Arsenal 7-0 Slavia in UEFA Champions League from Football.co.uk

Johaldo8 · Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:00 pm

J-Axe wrote:

conner99 wrote:

I agree that Slavia Prague could have closed us down a bit more , but they had a few chances themselves and when they did have the ball they were quite comfortable with their passing ...that to me shows they have quality . Last night it was a case of Arsenal just playing superb football and showing what they can do when everything clicks into place.

100% Spot on.

Slavia are a poor team (but so are Steaua who gave us a tight game), but I predicted it would be a tight affair even after we went 1-0 up. They harassed us, passed very well and sliced our Defence open quite a few times throughout the game. A few top notch saves from Almunia prevented them from grabbing a few. People don't see these things in highlights, or choose to ignore them after the game.

They tackled well too at times, and for most of the first half Adebayor and Walcott didn't get a chance in behind, and couldn't hold the ball up well either because the Prague Defence played the line extremely well and handled Adebayor very well.

But you play who is in front of you, and we nullified Prague's attacks and totally demolished them with our own attacks. We showed what we can do on a good night and most of that "space" that "Prague gave Arsenal" was actually down to great movement and passing from Arsenal - we created our own space and at times gave them no chance of closing us down because we were so accurate and so swift.

Credit is deserving, no matter how you rate Slavia. Didn't they knock Ajax out of the CL to get this far? They aren't as bad as Spurs.

And I've given credit. I said you scored some lovely goals and built up your play well.

But Slavia were not tight enough defensively, p!ss poor. Hence why I'm not reading too much into this. You can beat yourselves off about the performance if you like, go ahead. Your boys did play fantastically well. But it's all relative. Famagusta made us look world class at home, even though we've been utter sh!t this season.

J-Axe · Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:06 pm

Johaldo8 wrote:

You can beat yourselves off about the performance if you like, go ahead. Your boys did play fantastically well. But it's all relative. Famagusta made us look world class at home, even though we've been utter sh!t this season.

Who's beating themselves off?

I've just been hearing plenty of bitter fans (particularly from rival fans) across various forums just bemoaning the result, when in fact nothing but credit should be given.

Besides, this Praha side are top of their League, unbeaten and knocked out Ajax to get this far. They aren't exactly in the class of Famagusta. We've equalled the all-time record for a European biggest win. That in itself is an achievement no matter how you rate Praha.

And as conner rightly suggested, Slavia played some good football in the game and looked to be giving us a strong battle in some parts of the game. Even 6-0 down they were slicing our [very strong] Defence in two, and if weren't for Almunia being top notch they would have scored a few goals. They passed it about confidently and made some great movement - in the first half they played Adebayor out of the game and Walcott was able to do nothing as they held the line expertly.

Cesc's first goal which sunk them a little (mentally) wasn't through poor defending, just pure class from Hleb and Cesc. The second was very unlucky, it took a terrible deflection from the Defender and the own goal went in - not the fault of poor defending or poor football. Then the third was an individual error from the Keeper, who passed it straight to Walcott and gave him an empty net. So simply saying that Slavia's inability to defend or how poor you think they are, isn't really relative to the game. Did you watch the entire game? Slavia weren't as bad as people have made out. If it weren't for two individual mistakes first half, we would be only 1-0 up through that piece of brilliance for the first goal.

In the second half, Slavia were disheartened at being 3-0 down but even then they still passed it about well and were creating chances. At times we were forced to go long because they pressured us back.

We countered everything they did expertly though and the goals in the 2nd half were simply superb. We showed what we could do when it all clicks.

It's like when we beat Boro and Everton 7-0 in recent years - people just pass it on like it's the poor opposition. We do deserve credit for last night's performance and nowhere in this thread have I overdone it. I just think certain people have been too dismissive and a little harsh, maybe bitterness or blindness.

tdv · Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:11 pm

Johaldo8 wrote:

J-Axe wrote:

conner99 wrote:

I agree that Slavia Prague could have closed us down a bit more , but they had a few chances themselves and when they did have the ball they were quite comfortable with their passing ...that to me shows they have quality . Last night it was a case of Arsenal just playing superb football and showing what they can do when everything clicks into place.

100% Spot on.

Slavia are a poor team (but so are Steaua who gave us a tight game), but I predicted it would be a tight affair even after we went 1-0 up. They harassed us, passed very well and sliced our Defence open quite a few times throughout the game. A few top notch saves from Almunia prevented them from grabbing a few. People don't see these things in highlights, or choose to ignore them after the game.

They tackled well too at times, and for most of the first half Adebayor and Walcott didn't get a chance in behind, and couldn't hold the ball up well either because the Prague Defence played the line extremely well and handled Adebayor very well.

