Almunia & PV4

[Bader]

isnt Almunia a great goalkeeper and he is doing very well .... many great catches .... and he always stand in the right place he also very good in the air balls ...... 8)
on the other hand ... Patric Vieira ... thats right he scored a winner last night ... but in midfield he is very slow and he lose the ball easliy ... and he do some deadley mistakes indeed ! i think he need some rest !

 

[Lukazan]

He is getting better that is for sure.

I think many people were too quick to jump on his back when he made a few mistakes, myself included. I mean every keeper is going to make mistakes at some point, I personally could never play in goal professionally, not only because I'm not good enough , but because of all the pressure, I respect keepers more than any other players playing in their position I think!

So maybe it was just coincidence that the mistakes Almunia made were around the time of his placement in the team for Lehmann!

I wouldn't be suprised if he keeps on form for a while now, pulls of a few amazing saves and people start calling him one of the best keepers in the Premiership :roll: ..

We'll see.

As for Vieira.. meh... I really have no clue about him and his performances as of late.

 

[RocktheCasbah]

I think Patrick's being judged very harshly on this forum, I think maybe it's to be expected after the events of the summer, but he really is not playing that badly at the moment. I think he was excellent aginst Fulham and played well last night. The two games before his suspension were also indicative of an increased level of performance. Don't forget this boy always comes good in the second half of the season.

As for Almunia, excellent. Fully justifying Arsène's decision to drop the German.

 

[Lukazan]

I think Patrick's being judged very harshly on this forum, I think maybe it's to be expected after the events of the summer, but he really is not playing that badly at the moment. I think he was excellent aginst Fulham and played well last night. The two games before his suspension were also indicative of an increased level of performance. Don't forget this boy always comes good in the second half of the season.

As for Almunia, excellent. Fully justifying Arsène's decision to drop the German.

To be 100% honest here, I have been a bit of a sheep...

I also haven't really noticed anything TOO different with Vieira's performances, sure he hasn't been as good but I don't think he has been bad. Of course because everyone here has been saying he's been poor, I feel inclined to believe them because I know my fellow Gooners aren't wrong .

 

[Bader]

on Vieira absoulotley i think he is the best DMF in the world ....
but looks at the mistakes he done latley as the Pompey and Magapies games !they were gonna killed us ! also he is slow little bit latley and he is not good in tackles and get the ball from the other team as before ...

 

[dsurg]

You know I was screaming for him to be taken off just before he scored. But it was never going to happen ...AW substitute is captain and bring on a 17 year old

 

[AdamT]

he has been poor but not anymore.can't expect him to be on top form always.if we peak second half of season i wont complain

 

[Rocafella]

You know I was screaming for him to be taken off just before he scored. But it was never going to happen ...AW substitute is captain and bring on a 17 year old

No manager would do that.

 

[kel varnsen]

the thing about vieira is that he is so inconsistant. one minute he's tackling, fighting and being the captein we all love to see, but a few mins later he looks lazy, uninterested and he keeps giving the ball away needlessly. i don't get it.

 

[kel varnsen]

just wanted to add a little praise for almunia; i think he looks like a solid goalkeeper and his "throws" are precise and quick, which are important for arsenal's counter attacks...

 

[Feanor]

Almunia seems like the real deal, he seems to give us one or 2 very good saves a game which Jens just wasn't doing for us. Viera has been crap up until recently, don't know why, don't care. His performances have been better lately so I hope he's just hitting his stride. In the last 2 championship runs for us (ok so I couldn't watch the epl before that), he has been massive in the second half of the season. This year, it also looks like Pires is just hitting his stride also so I think it will be a very good thing for us in the next few months so we can snatch the prize away from the ugly step sisters.

 

[MightyArsenal]

I still think pires has been crap this year, and of course hes scored alot of goals for us but he goes mising for large parts of the game. If we want to retain the title then pires has got to be on form. Otherwise we are impotent going forward as was seen against portsmouth and newcastle.

