Tough to know where to start with this one?
The first half was one of the worst performances from Arsenal this season… and somehow we managed to come out of it with a clean sheet and the lead.
The second half was slightly better in terms of football, but very familiar with regards to the outcome.
Once again we blew our chance to catch up with the leaders and once again we demonstrated how incredibly wrong Arsene Wenger has got it this season in terms of personnel.
The first half was so dire I could hardly watch. A very average Villa side managed to out perform us because they were disciplined and played with a plan.
Compare that to Arsenal, who were disorganised, tactically inept and woefully low on confidence. Our passing was terrible, the understanding and cohesion of the team was almost nonexistent and the mistakes just pilled up. I don’t think there was one player on the pitch worthy of praise after the first half.
Our first major error of the game came when Song managed to lose Steve Sidwell in the box… who put a header onto the bar from six yards. Song is about 6 second behind everyone else on the pitch. He specialises in lapses of concentration, passing to the opposition… and my favourite… the tactical body check… for which he received his customary yellow card for.
Villa were exploiting our weaknesses very well… they were hitting the flanks and pinging balls into the box and we were truly suffering. Almunia had a particularly poor game between the sticks. Ok… so he made a few great saves, but what’s the point in being a good shot stopper if you can’t claim a cross or command the respect of your defence? One of his flaps did lead to an exciting moment in the match… Calamity Al came bounding out the box… missing the ball completely… Aggy got in the end of it, looping a header towards the goal… Sagna was alert to this and amazingly performed an over head clearance off the line.
Arsenal were still playing poorly… Diaby was too interested in the tricks and flicks when he should have been playing the simple ball. We were still being run ragged by Villa and if I am honest, Arsenal resembled one of those teams whipped together for Charity games. They honestly looked like they’d never played together… without Cesc, they were nothing. Villa put Arsenal fans on the edge of their seats again when Milner managed to lose the static Nasri at the far post and half volley only for Almunia to tip the ball onto the post. Then a few minutes later, Curtis Davies of all players managed to turn the ball over Almunia’s head onto the bar.
Almost immediately Arsenal broke free… Denilson passed to Eboue, who lost it… but Denilson followed in, won the ball back, knocked it into his own path…then buried it.
Arsenal’s luck continued shortly after the goal when Song managed to pick up a knock. Rambo pulled on a shirt and Arsenal held out till half time. How many times have we gone in 1-0 up undeservedly? If I was to describe how I felt… it would be similar to how you feel when you treble the black to win a game of pool… you’re pleased, but a bit sheepish.
The second half kicked off and Arsenal started to play some football. The passing became a lot crisper and Rambo worked well in the middle of the park. It’s nice to have someone there who can actually craft a pass… and actually has the pace to make a fair tackle.
Our second goal came from a piece of Diaby magic. He back heeled the ball and turned his marker, laid it off to Eboue who made a terrific run… timed his pass back to Diaby with perfection… which allowed the Frenchman to bury with clinicalness (sic) and precision.
2 shots, 2 goals. Un-frigging-believable.
Villa were shell shocked and didn’t really have an answer. It was a similar reaction to the one we saw after the Spurs game. Arsenal controlled possession and nearly squirmed a second… RvP was unluckily denied by the post after some good work by the midfield. You did have a feeling that we might pay for that and sure enough we did.
Agbonlohor was played in with a beauty of a pass, Gallas allowed him to get goal side… made a slide tackle and clipped the Villa striker inside the box. Penalty… Goal to Villa. Oh, and some comical handbags from Arsene and Martin… it was like watching your granny rucking it out with her best friend.
Arsenal fans across the world knew what was coming next… ball into the box, scrambled clearance… no holding midfielder sitting in the hole… bang… Villa score in the 91st minute.
Once again, Arsenal fail to hold onto a lead. Once again Arsenal demonstrated why they wont win the league.
The BBC commentator said he asked Wenger before the match if he’d sign anyone… Arsene said he was 50/50. I hope he was kidding, because I am getting a bit tired of Wenger’s now clichéd answers to questions about transfers… it’s very noble to back the kids, to believe in them and to effectively reinvent the football wheel with a new vision…but lets be honest. It’s not working…
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. “
-Albert Einstein
I’m not saying he is insane, but we’ve been watching him do certain things over and over with similar results… then you hear him say he might persist with these idea’s till the end of the season?! WHAT!
