PL: Blackburn Rovers vs Arsenal | 25/02/06

[Rohit]

Arsenal boss Arsène Wenger: "I'm very sad because I don't think we deserved to lose this game.
"For maybe five or six minutes in the first half we suffered a little bit, but overall we were always on top of the game but we couldn't score.

"We lacked a little bit mental sharpness maybe because of Tuesday night but overall we gave absolutely everything physically until the last second of the game."

source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/4726966.stm


incredulous !!!

quoted for truth though.

I suppose you'd prefer "My players suck. My captain is a lazy bastard who forgets that a once great player had the patience to take him under his wings and make him a better player. I have no once else who can score except my uninterested captain. The board sucks, the FA sucks, and our team can get fouled 23 times, and that teams refuse to play against us. I hate this f****g country, i hate the f****g fans. I need more money, bla bla bla..."
Idiotic managers who are "honest", and forget the public nature of their jobs or that their players are mostly teenagers go to clubs like Newcastle, Inter, Aston Villa-- perpetually underacheiving clubs-- and fail. I'm highly confident what wenger says to the media is not necessarily what he believes; he deals with his players in private, as he should.

Your best post in a while, Shadow :wink:

On a serious note, you are spot on. Wenger, being in a pool full of media-sharks, is doing the best thing he can. Defend his team, even if they play like sh*te.

The dressing room is a different story for sure....

No one ever said that he should publicly criticize his players.But why can't he be honest and say that over 90 minutes Blackburn were the better team and deserved to win this game ????

If you saw the game you d know after the goal it was all Blackburn in the first half,we did not have a single shot on goal.He says "we lacked a little bit mental sharpness maybe because of Tuesday night",Chelsea played on Wednesday night and in a more intense match,they wer'nt at their best but found a way to beat Portsmouth.

He should defend his players from the media without the shadow of a doubt but how would there be a problem if he was honest and said that we did deserve to loose,will that give his players a complex that Blackburn are a better team with better individual players ???

Probably you would say that we dominated the 2nd half and played in Blackburns half and they had 10 men behind the ball,so what they scored and sat on their lead,tried playing on the counter.It was our job to break them down and yesterday we were'nt good enough.

 

[tgr]

once again cesc playing RM is a bad decision.
we paly flmaini at LB and we lose our left side.
now we play cesc at RM and we kill our right side.
i would like to see diaby-cesc as CMs if wenger has to play both together. otherwise, he has to sell cesc to real madrid and train diaby to be a new vieira. playing cesc at RM will kill ourselves again and again.

our best starting xi should be:
---------lehmann-----
eboue-toure-xxx-cole
hleb-cesc-diaby-reyes
----rvp--adebayor----
3 main subs to be used: flamini,walcott,ljungberg
henry:1. for home and soft games 2. for a better arsenal side

 

[Viper]

Okies, I also just watched it on FF. Why the f**k does it take us 60minutes to get into a game? If only we went at the opposition like that from the start, we'd put the s**t's up them and be able to play our high tempo game. They're having to pelt it out of the area every other minute just to keep us at bay, great, we keep posession to look for an opening all the while they're crapping their pants. We had the chances, and another mistake by Senderos cost us the game.

Cesc - penalty, he went down a bit ott, but I think that was due to desperation and fatigue, it was a definite penalty. The fact the ball ran away from him a bit will also have come into play. Gave the ball away a few times, but was at the heart of our best attacking play. In particular, the opportunity that arose for the c**t in the next paragraph.

Pires - s**t. Offer him a new contract, and there's some serious mental illness going around the board-room. His work rate - s**t. His passing - s**t. His shooting - s**t. His tackling - sorry, not meant to associate him with tackling. We're being counter attacked three on three and this pony c**t just jogs back with the guy in posession 2yards infront of him. f**k off to Valencia you c**t.

Gilberto - mediocre at best, dwelled on the ball and gave it away as usual. ******.

Henry - poor touch, poor work rate, poor captaincy. Should have opened his mouth and told his team-mates to get stuck in, and stop being a bunch of lazy pussies. He and Adebayor are yet to gel, and that's not surprising since they've not played together a lot, but that hinders us upfront. When Pires came on, the two couldn't connect worth a s**t. Perhaps he was tired from Tuesday's game where he did a lot of running, and albeit wasn't brilliant, he worked quite hard.

