EPL – Sunderland vs Arsenal – 3:00pm - 11/02/12

[celestis]

Rosicky showed today what we've all known for quite some time..

That's he's absolutely toothless. Let's hope he rightfully takes his place on the bench for the Milan game.

Yeah in front of goal it's incredible . Worked hard mind you . I thought Walcott had an absolute shocker .

At the same time it was great we won at the Stadium of light haven't done that for many a year .

 

[godfather]

Great win. I hope Mertesacker is not out for a long while. He was realy playing well, winning headers, anticipating extremely well and well up to the pace of the prem. I really hope he's not out for a long while but on the face of it, it didn't look good. Well I guess Gibbs being back will work out well.

Well, he's one kick away from another two months out.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Mertesacker with ligament damage, unclear how bad it is, but he'll certainly be out for the CL game in midweek.

f**k sunderland pitch. shocking pitch really these pitch should not be allowed at PL.

 

[celestis]

How incredible is Henry ? Can't hardly run yet he has 3 goals in 120 mins of football ? unbelievable . Torres in envious .

 

[Irish_Owen]

Rosicky showed today what we've all known for quite some time..

That's he's absolutely toothless. Let's hope he rightfully takes his place on the bench for the Milan game.

Yeah in front of goal it's incredible . Worked hard mind you . I thought Walcott had an absolute shocker .

At the same time it was great we won at the Stadium of light haven't done that for many a year .

You have to wonder, is Walcott's dropping from the first XI imminent?

I mean on his day, and in full flow, he looks almost unplayable. But how often do we see him in that kind of form, 5 times a season? Now with Gervinho returning to the squad, and Oxlade-Chamberlain looking like his talent knows no bounds, it's hard to imagine Wenger persisting with Theo much longer.

But mind you, if he managed to up his form and show us what he's all about, no one would be happier than me.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

You wonder how many goals Henry could tally up if he stayed with us for a full season. Even with the odd start and mostly substitue appearances...

10-15 goals?

I think that seems pretty likely based on what he's done with the time he has been here. Such a shame he has to leave again.

 

[DiamondGooner]

Rosicky showed today what we've all known for quite some time..

That's he's absolutely toothless. Let's hope he rightfully takes his place on the bench for the Milan game.

Your out of your mind, if anyone in midfield had a bad game it was Arteta and Song's wayward passes.

Rosicky gave exactly what we expected, effort, ball retention, passes, control.

It was the front 3 today who were too static and didn't link up well.

Singling out Rosicky when he was as good as everyone else is pretty pathetic.

My only critic was that he should of taken that shot passed back from Walcott.

..... tell me who had a better game from the first 11?

 

[ferrarif50hunt]

Rumours that Chelsea have bid £12million + Fernando Torres for Thierry Henry.

 

[halfvolley]

What an amazing result! I lost my **** when Henry scored, it was surreal.

What a horrible game it was up until then. We weren't bad really, it's not that, and Sunderland only scored on a fluke. It was just a sticky air of angst over the whole game, starting with the miserable pitch.

I can't believe we have to go back and play here again in our very next match! What a ****hole.

Really hope it's not a bad injury for Merte and that it was more painful than bad. The pitch is entirely to blame and it was awful to see them profit from it.

Arshavin really made a difference staying out on the wing and putting those crosses in. Theo should have come off at 60 minutes, it was obvious he was going nowhere.

And how nice was it to see Rambo back looking refreshed and scoring! So ****ing good to see that.

And Chelsea keep slipping, times are good.

But THE KING! THE KING! I don't even know how to describe how I feel for him, I would have to be a poet to do it justice.

 

[Irish_Owen]

You wonder how many goals Henry could tally up if he stayed with us for a full season. Even with the odd start and mostly substitue appearances...

10-15 goals?

I think that seems pretty likely based on what he's done with the time he has been here. Such a shame he has to leave again.

He's on;y played 3 games worth of football in his time here, while barely even being able to keep with the pace of the game, and yet he has the opportunity the outscore Torres tally for the season on Wednesday.

He's just a sensational talent, and one in... 6 billion.

 

[Mastadon]

3 great subs from Wenger this time. Great performance from all 3 subs and what a great ending for Henry. Simply magical.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

I though Rosicky had a decent game. He worked really hard as he usually does, won balls in midfield and ran at their defence a number of times causing them to back peddle and open up more room for our attack.

But the point about him being toothless in front of net is undeniable. It looks like he was never taught how to shoot, which is weird because he used to have a great shot on him.

 

[ferrarif50hunt]

Your out of your mind, if anyone in midfield had a bad game it was Arteta

Actually, I think you are out of your mind if you think Arteta had a bad game... he was fantastic again.

116 completed passes with 94% accuracy, that's Xavi territory. Not to mention the countless interceptions and tackles etc.

 

[Irish_Owen]

Rosicky showed today what we've all known for quite some time..

That's he's absolutely toothless. Let's hope he rightfully takes his place on the bench for the Milan game.

Your out of your mind, if anyone in midfield had a bad game it was Arteta and Song's wayward passes.

Rosicky gave exactly what we expected, effort, ball retention, passes, control.

It was the front 3 today who were too static and didn't link up well.

Singling out Rosicky when he was as good as everyone else is pretty pathetic.

My only critic was that he should of taken that shot passed back from Walcott.

..... tell me who had a better game from the first 11?

Im just going to say now that we're not going to agree, because there's just so much with that post that I've completely opposite opinions too.

But as a single point, Arteta was again fantastic today.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Jamie Sanderson @YoungGunsBlog
Mikel Arteta's 80.8 pass per game average in context: he's 4th behind Xavi (105.7), Alonso (83.5) and Pirlo (81.2). Class.

:worthy

 

[blaze_of_glory]

double post

 

[ModelGooner]

Thank **** for that.

Phew

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

Arteta was once again really good, Song has been abysmal though, and Rosicky has been clueless in the fnal third, but not that bad overall.

Ramsey played deeper once he came on, and immediately looked settled. No more heavy first touches and misplaced passes like we saw from him in recent weeks, just tidy and more or less quick and sharp passing.

Hopefully the goal gives him confidence, like the one vs Marseille did.

 

[halfvolley]

Arteta had a good game. He did his job and realised the limitations the pitch would put on him. He knows you can't be hitting 40yd incisive precision passes on a potato field. Sadly the same can't be said for Song, who played his passes like he was at The Grove.

 

[brady_style]

Your out of your mind, if anyone in midfield had a bad game it was Arteta

Actually, I think you are out of your mind if you think Arteta had a bad game... he was fantastic again.

116 completed passes with 94% accuracy, that's Xavi territory. Not to mention the countless interceptions and tackles etc.

Sorry but using this stat to compare Arteta to Xavi is a bit strange to say the least.

Arteta, in my opinion, was not good today. Too often he took the simple option, too often he went sideways and it was rare to see him run forward after passing the ball.

He always seemed to be within five metres of Song, thus offering very little as an outlet.

As a senior player he has to try and influence the game more. It's easy for teams to close us down if our midfielders decide to stand still and not run forward.

All in all, it wasn't a good day at the office for any of our midfielders in my opinion.