Weekend Football **SPOILERS** 14-16 March

wohoo said:
Dont worry DM will be along shortly to burst your bubble:p

I think your lot should do allright once all the crocks are back, problem how many of those crocks will stay fit for a long enough time for Arsenal to have a real crack.

Its a strong squad once they are all back tbh, very strong.
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Quite, Song really did nothing of note today either defensively or offensively. I have no idea how watching that game you can rave about their performance, their midfield was appalling tbh and gave us no trouble, offensively neither did anything except a bloody nose for a blocked shot.

We also looked pretty crap in the first half tbh, well ok not crap but considering the opposition we weren't really very good in the first half and everyone on earth said Arshavin was annonymous for the first half which he was. We had 2-3 real chances in the first half and maybe 20 in the second. His goal was truly brilliant but we've yet to find a solid position for him. His goal came from a pass beyond the defence, like Nasri in the first half all our wingers seem to have a LOT of trouble getting the ball deep and taking it the length of the pitch, all small players with Arsh/Nasri lacking real pace, they look dangerous and very good in the final third and not in it anywhere else.

Arshavin could be a good central attacking mid or deep striker like RVP can play, but not yet, he doesn't know the team well enough to be the playmaker as he's not quite up to it on who to pass to and when. This was incredibly obvious in the second half when we became a utterly different side with Nasri in behind spraying the ball around. Again he got better when pushed higher and his lack of pace was less obvious, and his experience within this team made him far better as the playmaker.

AShavin would do a lot better with a real playmaker in midfield but this year sans Fabregas that role has dropped on the shoulders of the withdrawn striker. Look at any game, spurs and RVP was involved in scoring or creating every goal and its been the same all year.

Arsenals old strength was breaking and we really need wingers capable of getting the ball in our own half running to the end of the pitch and putting a ball in for strikers to run onto, we don't really "counter attack" much anymore which means we're playing through defences rather than beating them.

Second half performance was immense, Eboue was god damned awesome, Bendtner worked hard all game long and was incredibly unlucky not to score, the majority of chances fell on his wrong foot and by the time he got the one great chance on his right he'd seemingly lost confidence with the crowd moaning constantly it was bound to happen. THe difference is with him in the team we're creating those chances, he'll score some games, others he won't, not sure whats different there. Making chances is what footballs about, check Ade's stats of late, if he has 2 shots in a game we're lucky. But when Bendtners making chances and making runs, the whole team is doing the same. When Ade's not bothering, the whole team is struggling to make chances, we're infinitately better with a striker who tries and makes space than with Ade who kills every attack and never tries.

I don't want to write too much, but again we excel against the bottom 3, but take that into account, Blackburn are very likely to go down this year, they aren't the Euro contending team of a year or two ago and this wasn't a performance against a key side. Every game against a good midfield is where we've crumbled. I wouldn't take Villa losing to a very good side with awesome home form and us winning 2 games on the trot against the worst teams in the league as some kind of sign of a turn around. Remember we drew 4 games on the trot to mostly weak sides, I'm finding it hard to get excited about beating the bottom sides. We beat Blackburn 4-0(or 4-1) early this year aswell, we didn't do great after that either.
 
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jakeke said:
Arshavin is the best player in the world!... Arsenal have a real, real chance to challenge for everything. The attacking options are now on level (maybe better?) than Man Utd's... [Song] could do the job nearly as well as Flamini did.
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Didn't you just say on Wednesday that we'll never get past the next stage in the CL? You go back and forth like a pendulum.

JohnnyG said:
What a masterstroke by Benitez, it was obvious that the Man.U. players couldn't see Liverpool in their grey kit...
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Fantastic. :D
 
drunkenmaster said:
I don't want to write too much, but again we excel against the bottom 3, but take that into account, Blackburn are very likely to go down this year, they aren't the Euro contending team of a year or two ago and this wasn't a performance against a key side. Every game against a good midfield is where we've crumbled. I wouldn't take Villa losing to a very good side with awesome home form and us winning 2 games on the trot against the worst teams in the league as some kind of sign of a turn around. Remember we drew 4 games on the trot to mostly weak sides, I'm finding it hard to get excited about beating the bottom sides. We beat Blackburn 4-0(or 4-1) early this year aswell, we didn't do great after that either.
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i thought that was a great result , you have to remember that there are about 10 clubs who are fighting it out to avoid relegation this season.
 
skippi90 said:
Since when? :confused:

I think I've used that phrase once in my whole life.
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You used it but I was talking more so about your club - at least Liverpool fans would be talking about a reality, when they talk of the double over United. :p

Plus, Keane will miss-hit his chance in any last game of the season. ;)
 
Weebull said:
Didn't you just say on Wednesday that we'll never get past the next stage in the CL? You go back and forth like a pendulum.


Fantastic. :D
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If Arsenal play like they did on Weds in the next stage then yeah, I think they'll struggle, but I rarely make definitive predictions as it's impossible to say what will happen in the next game with this squad. But I do think that they will mount a better challenge next season with a fuller squad, if you disagree then that's fine. I'm only back and forth because the team are too. Was just happy after seeing the best performance of the season from Arsenal, don't condemn me of that since good games are few and far between atm!
 
MikeTimbers said:
What was Pederson thinking off? Got to be a charge for bringing the game into disrepute for that dive.
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It wasn't really any worse than both the penalties given at Old Trafford aside from the fact that no player was nearby making a lunge, all three dived why only punish those who get their timing wrong. :p
 
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