Adebayor - worked hard, great chest to create an opportunity for himself, but the shot was dog piss. Lovely pieces of skill at times, and a great ball for Henry who didn't read it due to the lack of understanding. All in all I'd say he was pretty good.

Eboue - did fine.

Toure - quality.

Senderos - f**k me. You get skinned like a kipper by Bellamy, then try to rape him on the pitch as he makes his way into the area. What the hell is wrong with you? You make more than one mistake a game, but, you keep trying - can't fault you for that. Unlucky with the header. Just chill out, you have the talent, you need to get some consistency.

Flamini - Senderos had to cover for him a few times when Bellamy was found alone on the flank, so a bit ****ty positional wise. However, down the flank attacking he was good, even saw the bugger pull a few stepovers at one point in a bid to try and create something.

Lehmann - I f****g love you. Great work getting stuck in and giving the opposition grief, wouldn't change you for the world.

Reyes - didn't really get the ball, and when you did you didn't offer much. However, you should have stayed on instead of Pires being subbed on. You had the odd rare flash of skill, but when you ran half the pitch only to take too heavy a touch infront of Andy Todd it was a shame.

Diaby - not much coverage of you mate, but you worked hard and f*d up Lucas Neill, so well done for that. Tried to create openings whenever possible.

Hleb - quality. Offered us outlets for attack, and created openings for others. Again, first touch - insanely immense, best I've ever seen for beating a man. Quality run at goal, and a BEAUTIFUL f****g chip through to ADE's chest. I really hope you and Reyes begin on the wings for our following games. You were great when you first joined and the injury screwed you up, since then you've had to get your stamina back, and work on consistency and rebuilding a relationship with team-mates.

Good post. I agree with everything you've mentioned.

One thing which really buggers me is that I have no ****ing clue on how the hell we went from a side who were unbeatable to a mid-table side struggling to quality for the CL and losing every game away form home in the space of 2 years.

If Pires gets a contract extension, I'll go mental. He said he won't accept one year though, and Wenger is apparently going to offer one year to him.

 

[Tegh]

I'd offer him the door with just a kick in the womb.
Anything more than that is stupid.

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

The same Henry bashers.. are the same fools who were bashing Vieira for the past 2 /3 years sayign he look disinterested..and doesn't deserve the armband...so Wenger lets him go..and you all come *****in about it. You think if Henry goes Wenger can really bring a Henry class player to ARsenal? You gotta be in lalaland to think a top top top player will come to Arsenal with Henry/Pires gone, Bergkamp retired. And idiots like you would then blame Wenger for not having a plan B in regards to Henry's replacement. Let me put it straight..there will never be a "Henry" replacement. Wenger will just have to f*ing adjust the team as he did with Vieira..and we don't know how that will go. Are you really ready for that.or is this just the everyday childish/emotional reaction after another loss?

 

[XWA]

Guys I haven't really seen the match and I'm disappointed with the score, but when things are going badly then it's going bad. THe players, Manager and everyone else are trying and I believe and know they want to win and doing everything to make this happen. I hope our injury crisis is over soon and play some good balls forward as this is what is lacking this season, the final touch. Don't forget our players are very very young. Fab has played one of the most matches along side Flamini(even though he came one as a sub couple of times) and look at their age. Give them time, I hope Henry does this too because we need him....play on Arsenal, until some day we're back to our game.

 

[kel varnsen]

I just watched Arsenal on Football First and I have to say the criticism of Adebayor I find harsh.

He showed some real nice touches and fought for the team, even late on.. something I could not say for his strike partner.

The part where Adebayor brought down the ball on his chest and shot from a ball in the box was wonderful, should have scored, but the way he gave himself the opportunity was class.

but that's the problem, isn't it. his first touch and close control is superb, but he just lacks that killer instinct in front of goal. he doesn't have that do or die attitude in front of goal.

 

[brady]

The same Henry bashers.. are the same fools who were bashing Vieira for the past 2 /3 years sayign he look disinterested..and doesn't deserve the armband...so Wenger lets him go..and you all come *****in about it. You think if Henry goes Wenger can really bring a Henry class player to ARsenal? You gotta be in lalaland to think a top top top player will come to Arsenal with Henry/Pires gone, Bergkamp retired. And idiots like you would then blame Wenger for not having a plan B in regards to Henry's replacement. Let me put it straight..there will never be a "Henry" replacement. Wenger will just have to f*ing adjust the team as he did with Vieira..and we don't know how that will go. Are you really ready for that.or is this just the everyday childish/emotional reaction after another loss?

