What do these results have in common?
Inter Milan 1-5 Arsenal
Real Madrid 0-1 Arsenal
AC Milan 0-2 Arsenal
Firstly, and most obviously, they're incredible wins, victories that will go down in the annals of the club's history. No one (well no one who can really claim to be an Arsenal fan) will forget us destroying Inter, Henry waltzing round the Galactico defence, or Cesc Fabregas firing in a goal from all of 30 yards out in the San Siro.
But the first two games have a less upbeat connection which the final one also currently shares: they were all part of unsuccessful Champions League campaigns.
I don't want to be pessimistic, I just want to keep my, and perhaps a few others', feet on the ground, especially after the experience of 2006.
The 2006 CL campaign was one of the most uplifting and dramatic experiences I've had as an Arsenal fan. Beating Madrid, Juve and Villareal all seemed to point to it being our year. It wasn't, suffice to say, and seeing us beaten so cruelly in Paris has, to an extent, made me wary of celebrating too early.
The team's performance in Milan last night was sensational, and very much carried on in the vein of our utter dominance of the first leg. Aside from an opening bout of pressure, Milan were never in the game. Yet, despite our pressure, it wasn't until Cesc put us in the lead that any form of relief was really possible. Ade's goal, following a lovely assist from Theo, was the icing on an exquisite cake.
The only real negatives of the performance was Eboue's woefully inept return to the team. Abour Diaby was also poor, if not as bad as his titanically awful match on Saturday.
The rest of the team were superb. Particular mention must go to the midfield triumvirate of Hleb, Cesc and the Flamster, who bossed a Milan midfield of Gattuso, Pirlo and Kaka out of the game.
So, a great win, but we haven't won anything yet. I can't stand the thought that this campaign will be another heroic failure, and so I'm containing myself til May.
We have a great young side and they need trophies to show for it. Last night was a massive step forward on the road to that achievement, but there's still a long way to go yet.
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6 comments:
what a dreary post. By your rationale we can never get excited about a CL game until we've won it. Think I'll stay on my high a little longer myself....
Would have to disagree about diaby he had a good first half!
Goonerboy! Well said! The best is to wait till we actually win ol' big ears
Goonerboy you are very negative on the win..a win againts the best team in the world with our world class youngsters is as good as winning a medal!
How many teams went to san siro, dominate in every department, play much much better than Milan and came out successfully..and how many english team did that?? - None!
The win was a record which Arsenal holds and many people was againts our team..the stupid pundits and media scums plus idiot rival fans that said all the shit which are in their mouth now...they ran hiding somewhere now.
Just look at Fabregas's expression when he scored..man it is something really special for the players and us, a boost of confidence for the players and us!
After 2 horrible weeks Arsenal came up with a BANG that shuts everyone up and made us go wild!
Come on enjoy the win, no matter we win the CL or not. Winning againts a great team like Milan is the best thing can happen..shows the world that Arsenal are not just some bunch of kids but real competitors that can beat any team.
Diaby was poor but he need some games to come back to his true potential. I would like to defend Eboue again, he had a great game and his runs on the flank plus link-ups with Sagna gave a lot of problem to Milan's defence.
Besides that the whole team showed hunger and desire to win throughout the game and played the best game of their lives againts Milan!!
ARSENAL ROCKS n YAHOOOOO!!!
Had he given his usual performance I would agree with you about Diaby...BUT for just about the first time since he had his leg broken, Abu was in synch with the rest of the guys. Certainly not MOM (that, one can leave for Cesc and the Flamster to fight for) but definitely a 7/10.
Gf60
Well, you're entitled to deal with things as you see fit, but I think the win last night was a great achievement and deserves acknowledgement in it's own right. This moment will not come again, so I prefer to enjoy it while I can and look forward with hope to enjoying many more in future.
I also agree that the criticisms of Diaby and Eboue are unfair. Diaby has not played regularly since his career threatening injury and actually showed good signs of real improvement. Last night required a team effort and Eboue and Diaby both contributed to that.
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