Arsenal away - match thread

[navbasi]

Gerrard's comedy diving took the biscuit tonight. Normally I'd be ranting on about Eboue, but even his antics were made to look amateur by Stevie flinging himself to the ground on occasion. Desperation.

 

I have to agree here. It wasn't good, he wasn't even trying to mask it or "be clever" in the dive, it was just blatant cheating.

[hamstrung]

Fairly typical away performance.

 

Awful.

 

Arsenal were there to be beaten. That's as poor as they have been at home against us in the last few years, and we didn't seem to want to take advantage of it.

 

Agree with the previous comment about wanting the season to be over.

 

No joy from this.

 

Clichy is fucking shite, by the way.

[stringvest]

Corporate seats, ha ha ha ha. Sums it all up.

 

Yeah, you're laughing because you'd have turned it down on some deluded principle. What a narrow minded little prick you are.

[kalasoma]

Can't wait for Man City game.

 

sigh.

[ZonkoVille77]

The only thing I learned from last nite is that Fabregas is a better keeper than Almunia.

[Juan Galonso]

I haven't missed a Liverpool game, i'm talking in general. I used to watch all of the other Premier Leage, Championship, Carling Cup, FA Cup, Spanish games etc but I just haven't bothered this year. I watch us and that's about it.

 

I still watch all the games on the Sky and ESPN channels even if they don't include us. I can honestly say that for our resources alone we are the worst team to watch in the league bar none. Even Stoke and Blackburn kind of have an excuse. We are pedestrian, no pace without Torres, no guile and a team of robots.

[stringvest]

I don't think I can stop at this point now I've calmed down. To stop watching their efforts to get into the top 4 at this stage just wouldn't sit right with me at all, but I'll probably seriously consider cutting back on footie a lot after this season unless there's some major changes with the way we're playing. It's just making me too fed up.

 

It's the farce element of footie nowadays aswell, too many fucking stupid things going on with refs/off the field each season and it seems more like a circus than ever. I mean, when the fuck do we get a break from all the madness as a club? Things have just got way too bad.

 

edit : and now Carra's out? Shit. This is exactly what I'm on about. It's like we're cursed.

 

Sometimes you have to grin and bear it. There are some years the only way to get by and to focus your support is to regard the club as an abstract concept, a bit like (I imagine) the way some people are with any given religion.

 

You know - or you have to believe - that in time the whole ethos of the club, on and off the pitch, will return to the way it was when you fell in love with it. I have no empathy with Benitez and many of the players, but my support is for something greater - the club, what it used to stand for, and what it will do again. That's why I get annoyed, frustrated, and fed up, but I couldn't ever give up supporting them.

 

Yes, I am aware that that sounds incredibly pompous. :-)

[JohnnyH]

Shite game. Two teams with no forward guile trying to clobber mostly. We deserved a draw and would have had at least that if we had a forward with pace. Our midfield got about their midfield well and didn't let them settle, but key players such as Gerrard just didn't show up again, and we can't afford to carry such players against top opposition like Arsenal.

[Guest LFD]

Shite game. Two teams with no forward guile trying to clobber mostly. We deserved a draw and would have had at least that if we had a forward with pace. Our midfield got about their midfield well and didn't let them settle, but key players such as Gerrard just didn't show up again, and we can't afford to carry such players against top opposition like Arsenal.

 

Gerrard is a rose amongst thorns in this team.

 

He's not the problem - Kuyt, Ngog, Lucas etc are. Gerrard needs better players to play alongside and he looks frustrated with his teamates.

 

It was a big game last night and we showed no intent to win, no urgency until we went behind after 70 minutes.

 

Why do we have to wait until we are losing before we take off one of the defensive midfielders and put Gerrard in that role (where we looked far more attacking)?

[JohnnyH]

Gerrard is a rose amongst thorns in this team.

 

He's not the problem - Kuyt, Ngog, Lucas etc are. Gerrard needs better players to play alongside and he looks frustrated with his teamates.

 

It was a big game last night and we showed no intent to win, no urgency until we went behind after 70 minutes.

 

Why do we have to wait until we are losing before we take off one of the defensive midfielders and put Gerrard in that role (where we looked far more attacking)?

 

Not much of an argument on that. But he was still very poor. He is one if the finest players in world football so when he doesn't perform it massively affects us. See what will happen when Rooney looses form, or Drogba couldn't finish like last night. It's not a dig on Gerrard as he's great. I'm just saying he didn't play well and we need him at his best when we are playing top oppo away from home.

[TopMod]

Shite game. Two teams with no forward guile trying to clobber mostly. We deserved a draw and would have had at least that if we had a forward with pace. Our midfield got about their midfield well and didn't let them settle, but key players such as Gerrard just didn't show up again, and we can't afford to carry such players against top opposition like Arsenal.

 

 

Hard to believe you mention Gerrard when Maxi, Kuyt, Lucas and Degan were all wearing black last night. Didn't mention N'gog, not his fault he was totally isolated.

[sh#t waffle]

So LFD, are you saying you'd move Gerrard back into central midfield?

[Guest LFD]

So LFD, are you saying you'd move Gerrard back into central midfield?

 

Where he should have played as soon as Alonso left - yes.

[hamstrung]

So LFD, are you saying you'd move Gerrard back into central midfield?

