…Kay Sarah Sarah, whatever will be will be, we’re going to Wemberly, Kay Sarah Sarah!
So who the hell are Kay and Sarah? Well I don’t give a monkey’s, this is Le Grove’s first Wembley final and we can’t wait! We’ve been begging the manager to put a strong side together for the Carling Cup and this season he’s finally done it, and guess what, we’re in the final!
It used to be called the league Cup and in 1993 Arsenal became the first team to win the Cup double, so it meant something then, I don’t remember losing to Swindon, but I do remember losing to Luton in that same competition, and I also remember winning it against Liverpool, and they never lost when Ian Rush scored first, well they weren’t counting on Charlie Nicholas were they!
So this competition used to mean something to Arsenal, and even when we lost to the chavs we still had a host of stars in it, well who cares, the boss is taking it seriously now and I am going to my first NEW Wembley Cup final and I can’t wait, we are finally going for some silverware.
We’ll start as rightful favourites but Cup finals often throw up surprises so we must be careful not to take them for granted, Luton still rankles!
We need to get in their faces and chase down the ball if they get it, keep the ball and pass them off the pitch, then let our forwards have it, if he starts with Arshavin, Robin and Nasri, I expect a goal fest.
If Song can keep his shape, stay in his own half and not get booked early then he will control their attacks, if Diaby plays and doesn’t give the ball away then we will have the power to over run them and let them know they won’t get away with their bully boy tactics.
The defence in full flow are as good as any defence under George Graham, and now I’m not worried about the panic we used to see, I put a lot of that down to our new wonderboy Chezzer, his family are coming over from Poland so I expect him to shine.
Make no bones about it Grovers, today we go into battle, it will be a war and we have to stand up and be counted, it reminds me of a time long since gone. 1066.
Their was a tribe of Vikings from Norway and they went by the name the Berserkers, a name from which our word berserk came from, these were nutters the Vikings often used as shock troops because they had no fear and kicked the shite out of opposing armies (teams)
They had no class and many believe they were on drugs (Black pudding and tripe) they did quite well until they came over and met the silky skilled Saxons (Arsenal), under King Harold (Wenger) Well needless to say they threw everything at those heroic and handsome Saxons and tried all their dirty tricks and unfair play, but the day was carried by the good guys and they won 4 nil.
Oh and yes, they also smelt bad, like a 4 day old rotten fish shoved up the rectum of three week old dead sheep in the middle of a heatwave in a nasty hot country somewhere where no-one washes.
Then the nasty ginger haired northerner was sent back home with his runners up medal and sacked shortly after they got relegated (Fergies mate).
The moral of the story is beauty and skill will always win over ugly, dirty cheating Northerners.
Today Arsene Wenger and his team will show the footballing world what it has to look forward to for the next 10 years.
Go Arsenal and do your duty, your fans expect, this is your time, this is our time and this could be the start of the greatest season ever witnessed in World football, it starts today, good luck and bring us back a trophy!
Follow the day a Pedro manned twitter account! Pics galore! @LeGrove
no question is was Kosielny’s fault….if hes going to swing his leg at it he should hit it…..or just get the fuck out of Chezzers way…..
but it happens….both are solid players….just a horrible moment from Kosielny
THE KEY IS TO MOVE ON…..DONT LET A CC FINAL RUIN THE SEASON
Wenger: A lot of questions are going to be asked, we must respond to those questions
Do you get the feeling of deja vu do you get the feeling of deja vu?
It’s guna be a tense couple of weeks
Matt, leave your ticket on the side then, I’m sure there are plenty who are still prepared to support that ‘dross!’
GP, it looked to me like he was going to do it and then got put off, but he should not have been, he makes his mind up to clear the ball and does it regardless, fuck the keeper. Trust me, I’m a CB and whether parks or EPL that is what you do.
Matthew T problem is we have already paid for our tickets until the end of the season
A cup is is cup. If we didnt want to win we would of never played a strong side against Spurs and so on. This cup gets you into Europe. And Birmingham will be loving it. we shud want to win everything and not caste this off as some waste cup.
Zorr0
I am sure there are and they are all mugs. i won’t give another penny to the club for it to sit in a bank account doing nothing other than increase the the value of the board members shares.
A cup is is cup. If we didnt want to win we would of never played a strong side against Spurs and so on. This cup gets you into Europe. And Birmingham will be loving it. we shud want to win everything and not caste this off as some waste cup. I agree with Nightman that we have to move on.
And i say it again, we have 14/15 players who are good enough for arsenal. Players like almunia,denilson
roscky, chamakh,eboue etc. have to go and we need to replace them with the lieks of bartley and frimpong and some signings. A 2nd striker like bojan would be a good thing.
