Vermaelen and Sian Massey getting cozy.
Closest an arsenal player has got to scoring this game.
*** Pre-season Friendlies Thread ***
- Thread starter Robbo
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Closest an arsenal player has got to scoring this game.
Associate
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Just imagine what the season will be like. You'll be an old man by Christmas.
I dont think i will make it to Christmas
You cant go forward without a solid defence. The most annoying thing is that our players never seem to learn from their mistakes - we kept getting caught pressing too far up the pitch and out of position and that is what happened for the first goal. Why cant we be disciplined at the back?
I dont think i will make it to Christmas
You cant go forward without a solid defence. The most annoying thing is that our players never seem to learn from their mistakes - we kept getting caught pressing too far up the pitch and out of position and that is what happened for the first goal. Why cant we be disciplined at the back?
To be fair, City are very good on the counter and your current defence needs a little work. Against most teams you would dominate enough to compensate for the defensive shortcomings. Its the sort of weakness that stops you from challenging for silverware though and leaves Arsenal usually just on the cusp.
The pounding United received from City last season was due to god awful defending towards the end of the game when we were in pursuit of a second goal.
Caporegime
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werent we already 3 goals against? (vs city) i mean i dont know what you define as a pounding but conceding that many, at home, against your biggest rivals when you havent scored and find yourself 3-0, thats not good.
We were 3 - 0 down and got one back after some good pressure. We had a chance to score again and were pushing hard for our second which left us open horrendously at the back. If we had played normally after getting the goal back the game would probably have ended 3 - 1. Did you see the game?
Soldato
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I know this was discussed before, but I just saw the thread
Liverpool fielded a team full of youngsters. I doubt even half of the players are considered starters, or even first team players. A few of the youngsters look promising, but they did seem a bit lost at times.
Some of Roma's most influential players didn't play, and a lot of the players played are on their way out (Jose Angel, Rosi, Heinze etc.) and i liked the performance from the yougnsters too (Romagnoli [who is a '95], Lopez etc.). Its true it was Roma's 5th friendly, but Liverpool are a bit in front in condition, because their league starts earlier (at least on paper they should be better).
As a Roma fan I was satisfied. The new signings (Bradley, Thactsidis, Castan etc.) played well, and they youngsters showed good signs aswell. Its a step in the right direction. Much better than last year (Lost 3-0 to PSG in 45 minutes, and 3-0 to Valencia the week after)
Just because Liverpool's league season starts earlier than Roma, it doesn't mean we're ahead in our pre-season. Most of our first team either still haven't started pre-season training yet or only started training on Monday.
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Yes i watched it. The only time i ever thought we could win the game was about 5 mins before kick off. After that the result was obvious. You do realise that when it was 4-1 we could and should have stopped making ourselves look foolish although it was too late by then. Also i remember it could have been 7 or 8 had dzeko put away all his chances.
Ultimately you have to consider how many times we played city last season and how many times we beat them.
We played them 4 times and beat them twice
Amazing though how a pre-season thread on a day when United aren't even playing you've still managed to turn the conversation to moaning about United. Well done.
Haha, to be honest, as soon as I saw the teamsheet before the game I didn't think we had a hope in hell.
My memory is a little fuzzy but wasn't that the game we started with Park and Giggs in midfield. That might have been another horror show last season though. There were a number of times I looked at the team sheet with abject terror.
I would much rather see us go hell for leather and lose by a few more goals than I would have us defend just for the sake of pride. We lost to City on goal difference last season which was equal to the swing from that drubbing but we didn't deserve the league over City. I don't want to win it by scraping victories for much of the year and I am hoping that this year we will have a little more purpose going forwards.
Caporegime
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Arsenal looked reasonably good when they had the ball, they're just beyond woeful when it comes to defending. All over the place as per usual.
Arsenal looked awful start to finish, Song gave it away constantly and tried his throughballs and as usual 9 out of 10 of them are overhit or easily defended. Then his "simple" passing, 5 yard passes going all over the place, knocking it out wide just to miss it badly and see the ball go out. He was shocking in both preseason matches. It's preseason ragged is one thing, flat out **** is another.
Gervinho ran a lot, against mostly a terrible player in Savic and a couple youngsters, and didn't provide a viable shot, cross or pass into the box... exactly like all last season. Diaby is useless and somehow kept getting outmuscled by that Razak kid who was half his height/weight, did nothing interesting offensively, no where to be see defensively.
Jenks, not at all bad, probably the best shots for Arsenal, real venom, but ultimately missed, some good work defensively, some poor work defensively.
Gibbs, for the first goal absolutely no where to be seen, again, rest of the game, not much of anything. Bartley looks, clumsy and not very good, frankly he reminds me of Djourou.... not good. Arteta, couple poor corners, not much else.
Walcott, honestly 2 halfs and twice he's done entirely nothing, looked like he can't be bothered and been the most useless guy on the pitch.
Maybe the most worrying thing was, we have a new assistant manager and people expected a change in defensive style, against Tevez and Aguero, two absolutely excellent players with loads of pace and ability we spent the first half seemingly playing a high line, pushing up and leaving space behind? It looked like the "AVB tactic" which rarely works against any teams, certainly not against a team with those types of strikers.
Possession isn't dominating, possession doesn't mean its good football. There was barely a time I felt Arsenal were REALLY threatening, every time Gervinho made a run anyone that has seen him play for a week let alone a season doesn't feel like he has a chance of scoring.
Of the guys who played today, Diaby, Santos, Gibbs, Bartley, Walcott, Chamakh, Song just aren't and won't ever be good enough in the future to be part of a cup/league winning team. City had half their team out 3/4 defenders, 2/3 central midfielders and one winger weren't first team. Arsenal have, a keeper, a CB, and the two new strikers to come in. No idea when they'll start training or if they'll be ready for the start of the season, and that assumes both new strikers can play well with the team straight off the bat.
As it stands today, Chamakh is our best striker who started preseason as normal..... Chamakh.
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I did mean in the league, you know the competition we both 'wanted' to win. Ofc i could have brought up the charity sheid but you know what, i dont class that as a really competative fixture. In the FA cup, wasnt Komapny sent ioff for the dubious red card on the 11th minute and we still took our precious to actually win the game.
(i know utd player was sent off in the UTD CITY league game too but we were already behind, at home, with a hopeless team out so..)
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Seriously what is the point? You both disagree and you're both always going to disagree. You two argue like a married couple. If you want to discuss it, start a thread. It's not remotely related to pre season football.
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Caporegime
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Good point Point is still valid though, it's not related to that either
Point is still valid though, it's not related to that either 
Soldato
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Ibra to make debut tonight for PSG. Probably play the second 45. Game is live at 11pm on ESPN.
PSG: Nicolas; Maxwell, Lugano, Alex, Loick; Menez, Mathieu, Verratti; Nene, Pastore; Lavezzi
In other news, RM got beat 5-2 by Benfica last night.
PSG: Nicolas; Maxwell, Lugano, Alex, Loick; Menez, Mathieu, Verratti; Nene, Pastore; Lavezzi
In other news, RM got beat 5-2 by Benfica last night.
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