 

[OneProudGooner]

Pires seems to drift infield and exposes Ash it proved so last night, Reyes would of played last night if he was fit..
Vieira has had an on off season don't forget he had no pre-season but yea he hasn't been at his best but he has had to play with 2 inexperienced talented youngsters the sooner Gilberto comes back the better even though we all know how well they have done experience is important.

Is it me or did Flamini have problems keeping the ball aswell? Newcastle were clogging up the midfield so we had trouble keeping the ball in the middle of the field it didn't help that we lacked width and attacking options because they had not alot of options at all going forward.
We really need to a Plan B somehow because 4-4-2 against that won't work too well alot of teams will play that way against us and the other "top 2" so we need some way to counteract those teams that execute that tactic.

 

[patrick42uk]

Pires seems to drift infield and exposes Ash it proved so last night, Reyes would of played last night if he was fit..
Vieira has had an on off season don't forget he had no pre-season but yea he hasn't been at his best but he has had to play with 2 inexperienced talented youngsters the sooner Gilberto comes back the better even though we all know how well they have done experience is important.

Is it me or did Flamini have problems keeping the ball aswell? Newcastle were clogging up the midfield so we had trouble keeping the ball in the middle of the field it didn't help that we lacked width and attacking options because they had not alot of options at all going forward.
We really need to a Plan B somehow because 4-4-2 against that won't work too well alot of teams will play that way against us and the other "top 2" so we need some way to counteract those teams that execute that tactic.

pires drifting infield is on instruction and he has always done that. its the reason a right footed player is being played left mid. its the job of one of the cms to come aross and cover which flamini did at times. if reyes was fit, he might have played. but not ahead of pires....

the difficulty with the midfield was that it was always 3 against 2 due to newcastle's tactics. that said, i felt vieira and flamini did quite well in the circumstances.

 

[AFCG7]

Wait a minute..Vieira has deserved every bit of criticism going his way because up until the last 2 matches he has been **** by his standards.
I was hoping Wenger could be right when he said Vieira will be back stronger and improved from the holidays.. lloking good so far ..lets hope he can keep it going and return to the Patrick we all know, not the shabby looking player he was for the earlier part of the season.

 

[kanuuu]

I still don't feel safe with Almunia there, he still looks dodgy, hopefully Arsène finds a decent keeper to buy in January.

 

[Shomo]

i think almunia should be given a thumbs up because he is improving well,and raising more confidence in each game.but viera is not playing bad recently let me just say he is average at this moment and i rate him as 6(in terms of match rating).
i think pires needs to be fired up because i was really worried about him yesterday,let's hope he will recover his form back
and once again more kudos to Freddie ljungberg,this man will be the contender for arsenal player of the year,he will be challenging henry and fabregas

 

[Bader]

i think Robert Pires did well in the first half .... he played some amazing matches ..... and he always were there for recover Ashley or Clichy .... :mrgreen: but thats right some matches he were missing ... i hope he will be back to his best next year ...

 

[Henry IV]

Almunia is improving and he could come really good for us in the New Year.

 

[Anonymous]

Pires seems to drift infield and exposes Ash it proved so last night, Reyes would of played last night if he was fit..
Vieira has had an on off season don't forget he had no pre-season but yea he hasn't been at his best but he has had to play with 2 inexperienced talented youngsters the sooner Gilberto comes back the better even though we all know how well they have done experience is important.

Is it me or did Flamini have problems keeping the ball aswell? Newcastle were clogging up the midfield so we had trouble keeping the ball in the middle of the field it didn't help that we lacked width and attacking options because they had not alot of options at all going forward.
We really need to a Plan B somehow because 4-4-2 against that won't work too well alot of teams will play that way against us and the other "top 2" so we need some way to counteract those teams that execute that tactic.

pires drifting infield is on instruction and he has always done that. its the reason a right footed player is being played left mid. its the job of one of the cms to come aross and cover which flamini did at times. if reyes was fit, he might have played. but not ahead of pires....

the difficulty with the midfield was that it was always 3 against 2 due to newcastle's tactics. that said, i felt vieira and flamini did quite well in the circumstances.

just want to add the pitch was crap. the players could not keep their footing