PL: Fulham vs Arsenal | 11/09/04

[patrick42uk]

i'd be pissed too if i was thierry. espcially if you take into conisderation the goals henry laid on a plate to reyes v blackburn and norwich. reyes should have passed. he did that twice today, got into a position to pass but chose to shoot from difficult angles. what arsenal are about, which is what thierry epitomises, is selflessness. its the reason why our forward players usually get goals and assists in relatively proportional numbers. reyes is still a new player really, but i'm sure henry would have had a word with him about it today so he'll learn. that selflessness makes us that little bit more productive.

 

[Henry's Girl]

was henry pissed cos reyes didnt pass? i was listening on the radio.. so thats what i heard.

he wasnt pissed but disappointed cos he was in a great position and the angle was difficult for Reyes.
Freddie was excellent. The fulham defenders marked henry & dennis leaving freddie to charge forward as much as he likes

 

[Mark]

Well I've seen it and it was an own goal without any doubt. Good play by Freddie though forcing him into the mistake. He played well today.

Reyes, despite his great start, as patrick42uk rightly pointed out, is still learning and should've passed in some situations today. I'm sure this won't be a problem for long, though.

The play for Freddie's first goal was terrific. A real quality move and a great finish. The timing, both of Reyes' run and Bergkamp's pass for our 3rd was brilliant too, and another great finish.

I hope we play better against PSV on Tuesday though, because if not we will be punished unlike today. I'm really glad we won, but we were poor today for a lot of the game.

 

[orion]

A strange first half with the two penalties turned down, the judged push on the headed goal was just about right though. We were pretty poor really, until the introduction of Reyes who seamed to electrify us. In the end it was comfortable three points in the bag, but they pushed us hard for a long time. Freddie worked hard all day and really earned to get on the score sheet where as Pires had very poor game and earned to be substituted. Glad we did not falter as the international breaks always seem to upset our game a bit. So, the run continues, but we definitelly need to be more alert against Eindhoven and really go for it from the start.

 

[orion]

Reyes, despite his great start, as patrick42uk rightly pointed out, is still learning and should've passed in some situations today. I'm sure this won't be a problem for long, though.
quote]

I think if the game would not have done and over with Reyes would have taken a more serious attitude in those few occassions, where as now he just went for those wild shots. He really changed the game creating so much more power and width in our attacks and it's fantastic to see we have another defensemen's nightmare besides Henry in our team. And it's bound to get only better in time.

 

[huyha123]

a question i feel so temp not to ask. do you think Vieira should not play today or just a sub instead starting player? he lack matches. it so clear.

also this lead to another question. will Cesc do better than Vieira? I know some of you will say Fulham attacking is good so we need Vieira to hold the midfield. but if Cesc play, our attacking will much more. and they not have that much resist.

also they use long ball tactics for their two forwards so Vieira has no effect.

anyway just opinion. frankly i really pissed during the first half when i can see we may lose due to the getting-match fitness of one person, even that is our captain.

 

[ChineseGun]

IMHO Arsène wanted PV to regain fitness in this match, but it didn't turn out to be a best decision. He came on a wrong game. However I don't think Fabregas could do any better, since Fulham had given us so much pressure in the midfield. I doubt if the Spanish lad could handle it better than PV. Maybe Edu would be a better choice?

I was kinda pissed by PV4's performance when I watch the live show. But when I review the game he was not as terrible as someone had described.
Anyway he really should improve or definitively will be dropped on the bench...

 

[ChineseGun]

I still have no confidence what so ever in Cygan, but he did his job today very well.

Dennis was different class aswell today. He is playing as well, if not better than 97. All that is missing is the 30 yarders in the top corner. His passing is just a joy to watch.

.

do not agree with you mate.
Cygan had some great clearances as well as terrible ones yesterday. he did poorly in marking Andy Cole by giving him a lot of space and in one situation on 1st half he was caught by him and almost cost us a penalty. Luckily Halsey rectified his mistake.

Bergy had a really bad 1st half, making several bad touches. He didn't do much because Fulham's defenders had well contained him. He could not control the ball.
He regained confidence at 2nd half while Fulham defenders were all thrown into frustration by Freddie's goals.

 

[arghhhh]

Mourinho blame referee for his 2 dropping points. "if that is Henry or Ruud, the decision will be different". OMG, see the Fulham game man.

