The Emirates Cup began in earnest when Celtic kicked off against Lyon. The Scot’s being sponsored by Tennent’s is a synergistic dream for a club with a fanbase that is 72% borderline alcoholic. Perhaps United could pick up a sponsorship deal with Ocean Finance and Chelsea with femme fresh?
I can’t really be bothered to give you the Celtic run down. Bastos scored a screamer of a freekick and Celtic managed to level things late on. Both teams looked very poor to me.
The main course served us up a very exciting line up. Sky had us down for a 4-4-2 with Chamakh up top with Arsh. We knew that wouldn’t happen… Frimpong was playing a make or break game for this season and I felt it was a great opportunity for Kozzer to show us his worth.
Well, it didn’t take long for our Frenchman to make an impact. He was straight in with an early tackle. In fact, he was everywhere and looked strong in the air.
Chamakh was linking in like he’d been with us forever, Frimpong looked at home in the middle bullying the Milan old boys at times! He reminded me of a young Seedorf in the middle of the park. Very promising.
Flamini was in a menacing mood, he jumped on a deflection and managed to hit the bar! Gulp… Frimpong showed his youth with his day dreaming.
Our old boy was at it again when Frimpong allowed him to ghost into the danger zone. If he’s available for 4mill, I’d have him. As for booing him, well, people should look into why he left before doing that. He should have been given a new and improved deal after he impressed at left back in the Champions League… instead he was shown the middle finger and asked if he’d like to play for Birmingham. Think before you boo people…
Wilshere was quiet, his style reminds me of Hleb. Intricate interplay between team mates keeping the ball moving at pace. I’m hoping he’s a little more direct than the shot shy Belarussian.
Our opening came from a super run by Arshavin, he powered through the middle showing great strength, that was matched with a super finish from Chamakh who showed good run timing and great composure.
Fabianski was off his line quick to deny Pato a one on one opportunity. If Fabianski gets the chance to be number one this year, I’m hoping he’ll feel less pressure than last season. I’d still like a proper keeper in who he can learn from. His kicking was terrible this afternoon.
Chamakh and Arshavin interacted cleverly with a super Moroccan style drag back! It nearly ended in a goal but a smart save denied us.
Vela looked sharp when he came on, he broke free of his marker and just shot wide. I’m expecting a big year from our new number 11.
Pato nodded in late on with a header. Yep, the set piece monster had reared its ugly head again and that was a timely reminder of our problems last season. I think Vermaelen was the perpetrator. Having a giant leap is ok when you’ve got time to react, not when you’ve miscued your run. I can’t help but think the keeper could have been more decisive.
Randall nearly made amends the other end but was denied twice. I really like him… it seems I’m alone there which I find grossly unfair. I think he has bundles of aggression, he moves the ball around nicely and I personally think he has a lot of skill. People don’t like him because he looks like an arrogant Essex boy. Well, screw you lot, I’m backing him. This is like Nik B all over again.
Randall, you’re the man… don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Fabianski made a great save late on to deny Zambrotta.
The game finished in a 1-1 draw and you couldn’t help but think that was a touch unfair considering our possession dominance.
De ja vu? You bet! Still, not bad considering many of the big guns are yet to return. I mean, imagine what we’ll be like when Denilson returns to the starting line up!
Jokes aside, Tom and Koz looked like they’d formed good partnership already. Dreams of Mertesacker or a £16million replacement for Sol are wide of the mark for me. The trouble is, it’s easy to get carried away after watching your defence do well against a team who prefer to play football. How will the new boy do against Stoke or Drogba? Still, he does read the game well and he possesses a lot of technical ability. That’ll see him through until he packs on some muscle.
Arsenal performed well. The brutal truth is that we’re not league winning material. We need at least another centre back and we need a proper keeper. Without those two the best we’ll do is third…second at a push. We are Arsenal, we’re the third most profitable club in Europe and Barca is our bench mark. We’re no where near them and that’s the truth. We should aspire to be like them. This team isn’t there yet and won’t be until Wenger starts paying market rate for top quality.
I always thought the idea of saving through the boom years was so you could pick up bargains in the bust years? Well, we’re in the bust years, no one has any money and we’re crying austerity? We should be able to go to most clubs in Europe and nick their players. Marseille have absolutely no money and they’re not the only ones in a similar problem.
