GoonerGurjit
Established Member
Therock Why don't you just admit you support Man Utd?
Ljungbergfan said:Did anyone from the arsenal camp give an interview after the match?
reggiepaul said:Yeah, Vieira came to the BBC reporter with some scissors, clipping away saying "Barber, your balls are mine!!!"Ljungbergfan said:Did anyone from the arsenal camp give an interview after the match?
JGooner said:Greatest team ever? The f**k we are.
Campbell, Toure, Clichy, and Reyes did their jobs today. The rest were either poor or an outright disgrace.
Firstly, it was – as everyone here appears to agree – ridiculous to start Aliadiere. I can understand resting Henry, but Henry AND Reyes? Replaced by an unproven kid? In a semi final? Against Manchester United? Insane. But that was Wenger’s only mistake. The overwhelming burden of blame is with the players:
Lehmann – When is this man going to grow up? If screwing up his kicks isn’t bad enough, he also goes out of his way to get involved in scraps with other players. The push on Ronaldo was the most pointless and unprovoked offence he has ever committed. He doesn’t seem to comprehend that these stupid bookings not only cost us suspensions, but disrupt the flow of our play and add pressure to our defence. I hope Graham Stack is as good as he is supposed to be, because, although Lehmann is a talented keeper, I don’t want a total headcase guarding our goal for much longer.
Lauren – Not as bad as he usually is, but he is clearly a weak link in the side. There was a moment in the second half when he passed the ball straight to a Manure midfielder and I thought “Yup, it’s over”. Treble-winning teams cannot afford to carry first team regulars whose distribution is as erratic as Lauren’s.
Edu – Quite simply the single worst performance I have seen from an Arsenal player this season. Worse than any of Gilberto’s many, many footballing atrocities. Only Lauren against Sp**s at home comes close. His passing seemed to have a 0% success rate today. His shot at goal when Reyes flicked the ball to him was an embarrassing joke. Worse, he didn’t even care – he just grinned like Pires and Wiltord do, as if the whole thing is a casual hobby to them. Truly atrocious performance. 0 out of 10.
Pires – What the f**k? At least Lauren and Edu have the excuse that they are not much better than average footballers, but Robert Pires is the most technically proficient player in the country (including Henry). He should be physically incapable of this level of incompetence. And I mean incompetence. It wasn’t simply that he didn’t give a flying f**k all afternoon (although that was true as well) but that he made so many mistakes: crap passes, miscontrol, failure to beat his man, and that missed header from Bergkamp’s cross. Again, he didn’t seem to care much. He looked gloomy on the bench but that was probably because of his scraps with Keane, Solksjaer, etc.
Ljungberg - Lots of running around. Totally ineffectual.
Bergkamp – Good in the first 10 mins, crap thereafter. By the last 20 mins, he was passing like Edu.
Vieira – Good in the first 30 mins, mediocre thereafter. Gave away foul after foul, which disrupted our flow and allowed the clock to pass time.
Henry – I know he was only for half an hour, but why did he even bother? I’m as big a fan of him as anyone, but his posing and preening is irritating when we’re trying to save the game. He likes to think of himself as the ultimate team player, and most of the time he is. But there are still occasions when his first concern is looking cool.
This was a big game, and none of our big players. They lacked hunger, which is why it reminded me so much of the league game against Manure at OT in December 2002. They also lacked basic competence. When was the last time we passed the ball so poorly?
If we win the league, then it will be easy to forget about today or at least look upon it as an isolated occurence in which we simply played s***e. But Chelsea are only 4 points behind us now, and our game in hand is no walkover (Liverpool). Today's game - just like last week's capitulation - may represent the beginning of a loss of form. Reyes and Ljungberg are out for most of the rest of the season. As Lewdikris wrote recently, this group of players simply will not be able to recover if we fail to win the league this season. Right now, I am more concerned about next weekend's league games than Tuesday's CL game.