It feels worse this week than it did in pre-season, at least we could speculate before August, this last two weeks has been like the dead zone.
Well guess what? I’m about to leave my house and make my way to the home of football, I need a fix and I’m going early!
So I’m taking my brother with me, a Leeds fan, I’ll ask him why David O’leary spent so much money, and how to avoid going tits up, it should be interesting.
Anyway, none of it matters, they went bust because they spent too much, we don’t spend enough, so an in the middle conversation should be on the cards, either way, his second team are Arsenal, so he’ll have fun as well. Me, I only have one team, well other than the reserves, they are my second team!
Nikki B makes a return today, so we’ll get to see for the first time since the world cup, if he’s the player we dreamed of, I think he’ll be a revelation, Theo was, Wilshere was, Nasri was, so maybe Nikki has stepped up to the plate, let’s hope so eh!
I don’t care what team plays today, I just hope the marmites aren’t playing, I would be so happy if the boss sent out a team without that trio, we don’t need them, they hold us back and we play so much better football without them, I won’t mention names, you all know, let’s just pray for a team that wants it.
Nothing less than 3 points today, if we don’t win, then we’ll have the spuds go past us, I can take the mancs, chavs and northern chavs ahead of us, but I can’t handle the spuds, that’s a bridge too far.
It won’t be long before we have RVP, Theo and Ramsey all back in the same team, now that fills me with hope, imagine the force we’ll be, and by Christmas, we’ll add Wellington Silva to that list, we’ll soon be a top, top team, let’s hope we see some of that today.
Maybe in the second half of the season we will see what the real Wenger vision is, we need to, we all want to see the Arsenal winning stuff again, maybe today will give us a glimpse that this team is ready.
I’m fancying us to put on our best display of the season, to banish the WBA result as an aberration and to well and truly nail our title credentials to the wall, Arsenal 5, Birmingham nil, Nikki B to get a couple, Jack on the scoresheet and a Nasri brace.
Anyway, as I said, I’m leaving early so if you are going today, I’ll see you all at the tavern!
Have a great day Grovers, I have a good feeling and I’m rarely wrong!
We played around sideways in the final 3rd too much I thought. Wenger was right in his post-match, they played with the handbrake on and were hesitant. Losing two on the trot will do that. Theo will bring directness vs. City but Clichy better not fuck around on positioning with Johnson. Also the thought of JD playing a world class forward scares me. Squillachi is solid but lacks pace, JDs positioning is still not good for my liking. You just know they will play the WHORE and he has deceptively good pace.
When Chamakh starts falling to the ground when there’s no-one within a couple of feet of him and there’s been no contact, then there’s something to be said and it’s something all of Rooney, Drogba and Ronaldo did and do regularly.
The defender misses the ball, kicks him gets up and if you read his lips starts saying he didn’t touch him.
There was contact right ? Or did I get the wrong camera angle.
I thought JD did very well today.
Especially at the end.
Where the fack was squidy when all those balls where coming into the box?
I think you guys are very unfair to JD.
Even with their goal he is the one struggling to cover squidy’s man to head it out.
Ade might do us again true…i thought TV was back?
Well I am not comparing him to anyone else, just to what his record was before. He did well and took pressure well. All keepers will not always do the simple things well, cue VDS today, but it is about doing them well as often as possible and being consistent.
JDs marking on Zigic was horribly wrong and his header was very well placed. Fabiniski did look a bit wrong footed and maybe thats why you feel it could have been saved. But I guarantee 9 times out of 10 a header in the corner from 5 yards our is not getting saved by anyone.
We always pass around the 3rd too much.
We get used to giving the ball to Fab4 who usually has the decisive final ball.
Which is why Wilshere is so important…and I dont see Nasri playing in the middle if im honest.
Maybe you’re right David, maybe we are a bit unfair to JD. I just think he isn’t consistent the entire 90 and for a center half that can be deadly. Squillachi, if you notice plays like a veteran (of course cause he is one). His game and positioning for the most part is spot on but of course he lacks pace and gets found out their.
Actually David, JD was supposed to be marking Zigic. No where near Arsenal quality IMO, but then again, neither is 25 percent of our team.
Fabianski just like the rest of the defence needs games where we aren’t all over the place, until we play our first choice defence, or can even name them outright we still need to focus on defending from the front.
Birmingham didn’t have pace on the counter-attack and that’s what really catches us out, though having a 6ft 8 centre-forward is another approach.
Fabianski needs a solid defence in front of him, so instead of coming into games and having to think on his feet straight away we can build up his confidence like he’s doing now.
Squillaci’s not as good as Gallas, but he’s clever and experienced and unlike Gallas and a bit more like Vermaelen he relies on being a bit more clever to get him out of situations.
Like Vermaelen will jump early if someone’s taller than him and not allow the player to jump.
