Swansea Post match

Evan Mullins wrote:Walcott was really terrible. I'm starting to think its the position that he plays. He can't consistently beat a man but makes really good runs. .

Evan, I agree.
He's not doing very well lately as a wide forward/winger /whatever.( Now Nate Dyer..there's a winger !!).
The goal Theo took looked like a striker's, sprung loose with only the keeper to beat.
He hasn't done well in traffic at all, and seems reluctant to enter it. Right before Ramsey shot across the mouth of goal and off the post ,Walcott had a chance for a give and go with Rvp that would have had him cut through traffic into the goal , but he shied away looking for open space...

[quote="Christopher Flanagan"]I think we'll beat United. I actually think Swansea today represented more of a challenge. [/quote

Not if we start the same XI we did today.

Christopher Flanagan wrote:If we beat United, I'm banning everyone who scoffed (not from the group, but from life).

That's a major if given we don't have any decent fullbacks. But Vermaelen will be back... anything is possible then.

Saw this on the guardian match report forum

"Barca-lite beat Barca-shite"

Sami Rockfeller wrote:Chambo and Rosicky looked good in the few minutes they played, hopefully they get to start the next match.
Ramsey needs a break, he runs so much and yet creates so little. The boy is capable of creating magic on his best day unfortunately those days haven't been flowing off recently.

rosicky was good.i dnt know why he is not given more time on the pitch.he had 2-3 awesome shots on goal as well

"He hasn't done well in traffic at all, and seems reluctant to enter it"

That's a very good way of putting it.

Now now now lets not all lose our heads, playing without fullbacks makes the teams on the ball style look poorer but this is only a temporary problem. We were missing a huge number of players today and it showed but on another day we would have won that one.

With Arteta, Vermaelen, Wilshire, Sagna and Gibbs all on the horison as in returning we have hope that we will instantly be alot better when they do.

January is the new november

It's always going to be tough when your wide forwards are out of form and your outside backs are center backs. There was no width and out center mids didn't play very well.

But I think we'll beat United.

I'm so fucking pissed at this result and the fact that we never make the best of the opportunities those above us give us to catch up!

The power was out since half time. Can anyone tell me how bad were we?

I think injuries are starting to show. We have basically our best defence out and our best CM out as well. We most definitely need someone to step up offensively too as RVP cant carry this team every game

I think today we did not look going forward because Walcott's out of form and Arshavin, even though trying hard, is not playing well. I thought Ramsey was ok but we had no support as well from the full backs and Benayoun did too much running and little else.

Still we could have won, if it was not for very strange defending mistakes, especially with the 3rd goal, when Graham beat Koscielny for the ball and Szczezny did not come out to clear and he was not on his line either allowing Graham to score that goal.

However, as people mentioned before we're missing full backs and Arteta/Wilshere in the middle and so our control of possession was very poor.

Defensively, this shows that Song cannot be the only midfielder who stays back when needed, even if Benayoun and Ramsey are hard workers he needs an Arterta/Wilshere next to him who can stay back and offer support going forward.

I thought we were quite embarrassing. It's not so much that we were outplayed by a better team on the day and couldn't string two passes together, with many key players out, but to continuously give goals away through individual errors season after season is unforgivable. To give them away when you've just equalised is even worse, and wasn't the first time. Do we ever learn? Did we ever look to match Swansea's work rate and hustle?

Our lack of full backs didn't help and against good wingers they were always going to struggle but the 2nd and 3rd goals could easily have been prevented even without Maldini and Cafu at full back. Giving the ball away, losing your man, losing your position... just not good enough. The 1st was a wrong decision from the referee, though. But we should be used to bullshit decisions in football by now.