DS:
I’m 50, just been diagnosed with a heart condition but been singing at games since the 70′s & no cunt is gonna tell me to sit down when when I’m backing my team, the team I love.
The team I’ve spent £000′s on, the team who even now still evoke terrible pain on days like this.
I can’t stand many of our new fans who have no passion & by the time they get home within a couple of hours theyve got over it.
So, I say to all proper Gooners.
If anyone tells you to sit down or stop swearing or stop singing…then tell them to FUCK OFF.
I can’t watch it again to fully debate either way, but from what I remember he swung as he got taken out. It all happened so quickly, I still put it all at chezzer I’m afraid. Like I said he will learn from this, he’s going to be a legend one day!
I’m over the main anger bit now
we still have alot to play for, all being major comps.
DDM says
“Apparently, the performance was down to the number of games our poor, pampered, perennial chockers have had to play……”
Sounds like your cricket manager after the 6-1 thumping.
Those teeth marks in most of the Arsenal fans arses. Check the DNA & you’ll be able to trace it back to Karma. Karma bit you on the arse today, coz of your over inflated egos. Next time, show the opo respect.
Blame yourselves for the loss. You are all mean’t to be the 12th man. Well the 12th man has been ponsing about like a smart arse for weeks since the Barca game.
Foster saves a shot from NB and doesnt spill it in front of TR7, whilst we gift them a huge fucking error and that wins u finals.
However on the day we not that good and they were slightly better then us but under wenger we wont win fuck all
Hear hear doublegooner, pride and passion
ARSENAL THE BIGGEST CHOKERS ON EARTH
I was there in 1969 v Swindon
I was there in 2011 v Birmingham
I am a fucking Jonah
Just feel so incredible sad for the team, we can slag them all we want but in the end they wanted to win and lost and that’s just f.cking sad!
You can keep the cricket for simpletons series, you know, i know and everyone else knows that the real series was won by England, remember the one? The Ashes?
You can keep all your mickey mouse one day internationals.
Funny how you did a Lord Lucan while your boys were being whipped on your own turf in the Ashes series, but miraculously you suddenly reappear when your one dayers start beating us…..
That sir is the behaviour of a Spud, NOT a Gentlemen Gooner.
just back from wembley, wat a disgarce
u bottle jobs
jack apart the rest were a shambles
kocielny at fault for goaland wenger subs were bollocks
Cricket is for cunts. Keep it off here.
DS:
I too was at the Swindon game. Proper suckers me & you.
Gnarley mate, are they your words? If so, I suggest you shut up and reserve any chat about karma to yourself. No one has been poncing about inviting karma, we all said that it would be tough, we did not bring our a team our our a game and we got bit on the arse by a simple error.
What the fuck has cricket got to do with it!
Agree with doublegooner,
Most the fans at wembley today we’re a bunch of sell-outs! I feel sorry for the real fans who cannot get tickets to these games & have to lose out to these prawn sandwich eating snobby s.o.b’s..
I could have really backhand slapped a few of them today.
Who’s surprised it was Koscielny who finally helped us blow it?
Jimbo
your mum was
i was there and agree that the fans are a joke far too many cunts, and it mirrors the players
lack of hunger
fed up of this shit
Fuck me now Jimbo joins in!
I am surprised mate, because he bossed Messi yet failed to clear one simple ball, he made an error, the whole team makes errors from time to time and today JD cost us the first and Kos, with a bit of help from Ches cost us the 2nd.
Move on!
Can we really blame Cesc for having his head turned by Barca after that sort of abject rubbish? Lets be objective about it, we sucked last night. We should have been 2 down and down to 10 men in the first half if the linesman got it right, huge let off. And still we couldn’t capitalise.
Ah well at least Jimbo’s happy,it gives him another chance to slag off a player.
Far too many “fans” are happy with the tippy tappy football, even though it more often than not ends in no end product. These are the very same “fans” who are just as well at home catching a west end show or popping out to the cinema. They have no real affinity to our great club and it’s vast history. All they know is AW and his pretty boy players. These are the very same “fans” who have no real idea as to what it is to be a real Gooner, a never say die Gooner, a Gooner who supports a team full of players who will die for the shirt, give every once of energy for the cause…..
How many of our current first team squad could be described as such as a proper Arsenal player?
Cant beleive we havn’t got another right midfielder apart from theo who is any good, so much for big squad
I was in block G today and reckon only half of the fans made some noise.
ounce
We needed some width today,maybe Gibbs and Eboue would of given us that late on
The funny thing about todays loss is that there are no excuses:
The pitch played well.
