I spent last night cheering on Arsenal. They came extremely close at perfecting the ultimate comeback against Monaco in the Champions League but alas it wasn’t meant to be as the Gunners lost out on away goals.

That means that the Ligue 1 side instead of Arsene Wenger‘s men progressed into the last eight of Europe’s most elite footballing tournaments.

After the tie Arsenal manager Wenger had this to say, when asked if his former side AS Monaco deserved to go through…

“I don’t believe so. If you look at the number of shots on target they had you will be surprised. Every defeat hurts but we didn’t lose.”

Now I love Wenger but over the two legs Monaco did deserve to go through.

The ‘away goals’ rule isn’t new. UEFA have been using it since the sixties!

When you reach the knock-out stages you know that it becomes an issue and that you need to try and not concede at home.

For Arsenal to concede three at the Emirates was just crazy. To concede the third the way they did after Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain had salvaged a goal back in injury time was embarrassing.

In the first leg, Arsenal were arrogant and underestimated their opponents. They thought that the tie would be a walkover. Yet the fact is Monaco pulled their pants down and countered them into submission.

Yes Arsenal played extremely well in the second leg and dominated the fixture at the Stade Louis II. But Monaco knew what they needed to do and that was to stop Arsenal scoring more than two and that’s exactly what the French club did. Yes they had luck but so did Arsenal for their goals.

Arsenal also came into the second leg knowing what they needed to do, yet they fell at the final hurdle. Yes it was an inspired performance but it wasn’t enough. They also created that steep hill that they failed to climb in the end.

That second leg Arsenal performance also doesn’t negate the first leg shambles.

I think the Northern London side got a lot of plaudits for their performance in the Côte d’Azur last night but that I feel Wenger’s comments dampen the new found respect many of us gave his side last night.

Monaco deserved to go through because they scored more away goals and punished Arsenal’s mistakes. Arsenal need to grin and bear it, then come back stronger next time.

Sometimes the prettiest team doesn’t win the fight Monsieur Wenger, I’d have thought you’d have worked that out by now.

Posted on March 18th, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article