Arsenal v Cardiff [FA Cup; Monday 16 Feb 19:45 :Setanta]

[famous no 10]

..Oh, and I'm liking the look of Gibbs. He's obviously a little raw and inexperienced, but he looks at least as good as Traure has looked at LB, imo.

 

[Proof]

As much as I hate it that we have to replay the game, yesterday I thanked God that we drew in Cardiff. Eduardo made his return with two clinical goals, which it's good for everyone's morale, the team seemed so cool and enjoyed every minute of the game.

I had a crazy reaction after Eduardo scored his first goal after that horrible injury.

 

[Kraig]

it was a good performance against a lower level side. we should have done a job like this in the original game though.

eddie was amazing, like he'd never been away, nicky b looked more of a threat than ade has in months, vela made some good runs and looked threatening, gibbs was astute at left back although still makes a few clumsy mistakes (but hell, so does clichy) gallas was a rock, again! nasri made a lot of purposeful runs through the middle and was unlucky not to score, rvp did what rvp does best. good good stuff.

i still think song and denilson were quite poor (not terrible though) some very sloppy passing, especially from song in the final third, denilson doesnt seem positionally aware and song isnt great at that either. in a game such as this it wasnt going to be a huge issue as we were out of sight after 20 minutes, but in a premiership game it could cost us more points. we need to remedy this in the summer as priority one!

just need to get cesc, tomas and theo back and get arshavin up to speed and we can have a very very special side.

 

[Gooner_Stu]

Im wondering if we should looking to keep Gallas at the end of the season, granted theres been noises/speculation about him leaving, but since loosing the capt armband, hes looked a much better player. Toures looking slightly better, but id wish DJ was well enough to play last night.

And i thought nick did ok, more "up for it" then Ade's been looking and despite cocking up infront of goal, many of his chances would probably have gone in if they didnt have a solid performing 'keeper on the field.

 

[qs]

Last night was a magic game. For the first time in months we looked like Arsneal. We looked confident. We looked capable and every player in red and white looked like they wanted to win and were capable of playing the Arsenal brand of football. That was the most enjoyable and fulfilling games of football I've watched this season. I think only the Carling Cup games and beating United come close.

 

[TomasCR]

so once again, the question begs to be asked, how has vela not got more games? especially in front of everyones favorite punching bag eboue?

That´s what I was thinking too. Don´t know if he played that well just because it was a Championship side we played against but he definitely impressed more than Eboue has done in the last few games.

Nasri did a good job on the right too. Hopefully that the yesterday´s game opened Wenger´s eyes and Eboue will not be preferred to Vela anymore.

Interesting I found myself saying "It´s so great when I don´t have to watch that joker". Then I saw him next to Adebayor on the bench.

 

[marco]

Last night was a magic game. For the first time in months we looked like Arsneal. We looked confident. We looked capable and every player in red and white looked like they wanted to win and were capable of playing the Arsenal brand of football. That was the most enjoyable and fulfilling games of football I've watched this season. I think only the Carling Cup games and beating United come close.

yep your right 100% its was a very very enjoyable game..
and we looked excellent at times.
at least the forward players had some pace about them.e looked dangerous.
i know it was only cardiff but some of our movement was very good..
just hope he keeps a similar team for saturday just arshavin in for vela ..and rvp for eddy

 

[General]

The game just proves what you can achieve with intelligent players in the final third, despite the inferiority of the opposition. Replace Vela with Eboue and Eduardo with Ade and you probably wouldn't have seen the first goal. I'm a big fan of Ade but he lacks the sort of intelligent movement and link up play we've been missing since Edu's injury. The Cardiff players looked like they caught stage fright and surrendered easily in the end but our performance was good.

 

[outlaw_member]

Yep, General. Adebayor, and to a lesser extent RVP lack intelligent movement, although the latter is starting to improve in that area. Creative players need targets, and if one of the strikers is near the cornerflag(Adebayor), whilst the other is at the half way line(RVP), than there aren't any other options left.

 

[General]

I always thought Robin was an intelligent mover. He certainly knows how to pick his runs and pull away from his markers. He is just not as mobile as Vela or Eduardo. Ade on the other hand has the mobility but is clearly not the most intelligent of players, proven by the annoying amount of offsides he makes in a game, a majority of which require just a half functioning brain. I still see Wenger sticking with these two but with Edie back, at least we have the option.

