Wigan Athletic vs Arsenal (Sunday 4pm on Sky Sports 1)

[ThaSaltCracka]

hey, **** you Gilberto. Horrible performance. Also, nice to see Adebayor all but disappear in the second half.

 

[Gurgen]

My main gripe is these pre-conditions we must have in order to win a game. There will be other teams who do pass the ball (maybe not as well as uss) and will beat Wigan on a pitch like that. I'm sure about that.

We need to play teams who"play football", who are not too physical, on great pitches with nice weather.

Some players like Ade had poor games regardless of the pitch. This is what i'm getting at. It's a shame we have to have so many conditions to win. This harps back to Wenger's, 'you cannot call it real football' comment.

Really? Is that why we're top of the league?

We don't have many conditions to win. Stop watching Sky Sports.

And by the way, don't you think having a good pitch should be compulsory for every Premiership side? This is after all professional football in the most expensive league in the world. You train all week on playing football but on Sunday you feel like a pig on a farm? Unacceptable for me.

 

[arsenalfc0719]

Fabregas played on the right for the best part of the game.

What game were YOU watching.

I could probably count with one hand how many times Fabregas was actually on the right.

He was constantly out of position and its no wonder. He's a midfielder not a winger.

 

[True Gooner]

I for one saw no signs of physical or mental fatigue.

What do you mean?

The fact that Hleb, Clichy, Adebayor, Flamini and Fabregas (to a certain extent) were not dominating the game, says that there was something wrong. Our off ball movement was poor, we didnt keep hold of the ball long in enough and (in the second half) we didnt win the ball back quick enough.
Plus we could not up the tempo of the game, except at the start of both halves.

Adebayor has had such games without having had a game in midweek, Hleb was extremely poor and Fabregas played on the right for the best part of the game. Flamini ran his ass off all game. I don't know what match you saw, but Fabregas made some very good off the ball runs and so did Bendtner and Clichy as always. As for keeping the ball long enough, did you see the pitch, how does a team keep the ball long enough on this pitch when you simply can't get your first touch right?

Adebayor - I know hes had games like this, but the reason for him performing poorly today could arguably be down to fatigue

Bendtner - He didnt play in mid-week did he?

Clichy - He was struggling to deal with Valencia

Fabregas - I know, he was our most creative player, and despite being stuck on the right he came into midfield alot anyway (check my player ratings, I gave him a 7)

Flamini - Okay, I might have got it wrong there, but Im used to him showing alot more energy

Hleb - He was, as you said, poor. And one of the reasons for that would be fatigue


Im not making excuses for our performance, Im just trying to see if I can find the reason for it.
Also, I dont think fatugue was our only problem, but it was one of the major ones IMO

 

[ThaSaltCracka]

Wenger should have played Hoyte at RB and Sagna on the right of mid. Keep the same mid field partnership of Cesc and Flamini. Playing Gilberto was a horrible mistake and it completely threw off the team. Huge error by Wenger. When I saw the lineup I knew this was going to be a problem.

Top job to our backline, who played well and had to respond to our poor midfield performance, constantly giving the ball away.

Bendtner played well up top, and RVP looked good when he came on. Adebayor didn't do much at all. Really dissapointing to see. He should have played MUCH harder then he did.

Cesc and Flamini both played well IMO.

 

[Rohit]

Fabregas played on the right for the best part of the game.

What game were YOU watching.

I could probably count with one hand how many times Fabregas was actually on the right.

He was constantly out of position and its no wonder. He's a midfielder not a winger.

He started of on the right and moved in, its a big difference, from the right he had to come to collect the ball from the defence leaving no one on the right wing, not everything went through him like it does when he plays in the center, he had no influence on the game as Flamini and Gilberto saw a lot more of the ball than they normally do.

 

[Rohit]

Adebayor - I know hes had games like this, but the reason for him performing poorly today could arguably be down to fatigue

Bendtner - He didnt play in mid-week did he?

Clichy - He was struggling to deal with Valencia

Fabregas - I know, he was our most creative player, and despite being stuck on the right he came into midfield alot anyway (check my player ratings, I gave him a 7)

Flamini - Okay, I might have got it wrong there, but Im used to him showing alot more energy

Hleb - He was, as you said, poor. And one of the reasons for that would be fatigue


Im not making excuses for our performance, Im just trying to see if I can find the reason for it.
Also, I dont think fatugue was our only problem, but it was one of the major ones IMO

You are simply struggling to answer why we dropped points and fatigue isn't half the answer. Fatigue causes insipid and uninspired performances. We didn't look uninspired and the flavour was missing simply due to the pitch.

