Punchdrunk Arsenal Throw In The Towel
Jan 24th, 2010 by 'holic
Well, first things first. Did Arsene want to win the FA Cup? The selection of Cesc Fabregas and Denilson in midfield, and the strength of the bench, said yes. The performance of some of the makeshift side said otherwise though, and it pains me to say that.
I’ll hold up my hands and admit to wondering, very publicly, a week ago just why Manuel Almunia was still in goal for the first team. I was wrong, and the reason why was immediately apparent at the Britannia Stadium. Barely a minute gone, and a predictable long throw from Delap was Fabianski’s to claim. Fuller beat him to it and we were one down. It was not the Pole’s last ‘flappy’ moment.
I’ll confess to not actually seeing the first fifteen minutes (apart from the replay of the goal, obviously) but kept in touch with the Radio Five commentary team. They were not complimentary and yet when I got in front of the box we must have improved a fair bit because we were coping quite well with them by that stage.
That is more than can be said for the travelling Gooners (thank God they were there otherwise the place would have only been half full), most of whom were angered at the amount of time taken wiping the football with a towel so the home side could launch throw-ins from ten or fifteen yards nearer to the goal than where the ball was going out of play. If any goalkeeper consistently held up play for that long then a yellow card would result.
Slowly but surely we got back into the game, survived what looked like a decent penalty shout against Silvestre, and got level just before the break. It was no surprise that Cesc and Denilson combined from a free-kick for the latter’s deflected effort to find the corner.
It would be interesting to go back and put the clock on how long the ball was actually in play up until that point. There is no doubt that the home side dramatically upped the tempo in the second-half. The match was a scrappy, bitty affair for a long period, but then came a triple substitution by the Gunners designed to swing the tide in our favour. The opposite happened.
Ramsey, Eduardo, and Arshavin were summoned with twenty-two minutes remaining. Thankfully the ineffective Walcott was one to be removed from his own personal nightmare, but I was a little surprised to see Coquelin and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas also hooked. There were worse performers than them out there on the day, and Arsenal immediately appeared imbalanced.
Stoke struck twice in the closing twelve minutes, taking advantage of the fact that we appeared to have given up having any full-backs whatsoever! That left the exhausted Campbell and the injured Silvestre badly exposed.
Fuller grabbed his second headed goal after the lumbering Sidibe was allowed to saunter unchallenged down our left flank to cross perfectly, and a suspiciously offside-looking Whitehead had a tap-in when Etherington skipped unopposed down our right flank and slid the ball across the face of the goal.
Were Stoke worthy of these decisive blows? Probably. Did Arsenal deserve to lose? Certainly. More worrying than the defeat was the manner of it. The passing game never materialised. A forward line that depended on Vela and Walcott to impose themselves was never able to contribute. Emmanuel-Thomas had a decent debut but was forced to drop deeper and deeper to forage for a ball he wouldn’t otherwise have seen much of.
Eastmond wasn’t given a chance to impress as Stoke play their football in the air or down the flanks. Under the circumstances I thought Campbell was excellent in the unfamiliar right channel at the heart of the defence, and Coquelin produced some fine challenges in a rare outing at right-back. Silvestre and Traore should not be required for a while, so to be critical would be both unnecessary and unhelpful.
Arsene loves his statistics, and will spend the next hours digesting them before talking to his players. He will face a strange situation. We actually had the ball for 51 percent of the match. I am indebted to RS Dee on the excellent Arseblog arses for pointing out that “the fucking towel has had 27 % possession!“, all of which means that Stoke only had 22 percent control of the ball in play, and yet still scored three.
I’m just annoyed at the end of the day that we risked Cesc and Denilson with that side around them. Both are important for the big four Premiership clashes that follow. Every time some cloggie clattered into either of them all we could do was wince, and hope. With a fully fit squad I have no doubt we could put out a second string side good enough to secure a game such as this. In similar circumstances in future let’s trust the kids or play the best available side. This was not a happy hybrid.
102 Responses to “Punchdrunk Arsenal Throw In The Towel”
Arsenal pottered to the potteries to try to prevail against pugnacious Potters and pinch a place on platform 5. A gargantuan gaggle of Gooners gathered, gaily garbed, glad to be Gooning, and gratefully going for game glory. They sang songs so sweet and strong, from start to sionara, singing Stoke supporters to submission, and serenading Sol to sail into the sunshine and success with Cesc, since Stoke were stoked up for sure.
But Arsene fielded a fledgling force and their focus failed to fully fend off these frenetic f**ckers and fulfil FA Cup finalisation formalities. Was he foolish to feel he could Pullis one off?
Momentarily, wee Lulu MacSparry, more morbid than a moronic mortuary mortician, made much in a momentous moan. “He’s missed maximizing maturity for momentum, by moving senile Silvestre and Sol to centre-back” quoth Lulu.
Old Jug Ears is a pot not easily pinched and poor prioritization provides punishment for parsimonious pretenders to pleasure in his parlour. He’s made of silver, shines like steel. He’s not cast from clay on the potter’s wheel and oven-baked to be glazed over by a team not fired up for a win in the furnace. If he was, where would he Denby? He’d come a crockery or end up under the bed being pissed off (in).
And so to the game.
“Watch out for throw-ins from Delap and don’t lose a stupid early goal” were Arsene’s wise words of wisdom. “What was that again, Boss?” asked our rearguard, seconds later. “Could you run that past us one more time ‘cause we’re completely unaware of that tactic?”
Unsurprisingly for an eleven who’d never played together before, Arsenal spent most of the first half trying to get to know each other. Theo didn’t want to know and didn’t bother to mingle. JET, Le Coq and Eastmond gave a good account of themselves though. And when Denilson thumped one home just before half time, the game was definitely there to be won.
