Van Persie is so very competitive. When things do not go the way he wants to, he gets jacked up and vents out his frustration with his antics behavior. (recall, incident with Tim Krul). Today was no different. To his defense, his teammates let him down big time. He got no service what-so-ever (just like when he plays for Van Marwijk ). I think his only decent chance was the long shot from outside the box. Walcott, Bennayoun, and especially Ramsey were rubbish. I was never a big fan of Arteta, but his injury was clearly the difference maker today. 1 goal in the last 6 matches for RvP-- and that one goal is a P.K. Looks like RvP is running out of steam. Hoping this is just a temporary dip in form.
spot on this is... i HATE! wenger, and his "antics" ... hes won nothing in years, and without RvP they would be mid table at best. god only knows why he hasnt been sacked yet.. any other "top 5" club and he would be gone.
Very interesting CL match between Bayern and Madrid. I thought Howard Webb officated a very good game letting the match flow and punishing those players who committed egregious infractions. The final call on Marcello was correct; it's not a Red card though Bayern partisans will disagree. Until the final goal Gomez was quite poor but when you get the match winner all is forgiven. Still I don't rate him that highly. Mourinho continues to make tactical mistakes which is surprising given his long record as a manager. Bayern are a team that really invite high pressure with a lack of good ball handling from the center defenders. With the exception of Kroos, Lahm and Schweinsteiger (who is still not completely healthy), Bayern have troubles creating space. When Madrid began to play defensively around the 75th minute you could tell that Bayern had a much easier time of it. Mourinho needs to go to a single defensive midfielder (I would opt for Khedira and take Alonso out of the starting 11) and move a second midfielder up to take some of the pressure off of Ozil (who I think is really their best player!) and allow him to be more creative. Surprising that CR7 was totally absent for most of the game (but then this is his track record in big matches). Rematch next week should be interesting.
I think you should watch another replay of that kick from Marcello.. The ball was long gone and he kicked Muller's knee from behind out of pure frustration. Cant imagine anyone thinking that thats not a red card. But yeah I agree that Webb officated a good game nontheless. Looking forward to the return in Madrid when Real will have to come out with all guns blazing with a full Bernabéu as support.
Sergio Ramos, Pepe, and Marcello verge on ejection in almost every match. I'm not sure that their style of play would be tolerated on a lot of other top teams.
Tony Pulis is that you? The reason he's still there is because Arsenal would be mid-table if Wenger wasn't. There's no money, hasn't been for years.
I paid a close attention the duel between Robben and F. Coentrao, and it was quite entertaining. Robben was invisible at the beginning, I didn't think he got anything more than three or four touches in the first 20 minutes. But then he got stronger and was able to break down the double team. In contrast, Coentrao was subdued and he seemed to struggle keeping up with the tempo. I fancy Robben's chance to get the better of Coentrao when the two meet again in the return match, and especially when Oranje taking on the Portuguese this summer in Euro.
As for the Robben v Coentrao battle, it's something we'll probably see back during the group stage of EURO2012. I also think Mourinho is much more of a psychological coach than a tactical one.
At the half between Chelsea and Barcelona. You can have lots of possession and some good chances on goal but if you get caught on the break......well you find your team down 1-0. Every team that plays Barca packs the defense back and hopes for a break away like just happened. We'll see if Chelsea can nurse the lead into a win. Drogba seems to be flopping as much as Busquets!
Chalk up a victory for negative football today. I thought for awhile that I was watching a replay of the Inter/Barcelona match back when Mourinho was in Italy. Barcelona had 70% of possession but couldn't finish being denied by Cech who was solid in the goal and the woodwork on two occasions. Fabregas had two golden opportunities but did little with them and generally was poor tonight. Chelsea was generally successful in forcing everything into the middle where they could get a double or triple team on the ball. Without a true striker, Barcelona will have difficulty against this type of defense since they are not good in the air. Certainly if they would have gotten the first goal it would have been different but as the old aphorism goes, "...if you can't put the ball in the net, you can't win the match." The rematch at Camp Nou should be interesting. Could it be that we don't have a Spanish team in the final?
Today's match was a prime example that disproves the "If you have possession, you will win" nonsense I keep hearing.
I think the quote now goes, "...if you have possession the other team cannot score unless you get caught upfield and they break away..."
On barcalona's defense, they were unlucky and Chelsea was lucky. That is enough to win any game. Barcalona's style of play simply means they always have more chances to score than the opponent, thus needing less luck to win a game. Doesnt mean it will always work out the way its ''supposed to''. Dispite Barcalona having probably one of the best teams in history, nobody is undefeatable That said, I really dont think that Chelsea will have much of a chance in Camp Nou.. But a chance nonetheless..
Sergio Busquets is an amazing defensive midfielder, but unfortunately he's useless going forward. It's strange, when his target's a teammate, he manages to calmly and accurately fire the ball to their feet, no matter how much pressure he's under, and he always keeps it on the ground. But for some reason, when his target is the empty net and he's only a few meters away, he manages to sky it WAY over.
I don't think this team is quite as good as Guardiola's first team that won the CL. They really never dealt adequately with the loss of E'too. Zlatan couldn't get the job done and now they have no striker, just a lot of good small forwards. The back line is problematic because of the loss of Abidal and Pique's persistant missing of matches. Even so they are a joy to watch.
No striker? Who's that guy who scored 63 goals this season? The need wingers, not strikers. Neymar, Gotze, Hazard, those kinds of players.
I thought Barcelona were a little too stubborn in their approach. They tremendously worked hard to play the quick-passing game and tried to 'thread the needle'. Btw, absolutely nothing wrong with this tactic. However, given the fact that Chelski had figured out a way to close the flood gate (while riding some lucks), perhaps it was a better move if Barca mixed up their game, especially in the second half. Maybe use the width of the pitch more. I thought they would do that when Pedro was introduced, but he was quite useless. I think Barca will learn from this match, and ease past Chelsea in the return match. Definitely need to work harder on set-pieces. Chelsea's long and athletic defenders were towering all over Barca's midgets.
I credit Chelsea's tactics rather than luck. Yes, luck was part of it, but Chelsea did well by defending really well, surrounding Messi constantly and hitting them on the counter. Drogba scared the Barca back line.
I guess I differ from you here. They have wingers but they are useless against a team packing it in if you don't have any one who is decent in the air which E'too was. Messi was effectively neutralized yesterday and has had some problems during the course of the season in "some" matches getting free. Chelsea were really smart in clogging the middle and forcing everything there. Other than Iniesta's one run along the goal line, Barca couldn't do much at all in terms of gettng a cross in from the run of play. I'm not sure that Neymar, Götze (who I think is an attacking midfielder but may be wrong) or Hazard bring much to this current club.