Whats up with bergy? He has been a bit off colour the past few weeks and today he had a few bad touches. Maybe he needs more rest? I know of another dutchman who is bursting to play for the first team! I was expecting a blowout today (4/5-nill) but we did create a few chances today and should have scored one or two more. We are lacking the killer finish at the moment but i dont think it will last long. The news of the mancs certainly cheered me up!
I hate to say what I'm about to say, but here goes: In the last 2 games, Edu has played 154 minutes, and Cesc has played 26 minutes. Goals scored in Edu's 154: 0 Goals scored in Cesc's 26: 2 Quite simply, the offense works better with Cesc in the game. I guess I'll have to resign my commission in "Edu's Army" but what the hell....
I think Reyes should start at forward instead of Dennis. He can come off the bench and still be effective.
It was a very entertaining match to watch. Arsenal should have had more goals based on the chances they had, but nonetheless it made for a fun game to watch.
sorry to say it coach.... but Edu has lost the form.. he was invisible out there... lose vieira and edu and give me Cesc/Gilberto~ cant believe i just said that but vieira also needs to boss the midfield, and he just simply hasnt been effective.. maybe im just knee-jerking.. surely we will see van persie start a match right?>??? wont we??? s'il vous plait??
I couldn't agree more.... Vieria so far is a pale shadow of his former self. It seems that he is meeting the same fate as Roy Keane, and age is catching up with him fast. Maybe it wouldn't have been such a big thing if he was sold early this year . Still, I hope that this is a temporary dip in form and he will be back to his best soon.
Thank goodness RVP came thru. I thought the lads looked extremely patchy at times. Honestly, I think the # of matches and winning all the time is taking a toll on our boys. Maybe they have lost their passion for the game, temporarily?
Age hits hard and fast, and as great as Bergkamp looked the first couple of games, he's looked lost the last couple (I didn't see this one). You've got to pick your spots and he's started far more games than I would have expected him to. Part of it is this Reyes thing. I thought we got JAR to replace Dennis, not replace Pires. If Reyes is going to be a left back, then we still need another striker. The press reports from last year all stated that van Persie was comfortable in the hole, but that means we get a lot younger a lot sooner than I'm happy with. Again, I didn't see this game, but it's disappointing to hear that Edu had another off game, to go with Vieira, who's having an off-season. Cesc and van Persie getting major minutes is much different team than the one that went undefeated last year.
I still haven't watched the match yet but I'll echo others and say it's disappointing to hear that Vieira and Edu still weren't up for it. Hopefully they're both just still trying to regain form and will find it soon. I'm a huge Cesc fan but realize that he cannot be played every match at his age. Also sounds like Van Persie needs more minutes. Perhaps Dennis should be getting more rest so his level of play can remain high when he's in. Does anyone remember when we won the Double in 01/02 it seemed like Dennis would often give way in about the 70th or 75th minute. Might that be a good tactic to use again in order to get him rest and give Van Persie more playing time?
But didn't we also concede 2 with Cesc in there? It's obvious (to me, anyway) that the player we really miss is the Invisible Wall. Oh, and the knee-jerk Lehman and Cygan bashing is pretty sad. Two great crosses, two great headers, Jens didn't have a chance on either. And Wenger was seen to mouth the word "Patrick" after the 2nd goal, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't thinking of Sponge Bob's buddy when he said it. But since he's not on the Official List of Scapegoats, he's rarely included in the criticism.
Nice Sponge Bob reference. To be fair, I think several people lately have been saying that Paddy isn't up to snuff yet. Again, I haven't watched the match yet so I won't comment on the goals allowed and who was at fault.
Paddy's play is what worries me. We are not the best team in the world, which I thought last year, with Paddy's current form. For the past three years (the years that I've been watching closely), Vieira has been the dominant force on the team, not Henry or Bergkamp. He's the lynchpin between our good, yet strangely suspect defense, and an offense that is the Greatest Show on Turf (with apologies to Rams fans). There are alot of teams that are only as great as their best player, and will only go as far as he can take them. Vieira is our Jason Kidd, our Brett Fahvre. Look at the three goals Vieira scored last year: against Chelsea minutes after he'd been stripped by Makelele, against Spurs to clinch the Premiership, and in the last game to cement the unbeaten season. You don't get goals much bigger than that. And yet, the Man Utd game that saw us knocked out of the FA Cup. Vieira looked lost and just plain tired. Against Chelsea in the CL semis he looked like a boy playing with men. I'm not trying to blame him for our ills, nor am I trying to be a doomsayer, but until Patrick Vieira regains last season's form, this is going to be an absolute dogfight for the Premiership and in Europe. The question for you more veteran AW watchers: does Wenger have such a fight in him?
ok, we played like ass and did not take advantage of our choices. i went crazy at the Globe when RvP scored, i could not believe it. Henry is the man, especially when he played the ball to himself up the left side. Why the hell did Pires let the ball through to Freddie instead of just burying it?
When a flowing move is going, it sometimes looks as though the player finishing it off is made to feel bad. I think sometimes when there is a string of passes, players just like to keep passing and not feel like the odd one out who shot
yeah, when i saw the replay my first thought was why the hell didn't Pires shoot. Niemi was out of position, but then was in position when Freddie shot.
All I have to say is our set-pieces defensively and offensively are a disgrace. We can't even blame Lehmann for the two we conceded, it was just rank bad defending.
You know I think this is a pretty excellent point. I don't have much to add except the goals in the Southampton game were not Lehman or Cygan's fault really. I've also noticed that we didn't seem to have any real finishing in this game. There were opportunities to score multiple goals and even a penalty, all which just completely eluded the squad.
i don't blame lehman at all. corner kick situations are chaotic and the box is full of people. it's the defense's job to A) get the ball out of the box and B) prevent the ball from entering the box. If cygan had been doing his job he would not have taken that player down which led to the free kick (that was essentially a corner kick) that led to 2 more corners that led to the 2nd goal. Cygan was off the whole game, and actually there have been very few times in his career that I didn't notice him ********ing something up.
Because the one glaring deficiency in our play is the play on corner kicks. We score on them at a paltry rate and give up goals on corners far too often. Watch them on corners. They are not well organized and it is not at all clear that marking responsibilities are clear. With the level of talent on this team it has to be lack of organization. It used to be that working on set pieces was a large part of practice, but we often look like we have never done it before.
Niemi had the kind of game for Southampton that he had seemingly all the time just 2 years ago, even the first half of last season. Arsenal could've avoided lettin' it come down the wire had a couple good chances earlier been converted. That and set pieces. Holy crap, it was like some fo the players on the pitch thought that they didn't have to move if they didn't feel like it after the ball was put back in play. And props to Saints for keepin' their shape for most of the match and lettin' themselves get stretched and shredded.
all true... i really think RvP has earned some first team time... and bergy really needs to rest... the man is old and we've been lucky that he started the season so well, but it's silly to expect him to keep it up. pire, henry and cole work so well together(most of the time) that i just don't see why we keep breaking that up. JAR is meant to be a striker, why not play him as one? and something must be done about vieira's inconsistency. let's hope wenger makes the necassary changes in the CL tomorrow and we finally get back on it!!