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United V Arsenal [Sat 16 May; 12:45]

Biggus

Established Member
hackajack said:
JGooner said:
hackajack - What, we're supposed to praise them for turning in a decent showing in a nothing game after consistently bottling it in matches which actually matter? Set your standards that low if you want, but don't wet your knickers if nobody else wants to join in..
That's exactly right - praise where it's due and criticism where it's due. Not persistent carping. Add to that a bit more intelligent analysis of why we lost games and you'll be on the right track.

It doesn't take intelligent analysis- its not brain surgery we know why we lost games, we've known since 2nd of September last year.
 

Mbaki Mutahaba

Established Member
lagos said:
it's hard to take anything from it because Manu we're playing in 3rd gear all game

Its the always the same sh* from you lot. Anytime, we win,its the because the other team didnt bother. You are so hell bent on being right that we are ****..you can never take any team display positive cos it might just challenge you already "proven" theory. Its always the other team was sh* or the other team was playing in second gear. The comments in here are typical of what was being pushed around at the board meeting. It gives Wenger the bullish attitude because he can tell those asking questions have not spent much time really anyalyzing our problems. Its wrong because it blankets the valid arguments people have put forward about the team deficiencies and maybe just in between the lines, Wenger might miss them if he keeps reading sh* being spewed out about the team. First and foremost be f*ing objective. How many teams go to Old Trafford and put the home team at a backfoot? We played good football yesterday and were the better team,not because United were playing for a draw, but because we just played better than them. Can it just not be that?

You think Manure didnt have any incentive to win the title today by brashing us off?
 

Sover

Active Member
arsenalfc0719 said:
Who cares about control over the middle of the pitch when you need to win a game and your doing f**k all with the ball, which the the opposing side is gladly giving to you.

Point of the matter is that we lacked intelligence in both our passing and especially our movement today. It was mind boggling how not once did one of our players make a run into the box looking for a through ball and how everyone kept wanting the ball to their feet instead of looking to run into space. Passing the ball around aimlessly is not my idea of a good match.

Denilson did his job. The rest of our midfield and attack left a lot to be desired.

Please stop trying to play the victim. No one here wanted us to get hammered. Before the match started I thought we'd go out for it and Man U would kill us on the counter, but this wasn't the case. The game played out differently so my expectations grew. I think this game was winnable and that's why I'm not happy at all with our performance.

So you thought we'd get hammered on the break, but because we controlled the middle of the park we prevented that very thing from happening. I saw plenty of runs into the box, most were picked up by the Utd defence, which you'd expect from any quality defence, and as such the pass was not forthcoming. If the pass is not on then the ball will go backwards or sideways and we start probing again. How many untracked runs do you expect to pick out against any top team?

As for the victim remark, it is pretty clear from earlier comments by many that they expected us to take a beating and because we didn't they're still not happy.

The ONLY team to stop United scoring at OT this season.

We played a good game, the players responded well to a heavy defeat and proved a lot of people wrong.

The only victims are all those who wrote us off before a ball was kicked.
 

ricky1985

Established Member
We've actually played some extremely good football at times in the last two games. Our football in the first 25 minutes against Chelsea was fantastic, and whilst we wasn't quite as incisive yesterday (there 10 men behind the ball had a lot to do with that) we played some good one and two-touch stuff, and they simply couldn't get the ball. Lets not forget van Persie missed a golden opportunity that would have opened up the rest of the game for us had he converted.
 

Mbaki Mutahaba

Established Member
Sover said:
arsenalfc0719 said:
Who cares about control over the middle of the pitch when you need to win a game and your doing f**k all with the ball, which the the opposing side is gladly giving to you.

Point of the matter is that we lacked intelligence in both our passing and especially our movement today. It was mind boggling how not once did one of our players make a run into the box looking for a through ball and how everyone kept wanting the ball to their feet instead of looking to run into space. Passing the ball around aimlessly is not my idea of a good match.

Denilson did his job. The rest of our midfield and attack left a lot to be desired.

Please stop trying to play the victim. No one here wanted us to get hammered. Before the match started I thought we'd go out for it and Man U would kill us on the counter, but this wasn't the case. The game played out differently so my expectations grew. I think this game was winnable and that's why I'm not happy at all with our performance.

