EPL| Arsenal v Blackburn Rovers (H), 2/4, 17.30, ESPN

[Yousif Arsenal]

i dont blame wenger for take off arshavin we play with 3 strikers in last 20 min and we fail to score that the problem all sagna's cross was bad and so far and when he cross we just see 1 player in the box i dont know when he will cross well and i dont know when we try to shoot and i dont know when we stop playing passing game its must all change wenger please

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

Exactly, why Song stayed on is beyond me.
He was already on a yellow and needless in this particular game.

I'd have kept Theo on instead, because of his good finishing ability.

 

[mo50]

Also, chucking on Chamakh and Bendtner with no plan was a bit *. It completely destroys any shape we have and thus we're ineffective towards the end. At one point Van Persie was out wide. Our most dangerous, in form striker out wide.

Baffling.

 

[Martens]

Shattered after having waited for this game for so long. Wenger's tactic of throwing on every striker we had and launching every ball into the box failed miserably. I agree, he should have left Shava on, who for once did not look out of breath and along with Walcott looked most dangerous in the first half. He did cost us possession too often in his killer ball attempts which probably prompted the sub.

It's almost over. The only hope I'm clinging on to is United's crowded schedule and perhaps them collecting a couple of key injuries. Rooney was magnificent today. Whenever one of ours goes on a run of form they seem to get injured.

 

[mo50]

i dont blame wenger for take off arshavin we play with 3 strikers in last 20 min and we fail to score that the problem all sagna's cross was bad and so far and when he cross we just see 1 player in the box i dont know when he will cross well and i dont know when we try to shoot and i dont know when we stop playing passing game its must all change wenger please

I don't think Sagna's crosses were bad, yousif. We just weren't flooding the box. Also, we had both Chamakh and Bendtner in the box but there were no wide forwards, which messed up our shape and we lost momentum towards the end.

I agree with you on shooting. Plenty of opportunities but we didn't take them.

 

[Accomplished]

Also, chucking on Chamakh and Bendtner with no plan was a bit *. It completely destroys any shape we have and thus we're ineffective towards the end. At one point Van Persie was out wide. Our most dangerous, in form striker out wide.

Baffling.

If he hadn't done it, we probably still wouldn't have scored, and people would be blaming him for not "doing something" and leaving attacking players on the bench.

Fergie did something very similar earlier on in the day....

I think this game showed our mental problems more than anything else.

 

[mo50]

Exactly, why Song stayed on is beyond me.
He was already on a yellow and needless in this particular game.

I'd have kept Theo on instead, because of his good finishing ability.

Yup, agree with that. I think Walcott wasn't ready to play a full game yet, and he wasn't looking as sharp towards the end.

Chucking on Chamakh and Bendtner was a bad move though. I understand Wenger may have wanted some crosses into the box but to play them both, he removed our width. Totally defies logic.

 

[mo50]

Also, chucking on Chamakh and Bendtner with no plan was a bit *. It completely destroys any shape we have and thus we're ineffective towards the end. At one point Van Persie was out wide. Our most dangerous, in form striker out wide.

Baffling.

If he hadn't done it, we probably still wouldn't have scored, and people would be blaming him for not "doing something" and leaving attacking players on the bench.

Fergie did something very similar earlier on in the day....

I think this game showed our mental problems more than anything else.

He should've done something, but it wasn't the right thing. Removing Nasri/Arshavin/Walcott, which coincidentally are our only wide players, wasn't a good move and it sort of back fired. Take off Song or Wilshere, keep the width, stretch Blackburn and deliver some quality balls to Chamakh via our wide forwards.

Anyways, lets just hope United go on an epic, never before seen collapse.

 

[Jury]

Why not take Song off? He was of no use when we had the opposition pinned in their final third, and they were down to 10 too.

For a midfielder of supposed Arsenal quality, I'm at loss when it comes to defining what Song brings to the table. To think of what we could have there and all the options it'd create makes we weep.

I still don't get Song, and I'd love someone who rates him to explain what I'm missing out on....

 

[Jury]

Exactly, why Song stayed on is beyond me.
He was already on a yellow and needless in this particular game.

I'd have kept Theo on instead, because of his good finishing ability.

Yup, agree with that. I think Walcott wasn't ready to play a full game yet, and he wasn't looking as sharp towards the end.

Chucking on Chamakh and Bendtner was a bad move though. I understand Wenger may have wanted some crosses into the box but to play them both, he removed our width. Totally defies logic.

Wengers logic was that Clichy and Sagna would provide it....somehow.

 

[Jury]

Yep, Nasri should have stayed on. Song tried his hardest to get himself sent off too, I think Dowd forgot.

Ref bottled sending him off around ten minutes from the end for a cynical foul deep in the Blackburn half as they threatened to break. Liability.

 

[mo50]

Why not take Song off? He was of no use when we had the opposition pinned in their final third, and they were down to 10 too.

For a midfielder of supposed Arsenal quality, I'm at loss when it comes to defining what Song brings to the table. To think of what we could have there and all the options it'd create makes we weep.

I still don't get Song, and I'd love someone who rates him to explain what I'm missing out on....

