Arsenal 1 - 3 Bayern Munich - Its an uphill struggle but its down hill from here.

Walking to the match there was a really exciting buzz about the place. I normally go to Highbury and Islington tube station and walk through Highbury fields to the stadium. But due to platform overcrowding at H&I the tube doors didn’t open and the train finally released me at Finsbury Park. Having lived in Highbury for a number of years I always go back there and meet up with the lads for a pre match beer. Going to Finsbury park wasn’t a massive problem, but the walk to the stadium takes a longer and much busier rout. However, It was great to take the walk down St Thomas’s road, past The Auld Triangle pub and then down to Arsenal Underground station. There was an excitement and anticipation around the ground, there was singing and chanting in the pubs and when I eventually got to the Highbury Barn, even Taunter T was optimistic.

Now, I don’t honestly believe that many sane Arsenal fans would have bet a lot of money that we would win this match. But we needed to keep ourselves in the competition for the second leg. The fans were up for it, the stadium was rocking and after a Munich fan let of a flare there was a real sense of going to battle.

Prior to the match the atmosphere was electric, this isn’t due so much to the fans being in love with this team currently but its support of the club. Its unfortunate but the fantastic support is sometimes as brittle and fragile as the players we have at the club. Generally I don’t have a problem with people expressing themselves and this season there have been increasing negative chants and post match booooos. But I really don’t think Boooing the team off at half time yesterday was in any way productive.

I didn’t think we played particularly badly. We are not a very good Arsenal team at the moment and Bayern are one of the best teams they have ever produced. I think the players out there last night, for the most part, gave it their all, but we are badly lacking quality in a number of areas (Defence, midfield and attach ha ha ha).

Bayern worked us out quite quickly and applied pressure to the weak areas constantly, with devastating effect and accuracy. They were confident, quick, efficient and every time they had the ball they looked like they could score.

I was a little surprised with the starting line up. The boss forced himself into making the decision to play our out of form captain at left back, in buying Nacho, Wenger knew he would have to play Thomas Vermaelen in left back for the Champions League match. It was down our left hand side that Bayern poured time and time again. Vermaelen looked exposed and confused with what to do. I’m not going to do a hatchet job on Vermaelen, that would be too easy and I don’t think it is that simple. None of our back five looked good enough yesterday. They play without confidence, organisation or leadership. The best of the five was Sagna who looked knackered at the 70 minute mark as he had been busting a gut up and down the right wing as Santi, who should have been in front of him, was aimlessly running around without the discipline a winger needs against top competition.

The initial line up was an odd one which raised some questions and also memories. Why did we play Theo upfront when he is so effective on the right wing. His link up play with Sagna is tried and tested and his assists for a target man striker are very good also.

Why was Santi used as a right winger? And then Switched to the left? He offered little protection to Sagna or Vermaelen. He also offered little going forward and was often drawn far out of position going in search of the ball. Podolski does a similar thing on the opposite flank weekly but why we are playing Santi out of position in a match like this is baffling. It reminds me of what happened to Ashavin. We signed one of the best creative attacking midfield players and then stuck him on the wing to rot, strange!

Poldi wants to be a striker but we play him on the left, Theo is a winger who we played up front and Santi was played as a winger. It all seems a bit make shift and experimental. 

Arteta is played out of position weekly now and his sideways / backwards passing have become such a big part of his make up it seems like he cant pass forwards any more. What happened to the exciting player he was when we signed him?

I could sit here and write a bit about every player and why they are not good enough. But I wont bore you and depress myself. I thought we played quite well in parts but we look awful at the back and toothless upfront. We have the ability to play some really exciting football in midfield but the cost of committing men forward often leaves our defence exposed.

It leaves a massive mountain to clime for the return leg. Going to their place and winning 3-0 will be a tough thing to do.

I feel like a parent who isn’t angry (as I knew this could happen) but i’m disappointed as we could have strengthened the squad so we would have the personnel to start this match with simple things like a striker on the pitch.

We are now practically out of everything apart from the 4th place cup. Can we win that? Do we really care, if we are only going to be in the competition to gain money we don’t re-invest? Will our ticket prices come down if we are not in the CL?

AstonVilla at home on the weekend then spurs away, we gotta get our mojo back and fast.

@pumpkiii