Citeh are quick and incisive on the counter-attack I think we need to be far more cautious then we were today in how many players we commit forward to the attack.
You’re right, Nasri isn’t a great passer but has more individual dribbling and shooting ability. I think he is a genuine attacking midfielder not a creative center mid/playmaker like Cesc. If he plays down the center it would have to be a different role to Cesc.
Im looking at the replay again,
I thought Zigic was in Squidy’s responsibility he was just too slow to react?
Totally agree VDS had a massive cock up today but this was on the back end of keeping 14 cleen sheets last season with the likes of Carrick and Fletcher playing CB.
I think its pretty fair to say Fabianski has many more cock ups in him than VDS.
Its like the Almunia situation.
He’s a very good keeper but he often reminds us why we need a better keeper
Of course we’re unfair, it’s like saying nowhere near Arsenal quality, what is Arsenal quality ?!
JD’s been out for a whole season, comes back plays himself into fitness and has to play with a new defence almost every week.
I don’t get how people don’t work out how something soo simple could affect us soo much, we’re not perfect but we do well with the problems we have or create for ourselves.
The ball for Zigic was almost perfect, no-ones’ getting to it apart from him, the best you can do is put him off, didn’t happen.
Wilshire’s a complete plum, should never have gone in for that tackle.
Keyser
I dont think City can hit us on the counter attack especially if they play like they have been playing with 3 DM’s.
Tevez is a speed demon but im sure we can assign someone to cover him.
I dont expect A.Johnson to outdo clichy with pace for example.
They dont have bellamy anymore and Milner isnt know for his pace.
If im honest.
Its Ade-my-whore im worried about.
TV likely won’t be back, any news on Koscielny?
I have to say though, our defense from having Gallas and Toure at the back two years ago is vastly better even with the 3rd and 4th choice pairings. In two years Senderos, Silvestre, Cambell, Gallas, Toure have all been replaced and we look better for it so far.
Fabianski’s starting out and he’s been thrust into high pressure situations, blame Wenger for that not because he cracked.
What’s Van De Sar going to do with Drogba bearing down on him for example, he’s not going to stop him every time because the strikers got a massive advantage in that he’s got the ball.
Van De Sar’s been decent the past couple of years nowhere as good as he used to be, I bet in the 14 clean sheets he kept or whatever it was that he wasn’t exposed to 1 on 1′s too often like we seem to do.
How do we look better at the back?
Its even worse I think. We have kept just 1 clean sheet in the league this season.
LAzer – I dunno, look at who Toure and Gallas had in front of them, they were pretty solid when we had the Flamini/Fabregas partnership.
After that we blooded all the players we see now, like the reasons Song’s obviously improved is because he got the mistakes out of his system when we had those defenders back there.
I think we should go all out against city and get an early lead.
I will consider benching Arshavin and using him as a sub.
Lets get Theo and Rosicky on.
If Cesc is not there its going to be difficult to break Shitty down.
3 DMs will kill our creativity.
David – Look at the West Brom and Birmingham games, how hard were they to break down ? Citeh are bigger, stronger and quicker, all they have to do is the same as Chelsea and all of the other teams and wait for their chances.
Adebayor’s a worry because he’s quick, but if they’re playing deep and lumping balls to him, I’d be fine with that because he’s not going to turn quickly and set up quick one two’s and push players on.
If we’re left 3 on 3 Johnson won’t have to out pace Clichy he can just pick Tevez out and with balls. We need to have passers n midfield that won’t lose the ball, or Chamakh or Bendtner up front having a good game to keep players occupied.
I think we are starting to look the part…
My only gripe with this team is that our crossing is still shite, our set pieces are still shite, and the defending can be alot better.
That I totally agree with David, I am not denying Fabiniski’s cock ups at all. Just said thought he did well today, that’s about it.
Choy
your right which is why i think we need everyone including the fullbacks bombing forward.
Even with City playing with 3DM’s we will have our chances.
The problem is, as always, is will we take our chances?
Can Arsenal be clinical?
Wouldn’t be surprised to see a Walcott start on Tues to get him ready for the city game and having Cesc back for City will be just what need
Keyser
I highly doubt that City will be as clinical as chelsea and score a miracle goal like drogba and alex did..but this is football you never know…i do however expect them to ‘park the bus’ against us.
And given our defending id rather we are the ones putting on the pressure than being on the back foot
West Brom didnt even have Odemwingie today.
Two of those non clean sheets were because of keeper errors. Its sad to admit it but a clean sheet is just not too valued in this team. Its a bad bad habit but the way we play and the high line and all it seems like they just expect giving up a goal or two.
I think individually though the defense is better. Gallas was becoming a luxury player who was always injured and Toure was like having Arshavin defending set plays.