Had Arsene called Chateau Bergkamp after around 60 minutes, the BtM crystal ball would have recommended Ramsey on for Walcott, but otherwise unchanged and predicted 3-1 to the Arsenal with an Emmanuel-Thomas brace to savour.
Completely in character, AW didn’t call. Wise man. Instead he brought on some height up front in an attempt to overwhelm Stoke’s back four.
Fabregas was magnificent. He covered every blade of grass and lead by example. Several youngsters gained some good experience. Walcott confirmed his chances of getting on the World Cup flight are 50:50 with mine. We fielded a weakened team in favour of going all out for a win. I’m happy to live with the outcome.
And so to Villa. Whisky bracer please, barman.
Heh, you must have finished that before me, BtM. Magnifico maestro.
Agree with your assessments, ‘holic. Here’s hoping the lads can pick themselves up for the Villa game, no doubt helped by a couple of fresh and more experienced legs on the field. Oh, and less towel time.
We both saw it the same way, ‘Holic. Disappointed but not down. Full focus now on the league and ECL. Just the tiniest bit of luck on the injuries front and we can get it one.
Bergkamp-Magnifico!
Wenger made daft substitutions. JET was winning balls against the Stoke rearguard, maybe he tired-he didn’t look it. AA thought he was at the park and Coquelin aquitted himslef beautifully. WE became cavalier and lost our shape. Maybe that’s the worrying thing to come out of this game. How tactically aware and astute is Wenger in a stiuation like that.
we are not good enough. Wenger does not give a toss about winning.
we suld get rid of the frog and stupid kids and get more experience player
MAN! not kids
Go and lick somebody elses windows Danny, there’s a good twat.
We play a lovely passing game, beautiful technique, the most attractive football, possibly in Europe, if not the world. However, we continue to be lightweight physically and a side wth brawn and muscle can frequently dominate. Players like Eduardo, Arshavin and Walcott, if caught, cannot cope with the physical challenges and are so easily bullied off the ball. The Club must decide whether to carry on with the Wenger method of speed over brawn…….this season should provide the answer.
between silvesters quiet leadership qualities on the field and in the dressing room and all the wonder kids and starlets and the mental toughness and the physical toughness we have also,were in prime position for fabregas too pull the plug and find himself a descent team and manager who is not a Walter mitty figure.we have a lot too thank George Graham for
as arseblogger said, arsene was on a hiding to nothing with todays team selection. play the entire first team, risking injuries and fatigue? or rotate? this was the selection headache he was left with. i personally think he picked a team with enough talent to get a result at stoke, especially with fabregas in the starting eleven. however, fabianski’s error put us on the back foot for virtually the entire match, because it got stoke ‘s front line and arsenal’s defence believing that they could concede at any given long throw or corner.
looking at newsnow right now, i have a real problem with some of these headlines. “arsene wenger makes terrible mistake” and so on. if you are gormless enough to not realise HE HAD TO ROTATE THE TEAM, then i am afraid you are either a fool, an inexperienced football fan, or someone that enjoys piling the pressure onto a defeated arsenal.
for all the real arsenal fans out there, this is the biggest two weeks of our season. maybe even the biggest two weeks of arsene wenger’s career. definitely the biggest two weeks of the majority of our squads careers. DO WE WANT IT? how much do we want it? do the players want it? lets have no regrets. lets get behind the team as much as possible.
Nicky,
You’re not really advocating any departure from the Wenger method? Just because a make-weight team lost one game (a game they could even have won) away at Stoke?
“We play a lovely passing game, beautiful technique, the most attractive football, possibly in Europe, if not the world”. YOU are absolutely correct.
And except for the fact that eleven first team picks were missing today, that football would have seen us through today.
As it is, fielding eleven fully fit players is a real accomplishment at the moment. The boss is placing his bet on the league and the Champions Cup. I’m with him.
Let Stoke, Bolton and their likes keep the brawn and try to better Barcelona with it.
Once again an honest and accurate write up ‘holic sir.
It was a poor performance by our high standards, I didn’t think Stoke were much better though and I really thought we were the most likely to get a result before their second goal.
Before we get all doom and gloom, lets not forget that this was a team with a back four that had never played together before and may actually never get to play together again, add that to the fact that the team was weakened in all areas on the pitch then the result doesn’t look all that bad.
Don’t get me wrong, of course I too was hoping for the win and I am dissapointed that we won’t be playing the Merc’s away in the next round (although not that dissapointed). But if this defeat prolongs our challenge in the other more lucrative competitions then it may just be worth it in the end.
Roll on Wednesday and hopefully the return of the “real” Arsenal.
A pint of cider to drown my sorrows please barman.
Cheers.
agree with JW…
I think its ridiculous the amount of grief people are piling on Arsene. It was never his fault from the kick-off and the team he put out today as well as the substitutions should have won us the game. The players need to take responsibility for some of their stupid mistakes.
I was surprised to see Cesc start. I’d honestly expected him to come on at the 70 minute mark depending on how things were going along with Rosicky and maybe Arshavin. Starting him was a scary call and I hope he came out ok.
No one can be feeling worse about this than the boss and our captain so lets hope they can make this pay off. Anyone slagging our manager off doesn’t deserve the title of “arsenal fan”. They’re not. Maybe today was a test of our faith as well and its amazing to see the tide turn back so swiftly. 3 days ago you’d have half a million singing “we’re on top of the league”. On Sunday, a small bunch providing any sort of decent perspective.
Our boys deserve better and our manager could do without a swarm of vultures swirling around as if they own the bloody club.
Its dissapointing and pathetic.
Forget to say;
A plus point from the game would be that at least we know that if god forbid we need to substitute TV or WG in a game, that we have Sol, who on todays showing is still an extreamly capable CB, to step in.
I’m seeing there’s a blog a bout it so I’m starting to believe that it wasn’t just a bad dream.
