PL: Arsenal vs Wigan | 06/12/08

[Meatwad]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

people love to talk crap about arsenal.com and yet they don't visit it.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/eduardo-to-return-for-reserves-on-16th" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archiv ... es-on-16th</a>

 

[SimplyFabregas]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

people love to talk crap about arsenal.com and yet they don't visit it.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/eduardo-to-return-for-reserves-on-16th" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archiv ... es-on-16th</a>

ahh okay, hadnt seen that, must be a new story today, it wasnt on there earlier. :wink:

 

[Clrnc]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

A decent 1-0 win. Obviously we had many chances and a combination of poor finishes and the post prevented us from doubling our lead. And then on another day Wigan could have snatched an equaliser with us being so nervy the whole game and Eboue's poor passing didn't help much.

I must say I was disgusted by the fans reaction towards Eboue, even though he was shocking from 60th min onwards. Every single pass was to the opponent, took away our balls, and almost seemed like he was Wigan's 12th man. The crowd boos towards his every touch after that and cheers when he was taken off must have totally shattered the lad, totally.

 

[asajoseph]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

Also, I think Wigan's midfield played a good defensive game today. Lee Cattermole's a player who's been improving a lot over the last couple of years, and has really flown under the radar of many, but he was right up in our midfield's face today, every time they got the ball.

 

[Anzac]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

So presumably because AW left it until the 90th minute to take Eboue off and then didn't use his 3rd sub option, we can expect to see the bench players have a run in the CL fixture seeing as how we have already qualified?????

 

[asajoseph]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

Any comments from Wenger yet?

He must be seething.

 

[mindchnger]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

Posted in other thread:
1830: "I felt he had completely lost confidence, he couldn't keep the ball any more and then he became a danger. The crowd was very hard with him but that was not the most important thing in the game."
Arsenal boss Arsène Wenger on why he took off sub Emmanuel Eboue

Wenger should have condemned the booing... but he may have done that since that's only an excerpt. Have to wait and see what the full interview is.

 

[asajoseph]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

You know what they say, the customer is always right!

 

[SimplyFabregas]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

Any comments from Wenger yet?

He must be seething.

The video of his post-match interview from BBC.

<a class="postlink" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7748446.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 748446.stm</a>

He just seems relieved to have won more than anything.

He says Eboue lost concentration, confidence and was tired, didnt really say all that much about the crowd reaction.


Edit: Damn it, mindchnger beat me to it.

 

[Meatwad]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

link to the video

<a class="postlink" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/match_of_the_day/7769503.stm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 769503.stm</a>

 

[ricky1985]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

I thought some of our combination play was quick and direct in patches today, perhaps 15 minutes in total when all those patches are accumulated. I have no doubt that is the style of play that Wenger not only wants but expects. His obvious frustration is in my opinion down to the monstrous incarnation of that style that seems to be on display for the other 75 minutes of the game.

The football on show in the main consisted of slow, sideways unadventurous passing. With no real forward movement off the ball. Resulting in 10 or 15 'nothing' passes (at its best), until eventually the ball was given away.
Worse still was the other half of the 'bad play'. It consisted of long hoofs up the pitch in the general direction of Adebayor. The main culprits of this were Toure, Clichy and Almunia.

We have seen this type of football many, many times before.

Today when we clicked into gear some of the one touch, pass-and move football was scintillating. Fabregas was at heart of every single one of those moves. Bursting through the midfield and linking with Adebayor or Van Persie.

That is what Wenger sees in training, what these players are supposed to be capable of. Quick movement, and incisive passing. They just arent showing that nearly enough. They settle for this easy pass, stand and watch approach.

The scary thing is even when we put these superb flowing moves together, they are from deep, and when we get near the goal Van Persie, Adebayor, Denilson, Nasri*, Eboue simply dont have the intelligence or composure to play the right ball, at the right moment. It's a sad state. Those players will not learn, perhaps Adebayor can get away with it because he scores a hell of a lot of goals, but the others have no place playing in creative attacking positions for Arsenal.
The sad fact is Cesc Fabregas is the only attacking player in our team at the moment who has the confidence, intelligence and drive to play the football that Wenger both teaches and preaches.