So you thought we'd get hammered on the break, but because we controlled the middle of the park we prevented that very thing from happening. I saw plenty of runs into the box, most were picked up by the Utd defence, which you'd expect from any quality defence, and as such the pass was not forthcoming. If the pass is not on then the ball will go backwards or sideways and we start probing again. How many untracked runs do you expect to pick out against any top team?

As for the victim remark, it is pretty clear from earlier comments by many that they expected us to take a beating and because we didn't they're still not happy.

The ONLY team to stop United scoring at OT this season.

We played a good game, the players responded well to a heavy defeat and proved a lot of people wrong.

The only victims are all those who wrote us off before a ball was kicked.

You cant fight them mate, a slight hint of optimism is like cancer to them.
 

Mbaki Mutahaba

Established Member
ricky1985 said:
We've actually played some extremely good football at times in the last two games. Our football in the first 25 minutes against Chelsea was fantastic, and whilst we wasn't quite as incisive yesterday (there 10 men behind the ball had a lot to do with that) we played some good one and two-touch stuff, and they simply couldn't get the ball. Lets not forget van Persie missed a golden opportunity that would have opened up the rest of the game for us had he converted.

Our strength is on holding on to the ball. The games that we consistently failed to do so, we got punished. We did well with the ball yesterday. They didnt decide to have all men at the back..just look at the work Rooney did yesterday dfensively. He had no choice. The combination of Nasri/Sagna gave them a torrid time. On another note, this is what we miss of Walcot. Its not that i have hard stats to prove this but i believe, Sagna does a much better job going forward when playing with a midfielder on the side then a typcal winger (walcot). And we are better attaching in that way then with Walcot. Just my take here something i observed not just ysrtday but even when Eboue was playing at RM.
 

General

Established Member
For once when we didn't have the ball, we didn't look so clueless like we did in the past few weeks. Players knew where to go and the shape of the team was never compromised. If there's one good thing to come out of this shareholders meeting, it's finally getting the message to Wenger that playing too many players out of position (added to those bizarre formations) was ruining the team.
 

ricky1985

Established Member
General said:
If there's one good thing to come out of this shareholders meeting, it's finally getting the message to Wenger that playing too many players out of position (added to those bizarre formations) was ruining the team.

You really think Wenger picks his team based on what a few know nothing shareholders think?
 

General

Established Member
No but it would've given him food for thought, especially when selecting the team. He seemed shocked by the level of resentment towards him (his decision making ) and the team.
 

True Gooner

Established Member
I'm just happy Fabregas is in the middle again.

I'm not against playing Nasri in the center as long as he's ahead of Fabregas.
 

progman07

Established Member
True Gooner said:
I'm just happy Fabregas is in the middle again.

I'm not against playing Nasri in the center as long as he's ahead of Fabregas.
I am. Arshavin is more suited to the AM position and as he is the best player in the team, we should rather focus on him during our attacks, rather than Nasri. Also, we are low on wingers, and if we play Nasri, a player who can play as a winger, in the middle, we often have to push players like Diaby to the wing.
 

AliBabaBrewer

Well-Known Member
What kind of world have we come to when everyone says Song is our most improved player, there's a thread asking if we've missed Denilson and people are recommending players take note from Eboue??

I think I kinda like it, I'm not sure yet.
 

asajoseph

Established Member
I've just got back from Manchester.

It was my first trip up to Old Trafford, and I have to say that going up there reminded me how lucky we are to have the Emirates. Old Trafford may be bigger, but in terms of layout and design it has absolutely nothing on our stadium, and to be honest it felt a little bit grotty in a lot of ways.

Managed to chug down a couple of beers in the half hour we had before the game kicked off, and joined in with some of the (very drunk) mentalists who were having a bit of a loud sing-song by the bar.

