Bolton vs. Arsenal [R] Pre/dur/Post Match

C/rap. This blows. I cannot believe we played that poorly for a full 90. Ridiculous. If this is how we want to play the rest of the season, we don't deserve the title in the least bit. It'll take us beating MANUre and Chelsea, MANUre beating Chelsea themselves, and a few other miricles down the way that go hand in hand with us going undefeated the rest of the season with no or very few ties. Plain and simple...we played like crap...and when fixture list comes out, one always gets worried about playing Bolton. The Wanderers always seem to give us a run for our money and this time they pulled it out...but we have to rebound and stay solid as a team. And Wenger has to stop putting this system on the pitch. We cannot do what we did last year, in the same system, without the players being able to play their natural positions and with tons of injuries.

I've never been one to criticize Arsene all that much, but it's become apparant to me that he never tries to compensate for what he has lost and shift the formation to our advantage...

Let's just give a strong effort the rest of the season, we've still got a great shot at the FA Cup and CL. This isn't to say the League isn't winnable...it's just...er...an outside shot. But if anyone knows that miricles can happen in the last months of a season and get the title taken out from under someone...it's us (once again...don't mean to inflict painful memories of '02-'03...just had to get my point across).

Ok...sorry for going off on a few tangents...back to topic.

yummy

did your dad just spoof in your mouth?

does anyone have any theories as to WHY this happened? is it honestly still a manure hangover?? or does the reason not matter...?

i'd like an answer in the hopes that it makes me feel a bit better. like, is henry still not at full fitness?

all in all, horrible day. all the main results went completely the wrong way...

partly that and teams realised we aren't as good as they thought we were.

vieira is no longer a legend and henry should acknowledge why he won't win the WPOY. pires is over the hill, arsene isn't a good tactical manager. he also can't buy a decent gk if his life depended on it. hoyte sucks. bergkamp should retire and the only positive from this season so far is cesc and freddie.

longlive freddie!

This was a Horrible Result, I couldnt stop yelling at My TV. What was up with Henry looking Like He was going to Cry the whole Match? Its pathetic. Ive been saying for a long time that we shouldnt keep playing Fabregas, today we paid the price. His youth and inexperience showed today, For long stretches of the match he looked like a deer cought in headlights. He looked lost on the field. I actually thought Vieira had a good game, but most of the time he was back helping the defence. We put some good passes together but the final ball wasnt there, I really think we gave up the title today but who could expect us to Keep up with Chavski? I dont think the Premiership will ever be the same after this season, who is supposed to compete with Chelsea and their Owners Millions?

Its a sad day for Arsenal.



-N1

No, you are 11 points behind us....

We will see. We still have a really really slim chance but it is a chance.

Simply put duck, you cant win em all. I dont think the Man U game would still be in the minds of the players now, and to be honest most of the premiership clubs are very good footballing sides. Sure there is a gulf between the top and the bottom, but this is one of the toughest leagues to take points from. Anyone can beat anyone on their day. Thats why its the best in the world.

Can't really point ant BIG blame fingers at anyone. Sometimes you loose games. To a new fan this looks like the end of the world, cos new fans have probably only seen us loose to so called "big clubs".

I digress - bottom line. ******** happens.

I feel you man. Henry looked like something was bothering him. They named Diouf as the man of the match. He was doing what Henry normally does.

I don't know, I don't think it's that Bolton should have been pushovers. We've all seen how we seem to struggle against them, and how they seem to step up to big games, and I have a lot of respect for Sam Allardyce as a manager. I think the focus of most of the comments has been on how poorly we played, and that we should have been more in the game. I mean, we'd expect to be there against ManU or Chelsea, so expecting that we should play better against Bolton than we did doesn't mean we regarded them as a poor side.

I think this season comes down to two things, or really one that the second would compensate for if we had it. The team we saw last year has regressed toward (not to) the mean -- last year everything went our way, we had few injuries, and everybody played at or near the top of their game a good deal of the time. This year fewer things are going well, more of the things that can mess you up, such as injuries, are happening, and we have more players who just aren't at their best. We don't have the depth to compensate for the injuries, fatigue and just plain being off-form that we've seen this year. No manager in his right mind would play a 17 year-old as much as Cesc has played, but we've had no choice. With more depth, if someone is off a few games, somebody else steps in and plays at the same level. We just haven't seen that.

Or not. I don't know if I'm making any sense.

That is exactly what I thought during the game...either an illness like 'flu or an injury.

It's all over boys. CL to look forward to.

