PL: Arsenal vs Portsmouth | 02/09/07

[Gurgen]

He was barely fit Dave.

 

[awooga83]

Well he could have been taken off because he had been ill and inevitably won't play as well or last as long as most of the others.

 

[Guillermo]

Am I the only one that's pissed about Ade not even trying to finish Hleb's cross to him in the first half? There was a suspiscion of offside - but it wasn't given, and he didn't even stick a leg out, from 3 yards. A whisker of a touch, and that was an extra goal - what on earth was going through his head?

Yeah, 'twas very frustrating; however, I was quite pleased with Ade's running today. He looked quite unfit, but his direct runs in behind the Pompey defence caused many problems - especially down the left flank.

I think his major flaw is his technique when striking the ball. He got himself into a number of dangerous positions of the left-hand side of the Pompey box - almost Henry-esque - only to knock it back to a midfielder as he was unable to muster a decent cross or effort at goal.

I wasn't too pleased to learn he was taking the penalty, but it was a cool finish.

As we began to counter-attack towards the end of the game, I would have liked to have seen the pace of Walcott exploiting the space in the final third of the pitch, with Ade and RvP beginning to tire. That said, Eduardo looked lively, though I'm interested to see Wenger experiment with him more on the left, based on Wednesday's showing.

 

[asajoseph]

Couldn't agree more with that assessment of Ade, some of his running, particularly down the left, was fantastic - if only he had a half-decent passing or shooting technique to make the most of it, he'd truly be a brilliant footballer..

I think the reason Wenger didn't go for Walcott is the fact that he didn't want to get caught out in midfield (and both Tom and Denilson were defending well), and up front we needed more of a physical presence. Once Ade's legs were gone, Eduardo was the more natural choice, really.

 

[MDGoonah41]

This may be one of the greatest pictures ever....





wait for it....

 

[RocktheCasbah]

Couldn't agree more with that assessment of Ade, some of his running, particularly down the left, was fantastic - if only he had a half-decent passing or shooting technique to make the most of it, he'd truly be a brilliant footballer..

I think the reason Wenger didn't go for Walcott is the fact that he didn't want to get caught out in midfield (and both Tom and Denilson were defending well), and up front we needed more of a physical presence. Once Ade's legs were gone, Eduardo was the more natural choice, really.

I agree too. Some of the RedAction lot were getting well hacked off with Ade today, easy to see why. The amount of great positions he wasted was frustrating in the extreme.

Agree with your thoughts, Asa, on why Walcott didn't appear.

I haven't read through the whole thread, and my view of the match may have been coloured by the fact that I got watch it from the Red section- I actually left the stadium feeling like I'd been at a football match, can you imagine?- anyway, one of the most enjoyable games I've been to. The sending off gave the game a frisson it might not have had otherwise at 2-0- and then 3-1. Thought Cesc and Rosicky were class. Very impressed with Clichy going forward and the first half, with Arsenal being in the lead early for a change, was probably the most exciting I've seen in the new stadium. Except possibly the Blackburn game.

Watching the game from the red section, it's the first time I've realised that they've continued the tradition of calling the players names before kick off- got waves from Gilberto and Cesc.

Some of the singing was quality,
"You've only come for free beer", "Choke on your caviar" both aimed at the, well, you an work it out I'm sure. "You're not ringing anymore" and the "We've only got 10 men" on going 3-0 up, which was briefly interrupted by Kanu's jammy goal, then taken up again.

Loved Rosicky's goal, and the celebration, him and Cesc looked shocked that he scored- is it now par for the course to try and kill the guy who scores? Bit worried that a lot of the goals we are scoring are coming from set pieces- all of them today.

 

[RocktheCasbah]

Cesc done some really nice things. that's what he does. i mean he mugged players a good few times but the misplaced passes really marred his performance for me. particularly the ones in the second half. there was a patch where every pass he made went to an opposition player. i'm not saying he had the worst game today, but i'm just saying he played a solid six. good things today and bad things.

