Well, my comments on the ARSENAL board were about comments ferguson made, ridiculous comments about player's nationalities (made by one of your supporters), and an anecdote about some overly-confident ManU fans who were at the pub I frequent...a pro-Arsenal pub I might add. Those were on my board, they weren't directed at you, and they weren't out of line in my opinion. If I come here and attack you, then you have a reason to be a prick...but that's not the case. I've been civil every time I've posted on your board. With all that in mind, there's really no need for you to be hostile...I simply asked a legitimate question.
Hmm, there was a couple of moments where it looked like Hargreaves chose another option when Anderson showed for the ball. But we have to remember he's only 19 and more experienced players will not think of him as the "go-to-guy" in the way they think of Scholes. That will change over time. I even remember Carrick being ignored as an option by Scholes in his early games.
Sorry, I was confusing you with one of the other Arsenal poster. But I would ask you the same question I would ask all the "visitors" we have had on this board: why do you guys feel compelled to try and answer every criticism of your team on this board? Why do the thoughts of United fans matter so much. Apart from one United troll (who was warned off by 2 of us United posters) there has been no response by us to all the criticisms of United on the Arsenal board. Dark Savante has detailed the weaknesses he sees in the Arsenal team. If he thinks they will stop Arsenal competing for the title then what is wrong with that? You can't keep promoting this image of Arsenal as the plucky underdogs whose players were bought for 2 packets of crisps and a smile, and at the same time get all precious about it when someone dares to suggest that they are not the greatest team ever assembled.
We have recent form for lasting the distance. You do not. The present is always 'nice' but come crunch time the team that has been there and done it all, with the same bunch of players should always be odds on to do so again. The doubts about a team that haven't won the league together should remain until disproven. I would say the exact same about any other challenger to the title bar Chelsea, whom I feel will be the team we have to beat to claim the title, till you prove otherwise.
The only player at this club that is 'trusted' as playmaker is Scholes. Generally, he demands the ball and it's going to go to him. Anderson, like Carrick and Hargreaves, will have to earn the trust of others to be deferred to. It's got nothing to do with Anderson per se, it's just how the players function on automatic in a high octane game where the time to think and function is reduced to a bear minimum. Anderson is going about earning his spurs the right way, trust me. He keeps that up for much longer and he'll automatically be looked for and trusted to use the ball.
Not to mention the loss of Toure for the ACN, and the brutal run in x-mas that Arsenal face. Even I think that it's great that Arsenal have bounced back after losing Henry, but this is a team so over-valued right now it's ridiculous. Let's wait until Arsenal (a fragile team as of the last 3 years) cope with injuries, difficult schedules, out of form players, and tough opponents before we anoint them contenders, much less champions-elect. Thoughts on the match to come later.
That's fair enough, I'm not here to criticize everything you say. Everyone has their own opinions of course. I'm not here on a regular basis (obviously), so I'm not aware of the weaknesses that DS feels Arsenal have. I was just curious, given the positions in the table, what it was that made him feel that we are not definite contenders whereas you are... Obviously, it's early in the season, and alot can happen in the remaining 25 fixtures or so...I just feel that we are definitely contenders along with yourselves, and I think Chelsea will be right up there as well... Anyway, I digress. Good match today...nervy as usual.
I wish people would stop mentioning this ACN stuff. As far as I can recall, Arsenal have an easy run of games during the ACN so they will be fine. If United end up depending on the ACN to weaken their rivals then the jig is up, we won't be winning anything.
I can't speak for DS, but I think he was saying that Chelsea are the main challengers to United. He was not saying that United are the only contenders for the title. I agree with this. I think the team that finishes above Chelsea will win the league. But as I said, it's December 16th that will give us the biggest clue about which teams will be the real contenders. If Arsenal beat Chelsea that day then I may change my opinion (and if Liverpool win that day then God help us all). Let's look forward to a lot more "banter" and nervousness that day. (thankfully I'll be in Japan and far away from Sky's hyping of those games).
You're not really going to know you have weaknesses until you play a team good enough to punish you on them. I've watched all of your 'gloried' games this season where you're being hailed by the press as a bunch of gods and don't thinkt his team ypou have is a patch on the 'invincibles' nor on some of the other sides you came to us with. Today we could have had 4 - all deriving from your flanks - and we weren't even pressing the flanks that much. You're not going to get many teams that can exploit that weakness because you tend to oppress the majority of PL oppo you face, but away from home when the chips are down and you're up north, those problems will be exploited. You're inclined to disagree, I suppose, but the saying prove the doubters wrong will definitely be one you'e going to hear for a while yet. Your team is so confidence based that it's scary. I don't think you'll win many games when your plan A is totally off form. We can win 'the shit on the stick way' and Chelsea live for it, so it's a hurdle for you to overcome. Just my opinion.
I have an issue with this Charley While it's great having the fan boards and discussing your own team and everything, some of the very best discussions of all time on the prem boards have involved posters from all over europe. This is the board for discussing united, so if people have questions they want to pose to united fans - surely this is the place to ask them? All the parochial bollocks is real old - though you are to commended for your posts on the gunners bd!
If they come through the Christmas schedule intact, I'll not be as much of a doubter as I am right now, for certain.
Interestingly you posted many of the same things about utd last season Bear in mind, that our issue in the past has not been so much going up north - but being roughed up - that has been addressed to some extent IMO Realistically we are not favorites for the title by any means. However, I am not sure our squad is actually much thinner than the chavs. The chavs are so frightening dependent on Lampard it is untrue. Any long term injury to lampard or drogba and i think there challenge is done.
