Thank you for that creative input. Very dissapointing result. The whole team just wasn't clicking. Henry was practically invisible out there. Ray Parlour was busting his hump as usual, creating space for himself, but his passes were way off. Toure also looked pretty shaky. It was good to see Bergkamp start though, and he did have the best chances in the game. Obviously, that wasn't good enough. Still, a point is a point and Arsenal remain on top. I'd give MOTM to Yukubu (sp?). He was wreaking havoc for the defense and just came up unlucky.
Watched it on FSW, and here's what I took away: -- Pompey's a good team. They won't go to Europe, but they won't go down, either...That was about as composed and disciplined an away performance as you could want. Of course, they'll go to Old Trafford and lay down like everyone else does...but still, they deserved at least a point. -- However, they need to finish better, especially Yakubu. They should have been up 1-3 by the 49th minute. -- Pires dived to get the penalty. I hate to say it, but the American judge gives him a 9.5. -- Sol had a nightmare...Kolo wasn't so bad, but the entire back line looked like statues during Pompey's goal. -- Speaking of which, I hate Teddy Sheringham with every fiber of my soul. I hate him more than Mexico's national team, and that's saying something. However, he was definitely their MOTM...took the goal well, and defended brilliantly. -- As for us, Parlour was our MOTM by a large, large, LARGE margin. He's ideal for these muckabouts with hard-working teams like Portsmouth. -- We didn't deserve the point, but I'll take it.
Definitely Pizza Parlour for MOTM. It just looked like no one had the touch today, especially Viera and Henry, while I suppose DB10 could be excused for lack of luck. Very very disappointing.
Hate to say it, but Arsenal stole 2 points from Portsmouth today. The Pires "dive" was iffy, could have gone either way as it appeared he wouldn't have gotten back to the ball even if he wasn't impeded. Still top of the table, though, and that's what's important. Last season this game would have been lost late. I think Wenger is REALLY going to start complaining about International matches during the season now, as Arsenal looked dead early on, as they often do due to travel and whatnot. Campbell getting cautioned early scares the hell out of me, as it seems the officials are watching him like a hawk. I hope he doesn't back off playing his physical style for fear of cautions. Lehman played well, but he really wasn't challenged much. The goal against couldn't have been stopped. I hate that a cross is just allowed to float to an unmarked man, but those are the breaks.
And Patrick Swayze is SHOWN THE DOOR!!! *LMAO* Quick reaction from those BigSoccer mods. Perhaps Swayze is the Sol Campbell of BigSoccer?
Portsmouth certainly played well. They didn't just stick 10 or 11 behind the ball like most visiting teams do. As much as Arsenal fans hate Sheringham, he is an extremely intelligent player who should be commended for doing what he does at his age. Speaking of which, it's obvious that Bergkamp has jumped the shark, isn't it? He was stealing from the club at 40K/week last season, and even though his salary was (rightfully) sliced in half, he's *still* stealing from the club. Just awful. How many good chances did he blow today? At least two. Not to mention that *he* was the player who clearly encroached in the box on Henry's first PK. Geez, Dennis has only been playing professionally for nearly 20 years, he shouldn't make stupid mistakes like that. Faye comprehensively outplayed Vieira, Campbell looks slow and clumsy, Pires didn't do much, and the more I see of Lauren at RB the less I'm convinced. About the penalty: There was no clear replay view, so whatever anyone says about it nobody had a better view than Wiley.
The Upshot Arsenal were uninspired, Portsmouth are actually pretty good, the penalty call was awful. I don't care if he took a brick and batted him around the head, Pires had already chipped the ball softly to the keeper. An absolute gift for Arsenal. These games happen. Arsenal will be fine.
Credit Harry Redknapp, the Portsmouth manager. He said exactly what my teams (Villa) manager David O`leary said: If you go to Highbury and defend you`ll lose. Only difference, he followed his own advice and played Sheringham And Yakubu up front. O`leary left out our best striker, Vassell, and only brought him on with 20mins to go as a winger. Result, we couldn`t capitalise on our spells of possession and lost 2-0. I want Redknapp as the next England coach when Sven quits.
Toure looked shaky? If he was shaky, what was Campbell? He was horrible today. Pires also stood out for me as being particularly bad. he was indecisive at times and was disposessed far too often. Vieira wasn't great, but he wasn't horrible either. I really didn't like the decision to take Edu off. His passing wasn't great, but he made quite a few good interceptions and showed some good hustle. Parlour was all over the place. I loved his intensity today. Overall, the boys stunk up the first half and had an ok second half, and were fortunate to get the point as Pires went down pretty easily.
