How have we never won a European Cup... 🤔

The one yellow card that sent off v Persie against Barcelona was ridiculously harsh. You probably could have won it had they let him stay on. A 2nd yellow for kicking the ball after the whistle was just UEFA helping Barca, again. That match Barca against Chelsea where Chelsea were denied 3 penalties, damn.

We’ve been unlucky with ref decisions against Barca but ultimately it’s down to not being good enough tactically or mentally because we’ve had enough talent to have won it since Wenger took over. Honestly hope we do end up winning CL soon, ridiculous we’ve not won one.

The FA Cup is in Europe so yes Arsenal have won them.

The big failure was in the early 00's. The only other time we were pre-eminent in Europe was in the 30's.

I think it's worth remembering that, before the Wenger years, English football was miles behind the best of the continent. When Wenger rose the standard, there was still a lot of catching up to do. Manchester United needed a miracle in 99, as did Liverpool in 05. It's quite difficult to explain why Arsenal never went further in the intervening years, looking at the players we had, but perhaps it's like England's golden generation where there were other great sides and we just didn't get lucky enough. Yeah we had the likes of Henry, Vieira and Campbell, but Milan had Pirlo, Kaka and Maldini.

Can't have helped that a player as crucial as Bergkamp didn't travel.

There is one other season, in 07/08, where I reckon we were good enough to go further. We were quite unlucky in the end at Anfield. But that season will always be an "if only" one.

comment by The Mane Man - PL CHAMPIONS (U19731)
posted 2 hours, 40 minutes ago
Arsenal haven't the history in that competition which goes against them.

When we won it in 2005 it was pure the fans who pushed us. When you come in our club and you see 6 Europeans on the champions walls it does something mentally with
the players who are coming in.

Even when we were sh*t we had 2 finals and some semi finals. The same goes for R Madrid and Milan.
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I don't think history has anything to do with it. Chelsea won it for the first time, and PSG might do the same tomorrow.

It’s easier than ever to win it, the tournament is so skewed toward the top TV leagues that all you have to do is be a top 3 club in England or Spain, a top 2 club in Germany or Italy, or the top 1 club in France.

Manage that and you have a 1/11 chance of winning it now.

comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 8 hours, 53 minutes ago
I think it is more than that. Porto won it when we were at our peak.

Ultimately we were not quite good enough. Our squad depth was shown up at times - although tbf we got to the final with Senderos and Flamini in the back 4.That Chelsea game in 04 we looked out on our feet.

You can look at some bad luck (the Liverpool game where Hleb was dragged down when clean through and nothing given, then in the 2nd leg a far softer pen given to Liverpool just after we went ahead in the tie). A lot of bad ref decisions (RvP sent off for kicking the ball milliseconds after the ref blew) and a lot of individual errors.


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Yes this game stands out as one of those games where if we had won, we probably could have gone all the way and won it. Then the years after could have all been so different.

And if we hadn't gone down to 10 men so early

comment by The Mane Man - PL CHAMPIONS (U19731)
posted 6 hours, 30 minutes ago
Arsenal haven't the history in that competition which goes against them.

When we won it in 2005 it was pure the fans who pushed us. When you come in our club and you see 6 Europeans on the champions walls it does something mentally with
the players who are coming in.

Even when we were sh*t we had 2 finals and some semi finals. The same goes for R Madrid and Milan.
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Interesting point...

Isnt it 3 harsh red cards we had around that time. RVP's was just ridicuous, the Lehman one and didnt SOl have one as well or is my memory playing tricks on me with that one?