No is the simplest answer, not a thing, apart from the shots on our goal it was like watching a replay, and when will he learn to make changes earlier.
I don’t really know where to start with this report… it’s only half time… you can’t write a team off at half time can you? Especially when the second half is 90minutes long and at home!
Tonight was woeful, my brother summed it up quite nicely.
‘That could have been a helluva lot worse’
Wise words, from the wisest of 21 year olds…
If you were to ask me to express my feelings about tonight’s score using a picture… I’d use this one…
Not Guilty
The Mancs missed two open goals from 4 yards, hit the bar from 25 yards out and mostly dominated possession. Arsenal were lost, we lacked fluidity in our passing, leadership in our back line and any sort of creativity.
Some will point to the 4-5-1 being the root cause of the problem… but I’d point to our Russian maestro being out. He gives us so much as a player, it’s not just his creative genius though, it’s the work rate… he will keep persevering regardless of the situation… tonight’s squad don’t always have that same drive and desire to make things happen.
Arsenal’s big names didn’t show up, our experienced players failed and some of our fringe players showed the coach why they are fringe players.
So, what do I think about next Tuesdays game? Well, I believe Arsenal can turn this around… I believe we can keep a clean sheet and I believe we have the talent to unlock ManU. I think we could be in for a magical night at the Emirates…
However, certain players need to ask themselves an important question: How much do I want it?
On tonight’s evidence… not very much.
Player Ratings:
Almunia: Man of the match tonight. He managed to keep out three dead cert goals with some top drawer saves. There was nothing he could do about the goal. 9
Gibbs: If Almunia said he wouldn’t be able to take my MoM award due to personal reasons… I’d give it to Gibbs. Security stopped him on his way out of the ground pointing to suspiciously large pocket with unusually large object in it… it was ok though… it was Wayne Rooney. 18 year old Gibbs kept the beastliest man in England quiet all night, which for me is an extremely powerful achievement. 8.5
Kolo: Carry on Kolo… starring Fish Face… What a nightmare those two have become, they’re defending is laughable at times. I can’t understand how Kolo can look so solid next to Gallas, yet so poor with Silvestre… it’s not a good sign is it? 5
Silvestre: Slightly better than his leading man, but still very dodgy. Taking ManU’s fall guy on as back up was a poor idea… most didn’t even need the benefit of hind sight to establish that. 5.5
Sagna: Not the worst performance of the evening, but not great either. He hasn’t replicated last seasons form by a long way, but I’ll take him over Eboue any day of the week. 6.5
Theo: One second… just checking back… oh right, he did definitely play! A quiet performance from young Theo… maybe he had something on his mind? Maybe young Mexican Carlos Vela sneezed without covering his mouth on the team bus? Theo looks like a worrier, doesn’t he? Jokes aside… what a luke warm, blind alley runining, poor passing performance. 5
Cesc: A pretty quiet performance from Cesc. He is a captain who leads by example… not through man motivation skills… so when things aren’t going well, if his feet can’t do the talking… his mouth can’t. Playing in the hole again… it really doesn’t work does it? His lack of pace is so apparent that far up the field, especially against great teams. 6
Nasri: Played centrally this evening, and was a bright spark in our play… maybe a bright spark is a little too generous, he was more like the light on an old skool casio watch. Nasri looks good in the middle when he has Arshavin out wide… sadly, Arshavin can’t play against united. 7
Diaby: Firstly, someone needs to have a word with Diaby about that beard… truly awful. Not as awful as his overall play yesterday. Diaby is slow to distribute the ball, he tries to over ellaborate even the most basic situations and he is infuriatingly sloppy with his passes. A terrible performance, not helped by the fact that he has never been any good being played out wide. Round peg… square hole. 4
Song: Our best midfielder by a long way tonight… I don’t like saying that, not because I don’t like Song… but it says a lot about the team performance when your stand out midfielder is the holding midfielder in a 5 man set up. He really was good tonight… I particularly like a turn he made in the second half. 8
Adebayor: I think I preferred him when he had a point to prove? A real nothing performance from him tonight… refusal to chase down lost causes, inability to get on the end of anything… running offside… a big night for the anti-Ade brigade… and based on tonight, how can I defend him? 4
Subs:
Nik B: Brought on to replace the invisible winger… which was an odd decision. Nik is cumbersome and lacks pace… why he was going to trouble United from out wide on the right was beyond me? He managed to misplace 50 % of his passes, smash a header wide and contribute zero shots to our unimpressive tally. Surely Rambo or Vela (He has two feet before you start) would do more damage coming on for Theo? 5
Eduardo: I would have had him on earlier… It was nice to see him… nice to know he’s alive. 6
Conclusion:
A pretty typical first leg semi final. Arsene will be hoping he can gee his young team up for the return leg. I really feel this year could be our year… lets make sure if we go out out, we go out all guns blazing in a 4-4-2! Let’s pray the Boy Wonder comes back!
