English & European Football [17th - 22nd Apr 2010] **spoilers**

Inter Milan are 11/5 to beat Barca at the San Siro on Tuesday night :eek:

If Barca need to make this 16 hour coach trip this bet looks like it should be backed!!! :)

Tempted to stick a good bit on this especially since Inter have had a good rest after their excellent win on Friday night.
 
Barca/Milan should be a fantastic game, can't wait for it :p

Coach trip aside, I heard Lionel Messi does not tire, he is not like us mere mortals ;)
 
Spawn said:
And tbh if Fabregas goes i dont blame him at all...he deserves much better than what we have...we cant always rely on him to pull us out of a tricky situation.

Can only hope with Chamakh coming to us after the summer...he looks immense and i hope he adds something to the squad ie firepower. WE definitely need to address our back 4 at the moment and our goalkeepers...Fabianski shouldnt have played today...maybe Almunia had a bad day against Spurs but he should have got the nod...when i saw the team sheet with Fabianski and Silvestre starting...i thought this is going to be messy and it turned out to be a very messy result for us ie no pts in the last 2 games....make it 3 next week as well.
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DO people think at all before the talk about a new striker?

Where are we going to play Chamakh if we get him? let me guess, we'll start him in the SINGLE striker position ahead of RVP? Bendtners been killing it upfront when he's had service, he got basically none of the ball yesterday, two occasions he actually got the ball to feet he got one assist and a fantastic ball for Diaby who couldn't finish to save his life.

As for Fabianski being mentioned, supposedly Almunia was injured, my bet is he was dropped as a wrist injury he's supposedly carried for a couple games sounds like an excuse. More Wenger desparation and wanted an excuse to go to Fabianski, even if its true he was injured, any Arsenal fan can tell you we've needed a better first team keeper and better back up, for basically 5 years now, theres no excuse at this stage.

Eboue seems to have offers, is misused constantly, despite everyone on earth knowing he has no left foot and is horrible down the left wing(and why should he be great?) Wenger still insists on playing him there every few games. Sagna has been one of the worst right backs in the league this year, it was his mistakes that cost us against Liverpool last year, he was directly at fault for 2 of the goals IIRC, his attempts at marking Ashley cole and blocking his crosses were laughable, his crossing is horrific, defensively he's useless, he refuses to ever try and beat a player. He was way beyond the back line last week, he was out of position constantly against Barca, he's turned completely and utterly crap, and he still starts ahead of better players.

I can't for the life of me see how Eboue, better defensively, better offensively, fitter, faster, stronger and just better, is benched for Sagna whose fast becoming one of our worst players.

Diaby has had his worst month at Arsenal to date, its his lazyness, against Barca, which was most painful to see. He's a lazy player, who constantly makes dangerous tackles, who fouls constantly, who never passes when he should and who is a joke defensively.

You can blame Fabianski for the second goal, but Diaby was playing the role of buffer between keeper and their player, just before the ball is knocked in he wonders off, and as the ball comes in he actually backs inbetween Fabianski and the player and makes it harder for him. Fabianksi screwed up, but I've never seen a player back into his own keeper for literally no reason before.

What cost us last year against Spurs in the 4-4, RVP was THE man in that game, scoring, assists, but he was dropping off and holding the ball, passing it all over, he was by far the best player on the pitch, with not long to go Wenger took off the only really great performer on the team and the second he was off we fell apart.

The Rosicky/Nasri interplay down the left was the only posession we kept all game, he took off probably our best player yesterday in Rosicky and we instantly fell apart.

If he'd taken off Sagna and Diaby we'd have won that game, instead under increasing pressure he took off our most effective player, and put on players who weren't up to the speed of the game in the least important area's of a pitch least likely to be able to take control of the game.


We don't need a striker, we've got 4 quality strikers of whic 3 are unused, not match fit and ignored until injury strikes.

We need a manager who will effectively rotate the team to prevent injuries, who will use a system the team is great at, who will ditch the truly awful players and not make the worst substitutions possible in almost every single game.

I honestly don't think another manager in the world would have bought Silvestre, at his age, for that fee, those wages, and a 2 year contract, when the same manager let Henry, Pires, Campbell and countless others basically walk because he wouldn't offer them more than 1 year extensions.
 
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drunkenmaster said:
DO people think at all before the talk about a new striker?

drivel....
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I see you're at it again drunkenmaster. Yes, the last week has not been good for Arsenal, but what do you expect. If Chelsea/Utd had six of their first team players out then who's to say they wouldn't have struggled as well.

You remind me of the bloke who sits behind me at the Emirates. He starts moaning when he arrives about five minutes before kick off and then doesn't stop criticising until he leaves (which is usually about five minutes before the end of the game).