 

LFD has been ominously quiet on the whole subject of moving Gerrard back to central midfield.

 

I wonder where he stands?

[sh#t waffle]

Where he should have played as soon as Alonso left - yes.

 

Cool, thanks for clarifying your position.

[cmuller]

Only read this page but seems there's a general consensus we were shit last night...I thought we did ok! With both teams hardly full of confidence it was never going to be memorable but I reckon we looked the better side.

 

We desperately need Torres back and an aggressive centre back to play alongside one of Agger or Skrtel though.

[Christian]

Awful match that I believe turned on Carra having to go off.

That doesn't in anyway defend our pointless "control the game" tactics (except at one point it was Arsenal 85% possession for a period of about 5 mins). Was just as bad last season at the Emirates when they went down to ten men and we were happy to keep a point.

 

Arsenal's weakness is when they are attacked down the flanks - as even the "mighty" Babel proved in the last 15 minutes or so. So we kept it narrow until we went a goal down. Baffling, as Arsenal were pretty much there for the taking. It was summed up when Gerrard, quite rightly, took matters into his own hands and started getting the ball out wide. One tremendous pass landed right on Degen's foot and he promptly nearly fell over and it went out for a goal kick.

 

Rafa was very astute in the Derby as I expected when we went down to ten, but was, as usual, hopeless away at Arsenal. Our games against Arsenal are a bit like when we could never beat the Mancs under Rafa for ages and ages (I think Crouch stopped that when we beat them in the FA Cup, but I could be wrong).

 

Very disappointing - weirdly, I don't think any players played that awful, they kept to what they were told to do. I thought Lucas & Mascherano harried very well all night and Skrtel has played himself back into form too.

 

We'll need a fully fit Torres and a bit of luck to get 4th. My guess is 5th.

[Dracco]

It was not great to watch, but I´ve seen worse this season from us...

 

We deserved a point but we were unlucky In my opinion.

 

Negatives:

 

- when will Rafa realise that Ngog can not win games for us upfront

- Maxi continuess to be useless, anytime he has the ball I am feeling like if I am watching a slow motion replay. Seems like Insua older and uglier brother to me.

 

Positives :

 

- Mascherano´s form is great these days, if he leaves in summer we are fucked

- Skrtel definitely turned the corner and looks on his way back his best, MOM for me.

[El Rojo]

Good point on Carra going off being a massive setback, I thought Degen was in no man's land for the cross for their goal.

 

I'm not sure we 'deserved' a draw either. We were clearly set up not to lose against a team with severe confidence issues. Arsenal were still pretty poor last night, but at least they still strung some attacks together in the second half.

 

Bar N'gog's run through the middle, we produced nothing before they scored.

 

The players worked hard - Skrtel and Agger looked impressive for the first time in an age - but it was all cautious perspiration, no inspiration whatsoever.

 

And just to echo some other comments, Gerrard's antics were pretty embarrassing last night.

[Carra_is_legend]

Is anyone seriously surprised about another negative cowardly shit performance we put out?

[bigal]

Where he should have played as soon as Alonso left - yes.

 

Surely that would be best with Aquilani, Benayoun or Maxi playing the off the striker role?

[El Rojo]

Is anyone seriously surprised about another negative cowardly shit performance we put out?

 

Given the resolve and balls we showed on Saturday, yes.

[Catch22]

Given the resolve and balls we showed on Saturday, yes.

 

We played very similarly in both games.

They were both poor games to watch, but we are missing skill players whilst the 1st was a derby which is often like that & the 2nd was away against a good team who spend more on their players than we do so it made sense to make the game as disjointed as possible.

 

In the first, their midfielder missed a very easy header chance; In the 2nd he didn't.

In the first, we got a scrappy goal whilst in the 2nd we were unlucky to hit the bar with a far better piece of skill.

 

A couple of key moments either way & this forum would have been full of doom & gloom at the weekend & now way too excited about a lucky away win.

 

Absurd overreaction again based upon just 1 game: we were never going to finish 3rd just because of a scrappy,lucky derby win (which led to a particularly ridiculous thread) anymore than a slightly unlucky defeat away from home against a better-resourced team means we are shite.

[Catch22]

Given the resolve and balls we showed on Saturday, yes.

 

We played very similarly in both games.

They were both poor games to watch, but we are missing skill players whilst the 1st was a derby which is often like that & the 2nd was away against a good team who spend more on their players than we do so it made sense to make the game as disjointed as possible.

 

In the first, their midfielder missed a very easy header chance; In the 2nd he didn't.

In the first, we got a scrappy goal whilst in the 2nd we were unlucky to hit the bar with a far better piece of skill.

 

A couple of key moments either way & this forum would have been full of doom & gloom at the weekend & now way too excited about a lucky away win.

 

Absurd overreaction again based upon just 1 game: we were never going to finish 3rd just because of a scrappy,lucky derby win (which led to a particularly ridiculous thread) anymore than a slightly unlucky defeat away from home against a better-resourced team means we are shite.

 

 

EDIT: Sorry double-post. Forum playing up at moment & "Link appears to be broken" often appearing

[Carra_is_legend]

Given the resolve and balls we showed on Saturday, yes.

 

We weren't very good against Everton either.