PL: Arsenal vs Bolton Wanderers | 20/03/04

[JGooner]

A 2-0 lead is not enough to start sitting back, especially when that lead is achieved very early. It merely encourages the opposition to believe they can still get something from the game. Complacency is provocative. And, as Jazz says, once you lose the initiative, it is near impossible to regain it.

Also, far from conserving energy, it actually increases the risk of injuries being sustained. Injuries most often occur when players are operating below their full capacity. They go into tackles with their muscles relaxed, which is apparently the easiest way of getting yourself injured.

I don't think there's any excuse for slacking until at least a 3-0 lead has been established, and even then it shouldn't be done unless there is less than 30 mins left.

 

[juz7_pi12es]

Don't moan, we won..
(Yeah yeah yeah i quoted it from MR GH )

 

[RocktheCasbah]

Jeff Spelling on Sky was adamant it wasn't a penalty - said that Frank McLintock was viewing the match with red and white eyes

Well Frank is a biased so and so, but that's why he's so great
BTW you're not gonna get nervous watching highlights of a game you know we won, are you?

 

[GoonerGurjit]

Another, tense nervy home performance similar to the one against Charlton. From what I heard of the game on the radio Gilberto and Lehmann were shocking. Still another 3 points closer to the title.

 

[lewdikris]

Another week, another win - I'm sure the players minds couldn't help but slip to the killer fortnight ahead, so a vintage performance was never on the cards today.

But the two important factors remained the same:

1. An ability to slice opponents open at will leading to crucial early goals.

2. Championship-winning luck. The overhead kick off the post against Charlton, headers off the bar today and bad misses. Those are good omens.

Now bring on the rich bastards.

 

[thegame24]

Same old Arsenal, always winning.

 

[Mark]

I haven't seen the highlights yet, I haven't read the previous pages of this topic, but from the brief updates I heard on the radio, the second half performance today didn't sound good at all. Judging from how we started I would've expected us to get a 3rd, maybe even a 4th and kill the game off as quick as we could, forget being denied 2 clear penalties, that's no excuse. Bad defending led to us conceeding a goal we shouldnt've conceeded near the end of the first half, and with only a one goal lead you can't just let the opposition attack you. I heard they hit the bar and missed a sitter or two, that won't always happen. We just can't let teams do that. We have to control the game from start to finish and keep them back in their own half, not the other way round. If we switch off for as much as a second it could be costly.

I'm glad we won, but it shouldn't have been this nerve racking. I thought it was going to be last year all over again. We especially couldn't drop points today because the mancs and Chelski both won and with the games we have coming up, there are a lot of places we could drop points. We were very lucky today and I hope that the reason for the poor second half performance was because they are saving energy for the tougher games coming up, because if this is how they intend to play against teams like Chelski and Man Utd, they will not get away with that sort of performance.

 

[GoonerGurjit]

We'll need to play much better at Stamford Bridge or we'll get beat for sure.

 

[thegame24]

Well you could also say if Chelsea play the way the did against Fulham, they will get beat.

I think the penalty decisions do matter, cause both should have been given (maybe at least 1) and we also hit the bar.

 

[Mark]

It doesn't matter if they were penalties or not, the fact is they weren't given and the ref won't change his mind. You just have to get on with it and you should be able to score without getting penalties. I haven't seen these yet, but the ref made the wrong decision, it shouldn't matter. These things happen in football. You just have to get on with it.

 

[thegame24]

Yea but the fact remains that we might have gone on to score those chances had they not fouled us and the ref should be doing his job properly.

you cant call us lucky either, thats 29 games unbeaten and we are in the record books. 29 games!!!! will that ever be done again?

I understand you are pissed that we conceded and the game felt nerve racking, however, we have got the toughest schedule EVER seen in football coming up so i give the players credit at the fact they can still beat bastard teams like bolton when they know they got the hardest games of their lives coming up.

 

[Natnat]

My nerves were shreds, by end of the game.
Wind was horrific, I was getting nervous durring the second half, I was actually shaking abit.
Swear football ages me.
Gilberto was on another planet, and I was glad when he was taken off the pitch.
It drained me .

 

[thegame24]

I dont understand why wenger played gilberto on the right. either put him in his right place or dont play him at all. He is already low on confidence and playing out of position wont help.

TBH i wasnt actually as nervous as i was against charlton, but yea arsenal doesnt help your health.

 

[Mark]

you cant call us lucky either, thats 29 games unbeaten and we are in the record books. 29 games!!!! will that ever be done again?

First of all I never said we've been lucky all season. This unbeaten run is well deserved but today and against Charlton I thought we were pretty lucky to get away with it. I remember that shot some Charlton player hit against the post in the last few minutes. That could've bounced of Lehmann or gone anywhere.

I'm not critisizing the team, I'm just a bit concerned that we can't really kill off games because one of these days we won't get away with it.

 

[thegame24]

I get your point, but you got to realise we still deserve to win these games, we also had missed chances. You cant say one day we will be caught, cause we can say one day our chances would have gone in and we would be 4 nil up at half time.

 

[slapz]

We're getting a lot of luck this season, which we didnt get last season

All in all, I think 2-1 was a great result as conditions sounded well bad. As wenger would say " we showed mental toughness and togetherness n solidarity and all that jazz ".

AND NO INJURIES

 

[Ladygooner]

BTW you're not gonna get nervous watching highlights of a game you know we won, are you?

Eh......................no why would I? :?

At least I'm not like some of my female Gooner pals - who get so nervous they don't even watch the live matches - just check the results

 

[JazzG]

A 2-0 lead is not enough to start sitting back, especially when that lead is achieved very early. It merely encourages the opposition to believe they can still get something from the game. Complacency is provocative. And, as Jazz says, once you lose the initiative, it is near impossible to regain it.

Also, far from conserving energy, it actually increases the risk of injuries being sustained. Injuries most often occur when players are operating below their full capacity. They go into tackles with their muscles relaxed, which is apparently the easiest way of getting yourself injured.

I don't think there's any excuse for slacking until at least a 3-0 lead has been established, and even then it shouldn't be done unless there is less than 30 mins left.

Agreed!

Maybe I was over-reacting earlier on but scraping a win isn't ideal going into 2 matches with Chelsea and 2 with Man utd. Listening to the radio made me a nervous wreck, that is how bad we were and I usually never get this nervous watching/listening to a match! Then again when we beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge we had a poor performance + win against Southampton. I think we will raise our game for these games....

 

[Mark]

You'd think after last year against Bolton the players would learn that even a 2 goal lead is far from safe. Even 3 goal leads have shown not to be safe this season. I don't think that would happen to us but you really have to be 100% focussed for the whole 90 minutes and today and against Charlton we relaxed too much after going 2-0 up.

 

[AFCG7]

We could have done without this kind of game.. our players must be very tired and i hope we can recover in time for the CL game..
Chelsea had the liberty of taking Duff and Gronkjaer off and didnt have as much to do as we did.