FA: Arsenal vs Stoke City | 09/01/05

[the dawn raids]

yeah, people underestimate the FA Cup opponents a bit. one of the best cup competitions in the world; of course the smaller clube are going to give 110% to try and make their mark. important things are reyes is hopefully back and eboue had a decent debut, cause were gonna need defensive help before this seasons over, especially if someone gets hurt. and it looks like Lehmans time at Arsenal is probably done.

 

[Matt]

Was Eboué good ?
Did he dare to do anything offensive or did he stay back to do nothing wrong ?

... ?

 

[deki9188]

Some clowns on this forum. You should call them idiots more often, maybe they will score more often...LMAO. How did eboue play? Lay off the players, were through aint we?!!!

 

[zodos]

Judging players just from radio commentry is plain stupid. I watched the match and apart from not marking Akbinyi for their goal Toure did very O.K. The Reyes goal was his assist....some supporters(if you can call them that ...) need to get a life. How can you dare call our players Idiots?? f*n Glory hunters !

Nuff said!!!!

 

[goonerkads]

Judging players just from radio commentry is plain stupid. I watched the match and apart from not marking Akbinyi for their goal Toure did very O.K. The Reyes goal was his assist....some supporters(if you can call them that ...) need to get a life. How can you dare call our players Idiots?? f*n Glory hunters !

Exactly, I'm getting so sick and tired of these "fans". If we don't win ANY match by a land-slide victory, there's always crticism, such as we need another centre forward etc. Some are even criticising Wenger for not rotating the squad. How can you rotate a squad with so many injuries. We have Campbell, Lauren, Cole, Ljunberg, Gilberto, Edu(cough), Bergkamp, Aladiadhiere and Cygan out. In total 9 players, NO team can cope with that amount of injuries but we are having a damn good go at it. At no stage during this season have we had EVERYONE fit. So instead of all of the NEGATIVE criticism, please applaud the team on what they have done well.

 

[Mark]

We need to bear in mind that this is only the second time that Toure and Senderos have played together, so cut them some slack for perhaps not being at their best. Not to mention Toure hasn't played with Lehmann for a while and Senderos has never played with him. As good as these guys are, they won't click just like that. That is why some younger players need a longer run of games rather than just one now and then. Van Persie, Reyes and Fabregas have benefited from more regular football and not just an appearance now and then.

There's also the psychological aspect of games like this. Lower league sides can be really difficult to beat. This year's 3rd round is as good an example as ever of that.

We're through and we scored some good goals, that's what really matters.

 

[Anonymous]

Over all we controlled the play, as would be expected. But we did very little with it and didnt create much at all.

This was their cup final, and they played that way. They created the better chances - scored what to me looked like a fair goal, hit the bar and had one off the line. Their strikers caused us problems, Senderos stuggled with Akinbayi at times, which isnt exactly encouraging.

But over all the players did what they had to do today. It wasnt good, it wasnt convincing but it was enough.

 

[geert]

And Ebouéééééééééééééééééééééééééééééé ????? :shock:

 

[Anonymous]

And Ebouéééééééééééééééééééééééééééééé ????? :shock:

Steady game. Didnt stand out, but looked decent enough.

 

[Gurgen]

I though Pennant looked pretty good and so did Bobby, but Bobby has to look good against Championship opposition, so excuses. The defense without Sol is a drama however. There is no organization whatsoever. It's true that this particular defense had never played together, but that's no excuse vs. Stoke City. The difference between us stuggling and the other Premiership teams struggling is that they were kept out by constant defending and we were caught by our own defensive shambles. Wenger has to do something in the next two years, because when Sol starts getting old and rusty there's no telling what can happen.

 

[Double_H]

Those are Winning Eleven Fans Not Soccer Fans

we won end of story

 

[towelie]

how did JP do?

glad eboue had a good game

 

[mood]

I have been watching for a long time and what I do know is that no matter how ****e a league team may appear to be, they never usually given an easy time to Premiership teams.