Yet I still feel we were so close to winning, we were creating chances, when they scored that sucker punch of a second goal.
Keyboard mistake, wasn’t supposed to submit yet!
Anyway, I’ll just have a little cognac please.
Thanks.
Bergkamp’s the man
What worries me is that it’s not only the Stokes of the world that seem to bully us about. There doesn’t appear to be a happy medium between brawn and the Wenger method. We seem to prosper ONLY when we avoid direct contact.
Er, Nicky did you watch the Bolton games?
So chances of Chelsea not winning the FA Cup this year? Getting lower with each round I suspect.
Wenger reminds me of Napoleon, amazingly successful at first, but came unstuck as his stubbiness and arrogance overwhelmed his judgement. I am just waiting for our Waterloo…
I seem to remember that once upon a time we had a squad capable of competing in all competitions. What has happened?
It’s not 2004 anymore, you have to just deal with it.
John,
We never had a squad where eleven (11), (10+1) were unavailable at a critical stage.
i thought we were getting well om top when they scored the second. we weren’t too bad considering – but vela and walcott were such disappointments. he has to try theo in a different position or tell him to hang back and get the ball to feet then try and beat his man. right now he tries hard to run into the worst position on the pitch at any given time. if you wear bright yellow boots you have to have the game to match and our two today were embarrassments. i love theo but it’s not happening for him at the moment. maybe it just needs a goal and it all changes, but also we should look at starting him centre or left – anywhere but where he “plays” at the moment.
how slow was denilson today! watching him chasding sidibe for their second was like one of those bad dreams where you are trying to run but your legs won’t move properly. A bit like my reality these days but it should not be that of a premier league footballer. even silvestre must be close to him in a foot race, the two of them coming in just behind pat rice and the dinosaur mascot.
on the positive side, I’m strangely optimistic about this season – cesc is almost a god, we’ve got three big characters in the back four (and the clich is not bad – just prone to major errors at key moments, nothing too serious), tommy rosicky and arshavin wil finish the season strongly, and we’ve got ramsay back early and in form song and diaby to come back. plus theo will have to do something if he wants to get anywhere close to south africa. perhaps a wonder goal in the chelsea game. come on you gooners!!!
Great points `Holic.
For anybody who’s even midly interested in supporting Arsenal, this should be among the least disappointing defeat ever. Look at the schedule, look at the injuries (plus Eboue and Song away) and you can see the only mistake Arsene made was to risk Cesc and Denilson in a game where our opponents openly declared they were going to play dirty and were given a free license to foul. We’ve not waited for this game to know that a dirty team will dominate our youngsters, We did not pick up injuries and that’s all that matters at this point in our season.
With all due respect John he could not have done much else today. Why are people just waiting for that first defeat in ten games to come out and spout all that nonsensical stubborn and arrogant nonsense. I suppose it has been festering for a long time?
I will argue with anybody (with a masive slice of hindsight) that I thought his selection fell between two stools today. That wasn’t anything to do with stubbornness or arrogance. It is borne from a belief he has in his players, and I understand that. The fact that I thought he got that part wrong doesn’t mean I don’t think he will still lead us to a really good crack at the title and Champions League this season.
This continual knee-jerk reaction to one-off defeats is wearing in the extreme. Be constructive in your criticism, or go and join those sites that specialise in blanket criticism without thinking, or any reasoned argument.
If we are still in the title race by this time next month, let’s hope we dish out a revenge stuffing to Stoke when we go there anyway. Fingers crossed it’s a case of ‘he who laughs last…’
John, I’m not sure you’ve taken into account the number of injuries we have incurred.
`Holic, I don’t know why you would even bother to reply to John who’s just another one of these bandwagon fairweather fans we could do without. Their only contribution is to help us measure our success which means we have to brace ourselves for more of thir kind proclaiming their fandom for Arsenal in the future.
Charlie: Right on! We’ll put a Bolton on them when it matters 😉
Great day out amongst the travelling Gooners, despite the result and that bloody towel !
Pint of cider please ‘holic.
difficult to believe all this doom and gloom on this site.I’snt there a special site for you boys FATAL ARSENAL or DEPRESSED GOONER.
Anyhow I’d like to highlight some positives from the game,Ramsey is back from injury and looked superb when he came on and coquelin and
JET38 got blooded and must now be more conscious of the levels needed at the top level.
On a negative note LITTLE walcott and LITTLE arshavin
Any news on Silvestre?
Is he injured?
Is it serious-ish?
Is there a silver lining after all?
We hateses Silvestres.
And Denilson was crap too. Not that he always is, but he was.
We’d better win @ Villa Wednesday otherwise it’ll be all be to waste.
Then again, it could have been MC away in the next round. And at least I don’t have to watch another Bellamy/Tevez manic ugfest now.
We still hateses Silvestres.
Given Chelsea have now been drawn at home to Cardiff in the next round, it’s theirs to lose I suppose.
Nice write up ‘holic, as defeats go it’s one of the less painful ones. Not sure why people are getting so upset with the team selection, I don’t know what else Wenger could have done. Admittedly some players (Theo, I’m looking at you) were extremely disappointing, others just aren’t up to it (step forward Mr Traore), but given our injuries, unavailable players and forthcoming games, there wasn’t much choice really.
On the plus side, Sol looked good and will be far better backup for Vermaelen and Gallas than Silvestre was, Cesc didn’t get injured, Thomas and Coquelin made reasonably assured (if occasionally jittery) debuts and before their second goal we looked more likely to score (or so it appeared to me, anyway).
Finally a word for Stoke. They really are a horrendous team to watch. That is all.