With a player like Cesc, sabre, it's not the passes he doesn't make that are important. It's the ones he does make. I thought he had a good game, and a goal and a great assist were the icing on the cake.

 

[hujja]

This may be one of the greatest pictures ever....





wait for it....

Ermm....

Is it the fact that Aleks is jumping for a header?

 

[Rocafella]

Flamini looks like he wants to batter the ball. Such heart and spirit

 

[MDGoonah41]

Ermm....

Is it the fact that Aleks is jumping for a header?

It might be the godawful face he's making, or Flamini's look of death right next to him...

 

[awooga83]

Flamini's determination to get the ball is so much that his mental focus is crushing Alex out of existence.

 

[invisibleman18]

Reasonably solid performance, although thd 2nd half did produce a few nerves.

Why was Flamini playing at right back with no sign of Hoyte even on the bench? Is Hoyte injured or is his time here now over? Disappointing if that's the case. He had a good game against Sparta and no way should Flamini be playing out of position ahead of him.

Still can't see how Wenger can justify sending Djourou away especially now we are down to just 1 central defender.
Maybe it's just me but I don't feel that we should be in a situation where we are ever required to have a back 4 that includes both Flamini and Gilberto. And just 4 league games into the season we've already had to do it twice. An injury to Toure in the internationals (are the Ivory Coast playing?) and suddenly we're starting against Sp*rs with Song in there in addition to those 2.

 

[Artillero]

I really like the team performences this season and again today.

Clichy, Flamini and Cesc are great to watch for various reasons. Rosisky (who i am not a great fan of) today fitted in great and had a big impact, even a bit Pires like today.

Senderos looked gutted when sent off, he did the correct thing puting pressure on just unlucky Kanu collapsed with tiny contact.

 

[sabret00the]

disagree that robin had a bad game, i'd say cesc had a bad game. how many misplaced passes did he rack up? robin done some nice stuff he just wasn't a goal threat. i'd rate him a six and say he deserved to come off. he's dropping too deep and it's effecting him game in a detrimental way. his job is to be a goal threat and if he can't do that he should be dropped but certainly we have to look at why he's dropping so deep. senderos getting slated for his performance/sending off is dumb he was fantastic today.

It's surprising how people have heroes and favourites within the arsenal squad and then completely ignore or turn a blind eye to their weaker points even if the player has had a bad game. Then you have the opposite where an unpopular player is criticised at the smaller mistakes even though overall they had a decent game. Everyone does this but this post is classic.

Had Henry played like RVP did today last season then you and YBF would have made your presence known. Fair play, you say RVP wasn't a goal threat and if he continues like that he should be dropped but then you also say Cesc had a bad game. Cesc did some nice stuff and scored. Just like RVP did some nice stuff. Simple really. He's scored more competitive goals this time than he did at the same time last season (where through the whole season hardly scored any).

As for Senderos. I think it's a bit much to say he was fantastic when he got sent off. Even if it was an accident i'm sure he had a decent game but that's as far as it goes. These terms shouldn't be used loosely.

i actually matched robin and cesc's ratings even though i didn't mean to. if i done .5 ratings cesc's would be higher. cesc today, came the closest he's come to impressing me all season/pre-season. i'm glad to see he's finally starting to look like he's on the road to getting back in his groove while van Persie is rasing flags in terms of my worry about his game. it is REALLY off.

Coming back to this. the fact that van Persie had to keep coming so deep to collect the ball should surely fall on somebodies shoulders and i'd have to with the playmaker and manger assuming most of the blame for that.

 

[banduan]

Quality quality game from our midfield. Only Hleb had a subdued game but everyone else was terrific.
Cesc motm for me with Rosicky, and Flams close behind. Cesc had a couple of poor passes but his misplaced passes are magnified just because his passing is really unbelievably good. I mean he rarely ever makes the wrong decision on the ball. Such a smart footballer.