I know Wenger keeps trying to sell us into this idea that buying isn’t always the solution… well, buying seems to be the only solution he hasn’t tried yet… and if he doesn’t try something new soon, we could find ourselves in real trouble.
Wenger said this last week…
“In sport you have to accept that nothing is guaranteed.
“It is only because we are in the Champions League so often that people expect it to happen every year.
“AC Milan did not qualify this year but did not die!”
What a terribly negative thing to say? If the manager of the club is okaying the prospect of missing out on 4th, what must the players be thinking? The club seem to be disappearing up their own ass lately… football is a sport, in sport, you play to win. Anything else is disappointing… and any manager saying things like the above needs a serious kick up the ass.
Values and pretty football are great… but not as important as success… and success is what the managers legacy has been built on. Without titles and cups, Arsene would be a nobody… let’s hope he remembers that this coming January.
Have a great Saturday Grovers.
P.S. Just for fun…
Diaby poses for pic's after his superb goal
P.P.S. I still have a spare ticket for Pompey going for best offer!
ave do you really think if wenger was at man united he would go on a spending spree like fergie????????????
JonJon
You sum it up well when you say that one the most frustrating things is knowing that Wenger could fix the problem so easily.
BBK .. I don’t know if Man U would suit Wenger as it is no challenge..
But Arsenal and building a stadium and training grounds on a proper buisness plan wouldn’t suit Fergie…
BBK
SAF doesn’t go on a spending spree. He spends to strenghten the squad; he knows he is going to have to pay top dollar so he doesn’t bother with the “we are short of money crap” that we have to suffer.
how do you figure that one out avenell?????
how is man u not a challege to wenger
Evening London.. Hows the Narrowboats looking in the mist with the log fires?
london he has done in the past to get him where he wants too be,and where he currently is
It’s a bit like having a Fireblade in the tour de france!! lol..
Kelsey
I agree with you when you say that Dein is Arsenal through and through and that he was the perfect foil for Wenger but the truth is he let us down by trying to orchestrate an unwelcome take over.
Avenell
That made me smile because that is exactly what I can see.
BBK
I think the point that is trying to be made is that some of us believe that Wenger is financially restricted; he has a much smaller budget to work with than SAF but if he were to have the same amount available he would achieve as much, if not more than.
london,
the trouble is that it is a mixture of the old school tie brigade and a cloak of mystery at boardroom level.no one knows the truth. if fergie was at arsenal he wouldn’t take all this shit about having 50 or 100 million and not spending it.how many of our team would get in united’s team or chelsea’s team.i know we haven’t had limitless funds but we are now nearly 4 years on and things look bleaker than ever.
i dont care if walcott,bedtner,denilson,diaby and even nasri will come good,we will fall further behind while we wait.
London i think there are 2 ways of interpereting what dein did.
The spin that hill-wood et al put on it was that dein was collaborating to instigate a takeover. I would suggest thst what he actually did was try to oust a board who have zero ambition and care only about ripping off us fans by charging the highest ticket prices in the world while under investing chronically in the squad.
People always justify opposition to a take-over by saying these guys are only in it for a profit…..well what about the current board???? They claim that all profits are put back into the team, yet we have over £100m in the bank and eboue, song, toure making fools of themselves on the pitch, and our only option on the bench yesterday when song injured himself was a guy who turned 18 that day.
we need 3 goals just to win a game now.. how fucking shite is that!!!
gambon.. If you owe £400 million and have £93 million in the bank still means you owe £307 million…
Song as we all agree is not the answer; a faster, more commanding player, someone capable of marshalling the midfield as well as linking the defence with the attack is clearly what is needed. But we haven’t got one of those and that is not Song’s fault.
Song played better against Liverpool and improved even more against Villa. I know they hit the wood work three times, they are a fast, inform team that are capable of doing that to any team in Europe.
Song made some extremely good tackles, won the ball in the air well and I am afraid I agree with “A” when he says we missed him when he went off.
The board as we know is in the process of change: we are all hopful that it is for the better. I think we will learn a lot by the end of the January transfer window.
Avenell,
We have been told over and over and over again that highbury square is ring fenced from the football club, so the £150m or so from that isnt supposed to affect the football club at all. Which means we have £250m debt, payable over 22/23 years. We turnover more than 50m more than we used to and have to pay ~17m per year, now its pretty easy to see that we have more than enough financial security.