Ruud is but surely not henry

this dickhead(morinho ) just didn't know how lucky he was when he got 3 points in last game vs saints , beattie's own goal and drogba's pushing awarded chelski a penalty

 

[arghhhh]

IMHO Arsène wanted PV to regain fitness in this match, but it didn't turn out to be a best decision. He came on a wrong game. However I don't think Fabregas could do any better, since Fulham had given us so much pressure in the midfield. I doubt if the Spanish lad could handle it better than PV. Maybe Edu would be a better choice?

I was kinda pissed by PV4's performance when I watch the live show. But when I review the game he was not as terrible as someone had described.
Anyway he really should improve or definitively will be dropped on the bench...

PV is not the 2001's PV anymore .....

 

[ChineseGun]

yeah,00-01 FA cup final was the best of PV4's game i have ever watched.

Gerrard's was no more than a piece of sh*te in front of him!
kick my ass!

 

[bobbypires]

No Vieira, no Pires, no Bergie and only a bit of Henry, but Freddie (the player some of you said he had nothing more to do for us) was there. Fulham were a bit unlucky, but Lehmann was there!

Tough game. We didn't play well, but the score is the usual. Our rivals has to be scared. Fulham played us like they were a big club. And after internationals break we never play as we know.

Penalty disallowed: i agree. Goal disallowed: 50-50. Henry penalty: OMG, ref. Where were you?

Lehmann was superb; best keeper in England. Defenders were all great. Midfielders, I can't say the same. Vieira had a poor comeback, I only saw Pires a couple of times and Gilberto tried to do Paddy's work and he couldn't.
Bergie showed a bit his magic (bring him back the captain armband again; has special powers ). Titi did a decent performance, but you can't be top level every game. And Freddie, wow. Looked very sharp, great runs, what we needed yesterday.
Subs: Pennant didn't touch the ball IIRC, Cesc was a bit lost (but better than Vieira; yesterday it wasn't very difficult) and Reyes... he said everything on the pitch. He made a great impact when we Arsenal needed it most. El quillo sevillano. 8)

 

[bobbypires]

Mourinho blame referee for his 2 8) dropping points. "if that is Henry or Ruud, the decision will be different". OMG, see the Fulham game man.

This **** bores me more than the threads against Cygan.

 

[Anonymous]

Well having seen all the highlights last night and this morning I dont see what all the fuss is about.

Cole won the ball - it is clear to me. It was not a penalty, but all of these idiot Fulham fans and ****** on talkshit dont seem able to see this. The ref did well and did the right thing in changing his mind. But of course it was all Arsenals fault :roll:

These idiots ringing up saying if it was at the other end it would have been a penalty becasue Arsenal are a big team...They all seem to forget the most blatent pen of the game was Votlzs foul on TH which WASNT given! Muppets.

Their goal was 50/50, but there was a clear push on Kolo, which you simply cant do today.

The refs interview after the game was interesting - and I think it means he will be doing the shopping next Saturday.
His choice of words was cringe worthy. When he said player reactions he didnt mean our players crowding round him (which wasnt actually that bad, apart from Cole) he menat the non reaction of Fulham players, especailly Andy Cole and the shock of our players. Yet again the media fail to see this and blame it on us.

 

[Gurgen]

Their goal was 50/50, but there was a clear push on Kolo, which you simply cant do today.

Weren't you the one screaming about Sol's disallowed goal in the Euros? Imo John did less wrong than Terry.

 

[USArsenal]

well, i will disagree and say that Ashley didnt touch the ball... but the call was still correct.... Andy Cole had already kicked the ball away and was not going to get it back when Ashley knocked him down... and Andy was already starting to fall anyway.... while he still COULD have gotten a penalty, the ref made a "common sense" call on this one and did not award a penalty....


wow, i said "Ref" and "common sense" in the same sentence... mark this day in history... LOL

 

[USArsenal]

and i also agree with Gurgen on this one.... John's "push" on Toure was not a good call.... he didnt push him that much... gutsy call by the ref, but IMO an incorrect one..

 

[Gooner83]

and i also agree with Gurgen on this one.... John's "push" on Toure was not a good call.... he didnt push him that much... gutsy call by the ref, but IMO an incorrect one..

you could clearly see he stopped Toure from jumping up to get the ball... it was more of a cheating move than a push.

 

[patrick42uk]

anyone else notice that reyes was finally allowed to take a free-kick from a striking position? i know henry takes some quality free-kicks, but reyes too can get a lot of bend on the ball from a stationary position. his effort yesterday wasnt too bad either. i'd like to see the free-kicks shared out more cos henry has had almost a monopoly on them so far. perharps reyes on the right side and henry on the left.

 

[Mark]

Yeah before we signed him I heard he was quite good at free kicks. I think it would be good if Henry took them from the left and we had a left footer like Reyes take them from the right.