didnt he say that football would have to look at itself-wtf does that mean
Does he need more media attention? Will his performance change his standing in the game? Will the result garner him more accolades than he already has? Unlikely imo. It will however hammer another nail into Wengers coffin in the eyes of the English media and Arsenal fans.
I am however delighted for my beloved Rossoneri.
Milan should be very good next season with Montolivo coming in and the return from injury of the likes of Cassano and Flamini. A left back, a holding player to replace Van Bommel and a quality player to play behind the strikers, then bam, Bob’s your uncle, Mary’s your aunty.
Wenger is having a good season sure, still in with a chance of a few trophys and champions league spot. I wouldnt say his job is on the line.
Tell that to the Arsenal fans who arent showing up at the Emirates. The grumblings have been going on a while. Silverware is called for and its unlikely they’ll get any of note. Alls patently not well there.
Sure they cant compete financially to mount a serious challenge. Did they sell all those Highbury apartments I wonder? The Emirates is probably too big for them, they’ve struggled to fill it since day one.
Saying that, I’ve been looking to get tickets for a weekend game for ages on general sale and they’re usually sold out up there fairly quick.
I am thrilled to announce that Zlatan presented Milan supporter Novak Djokovic with his jersey after the game tonight. 
The Big Z? FFS.
???
Good article about Zlatan in yesterdays times. Will try and throw it up later
Milan 4-0 Arsenal: Milan make their strength count and win comfortably
Milan thrashed Arsenal in an amazingly dominant performance.
Max Allegri went for the usual diamond in midfield. Clarence Seedorf started on the left but went off injured quickly, and was replaced by Urby Emanuelson. Philippe Mexes started at centre-back, rather than Alessandro Nesta.
Arsene Wenger picked two natural full-backs, with Kieran Gibbs fit enough to start, but not fit enough to complete the game. Tomas Rosicky was a surprising choice on the left of midfield.
As forecasted, this was a match between two completely different sides. Certainly not as forecasted, Milan maximised their areas of advantage to produce a ruthlessly efficient display.
Midfield battle
This battle was key. Milan had 4 v 3 in that zone, but Arsenal actually dominated possession – it was 55% at half time, and 57% at full time. In a way, this Arsenal’s first problem – the ideal gameplan seemed to be sitting back, soaking up pressure and breaking at speed. They shouldn’t have wanted to see lots of the ball. Surprisingly, despite a focus on attacking down the flanks this season, Arsenal were very slow with the ball and seemed happy to hold onto it for long periods with no direct threat.
Milan didn’t see much of the ball for long spells, but they used the midfield advantage to great effect when they did have it. There was no obvious Arsenal strategy when they were out of possession – one would have expected either (a) Song to push up and leave Kevin-Prince Boateng free, meaning Arsenal could get tight to Mark van Bommel, or more likely (b) Ramsey to drop back off van Bommel, meaning Alex Song could pick up Boateng and the players on the side of the Milan diamond would be occupied.
But neither approach was properly carried out in full – there was too much chasing in the midfield zone from Arsenal – none of the players really seemed to know their responsibilities, with the result that neither van Bommel nor Boateng were nullified effectively. Arsenal looked like 4-4-1-1 without the ball, with the wingers getting back into defensive positions and Ramsey slightly higher up, but they didn’t really need that extra support on the flanks.
Song generally picked up Boateng when Milan had the ball, but tried to push up higher than him when Arsenal had possession. That meant turnovers were a danger, and Boateng’s movement for the first goal came from an initial starting position well in advance of Song when Wojciech Szczesny cleared poorly. Boateng’s finish was excellent, and like against Barcelona he tended to move to the right of the attack, as Robinho was drifting wide to the left.
No Arsenal width
Milan’s strength in the centre was expected, but Arsenal were supposed to counter that with their pace down the flanks. This strategy was never put into place – the odd decision to start Rosicky indicated that Arsenal weren’t even pursuing that approach, let alone carrying it out successfully. Rosicky wasn’t particularly bad, but his tendency to come inside and slide balls towards van Persie made Arsenal increasingly narrow, which Milan were happy with. Robin van Persie found himself between a trio of Milan players and was isolated throughout the first half.
There was a brief incident in the second half when Rosicky got past Mexes, and had his shirt pulled, with the Frenchman more than happy to take a yellow card to slow an attack. That was the only time Arsenal really got past the defence, and it showed how uncomfortable Milan were with the quick threat in behind, adding to the confusion that Arsenal weren’t doing this more often.
