FA: Blackburn Rovers vs Arsenal | 28/02/07

[chandraraj]

Why did we lose the Blacksh*t game? Did
we lose because Blacksh*t was better than us? NO. Did we lose because we didn't play a good game? NO. Apart from the first 15 minutes, I think we dominated.

Did we lose because we couldn't put the ball into the net? Partly YES. Partly, I think we lost because of inept officials. Poll was wrong in not giving us two clear penalties. Poll and his assistants were wrong in allowing Blacksh*t players committing far too many fouls and getting away with it.

The officials are killing our game and we suffer. It happened against Chel$ki and in many previous games.
And it will continue to happen because we play the kind of game that can only be stopped by negative football and foul-play.

I agree sometimes we are not able to kill-off the game when there is an opportunity to do so. And ofcourse our players have to take the blame for that.
But I have witnessed far too many times, we have become the victim of silly officials and ridiculous FA rules.

How would the FA expect Ade to leave the field obediently, when he clearly feel that he has not committed any foul and at a time we were trailing 1-0 in a cup final? Won't you stand up for your rights when you are punished for no reasons?

There are simply too many cases and i could go talking about them the whole day. The bottom line is, you don't lose a game for not scoring. You lose when the officials deny tha chance at some critical games, and one such game was against Blacsh*t!

 

[RC8]

Can't believe you guys lost today. I knew it would be tough but I thought after the weekend you'd be after the FA Cup as your number one priority. Why did Wenger rest players like Fabregas and Henry?

Agree with a lot of you about the lack of a finisher. With Henry not playing regularly and RVP injured you do lack that goalscorer to get on the end of all your passing moves. I didn't watch the game today but from the match report it seems you dominated but couldn't put the ball in the net, which from an objective point of view has seemed to be your main problem for the last couple of years. Does anyone think selling Henry for a couple of out and out strikers would be a good idea?

Henry was not rested. He was injured, as was Rosicky. And No, it is a terrible idea. If you watch the match you'll see there was only one deserving winner, and that was us.

 

[Asterix]

Does anyone think selling Henry for a couple of out and out strikers would be a good idea?

Nope.

I think Thierry really needs a good long rest this summer. As far as I know he has no tournaments to play, which has not been the case for several years now. He needs to clear his head and come back refreshed. He has never been mentally fresh this season following the CL and World Cup losses.

With a fresh Henry and a fit RvP, with Ade, Bap, Ali, Walcott and maybe Bendtner, we'll be fine.

 

[hertyid]

How would the FA expect Ade to leave the field obediently, when he clearly feel that he has not committed any foul and at a time we were trailing 1-0 in a cup final? Won't you stand up for your rights when you are punished for no reasons?

There are simply too many cases and i could go talking about them the whole day. The bottom line is, you don't lose a game for not scoring. You lose when the officials deny tha chance at some critical games, and one such game was against Blacsh*t!

Have to disagree with that, firstly because once the red card has been shown, no amount of flapping and swearing will reverse the decision, so staying on the field and arguing with the ref is only getting you in more trouble. We all know this. Yes it's a natural reaction to feel hard done by but you have to respect the ref even when he makes the wrong decisions. Hopefully one day FIFA will realise this isn't the 19th century any more and will introduce video technology. Until then you have to respect the decisions of the officials.

As for the comment in bold, that's a deflection of blame away from the fact that you had 61.7% of possession and 12 shots, but couldn't score. You play brilliantly until it comes to putting the ball in the net, but without RVP or Henry, you often struggle to put games to bed.

Olivery Kay summed it up pretty well in the Times today. This isn't meant as a dig, more an observation. I'm well aware that Sp**s don't play football as good as yours, nor are they as successful. At least you get one of the two right. But the following remarks are spot on...

"There is more to football, though, than artistic impression. Cesc Fàbregas, the most precocious of Arsenal’s youngsters, was warned as much after criticising Hughes for Blackburn’s tactics in drawing 0-0 at the Emirates Stadium 11 days earlier. Frustrating Arsenal and taking them back to Lancashire for last night’s replay was a means to an end for Blackburn; the London club’s football is not always so.