Arsene’s analogy about buying a house is rubbish. If someone has a house worth £250k and you offer £100k, they’ll tell you where to go regardless of their situation. That shouldn’t mean you give up and sulk because someone is savvy to say no. What you should do is up your bid until you get your man because a good player is a good player regardless of your perceived value. If you don’t think a player is going to turn into a world beater, why are you looking at them in the first place?
Get your bulging cheque book out Arsene and make us a force this year… our lack of assertiveness in the market is embarrassing. The fact we’re a couple of weeks away until the season starts and our squad is still defensively weak is worrying. No wonder Cesc is asking questions. You’d think this summer debacle would have spurred Wenger into action… apparently not… so far.
Celtic up today. We should smash them. However, a word of warning Grovers, don’t be taken in by good results against weak teams. These results won’t matter a jot in Christmas when we’ve resorted to calling Tony Adams out of retirement because we’ve only got one recognised centre back!
See you in the comments!
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arsenal board and manager
stingy bunch of cunts.
I told you so.
I don’t even think that Anfield hammering will do us any favour. This man will never learn.
He will never learn. We will never win a trophy with him in charge. Europa League, here we come.
And we can’t even protest.
Tommorow at Cultured left foot we will read that Arsene has done it again and that we don’t need more players.
Almunia will improve, as well as Djourou and Denilson, Randall, Walcott, Diaby.
In Arsene we trust.
And, by the way, his contract will be renewed/extended by this clown Hill Wood. Do not be afraid.
I hate our management.
WE ARE SIGNING CHIVU FROM INTER FOR £8 MILLION
SUGA. Legia can beat us?
Polish side can beat us. LOL.
* without ?( question mark)
G STAR. JUst stop it mate. It isn’t funny.
Have any from your predictions even went right?
You are a fine bloke, but this is just a bad tast joke.
Our manager has just said that he will bring one crap defender.
Harry Redknapp and Daniel levy are looking at the possibility of signing Emmanuel Adebayor from Man City. The stumbling block could be his wages.
let’s be realistic here, shall we? Wenger doesn’t give a fuck, knowing it his last season in charge:
- he will not extend his contract
- Cesc will leave, citing trauma of becoming an orphan after his ‘dad’ left the club, hoping that’ll make him look less of a cunt
- we will be out of the CL by then
- without CL we will not be able to attract top players
- AKBs will come out saying ‘we told you so’
Maciek,
I think we may give them an easy ride, given that it’s their new stadium’s grand opening, so I am expecting a low margin win for Arse…
Incesc if we fail to end inside top 4 we will lose about 30m pounds. Maybe than Hill Wood and his men ill wake up and smell the cofee.
Maciek
Lets hold out on the “I told you so’s” until after the transfer period closes.
We’re still going to sign a defender.
The goal keeping thing is very worrying tho
just dont think i can take it seriously anymore…
Im just going to turn into jimbo
SUGA. I don’t give a flying f**k. I love Arsenal, but today I have lost any faith in our mnager.
What a c*ck he has bebecome.
*become
ADEBAYOR MIGHT GO TO TOTTENHAM
LOL Incesc.
You, me, Jimbo and Jaguar.And SUGA probably.
G STAR. PLEASE……………..
a gk and a cb should be definate, and should have been done by now and then he should be looking out for players to replace denilson and diaby, if he could afford them…
and me lol
G STAR – Good work, can you let us know if you hear anymore from your sources, thanks.
And just don’t start with this stupid Arsene knows mantra.
We never knew. He had Dein and Graham’s defence.
Today Maciek? You’ve been wanting him gone for months now.
Very annoyed and disappointed with Wengers comments. Citing Frimpongs pre season performances as justification for now buying a defensive minded midfielder of bollocks! We need experience in defence, Frimpong is about as inexperienced as players come ffs.
incesc m8 wenger is done in the tfer window,it’s going to be all his fault when we end up getting raped again this season,we will without a shadow of a doubt drop out the top 4 this season,doing it on the cheap will finally catch up with us,and as for not signing a keeper,that is just gross neglect…….
Maciek,
it’s a good job we are not playing anyone of significance until 03/10 when we play Chavs away…
to be honest, if we don’t sign anyone within the next two weeks, I think for the sake of our trophy chances it may be better if we get dicked by Pool on the first day, on the other hand, it may be a bit of a struggle to sign someone within such short period of time…
make no mistake, if we don’t beat Pool, the knives will be out…
LOL Maciek. He never knew? Despite building the invincible side all by himself and winning plenty of other trophies? Good one.
