Post by Salem6 on Oct 23, 2003 10:22:39 GMT
By Richard Clarke
Ray Parlour doesn't want to play in the UEFA Cup. No offence is meant to the competition, it's just that the Arsenal midfielder feels his side belong in the Champions League.
The 30-year-old was captain for Tuesday night's 2-1 defeat at Dynamo Kiev. The result left Arsenal rock bottom of Group B, five points off the two qualifying places and three points from third place, a position that would at least give them entry into the UEFA Cup.
Parlour has already played in the final of that competition the last time Arsenal went out of the Champions League at the opening stage. They ended up losing on penalties to Galatasaray in Copenhagen after a goalless 120 minutes. He feels returning to the competition this season is a retrograde step.
"Going back into the UEFA Cup would be a bitter pill for us all to swallow and none of us want that," he said. "We all want to be involved in the best competition and the players here are used to that.
"If it does come to going into the UEFA Cup, we'll have to deal with that, difficult as it would be. The main thing is to worry only about the next game with Kiev."
When the fixtures were announced, the two long trips to Moscow and Kiev in games two and three looked pivotal in the group, especially after Arsenal were shocked 3-0 at home to Inter on the opening night.
The upside of this equation is that the two Eastern European sides must now make the reverse trips. However inbetween Arsenal travel to Inter's imposing San Siro. Parlour admits they will have to bring something back.
"We definitely need seven points from our last three games and I imagine we need to win them all.
"We're probably relying on other teams to do us a favour but we're in a similar situation to Newcastle last season, when they won their last three games and went through. But we're still in with a shout.
"Lokomotiv Moscow beating Inter did us a huge favour because if they'd won you would have had them on nine points, Kiev on six and it would have been very difficult for us to come back from that.
"Now Moscow are in with a shout as well and they've opened up the whole group. We've got it all to do - it's a very difficult task now. We won't give up but we're very disappointed.
"But we have to pick ourselves up very quickly because the next game against Kiev at Highbury is massive for us now."
However, for Parlour, home form has not been the problem.
"We're letting ourselves down away," he told the English press. "We're not getting the results we should do. We would have settled for a draw in Kiev and the point in Moscow wasn't a bad result when you look at what they've done to Inter.
"We could have nicked a draw at the end in Kiev. We're all disappointed but we've got to stick together and get the right result on Sunday against Charlton.
"We can all look at the video and say we could have done this and that better, but it's gone now and we have to look forward."
Source:-
www.arsenal.com/sportsappcontroller.jsp?command=setSelectedId&nextPage=displayheadline&type=com.sportapps.news.NewsItem&id=4147854
Ray Parlour doesn't want to play in the UEFA Cup. No offence is meant to the competition, it's just that the Arsenal midfielder feels his side belong in the Champions League.
The 30-year-old was captain for Tuesday night's 2-1 defeat at Dynamo Kiev. The result left Arsenal rock bottom of Group B, five points off the two qualifying places and three points from third place, a position that would at least give them entry into the UEFA Cup.
Parlour has already played in the final of that competition the last time Arsenal went out of the Champions League at the opening stage. They ended up losing on penalties to Galatasaray in Copenhagen after a goalless 120 minutes. He feels returning to the competition this season is a retrograde step.
"Going back into the UEFA Cup would be a bitter pill for us all to swallow and none of us want that," he said. "We all want to be involved in the best competition and the players here are used to that.
"If it does come to going into the UEFA Cup, we'll have to deal with that, difficult as it would be. The main thing is to worry only about the next game with Kiev."
When the fixtures were announced, the two long trips to Moscow and Kiev in games two and three looked pivotal in the group, especially after Arsenal were shocked 3-0 at home to Inter on the opening night.
The upside of this equation is that the two Eastern European sides must now make the reverse trips. However inbetween Arsenal travel to Inter's imposing San Siro. Parlour admits they will have to bring something back.
"We definitely need seven points from our last three games and I imagine we need to win them all.
"We're probably relying on other teams to do us a favour but we're in a similar situation to Newcastle last season, when they won their last three games and went through. But we're still in with a shout.
"Lokomotiv Moscow beating Inter did us a huge favour because if they'd won you would have had them on nine points, Kiev on six and it would have been very difficult for us to come back from that.
"Now Moscow are in with a shout as well and they've opened up the whole group. We've got it all to do - it's a very difficult task now. We won't give up but we're very disappointed.
"But we have to pick ourselves up very quickly because the next game against Kiev at Highbury is massive for us now."
However, for Parlour, home form has not been the problem.
"We're letting ourselves down away," he told the English press. "We're not getting the results we should do. We would have settled for a draw in Kiev and the point in Moscow wasn't a bad result when you look at what they've done to Inter.
"We could have nicked a draw at the end in Kiev. We're all disappointed but we've got to stick together and get the right result on Sunday against Charlton.
"We can all look at the video and say we could have done this and that better, but it's gone now and we have to look forward."
Source:-
www.arsenal.com/sportsappcontroller.jsp?command=setSelectedId&nextPage=displayheadline&type=com.sportapps.news.NewsItem&id=4147854
