Middlesbrough v Arsenal - Sunday December 9, 1.30pm

[tactica442]

ibby, you should stop watching Arsenal. Obviously, this team is not good enough for your taste, and you as a football fan is too good to support this 'over-hyped' Arsenal. You should pick up and support a 'less-hyped' team in the league table right below Arsenal.

 

[EMIR8_SOLDIER]

He has high expectations for Arsenal just like the rest of us

2 years without winning a trophy is not right in our side of town and I agree with him, he just has the burning desire to win again
Im just holding back thoughts as when I start, I aint stopping

All the top 4 have suffered at least one shock defeat this season, weve had ours so lets put things right against chelsea

 

[Druid]

I don't know why everyone is so confident about beating Chelsea. If I'm not mistaken, Hleb and Fabregas won't be back for the Chelsea game as well but I'm not so sure about Flamini though. Yes we need to put things right after this disappointing loss but it wouldn't be surprising if we lose to Chelsea as well.

I'm much more disappointed about the performance than the loss tbh. Boro are an average team in poor form and we as title challengers should be beating, or at least drawing with, this kind of teams. Our key players are out but our backup players seemed to have the ability but not the passion. If we wanted to we could've won this game, as shown from towards the end of the match.

Now we're just 1 point above Man Utd and we must beat Chelsea in order to maintain top, which I cannot see us doing. However, people who are saying we cannot win the title already are having a kneejerk reaction. Last I heard the title was won in May and not the end of December. When our key players are back, even if Man Utd should overtake us, we can still catch them up and win the title.

 

[dutchMasta]

The confidence comes from the hope that Fabregas, Hleb and Flamini (possibly RVP) will all be back in time for Chelsea. Even 2 of them will do. And if Chelsea are still missing Drogba, all the better.

 

[banduan]

Full credit to the away crowd. Wonderful support!

 

[_scorpion_]

I said it after the Newcastle match and today just confirmed it for me.

We won't win the title but we will challenge for it - which is more than what I thought we'd do in the first place. Man Utd are a far more finished product that us...likewise Chelsea (however i question whether they can maintain momentum without Drogba, Essien, Mikel and Kalou).

In any case - we were abysmal today and credit to Arsène for saying so for once.

Middlesbourgh deserved the victory no question about it. I really am getting frustrated with Gilberto in the 11....i don't know why but he is a mere shadow of himself from last season.

I hope we do see the addition of a classy playmaker winger in Jan because Rosicky & Eboue need to be fighting for thier spots in the 11 even after injuries.

I don't know what to make of Eduardo....i wan't hm to succeed but I just don't see how it will work given our style of play doesnt invlove lots of crosses or angled balls into the box.

Almunia is not a Premiership winning Keeper. I like his attitude and spirit but he was responsible for the first goal....running off his line like a spring chicken and not gathering the ball was **** - I thought he would have learnt from the Man Utd match! It was a soft penalty but what Almunia did was plain stupid.

Finally I just wish we'd stop looking like victims whenever the game gets tough!! I don't think Arsène helps the matter too much with his comments about physical play. Football is a contact sport and I'd rather see our players stay on their feet and fight instead of looking to go to ground and grab the free kick.

I'm glad the unbeaten run is over - it is nothing more than ego & hype building process that often leads to teams playing too defensive to clinch draws rather than going hell for leather to win the match. I couldnt believe the lack of urgency from our side after going 1 nil down in the opening 4 minutes!

 

[ibby]

Our performances started off pretty poorly, with Fabregas not really hitting gear until our 3rd or 4th match, but since then, until recently, I think we've deserved all our victories/results. We haven't been head and shoulders above teams like we used to, whipping them, but we consistently played on par/better than them (including the big boys), often dominating in possession and creating chances.

That was the point I was making. If you ask me, our PERFORMANCES last year were more impressive than the ones this year. But last year was a freak year and the goals wouldn't go in for us. Yes we deserved all our victories but we haven't been playing as well as everyone has made out. People were saying we were the best team in the world not long ago.

