Arsenal v Bayern – When a plan comes together!

We turned up with a plan and it worked!‏ by KM

How are you my fellow jubilant Arsenal fans! What a great win against a supreme side. The telling goes that on our day we can beat anyone. I said that – with a little bit of luck, we might surprise Bayern and we did. Now it wasn’t like the performance against Man United where we destroyed them and every pass was slick and going, but it was a performance of no less importance.

I have to give this one out to Wenger, the manager totally outsmarted Guardiola. We let them have the ball, and when we had the chance we tried to counter them and it almost worked. The tendency to win games with less possession just continues to prove itself correct, and I continue to believe we are no longer a possession based team.

The highlights of the game for me were the saves. That save from Neuer was outrageous! Now i believe Theo could’ve hit the corner, but take nothing away from how Neuer restored his position and how strong his left hand was, because the ball had good pace.

Petr Cech. I mean he is by far man of the match for me. He denied Lewandowski numerous times, made a terrific save off Thiago and was overall sublime! The back 5 need a real pat on the back because they were excellent. We started with what is our best back 4 for me, and Mertesacker and Koscielny were the kings of our box.

Monreal had another great game, where without being noticed too much he shut down Muller completely and his cross for that Theo Header was sensational and deserved a goal. On the other side Bellerin had some struggles with Costa (a gem of a player) in the first half, but he was solid and that run after 93 minutes was incredible and was the icing on the cake!

Up front Theo, Alexis and Ozil worked really hard, though they faded in the second half. Not all passes were great, with Alexis giving sloppy passes outside our box that cost me a few nails, but luckily we survived. Ozil despite his goal, didn’t have the best of games. He was sloppy in possession, but again, Ozil is brilliant when we have runs and pace and some space, his game is not based on working with the ball too long, but nevertheless he was there at the end to get the ball past the line, despite Neuer almost pulling off another sensational save.

Now I have some sympathy for the Bayern keeper, because mistakes like that happen. It happened to Cech too against West Ham. The ball and 15 players chasing it are running at you, and if you mistime your jump it’s almost a certain goal and mistime it he did. Luckily for us Giroud was there to pounce and with a combination of face and hand he scored. Olivier needed that goal and the race for who is our main striker is really on.

Now we got a little bit lucky, but luck can be forced and we forced it yesterday. We had a game plan and although we weren’t brilliant in every pass, we were tactically in it and we were aware of what we had to do.

The only 2 negatives from yesterday were that one – Olympiacos won at Zagreb, despite the Croatians being the better team, a silly goal puts us in a position, where we might need points against Bayern in Munich again, and second Ramsey got off with a hamstring injury which means he’ll be out for at least a month.

I cannot say I’m surprised with this, although I expected it from Alexis. The internationals ruin players, because they play in awkward days, travel a lot and return to their clubs, who keep them in shape and pay them their salaries, with knocks or injured, or run down to the ground. We are already missing Jack, Rosicky and Welbeck and our options are running thin up front.

I really hope we give Alexis a break, but with Everton looking for a response after a terrible defeat to United, I’m not sure we’d rest him. We might introduce Arteta and shift the front 4 a little bit and maybe give Sanchez a much deserved rest, at least until half time.

Anyway this win was much needed and well deserved. It is a confidence boost as well as it brings responsibility to perform like this in every big game. We played for the pride of the Arsenal shirt and I feel proud this time. With our best and a game plan we are a match for anyone.

Onwards and upwards!

Konstantin