Yes, we need some new players. Yes, some players have underperformed. But from your comments you'd think we've turned into a joke of a team. The fact of the matter is, we're probably the only of the so called Big Four to have improved this season. I do think Arsene has made some mistakes this season, but we're still moving forward which is all you can ask.

And who are these four quality strikers we have? RVP - yes. Arshavin - yes. Bendtner - no, not until he can get his first touch sorted. Eduardo - will clearly never be the same play as pre-Birmingham. So bring on Chamakh please and lets look forward to improving again next season.

Other than that, a quality CB and GK are required.

ps. I find your comments about Sagna laughable. He's been one of our most consistent performers since he came to the club. Shock horror, he's been at fault for some goals - show me a defender who hasn't.
 
KoR said:
And who are these four quality strikers we have? RVP - yes. Arshavin - yes. Bendtner - no, not until he can get his first touch sorted. Eduardo - will clearly never be the same play as pre-Birmingham. So bring on Chamakh please and lets look forward to improving again next season.
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I don't think that Chamakh is the right kind of player for Arsenal. He scores a lot of his goals with his head (11 so far this season). Where are the crosses going to come from in the Arsenal team for him to repeat such a feat?
 
Tunney said:
I don't think that Chamakh is the right kind of player for Arsenal. He scores a lot of his goals with his head (11 so far this season). Where are the crosses going to come from in the Arsenal team for him to repeat such a feat?
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We're not short of good crossers - Clichy, Walcott, Sagna, Nasri are all perfectly capable of hitting the wide positions and putting balls into the box. The fact they don't is down to them knowing there is usually no-one in the box to connect due to our current style of play. If Chamakh adds another dimension to our play then he sounds just about right to me.
 
Chamakh looked pretty good from what I saw of him, I wouldn't mind him as an option at United. He's certainly better valued than some of the others we've been linked with.
 
And what would even be better is if Arsenal signs him on a free, Chamakh that is...look he cant be any worse than Eduardo or Bender who i have absolutely no confidence in the pair of them...Edu because of his injury, he just isnt the player he was meant to be. And Bender whos had a few good games for us but is hardly consistent plus his first touch is absolutely diabolical.
 
Tunney said:
I don't think that Chamakh is the right kind of player for Arsenal. He scores a lot of his goals with his head (11 so far this season). Where are the crosses going to come from in the Arsenal team for him to repeat such a feat?
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Hes actually exactly what we need...him and RVP would be an awesome pairing i think. Like i said in my previous post, he cant be any worse than what we have now. Get him and sell off Edu...keep Bender as a benchwarmer/backup

From what i have seen of him in the french league...hes top scorer i think...hes got some skills about him too...im looking forward to him coming to Arsenal next season.
 
KoR said:
We're not short of good crossers - Clichy, Walcott, Sagna, Nasri are all perfectly capable of hitting the wide positions and putting balls into the box. The fact they don't is down to them knowing there is usually no-one in the box to connect due to our current style of play.
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Do you really think that Wenger is going to change Arsenal's style of play? One of the key reasons why Spurs beat Arsenal is because Redknapp knew that Arsenal wouldn't be crossing the ball from wide. He told his back four to defend narrow across the width of the penalty box and it worked.

Chamakh won't get the service he desires at Arsenal.
 
Tunney said:
Do you really think that Wenger is going to change Arsenal's style of play? One of the key reasons why Spurs beat Arsenal is because Redknapp knew that Arsenal wouldn't be crossing the ball from wide. He told his back four to defend narrow across the width of the penalty box and it worked.

Chamakh won't get the service he desires at Arsenal.
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I disagree. There have been plenty of games where Clichy and Sagna have crossed balls to an empty box this season. Bendtner has got on the end of a few of them, but too often he's hanging back at the edge of the box. If Chamakh can head the ball and get in the right positions, we've got players who are more then capable of providing the right service.
 
Tunney said:
Do you really think that Wenger is going to change Arsenal's style of play? One of the key reasons why Spurs beat Arsenal is because Redknapp knew that Arsenal wouldn't be crossing the ball from wide. He told his back four to defend narrow across the width of the penalty box and it worked.

Chamakh won't get the service he desires at Arsenal.
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To be fair maybe it's just been that they haven't got that many players at the moment who are decent at heading. Bendter is a bit like Crouch in that he's lanky and can get his head on the end of the ball easily enough, but lacks the direction and power subsequently required, and the rest of their strikers would typically prefer the ball at their feet.

I don't Wenger would be as 'stubborn' to buy a player whose headed goals form a sizable proportion of their overall tally, and then effectively tell him not to.
 
As much as I'd like West Ham to win, I want Liverpool in the best possible spirits against Chelsea and still clinging to that hope of a 4th spot :(

Don't want Liverpool rolling over for Chelsea as they have probably the best chance of winning against them in the remaining fixtures :p
 
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