Even the most mean-spirited observers (apart from Mourinho) must have felt some sympathy for Arsenal. Wenger’s devotion to the most beautiful elements of the game is admirable. But he needs to accept that it is an approach that has drawbacks and, after a third consecutive defeat left only the Champions League open to a team blessed with more skill and flair than any in England, Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, will no doubt have felt rather smug."

 

[hertyid]

Can't believe you guys lost today. I knew it would be tough but I thought after the weekend you'd be after the FA Cup as your number one priority. Why did Wenger rest players like Fabregas and Henry?

Agree with a lot of you about the lack of a finisher. With Henry not playing regularly and RVP injured you do lack that goalscorer to get on the end of all your passing moves. I didn't watch the game today but from the match report it seems you dominated but couldn't put the ball in the net, which from an objective point of view has seemed to be your main problem for the last couple of years. Does anyone think selling Henry for a couple of out and out strikers would be a good idea?

Henry was not rested. He was injured, as was Rosicky. And No, it is a terrible idea. If you watch the match you'll see there was only one deserving winner, and that was us.

See my comment above. The deserving winner doesn't always win. That's life. It takes more than pretty football to win titles.

 

[bojed]

Can't believe you guys lost today. I knew it would be tough but I thought after the weekend you'd be after the FA Cup as your number one priority. Why did Wenger rest players like Fabregas and Henry?

Agree with a lot of you about the lack of a finisher. With Henry not playing regularly and RVP injured you do lack that goalscorer to get on the end of all your passing moves. I didn't watch the game today but from the match report it seems you dominated but couldn't put the ball in the net, which from an objective point of view has seemed to be your main problem for the last couple of years. Does anyone think selling Henry for a couple of out and out strikers would be a good idea?

Henry was not rested. He was injured, as was Rosicky. And No, it is a terrible idea. If you watch the match you'll see there was only one deserving winner, and that was us.

See my comment above. The deserving winner doesn't always win. That's life. It takes more than pretty football to win titles.

which is, to score more than your opponent does.

 

[kel varnsen]

How many more games are we going to suffer defeats or draw because officials are either totally incompetent or biased against us.

Its beyond a joke now.

Middlesborough - penalty given against us when the foul was outside the area
Wigan - goal disallowed for offside when clearly on
Chelsea - Essien equaliser after clear foul on Hleb
Blackburn away - Gilberto sent off after playacting by Savage
Blackburn in Cup at Emirates - the most nailed on penalty not given
Chelsea in CC Final - Drogba equaliser when offside
Chelsea in CC Final - Adebayor given offside when clean through
Blackburn tonight - penalty for foul on Ljundberg

That's in the last few games. It's a joke.

the ref can influence the result, but he is basically never responsible for the result. as such, we didn't lose becuase of the ref. we lost because we weren't good enough and a poor ref didn't help us in any case...

 

[hertyid]

Can't believe you guys lost today. I knew it would be tough but I thought after the weekend you'd be after the FA Cup as your number one priority. Why did Wenger rest players like Fabregas and Henry?

Agree with a lot of you about the lack of a finisher. With Henry not playing regularly and RVP injured you do lack that goalscorer to get on the end of all your passing moves. I didn't watch the game today but from the match report it seems you dominated but couldn't put the ball in the net, which from an objective point of view has seemed to be your main problem for the last couple of years. Does anyone think selling Henry for a couple of out and out strikers would be a good idea?

Henry was not rested. He was injured, as was Rosicky. And No, it is a terrible idea. If you watch the match you'll see there was only one deserving winner, and that was us.

See my comment above. The deserving winner doesn't always win. That's life. It takes more than pretty football to win titles.

which is, to score more than your opponent does.

