PL: Sunderland vs Arsenal | 01/05/06

[patrick42uk]

this is the english game. you dive and people want you hanged. you put in potentially leg-amputating challenges and its defined as 'desire and commitment'. i expect absolutely no sympathy from any quarter, especially not towards the foreign brigade that is arsenal. they'll probably say its diaby's fault that his ankle couldnt handle the challenge.

 

[RocktheCasbah]

this is the english game. you dive and people want you hanged. you put in potentially leg-amputating challenges and its defined as 'desire and commitment'. i expect absolutely no sympathy from any quarter, especially not towards the foreign brigade that is arsenal. they'll probably say its diaby's fault that his ankle couldnt handle the challenge.

Did Jamie Redknapp not say something similar when Jenas walked following that foul on Gilberto?..

 

[patrick42uk]

yeah the **** probably did. cant work out who is more annoying, him or richard keys

 

[Gooner_Girl]

Boring game, but important 3 points. I can't unfortunately see Sp**s losing to west ham. Maybes a draw and i think if we are to get 4th it'll be through goal difference.

 

[hertyid]

btw, you didn't mention your attrocious performance at home to bolton? outplayed throughout the match. another performance like that and you'll be lucky not to lose big on sunday.

Outplayed in the first half and in the last 10 mins as they pushed for an equaliser, but we rode our luck.

We could go on all day, but if you're going to bring up our last match when we were 'outplayed', it would be apt for us to bring up the 1-1 at highbury when we outplayed you for most of the game, the 0-0 at el madrigal when villareal outplayed you for most of the game, and the sunderland game tonight where you were distinctly average, bordering on poor, and were only saved by an henry masterclass (again) and the fact that Sunderland have only beaten Northwich Victoria at home all season.

Play like that against Barcelona and you'll be embarrassed. Hell, play like that against Man City and you'll be in trouble.

i beg your pardon? what has barca got to do with finishing fourth in the premiership? if we can beat city on thursday, i'd say the chances are about 50-50 on us finishing fourth. at home, we'll beat wigan without even breaking a sweat. you, however, will have to be at your very, very best to even have a hope of winning.

if i had to make an educated guess, i'd say we have about a 65% chance of qualifying for champions leage next year, if we beat city on thursday. i think we have about a 50% probability of finishing fourth on saturday and let's say a 30% chance of winning the champions league final. assuming these two events are mathematically independant, we have a approximately 65% probability of getting that last champions leage spot...

so how you can be so confident of qualifying for the champions league i'll never know. like i said, delusional...

An educated guess? Making up random facts and figures amounts to nothing more than wild speculation.

We have a far greater chance of finishing 4th. We have one away game against a team with a number of injuries and an FA Cup final shortly after, which we could potentially only have to draw. You have an away game (your away form is significantly worse than ours) and a home game, both of which you HAVE to win.

You played very badly yesterday and won because the Sunderland defence and keeper were so piss poor. Even then it took Henry to do anything of note for you. If Kevin Kyle had any ability he'd have scored at least once in the first half.

And whilst Barca has nothing to do with finishing 4th, it has everything to do with qualifying for the Champions League next season. And as I said (and I think you'll agree) if you play like you did last night against Barca, you'll get embarrassed. That said, I expect you to play much better. It is the CL final after all...

 

[ShortStuff]

this is the english game. you dive and people want you hanged. you put in potentially leg-amputating challenges and its defined as 'desire and commitment'. i expect absolutely no sympathy from any quarter, especially not towards the foreign brigade that is arsenal. they'll probably say its diaby's fault that his ankle couldnt handle the challenge.

That is the English game I'm afraid, and I agree with you on all counts. However, with reference to other members here, I think a bit of dilpomacy is needed right now with this whole Dan Smith tackle on Diaby. I'd like to think that Smith really did try and win the ball (and not deliberately go for Diaby's ankle as some have suggested). He wasn't that late to the ball, and it wasn't a two footed challenge, but it was a lunge.

