BCity vs Ars (R)

[Nate2L]

2-0 with 10 minutes left. looks like we will stay a top. sounds like we got the first goal and sat back and defended. capital gold made is sound like it was all bcity in the second half. anyone who saw the game care to disagree with that?

getting nervous about milan with the way capital gold sounded.

[Nate2L]

Pires just made it 3-0

Ljungber in the 4th
Bergkamp in the 80th
Pire in the 86th

[TheSlipperyOne]

Clichy started in defense. Aliaidiere and Hoyte also got into the game in the second half.

Good to see some youth getting out there. Senderos is almost fully recovered from his injury and has been playing for the reserves.

A good result over a weaker team, instead of tying them like seemed to happen against weaker teams last year.

[Its only Ray Parlour]

My understanding is/was Clichy played in the centre of midfield alongside Edu. With Cygan and Campbell in central defense a Toure playing right back.

[ArsenalTexan3]

Clichy didn't play too bad and neither did Cygan. Great through ball for Bergkamp. Ljungberg should have had another to his collection. Not bad even if Arsenal went on the defense mode.

[dwinkler]

Originally posted by its_only_ray_parlour
My understanding is/was Clichy played in the centre of midfield alongside Edu. No one's quite right. Clichy didn't start in defense, even though that's what the lineup on TV showed. He started in Pires's spot at left midfield. Toure was at RB, Pires and Edu were in the middle. And, despite all the hand-wringing about being too lightweight in the middle, we had absolutely no trouble with arguably the roughest central midfield in the league.

Clichy was much better than "didn't play too bad." He showed pace and poise, and his footballing brain was perhaps the most impressive thing about him. When he was taken off early in the 2nd half, Pires moved back out left and Kanu moved into central midfield. Again, absolutely no trouble at all from Cisse and Savage.

Cygan, who merited about 20 hand-wringing posts on the Arsenal mailing list before the match, was our best defender. He was absolutely excellent.

The fact that Birmingham came into this game 5th in the league shows just how poor the English league is. Everyone wonders why we struggle in Europe; well, here's one reason why - very little genuine competition week in week out.

Hoyte and Aliadiere got in the game for all of about 45 seconds, so it wasn't exactly a youth-fest, but Clichy's performance was very good.

Oh, yeah, Thierry Henry was man of the match by a mile, setting up all three goals.

P.S. Arsene knows.

[GJ40]

Henry was absolutely brilliant. Anything is possible with him on the pitch. Hopefully the others will threaten enough on Tuesday to keep the defense honest and free Henry up a bit.

Nice to see Bergkamp & Ljungberg regaining their form.

I'm looking forward to the Inter match. In fact, I'll be there :-)

GJ40

[Mike Toole]

:D

God, I love this team. I'm hoping for a big win against Inter and league win number fourteen in the coming week!

[juice013]

That was the best defensive showing I've seen by the boys in a long time. Granted it was only Birmingham, who aren't exactly filling the net at a record pace, but it's still nice to see a clean sheet. Cygan and Clichy both played excellent matches. The bench may not be deep enough for consistent success in Europe, but it's just fine for the Prem.

[otterulz]

Great result! Glad to see Bergkamp finally making the score sheet.

[TheFallen29]

Birmingham City 0-3 Arsenal
Good thing the match ended up being worth it...I'm not a huge fan of getting only three hours of sleep...stupid time zone difference.

Got to the pub early, to catch the end of Manshit United vs. Blackburn Rovers. Rovers made a game out of it, but succumbed 2-1...thus leaving Arsenal needing a win to stay top of the table. However, with about 14,000 guys out from suspension or injury, we had a skeleton lineup that looked like this: Lehmann - Cole, Campbell, Cygan, Gael Clichy (18-year old rookie) - Ljungberg, Toure, Edu, Pires - Henry, Bergkamp. Le Boss ended up pulling one over everyone...Kolo Toure in central midfield? The HELL?!

