How did it not appear back in 2003? While googling, you can try limit news from 2003 to 2005. I can't found anything.

This one is well known. But Cesc, I don't know since when this 700k appear. If you've got the numbers from Arsenal.com around 2003/4, I'm ready to pull back my words.

Although I'd still question the morality of Arsenal, forcing us to refer to FIFA (referring to your news piece), I reckon Barca should have just move on. Its not like Cesc was the last one coming off the conveyor belt.

They do have good youngsters. But their developments is heavily dependent on Mou's willingness to provide them first team football. So far he has handed debut to several of them.

Not to say we should get it, no law says Arsenal was obliged to pay. The main point is the lack of respect shown by Arsenal when they poached Cesc away.

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We won 3-0 in San Moix. Pleased to see our team played well in absence of Xavi, Puyol, Alves and Valdes. But it was clear that if Alves is gonna leave, we are going to look for new RB this summer. Adriano was not hyperactive like Alves, while Montoya showed very little in 10 minutes he featured.

This post has been edited by matyrze: Feb 27 2011, 11:10 AM

Great comment (as usual ) by Pep:

Those that didn’t get to play have to endure, of course, but they know their responsibility, and that we have all the confidence in them. I try to make them understand that it is necessary for them to train hard, and that there will always be opportunities for them, but if everyone behaves like Keita everything will be easier. Today, along with Andres, it was Keita who won us the match, and they played a superb game. He’s always there when we need him, and that’s why I’m happy for him.

I missed the match, so couldn't comment anything.

But for me, its no big surprise if Masch played bad. Playing as a DM for Barca is not about stealing the ball. Heck this job is not exclusive for our DM, its a job for everybody. What myhotgary may be concerned of is Masch's ability to help out his teammates after they stole it, as well as his lack of initiative (due to tactical awareness, not his work rate) to distribute the ball after wrestling for it. He depends a lot on Xavi/Pique to distribute it. In certain match that's not the best option, as both players tend to get pressurized from opponents too.

For me, after we spent 20ME on him, he's proved that he is only good enough to be Busi's cover. Not much more.

But still, I missed the match So if there are others missed the match too, we'll have a replay at 4.30pm today. I'll be home from office by 4 I guess

I read Xavi's interview with Sport, and he was asked to comment on Messi being 'slightly' more vocal towards Villa in the last game. He said it was normal, and resulting from stress. When the interviewer said it was not normal for Messi being angry, Xavi snapped back "See if you never got angry at work". Great answer it was

Pep is set to give another run around for back ups (not that we have many of them ) for tonight. And Pep is set to watch the game from hospital Hopefully he get well soon.

This post has been edited by matyrze: Mar 5 2011, 08:45 PM

Well, I don't call that 'scolding'. Alves was the one who scolded Villa. If you watch the game again, the incident occurred after Villa failed to find Alves, who was absolutely free at the far post, and opted to take a shot instead, which of course had missed the target. You know, this kinda situation occurs. Xavi said he sometimes tells Puyol and Alves his opinion on the pitch. But for Messi, things get exaggerated because the TV focused on Villa and Messi during the game, and ignored Alves' scream before that.

Btw, I missed the Zaragoza match Sigh, another match to download it seems

Because Zaragoza defenders also realized that they had to crowd the middle area? If they were opened up in defense, they were doomed, and for them that's not rocket science either.

According to TB, its nearly confirmed that Puyol will miss the match

So the next match will be very similar to last season; Arsenal with injury problems, vs Barca with heavily make shifted back line.

So who should play in defense? Milito or Busquets?

This post has been edited by matyrze: Mar 6 2011, 11:46 PM

90% of chances are (don't ask me where did I get the percentage from ) Busquets to be deployed as CB, instead of Milito. If Milito plays, Masch won't get to play. Maxwell meanwhile will play as LB.

