:

Bernard wrote:

They can’t have Arsenal’s home leg played at the same venue as Olympiacos’ home leg, surely? Even if both games are behind closed doors, Arsenal would be able to object about Olympiacos’ familiarity with their normal home pitch and so on.

Am I missing something here? Given that football travel is allowed between UK and Greece (as per last night) won’t both teams just be able to play at their actual home grounds?

Yes - I was joking!

Bernard · **#500527**

old man of hoy wrote:

Yes - I was joking!

Need a bit of practice to get to Basil Fawlty, Edmund Blackadder and Humphrey Appleby levels, I’d say.

long time gooner · **#500528**

old man of hoy wrote:

long time gooner wrote:

Am I missing something here? Given that football travel is allowed between UK and Greece (as per last night) won’t both teams just be able to play at their actual home grounds?

Yes - I was joking!

I spotted that you were. But I took Bernard at face value.

Rich · **#500529**

So nice to see a player (Tierney) get the ball, shift it to make half a yard and hit a hard, low, accurate, true strike on goal. I thought the same when Aubameyang scored that first goal against Leeds. We don’t do it nearly enough. Our accuracy on shots from around the edge of the area is woeful

Hazuki · **#500530**

We've faced Olympiakos ten times, with the teams winning five times each. They knocked us out last year obviously, but apart from that we had them in our Champions League group in 09/10, 11/12, 12/13 and 15/16. Must be one of the non-English teams we've played the most?

old man of hoy · **#500531**

Bernard wrote:

old man of hoy wrote:

Yes - I was joking!

Need a bit of practice to get to Basil Fawlty, Edmund Blackadder and Humphrey Appleby levels, I’d say.

Yes - am strictly Conference level compared to those giants. My wife laughs at me...

long time gooner · **#500532**

old man of hoy wrote:

Bernard wrote:

Need a bit of practice to get to Basil Fawlty, Edmund Blackadder and Humphrey Appleby levels, I’d say.

Yes - am strictly Conference level compared to those giants. My wife laughs at me...

I’m reminded of the Bob Monkhouse classic

“People used to laugh at me when I said I wanted to be a comedian. Well they're not laughing now.”

old man of hoy · **#500533**

Hazuki wrote:

We've faced Olympiakos ten times, with the teams winning five times each. They knocked us out last year obviously, but apart from that we had them in our Champions League group in 09/10, 11/12, 12/13 and 15/16. Must be one of the non-English teams we've played the most?

Yes - but played Bayern more often.

long time gooner · **#500534**

old man of hoy wrote:

Hazuki wrote:

We've faced Olympiakos ten times, with the teams winning five times each. They knocked us out last year obviously, but apart from that we had them in our Champions League group in 09/10, 11/12, 12/13 and 15/16. Must be one of the non-English teams we've played the most?

Yes - but played Bayern more often.

Been on the same pitch you mean. Played is overstating it on occasions. :sad4:

Hazuki · **#500535**

old man of hoy wrote:

Hazuki wrote:

We've faced Olympiakos ten times, with the teams winning five times each. They knocked us out last year obviously, but apart from that we had them in our Champions League group in 09/10, 11/12, 12/13 and 15/16. Must be one of the non-English teams we've played the most?

Yes - but played Bayern more often.

Twelve times apparently, winning three and losing seven. Barcelona nine times, losing six and winning once.

old man of hoy · **#500536**

long time gooner wrote:

old man of hoy wrote:

Yes - but played Bayern more often.

Been on the same pitch you mean. Played is overstating it on occasions. :sad4:

Indeed. At one stage we played them in 4 out of 5 ECL campaigns under Arsene. Not likely to have that misfortune again any time soon.

long time gooner · **#500537**

Hazuki wrote:

old man of hoy wrote:

Yes - but played Bayern more often.

Twelve times apparently, winning three and losing seven. Barcelona nine times, losing six and winning once.

I remember us playing Barcelona in the quarter finals in 2010. After 20 minutes a wag behind me in the crowd shouted out “Can we have our ball back?”.

We had barely touched it and Barca seemed to create and miss chances at will. It was astounding that it was still 0-0, and more so that it stayed that way throughout the first half. It was like watching a masterclass. How we got out of that with a draw having subsequently gone 0-2 down remains a mystery.

AmericanGooner · **#500538**

Derby vs Forest in a league match in the Championship. I have to assume a couple decades ago it would have been a 'must see' game. No?

gooner7 · **#500539**

Hazuki wrote:

A little thing I haven't seen discussed about last night, but I think Leno did well not going all in on the Benfica player who scored the second goal. If Leno brings him down, and it wouldn't have taken much contact, it's a penalty and a red card and we're left trying to turn the game around with ten men. It was a very smart split second desicion on Leno's part.

