Arsenal @ Man U [R]

I was wondering when the trolls would come in. Hey, tell your worldclass diver I gave him a 8.0 on that last one at the whistle. Would've been a 10 but the degree of difficulty JUST wasn't there. Oh, and yeah, it's gonna be tough now that we're gonna lose every single one of our games left. Moron.

 

RVN's jump was clumsy, not mallicious. He got his deserved yellow for that. Why Viera lashed out, well, it's not beyond me. He was obviously worked up previous to that and RVN going for a piggy back ride was the last straw. He's lucky he didn't connect cuz surely the FA would frown upon that even more.

 

Great result, but Vieira should not have reacted the way he did. As captain, he should know that he needs to stay on the pitch.

When was the last time that Arsenal completed 90 minutes without a shot on target, at least against domestic opposition? We came for the scoreless draw and got it. I thought that AW was going to put in Pires or Wiltord near the end to try and snatch it, but the sending off probably killed those thoughts. That penalty miss was a real let-off. I, and probably everyone else, thought we were sunk.

 

This is the last straw.

Really Vain Nancy boy....aka RVN is such a primadonna and the league coddles him because he is on Utd. Utd is their cash cow...and we are the Prem's...Btich!

Vieira played tough...I was impressed with our suspect backfield. Still wish we had a little cash, to pick up another defender when the transfer window opens again.


This match just made me a Gunner for life...and now I understand what the Arsenal vs. Man Utd rivalry and basically how all the NON-Man Utd fans feel.


Go Gunners!!!

 

Re: Oh my word!

Maybe. But if he always keeps it wide and knocks it across, doesn't that get to be a bit too predictable. This way you have the danger of the cross + the threat of him slipping inside for a shot.

I thought Parlour's quiteness was due to him doing his job. Denis on the other hand seemed almost absent. I don't know what he was trying to do on the one shot in the first half. Howard didn't at all appear too far off his line + something other than tyring to chip the keeper seemed prudent.

Arse definitely deserved the draw. I wouldn't say ManU looked more talented cuz the gunners did what they wanted to do which was be very conservative and not give up a goal. THey did that. Although I laughed at one point in the 2nd half with Llunberg was looking to pass @ 35 yards out from the manU goal and everyone in yellow was standing around getting ready to mark their man (or something).

 

Whew!

That's one big test out of the way. I hate to be dramatic but if I were ever to run into Ruud Van Nistelrooy on a street somewhere I'm not sure I could resist telling him just what I think of him. Explatives included.

The man is a disgrace to the term professional football player.

Still I'm miffed at Vieria for getting sent off, damn stupid! By now he should know better.

Still fair is fair. Van Nistelrooy missed, again! HA!

Our spring date at Highbury should be interesting indeed.

 

A few more thoughts:

The more I think about it the more I like this result. This game was just what AFC needed. The players needed a unifying experience. It's pretty much AFC against the world sometimes and the players need to band together. This is something they'll be able to reference when thoughts like that are needed. UNUS PRO OMNIBUS, OMNES PRO UNO-- "One for all and all for one" should be their rallying cry.

Is it me or does this rivalry get more heated every year? While always a massive fixture these AFC-MUFC games used to be relatively civilized, but now they're plain grudge matches. And today won't have helped matters!!

I suppose seven years of fighting tooth and nail for every bit of silverware in England has frayed the nerves of the two sets of players. I know it would have done so to me.

 

Cut him some slack...he can be too bright if he's a Dalls Burn fan!

 

You make a very good point. I was kinda thinking the same thing about the Arsenal players sticking up for one another. I thought it was fantastic that Lehman came out and went face to face with Ruud considering he's the newest face on the field. I think they're bonded by their hatred for Ruud. I dunno what it is. But like you said, I hope this brings the team even closer together.

You're right. I'm sorry he's a Dallas Burn fan.

 

CATFISH~

you call yourself a gunner yet on the chelsea board say that you hope manyoo NOR arsenal win the championship and that you are a massive chelsea fan... ffs... sod off~~~~~

 

I'm curious to see if either side's fans can look at this objectively. In my mind Ruud's jump on Viera was clumsy and not as harsh as many Arsenal fans want to make it out to be. No backlash at Viera? He got what he deserved in that altercation, there is no place for kicking out at him.
As to the end of the game, that was just plain classless. Dress it up as sticking up for each other if you'd like, but there is no place for that in the game either. Keown's picture on the front of soccernet will surely bring action from the FA and rightly so, but I imagine it will be just claimed as more of a bias against Arsenal.
Arsenal did well to get a point in the match, and that is what they most likely deserved. But that doesn't excuse some of the player's behavior. I am just curious to see if Man Utd. fans will step up and admit that Arsenal was equal to their team today, but equally as curious to see if Arsenal fans will be dismayed by the sportsmanship their club showed today.
By the by, I've noticed every post not pro-Arsenal tends to be labeled a "troll", thats far from the case, a post that asks a legitament question backed up by facts is not a troll, it is a question. A troll is "Arsenal sucks, Man U rules!"....