Good overview, ‘holic. Arsene played the only sensible team selection he could play and the bench was a declaration of intent to win the game. Had Diaby, Merida or Jack Wilshere been fit, Cesc would have been on the bench as well but he did not even have that luxury of a second or third string playmaker. I think it had to be a hybrid as a team of kids might have been so overrun and beaten up that some might not recover (for an example consider Senderos’ experience).
The big disappointment and one reason we did not win the tie is the performances of Theo and Vela who really must be running out of time (even with Arsene). Life is about choices and every sensible Gooner will choose the opportunity to compete for the Premiership and the ECL over the FA cup.
Plaudits to Eastmond and FET who did not look out of place, and to Sol after so many months out of football. The first two will have a future at Arsenal (more than I can say for a few others), the latter will be a useful back-up for our first choice centre backs.
Glenmorangie please
Heh, washed up, you want to check some of the ones I have read tonight. I’m looking for a tree and a noose when I come off some of them. Maybe I went over the top with some of the individual criticism above, but it hurt to lose to a shower of shite like that with more towels than supporters.
Generally though I think this is about as positive as you are likely to see until the likes of A Cultured Left Foot and Untold Arsenal get published.
Dear Arsene,
With all the hundreds of millions sitting in the club somewhere, please use some of it to buy a top international goalie.
Many thanks.
Love and kisses,
Stevie T.
Ollie
Yes, I did watch the Bolton games,They were pussies compared to Stoke……22 to 8 in fouls today and not a single yellow…..need I say more?
At last, a voice of reason amongst all the wailing and gnashing of teeth – great work as always ‘holic. It is nice to have another voice of optimism out there.
The press will have a field day claiming Wenger was sacrificing the game playing kids, and completely missing that the two winning goals went in with Campbell, Silvestre, Denilson, Cesc, Ramsey, Arshavin and Eduardo on the pitch. Sure, the former two aren’t first choice, but that is hardly an inexperienced set.
Simply put, Wenger did what he did against West Ham – protected those with injuries and niggles (an inevitability after a double header with Bolton), and otherwise tried his best to win. But too many played below the level they can reach.
In any case, had we won, do you think we would have won with a similar side at City in the next round? It would have come three days after our tough league run ends with Liverpool, and a few days before a trip to Porto. Rotation would have been inevitable again.
At least we didn’t lose to Leeds or Reading at home.
guys its better we lose games now because it will benefit us in the future.gunners till death
Jeez… guys! In football, as in life, sometimes the other team plays better and you lose. Not that it’s fun… but it doesn’t mean the end of the world, or that we should sack a guy who is wanted by almost every other club in the world!
Another positive, along with JET etc… credit where it’s due to ITV having a commentator with brains – Southgate. No wonder Arsene likes him….
Well played and good luck Stoke.
the bottom line is they wanted it more than us like leeds did against the neighbours but then again stoke and leeds would want to be in with a chance of winning the league and the big cup as well.Oh yeah
so would the tiny totts bang goes that thoery
Good debate so far, in answer to Matt.
I’ve been a fan for 37 years and I have known both joy and sadness in equal measure. It’s not easy being an Arsenal fan, but it’s all I know. Wenger has been both brilliant and infuriating for Arsenal, but at the same time I believe he could have been more successful if he had been a little bit more flexible. This “new” team needs to win something if it is going to go onto greater things. He made the decision to field a weaker team today for the FA Cup, perhaps, he wouldn’t have faced that decision if he had a larger squad or less injuries. It was his decision alone – would our strongest team have beaten Stoke, I really don’t know. Would they have been up for it, I still don’t known. I would like to think that we lost a battle, so that we can win the war.
What I do know is this; on our day with a full team we can beat anyone. If we don’t win anything this year, then I will still be a fan; however, I will not be able to rationalise everything on bad luck, injuries, or small squad-size, etc. For me the responsibility lies equally with the manager and the team (who in my opinion, have punched above their weight this season).
Wenger’s legacy rightly or wrongly will not judged on a magnificent stadium, world-class training facilities, giving youth a chance, or great club finances that secures our long-term future; but success. Success breads success, and if that means we have to start small (i.e. winning the FA Cup, League Cup) then we should, because I want my team to win something now and not in the future. Wenger has made the calculation that the Champions League and Premier League are our number one targets; let’s hope they are achievable given our current resources, because I still want to believe…
Now if that what qualifies me as a “bandwagon fair-weather fan” then so be it.
Just reviewed my post, apologies for the bad grammar and spelling mistakes.
‘Wenger’s legacy rightly or wrongly will not judged on a magnificent stadium, world-class training facilities, giving youth a chance, or great club finances that secures our long-term future; but success.’
Well last I checked he’s ticked that box (unless I dreamt those league titles and FA Cups) – and all those others.
Good argument John. And I agree with the idea of prioritising winning something (Chelski started with the league cup). Think the upcoming fixtures forced his hand a tad.
Whatever is left over at the end of the weekend please…
That success was is in the past, which can never be taken away from Wenger. Rather selfishly, I want Arsenal to be successful now!
Good stuff, John. I might not agree with all that you are saying, but great to see someone explaining it so well. That’s all I can ask.
Thanks for dropping by.
Been supporting Arsenal for 58 years,joined at the beginning of a 17 year trophy drought an d had great periods of agony and ecstasy following the team-Swindon defeat!!! 1st Double -Charlie George ….Yeah! Have read thousands of comments on the team’s performance and am amazed at the football knowledge of many writers.However I disagree with the people who say that any negative comment is treachery. The internet has given everyone the chance to put in their five pennorth. Redandread is the only one who has ,imo,got to the crux of todays debacle.Wenger is great , wenger is wonderful; arsene knows!But he don’t know beans about substitutions.So many times,since five minutes before Michael Owen’s first for liverpool, he’s made substitutions which affected the result adversely.(I can give you others- infact the advent of Nasri and Diaby is one of his few successes.) JUST DUMPING THE USELESS WALCOTT TODAY would probably have sufficed. My Compatriot and super hero Rambo gave away the ball on his first three touches . The eagle eyed have already stated that his third mistake led to the winning goal.Coquelin and Eastmond were doing well after shaky starts,and the much vaunted JET was working hard .Despite the horrendous fixture list, with Cesc on the field for the full 90, Wenger had sent out a team to win and in my very ho t’was the substitutions wot lost it.