The ref and lino may as well been wearing Arsenal tops.
The usual excuse makers cannot complain.
Lets look at some facts:
1. The talent that we had available was better than what they had available.
2. With the decisions that we got although we lost we were the team that had the rub of the green.
3. When you have both the skill and the fortune against your opponent you should be beating them.
Where did it all go wrong:
Rosicky. I said the other day that there are two Arsenals – the one with Cesc and the one without. Cesc playing badly is still the best player in our squad, it amazes me that some mugs where saying that we should sell him in the summer. Rosicky played like a fucking handicapped goat.
Rosicky. What do you do when you have a guy playing complete and utter shite, what would Jose have done? I got a feeling he would have resisted the temptation to pull him on 30 mins because it was a final and pulled him at half time, Arsene? give him the full 90.
Subs. “Arshavins a lazy cunt” I have read this several times on this blog going through the comments. Yes Arshavin might be a lazy cunt but he is also one of the few match winners in the team. I waited for Bendy to come on to replace Rosciky and Nasri to be moved inside instead we had some bizzare changes which left us with not only a goat in midfield but two goats upfront, I am sure if it went to extra time Denilson would have come on just so we could get the full qouta of fucking goats on the field.
Motivation. You know tweeting how upset you are isnt going to cut it, I am bored of it already. I wonder how bored of it you will be if in two weeks time we are out of all comps. We played like a team who expected to win without trying.
Summer signings. We could go on about this forever. Today we got let down by the Goalie on the first and Kos on the second, someone said this before and they were right as a defender you dont worry about the goalie calling you get rid. Regardless of who you blame the point of this is there will always be someone to blame, today the GK and CB tomorrow JW has a shit game then its Toto and then you have the list of fuckwits who play one good and three shit games, Denilson, Diaby, Cham, Bendy, Rosicky, Flappy, Eboue and on and on and ariston. The point is if you have enough players in the team who are at the beggining of their learning curve or who are straight fucking wank and you have to carry these guys, eventual the weight will wear you down. Once again we got let down this summer.
Arsene. Tactics and motivation today wins him the big fat doughnut prize.
The future:
Chelsea United is now the biggest game on the Arsenal calender, if united turn over Chelsea and do Liverpool you can forget about the league. We need a full team to beat Barca, to have any chance. If we are missing Cesc Theo and RVP it will be a killing, another embarrasing night to add to the many in recent years.
There is a distinct possibilty the next two weeks could be worse than the last 6 years.
Alternatively -
If Chelsea do United, Liverpool scrape a draw and we manage to hold out for a draw in Barca were laughing again.
Which one would you put your money on?
Zorro, not sure if JD was at fault, you cant defend against that giant, looking at it again if Chezzzer stays on his line he may have not scored
ddm
I’d say Cesc, LJW, RvP, Szczesny, Nasri, Theo, Vermy
whats more, without those players involved we look dire…
no spine, no ‘never say die’ mentality – LJW worked his arse off in the first half, certainly he was getting out of steam late on, and there was nobody to step in and lead the rest
Add Sagna to that list
DDM
Tip Tappy Football when it works is an absolute joy to watch. The problem is when it isnt working, we dont seem to have a plan B.
Our Substitutions are either like for like, or worse like for unlike and the player coming on is doing so into an alien position. There is never a tactics change and god forbid we ever switched it to a 4-4-2.
I have said it for a while now, but I do think we need fresh ideas at the club. Leadership on and off the pitch is lacking. I just wish the Qatari Royal Family would switch their attention to us now that they cant buy Man Ure, cos this current financial model that limits the level of quality we can buy sucks sweaty balls.
Bossed Messi
ROFL.
Any idea what has happened to the pre christmas Chamakh.At present he is absolute shite.
That fucking ginger haired manc loving Scottish cunt has mugged off Arsene, another dent in the Arsene aurra! The Sweaty got the best outta his troops, they played their collective hearts out for their club, manager, fans…….how many of our boys can say that………..AGAIN!
I’d really really like to write this game off as a freak accident, not the players lacking passion.
A few of them may be past it and not good enough, but I do believe each and every one of them have Arsenal in their heart. Our players are more Arsenal than the Chavs are Chavs imo.
I know a lot of you have a habit of ignoring what I actually say, and responding to what you’d like me to have said, but anyway…
I thought today underlined exactly what’s wrong with Koscielny – a talented player, capable of looking good for 89 minutes, then undermining the whole team with a horrific error. Same thing happened today.
We deserved to lose today, Birmingham wanted it more. Pathetic arsenal, pathetic manager.
DS – yup, forgot about Bac. Dare I say he is the most consistent provider in our team?