 

[arsenalfc0719]

Last night was brilliant, for the first time this season, we played football. We moved intelligently, passed well, created chances. I went crazy with Eduardo's first goal. I hadn't celebrated a goal so much all season long. Great come back.

Things are going to start getting better. Its impossible for them not to, Eduardo is back, Fabregas is soon to be back, so is Rosicky(supposedly) and we signed Arshavin.

Good game.

 

[otfgoon]

Yep, General. Adebayor, and to a lesser extent RVP lack intelligent movement, although the latter is starting to improve in that area. Creative players need targets, and if one of the strikers is near the cornerflag(Adebayor), whilst the other is at the half way line(RVP), than there aren't any other options left.

RvP's movement is actually pretty good, its just his instinct is to drift into space anywhere rather than making bursting runs forward or always looking to get into goalscoring areas.

 

[outlaw_member]

RVP has only now started to use that movement to the teams benefit, by occupying spaces in between the defenders and the goalkeeper. The problem before was that he dropped too deep, thus nullifying the threat he possesses.

 

[Feet]

Well he equaled his best ever total goals for Arsenal in a season last night, and we still have 3 months worth of games to go so I'm hopeful he'll get beyond 20 for the season.

 

[ricky1985]

RVP has only now started to use that movement to the teams benefit, by occupying spaces in between the defenders and the goalkeeper. The problem before was that he dropped too deep, thus nullifying the threat he possesses.

I agree mate, but I think he dropped deep because he felt he had to try and influence play, and maybe didn't trust the midfield to create opportunites for him and the team.

Looks like the drum me, you and a few others have been beating about intelligent runners up front has really come to the fore. Eduardo made a world of difference last night.

 

[atmosphere]

Quite interesting to see the stats from yesterday's game.

We had a tackling success rate of 92.6% (25 out of 27 tackles won).

I've noticed that we seem to be more stable at the back these days and Wenger has hinted that we've been working on that aspect more, hence all the cautious draws. So now with a greater creative spark provided by Eduardo and hopefully Arshavin, we can build on that stability and really kick on in the league.

Could this be another master stroke by Wenger? Just as everyone is calling for him to buy a ruthless DM, instead he drills the existing players on more defence and buys a highly creative player to compensate?

Arsène knows.

 

[Rohit]

I'm really liking Amaury. He's one of those who when he gets on the pitch, encourages the team to play in the 'correct' way i.e. moving the ball quickly with his quick passing and movement. He also has great vision and very good accuracy with a range of passes and a good work rate. I reckon its probably worth keeping him for a season. I assume as well the minutes yesterday were a reward for progress made so I assume at this point he's doing the right things to earn a deal. Ultimately I see him as the Rosicky replacement and can fill the some of the void left by Hleb.

I agree although it's too early to say whether he can be as good a player as Rosicky and fill in for Hleb. His technical ability is second to none though and he has a lot of flair. He plays with an elegance and looks like a very intelligent player.

 

[Jameel46]

Edurado getting the goals was absolutely brilliant and i have to say that nasri looked very impressive on the right and i'm probably in the minority when i say that i thought he was our best player on the night. Vela looked good but at times showed a lack of awareness, and despote what people say Bendtner & Denilson had a good game, Denilson has done well nearly all the time he's been allowed to play in his prefered position as the passing box to box midfielder that Cesc usually plays in (and he's not that bad when playing DM, the critism of him in that position reminds me of the criticism Gilberto got)

 

[beck]

I saw a replay on ITV and it looked like there was a shoe and a mobile phone chucked from the stands. There was always bound to be one or two idiots.

Yah, I saw the shoe part and was

---
It is amazing that few people called Bendtner a donkey because those were my exact shouts at him yesterday, in more than one occasion but especially that blunder of a miss :|

i take it you were in washington and not at the ground coz where i was sitting people were pretty happy that for the first time in my memory which stretches back to the dark ages we had killed off a game and beaten a cardiff side by more than one goal. i guess it didnt transfer, sorry we must really try harder

 

[kamikaze80]

good win, i liked bischoff's style of play when he came on. very efficient, minimal touches of the ball. dare i say, pires-like. in other words, the total opposite of nasri aka dribbly mcdribblerson. if he can show enough quickness and work rate to play out wide (which may be a bit of an ask against premiership opposition), then my opinion of him may change dramatically.

our movement was so much better than it usually was. still think we can improve, though. there were numerous instances where we were just standing around in the box, moving the ball around. make a run, the defenders are static!