Arsenal 4-1 Middlesbrough: FT Report

[tox]

good performace today, encouraging to see us scoring goals without henry in the side. Thought dennis was lookin bit past his best today, hesitant on edge of box, shudda had some shots, and quite a few of his passes went nowhere. pires was brilliant as usual, and it was wonderful to see the young bently come on and score a chip, cudda sworn it was dennis!

toure looked gr8 today, imo he shud be above cygan in the peckin order, he has the potential to become 1 of the best players in the world due to his versatility and pace imo.

 

[Kyla]

Taken from bbc.co.uk/football

Although Arsenal continued to enjoy greater spells of possession they were struggling to find their usual fluency, clearly missing the scintillating skills of the rested Thierry Henry.

And the goal that ended the tie as a contest was a scrappy affair,


Haven't seen the game but was that a fair analysis? I often think we are overreliant on Thierry but to rest him and score 4 goals is a start at least. Are the bbc just nitpicking here?

 

[DOUBLE-YOU]

looking a today's game it seemed that both freddie and bobby partnered berkamp up front. freddie was the main forward and pires and dennis were roaming, going where ever they wanted to. we balanced it out by having three workers in midfield. parlour covering the right , vieira centre and edu controlling the left side of midfiled. the good thing about freddie up front is that he scored 2 fox in the box type goals. i nearly had a heart attack when he scored with a header from a corner. not the typical ljungberg goals.

my ratings.

lehman - 6 - didnt do much
lauren - 7 - played quite well and finding some form
campbell - 6 - steady and dominant
toure - 7 - to me we wasnt at his sharpest but still had a good game. he was ball watching for boro's goal but to get 7 still shows how good a season he has had.
cole - 7 - good coming forward, didnt need to do much defensively. had one excellent curling shot with his right foot that was well saved
parlour - 8 -energetic and showed a surprising amount of flair . done very well for berkamps goal
vieira - 6 - quiet today.
edu - 8.5 - won tackles and kept the ball moving. deserves more starts. (but we wont go into that )
pires - 9 - "give me the ball and i will run the show"
berkamp - 7 - combined well with the players around him but gave away some needless passes
ljungberg - 8 - dont know how he would play against better defenders, but he looked very comfortable in the role as forward and poached to forward like goals. actually he gets 8.5 for the pirouette on his first goal and for scoring a header.

bentley only came on for 6 mins so i shouldnt rate him, but the audacity of the goal gets 8.
clichey - 7 - done well when he came on

 

[Mark]

i haven't seen the highlights, but i don't think what bbc said is fair at all. i listened on the radio and we seemed to dominate and we still scored four goals they just have to have a go at us for something.

 

[JazzG]

This is what Wenger said about Bentley, seems like he knows that he is more of a central player. Sometimes you play em on the wing so they don't have to do too much work.

I believe he has more of the characteristics of a central, supportive striker rather than a wide player but, when you're young, you play wherever the manager puts you. That's part of growing up.

 

[jc8gooner]

Did Pires or Cole get any assists? I can't wait to see Bentley's goal! Heard that it was class. Shame about the haircut though.

 

[JazzG]

BBC1 are showing highlights at 22:55 tonight

 

[SF Gooner]

The best chant i heard at the Stadium (through the tv ofcourse.) was "We always win 4-1!" repeated over and over again! unk

 

[thierrys_girl]

Great game, well done to the boys

Make sure you all vote for your MOTM in the poll in the index of Arsenal Talk

 

[reggiepaul]

Bentleys chip was class from where I was sitting. What a great victory and we're gonna batter them on Wednesday too. ;D

 

[RocktheCasbah]

Who saw Mills fall over after he lost the ball near the end? Quality! Completely agree about the ref, he was crap- but it was good cos it got the crowd going. Great performance by the boys

 

[Exiled In Newcastle]

Great game today, sadly I left 3 mins early

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Jinn]

Ok, I'll eat my words. Freddie proved me wrong, and he CAN play up front.

There, I said it.

Freddie could probably stay up forward, and then we could recall Pennant, or buy a RM. With Toure on the right this would really balance out our side.

 

[Taozhe]

Lets not get over the top guys!!

But the Boooing of mills and making him feeling like a dog was good. Unfortunately, he wont be playing at Highbury for the next leg if I am not wrong. Lets hope our reserve youthful side can crush them 4-1 again at their ground

 

[Ridge]

well, everyone said what i great game we had and about bently's goal, so i m not gonna repeat the same thing.

for me, after 3 consecutive boro games, i enjoyed how the crowd boo danny mills. i even followed you all to boo him whenever he gets the ball (until my mother called me to be quiet because she cant sleep...) :angel

wish you guys can boo Ruud when he comes. ;D

 

[Beany]

Hehe!

Good man!

Best Chant:-

"You've got the worst player in the world.......MILLSY!!"

 

[RocktheCasbah]

The best chant i heard at the Stadium (through the tv ofcourse.) was "We always win 4-1!" repeated over and over again! unk

The lower west tried to get a "Millsy what's the score going" Didn't really happen though