WTL,
I agree mostly with what youve written, and I had the exact same thoughts on Wengers ill-advised idea to sub Arsha rather than Tomas…
that bet is a hard one. Chavs surely can do Mancs on Tuesday, while the Barca clash largely depends on who will be available for both sides (read today that Xavi, Puyol and Valdes are doubtful)
I’d say we concentrate on our games in the league, cause up to now we can only blame ourselves for not being top
Also I think we stand a nice chance of winning the FA Cup, provided we win at OT (btw, what a season-defining moment that could be…)
Lacks confidence, you can see that
WTL@21:52 spot on my friend
I really fail to see how the blame for the goal has now turned completely onto Koscielny.
Chesney had it coming if I’m to be honest..he’s been mouthing off a bit too much on twitter and in the press. Probably a good thing to remind him that he’s not all that yet.
Anyway, I was big enough to come here after the Barca game and take my hat off to an excellent Koscielny performance.
Today though, he’s just cost us a cup, and I fucking hate the mongy twat for it.
Jimbo
I respect Brum for playing their hearts out, etc., but still… it’s not that they’ve won it, it’s we’ve lost it.
And I agree that the likes of Song and Rosicky wanted it less than the likes of Larsson or Johnson
Forget about this talk about man u wishing to fail, we fail ourselves in the end, its wishfull thinking man u will fuck up
Yeah if we can win at Old Trafford (of course providing we get past the O’s) , it’ll be a massive boost to us psychologically in the title race.
We need RvP to stay fit though. If the scans tomorrow give bad news, I’m afraid we just may have to treat him as a luxury and buy another world class striker and let Chamakh go or something. Either way, he’s too good to sell though. I sincerely think he’s in the top 5 strikers in the world when fit.
Were it not for injury, god knows how good he actually would be.
It doesn’t fall completely onto Koscielny, but what the fuck was he doing?
Running across the keeper then dummying the ball?
WHY?
Rohan agree
Jimbo, as soon as the keeper calls for it, any fuck up is his. He lost concentration and it cost us.
And Rohan is right, Chesney has been very vocal on twitter recently and I think he will have been put back in his box after that. I think these players need to actually deliver something before getting so cocky and that is why I am surprised they are often guilty of complacency.
Koscielny didn’t cost us the cup. Stop making out like he’s some sort of calamity and a shit defender.
Today wasn’t his fault imo. It was perhaps a lack of miscommunication. He’s learning and hopefully the team will learn from it.
Rohan what has chezzer been saying? did he say anything relating to cuntley cole?
Jimbo
Fuck off cunt. no one wants you here today.
Pat – if the keeper calls for it, you don’t start morris dancing in front of him.
Kos had no idea what he was doing there.
Lol AA23.
Where were you today? I was at Wembley. You?
Rohan – a lack of miscommunication? Sounds like something George Bush would say!
Look, Koscielny was about to boot it. Chesney made an error of judgment and made an extremely late and foolish call for the ball. I’ve always been taught to trust the keeper in any calls he makes.
And given that Chesney was looking like he was going to charge straight into the ball and Kozzer, and under no pressure what so ever, I really think it’s extremely harsh to blame Koscielny.
When Cole missed the penalty to send Chelsea out of the FA cup, he said something along the lines of: “Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Cole kicking Chelsea out of the FA Cup”
Jimbo, you do when he calls for it so late.
If he doesnt call for it, Kosser puts it in row Z. If the keeper calls for it in time, kosser leaves it and keeper takes it. When you leave it so late, it throws everyone and shit like that happens.
And I dont think Kosser was in a poor position either. Zigic had been nodding on balls all day and Martins was looming.
How is it harsh, Rohan, he charged right in front of the keeper then dummied the ball.
Yes, if Sczczezzzney called for it then he shares the blame, but if Squillaci had done what Kos did today can you imagine how this place would react?
Koscielny made an awful error. Sczczczczeszzzzney is, at least partly, also responsible.
Have zero respect left for senile Arsene.
Time for a change.
Jimbo, how much did Messi get out of Kos 2nd half then? Love the fact the haters come out to rinse a player when he makes an error! Easy prey.
1st goal, Corner comes over and JD is marking freak, as it swings out to edge of box, for some unknown reason JD starts making his way out towards the edge. Ball headed back in, freak under no pressure knows he just needs to diver the ball from it’s path to score.
Perhaps Chesney could have stayed on his line and had a chance to save it.
2nd goal. Kos has to clear the ball. End of. Ches may have put him off, but he laces the ball and it is not an issue.
He was stood in front of his own keeper waving his legs at the ball. It was poor, poor play.
