Preston VS Arsenal 7th january 17.30 BT sport Fa cup

[Jury]

I thought we won 12 (most successful club in the competition AFAIK) :s

Joint with Man Utd on 12.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Forgot that lot won it last year, need to get number 13 so...

 

[Rain Dance]

Xakha miss control for Galagher chance ........... loss at words

 

[grim_tales1]

Joint with Man Utd on 12.

My mistake, cheers

 

[RUS arsenal]

So angry that Giroud celebrated, absolutely ridiculous. Loser mentality.

Didn't he get the memo that you can only celebrate while touching a trophy?!

 

[CurryFlavoured]

Our 'dream midfield duo' for a lot of people on here struggling against Preston, convince me that our midfield hasn't got serious problems Can't wait to see them at Stamford Bridge and Bayern.

 

[tap-in]

Why are we having these awful first halves, its like we just love playing catch up. We need to get back to clean sheets pronto or we'll be out of the FA, CL and the PL race by end of Feb.

 

[Hunta]

Why are we having these awful first halves, its like we just love playing catch up. We need to get back to clean sheets pronto or we'll be out of the FA, CL and the PL race by end of Feb.

Think it was Giroud or Ramsey after the game who said they didn't know a lot about Preston and were surprised by them. That's what we're dealing with here, compare that to Mourinho saying yesterday he'd watched tapes of Reading and watched one four times over.

 

[carlito'sway]

A nice round up and highly recommended comment on the Guardian reactions section.

"A few talking points from an Arsenal supporter:

1. Congratulations to Preston for a great performance. In the first half especially you were awesome, and it's not just that Arsenal were terrible (even though they were). Preston were creative and daring. Most premiere league clubs would have been bothered today. This is why we love the FA Cup.

2. Arsenal's defense didn't click today, but there are mitigating factors. First, Maitland-Niles is young and hardly ever plays. Second, Gabriel and Mustafi is a CB pairing we have rarely seen this season. It's either been Koscielny with Mustafi, or Koscielny with Gabriel. Third, Mustafi is still rusty after a spell out injured. I am not worried about Arsenal's defense.

3. Much more worrisome is the central pairing of Xhaka and Ramsey. It just doesn't work. They were dismal. Neither one is creative offensively like Cazorla. Neither one finds space in tight situations. Neither one can intercept and break up play like Coquelin and Elneny. I'm afraid we're stuck with this for the next month, and it was the real weakness today. Ramsey's strike was great (beautiful goal) but he was otherwise really poor, maybe even the worst player in the team. The abject first half was in large part due to his inability to control the flow of play and connect the defense to the offense.

4. Giroud, what can one say? What a player. How many times has he saved Arsenal this season already? For me he can celebrate however he wants. Arsenal's "supporters" love the criticize him but he's been our best player by a mile for a while now, delivering when it counts. In the game against Bournemouth he had two assists and a goal, and fools still managed to insult him at every opportunity for what was a 9-second celebration (when 30 seconds are added anyway when a goal is scored). Arsenal fans don't deserve him.

5. Very pleased that Danny Welbeck is back (great strike towards the end of the game today!). Not only is he one of football's nicest guys, but he is a big match player who, like Giroud, scores important goals. Who could forget his goal against Manchester United (semi final?), which ultimately allowed us to win the FA Cup? Or his great header in the last 30 seconds of our second game against Leicester last season? He will be critical in the second half of the season.

6. Also very happy with Perez so far. The so-called "panic buy" is turning out to be good value. He scores goals, has a great attitude, and his back-pass today was masterful. A better buy than Xhaka so far for me.

7. I would have liked to see more of Reine-Adelaide. We are once again decimated by injuries and this would have been a good opportunity to see him start a game."

 

[Penn_]

These first halves are likely just a hangover from the winter fixtures, before the last two games we were the only team not concede early on.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Still love this competition, hope we win it again.

 

[Rimaal]

Think it was Giroud or Ramsey after the game who said they didn't know a lot about Preston and were surprised by them. That's what we're dealing with here, compare that to Mourinho saying yesterday he'd watched tapes of Reading and watched one four times over.

That was staggering to hear the players say, and Wenger's problem encapsulated in a sentence. Every game is potluck, our squad come to the party with no idea of what they're being served.

Preparation, thy name is anything but Wenger.

 

[razörist]

What the... I just saw the first 30 minutes I missed yesterday, what was going on? Our backline looked like they were drunk!

 

[reed]

Think it was Giroud or Ramsey after the game who said they didn't know a lot about Preston and were surprised by them. That's what we're dealing with here, compare that to Mourinho saying yesterday he'd watched tapes of Reading and watched one four times over.

You don't need any preparation when you have King Giroud.

 

[redanddread]

 

[razörist]

I like Giroud as a captain.

 

[Mitch]

Yet again we didn't show up in the first half. In particular Gabriel, Mustafi , Xhaka and Ramsey were awful. Lucky to be only one down as it could have been easily more. Fortunately we showed up in the second half with an improved performance. Iwobi and Perez our best players today displaying great link up play.

 

[bingobob]

Our 'dream midfield duo' for a lot of people on here struggling against Preston, convince me that our midfield hasn't got serious problems Can't wait to see them at Stamford Bridge and Bayern.

The whole team struggled. Sometimes that happens when you play away to lower teams in the cup. I'd have been worried if it was at home and that happened.

 

[Goonerozil33]

An absolutely unimportant match against a small team who played like their life depended on it. We were sluggish initially and grew into the match. The only thing that mattered was the victory. If we keep winning like this for another 10 matches the performance will pick up automatically. The most important thing was to win and now over to Swansea match

 

[Goonerozil33]

And for those people slagging the club for not knowing much about Preston, if you have to drill yourself against Preston to win then you might as well call this club Brighton or something