Arsenal v PSG | UCL SF 1st Leg | Tuesday 29 April 8pm UK time | Prime: Page 30 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Arsenal v PSG | UCL SF 1st Leg | Tuesday 29 April 8pm UK time | Prime

Claudius

Gurgen Rice was like a grown man cruising past children. MLS too.
Now imagine Rice making those runs from 10 metres higher up next week.

Coombs

Claudius Now imagine Rice making those runs from 10 metres higher up next week.

The biggest difference will be making that run with the confidence of having somebody covering him properly.

Gazza M

Claudius I was surprised to see anyone say rice was poor, outside of his discombobulation for their goal. rices performance is the cornerstone of what we need to be doing in the 2nd leg. stampede those little squirts and make life physically hell for them

awooga83

It's going to be a big ask away, Liverpool and villa did not look good at their ground. My biggest worry would be Arteta falling into the Bayern game strategy where we are very cautious don't want to risk anything and end up going out without any fight.

We are team that relies so much on having the initiative through usually getting a goal that allows us to relax that if we can't score early we will lose our composite e and the doubts often inhibit us so much. We are going to need something we've yet to see from the team, the same old story for us is failure at these pivotal moments. Nothing we have done yet makes me think we will change that next week. But it's about the character of the team and whether Arteta can convert from very good manager to someone that can affect these moments and get us through them when we gave setbacks.

Qwiss

awooga83 It's going to be a big ask away, Liverpool and villa did not look good at their ground. My biggest worry would be Arteta falling into the Bayern game strategy where we are very cautious don't want to risk anything and end up going out without any fight.

Yeah we need to go at PSG way more than we did Bayern. Although we were robbed that night as Saka was clearly taken down in the box by Neuer. Anyway I think one of the big differences between us and Pool/Villa is that they were both played off the park in the first leg where as we were only played off it for 20 minutes so we kept the score tight. Hopefully we are ready for the second leg just like Villa and Liverpool were in the second legs.

banduan

Predictably most of the reactions to this match are influenced by the outcome. Yes, for 20 minutes we couldn't deal with them, that was true. It was partly Rice forgetting how to play 6 and partly lack of focus.

I saw a team that could take it to them, despite missing Partey among the other injuries. We can and should have buried our chances, even with that monster Donnaruma save (which was good tbf).

Qwiss

Gurgen thats why Parteys suspension was so frustrating. If Rice was at 8 he'd have overrun them all game.

daredevil

Rice is starting to turn into a champagne footballer. He's stepped up alongside Gabriel and Saka this season. Sadly, Odegaard has spluttered and Martinelli has been chugging along for a long time now. Those two are starting to or have looked like the weakest links for a while now.

Nwaneri should have come on earlier but equally, he's not a creator or tempo setter. We've hamstrung ourselves into persisting with Odegaard because we've somehow constructed a squad with only one true attacking midfielder.

SimplyThePest

Sicario2 you could say the same thing about us, to be honest.

Sicario2

SimplyThePest they got everything to lose now they are the favourites

We need to change our semi final narrative:

MistaT

My keys for the next game:

Partey to start and free up Rice
Rice to take over for delivery from Odegaard (awful delivery as of late)
Martinelli/Trossard to train on different shooting techniques (late chip, or near post....Saka does these well)
Merino back to CF, and Raya to tigthten up his long balls (pitch seemed off/slippery)

Qwiss

MistaT Merino back to CF, and Raya to tigthten up his long balls (pitch seemed off/slippery)

We spammed Raya long balls too much. I think Arteta might have thought there was a mismatch with us being able to win more of them but we really got too into it and Raya wasn't given the time to get them spot on, add to that he's trying to Saka most of the time rather than Merino/Havertz and its all the more difficult. The solution here is less of those balls IMO.

samthegooner

Not ideal for a first game but I felt like PSG didn't do much outside of the first 25 minutes, where they dominated us more than any team has since the first 20-25 minutes of the City away game in the fall. Clearly we came out flat and were awful in duels - it seemed like the moment got to the team.

While I can't stand him, the squad certainly missed Partey since it forced Rice to play deeper and negated the dynamism that has made him and the team so dangerous in Europe. I'm optimistic that getting Partey back for the second leg will free Rice up to attack more and drive at their defense - the one time he did we almost ended up scoring with that Trossard shot. Hopefully the fact we have it all to play for will allow us to be freer on the pitch and push them in the second leg. I am definitely starting to get a bit nervous about Odegaard though - we need him to be far more influential on the ball and it's just pretty dire at the moment. Not giving up on him and believe with a full offseason, he will come back healthier and look closer to his true self.

Qwiss

We'll get chances in the second leg but we'll give them chances too, much like last night. I think we'll be better but they have players who can conjure something up from very little too. Its going to be extremely tight. We will have to go at them more though, we can't start as cautiously as we did last night.

Claudius

Qwiss we need to do what we can. But this summer will have to solve the striker issue. When I saw Barcola and Ramos coming on and then checked our bench for Sterling, I started groping around for the Prozac.

Claudius

the folks on Handbrake calling out the two big challenges - squad construction and injuries. That PSG had Kvaratshkelia while we faffed about, and that the stands were filled with our injured players.

Gazza M

Claudius kvara and marmoush. 2 players that would've moved the needle for us that we never appeared to show interest in. makes question whether left wing is even an area of interest for us

Sicario2

Qwiss

Sicario2 well if two randos on X think its a penalty...

Its not by the way. He wasn't impeded, he was touched, not the same. Massive dive from Kvara.

Segway

Still have hope we can turn it around.

Coombs

It was an obvious dive, but if he hadn't gone down that way he might have gotten the pen.

samthegooner

I wouldn't have been upset if they gave it as a penalty but do agree that Kvara made an absolute meal out of it, as well as 4-5 of those Timber challenges. While I love him as a player, I do realize why he went to PSG as I don't think he would be able to handle the EPL physicality. Really hoping the officials let us play physical next Wednesday.

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