Not for the first time, I’ll concede the substitutions today puzzled me, northernbof. I know we didn’t want a replay necessarily, but going 2-5-3 was just astonishing, and costly.
There’s this worm. He keeps troubling me. Cut off his head. He keeps wriggling.
What do you make of this one Holics?
“Boss to tempt rivals with Ryan
Liverpool, 19:37, January 24, 2010
Liverpool are ready to offload Ryan Babel before the end of the month and would even let him join Arsenal if the price is right.
Reds boss Rafa Benitez has grown so infuriated by the Dutchman’s displays that he is reportedly looking for £11million in order to finance a move for his top target – Kenwyne Jones at Sunderland.
Babel, 23, has been at the club for half of his five-year contract and failed to deliver on a consistent basis for Benitez – who beat Gunners boss Arsene Wenger to his signature when he left Ajax following a successful European Under-21 Championshps with the Dutch squad.
It is claimed that Benitez is trying to tempt the Arsenal manager into making a move next week.”
Apparently Cesc played coz Jack the Lad had a sore throat (according to ATVO guys).
It’s not the end of the world. It might even work out in our favour with less games to play and all that. As you said in your preview ‘holic, Le Professor was between a rock and a hard place ad to me, he did waht he thought best.
Agreed C1. Just got to keep reminding ourselves of that.
BtM, I hear you, and think he might be be better suited by the way we play. Here is the rub though. Eleven million for a misfit? One who won’t get a look in if Rosicky, Nasri, and Arshavin are all fit and playing in their rightful places. No.
Tell the Spanish waiter we offer two million. Take it or leave it skintscouse!
“I was a little surprised to see Coquelin and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas also hooked. There were worse performers than them out there on the day, and Arsenal immediately appeared imbalanced.”
I think that was the tactic that undid us in the end. it was a bad substitution. But clearly wenger would rather lose than draw.
Nice one ‘holic. Has anyone else noticed that Denilson gets around the pitch about as quick as Douglas Bader would, even worse the flying ace just shades him when it comes to putting a ‘foot in’ which just doesn’t seem right on so many levels!
If we buy Babel, i will cry between now and May. He is worse than Theo. Sorry theo but you have been poor this season.
“Tell the Spanish waiter we offer two million.”
Lol ‘holic… Spanish waiter. You never know, Wenger might just be the man to transfer Babel into the next best thing. May be convert him into a CF…
Onto Villa. Let’s all remain positive.
To complete the gloomy day, Ivory Coast are currently losing to Algeria in the ACN quarter-final (currently in extra time). So Drogba may be heading back from the ACN sooner than we would hope.
and Eboue, Charlie.
I’m not helping, am I? 😉
Yeah I was weighing up the situation really! 🙂 – still Ivory Coast are like the England or Holland of the ACN it seems, always underachieving.
And there’s the prospect of an Algeria v Egypt grudge match semi-final!
Eeeeeeeeehmanuel Eboooooueeeeeh!
Eeeeeeeeehmanuel Eboooooueeeeeh!
Why oh why can´t Fabianski take a step forward and grab or punch the ball? If he´s our future between the posts we´re in big trouble… Arsene, BUY A GOALIE, you have the money!
And i understand Denilson, how fun is it to run towards your own goal and help your defence, boooooooooooooring….
What a bummer, man I hate watching the Arsenal lose, it guts me to the bottom of my stomach. Is it me or does Vela and Walcott not seem to be up to snuff at this level?? I know Theo has just come back from injury again, but Vela has been fit for several matches now, I (imho) think that they just don’t have it to cut it at Arsenal, again not being negative, just seems that way too me…… What was up with Arshavin, he seemed like he could’ve cared less out there, really disappointing to say der least. Anyhoo my 2 cents on this match, I agree the next few matches will make or break this season for us meaning for the Prem title. UP THE ARSE
Not having a go at Le Coq, but makes you wonder why Wenger sent Gilbert away on loan with Eboue gone.
I’m also wondering if the some of the negative comments here were from the same people amongst the 100 drinks earlier in the week celebrating that we went top – seems like a slow moving wagon that people jump on and off at their leisure.
What I’d LOVE to see now, is a consistent streak in the next few games. Everyone plays at least solid (especially Almunia) and throw in the odd exceptional performance (we know who the real matchwinners are – Fabregas, Arshavin etc) and get points in all these games.. especially 3 against Chelsea and ManU! This is our chance to put ourselves into a winnable position in the league. We can make this our year! (and no more injuries please)
This time next Sunday, following 6 pts extra on our Premiership points total tally… and we will all be sitting very comfortably.
Lets focus on the villa and manure games.
What’s done is done.. can’t say i was altogether pleased with the effort of some today.. but certainly, the manager put out a very strong side/bench and 100% went for the game.
Holic
Anyone with any misgivings over AW’s team selection today,not withstanding injury problems,have only to go back to the Invincibles season to understand why.
He will always regret putting out a full strength team against Man U in the FA cup semi final,3 days before we played Chelsea in the CL qtr final 2nd leg at Highbury.
Utd were already out of Europe,and off the pace in the league,so their only chance of silverware was the FA cup.
We got kicked from pillar to post as Utd flew into challenges right left and centre,Scholes nearly cut Reyes in half with one tackle,how he remained on the pitch is still a mystery to me.
Then the red headed little sod went and scored the only goal of the game.