There is literally no such thing as a team who convert every or even most of their chances otherwise score lines would be like cricket scorelines. We can be unfairly tagged as wasteful but we sjould be scoring more goals but 18 aint so bad and we’ve played some tough games so all’s not bad. But if we don’t have ou shoting boots on next weekend we wont come away with the 3 points. Have a good weekend I’m off.
David – How was the Chelsea game, for some reason the local pub didn’t have it on, think someone got shot or something so had to watch it at the bookies.
Thought it was the usual Chelsea tough to break down, quick on the counterattack, wasn’t really impressed by them, they seemed slower and more lethargic getting forward, but still clinical like you say, but you could see how we missed Fabregas and Van Persie.
Though I liked Wilshire and the others efforts even Arshavin tracked back a bit.
I don’t think we have to be on the back foot neccessarily and it’s why we miss Walcott soo much. we could pack the midfield and try and cancel them out, but with Walcott we always have a release they don’t quite have, same with Arshavin, just let them get on with it
Is City going to sit back at home? Maybe Mancini will come to play with some of that 250mill.
Milner, Tevez, Whore in the same lineup can do damage. He’s also got David Silva and Adam Johnson.
IF I was him I would fit all those in at home with his best DM and the back 4. But more than likely he will do the exact opposite and play 1 up front with two wingers and 3 DMs.
I don’t think it’s that Clean sheets aren’t valued, it’s that we wan’t the win more, we get caught out because we push forward too far, we can’t break teams down, so we try harder we take more risks, and because we aren’t as experienced or don’t have the same players playing every week we end up making mistakes.
Keyser
We never really looked like scoring against Chelsea if im honest
Well thats not entirely true we had a few shocking misses by Koszy and Chamkh which is the difference imo.
We will still create chances who ever we have available we just need the boys to convert them.
If A.Johnson and D.Silva are the wingers we are up against then i dont think we have to worry about pace.
Problems with the defending
1. Long Ball/Dead ball situations.
2. Counter-Attack.
3. Giving the ball away in dangerous areas, although that has stopped now that Wilshere is on for Denilson.
Forgot about Silva, Citeh barely tried to attack against us when they came to the Emirates last year, I suppose we’ll just have to see how we handle them.
No idea how Mancini will setup, them against Chelsea was just proper dull, no-one wanted to really attack too much.
We’re missing the players that do convert them tough, our most dangerous players are Fabregas, Walcott and Van Persie, Walcott’s not as consistent, but he scares teams.
We’ve got Shakhtar in between, I even think they’ll be a tough proposition.
I don’t even know what happened to Koscielny ? Is it short-term or long injury ?!
Back injury keyser, no idea how long for. Wenger just said he’s out for the brum game.
Regarding Chelsea we dominated possession totally, chamakh had 3 headers that went very close, and one chance where cech was stranded and chamakh played for the pen and got tackled. Couple cech saves from arshavin, one from nasri, wilshere went close too, and drogba scored from an quality move and finish and alex scored a wonder free kick. Bit of a ridiculous game, we need to get the belief to conver the chances in big games.
I thought today was a pretty weird game, arshavin was the only player who didn’t play well, fabianski was class, his punches at the end and the final claim were just brilliant, and great to see the crowd really responding to him. With their goal
Clichy was a bit on his heels but when you’re against someone like zigic if the right cross comes into the area then it’s undefendable, grea header too.
i think some people on here want us to win all 38 games keep 38 clean sheets and convert every chance we create..thats almost scoring 10 goals every game… ridiculous.. never happy with a win!! when do these guys enjoy football..??
like it or not the other 19 teams in the premier league are also there to play football…every shot of the opposing team gets dissected as a mistake by our supposedly shite defenders according to these people..
Guys I read an article saying Ven persie wont be back till late November….
Thats fucking ridiculous if true….
That guy is really soft….Wenger needs to buy a world class striker soon….
Chamakh and Bendtner are only adequate…they are not world class in the least…..
I wonder when we’re going to start calling him van Pussy.
JA
We could only be so lucky. I have RVP penciled in for January. When he is asked about having weak bones his protestations to the contrary are understandable but incredibly infuriating.
Rohan
I’m going to start naming all shit/sicknote/lazy players/managers after Jaguar.
Robin Van Maltese cunt
Arsene Fez wearing wanker
Denilshit on Jaguars mums tits
Dibolical how anyone can shag Jaguars mum
Ro…sick that Fatfezuar thinks we believe he has a season ticket
Etc.
Jag only kidding mate.
I know you love calling names etc and that why I knew you would get a kick out of this.
its all in jest..in case your mum is up for it I would bum her…
Just Kidding Jag
I woudn’t bum your mum for a billion quid.
Jag
I would really mate
Match report coming a bit late today… I got on the booze and losed last night.
Pedro,why would you want to let these wankers like AA23,the canadian mug,after he abused my mom,when I had never said a bad word against him.Fucking Canadian wanker.
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