PL: Arsenal vs Portsmouth | 02/09/07

[RockyRocastle]

Really enjoyed today. Great performance and a good atmosphere. It really is a joy to watch us at times.

Everyone was fantastic today, only a silly mistake from Phil cost us a perfect performance.

One of the things I enjoyed the most was the performances of Diaby and Denilson when they came on. Both look like turning into quality players and it makes a change having genuine depth in this position. Not so long ago we only had Flamini :shock:

But to be fair to him he has looked a new player this season and was outstanding at right back, a performance beyond anything Hoyte would be capable of. Was he injured or dropped? Makes the singing of Diarra (who my Chelsea mate says is mustard) a strange one really.

And another positive are the goals of Cesc, Hleb and Rosicky. That is what we lacked last year, and if they stay injury free who knows what can happen.

Just a shame we have to go through two weeks of an England snorefest before we get goldmember the sack on the 15th!

 

[Alfonso]

I thought Diaby was impressive when he came on bar the miss. Diaby has great ball skills and I still think he is in third gear. His potential is unbelivable.

When he first came to Arsenal the impression was that he was a DMC due to the Vieria comparisons, but in fact he is a very attacking minded player. He can even play behind the striker in the Kaka/Bergkamp role and peform in that role effectively. Technically he is excellent. He still is a bit raw and can improve but I honestly think his ceiling is very, very high.

 

[Thommybhoy]

Does anybody have any picture of Eduardo from this game? I couldn't find one.
I just also wanted to say that we still should get carried away neither for a second after this beacuse out of our 10 points 9 are from home games. Although it was max points 9 out of 3 and that away game should have also been 3 points (if Mad Jens didn't lose that ball), and our last game was very good performance, from what it seems now we will have to play DM on CB for at least 3 games.

 

[lewdikris]

Just as a sidenote. We may have a surplus of "central" midfielders... but Wenger found a way to use 7 of them in one game: Cesc, Gilberto, Denilson, Diaby, Hleb, Rosicky, Flamini ... all we needed was for Diarra to get out of the stands and go and play up front!!!

 

[lee1001]

He can even play behind the striker in the Kaka/Bergkamp role and peform in that role effectively. Technically he is excellent. He still is a bit raw and can improve but I honestly think his ceiling is very, very high.

His final ball is WAYYY off to be playing just behind the srikers. His shooting isn't all that either.

 

[stiiphunn]

I found it amazing when 15 minutes away from full time we still managed to keep portsmouth in their half because of our passing and our 'skills'.

At that time we had been playing down to 10 men for 30 minutes, and yet we still could hold the ball and make the other team do the running.

It was really impressive to watch.

Anyway fantastic performance today. It was a joy to watch us.

 

[Alfonso]

He can even play behind the striker in the Kaka/Bergkamp role and peform in that role effectively. Technically he is excellent. He still is a bit raw and can improve but I honestly think his ceiling is very, very high.

His final ball is WAYYY off to be playing just behind the srikers. His shooting isn't all that either.

But he has the ability to draw 2/3 players to him and get past them. He could be very effective in that role. His passing can easily improve and he is not that bad at shooting. I have very high hopes for him.

 

[j'nuh]

I think I made my feeling clear on Ade not even attempting to reach for that ball.
We bought Ade because we needed someone to get stuck in . Those are the ball he needs to be going 100% for . I mean even Rosicky would have challenged for that injury prone as he is.

He (wrongly) assumed James had the ball and therefore sticking a foot in would be pointless. You can accuse Ade of alot of things but never of being afraid of getting stuck in.

First game at the Grove for me this season, and i thought the atmosphere was decent. Still cant deal with the early leavers though.

Its interesting that when youre watching the game from the stands that the team spirit we have now really shines through. I noticed at one point in the first half Ade and Rosicky had a couple of times where they completely misread what each other was doing on the left wing and gave the ball away. There was a bit of verbal and dodgy body langauge between them, but seconds after they hugged and made up and put together our best move of the half, if not game.

Things like that just didnt happen in the Henry era, where i felt there was much more of a hierarchy on and off the pitch, which was obviously spearheaded by #14 himself. You really get a sense with this team that theres a strong feeling of mutual respect. We look alot more like a team of equals and its great to see.

 

[j'nuh]

He can even play behind the striker in the Kaka/Bergkamp role and peform in that role effectively. Technically he is excellent. He still is a bit raw and can improve but I honestly think his ceiling is very, very high.

His final ball is WAYYY off to be playing just behind the srikers. His shooting isn't all that either.

But he has the ability to draw 2/3 players to him and get past them. He could be very effective in that role. His passing can easily improve and he is not that bad at shooting. I have very high hopes for him.

Yeah, the ability to beat people in that area is massively underrated. Equally important is the ability he has to put in crunching challenges in and around the opponents area (he did one today that was so reminscent of Paddy 3-4 years ago). This team thrives on creating space and there is no better way of doing so than by beating players or winning the ball high up. Lee is right though, his passing needs to improve drastically.

 

[celestis]

He could have easily reched it J'nuh. Even if he was in doubt he should tried to make it his. Even the commentators were not impressed.

 

[j'nuh]

He could have easily reched it J'nuh. Even if he was in doubt he should tried to make it his. Even the commentators were not impressed.

Yeah, im not doubting that he could of reached it. My point is he didnt go for it because he midjudged where the ball was going and clearly thought James was about to pick it up. My point is it was a misjudgement rather than a fear of contact, something you were implying.

 

[JGooner]

Superb performance today.

Cesc and Rosicky particularly good, and Denilson the best of the subs.

Only downsides were: Senderos, who is never going to be good enough, and Hleb, who did precisely nowt. Clichy lacks composure in attacking positions, but his all-round game was fine.

 

[Lancelot]

Diaby in Bergkamp's role is, at best, equal to Adebayor dropping deep; it means that RvP will have to play more high up the pitch, which obviously restricts his true potential.

I'd rather have either Rosicky or Hleb plays there.

 

[nidza7]

What a miss (header) by Diaby,unbelievable.

 

[stuart]

Anyone else noticed how the general tone of the media and oppositions fans alike has changed swiftly from nobodys to title contenders after the weekend? It was all about United and Chelski and suddenly ourselves and Liverpool have been thrown into the mix...just shows they aint really gotta clue. Take their opinion over nobodys

 

[asajoseph]

This forum really does make me laugh sometimes.

Two pages on the sitter Ade missed by not going for a ball 3 yards out, crossed in by Hleb, and then suddenly someone tells us that Hleb did nothing!

We need to have a collective viewing of a game that we can discuss in real time, because sometimes I just don't know if we're all watching the same thing!

 

[KingReyes]

Wasn't expecting much from Hleb myself. The guy has just recovered from a virus.

 

[awooga83]

Agree KingReyes I wasn't expecting him to play and was pleasently surprised when he did but thought he might be a bit rusty. But he still did some quality balls and was involved in some great plays.

 

[celestis]

He could have easily reched it J'nuh. Even if he was in doubt he should tried to make it his. Even the commentators were not impressed.

Yeah, im not doubting that he could of reached it. My point is he didnt go for it because he midjudged where the ball was going and clearly thought James was about to pick it up. My point is it was a misjudgement rather than a fear of contact, something you were implying.

No , am implying not that he was scared but it was not 100% percent effort going for the ball. Doesn't matter.

 

[JGooner]

One cross from Hleb all match is pretty close to "nowt". There is a reason he was taken off as early as the 61st minute. It's the same reason he was being taken off around that time towards the end of last season.