What's black and white and red all over?
This guy is sure happy he chose red
Maybe a bit of a strange one as we haven’t played them much, but we have done very well against them and the last time I chose a European opponent it was Bayern Munich who destroyed us. The Italians are somewhat on a par with Bayern as they are the big champions although they at least have great competition from AC Milan.
Juventus are, though, one of the biggest European names. They have won everything. They are feared worldwide and have had a list of some of the greatest ever to play the game. They took our best player Liam Brady but we took theirs (although they didn’t realise it at the time) Thierry Henry. So evens on that metric maybe.
Brady: Great business for Trappatoni
When it comes to trophies they are ahead. An incredible 38 Scudettos to our 13 league titles. 14 each for Cups so equal there. They have won the Italian Super cup (League against Cup winners) 9 times and we have won the Charity Shield 16 times so we are ahead. We have 1 European Cup-winners Cup apiece. Surprisingly, they have only 2 Champions league/European Cup but that is still better than us.
Overall, though, our metrics are not too bad against them as you can see.
Our selling was better
Wojciech Szczęsny, Aaron Ramsay, Armand Traore, and Patrick Vieira are recent players we have sold to Juventus but with mixed results. Lord Nicolas Bendtner went there on loan on an option to buy. Juventus didn’t. Maybe we got the best of those deals.
You should have stayed red, Wojciech
Juventus life got blacker
And on the pitch? In our head to heads? Surprisingly we did well considering it is fair to say they are above us in rankings.
The first was the European CupWinners cup in 1980. The problem I have with writing this blog for a mostly Bulgarian audience is that most of you are a lot younger than me. From what I can see, under communism, few supported Arsenal. And a lot of you would have come onboard during the Wenger years, where we were regarded as one of the biggest teams in Europe. And so in your mind, Arsenal are a big team, ready to take on the Real Madrids, the Bayerns and the Juventuses of this world. But not when I was a young adult and a kid.
Seems nobody wanted you, Nicklas
Great names humbled
We were average, even at times I was worried about relegation. The double was like a miracle in the context and that was well in the past at this stage. We had good players, yes, but not huge names like Dino Zoff, Marco Tardelli, Claudio Gentile and Roberto Bettega. Their manager was the legendary Giovanni Trappatoni, one of the greatest ever. Italian football was the height. Players from the English league scrambled to get into this league as the rewards were far greater than in England.
And so Trappatoni saw Liam Brady and said, I’m having him and he did. It was Brady’s last season with us. Nowadays, if a top team comes in for our player, we are angry, but honestly, all the fans knew then, they would have done the same in Brady’s shoes. He was nowhere near the best paid at Arsenal, despite being a step above all of them in talent. Probably the best player in the league yet trailing way behind even average players at the Liverpools and Man Utds. So our dismay at losing our best player was directed more at the management than Brady himself.
Why did you go to the dark side, Patrick?
But we laid down a marker in these games. Our first match against Juventus was at Highbury. And, to be honest, when Antonio Cabrini popped in a goal on 11 minutes, we looked dead in the water. Somehow we got an own goal late on from Roberto Bettega on 85 but still we were out. Nobody went to Turin to win and certainly not this Arsenal team who were behind the best in England let alone Europe. And so it seemed. Until the ultimately tragic (a story for another day) 18 year old Paul Vaessen was sent on late in the game with instructions from Don Howe – “Score a goal for us” – and the poor guy did on 88 minutes. A miracle had happened. We had beaten Juventus in our first tie against them. The pub I was in erupted. Arsenal had arrived in Europe. We had beaten a huge name for the first time but Liam Brady was snatched away from us.
Red suits you better, Aaron
Blacker and Blacker
The next time was a tie most of you will remember as we were well into the Wenger era in 2001. We were now Arsenal. Teams were starting to be frightened of us. We had players at their peak like Henry, Bergkamp, Kanu, Pires, Llungberg, Campbell although we had Stuart Taylor in goal and Matthew Upson in defence. They had replaced probably the most famous Italian goalkeeper ever, Dino Zoff, with possibly an even greater legend, Gianluigi Buffon. They had Lilian Thuram, Pavel Nedved, Edgar Davids, David Trezeguet and Allesandro Del Piero among their greats. It was the second group stage and we sent them home crying from Highbury 3-1. Freddie (2) and Thierry Henry rattled in the goals. Get back to Italy quickly or we will score more against you.
And the second leg in Turin? They didn’t manage to score till the 76th minute from Marcelo Zalayeta and it was ciao Juventus. We were becoming their nightmare.
Red is the winner, Armand
And so on to 2006 and our incredible march to the final where every top team in Europe lined up against us and we swatted them away like the flies they were. Multi Champions league winners Ajax in the group stage. Real Madrid in the knockout. And now Juventus. Again they had a team packed with stars and they now had our own Patrick Vieira and a young Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Again we had them first at Highbury and again we sent them home crying, 2-0 this time. A young Cesc Fabregas showed Patrick Vieira he wasn’t missed with a goal on 40 and then a player called Thierry Henry scored on 69 to seal their doom. You wake up at night in sweats over the Arsenal, Juve, don’t you?
0-0 in Turin meant we would march on towards Villareal in the semi’s.
Your darkest nightmare
And so Arsenal are Juventus’s daddies. They must hate the sight of us. 3 times we got them in Europe, each time they are sent home in tatters. It’s written in black and white – Turin is red.
We love you Arsenal, we do,
We love you Arsenal, we do,
Oh, Arsenal, we love you
