i realize i am a sasha hleb homer, blah blah. but look beyond that, we absolutely fell apart possession-wise! we completely owned villa in that first half with flamini-diarra-hleb-rosicky doing party tricks. When hleb came off, we played division 2 football chunking it forward. was it wenger's poor decision to bring on walcott, but move him a winger who never tracked back? this discussion cannot include cesc as he was never an option... im sure villa stepped up their game a bit, but damn.. we couldnt hold the ball, period. cant believe some of you who bashed hleb.... he is zidane-esque! ("double e, with a french name, eh, ******** it")
Well, Cesc and Hleb have shown themselves to be the best players on the team. Any team would be lost without their two best players. I'd also agree that Walcott shouldn't have been on the wing during that game. I think that Wenger is still working on how to use Tomas. He's found Hleb a position behind the striker where he's thrived, and it's just a matter of time before Tomas starts to really explode. At this time I'm not sure what Rosicky's best position is on the squad.
Hleb is our best and most influental attacker... we were lost on the road without him... that is what happened
We were out of sorts from the very start of the second half really, it was like we totally switched off after that brilliant first half. Villa did up their game, but we were absolutely shocking. Even before Hleb got injured. I'm hoping he'll be fit asap, because I don't think we can get away with playing minus Cesc and Hleb for too long.
I think everyone knows the difference in performance between first and second half has been a tradition for years. We always take our foot off the pedal.
^^^^^ not so. Consider how many goals we've scored at the end of games. I think we depend on Cesc's delivery and Hleb's holding power. Without them, we don't know where to pass/make runs, and nobody dribbles enough to draw defenders. Walcott may, but his tendency is to blaze down the sideline...Hleb doesn't blaze as much as get defenders close to him, then cut through or make a short pass. I don't know how many times he's threaded a triagle of defenders, but I love it, every single time.
Oh come on, we may get late goals but if we are winning at half time that period between 45 - 70 minutes, we always take our foot off the pedal. How many goals have we scored in THAT period this year when we have been leading at half time? IMPORTANT goals, not scrappy ones against the likes of Derby. And yes, we do finish strongly. I did not take away from that.
okay, fair enough. though "if we are winning at half time" is a rarity, almost, huh? you're right though
There's a difference between taking your foot off the gas and not being able to string two passes together. Usually if we're up we'll just start having a kick around, stroking the ball all over the pitch without going for goal. In the Villa game we couldn't even keep posession for more than a few seconds.
I completely agree with people saying about every team looks lost without their two best players. I mean you look at Chelsea and their lost without Drogba. You look at Liverpool and their lost without Gerrard. I don't know about Man U because I haven't seen them enough to comment. However, I think that Adebayor is on the same level as hleb as being the best players in the team. I mean not completely because of him but partly because of him we haven't missed Henry's goals. I really don't think we have got that much to worry about with regards to this because as far as I can see we haven't dropped that much without cesc and hleb. I mean come on guys we starting to sound like Liverpool fans. We're both unbeaten in the league so far and we're both complaining. No1ArsenalFan aka Rich Smith
Is this some sort of automatically-inserted signature or do you actually type it manually every time you post?
the moment I saw carew make that stupid/oafish/painful tackle on hleb, I thought, oh shit. Our deadly axis of evil is hleb + cesc + rvp... each of whom can be considered world-class in their position. rvp can basically create a goal out of nothing, cesc can needle passes through multiple players from just about any angle or distance, and it is IMPOSSIBLE to take the ball from hleb when he feels like dribbling about with it. with just one of those three, our attacking threat is exponentially increased, for the aforementioned reasons. for some reason, rosicky, who is bloody talented, just does not seem to want to run at defenders and strike 35 yard bullets into the top corner like he can (and does regularly for the czechs). If he comes around, we should not miss those three out too much for the next couple of weeks. And now we are in the middle of a string of games without either... if we come through without dropping too many points, I'm confident once those three are back that we will rack up another ridiculous string of wins. we have the quality in depth to deal with it, but many of these players don't have the necessary experience, or haven't played together enough to gel yet. Chelsea game will be a big test, if we pull off a draw without those three players, I'll be ecstatic.
I was saying that since we got him from Stuttgart. I knew he wasn't a goal scoring machine, that is NOT why we bought him. He is a great dribbler, creates space for others, very good 1-touch passer, unselfish, and a team player.
very true. hleb is the number one reason why arsenal plays the beautiful triangle football we do, not cesc. ps...its my 1000th post!!!!!!!!!
I've said Hleb was the most talented player Arsenal have since he arrived. This is why. He knows how to find players, and knows how to dribble. I know, I am Captain Obvious. That game vs Real Madrid at Highbury will always be in my memory. Probably one of the best 0-0 draws of all time. Hleb had a monster night that game.