David, mate. He has said that we are “short numebers”, so he will probably sign some crap defender.
Almunia will be our captain at Anfield. If Song is injured, Frimpong or Denilson will take his place. And RVP will be injured again.
Maybe we win our firs 5 matches, but we won’t win a damn thing with this squad.
Good thing, Liverpool are crap.
incesc,
problem is that no one can afford Denilson’s or Diaby’s wages as it’s only AW who will pay them what they are on at the moment – clubs who would like to buy them are not in the same bracket budget wise IMO…
Ben Arfa just scored
Beautiful Goal
Stu.3 things:
-Dein
- Graham’s solid back 4.
-pressure to deliver.
Now it’s just his playground.He is STUBBORN and doesn’t learn.
Maciek,
Fulham players are not exactly world beaters and Hodgson did quite a job with them, no?
I think Pool will give us a good run for our money…
Problem being Maciek that he didnt have Grahams defence for the invincibles did he. And even so, he still build great attacks to compliment the defence. He gave the club some of the best players its ever had. I just dont get how you can honestly believe he never knew anythying.
“There is a little bit more competition than we expected there to be. We were considering even maybe going on the market for a midfielder. We will not do that now.”
What a complete and utter wanker.
AND for the invinclibles he put the pressure to win on himself having won 2 doubles before it.
JJ, you are released! Apologies for the delay.
Stu
The invinsibles are gone, dead and buried. We are so far away from that team right now its intolerable
Can anyone blame Cesc?
Stu was you watching the game today george samarus that shit hot player who city let go was running rings around our defence.. dont panic fucking hell
Stu, ok that was to strong.
he knew what he was doing, but not now. Cambpell was signed by Dein. Kolo was Arsene’s choice( yes), Lauren as well) I will give him that), but from 2005 his defensive record is shocking. And when we won trophies we were solid at the back.
In 2002 when we went to Old Trafford I knew we are going to win. Sadly, now everytime we go there or to play other strong teams I’m very worried.
Almunia is a joke. Does noone really can’t see it?
ARSENAL TEAM
Almunia
Sagna Koscienly Vermaelen Clichy
Song
Fabregas(Diaby) Nasri
Walcott Chamakh(RVP) Arshavin
—————————————–
LIVERPOOLS TEAM
Reina
Johnson Carragher Agger Aurelio
Lucas Aquilani
Kuyt Gerrard Cole(Maxi)
Jovanovic(Torres)
—————————————————
WHOS GONNA WIN?????????????????????
I think Georgie Samaras has always been under-rated though to be fair, we should get him.
David, i know. Im talking about the past though, not now.
Reggie, yeah i saw him.
Maciek, Thats all i wanted. Thanks.
ANSWER MY QUESTION @ 21:48
lol Keyser, you kidster!
G STAR. Germans will win it. As usual.
whys that
agree with suga at 21:25.
alot people seam to think wenger will go cheap crap defender but i wouldlike to think wenger has learned from signing silvest mind you took a big gambell on sole and that worked,but i think wenger will waite get some real experienced utility player
I think we’re really in for Mertersacker!
He usually denies right up front! but he says he won’t mention names!!!
Maciek, who are the Germans?
ozil has come out and said hed like to join united or chelsea. hes said theres 4 clubs in europe hed love to join – united chelsea barca or madrid. not many top players speak in interviews about wanting to joining us i notice
kev he’s just a glory hunter
We would all like to think Wenger has learned is lessen with regards a Silvestre type signing Maciek but his comments dont give much hope that we are after a top defender unfortunately.
balls why cant i catch spelling errors before i click submit comment?! it should be join!
Sorry, my 22:10 comment was for Leon, not Maciek.
Kev, nothing wrong with typos as long as your message gets across..which i think it did, so dont worry about it.
choy,
I hope you are joking…
zapatas agent has claimed that his client is interested in a move to england amid continued reports of interest from arsenal
TBH i’ld rather we bring in a defensive coach that another defender coming into the same mess.
what I mean is that it is a worrying sign – we can’t attract players even with a perspective of playing CL footy, as every player with quality and an ounce of ambition knows that he will just do the donkey’s work Denilsons and Diabys and have fuck all to show for it…
*than
* for Denilsons and Diabys
who needs ozil anyway we got jack wilshere
Where would Ozil play though?
He’s not going to sit on the bench.