Agreed. You don't get points for style. Blackburn play **** football. But they scored. You didn't. And now you're out of the FA Cup. Sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate, to sacrifice in order to reach your goals. Once Wenger works out how to do that with this new bunch of players, you'll win things again.

 

[chandraraj]

Have to disagree with that, firstly because once the red card has been shown, no amount of flapping and swearing will reverse the decision, so staying on the field and arguing with the ref is only getting you in more trouble. We all know this. Yes it's a natural reaction to feel hard done by but you have to respect the ref even when he makes the wrong decisions. Hopefully one day FIFA will realise this isn't the 19th century any more and will introduce video technology. Until then you have to respect the decisions of the officials.

Well, you have a point there. Ade's reaction to the red card is spot on I say. Firstly because he has not done anything wrong. If he was to walked out of the pitch meekly, and appeal against it, the FA would still do nothing. They would reject his appeal and reassure the decision of the refree as valid. Ade would be able to play after sitting out three games. But having reacted the way he he had, Ade has shifted the focus on inept refreeing. There seems to be a lot of focus on refrees recenly, particularly after the incident involving Jewel. This pressure should be doubled and FA should be forced to look into it seriously rather than criticising Ade.

Secondly, officials like Poll are really useless. How on earth they get away with their wrong decisions really baffles me. In the first place, Ade was judged wrongly and what are we going to do with those clowns making wrong decisions? And how many times we have seen this kind of actions destroying the game in general?

 

[Mr Wolf]

[RC8 wrote: This is Sheffield United all over again, but even worse, since we actually outplayed Blackburn this time. Everyone suddenly starts talking about how we are not good enough, etc. Do you even look at the team that's playing? That was not Arsenal's team. Arsenal's team beat Blackburn 6-2 and 2-0 a couple of months ago. This was our third team... our third bloody team, and people are moaning like if our full first team had just been knocked out by some League 4 side at home].
Fully agree with your perfect analysis, mate. I neither understand how one could not agree. We have lost in less than a week two cup finals that our first team could win easily. Where as ManU and Chelsea in a bad campaign try to win at less the FA or the League Cup, it seems that we need three teams: the first for losing the CL and the PL, the second for losing the FA Cup and the third for losing the League Cup. We give a hope to all the small teams that are at risk of dying out, like Sheffield, Fulham, Blackburn etc. Call me backward but I don't understand modern football.....

 

[Timleaf]

This isn't meant as a dig, more an observation.

Sure it's not. At least some of us see through you, mate.

 

[True Gooner]

Problem is that this season our midfeild has not been creative enough through each game - when Rosicky, Hleb and Cesc all play then there is no stopping us but people have to realise that our goals will come through the work of our mids not through Henry tearing it up the left flank and lining it up for Pires or Bergkamp playing the eye-of-the-needle pass to Freddie.
On another post someone quite rightly pointed out that before our mids (Bobby/Freddie) regularly out scored most of our strikers save Henry, this season already 3 of our strikers are in double digits for the season, however most the goals that we have scored havent always made the difference.
BTW performance wise Van Persie wasnt special before he was injured (LM or otherwise) but he was so damn clinical

 

[jay-d]

Who controls the posters? Ban the smug Yid he comes here giving it the partial and pisses off back to the Spuds board laughing about it. F off Yid.

 

[stiiphunn]

Can't believe you guys lost today. I knew it would be tough but I thought after the weekend you'd be after the FA Cup as your number one priority. Why did Wenger rest players like Fabregas and Henry?

Agree with a lot of you about the lack of a finisher. With Henry not playing regularly and RVP injured you do lack that goalscorer to get on the end of all your passing moves. I didn't watch the game today but from the match report it seems you dominated but couldn't put the ball in the net, which from an objective point of view has seemed to be your main problem for the last couple of years. Does anyone think selling Henry for a couple of out and out strikers would be a good idea?

Henry was not rested. He was injured, as was Rosicky. And No, it is a terrible idea. If you watch the match you'll see there was only one deserving winner, and that was us.