The keeper made an extremely late call for the ball. The key point is that Chesney was under no pressure. Don’t think it’s an error on Koscielny’s part that Chesney would concentrate and not let it bounce off his knee into Obafemi’s path
I think the case is: a defender more experienced than Koscielny wouldve made a clearance, if not – a keeper more experienced than Szczesny still wouldve managed to collect it (Wojtek took his eyes off the ball)
They were both at fault
Zorr0 – not much. How much did he get out of him in the first half? A couple of one-on-ones with Chesney and a wrongly disallowed goal. See, that’s the thing about Koscielny – he’s good for most of the match, but rarely goes a whole 90 minutes without doing something awful.
lol Rohan What a legend.
he would be a top GK IMO. he should just realise he isnt there yet
As a team we are too reliant on Cesc….. Cesc is so good he makes the average players in the team look ok
Song looks twice as good when he plays with Cesc
Rohan – the ‘pressure’ came from Koscielny. That was precisely the problem.
Where should he have been standing then?
My point is that Chesney’s poor latecall started the chain of events. I’m not saying that Koscielny should be absolved of all blame either.
I just think it’s a bit rich of you to come on here and start slating Chesney and act like he’s a shit defender and some sort of Senderos MarkII when the goal wasn’t really all his fault.
It isn’t fair on him in my opinion. I know you don’t rate Chesney but I do think it’s uncalled for.
Fair do’s if you disagree.
pawel – I think that’s spot on.
Jimbo
I was shafting your sister
again
One team treated the game like a final.
The other treated it like a normal kick about, didnt show up and didnt take it seriously.
Guess which team won?
Jimbo
but if Squillaci had done what Kos did today can you imagine how this place would react?
I would counter that by saying
but if Almunia had done what Chesser did today can you imagine how this place would react?
Prior to Christmas I thought Kosser was diabolic, but since then he has looked very good. I just dont think today was his fault. Keeper is to blame for the goal.
Actually, Rohan, what I said was that Koscielny ‘helped us blow it’ – that doesn’t suggest that he’s entirely to blame (equally, our toothless attack has a LOT to answer for), but he WAS absolutely 100% in the thick of the cock up that cost us the game.
Let’s leave it there though. We can’t do anything about it now and I’m sure both of them will learn from this.
We can only hope we’re stronger as a result of this horrible day.
Gosh AA23, aren’t you clever.
“Today though, he’s just cost us a cup, and I fucking hate the mongy twat for it.
”
Really?
pat – you could counter like that, but then I’d point out that we haven’t seen Chesney do that over and over again in the last few years. We’ve seen a lot of mistakes from Almunia, Squillaci and Koscielny. Very different situations.
Koscielny has looked better since Christmas because almost all of the teams we’ve played have been crap.
Besides if the players had actually bothered to turn up and put in a decent shift the mistake at the end would have been irrelevant
Yep, I really hate Koscielny.
AA23, lol. You and Jimbo not beer buddies then?
Rohan, seriously? You have any doubt, you lace the ball and sort it whilst the oppo are fetching out the river or the nettles! It was Kos’s fault, because he should have cleared it, regardless of anything else. Chesney is also culpable for his role in it. JD at fault for first.
All you can hope is that they learn and move on and become better for a bad experience. After all, anyone saying TV is any better must be forgetting his performance at Nou Camp last season, which was shocking!
Jimbo
only sensible thing youve ever said.
What like Barca Jimbo???
The best attacking team on the planet, and yet that mong Kosser was one of the best players on the pitch.
Rohan – ok, let’s put it like this:
The overall team performance was very poor. But the decisive moment in the game came down to an appalling error, for which Koscielny takes a large part of the blame as an individual.
lol Jimbo really?? City, Chelsea, Barca were probably his three best matches…. Barca certainly his best. The better the team we’re up against the better Koscielny seems to play.
Today was shit for most of us, no surprise that you’re on here you must have absolutely LOVED it when that winner went in.
It was just one of those things, fingers can be pointed and people can be blamed but that’ll achieve nothing. The biggest element of today’s game is the VP injury – I REALLY hope the fears/rumours are unfounded.
I think the way we treated the final as a whole kinda seeped into the game itself
Apparently we didnt even get suits for the event
Imagine turning up for a final at Wembley in tracksuits
Fine we have other fish to fry but we should have treated the game like it was the last of the season
unnecessary forward planning has killed us too often too many. forget about the next game and deliver this one which would have taken off a lot of pressure
Yep Rohan, we’ll learn from this.
Just liked we learned in all the others we bottled.
The gravy train keeps rolling on.
And I said he was very good against Barca (not flawless), pat, Koscielny has played most of the season here, not just one game against Barcelona.