However, the latecoming NY Gooners barely had a chance to get their eyes adjusted to the dark pub before we were 1-0 up...DB10 showed some his old magic, virtually pressing a "pause" button on the Birmingham defense. Well, OK, it was a bad mistake by Kenny Cunningham, but he took it well, and found Henry in the middle. Henry calmly laid it off to Ljungberg, who left Maik Taylor with no chance after a super-cool finish. Just four minutes in, and the Blues had it all to do.

However, for the next 65 minutes or so, the hosts were essentially playing downhill. They had the lion's share of the possession, and with all the moaning in the pub, you'd have thought we were 0-5 down and 20 points behind Manshit United in the standings. I can understand that being an Arsenal fan can spoil you a bit...when Mega Arsenal shows up, we're treated to absolute top-class football. But, championships are won and lost in the freezing cold, in tough, gritty games on hostile grounds. To be frank, if this were last year, I don't think we get all three points.

Here's two other things to consider. With so many first-choice players out (random: How do you think Kanu must feel starting on the bench today? I'd start packing, if I were him), how can we expect to roll over a tough side on their own patch? Seriously, now. Second, Arsenal spent most of the match in first gear, because that's all the needed, really. Also, let's keep in mind that we somehow have to beat Inter Milan on their own patch in just three days. If we can tonk Birmingham in first gear, then why bother going to second? Mikael Forssel went uncomfortably close on a header in the second half, and David Dunn had a few half-chances that ended up never seriously threatening Lehmann (who was great in getting loose balls, which was just about his only job today). That was their lot. Birmingham huffed and puffed in the midfield, and looked good linking from the back to the wingers. But, it seemed like there was a forcefield around the Arsenal area...for all their hard work, Birmingham barely could get a peek in there.

In all fairness, the Arsenal back four were quietly very good. It was nice to see Cygan have a good game, and except for a few misplayed balls, Sol was his usual colossus self. Although he was taken off after 58 minutes for Kanu, Gael Clichy showed that he perhaps deserves a few more looks this season. He has wonderful ball skills, he's not afraid to press forward (but he doesn't get stranded like Ashley Cole tends to), but he could sometimes do with going to a simpler option (i.e. JUST CROSS THE DAMN BALL ALREADY!). Well done to the lad.

Birmingham (another random: How wide is the gulf between the haves and have-nots in the EPL? This is the 5th-placed side so far, ladies and gentlemen) started bringing more and more players forward, but you always had to believe that Arsenal would catch them on the break. Sure enough, we doubled the lead with a classic counter-attack. TH14 (who was Man of the Match, by the way...he didn't score, but he was all over the place, often drawing three or even FOUR defenders toward him...he also came close a few times) found Bergkamp with a great long ball...Bergkamp won the foot race with the static back four (yes, they lost a foot race to 900-year old Dennis ;D) , leaving DB10 on a breakaway. The Dutch wizard slotted home past Taylor, cooler than James Dean.

With all three points in the bag, the Arse decided to kick into another gear...my theory was that they wanted to send a message to the Italians heading into the big European tie...oh, and to our nearest and dearest rivals at home, too (Chelsea also won, by the way...so status quo at the top again). After some great build-up, Henry found Super Robert Pires, who made no mistake, beating Taylor low into the corner. It's funny...for all of Birmingham's possession, dominance, and great defensive play for the most part, all it took was three seperate times where Arsenal seemed to conciously say: "We're going to carve you up now...it IS almost Thanksgiving, after all"...and that was that.

The referee (the horrible ginger midget, Paul Durkin), was unbelivably bad, as usual. Kolo Toure got booked for getting knocked down, and having someone trip over him. Meanwhile, that freak Robbie Savage (who should really be locked in a cage and put in the zoo with the rest of the animals) attempted open-ligament surgery on several Arsenal players, but nothing doing, card-wise. The fact that Durkin is a FIFA referee blows my mind...not that England is blessed with many good ones, but good lord, if that's the best you got.....can't we just clone Pierluigi Collina and get it over with?

