PL: West Bromwich Albion vs Arsenal | 02/05/05

[Pepe LeFrits]

What the hell was Pires at tonight?

I was impressed with Reyes tonight. He didn't get much to work with as Fabregas and Pires were terrible (although at least Fabregas tried and was out of position), but he worked his socks off and worked a few openings. Really well taken goal by RVP.

Edu also underlined why he shouldnt be let go on a free transfer. We've lost enough experienced players recently as it is.

 

[famous no 10]

Really pleased with senderos, another good game, just needs to clean his passing up.

i feel confident with him in the defence, I don't s**t myself every time the opposition get a corner anymore.

 

[patrick42uk]

one thing that annoys me is that in this spell without henry in the side, in periods we dont create chance theres always one that says 'we are toothless without henry'. sorry but thats bollocks. its bollocks because even with henry in the side, it just so happens that every now and again these teams that set their stall out to defend against us get it right. just look at boro away recently where henry didnt get a sniff. we are not a one man team. with forwards, they can only look as good as the rest of the team makes them.

 

[RocktheCasbah]

Frustrating game, but thought we came through really well at the end. Didn't think Robin did anything much apart from the goal, which was breathtaking, Vieira was class again. Other than that and glimpses of genius from Reyes, didn't see much to get excited about. Apart from that Bergkamp pass.

 

[the dawn raids]

a solid, if unspectacular, performance, and one game closer to 2nd.

yeah Pires really was nonexistant tonight.

and whats with Gilberto and trying to take shots?! he muffled 2 against Chelsea, and another tonight. i mean i know hes just getting back to full fitness, but still, at least make solid contact with the damn thing. :shock:

and what the hell was reyes doing with that open goal!? other than that i thought he and van Persie played alright together.

man of the match: has to be senderos, nerves of steel on that kid. never gets fased, and sticks to his task well. hoofed a few needless passes upfield, but outstanding performance nonetheless.

 

[Mark]

A difficult game, we did well to win it. Robin's goal was class, creating a chance out of practically nothing again. Kind of nice that Edu scored, what is probably his last goal for the club.

Defence was good as usual. Jens hardly had anything to do.

Midfield was weird. Gilberto wasn't that good, Vieira tried hard but wasn't really that good as he kept giving the ball away and comitting loads of fouls. Really surprised he didn't get booked. Pires was quiet, but still more impressive than earlier in the season when he really annoyed me. I loved some of those high long balls forward that Fabregas played, he really does add a new dimension to our game which we haven't really had since Petit. Very useful player, even on the right.

Credit to West Brom, they played really well, but I'm glad we made up for that awful result against them earlier in the season.

 

[kanuuu]

Vieira battled well but gave the ball away a lot, but i guess that's not new. Did Vieira get booked in the end? I was watching with a mate so didn't pay much attention, i thought he was lucky to get away with a few fouls at the start and not get booked.

Gilberto was good again, but someone should show him how to kick a ball cleanly!

Pires was invisible, much like the beginning of the season. RVP and Reyes didn't get much of the ball but looked dangerous at times, Jose is so promising, when he's confident he can ge a fantastic player.

I was also impressed at how clinical we were, unlike against Sp**s.

 

[A.Hussain]

i watched the game and i felt pires was a bit jaded but not dissapointing. fabregas too was only showing flashes, but his composure is amazing for an 18 year old. senderos initiallly was missing so many headers at the back, the long balls that were coming into kevin campbell. the scariest part was when ronnie wallwarick had a good shot over the bar. if he had connected correctly that would have gone in at the top right corner with jens beaten.

in the beginning of the game i was thinking senderos may not be able to cope with an aerial van nistlerooy or rooney if this is how he clears headers, but his ground work is fabulous. he gained composure as the game went on.

reyes was unfortunately quite abysmal even though u could see he was working hard. i have a feeling if titi is not gonna be up for it, wenger may use bergy instead or reyes. but the game against pool will be a big decider.

im still hoping hienze will not make it. it will make the job for our attack a lot easier.

 

[Lukazan]

Tonight in the first half we were absolutely terrible!

We had one shot on target didn't we? And apart from that never really looked like creating anything.

By the 60th minute I was absolutely screaming at the TV for Wenger to bring on Edu or Bergkamp because it was quite clear nothing was happening! van Persie got a nice goal though which I enjoyed seeing, I think he is going to be great in the future! But seriously, sometimes Wenger frustrates me so much with how late he leaves his substitutions!