Wenger really needs to reshuffle the lineup, especially after this match. Put Jose and Dennis back into the lineup and use Cesc and Van Persie as subs. Or bench Pires and use him as a late sub. That seemed to bring good results earlier in the season. And for the love of god please bench Almunia. I've always been hesitant to bench Lehmann and now I know why.

Well, while there's still a slim chance for us, Chelsea would have to choke like we did 2 seasons ago. But I think we should worry about fending off ManUre for second place as they seem to be on form as well. Lord know what would happen if we had to play in the qualifying round for the CL. We'd make Newcastle look like AC Milan.

CF finally showed what AW had been saying for a while - the fella is only 17. As he has shown in some of the big games this year - he is lightweight as well. He'd still walk into most PL teams at the minute but yo cannot expect him to perform heroics for months on end. Alumnia is a clown. No more analysis needed. Van Persie is not the prospect that DB10 was.

Easy to be critical now. Arsenal are still a magnifient side. 3 defeats in 63 league games. We've been spoilt. It's just unfortunate we've been met with the Bank of Russia. Had 2005 been 2002, we'd be looking at a definite 2 in a row at least. We can only hope Munich are not on form when we meet and Gilberto etc are raring to go.

As for the PL, good luck to Chelsea - you'll never be the Arsenal of 03/04 but you're good.

Just got back from the match, we were awful and didn't deserve a point out of this matche never mind the 3 we needed. I think the gap is too big now to catch Chelsea, although I won't concede yet. Anyhow, one thing that is certain is that Cesc needs a rest. He looked poor today. His passing and positioning was well below par.

Also today showed just why Almunia is not yet there. He was very poor and certainly gave the players no confidence at all.
Onto the CL now I think, we have to win that one at some point. Well done Bolton, you played us off the park with some ex Madrid pensioners, an amazing talent in Okocha and a Liverpool reject who played like Henry. You deserved all three points today.

Oh, and Bobby - LEARN TO BLOODY HEAD IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION, MISSING OPEN GOALS IS NOT GOING TO HELP US!!!!

Rick, imagine your Arsenal boss for a second. You say you wont concede yet, and certainly if the team gives up they are assured not to win. However do you continue to run out the first team, and hope Chelsea do the improbable and drop 10 points in 15 games, or do you play the reserves and focus on the Cup and CL?

This is what I was going to say. We need that automatic spot, so we need to fight for second place all the way with Man U so close now.

We play our first team and we fight for every point, because that's the Arsenal way.

I'm not disgusted with the Bolton loss. As you point out, Bolton is a good team and ******** happens. But I would be disgusted if we threw in the towel and played the reserves. That's not the Arsenal I support.

(In other news, J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets. )

Hoooo ya!

While it's impossible to know, I reckon that had we won this match, we probably sign Essien from Lyon. Now that defending the Premiership crown appears unlikely and Essien is cup-tied in the CL, I feel confident that we won't move for him before the transfer window closes.

That loss was pretty sad. I was trying to think back to a worse team performance by Arsenal before I decided to just let it go and focus on what we need to do now.

The team looked disorganized and tired for much of the match. Part of that you can blame on Bolton's style but most of it rests within our club. We simply need a bigger side and AW needs to make better use of our emerging players. I'm not talking about buying half a dozen all-stars like Chelski but we need a little depth and we need it fast. If AW sticks with his current formula, then I doubt we'll end up with anything at the end of the year but a CL spot and a bitter taste.

Cesc looked like a 17yr old who had played one game too many. Cole turned the ball over to the other side more often than he completed a pass. Henry, Bobby, RVP, and Ljung did nothing with chances that they would likely have scored earlier this season or anytime last season. PV is still looking like a zombie pretending to be our midfield dominator. Ljung tried hard but seemed to lack that second and third gear that are so crucial to his game. Hoyte's performance just proves how much better Lauren is then he gets credit for here. I won't even mention ALmunia other than say, "Welcome back, Jens!" The subs were uninspiring at best.

We need to just focus on staying in a CL position as we place more focus on the FA cup and CL. I'm hoping that the team will play a bit less tight now that the EPL title is almost certainly gone. It might convince AW to give Cesc a rest a few times and make use of some our young good players more such as Clichy and Pennant. Could they have played much worse than what we had on the field today?

We need to buy a player or two this transfer window and not wait until the summer. We must bring in at least one adequate center mid and defensive cover. This plus better use of our existing depth should provide sufficient cover for the remainder of the season.

Meow. My saucer of milk just tumbled all over me and now Im a very soggy moggy. I need help....

MUMMMMYYYYYY!!!