FA: Sheffield United vs Arsenal | 01/03/05

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

What I find amusing is all these comments about how immense Vieira, Senderos, etc were would be missing if we had lost on penalty kicks, and yet the performance would have been the same. No, fans don't think too much about the game because they are heavily invested in it-- emotionally, and also as entertainment.
.

Thats cos most FANS here rate the players' performaance based on the game result. Very unfortunate but thats the reality. We would be reading on bad leadership from Vieira, cygan poor passing(well he gets slammed either way..funny he has been one of our most consistent players in the last 5 games) ...

 

[Gooner83]

it was funny the way Kenny only dived to the left.

 

[KingReyes]

I thought from the second hald onwards we looked in control, we didn't get going in the first half and thats down to Sheffield coming out strong and looking physically fresh. Funny how their best chances both came within the first minute of each half.

When the second half got going we looked like a different side, Quincy added another dimension to our game nad his pace was frightening at times. i was really impressed how Fabregas drove us forward he seemed to be everywhere, his movement and passing was real quality.

Flamini and Vieira had their work cut out for them, Sheffield are a real physical side and it was not going to be easy and overall they both did well. Another good game for Cygan and Senderos made easy by the fact that they played with one striker but overall as team especially on set pieces we defended well and dug in.

Good to see a goalkeeper finally be a match winner for us, what is it with Almunia and shot stopping. He actually pulled off a great reflex save in the 90th minute from John Harley which kept us in it too. Its when it comes to crosses/set pieces etc where he looks totally lost.

 

[lee1001]

paddy kenny is a good keeper but DEfINItelY NOT GOod ENOUGH FOR ARSENAL

I agree..

Well alright. I guess we shouldn't set our sights lower than Buffon for the summer then. :wink:

Or Casillias.. :wink:

Realistically Frey or Abbiati will do !

Both of Deportivo's goals at the weekend were the result of crosses that Casillias missed by a mile because he came off his line.

 

[lee1001]

paddy kenny is a good keeper but DEfINItelY NOT GOod ENOUGH FOR ARSENAL

I agree..

Well alright. I guess we shouldn't set our sights lower than Buffon for the summer then. :wink:

Or Casillias.. :wink:

Realistically Frey or Abbiati will do !

Both of Deportivo's goals at the weekend were the result of crosses to the penalty spot that Casillias missed by a mile because he came off his line.

 

[sabret00the]

What I find amusing is all these comments about how immense Vieira, Senderos, etc were would be missing if we had lost on penalty kicks, and yet the performance would have been the same. No, fans don't think too much about the game because they are heavily invested in it-- emotionally, and also as entertainment.
.

Thats cos most FANS here rate the players' performaance based on the game result. Very unfortunate but thats the reality. We would be reading on bad leadership from Vieira, cygan poor passing(well he gets slammed either way..funny he has been one of our most consistent players in the last 5 games) ...

in all fairness speak for yourself, i rate the players based on their performance and tend to get stick for it because most people here feel when we win we're infallable and that goes for Kwame too cos he's given me stick where i've felt we're not doing something right or the thinking behind a substitution weren't right despite the fact we win. infact the only time i keep my opinions to a minimum is when we lose.

 

[Chips&CurrySauce]

Well it was a difficult game and in the whole we played well.. We did lack creativity though... Yesterday justt emphasised how limited Freddie really is.. Freddie was playing in the hole but never created anything for anyone and was constantly losing possession.. Freddie only looks decent when someone like Henry, or Deniis are feeding him..

Other than that I think everyone played well, Cesc looked dangerous and has such geat ability, Patrick was dominant, Quincy was electric and the defence solid... I don't know what has happended to Kolo though, he lost hte ball a few times and he didn't seem to track back either...

Aliadiere was a real positive though.. He has genuine quality this boy.. His first touch was perfect and was unlucky not to score and as other have said, his surging run was excellent... I was really pleased to see that he as bulked up considerably, he is looking much heavier now and if he stays injury free we can have a real top player on our hands!!