Sunderland were 3-0 down, were playing almost as bad as us, and were being relegated from the Premiership - Sometimes frustration can get the better of you, and cause you to do silly things. Even at the end of game's such as the one yesterday.

I remember a few games ago (I forget who we played, but it was at Highbury) when Kolo Toure literally jumped from about 10 feet away into a challenge (after a defensive error) to win the ball. Win the ball he did, and it was an extremely strong challenge, but it could have been disastrous for both players if he had got it wrong. Toure eneded up in more pain than his opponent, but they were both ok.

I've seen worse tackles than Dan Smith's this season, and most have been punished accordingly, and with the players involved walking away relatively injury free. How many times have we seen Vieira, Petit, Adams, Keown etc. back in the day put in very strong (but well-timed and fair) challenges? But Dan Smith, a yound lad who was probably told to "put your foot in" before he came on by the powers that be, got it wrong yesterday. His attempt to make a strong challenge on a strong midfield opponent was mis-judged, and unfortunately ended with serious damages.

 

[celestis]

Poor Diaby he can't even get on the bench for the CL match now. I hope this is the last of his injuries , he has had two bad ones now. Good thing he is so young. Interesting no one really says anything about Smith who has actually commited a act akin to assault , but Essien gets condemned to high heaven ( although rightly so ) for similar acts with much less drastic results.

 

[kamikaze80]

if i had to make an educated guess, i'd say we have about a 65% chance of qualifying for champions leage next year, if we beat city on thursday. i think we have about a 50% probability of finishing fourth on saturday and let's say a 30% chance of winning the champions league final. assuming these two events are mathematically independant, we have a approximately 65% probability of getting that last champions leage spot...

that paragraph made my head spin.

kel, seriously, 4th place is gone. we might beat city and we probably will beat wigan - but tottenham definately will 100% absolutely beat west ham.

of course, there's still a chance we could beat barcelona...

really, i think kel's numbers are about right. remember, his numbers are assuming we beat city on thurs. if you want to include the odds of our beating city, then yea, they get a little lower. but basically, between the two routes we have, it's a coin flip. we need to do everything we can do maximise our chances through both avenues.

 

[Jimbo14]

An educated guess? Making up random facts and figures amounts to nothing more than wild speculation.

We have a far greater chance of finishing 4th. We have one away game against a team with a number of injuries and an FA Cup final shortly after, which we could potentially only have to draw. You have an away game (your away form is significantly worse than ours) and a home game, both of which you HAVE to win.

You played very badly yesterday and won because the Sunderland defence and keeper were so piss poor. Even then it took Henry to do anything of note for you. If Kevin Kyle had any ability he'd have scored at least once in the first half.

And whilst Barca has nothing to do with finishing 4th, it has everything to do with qualifying for the Champions League next season. And as I said (and I think you'll agree) if you play like you did last night against Barca, you'll get embarrassed. That said, I expect you to play much better. It is the CL final after all...

Im afraid that i agree, if we play like that against barca we will get "embarassed." However i don't agree with what you've been saying about the bolton game, they were, for most of the game, the better team by a country mile!!! They also should have had several penalty's.
Also the point your making about west ham being an easy game, i think your waaay off the mark with that. They are a confident in form team and will be wanting to go into the FA cup final on a win, also its a London derby and its football so anything could happen, nothing is set in stone yet!![

 

[RocktheCasbah]

yeah the c**t probably did. cant work out who is more annoying, him or richard keys

Redknapp for sure. Although my mate Steve thinks I only think that cos Jamie gets to shag Louise....

It's not true, honest guv!

 

[kel varnsen]

An educated guess? Making up random facts and figures amounts to nothing more than wild speculation.

if any of my estimates sound off the wall to you, just say so. if not, i take this as you didn't really understand my line of reasoning...

We have a far greater chance of finishing 4th. We have one away game against a team with a number of injuries and an FA Cup final shortly after, which we could potentially only have to draw. You have an away game (your away form is significantly worse than ours) and a home game, both of which you HAVE to win.

