MotM - PL: Arsenal vs Crystal Palace | 14/02/05

[thierrys_girl]

Arsenal 5 - Crystal Palace 1

Goals: Dennis, Jose, Thierry x2, Vieira and Johnson.

What a performance and 5 great goals aswell. We are so lucky to support a team that entertain so well and play such creative football. We linked up so well and we looked back to our best. I could see us trashing someone and that team was Crystal Palace.

The whole team played well so it will be hard for you lot to pick a MOTM for this game.

My Motm: Tough choice today with Edu, Bergkamp and Thierry playing well.

Who was our MOTM? Whoever you think it was vote and leave a comment before Wednesday night.

tg

 

[towelie]

jose reyes

 

[Gunner4Eva]

It was a hard choice between Henry and Reyes, but I eventually chose Theirry Henry.

What a marvel. He's like a Superhero, he's absolutely amazing. Two thunderous shots, an assist for Vieira's goal, and a constant menace to the Palace defence.

Reyes was my second pick because he was dynamic from the word go. Running at defenders, he showed what I and many said in his thread, that he is near unstoppable when running at defenders at full pace. Beautiful pass for Bergkamp's goal and a tremendous piledriver of a goal.

Bergkamp was probably Number 3, but Lehmann gave him a run for his money with that tremendous impersonation of Peter Enckelman. But Bergkamp set up Henry's 2nd and scored that bullet to open the scoring.

And it was good to see Henry and Reyes celebrating together. I really do think some people here over-exaggerated to the maximum by saying he shrugged him off because he doesnt like him. Reyes clearly is a star in the making at Arsenal.

 

[sabret00the]

Reyes for me, he had a blinder, his runs, his passing, his drive, his terrorism of their right side and defence, he just had one of those amazing games that we all knew he could have for a while and on the back of all the speculation regarding him at the moment, it was even more magnificent to see him ablle to rise above the off-pitch troubles and pressure, he was a trooper, showed everything a gunner was about.

Reyes > Dennis > Henry

Vieira also played well.

 

[depesh_afc]

For me, it's out of Henry, Reyes and Bergkamp.

That is not to say the other players played at a lower standard! All 11...oh wait, minus Lehmann and Cygan, played top notch football.

However....

Henry was for once in a longtime, really up for this. I was quite amazed that for once his work rate was up to it. Someone mentioned in a thread that Henry prefers playing with Bergkamp because he does not need to do anything except run onto his thru balls. This is total BS. Henry and Bergkamp have an understanding such that they know what each other expects. This is why he prefers Bergy. I think Reyes is slowly getting into that groove that Pires and a few others are also part of (the one-two touch perfect passing with minimal think time).

Henry was battling all over the park, quite frequently coming back deep to tackle/collect balls. He was not waiting on the wing for the ball in this game.

Secondly, Reyes has to be commended on his performance. What a tough week for him. I have to give it to him, from the word go he was all smiles.

He was continually battling away and his inch perfect pass for Bergkamp had Bergkamp thanking Reyes for a pass which he himself would be proud of. His second goal was excellent, to see the space and have the confidence to go for it. His pass for Bergkamp for Henry's 5th was perfect.

And then there's Bergkamp. And to think he is in his mid-thirties!!! Ok Sheringham is slightly older, but he doesn't have even 1/10th of Bergkamps work-rate and skill!

One thing I did notice was how Bergkamp was dropping even deeper to help out his midfield. At times he was the anchor man between defence and midfield which Vieira usually handles. This for me was something which cannot be taught. To know when to drop deep without being a man-down going forward.

My MOTM?

Bergkamp. He is still capable of producing top-class football after so many years in the game. If Ashley Cole needs an example of someone playing for a club he loves, because he loves the game, look no further.

Bergkamp is a class example for any youngster, playing in any position. Love the game you play, enjoy the game and let your football do the talking.

He tracked forward, backwards, sideways, inside, outside....made Pires look like he was the 36 year old...

Superb Dennis. (Henry/Reyes close 2nd for me)

D

 

[KingReyes]

Reyes for me, after what happened to him off the pitch last week that was a great way to react and his performance was quality. The goal he scored was class and he also set up Bergy for number 1 and started the 5th. I also really enjoyed the way he ran at the defenders.

 

[Spike]

Stuck between Reyes and Henry, but I chose Reyes because it has been a long time since he's played so well.

 

[Ratinho]

I could be all nice and happy on his return to form, and he was excellent, and say Jose Antonio Reyes.

Nice to see Cygan getting criticism when he made one error, and recovered from it himself, and then was very comfortable. :roll:

However, as usual, sentiment goes aside and i'll pick the actual MotM.

By a mile, Thierry Henry.

 

[JoseReyes29]

wheres lehman?? i know he wasen't MOTM but he made a number of very good and very important saves especially at the beginning with that fantastic double save.

 

[Chips&CurrySauce]

An excellent performance by the team and in particular, Patrick, Edu, Jose, Dennis and Thierry. Jose and Thierry were electric last night and its a tough call to decide between them, but I think Thierry just shades it.. He seemed much fresher last night and his tracking back was superb... Well played the boys!!!

 

[goonerkads]

Absoloutely fantastic display, I'm torn between Henry, Reyes, Bergkamp and Vieira, but I'll go with Henry because those goals were top class.

 

[kanuuu]

Henry, he was awesome, but special mentions to reyes and Bergkamp as well.

What the **** are we going to do when Bergkamp retires? He's the key to our one touch football, he's the perfect player to be in between Reyes on the left and Henry next to him up front, it will be tough without him in Munich.

 

[bobbypires]

Thierry Henry

Jose Antonio Reyes

Dennis Bergkamp

Edu deserves a mention. :wink:

 

[rachael-8]

DB10 for me, although Henry,Reyes,Vieira and Edu played brilliantly as well,DB jsut edges it for me

 

[RocktheCasbah]

I'm with Ratinho on this, would love to say Reyes, who was awesome, but it's gotta be Thierry. Two brilliant goals, one crafty assist, complete class, complete commitment.

And he even gave Jose a big smile and hug, too!

Jose, Paddy, Dennis and, I thought Edu, all played great, too.

 

[Legend#1]

It's got to be Reyes..

After an embarrassing week with a lot of pressure on him to see if he really was comitted to Arsenal.. he answered everyone with 1 of his best performances in an Arsenal shirt.. he was absolutely unbelievable.. he was everywhere..

 

[Canuck]

Reyes...
An excellent performance in the face of adversity. All things considered, I think it's exactly the type of match he needed to have. Let's hope that he can keep it up.

 

[Henry IV]

Reyes. He found the right response.

 

[Mark]

The trio of Bergkamp, Henry and Reyes were the ones making it happen. I give it to Henry for his 2 goals on his 200th Prem appearance. What a legend!

 

[thierrys_girl]

The A-M Man of the Match award for this game goes to Jose Antonio Reyes who won the award with 46% of the votes.

Well done Jose

Thanks to everyone that voted and those that left comments. Please have a read of the article

tg