I can tell you that last season, we had our 2nd worst opening 14 games, and this season, we had the best opening 14 games. There was some skysports article, and of course, 16 games into it now, it might look slightly different, but you get the idea. Point is, we are in a much better position, and we are improving. Are you implying that we'll end up 4th, since our results against certain opposition are similar to last season?

I will keep my predictions to myself as I will get slated on here.

Yes we have had our best start to the premiership season but that wasn't my point. I saying that the teams we beat this year were the same teams we beat last year (most of them, ofcourse there is some exceptions but you get my drift).

To say that we'll win the prem at this stage of course is premature, but to write us off is just the same imo. I don't think you need to counteract the overpositive bias with your seemingly overnegative bias (which you call realism) to balance things out.

People think this is a knee-jerk reaction but it isn't. When we were winning I was saying the excat samething (that we won't win the title) and no-one replied, the second we lose and I say we won't win the title people are ready to hang me.

 

[ibby]

ibby, you should stop watching Arsenal. Obviously, this team is not good enough for your taste, and you as a football fan is too good to support this 'over-hyped' Arsenal. You should pick up and support a 'less-hyped' team in the league table right below Arsenal.

 

[Nyingmeh]

I think Eboue is giant waste of time. He has flashes of good play, but they're not worth all the whinging and moaning.

Adebayor needs to do nothing but work on controlling the ball in training, he's bloody awful. I think I can control it better than he.

Gilberto needs to ...go. I love him, he's done a lot for us, but he's done. He's been ineffective, uninspired, and not an asset lately.

And we need to get the big boys back. We've shown over the last 2 games how uninspired and lacking we are without Cesc and Hleb and Flamini in the mix. Van Persie wouldn't hurt either, as we could stop pinning our hopes on Ade (a scary proposition.)

scary indeed

 

[Nyingmeh]

I don't know why everyone is so confident about beating Chelsea. If I'm not mistaken, Hleb and Fabregas won't be back for the Chelsea game as well but I'm not so sure about Flamini though. Yes we need to put things right after this disappointing loss but it wouldn't be surprising if we lose to Chelsea as well.

I'm much more disappointed about the performance than the loss tbh. Boro are an average team in poor form and we as title challengers should be beating, or at least drawing with, this kind of teams. Our key players are out but our backup players seemed to have the ability but not the passion. If we wanted to we could've won this game, as shown from towards the end of the match.

Now we're just 1 point above Man Utd and we must beat Chelsea in order to maintain top, which I cannot see us doing. However, people who are saying we cannot win the title already are having a kneejerk reaction. Last I heard the title was won in May and not the end of December. When our key players are back, even if Man Utd should overtake us, we can still catch them up and win the title.

I agree, and I blame Wenger too. the gilberto/diarra pair was hopeless against newcastle and caused us genuine attacking ability. Then we repeat the same thing at the riverside whilst Denilson is on the bench. stupid... wenger can be a genuis but he got this all wrong.

Almunia

sagna -- toure --- gallas -- clichy

--------------- diarra ----------------------

eboue ----------denilson ----- rosisky

----------- Ade --- Eduardo------------


should have won us this game. Wenger was poor on selection and our players were disgraceful on the day.

 

[Christofaux]

hopefully juve didnt catch that gilberto performance.

gilberto/ diarra is probably the least creative pairing we could of had in Midfield besides i dunno... Cygan/ Senderos. Dead set i would rather give Lehmann a run in midfield to see how creative he could be. Should of been Gilberto Denilson or Diarra Denilson.

Worst performance ive seen in a long time. Adebayor was ok i thought with his movement just didnt get any ball and when he did he keeps forgetting about the offside rule.

rosicky made that goal look easy... why cant he do that when it matters?

Very physical from Boro, i find it funny Toure gets a yellow for obstruction, yet Boro get play on?

Too many sides with their johnny englishes lining up for a paycheck to hack and take a fall for their team. Sometimes i wish clichy wasnt as quick as he is so so the slow bastards on Boro would foul him instead of miss him all together.

who would of thought people would be crying for flamini to get back?