In fact i would go so far as to say the biggest threat to our ability to pay the debt off is a lack of investment, bit of a paradox but no investment will mean falling revenues and extra investment will mean extra revenues.
What will the reaction be if the board try to put 5% on ticket prices to account for the coming inflation after we finish 5th? I would expect attendances to fall significantly (albeit gradually)
What would happen if we did what man u did last season and tried to up the prices – no-one bats an eye lid.
In football ; sound investment = success = bigger reputation = extra revenue and so on and so on.
Man utd are a perfect model of this, they have gone from a 80m club to a 240m club in 10 years and there investment has grown similarly.
AW have gone from a 60m to a 225m club but our investment has disappeared, we used to spend more in 2002/03/04
Evening Pedro, Geoff and Le Grovers!
I’ve seen Arsene Wenger’s post-match interview in the clash against Aston Villa he says he has no deals lined up for the January transfer window “at the moment”.
I can’t take anything he says at face value anymore!
He plays his cards so close to his chest who knows what will happen??!!
gambon we have number crunched this a few times on here mate and it just goes around in circles..
Take of the £250 million 23 year loan.. we are still in debt, in a credit crunch.. and that board are looking after the long term future of arsenal.
Evening Mr Wright! Did you play today mate?
Evening Mr Avenell,
Nah mate and after last night I doubt I’d have been able too! Ha Ha!
Was gutted about that result. Had a double blow because I also got 11/1 on Arsenal winning 2-1!!!!!
Did you have a good Xmas matey?
Just doing the family dutiies Wrighty.. keeps er indoors happy.. she got me a ticket for le exchange but I’m a bit reluctant to spend £350 hard earners on watching the shit we are playing at the moment.. lol.
Sorry money for a ticket in le exchange!
Anyone seen the Dacourt rumour,
About 5 years to late I think. Strange one that but it would not surprise me for Wenger to try and get a 33yr old Datsun to do the job of a 08 Plate Range Rover.
Avenell,
Always gotta keep the old lady happy mate!! LOL
I haven’t seen the Dacourt rumour Pat.
How would anyone fancy Arteta of Everton?
perhaps someone could remind wenger that there are players to be bought between the age of 15 and 33,how about some old fashioned physically strong non injury prone mid twenty something for a start.
I’d have Arteta with an Alonso and a new striker.. We need big changes at least 3 players..
Dacourt is too old. Gilberto is younger and easily better so it wouldnt make sense.
From the prem only i’d take Arteta, Parker, Krancjar or Valencia. Obviously there are more especially defenders but those are the midfielders off the top of my head. Maybe even Adam Johnson from Boro.
I think the entire defensive side of our game needs remodelling. Some of this in january and some in the summer. i’d like to see us bring in a GK, 2 centre backs, 2 defensive mids.
I dont think we need strikers but we need at least one attacking midfielder, and 2 if rosicky has to retire (which i think he will).
Overall i’d say 6 players in and 4-5 out. in terms of names thats AW’s job, but id like to see;
GK – Robert Green
CB – Brede Hangeland
CB – Cristian Zapata
DMF- Lorik Cana
DMF- Jimmy Bullard
AM – Yoann Gourcuff
Gourcuff looks to be a carbon copy of Bobby Pires, Wenger should do whatever it takes to get him after his tame attempts to sign Ribery
Whatever happened to Matthew Connolly. I always had such high hopes for him, hes big, strong in the air, reliable and best of all was a former captain at reserve level and hes english too. But alas he never made the step up, nor did he realy get a chance to. He is still only 21 so hopefully the next manager might consider him.
Gourcuff is pretty tall too. Wenger once said that taller players are best suited to the middle (zidane,Kaka) because small players can turn quicker and therefore are best on the wing. Joann would therefore only be played centrally in maybe a 4-5-1 or the point of a diamond formation.
gamdon
thats agree with on mst things but there 0% chance that ever happeing not in jan but i like amunia he has made some mistakes big ones but he has also rescued the defending countless times evon put body al the line and got concution in the process if wenger could get centre backs as good sanga that is whats needed,i dont realy care about the names as long they are top quality.most of the AM we have are good but dmf position is far to fragile song can be solid at times but he makes some huge erros,he may get better in time arsenal are top team we havetop players and song is not it not at this time anyway,wenger needs to make serious signing but there position that needs to be addressed that wingers they realy need some pace and width
i agree, my suggestions were for the start of next season, some being done in jan and some in the summer. Wenger wont sign a keeper in the middle of the season.
