PL: Arsenal vs Birmingham City | 02/10/05

[kamikaze80]

p2uk is right, henry would have put those shots by reyes inside the far post and in the back of the net. i dont mean to disparage reyes at all - his energy, pace and enthusiasm were our bright spot on the attack, but the kid cant finish. makes you wonder if the goals against boro and chelsea were the aberration and not the rule. i hope not.

to be honest, finishing has been a problem for the entire team save henry. taylor had those 2 great saves but everything else was hit straight at him.

pires looks sooo slow.

 

[lee1001]

We won, we kept a clean sheet, we made lots of chances and Reyes was pure quality. I'm happy even though it looks like most others here aren't.

I don't understand everybody elses negativity.

If Henry had been on the pitch, or if we had a proven goal scorer in reserve we would have won that game 4-0.

The performance itself was great, loads of chances made as Ricky just said.

Yes, Hleb was poor, So was Pires (like every other game this seasons so far) But everyone had a good game.

 

[Tegh]

He can't finish? You obviously didn't see the two goals he got against Chelsea in his first season, or Man City, or whoever it was.

Anyway, he can finish, he's scored some wonderful goals since he joined, but his finishing will get better over time, there's definite room for improvement, but he's still only young. Maik Taylor was too good in goal today, you can't say Henry would've finished them, you just don't know that.

The amount of chances he creates by himself is outstanding alone.

 

[anomaly]

Guys who went...what the **** was up with Arsenal station being closed at the end of the game!?

Resulted in me trying to find the Highbury station..which is like 20 mins away. Took me ages to get home!

I did get a good look at AG tho..and got some cool pics. It's friggin' massive!

 

[Allyboy]

They regulary shut the station if it gets over crowded.

 

[Gurgen]

So what?

We're playing with an 18-year-old in midfield and a right winger up front. Then we created a clear goalscoring chance and their defender hacks Freddie's legs off. We would have been 1-0 up if he didn't, not to mention the score if Pires had converted his pen.

So what? We beat a very average team at home with 10 men who were missing half their team with a own goal. Poor performance.

And so what Cesc is 18?

Creating so many chances does not equal poor. We didn't finish very well and their GK was brilliant but that's about it.

And it wasn't an own goal either. Fat Frank can deflect his shots off the moon and still get the goal but RvP gets screwed.

 

[Tegh]

Lmao @ off the moon.

 

[sabret00the]

And it wasn't an own goal either. Fat Frank can deflect his shots off the moon and still get the goal but RvP gets screwed.

piss poor decision by the powers that be.

 

[hujja]

Hard-fought win. Just the type of goals we should be getting when everything else doesn't work.

However, having said this, it was still a half-assed effort against a side that was not only a man down but also had some of it's more experienced players missing.

We really should've done better.

Still, a win is a win.

 

[RammiXP]

Guys who went...what the f**k was up with Arsenal station being closed at the end of the game!?

Resulted in me trying to find the Highbury station..which is like 20 mins away. Took me ages to get home!

I did get a good look at AG tho..and got some cool pics. It's friggin' massive!

Had the same problem but it only took me and my Girldfriend about 10 mins to walk to Holloway Road. I also got the chance to walk past AG and it does look really impressive. It really shows just what the club has become and its great to see.

 

[Courier]

Well if this is poor I'm looking forward to the good days. We made them look like a Championship team.

they did have 10 men! until then we looked a mid table PL side.This just is not the Arsenal we have been used to but what gets me most is Arsène insists on talking about how other teams play yet even against 10 men at home he took until the 70th minute to bring on our most effective striker after Henry.Cr@p

 

[yoinkster]

Guys who went...what the f**k was up with Arsenal station being closed at the end of the game!?

Resulted in me trying to find the Highbury station..which is like 20 mins away. Took me ages to get home!

I did get a good look at AG tho..and got some cool pics. It's friggin' massive!

Had the same problem but it only took me and my Girldfriend about 10 mins to walk to Holloway Road. I also got the chance to walk past AG and it does look really impressive. It really shows just what the club has become and its great to see.

Dunno if this is right but the Piccadilly {sp} tube line was closed for maintence so if you tried to get the tube and we are on that line then you would have failed. but i dont know anything about the tube and whats on which line so that might have nothing to do with it ...

anyway the game ... who the hell was that ref ?! foy ? roy ? pah ... what happened to riley, id like to have seen him wave play on when freddie was hacked down and booked freddie for diving in the box ... ****.

i thought the match was played at a really low tempo, there was no urgency in our play at all and we didnt seem to have any attacking ideas.

didnt look completely solid at the back either that we have shown in the last few games.

it was a very harsh goal to have conceded for taylor, he didnt deserve to be beaten like that, id wouldve liked to see another goal, the unsaveable type, so he wouldnt feel guilty or something. i think brum said we didnt deserve to win ... thats turd, there was only one team that was going to win that.

i thought, in my completely unbiased view, that it was a blatant red card if not two but there shouldve been another pen in the second half when reyes was pushed out the way.

my AMOM is reyes, every time i saw a reply on the big screen the camera panning to the striker who just missed would always show me reyes' back so he had a good game. the MOM though has got to be taylor, inspired today, two awesome saves in two minutes in the second half. bastard .... sign him up

 

[MK5]

How Reyes can look so good (Looks like TH14 himself at times) yet be so ineffective I'll never know. It's been like this for 4 or 5 games in a row now. He works his socks off, running past defenders, makes great passes and still it never leads to a goal anyway, It's a mystery! I'm sure it will get better with time though as he's shown he can score goals before so sooner or later it should start happening for him.

