PL: Portsmouth vs Arsenal | 19/12/04

[Mark]

I'm happier with this then I would've been with a 4-0 thrashing. I'm so glad we've shown we can still grind out 1-0 results away from home when we're not playing well. There's always a chance it's gonna be your year when Sol Campbell of all people gets forward late on to score a stunning winner like that!

Report here

 

[bobbypires]

We needed a win and we won. That's the only thing that matters.
Sol stunner was crazy!! And Almunia made some nice saves.
Credit to Pompey; they did their game and they could win, but the 3 points are ours.
Now we're in a moment when we need to win every game; the way to do it is not that important. Of course I prefer our real style, but the value of every win is 3 points.

Ref, where were your cards? Yakubu deserved a red one and Clichy a yellow one.

 

[AFCG7]

The ref was ok.. maybe Yakubu would have fared worse another time.. and he got the Taylor tackle on Lauren wrong.. To Pompey fans.. what about Ricardo Fuller's dive in the box..flailing armas and all ? And they booed Pires? ;D

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

Credit to pompey..they defended very well in the first half. Did not give us any space. I was happy with RVP his first touch is very good..and he can make those very quick turns. Of course today there were 2-3 on him all the time but i was still impressed. But they really did cut our wings. Pires was sh* but credit to them cos their left wing never pushed up... different fromn the clichy side were lualua did go up quite often. If we had a Reyes/freddie/Pires on the left we would have been more efffective on that side. Well its 3 points and I can bet any team that goes there will struggle.

What surprised me was the second half Pompey opened up and i thought we
woulkd take over the game but we actually were worse.

All in all 3 good points, now lets wait for the next 4 games..hopefully Chelsea will slip up.

 

[Adam]

Primus wasn't always on Henry so i don't see that as a personal battle. Besides, Henry came to the wings. It's just Henry didn't play aswell, and Pompey defended well. No overall personalities getting the better of another - except Steve Stone was excellent on Vieira, who was holding onto the ball too long - lack of options or was he just not match sharp? Players target those slow long legs of his, and Chelsea scored off them last season, and so have alot of teams.

Pires showed glimpses of nice touches and bursts, but it is nothing compared to what we consistently, and aggressively got a few years back. Why start a player who is not as good as he used to? Because he is better than the rest. Is that progression as a team - no. Pires was on the right, but we have seen nothing different to that on the left. He will continue to play like that but score some goals in certain games which bring his stats up. For me, he is not performing to the high standards of himself, but is performing to a level better than most. One things for sure that he is one of the three best wingers in England at this moment- with Robben, and Wright Phillips.

Can Ljungberg and Pires influence our season to titles like they have done before (01/02, 03/04)?

Van Persie should start a flouroushing home game some time against weak opponents. That was a poor team performance to gain his confidence in, and being subbed will not help him. Clichy on the left didn't work at all - he can't defend any better than Reyes, and sure as hell can't attack like Jose.

I still believe that some signings will need to be made, or some testing of youngsters. I believe that Quincy is worth a go sometime on the wings.

Yakabu - he is a physical monster. He can outmuscle anyone, and hold the ball up. Would love to see him in an Arsenal shirt play a big game for us. He is like the equivalent of playing Toure up front, with more of a goal threat obviously!

It took Sol to get us out of this one, and at 76 minutes it looked like we were either going to lose 1-0 or draw. In some way, i hope we lose a game to get Arsène to shake things up and that could of been the case. Real motivation. He must not be happy with some players performances in particular.

 

[seb_afc]

who was sky sports' man of the match?

 

[Smartly Dressed Morris]

First 20 minutes we played well and then its was all very indecisive - it looked like we were getting nervous in the last 20 minutes of the game. And I have to say Vieira was terrible again today , getting caught with the ball and his passing was possibly the worst I have seen.

How long before we do seriously drop Vieira , I know that Fabrigas needed a rest but when you compare our midfield performance in the Chelsea game it really was worlds apart.

And Sols 30 yard screamer was just the most fooked up thing Ive ever seen , the defenders backed off him thinking that he cant shoot from there and then BANG!

Sol was superb today.