Tom is MotM for me- for defensive contributions especially. He pretty much took on Gilberto's role of moving the ball from defense to offense after Phil got sent off. And he did it so sweetly too.

Plus he was really really up for it.

Disagree with your analysis on Cesc. I thought he made a lot of bad passes (lowest passing accuracy of our midfield yesterday), and lost the ball quite a few times, but the fact is he dominates our passing. He makes a huuuuge number of passes- almost always doing about 60-70 passes a game. So he ends up playing more good passes than Tom (who made a lot of great passes) despite being a lot less accurate overall.

He's a major part of the way we play right now. And he gets goals. And assists. Just great.

 

[ronitc]

I meant his play in general, not specifically today.

The number of passes he makes is astounding, but the fact that he isn't a deep lying playmaker or defensive midfielder that makes the easy transitional passes 95% of the time but rather goes for the "killer" / through balls quite often AND still has a high pass completion percentage makes his play super impressive.

This is why I rate his passing above someone like Xabi Alonso for example.

 

[EMIR8_SOLDIER]

you see a lot more from the bench so i can imagine being pompey players on the bench watching the likes of 20 yr old cesc just running the show with sublime passes, his movement and just his intelligence,reminiscant of zidane or bergy but just a young mans body
they must be astonished

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

disagree that robin had a bad game, i'd say cesc had a bad game. how many misplaced passes did he rack up? robin done some nice stuff he just wasn't a goal threat. i'd rate him a six and say he deserved to come off. he's dropping too deep and it's effecting him game in a detrimental way. his job is to be a goal threat and if he can't do that he should be dropped but certainly we have to look at why he's dropping so deep. senderos getting slated for his performance/sending off is dumb he was fantastic today.

It's surprising how people have heroes and favourites within the arsenal squad and then completely ignore or turn a blind eye to their weaker points even if the player has had a bad game. Then you have the opposite where an unpopular player is criticised at the smaller mistakes even though overall they had a decent game. Everyone does this but this post is classic.

Had Henry played like RVP did today last season then you and YBF would have made your presence known. Fair play, you say RVP wasn't a goal threat and if he continues like that he should be dropped but then you also say Cesc had a bad game. Cesc did some nice stuff and scored. Just like RVP did some nice stuff. Simple really. He's scored more competitive goals this time than he did at the same time last season (where through the whole season hardly scored any).

As for Senderos. I think it's a bit much to say he was fantastic when he got sent off. Even if it was an accident i'm sure he had a decent game but that's as far as it goes. These terms shouldn't be used loosely.

i actually matched robin and cesc's ratings even though i didn't mean to. if i done .5 ratings cesc's would be higher. cesc today, came the closest he's come to impressing me all season/pre-season. i'm glad to see he's finally starting to look like he's on the road to getting back in his groove while van Persie is rasing flags in terms of my worry about his game. it is REALLY off.

Coming back to this. the fact that van Persie had to keep coming so deep to collect the ball should surely fall on somebodies shoulders and i'd have to with the playmaker and manger assuming most of the blame for that.

Its amazing RvP cant really own up to any blame in your eyes. Its always the coach or the mids..well Ade kept coming back also but ade saw much more of the ball also..made many more runs...but anyways am not surprised.....

 

[Rohit]

I think RvP is playing just where he should. He just needs to pass and move into space more, he does drop deep but atleast yesterday he rarely moved into good positions after passing the ball. Wenger has started him in every game so far this season and it shows how important RvP is. We need to stick with him and he'll come good i am sure.

 

[celestis]

If our forward line get their act together than we are surely title contenders .
Ade is the one player in the forward line that we can't drop, his ability to hold the ball , mobitlity - lets just say he is a handfull for anyone.
RVP is a bit of a concern , he has probably the most technical ability in the squad but is not doing anything. If he can't link up with the others , then at least take some players on and shoot. Impose himself on the game .