Arsenal vs Sp**s post-mortem/player ratings

[redanddread]

Like I mentioned before, the players also have a responsibility. I didn't blame Wenger when we lost to West Brom, Shakhtar or even Newcastle, despite the fact that the latter would have been an easy target, given that our GK made the game defining error. But what happened today is not unprecedented, it's happened many times before. It almost happened last week against Everton.

It's no longer a question of player quality, as Tim suggested earlier in the thread. We have a collection of some of the finest players in England, thanks to Wenger no doubt, but he's restricting them through his poor tactical and strategical decisions. Can anyone seriously say that our players just aren't good enough, atleast compared to Man Utd who are above us? I absolutely refuse to believe that we aren't better than that.

I agree ,squad is the best in the premier league but they have to get rid of this mentality that teams should roll over for them especially when they are two nil up or when they are playing well . Some of them have the mentality that winning football matches should be easy .

So after all the beatings that this current squad of players has experienced, regular hidings against MANU & Chelsea the last few years and difficult matches all season long agaisnt so called lesser teams, they still expect to win matches easily-come on! You really cannot believe that can you. They just don't know how to win big matches. When teams turn up the pressure on us we implode-it's been a problem for several years now and is not something that looks like changing anytime soon. Give us time and room and we shall outplay you-pressure us and we hit the panic button and implode. It's been going on for quite a while now...

 

[Shue]

Well no, PHW has no control over the team. Wenger is in total control of everything that happens with our playing side. Men like Gazidis or PHW have little to no influence.

Ah but it is PHW and Gazidis who renew that terrible manager's contract!

 

[flobaba]

we WERE unlucky to lose this match. beggars belief really..

You can't be serious about this Rex, or could you?

 

[Biggus]

Well no, PHW has no control over the team. Wenger is in total control of everything that happens with our playing side. Men like Gazidis or PHW have little to no influence.

Ah but it is PHW and Gazidis who renew that terrible manager's contract!

Indeed it is and I wish Hill-Wood would f**k off too.

 

[truth_hurts]

Cesc was quality yesterday bar his moment of stupidity.

 

[sabret00the]

Its also a shame because Song's days as a defensive midfielder is over. He attacks more than Fabregas nowadays even at 2-0 he still wants to bomb forward and score goals/make assists. It basically leaves the fragile Denilson all by himself.

I'm not sure I agree with the fragile Denilson, but I'd most certainly be happier if our steely holding midfielder actually held. The fact that for their first goal he wasn't in the pack tracking back really does **** me off. We don't need this Song.

 

[celestis]

Like I mentioned before, the players also have a responsibility. I didn't blame Wenger when we lost to West Brom, Shakhtar or even Newcastle, despite the fact that the latter would have been an easy target, given that our GK made the game defining error. But what happened today is not unprecedented, it's happened many times before. It almost happened last week against Everton.

It's no longer a question of player quality, as Tim suggested earlier in the thread. We have a collection of some of the finest players in England, thanks to Wenger no doubt, but he's restricting them through his poor tactical and strategical decisions. Can anyone seriously say that our players just aren't good enough, atleast compared to Man Utd who are above us? I absolutely refuse to believe that we aren't better than that.

I agree ,squad is the best in the premier league but they have to get rid of this mentality that teams should roll over for them especially when they are two nil up or when they are playing well . Some of them have the mentality that winning football matches should be easy .

So after all the beatings that this current squad of players has experienced, regular hidings against MANU & Chelsea the last few years and difficult matches all season long agaisnt so called lesser teams, they still expect to win matches easily-come on! You really cannot believe that can you. They just don't know how to win big matches. When teams turn up the pressure on us we implode-it's been a problem for several years now and is not something that looks like changing anytime soon. Give us time and room and we shall outplay you-pressure us and we hit the panic button and implode. It's been going on for quite a while now...

When I say they think winning should be easy , I mean when they are dominating they come across as "we should be able to our foot of the pedal now and cruise " don't have do the hard and basic things anymore ...w'eve beaten them now we can all go forward . Unfortunately not everyone follows the script.

Guess I am saying doing the basics and working hard is almost a chore for them instead of a matter of proffesional pride .

 

[asajoseph]

They did exactly that at the end of the first half. Sp**s were basically shell-shocked, for the last five minutes they weren't even challenging for the ball in midfield any more. Instead of going for the jugular, we just started farting about with it in our half whilst the crowd cheered 'ole'.

 

[celestis]

Yeah , winning comfortably even for 40 minutes seems to result in memory loss of the last few matches and complacency .

Heh you can't accuse our team of not being able to live " in the moment " all the bad results seem to be forgotten real quick .

 

[Timleaf]

If tactics played no part then why did we fail to score in the 2nd half when it seemed almost inevitable prior to half time - surely the players didn't completely switch off at half time & the other contributing factor is the changes made by Sp**s.

Well, we had even more shots in the second half than we did in the first. And Sp**s had even less shots in the second half than they did in the first.

The general pattern of the game barely changed from first half to second. Just Sp**s finished all of their chances and we missed all of ours.

 

[redanddread]

That is is just a big load of horse shiiiit Gus.

We are winning comfortably at half time, and then the horror defending for their first, when we have a freekick no less! Hoofed ball that several of our players refuse to deal with. Second goal is a pathetic handball from our captain on a freekick that NEVER should have been given.

How are those defining moments evidence of Wenger being raped tactically by Twitchy? Fingers SHOULD be pointed at individual players today AS WELL as at Wenger.