Stu, re Gourcuff, i think Wenger would play him wide. He could play in the middle but i dont think he scores enough to play the DB10 role. Pires was 6’1″ and he made that wide attacking role his own. Unfortunately he is on loan til the end of the season, and the way he’s going he will be in serious demand in the summer, and we all know what wenger does when theres a player in demand…..puts his tail between his legs and runs like a girl.
We should all say the following prayers:
Dear Lord,
a) Wenger to buy at least 4 ready players in window.
b) please ensure they are not crocks, cause he likes them
c) Sell Bentner, Ebue, Song, Dennilson.
d) Save our team from crashing out of the top 4, we know we will win nothing this year.
Amen
Gambon, fair enough about Pires being tall too but they are different type players. Gourcuff is at his best when in the middle where he can have a greater influence on the game. Plus Pires was pretty fast for his height and had amazingly quick feet and a great eye for goal so he could play a lot of different places.
Evening Grovers, avenell
re: Wrighty’s article and AW’s post match interview – I guess I’m just old fashioned. I can’t respect a liar any more than I can accept footballers that dive (Eboue!!).
Wenger is a liar. It’s not rocket science. If you analyse the things he has said in the last 6 months, he is condemned by his mown words. If he is not a liar, he is just plain stupid, and unless he’s had some kind of brain problem, that is not the case.
The more generous may prefer to interpret it as doing what is ‘necessary for the sake of the club’…….. I can never remember being embarrassed by the performance of my team in the way I have this season under any manager.
For me its simple. If he doesn’t buy some quality in January, I want him gone because I care about the club not the bank balance or the board.
Good evening Ras.. Hope you had a nice Christmas.
I think you have summed up the feelings of the average fan.. We want to see something done or Wenger is going to be under enormous pressure..
I would have give him another year, but we need some action just to secure 4th spot..
I would like to see the team performing better as well not just struggling to put passes together and hitting it long!!
Christmas not too bad thanks ave – hope yours went well and a Happy New Year to you.
I think we’re running out of time and if it carries on like this, we will lose what quality players we have left in the summer so I’m afraid I can’t be that generous and give him a year. In terms of my support, he’s drinking in the last chance saloon! But I’m not that stupid to think he is remotely interested in what the ‘average fan’ thinks or wishes for…
Avenell
I have followed your posts for some time so I feel I have an idea of your position over the clubs finances and how they affect our transfer activity. I was particularly impressed by one of your comments which I thought was extremely logical: “The entire business world has been affected by the credit crunch so it is hard to imagine that Highbury Square has not been affected.” I remain on the fence but I would add the following in favour of your argument.
Gambon and others regularly repeat the clubs mantra that “The property side is ring fenced” suggesting that if the property side goes belly up the football side will not be dragged down with it.
This is all well and good in the event that the property side goes belly up but what if it simply needs help? The answer is that they will go to the only place they can and that is the football side. With logic dictating that the property side has been affected and the football side has had to come to its aid; it is not surprising that when it comes to transfers we are acting like paupers instead of kings.
We need to start players who realise what it means to play for a club lke Arsenal, players who would play for the badge and the fans not for their paycheck. Sure we have youth players coming through but they are mostly foreign until recently. Wilshere, Simpson, Lansbury, Hoyte, Bartley…all english players that know how big Arsenal are. The foreign kids know arsenal are a good club but dont know the history etc. Very few of our current team give their all and play their hearts out and i’d like to see that change…along with other things.
If AW/the board are being cautious over our spending as a result of potential problems with Highbury Square – how the hell did they manage to saddle us with an enormous wage bill for a such a bunch of mediocre players (with a few noteable exceptions).
It is understandable to look for underlying motives for behaviour that is illogical, but that should not let us overlook the fact that our current squad of players are just not good enough.
The purchase of more kids, ‘injury prone gambles’ and Sylvestre during the summer was not good business. It added to the wage bill but didn’t add quality to the squad. We are a footbll club. The job of the club is to put bums on seats and secure sponsorship and advertising contracts etc. based on the performance of the team. At the moment the team is not good enough and sooner or later it will result in the club losing money.
Thanks London .. I have read you on previous blogs and I have always respected your views.