 

[Asterix]

You can't drop Vieira for a midfield of tennagers, no matter how talented. Cesc needs a rest to get him through this season, and he'll need to be treated the same next season until he physically matures. If paddy is crap over all of Christmas then Wenger will need to do something, but what are his optinos at the moment? PLaying Flamini and Cesc regularly just isn't the season-long answer.

It's a great result to get any sort of win away, particularly at Fratton Park. So what if Henry had an off day, he's human after all and still not 100% fit.

Go Sol!!!

 

[AFCG7]

Well you cant pick Vieira if he is playing ****e.
Play the best team you have and the players that will get you results.
If the best midfield at a point in time is Cesc and Flamini then so be it.They are young yes but as long as they can continue we should play them.

 

[OneProudGooner]

HE JUST CAME BACK FROM 2 GAMES OUT. Bloody hell give him time he was coming back on form against Birmingham and he had no pre-season due to injury.
Real Madrid are hardly doing any better anyway.

 

[OneProudGooner]

You can't drop Vieira for a midfield of tennagers, no matter how talented. Cesc needs a rest to get him through this season, and he'll need to be treated the same next season until he physically matures. If paddy is crap over all of Christmas then Wenger will need to do something, but what are his optinos at the moment? PLaying Flamini and Cesc regularly just isn't the season-long answer.

It's a great result to get any sort of win away, particularly at Fratton Park. So what if Henry had an off day, he's human after all and still not 100% fit.

Go Sol!!!

Exactly we can't put too much pressure on Cesc having Edu back even if a few fans are questioning his loyalty thanks to some paper talk and such we will need him for the Christmas/new year games.

 

[AFCG7]

HE JUST CAME BACK FROM 2 GAMES OUT. Bloody hell give him time he was coming back on form against Birmingham and he had no pre-season due to injury.
Real Madrid are hardly doing any better anyway.

Its not like he is being criticized on this game only... he has been poor all season.

 

[A.Hussain]

what do u guys think of kolos performance of late. seems to be that he is falling asleep at the back too often. but that may just be me 8)

 

[OneProudGooner]

All season? He came back against Fulham from injury, then missed the away to Panathinaikos , came back against Man Utd and then got suspended for 2 games...
He's been poor s except against Birmingham but Pires has been poor aswell even if he's scored 9 goals, Reyes has disappointed after a good start and Bergkamp has been sh*te.

 

[OneProudGooner]

what do u guys think of kolos performance of late. seems to be that he is falling asleep at the back too often. but that may just be me 8)

Probably misses the "invisible shield" he used to have

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

If we are to drop players who have been poor for sometime now.it most likely would be about 5 players. And who goes in?Its so easy to keep talking about drop drop drop..i don't think most of you guys have full realized how thin our bench is especailly in regards to EXPERIENCE. We need experience in the midfield/upfront... We gott have at least one experienced midfielder and one experienced striker in any competetive game. We are barely hangin there.

It was a good win from a not soo good performance. We had so many of them last year when we went unbeaten. I think its about time.

 

[Gooner83]

Vieira has scored more this year than most other years.

 

[Florida Gooner]

It took Sol to get us out of this one, and at 76 minutes it looked like we were either going to lose 1-0 or draw.

Extremely interesting coment. I can' t tell you how many Juventus games this year I've watched where I've gotten the same feeling. They won all of them 1-0. This game seemed oddly like a Juve game.

 

[bethie]

damn we are SOL lucky!

i thought lualua was damn tricky the whole night. damn ass would have scored if he was a wee bit luckier or sharper. gave cole and clichy nightmares so often they had to double team and even triple them him at times.

but oh well, crappy game and we still win. no complains or heartache from me this time round. woohoo

 

[Chips&CurrySauce]

We indeed were very very lucky. We played well in the first half and created 2 good chances which Robin and Patrick couldn't convert, but in the second half we were terrible and if Fuller was half decent he would have punished us!

I think only Alumnia and Sol sttod out, I thouht everyone else was quite poor.

Henry was at his irritating best again. He was so unfuritaing, with hsi stupid flicks and tricks, he spent half the match show boating, and must have lost possession 90% of the time he received the ball because he was trying stupid flicks to no one in particular.

We really have to snap out of these half hearted performances. At the end of the day we got the result and Pompey is a very hard place to go and play...... Hopefully they'll do us a favour when Chelski go down there!