LC: Middlesbrough vs Arsenal | 03/02/04

[lewdikris]

Leave out Campbell, Pires, Henry and Ljungberg and we're not the same team. For very good reasons

Only Cole, Toure and Vieira (and soon Reyes) were first choicers there. And Toure and Cole, although they played well, were knackered from Sunday. That made a massive difference.

It's not like Boro are crap. They're not, just average. And Zenden, Mendieta and Juninho are above average... so they won.

 

[Fuzzo]

To be honest, it doesnt matter what the press say, they have been proved wrong countless times over and over. Reyes will come good when he has played more than one full match...

Watch out Manure!

 

[Pepe LeFrits]

Tonight showed once again why Edu should be ahead of Gilberto.

 

[Adam]

I hate watching football on a pitch like that. Absolutely despise it.

Remember Everton away 01/02? That pitch was that bad too. It's rare that you play on a pitch as bad as that, so i feel it neccesary to complain about it's effect on the game.

Let's hope the Wolves pitch is playable.

 

[Allyboy]

With the possible exception of the home game to Villa in December 1994, that Everton game was the worst game I have ever seen Adam!

Even our winner was crap, sliced off Wiltords foot and spun off at an angle into the net!

 

[Mark]

yeah it's true. pitches in that condition ruin our fluent passing play, but to be honest it's no excuse, we have to scrap out results like that any way that we can like we did against city on sunday and indeed like we did against everton in 01/02.

 

[jc8gooner]

Even our winner was crap, sliced off Wiltords foot and spun off at an angle into the net!

Started the run of winning games to the title though didn't it! V.important match that.

 

[Adam]

Haha, if ever there was an Arsenal game i could of slept through....

Thierry's yellow card was a highlight though!

Seriously, its on these rare occasions that football loses it's visual entertainment and becomes a wrestle (i don't mind wrestling, but only if it's got some Geezer on the box with an eyebrow that can move funnily).

I want to see the ball move crisply, the acceleration, strength and balance intact.

Slipping is something that frustrates the life out of me in Footy.

 

[thegame24]

Leave out Campbell, Pires, Henry and Ljungberg and we're not the same team. For very good reasons

Only Cole, Toure and Vieira (and soon Reyes) were first choicers there. And Toure and Cole, although they played well, were knackered from Sunday. That made a massive difference.

It's not like Boro are crap. They're not, just average. And Zenden, Mendieta and Juninho are above average... so they won.

thts right

take that amount of stars out of any team and they wont be the same.

who knocked out manure? WBA right.

 

[thegame24]

Slipping is something that frustrates the life out of me in Footy.

its those stupid blades that some of the stars where.its like being on ice skates cause they water the pitch before match and the blades dont gdo **** all but slide .

 

[Stim]

Referring to players being knackered tonight, for me Reyes looked knackered from the start. For obvious reasons though, hes only been in the country, what, 5 or 6 days? I personally thought Wenger would only use Reyes as a sub tonight, but fair enough. Best thing to do now is to concentrate on the next game.

 

[Fuzzo]

If I can remember correctly, Wolves ground staff are quite good, I cant remember seeing there pitch effected too much by the weather

 

[lewdikris]

Exactly...

Those four, along with Vieira, are our genuine 'World Class' (that bizarre phrase) players. Cole, Toure and Reyes are world class talents, but they're still a couple of seasons away from fulfilment. Gilberto will never be rated that high, but he'll always be significant. Edu, Parlour, Cygan and the other squad constants who played today are not of the same quality. And the kids are just kids...

The combined value of our five best players would buy half the premiership teams combined ... hell, we could have bought Leeds Utd for the price of Reyes! That tells you everything about what wins football matches...

 

[RocktheCasbah]

With the possible exception of the home game to Villa in December 1994, that Everton game was the worst game I have ever seen Adam!

Even our winner was crap, sliced off Wiltords foot and spun off at an angle into the net!

What about home to Sheff Wed December 93? Wrighty in the last minute..

 

[thegame24]

and when munich beat us in cl, that game was booooring.

 

[JazzG]

We effectively rested 8 regulars for this match(Ljundberg, Campbell, Pires, Henry, Lauren, Gilberto, Bergkamp, Lehmann) so we can't be that disappointed we didn't get through.

Think the press and some fans will have a right laugh about Reyes, I'm sure he will make them eat their words later

 

[thegame24]

i see reyes as being a big team player at highbury.

away he is always gonna struggle maybe till next season, but against big teams like manure, chels and liverpool i reckon he will shine NO FEAR

 

[Alexone234]

Losing is an important lesson for our young players too. You have to taste defeat to know that you don't like it.

Bentley now knows that you can't always chip home in the last minute. Some games involve you being hard working and not scoring

Clichy now knows that sometimes as a full back you can run up and down all night long and still find yourself distant from most of the game

Stack now knows that however well you play, two errors from either you or your defence can wipe away you clean sheet

Reyes now knows that some games are ugly

Keown now knows that grabbing legs is for Rugby not football

 

[Mark]

i think bentley probably had his best game today in the carling cup all season. he looks much better upfront than on left midfield.

 

[pome]

yeh i thought bently played well he got stuck in