I don't doubt Campbell was bad today either. Yakubu pretty much took him to school. I just mentioned Toure because I think this was his first game where he looked bad. Edu didn't impress me today, but I guess Ljungberg was invisible once he came on so I guess it's didn't really matter.
Strange how we all call/see things differently? I didn't think Toure had a bad game, but he definitely can't let players bully him like they did today. For me Edu had the same problem. All Pompey needed to do was blow on him and he'd let them have possession. Worst of all when he did lose it he showed no desire to chase after the ball and win it back. He wasn't on international duty, what's his excuse for being a bystander? As for Freddie, I thought he looked the sharpest I've seen him this year? I'd like to start another discussion about Ray Parlour. I haven't always been his biggest fan, but, I think he has once again shown his value to the team [shame about the finishing]. We kicked this dog till it was dead last season [the subject] but he continues to show that he's equal to our foreign imports, if not as skillful! He was our best player today. Fought for the ball in the middle of the park, covered defence, made the extra man in attack and, if only he'd stop wearing his boots on the wrong feet, should've scored.
i'm inclined to argree about parlour. for me it was strange actually strange to feel relieved when he had possession of the ball. i'm not a big fan of parlour's, but the way i feel about him is "if you need a man, who's not that great, but he won't *@#*@#*@#*@# up...ray parlour." that was actually to the tune of "ghostbusters" oh well, later
doom and gloom If I hadn't seen the first 4 matches.... and just read this forum...... I'd swear we were fighting relegation!! We didn't play well.... lucky to get a point... but I don't think we were horrible.....or are horrible... Our stars didn't cover themselves with glory.... and you can't just show up in the EPL and think a win is our divine right... we DO need to wake up, because a performance like that will mean we get embarrassed in Milan!! STILL TOP OF THE TABLE.... right?!!! geeeeeeeeeez...... its one match..... we are not going to win them all...... thats a fact... we are going to have drab matches..... United lost to Soton... is their season over???! Roll on Milan..... there will be better days....
Fair points Stag. Take nothing away from Pompey they played well, but, when we took the game to them they looked vulnerable. If we'd done that from the the start it would've been 3 points. It's early in the season of course, but, if we want to win back the tiltle these are games we need to win and win ruthlessly. Last season we gave the initiative back to ManUre by droping points against inferior teams like Villa, Bolton and Leeds! Arsene set us up for a fall before the kick-off with his comments about the players going into a lull after international duty. Where'd the fallen pride go? The pain of handing the title to Utd on a plate, the determination to make amends? ManUre's players were on International duty and they went to The Valley and did the business! Early in the season it may be, but take a look at our up-coming fixtures? From now to October 21st could well settle our whole campaign - CL & EPL?
Pires belongs on the French diving team. I can't believe that ref (who sucked in general) bought that *@#*@#*@#*@#*@#. Portsmouth deserved to win. And that smug-*ss Henry acted like he just won the world cup when he made the undeserved penalty. I'm not a Man U fan, bought I think I just decided I can stomach them better than the Flying Walendas that play at Arsenal.
We didn't deserve the points. The 1st 45, we were sloppy and Pompei outplayed us. I almost puked when I saw the replay that Pires took a dive! The 2nd half we looked tougher and pressing, but still not smooth. We should count our blessings that we got any points from this match.
Did any of you jackass trolls even watch the match? While I can agree that Pires played the ball too far ahead of himself to have a realistic chance of shooting, there's no way on Earth that he dove. The defender clearly chopped his leg at Pires, who was watching the ball in the air instead of the hacks on the ground. It's pretty easy to trip and fall over something that you don't see in your path, especially if that something is trying to force one of your legs back.
While awarding a PK might well be questionable, that would be due to the ball being beyond his play; Pires did not dive, the defender's foot clipped him.
You are clearly a moron, go back to the kiddergarten boards where you belong! You are the weakest link, goodbye!!!
Yes we did desrve the point, nothing more, and no it wasn't a penalty. Watch the replay again Pires veered into the defender, deliberately looking to make contact. Pires collided with the defenders foot not vice versa! It was a very theatrical showing by RP7 yesterday!!!
I have to respectfully disagree with anyone who conclusively states this was a dive. I taped the match and watched the replay several times. Even that replay they showed later on from what would have been behind and above the Pompey goal was inconclusive in my opinion. Please understand, I'm not saying it was absolutely not a dive, I just think it was a tough call either way, especially when the ref doesn't have the benefit of replays. And as for the earlier troll that said he can stomach United more than Arsenal...well he obviously hasn't watched RVN in action very often. That being said, the Gunners didn't look great today. And while we don't need to repeat last season's habit of dropping critical points to lesser squads, letdowns are occasionally going to happen over the course of a long season. I won't panic yet.