PL: Blackburn Rovers vs Arsenal | 19/08/07

[kel varnsen]

watched the first 45 mins now and we did not play well at all. going forward, we lacked composure and got sucked into blackburns thumping football. in 45 mins we produced maybe about 3-4 good passing moves. far too little imo.

we have been passing the ball to marked players, as a result of not enough movement off the ball and pace on the ball. though, that on its own is not automatically wrong, but against the thuggish blackburn the player who receives the ball will probably be kicked to the ground. not even given a chance to beat his defender.

as for individual performances, i have to say i'm a bit disappointed with van persie. the only times he really gets involved in the build up play, is when he drops down 30-40 yards, which is far too deep. he needs to make runs into the channels behind and in between the full backs and central defenders far more often. far too often do i see him receive the ball with his back to the goal.

the central midfield has played well. cesc is very composed on the ball and his passing game has been a huge relief for us. he really is able to keep posession and untangle thight situations. flamini covers a lot of space, is surprisingly solid on the ball and the headless chicken act is pretty much gone. very solid so far.

 

[asajoseph]

Eboue tbh just looks like he's in some park when playing football. The only thing which kept eboue going on until now is his incredible pace and ability to get past players. Eboue used to add a lot to our attacking game when playing as a RB. But he lacks mental toughness and is a bit short in intelligence. So playing Right midfield is always going to be a big ask for him considering that you require even more intelligence and understanding to play there. Wenger is taking a gamble on eboue and if it works then wenger has hit jackpot.

I think this is exactly right.

Playing as an attacking fullback is not the same as playing effectively in midfield, and the skills you require are not identical.

So far, Eboue has everything to prove in midfield, and the omens, to this point, have not looked good.

 

[AFCFan4Ever]

I'm not too disappointed with getting a draw but it just absolutely guts me at how it came down.

That was a ridiculous error from Jens and that's 2 shockers in consecutive games...not a good sign. I really think he should be dropped for a while to get his head on straight, get Almunia or Fab in there.

The worst thing is that all the results from the other games fell right for us and we were so close to taking advantage of it but that fluke mistake cost us.

All in all, not the worst result but could've been oh so much better.

 

[tactica442]

I think Eboue will turn into a quality right winger, but it will take at least 4-6 months.

I hope Eboue will learn the trick without the expense on the team's points. AW already has fed the team too many points to make the boys to develop and mature after Vieira's departure.

 

[asajoseph]

and before anyone gets too down, our next match is against Citeh, at home.

Win that one, and we'll be superb shape, I think, and would have made a good opening to the season.

 

[EMIR8_SOLDIER]

first 5 games are very important, next two are at home then spurss i think away
anyway im just focusing on citeh now

 

[kel varnsen]

really poor second half. i guess there's not much else to say. blackburn got stuck in and we lost what little composure on the ball we showed in the first half.

btw, we played 4-4-2, yet we didn't really play that well at all. maybe some will realize that playing with two forwards isn't the be all of everything. there is far more to it than just having two forwards up front...

 

[dutchMasta]

we didn't really play well with 4-5-1 either, yet we grinded out results which would've been the case today, had lehmann not had that blunder.

 

[kel varnsen]

thought we played fairly well against fulham. we were at least able to get pace on the ball in that final third of the pitch and, not least, in the right direction. pace on the ball directed at the goal. today, i thought we lacked that part of our game. we weren't really able to get players into the space between the midfield and the back four, running at goal, both on and off the ball. which was a shame, as there was a bit of room between the blackburn defenders and their midfield...

 

[ThaSaltCracka]

we were able to get behind their back line, but it was from long passes to the left. Its tough to get the shorter, more controlled passes, when our MF was pressed as much as it was. The constant fouls slowed our attack down as well.

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

2 points droppped but overall display was encouraging. We did enuff to win the game.would have beeen a huge achievment better than even our last week's game cos those f*rs really were kickin us..

 

[run]

Blackburn's tactics were despicable and Hughes' claim he is "proud of (their) performance" is just a joke...but it is a compliment that the resorted to violence against us. They clearly aren't good enough. It is a shame we didn't punish them for their antics but I thought we dealt with it well, generally speaking.

To the simple minded this match will be seen as Blackburn earning a point by "intimidating" us. But, put another way, it was clearly Blackburn who were intimidated by our greater technical ability...every time we strung two or three passes together you just knew they were gonna kick out at us. It would be laughable if riley didn't let them get away with it.

And what is up with these "hardmen" rolling on the groud like women. When eduardo crashed into Savages back with his ass, robbie went down clutching his face. It is astounding that the media let these ****ers get away with that nonsense.

And oh yeah, Myles Palmer linked to an article after our champions league win last week that claimed Cesc's challenge on Repka was an example of innocence lost in football. If one young player standing up for himself and his teammates is the end of innocence...what was the match today? The end of days? The double standard is incredible, Arsenal get rough or lose their heads a little and it's the end of the world, Blackburn (or Bolton, or whoever) do it and it's just another weekend in the Premier League. Lame.

 

[Viper]

Walcott should've put us ahead to make it 2-0.

 

[asajoseph]

And oh yeah, Myles Palmer linked to an article after our champions league win last week that claimed Cesc's challenge on Repka was an example of innocence lost in football. If one young player standing up for himself and his teammates is the end of innocence...what was the match today? The end of days? The double standard is incredible, Arsenal get rough or lose their heads a little and it's the end of the world, Blackburn (or Bolton, or whoever) do it and it's just another weekend in the Premier League. Lame.

I will say though, the only reason I'm so bitter about it is the fact that we completely ****ed it up today.

If they'd kicked us and we'd still beaten them, this could have been so much sweeter - and it should have been. Jens account this season is already heavily overdrawn - he owes us, big time.

 

[marco]

to be honest pretty proud of them today ( apart from jens)
we were kicked to **** how we got 4 bookings it beyond me..


referee was awful but cos it wasnt against liverpool no one will care tomorrow..
bentley showed what a bitter and twisted ****** he really is... we sold you you little mouthy piece of ****.. and good riddance hope you break your leg trying to wind rvp up..

only disappointments were theo and phil..

jens what a ****ing joke though cost us 2 points.. not good enough..

so many fouls today it was unreal but thats english football for you and this country wonders why they dont win world cups.

 

[DC Gunner]

I knew the ref was bad when I saw this incident around the first or second minute, clichy was letting the ball go out of bounds and Savage shoved him heavily out of bounds, not even a foul much less a caution was given

 

[DC Gunner]

so many fouls today it was unreal but thats english football for you and this country wonders why they dont win world cups.

Just reminded me of a thought; it is for the same reason the Americans haven't won in Basketball in the last few tournaments, my friend commented "these stars are spoiled by the refs with the calls that they can't handle the International game"; Same goes for England's NT players, which European news paper would defend J.Terry for a deserved Red !?

 

[banduan]

Hmm. I'm in the distressing position of actually being very let down by that game- primarily the second half. And usually I'm one of the optimistic one. I was expecting to log on and see massive moanings.

 

[thegame24]

im pissed off at lehmann as much as i am pissed off with walcotts terible pass attempt to rvp.

bloody dissapointed cause we would have been in brilliant shape had we won.

 

[run]

Asa...you're right we should have come away from this with three points and then all their nonsense would have been for naught. Oh, well.

Game...I still think we are in a good position. Thank god Man United has started the season like we did last year, and both chelski and pool have dropped points. Had Chelsea won today I would be a little more freaked out...as it stands I'm just pissed.

Hopefully the team is pissed too. If they have the right attitude, I wouldn't want to be City.