Arsenal v Blackpool, 21/08/10, ATVO, 3PM GMT

[Humble Rex]

I too think Wenger sees Diaby as ahead of both Rosicky and Nasri centrally in a more withdrawn role.

 

[number_0]

Btw what do you guys think of their keeper?

I felt he was terrible, he literally let the ball roll into the net as he stood passively watching.

If almunia did that, i would have said some nasty stuff in the almunia thread.

 

[albakos]

Ian Holloway seems a very decent guy and he showered Arsenal and Theo with lots of praises.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11728_6327987,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 87,00.html</a>

Ian Holloway refused to get too disheartened after seeing his Blackpool side hammered at Arsenal.

The Seasiders enjoyed a dream start to life in the Premier League last Saturday as they opened with a 4-0 demolition of Wigan.

They were, however, brought crashing back to earth in their second outing as they were crushed 6-0 by a Theo Walcott-inspired Gunners outfit at Emirates Stadium.

Blackpool were never able to get going in the capital and Ian Evatt's first-half dismissal left them with a mountain to climb.

Holloway admits that the red card proved costly for his side, but felt there were positives he could take despite being comprehensively beaten.

"It was going to be a tough day for us anyway, their bench was pretty scary never mind who was on there, but I thought we started quite well," he told Sky Sports.
Harsh

"The pace of the game then caught us and the referee has made a decision which I think was harsh, to say the least. My player not only gives a penalty away, which makes it 2-0, but gets sent off as well, which I think is unbelievably harsh because I think he played the ball.

"After that it was a mountain to climb and I'm relieved it was only six, that might sound crazy but goal difference might come into it and we are only minus two now after two games."

He added: "It was always going to be difficult to apply the attack-minded philosophies we had last year when you come to a place like this. We switched the ball well, we moved it well and created at least a couple of chances early on.

"I think we lost a bit of heart when Theo Walcott scored. (Andrey) Arshavin played a brilliant one-two, I spoke about one-twos and not watching the ball but we did, and we didn't quite have that back line right.

"To then go two down and lose a man, it killed the game and I think it ruined it as a spectacle. It was not even worth watching then."


While Holloway was disappointed to see his side come unstuck in spectacular fashion, he admits that he found Arsenal's football a joy to watch at times and believes Blackpool can still take heart from the way they have started life among England's elite.

"We have done well to get three points out of six from two away games," he said.

"We have come up against one the sides that have been in the Champions League for however many years, one of the best teams around, and we got the run around, but we had to face that with 10 men.

"I have told them what we need to work on and I think we should take some sort of heart from that. I will be able to show them that if you don't get your back line right, if you are dropping when you don't need to or not in a line, you are never going to be able to cope with Arsenal.

"But I want to give them praise though. I thought Theo Walcott today was unplayable, absolutely electric, and that's great to see. He is an English lad and if he can get the end product like that he is almost unstoppable.

"I love football and I think football the way Arsenal play, it is terrific and we are going to try and do what we do and get a lot better."

^^ Allardyce, Hughes, Pulis, 'Arry and few other English managers could take an example from this man, who clearly recognizes our class.

 

[Clrnc]

Some post match thoughts after the game.

1) Wilshere broke up almost every attack he was involved in. Obviously he really needs more confidence in himself and needs to be more decisive. I still think he should be playing in the front 3 instead of taking so many defensive responsibility.

2) Arshavin throughballs were quite awesome. Many of our other players tried playing it without any success, which proved how difficult it was for Arshavin to do all those. The weight on the pass for Walcott was absolutely perfect. The penalty was one of the best you will see, power and placement together.

3) The technique Diaby used for his goal was quite difficult. Sagna ball wasn't exactly the best, yet Diaby converted it easily. The half volley Arshavin executed in the first half was incredible as well.

4) We won't be playing an easier team than Blackpool all season long, you can be assured of that. Holloway's crazy in trying to attack us. Even when they went 10 man, they still played very openly letting us have all the space we want and yet we can only score 6. I fear for them if they play Chelsea.

5) We need to improve our finishing, especially Chamakh. So many sitters missed.

6) Quite impressed with how Blackpool started the match. Seldom is there a newly promoted team able to open us up like them, crisp passing down the line and plenty of creativity. Too bad it didnt last long. Their goalie made it easy for our goals though

7) Chamakh must be more positive, kept trying to pass back instead of going forward when theres more space than he thought.

8) Diaby was pretty good, still took too much time on the ball. Many times he could have passed in through the defence, but kept spinning and trying too intricate things

 

[Iloveyouarsenewenger]

I too think Wenger sees Diaby as ahead of both Rosicky and Nasri centrally in a more withdrawn role.

Agree and may be he feels that with a player like Diaby, we are a bit better off in set pieces as well, both defensively and offensively. To be fair, an improved Diaby(like the three or four months that he was doing well in) and Song in the centre does make us pretty solid.

Having said that, I definitely want Nasri to be tried in that role once he is back into the fold.

 

[patrick42uk]

Speaking of Wilshere, am I the only one who has noticed a tendency for lunging in when going for 50/50 balls? It's the second time I've noticed it where he's then gone down in the process and almost injured himself. Has he picked up bad habits from Bolton?

not really. he was exactly the same, the few times i saw him for the reserves pre_bolto. he and frimpong too put in som really blood-curdling tackles and i thought to myself "you wont get away with that in the prem". i'm more fearful of him hurting someone but luckily he has short legs which maybe reduces the risk

 

[P_Gunner]

Speaking of Wilshere, am I the only one who has noticed a tendency for lunging in when going for 50/50 balls? It's the second time I've noticed it where he's then gone down in the process and almost injured himself. Has he picked up bad habits from Bolton?

not really. he was exactly the same, the few times i saw him for the reserves pre_bolto. he and frimpong too put in som really blood-curdling tackles and i thought to myself "you wont get away with that in the prem". i'm more fearful of him hurting someone but luckily he has short legs which maybe reduces the risk

He was like that when going to Bolton because he did it in his early days there too. I don't want him to stop getting stuck in - as long as his studs are down and his leg isn't too high for the most part its fine with me.