A defensive coach ? Over an actualy defender ?!
Stu I’m not sure about a defensive coach, it’s the players and the unit imo that needs to develop
we never had a defensive coach with wenger despite the keown myth, although i guess you could say that we’ve never been amazing defensively, despite the champs league run
Georgie Samaras for bendy then keys
Depending on how the injuries go i think having the defence better organised would be potentially better than getting in a new defender and still having the organisational problems.
thats it suga and cesc knows that too. i think at this stage its just a malaise thats after setting in. the management seems to just be happy with remaining the same – not improving but not getting any worse. the club just seems to be happy with being the number 3 or 4 club in england rather than trying to push on and actually win stuff
He’s like a greek john radford sign him up arsene!!
choy,
that’s not the point – no quality players or even the hyped ones will want to join a club that doesn’t win shit…
and it’s not like the internal options coming through the ranks are all guaranteed to become world beaters, is it? even if these are a few that will get there, will they stay?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mYyT4-EOq0&hl=en_GB&fs=1]
A,
CL run coincided with MK being at the club and we did it with Senderos playing CB and Flamini as LB!
yes, you can argue that he was never a defensive coach per se, but there are no such ‘coincidences’, simple as…
Stu, it was a joke. Lineker said, that football is a game where 22 men plays and Germany always wins.
And I was reffering it to our game against Liverpool. Bad joke, maybe im getting older?
*win
*referring
yeah SUGA, at the club doing his coaching badges and generally being an assistant/putting out cones.
It is an absolute coincidence, he was basically shadowing the other coaches, giving advice from his experience obviously but whilst that would’ve been good it would account for a tiny tiny part of that defensive unit’s success
I also think a good GK organizes his defence better, the free kick yesterday for example!
Oh yeh remember Cole saying Senderos didn’t really care for Keown’s comments.
I bet it had little to do with Keown, more to do with how we packed the midfield and left Henry up front.
Stu – Are you saying this based on the past few games or seasons past ?!
Stewart Houston was the original coneman!!
Seasons past more than the last few games keyser.
Suga its not always that.
Look at the players wanting to join Shitty! Some are in it just for the money! They haven’t won anything yet have they!
And look at players like Chamakh for example, he’s wanted to be at Arsenal since he was a kid. If you read his interview you’ll see that he’s a player who really loves Arsenal and would be here rather than any where else.
Players with big reputations demand big money as well.
I think i remember Keown rubishing the rumour that he and Senderos had clashed in training.
Trophies and Money. Thats what attracks the big players. We offer neither atm so its probably why noone wants to join us. We also dont offer stupid money to get someone so clubs dont really want to sell their best players to us either.
*attracts
The thing is we always sell on for sky high prices though stu so it works both ways!!
+1 stu – thats it in a nutshell really.
Usually yes Reggie, but not with Wenger. He wants to buy low, sell high.
A,
we somehow hardly ever matched the about 900 minutes without conceding record since, no?
putting out cones, my arse…
Keyser,
possibly, but we have been packing the midfield since and never got anywhere that record, no?
And Wenger specifically pointed that very observation out in his press conf after Milan game Choy.
Yeah thats why we wont attract world class players!!
Just watched the press conf after the Celtic game.
Looks like a defender will come in, he’s adamant about that and another GK.
So thats two players maximum, no midfielders.
Bye bye Denilson, hello Frimpong
Stu,
I would not put it past MK to give Sendy a bit of of bollocking to keep him straight
Can you see a GK coming choy??
choy,
I will be happy if we sign two players, however, don’t hold your breath for more than one IMO…
choy he didnt say anything about another keeper. i think his exact words were : “He (almunia) did very well today and (Lukasz) Fabianski did well yesterday (against AC Milan), and (Wojciech) Szczesny and (Vito) Mannone did well in the other games as well.
“We have quality goalkeepers, we know that, it is (important) to produce these kind of performances in every single game. That’s what the top level is about.”
quality goalkeepers?! i like that
I don’t have a problem with the idea of Frimpong as reserve DM, the problem is Denilson is most likely back no.1 and he doesn’t quite cut the mustard. Wilshere is an able backup for Diaby already imo. Plus with Nasri also able to play there I actually agree with Wenger, we are covered in midfield.
Count em: Rosicky, Cesc, Nasri, Diaby, Denilson, Wilshere, Frimpong, Song, Ramsey, Eboue if needed.