Ops, sorry guys for not updating first post and the thread title, been busy these few days with courses. Can online for 15 minutes max liao

Bro, you don't need to be too sensitive. Name calling is bad, I know. But it's nearly pointless to teach other people about ethic in the internet. Seeing that you generalize Barcelona fans as always being disrespectful, I also can point out that in the internet, the most frequent users of the word 'Farcelona' are Arsenal fans. I also receive not-so-friendly responses when posting in Arsenal thread sometime ago, and even bro Kimhoong PMed me to warn about it. Not to mention all the words like 'pathetic', 'f***er' and whatnot being thrown towards Barca players. I've seen these in Arsenal LYN thread too.

Like it or not, this thing goes both way. Just let it pass.

We deserve this right? Up until 80th minute the stats showed Barca had 16 shots, while Arsenal had none. They can speculate all they want about the sending off, but up until that, they failed to even let Valdes worked. I think we played supremely well today. Mascherano and Adriano were monsters, although Adriano obviously hasn't trained on his shooting for quite a while now.

And 19 fouls Was Arsene talking about attacking our goal, or attacking Barca players' legs?

Got to sleep lah, 7.30 am have to get up already. Nite everyone

Don't target anybody la bro. myhotgary just stated his opinion when he said Masch played bad. He was not saying Masch was a bad player for Barca. IMHO Masch did look clueless in numerous matches before. Yes he could get his trademark tackles in, but in Barca people people expect other other quality from DM too. Its good that Masch finally seems to be getting better game by game. It should not be a reason to target the critics back.

I iz sad, because of so much emphasize is on the ref, when Arsenal have only themselves to blame for their defeat.

"Arsenal failed to muster a single shot at Camp Nou as they were eliminated 4-3 on aggregate, the first time a team has failed to do so since Opta's Champions League records began in 2003."

sos from soccernet.

They cry for van Persie's sending off, when in fact he was utterly useless when he was on. They said his sending off changed the game, so why oh why he didn't changed the game in Arsenal's favour when he was ON THE FIELD? He had 56th minute to do that. Zero shot on goal, against a heavily rotated back line, what a way to show your presence on the field as forward.

Maybe they should learn from Hercules on how to counter attack us in Camp Nou, and take Nelson Valdes as their main cikgu. But nvm, I don't think Arsenal need tips from a poor club from an inferior league compared to theirs.

Before Abidal touched van Persie, they were arguing over a tackle (I forgot who received it). They both argued, so both players would get cards, not just Abidal. Don't be too biased here. You can never know what words came out during that argument. Van Persie also played his part during the argument. Not just Abidal.

You said Arsenal gain their momentum just because Nasri dribbled on the left flank on his own, only to be surrounded by Abidal (iinm) and Masch, and no support to look for, and just get a corner? Arsenal was never in the game dude. Arsenal fared a lot poorer than the likes of Hercules, Sporting and Villareal, who gave us a game in Camp Nou. At least they registered shots, and gave us scares.

You just have to relax dude. I don't mean to belittle Arsenal. Honestly I don't.

But the fact is the match stat read something like this:



Which very very clearly showed clear domination by Barca, even unbelievable for ourselves. As I mentioned, even Nelson Valdes and his Hercules did a lot lot lot more better than Arsenal.

And when you come here suggesting that our first goal was just purely the result of Cesc mistake, I think we have the right to be pissed off. Why don't you think its the result of our brilliant way of pressuring opponents right in their own half? If we fail to score from Cesc mistake, what make you so sure we couldn't score another goal, like the second we scored?

This involve a lot of 'what if', an argument filled with speculation and theories. The argument that you guys might fell apart even if you were playing 11 players, like how we score the first goal, may be applicable too. Its just that you guys decided to turn blind on this argument, because it suits you guys lesser.

So this argument about referee is pointless, because it involves something might or might not have happened. The fact is, Arsenal played poor, and Barca deserve to go through.

BOTH argued, so BOTH deserve a yellow.

And more "might be" argument eh.

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Added on March 9, 2011, 8:14 pmOh, and please note that I've NEVER brought out Ref's mistake against us over these two legs, because I honestly feel discussing on Refs' performance is pointless. I really do.

