Saturdays Game

[FatTony]

Dudek was part of the problem (could have done better for 2 of the goals), Gerrard could've got a block in and stood off, and Carra f*cked up with the 3rd.

However, the major factors for me were the lack of pace and quality up front (neither Crouch or Kuyt are what you'd call 20 goals a season strikers) and the fact that at 0-1 down there was a gap between defence and midfield that was big enough to march a Chinese military parade through.

We played into Arsenals hands, they love to hit you on the counter and are the best in the league at it. I appreciate that we were 2 down at the time, but you can't leave a gap bigger than wookey hole when you play the gunners, and you certainly don't carry on doing it when you manage to pull one back.

Its becoming apparent that we do have a real lack of world class talent, 2 games against them and 6 goals against says it all.

[bazza76]

just hope Barca don't take too many pointers from watching us play Arsenal.

[Marky]

just hope Barca don't take too many pointers from watching us play Arsenal.

Damn right they will, key for them is whether Eto is 100% fit to start or not and even if he is he fingers crossed won't be up to scratch,
he's a speedy wee bugger, really hope he doesn't make it or at least isn't completely match fit by thee time we play them.

[friedk]

We need a match fit Momo or else we are fooked

[Depth_Charge]

Dudek is desperate - the second and third goals should probably have been saved, but we had problems all over the pitch. If Rafa had never seen Arsenal play then I could have forgiven him his naivity, but we played right into their hands. We laboured in our approach play and huffed and puffed without really giving our two strikers any quality of service and whilst Garcia, Pennant and Riise all had numerous chances to deliver crosses, rarely did any of them even look like reaching a target in a red shirt. When Arsenal broke they looked dangerous and if you don't tackle (especially since Arsenal always play through the middle) then you're inviting trouble. Go 1-0 down against the gunners and it rarely results in anything other than more goals for them and so it proved as we inevitably tried (and failed) to chase the game.

If Rafa wanted to show anyone why Gerrard should play on the right whilst Momo patrols the centre then this was the match that proved his point - we need a ball winner in midfield and someone who can cross, we get that with the aforementioned line-up. Yes, we can get away with no Momo in matches were we are up against ordinary opposition, but Arsenal have a lot of real talent in their squad and can move the ball quickly and effortlessly - no-one was there to break up their play in midfield and both Gerrard and Alonso were anonymous for long periods.

I though that overall we put up a less than spirited defence of the Cup and Rafa needs to take his fair share of the blame, we had no pace up front to bother Arsenal and we didn't rectify that, it was also obvious that no-one was coming from midfield to get into the box - and on the rare occasion when balls came into the box a solitary red shirt would be all you could see. That really is not good enough. OK, so we may have had a penalty shout, but aside from that we really can't have any complaints as we barely troubled Almunia and overall Arsenal made us look poor and just picked us off.

Sometimes I really wonder how we can expect to break quality opposition down when we just keep trying the same old things. We looked ordinary - and despite more huffing and puffing in the second half we lacked the quality required to respond to Arsenal and that was dissapointing. Reina in goal may have made a difference, but that would have disguised just how much more effective Arsenal were than us, and that was without Fabregas - it's difficult not to admire the way Arsenal break forward so quickly, but we really should have done more to prevent them from playing their favourite way since we now look like mugs.

[poor scouser tommy]

Dudek is desperate - the second and third goals should probably have been saved, but we had problems all over the pitch. If Rafa had never seen Arsenal play then I could have forgiven him his naivity, but we played right into their hands. We laboured in our approach play and huffed and puffed without really giving our two strikers any quality of service and whilst Garcia, Pennant and Riise all had numerous chances to deliver crosses, rarely did any of them even look like reaching a target in a red shirt. When Arsenal broke they looked dangerous and if you don't tackle (especially since Arsenal always play through the middle) then you're inviting trouble. Go 1-0 down against the gunners and it rarely results in anything other than more goals for them and so it proved as we inevitably tried (and failed) to chase the game.

If Rafa wanted to show anyone why Gerrard should play on the right whilst Momo patrols the centre then this was the match that proved his point - we need a ball winner in midfield and someone who can cross, we get that with the aforementioned line-up. Yes, we can get away with no Momo in matches were we are up against ordinary opposition, but Arsenal have a lot of real talent in their squad and can move the ball quickly and effortlessly - no-one was there to break up their play in midfield and both Gerrard and Alonso were anonymous for long periods.

I though that overall we put up a less than spirited defence of the Cup and Rafa needs to take his fair share of the blame, we had no pace up front to bother Arsenal and we didn't rectify that, it was also obvious that no-one was coming from midfield to get into the box - and on the rare occasion when balls came into the box a solitary red shirt would be all you could see. That really is not good enough. OK, so we may have had a penalty shout, but aside from that we really can't have any complaints as we barely troubled Almunia and overall Arsenal made us look poor and just picked us off.

Sometimes I really wonder how we can expect to break quality opposition down when we just keep trying the same old things. We looked ordinary - and despite more huffing and puffing in the second half we lacked the quality required to respond to Arsenal and that was dissapointing. Reina in goal may have made a difference, but that would have disguised just how much more effective Arsenal were than us, and that was without Fabregas - it's difficult not to admire the way Arsenal break forward so quickly, but we really should have done more to prevent them from playing their favourite way since we now look like mugs.

Good post!

I was at the match, and it seemed apparent that we lacked the standard of players needed to upset the Arsenal passing style of play. How Pennant & Garcia stayed on the pitch as long as they did was baffling.