Nearly everyone of us assumed that DJ would keep his spot but he started Kos, Why was Denilson played instead of Wilshere? Why is Denilson played full stop?
Twitchy made the necessary changes and he just kept our same narrow shape and took off Chamakh and Nasri our most dangerous players at that point to put on the two cripples.
We were out thought out fought and over powered.

But okay Rex- we were unlucky, injuries, next year will be ours for sure, blah blah blah.

@ Chillpill, No- Twitchy is no tactical genius I didn't say he was, but he was still better than Wenger.

I said fingers need to be pointed at certain players AS WELL as Wenger Gus. I agree with you regarding JD and Jack. I think they both should have started. Despite that we are 2-0 up at half time. Wenger made some strange subs again, and whatever he told the boys at half time it wasn´t what they needed to hear. He SHOULD be blamed for that.

Surely our players aren´t babies though?! They have some responsibility you know! Do you think it was on Wenger´s instruction that Cesc decided at half time to no longer be a part of the midfield? Almost as stupid as on the freekick if you ask me.

Shouldn´t Song, all by himself, be able to figure out that when in the lead defending responsibly comes first? Same with Sagna and Clichy really.

As for the bolded part, we WERE unlucky to lose this match. beggars belief really. The rest; blah blah blah.

Does it really-how many times have we seen something like this happen or nearly happen. The fact that I, like many other Gooners just can't quite figure out how we conspired to throw this away, should not decieve us into thinking luck had anything to do with the loss. This team is a train wreck waiting to happen. We were lucky to get all 3 pts at Wolves, we were a nervous wreck against an Everton team we should have had 6 feet under before they mounted their late rally (think Chamakh's missed chance). We were lucky that Man ****ty went down to 10 men-we have been lucky that Chelsea & UTD have had dimsal starts. Yet we have slipped up, not at some intimidating North East/West graveyard but at home against teams that have not beaten us on our own patch for a collective 60 years!! That, my friend is not bad luck.

 

[Kraig]

Rosickys sub performance was the worst ive seen, and I include eboue against wigan in that. He did nothing right and was responsible for giving the ball away for the freekick for the penalty, and then gave away the freekick for the third! Eddie would have been a better choice to keep out of the two!

um what? He wasn't on the pitch to conceed the free kick to lead to the penalty, it was song (afair)

apologies if that is the case, was almost certain that he gave the ball away on the edge of the box and they went from there to get the freekick (which song conceeded)

irrespective, the rest of his appearance was horrendous!

 

[Yaya]

Fabianski-5.5
Sagna-6
Kos-4.5
Squillaci-5.5
Clichy-5.5
Song-4.5
Denilson-6
Cesc-5-deducted 2 from the 7 for conceding a stupid pen.
Nasri-6
Chamakh-5
arshavin-5.5

 

[Shue]

If tactics played no part then why did we fail to score in the 2nd half when it seemed almost inevitable prior to half time - surely the players didn't completely switch off at half time & the other contributing factor is the changes made by Sp**s.

Well, we had even more shots in the second half than we did in the first. And Sp**s had even less shots in the second half than they did in the first.

The general pattern of the game barely changed from first half to second. Just Sp**s finished all of their chances and we missed all of ours.

Timothy how dare you talk sense, it's knee jerks all round until we've won the title, ok?

 

[outlaw_member]

If tactics played no part then why did we fail to score in the 2nd half when it seemed almost inevitable prior to half time - surely the players didn't completely switch off at half time & the other contributing factor is the changes made by Sp**s.

Well, we had even more shots in the second half than we did in the first. And Sp**s had even less shots in the second half than they did in the first.

The general pattern of the game barely changed from first half to second. Just Sp**s finished all of their chances and we missed all of ours.

Timothy how dare you talk sense, it's knee jerks all round until we've won the title, ok?

I'm not knee-jerking Shue. I've been highly critical of Wenger since the back end of 2008, which is almost two years now. I'm not proud of it, of course, but every defeat and failed season only further justifies my negative thoughts on a man that I once loved. I'm also unlike certain people who use every opportunity to have a dig at him. I'm not like that, there are many times where Wenger has had little control over what has happened. As mentioned before, I could have easily attacked him after any one of our previous three league defeats. But as Einstein's definition of insanity goes, we've been attempting the same thing over and over whilst expecting different results. You can only so long blame the players for failures that are down to the manager. The knee-jerkers are those who had faith in Wenger, only to lose it all yesterday. I lost mine in 2009.

 

[Shue]

I shall be so smug when we win major trophies again under Wenger.

 

[Biggus]

You just don't get it do you?

 

[Shue]

I don't get the **** you spout continually, no.

 

[progman07]

I shall be so smug when we win major trophies again under Wenger.

That's isn't too likely to happen. What have you been watching in the last few years? Because I have been watching us bottle everything, produce inconsistent and toothless performances so often, and a strange inability to break through defenses like Newcastle this season, all these too often to win anything "major".

I'd be a lot more cheerful though, if we could at least play beautiful football. But we don't play it more often than any mid-table team in the league, really. Media is just slow to play Myth-busters.

 

[Humble Rex]

we WERE unlucky to lose this match. beggars belief really..

You can't be serious about this Rex, or could you?

Yeah, I´m serious. Don´t get me wrong, I think we were piss poor in the second half! Despite that we WERE unlucky to concede 3 goals from what the Spuds created, and we were unlucky not to score at least once more.