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One would think it was impossible for the cruel English media to play down Arsenal's incredible feat of reaching their first ever Champions League final, but apparently not. I find that really sad.
We had an admitedly easy group stage in which we won five and drew one against teams you would expect us to, although I think a little credit may be deserved even here, because we have always been famous for making life difficult for ourselves against the ‘smallest’ of opposition, often barely squeezing through to the next round on the last match day.
Then throughout the entire knockout stage adventure, EVERYONE was writing us off. Before the game in the Bernabeu we were in very poor form and had a ridiculous amount of injuries particularly in defence. Our opponents on the other hand were in fine form in their league, allbeit behind leaders Barcelona, but they had been particularly good goalscoring form at home in the build-up to the match. NO ONE gave us a chance. Even the Real Madrid players underestimated us.
And so, we won. And we held them to a draw at Highbury and went through to the quarter-finals. Now, all of a sudden I read all about how ‘Real Madrid aren’t what they used to be' and how their players are old and over the hill and all kinds of rubbish.
It gets even better when we're drawn with Juventus. Now I'm reading stuff like ‘Juve will be much more difficult’ and ‘Vieira will show he made the right choice in leaving’.
Then of course, we knock them out too. This time, arguably, more convincingly after totally outplaying them at Highbury in a 2-0 win and frustrating them to the point that they finished with 9 men and Paddy could barely run. This was followed by more of the same in Turin where we could have scored a few more. So the response was logical; ‘Juve are over the hill’. etc.
Starting to see a trend here? Okay, next - Villarreal. On paper, probably easier than Madrid and Juve, but the attitude is how ‘we shouldn’t underestimate them' and ‘they have dangerous players’. So we ruin the fun yet again and beat them too and now they're just ‘a very modest team’, according to BBC's Paul Fletcher, whose article actually inspired (heh) this one.
So throughout the knockout stages, before we play them they're far too good for us and after we play them they're really nothing special and the next game will be very different.
I think this negative attitude is absolutely pathetic. Like I said earlier, Real Madrid were in great form before we played them; Juventus were Champions of Italy last year and currently top this year and have one of the best managers in the game; Villarreal may be in a poor position in La Liga, but a lot of that is down to resting nearly all of their best players before the games with us, making them a lot fresher physically. Besides, they are a good team; anyone who makes it to the semi-finals of the Champions League must be doing something right.
I'm glad that we've proved all of our many (and I mean many) doubters wrong and made it to the final. This is not an achievement that should be downplayed at all. Ten consecutive clean sheets against the toughest of opposition with so many first choice defenders missing is something that deserves more credit. Maybe people are bitter because of our lack of English players used. Boo hoo. English players are not heaven-sent; their European campaign ended in the last 16.
Now for the final. I'm not bothered about who we play, but I'm sure AC Milan or Barcelona are much much better than anything we've faced so far. Unless of course we beat them … then there would have to be something wrong with them.
Just average teams, perhaps?
Arsenal-Mania