 

A quote from Catfish aka Patrick1234's post on the Chelsea board: "in a way I'm glad someone besides Manure and Arsenal will win the Premiership. I don't want the Prem to become like every other league...2 horse race every blessed year!!!"

You're GLAD someone besides manUre and ARSENAL "will" win the Premiership?????

You can't have it all ways. I'll be glad when Arsenal rip off about 20 league titles in a row.

I'm with phishy on this one.

 

Hey, it's a big match and emotions are running high. That kind of think happens 30 times a game in the NFL and the NBA. Let's not pretend that athletes from Europe should not get emotional. RvN missed the penalty, and Keown was merely telling what a great penalty shooter he is. End of story.

I don't know why everyone is going all "ga-ga" over the tone of this match. Every Arsenal-manUre match for the last 5 years has been physical, bordering on violent.

 

As a fellow Gooner said at Piper's today, that missed PK proved the existence of God. I also have to tell you that a longtime Man U fan even came up to me afterwards and said he wouldn't have felt right if that had gone in. I take heart that their are at least a few Man U fans who have a sense of fair play. He even referred to Ruud as "an ass".

As for the rest of the game, I take heart in the way they played today. They might not have pushed forward as much as I'd like (and where was Wiltord?), but they stood toe to toe with ManUre and never backed down. I also have to give props to Lehman for what I thought was not a marvellous performance, but was very solid. He also showed tremendous heart by getting right in Ruud's face and giving him a piece of his mind. I think this whole game was a nice subtle reminder that we're still here and not going anywhere.

As far as the end goes, I was damn happy to see that kind of intensity out of Arsenal. To me and to them, this was a big win. After all the calls van Nistlerooy has gotten, he deserved that. Call it classless, call it whatever you want. But Arsenal finally showed the grit we've been waiting for, and, in no uncertain terms, announced that the road to the title still goes through Highbury.

 

http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/030921/59/e9150.html

This is my new favorite picture, because the twit was going into his celebration already. "What? Off the post? NOOOOO!!!"

I can only imaging what Keown had to say to him.

 

I am a bit bothered, both by Paddy's outburst and by reports of actual shoving and punching at Ruud by the Arsenal players after the match. Arsenal may be the greatest team in the world, but they're also a team with a glaringly problematic disciplinary history. Call it bias if you like, but Arsenal should know better than to react to such provocation, again and again and again.

That said, I'm very proud of their defensive performance today. They had some luck, and took advantage of it to hang in and take the point. I'm bummed about Bergkamp because I love him to death, but he needs to let Wiltord start and settle for the final 10 or 20 minutes of the important matches.

That's essentially what burning247's post was, though. No substance, no argument, just "classless punks." Personally, I welcome pot shots from supporters of opposing clubs, so long as they're backed up by some sort of substantive argument or statement. "lol arsenal red card FC" isn't good enough, it's just a waste of time.

 

So it's another clean sheet for Howard.

 

Just world class athletes, pumped up and letting their emotions take over. How can we accept "trash talking" in the NFL and the NBA and expect soccer players to be able to bottle it in? RvN missed, and I'm sure Keown was already mentall working on his apology, so when it hit the woodwork he just exploded. Case closed. I'm sure the FA will look into it and determine that the game had already gotten out of hand and that the ref had no chance to control the chaos.

 

Happy with the result...delighted with performance. We all know we can score goals and win games like the best of them but this kind of dogged, no surrender type performance, is what champions are made of. People said we can not defend all week and then we shove it right down their throats.

Special mention to Kolo Toure. The guy is immense, fast becoming one of my favourite players in the side. His attitude and application are second to none and his enthuisam is soo infectious. Top man!

That was the Arsenal spirit of old. They don't like us we certainly don't like them

Ruud van Nistelrooy, if i could put it words what i think about the guy....I'd probably be banned for the life. He makes me sick.
Loved it when he made a dash for the changing rooms, the entire bar i was in (full of Arsenal fans, liverpool, everton, leeds and 1 or 2 mancs) erupted into laughter and chanting of "We see you" as well as chorus of "Where's your bottle gone?..."

 

There was NO punching, just a lot of pushing and shoving. Ruud van Nistelrooy is one of the most despised figures in the country outside of the ManU circles and the media. His constant diving and provocation of opposing players has seen to that.

I've got the Man U v Arsenal game where we won the title on video. And in that match you can clearly see van Nistelrooy punch Ljungberg in the stomach off the ball. around the 72 minute mark. That is where the bad blood started with van Nistelrooy, the players and Arsenal fans. He then wound up the most violatile Arsenal player in Martin Keown by stamping on his foot last season and then going down like he had been shot when Keown pushed him away. Keown has had it in for him ever since.

Could'nt have happened to a nice person.

 

Re: WOW

There's a certain Claudio Gentile who said a thing or two about football and ballerinas 21 years ago.

 

Re: This is the last straw.

Welcome.

 

in the what could have been category: what about the offside called on henry in his own half during the first. may have been a turning point, or the winner if it had been played on