Arsenal v. Newcastle, EPL, 7/11/10 1PM- SS1

[AshburtonGhost]

Koscielny is as skinny as bloody Hleb, that's saying something.

 

[sabret00the]

There's been plenty wrong with Koscielny. However his sending off was farcical. If he was Drogba, it'd have been waved play on. But because it was the skinny Frenchman, the ref assumed that he'd resorted to using his hands in order to win the battle. Absolute farce.

Joey Barton looked good against us, we're the farce Sabre.

Joey Barton isn't ****e though. It just so happened that his team went out there to win according to their strengths and our team had Bolton envy and kept popping them long for Big Kevin Davies. That's the farce. Credit where credit is due, Barton had a good game, our Captain played with his head up his own arse.

 

[Biggus]

Yeah he doesn't want to be here.

 

[outlaw_member]

^ This. Different players, same problems. We've got good players, good enough to be doing better than we are currently. It's all a bit like Chelsea under Ranieri tbh. Plenty of quality, good enough to beat most but just off being able to go all the way and win something meaningful.

Yeah, I have no doubt that a quality manager will take us to the promised land. We have far too much quality within the team in order to fail. When the players are displaying the same old problems which aren't down to a lack of quality, the responsibility falls at the feet of the manager and Wenger's failed to rectify them for many years now.

 

[outlaw_member]

I find it hard to believe that a manager of Wenger's ability and experience wouldn't be able to motivate the players today, especially as we are 3rd in the league and had the opportunity to go 2 points off Chelsea at the top. I just think that the players weren't up for it today - whether that's due to them being tired, having a hangover from midweek or something else, I don't know.

If it's a one off occasion, then it's fair to lay the blame at the feet of the players. But if it continues to happen over the course of a number of games, then it's the managers fault. He's either failing to motivate them before the game, or is responsible for the lack of urgency at the start of games.

 

[marco]

absolutely shocking boring dull ****e game..
we created nothing, played with no passion and it was an embarassment.
theo is a one trick we know that so why play him against their left back who is quicker than him..may be move him to the other wing for heavens sake.
fabregas had his worst ever performance in an arsenal shirt.
kosielny was his usual self the header he missed in the first half is the most basic of errors and you wont see centre backs do that on a saturday or sunday morning in amatuer leagues.
but why oh why do we insist on 4-5-1 at home to crap teams!!
sicne playing that formation we have beaten chelsea away once, mancs away once and won in the bernabeu!
thats about it..
its a **** formation and we need 2 up top especially as chamakh isnt a striker more a big guy who can hold the ball up..he finishing is absymal

 

[redanddread]

IMO the reason we lost today was simply that ONCE again we didn't create enough and didn't effeciently use the opportunities presented to us. It may seem crazy to say this but offesnivley we have become a one trick pony. However, until we start using other avenues to create real offensive mayhem then we will suffer smash & grab results like this one. Why couldn;t we muster a single threat from one of our many corners. Aside form Cesc's deflected free kick, none of our other set peices casued any alarm or trouble for the Newcastle defence.

We never used our width to whip crosses into the box, we never took some pot shots from outside the area-we were just too one-dimensional in our attacking play-in the end we ran out of ideas which is really worrying. Wenger more than the players has to take the blame here. He does not seem to be tactically diverse enough and has not trained the players to use more diverse attacking options. Thus we are predictable and easily defended against.

Very worrying here!

 

[AnthonyG]

theo is a one trick we know that so why play him against their left back who is quicker than him..may be move him to the other wing for heavens sake.

I don't think he's quicker. Decent marker, but Theo got zero service out there or anywhere. One of the few times we found him, he cut back in nicely and hit the bar. We just didn't move the ball quick enough to give Theo any footraces.

 

[Burnwinter]

Walcott is so much more effective in an end to end match.

 

[Clrnc]

Don't think Theo did enough with the ball anyway. He is just too one dimensional at times. Should have done more against although a decent LB but nowhere near as good to keep Theo that quiet.

 

[fabo]

Theo was woeful, as bad as Cesc I thought. Their LB had the better of him for most of the game - I rate Enrique highly, very strong and technically good.

What a depressing result though. Fabianski really blew it there.

 

[Y va marquer]

I agree Burnwinter, his main asset is obviously his speed, so if he's not regularly in a situation where he's sprinting past defenders towards goal his main strength is nullified.

 

[sabret00the]

The ridiculous Theo criticism is ridiculous. Walcott got no service at all and the little he got, he attempted to score with. He's not a playmaker, he's a play-finisher.

 

[Big Poppa]

He just needs to go out and buy a rugged centreback who is built for premiership football and either play szczesny or bring in a capable experienced keeper

yesterday was so bleedin poor. We lack ideas going forward big time

I feel like we're missing a mean bastard from eastern europe at the back. A player who's aerially dominant and can squat a boeing 747 - vidic, ivanovic I'm looking at you

 

[AnthonyG]

The ridiculous Theo criticism is ridiculous. Walcott got no service at all and the little he got, he attempted to score with. He's not a playmaker, he's a play-finisher.

Agreed, though I wish he'd not leave the ball behind quite so often. Push it into space rather than try to drag.

 

[progman07]

We never used our width to whip crosses into the box

Are you a football pundit in disguise? :|

Seriously, watch that game, not only look at the TV, mate. We put in LOADS OF CROSSES every game. Don't believe what the commentators tell you, we only play passing game till the final third, where we are pushed out wide, and we (Sagna) cross the ball. We cross it, because it's the only option with zero runners around the box.

Against Chelsea, our biggest chances were after a cross, and a corner.


Terrible crosses =/= no crosses.

 

[AnthonyG]

redanddread is right, though, in the Toon game we were very narrow compared to previous efforts.

 

[progman07]

redanddread is right, though, in the Toon game we were very narrow compared to previous efforts.

Bergkamp assist vs Leichester city, last game in 03/04. If you want to pass that ball through 7 defenders, you need a good pass, and a runner (Vieira).

Do we have a Vieira, as Cesc can pick those passes?


Playing narrow is relative, no teams use a winger running down the byline against teams that don't give you space behind them. That's a myth. Put a player to the byline and he will be very easily taken out of the game, because he is so predictable - will he whip in a cross, or maybeeee whip in a cross? It's easily blocked, like Sagna's efforts.

 

[DanDare]

Why weren't we urgent from the second we conceded? It's like they believer their own hype and just will score.

When there's 30 minutes left they start to think "oh sh*t we actually have to try if we want to score"

 

[Big Poppa]

Don't think lack of urgency was the problem. If anything we tried to force it too much. We didn't win enough loose balls, and did't compete well enough in all of our 50/50s..