I thought similarly. Leno might have thought about it, but then made the right decision.

gooner7 · **#500540**

Hazuki wrote:

We've faced Olympiakos ten times, with the teams winning five times each. They knocked us out last year obviously, but apart from that we had them in our Champions League group in 09/10, 11/12, 12/13 and 15/16. Must be one of the non-English teams we've played the most?

They have the psychological edge over us right now. But once the ball is kicked, we will lord over them.

mcquilkie · **#500541**

long time gooner wrote:

Hazuki wrote:

Twelve times apparently, winning three and losing seven. Barcelona nine times, losing six and winning once.

I remember us playing Barcelona in the quarter finals in 2010. After 20 minutes a wag behind me in the crowd shouted out “Can we have our ball back?”.

We had barely touched it and Barca seemed to create and miss chances at will. It was astounding that it was still 0-0, and more so that it stayed that way throughout the first half. It was like watching a masterclass. How we got out of that with a draw having subsequently gone 0-2 down remains a mystery.

That first 20 minutes was maybe the best I've ever seen a team play. Barca were absolutely mesmerising. I nearly just stood up and applauded (which would have been a bit embarrassing, given that it was 7am in Australia, and I was in my lounge-room in my pyjamas).

Rich · **#500542**

Hazuki wrote:

We've faced Olympiakos ten times, with the teams winning five times each. They knocked us out last year obviously, but apart from that we had them in our Champions League group in 09/10, 11/12, 12/13 and 15/16. Must be one of the non-English teams we've played the most?

On paper our record isn't great with 5 wins for each but I think at least 2 of those defeats have been dead rubber games in Greece, when we played weakened teams at the end of group stages I think. It will be tough but our best performance is better than theirs I think.
Key will be making sure Leno, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, Saka and Aubameyang are 100% fit to play both legs

Rich · **#500543**

Arsenal's most common European opponents
12 Bayern Munich
10 Olympiakos (soon to be 12)
9 Barcelona
8 Ajax
8 Dortmund
8 Milan
8 Panathinaikos

mcquilkie · **#500544**

long time gooner wrote:

old man of hoy wrote:

Yes - but played Bayern more often.

Been on the same pitch you mean. Played is overstating it on occasions. :sad4:

All we needed against Bayern was for matches to finish at half-time. The weird thing about the 10-2 defeat in 2017 was that in the first leg in Munich it was 1-1 at the break, and at the Emirates we were 1-0 up. Rather inconveniently, Bayern scored nine goals in the second half of the two matches.

Rich · **#500545**

It is important to go far in the Europa League evn if we don't go on to win it because this all still effects UEFA co-efficient rankings. Despite 4 years in Europa we're still ranked 11th. There isn't many extra ranking points for being in Champions League rather than Europa. For example - wining Europa gets your 30 points and winning champions leagu gets you 36. Going out of Europa to Olympikos last year only got us 10 points but getting to the final vs Chelsea got us 26 points.
Basically a steady QF and better in Europa League still stands you in a good position to be one of the better seeded teams when you do make it back in to the Champions League.

What you can't afford is to miss out on Europe all together - zero points and plenty of teams will steam past you.
At the moment Arsenal in the champions league would be 2nd seeds - which is where we were seeded for maybe the last 8 or so years we were in the CL anyway.
https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations ... /#/yr/2021

Darren · **#500546**

AmericanGooner wrote:

Derby vs Forest in a league match in the Championship. I have to assume a couple decades ago it would have been a 'must see' game. No?

Still is an interesting game for the neutral tbh. That the fixture has any resonance really is down to one man, by and large. The incredible Brian Clough.

TOP GUN · **#500547**

You can Analyse it but you would have taken that draw in a heartbeat

Must fancy our chances

AmericanGooner · **#500548**

Rich wrote:

Arsenal's most common European opponents
12 Bayern Munich
10 Olympiakos (soon to be 12)
9 Barcelona
8 Ajax
8 Dortmund
8 Milan
8 Panathinaikos

When I first started watching Arsenal we seemed to draw Valencia every season.

AmericanGooner · **#500549**

Darren wrote:

AmericanGooner wrote:

Derby vs Forest in a league match in the Championship. I have to assume a couple decades ago it would have been a 'must see' game. No?

Still is an interesting game for the neutral tbh. That the fixture has any resonance really is down to one man, by and large. The incredible Brian Clough.

Certainly. The pandemic has made me realized I've taken the possibility of live viewing for granted. One of my bucket list items is to take a month or so and see football all over the country, all divisions. Same for Europe. I'd love to take trip through various countries and catch local football.

