True. And also that first cushioned touch by Dani made all the difference in setting up his angle. He played the total savior role. Saved us from having to spend another 30 mins on the pitch. Saved us from another possible injury loss. Saved Arteta from some potentially difficult uncomfortable questions. Onward!
It's hard to me to be angry or disappointed when this is the sort of performance I've come to expect. But winning is always better than losing. Glad it was only 90 minutes, didn't need an extra 30 minutes with the compressed schedule. Back 3 and Martinez were shakey, midfield was poor, but attacking down the wings was pretty effective, Pepe and Tierney in particular.
The recently-all-too-rare goal from a midfielder wins it for us in a game that's hard to say we deserved to win. Today is my 24th wedding anniversary. Yet this win is easily the most surprised I will be all day.
Tierney played LWB and did really well. Lots of dangerous crosses. Kolasinac played CB and wasn't great. His poor clearance led to their goal. Saka was pretty quiet. Not bad, just not impactful. I think playing all 4 matches may be taking its toll.
Kola playing his way out of the club, he looked aight when we could move the ball fwd, but he clearly has no head for defending in the box. The whole situation came from bad play from Xhaka giving the ball away.
Just watched on DVR. My main takeaway is ho-lee-shit we are atrocious in the air. It felt like Arsenal won 1 aerial challenge all game. Stats say it was basically 50-50, but I find that really hard to believe. Great finish by Ceballos to win it though - didn't realize he had that in him.
It was but I think Eddie botched the play. His pass to Pepe was really nice but Pepe ultimately had nowhere to go with it. If you watch the run from Saka and how the defense was reacting, the better play was a simple pass into Saka's path. He then should have had an easy pass across the box to Pepe for a sitter. If Pepe was better with his right and the ball was slightly in front of him he technically could have pulled the same pass across the box to Saka for a sitter. That is my biggest issue/concern with Pepe is that he is so rediculously left footed. He actively avoids his right foot most of the time.
Agreed. And he had good moments even after a pretty strong knock to the head. Which really probably should’ve taken him out of the game if they really ever seriously applied concussion protocols
Here is MY clip I got from the BBC with John Motson commentating on that I edited and put together, you'll find it on my old personal YouTube channel (Ray Jackson at www.YouTube.com/AK47Music)
YES!!! BRING 'EM ON!!! Remember 2017 when we beat them in the SF at Wembley that year, I still have the program and mini flags from that match I got on eBay from that year. We did it then we can do it again COYF'n'G!!! I did not get to watch the match as I have not yet gotten a subscription to Hulu+ Live Sports, in which I chose for my Roku box, but I'll be ready come City, when is the SF taking place, as WE'RE GOING TO WEMBLEY!!! ....and again, just like 1936, 1999, and again in 2003, when we wore our now-famous (and super rare and I happen to have one!!!) Gold O2 shirts for that match, in which I proudly wore this afternoon downtown sporting my Gunner best, another FA Cup victory against Sheffield United!!!
Yeah. Earlier, during the match, the ESPN commentator Adrian Healy said we would face Yanited. So I wrote at the time that I'm relatively happy to get them instead of Chelski or especially Citeh. Wind just left my sails. Maybe the fact that when that match is being played I will be starting a week's vacation in a remote part of Maine shouldn't bother me so much now? Unless of course it were to turn into an upset for the ages. Nah.
i like kolasinac but he has always felt suspect defensively to me. when allowed to go forward, he makes some nice passes but that feels like his main strength.
just watching the highlight and mustafi's aerial efforts were atrocious. on their goal, he was one of the defenders who couldn't figure out the timing. there was another set play where he somehow headed the ball straight back behind him across the face of goal? and it felt - like you said - like mcburnie won everything. like one of the talking heads was saying, i don't get why they didn't send more aerial balls in when we were making mcburnie look like drogba.
Anyone have a good stat app that tracks FA Cup matches? My stat zone app only does Prem and European competitions. Asking because I thought Kolasinac's passing was terrible today, but maybe I'm wrong.
As for our aerial defensive prowess, or lack-thereof, wouldn't it be nice if we had some veteran of our much-vaunted back lines of yore come in and drill the defenders on this? Tony Adams or Sol Campbell might be nice... I seem to recall them being pretty good in this regard... but I don't think either one of them would step back into that role at this point. Instead we got Steve Bould for quite a few years as assistant under Wenger & Emery... but honestly I couldn't ever really tell what he did. It certainly wasn't evident that our defense trended significantly better under his "reign".
Whoscored usually tracks fa cup, but maybe not since the big ‘rona? EDIT: They still are. Here ya go: https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/1457284/Live/England-FA-Cup-2019-2020-Sheffield-United-Arsenal
my memory might be playing a trick on me but i thought i vaguely recall they (he and wenger) had a row (about him wanting responsibilities) so he took over defense or set piece for a time and we got better at it. before something happened and wenger took back control . . . and we got shite at it again later? or am i remembering wrongly?