This post has been edited by matyrze: Mar 9 2011, 08:14 PM

Guys, avoid focusing on ref's mistakes. As I said it's not worth discussing. Even after the first leg, I think we had done remarkably for not discussing over an incident. Only barca96, minority and Angel of Deth were involved in the discussion, and heck it wasn't a long discussion. We acknowledge that our team was wasteful, because we were simply wasteful and ineffective.

This is football. Just accept that ref's incompetency (or idiocy, whatever you prefer) can affect both sides. After all it's obvious that which team were the better performer. Just highlight that.

Note: Some may misinterpret this again, so I stress again, that I said the better performer, not the better team.

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Added on March 10, 2011, 12:50 pmThis is another misinterpretation.

I read this headline in Goal.com, but when I read the article, Ibra actually said he has the confidence that he is among the best player, and it is important to have that mentality to succeed. It was not like he said he is the best, better than Messi. He was only stressing on his strong mentality. I don't think that's wrong. Self belief is a must for top football player, its just the way they show their confidence differ.

Nowadays, a lot of words can get twisted very easily. Just read interviews whenever you can, because it can provide complete explanation on certain statement made by the player. There's any chance that nearly every news pieces are BS.

This post has been edited by matyrze: Mar 10 2011, 12:52 PM

WTF!?

At least the president should reveal how much money he put in the website, so that we can estimate market value for Messi. So far we never receive official offer from any club for Messi right? Only Moratti has made occasional noises.

I've no problem with you posting, but, you see, this post is heavy with 'what-if' theme.

What if van Persie was not sent off? Maybe Arsenal's counterattack became more effective...

but...

maybe our domination for the first 56th minute (we were playing 11vs11, remember) went on for another 34 minutes, and Barca might also score 2 more goals as well.

What if Barca indeed could score another goal after Busi's own goal? Maybe Arsenal's catenaccio may serve Arsenal well...

but...

maybe Messi could score another goal. Remember, for all Arsenal fans' attempt to hype up Arsenal's defensive gameplay, we already breached that defense of yours once, when you guys still had 11 players. We might do that again.

What if Barca defenders made several lapse of concentration? Maybe Arsenal could take advantage...

but...

maybe Masch might as well pull up several other heroic feats. And this also depends on how really effective Arsenal's counterattack, because based on what Arsenal showed for the first 56th minutes I was not really convinced. As I said before, a host of Spanish clubs have done a hell lot better than Arsenal did, and many of them didn't have to wait until 56th minute to show their effectiveness while to counterattack.

You can speculate all you want on the referee and the sending off. But in the end it all boil down to who were actually performed better, and who actually had the luck, and who actually showed they wanted it more.

According to the stat, we performed better, and that may also be the case if you watch the match. We had a few of luck with our shooting, but we have luck with the sending off. We have also proved that we wanted it more, as evidence by our attacking nature. Furthermore Almunia also pointed out the lack of spirit of among Arsenal players. You see, this was not said by the 'disrespectful scums' like Xavi, Puyol, Pique, Pep, Rosell, Laporta or Jimmy Jump. This was the words of a Arsenal player. So this is why Pep said "The only way they can grow is to think about the bad things they have done and improve."

Arsenal performance was so under par, that Arsenal ought to improve from it. And I'm not saying that Arsenal is inferior team to Barca, I just say Barca played performed better than Arsenal. Don't misinterpret me here.

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Puyol is set to miss another game I thought he was near to full fitness, since there was some hope he would be able to participate in Arsenal game.

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Added on March 13, 2011, 10:32 amBro barca96, I've posted in Arsenal thread once, and I completely understand what you went through You want some good replies to your opinion? You may try Liverpool thread. Haven't tried much with Man Utd and Chelsea thread though.

Not generalizing any set of fans, but those are just my internet experience

This post has been edited by matyrze: Mar 13 2011, 10:34 AM

No idea liao No fun troll in MUST, because if I post now, 30 minutes later my post will be pushed to 3rd last page. Too many posters liao. And I'm afraid of the infamous sheep jinx also

The UEFA Super League? I think it would make matters worse. But this require a new thread to discuss, if we don't have one already.