 

[thegame24]

its such a shame man, we could have gone unbeaten this year.

The team that went the league season unbeaten was full of players all playing at their peak and very experienced players. Also we were very fortunate that year we didn't get many injuries to our first team players. Point for point there isn't much in it, they had 38 points compared to our 37 after 16 games. If this season we finish with more than 90 points then you could argue we have a team superior to our unbeaten one. Saying that 90 points is still a long long distance away....

we eased up towards the end, we could have had 95 points plus.

If we didnt get these big injuries i reckon they were good enough not to lose a game.

 

[dutchMasta]

That was the point I was making. If you ask me, our PERFORMANCES last year were more impressive than the ones this year. But last year was a freak year and the goals wouldn't go in for us. Yes we deserved all our victories but we haven't been playing as well as everyone has made out. People were saying we were the best team in the world not long ago.

The point is though, that a team is supposed to find the right balance between a good performance and good results (well...they only need good results, but unlikely without good performances). To get good results, they need consistently good performances, but they can't get good results, if they don't finish off chances. I guess you could say that not finishing off our chances = bad performance (esp from the strikers/whoever's guilty of missing). That was our problem last year. This year, we don't have either problem, until we were hit by those injuries to key players.

I will keep my predictions to myself as I will get slated on here.

Yes we have had our best start to the premiership season but that wasn't my point. I saying that the teams we beat this year were the same teams we beat last year (most of them, ofcourse there is some exceptions but you get my drift).

Fair enough, but those games that we lost last season are still up for grabs, so there is a difference.

People think this is a knee-jerk reaction but it isn't. When we were winning I was saying the excat samething (that we won't win the title) and no-one replied, the second we lose and I say we won't win the title people are ready to hang me.

I think you got a bit of a rep here already and people know it's not knee-jerk, but think it's a wind-up possibly. It obviously isn't much of a wind-up when we're winning, but when we lose, especially like we did yesterday, it's harder to take, and will get a worse reaction, as your opinion is not something we want to come true. But so far, I still haven't seen any proof that our first team without injuries doesn't have what it takes to win the premiership. Injuries is the only problem for me, and of course, it's a significant one that has to be taken into account when predicting or whatever.

 

[Webdesignlab]

With the team we had we should have won. Yes we had players injuried but our back up players aren't s**t, are they?

I agree with you. The state Boro are in, we should have won it. I was expecting it. But the quality of the players doesn't always determine the outcome. Our players have enough quality, they just never seemed to give 100% today. That doesn't mean that they aren't good enough, or as good as made out, it just means that they need to put in a bit more effort next time.

Boro's players aren't as talented, but they gave their all today. They fought and believed, which our players didn't and ultimately that was the difference.

I think that Ibby may have a point. We played crap and we look like we will be giving the top of the table away next week. At the moment that is what it looks like. So in that case he is right.

Now, we all know that fortunes are made and lost on funny penalties and strange saviours (see Boro ). So we could pull it out of the bag and give Chelsea a pasting.

If you think back though Fergie has traditionally given a hint at our downfall and we traditionally follow suit. He says "Arsenal will drop points" and lo and behold we fall over for him and supply it. Has he got a crystal ball or what?

Obviously he does not, so he picked up as an outsider on our weaknesses. Do we now think ... we are Arsenal we will come though? Or do we say ...right how can we stop this kinda rot? Once that is done we will keep the table top. Until that is done we will lose the title.

Of course we never even expected to be anywhere near the top never mind actually topping it. But we have been there and now we are spoilt.

That Arsenal team yesterday of course had the talent to beat Boro . but where was the desire? Newcastle was different ... that was a tough match, I will take that 1 point, but Boro? OK, if we fought and lost all fair and good, but we did not.

We have let a very close pack of wolves get even closer. They can now smell the kill. We could have been 4 points ahead.

