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Stat About Fernando Torres Shows How Useless Arsenal Were

Stat About Fernando Torres Shows How Useless Arsenal Were

The Atletico Madrid legend was only on the pitch for eight minutes in the Europa League match.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Arsenal crashed out of the Europa League on Thursday night in a typically Arsenal fashion and Fernando Torres' short cameo showed just how short of qualifying against a brilliant Atletico Madrid defence.

Two legged games when you're home first require you to do one of two things, win by a massive margin or stop the opposition from scoring, if you can do both then that's an added bonus.

Griezmann's first leg goal went a long way to knocking Arsenal out. Image: PA Images
Griezmann's first leg goal went a long way to knocking Arsenal out. Image: PA Images

When Arsenal allowed Antoine Griezmann to score in the first leg of their Europa League semi final it was always going mean the end of their hopes of winning the competition, after all the Gunners away form in 2018 is utterly woeful.

The first leg result meant that no matter what Arsene Wenger's team had to score in the Spanish capital. Diego Costa's strike on half time 'didn't change anything' as the cliche goes and the Gunners still needed to score.

So you'd have hoped they would at least go down with a fight but instead it was with a whimper. One damning stat came about from Fernando Torres' short cameo to prove how impotent they were:

Torres, in his final European appearance at home for his boyhood team before moving on for the second time at the end of the season, didn't even manage 10 minutes on the pitch and was still more dangerous in front of goal than Arsenal.

Sure Atleti are known for their rearguard action but the Premier League side weren't exactly throwing the kitchen sink at their Spanish opposition with many pointing out that Wenger's side were missing an Olivier Giroud type player to launch the ball up for.

The win for Atletico means that Torres has one last chance at silverware with Diego Simeone's side before he moves on when his contract runs out at the end of the season.

Simeone will be trying to win his second Europa League as manager when his side face Marseille in the final in Lyon on May 16th and could also finish the season second in the league.

For Arsenal last night felt all too familiar.

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Football News, Europa League, Atletico Madrid, Fernando Torres, Arsenal

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

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@Sidler28