Arsenal vs. AS Roma Discussion Thread

Link?! ITV is being gay.

Edit: Working now.

Bendnter. Sigh. If only his fiirst touch was as good as Adebayors.

Nasri's highlights

Also, me and agooner may have underestimated Wenger's tactical flexibility here.

Eboue pplaying well but just has no football brain whatsoever.

What a half!

We totally outplayed Roma and are deservedly 1-0 up.

Denilson - class! you see the clean tackles people?

I'm just worried that we might end up regretting not making the most of certain situations. The next 45 minutes require optimum concentration, one moment of lapses, we are fucked!

COYG!!!!!!!!!

COYG?

Unflinching Frenchman wrote:COYG?

Come On You Gooners!

So it went as I thought.

FT 1-0.

Very good first 65 minutes or so and after that we faded. Scoreline is a shame as we could easily have scored 3 or 4 more and put this out of sight for Roma who were surprisingly poor. We do seem to come alive in European matches and it was as good a team performance as I have seen for a while. Denilson in particular must have had the best match of his career so far. Bentdner played his part on the left quite well, sucking in the Roma defence and leaving space for Nasri and VanP to operate in. It's noticeable that we were less effective going forward after he was subbed. Other honourable mentions to Diaby, Eboue, and Nasri. Second leg, we'll have more attackers back (Ade, Eduardo) which would help.

It'll be back to another goalless draw vs Fulham on Saturday

I hate this team. What a disgrace. How dare you play like that after playing like they've done for the rest of the season. They should be ashamed of themselves. Idiots the lot of them.

Still, when they do play...

I thought Bendtner first touch let him down in the box once or twice though.

shazlx wrote:I hate this team. What a disgrace. How dare you play like that after playing like they've done for the rest of the season. They should be ashamed of themselves. Idiots the lot of them.

Still, when they do play...

Its not a case of you turning it on - its a case of Roma being physically way inferior to all of your EPL opponents.

The last time in seen is play or passing football game we played in the first half was against Man Utd in November. Agree with Denilson he played very well today, he rarely dwells on the ball which helps our quick passing game. Hopefully we can have Adebayor back in two weeks because we will certainly need a physical presence away from home.

What was that all about with Gallas and Toure being out late for the second half? Incredible.

Cesc Soler wrote:The last time in seen is play or passing football game we played in the first half was against Man Utd in November. Agree with Denilson he played very well today, he rarely dwells on the ball which helps our quick passing game. Hopefully we can have Adebayor back in two weeks because we will certainly need a physical presence away from home.

What was that all about with Gallas and Toure being out late for the second half? Incredible.

Kolo said he was waiting for Gallas to come. Seemed to think it was a bit of a laugh. Ref shouldn't have kicked off without them anyway.

The tie is still very much alive... Roma looked switched off toinight from what I saw in the highlights... they are like that, with their highs and lows... but they are usually switched on in Rome, never forget that.

Advantage Arsenal, you won without conceeding an away goal. But only a slight advantage.

:domination:

Roma are supposedly the most in form team in Europe

Sunderland>>>>>Roma

Damn us for not scoring more though. I fully expect us to now piss our CL hopes up a tree in the away tie

Cesc Soler wrote:

What was that all about with Gallas and Toure being out late for the second half? Incredible.

According to the beeb, Gallas was still recieving treatment, and Kolo is very supertitious and has to be the last one to leave the dressing room. so he waited.

Saw the interview and that's exactly what Touré said.

So how did De Rossi play last night?

Lets just say that he wasn't as good as Kieron Richardson was at the weekend.

Roma
They have such a choking mentality it is crazy. With that said im sure they will step up in Rome but don't know if it will be enough.

Super Madrid wrote:Roma
They have such a choking mentality it is crazy. With that said im sure they will step up in Rome but don't know if it will be enough.

Yup they choked. But the score is not that bad, can be rescued. Roma need one of their usual strong performances at home...

They need to beat us by two clear goals, else take a 1-0 to extra time. It is a big, not a slight, advantage for us, especially with Eduardo and hopefully Ade coming back as options (and de Rossi suspended). 1-0 is always a great score to take away, even if it obviously should have been one or several more last night. Home/away is just clichés and exuses at this level; we are well capable of winning never mind scoring in Rome.

Totti, was he playing last night? Hopefully he will be in the Stadio Olimpico.

Good one Kevin for acknowledging Arsène's different tactical setup – I think it was always likely he'd try to protect the midfield a bit more, though we don't see a genuine 4-2-3-1 often. Great effort from Robin given that he's scarcely a normal/natural sole focal point for an attack.

Not even convinced it was a 4-2-3-1 as Eboue was coming from deep very often. it certainly brought the best out of him though as it gave him space to run into which played to his strengths. Even if once again, the final ball was poor.

Definitely not natural for Robin but he the massive advantage of being 6 ft 1 or so and his touch means that he's brilliant with his back to goal.

De Rossi got suspended?? Ouch, thats a big blow to Roma... Brighi will have to step up!

Why does Brighi even start over Pizarro?

Is he even that good?

Great moral boost yesterday. Our defence didn't look to solid but I'm assuming that's because they were lacking concentration because 'it was only Burnley'.

Eduardo scored a cracker. Would expect him to play some part later on in the game.

Ray Parlour wrote:Why does Brighi even start over Pizarro?

Is he even that good?

Nah, but he has been in good form this season. With De Rossi and Perrotta both out of this game, Roma don't have much choice. Hopefully Totti and Aquilani will make comebacks from injury.

I now think Arsenal have this tie as good as won.

Arsenal will go through comfortably IMO, quite possible that they'll even win. Just look at Roma's injury list:

Perrotta, Cassetti, Cicinho confirmed out, De Rossi suspended, and the following are doubtful: Pizarro, Totti, Menez, Baptista, Vucinic - basically all their forwards

http://football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_5027514,00.html