Do we see ourselves winning every game until the end of the season? That is what it may take to win the title this season. It is so close, so hard ... man we have let our comfort zone go.

Arsenal always do things the hard way, but that has taken away my belief. I hope some play maker will be back for that Chelsea match or we are royally screwed (don't give me that our kids nearly beat them in the CCup bollox) ... this is adult time now ... this is time for the team to stand up and be counted.

I hope that they do.

 

[Christofaux]

That Arsenal team yesterday of course had the talent to beat Boro . but where was the desire? Newcastle was different ... that was a tough match, I will take that 1 point, but Boro? OK, if we fought and lost all fair and good, but we did not.

If Boro played like they did yesterday every game they would be alot further up the table. they have the potential to be fairly decent, its just their players will only play when their contracts are on the line.

BTW Boro fans, i may be from Australia but 100% passion or pride or whatever that banner said is not a half empty stadium.

 

[Arsenal_FAN1983]

Maybe we lost this game to give Chelsea a false sense of belief that we are now on a downward spiral.

Watch us beat them next week.!! :wink:

 

[celestis]

It's wrong to say we did not fight we did , we could not string two passes together though . How many long crazy long balls did Toure hit? We fougth till the end and scored . We were not good enough on the day end of.

 

[Webdesignlab]

It's wrong to say we did not fight we did , we could not string two passes together though . How many long crazy long balls did Touré hit? We fougth till the end and scored . We were not good enough on the day end of.

Maybe you are right ... move on. We have Bucharest coming up - struggling team they are... let's kick their asses. Wait ....didn't we say that about Boro?

 

[sabret00the]

I said it after the Newcastle match and today just confirmed it for me.

We won't win the title but we will challenge for it - which is more than what I thought we'd do in the first place. Man Utd are a far more finished product that us...likewise Chelsea (however i question whether they can maintain momentum without Drogba, Essien, Mikel and Kalou).

In any case - we were abysmal today and credit to Arsène for saying so for once.

Middlesbourgh deserved the victory no question about it. I really am getting frustrated with Gilberto in the 11....i don't know why but he is a mere shadow of himself from last season.

I hope we do see the addition of a classy playmaker winger in Jan because Rosicky & Eboue need to be fighting for thier spots in the 11 even after injuries.

I don't know what to make of Eduardo....i wan't hm to succeed but I just don't see how it will work given our style of play doesnt invlove lots of crosses or angled balls into the box.

Almunia is not a Premiership winning Keeper. I like his attitude and spirit but he was responsible for the first goal....running off his line like a spring chicken and not gathering the ball was **** - I thought he would have learnt from the Man Utd match! It was a soft penalty but what Almunia did was plain stupid.

Finally I just wish we'd stop looking like victims whenever the game gets tough!! I don't think Arsène helps the matter too much with his comments about physical play. Football is a contact sport and I'd rather see our players stay on their feet and fight instead of looking to go to ground and grab the free kick.

I'm glad the unbeaten run is over - it is nothing more than ego & hype building process that often leads to teams playing too defensive to clinch draws rather than going hell for leather to win the match. I couldnt believe the lack of urgency from our side after going 1 nil down in the opening 4 minutes!

i've long maintained we need to see another winger come in to play on the opposite flank of hleb but i also think we need an understudy for hleb. without it we're just ****ed. rosicky, eboue, almunia and gilberto are all players who most definitely should not be starting games for us.

as with dudu. i think it's unfair to judge him while we're unable to provide any service for him. his link up play is class.

 

[tactica442]

To say that we'll win the prem at this stage of course is premature, but to write us off is just the same imo. I don't think you need to counteract the overpositive bias with your seemingly overnegative bias (which you call realism) to balance things out.

People think this is a knee-jerk reaction but it isn't. When we were winning I was saying the excat samething (that we won't win the title) and no-one replied, the second we lose and I say we won't win the title people are ready to hang me.

If this isn't a knee-jerk reaction, your knees must jerk all the time.
Don't worry, no one wants to hang you after reading your posts long enough on this forum.