Arsenal v Spurs

fuck you ref!!!

seriously do they understand we are 2-1 down!!!!!! fucking wake up and get on it!!!!!

good position on this one...make it count!!!!!!!

ohhhhhhhhhhhh theo!!!!!!!

6 mins to salvage this

6min for us to do fuck all with, great...

Mertrsacker forward is the biggest joke ever, can't believe we have to resort to such shit when better quality signings would stop this shit.

fucking prick bale...utter utter prick...fuck off to madrid ya cunt...

top 4...not looking good is it....

last punt...this has to go in!!!!!

fuck this!

utter utter shit...mert thanks but no thanks..tv...not a capitain...and the whole lot should be fucking lashed for that shit....

Well, seven points behind the Spuds now. At this point, I don't care about finishing ahead of them, I just want a top four spot. As it stands, Tottenham has a very tough schedule ahead of them and Adebayor is already injured, and Chelsea looks on the verge of collapse, so maybe, just maybe. But I'm not happy with our team right now.

It's sad because Spurs were not really that good. We were just terrible.

two sloppy moments at the back, and it proved fatal in the end. Think Spurs will still drop points and Chelsea are ready to implode anytime, but still, never a good feeling to lose at the lane. we need to win 8 of our last 10 games now, because 'on paper', not many big games left now.

I think its about time we get rid of this verm-mert pairing, Kos needs games and needs to be playing, he's our best over all defender let down by the fact that verm was made captain and has to start always when he is our weakest link. Always falling asleep, slipping or general mistakes. doesn't even score lots of goals anymore, he's not worth the trouble. we need to either sell him or take his captaincy away but by no means should he be 1st choice cb!

Oh well. Horrible defending, they took their chances , and we didn't take ours
They could have scored more .

I thought Arteta played poorly. Both he and Vermaelen were to blame for Bale's goal, Arteta didn't pick up Bale's run, didn't track back.
I blame Wenger (heheh).
If he had a defensively minded holding midfielder to use (as opposed to Arteta who has attacked his whole career) then the back 4 might have more support at times, and not get caught out.
For Lennon's goal, Nacho had to keep an eye on Bale, sitting ready to pounce, while chasing Lennon cutting in.
Vermaelen had his back turned, watching the ball and didn't pick up Lennon. 2 vs 1 on Nacho.
Great runs by Spurs.
Poor defending by our midfield- as Tony Adams said if you're going to play a high line then the midfield has to constantly press the ball. Same old same old.
Maybe we'll do better in the Europa League.

Wonder if Wenger truly regrets buying Walcott instead of bale....lol

----------------Szczesny----------------
Zapata----Hummels----Koscielny----Gibbs
---------A MOTHERFUCKING DM----------
--Wilshere----------------------Cazorla--
Walcott----A PROVEN STRIKER----Podolski

BENCH: A DECENT GK, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Monreal, Ramsey, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Giroud

That is a team that I can see challenging next year. Word is that Arsenal will bid for Cristian Zapata from AC Milan if Sagna does not extend his contract. The starting XI assumes that we'll sign him. Either the Mertesacker-Vermaelen partnership has to stop, or we need to get a defensive coach. I'd prefer both. Sell Vermaelen to Barcelona, sign a CB like Hummels, and start Koscielny (he at least knows how to fucking defend). But that's not enough. Put an actual defensive midfielder in front of this actually-functional defense. Not Arteta, not Ramsey, not a still-learning Coquelin. A DM that can actually do the job NOW, like Capoue, M'Vila, Diame, or dare I say it, Song. And finally, buy a world-class striker. Giroud is pretty and all, but we can't count on him. He's disappeared for us when we needed goals, and he's missed some great chances. Wenger needs to snap up a player like Cavani, Higuain, Falcao, Lewandowski, etc. Yes, it'll be expensive, but I'm positive we have the money to do it. And if we do manage to do all this, we'll have a team capable of winning silverware next season.

All very well saying we have the money to buy players like Hummels and Falcao, but seriously, why would they take a backwards step at this stage in their careers to join Arsenal? Hummels has won 2 titles in a row in Germany including a cup and in all likelihood will go further than us in the CL.

Falcao has won cups at Atletico Madrid and are currently 2nd in the league and is wanted by Real Madrid, Man City, PSG. Why would he join Arsenal? Higuain, Cavani, Lewandowski... all linked with clubs who will offer more money than us and are on upwards curve, winning trophies. The latter is probably off to Bayern Munich.

Clearly we need to aim for these types of players, that I agree with, but if we finish outside the top 4, which is becoming more likely by the day, how can we attract those types of players? We are still a big name in world football but even with the top 4 we haven't shown we are likely to outbid any club for a player that costs more than 15M. That's not to say good players aren't out there, there are, but we're more likely to lose a world class player than sign one.

And no matter how good the incoming players are, if we defend the way we do, then we will continue to lose games. Better players help of course and they are less likely to make individual errors, and we really do need them throughout the spine of the team, but a lot can be improved with better coaching. But the more individual and collective errors we make, the more confidence dips and the more likely we are to panic when we go behind or are under pressure. And this has continued to happen these last few years even with different starting XI's.