 

[Rohit]

Although Chamakh has a lot of work to do, i think his movement is exemplary. He works the channels well and plays extremely well of the last defender. It is true Blackpool afforded us space, but a lot of it was also created for Walcott and Arshavin through Chamakh's movement. It is important the two opposition center backs have a physically and aerially strong forward playing off them to concentrate on for our wide forwards to have space which i think gets limited when Van Persie plays and drops very deep. He needs to improve in a number of areas but there is no doubt he is the kind of striker who will improve the team. The work he puts in, in pressuring the center backs is laudable.

 

[Y va marquer]

I’ve been very impressed with Chamakh.
His attitude is spot on – he missed some fairly obvious chances including a sitter yesterday but he never looked down in himself, he continued to work and hassle even when we were 4 goals clear.

Added to his aerial talent he’s fit and strong and looks as if he won’t be pushed around by the Terry’s and Vidic’s of this league.

Overall he looks to have added a different dimension to our attack which should pay dividends as the season progresses

 

[Zico]

On Wilshere: it was funny to read Wenger's thoughts on the dark side of Paul Scholes because Wilshere plays a bit like and tackles exactly like the Mancunian. Every time he goes in for a tackle, I'm scared he'll injure someone. He needs to work on that and a few other things before he can become a regular. Needs more composure.

 

[squallkid]

Okay, here are my thoughts on yesterday's game. Our two World cup finalists looked sluggish and off the pace when they came on but that was to be expected. I realized we play two kinds of football, tippy-tappy football and a high tempo incisive game where we press our opponents high up the pitch. We usually played tippy-tappy against the big 4 last season and most of the time it didn't work. We played our high tempo game against Man Utd at old trafford last year and we were 1-0, a keeper mistake and Diaby robbed us of a deserved victory so it can work against the big sides. We've all seen our tippy-tappy football against Liverpool last week for the most recent example. Pass the death out of the football without actually going forward with it and if we do go forward we usually go forward too slowly and lose the ball or are forced back because the opposition have had the time to bring back men to defend. Our high tempo, attacking game, where we just go straight for the throat, 1,2,5 passes and we're in the opposition penalty box looking for that goal. Everyone's pressing, from Van Persie to Diaby to help out each other and the defence, our fullbacks are making the runs to help out our wingers. This is Arsenal at our very best but too often we revert to tippy-tappy.


This is the kind of headache I love having and I'm sure Wenger does to, who plays in our next match when everyone performed so well. Diaby OR rosicky, diaby scored a goal but rosicky orchestrated the play from start to finish, everything that was good about us yesterday started with him. If I was the one picking the team for Blackburn, rosicky would be in. I would drop Arshavin for Van Persie and keep Chamakh in the side and there can't be 1 single gunners faithful asking for Walcott to be dropped, a virtuoso performance from the young Englishman, a performance lennon could only DREAM of giving, Take a bow theo. A class performance from everyone on the pitch, I don't care if it's ONLY blackpool, every 3 points are important and we got the three points and got them in style.

 

[Y va marquer]

I'd definitely choose Rosicky in his current form over Diaby.

I thought Diaby was often ponderous in possession yesterday, he slowed things down and seemed unsure on who to pass to.

 

[asajoseph]

I agree, but it's not really a choice between those two, for me, as they played in completely different roles yesterday.

 

[-Shaun-]

I'm pleased Chamakh got his name on the score sheet after that miss. Would have probably been on his mind, but he did well to head in that RVP corner. Would like to see a lot more of them goals.

 

[GaelForce22]

I've only seen the goals from this one but it's great to see the front three from yesterday all score. We'll need a lot more goals from wide this season, hopefully easing the burden on Fabregas and Van Persie.

On Cesc, how did the crowd treat him when he came on?

 

[famous no 10]

I've only seen the goals from this one but it's great to see the front three from yesterday all score. We'll need a lot more goals from wide this season, hopefully easing the burden on Fabregas and Van Persie.

On Cesc, how did the crowd treat him when he came on?

Very good, loud welcome, chanting his name.

 

[asajoseph]

Yup - massively warm welcome.

Think I saw him kissing the badge as he came on, but was too far away to be sure.

 

[Humble Rex]

On Wilshere: it was funny to read Wenger's thoughts on the dark side of Paul Scholes because Wilshere plays a bit like and tackles exactly like the Mancunian. Every time he goes in for a tackle, I'm scared he'll injure someone. He needs to work on that and a few other things before he can become a regular. Needs more composure.

My thoughts as well.

 

[GaelForce22]

Thanks. Wasn't expecting boos but it's still good to hear.

Think I saw him kissing the badge as he came on, but was too far away to be sure.

However, ugh.

 

[awooga83]

Great result obviously, haven't seen the whole game but i initially saw the result and had high hopes which weren't really matched by what i saw on the pitch. Admittedly this may be because i didn't see the whole match but we still looked a bit bit ropey at the nack and until the sending off didn't destroy them.

Before people say i am being stupidly negative, it is not yesterdays result that is a problem but when we play the teams that our season will be defined by that is a worry.

Anyway that is for the future and the guys did get the result but i still feel we look short where it matters.