I am a bit of a fence sitter, but I have worked for myself sometimes in charge of people and knee jerk isn’t the best way forward imo..
evening guys ,heres johnny
hahaha sorry avenell i see i left you in a time of need.
maybe we should pay the players less wages, like that they will play better to be sold… Like Pennant that idiot, how can you say no to one of the most presigious football clubs in the world.. If your a footballer, dont you play for pride, and not money???
If the kids get paid so much at such a young age. I dont want to know how big headed they will be at 25, if and when they really become great footballers… What a generation of flaminis, Wenger is building. Flamini left OM to Arsenal, why? For the money, and that is a fact share by all OM supporters. Flamini also left Arsenal, why? well you know it, for the money…
Rasdef.. The 2 players we miss most this year left for more money, so paying less won’t help.
paying less no hopers might!
flamini didnt only leave arsenal for the money, we treated him like piece of shit, when milan came calling he though fuck you lot im off
Im sorry guys, but Flamini is the biggest snake out there! OM fans hate the guy because he is a traitor…… They still love Nasri, and I have to say that he seems to really like Arsenal with more passion than players of the passed
Nice idea RasDef – of course we can’t cut their wages because they have contracts, but we might as well sell some of the more useless ones if we can find buyers.
One player I wouldn’t sell is Vela. I can’t imagine what he makes of his lack of opportunities this season. He has waited 3 years to join the squad and played well whenever he has had a chance, but he sits on the bench for game after game watching inferior players fail.
It’s like playing cards.. Your beat hand of 16 year olds. may not turn into a winning hand of 22 years olds.. sometimes you have to twist..
Like that one JJ… lol….
Best not beat … marigolds tut..
we should of offered flamini a new contract when he proved himself at lB in the CL run,
instead he was dropped for an unfit cashley in the final and was left to rot on the bench.
he was then offered to birmingham but turned it down and was given the chance to prove himself again when gilberto was away and diaby was injured, and yet again he didnt dissapoint, we cant blame him for leaving,
hleb on the other hand was a cunt and had no excuse other than being a cunt
like it avenell but for fuck sake take then marigolds off
then*
ive got some pink ones on lol
for fuck sake
them*
Spot on about Flamini and Hleb JonJon.
early on this afternoon i said that we need to change the whole team, and that i would keep Sagna, Clichy, Cesc and Nasri, the rest can go cause their egos are to big for even wenger to handle..
Rasputin- you might want to keep Vela, sure, i would keep all the kids but not as starting players, remember this is the highest level..
If you look at the squad liverpool built, they got a team with consistency (which is needed to win the premiership.
They also have what we got, a team that can rise to the occasson and win big matches (which is good for the CL)…
To be continued…
Have a nice evening people, til 2morow…
RasDef – it depends whether you want to dream in the world of fantasy or try to achive the best result from what is realistically possible.
If you go for the latter, we should be able to buy 2 £15m+ players to shore up the midfield and defence. I agree that players like Vela are for the future and ideally would not start games at this stage, but when you look at the pile of poop we are putting out at the moment, they should certainly be considered.
I wouldn’t be unhappy to see Coquelin sitting in front of the back four and a midfield four consisting of Nasri/Merida, Ramsey, Denilson and Eboue/Vela – I can’t imagine it could be any worse than what we have witnessed lately.
Rasputin
An extremely good post, I agree with every thing minus the idea that Wenger and the board are of the same mind. Wenger strikes me as a very determined but unhappy man. When Kreonke flew in two weeks ago for meetings with the board as well as the inevitable meeting with Wenger the result being that he flew home with these words of Wenger’s ringing in his ears “I can’t keep doing this on a fucking shoe string.”
Thanks London – are you being prophetic, ironic or optimistic in that interpretation of the meeting?
Good point about Coquelin. If Wilshire can get a chance why not him. We need defensive midfielders more than we need creative midfielders.
Rasputin
I think my post falls into the category of clutching at red and white straws.
I think the annoying thing for me is the total lack of honesty and transparency that comes out of the club. Everything is spin spin spin from the board and manager.
With UTD you know where their 100m wage bill goes. Ronaldo ~150k pw, Rooney 120k pw, Ferdinand 120k pw and even wes brown on 60k pw. yet we have the same wage bill but we’re led to believe no-one is on more than 80k. Is it that strange to think we’re paying song, merida, ramsey 40k pw…….id say not.