No, if the keeper calls for it, you trust him and assume that he’ll handle it. Again, a key point is that, Chesney really wasn’t under any pressure whatsoever to collect the ball. The ball practically nestled onto his lap.
Regardless of Koscielny, I’d expect him to keep his eyes on the ball. The ball’s trajectory didn’t change whatsoever and really should’ve been a routine save. He made a blunder. Shit happens as well. Can’t do anything about it except move on.
On a positive note though.
Man City dropped more points.
Liverpool’s new dawn has quickly set to dusk and it looks like the PL will take further action on Rooney
A – honestly, we’ve been through this.
Against Chelsea Koscielny gave away a goal by losing Ivanovic. City? They didn’t attack AT ALL – the most unadventurous team I’ve ever seen at the Emirates, and that includes Chris Kirkland’s Wigan.
Barca he was great. I agree – his best performance as an Arsenal player. But Chelsea was exactly the kind of game he regularly has – generally good, one awful error. City we didn’t even need defenders for.
Yeah, I agree. That’s the worst part of the day. van Persie’s rumoured injury. If it’s anything longer than 2 weeks, it’s season over unless Bendtner can recreate his form from the second half of last season.
Even then, without van Persie and theo, we may as well write off Barcelona unless we put in a defensive performance better than Inter”s
Rohan – the key point is that Koscielny was putting Chesney under pressure, by the way he was behaving in front of him. And I don’t agree with necessarily listening to the keeper – when you’re that committed, there’s nothign you can do about it, and if you’re going to end up fucking things up as much as Koscielny did, you put your boot through it, then sort it out with the keeper after.
Really pat, coz United’s next 3 domestic games are scheduled to be Liverpool, Chelsea and us/Orient in the FA cup.
Don’t know how good a thing that is though. He’s still not in the best of form.
I’d say that City are an irrelevance pat, it’s all about utd now – two horse race. If they take action on Rooney I guess that’d mean that he’ll miss Chelsea away, Liverpool away and us in the FA Cup, although with them playing Chelsea on Tuesday perhaps there won’t be enough time to ban him for that, especially as Utd could well appeal I guess
Subs. “Arshavins a lazy cunt” I have read this several times on this blog going through the comments. Yes Arshavin might be a lazy cunt but he is also one of the few match winners in the team. I waited for Bendy to come on to replace Rosciky and Nasri to be moved inside instead we had some bizzare changes which left us with not only a goat in midfield but two goats upfront, I am sure if it went to extra time Denilson would have come on just so we could get the full qouta of fucking goats on the field.
******
that part is so true wtl.
Quite frankly we should go to Brum in the summer and ask them what they want for Johnson
Jimbo
I would much preferred Arsenal to go out and buy a PL ready World Class CB last summer, but we didnt and we bought Kosser. He appeared to be pretty poor for the first half of the season but I put that down to a couple of factors. Firstly this is his first season at a top flight club, secondly he was playing with Squilacci who is poor.
You said he had only been good since christmas as we had only played shit teams, yet as I pointed out his best game in an Arsenal shirt was against Barca.
May as well leave this one, as opinions differ,
Guys, don’t worry…..6 years without silverware but we signed a 16 year old last week.
Sums up that cunt wenger really.
How long are they saying rvp may be out?
Heard a rumour to explain why chamakh has been so shit of late. Anyone else aware of this?
Time to put the blame away, especially as we cant agree! We fucked up as a club. Move on.
Must win the 2 games coming up now and then regroup.
pat, and I don’t deny that his performance against Barca was good. But it was one good performance. What about his performance against Ipswich? Or his error today (if you agree that it was, at least in some way, an error)?
I would agree with you if and only if there were Birmigham players around.
chesney is a top world class goalkeeper. You would expect him to deal with that. I don’t know. Maybe it’s a case of having too much trust in your keeper? Maybe inexperience….My only point is that I feel that the goal is primarily Chesney’s fault. Koscielny was involved though and you coming out with a comment like “he’s cost us the cup” is very very unfair.
A
I think much depends on what happens in the next 7 days. If Man Ure get anymore than a point in those fixtures I dont see us mounting a challenge and think we will slip off the pace.
Todays just adds further proof that whilst Man Ure may well drop points elsewhere, the likelyhood is we will probably monk it up somewhere else.
Knee ligaments is what the rumour on twitter is Zorro, which would mean definitely out for Barca….
Sunderland and West Brom are absolutely massive games now. My main concern in the others are that we don’t get any more injuries….
Zorr0 – apparently Chamakh’s been snapped with some hookers in vegas or something. I don’t know.