Ramsey had a poor game, often making the wrong decisions on the break. His longer passes were also wayward, but at least he was often looking for diagonals to the flanks, which should have formed more of Arsenal’s gameplan. Theo Walcott was barely involved.
Ibrahimovic
The final area of Milan strength was with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who Arsenal had no plan for. He seemed to surprise both Arsenal centre-backs in different ways – Thomas Vermaelen was outpaced by him, while Laurent Koscielny stood off when Ibrahimovic dropped towards the left of the pitch. As mentioned in the preview, Ibrahimovic plays more key passes that any other Milan player, and here he moved deep very well to slide balls through the defence, creating more chances than any other player on the pitch.
The fact that he moved to the left worked well, because it is Vermaelen, rather than Koscielny, who is the player more comfortable coming up the pitch to close down a striker. Koscielny naturally stands off, and gave the Swede too much space before going off injured. Having three different centre-back partnerships (Koscielny-Vermaelen, Djourou-Vermaelen, Djourou-Song) clearly didn’t help
Substitutions
Wenger didn’t go with a width-based approach from the outset, and the decision at half time to take off Walcott underlined that. He pushed Thierry Henry upfront, and then lined up with an extremely narrow-looking midfield, with Ramsey right and Rosicky left in a 4-4-2. Whilst in theory this meant Arsenal might cope better defensively with bodies in the centre, this was an odd move if they were trying to get back in the game, which they clearly were
Walcott had been poor on the ball, but he’s always going to be more suited to a wide role than Ramsey, who naturally came inside, as Rosicky continued to do on the other flank. That meant that, with two upfront and four narrow in the middle, Arsenal were now attempting to take on Milan at Milan’s game, an amazingly reactive and timid approach. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain emerged late on and made a couple of promising runs down the flank.
In fairness, Henry did OK – van Persie was no longer isolated, and the two combined beautifully for the van Persie shot that forced Christian Abbiati into an excellent save.
The Milan diamond became flatter when Max Ambrosini replaced Boateng – he sat alongside van Bommel with Emanuelson left and Antonio Nocerino right. That was seemingly a response to Oxlade-Chamberlain’s introduction – Milan wanted more protection for the full-backs.
Milan still broke very well – the movement and decision-making on the counter-attack showed they were more than about brute force, and Ibrahimovic deserved his late goal after a brilliant all-round performance.
Conclusion
These are clearly two very different sides – good in some areas, bad in others. One’s strengths are the other’s weaknesses, and vice-versa. Here, one side focused strongly on putting energy into their preferred areas, with Milan dominating the centre ground and outmuscling Arsenal throughout. The away side, however, barely even attacked down the flanks, and it wasn’t really clear what Arsenal’s gameplan was, or what they were trying to do on the ball.
Milan certainly played well, but their performance was more about maximum efficiency than great skill. They actually only managed five shots on target in the game, and there were rarely slick passing moves or periods of utter dominance from them. They were just brilliantly ruthless when they went forward – [color="#cc0000"]ZM has questioned whether the approach of bullying their way past opponents is good enough to defeat top opposition, as shown by their poor record against big sides in Serie A – but Arsenal were weak, and Milan were brutal.
This is a genuinely shocking result for Arsenal. In terms of style, Milan seemed the ideal side for them to face, because of their vulnerability to pace and width, but Arsenal didn’t show either of those features here. It’s staggering that Arsenal didn’t go wide more readily, and difficult to explain.
In one of their long-running spats at the turn of the century, Arsene Wenger once commented upon Sir Alex Ferguson, saying that “His weakness is that he doesn’t think he has a weakness.” Wenger’s weakness is that he doesn’t seem to know his side’s strength
I particularly agree with the analysis of Arsenal’s half-time switch in that piece. It was a bizarre change and seemed to have little consideration about how they might win the match and more to do with getting Henry on the pitch so he could score - despite the fact Arsenal were being played off the park. Pace was the obvious trick.
Good article from Paul Hayward
YOU know the sky is falling in when the fans debate which was worse: the 8-2 thrashing at Manchester United or the 4-0 thumping in Milan; when a feeling of sadness creeps over the work of a once great team and a distinguished manager who has brought so much wisdom to the English game.
Power has been slipping from Arsenal for seven years now, since their last trophy. When it drops away incrementally, the loss of strength can be covered up with talk of prudence and faith in sacred principles. But some days that power splinters and crashes. It makes awful wrenching sounds, as it did when Milan humiliated the Gunners on a patchwork pitch.