We had good seats, relatively, with enough height to get a good perspective of the pitch, but close enough to feel near to the players whenever they were in our corner. The seats themselves feel cheap, and about half as high as those at the Emirates, but it made bugger all difference because nobody sat down once throughout the match. Considering that we had nothing to play for yesterday apart from pride, I thought that the Arsenal fans created a bloody good atmosphere in our little area, whilst for about 80% of the match the United fans tried to make us feel at home by sitting silently and politely. It was an incredible sound when they did get going, but that happened very rarely - credit to the fat bloke with the rattle though, who managed to get the whole crowd going a couple of times, almost giving himself a heart-attack in the process, before being shouted down with 'You Fat Bastard' by the Arsenal fans.

But from our part there was a lot of singing, a lot of chanting, and particularly a repeated chant of '******, ******' whenever Cristiano Ronaldo went anywhere near the ball. I was sat next to some guy who must have been in his late 30's-40's, who had two small kids with him, and seemed to have no problem joining in this chant with his two sons (I suppose) sat just next to him! I certainly thought we did the club proud yesterday.

As for the game, I thought we played pretty well, and United did not take their foot of the gas as much as some would have suggested - our midfield play was more precise, and we were infinitely better at hanging onto the ball under pressure than we have been in any of the games against the Big 4 in recent weeks. On an individual level, I think two of the three selections that I was most dubious about put in good performances - Denilson was much improved, and his ability to play the ball under pressure helped us a lot yesterday, whereas I thought Song had a monster game in defence. Also worthy of a mention would be Fabianski, for pulling off some cool saves at the back, and Gibbs, who I thought played better than he has in any other game this season by quite some distance.

On the negative side I thought Arshavin was quiet, though managed to still be at the hub of our best moves, whilst Diaby was as disappointing as ever. Tactically, I still do not believe in this 4-5-1 formation that Wenger is so obsessed with of late, and getting rid of that will be one of the most important things we can do this summer (as well as selling Silvestre - PLEASE GOD!)

Had this performance come earlier in the season I think it would have been something to take heart from, and a good platform to improve on in coming weeks, however slinking out of Old Trafford as the podium was being set up, you couldn't help but feel that all we'd done was restore a little pride after a harrowing few weeks, and nothing of genuine merit had really been achieved. The work of building for next season will begin next week, and a huge amount needs to be done.
 

Unforgiven

Established Member
asajoseph said:
I've just got back from Manchester.

It was my first trip up to Old Trafford, and I have to say that going up there reminded me how lucky we are to have the Emirates. Old Trafford may be bigger, but in terms of layout and design it has absolutely nothing on our stadium, and to be honest it felt a little bit grotty in a lot of ways.

Managed to chug down a couple of beers in the half hour we had before the game kicked off, and joined in with some of the (very drunk) mentalists who were having a bit of a loud sing-song by the bar.

We had good seats, relatively, with enough height to get a good perspective of the pitch, but close enough to feel near to the players whenever they were in our corner. The seats themselves feel cheap, and about half as high as those at the Emirates, but it made bugger all difference because nobody sat down once throughout the match. Considering that we had nothing to play for yesterday apart from pride, I thought that the Arsenal fans created a bloody good atmosphere in our little area, whilst for about 80% of the match the United fans tried to make us feel at home by sitting silently and politely. It was an incredible sound when they did get going, but that happened very rarely - credit to the fat bloke with the rattle though, who managed to get the whole crowd going a couple of times, almost giving himself a heart-attack in the process, before being shouted down with 'You Fat Bastard' by the Arsenal fans.

But from our part there was a lot of singing, a lot of chanting, and particularly a repeated chant of '******, ******' whenever Cristiano Ronaldo went anywhere near the ball. I was sat next to some guy who must have been in his late 30's-40's, who had two small kids with him, and seemed to have no problem joining in this chant with his two sons (I suppose) sat just next to him! I certainly thought we did the club proud yesterday.

As for the game, I thought we played pretty well, and United did not take their foot of the gas as much as some would have suggested - our midfield play was more precise, and we were infinitely better at hanging onto the ball under pressure than we have been in any of the games against the Big 4 in recent weeks. On an individual level, I think two of the three selections that I was most dubious about put in good performances - Denilson was much improved, and his ability to play the ball under pressure helped us a lot yesterday, whereas I thought Song had a monster game in defence. Also worthy of a mention would be Fabianski, for pulling off some cool saves at the back, and Gibbs, who I thought played better than he has in any other game this season by quite some distance.