Mario wrote:All very well saying we have the money to buy players like Hummels and Falcao, but seriously, why would they take a backwards step at this stage in their careers to join Arsenal? Hummels has won 2 titles in a row in Germany including a cup and in all likelihood will go further than us in the CL.

Falcao has won cups at Atletico Madrid and are currently 2nd in the league and is wanted by Real Madrid, Man City, PSG. Why would he join Arsenal? Higuain, Cavani, Lewandowski... all linked with clubs who will offer more money than us and are on upwards curve, winning trophies. The latter is probably off to Bayern Munich.

Clearly we need to aim for these types of players, that I agree with, but if we finish outside the top 4, which is becoming more likely by the day, how can we attract those types of players? We are still a big name in world football but even with the top 4 we haven't shown we are likely to outbid any club for a player that costs more than 15M. That's not to say good players aren't out there, there are, but we're more likely to lose a world class player than sign one.

And no matter how good the incoming players are, if we defend the way we do, then we will continue to lose games. Better players help of course and they are less likely to make individual errors, and we really do need them throughout the spine of the team, but a lot can be improved with better coaching. But the more individual and collective errors we make, the more confidence dips and the more likely we are to panic when we go behind or are under pressure. And this has continued to happen these last few years even with different starting XI's.

Fine, then sign players who'll want to come to Arsenal. There are still great players out there who don't play for clubs considered better than Arsenal. Adil Rami, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Joao Moutinho, Marouane Fellaini, Gregory van der Viel...I just named a handful of players off the top of my head who would add to the team but who wouldn't cost more than 15M. To be fair, Fellaini's price tag is probably much higher than that and he's probably off to Chelsea anyway. But nevertheless, there are players out there we should be able to sign who would make us a better team. And as you say, if we were to have better coaching, individual errors and psychological factors can be avoided. What I'm getting at is that it's going to be a busy summer if Wenger is to turn things around.

Which we've been saying for a few years now, unfortunately.

Mohamed Samir wrote:It's sad because Spurs were not really that good. We were just terrible.

Well, I didn't see it like that!

The first 30 minutes were intense. We didn't let Spurs strong more than a couple of passes together. In fact, we dominated the whole game.

In the end, it was only the score that had them winning. But that's what counts.

Jonathan Prendergast wrote:

Mohamed Samir wrote:It's sad because Spurs were not really that good. We were just terrible.

Well, I didn't see it like that!

The first 30 minutes were intense. We didn't let Spurs strong more than a couple of passes together. In fact, we dominated the whole game.

In the end, it was only the score that had them winning. But that's what counts.

Its frustrating how many times we have played like that against big teams without getting results this season alone..and had they taken their chances on the counterattacks in the second half, it could have been worse for us, having, as you said, largely dominated the game.

Did we really 'dominate' the game? In what way? We created next to nothing and looked more like conceding then them as the game went on. There were opportunities where maybe a better player could have made a better pass that could have led to something, maybe a better first touch (Giroud) around the box and we also plenty of crosses into the box without threatening, but the only time we looked like we could score was Ramsey's chance in the 2nd half. Lloris didn't have a notable save to make.

They didn't really test Szczesny outside of their goals but they had that Sigurdsson chance that he inexplicably tried to pass off, Defoe's shot wide and Bale blasting over from 6-7 yards.

And I don't think we played particularly bad, it wasn't as bad as our recent performances against the better teams, and up until the goal I thought we were the slightly better team and most likely to score if we could just make some of the possession count. It was a good game without it being exhilarating. But once we went behind we didn't exactly pepper their goal with chance after chance and like Wenger said, we were inefficient at the front and at the back. Quite important areas of the pitch...

I thought after we scored that if we just kept them out at the other end they would panic and we would equalise. But they had two centre backs who know how to defend and we just didn't have the quality to create anything and once the minutes ticked on it looked like we had run out of ideas. I can't call that 'domination'. Especially as Tottenham prefer playing on the counter attack.


On a side note, we have now only won once and lost 5 of the 7 games we've played against teams above us this season, not including our 2 defeats in 3 games (most likely to be 3/4 after next week) against the German teams in the Champions League. And in those 10 games so far, we have fallen behind in 9 of them (in the one game we took a 2-0 lead vs Schalke we drew).

I think a lot of people confuse dominating possession with dominating the game. They're completely different. I don't think any team can claim to have dominated yesterday's game, whatever the criteria for that is. Spurs played to their strengths and won, Arsenal did what we usually do, mess around outside the opposition box and create next to nothing of real note.

The thing is, we could have 99% possession and still lose as every team that plays us seems to score with their first shot on goal. So, dominating possession is absolutely meaningless for us.

As for the defending, it was just atrocious. Inexcusable for a team in the Premier League. Vermaelen didn't have a fucking clue what was going on around him for the second goal, it was embarassing. I don't know much about football tactics, coaching, formations and whatnot, but even I can see that something is unbelievably wrong in the way our defenders operate. It's as if they go out there unprepared and hope for the best.