Some Home Truths

[Sarb]

I'm getting sick and tired of some of the stick Rafa and the team are getting off the press and even people on here. Yeah we're not playing great at the moment but we're only 6 points behind the leaders. That's three draws or two defeats away. It's nothing. Can go three clear of Chelsea with our game in hand and three behind the Mancs (or something like that)

First off - Injuries

Carra, Agger, Gerrard, Alonso, Torres - All been injured for a significant amount of our ten games. You're telling me if the Arse were without Toure, Gallas, Fabregas and Adebayor, Mancs without Ferdinand, Vidic, Rooney, Carrick/Hargreaves at the same time then they wouldn't drop points? Chelsea struggled big time without Drogba, Terry and Lampard in the team

Fact is the players have managed to keep themselves in the hunt for the title. So we do have a quality squad and the players and managers deserve credit for keeping us in the hunt

Second - Tactics and Style of Play

While I haven't always supported Rafa's tactics and selection, I think the stick he gets is a joke. I mean Sky were running a Rafa rotation list even before the game had started. He knows what he's doing and what he has to achieve. He must believe it's the best way as it's not worth him being stubborn and losing the game

Yeah Arsenal played some fantastic football yesterday. But they didn't win, that's the point. Fabregas said the same thing. Redknapp had it spot on at the end that he worries how they'll cope with injuries. People who think we played rubbish need to get checked out. We had a few efforts on goal, but we kept an on-form Arsenal at bay suffering two injuries in the game and not being in the best of form ourselves.

I see signs that we're turing the performances round. Players are working fantastically hard and can't knock them for that. Would have been great if we held on for a win, but we kept ourselves in the race. Agger will be back soon...that will make a huge difference

Keep the faith. We would have been 12 or 15 points behind in most seasons. 6 points is nothing

[Harv]

i thought we did pretty well overall.

Sure Arsenal passed the ball around beautifully....but how many good chances did they have? 2 and they were both from rebounds of the post.

we tested Almunia quite a few times to be fair.

If we had more pace we would be a quality unit

[Howard_lfc]

i thought we did pretty well overall.

Sure Arsenal passed the ball around beautifully....but how many good chances did they have? 2 and they were both from rebounds of the post.

we tested Almunia quite a few times to be fair.

If we had more pace we would be a quality unit

I thought we played pretty well and agree that we worked their keeper more than they worked Pepe. It would be fair to say that Arsenal played better football than us but we played the more effective football.

[Morten_nogamst_Pedersen]

I thought we played pretty well and agree that we worked their keeper more than they worked Pepe. It would be fair to say that Arsenal played better football than us but we played the more effective football.

Agree!
We just lacked one or two flair players who would really threaten/worry their defence

[rage]

we lack pace and flair in the wide areas. Our football was more effective but whether we like it or not we're already playing catch up in the league and at risk of being knocked out of europe. I just hope we're we're still in both competitions for rafa to sell the crap and buy what we need in January

[Reece]

we tested Almunia quite a few times to be fair.

I thought yesterday that the game was crying out for Voronin to be replaced with Babel to inject a bit of pace.

I mean christ, our front three at one point consisted of Kuyt, Voronin and Crouch. That isn't exactly going to terrify the Arsenal back 4 who are all pretty quick

[Joe Le Toff]

If we had more pace we would be a quality unit

[Rocket]

I thought yesterday that the game was crying out for Voronin to be replaced with Babel to inject a bit of pace.

apart from a **** hair style, the crow offered nothing yesterday

[kewellnthegang]

[QUOTE=Reece;756185]I thought yesterday that the game was crying out for Voronin to be replaced with Babel to inject a bit of pace.


couldnt agree more

[Guest]

we lack pace and flair in the wide areas.

You're right, but we still needed to deal with Arsenal's irrepressible forward movement last night. If we played a little more offensively, maybe we would have been slaughtered on the counter.

[Reece]

apart from a **** hair style, the crow offered nothing yesterday

I like his hair

But yeah he was terrible.

[Tee]

Rafa does bamboozle me with some of his selction decisions - I mean this was the perfect game to bring in Babel, ahead of Voronin. Babel has never hidden his admiration for Arsenal and he would have been more than up for this to show them what a good player he is.

Having said that, Rafa did what he had to do and got us a very well deserved point. Would have been interesting though if Babel played.

[Armchairkopite]

I'm getting sick and tired of some of the stick Rafa and the team are getting off the press and even people on here. Yeah we're not playing great at the moment but we're only 6 points behind the leaders. That's three draws or two defeats away. It's nothing. Can go three clear of Chelsea with our game in hand and three behind the Mancs (or something like that)
We must beat the Mancs at home
First off - Injuries

Carra, Agger, Gerrard, Alonso, Torres - All been injured for a significant amount of our ten games. You're telling me if the Arse were without Toure, Gallas, Fabregas and Adebayor, Mancs without Ferdinand, Vidic, Rooney, Carrick/Hargreaves at the same time then they wouldn't drop points? Chelsea struggled big time without Drogba, Terry and Lampard in the team
The media are a joke f all said about our injury jinx this season which is forcing us to make more changes than normal, Agger is our Carvaho and its frustrating when the media tend to overllook the importance of foreign nationals compared to English born players(Some difference in the Chavs since hes returned.) Xabi was immense yesterday and if he had stayed on we'd have got the three points imo
Fact is the players have managed to keep themselves in the hunt for the title. So we do have a quality squad and the players and managers deserve credit for keeping us in the hunt

Second - Tactics and Style of Play

While I haven't always supported Rafa's tactics and selection, I think the stick he gets is a joke. I mean Sky were running a Rafa rotation list even before the game had started. He knows what he's doing and what he has to achieve. He must believe it's the best way as it's not worth him being stubborn and losing the game

Yeah Arsenal played some fantastic football yesterday. But they didn't win, that's the point. Fabregas said the same thing. Redknapp had it spot on at the end that he worries how they'll cope with injuries. People who think we played rubbish need to get checked out. We had a few efforts on goal, but we kept an on-form Arsenal at bay suffering two injuries in the game and not being in the best of form ourselves.

I see signs that we're turing the performances round. Players are working fantastically hard and can't knock them for that. Would have been great if we held on for a win, but we kept ourselves in the race. Agger will be back soon...that will make a huge difference


Keep the faith. We would have been 12 or 15 points behind in most seasons. 6 points is nothing

We have done exceptionaly well to be still in contention for the title with the injuries we have had

[JCase]

Its going to be rough the next few weeks with all the injuries but I think we'll cope. We've been playing crap but we are still unbeaten

For all the wonderful, free flowing football that Arsenal play, they were largely contained and stifled. Some say we were out played on our own turf. Right now we are a side low on confidence but I'm very sure we will bounce back. Arse are or were on a run. They dropped 2 points today. Next Sat they have a crunch match against Manure. A draw would delight me. My gut feeling is that Manure will **** them and their season could go pear shaped from next week.

[Parm]

i thought we did pretty well overall.

Sure Arsenal passed the ball around beautifully....but how many good chances did they have? 2 and they were both from rebounds of the post.

we tested Almunia quite a few times to be fair.

If we had more pace we would be a quality unit

spot on, they had a lot of the ball, but most of it was in the middle of the park, even when they got behind us their final ball was poor. If we hadnt had the injuries and a lack of pace we would have held on.