Jeremie Aliadiere and Justin Hoyte got a run-out, coming in at the 89th and 90th minutes respectively. I would have liked to see them get a little more time, but I can understand why Le Boss wasn't taking any chances. If Milan is kicking our ass again by halftime on Tuesday, however, I think it'd be criminal if they didn't get a longer look.

Milan on Tuesday, Fulham (and our old friend, Moritz Volz) next week. Come on, you Gunners!

[Catfish]

I was predicting a boring 1-0 result for Arsenal, BUT we instead continue to play great with tons of key players out. I'm grinning ear to ear at just the thought of how great our side will be when we are healthy and starting our best side....SWEEEEEEET!

Henry showing the world again why he is the best player, PERIOD. Setting up your teammates when you can't score...pure class and a true footie legend.

Go Gunners!

Bring on Inter...those Italian punks...lol.

[juice013]

Originally posted by TheFallen29
Got to the pub early, to catch the end of Manshit United vs. Blackburn Rovers. Rovers made a game out of it, but succumbed 2-1...thus leaving Arsenal needing a win to stay top of the table. However, with about 14,000 guys out from suspension or injury, we had a skeleton lineup that looked like this: Lehmann - Cole, Campbell, Cygan, Gael Clichy (18-year old rookie) - Ljungberg, Toure, Edu, Pires - Henry, Bergkamp. Le Boss ended up pulling one over everyone...Kolo Toure in central midfield? The HELL?!



Actually, Toure was at right back. The central midfield was Pires and Edu to start, and then Edu and Kanu later on. Clichy played left wing, and did very well. He looks very promising.

[Azabache]

Solid defense. A stroll in the park, mind you, but a really nice workout with a view towards San Siro. It was good to see Kanu do the PV4 gig for 20 minutes today. He looked really solid holding and distributing. Clichy, the new kid, didn't hurt himself at all today. Last and definitely not least, Titi was soberbio. And he was only going at half speed. I'm amazed at the Arsenal.

[fox point fury]

The p-p-v wasn't offered in my area, but after reading some of the opinions on here I can't wait for the replay.

[yossarian]

I admit...I was one of those that thought we would probably get a draw out of this match. Brilliant counter-attacking football. Kudos to Cygan who had a great match. He seemed to anticipate B'ham passes and was constantly stepping in front of players to win the ball. Nice to see him do well.
Now on to Italy.

[dwinkler]

http://www.skysports.com/skysports/article/0,,42-1112295,00.html

If by "matched" you mean "managed one lousy shot on goal the entire game and played with only one attacker even though we were the home team," then, yeah, I guess they did match us.

Of course, this is the same guy who called Upson the best left-sided central defender in England, recently, so his opinions do leave some room for questioning.

[BayouGooner]

I know this is off subject, but who would you say is the best left-sided central defender in England? What constitutes this designation? Being predominantly left-footed? Upson is really the England centre back I know of that is predominantly left footed, but I'd much rather any combo of Sol/Rio/Terry (none of which are left footed) than any combo including Upson.

Anyway I was really worried about the game, as we had many suspensions and injuries and Birmingham isn't half bad. But Arsene blooded some youth, and Arsenal gets the result needed. Cheers to AW and TH14, the best manager and player in the world.

I pray FSW shows the replay for us poor college students who can't afford PPV.

Oh yeah, LSU beat Ole Miss. Hopefully we can overtake those Hollywood bastards and get to the Sugar Bowl.

[Jasonisimo]

Originally posted by BayouGooner
I pray FSW shows the replay for us poor college students who can't afford PPV. Tuesday night.

[dwinkler]

Originally posted by BayouGooner
I know this is off subject, but who would you say is the best left-sided central defender in England? That's where Sol usually plays, isn't it? Then how about him?

By the way, the PPV games are shown on FSW on a 3-day delay. Today's game is being shown on FSW Tuesday night at 5 p.m. ET (hopefully just moments after we've knocked off Inter, who poured in 6 goals today).