* Exception, needs time.

 

[SimplyFabregas]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

^^^

Van Persie???

 

[ricky1985]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

Van Persie has stunning talent. He can turn on a sixpence, he has an outrageous left foot, is tricky and has a decent burst of acceleration, and I have no doubt he can score 20 goals a season.

The problem is in our team, we are so bereft of creativity and intelligence that we need more than that from Van Persie. We need him to create chances for others. In isolated incidences he can be supremely creative, like his incredible pass to Nasri against Sp**s. However he is playing a vital role in our team, the Bergkamp role. Thats not speculation either. Wenger has said numerous times, he is the link between the midfield and the attack, and simply isnt doing that well enough.

He constantly chooses the wrong pass, or plays the right pass at the wrong weight. He holds the ball too long, or tries to beat too many men. He cant think quickly enough to take advantage of openings that appear. He doesnt have that natural ability of finding space between 'the lines' that a number 10 needs.

All in all Van Persie is a fabulous player but we are trying to play him in a role that his natural abilities wont allow him to play well.
If we had more creativity around him, and his sole purpose was to use his ability to get into goal scoring positions, he would be lethal, but we dont and we wont.

 

[SimplyFabregas]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

Looks like Cesc got a knock

On Cesc Fabregas' contribution since becoming the captain...
"He behaves very well. we were all concerned about his knee and i am not sure he will play on Wednesday. He is doing extremely well and he is a winner."

Think we may see quite a few youngsters against Porto, Vela, Ramsey, Wilshere, Bendtner to be precise.

 

[MDGoonah41]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

Toure is so disappointing, to me. He was caught out of a position a number of times today, and every time he got the ball he hoofed it 40 yards down field. One time the pass connected, every other time it connected with a Wigan defender.

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

You know what they say, the customer is always right!

Thats what the problem is with you lot. You actually think of urself as a customer. That mentality epitomizes everything that is wrong with Arsenal fans.

 

[asajoseph]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

'You lot'?

 

[Jose_Reyes_2005]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

I don't understand people suggesting it was a bad move by Arsène to take eboue off. Ofcourse i felt for him and ofcourse the fans celebrating his substitution must have really twisted the knife, but wigan were really starting to gain belief and momentum and it got to the point where had he stayed on there was a big chance we would have conceded an equaliser, which would have been a massive blow for the club, a blow far more important than one suffered by one player.

Personally, i cannot stand eboue. His attitude, professionalism, and performances over the last 3 years have been embarassing at best. Nobody deserves the reaction he got today, especially as Wenger pointed out, fatigue was playing a big role in his lack of sharpness. But it's important to understand that he might just be the only player at Arsenal who the fans would have treated so brutaly - and it's not just because of one poor performance in one game - it is because of 3 years of pathetic diving, faking injury, and losing the ball due to sloppy passing more than any arsenal player i have ever seen.

Again, i do not condone the boo's and felt very sorry for him as a human being as he walked off to the cheers of the crowd - but the boo's reflect on mmany years of frustration from almost all arsenal fans towards one player they believe is not good enough to be playing for a team challenging for the title, and as the people who pay for the players wages - they have absolutely every right to do that.

 

[qs]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

Taking Eboue off made **** all sense. We brought Silvestre on who managed to lose the ball 3 or 4 times in the couple of minutes he was on.

Overall the team did pretty well today I thought, we could have won by more. We were dodgy enough near the end but sure what do you expect when you are winning and the fans are booing.

 

[SimplyFabregas]

Re: Arsenal vs Wigan | EPL | 06/12/08 | 15:00

Taking Eboue off made f**k all sense. We brought Silvestre on who managed to lose the ball 3 or 4 times in the couple of minutes he was on.

Overall the team did pretty well today I thought, we could have won by more. We were dodgy enough near the end but sure what do you expect when you are winning and the fans are booing.

It would have made perfect sense, had Silvestre come on and steady the ship, like he was supposed to do, unfortuanetly Silvestre came on and played just like Eboue.