UCL: Arsenal v AZ Alkmaar, 04/11/09, 19:45

[Illusion]

That goal would have almost certainly been avoided had we had a better goalkeeper, Almunia got it completely wrong and it's not the first time he's let in stupid goals like that.

We are in a position where if one of our outfield players make a mistake and give away a chance, it will often end up in the back of the net due to never having a capable goalkeeper.

Gibbs shouldn't have lost a header, Ramsey should have pulled the player down for a yellow and Eboue shouldn't have let him to shot. These are three mistakes that wouldn't have happened if we had been only 1 or 2 nil up. Almunia should have had his first post covered but then again, the player should have not even been allowed to take the shot. A bit crazy but true.

There were multiple mistakes, that's completely true.

Players will always make mistakes, my point is that when our outfield players give away a chance our goalkeepers are not good enough to stop too many of them from being converted into goals.

 

[Clrnc]

Like the commentator said, it was a shocking goal to concede by the goalie. He simply did not expect the shot and he wrong footed himself.

But during the games he showed some positives which is still good to see.

 

[xcdude24]

Like the commentator said, it was a shocking goal to concede by the goalie. He simply did not expect the shot and he wrong footed himself.

But during the games he showed some positives which is still good to see.

You got in the evening standard, by the way.

 

[TomasCR]

Can you post a link xcdude? I'm always looking for it but never find it.

 

[xcdude24]

Can you post a link xcdude? I'm always looking for it but never find it.

I threw it away so it's sitting in a trash bin about 25 minutes away from home, but they just posted a quote of his that said that we played total football last night, Fabregas was amazing, etc.

 

[outlaw_member]

IMO there is NEVER any excuse/justification/reasoning to conceed a sloppy late goal - it's just p*ss poor concentration/complacency etc, and is NOT the attitude of a team with title aspirations. Until we get over this attitude then we'll continue to struggle in the sudden death Cup type matches, and will continue to encourage your opponents to think they always have a chance to score & get back into the match.

Agreed, this excuse culture needs to stop. We conceded yet another late goal this season, so we need to rectify this problem before it's too late. Than again, many were saying that the AZ draw was just a glitch, only for it to rear it's ugly head several days later. Until the problem is taken seriously (It seems like Wenger has), only than will we truly learn from it.

 

[GaelForce22]

Can you post a link xcdude? I'm always looking for it but never find it.

The Standard's website doesn't have that section. It's just a small section of the sports pages, they quote people from here after every arsenal game/ big arsenal news.

 

[Klaus Daimler]

IMO there is NEVER any excuse/justification/reasoning to conceed a sloppy late goal - it's just p*ss poor concentration/complacency etc, and is NOT the attitude of a team with title aspirations. Until we get over this attitude then we'll continue to struggle in the sudden death Cup type matches, and will continue to encourage your opponents to think they always have a chance to score & get back into the match.

Agreed, this excuse culture needs to stop. We conceded yet another late goal this season, so we need to rectify this problem before it's too late. Than again, many were saying that the AZ draw was just a glitch, only for it to rear it's ugly head several days later. Until the problem is taken seriously (It seems like Wenger has), only than will we truly learn from it.

It's true to an extent, but so is also the opinion that too much is being made of it. We're not worse than any other top team with respect to conceding late goals, neither due to individual mistakes or against the run of play. It's something we should be looking to improve of course (great teams are always looking for improvement anyway), but it's not something that signifies any particular weakness in our setup when it's compared to our opponents.

 

[outlaw_member]

It is a common occurence for every team but we have suffered far too often from it to write it off so easily, like alot of people have done.

 

[Klaus Daimler]

True. There's a lot of both unguided pessimism and unguided optimism going around of course. If we continue the trend and end up scoring 130 goals while conceding 50 I've got no real problem with it though. At the end of the day both scenarios are pretty unlikely.

 

[Anzac]

I have no issue (as such) in conceeding goals to good play/skill by the opposition = circumstances beyond our control so to speak. What sh*ts me is when we shoot ourselves in the foot by either an individual error or poor team play/naievity(sp). Until we rectify this trait we continue to belong to the Kevin Keegan School of Kamikazi Football - just that we're better at it.

 

[number_0]

True. There's a lot of both unguided pessimism and unguided optimism going around of course. If we continue the trend and end up scoring 130 goals while conceding 50 I've got no real problem with it though. At the end of the day both scenarios are pretty unlikely.

But conceeding 50 late goals is more likely than scoring 130...

 

[Klaus Daimler]

Not at the rate we're going.

 

[Anzac]

Our previous best:

1930/31 P42 W28 D10 L4 GF127 GA59.

Our 1st League title following our 1st silverware with the FA Cup the year before.

 

[Illusion]

Four extra games though, which is slightly more than an 10% increase.

So I'd say 110-112 goals this season should be an equivalent for us to say we've reached that level.

 

[Armor for Sleep]

A few things from Wednesday:

Once again we were excellent in attack. Cesc is on fire, Say what you want about Arshavin but he is extremely productive.

Diaby had one of his best games in a long while. Smarter in his actions and more decisive.

Not going to go overboard about the goal we conceded as the game was over then. Obviously it would have been nice to keep a clean sheet but when a team has a comfortable lead,its only normal they drop in intensity. As for Almunia's part - its a cause for concern. The game was over but you would still expect him to want a clean sheet and do his utmost to prove his worth to the team.

I thought Vermaelen made one bad mistake in the fist half when he failed to close down a shot. He kept backing away even though Gibbs was marking the support runner. He got in a shot 2 or 3 yards outside the box but luckily it was straight at Almunia.

 

[Anzac]

Just a thought on the goal conceeded - apart from the poor defending etc, both Gibbs & Ramsey 'failed' in the physical aspect of their challenges & it's a common complaint re Denilson last season.

Quite simply it's a case of sending boys to do a man's job = they're not physically mature/strong enough.