Up front I think we have what we need as well,
Rvp, Walcott, Chamakh, Bendtner, Vela, Arshavin (fits in both mid and attack)
Defense is a problem, GK is a problem imo.
stu wenger stated he finally in position to buy some top class players and so far his signings have been pretty good wenger is courtiuos about tranfers so him to come out and say is on the lookout for cbs i hope he get some proper players.
but its tough balancing act between winning things at all costs and putting the club in red,if you look manu who alot of finicial problems but on the pitch have been highly successful,arsenal on the otherhand completely in the black have had title drout.
i dont think this team will win the prem i have always felt this 2 season job first he needs to get top cbs which will need time to gel and get keeper,and in midfield and in attack theres matter of getting rid of players who my wont make the grade almunia,fabianski delinson thoe
id say well see another cb (fourth choice) but thats it. if anyone thinks otherwise its just being overly optimistic
If he fails to buy quality in this transfer window its another missed opportunty to compete for the title again……
kev i think may true,i am hoping he gets a keeper but with wenger you cant be sure i hoping he gives the young polish a shot though fab and almunia have had there chances
Stu – I don’t think they clashed, Cole wrote about it in his book that Senderos was just nonchalant when Keown made comments to him.
Could be nothing, just don’t think Keown was the be all and end all for that defence on the way to the final.
reg,
white coats?
Im wearing mine now SUGA !!!
hes a stubborn old git though leon. hes already said the goalkeepers we have are quality. i honestly think fabianski will start as number 1 this season with verm and kos as 1 choice cbs – if this is the case well be lucky to finish 4th.
Suga3 – It was specific games in the Champions League and with Henry up front when he still had enough about him to be absolutely devatstating running at defences.
We haven’t really packed the midfield have we since ? Unless we have a loan striker up front with no other options. But the defence two years ago was decent because it started from the top, our organistaion and discipline was very good.
Keyser, i dont know what happened at all between Keown and Senderos but whatever effect Keown had at the time it helped defensively in the CL.
Having an expert focusing on defence at the club can only be a good thing imo. Whatever about injuries, organisation and such, we just need calmer defenders. We always seem to crack under pressure. Today was just like so many other matches last season and before where we dominate possession for an hour and then the oppo start attacking with purpose and they inevitably score. The worst part of it is that its predictable and noone is suprised when the oppo score.
Keyser,
we played the 4-5-1 for quite a bit in that transition season and we were shockingly bad – crab football and all that…
fair point about Henry…
Stu – No, you have no idea whether it helped or not, people just add it together and assume it did, but actually watch the games, if Keown had come in and drilled them and done this marvelous job of turning them into a well organised and efficient machine then what happened in the league ?!
Did he only work with the Champions League squads ?!
Today was pre-season, take it for what it was, a game to build up fitness while playing something nearing a compeitive game.
Whatever about calmer defence and predictability, if we don’t have a consistent team throughout the season we’re going to see the inconsistency we’ve seen in the past.
The amount of basic errors that the likes of Dixon, Keown & Hansen point out we make suggests we really could do with someone purely training the defence.
It doesnt necessarily need to be keown but we do need it.
Stu,
what we seem to forget sometimes us that the game lasts 90+ minutes, especially when we score a couple of goals and get lulled into a false sense of security…
complacency is still rising its ugly head every now and then – IMO, it’s a result of the cotton wooling certain players and telling them they are the best thing since sliced bread…
Shockingly bad two years ago ?!
Obviously i dont know whether it helped or not. I chose to believe it did while you chose to believe otherwise.
Maybe we were better in the CL because its more technical rather than in the prem where its faster and high balls. I dont know why it worked in one comp but not the other.
We wont get any consistency with defenders missing all the time. We always get injuries so we never have the same team. Either get defenders who never get injured or someone to make sure the whole defence has an understanding of their own role so mixing defenders wont be as much of a problem.
these are supposed to be top players at a top club though. should they not know how to defend already? top players shouldnt be making basic mistakes on a regular basis – isnt that what separates top players from average players?
I think consistency is what seperates great from average. At least in my opinion anyway.
