All season, and in fact since the Invincibles, Wenger has been telling us he has belief in his young squad, tonight we will see if he was right, I believe we should have signed 2 more players plus Arshavin in the summer, does that mean we can’t win this thing? Does it hell! The players that have come in and stepped up have finally come of age, tactics lost the FA cup, I think he has learned from that, tactics and caution equals bollocks, tonight we should show them no respect, tonight they are at home and should show us respect.
I think the Gibbs injury is a smoke screen, the big question for me is who will partner Kolo at the back, some would say Silvestre because he’s going back to the theatre of day dreams, me , I would shove Djourou in there, he is one of Wengers kids and he won’t let us down.
Midfield is the area we need to dominate and that should be an attacking one with some steel in there, for this reason I would play Theo out wide with Cesc and Diaby in the middle, Nasri out wide and Song in the hole between them and the defence, Ade alone up top where Diaby can drop in the hole and play as a second striker, why him? Because I think we need some big boys against Ferdinand and Vidic, that would then pave the way for Eduardo and Bentner to come out in the second half and go 4-4-2 when they get tired.
My team yesterday was to start with Eduardo and Benndtner and use Ade as an impact sub, but he likes playing the Mancs and maybe 4-5-1 will contain their initial onslaught, if in fact there is one, if we keep the ball for the first 20 minutes they will start to leave gaps and then we can hurt them, but we must play like we know we are better than them and not like the preverbial rabbit in front of their horrible headlights.
Go at them like we did when we played Madrid, Milan and Juventus away and we will put them on the back foot, tell Diaby to release the ball or shoot and we take away his problem, tell Song to shut everything down and we will stop them playing, do all that and we’ll win, and win well.
No history today Grovers, this is the biggest match of our season and tonight we will write our own history, tonight we show the world that Arsene Wenger’s red and white experiment is working.
This game reminds me of 1989 when we were given two chances to beat Liverpool, slim and none, we beat the reigning champions Milan last year, we can top that and beat the reigning champions this year, destiny awaits and it’s ours to lose, we always said to be the best, we need to beat the best, tonight we have that chance, take it Arsenal and we can go on and win this thing and remember ‘Concordia something Crescit’ beat the living shit out of the Mancs.
Go forth and multiply, go and win us the European cup, you are the Arsenal and we love you, we do!
Have a great night Grovers, I have a feeling this is one we will remember our whole lives, tonight we come of age, tonight we go into the lions den and tonight we will re-write the history books.
2 nil the Arsenal, yes I mean it, 2 nil!
nishanth probably that he picked the wrong team!
We are in need of a summer clearout, the plan has not worked!
Aplayer of high standard should be brought every year, we have had 5 years of selling world class talent every year!
Thats the spirit Geoff. Le Grove could call a truce with the other blogs & rally the troops. Give those travelling manure fools a welcome they will never forget
The bit that really wound me up was them manc bastards
singing “same old arsenal always cheating”
pot,kettle,black come to mind!!
Morning All
Still trying to recover from the downer that was Le Grove last night.
Sure we didn’t play Wengerball, but it is only half-time. So many of the players will reflect upon their performances and come back stronger.
Believe ….
I think the crowd were more entertaining than the team last night.
I wish we could smoosh Clichy and Gibbs together into one player called Clibbs, who could defend like clichy and attack like gibbs
I thought Gibbs was the only player to show bollocks last night, everyone else was afraid of the box, it was like a team of Hlebs.
Gunner8 i don’t there is a need for major change.Removing adebayor and diaby will solve half the problem.For all bendtner haters out there.I don’t think he is an awesome talent.At times it is incredibly frustrating to watch him.But atleast he tries.He gets played in right wing yesterday.He still tried something.He was useless but then he did not stand there and laugh like a clown.Ramsey,vela wilshere etc are excellent players who can do a better job than these player and who can do a better job and wenger still gives eboue,diaby etc more chances.There is this feeling that players think they can get away with bad games time and time again.
summer clearouts..?we lost 1-0 at OT..against a team that didn’t want to attack after the first goal..against a team that is brimming with confidence after that 5-2..i dont think its time to throw in the towel as of yet..
Agreed Nishanth, I have been preaching that script for a while
Gnarley, we don’t have a problem with other blogs, they have a problem with us!
i just hope we play 4-4-2 at emirates with bentdner and edu..ade doesn’t desreve the first team if he can’t get himself up for the biggest game of the season..
Wenger has his set of ‘favourites’ and he keeps playing them.On what basis did diaby play the whole match yesterday.Wenger needs an assistant with balls
We can still go through.Fabregas,nasri,theo,eduardo,RVP are very much capable of producing the goods.With the right team seletion it is very much possible.An early goal can rattle them.
@G8 Clibbs is cool ..lol
i don’t get it isn’t this the team everyone wanted..bar silvestre..i think there was nothing worng with the team..players had an off day..and man u were happy to sit back after the goal..we were short of ideas..and also we didn’t want to concede the 2nd which would kill the tie..
No Mayank we wanted 4-4-2
Mayank the team selection was right.The system used was terrible.Just cos nasri could play in CM he made cesc and diaby play out of position.And even when they were dominating us he didn’t bother changing the system.Ade played 81mins and diaby played the whole game.No excuse for that.I hope he gets it right in the second leg.At least he knows we have to score and put a proper attacking lineup
Ask Abdewhore to get lost and take diaby with him.
NikkiB has the balls to work,may be the talent too but he lacks confidence.If he was given as many chances or as many minutes on the field as Diaby or the Whore are given he will develop.
At least he wil try to i reckon
Agree Goon.Also the crowd getting on his back for every single mistake also won’t really help him
I agree Goon, he can start this weekend!
