The FA CUP Sixth Round - 8/9 March 2014 *** Spoilers ***

11 wins and 3 draws in your last 14 League games. You may not be playing great but you're grinding out wins.

I said before, this Chelsea side isn't that far off the side that won back to back titles. You're not conceding goals and you have enough in attack to pinch tight games.
 
JohnnyG said:
Of course it does, that's why you've never won the PL obv, those pesky refs!
Not particularly but Baz seems to expect Chelsea to beat the likes of Stoke and Swansea who we've struggled against in the last few years.
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I forgot the league started in 93!
 
dante6491 said:
Shouldn't Kallstrom be available in a week or two? Will be good to see how he fits in for the remaining 20 odd games this season. If Ramsey comes back before Easter we should be very dangerous on the run in.
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IF i remember correctly i think both him and Ramsey will be back for the Spuds game next weekend. 20 odd games??, think you got your maths wrong there...theres only about 10 games left in the PL, coupled with 2 more if we win the FA Cup semi and the final plus our final game in the CL on tues...so makes it about 14 games or so left for us. Unless by some god given miracle we manage to boot Bayern out of the CL then sure it could go onto another 20 or games left.
Not sure how good this Kallstrom is but it gives us more depth in the squad if anything, dont think we will see much of him playing unless one of our players gets injured.

Moses said:
Except Citeh just showed it's very possible to lose in a game the vast majority of people would have said would be a gimme.
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Seems like Wigan is their hoodoo team, twice in succession they have been beaten by Wigan in the FA Cup. But thats the beauty of the FA Cup, we can either tank Wigan or get tanked ourselves:p.
 
Loki said:
Not a huge fan of the DM. Interesting take on Negredo at City at the moment

Put the usual Daily Mail, I told you so and it was all the asylum seekers fault aside.

Negredo had 13 touches against Wigan

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-kicking-happened-Manchester-Citys-Beast.html
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He didn't do much but low number of touches for a striker most strongly indicates and is most often the situation that the midfield is failing.

They spent particularly the first half giving the ball to Navas who would run down the wing then lose it, kick it out or deliver a crap ball. Or it went to Nasri and for some reason in the first half he was both completely awful and kept holding on to the ball rather than passing it.

City were awful in the first half, their two creative wingers weren't making passes into the front men and the creative midfielder, Yaya, was utter turd.

As soon as they took off Navas and Yaya the team improved immeasurably and Aguero and Dzeko were both a lot more involved than they were in the first half.

Negredo has been out of form in some way in the past 4-6 weeks maybe, but that is largely again because Navas is frequently useless and Yaya is increasingly ineffective throughout this season. Yes he scored a lovely goal in the cup final but he was utter turd for huge huge portions of that game just as he was today. I think a problem with Yaya is fitness, if he plays well the first half he's often crap in the final 30 mins, if he does nothing in the first 50 mins sometimes he has a bit of energy at the end. Realistically I think he's a player who needs more games off to keep him at full energy and they need some viable alternatives.

AS yet Garcia and Rodwell look like terrible buys from Mancini with no sign of improvement. If they'd got two top notch midfielders instead they'd have the quality for rotation.

It's no surprise that in most matches the strikers are barely involved yaya is woeful.
 
Some of my fellow gooners will disagree, but this is it for me.

If Wenger fails to deliver this FA Cup, when you consider the opposition, then it's time for him to go. If he can't do it now, he never will.
 
This is like Federer at the French Open when Nadal was surprisingly knocked out before they had to play each other - it's an opportunity they can't afford to **** up. Given the way they've talked up the cup on Twitter and the teams we've had to beat to get to the semis, there's literally going to be no excuses. No pressure or anything lol. The team won't have to travel as it's just down the road, they'll have more of the crowd, we should have Ramsey back...

I'm picturing Theo coming on the pitch at the end in his kit and doing a John Terry. Make it happen. Please. End the dry spell.
 
Was out all day yesterday, what a great result for Arsenal. Still not in the bag but definitely favourites now.

Going to enjoy the BM game tomorrow. Got a chance as Wigan just proved but not likely. Still looking forward to it.
 
BaZ87 said:
I said before, this Chelsea side isn't that far off the side that won back to back titles. You're not conceding goals and you have enough in attack to pinch tight games.
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I agree - in this second half of the season we've been fairly close to the Mourinho sides of old. The only thing that's really missing is a Drogba.
 
robfosters said:
Some of my fellow gooners will disagree, but this is it for me.

If Wenger fails to deliver this FA Cup, when you consider the opposition, then it's time for him to go. If he can't do it now, he never will.
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This!

He shouldn't sign a new contract until after the end of the season. This could be our chance.

Lets just pray we don't have another Birmingham!
 
Duff-Man said:
I agree - in this second half of the season we've been fairly close to the Mourinho sides of old. The only thing that's really missing is a Drogba.
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People forget that 1 season aside, Drogba hardly set the world alight. He got 10 and 12 goals in the title winning seasons. Eto's on 7 already.

I'd say the only real difference between this side and the old side is Lampard's goals.
 
BaZ87 said:
People forget that 1 season aside, Drogba hardly set the world alight. He got 10 and 12 goals in the title winning seasons. Eto's on 7 already.

I'd say the only real difference between this side and the old side is Lampard's goals.
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In 18 starts in his first season he had 10 goals and 5 assists. In the second season he had 20 starts with 12 goals and 11 assists. Yeah, he did set the world alight. He both assisted a huge amount and played significantly less than people realise. Usually when a player scores 20+ it's because they play 32+ games a season mostly starts, if not basically every game of the year like RVP did I think last year. He had injuries which meant he was playing maybe 35-45% less than you'd expect in terms of starts, his goals/assists for number of games played in the first three years was excellent.

Thing is he gets goals and assists on top of absolutely terrifying defences, pushing them back, holding them up and he just worked defences and made so much space for everyone else. In the third title winning season he had 31 starts 29 goals and 10 assists. He's been incredibly instrumental in every title they've won since he moved there. In his third year he got 33 goals in all comps and scored the winning goals in both cups. I'd say those were three pretty epic years for him myself. Also scored the winning goal in the cup final in his first season.
 
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BaZ87 said:
People forget that 1 season aside, Drogba hardly set the world alight. He got 10 and 12 goals in the title winning seasons. Eto's on 7 already.
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I think it was his power and presence as much as his goals. He was a constant presence in the box, and forced defences to take resources away from general defence to stop him from getting chances. It's the same thing with Liverpool and Suarez (though obviously he has a less physical style of play). Chelsea really don't have a striker like that at the moment... The closest thing we have is Hazard.

A striker that puts fear into the rival defence is worth far more than the goals that he himself gets - he can open up chances for his team mates by disrupting a defence.
 
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