Agree with you on all points except for Eboue; I think he had a good match, and I think people give him way too much shit for not being as bad as people act. And Hleb had a good game for me as well. Cesc and Adebayor were diabolical and much worse than either Hleb or Eboue for me, as were most others.
thats ok the best have to loose a few too.... you guys expected to go undefeaded all season? lets be serious, shiit liek this happens, bayern lost to cottbus lol...players get tired and worn out....this is where we pick it back up and turn things back around the way they were
Eboue had an average match, as per usual, remember this is the man that replaced Ljunberg but he spends so much time on his arse it's frustrating Hleb has gone backwards, Adebayor has gone back to being howdebuyyou? Cesc is off his game and as I said has been in the league for a while!! But i can deal with the above, what ********s me off is the lack of passion !!
He should never have gone down begging for that pen. Had he not done that I would have given him some credit but like everyone says he does two good things and one bad thing so he's going nowhere for us.
Your right mate, I've always said the only thing I ask of my team is that they play with passion and while the effort may or may not have been there these past few games the passion and really busting some bollocks to win this title has been clearly missing. Eboue agree, Cesc agree...Ade agree, he should never have cut his hair dont fix what aint broken!!!!!! He is the Samson of the football world.
I disagree, I think that there is a considerable amount of passion, and hleb, ade, and cesc are playing well. Yes ade has not scored in some time, and one could say that he has regressed, but the teams we are playing are having a lot to do with our performance. All of them are just sitting way the f*ck back, and we are tearing them apart. We just don't have the finishing, the final ball. we dont have versatility to our attack, its either cesc trying to play one into the box, or sagna and eboue working towards a cross on the wing. counter attacking is impossible when there's no attack to counter. We need a little more creativity, and playing against teams that dont just sit back might spark us up.
Mark Halsey makes other English referees look competent by comparison. I actually had the thought today that I wish Mike Riley were out there reffing instead of Halsey, a thought I'd never expect to enter my mind while watching any match ever, until now.
that sums it up for me. If the team cared and lost then I'd be pissed but we would still be able to say they tried. now it looks like they aren't even trying.
I don't think the team doesn't care. I think they play stupidly. First, I think their offensive buildup tends to be agonizingly slow. Opponents always have time to fall back and defend in depth. How many times do we see Arsenal either play square passes parallel to the box where the receiver inevitably ends up flat footed and unable to get a quality shot off without getting stripped by the defender hanging on his shirt or Arsenal tries some intricate give and go at the top of the box that nine times out of ten ends up in the offensive player losing possession without ever shooting? The logical Plan B is for players to shoot long range or to play long balls to Adebayor. The long shot worked fantastically for Cesc in Milan but with the exception of a couple of Flamini and Toure goals, has been an underutilized weapon in Arsenal's arsenal. The long ball to Adebayor has been somewhat short circuited by Adebayor's cooling of form combined with a very frustrating tendency for linesmen to blow offside calls against him and for officials to whistle him for phantom fouls against smaller, weaker defenders. On the other hand, and this was a problem more from a season or two past than now, how many times have you seen Arsenal dominate possession but give up a goal off a long ball pass and cross off the counter. Last year especially, it seemed Arsenal would give up two shots total a game but one of them would lead to a goal and a 1-0 defeat. Arsenal's players and style of play remind me of fancy Italian sports cars that are absolute dreams to operate when they're working but are perpetually hampered by chronic mechanical unreliability. If the timing is just a bit off, everything goes to hell. To further stretch the analogy, Arsenal remind me of the M-16, a finely tuned weapon, technically superior to its competitors, but one that becomes absolutely useless in the mud. ManU, on the other hand, are the AK-47s; not fancy, simplistic even, but completely reliable and will get the job done even in non-ideal conditions.
