Arsenal: Badly Need to Win the Champions League
Thierry Henry’s brilliant kick meant that Arsenal drew the game versus Tottenham Hotspur. However, the concerns of the possibility of a club in trouble in the future are very real. Arsenal now has no chance of qualifying for the Champions League until either:
- The Spurs do some thing stupid, or,
- Arsenal win the Champions League.
Arsenal Review explained before the match why today was a must-win game. In the end Arsenal only managed to draw courtesy Henry brilliance. A lot f Arsenal would cry over Davids’ going on and would feel he should have stopped.
Soccerworld explains why this is a misled perception:
Arsenal had nothing to complain about. I don’t think Spurs were under any obligation to kick the ball out after two Gunners tripped over one another. The Tottenham players simply took advantage of a mistake by their opponents. That’s far less egregious than Henry’s quick free kick against Chelsea a season ago, so I don’t want to hear any post-match complaining from Wenger.
Don’t Arsenal have themselves to blame more than any thing? Why did Arsenal not play 5 of their first XI players from the first minute knowing how crucial this game is going to be? Henry was on the pitch only 18 minutes and scored a goal. Wenger decided to give the Champions League tie which lies ahead more importance. So if you have to blame any one, blame Wenger.
The major issue here is that Arsenal could become a selling club. Patrick Viera has left. Henry and Pires might leave. Or at least there are huge speculations (different from rumours which exist for almost any player) regarding this. Football players start off at a lower profile club usually. At the prime of their career, they like to play for a club which wins or at least has a chance of winning bigger trophies. You want to play with the best as well as against the best.
If Arsenal do not finish 4th in the English Premiership now (check out the league table here), which looks likely with the defeat, the only way they can qualify for the Champions League next year would be by winning it (like Liverpool last year). Wenger has chosen to give the Champions League much more importance by not starting with the best Arsenal XI in the Spurs match. Wenger now needs to use every bit of his tactical mind to first, win against Villareal in the second leg of the Champions League semis, and then, to triumph over one of the two - Barcelona or AC Milan.
It is not going to be easy.
Tags: Arsene Wenger, Champions League 2005 06, English Football, Thierry Henry.
April 24th, 2006 at 5:07 am
Agreed that Wenger did not play his best XI, and also agreed that Tottenham were under no obvious obligation (read: not bound by rules) to stop play when 2 players of the opposition were down. However, footballing etiquette and sportsmanship dictate that the players stop play if any opposition player is visibly down and not ready to get up immediately.
The way I saw it, Michael Carrick passed the ball ahead with that obvious intent, and that is why the Arsenal defenders relaxed a bit and were not totally alert. But then Davids did keep the ball in play. If Arsenal had done something like this, I would still have condemned it, since it is not in line with the spirit of the game. Also, if I remember correctly, such an incident has happened with Arsenal in the past when they took advantake with Sheffield’s player being down. They later requested a rematch
Hopefully they will win the CL and/or Spurs will goof up somewhere in the last 2 games, since Arsenal is looking like a team which deserves to play CL next year
April 24th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
An ESPN-star commentator (I cannot recall his name) said that the Spurs were within their rights to carry on. Arsenal should have been more alert.
Obviously we disagree here. :)
April 26th, 2006 at 5:19 am
[…] You haven’t won the Champions League. Hell, I want you to fail miserably against Barcelona of course. A lot of work needs to be done still. […]
April 27th, 2006 at 5:32 am
[…] Some thing like Mr. Wenger did a few days ago versus the Spurs does not come under this though. For why should he have not played his best players right from the start in such a crucial tie? And then he had the teremity to say “Every thing went against us.” […]
July 7th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
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August 7th, 2007 at 8:30 am
I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding Arsenal: Badly Need to Win the Champions League, but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong :)
November 12th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
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