Valencia did cause Clichy problems, i have seen him give all left backs problems as he is a good player.

 

[choi12911]

Last three games we should've all won. Now we have a much much tougher schedule. Does anyone realize that?

Noticeable fixtures are:
Chelsea Away
Bolton Away
Liverpool Home
Man Utd Away
Everton Home
Sunderland Away

 

[henry79]

Wenger should have played Hoyte at RB and Sagna on the right of mid. Keep the same mid field partnership of Cesc and Flamini. Playing Gilberto was a horrible mistake and it completely threw off the team. Huge error by Wenger. When I saw the lineup I knew this was going to be a problem.

Top job to our backline, who played well and had to respond to our poor midfield performance, constantly giving the ball away.

Bendtner played well up top, and RVP looked good when he came on. Adebayor didn't do much at all. Really dissapointing to see. He should have played MUCH harder then he did.

Cesc and Flamini both played well IMO.

tottally agree, gilberto distrupts our rythem. when ever he plays we seem to be playing badly. before the game wenger was complimenting the partnership between fabregas and flamini what does he do after that, he plays fabregas on the wing !!!!!!

how are we going to imoose our self on the game by playing our best midfielder out of position.

 

[True Gooner]

Adebayor - I know hes had games like this, but the reason for him performing poorly today could arguably be down to fatigue

Bendtner - He didnt play in mid-week did he?

Clichy - He was struggling to deal with Valencia

Fabregas - I know, he was our most creative player, and despite being stuck on the right he came into midfield alot anyway (check my player ratings, I gave him a 7)

Flamini - Okay, I might have got it wrong there, but Im used to him showing alot more energy

Hleb - He was, as you said, poor. And one of the reasons for that would be fatigue


Im not making excuses for our performance, Im just trying to see if I can find the reason for it.
Also, I dont think fatugue was our only problem, but it was one of the major ones IMO

You are simply struggling to answer why we dropped points and fatigue isn't half the answer. Fatigue causes insipid and uninspired performances. We didn't look uninspired and the flavour was missing simply due to the pitch.

Valencia did cause Clichy problems, i have seen him give all left backs problems as he is a good player.

I DO think that our performance today was uninspired and dull.

We showed very little creative spark or energy going foward today, especially as the game wore on...which, as you know, is very unlike Arsenal.

And I personally feel that the reason for all of this is because we spent the best part of 90 minutes trying to break down the Milan defence.

I can see where your coming from Rohit, the pitch didnt help us at all, but if our players were not involved in a midweek game I doubt they would have played in the way they did today

Valencias a good player, but on another day, he would have got nothing off Clichy.

 

[OneProudGooner]

The blame one player for everyone else's performance excuse is lame and also blaming the pitch is not an excuse as we had two big tall players upfront but we didn't put that many good crosses into the box.
We just didn't seem to get out of 3rd gear today.

 

[Rohit]

Thats alright Varun, we can agree to disagree then.

 

[Big Poppa]

I think Ade let the disappointment of missing that early chance get to him, his performance deteriorated badly afterwards. He wasn't the only one though, our general play in the last third was piss poor. Hleb was extremely ineffectual and predictable and Cesc wasn't great.

At some stage of the season, our lack of genuine wide options was always going to come back and bite us hard in the ass. Seeing our best centre-half running around like a headless chicken on the wing in the last 20 mins kinda summed it up.

The highlighted part basically sums it up. We should have bought so we had options when this happens as it ALWAYS does.

Arsène Wenger cannot really plan for injuries to Eduardo, Diaby, Rosicky, Walcott and a suspension to Eboue all at the same time, all of them being wide options. We have just been very unlucky with injuries, we either sell some injury prone player and then buy or stay the way we are. What if Wenger buys player XYZ and we don't have so many injuries? We have a Lassana Diarra all over again.