 

[marco]

absolutely brilliant!!
thought the whole team played well and what i liked more than anything was that every player with the exception of kolo toure gave everything they had,
cygan has been slated so much and last night was probably his best performance for arsenal (or at least on a par with roma away a couple of seasons ago)

senderos was absolutely solid and cole and clichy worked very well down that left hand side.
as for quicny he was brilliant when he came on.
yeah we werent clinical enough in front of goal but it was very hard to just shoot as they had so many men behind the ball!
as for sheffield united good ****ing riddance they tried to play for penalties from minute one.they had ten men behind the ball every time we attacked, they are cynical wankers as well, how many times did they foul us when we were on the break and how many of their players got booked!! i think it was one.
as for their supporters they had 2 songs i think.

"england" and same old arsenal always cheating
their own team is so **** that they have to sing songs about a country that one of their players hasnt represented for donkeys years and accuse us of cheating
a 6 game ban between reyes and bergkamp for a minor incident
also sheffield wednesday were louder the day they got relegated from highbury than the whole of bramall lane last nite, away section excluded

as for people saying that we would all be slating vieira sendoros cygan etc if we had lost i think thats untrue in this case.at the end of extra time i was really proud of them they gave 100% and we should have won in normal time but hey they just wanted to make it more exciting for us
definately worth the journey up there although didnt get back to southampton unitl 2.30!bring on bolton

 

[KoLo28]

yeah how annoying where the utd fans

every time we were fouled you'd hear same old arsenal always cheating

every time we fouled someone you'd hear the same thing plus "OFFFF!" sound like absolute wankers glad we knocked them out

 

[sabret00the]

not to take the glory but i think their were players that were less than subpar for whatever reasons they may be i don't know but i feel they do need highlighting just so you can see how much others stepped up in their place. namely i'm talking about lauren, ljungberg and flamini.

 

[the dawn raids]

I thought it was hilarious Vieria and Ljungberg had to be held back by Almunia and Flamini; 2 of our core players being calmed down by two guys that have played small parts this season, although Flaminis role is growing and rightly so.

not the prettiest of performances, but we march on, and thats what its about.

 

[Gurgen]

Thought Quincy was brilliant. Shows you just how much damage a player with the ability to beat his man and a lot of pace can do.
Senderos was good defensively, but he needs to work on his passing. A lot.

All in all it was a great game, suspense right till the end. Almunia is the next Taffarel, penalty killer with the decision making of a mental patient.

 

[jeremiesgirl]

Well I was at this game last night, don't get many chances to watch my beloved Arsenal so really pleased to see the Gunners go through. Unfortunately, as somebody had got tickets for me I was sitting in the Kop end with all the hard core Sheff Utd fans! I tell you it was hard keeping my mouth shut with all the abuse the Arsenal boys were getting and yeh they kept singing that crap song about Arsenal always cheating - so original! Others on here have probablyheard the chant before but I was really disgusted with their chant about "There's only One Arsène Wenger" which is so sick and pathetic as they call him a f***ing * :evil: Thought their fans were a disgrace.

Got the ground early and thought it would be nice to see the players arrive off the bus and the Sheff Utd fans were hurling abuse at them and Wenger was moaning at the security people - they didnt even hold the fans back by barriers.

Anyway enough about all the bad stuff, I enjoyed the game. Bit worried first half but when Quincy came on he did help change the game and we played much better. Really pleased to see Ali back in the pitch and come off in 1 piece and he was unlucky not to score. Hopefully he will feature a few more times before the end of the season.

I notice with interest others have noticed that Almunia & Flamini had to hold Freddie & Vieira back, at least we have got 2 players there who are calm in these situations, I've noticed on many ocassions that Flamini tries to step in and stop trouble which is what Arsenal need.