On the negative side I thought Arshavin was quiet, though managed to still be at the hub of our best moves, whilst Diaby was as disappointing as ever. Tactically, I still do not believe in this 4-5-1 formation that Wenger is so obsessed with of late, and getting rid of that will be one of the most important things we can do this summer (as well as selling Silvestre - PLEASE GOD!)

Had this performance come earlier in the season I think it would have been something to take heart from, and a good platform to improve on in coming weeks, however slinking out of Old Trafford as the podium was being set up, you couldn't help but feel that all we'd done was restore a little pride after a harrowing few weeks, and nothing of genuine merit had really been achieved. The work of building for next season will begin next week, and a huge amount needs to be done.

Interesting about how the Emirates has such a better view. I have always felt the circular formation of the seats gives a better view and when when a square stadium is like Old trafford you do not have as good view.
 

True Gooner

Established Member
Good read Asa.

progman07 said:
True Gooner said:
I'm just happy Fabregas is in the middle again.

I'm not against playing Nasri in the center as long as he's ahead of Fabregas.
I am. Arshavin is more suited to the AM position and as he is the best player in the team, we should rather focus on him during our attacks, rather than Nasri. Also, we are low on wingers, and if we play Nasri, a player who can play as a winger, in the middle, we often have to push players like Diaby to the wing.

I don't think Nasri is as good when he plays as a left winger, but Arshavin is more likely to make that position his own - like Pires.

Having said that, if we were to continue playing the 4-2-3-1 formation I'd like to see a midfield three of

Rosicky-Arshavin-Nasri

Where the three of them can inter change at will and there's no real restriction based on their position.
 

James

Established Member
asajoseph said:
It was my first trip up to Old Trafford, and I have to say that going up there reminded me how lucky we are to have the Emirates. Old Trafford may be bigger, but in terms of layout and design it has absolutely nothing on our stadium, and to be honest it felt a little bit grotty in a lot of ways.

Managed to chug down a couple of beers in the half hour we had before the game kicked off, and joined in with some of the (very drunk) mentalists who were having a bit of a loud sing-song by the bar.
It's like a lego stadium that has been put together by a 12 year old. Wherever they can add little blocks of seats or expansions, they do so.

Funny how you mention the mentalists too. There was a massive group of them at the Champions League 1st leg, all getting pretty rowdy an hour before kick off. Was great fun. I've been sat next to 'em a few times this season away from home, and they generate quite a bit of noise between them.
 

arsenalfc0719

Established Member
Sover, we did well to keep hold of the ball and prevent Man U from hurting us, but we failed to do anything with the ball.

If we were trying to play it safe then I would applaud our performance, but the way I see it, we had to go out there and win the match and we did not do enough, hence why I am not happy with our performance which lacked incisiveness both in our passing and movement.
 

Anzac

Established Member
True Gooner said:
Good read Asa.

progman07 said:
True Gooner said:
I'm just happy Fabregas is in the middle again.

I'm not against playing Nasri in the center as long as he's ahead of Fabregas.
I am. Arshavin is more suited to the AM position and as he is the best player in the team, we should rather focus on him during our attacks, rather than Nasri. Also, we are low on wingers, and if we play Nasri, a player who can play as a winger, in the middle, we often have to push players like Diaby to the wing.

I don't think Nasri is as good when he plays as a left winger, but Arshavin is more likely to make that position his own - like Pires.

Having said that, if we were to continue playing the 4-2-3-1 formation I'd like to see a midfield three of

Rosicky-Arshavin-Nasri

Where the three of them can inter change at will and there's no real restriction based on their position.

I'd be happy enough for Nasri or Rosicky to partner Cesc as the creative CMs in a 3 man midfield, but I don't like that line up for the 3 AMs in a 4231 - it would be creative but I don't see enough players wanting to score goals as opposed to passing the ball around.

As for wingers/wide players = forget it - we suck on the flanks & would need to bring players in who want to beat the man. Better IMO to go to our 'strength' with the number of striker combo options we have.
 

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