Yeah, probably because they've been atrocious this season, have a weird manager who is departing in the summer and you lot are vastly overrated. Add all that together and you'll see why you were favourites. Bayern were there for the taking.
Arsenal 2023/24 - Born to be runner up
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Yeah, probably because they've been atrocious this season, have a weird manager who is departing in the summer and you lot are vastly overrated. Add all that together and you'll see why you were favourites. Bayern were there for the taking.
Bayern were a club in turmoil who slowly get their shit together now. Not that this directly affects the team on the pitch, but their most ridiculous losses happened before the winter break, after which they made some sensible squad adjustments (I know it's funny, but I think Eric Dier being the most important of those).
Arsenal are such an anomaly. For a club who have had so much success domestically over the decades their European record is fecking abysmal with ONE official European trophy in their name. I can't think of any other big European club having a remotely similar domestic-to-continental success ratio.
Bottle jobs
Bad week to have. Let's see if they fall to pieces now like they are wont to. Away to Wolves isn't exactly the place to recover, though. It would be amusing to see.
You'd imagine that the historically best supported club in London would be more succesful, but they really pale into comparison with so many other English clubs. Besides the obvious ones, the likes of Villa, Forest, Spurs and even West Ham have won more European silverware. Heck, even Celtic and Aberdeen (SAF is a god) have more important silverware than Arsenal.
Prime SAF United and Barsa stood in their way in the prime Wenger years when they had their best shot at going all the way I suppose
I didn't think much of them against Arsenal tbh. They also have a manager that's leaving at the end of the season. It's clear why Arsenal were favourites given the silly OTT hype around them.
Yes, they are still not great, but they are a bit improved. Nonetheless the time to beat them was the first half of the season, or now in the BL (which they don't seem to care about any more). They were lucky to get drawn into a ridiculously weak CL group. By now it's not that big of a surprise that they survived against Arsenal.
Arsenal really blew it in the first leg, never fancied them to go to Munich and get a win. Neither team looked particularly impressive anyway.
It's not a surprise because Arsenal gonna Arsenal at the business end of the season. But, Bayern were definitely there for the taking.
Good summary.
Hard game for them at the weekend, especially with Wolves having Cunha back (he looks mint by the way). Huge game.
Bayern have been pretty poor by their lofty standards in 2024. Didn't they have back to back BL losses prior to last weekend? And they've been knocked out of every other competition much earlier than usual.
11 goals and 6 assists in 27 league games. Not too shabby.
Aye, I'm not getting why this is even getting questioned. This was a good season to play Bayern.
Wolves' last win was on 9th of March, since then they've had 2 draws and 2 losses. Seems like their form worsened since reaching 40+ points. Still could be tough game for Arsenal.
As I mentioned above it feels like they don't care about the BL now as they don't can win it. They lost the preseason German Supercup to Leipzig and got kicked out of the cup by third league club Saarbrücken - that's what you mention, but that also happened before the winter break.
To be clear, it still is a good season to play against Bayern. My point was just that Arsenal didn't meet them at their lowest point.
He would cost a fortune, but another player I wouldn't mind having here. Pal of mine at football is a Wolves fan and he loves him, says he works bloody hard too.
They were still going for the BL up to a few weeks ago - those back to back BL losses basically ended their title charge, but I don't see how that changes anything about their season as a whole. This is without a doubt a pretty poor Bayern team - probably the weakest one for a decade (you could argue that Kovac's Bayern were stronger for example).
Look how shit United have been this season - we managed two very narrow losses against them in the group stage. If it wasn't for a Onana/Casemiro brain fart we could have got a result at the Allianz.
So I disagree with your overall premise - this is probably the lowest point in their recent history, and Arsenal folded under the pressure.
For 180 minutes, they acted like a bunch of weak willed little kids. There‘s no one in this club able to deal with adversity. You could tell yesterday that Neuer alone has bigger balls than this whole club combined.
Doesn't your point about United actually support my premise that Bayern's lowest point was in the first half of the season? In my opinion the Saarbrücken cup loss was their worst day.
In the league they lost recently two matches, but effectively they knew minutes before the first (Dortmund) kicked off that Leverkusen didn't drop points but instead got a late win. With that Leverkusen result their BL season was effectively over and it showed against Dortmund that they didn't really feel like there is a point in fighting.
No, I don't agree with the premise that their lowest point can be curtailed to a single game per se. For me, they've been a shell of their former selves across the season in multiple competitions. The cup result may be the aberration that stands out the most, but it doesn't mean they haven't been awful for an extended period of time.
United similarly have been a shambles across the whole season, the fact that we were able to hold our own against them to a certain point in the group games should highlight how their levels have dropped.
Precisely, but the likes of Forest, Spurs and Villa are nowhere near as successful as Arsenal domestically. I really don't think I could name any other major European club whose domestic-to-continental success ratio is as abject as Arsenal's. The closest parallel I can think of is Juventus' two European Cups relative to their colossal domestic success -- but then again they've reached the final nine times compared to Arsenal's once!
