Good grief, Cygan is pants. I really thought he would come back stronger this year. He makes me long for Stepanovs. Strap on a pair Pascal!
Good victory. I letting Newcastle come back to tie it up twice was dissapointing to see, but in the end, the Gunners take all three points, so I'll let that one slide for now.
Thoughts Despite the goal, Gilberto sucks. He's adding nothing to the mix. I've been waiting for the guy to come around, but apart from some brief glimpses, he's done nothing. Freddie's injury doesn't look good. He was kept on the field but couldn't do anything the final 20 minutes. We got a lot more fluid once Ray came off and Pires came on. The idiots who booed the move should be ashamed of themselves. Cygan's confidence is shot, and he looks rusty as hell. If Ashley's injury is long term, does Arsene use Clichy at LB? Because of injuries, we might see Wiltord back at the right wing, maybe move Parlour to the middle, play Dennis/Aliadiere/Kanu up front with Henry. Finally, the Sky panel of Peter Beardsley, Nigel Winterburn, and George Graham all say ADAMANTLY that it was a clear penalty on Jenas. Case closed.
Re: Cygan on for Cole! Which of course is not true. He wasn't even on the bench for Arsenal 2-3 Leeds. The reason i know this is because the Sky commentator said that Cygan hasn't played since your match away against Bolton. I just put 2 and 2 together. I checked the match report, and sure enough, whoever your commentator was, was wrong.
Rough Win..but 3pts is still 3pts! I'm really getting worried about our injuries, plus our very short line-up. I know we are maxed to the hilt because of THE GROVE. Henry's 1st was great. Nice to see Gilberto score. Funny seeing Parlour get so much love from the Highbury faithful and some boos when Pires came on in relief. Amazing thing is that The Arsenal still have not played GREAT football, cash problems, and injuries...BUT we are still top of the table. The Arsenal truly are a club of warriors. Go Gunners!
Gilberto and Cygan From where I sat (at 5am in Australia), Gilberto's tackling and defensive effort is almost faultless. He times his tackles very well. It is when going forward where he has problems. He just doesn't know when to hold the ball in the midfield, or create a goalscoring chance with a pass to our strikers. Cygan is as useless as tits on a bull. The boy just hasn't got what it takes to succeed in the EPL. He is too slow, and turns the ball over too often in his own half. His tackling is good when he gets near it. As soon as Senderos is back from injury, put the boy in, and give Ryan Garry or Juan a run at left back, not mention Aliadiere and Pennant, as we need to get a bit more freshness into the squad. Can anyone tell me why Graham Stack was on the bench ahead of Taylor or Shaaban?
Well that was hard work! The old failing of taking the lead and then sitting back and letting the opposition come at us nearly cost us dear again. Having read the comments on this page, a few points. Cygan isn't good enough. Not enough pace and he makes bad decisions. I know he was pressed into service out of position tonight, but he should be sold and one of the youngsters such as Senderos or Garry should get his place on the bench. Gilberto. Once again, he shows he's not up to the pace of the game in the midfield. Put Parlour in, at least he'll put himself about and win a few tackles. I didn't boo when Parlour was taken off, but I was surprised. I can understand those in the crowd that were disappointed, you can see how much he cares and how much effort he puts in. I know Wenger couldn't have forseen the injury to Ljungberg, but I would rather have had Parlour on for the last twenty minutes who would have been busting a gut to keep us in it rather than Pires who looked like he couldn't be bothered when the going got tough. Wiltord is rubbish. At least two absolute sitters and he couldn't convert either. The bloke should be sold. Aliadiere deserves to be given a run in the team alongside Henry. Hopefully the injuries aren't too serious, but I;m especially worried about Ljungberg as he looked in a great deal of pain. Cole was limping in the first half, I was surprised when he came out for the second. We could have a pretty thin squad travelling to Moscow next week.