Westbrom were very good all game, they never really threatened with Campbell up top on his own but in midfield and defence they were solid and with more performances like that in the coming weeks they can stay up.

Did anyone see Gilberto fluff his first time shot? Seriously, the man can do just about everything but shooting seems like a big no no for him! I've seen him completely fluff chances he should be working the keeper from about 4-5 times SINCE RETURNING FROM INJURY ALONE.

Pires? What the hell was he doing tonight? When he wasn't on the ball (which wasn't often) he was just standing there..

 

[Asterix]

I love how people on here complain when a team without Henry, Ljungberg and Campbell notches up another clean sheet and a relatively comfortable, if unspectacular, two goal victory.

Some constructive criticism is fine, but to have a whinge generally after another important win is just silly, short-sighted and immature.

Well done the lads. It's going to be interesting to see how Wenger handles Campbell in the run up to the FA Cup. You'd think that we'd want Sol's experience for that game, but how does he break up such a confident pairing at the moment?

 

[OneProudGooner]

Funny us fans can criticize our own players but they forget things like we were OUTNUMBERED IN midfield we had no plan b which made things harder for us.
Chuck in a winger instead of that invisible guy on the left, move the winger to the right and bring back Freddie into the equation and from that we have an alternative rather than 2 players (Pires and Fabregas) drifting infield exposing Ashley Cole and Lauren whenever they couldn't come back and double up (Pires even more so last night)

Anyway we did well to grind out a result Gilberto and Vieira protected our defence well but attacking wise we had no where to go until Van Persie scored (and well done to Reyes for setting him up) because we attack so centrally.

 

[JazzG]

Felt bad for Reyes as well because no matter what this kid tries it doesn't work, rounds the keeper and then his shot wasn't powerful enough and then gets a bollocking from Cole on top of that! He really needs just one game where everything he touches turns into gold because nothing is going for him right now.

Dunno why people are complaining for because that was a hard fought game and our players did ok I thought, you can't expect champagne football everyweek and a few more performances like this earlier on in the season and maybe Chelsea wouldn't of run away with the title so easily.

 

[gunnertilldeath]

exactly, jazz. i just said the same thing on the ratings thread. it was a very gritty game and the team showed the kind of guts that i feared we didnt have anymore. reyes didnt play all that badly to me. 3 times he took the ball and simply strolled into the box. the chance that got cleared was all his making too. i just think people hold things against him that they would forgive other players for. if it were henry, people would be marvelling at his rounding 4 players and they'd dismiss the miss as him being unlucky. i know reyes has not done anything close to what henry has but i feel he's not getting enough support from the fans. its not like he isnt trying. he's always running. he never ****ing stops sprinting. he was ****in throwing sliding tackles at russel hoult and was putting pressure on the albion defenders whenever they had the ball. he needs a brace or a hattrick to get his confidence back up.

 

[patrick42uk]

i remember when we were winning games 5-4, 5-3 e.t.c someone made the comment that he wished we could grind out results (chelsea fever at its height!). we are doing that now, but there are people still disgruntled. sometimes i feel people use the disguise of 'support' as an excuse to moan

 

[Adam]

I thought Gilberto and Vieira had good games. Gilberto understand Kolo Toure so well - when Toure has an erratic moment and is drawn out, Silva is always in his spot. He made a hell of alot of interceptions today, and hole pickings. In my opinion - he is even better than Makalele at it, as he does it with more physicality and his technique is now good enough to start moves off like the Mak.

 

[kissmyface]

Yeah I agree. I beleive Gilberto on hisday is better than Makalele. He is a much better passer, and is better in the air defnsivly and attacking. His positioning is just as good. In a team built around scoring goals, he has a much harder job than the Chelsea clone.

 

[OneProudGooner]

Heh of course he's better in the air Makelele is a midget

 

[kissmyface]

Needs to cut down on the pies too...

Gilberto is pretty much the perfect physique, Makalele has a long way to go before he's in Berties league. Ugly Bastard. Our Gilberto's a right hunk.

Bet he's a better dancer and cook too.

 

[KoLo28]

great result - very good team effort, got the job done. can't say much more, really pleased with how they went about their business.

 

[singooner]

I'm happy with the result but truth be told, we didn't create that many chances and the score flatters us a little.

Two more tough games at home next against teams scrapping hard for a place in the CL qualifiers and we need to do better on the attack. Defence has thankfully been very solid and seems to have turned around from mid-season shambles.

C'mon Gunners, don't ease up now, let's go for 4 more wins in a row!