Just a bizarre predicament all around.
Bayern haven’t been consistently great this season, that’s all very true, they’d happily admit that. But at the end of the day it’s still Bayern, the likes them and Madrid can still get their shit together and compete and even win Champions Leagues even when domestic form isn’t great.
Im disappointed to have gone out to them, I’m especially disappointed at the manor of the goals we conceded first leg. My regret is I don’t think we played our best. But i wouldn’t disrespect them and the players they have, guys like Sane and Kane are just a different level to what we have.
Im disappointed to have gone out to them, I’m especially disappointed at the manor of the goals we conceded first leg. My regret is I don’t think we played our best. But i wouldn’t disrespect them and the players they have, guys like Sane and Kane are just a different level to what we have.
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Precious little boys were even allowed to touch the ball with their hands and still went out. Bunch of losers.
They still have a very young squad, with many of their key players being 26 or younger incl. Ødegaard, Rice, Saliba, Gabriel, and Saka. This core group of players will now have a couple of title challenges and CL knock-out rounds under their belt and will be better for it. It's a very different position than Liverpool and Man City that will look at some huge players soon becoming too old.
Arsenal are still in a healthy position if they can keep up the motivation.
Arsenal are still in a healthy position if they can keep up the motivation.
We were linked with him sometime back and while some rated his dribbling, the potential signing was mostly frowned upon. May have been around the time of the Arnautovic links.
Highly experienced team who have many players that have won the lot dealt with a highly pressured knock out tie better over 2 legs against an experienced young team that have won nothing is hardly a big surprise!
they've been a shell of their former selves for several years now, that still doesn't make them anything less than a great side, one of the best in the world. Bayer Leverkusen are unbeaten past the middle of April. That's what it took to beat Bayern to the Bundesliga, an historical season, potentially legendary
Even last season, despite the score they gave City everything they could handle and them some. A meltdown after the Upamecano feck up in the first leg was their downfall
We were at our lowest in years, maybe even decades. For you it’s the opposite. If it’s still not a surprise for you guys to go out there, that’s an issue. When are you supposed to go deep in the CL if not yesterday?
Its the first time we were actually in the Champions League for 7 years, the first time our manager has managed in it, and the the first time many of our players have played in it. Experience counts for a lot.
Its also a knockout competition, sometimes settled by fine margins. You were playing well at The Etihad last season, Upamecano blundered, and you end up 3-0 down and basically out the tie.
Last week, we made the mistakes. You punished us. Thats just how it goes, no complaints. Mistakes tend to get punished. Don’t take your chances, that tends to get punished, see City last night. You narrowly won a 2 legged cup tie, well done. I’m not quite sure why your posting with such arrogance.
What European trophy have they won?
That's not quite accurate - Leverkusen have been unbelievable this year, but they still have a 16-17 point cushion, suggesting that they could even lose 5 games if they needed to and still win. I don't have the details to hand aren't Bayern on track for one of their lowest points total in the last 10 years?
You'd still have that Bayern side over this year's one.
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970 and Cup Winners' Cup in 1994.
Bayern have more points in the league than at the same time last season. That despite clearly not giving a feck anymore. Their projected points total (at least before those "it's gone anyway" matches) would beat any non-Bayern team in history, even Klopp's best Dortmund.
Meanwhile Stuttgart have the same points as Bayern which makes them obviously the best ever third placed team in the leagues history and probably is even more amazing than what Leverkusen does considering they were in relegation playoff last season.
The title race is the toughest in history as these three teams are really running away with it and yes what Leverkusen does is absolutely amazing but this seasons Stuttgart would confortably have won the league last season.
They are on pace for 74 points and that's after having let go in the league more than a month ago...so it's pretty relative still. This millennium, only bayern, dortmund(4 times) and Werder managed that points tally. Only two teams picked up 74+ points in one season without winning the title(BvB both times)
Maybe so, it doesn't mean this Bayern isn't a great side still
Never change Arsenal, for 20 years, even during our darkest times, they continue to be a source of comedy 
Aye was around that time. He was highly rated when he moved to Atletico but it didn't really happen for him there.
Doesn't feel like anyone thinks that, not even Bayern fans who I guess watch them every week.
Bayern fans are obviously the least objective people around for this, as is usually the case. 3 years ago they were one of the best sides in history with Flick, that's their standard for "great" these days
Bayern were still on pace for 80+ points in the bundesliga before giving up on it entirely, have a had a number of just freak games(freiburg comes to mind) and their underlying metrics are actually better than Leverkusen's - and not by a small margin either. There's been some toxicity and some meltdowns along the way which, along with no longer being literally one of the best teams in football history, have fueled this impression of them not being great. They still are. Just not a team that's gonna be remembered unless they win the CL - which they might.
Kane, Musiala, Goretzka, Kimmich, Neuer, De Ligt, Sane, Gnabry, Muller, Davies...that's a better squad than arsenal's actually