See my comment above. The deserving winner doesn't always win. That's life. It takes more than pretty football to win titles.

which is, to score more than your opponent does.

Agreed. You don't get points for style. Blackburn play s**t football. But they scored. You didn't. And now you're out of the FA Cup. Sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate, to sacrifice in order to reach your goals. Once Wenger works out how to do that with this new bunch of players, you'll win things again.

I'm sorry but there's no garantee that if we give up our pretty football we'd win things.
The problem with us right now is not the way we play football, it's the way we don't take our chances. And this has nothing to do with the 300 passes we make before creating a goalscoring opportunitie- it's all about finishing. Nothing more, nothing less.

We have the right players to play the game we're playing at the moment, but they sure aren't players who can play **** like Blackburn. It just doesn't suit them.

Of course pretty football doesn't win you things, but playing **** doesn't win you things either.

We have everything we need to win games over and over again, but we need to take our chances. The hardest part- creating chances- is done, but we simply need to actually score.

 

[Pepe LeFrits]

Last year we said 'this season is the year' this season we are saying 'next season is the year' Its a bloody cycle! When will this end?

Who said 'this season is the year'? Anyone who thought we'd win the league this season was deluded. Progress has been made though, no question.

The question I ask is - when will all the hype actually be justified? Because after seeing us go down the way we did tonight I seriously doubt whether we have the ability to do this.

When the young players in our team mature? It's not that complex a concept.

Be real for a moment guys and lets get off cloud cuckoo. Most of us are deluded into really believing that this current team the way they are playing have the tools necessary to win a league title.

Again, who? Anyone who thinks that the current team can win the league is deluded, but I don't see many people saying that. People are saying that in the future, this team can win the league. We've got our 19 year old running out midfield ffs.

We thought we would see a ruthless, hungry arsenal attack the EPL + CL ready to avenge the devastating CL defeat.

I don't know who 'we' is, but they're obviously not very bright. The CL and the cups were/are viable targets as they are one-off knock-outs that can be won despite the inconsistency of youth.

We start off the season with two points from three games. We build up false hope that we are the real deal when defeating united, yet despite this after consistent inefficiency + lackluster performances and the inability to pick up points we had the right to claim - we drop off the title hunt by november. Wenger promised us a big season and he has failed to deliver - Why is this?

It is a young team.

I'm sorry but something needs to be done

Something is being done. It's called team-building.

I mean its different if I was an everton fan

Yes it would, instead you're an Arsenal fan with expectations that would match a Real Madrid fan.

But with the current arsenal squad the sky is the limit - yet we seem to be still on the ground. Its not like these players aren't any good - these are top, top quality players and if I am being honest to say we underachieving would be a huge understatement. Its alright to talk about whatnot but there comes a point were you really need to deliver and we have had the chances to do this, but have failed thus far.

'Thus far' is the part that should be bold. We have a team full of kids, and expecting them to trot off with the CL and PL while half of them are still popping zits is ridiculous.

All this 'transition + youth' talk is day by day slowly fading away as a valid excuse....

That's because people like you seem to expect 'transition' to last a couple of days. The teenagers that were on the pitch that lost to Sheffield United are still there, and they're still teenagers. It takes time.

 

[RockyRocastle]

Was a very depressing drive home last night. Gutted that we are out of the cup and have lost the chance to play at Wembley.

Overall I thought we did just enough to nick it, but like on Sunday lacked that touch of class in the final third. They had it, we didnt.

I have lost patience with Baptista now, he is not an Arsenal player and hope both he and Reyes **** off in the summer.

And those Blackburn fans are a bunch of mugs. Silent for 85 minutes and then giving it the big'un at the end from the safety of the stands. Outside as quiet as mice. ****s.

And that **** Huges has overtaken the Bolton oaf in my **** stakes. What a grade A **** the guy is. Every single decision he is up off the bench moaning. ****, ****, ****, ****. Thought it was class when he went to get the ball off Wenger and Wenger wouldnt let him have it, followed by a rousing chorus of theres only one Arsène Wenger from the gooners.

