How Arsenal’s Champions League loss to Monaco played out on Twitter

Arsenal’s catastrophic 3-1 defeat to Monaco in the first leg of their Champions League tie left many onlookers stunned.

But having confidently predicted that Arsène Wenger’s side would breeze through to the last eight of Europe’s elite, Piers Morgan was not the only supporter left with egg on his face on Wednesday night at the Emirates.

Back in December, the TV presenter greeted the news that Arsenal had been paired with last season’s Ligue 1 runners up after a succession of demanding last-16 draws with the tweet: “BOOM! We drew the one team worse than us. Perfect. #monaco #afc #cldraw”.

His confidence was clearly shared by whoever was manning the official Arsenal Twitter feed. “And how about you, @AS_Monaco? Feeling confident? Nervous? Worried?” read their post yesterday morning, to which Monaco’s official account replied with a friendly “Just feeling excited to play such a big match, @Arsenal !”

That inspired a slightly cocky response as the Arsenal account posted the message “.@AS_Monaco This guy won’t be troubling us tonight - so who should we be worried about?” with a picture of Manchester United loanee Radamel Falcao.

The Monaco account rose to the bait with a message that turned out to be rather prescient, “Why not Dimitar Berbatov? A player who is very appreciated by @arsenal fans, isn’t he ? ;)”, but, after the Bulgarian scored Monaco’s second goal on his return to north London, Arsenal may be regretting their response now: “.@AS_Monaco Ah yes, Berbatov... he scored at Emirates Stadium in 2007 - but @bendtnerb52 had the final word!”.

As Arsenal struggled to find their rhythm during the first-half, it didn’t take long for the critics to voice their displeasure. “This weren’t in the script when we got them in the draw !!! C’mon Arsenal for f*******e. O”, wrote former striker Ian Wright, while Morgan was also quick to get in on the act when Geoffrey Kondogbia‘s deflected shot found the net seven minutes before half-time: “Been coming. We’ve been useless.”

As things went from bad to worse at the Emirates, the former editor of the Daily Mirror was clearly running through the emotions as he posted a series of tweets including “How old is Berbatov - 56? This is PATHETIC.” He was then asked “What’s French for Boom?” by ITV newsreader Mark Austin, with Morgan replying “MERDE ALORS!”

Even Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s late goal didn’t seem to satisfy him, “ Once again, it’s the hope that kills. #Arsenal”, although it didn’t last long as Morgan was soon turning his attention to Madonna’s unfortunate fall at the Brit Awards.

It was left to Wright to sum up how most Arsenal fans are feeling the morning after the day before. “How can we perform so badly at such a crucial stage of the competition? Not saying we’d win CL,but for MONACO to slap us about like that.”