I agree with FlyEmirates above. I actually think they ARE putting in effort. The problem is, IMO, is that what was making us so successful the first half of the season has been found out a bit. Teams with less talent have found out very good ways to play against us. This is ABSOLUTELY amplified when they can get an early goal and basically defend with 10 men the whole game. Aliadiere's goal - like the Villa goal - was absolutely the greatest thing that Southgate and O'Neill could have hoped for - because it meant they would not have to worry about Arsenal's counterattack the rest of the game. Think of the Milan game and think how both Arsenal's goals came - basically on the counterattack, after Milan had tired out. Milan actually tried to attack the whole game, partly because thats their style and their skill set (Kaka, et al.) but also because they had to. My guess is that Arsenal will actually perform much better against the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U, for similar reasons. This said, its simply not good enough to talk about refs, pitches, et al. These things don't help. But the fundamental problem is is that this team lacks a player with a cutting edge like a F Torres or a Christiano Ronaldo that can score a goal out of nothing. You need guys like that in the kinds of games we have been playing the last few weeks. Look at Man U today against Derby, for example. Arsenal don't have that. Ade is a good player, but he is not that kind of player. He can't do what a Torres can do. No one on this team can. This is where I will get on Wenger for not spending money. I don't think he should spend big money just because he can. But Arsenal desperately needs a high impact goal scorer. ******** a right wing. Walcott will play there next year. What we need is a striker of higher quality than we have now. The other big problem, IMO, is dead balls. Particularly free kicks. This is the other major problem of Arsenal's game right now. How many ********ing corners did we have today? 25? It seemed like it. AT least we finally scored from one. But how many corners have I seen from Cesc headed clear at the near post? Maybe RVP can help us in the department as he gets back on song. But if not, this is another area where Arsenal needs improvement. But the team isn't crap and they are putting in effort. The fact is the team has limitations, and other teams have figured out how to exploit these limitations now, particulary when they get some things going there way - like an early goal on the break, playing on a terrible pitch, etc..
I think its more simple than all this. The team needs a consistent, dangerous goal scorer. Two would be even better. Eduardo might have become that player. Well, lets hope he still will. But obviously, that isn't going to happen for at least 9 months or so now. I've seen enough of Ade to tell me he is not that player. He's too clumsly, his touch is too poor. He needs other people to make his goals for him to an extent. What we REALLY need is someone like Torres or C Ronaldo or Berbatov. There aren't exactly a ton of these guys out there, but they aren't that rare - and a club as big as Arsenal can and could attract a player of this calibre. Its truly the one missing piece. A big one, but really the only one IMO.
Robin van Persie is your answer oh and for people to say that there is a lack of passion in the squad is just idiotic.
So I'm an Idiot, but you tell me if this team is as up for these so called little games as they are for the so called big games like Milan?, This team will fight like ******** against Man U ,Liverpool & Chelsea in the next few weeks, if they showed the same passion against Wigan,Boro,Birmingham etc, they wouldn't have needed to!! because we'd be 10 points clear But hey what do I know I'm an Idiot
No they're not!, Adebayor cant grasp the offside rule, misses to many one on ones, Hleb loses the ball to much, and Cesc has really only shone in one game in the last 8, Flammini is holding the midfield together As for the way other teams play, they play that way against Chelsea and the Mancs too, look at thier results against them!!
To those saying that the team doesn't care: Are you friggin' serious???????? I hope you guys are joking because these men play for their money, career, pride, fame, and so much more than what you gain by supporting Arsenal. So think about what you guys are actually suggesting before you blurt stuff out like "they don't care". No matter how it might look to you, they play with much more passion than you guys can imagine, and if anything, today I think they played with much more effort than their last few games.
Guys and gals, can we please stop with the personal insults being thrown around at other posters? Everyone is frustrated with the recent results but that is not a good reason to be hurling insults around. Disagreement, debate, discussion are all perfectly okay. Let's just try to engage in all of those without the concluding "....you're stupid if you think otherwise...." type of remarks. Thanks.
There is definately a degree of them not caring. How else do you explain the performance against Milan in contrast to the mighty giants of Wigan, Boro, Birmingham and Villa. They don't show any fight, or even a sense of urgency in the final 10 minutes in these games, and I think it's pathetic. When did we start building up this slow? Do you know how many times all we need is 1 final ball played in, but hold on to it and keep tapping it around until more and more players get back, and eventually form a 10 man barrier that we can't penetrate. I don't think I've ever seen a team be 1 touch away from a goal, and then go all the way back to their goalkeeper. If this is the style of play wenger is teaching them, then I am really disappointed in him. This patience until the cows come home does not work. The game could be over, boro gone home, and we would still be out there under the lights passing around patiently waiting for a path to goal. We have drawn all 4 games the exact same way - it's no coincidence. At this point I would probably put money on Derby drawing with us, heck I could probably coach them to it too.
This is just my opinion, but I just think this is a bad run. A combination of bad luck, dodgy refereeing (yesterday being a good example), overthinking or overplaying and opponents being up for us. We have the tenacity to overcome it and break the run, but now we're at a point where we need to do it quickly. The squad has shown the fortitude necessary to get the tough results, and I believe they can. It would help, of course, if Merchandising United had a slip, as well. It seems (as I don't watch them) that they are on a good run and getting a bit lucky while we are on a bad run. I've not seen any player not giving his full effort, at least not lately. I thought Flamini was excellent yesterday, and has been all season.
Ding. You're right, they do gain more than what I do supporting Arsenal. Maybe I'm just being stupid paying their wages by going to games and buying merchandise
I'd agree with that, he chased down a 60 yard ball and forced an error that got us a corner, how many other players do you see doing that.