Point is, though I think Koscielny has looked better since Christmas in many games (but not all, at all), I think the fact that most of the opposition have been poor goes some way to make me very cautious before doing an about face and declaring him the saviour of our defence.
If anything, I think he’s ridden on Djourou’s coat-tails somewhat.
Sky Sports News are going to love showing this,it means they can Gloss over the Rooney incident
In each of them you mean pat? Yeah I agree, if they win either it would really give them confidence and show that they’ve turned the tide in terms of being pants away from home….
Rumours from Carrington that Rooney has fallen out with Giggs, Owen and Scholes….no serious bust up but they are distant with him.
If he’s properly done his knee, you don’t need a scan to know that – a physio can get a good idea fairly quickly by moving the joint.
If it’s knee ligaments, he’ll almost certainly miss the rest of the season, depending on which ones.
Jimbo
Last one on this one from me.
In hindsight the only thing Kosser did wrong was not putting it into row Z regardless of what Chesser said, but the unwritten rule in football is when the keeper calls for it, you leave it and that is what he did.
99 times out of 100 if you run that sequence of events through again, Chesney will take the ball comfortably.
I don’t completely agree there. the months of december and January, Djourou definitely helped Kozzer look better but in February I think it’s been the other way round. JD has looked a bit dodgy at times.
I don’t think it’s too serious. Might be just a strain or something. If he did fuck them, I don’t think he’d be able to play at a more than high level until the 70th minute. Think Wenger was being cautious and took him off then.
That’s the only bit of optimism I can manage.
Yeah sorry A, I meant in both of them.
They are a team that tend to come good in the 2nd half of the season. Also think a lot depends on what happens with Rooney. Regardless of whether they are playing Berbatov or Hernandez, a lot goes through Rooney and if he does get a ban, they will struggle.
Yep pat very true.
Imo he should’ve put his foot through it and made sure, certainly in that situation at the end of the game.
Then again defenders would usually do that with an Almunia type keeper behind them but it shows the trust that the defenders have in Szczesny that he left it.
Just REALLY hope there isn’t a lasting impact on both Szczesny and Koscielny, along with the likes of Wilshere.
Jimbo, that’s the story I heard too.
Knee ligaments? Fuck! You could see why though, it was top quality to get to the ball and turn it round the corner the way he did, but then the defender caught him and that would have jarred his leg.
Barca without Fab, Theo and RvP. Nothing like having to do it the hard way!
Yep I agree pat, and psychologically it would be a big blow for them.
Granted they are a second half of the season side but I don’t think they’ve ever been as bad away from home as they have this season. Wigan though was a good result in the end and I hope that doesn’t break their away from home crapness. Although it could’ve been very different, Rooney should’ve gone and Wigan missed early chances, otherwise it could’ve been more dropped points….
The only thing about Koscielny I’d say is that so far I think he has been a tad unlucky at Arsenal be it today or with those red cards and such.
That hasn’t really helped to endear him to the Arsenal faithful. Hopefull his and our luck changes for the better.
Pat – but this is the point I keep repeating – by getting so close and committed to the ball, Koscielny was CREATING pressure on Ches, because he was simply a distraction. Yes, I agree that normally that wouldn’t end up like that with the goal, but once you’re as committed as Koscielny was, and then try to change your course of action, you’re inviting disaster. And we both saw today what can happen.
From Wankunia
Did anyone see Lee Bowyer smack Koscielny on the back of the head as he was on the floor after he messed up? That was a disgrace. Lee Boywer is a cnut of the highest order. No need for that.
Pat, no way mate. Unwritten rule is, any doubt, deal with it and get rid!
Zorr0 – when Robin tried to stand after the goal, you could see his knee looked really unsteady underneath him.
Problem is, it might not be a ruptured ligament, but if it’s strained then he’s going to have to rest completely for at least a couple of months to make sure he doesn’t invite a tear. That’s exactly what happened to me.
I think Wilshire will be fine A. Nothing fazes that lad at all. I thought he was excellent again today. I said it earlier but I cant wait to see him and Ramsey together. The golden boys of British Football playing together is potentially superb.
I also think Chesser will be ok. He seems a very over confident lad and if anything I think this could do him good and get his feet back on the ground.
That Brum player who slapped Kos head, could affect him more in a bad way he will never forget that
Jimbo he should have been getting so close to it, he should have been doing EXACTLY what he was doing and he should’ve been EXACTLY where he was! The mistake was not putting his foot through it and listening to Szczesny’s call, not the position he got himself into. If he was in any other position or he’d done anything else other than try to clear the ball then he would’ve been making a mistake….
Was that Lee Bowyer then? What a classless inbred lowlife of the highest order.