Alex Song summarizes the problems Wenger and Arsenal have to resolve. He's an excellent player, one that would fit in seamlessly for a side based on power and defensive stability from midfield. A team like Chelsea/City would be a perfect fit for him. The problem with us is that he hinders our attack and our passing game, especially when the opposition have no desire whatsoever to come out and are content with a point, like Blackburn were today. He'd never have to hover around the 18 yard box and pick out an incisive pass if he was to be playing for Man. City.

It's like Wenger's philosophy is at a crossroads. He needs strong, physical players to overcome the rigors of the PL, but the style of play he wants them to execute isn't possible. Its either we bring in the right players, or change our way of playing. Probably a discussion for another thread, though.

 

[Emma Lusa]

If he hadn't done it, we probably still wouldn't have scored, and people would be blaming him for not "doing something" and leaving attacking players on the bench.

Fergie did something very similar earlier on in the day....

I think this game showed our mental problems more than anything else.

Key difference, Fergie away from home took of a fullback at half time (probably forced by injury) and then played a 3-4-3 system using width and two mobile strikers. He took no account of West Ham's ability (or lack off) to score goals and trusted his own attacking seven to do the business.

Arsène on the other hand did nothing until the 60th minute then took off three attacking threats Arshavin, who has the second highest assists in the PL, Nasri and Walcott. Keeping on a back four and a holding midfield player who had (even before the sending off) little or nothing to do .... this negativity is mind blowing was he protecting a nil-nil draw at home?

To say "Fergie did something similar" is plain wrong, he did almost the exact opposite by removing a defender and a midfield player for quality attackers, we removed a quality striker and two midfield players for an unfit midfielder and a couple of donkeys ....

We had to win today, AW should have either not started a holding midfield player or at least replaced Song with Cesc at half time. His painful inability to use the bench or change tactics is why we get found out every season, to compare him with SAF (whom I despise) who is a master tactician and bench user is just foolish. AW is great at developing players but he's not even close to being a good tactician.

 

[TheEconomist]

regarding wengers comments about the energy of our players, he has a very good point. We have had a 2 week break since our last game, sure some of our players had international games, but the majority of them didnt. (song, cesc theo, rvp, etc) It speaks volumes when arguably the most busy player in the international break was our most energetic and fresh looking player today, Wilshere.

 

[ThaSaltCracka]

The whole team is just a mess right now. Watching today's game was very frustrating and ultimately disappointing. We have counter attacking players mixed in with slow possession based ones and today it was just a disaster. We started off well, but after Nasri took that blow we fell apart. We had no one creating in the middle of the pitch and instead opted to use our FB's for width and crosses, which went to no one.

I am not even sure what else to say, but this is a low day unfortunately. I had some hopes we'd come back and make something of the last 9 games to salvage the season, but that is not happening now. I just hope this team fights on and wraps up top 3, but I'd be lying if I said I was confident in that. Too many passengers right now.

 

[kofigunner]

Besides which Man U's front 3 are collectively more comfortable on the ball than ours are. RVP/Nik/Chamakh are nowhere as interchangeable as Rooney/Chicarito/Berbatov. Of our front 3, RVP's the most mobile and tricky in terms of movement but he doesn't have the pace to get past people if moved out wide. Chamakh and Nik are central players, period. Song has a role to play in this team, protect the defence so I don't know what people are going on about what he's doing at Arsenal. However I do agree that Wenger should've replaced him with a more offensive midfielder in our bid to score especially when they were one man down. That was very poor from Wenger. Even when we had the 3 strikers on, we didn't change our formation to make the most use of them. We just don't have a tactician good enough to win us games. The only way we start winning is when all the kids grow up and get experienced enough to figure out things on the pitch by themselves .

 

[kofigunner]

regarding wengers comments about the energy of our players, he has a very good point. We have had a 2 week break since our last game, sure some of our players had international games, but the majority of them didnt. (song, cesc theo, rvp, etc) It speaks volumes when arguably the most busy player in the international break was our most energetic and fresh looking player today, Wilshere.

Cesc Theo and Song were coming back from injuries so I didn't expect too much from them, however it's a weak excuse. At this stage of the season moreso than any other, it's up to Wenger to get the best out of what we have.

 

[Bossa]

We have been embarrassing after we lost the CC final. This squad lacks leadership and mentality to overcome this. We have no confidence whatsover anymore. We are absolutely disgusting at the moment.

This was our strongest attack and midfield bar maybe Cesc and we still suck. Its absolutely horrible that we havent score a goal in our last two home games.

How horrible is our game plan? Give the ball to Sagna and cross? Thats just horrible and Stoke like.

 

[IBL]

Bendtner or RvP should have buried their headed chances, when opportunities are at a premium we need to be clinical and we're clearly not.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

We have been embarrassing after we lost the CC final. This squad lacks leadership and mentality to overcome this. We have no confidence whatsover anymore. We are absolutely disgusting at the moment.

This was our strongest attack and midfield bar maybe Cesc and we still suck. Its absolutely horrible that we havent score a goal in our last two home games.

How horrible is our game plan? Give the ball to Sagna and cross? Thats just horrible and Stoke like.

I agree 100% our team in very bad form after we losing the CC final

and why we dont have another game plan just pass pass pass and pass give the ball to clichy and sagna they will cross it and when they cross it they cross it so far and we dont see alot of men in the box

well thats must all change wenger must slove this problem and creat another game plan and another formation cuz this formation its not working well