To be fair, I think some of those complaining about Vieira are lamenting that he was not replaced and not about him being sold. And though you might point to the fact that he has not been replaced as evidence that no top class players would want to come if Henry goes, some of us feel that it is a team game and the team might actually benefit. You are right in that Wenger will have to adjust the team and the uncertainty that will bring, but one thing's for sure. It will show the rest that it is the team that matters, not just one favoured player. Not all of us can be Henry, but if we were playing on a team with him, we would like to see him try a bit harder, be more encouraging etc. Any other excuse is useless. if he is injured he should not play. If he's thinking of moving to spain, then the earlier it is settled the better for the team.

 

[Blacks Are Red]

Pires - s**t. Offer him a new contract, and there's some serious mental illness going around the board-room. His work rate - s**t. His passing - s**t. His shooting - s**t. His tackling - sorry, not meant to associate him with tackling. We're being counter attacked three on three and this pony c**t just jogs back with the guy in posession 2yards infront of him. f**k off to Valencia you c**t.

Agreed with all you said.

This made me actually laugh to myself though, haha.........very true though.

 

[JazzG]

I don't care what happens in the CL but if we don't finish at least 4th this season will be a complete disaster,

dont say things like that jazz. its a big possibility that we wont have cl football next year and the sooner we get used to it the better. comments like this make it difficult.

That was said in frustration more than anything else. We this season have become the team that we frowned upon in previous years. Our team has been the benchmark when it comes to being consistent, nobody could match our consistency but now we have become a team who only performs when they feel like it. Even though I didn't expect us to play so well I could just sense that our lot were well up for the R.Madrid match, I reckon we would of gone toe to toe with even a better Madrid side of 2/3 years ago because this match meant so much to our players. They don't care anymore and that hurts like hell. If we had a team which wasn't good enough fair enough but our team is far better than Sp**s, Bolton or Blackburn and we are shooting ourselves in the foot with our poor finishing. How many goals have come from our midfield this season? We used to be able to guarantee around 20-30 but I don't think we are near that figure right now.

Banking on the CL like I get the impression our players our doing is a huge risk to take. Just because in the previous two years slightly above average teams have won the CL it doesn't mean it will happen three times, what if draw Juve or Barca in the next round? Can we tactically outthink them and overpower their midfield? Or can we go blow for blow with Barca or try to shut them, Chelsea have conceded two goals in every match against over the past two seasons and they have been lucky not to concede more.

I want to believe and even though my heart tells me we won't finish out of the top 4 my head is saying otherwise. It would be a huge embarrassment if after finishing in the top 2 for 7 or so seasons to finish 5th or 6th. But we have got to believe, the other teams around us are pretty inconsistant themselves so we still have hope.....

 

[Henry IV]

It was a poor result but in all honesty, was it that unexpected? At this rate we're going to end up 6th.

 

[Kum_Arsenal]

Injuries can never be an excuse. Every team has got players injured. What a pity and shame for the gunners to lose 3 league games in a row and unable to collect even a single point. Now CL in the New Stadium is looking very bleak. If this continues how can the club and the Fans expect Henry to sign a New Contract who has big ambitions.

Looks like its going to be a up-hill battle for the gunners to catch the 4th position. I'm fed-up watching gunners losing games like this. Arsenal looked pathetic and theres no desire or ambition to win games. And now we are in a horrible 7th position and I can't even believe it.

The reasons for failure is very clear. The man(Wenger) who built the world class team for years has now depleted the team by himself. So many players have gone for the past 2 years and the replacements are very young and has got no experience.

The biggest mistake Wenger has done is selling Viera and not replacing him with an experienced or a good player. I still don't know why he sold a world class player like veiria and replacing him with young lads. And he did the same thing in the january transfer window. He looks for players between 16 and 21. I don't why. He has got money and why don't he buy some good and experienced players.

The Team looks pathetic and horrible where are the good old gunners. Its a big shame if theres no CL in the New Stadium and if we don't win anything this season. Only CL is the only hope to win a silverware this season.

Wenger what have you done with the team. You got it completely wrong this season and now its your responsibility to repair the damage and finish atleast 4th. Do something before its too late. It already looks too late now.....