Thought our support last night was very good considering, the group in the middle stood and sung for most of the game. My only real problem was the amount of northerners. I went to get in the ground 5 mins before kick off, and the guy who searched me and my pals said we were the first group of cockneys he had seen all night!

Got to give a special mention to Poll. He just cant go through a game without getting a major decision wrong. In any other profession he would have been sacked a long time ago. Should have had two penalties last night, and one in the first game. Robbed.

 

[sparky44]

Last year we said 'this season is the year' this season we are saying 'next season is the year' Its a bloody cycle! When will this end?

Who said 'this season is the year'? Anyone who thought we'd win the league this season was deluded. Progress has been made though, no question.

The question I ask is - when will all the hype actually be justified? Because after seeing us go down the way we did tonight I seriously doubt whether we have the ability to do this.

When the young players in our team mature? It's not that complex a concept.

Man I'm getting sick of this argument. Last night it wasn't the so called 'young players' that let us down brother - it was players like hleb, baptista, aliadiere and ljungberg who let us down big time. Denilson had a cracker so theres goes our argument about having a '19 year old' in midfield and time and time again the same excuse is given....

Be real for a moment guys and lets get off cloud cuckoo. Most of us are deluded into really believing that this current team the way they are playing have the tools necessary to win a league title.

Again, who? Anyone who thinks that the current team can win the league is deluded, but I don't see many people saying that. People are saying that in the future, this team can win the league. We've got our 19 year old running out midfield ffs.

Well we have a few real gems in our team who despite what you are say play at a high standard and look ready enough to storm the leagues and if we don't start producing significant results soon - I worry about their future with this club and denilson isnt just some '19 year old' either mate. We're not talking stewart downing here - its the Brazilian u-19 captain for crying out loud. Its actually dis-respectful to the guys abilities to just slap the teenager label on him for us not achieving.

We thought we would see a ruthless, hungry arsenal attack the EPL + CL ready to avenge the devastating CL defeat.

I don't know who 'we' is, but they're obviously not very bright. The CL and the cups were/are viable targets as they are one-off knock-outs that can be won despite the inconsistency of youth.

Agian it was our senior players who let us down tonight mate.

We start off the season with two points from three games. We build up false hope that we are the real deal when defeating united, yet despite this after consistent inefficiency + lackluster performances and the inability to pick up points we had the right to claim - we drop off the title hunt by november. Wenger promised us a big season and he has failed to deliver - Why is this?

It's called team-building.

Again how long can this 'team-building' go on before our more gifted players look elsewhere? Not everyone has the patience you do mate most of these youngsters will realize that they are good enough to get into most teams around europe. If they are failing to even get a regular start here - what possible reason do they have of staying at a underachieving club? I mean honestly, would you stay?

I mean its different if I was an everton fan

Yes it would, instead you're an Arsenal fan with expectations that would match a Real Madrid fan.

Umm have you seen the way this side actually plays? Its not like there is no evidence to back this up. I have every right to expect more. We should be much higher than what we currently are and despite what you say - its not because of the youngsters.

But with the current arsenal squad the sky is the limit - yet we seem to be still on the ground. Its not like these players aren't any good - these are top, top quality players and if I am being honest to say we underachieving would be a huge understatement. Its alright to talk about whatnot but there comes a point were you really need to deliver and we have had the chances to do this, but have failed thus far.

'Thus far' is the part that should be bold. We have a team full of kids, and expecting them to trot off with the CL and PL while half of them are still popping zits is ridiculous.

Again its disrespectful to the talent we have at this club to completely write them off as 'teenagers' these guys are way ahead of the normal development of players their age. I would like to see you make that argument in front of denilson and I would love to see his reaction.

All this 'transition + youth' talk is day by day slowly fading away as a valid excuse....