Nothing about Arsenal worked. They failed to track runners, neglected to press the ball, made ruinous defensive errors and created little around the Milanese penalty box. The stats showed a respectable possession rate. But the eyes told another story. Even Arsenal’s vaunted passing was innocuous.
They caught the House of Berlusconi on a good night — that should be said. Robinho[/url] and [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Kevin-Prince_Boateng”]Kevin-Prince Boateng[/url] punched endless holes in a comatose Arsenal midfield. The normally stately [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Zlatan_Ibrahimovic”]Zlatan Ibrahimovic decided it was finally time to stretch his legs, dashing about with lethal intent. Milan were a mighty force. They were quick, entertaining and bold: all the things Arsenal, in their torpor, were not.
The critical kicking they will receive on Thursday will come with no relish or schadenfreude. A great football manager is being humbled by the decline of a team he has built in his own intellectual image. He has a body of work stretching back 15 years to protect him from the hysteria of short-termism. But a defence is harder to mount when the decline is year-on-year: when the quality of players brought in is consistently lower than those who are lost to predators.
In the press conference afterwards Arsène Wenger made no attempt to surround himself with barriers or irony or optimism. He faced the reality of this performance head on and acknowledged that the struggle for fourth place in the Premier League could be undermined by this blow to their self-esteem.
The first test is an FA Cup tie against resurgent Sunderland. A sense of shock prevails. “We were never in the game. We were very poor defensively and offensively and it was shocking to see how we were beaten everywhere,” Wenger said. “It was our worst performance in Europe by far.”
The deeper The Invincibles retreat into history the greater the problem for The Inconsistents. Today’s Arsenal side are always fighting off comparisons, especially when Thierry Henry returns, woos the crowd, then glides off back to New York with the club he loves in such a mess.
The brief Henry[/url] comeback show ended in the stadium where the 2003 team beat [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Inter_Milan”]Inter Milan[/url] 5-1 with two from the inventor of va-va voom. So desperate were Arsenal as they trudged off 2-0 down at the interval here that they thrust the cameo man into a central role for a whole 45 minutes as another European adventure imploded, this time at the first knock-out stage. Four years ago the Gunners prevailed over [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/A.C._Milan”]AC Milan[/url] in this arena, with goals from Cesc Fabregas (now with [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Barcelona”]Barcelona[/url]) and [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Emmanuel_Adebayor”]Emmanuel Adebayor[/url] (currently on loan at Spurs). Fabregas and [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Samir_Nasri”]Samir Nasri are the latest in a long line of luminaries lost to more pragmatic and free-spending rivals.
The dispersal of these talents was shown up again when Dennis Bergkamp[/url] cast his expert eye on the scene. In an excellent interview with [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Alan_Smith”]Alan Smith[/url] in these pages yesterday, [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Dennis_Bergkamp”]Bergkamp observed icily: “You need a few strong characters who can get the team going, in training as well as matches. Sometimes you need more of a winning mentality than a passing mentality. I’m not sure Arsenal have enough of that in their players, when the attitude becomes more important than the ability just to pass the ball.
“I don’t know if the English mentality is missing a little bit. We had it with the back four, who had the mentality of thinking, 'OK, this game is ours now’.” Bergkamp evoked the midfield of Freddie Ljungberg, Ray Parlour and Robert Pires to paint more honey on the old days.
After that reminder of lost glories, Wenger’s toilers could have done without a real burst of first-half energy from Milan . Two strips of shagpile were laid down the flanks of the San Siro pitch, thus restricting the ball’s movement in wide areas and forcing the play into the middle third, where Robinho, Boateng and Antonio Nocerino ran amok.
Wenger’s men were no match for the industry and enterprise of the Rossoneri. Even after Boateng’s 15th-minute hooked finish, which was redolent of Van Persie or even Marco Van Basten[/url], Arsenal watched the runners go by and failed to [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Squeeze_%28musician%29”]squeeze[/url] the space around those black and red shirts. Bergkamp’s complaints echoed round the stadium. As the goals poured in, the Arsenal fans who had chanted so lustily in the square outside the Duomo fell mute. Disconsolate London looked moodily down from the high altitude of the San Siro’s top tier. Premier League football looked pretty sick, too. [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Chelsea_F.C.”]Chelsea[/url] are in Italy next week too to face the lethal counter-attackers of [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/SSC_Napoli”]Napoli[/url], with Andre Villas-Boas feeling [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Roman_Abramovich”]Roman Abramovich[/url]’s breath on his neck. There will be no more financial lording it over [url=“http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Lega_Calcio_Serie_A”]Serie A if all the English clubs are eliminated before the quarter-finals.