We paid the price against Chelsea 3 days later when having outplayed them for an hour and leading 1 nil,they got a lucky equaliser and in the words of several players afterwards,they had no petrol left in the tank and Chelsea scored late on to win 2-1.
We then played Liverpool at Highbury the following Saturday and were twice behind and staring down the barrel of 3 defeats in a week until TH saved the day with a brilliant hatrick.
But that was how close Wenger came to blowing the whole season.
He will never ever make the same mistake again.
What hurts him and me and thousands of other Gooners is that we would have played Monaco in the CL semi final and there is no way we would have lost to them as Chelsea did.
Then Porto in the final,and given the quality and depth of our first team,i am convinced we would have beaten them as well.
It’s all dreams and sad regrets now of course about what might have been that season,but at least he has got his priorities right since then, and i for one am quite happy for the players to have a free w/end coming up on 13th /14th Feb.
Even if we win nothing this season,at least AW is giving his players the very best opportunity to challenge for trophies in the 2 best competitions in the world.
Clive, in many ways my point I think. If that really is his thinking, why risk Fabregas or Denilson today?
It’s not a huge criticism, but I can’t help but think perhaps we should have picked the best side available, or (and I would have done this) given the kids their chance alongside each other, with whom they would at least have been familiar and comfortable. The result could not have been worse.
I understand what he attempted, and fair play for trying, but if Cesc or Denilson had got hurt I suspect he would be coming in for even more grief, and it would have been hard to defend.
Still, it’s the end of a long night. It will all look different on Wenesday. 😉
I have just watched the highlights to see if I missed anything. What really frutsrates me is that I really do not think we are that far away from being THE force in the premier league. Today was one of those days. Far too many missing and in the end we just did not have enough. Personally I find it very sad that the FA cup has come to this. I have always loved the competition and grew up loving cup final day.
We have very few chances to act in the transfer market but this is one of them. We desperately need a top keeper. Almunia is just not good enough to be a number 1 in my opinion. Fabianski???? Will he make it? Who knows? My suggestion would be that a year on loan in the Premier League will tell us a lot.
Up front is my other worry. AW seems to be pinning a great deal on the shoulders of Bendtner.Now I am a big Bendtner fan and feel that one day he will really turn into something special. But he is not there yet and quite frankly the others are not cutting it. I have real fears that the likes of Walcott. Vela, Eduardo and Bendtner are just not ready yet. So far this season combined they have managed a total of 28 starts, 32 sub appearances and managed to score 11 goals. 4 fowrards have scored 11 goals out of out of our total of 80. That is bordering on making Heskey look good. This is in all competitions. Surely this is one of our major problems? Today, in my opinion this was again highlighted?
Onwards to Villa Park. Lets hope that we can have a bit of a re shuffle and pick up the 3 points.
Keep the faith.
Clive,. Some great points. The one thing I remember about the Liverpool game aside from the Henry hat trick was the performance of Freddie. We wre behind and the game was just drifting and everyone seemed completely off the pace. The crowd were quiet and everyone still seemed deflated from the Chelski game.
There seemed a period when the ball spent more time between Liverpool full backs and keeper and no one seemed to have the energy to do anything about it. Then all of a sudden Freddie just clicked and turned into a man possessed. He turned on the afterburners and went from one full back, to keeper to the next full back until he forced the error and an Arsenal throw. He jumped to his feet with a wild throw of his arms. The crowd went nuts and it was game on again. The rest is history………
Can’t really find anything to disagree with in your excellent summation ‘holic.
I suppose if there was one game to lose in what remains of this season that was it.
End of the world? Certainly not, but worrying none the less. I’ve questioned AW’s “tactical” substitutions for a long time and today gave me no reason to change my views (+ was this really a day for 4 -3-3?).
Theo and Vela were worse than poor all game. Fine, they haven’t had the playing time but the lack of effort and courage when faced with a physical side was inexcusable, especially when compared to the “real” kids out there today, all of whom can take satisfaction from their performances.
Denilson, who I generally have more time for than many, was frustrating. I suspect he was under instructions to take the pressure off Cesc but the results were extremely mixed and his pursuit for the 2nd goal was an embarrassment.
So, if you really want to make 3 subs there were 3 very obvious candidates and JET and Coquelin were not amongst them; and to bring on Eduardo (lovely guy, lots of sympathy, etc, but simply not at the races at the moment) and Arshavin (who may not turn up in 90 minutes let alone 20) is just daft.
Ramsey coming on was fine – preferably for Den – but whilst Rosicky’s legs might have fallen off but he was surely the better bet.
What really worries me is that although we’ll have players coming back – just like new signings, blah, blah, blah – given our track record we’ll also have more injuries and we’ll end up placing a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the likes of Theo (who will undoubtedly say ouch, and have another operation) and Vela.
If we don’t strengthen the squad now with a few cheap but astute signings – supposedly AW’s forte – we risk pissing away a real opportunity of some serious silverware, other than the tarnished vase the F A Cup has, unfortunately, become.
p.s. props to Sol – not a huge fan but credit where it’s due – and buy a new keeper. Al’s certainly been poor and needs replacing, but Fab scares me every time I see him play. One only has to look back at the chav semi . . . .
Eboue – Djourou – Song – Gibbs
Ramsey – Merida – Wilshire
Bendtner – Van Persie – Nasri
Thats a FULL TEAM of injured & unavailable players so i think we shouldnt overeact eh???
`Clive, in many ways my point I think. If that really is his thinking, why risk Fabregas or Denilson today? `
I got the impression that he did that for us. He wants to win a trophy badly as well and having Cesc support the younger boys was a gamble that should have paid off.
People who`ve been criticising him fail to grasp the fact that this defeat must`ve been painful for him as well.