If our wage bill was 80m pa we’d have 20m pa to spend on transfers.
Arsene Wenger + 20m net spend per season = league champs every year.
AWs biggest strength is his ability in the transfer market, so in effect hes not using his greatest strength enough. Its like if Torres turned around and said “boss, ive decided im gonna stop shooting, im killing all the young players by taking opportunities myself” – how long would it be before he was shipped out= not very.
Anyone have an idea of what the line up will be for portsmouth? crouch always seems to play well against our short CB’s. When does Eduardo start making some sub appearances?
Alex
Plymouth would be my guess when we see Eduardo.
gambon – I’m not sure that it isn’t a myth that Wenger’s greatest strength is in the transfer market. He certainly teamed up well with David Dein and made some fantastic signings, but without Dein (and perhaps without money!) he hasn’t been all that great since IMO
You can’t show your hand..
If we said had £50 mill for transfers all the fee’s would go up and we wouldn’t buy..
If we said we had £5 million we are not ambitous..
Some things we shouldn’t know really it’s none of our buisness..
He used to be very good. Sagna and Eduardo show that quite a lot of the magic is still there.
Avenell
I couldn’t agree more. You should never show your hand.
he should never show his hand, but he should twist instead of sticking when its his turn
I definitely agree about Sagna, he ranks as a typical WA purchase. No-one knew much about him and he was a real bargain (surprisingly french too!) I’m quite surprised that we haven’t received a £10m+ offer for him form a ‘big club’ outside the prem by now
One night of playing cards and I’ve turned into Swiss Tony from the fast show.. lol..
Selling cars is like making love to a beautful woman ha ha ….
Ras … apart from he was in the French League team of the year… He wasn’t top secret …
Damn we just need two players. FFS, how many times can I say we need a new DM and a new CB it’s so boringly obvious. 15mil a piece and we are flying. AAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Anenell i agree he cant start saying how much money he has….
However….he shouldnt have said;
“after making £30 million last year, we’re in a strong financial position. We’ll try to make the same amount again”
a couple of weeks ago, really shows the priorities doesnt it.
And he definately shouldnt have said this at the shareholders meeting in may;
“I know what I want and I am very confident,” he said of making changes. “I hope to turn that around in the next two or three weeks. But the fans should be re-assured by what they see.”
Was that supposed to be Ramsay, Nasrti or Bischoff we were pleased with.
T?he problem is nothing that is communicated to the fans is ever honest, it all serves a purpose as propaganda.
You’re such a smartarse ave
Anyway, let’s not mention Wright, Jeffers, Cygan, Stepanovs, Song etc
It may surprise you to hear that I was actually a fan of the Grimster. You could always rely on him to get away with giving the opposition’s striker a deadleg in a crunching tackle early on in the game before the cards were handed out..
london, id throw a wide man in there too mate
do you have a green viser avenell, and have you got a mean poker face????
I liked Grimaldi because he headbutted that Man U player .. memory is a bit gone help!!!
gambon.. I think Wenger will stop the spin when the fans feelings sink in.. and the Arsene knows flag gets left at home..
Evening grovers
I was horrified to read what Arsene said about it not being a problem for great teams to play in the Uefa Cup this season – he sounded like he didn’t think it was a problem for AC Milan and Bayern Munich to not have qualified for the CL.
Does he believe it would be ok for us not to qualify?????
Someone should sneak a questionmark on the end of that sign so when Wenger sees it it reads “arsene knows?” Not ideal but its something.
Good Evening Peaches….. How are you?? !!!!!
Hey Peaches – at last some yin on the blog…where have all the girliegooners gone over Xmas?
Hi ave
Does the Arsene knows flag still get rolled out?
Too much washing-up and no men to help
Was against the scousers..
Hello peaches.
did you have a good xmas??
jj
The problem of potentially finishing 5th for us is that there is a massive possibility that we will continue to get worse and not rectify the problems. Whereas when Milan and Bayern finished in the Uefa cup spot their boards sanctioned massive transfers.
Milan were pretty busy and Bayern bought Toni, Ribery and Klose. Cant imaine likewise happening here.
peaches
avenells good at washing up
Ave
I’m good thanks, how was your xmas – did your girlie love her pressie
LMAO
he got some marigolds for xmas peaches.
