It’s tough writing match reports like these because firstly I understand the importance of resting players at this stage of the season. Don’t forget, we’re the only club in all 4 competitions. Also, don’t forget that for the first time in 68 years, our injury list only boasts two players. One of those is long-term and the other just likes being there because he’s keeping himself fresh for next year’s Balon D’or awards when he’s a Barcelona player.
Resting players, whatever your thoughts, is inevitable.
You also have to look at last night from Wenger’s point of view. Most of the players he stuck out there are or have been internationals. The team he was playing were about 54 places below us in the league. We SHOULD have been able to turn them over with a second string, in fact, I reckon our Carling Cup kids team would have done better.
However, I also think you have to ask a man of the Wenger’s experience to look at how this second string team have fared against weaker opposition when given a chance this season and to make an assessment based on those games. We dropped points against Wigan, we drew against Leeds and struggled against Huddersfield. We also managed to lose against Ipswich. All poor teams, all second stringers playing, all poor results.
The first half was a bit flat, sure we dominated the possession statistics, bragging about that is a bit like me bragging about beating my 7 year old cousins at literally every game we play… they’ll learn.
The one notable chance of the first half came when Kieron Gibbs did well to work himself into the area, he pulled a shot across goal where Chamakh was on hand to turn the ball wide from 8 yards. An exceptional miss by anyone’s standards.
Our moment came early in the second half, the 53rd minute if I’m being precise. Nik B had been trying his damnedest to get a shot off, the ball came back to him, he pushed into the box, cut a cross back to Rosicky who nodded it into the far corner for a great headed goal.
Arsenal began to turn it on from there, Andrey Arshavin doing his best to get on the score sheet only to be denied by the outside of the post. You never feel a game is over unless we have more goals than there are seconds on the clock. This sad fact came home to ruin the Nando’s I had planned later on.
An Orient player by the name of Tehoue, who looked like the standard bad guy in most 80′s cop films rolled onto the pitch earlier, he hussled the ball through Miquel and Gibbs, Squillaci couldn’t catch him, he fired his shot at Almunia, the Spaniard, to my surprise couldn’t get down for it, they were level.
How f*cking embarrassing.
I couldn’t even say it wasn’t expected… when it’s our second string, we never win.
Resting players is fine, but surely there is no point in doing so if you are doubling your cup fixtures every time? If the players on show are not good enough to turn over these lowly teams, isn’t it about time we recalled some of the players on loan who would be good enough to despatch these teams?
I don’t want to go on a witch hunt here, but the usual suspects were making the usual errors. It doesn’t matter how good Song has been this year, when he’s teamed up with the toothless Denilson in the middle of the park, it’s a recipe for flat unimaginative football. He’s a very average player and I think it’s about time Lansbury or Ramsey are brought back in from their loan spells so they can have a go. The Brazilian has had 150+ games to make a mark and he’s regressing. Just because you’re a young footballer, it doesn’t mean you’re entitled to an upward pattern in your career curve. Although it does mean that you’re entitled to far fatter contracts than you’re deserving of.
Nik Bendtner is not and never will be a wide man. He’s a big powerful central striker. Would Liverpool put Andy Carroll on the wing? Not a chance! Chamakh has been nothing short of awful over the past 2 months. He hasn’t scored since November and his contribution to the shooting tally has been embarrassing for a striker we waited 18 months for. I’ve watched him play out wide for Bordeaux, why don’t we stick him wide instead of Nik, his skillset is far better suited to that position.
What about Miguel? Well, bar looking like the Spanish love child of the Karate Kid, he did look very assured at the back for large parts of the game. He had size on his side and he’s very good with the ball on the floor and he didn’t allow himself to be shoved around. However, should he have been playing a game of such magnitude? Was he 50% at fault for the goal? Possibly… it’s by the by. I just don’t think we should be giving an 18 year old his debut in a match as important.
Move over Henri...
Almunia was given a game again, after 2 minutes he’d already spilled a shot. Should he be saving a strike that is directly at him? In my humble expert goalkeeping opinion, he certainly should have. The exceptional trait of the Spaniard’s career has generally been making errors that he could pass off as non-errors. He never bails you out of a tight spot, he’ll never keep out anything difficult and he’ll always, always look like he’s just been told that one night stand in Magaluf did have herpes.
I’ve no doubt we’ll be debating whether he should have saved it in the comments today. Ask yourself this, would Chezzer have got down to that? Of course he would have.
What’s the point in getting hugely upset though? This is the year of the replay. Sure Arsene has shot himself in the foot again by fielding players he shouldn’t trust, however, I’m sure we’ll bring them back to the Grove, we’ll infuse the team with a few first teamers and we’ll tear Orient a new one. They’ll walk away with a million pounds extra revenue, their fans will have a nice day out and we’ll progress into the next round of the FA Cup where we’ll face Manchester United.
Now, that game is of the UTMOST importance. Wenger made the mistake of throwing this game a few years ago when we lost 4-0 at their place. That had a dreadful impact on the rest of our season, so this is his chance to rectify his mistake. We need to beat United, we can’t give them any sort of morale boost that could kick them into a 10 game winning streak. Regardless of how you see the FA Cup, beating them would ensure us safe passage to the final and hopefully a cup double. If we lose that game, we stand to galvanise their belief and derail out title chase.
Arsene, you have a lot of thinking to do before that one.
Right Grovers, I’ll see you in the comments!
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incesc – He’s right, you do sound like you drink alot.
Evening all!