And how good was Almunia when he saved those 2 penalties - very impressed :angel

Looking forward to watching the game on tape tonight 8)

 

[jeremiesgirl]

Well I was at this game last night, don't get many chances to watch my beloved Arsenal so really pleased to see the Gunners go through. Unfortunately, as somebody had got tickets for me I was sitting in the Kop end with all the hard core Sheff Utd fans! I tell you it was hard keeping my mouth shut with all the abuse the Arsenal boys were getting and yeh they kept singing that crap song about Arsenal always cheating - so original! Others on here have probablyheard the chant before but I was really disgusted with their chant about "There's only One Arsène Wenger" which is so sick and pathetic as they call him a f***ing * :evil: Thought their fans were a disgrace.

Got the ground early and thought it would be nice to see the players arrive off the bus and the Sheff Utd fans were hurling abuse at them and Wenger was moaning at the security people - they didnt even hold the fans back by barriers.

Anyway enough about all the bad stuff, I enjoyed the game. Bit worried first half but when Quincy came on he did help change the game and we played much better. Really pleased to see Ali back in the pitch and come off in 1 piece and he was unlucky not to score. Hopefully he will feature a few more times before the end of the season.

I notice with interest others have noticed that Almunia & Flamini had to hold Freddie & Vieira back, at least we have got 2 players there who are calm in these situations, I've noticed on many ocassions that Flamini tries to step in and stop trouble which is what Arsenal need.

And how good was Almunia when he saved those 2 penalties - very impressed :angel

Looking forward to watching the game on tape tonight 8)

 

[patrick42uk]

that referee was so poor, and i blame him for paddy and freddie getting wound up. all game that chris morgan was using every dirty trick in the book. not sure if anyone caught this, but off the ball he kept fouling ljungberg. the worst was the punches at vieira's chest on the corner that i'm still yet to come to terms with. and the ref let him get away with it all. its easy to see how you'd get frustrated at that. i laughed when he finally got booked on the 112th minute or so.

when i first saw the kick on the head of cesc in the first game, i though it could have been accidental. but based on yesterday, seeing how chris morgan put his arm out in a 'i'm innocent' manner, i'm convinced now that it was intentional. makes me even more pissed off that we lost reyes and bergkamp based on sheff utd's cheating. part of their plan was to get us riled and i'm glad we kept our cool enough yesterday.

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

in all fairness speak for yourself, i rate the players based on their performance and tend to get stick for it because most people here feel when we win we're infallable and that goes for Kwame too cos he's given me stick where i've felt we're not doing something right or the thinking behind a substitution weren't right despite the fact we win. infact the only time i keep my opinions to a minimum is when we lose.

Was just a general observation. Didn't say everyone does it. I for sure don't do it!!

 

[thegame24]

I love quincy, what a player.

will he count under that new uefa law as a club grown player?

same with fabregas what about him? cause we got him at 16.

 

[JazzG]

If both players are under 21 when/if the ruling comes into effect then yes.

 

[Spike]

On the game, I was impressed with the courage and determination showed by the lads yesterday. I think every player gave it his all, although there were several who didn't get into the game. This was the best match I've seen in terms of fight and desire, everybody fought hard until the end. The whole defence was brilliant, they were able to control set pieces and Cygan/Senderos partnership looks good. Senderos looks like a nutter, that's the player we need in defence. The Cole/Clichy combination worked very well in my opinion, as either one of them were able to track back for the other. Vieira was immense, although his passing was not perfect, he showed fight and determination. Quincy in my opinion changed the game, he is very attacking and loves to run at defenders, he was able to open up the defence. On the shootout, I think Kenny couldn't dive to his right, maybe because of his hip injury, but surely Almunia was the hero of the day with his two fantastic saves.

Well done Arsenal!

 

[King_Henry_14]

can someone answer my question...

why was asley cole playing as a sticker in parts of the match??

was it just an all-out-attack risk or a planned tatic

MA

BL PS PC GC
FF MF PV AC
FL AL

... became

MA

EE PS KT GC
MF PV
FF
FL AC QOA

is that right??