It was an incredibly entertaining match, but someone must've sprinkled heaps of bad mojo on Arsenal because none of their attempts on goal (what, like a hundred or so?) amounted to anything but frustration. Plenty of shots were supplied with horrible finishing (like that can't-miss Rosicky shot in the early moments of the second half, though Fabregas also had a horrible gaffe in the first, I think) but others were subservient to something weirder than human error. Superstitious? How could you not be when so much beautiful, attractive football via the Gunners came to naught on a cold, endless Russian night.
You can read more about match here.
5 comments:
London, Russia . . . it was early and I was still drunk. So my glassy-eyed bad on that account. But when Chelsea go down in an orgy of self-destruction in the knock-out stages, I'll be the one laughing forever!
It's a shame - they do play some nice stuff, and there's so much talent all over the pitch. Still the Russians are pretty good, too. I'm kind of hoping they can make it and cause some upsets in the knockout stages.
It'll be interesting to see who - if anyone - can stop Chelsea this time. It's not as hard as sounds, but most clubs are so cowered by their mere reputation and spirit that they don't even try (a lot of Prem clubs are guilty of this, I feel).
But Arsenal do amuse me as well with their atrocious inability to follow through when needed. Even in this match I thought they leaned more toward inappropriate or mistimed moments of flair over practicality. Sadly for my Gunners friends, I don't think Henry and company are going to make it as far as they did last year.
I agree with your Chelsea comment. I still haven't been able to view Tuesday's Barca/Chelsea match because it wasn't televised here in the States except on one of the Spanish channels that no one has around here unfortunately, but the lads from London certainly seem to be front-runners at the moment. But perhaps Lyon will take them down? I'm not sure. The Blues' fantasy of dominating Europe seems a quixotic one at best. But I don't know, they sure have Barca's number at the moment. And yeah, the sting hurts.
Oh, oh, I think I hear Dr. Gogol pounding on the door . . . .
I wouldn't say they have Barca's number. If we do make it through the group (not a certainty with Bremen on such good form) and get Eto'o back then I wouldn't mind meeting them in say the semi-finals. Without him we lack the cutting edge up front that could have killed them off. But with him I don't think Barca should fear any team.
With Eto'o match fit, I'm not worried either. But his absence really makes me nervous when let's say Messi or Saviola are off their games, like they were today against Deportivo. I shouldn't have been surprised, though. No doubt the team is dealing with the absence of Puyol and the death of his father.
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