That's because people like you seem to expect 'transition' to last a couple of days. The teenagers that were on the pitch that lost to Sheffield United are still there, and they're still teenagers. It takes time.

It wasn't all down to having a couple of 'teenagers' out there though. In fact the 'teenagers' out there tonight were some of the better players on the pitch. It was our senior players who let us down tonight.Again.

 

[kanooo]

Was a very depressing drive home last night. Gutted that we are out of the cup and have lost the chance to play at Wembley.

Overall I thought we did just enough to nick it, but like on Sunday lacked that touch of class in the final third. They had it, we didnt.

I have lost patience with Baptista now, he is not an Arsenal player and hope both he and Reyes f**k off in the summer.

And those Blackburn fans are a bunch of mugs. Silent for 85 minutes and then giving it the big'un at the end from the safety of the stands. Outside as quiet as mice. c**nts.

And that c**t Huges has overtaken the Bolton oaf in my c**t stakes. What a grade A c**t the guy is. Every single decision he is up off the bench moaning. c**t, c**t, c**t, c**t. Thought it was class when he went to get the ball off Wenger and Wenger wouldnt let him have it, followed by a rousing chorus of theres only one Arsène Wenger from the gooners.

Thought our support last night was very good considering, the group in the middle stood and sung for most of the game. My only real problem was the amount of northerners. I went to get in the ground 5 mins before kick off, and the guy who searched me and my pals said we were the first group of cockneys he had seen all night!

Got to give a special mention to Poll. He just cant go through a game without getting a major decision wrong. In any other profession he would have been sacked a long time ago. Should have had two penalties last night, and one in the first game. Robbed.

We've thrashed them twice already this season so we just had to lose, I guess. (Hope it will not be the same case against Liverpool, later in the league).

Come to think of it, we lost to a brilliant strike. It just so happened that it came from their striker. I can only think of Pires (who's gone), van Persie (who's injured) and Henry (who wasn't playing) who scored similar strikes.

It actually should have been a win for us or a nil-nil game, really. They created nothing much at all and we were wasteful on our half decent chances. I really was expecting overtime.

 

[Pepe LeFrits]

Sparky-

First of all, saying that because Denilson had a good game last night invalidates the argument that we're struggling because of a lack of experience is ridiculous. There are countless examples of how we've dropped points because of youth this season. The likes of Senderos, Djourou, Hoyte, Clichy, Walcott, Song, Fabregas (occasionally), Denilson, Adebayor and Van Persie have accumulated a very large number of poor performances between them.

Denilson was decent last night, but no more. Senderos is a young player who made errors both last night and against Chelsea, that cost us. Denilson gave the ball away for the Chelsea goal too. Examples in point. Give them a few seasons and they are unlikely to do that again.

Of course the senior players (few as there are) have also to share some of the blame. Wenger is in the process of recycling virtually an entire squad of players. Most of the old players from the Invincibles are gone, and more will leave in the next season too. Freddie, who you’ve singled out for criticism, will be one. One, two or three more of our senior players are on a downward slope, and they’ll be replaced.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. This team is getting better, anyone can see that. It is happening gradually, as you’d expect for a team that is slowly blooding players and not going out and splashing the cash. They will continue to improve, and in the meantime, in the last 12 months we’ve reached a CL final, CC final, played some sensational football and have remained comfortably a top four team.

I’ll take that.

 

[lagos]

No doubt it is dissapointing for every Arsenal fan to be in a position where in early March we find ourselves potentially out of contention for all possible trophies.

But we must not forget that even the invincibles team had in prior years had it's moments of inconsistency before finally hitting amazing form in 03/04. and even when that happenned we were extremely lucky with injuries

Yet we are now building a team with less experienced players and it will take time for this team to gel and frustrating as it might be, we just have to be patient. The good thing about the present team is thier youth. which means it is quite likely to be together for quite a while ( the invincibles had to be disassembled as most of it's members were reaching their peak). Right now it is frustrating but I look at the team and know that the rewards of our frustrations will be great - in that I truly believe