Ramsey was atrocious, he didn't hide and kept wanting the ball and kept working so hard but boy did he have a stinker. But he wasn't the only one. We had average or worse performances throughout the team and players who clearly didn't feel like matching the energy of Swansea's players and that is never acceptable. And we have players starting on the back of other poor performances (Arshavin, Walcott, Djourou - although we're desperate at the back) because we don't trust the players on the bench to be any better and that's not a healthy situation. And Van Persie had no service today from the midfield and next to nothing from the wide players, although Arshavin did look like he was trying and a few things came off in the 1st half.

This squad needs improvement, even before today but these games over the last couple of weeks have just highlighted it more, otherwise we will struggle to finish top 4. Yes we have players out, but we always have injuries and the squad wasn't complete going in to the season and it lacks even more now seeing how some players season's have turned out.

I think the top 3 are out of our reach unfortunately but 4th is still there for the taking as Chelsea still look shaky and should have drawn at least yesterday and Liverpool are quite average. But as I've said before, I'm not sure that with this squad as it stands we can take 4th and as the days go on the less likely it seems we're willing to spend any of our healthy transfer kitty. And yes I know it's not easy to spend money now but it's our own fault for being in this situation due to the summer we had so we need to find a way.

But not Wayne Bridge. Or Kalou.

Christopher Flanagan wrote:If we beat United, I'm banning everyone who scoffed (not from the group, but from life).

I think we will beat united... but that doesnt mean swansea was a harder challenge... it is nonsense to suggest that.

Gotze!

I agree with what Mario said. We missed Arteta and Wilshere if only to keep hold of possession in the middle of the park, but we also lack quality going forward. The potential is there for everyone to see, but we have been saying that for years now. We somehow have to convince RVP to stay and sign two players of real quality, otherwise finishing outside of the top4 is going to be the least of our worries

its such an irony that the best year of persie turning out to be the worst one for arsenal in recent history.what would have happened if persie would have missed a chunk of this season like every year

Thank you Wenger, yet again!

Very poor Arsenal performance but we all know that. Injuries aside, the players who should have really stepped up today didn't. Ramsey, Benayoun, Arshavin, Walcott.
I thought Koscielny was the only player who really came away unscathed.

Everyone else needs to shoulder some of the blame. At least he played with heart and desire. The rest looked jaded and uninterested. No excuses for that. There was no way that it was a penalty. But I think by the way we played today, we would have found another way to gift them a goal.
Credit to Swansea. I was worried that they would do exactly what they did today. Played with desire, pace and a want to win and keep the ball.

Brendan Rodgers is doing great things there.

Hopefully we'll have Vermaelan, Sagna, Gibbs and Arteta fit and ready for Man Utd on Sunday. I think with these players back, we can take 'em.

On a side-note, I have to say it is saddening to see the divide between Arsenal fans again. It was barely full time and pictures of THAT fecking banner from destructive idiots on Twitter like @SheWore and @ArsenalFcNotPlc were doing the rounds again. Not sure how any of that is going to help anyone.

Ramsey is now receiving f*cking death threats from angry, idiotic Arsenal fans on Twitter. And one idiot actually said "No wonder Gary Speed hung himself", which is absolutely disgusting and really shouldn't go unpunished.

This guy is probably the worst - https://twitter.com/#!/Arsenalwinner" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false

This person should be reported to the police. Or better still, beaten with his keyboard. What a disgusting person..

Wesley Wang wrote:A team challenging for 4th should not get bossed around by fucking Swansea. I can't see Chelsea, Spurs, City, Utd etc. getting outplayed like this. Absolutely woeful performance, we could barely string 5 passes together. Van Persie had virtually no service whatsoever, our midfield three isn't creative enough.

spot on Wesley. quote of the day imo. midfield three not creative enough, and also can't retain the ball to take off pressure from our defense.

Absolutely sickening. Yes they wernt good enough, but the level of ignorance of some fans is astounding.

ralph avedikian wrote:

Christopher Flanagan wrote:If we beat United, I'm banning everyone who scoffed (not from the group, but from life).

I think we will beat united... but that doesnt mean swansea was a harder challenge... it is nonsense to suggest that.

Why's that then?