Well these things are constant, aren't they? Same shite different team, until they 'come of age' any team is going to have to prove doubters wrong, when the real pressure comes, can you handle it? You tend to drop lots of points up north, whatever the reason given. You've dropped 4 pts from 6 this season even...
There's some truth to what you say. I certainly don't want to stop inter-board discussion, and maybe I'm taking it all a bit too seriously. But some stuff that clearly seemed like trolling today (posting pictures!) has pissed me off, to the point where I start to wonder whether some Arsenal fans are genuinely interested in a discussion, or are just so insecure about their team that they can't accept the fact that rival fans will always highlight weaknesses in your team that you would prefer to ignore. I'd like to think relations between the Arsenal and United boards are good, but it just seems some of the newer Arsenal posters don't know that yet, As regards my posts on the Arsenal board, where I thought I was doing the right thing by warning off "AlwaysBalling" from trolling, would you believe I got a warning for trolling myself by Yossarian! Apparently you lot are more hardcore about inter-board posting than I am. I guess your board is more like the Chelsea board than I thought.
Thanks, DS! Somewhere in this is the reason that Utd look worse defensively when Hargraves plays! Not to mention that when Hargraves plays the entire team sits about 20 yards deeper! I saw far more of Ronaldo as assistant right back than I really want to. I guess Tevez was the designated outlet today? Because it seemed that Ronaldo spent most of his time either clearing balls out of the box or helping Wes Brown to clean the ball out of the right side. I guess that's something that needs to be done, but it's definitely not playing to Ronaldo's strengths. Seemed like when Ronaldo actually played on the offensive end of the field, he could easily get good crosses in or win corners, but that he was just stuck in the backfield defending! I miss Heinze. I wasn't as impressed with Anderson as maybe I should be, probably because it seemed that everyone was back on defense making heroic, last-ditch tackles. Well, Anderson did that well, but if we'd had better control of the midfield maybe that wouldn't be necessary? As I said earlier, do you really think that Tevez is going to win headers on long balls? Actually, I'm not sure what else he was supposed to be doing in that game. But he's not particularly fast either, and Utd's other tactic today was the fast break counter-attack, and he doesn't help there either. I didn't think that Rooney had a particularly great game, but I appear to be alone in that opinion. Seemed like he gave the ball away in dangerous positions a few times. There was one time when Giggs was bringing the ball up in the 2nd half (fast break) and Ronaldo was wide open on the right hand side. Clear pass but Giggs didn't see it. Other times, Giggs tried to cross the ball to the other side and it was cut out by the defender. I presume that Giggs would have been subbed for Nani if Wes Brown hadn't had to come off.
Ja Let's just agree northness and roughing up go together The pool result was a big turnaround however. Arsenal got murdered in that game last season - and, as you rightly point out it was down the flanks. The combo of Helb and Eboue was way too lightweight. Not too sure about the current Sagna/Eboue/Walcott combo - better than last season at least. Clichy is still a bit of a nightmare defensively. Few people on the Arsenal board understand that. We desperately need RVP back.
LOL Smile and nod mate I don't post on the chavs board anymore - just read some of the better posters over there. It's ruined by a couple of people.
There but for the grace of William Gallas' right foot go I... All in all an enjoyable morning. And I'm pretty sure had the linesman not given the goal Father Ted would have let me off the hook after he saw the replay. He was going to let me off the hook a couple of years back when ManU got an EXTREMELY dodgy pen in the first half. Thankfully for all of you ManU scored a legit goal later. I think the Arse had a wonky goal at one point during our bets and I was going to let him off, but ManU came back and scored for a draw. That's the beauty of this bet. The amount of respect between me and all the old school guys on here makes it a "Neville-tastic" good time.. See you guys again real soon (and I'll glady take a draw at OT).
I am surprised that Rio is getting so much blame for the 2 goals today. If anyting it was the guys playing RB that should be holding the more stick...especially Brown on that Cesc goal...my gosh
I think the reason he brings it up is that quite a few posters on these boards seem to bring it up as a reason that Arsenal's fast start won't carry on. You obviously aren't one of those people as you've pointed out (correctly) that Arsenal's fixture list during that period is not too challenging. The ACN will affect Arsenal a little. I don't expect Cote' de Ivoire will do that well, so Tore shouldn't be overly gassed when he gets back. Again, excellent observation as to how much the ACN will affect the Gunners.
What are you basing the comment that it's OK for Arsenal to finish 4th and trophyless? Were you privy to some pre-season pep talk by Wenger where he told the team "Guys, all we want to do is finish 4th so we can cash that Champion's League check."? You can't be serious. The expectations at both clubs are the same: League, Champion's League, FA Cup (the top two can be arranged however you feel). Arsenal are a big club with big club ambitions. ManU does not have a monopoly on ambition in the Prem.
Would you care to poll your fellow ManU supporters on that? I'm pretty sure that the number of folks on this board who feel the same as you can be tallied up on one hand. If you really feel that way, what matches, exactly, do you fear?
One of our main problems today was that we had nobody in our midfield who was in control. Nobody wanted to take the reins and try to start an attack. Everytime one of our back 4 got the ball, they tried to pass it either Rooney, Tevez, or Ronaldo and completely by-passing our central midfielders. I don't feel Hargreaves has the passing ability to be the catalyst of an attack like Scholes and Carrick can. Anderson put in some decent effort defensively today, but he did little offensively with the ball. Once Carrick came on we looked so much better. Hargreaves had a creative player to give the ball too and we were able to build up play through the middle. It's a shame Carrick wasn't match fit, as I'm sure we'd have done a lot better if he was.