The traditional Arsenal cycle over the past seven years has been spurts of promise followed by hard landings and battered morale. A classic example was the Carling Cup final defeat to Birmingham which sent the team’s confidence into a nosedive. Some frantic late transfer window trading in August seemed to have added experience and backbone but these are no good without top-grade quality.
The Bergkamp generation can hardly be expected to stay silent. There is no obligation for them to ignore this damning evidence of Arsenal’s mediocrity. Wenger’s professorial aura will come under renewed attack as the Sunderland game approaches and supporters direct their indignation against him for failures in the transfer market and his excessive faith in players who keep failing to justify his high opinion of them.
This squad can no longer save him so he must save himself by going on without large numbers of them. It will be expensive, but the alternative would be even more costly: the ruination of his work. We saw another step on that path here and it hurt the eye
from yesterdays Times, Gabrielle Marcotti
[font=“Tms Rmn”]It’s a safe bet that at some point tonight during AC Milan v Arsenal you will hear Zlatan Ibrahimovic described as “overrated” and that he has “never done it in a big game”. Being a superstar is not just about production, it’s also, somehow, about looking the part. And Ibrahimovic looks — and often acts — like some kind of cartoonish villain. [/font]
[font=“Tms Rmn”]He’s the bigger boy bullying others in the schoolyard. Goliath, talking a good game and then, appropriately, being felled by the Davids around him. Him being unique doesn’t help matters. You have to go back to Marco van Basten to find someone with a comparable skill-set of size, strength and technique and, even then, he is the uglier, heavier version of the graceful Dutchman. [/font]
[font=“Tms Rmn”]Nor is he aided by his ability to make things look effortless. If anything, when he comes up short, it’s a reason to blame him further. And then there are the unconscionably stupid things that he says and does. Such as when he said Pep Guardiola, his coach at Barcelona, needed “to see a psychiatrist”. Or, this month, against Napoli, when he wandered into a dispute that had nothing to do with him and sneakily smacked an opponent in the face. It earned him his third red card in 18 months at Milan and the tenth of his career. [/font]
[font=“Tms Rmn”]His supporters will point out that he has won eight consecutive league titles with five different clubs in three different countries. That can’t be a coincidence. And that business of him failing to deliver in the big games is also something of a myth. After all, in the past 2½ seasons, he has scored against Barcelona, Inter (twice), Roma (twice), Real Madrid and Arsenal (twice). [/font]
[font=“Tms Rmn”]His autobiography — I, Zlatan — reveals that his father was a drunk, that his mother beat him with a wooden ladle from early age and that his sister was a drug addict. And, just when you feel sympathy for him, he boasts about driving at 202mph to outrun the police and holing up in a hotel to indulge on the PlayStation while his baby son was undergoing a life-threatening operation. [/font]
[font=“Tms Rmn”]Maybe the most striking aspect is that no player affects his team tactically in the way he does. Ibrahimovic becomes the hub of each side he has played for, regardless of whether there are better players around or which coach is in charge. [/font]
[font=“Tms Rmn”]It happened with Fabio Capello at Juventus, Roberto Mancini and José Mourinho at Inter and Guardiola at Barcelona. And, often, it affects the quality of the play, which is why Guardiola dropped him. [/font]
[font=“Tms Rmn”]With Ibrahimovic, teams may win, but they tend not to play well, even when he does. Massimiliano Allegri’s biggest preoccupation at Milan is finding the right combination around him and the right guys to get him the ball. The free-flowing football of the Carlo Ancelotti era is long gone. But if he delivers, that will not matter. [/font]
The fake Ronaldo has moved Royal Madrid a goal closer to another thrashing at the hands of FCB.
CSKA 0-1 Royal Madrid
Surprised and disappointed that Totti hasn’t given us a preview of Napoli v Chelsea tonight.
DP
Napoli are without their leader Walter Mazzarri tonight after he sacrificed himself for the team in Villarreal. I don’t like the fact that Ramires has returned for Chelsea as his pace and dynamism from midfield will cause Napoli concerns given the expansive game they play. Napoli have regained some form of late and I think Lavezzi will star in a 3-1 Napoli victory.
And the team playing in the Barca colours equalise with almost the last kick of the game! What a goal!!! :barcasmile:
The normally very tolerable Jeff Stelling has lowered himself to ask the ridiculous: “Could Cavani do a job in England?” Unbelievable how obsessed they are with the EPL.
Cole getting dropped tonight is a bit surprising. Looking forward to this game immensely.