I guess I should have been clearer. What I mean by {i]genuine[/i] wide options are players, whose best position is beyond doubt, out wide. Eboue, Diaby, and Eduardo are all players who can do a job there no doubt - but that is not really good enough to win a championship.Like an overdraft facility - the fact they can play there is a bonus, not a solution. You should only strive to call upon those players to play there if there is a crisis with injuries/ - thus there should be someone more proven (not necessarily more experienced) in that area there in the first place.

Wenger is not primarily a contingency planner. Its not a bad thing because it means we focus 100% on getting the best out of everything we already have. To do that though, kinda have to accept the risks that come with it and take it on the cihn if it backfires. We do not need 2 proven players for every position, but a little forward planning given Rosicky's injury proneness, the departure of 3 key wide players in 2 seasons (Reyes, Ljungberg, Pires) , and the over-burdening on Hleb - I do not think is unreasonable.

It's not the reason we failed to win today, but its tight games like these whereby they happen to be of greatest benefit.

 

[jay-d]

We've drawn the last three games where we should have scrapped out wins, not the stuff of champions and we'll now be forced to do it the hard way if we're to win.

Worrying days but we still have a shout, Clichy's daydreaming proving to be more vital every week[/b]

I mentioned it at the time and that was why I was so pissed. That mistake would prove decisive and it seems it mat be.

 

[Clrnc]

I think Ade let the disappointment of missing that early chance get to him, his performance deteriorated badly afterwards. He wasn't the only one though, our general play in the last third was piss poor. Hleb was extremely ineffectual and predictable and Cesc wasn't great.

At some stage of the season, our lack of genuine wide options was always going to come back and bite us hard in the ass. Seeing our best centre-half running around like a headless chicken on the wing in the last 20 mins kinda summed it up.

The highlighted part basically sums it up. We should have bought so we had options when this happens as it ALWAYS does.

people argues wenger can't foresee all the injuries and suspention at the same time. FFS it happened to us so many times over the years.

wenger is just stubborn in this aspect. otherwise he would have won alot more trophies

 

[Tony Montana]

My main gripe is these pre-conditions we must have in order to win a game. There will be other teams who do pass the ball (maybe not as well as uss) and will beat Wigan on a pitch like that. I'm sure about that.

We need to play teams who"play football", who are not too physical, on great pitches with nice weather.

Some players like Ade had poor games regardless of the pitch. This is what i'm getting at. It's a shame we have to have so many conditions to win. This harps back to Wenger's, 'you cannot call it real football' comment.

Really? Is that why we're top of the league?

We don't have many conditions to win. Stop watching Sky Sports.

And by the way, don't you think having a good pitch should be compulsory for every Premiership side? This is after all professional football in the most expensive league in the world. You train all week on playing football but on Sunday you feel like a pig on a farm? Unacceptable for me.

The pitch should be good but these players are not amateurs. They are professionals as you say. Other pros will go on that type of pitch and win games against teams like Wigan. We can't win every game but at a crucial time of the campaign we can't afford to draw to relegation fodder, home or away.

I don't have sky sports either. Contrary to popular belief I can form my own opinion from what I see. I will not use the pitch as an excuse for our draw.

 

[Biggus]

Forget the lazy excuses, the pitch, we were tired, player X was crap.
The fact is we had two very very good chances to win it, but nobody at this club seems to know how to "dink" it over a spreading goalkeeper that's gone down.

 

[Alfonso]

I for one saw no signs of physical or mental fatigue.

Villa game?

 

[USArsenal]

Forget the lazy excuses, the pitch, we were tired, player X was crap.
The fact is we had two very very good chances to win it, but nobody at this club seems to know how to "dink" it over a spreading goalkeeper that's gone down.

i was thinking that same thing today.. "chip the ball over the goalie you arseholes"...

 

[kamikaze80]

We've drawn the last three games where we should have scrapped out wins, not the stuff of champions and we'll now be forced to do it the hard way if we're to win.

Worrying days but we still have a shout, Clichy's daydreaming proving to be more vital every week[/b]

I mentioned it at the time and that was why I was so pissed. That mistake would prove decisive and it seems it mat be.

thats extremely unfair. yeah, he goofed but how many other times has he bailed us out with his ridiculously good play at LB? if you want to blame players for dropped points, there are eight (i think) other matches where you can point fingers, starting with jens' clangers. we win and lose as a team, theres no need to play the blame game.