I can't agree with you on Wiltord's chances today. Even though they would normally be easy goals, I think today with the wet ball and unsure footing all over the pitch you have to take that into consideration. Cygan did look right at horrible. Did he always run like Frankenstein or I am just now noticing this? Gilberto: I bashed him at half time, and I repeat it here: Teams are laying off him when he has the ball outside of 20 yards or so because they know that he'll give it up himself. No need to waste a man marking him unless he's close (which Jenas didn't do on his goal). I like Ray Parlour, you like Ray Parlour, everybody who follows Arsenal likes Ray Parlour, but if you take a look, Edu offers you exactly what Parlour does plus a more physical presence. I'd like to see Viera and Edu run out for 3 or 4 games in a row and see how other teams cope with that. They shut down manUre's midfield at OT in 2002, and they can very well do it again. Edu would also free PV4 up just a bit so he can go forward. Oh, Newcastle's last goal: It wasn't Lauren who let him go. It was Wiltord, who had moved to right wing to cover for Freddie (who was doing his best to stay in the middle and not get hurt any further), Funny that we score when we're down to 10 men. Maybe PV4 should have gotten tossed from the OT game a bit sooner. As for the Toon fans who think the penalty was "home cooking"; every replay showed he wasn't pushed into the ball. If anything, he got on top of Cygan and then for some unknown reason threw his hand up. No other call could have been made there.
Re: Gilberto and Cygan I really like this analogy. I really do. It was a real gutsy win. Get the lead, lose it, get it back, repeat. I think it was the most entertaining game this season. Agree that Cygan was pretty bad. His passes weren't on target and just seemed rusty as hell. However, I guess you can't blame him considering this is his first appearance of the season. Do you think he should get some more chances or no? I really hope the injuries aren't too serious. God knows what the FA is gonna do to the six players charged, and having these injuries on top of that definitely doesn't help. Oh, and why is there any controversy over the Jenas handball? He, for some reason, stuck his hand up. Cygan was next to him but there was no push as he claimed. Ahh well, for once we had Riley on our side.
Re: Re: Gilberto and Cygan Well, if Cole or Viera turn out to be hurt for a couple weeks or more, maybe they should just accept the suspensions for those players, as they'll be off the pitch anyway. Although I suppose the FA would insist the suspensions are served when the players are healthy or something like that. Nice job today Gunners. Tough loss for Newcastle, but their defense looks to still be fragile (though not as bad as the hideous display at home against ManU).
Re: Re: Re: Gilberto and Cygan Roy Keane was out hurt for all of his suspension last year so they should not do that.
just a couple thoughts on the win.... we REALLY need to lose Cygan and Wiltord.. Cygan is just an embarrasment defensively, and i really dont need to mention how often he kicks it square to the opponet!!! now wiltord, gimme a break, his first touch is a joke and it seems that he lacks concentration or something.. really useless against newcastle say for i think one thru ball to ljungberg.. sheesh that bloke is pants.. umm... the injuries compiled with suspensions are gunna cause massive problems!! just zero depth in our squad.. ugh... nice win.. lets do something in moscow now!!! go gunners.. phishy
Andy...mummmmmrlleemlleee, Gray You must have picked up a better brand of babblefish than I've got...I spent half the match hoping he'd haul the socks out of throat so I could make out the mumble. First time I've "listened" to the Sky broadcast. Usually I watch the match on Fox and listen to the commentary from Capital Gold but last night, I had to pick it up on tape delay so I got the full meal deal from Sky. Do you think it would too much to ask Fox to supply subtitles when Andy Gray is commenting?
Wet ball? Unsure footing? What? He had two chances inside the six-yard box and the second one especially was a perfect ball played right into his path. All he had to do was put his foot through the ball and he scores. He didn't even make the keeper make a save! And I haven't even mentioned when he was through about thirty yards out with Given coming to meet him. If he had looked up he could put it round him, over him, whatever he wants. Fact is, if Wiltord takes his two simple chances in the six-yard box we're 3-1 up at half time and the game is dead and buried. And it's not just me who thinks Wiltord is crap. All the Arsenal fans I know want shot of him from my mate who goes to the games with me, to his brother and his mate, to the guys who sit next to us, to all the Arsenal fans who go to my local pub, to Arsenal fans at my work, to the bloke who lives across the road who I don't even really know. I was even reading the Gooner at the game last night who described him as "resembling a first division striker" and someone who can't shoot straight and doesn't know the offside rule. The bloke should be sold as soon as possible (if we could get any money for him!). We'd be much better off giving some of the young strikers at the club such as Aliadiere and Bentley a go.