[Jazzmaster]

Dudek is desperate - the second and third goals should probably have been saved, but we had problems all over the pitch. If Rafa had never seen Arsenal play then I could have forgiven him his naivity, but we played right into their hands. We laboured in our approach play and huffed and puffed without really giving our two strikers any quality of service and whilst Garcia, Pennant and Riise all had numerous chances to deliver crosses, rarely did any of them even look like reaching a target in a red shirt. When Arsenal broke they looked dangerous and if you don't tackle (especially since Arsenal always play through the middle) then you're inviting trouble. Go 1-0 down against the gunners and it rarely results in anything other than more goals for them and so it proved as we inevitably tried (and failed) to chase the game.

If Rafa wanted to show anyone why Gerrard should play on the right whilst Momo patrols the centre then this was the match that proved his point - we need a ball winner in midfield and someone who can cross, we get that with the aforementioned line-up. Yes, we can get away with no Momo in matches were we are up against ordinary opposition, but Arsenal have a lot of real talent in their squad and can move the ball quickly and effortlessly - no-one was there to break up their play in midfield and both Gerrard and Alonso were anonymous for long periods.

I though that overall we put up a less than spirited defence of the Cup and Rafa needs to take his fair share of the blame, we had no pace up front to bother Arsenal and we didn't rectify that, it was also obvious that no-one was coming from midfield to get into the box - and on the rare occasion when balls came into the box a solitary red shirt would be all you could see. That really is not good enough. OK, so we may have had a penalty shout, but aside from that we really can't have any complaints as we barely troubled Almunia and overall Arsenal made us look poor and just picked us off.

Sometimes I really wonder how we can expect to break quality opposition down when we just keep trying the same old things. We looked ordinary - and despite more huffing and puffing in the second half we lacked the quality required to respond to Arsenal and that was dissapointing. Reina in goal may have made a difference, but that would have disguised just how much more effective Arsenal were than us, and that was without Fabregas - it's difficult not to admire the way Arsenal break forward so quickly, but we really should have done more to prevent them from playing their favourite way since we now look like mugs.

Did anyone else think rafa's tactics were incredibly naive as the game progressed? Arsenal thrive on the counter attack and thus it would have been common sense to play bellamy (or at least bring him on) to allow us to sit deeper and thwart arsenals strengths, i.e. blinding pace.

i think rafa is making good progress with this team, but our record against the top teams this season is very worrying. The only good thing about saturday was that the team tried to win the match after going two goals down, which they were not doing at the start of the season.

In reference to the above post, I think criticism of pennant is a little unfair, but garcia was awful, really awful.

[Fan65]

Dudek is desperate - the second and third goals should probably have been saved, but we had problems all over the pitch. If Rafa had never seen Arsenal play then I could have forgiven him his naivity, but we played right into their hands. We laboured in our approach play and huffed and puffed without really giving our two strikers any quality of service and whilst Garcia, Pennant and Riise all had numerous chances to deliver crosses, rarely did any of them even look like reaching a target in a red shirt. When Arsenal broke they looked dangerous and if you don't tackle (especially since Arsenal always play through the middle) then you're inviting trouble. Go 1-0 down against the gunners and it rarely results in anything other than more goals for them and so it proved as we inevitably tried (and failed) to chase the game.

If Rafa wanted to show anyone why Gerrard should play on the right whilst Momo patrols the centre then this was the match that proved his point - we need a ball winner in midfield and someone who can cross, we get that with the aforementioned line-up. Yes, we can get away with no Momo in matches were we are up against ordinary opposition, but Arsenal have a lot of real talent in their squad and can move the ball quickly and effortlessly - no-one was there to break up their play in midfield and both Gerrard and Alonso were anonymous for long periods.

I though that overall we put up a less than spirited defence of the Cup and Rafa needs to take his fair share of the blame, we had no pace up front to bother Arsenal and we didn't rectify that, it was also obvious that no-one was coming from midfield to get into the box - and on the rare occasion when balls came into the box a solitary red shirt would be all you could see. That really is not good enough. OK, so we may have had a penalty shout, but aside from that we really can't have any complaints as we barely troubled Almunia and overall Arsenal made us look poor and just picked us off.

Sometimes I really wonder how we can expect to break quality opposition down when we just keep trying the same old things. We looked ordinary - and despite more huffing and puffing in the second half we lacked the quality required to respond to Arsenal and that was dissapointing. Reina in goal may have made a difference, but that would have disguised just how much more effective Arsenal were than us, and that was without Fabregas - it's difficult not to admire the way Arsenal break forward so quickly, but we really should have done more to prevent them from playing their favourite way since we now look like mugs.

Same fixture last year we beat them all ends up, only 1-0 but it should have been a lot more.. Rafa's tactics worked then

Saturday we should have had a penalty instead of a yellow card 1-0 up it would have been a different game, but not to be ,they then scored two excellent goals in quick succession regardless of errors they were well taken goals and credit to them, but to our credit we came back at them and were pressing for the equaliser ..ok Henry did well for the third but they weren't that much better than us.

Rose coloured maybe, but we weren't that bad.

[Depth_Charge]

Same fixture last year we beat them all ends up, only 1-0 but it should have been a lot more.. Rafa's tactics worked then

Saturday we should have had a penalty instead of a yellow card 1-0 up it would have been a different game, but not to be ,they then scored two excellent goals in quick succession regardless of errors they were well taken goals and credit to them, but to our credit we came back at them and were pressing for the equaliser ..ok Henry did well for the third but they weren't that much better than us.

Rose coloured maybe, but we weren't that bad.

It wasn't that they were better than us - they were just a lot more effective and we played right into their hands. We rarely (if ever) worked their keeper and created very little in the way of clear cut opportunities. My main gripe is that everone knows how Arsenal play and we just let them...