Most of the time, premiership teams underperform against them.. probably because they are over confident + they defend very tightly, and they see the game as a Cup final because they're playing vs Arsenal. Whether they win or not, they are honoured to be playing one of the best teams in the country and Europe itself. They'll give a 110%.

Another major factor is their style of football. Most of the time, when a team gets relegated from the Premiership, they struggle in their 1st season at the lower divisions.

 

[OneProudGooner]

Judging by listening on the Radio for the second half RVP needs to get some shooting practice but otherwise he is one for the future.
I don't really think Lehmann gives our defence much confidence but don't forget we tried another new back four today they could be for the future they need time but we can't really experiment with our back four other than in the FA Cup when we have more experienced players to come back in for the important games (no not you Cygan). I reckon Kolo and Phillipe would work well eventually but if we had Gilberto if we played them as our CB's I think they would of done better but Kolo works better with Sol alongside him cos he isn't sure if Phillipe is capable or not Gilberto would of given him more insurance.

It also seemed Cesc and Rob were quite quiet in terms of being influential and getting killer balls into the box while Pennant ran at defenders, got crosses in, drifted inside for more options and switched flanks, mind you must be very tough for Cesc having played so many tough games at his age having Gilberto back will be a boost aswell as when Edu decides his future if he stays and he is fit then I would give Cesc a breather if Gilberto isn't quite ready for first team football but gets back in training.

 

[mood]

Lehmann is a good keeper when he's in best form. Apart from those stupid mistakes in the CL, he's been a great keeper in the premiership. He's certainly not good this season though.. he does not go for those crosses as good as he did last season, which is a main reason for our set-piece problem, and he does NOT organize the defence well. Almunia's been great, but he should work a little bit on his on air ball handling, and he's fine.

 

[DOUBLE-YOU]

bloody hell....didn't we have any chances in the game. all the news reports are highlighting the chances stoke had. iit's like we only had 2 attacks in the whole game.

I must admit the defending looked really poor for stokes goal.

Does anyone know how Pennant played.

 

[PolishGooner]

Well, very nice result. Stoke is very solid team, they play in Div 1. They put first team vs our youths. But when it was 0:1 i was really scared :shock:

 

[KingReyes]

If people were expecting a walkover they were wrong, firstly we only had two regular players whom have played in cup matches which are Vieira and Pires. Reyes' two games last year don't really count that much.

Secondly we played a very young side against a tough championship side, this team has never played before and it was expected that they would look shaky at times. The same thing happened to Chelsea the day before who were lucky to beat Scunthorpe and the same thing happened to Man utd who could have lost to Exeter city. All because they played second string sides who've never played together before.

 

[SJ]

Just got back from Highbury and stoke was very good, there fans made us look silly at times, they had the whole of the clock end and was singing throughout the whole game, (shame they only really know 1 song, deliaha, in case you was wondering) even after the final whisltle they was still singing. the only bit that annoyed me with them was them was they started chanting Chelsea. as we was walking towards the stadium before the game there was about 20 of them walking through our supporters singing there songs and we was dead quiet.

The game itself was not too bad but our weak link again was Lehmann, at one stage they got a free kick and if it was not for clichy then it would have been 0 - 2 as he headed it off the line, then stoke saw a chance as Lehmann was off his line and they chipped him, he back stepped and by sheer luck it hit the top of the post. How can anyone moan about Toure? he was marking his man 100% nearly everytime they got the ball he took back, i think as a whole we did not have a bad game but it was very noticeable that our key players was not there, there was a lot of times when we just shot the ball across the front of the goal mouth when they should have been in the back of the net.

The main point is that at the FA Cup is a very hard cup to play in and there is normally some surprises in it so at the end of the day we won today and progressed to the next round.

Who do we reckon we will get in the next round? knowing the way the FA are it will proberly be someone like Sp**s, Man u or Chelski

 

[godfather]

Well, very nice result. Stoke is very solid team, they play in Div 1. They put first team vs our youths. But when it was 0:1 i was really scared :shock:

i wasnt scared at all, because i still believe in our team and the quality still there. we could beat Everton with the similar team why not Stock?