Arsenal v Fulham : 28/02/09 : 15:00

[progman07]

The most ridiculous thing is that Wenger is the big fan of beautiful football, short-passing with loads of movement, nice goals, etc. and yet we play four consecutive 0-0s, also we couldn't score from open play against the defensive Roma at home, who Man Utd beat 7-1 easily two years ago.

We beat Manu 2-1 so we should have beaten Roma 9-2.

Guess some people on A-M don't have better thing to do than picking on small things just to generate needless arguments. Why not discuss my real point, rather than starting talks about one unimportant sentence?

 

[Viking]

The most ridiculous thing is that Wenger is the big fan of beautiful football, short-passing with loads of movement, nice goals, etc. and yet we play four consecutive 0-0s, also we couldn't score from open play against the defensive Roma at home, who Man Utd beat 7-1 easily two years ago.

We beat Manu 2-1 so we should have beaten Roma 9-2.

 

[ThaSaltCracka]

We beat Manu 2-1 so we should have beaten Roma 9-2.

This isn't really as clever as you think it is.

 

[patrick42uk]

I keep harping on about it but we have a big problem here. In our last two home games, we'v gifted the opposition more posession than they really should get on our turf. At home, you really should be controlling the lion's share of posessesion which limits the chances your opposition gets whilst increasing your chances of creating.

 

[Wednesdayware]

Wenger must go. He's had enough chances, and enough transfer seasons to rebuild things. It hasn't happened, and our play is shocking much of the time. If he's not going to buy some decent cover, this kind of crap will keep happening.

I've had it, time for a change.

 

[marco]

same old arsneal
same old excuses
too many players there rest on their laurels cos they know they will never get dropped..
clichy- candidate number 1,, turning into an absolute muppet
4 nil nils in a row and there is nothing positive to say
i cheered fulham off today they played well they should and could have beaten us...
dont realy know where we go from here..

 

[patrick42uk]

Midfield shape still doesnt look right. Fulham were getting at the defence with some ease.

 

[BannedKwame]

Guys, we didn't concede a goal. They had chances, but they weren't easy, and most came from long balls since we were so deep in their territory trying to score. Insofar as the defence does not concede we really should be praising them instead of trying to find faults. Teams get plenty of chances against Manchester as well, but through a better keeper they concede less, and no one talks about those chances because who cares, nothing came of them.

On the offensive side, we are missing our two first choice strikers, and the creativity of Fabregas. We've just bought our most promising player in a very, very long time who is still learning the league, plus Walcott, Rosicky....etc etc etc etc etc You guys are delusional.

 

[patrick42uk]

Midfield have got to work harder to put pressure on the ball. Our cms are taking stick but the wide players as well have a job to do. When you play 4-2-3-1 with the wide players high, they have to make it hard for the ball to get past their line otherwise you get the opposition wide players in areas that pulls the cms out of position and expose the defence. We actually switched to 4-4-2 at the start of the second half and looked a bit better.

 

[AnthonyG]

I agree with some of what you are saying Kwame, especially as far as the defence goes, but four scoreless draws in a row is simply dire first choice striker(s) and Fabregas out or not. I'm not heaping on any one player, but a goal simply has to come from somewhere, somehow. In this particular game, I saw a lot of anxiousness in front of goal and a lot of unnecessary overplaying in the build-ups. One of these days we'll score early and wonder what all the fuss was about, but for now we can't buy a damned goal (woodwork and all) and it hurts, a lot.

 

[thegame24]

Is eduardo back next game or what>?

I wanna see the ade eduardo partnership again, the one that was going to win us the title had eddie not got injured

 

[Big Poppa]

I think delusional is a bit harsh Kwame. Nobody can argue that we're playing poorly at the moment. At the end of the day, results have not been good enough and we are running out of time. Every team at the top has lost key players to injury so that cannot be an excuse.

 

[BannedKwame]

The players got tired at the end, pat. besides which, their longballs are effective against anyone, and their goalie was good. the exposed players were not really the cms, but rather the cbs. because we were so deep in their end, their wide players were practically ineffective, since none of their attacks in open play were successful, except their counters when our fullbacks were out of position (long balls for the forwards out wide). if rvp had a better day, this discussion wouldn't be going on at this time.

 

[patrick42uk]

Could really do with Eduardo's 100% conversion rate right now.

 

[famous no 10]

The frustration isn't just about today. anyone can draw a match, it's just the crap we've had all season.

The squad is by no means strong enough, even if we do have our best players out, and that's a failing of the manager, I'm afraid.

 

[General]

There are two traits you’d always associate with the Wenger teams over the years, irrespective of ability and these are superior fitness and highly motivated. It hence beggars the question how on earth we managed to look so exhausted against a Fulham team who also played in midweek to the extent that we couldn't even get the ball off them in our half with barely 80mins on the clock.

Players looked like the were on their last legs and Colbert has a lot to answer for, asides Wenger's own culpability in having very little motivational impact. Me thinks it is about time he handed out another leaflet.

At least we had a 30 goal a season striker to dig us out of a hole in 05/06. Worrying times.

 

[Tony Montana]

Because all premiership players are professionals. They have excellent fitness too. When we keep the ball they tire obviously, because they're running around trying to chase it. If they do the same to us, then we tire.

Also, mental fatigue can give way to physical fatigue.

 

[Zico]

Because all premiership players are professionals. They have excellent fitness too. When we keep the ball they tire obviously, because they're running around trying to chase it. If they do the same to us, then we tire.

Also, mental fatigue can give way to physical fatigue.

Tony, not just mental fatigue. Emotional fatigue as well. There were times in the second half when our team didn't look like it cared. I think the weight of the hurly burly of this season is weighing heavily on the boys.

Our entire defensive set-up, from midfield back was a shambles. We have not necessarily been keeping clean sheets because we are playing great defense. A large part of it is the teams we are playing have been as toothless as us if not more so.

 

[arsenalfc0719]

Eboue needs to be starting games as RB against all **** teams. Sagna should play against teams that are good offensively.

We need to start winning games and scoring goals, Eboue playing as RB could make a big difference.

 

[General]

Because all premiership players are professionals. They have excellent fitness too. When we keep the ball they tire obviously, because they're running around trying to chase it. If they do the same to us, then we tire.

Also, mental fatigue can give way to physical fatigue.

My point was that superior fitness is something always associated with Wenger's teams over the years. Statistically, we always scored more goals than any other team in the dying minutes. Wenger's teams were always capable going the full 90mins, irrespective of the circumstances, without the alarming drop in intensity we saw against Fulham. It was almost a first. This added to the fact that we seem incapable of playing at high tempo, with attacking trends more intermittent than constant, and the root cause points to a fitness issue. You just stated the obvious.