But you play who is in front of you, and we nullified Prague's attacks and totally demolished them with our own attacks. We showed what we can do on a good night and most of that "space" that "Prague gave Arsenal" was actually down to great movement and passing from Arsenal - we created our own space and at times gave them no chance of closing us down because we were so accurate and so swift.

Credit is deserving, no matter how you rate Slavia. Didn't they knock Ajax out of the CL to get this far? They aren't as bad as Spurs.

And I've given credit. I said you scored some lovely goals and built up your play well.

But Slavia were not tight enough defensively, p!ss poor. Hence why I'm not reading too much into this. You can beat yourselves off about the performance if you like, go ahead. Your boys did play fantastically well. But it's all relative. Famagusta made us look world class at home, even though we've been utter sh!t this season.

Difference is Arenal are top of the Premiership & have been consistant all season & deserved what they got.

You can tell your a bitter Spurs fan.

Ben91 · Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:44 pm

marios wrote:

Ben91 wrote:

That's not the point - point was marios could have watched it.

I'm flattered by your interest in my viewing habits. Rolling Eyes

I was out of the house and the person who owns the place i was at wanted to watch the Rangers - Barca match. I like Barca so i thought "why not". But 20 minutes later it was clear that Rangers had no intention of really attacking and the game was boring, so i convinced him to switch it over to the United match.

Is the interrogation over now?

It wasn't an interrogation, i was just asking a question. Steely misenterpretted it for an insult which caused my second post to be more defending myself than anything to do with you (if you understand). So, i wasn't having a go, just wondering if you did support United or whether i'd got that wrong.

Johaldo8 · Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 10:47 pm

Bitter about what? I admit we're shite! I could cuss my team probably more than you can! Doesn't bother me at all.

I said Arsenal played well, but you'd be blind to take that result too seriously. Slavia Prague collapsed. A decent team they maybe, but on the night they froze. Didn't do the basics right. Marking tightly, closing down space. Things that inferior sides must do if they are to compete against classy opposition - and Arsenal are indeed classy opposition. But check out Rangers performance last night to see how you should try to defend properly.

For my money, Arsenal's 3-0 win over Sevilla was more impressive, even though the Spaniards were out of form at the time. But people get blinded by all the goals they saw last night. They forget the standard of opposition.

In a nutshell, Arsenal were virtually faultless against a young side who defended very poorly.

tdv · Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:12 pm

Johaldo8 wrote:

Bitter about what? I admit we're shite! I could cuss my team probably more than you can! Doesn't bother me at all.

I said Arsenal played well, but you'd be blind to take that result too seriously. Slavia Prague collapsed. A decent team they maybe, but on the night they froze. Didn't do the basics right. Marking tightly, closing down space. Things that inferior sides must do if they are to compete against classy opposition - and Arsenal are indeed classy opposition. But check out Rangers performance last night to see how you should try to defend properly.

For my money, Arsenal's 3-0 win over Sevilla was more impressive, even though the Spaniards were out of form at the time. But people get blinded by all the goals they saw last night. They forget the standard of opposition.

In a nutshell, Arsenal were virtually faultless against a young side who defended very poorly.

But no one is taking it too seriously we all undersrtand Prague are no great force all we've said was that Arsenal were impressive & the fact is that its the biggest win in CL history (possibly joint I'm not sure) so it dose deserve a bit of attention.

Johaldo8 · Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2007 11:26 pm

And I've given it some attention, and I've given Arsenal credit.

All I'm saying is I won't read too much into the result, given the standard of the opposition.

twmcat · Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:09 am

tdv wrote:

we all undersrtand Prague are no great force all we've said was that Arsenal were impressive & the fact is that its the biggest win in CL history (possibly joint I'm not sure) so it dose deserve a bit of attention.

I believe it equal's the biggest winning margin, but can't remember whose.

J-Axe · Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:04 am

Juventus 7-0 Olympiakos.

_______________________________________________

Records beaten

Biggest Arsenal home win in all European competitions
18.03.70 - Fairs Cup Round 4 - Arsenal 7-1 Dinamo Bacau

Biggest Arsenal win in UEFA Champions League
07.12.04 - Group Stage - Arsenal 5-1 Rosenborg
25.11.03 - Group Stage - Inter Milan 1-5 Arsenal

Records equalled

Biggest Arsenal win in all European competitions
03.11.93 - Cup Winners Cup Round 2 - Standard Liege 0-7 Arsenal

Biggest Champions League win � all clubs
10.12.03 - Group Stage - Juventus 7-0 Olympiacos

ForzaBJK · Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:02 pm

huh

what a score !