 

[Legend#1]

How was it a piss poor performance.. We started slow started to assert ourselves just before there red card.. Then we mullered 'em.. There keeper had a blinder.. We still got the win.. another clean sheet, this all amounts to our much needed confidence to put on a run.

+ Performers:

Reyes
Freddie
Cesc (Bossed the midfield)
Lauren (Brilliant display imo)
Kolo
Sol

Hleb was very bad, his worst game for us.. kept losing the ball and had the touch of a rapist.

Pires was very disappointing again (Which pains me because I absolutely adore him.. but he needs to be dropped)

RvP added a touch of class.

 

[kel varnsen]

How Reyes can look so good (Looks like TH14 himself at times) yet be so ineffective I'll never know. It's been like this for 4 or 5 games in a row now. He works his socks off, running past defenders, makes great passes and still it never leads to a goal anyway, It's a mystery! I'm sure it will get better with time though as he's shown he can score goals before so sooner or later it should start happening for him.

yeah, 6 assists and 1 goal in seven matches. horrible!!! if it wasn't for taylor, he'd have two more assists today.

 

[_scorpion_]

Sometimes you just have to give credit where its deserved....and Mark Taylor had a brilliant game.

He made 3 world class saves IMO that o n any given day would have resulted in a 4 nil soreline if you include the actual goal.

Reyes was outstanding and so was Cesc. I thought Lauren was the best of our defenders today so full credit to him.

What I cannot understand is Robert Pires.

How does one so great becoe so poor so quick? Age? I dont know ....but he was diabolical today and the minute he stepped up for the penalty I knew he would miss. When will Wenger learn to start RVP upfront and play Hleb in the middle? We need a formation that will see Cesc, Hleb, Reyes and RVP on the park from the start. This is the way forward so these guys need to get thier combinations working NOW!

Pires should be on the subs bench and quite honestly after today's display I'd rather see Quincy.

Apart from that little rant well done to the boys and if you gave me 1-nil at the start of the day (after a CL week) I would have taken it in a heart beat.

 

[KoLo28]

I'm happy with that result. At this stage in the season given where Chelsea are its important for us to get a result regardless of the performance. It was simply a matter of time before we scored, we could have won 5-0.

Thought the back 4 and Jens had a good game, aslong as they did stop when the ball curled out from their corner. Pires has been a great player for us but I think it's time he was used off the bench, he hardly runs at players and takes them on and looks scared to get stuck in. Hleb didn't have a good game but I think would be better on the left or in the middle, with Freddie returning to the wing and playing Van Persie or Bergkamp upfront with Reyes. Gilberto was sound and did his job, Fabregas for me improved on early season form and played some nice balls and held the ball up well. Reyes was awesome, his fitness is amazing and he created alot of chances through hard work, the goals will come soon. Freddie did a good job in a make shift position and could easily have scored. However I think its best if he returns to the right with Hleb on the left.

Lets hope this leads to an extended run of positive results.

 

[chandraraj]

arsenal 1 - taylor 0

i thought arsenal played very well. the movement and the pace, reminds me the slick arsenal we are craving to see. yea, the finishing was poor. but the 'shoot at sight policy' was good. i knew it was a matter-of-time arsenal would score. and the goal came finally

i was glad wenger didin't waited until the last 10 minutes to replace hleb. isn't that great to see the master bergy playing alongside rvp?

a very good and important win.

 

[MK5]

How was it a piss poor performance.. We started slow started to assert ourselves just before there red card.. Then we mullered 'em.. There keeper had a blinder.. We still got the win.. another clean sheet, this all amounts to our much needed confidence to put on a run.

+ Performers:

Reyes
Freddie
Cesc (Bossed the midfield)
Lauren (Brilliant display imo)
Kolo
Sol

Hleb was very bad, his worst game for us.. kept losing the ball and had the touch of a rapist.

Pires was very disappointing again (Which pains me because I absolutely adore him.. but he needs to be dropped)

RvP added a touch of class.

Kolo was a rock! Probably one of the best defenders in the world right now when he's playin alongside Sol again!

 

[MK5]

How Reyes can look so good (Looks like TH14 himself at times) yet be so ineffective I'll never know. It's been like this for 4 or 5 games in a row now. He works his socks off, running past defenders, makes great passes and still it never leads to a goal anyway, It's a mystery! I'm sure it will get better with time though as he's shown he can score goals before so sooner or later it should start happening for him.

yeah, 6 assists and 1 goal in seven matches. horrible!!! if it wasn't for taylor, he'd have two more assists today.

Ok 6 assists in 7 games ain't bad but 1 goal in 7 games with all the chances he's had his surreal!