Bernard · **#500550**

TOP GUN wrote:

You can Analyse it but you would have taken that draw in a heartbeat

Must fancy our chances

I agree. We avoided Manchester United, Tottenham, Milan and Roma. Can’t ask for more than that.

Hazuki · **#500551**

https://streamable.com/c2h6di

Tierney doesn't seem too fond of players diving

Decaf · **#500552**

Hazuki wrote:

old man of hoy wrote:

Yes - but played Bayern more often.

Twelve times apparently, winning three and losing seven. Barcelona nine times, losing six and winning once.

That the one victory was when Messi absolutely tore us to pieces in the opening 20 minutes but Barca somehow only scored one. Then we improbably turned it round. Then Van Persie was ridiculously sent off in the second leg. That still rankles.

Decaf · **#500553**

Bernard wrote:

socrates wrote:

I think there is something to be said about not overplaying youngsters who burst onto the scene as such a young age. I think Fabregas's best years were before his 25th birthday, Michael Owen was another whose career was on a steep downward trajectory after his mid 20s.

Saka needs to be carefully managed but at the moment he's our get-out-of-jail player who can't be dropped.

Morning socrates. My guess is the days of top players staying at one club for the whole of their careers, like Adams at Arsenal or Terry at Chelsea, is pretty well over. The selfish way of looking at it is if we overplay Saka now, the chances are we’ll be compromising his injury record at another club, whoever it is he ends up going to.

Maybe I’m looking at it too much from a moral standpoint but I think that would be wrong. In my opinion Saka should be rested. Not in the Europa League which I see as Arsenal’s big priority this season now. But certainly in some Premier League games. Why can’t he rested (you call it dropped) for a league we’re not going to win or even get into the top four? Okay, we have a chance of getting a position for Europa League qualification but I would hope we could pick and choose the right Premier League games to rest him for to avoid severely compromising our chances of getting one of those places.

Kane may yet prove you wrong.

I completely agree regarding Saka. Apart from protecting Saka, we need players like Pépé and Willian to be getting decent minutes in that position in case Saka gets injured.

Bernard · **#500554**

Decaf wrote:

Bernard wrote:

Morning socrates. My guess is the days of top players staying at one club for the whole of their careers, like Adams at Arsenal or Terry at Chelsea, is pretty well over. The selfish way of looking at it is if we overplay Saka now, the chances are we’ll be compromising his injury record at another club, whoever it is he ends up going to.

Maybe I’m looking at it too much from a moral standpoint but I think that would be wrong. In my opinion Saka should be rested. Not in the Europa League which I see as Arsenal’s big priority this season now. But certainly in some Premier League games. Why can’t he rested (you call it dropped) for a league we’re not going to win or even get into the top four? Okay, we have a chance of getting a position for Europa League qualification but I would hope we could pick and choose the right Premier League games to rest him for to avoid severely compromising our chances of getting one of those places.

Kane may yet prove you wrong.

I completely agree regarding Saka. Apart from protecting Saka, we need players like Pépé and Willian to be getting decent minutes in that position in case Saka gets injured.

To be fair, that’s why I said “pretty well over” rather than completely finished. There can always be rare exceptions, be it Kane or someone else. Having said that, it wouldn’t shock me if Kane moves eventually even if it’s not anytime soon.

warrior · **#500555**

Willian has revealed that he really wanted to stay at Chelsea

https://www.msn.com/en-au/sport/transfe ... li=AAgfLCP

AmericanGooner · **#500556**

...and as further proof, he's been playing as such.

old man of hoy · **#500557**

AmericanGooner wrote:

When I first started watching Arsenal we seemed to draw Valencia every season.

In my youth European football consisted of the annual match against Racing Club de Paris. Read all about it in this fine article.

https://blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/7957

long time gooner · **#500558**

old man of hoy wrote:

AmericanGooner wrote:

When I first started watching Arsenal we seemed to draw Valencia every season.

In my youth European football consisted of the annual match against Racing Club de Paris. Read all about it in this fine article.

https://blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/7957

What a brilliant read.

Amazing story and to think that they are now an amateur side.
For some reason it brought to mind great names (but faded glories) from my youth such as Ujpest Dozsa and Partizan Belgrade. Major forces in their time.

AmericanGooner · **#500559**

old man of hoy wrote:

AmericanGooner wrote:

When I first started watching Arsenal we seemed to draw Valencia every season.

In my youth European football consisted of the annual match against Racing Club de Paris. Read all about it in this fine article.

https://blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/7957

Wonderful article omoh. Many thanks, enjoyed the read. It brings up a question. What is your (or others) guess of when Arsenal became the biggest club in London? In the 30s for sure. But approximately when did we become the biggest and who did we usurp from that perch?

It would be 'cool' to play them again.

AmericanGooner · **#500560**

A preview of the 2024 Republican national convention....

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