I`ve tried to keep my posts to a minimum because I`m still fuming at denilson, walcott, vela and fabianski. I`m scared of saying something I`d regret but the way we gave up 3 goals is probably the toughest part of this loss.
Walcott brought this down on himself and on the team. Funny that a team with two potential international stars still cries out for a striker. Walcott was told by Arsene not to play for two international competitions during the summer. he didn`t listen and I can never forgive him for that.
Vela`s brilliant but whatever problem he has, he`d better sort it out soon.
so in short, Arsene did what he did to win. Sadly someone must`ve forgotten to remind half the team on the pitch what that crest on their heart means to us.
er…two potential international level strikers is what i meant.
Chill you guys. Sol was a massive giant tonight considering all, and Arsene was not to bothered about this defeat! Lessons learned (I hope) Walcott/Denilson no good enough for Arsenal at all! , miss- shapen team today (they were not on the sam wavelength), Arsene pls see that! Lets keep together on this – we WILL win Prem or EPL Cos wer’e good enough!
Holic
I take your point about Fab particularly,but he only played because Wilshere fell sick just before the game.
I am sure his plan was for Wilshere to play maybe 60- 65 mins,and then swop him with Fab if we needed to. Ramsey couldn’t play the full 90 as he is not 100%.Originally he was supposed to be out for 21 days after tweaking a thigh muscle in training not long ago.
But having rested his entire defence as well as Arsh and Eddie,Fab had to play in place of Wilshere to provide some creativity.
Denilson probably also had to play to try and give some defensive cover to a completely untried defensive combination.
But i repeat,even if we had everyone available to play,he would still have chosen a mainly 2nd string team, albeit a stonger one than chosen on Sunday,as he is still haunted by the lost opportunity during the Invincibles season.
I want to start by stating I have no problems with Wenger’s starting line up today. He picked the best team he could under the circumstances. Fabs & Denilson got a run out due to their recent enforced rest due to injuries, everyone else badly needed a break before the toughest few weeks of the season.
The problem I DO have is this; in the past 3-4 seasons we have been badly hit by injuries which have led to fatigue and burn out. This season is proving to be the same. The only difference is this year we have money to burn.
Now I understand Wengers reluctance to buy players when they might not get straight into the first team but his failure to PLAN for & accomodate the inevitable injuries throughout the season is infuriating.
We have done remarkably well so far considering the personnel we lost but Wenger has put too much faith in young squd players. He said Vela was the reason he didn’t buy a replacement for Adebayor. Well while we all ridiculed Ade fOr his poor finishing the boy scored goals! now we have an outstanding finisher in Vela but he doesn’t score any goals!!!
Theo was suposed to be our 5th striker but is having a horrible season.
But even so I don’t think we need to buy a striker now. We have Bendtner back next game & Eduardo getting back to form. No I think we need better cover in defense!
Agree with the assessment. Some some of the Zootrope stream on ITV.com early on and really though we might do it after coming back 1-1. Fair play Stoke.
On a positive note JET looked good from what I saw and I hope he eventually gets his own song a la Wings:
JET! whooo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Arsene has to much trust in WALCOTT = dump him! English TWAT!
Dont worry holics! Stoke got Citeh away. /better to go out now, than to lose for a 4th consecutive time at CoMS
WHY CANT ARSENE FIND SOMEBODY ON LOAN ??????????
For God’s sakes 32 teams at the world cup – so many hopeful players arent having their chance of consistent 1st team football…
So i’m sure alot want to move out on loan ?????????????
Oh and Ramsey…
we have risked him too early havent we…
so he should be out for another 3-4 weeks !!!
(because remember arsene’s diagnosis for these injuries – we have risked them too early after their injuries !!!)
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I have provided Comment no 81. The same number was worn by Pepe Le Poop while playing for Walcott’s equals
Thank you Le numbrey 81.
I have just appointed you as my sexual advisor.
The next time I want your fucking advice I’ll ask for it.
Agree with a lot said here. We have sold Ade and Henry. Replaced them with Eduardo and Vela. Now I know it was right to sell Ade but no one can tell me that this squad with Ade and Henry would be worse off. I know Ade had his faults. Many of them. But I would be far happier with RVP, Henry, Ade, Bendtner and Vela as our forwards. Fact is, as mentioned above they have not been replaced. Will what we have be enough???? Time will tell.
So, we sent out a team that lost in the FA Cup to Stoke, and the sky is falling?! How many people actually gave a rat’s fart about the FA Cup given the run of games coming up in the next couple of weeks?
I thought some players had decent games, Sol was surprisingly good at the back, I’m sure Sidibe and Fuller were wondering if they’d unknowingly acquire a 6’3″ black cape. Towards the end, he got tired, but that was to be expected. Coquelin didn’t do too badly for a DM playing at RB, and he seemed to grow into the game. JET wasn’t bad up front, until he made that sliding tackle and began limping soon after.
Walcott, well, he was beyond dire. At this rate, I have a better chance of playing for England at the World Cup than he does, and I’m not even English! For sure, there’s some rust there, but unlike Eduardo, he’s not showing that he can shake it off.
All told, I’m glad we don’t have another fixture to deal with, and if we can come out of the next two weeks with 7-9 or even 10 points, I’ll be chuffed to bits. Besides, I was already pissed that we’d had to play all our FA Cup fixtures away at Premiership teams anyway, and our reward for going through would have been another trip to Citeh.
I have a sneaking feeling that the fixture was already arranged by FA sutis looking for some “drama” so well played to the lads for disappointing them.
I think if you did a survey, you’d find that more than a few hundred thousands give more than a “rats fart” about the FA Cup.
Ivan, which would you prefer, the FA Cup or the Premier League?
That’s not the point. By asking me that you’re automatically assuming that this season we were definitely going to win something and it has to either be the FA Cup or the Premier League. Or that somehow Arsene decided to sacrifice the Cup for the League.