Peaches – don’t you think AW was just preparing us for his defence of our soon-to-be disappointing season by ‘bigging up’ the UEFA cup. How could we possibly be satisfied with playing in the same second rate tournament as the spuds?
Enough with the washing-up, serves me right for being a girl.
Rasp
QOS was on a lot yesterday, really fired up about the game – I was too sad.
How can the team moan when opposition teams park the bus and then give away a 2 goal lead whan playing appallingly
Hi peaches, this is nita (avenell’s other half) the watch is fab and I love it. Thank U x
our next ten fixtures:
pompey at home
bolton at home
hull city away
everton away
west ham home
spuds away
sunderland home
fulham home
west brom away
rovers home….
we really need to start picking up points now
Yep Rasputin I do think you’ve seen through his canny plan.
What I can’t believe is that if he could have done something about this shortage of experienced players, why didn’t he?
No money you see, I keep saying it. I hope I’m wrong
Wow, other halves too.
Hi Nita, it was all his idea, great bloke!! Hope you had a nice xmas
ave – I can’t remember who at manu Grimandi headbutted, but he headbutted quite a few bless him. It is quite a good subject to cheer us up though – our favourite fouls perpetrated against hated players. You can’t count Bobbie’s tackle on Vieira though because Pat secretly let him have the ball because he’s a gooner at heart just like TH.
Hi JonJon, sorry I missed you out, did you have a good xmas?
What did i miss? Avenell – marigolds
No rasp, you know thats not true, we were there we saw it. Paddy didn’t believe Bobby would go for the ball but he did – how we cheered
Peaches . nita dropped me in it.. JJ thinks I’m like Mr muscle
talking to myself again.
Whats the temp on the hertfordshire hillside rasp
Peaches – there’s nothing canny about his plan, it’s transparent like most of the waffle he comes out with these days. He’s bigging up Tony Adams ahead of tomorrow’s game at the moment – I wonder who he is trying to ingratiate himself to there?
Wouldn’t it be great if he said “I’m not interested in the qualities of the other manager, I will be sending my team out to kick some serious ass” – but then there’d be Song and the other misfits taking tp the pitch so I suppose that wouldn’t be such a good idea…..
yes stu
your right , when bayern is out of the C.L they buy ribery from under our noses and we cant afford him and we are in the C.L !
that says a lot really … and thats the difference !
we are very lucky that there are 4 spots in the EPL for C.L , when you think about it , the way we are playing and villa are the next top dogs , we dont deserve 4 spots anyhow , if teams like bayern are unable to qualify ..
Peaches – its brass monkeys and taters up ‘ere, how’s it down in the smoke?
Ras… Song is doubtful yipee
I expect you are like Mr Muscle.
The weather was fab in london yesterday, did you go on the beach avenell
yes thanks peaches same old same old.
I was at the game too…..but I can’t hear a word said against my beloved Paddy – he was so great that if we had him back now as he was at his peak we wouldn’t need 3 different kinds of midfielder, he’d do the lot without breaking sweat.
peaches …. first bit..
bad girl.. ha ha
Walked on the beach yesterday, fooking surfers surfing.. blue feet…
Rasp
He looked rattled enough yesterday to have a go at o’neill – can’t see him picking a fight with TA though, headbuttings not his style!!!
My heatings been on all day, the little peaches arn’t as hardy as me
ethan… isn’t it the first three places for cl next season or am i missing something?
I don’t know what he was having a go at O’Neil about, but if he was contesting the penalty, he was wrong…..most referees would have given it. I don’t lke to see him squabbling with other managers – it’s a sign of weakness and loss of control as far as I’m concerned. I wish he’d shout at his players so forcefully sometimes….
choy .. first 2 place automatic 3rd and 4th you have a mickey mouse qualifier..
Till next year..
Ras… the AV no 2 went to see the ref at half time the penalty was the icing on the cake..
oki thanks avenell..
yes rasp.. wenger refuses to blame himself or his own team… that is his main problem.. the fault always lies with someone else.
I get so sad when sky sports show snippets of old arsenal games, TH scoring fabulous goals being hugged by Bobby and Freddie and Paddy. My son is addicted to watching them and I always seem to walk in the room when its an arsenal bit.
Boo hoo, what are we gonna look back on this season???
what if we dont beat portsmouth???
