Arsenal v PSG Champions League October 1st 2000 PM KO: Page 11 - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Arsenal v PSG Champions League October 1st 2000 PM KO

Asterix

Will be very interesting to see what midfield he picks against Liverpool at the end of the month - could well be Partey, Rice and Merino. Go for total duel winning control.

TambourineMan

Asterix I have a sneaky suspicion that Odegaard will be back by then.

Don Pacifico

Asterix as I expected, having Merino on the pitch saw more positional interplay between him and Rice compared to playing Partey. I think that is a sign of things to come once we have a fully fit team.

More to the point you made, if we continue to get results with this setup (and as others have mentioned, the fluidity and chaos we get from Havertz and Trossard really confused PSG), I can't see Arteta changing it (ie. we'll rotate Partey and Merino until the latter settles).

TambourineMan

Also, can I say that I hate this new format. There is almost zero jeopardy and today felt like a massive nothing burger. We should be enjoying a 2-0 win against PSG a lot more but no one really cares because it means so little in the grand scheme of things.

I initially liked the idea but watching it play out has changed my mind significantly.

invisibleman18

TambourineMan I think it feels like less jeopardy because we won. If we'd lost or drawn then we're behind a bunch of teams who have still only played once and are close to the cutoff for going out so suddenly the next couple of games become must win. Ideally you want to go through avoiding the extra round of games. Winning the early games should take the pressure off later rather than being in a situation where everything is riding on the last one. This was a good team we beat - semi finalists last season and currently top of Ligue 1. We don't often beat big teams in Europe so this is a great result.

awooga83

TambourineMan it was always designed to be this way, to make it easy for the big teams to sail through because you play enough lower ranked teams for you to have to be pretty atrocious to exit here. That's why it's never interested me from the outset. If you are decent European side you are going through yes your path might add a couple of games but even that is seeded so those teams should still get a reasonable chance to progress.

Claudius

The jeopardy might arrive in rounds 7 and 8 if teams care about top 8. Certainly will be there for the laggards who care about qualification to knockout. This is the odd table as it stands
https://www.skysports.com/champions-league-table

Claudius

invisibleman18 we not only beat them, we held them to their lowest xG ever. We have the meanest defense.

Clrnc

Sicario2 - Tier 1 i get what u mean but we utterly dominated Napoli that match.

In this match especially in the first 10 mins and 2nd half they pinned us back and was unlucky not to score at least 1

Segway

Clrnc Ref was great which was really nice for a change.

goon

awooga83

As opposed to the old group stages where big teams always crash out?

Qwiss

goon in this format I think even United would have gone through last season.

JazzG

First half was literally men against boys, that is what teams used to do us. Pressed them off the pitch. When Timber went off we lost a bit of control but PSG only really got a foot in when Partey went off and Ruiz and Muani came on. Otherwise was a really solid and dominant performance. We let them have the ball for a lot of that game and they didn't create much.

Another positive is we look a lot more self assured in the CL this year, last season you could sense it was the first CL experience for a lot of players and they looked nervous.

Don Pacifico

JazzG agree with this. This isn't the same PSG as we've seen in years gone by but I still think this was our best European performance for a very long time. I honestly can't remember the last time we looked this impressive in Europe, certainly not since Wenger.

On the other hand, we were pretty disappointing against Atalanta - less the result and more the performance. So I'm wary to get ahead of myself but some very positive signs that regarding a (hopefully) newfound tactical flexibility and creative fluidity.

goon

Qwiss

I said big teams.

Jokes aside, it does give the odd big team a lifeline. But there's a hell of a lot more teams who had no hope of finishing second last year who'll be in a shot of getting through to a knockout/playoff game too. It's slightly less jeopardy for United, but significantly more interest for many others who'll have the chance to knock United out in a play-off instead.

And you could still get the odd surprise eliminations. Milan look to be on shaky ground.

Claudius

Qwiss exactly. It gives 24 teams a way through to the next round. Whereas before it only gave 16 teams with 8 being demoted to play a variety of Spartaks. So it’s bad from that perspective. But this is what uefa has to do to lick the balls of billionaires.

USArsenal

Don Pacifico On the other hand, we were pretty disappointing against Atalanta - less the result and more the performance

I am chalking that up to 'it was the first game of the CL for the season, and everyone was a bit nervous'.. I think we will see different games in subsequent away games.

JazzG

Don Pacifico On the other hand, we were pretty disappointing against Atalanta - less the result and more the performance. So I'm wary to get ahead of myself but some very positive signs that regarding a (hopefully) newfound tactical flexibility and creative fluidity.

I actually don't think we were that bad, Atalanta have one of the best presses in Europe and we largely negated it. For me the golden rule for the CL has always been make sure you win the home games but don't lose the away ones. I also wonder if we had one eye on the City game a few days later.

MistaT

Don Pacifico — last impressive results were probably back in 2019 (5 years!) with Emery. We easily handled Napoli (3-0) and Villarreal (7-2) in the two leg knock out rounds on the way to Europa final.

daredevil

I think our home and away performances will continue to be starkly contrasted, as we are missing one key weapon (effective counter-attack) that is crucial to winning the more challenging away ties.

USArsenal

JazzG I also wonder if we had one eye on the City game a few days later.

I think this had a LOT to do with it. The City game had much greater significance at this point in the season.

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