Things don’t work that way. It’s possible that the defeat may have cost us some momentum. Conversely, maybe now the lads will have even more impetus to go for the league. Who knows. It can go either way.
And anyway, the question you asked is rhetorical. You know the answer to that.
I care about the FA Cup but I’m bitter about the defeat only because some of our “first-teamers” played so poorly. It’s upsetting. If an FA Cup tie during an immensly difficult period for the club can’t motivate you to perform, I’m not sure what can. Maybe they were having an off day but some of their performances were pathetic.
I hope you’re right and we can pull at least 9 or 10 points from the next 4 games.
Some in the press are having a field day, they love to trash Arsene. Barney Ronay just put up an incredibly ignorant blog in the Guardian scolding Arsene for getting what he deserved for underestimating Stoke, and how England should be proud of Stoke. The same idiots who are proud of Stoke football are the same idiots who whinge about England not doing well in int’l football.
Anyone who thinks Arsene underestimates Stoke is an idiot. No one needs to tell him how we LOST at Stoke last season. The man had no choice.
My concern is that we’re now heading toward this very difficult fixture schedule having to rely on Denilson, Theo and Vela — who are all very poor right now, and with Song still away. Hopefully Cameroon will lose to Egypt today.
How lucky are Chelsea? They’ve owned this competition in the last few seasons because they keep getting very easy draws and they have few injury problems. And now Ivory Coast are out of the ACN. Granted, that means we’ll now have Eboue — welcome back, Emmanuel!!!
And Cameroon are out now too – Song back for the weekend maybe?
Heh, Cameroon and Ivory Coast both lost. Do they bother with third and fourth place games?
Song and Eboue back for Man U game – bloody hope so.
When the dust finally settles on the Stoke encounter, I think you’ll find the only plus point was Sol. Much better cover than the name we dare not speak of 😉
And not forgetting JET – he had naff all service, so it’s too early to judge him.
They do have a third/fourth place match at the ACN, but since Cameroon and Ivory Coast both went out in the quarter-finals it’s kind of immaterial.
Let’s just consider that Song could be feeling lower than a snakes belly right now. This tournament is second only to the World Cup for the competing nations. Fingers crossed for the fella. We need him, but not if he is distracted.
@John: I did not remember your previous contributions (if there were any) so sorry if I lumped you too quickly with all the others who only stop by to expose their lack of manliness every time the result doesn’t go our way 😉
Many good points above. As I see it comes down to why we do have so many injuries and in the last 4-5 seasons, obviously more than any other team. We do have a deep squad this season, possibly as deep as any of our direct competitors and our first team, including 15-16 players, has nothing to fear from anyone on the pitch. But since the beginning of the season we have consistently 10+ players injured/missing, here’s just the list atm:
Eboue – Song – Djourou – Gibbs
Nasri – Diaby – Wilshere
Bendtner – RVP – Merida
The club took notice and reviewed the situation but came back empty-handed and that was the worst news in a long while. A slong as we keep being more injured than anyone else, we will find it very hard to win silverware even with 30+ players in the team.
The only positive I take from the situation is that Vela, Walcott, Ramsey and JET get more of the playing time they need to progress.
‘Let’s just consider that Song could be feeling lower than a snakes belly right now. This tournament is second only to the World Cup for the competing nations. Fingers crossed for the fella. We need him, but not if he is distracted.’
Well if the worst comes to the worst and Song is down about Cameroon’s exit, hopefully Drogba will be in that state too over Ivory Coast going out!
Charlie – Doh, what was I thinking! Not quite immaterial as you so quickly point out. I was thinking of the wider context. That knuckle dragger Mikel, Nigeria me thinks? And anyone else? With Essien Out injured as well I want Nigeria to go all the way 😉
Well they’re in the semis now, so they’ll be playing in either the final or 3rd/4th place match this weekend whatever happens.
And who’d have thought that we would actually welcome back Eboue? With open arms and bouquets and shit? Heh, ain’t life just one ironic rollercoaster?
I don’t usually get too bothered about transfers, but, especially after that FA Cup loss, a couple new top players would be great.
I liked the idea of bringing in a new defender, because three of the four we have are old and likely on their way out.
Eduardo’s been doing ok recently with his assists, but I’d be more convinced by a big center forward, if we could bring in a good one.
Gignac’s probably a little better than Bendtner, but as Arsene has said, Chamakh is the player who would be a good fit for Arsenal – “The boy’s fantastic,” I think he said. Maybe he’ll come in this summer, along with some new defenders, but in the meantime, I’m feeling pessimistic, like this is yet another rebuilding year.
I suppose AW just plum fell out of love with Phil Senderos. I’m sorry to see him go, in a sense. It wasn’t so long ago that he was a bright young thing and looked like the future of our central defence.
That home game in the Chamions League to Liverpool when he lost his man at a corner kick was the beginning of the end. His confidence (and Arsene’s in him) never recovered.
I wish him well at Everton. Hope he goes on to great things. Despite the positive sounds from AW, I thnk there’s lttle chance we’ll ever see him in an Arsenal shirt again.
What do you think, ‘Holic?
Damnation, how did that happen,’Holic. You need to get under the hood again. We can’t be having double posts.
What double post? Have you been drinking again, BtM.
Can’t deny I was a Senderos fan. Funny you should mention that Liverpool game. Rumour has it Phil shed a tear or two afterwards, and Arsene concluded he was lacking the infamous ‘mental strength’ as a result.
Good luck to him. I wish him nothing but well, apart from when he plays against us, obviously.
I keep trying to lure you into Goonerholic being the 100th post on Goonerholic. Somehow, it’s a screw up every time. This time my screen was showing two posts. Or was it alcohol induced double vision? Nah, can’t have been.