OMG. not worth thinking about.
nikkis pink boots peaches. thats our highlight
I know about the No.2 thing but surely he should have complained to th FA about that. Fact is, he looks a tired and worried man and that kind of ‘energy’ will transmit to his players. Did he have a vascetomy after the birth of his daughter or something because I haven’t seen much evidence of his cojones lately. Taking off Eboue with a few minutes to go and then being surprised that he got booed was a bizarre decision.
Avenell – I’m sure the link you posted about the CL changes was for 2009. Top 3 get automatic and the fourth play a game.
Rasp – he had to take off eboue, eboue was a walking disaster.
Pompey are on such bad form that it wouldnt suprise me if they played out of their skin and got a result. The future isnt looking bright at all, its more like a dark room with no windows and the lights have been ripped from the ceilling.
I know that, but Wenger chose too play him out of position, he brought him on as a sub, allowed him to fail dismally and then brought him off just before the end which allowed the fans to target the booing at him. If he was that worried about performance, he should never have played him out of position in the first place when he had better options on the bench. It was AW’s fault that he got booed. Anyway that’s an old subject and I’m trying to stay calm ahead of tomorrow’s game
Your right peaches 4th get’s you in, but with a difficult qualifier..
We must be able to put 6 passed pompey surely! Is ade back for tmoro?
He shouldnt have put Eboue on in the first place. It in itself was a bad decision to make such a negative substitution so early in the match. But taking him off in the 89th minute when the crowd were at their worst was even worse. He should have left him on but told him to keep it simple or told the others to stay away from him.
yes ades back and songs out,
whhooo hooo
Pompey wil probably score a wonder goal out of the blue against us and David James will have the game of his life………..
Here’s a question – how many goals have we scored from outside the box this season. It’s depressing that 3 of the 10 goals of 2008 on Sky were scored against us but not one by us….
This team reminds me of that move “The Replacements” where the team gets paid shitloads to cough up absolute slop at games and have no interest of winning, although i dont think a bunch of replacements would be the solution…… Or would it?
Ade is back but i’ld rather have others back instead…. like JD, Clichy, Eduardo(sub) or Rosicky (however unrealistic)
Playing eboue out of position is not the worst thing AW has done this season – it wasn’t eboues fault that he was played out of position but as a proffessional footballer he should have the skills required to play out of position if required. The booing was out of order, especially directed at him, the crowd were equally upset at the dire skills on show from the rest of the team. IMHO
Rasp – tmoro we score lots of goals and they don’t score any. My prediction
Rasputin, what were the ones against us? Geovanni, Bentley and ……..Landzaat?
choy
yes still 4 spots next season , but if your 5th on the table that means very little .
with no guarantee of reinforcements either , wenger ignores some basic facts when spurting his mouth off , bayern spent a lot to ensure next season they are back in he running for C.L !
bet you wont see wenger over spend like they did !
we have a right to be concerned !
it wont be long before you hear they are another year older and wiser !
next year they should have what it takes !
Rasp – I thought you were going for optimism and happy thoughts. Have a glass of wine and chill
That would be great Peaches – and then AW could say “there, I told you so, we don’t need to buy any players in January, we have sufficient quality”
I’m gonna blame you if that happens
peaches… it isn’t eboue’s fault… you can’t play a rb at rw.. at dm and then stick him onto a left wing… how will adebayor play at centre back?!
The only predictable thing about aresnal these days is inconsistence and that we will concede.
Rob thats an interesting idea, fits in with the conspiracy theory but whats the up-side if AW really thinks they are crap? They’re costing us a lot of money.
No matter where you play in a team .. it’s always best to pass the ball to someone who has the same colour shirt on as you have… A skill Eboue lacks….
HAHAHA just say on Soccer AM what Bendtner said about the pink boots. Van Persie was brilliant there. Anyone see it?
eboue and song
saw it stu
rvp took the piss out of him
well funny
Peaches,
We get another coach who will get us to 4th place in July with replacement players, then we basically qualify for CL then after that we have the current crop back….. I dont kno how that will work but meh it would be interesting
Choy – I agree, lets not give arsene any more good ideas
The fact is that on the bench, on that day, Arsene did have players available to use at LW and that was perceived by the crowd. I was at the game and the moaning that was going on around me was constant. The team were set up badly to begin with – thats arsenes fault. When eboue came on he was making mistakes that a first team squad player shouldn’t make.
Van is right too. Why embarrass yourself in pink unless your getting paid for it.