Mayank erm i am basing that on the whole season!
If Wenger wants to play kids, but won’t play the Vela’s Coquelin’s, Ramsey’s etc. but persists with the Eboue’s, Diaby’s and Adebayor’s… …i don’t get it, give some of the youngster’s half the chances of these no-hopers and you never know they might do a Song!
The most important thing for us is that we sign some experience, watching Arshavin shows what a difference a player of that skill brings… …United are successfull because they blood their talent next to Lions.
Foster learns from EVDS
The Da Silva’s from Neville
Evans from Ferdingnand and Vidic
Anderson from Scholes (who learnt from Keane)
Nani and Tosic from Ronaldo and Giggs
Wellbeck and Macheda from Rooney, Berbatov and Tevez
In our squad with the exception of Fabregas
Fabianski from Almunia
Gibbs from Clichy (a kid himself)
Walcott was supposed to learn from Henry
Song from Denilson
Nasri from Cesc
Bendtner from Adebayor??? On how to be offside
This is where the problem lies
With the arrival of Arshavin, Nasri can learn as can Vela… …we need more of this quality!
Seriously how
Djourou and Senderos could have learnt from Campbell
Song from Viera
Denilson from Gilberto
Nasri and Walcott from Pires
but Wenger sells this experience because they are over 30, then he buys Silvestre the spy???
That is why we need to get some major talent in
we wanted 4-4-2 but who’d be the second striker..bendtner?..edu back from injury straight into the cl semi..the system wasn’t that bad but wenger should have seen its not working and changed it..players switching around like the arsenal of old would have given their midfield a headache..advantage man u, but we’re not out of it yet!
sorry for the rant
im not gonna rant about last night cos i think we did ok for a team with injuries, less quality and offensive fire power.
my only complain is that as a team we weren’t set up to score a goal. we had good possession at times but no player was willing to run behind the manu defence.
how about player initiative? walcott was scared of taking on their full back evra why didnt he switch him to the left to take on john o’shea.
walcott for bendtner is one of the worse subs u wld ever see it wasnt like we were trying to defend a lead.
the simple truth is that if we fail is cos we have been sticking square pegs in round holes.
wenger doesnt do tactics
I really think AW will ship Diaby out this summer.
Ade only if they’re takers for the asking price.
But this should be the end of the road for Diaby.
gunner8 you are right i’ve said it on many blogs myself that letting guys with red blood go was a mistake..henry learnt what it means to play for arsenal from tony adams..it very important to have someone to look up to..and not just in football in any profession..
united would be biting themselves for not killing the tie. 2 or more goals and we would be out fo sheezy
G8 cant agree more..spot on mate
Yesterdays game was the type where we expect song to be miserable.But to his credit he held his own against the likes of ronaldo and rooney.Gibbs too can hold his head high.He did everthing he could have.Maldini at his peak would have struggled yesterday with diaby ahead of him(i knw i am exaggerating but i am that pissed with diaby)
It wasn’t the quality or rather lack of it that bothered me yesterday.The lack of desire and passion was there for everyone to see
but if there are any positives from the match i think gael is going to find it very hard to come back in the team..the way gibbs controlled ronaldo and rooney was phenomenal..and im not taking his age into consideration..now if we could find a striker plaaying with that much heart and talent..
Tactically inept I’m afraid.
a striker is having a mare who do we have on the bench as subs? bendtner and eduardo. that didnt fill me with too much optimism. both wouldnt have fancied themselves against the united CBs.
our standards have seriously dropped. hyping players internally isnt the answer. united have more than 5 players in the calibre of arshavin. we only have 1 IMO the ineligible man himself
Spot on mayank
unfortunately Franchise.
2 but he can’t do it all
Well last night showed how 4-5 FUCKING -1 doesnt work for us. Ade had nothing to go on, didnt work hard enough and his touch was shocking at times. Diaby – Well i officially hate him right now. Not progresed in the slightest in 3 years.
I think the tactics were all off. Man utd’s line of midfield and defence was just too good, made us look an embarrasment.
nishant i agree re passion but it wouldnt have prevented the loss. the movement of united’s front 3 was awesome. toure and silvestre kept giving their forward tevez space to get balls in front of the 18yard and he was very pivotal to their counter attacks whilst vidic n ferdinand closed on Ade like glue.
we really need new CBs we give teams to much room to play
But what will happen is we’ll sell Ade, promote Bendtner and bring in Simpson to take over Bendtners old position and maybe promote Jay Thomas from the reserves and bring back Senderos. No signings.
So much to look forward to. Oh and new post.
Our strike options have always been the problem .
ever since TH14 left .. AA has gone some way to healing that wound , but we need a david villa or torres style character to play along side either dudu or RVP .. Both are still injury prone and what the Hell is RVP out for now ?
will he ever have an uninterrupted season ?
can dudu shake this long term injury ?
will nik and vela step up ?
one question ive known for a LONNNNNG time is ade wont get any better !
everyone was crowing on about defense , and i think we had the personnel all along , they just needed to work together .
i think we should sell RVP – ADE get some cash for there assess whilst we can …
Ethan read my comment above, I rest my case.
To be fair based on the flat performance yesterday, Ade was not the only one that needed substituting in fact everyone in front of our defence except Song may have been substituted. I must admit they played well and we couldn’t leave with teh movement of their playeers not just their front 3 but their midfield 3 too!
I firmly believe we can score 3 next week (but I fear we might concede 2). We would definitely get a different arsenal next week. As fans we should believe we still can get through I certainly do.
Come on the arsenal!!!
leave = live
Hi guys, just logged on – You all that eduardo is out for pompey saturday? Along with Silvestre…