Talk about kicking a man when he’s down. If I were Koscielny I’d have raged and beaten the living shit out of him right then and there. I guess that’s why I’m not a pro footballer.
buying kocielny as our main defensie summer signing was a disgrace.
dont blame him blame wenger.
hes too young and inexperienced we should have got someone with much more big game experience.
Yes, A, that was exactly his mistake – NOT putting his foot through it. He was committed to that, and whatever Chesney might have shouted, Kos needed to get rid.
Then again, if Kos had been nowhere near it, Ches would have had no problem claiming. Martins wasn’t creating any pressure until we spooned it.
Yeah but you’re a fat b****** aren’t you, Jimbo. Your knees probably couldn’t take the weight.
Sorry, couldn’t resist. Seriously though, if he really were fucked I don’t think he’d have been able to play for another 40 minutes or so.
I think it’s just bruising or maybe a slight strain. Either way, there’s a decent chance he won’t be there for Barca.
If Kos had been nowhere near it then he would’ve been woefully out of position and not going his job Jimbo….
That’s a situation that occurs time and time again in football, and 99% of the time the keeper calls for it, defender pulls out at the last minute, and the keeper just picks it up.
Mugabe medIa lockdown in full effect.
Anyone ventured out in the non arsenal-centric world to see what’s up?
You always trust your keeper and their calls. It’s one of the basic tenets of defensive play.
If anything, the players trust Szczeny too much. It’s just a freak goal, but naturally something that always happens to us.
As pat said, rerun that sequence, 99 out of 100 times, they wouldn’t have scored. It was just a fuckup and had nothing to do with the players involved not being good enough.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Certainly in my case, you can completely snap your cruciate and still run around without it being repaired (provided you give it a few weeks for the swelling to go down!). But you can just feel that your range of movement isn’t what it should be, and that there are certain actions you won’t be able to control.
That said, I’m not saying that’s what Robin’s done. Just that you can damage your knees quite badly without it being obvious at first glance. If he’d snapped his cruciate completely (or any other ligament, as far as I’m aware), he’d have been on the ground and would not have gotten up. More likely, it’s a sprain, and he could tell that certain movements would be problematic.
Wenger the liar at 21.52 Thank god for your sanity. I go to bed a little less depressed than i would have done.
A – if Kos had been nowhere near, the ball would have gone straight into the goalie’s arms. Koscielny could as well have been man marking Martins, and we’d have been completely sage.
“It’s one of the basic tenets of defensive play.”
I thought it was ‘if in doubt, hit it out (especially when you’re in the last minute of a level cup-final)’?
Team for Weds then….
Almunia
Eboue Squillaci Miquel Gibbs
Diaby Denilson Rosicky
Bendtner Chamakh Arshavin
I’d put a couple of kids on the bench too, Chuks Aneke could have a run out as sub
Jimbo if Kos had been nowhere near then he would’ve been nowhere near where he SHOULD be every time that we’re in that position, so it would have been terrible defending!
It’s pretty sad that no one’s going to care about van Persie’s goal now because it really was an absolute stunner. Contender for goal of the season imo and one of his best. His goals just keep getting better and better.
dont A that team is well depressing
almunia, eboue, squillacci, dsnilson, rosicky and chamakh?
i could cry
What on earth are you talking about A? It was a ball that was going straight into the keepers arms. The keeper was under no pressure. Koscielny left a free man on the edge of the box, who was not challenging for the ball, to get into the keeper’s way.
Koscielny had no need to get involved at all, but when he did, he had no choice but to hit it.
That team will not beat Orient.
It’s simply not capable of scoring. And if Van Persie’s out, we cannot risk Arshavin – he and Nasri are our only genuine attackers (unless you count the attacking work Jack does) who are not injured, and we desperately need him.
Fine with me incesc. More concerned about none of the first teamers playing than that game, and that team should smash Orient at home (although that has been the case in quite a few matches!)
arshavin and bendtner would tear them to shreds though.
maybe aneke and freeman on the bench
No, Jimbo. Chesney was originally stationed on his line. What if he didn’t come for it if Koscielny hadn’t followed the ball leaving Obafemi free to shoot.
Koscielny did nothing wrong in the build up. He was where he was supposed to be imo. The main point is that chesney’s call was much too late
Damnit A, you’re going to get some stick for that now. Just watch.
Jimbo there was a free ball coming into our area. It is Koscielny’s job to get rid of it unless Szczesny claims it.
If he had done ANYTHING different then he simply wouldn’t have been doing his job
Koscielny did literally nothing wrong, until he left the ball. Prior to that he was in the perfect position that he should have been in.