...and i said, IF we beat city, we have a good chance of finishing fourth.

pardew said he'll want to use his best players available. so you won't see west ham taking it easy. they would love to beat you, as they, as the rest of us, hate your(Sp**s) guts. in addition, you have only won one in three away games and west ham have lost about one in three at home. so, it's fair to say that you have probably less than a 50% chance of winning there...

You played very badly yesterday and won because the Sunderland defence and keeper were so piss poor. Even then it took Henry to do anything of note for you. If Kevin Kyle had any ability he'd have scored at least once in the first half.

again. it all depends on whether or not we win on thursday. if we do, we'll definately beat wigon on sunday and you'll then have to win away to west ham.

 

[scott_mackem]

Hey guys!

I'm a sunderland fan and was at the game yes2day as i have been to every home game for the last 6 years. I thought it was a very scrappy game at places but also amazing to watch.

I am a bit annoyed the way Arsène Wenger came out and criticised our players of being dirty and all we wanted to do was hurt you. That is not right although we were very dirty. But on 3 occiasions i saw our players gettin elbowed and thats not including jens lehmann punching Chris Brown repeatedly in the face, the difference was we didnt go down and roll round on the floor for hours. To the diaby tackle, that was nasty tackle and i really feel for him and hope he gets better soon. But i can assure you that dan smith wouldnt have went out to hurt him. He is soft and basically our worst player in the squad and when he came on it was stupid.

Was gr8 for me personally as i am 17 and watched football for a while and was an honour to watch gr8 football and just be able to applaud Henry (best player in the world). But i was so happy with the attendance... 44,000 for a team in our position and look where we are in the league.

Anyways good look for champions league final!

Scott

 

[Wheelori]

You only went to see the Arsenal

 

[RockyRocastle]

Hey guys!

I'm a sunderland fan and was at the game yes2day as i have been to every home game for the last 6 years. I thought it was a very scrappy game at places but also amazing to watch.

I am a bit annoyed the way Arsène Wenger came out and criticised our players of being dirty and all we wanted to do was hurt you. That is not right although we were very dirty. But on 3 occiasions i saw our players gettin elbowed and thats not including jens lehmann punching Chris Brown repeatedly in the face, the difference was we didnt go down and roll round on the floor for hours. To the diaby tackle, that was nasty tackle and i really feel for him and hope he gets better soon. But i can assure you that dan smith wouldnt have went out to hurt him. He is soft and basically our worst player in the squad and when he came on it was stupid.

Was gr8 for me personally as i am 17 and watched football for a while and was an honour to watch gr8 football and just be able to applaud Henry (best player in the world). But i was so happy with the attendance... 44,000 for a team in our position and look where we are in the league.

Anyways good look for champions league final!

Scott

gr8?

How hard is it to type great?

 

[scott_mackem]

Just as hard as it is to understand geordies!

 

[23Campbell]

Good point, but i'm sure he doesn't know the rules in here regarding text language.

 

[KingReyes]

Hopeless **** Smith aplogizes

''If I did catch him it wasn't meant. I sincerely went to win the ball.

''If it is serious then I wish him all the best. I went for the ball and apologise for whatever happened.''

What the **** do you mean "If I did catch him"? At least the **** apologized but what he just said takes the piss.

 

[Wenger14]

They showed it on sky last night. He seemed sincere enough, but I wasn't buying any of it. It's clear as day he made no attempt to get the ball, this is as bad as the Jol lie.

 

[scott_mackem]

Hes stupid. I no he would not have went for his ankle because he if he did he would have missed. Was an awful tackle. In his debut for us he got sent off, second match he was s**t and 3rd match (yestoday) he should have got sent off. Was funny though when sunderland fans started chanting off to try get him sent off.

 

[DOUBLE-YOU]

i was just thinking the tackle may actually have a serious mental affect on Diaby. During the game i noticed he backed out of 50/50 challenges. Now Diaby has broken his ankle he may be more hesitant when going into tackles.