Have a good day Grovers, and don’t forget to e-mail me your ManU pics if you have any!
It was a decent chance…but not as good as the pink boots free header…Van Der Sar was already falling to the ground….
I feel your frustration…It is up to our Manager to play these players…the shocking thing is that he doesnt make changes when clearly it isnt working…i dont know what that is about…but seems to me he and the board are just happy with Champions League appearances.
Little Nicky
may have taken his chance. If he has cracked Ferdinands ribs, he won’t play next leg 
& if he does Rio may as well paint a target on his torso. If Wenger lets them off the leash, I reckon he has saved RVP for an all out effort @ home, there will be a fair bit of panic @ theback for manure. They will want to get an early away goal to settle the nerves, but in doing so leave themselves open @ the back. It aint over yet, not by a long shot.
My opinions on players will be left post season, coz there is still a lot to play for, but in saying that I will not be accused of being an Ade lover.
im not an ade hater either !
he is a weak link in the team ! (and a few others)
and in my eyes has been for a long time ..
you have to take into account the way wenger has played his football over the past 11 years here @ arsenal .
and ade doesn’t suit our style .
maybe he would suit a bolton or wigan .. a crowded box , and crosses .. but Arsenal play a passing game and our beautiful game suffers every time he is in the squad as the whole team have to change tactics to suit his end product ..which has been sadly lacking this season .
If ade played better , learned to stay on side hence getting more opportunities on goal he could be a good player 4 us..
sadly he isnt up to par , and has never looked like being a round peg in a round hole at Arsenal .
Diaby needs to go also , and although song is fairing better in the DM role we really need experience in that position . that would allow cesc to play his natural game ( a stephen gerrard style role )
nasri in the center with cesc is a great idea and worked well V’s boro ..
id like to see theo – cesc-nasri and AA
in the 4-4-2
RVP and dudu up front .
and our regular back 4 ..
that would be my favored team ..
and a team that has creativity and quality ..
you take out the quality of TH14 around goal and the creativity of bergkamp and you have your answer to why we have suffered the past few years , its as apparent as ade and diaby sucks …
until wenger identifies that these qualities are missing in our current team setup nothing is going to change fast …
gynarley i dont think I agree.
I have this omnious feeling that United will sit back and counterattack like they love to do. They have the 1 goal lead…and i dont think it will make sense for them to attack the way they did at OT. They will be looking to counter attack and protect their 1-0 lead. Which is why we need a goal. ASAP.
Cant say that I agree with you on Ade being the weak link there Ethan,
He is inconsistent. But so is this Arsenal Team. 30 goals…plus the important goal against pool in the CL quarters last season…Lets wait till Tuesday. Hopefully Le-Prof plays 4-4-2
It’s not that he’s inconsistent David, he just doesn’t give a shit, trouble is we’ve run out of forwards, Bendtner has gone from potential, to shocking, Eduardo and Robin are injured, we have no reserves that have reached puberty, it’s depressing!
the problem is we as fans jump to conclusions too fast..thats why we a re not managers..start of the season we were saying denilson keeps fabregas from playing further up the field where he’s most effective..now we’re saying that he should play deeper..im not saying that le prof can do no wrong but his decision are all made with arsenal’s best interests at heart..we lost on wednesday because of a crappy defence and lack of fit strikers..besides diaby
geoff do you get up this early everyday..?
Every day mate and write the post, now I’m off to play golf as it’s sunny!
mayyank
the problem is we as fans jump to conclusions too fast..thats why we a re not managers..
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so how much longer do you wish to wait ?
another 4 years ?
by that stage youll be lucky if a 50 year old robbie fowler will join us by that stage .
The real tragedy is that we have a good chance of wiining the CL lottery, and all will be forgiven.
But Arsene will still have made a lot of crappy decisions and not have learnt anything from it.
Deja vu repeated ad nauseum!
Geoff – You lucky toe rag! I had Monday off…..pissed down all day! In Work Tuesday and Wednesday……sunny! Off yesterday…….overcast and cold all day! In work now……fucking sunny! The forecast for the weekend……sunny skies! Guess what I’ll be doing over the weekend! Yup, fucking working!
Donde esta el nuevo blog?
hehehe
I am pissed off that we fell way short on Wednesday night when we should have done shown more steel, especially in the 1st half.
Then I cheer myself up by accepting Man Ure are the best team in the world.
Gee that was a difficult call to make.
New post!
Ingladis
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