Keyser,
yes we were quite bad – two pretty poor DMs stifled creativity and we did not have anyone close to Henry’s quality upfront…
Suga3 – I mean the season where Eduardo got injured towards the end, we started off the year machine like we were organised and very efficient. We were still trying to work without Henry but we did exceptionally well for the most part, it fell apart when we started testing the depth of teh squad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3pZaRvt6g8
evening gooners! Celtic fan here. Just a few observations on todays game. Obvious gap in class showed today, so we never really expected to win, but it was probably closer than your thread title predicted! It looked like we were going to get turned over after 60 mins, but thought we did OK to make it respectable. Watched all four games this weekend – from a Gunners viewpoint, impressed by Chamack(sp) but not a lot else tbh.
Think you need to get a couple of decent CBs, another striker (dont think you have enough upfront esp with VP injured) and you need some strength and height in midfield. Too many small, gifted MF, all have great touch and technique but not enough presence or bite. Arshavin, Wilshere, Rosicky, Nasri and Walcott all too similar in stature and attitude.
Dont get me wrong, we would probably take any of them in an instant, but the gap in finances means that the two squads are not worth comparing.
Anyway, well done on the victory, and finally, can any of you answer me a question (need to settle a bet with my mate)?
I was at Bergkamps debut at Highbury – vaguely remember it was 4 or 5-2 against Southampton I think – can any of you confirm the scoreline and whether Arsenal played in their away strip that day?
Sorry to kick a poor man when he’s down Gooners, but that was our 2nd team against your 1st. Ive always loved Arsenal since i was a kid. Im 47 now. I wish the Gooners all the best for the new season. If im reading the early signs correctly then its going to be a long season.
I have to agree, that Celtic are a poor imitation of former Celtic teams of a few years back ( money just aint there ) It must be worrying that you were a wee bit lucky to hold on. Anyway lads all the best anyway & hope that you somehow defy all logic & win something. Adios Amigos. x
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfVJsNgA_Qk&hl=en_GB&fs=1]
that was a cracking strike at goal – nearly fell off my seat when he struck it! pity it didnt go in it wouldve been some goal
Stu – That’s the whole point really, the way you eliminate errors is with that consistency but you can drill players all you like, but if they never get to translate that into comeptitive matches we’ll never win anything.
If we’re going into the business end of the season without Fabregas or Van Persie, or Gallas, either we have players that can seemlessly fill their positions or again we’re not winning anything.
It’s got little to do with bringing in a defensive coach in my opinion, we’re just not going to win anything with Silvestre up against Messi.
We need a deeper squad or to rotate players in such a way that we peak towards the end.
I wouldn’t read too much into the last two games, we aboslutely domianted and controlled both games, we just seemed to tire towards the end, the Milan goal we had all the midgets on the field, Celtic ? First goal was a bit of a freak, the second I think had more to do with the midfield leaving the defence exposed.
cosmo63,
er, dude, how was our team a first choice one?
So where’s Chamakh gonna play?
Keyser,
our defence was nowhere to be seen for their second – was it Djourou or Ebowie who allowed that Celtic player to score?
my bet is that it was JD…
Yeah Cosmo, i think your confusing things. We were missing 4 of starters, 3 of them were our first choice midfield and the other is a world class CF. Not to mention that Kos and Vermaelen is probably our first choice CB pairing now and they didnt play together today.
alex,
since he has impressive record with headers, AW will probably stick him on the wing to ‘learn’…
himself and theo will share the RWF spot id say alex. he wont dislodge vp as the main man up front
Think it was JD Suga as i remember him being a few yards behind David when he scored (he did score the second didnt he? The Korean guy).
Keyser, we seem to agree on the main point that you need everyone fit. But even when we did have everyone fit last season we still conceded stupid, sloopy goals. We always get injuries, usually from not rotating anyof the defence. We have problems because we neither do nor can rotate (because we dont have good enough back ups).
With CLichys erratic crossing having Chamakh at the far post might not be the worst thing. Ideally though he would play in the middle but he isnt better than VP so wont get many chances there.
yeah will prob be on RW like bendy was at the start of last season. has he ever played there?
SUGA63
It had plenty of regulars for a start. Out team didnt.
Not on here gloating amigo. ( we lost ) Just trying to be objective from an neutral point of view about Arsenal. Long way to go im afraid if you stuggle against a poor Celtic 2nd team. Even last years victory against us was a bit of an false dawn. 2 own goals at Celtic park, an early penalty ( ahemm ) need i say more. Which finished the tie effectivly. It wasnt the rout or gulf that the scoreline suggested.
