Villa Post Match

Jason Morrison wrote:OptaJoe 33 - Arsenal have set a
new record for most consecutive
games unbeaten at home in the
FA Cup proper. Invincibles

nice.

Happy days...

Jenks1981 wrote:Coquelin was steady, nothing more, its his ability to be decent in so many positions that impresses me, not his overal performance, he was caught out a fair few times today.

True but he has the ability to recover quickly, he's always switched on.
I certainly dont feel the anxiety I do with Djourou when the ball goes anywhere near him!

Van Roy Bostanian wrote:

Jason Morrison wrote:Walcott: ''Robin Van Persie told us at half
time: "Come on we want to win this trophy,
we must win this game!"

Why do our players not know this before the game, why do they take our game for granted until its too late?

Van Persie has been an exemplary captain. First good captain since Patrick Vieira.

Can't argue there. He's vocal and an amazing example on the pitch! Not to mention a perfect age to handle the pressures if captaining a big club.

Oh and may I just say, we need a new 2nd choice keeper, Fabianski needs to fuck off! He might not have been directly at fault for our goals but you can just feel theres always a mistake coming from him. Really hope Wenger realises he's juat not good enough for us.

He gets nervous as hell everytime the ball comes into our area.

Really nice 2nd half performance, but the sluggishness (organisation-wise) at the back is upsetting. I'm praying that once Sagna is back, he'll switch Coquelin to left back and put Vermaelen back in, as although both Kos and Per are defensively fine, we looked far from organized with them.

Glad to see Rambo and Walcott have a good second half, after recent disappointments.

Finally, I watched it in our crowded student union bar, so couldn't really hear the commentary. ESPN showed a replay that involved Van Persie and a Villa defender going down. Almost missed it, so what was that about? Were they insinuating that Van Persie had done something wrong?

He elbowed the Villa defender from what I saw. Didn't get a clear view though.

''ESPN showed a replay that involved Van Persie and a Villa defender going down. Almost missed it, so what was that about? Were they insinuating that Van Persie had done something wrong?''

Surprisingly, all they had to say was that CBs should be up for that kind of challenge all game, rather than accuse RVP of some kind of offence. Shocking, I know.

Oh right? Jeez. If he gets banned that's gonna really screw up February for us. Was it really blatant?

was funny when the commentary said that but I think he got away as his elbow was right tucked in to his body and defender sort of ducked into it?

From BBC Sport:
"I felt 2-0 down was harsh for us. But we dominated the second half against Manchester United last week and we did so again. We tried to keep focused and calm," said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. Asked whether he will sign anyone before the transfer window, he added: "I cannot say nothing will happen but it will be a bit of a miracle now."

Alex Hadjicharalampous wrote:From BBC Sport:
"I felt 2-0 down was harsh for us. But we dominated the second half against Manchester United last week and we did so again. We tried to keep focused and calm," said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. Asked whether he will sign anyone before the transfer window, he added: "I cannot say nothing will happen but it will be a bit of a miracle now."

Lets all pray for a miracle then.

No signing guaranteed.....I would bet my balls on it...lol

Terrible first half but they redeemed themselves with a brilliant second half. It was nice seeing our midfield pass the ball around so well. We kept possession much better and deserved to win in the end. Need to keep the possession in more games now. With Rosicky you know we get to see more triangle passing. Ramsey and Song got in on the act and we out passed them in the second half.
Song was caught dwelling on the ball a few times. Needs to cut it out but with Arteta back Song will have less burden to carry.

Van Roy Bostanian wrote:Arsenal Arsenal.com
Wenger: "Diaby is coming back on Tuesday. He has worked hard in rehab. The earliest he will play will be the end of February."
1 minute ago Favorite Retweet Reply
More or less a good news, I suppose.

He'll be back from rehab end of Feb, making his long-awaited return to...the injury room.

Alex Hadjicharalampous wrote:''ESPN showed a replay that involved Van Persie and a Villa defender going down. Almost missed it, so what was that about? Were they insinuating that Van Persie had done something wrong?''

Surprisingly, all they had to say was that CBs should be up for that kind of challenge all game, rather than accuse RVP of some kind of offence. Shocking, I know.

On my stream one of the commentators was insinuating that RVP shouldn't be on the pitch.

Zaid Derweesh wrote:

Alex Hadjicharalampous wrote:''ESPN showed a replay that involved Van Persie and a Villa defender going down. Almost missed it, so what was that about? Were they insinuating that Van Persie had done something wrong?''

Surprisingly, all they had to say was that CBs should be up for that kind of challenge all game, rather than accuse RVP of some kind of offence. Shocking, I know.

On my stream one of the commentators was insinuating that RVP shouldn't be on the pitch.

That was accidental, the ref had a clear view of it and didn't do anything about it.. Not sure RVP will get a retrospective ban for that

Made me laugh the comentators on what I had on...soon as we went 2 down they were ripping into arsen...then 15 mins into the second have they had no idea...so quiet...pmsl wankers!!!

Fox Soccer managed to get Ivan Gazidis on the phone after the match. Here's what he had to say -

1. Wenger has money to spend, its up to him how he spends it.
2. Chamberlain, Koscielny and Vermaelen have been "big money signings" for us
3. We cannot compete with "oil money" and "some Russian billionaires with lots of money" in the transfer market.
4. "We are challenging on three fronts, am sure that Man City would like to be challenging on three fronts but they're not"
5. Next 48 hours could be interesting but don't expect any signings.

So basically he's saying we have no money. Sorry Ivan an 8m buy isn't a big one.

I think he was batting for the board a bit. He mentioned that there seems to be some confusion regarding finances which he found surprising as we are a public company and anyone can access our accounts to see how much money we have. He categorically said that "whatever money is there Arsene is free to use".

Also I agree he was trying to set expectations by calling those three big signings.

Siddharth Mehra wrote: 4. "We are challenging on three fronts, am sure that Man City would like to be challenging on three fronts but they're not"

Surely Gazidis realises that this is nonsense.

Stephen Mitchell wrote:

Siddharth Mehra wrote: 4. "We are challenging on three fronts, am sure that Man City would like to be challenging on three fronts but they're not"

Surely Gazidis realises that this is nonsense.

Aw bless him, gotta love the optimism:D

THAT Koscielny run. Amazing.

It must be said, there were a few concerning things about that game:

1) Koscielny is the only one who attempts to deal with Richard Dunne. There are two other CBs a couple of feet away, but for all their reading of the game they might as well have been sitting in the stands. They should be making it as hard as possible for Dunne to get the header in, not backing off him.

2) Song's positioning for the second goal is awful. He presses the ball for a few seconds, then just stands there. Completely loses Bent (and is not even looking to make sure Bent is anywhere near him) and is only aware where he is when Bent is being played in behind the left back.

3) We don't respect teams that we think we should beat by rights. We don't gamble because there is a belief that we'll always get one more chance. Rosicky's pathetic sidefoot in the first half was not the shot of a man who believes the outcome of the game could just maybe rely on him beating the keeper for once.