We have been very lucky with our draws but yet we seem to be making a meal of them trying to get thru them
Yeah cause Barcelona, Tottenham, and Manchester United are very easy cup draws.
I see what you mean though. United’s have been the same or somewhat easier even.
Talking about FA cup
Ye I see that. If we do get past Barca though, I want us to face Tottenham and smash them to pieces. Chelsea in the semis coz I think we have the measure of them this season and then Madrid in the final at Wembley.
If we’re going to win the Champions League I want us to win it in style.
I don’t think it matters about how lucky we’ve been, we’re in 4 compeitions and we’re playing every 3-4 days, we end up having to make 10 changes and we’re not quite making it count.
Forget luck, we’ve had piss poor luck with injuries over the past few years, isn’t there alarm bells ringing in peoples heads.
That come February our supposedly injury prone squad is playing in every competition going.
I’m surprised they didn’t expect us to go off to the World Club Championship aswell.
Rohan, if that happened I don’t think I would have any nails left
What a story that would be though: Arsenal winning the Champions League at Wembley of all places to become the first London team to win it.
And then we woke up after turning the PS on….
With United waiting in the FA Cup, you know who we will get next round in the CL if we get past Barca: United.
Aren’t the FA Cup semis played at Wembley as well? That would mean we could be going to Wembley 4 times this season. Holy shite
Rohan,
drugs are bad, m’kay
I mean, seriously, I would prefer to play against European teams in the CL and THEN we can play RM @ Wembley and keep the ol’ big ears in London!
then again, AW has pretty miserable record against Mourinho, o be careful what you wish for…
2 nil WHU
3 nil
4 nil
If we get past Barcelona, I fear absolutely no one. Not to mention everyone will fear us as well. Beat barcelona and we’ll be among the favorites for the title imo.
they’re not fucking about, showing who the real claret daddy is
WHU are on fire
Rohan
you feel absolutely no one atm
fear* sorry
Rohan,
Barca with their key defender missing are beatable, if George of the Jungle is still unfit and there is no Pique or Valdes either, the game is ours to lose, tbh…
unless we get hit in the opening minutes, that is…
then you have clubs that are no mugs and you can lose against each and every one of them, stranger things happened in cup competitions, eh?
with Arsenal, you never know which team turns up…
4-1
Is Thomas “The Hammer” Hitzlsperger playing?
Always loved him. Proper German hardman he was
Scored the 1st goal, a cracker from 25 yard
Same as old,then eh. Great shot he always had. Used to be one of my favorite players
What happened to the magic of the Cup? 9 places seperate West Ham and Burnley who could be playing each other next season.
Yesterday could have been 4-0 or more if we showed more urgency, Orient were quite poor they put men behind the ball and gave the ball away cheaply. They seemed nervous and showed us more respect than Leeds and Huddersfield, until Tehoue came on we were comfortable but as soon as he came on they were starting to get into the game and we couldn’t handle Tehoue’s movement and pace, our defenders started to struggle.
You know what happened next Almunia made himself look like a clown, it was a powerful shot but saveable if he read the shot properly instead of trying to grab it.
5-1 ft they play stoke
i just watched the o’s goal again just to give al then benefit of the doubt, maybe, but upon final reflection, he still looks like an absolute spastic.
yadayadayad….We didn’t watch the draw, as we were preparing for the match, but somebody told me just before the game started that we will play Manchester United if we go through.
If you cant get your team motivate after finding that out, what the fuck are you doing??????
and where the fuck is everyone?
Hitzlsperger’s goal is nice, he’s got a sweet left foot.
taxi for almunia, denilson, bendtner eboue fabianski squilaci
ill pay the fare
Evening all!
I’ve got a good post for you tomorrow… exciting times.
Have a good night!
Didnt watch the match yesterday and boy an i glad i didnt. It was always coming with Miquel and Squillaci in the middle, especially with Almunia behind them.
Chesney, a 20 year old rookie inspires more confidence than Al does, and its not surprising. Chesney has confidence and the ability to back it up. Al has been shit his whole career bar about half a season and he knows as well as everyone else that he is lucky to be at a club like ours. Why the fuck he was played is beyond me. wenger clearly has lost faith in him (about time too) so why fucking play him? I would rather James Shea start in goal.
RT @DanielNotaro: Jon Miquel Toral video scoring four goals. Left footed: http://bit.ly/g2iCIx”
about 1 hour ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®
NEW POST: Arsenal Agree Deal For Barcelona’s Toral http://goo.gl/fb/blhyB
about 1 hour ago via Google
Rac1 via @BarcaStuff says Arsenal will sign Jon Miquel Toral from Barcelona in the summer. A fee of €350,000 will change hands.
Looks like Nasri is staling on a new deal.
hello all
we are going to sign a 16yr old from barca academy…AGAIN…nice one arsenal
http://younggunsblog.co.uk/2011/02/arsenal-agree-deal-for-barcelonas-toral/
oh great, like we needed another 16 year old midfielder…
and oh, morning all
just dropping by, will be on my way to work shortly…
read on young guns this one has an English mother.
therefore, they can’t comment on his DNA
That Tehoue bloke apparently played for Bastia while Song was a reserve for them and he also hangs out with Diaby and Eboue.
NEW POST!
Where?
I will never understand why we complain about arsenal signing kids from barca =\ when cesc leaves we’re going to make s shit load on a transfer fee, why would you not want us to sign another possible cesc?
bullcrap!
Whoops…
There it is!
NEW POST!