I sincerly hope that Arsenal win the title this season, but have serious doubts going by what ive seen so far this term & last.
i realy dont think it has anything do with defensive coaching i think its the fact this team with the aception of sole and verm wenger has never realy had commanding top class cbs and has not top class keeper since leyman left
Cosmo, the collapse defensively on arsenals behalf came after most of our first teamers had gone off. Eboue, JD, Koscielny, Gibbs, Frimpong, Nasri, Wilshere, Theo, Chamakh and the final person who i dont remember,
Of that 10 only Theo and Nasri are starters in those positions in our first choice team.
I think ye had about 4 strikers on at the end too. Unfortunately the collapse has been seen on a first team level over the years far too often but when ye did get your two goals it was anything but Arsenals first team anymore.
Suga3 – Watch the goal, the player runs from deep, one of the midfielders should have tracked him, we were trying to play offside, but the Celtic player wasn’t interfering with play and Fortune got in behind.
cosmo any arsenal fan who has any kind of head on their shoulders knows we wont be within an asses roar of the pl title this season or the champions league for that matter. its common sense. a lot of people (not all) would have doubts we can remain in the top 4. agree with that leon – if only we had a 26 year old sol! wed have some defender
Strange situation with Cesc Fabregas being captain but his heart truly being at Barcelona, I think.
Done an article on what I think about our worrying lack of leadership. Do you guys think Cesc can/should still be our captain?
I think Vermaelen is the future one.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=523426325&ref=ts
Keyser,
just watched it a few – Djourou was caught unaware of his presence, he was ‘his’ player for being the closest and in the right position…
woops! hah accidently linked to a funny picture of someone on facebook. embarassing…
actualy article on captain situation – http://onetouchgooner.wordpress.com/2010/08/01/searching-for-leader-ship-but-the-captain-wants-to-sail-away/
*a few times
Cosmo,
I don’t think we are capable of winning anything but a domestic cup…
I’m off, hasta la vista, munglers!
RVP,
I don’t think he should…
Gallas upped his game after being dropped, but this situation is a tad different…
cesc cant remain captain. what kind of message does that send? its ok we can court different teams if we like and there will be no reprecussions. bullshit. i think he couldnt give a toss at this stage – if barca manages to stump up the cash hell be gone like a shot
* stripped of captaincy, not dropped…
Stu – We’ve had this conversation before, that’s just a blanket observation really, like we conceded a goal, must be the defence. All teams concede stupid, sloppy goals btw.
We haven’t had any consisntecy for years now, we need at least a relvatively good season injury wise to build up the udnerstandings and organisation it takes. Gallas and Vermalen had a good understanding, and Song used to interchange and cover well for them, but that’s just part of what makes a great team good defensively.
Last year two halves of the season we conceded a similar amount of goals in the first 19 games as we did in the second, where we fell down is that we scored far less.
Thing is suga – Unless he talks about it and says hes gonna give everything at arsenal its not a great example to the youngsters. The captain should be the most loyal player really.
Stu, who then came on ? Arshavin, Eboue, etc. You telling me that these guys dont play regular ?
Papering over the cracks springs to mind. If you think we, & i include Arsenal as my 2nd team are going to get anywhere near the 2 main challengers to the title, ( you know who i mean, but wont give them credence ) then you are in for a rude awakening my son.
Loads of work to be done yet. I repeat, that was a Celtic team that are nowhere near Celtic teams of recent years & probably only 1 player will start on Wed night in our CL qualifier.
Suga3 – Evway should have been more aware, Frimpong was probably knckered but we were playing a high line and they just worked a good move, by the time Djourou realises there’s someone behind him it’s too late.
Clichy looked the front runner for the next captaincy at one point but with Gibbs coming close to him and Clichy having had an mediocre season I don’t think it would be fair on Gibbs nor a good decision. So Vermaelen for me, when Fab leaves.
Keyser,
look closely if Djourou was watching, it was more of his cockup by a mile…
RVP,
fully agreed…
really off now
cosmo63 – Have Celtic started pre-season earlier than others this year to co-incide with the Champions League qualifiers ?!
Half of the team has just come back from Holiday, some won’t be back for another few days, it’s pre-season and we controlled and dominated the game for the most part, made several changes and as the team tired late on, we dropped concentration and you came back into the game.
Suga3 – I’ve watched it, he played his part, but you’re wrong dude. They stepped up to play the offside line, if he’d stayed back or tracked the runner he’s keeping them onside anyway.
Good Night though.