If there is to be any down side to Rambo’s incredible improved form this season, it’s the ever so slight risk of OVER-confidence. Only a player playing as well as he is currently even attempts something so audacious. I suspect he will learn from this & we won’t see him taking such risks again anytime soon.
Battered and Boruss-ed
It was quite obvious early on that Dortmund were going to be a far sterner test to anything we’ve faced so far this season. Right from kick off their intense pressing game looked to cause problems. The yellow and black kits seem fitting for a team who tend to ‘swarm’ around the opposition like they’ve just had their wasps’ nest disturbed. This was team that came remarkably close to winning the competition last time around & despite, according to some experts, not being as good this season, showed the kind of credentials that took them to that final at Wembley.
To that end, there is absolutely no margin for error against a side as good as this. Should you find yourself with the ball at your feet on the edge of your own box with a number of Dortmund players in your way, the last thing you should attempt to do is dribble your way through them lest you are dispossessed and they open the scoring as a result of your error. Cheers Aaron!
If there is to be any down side to Rambo’s incredible improved form this season, it’s the ever so slight risk of OVER-confidence. Only a player playing as well as he is currently even attempts something so audacious. I suspect he will learn from this & we won’t see him taking such risks again anytime soon.
Their winner came at time when Arsenal were seemingly in the ascendancy and pushed for a would-be winner themselves. However, in the process of over-committing, they left themselves over exposed. When you do this against a team the counters as well and as deadly as Dortmund, you are only likely to be punished and so it proved as Lewandowski made it 2-1 late on. The boss bemoaned the lack of maturity that led to the second goal. “if you can’t win the game, don’t lose it” was a damning quote to highlight the very naivety he accused his players of.
Flam Retardant
Ramsey’s mistake came mainly due to the fact he found himself in a position that would have been most likely occupied by the absent Matthieu Flamini. You could also argue that his more disciplined approach would have prevented us being so open for their second. At the risk of repeating myself, it’s a testament to him, how important he is to our play and how much he is missed when he isn’t in the side.
Giroud Awakening
Our goal came as a result of Olivier Giroud pouncing on a Sagna cross and capitalising on the misjudgement by Weidenfeller in the Dortmund goal. It was just reward for an all-round impressive first half performance against one of the best centre halves in the world at present in Mats Hummels. The French striker has really upped his game this season and starting to establish himself. We’re still very thin in that area of the pitch but the way Giroud is playing, you’d have to think anyone the Manager chooses to sign would provide healthy competition rather than come in as a replacement.
Strike it Lucky
Mind you, if that ‘competition’ comes in the form of a certain Robert Lewadowski who is a free agent next summer then I doubt there would be a great deal of complaint (yes, I know it’s virtually impossible but a man can dream, can’t he?). The prolific Polish striker’s heart-breaking winner came virtually at the end of a game when he was playing relatively poorly. While signing him is a forlorn hope, it would nice once again to have a striker as an option who can fulfil that role of ‘game changer’ – scoring key and crucial goals even when he or the team aren’t at their best.
Sup-poor-ters
Almost as disappointing as the result was the quite frankly shocking swathes of empty seats as soon as Dortmund’s second goal went in. I’ve long since been a critic of ‘early leavers’ in any situation but if we were 4-0 up or 5-2 down, I would be slightly more understanding. At 2-1 with a good ten minutes and change left on the clock, there is no excuse for turning your back on the team. It is poor support and when the players look up and see this, there’s no way it won’t have an impact. Especially given the non-stop raucousness of the travelling Dortmund fans, who really showed up the Emirates crowd on the night.
The typical excuses of a “long journey back” & “difficult to get home” are thrown out but if football is such a chore then why bother even going? I dread to think what would happen if a game ever went to extra time.
Eu must do better
One of the main things to come out of this match was that it reiterated how difficult this competition is to win. While we don’t necessarily give up all hope after this defeat, it was a reminder – as if needed – of the step up in class when you face one of Europe’s elite. Our experiences in this competition show that we are rarely troubled against most but are still come unstuck against the continent’s best teams. Getting beyond the group stage is rarely problematic. However, Lewandowski’s goal has now made even that something of an uphill task this season. I don’t think it’s overly pessimistic to suggest a victory in Westfalenstadion is unlikely and if we assume Marseille are just going to be the group whipping boys, our hopes essentially rest on the game in Naples against a team who will certainly be looking to give a better account if themselves than they did a fortnight ago over here.
The boss has acknowledged the difficulty faced to qualify at this stage but also it’s not impossible. The most important thing is to not allow this Dortmund defeat to cause too much damage to our prospects. UTA.
EXAMPLE OF AD POSITION
