FA: Arsenal vs Wolverhampton Wanderers | 29/01/05

[podthegooner]

totally agree with rocky rocastle,away games are the best,good atmosphere nice pissup too

 

[koivu]

I have yet to travel to an away game, the closest thing I've been to an away game is the Community Shield in Cardiff. If I had the money to travel to an away game I would do it in an instant. I can't even afford these tickets as it is!

Us playing at home is my personal preference as I can easily get to the matches but I would imagine it is the preference of the players as well. They seem to enjoy the library.

Maybe sometime I'll get to go to an away game and it will change my preference...I'm sure the fans would be more lively and into the match.

 

[Florida Gooner]

This from Soccernet:

And while Arsenal were by a distance the superior team, worryingly they also squandered chance after chance as they to continued to try to walk the ball into the net.

Such cultured football and the search for that perfect goal has been their greatest strength under Wenger and also their biggest failing.

 

[beyondforever]

what soccernet said is absolutely true

 

[patrick42uk]

the fact remains that we'v scored the most goals in the league in the past 2 seasons. ok so we like a lot of quick passes to get to goal, but thats our style and we are bloody good at it hence the number of goals we score. any other way and we wont be the same team. try to change it and the consequences could be more harm than good. of course it has a flaw as it depends heavily on the form of the key players, but then every system has its flaws. but i dont think this flaw has ever cost us a trophy because we consistently score so much.

 

[Biggus]

i wonder if we played simple football at times we would have won more games and perhaps more titles. Wenger's stubborness to playing attractive football at all times may have won many fans over but also has hinder our title challenge at times.

bollocks

Well Patrick42uk.....you certainly refuted Beyonds point with "Oscar Wildeian" like wit and brevity.. I actually agree with him, Its encouraging to see Robben Vans in paticular have a pop from outside the area...I hope Arsène does'nt tick him off for it...

 

[Biggus]

but i dont think this flaw has ever cost us a trophy because we consistently score so much.

Bollocks.....

As was pointed out.....The 2000 UEFA cup....the 2001 FA cup...The 2003 Premiership

 

[Mark]

Obviously it has helped us a lot, but it has also cost us a lot. As Biggus rightly pointed out the UEFA Cup final, the 2001 FA Cup final and the 02/03 season in general are clear examples of this.

Whenever we have done well under Wenger (98, 02, 04) there has been fantastic football but it was combined with some grit and the ability to nick a scrappy goal now and then to get results. I feel it is that ability which wins you things. This season we haven't had that enough. We've been unlucky at times, but you make your own luck and we've gotten ourselves into unnecessary trouble a lot of times.

 

[MK5]

It’s a bit worrying to see how many chances we’re wasting at the moment though. Imagine how awesome we could be with a striker whose best ability actually is to score goals beside Henry. I think one of the main reasons to our failures in CL could be that we simply not are good enough at take advantage of our chances in Pl it’s ok because if we miss one chance we’ll almost always create another but you don’t get that in Europe.

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

Bottom line is this: For the past 4-5 we usually score enough goals to win games. If we create 10 chances and convert 2 that should be enough to win games. Our weakness is our failure in NOT conceding goals. Chealse excells in this area not cos they create or execute better than us..but because they know if they convert just one of their chances the defence will hold.

 

[JazzG]

Bollocks.....

As was pointed out.....The 2000 UEFA cup....the 2001 FA cup...The 2003 Premiership

We wouldn't of even got to the UEFA cup final, FA cup final or been in a position to win the 2003 PL without this style you are knocking, don't forget that. 2003 our style of attack didn't cost us, it was our lack of depth in defense and defending in general. We scored something like 87 goals that season.

 

[patrick42uk]

Bollocks.....

As was pointed out.....The 2000 UEFA cup....the 2001 FA cup...The 2003 Premiership

We wouldn't of even got to the UEFA cup final, FA cup final or been in a position to win the 2003 PL without this style you are knocking, don't forget that. 2003 our style of attack didn't cost us, it was our lack of depth in defense and defending in general. We scored something like 87 goals that season.

agreed. our attacking style got us in these positions. so do we suddenly change our syle, the same one that worked so well for us previously in these competitions, for that particular game? these things are reharsed in training over the course of a season and you cannot switch it off because it becomes second nature. how you can say we lost the 2003 premiership because overplaying is beyond me considering how much we scored. we didnt lose the fa cup due to overplaying. it was bad finishing.

 

[towelie]

my first game at highbury
what an experience. sitting right behind the goal so got to see vieira and freddie do the business

Lehmann 5 - looked nervous
Eboue 8 - thought he was pretty good. seemed willing to try stuff though his stepovers were mainly in the first half and i didnt get a good view.
Sol 8 - reliable as always
Cygan 6 - good game by his standards. def gave away a penalty though
Clichy 6 - acceptable game. seemed at times to lack confidence
Freddie 7 - for the goal. otherwise not the freddie i wanted to see. didnt work hard on defense at all
Flamini 8 - thought he was excellent. dominated midfield with paddy
Paddy 8 - also excellent. gave the ball away a couple of times but otherwise was top notch
Reyes 6 - lots of effort. too many shots
Van Persie 5 - didnt really get in the game
Henry 8 - looked good though only in patches. created both the penalty and freddie's goal. though i thought reyes had been fouled first for the penalty

special mention - owusu abeyie. thought he looked quite sharp in the little time he was on and very hungry for goals.

 

[bobbypires]

Congrats towelie. I'm looking forward to that day.

Nice 2nd half (or at least that's what I heard on the radio). :wink:

 

[Biggus]

our attacking style got us in these positions. so do we suddenly change our syle, the same one that worked so well for us previously in these competitions, for that particular game?

But Patrick42uk I never condemned our style, but as was pointed out by Phil Lloyd....

http://www.arsenal-mania.com/?page=arti ... ticle=1343

we have to mix it up a bit, we must keep changing...even small things will do, Other teams are on to us they now defend in dept through the middle againest us, Look- when Arsène first came he ended the drinking culture, introduced scientific methods of diet and training, He asked that players not talk about it to their friends at other clubs as he knew that our advantage was temporary, They would catch on and catch they did. Now Arsenes methods are standard in the EPL. Football is no different to any sphere of life, like evolution....Adapt and change or go extinct.

 

[Anonymous]

We wouldn't of even got to the UEFA cup final, FA cup final or been in a position to win the 2003 PL without this style you are knocking

Not really true, we got to the FA cup final, league cup final and european cup final twice, in 3 seasons not playing that style.

 

[JazzG]

We wouldn't of even got to the UEFA cup final, FA cup final or been in a position to win the 2003 PL without this style you are knocking

Not really true, we got to the FA cup final, league cup final and european cup final twice, in 3 seasons not playing that style.

That style you refer to also had us below the scummers in the league and looking pretty lost, you remember? I sure as hell do!