Post Match Thread - Arsenal (H)

[Lee]

Overall, absolutely galling to lose a goal like that at the end, it feels like a defeat, but it's not...it's alright. If we lose at City however, it starts to look a bit of a bad result. Must not lose at City.

Completely agree with this.

We can be proud of the second half performance, but what a sick, sick way to drop two points

[Roanmore]

Mascherano was ****ing immense throughout, a towering performance. I hope to **** no move materialises. Man of the match for me.

Overall, absolutely galling to lose a goal like that at the end, it feels like a defeat, but it's not...it's alright. If we lose at City however, it starts to look a bit of a bad result. Must not lose at City.

+1

[Djimi Cruyff]

Happy enough with the point especially as we had ten men for a whole half and we were playing a team who'll most likely finish ahead of us.Carra played well but we were defending so deep that it suited him and I hope we won't be playing like that as the season progresses.Made up for N'gog aswell great finish.

[little dave hedgehog]

the real worrying thing for me was how often we looked to move the ball backwards in the first half. the arse were coming at us and we were in reverse. as I say though 2nd half absolutely cracking at times.

[Shaggy]

There's no conflict there. I've already said he looks a useful player, no Voronin certainly which was my concern, but he's nothing special either. Not a game changer, but useful nevertheless. Not the kind you want playing against Birmingham at home certainly.

(watch him score a hat trick against Brum now)

You said he'd prove to be a dud!

Course he might still turn out a turkey, but I can't see it.

[greenbloodred]

Hard. I can understand why the Ref gave an instant Red. The Arsenal player's reaction made it look even worse. Under normal circumstances it's a defo yellow and since Red Cards cant be downgraded to Yellows when appealed for, it wont get turned down IMO.

Hmmm, agreed about how it must have looked in "real-time" for the ref but the replays show it in better light for Joe and he's clearly not a player with any malicious intent. Lets hope the club vigorously appeal it

[Rudo]

I've watched almost every Barca game last season. No.



No, he's really not.



CB should generally not play around with the ball when they're pressured by players, they just need to find the simple pass. One of them should have a bit more in terms of passing, but we've got that in Agger (Wilson is going to be that type as well).

Anyway, this is going back and forth, so that's my 2p.

Oh behave yourself. Skrtel is much, much quicker than Carragher.

In fact aside from Johnson, he's our quickest defender.

[JohnDoe]

Oh behave yourself. Skrtel is much, much quicker than Carragher.

He talked about Puyol.

[Bender]

I really think Babel could be the Ace for us if he can get his **** together

[doogle]

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger talking after the match - apparently he "didn't see" Joe Cole's tackle on Laurent Koscielny so can't comment on the red card.
Dopey french *******

Was listening to 5 live at half time and the guy in the tunnel said Wenger was going to the tv room to look at the challenge

[Jaymo]

Unlucky pepe! Great performance, something we can build on, and we're one point better off than we were this time last season!

[Leyton388]

Jovanovic is a quality player who will do very very well for us in the time he is here. He has skill, pace and seems like a very strong a cleaver player.

Don't let the fact that he was a free and Voronin was free too cloud anyones judgment of him. Voronin he certainly is NOT!

[shanks69]

the bloke who sits next to me was doing my head in during the 1st half,he kept going on about arsenal passing us to death.in the end i turned to him and said it was all pretty football but no killer ball,the only thing pepe had to deal with was the free kick.
at half time i would have taken the point with us down to ten men,but come the final whistle i was gutted especially with there goal being a rare pepe mistake.

[Craig_H]

Wasnt sure what to expect today, i was excited and also a bit scared.

Thought we were poor in the first half, especially first 10-15 minutes, where they were dominating us thoroughly. We found our way a little later on but it wasnt a good first 45 minutes, however we did well to contain them and restrict their attacks, but we offered very little. Shame Jova had a bit of a rush of blood, when he got himself in behind. Also unlucky to have had that header cleared off the line, from a corner. Havent seen the red card on tv yet and i was right at the other end, so i cant comment yet, other than to say i can imagine it was just sheer (but misplaced) enthusiasm from Joe.

2nd half was much better, got off to a super start with a cracking finish from N'Gog. Defended extremely well with 10 men, while still holding a threat at the other end, which was pleasing. Unfortunate with the equaliser, again havent seen it on tv yet so not entirely sure exactly what happened, but Pepe ****s up once a decade, so he can be forgiven, especially after making several good saves.

Overall, i'm proud of the boys for a gutsy performance with 10 men and overall, a decent and fair result. Puts a bit of pressure on us for City away, but in the circumstances, it's an acceptable result. Just gutted we couldnt hold out or even snatch a winner in the 5 mins injury time, especially when for a brief nanosecond, i thought we might've had a peno for a bit of tugging in the box, right at the death.

One thing i noticed, which was a slight concern to me - we seemed to lack width both in an attacking and defensive respect - both Jovanovich and Kuyt (dirk especially) seemed to be tucked in very narrow a lot of the time, and this wasnt helped by the reluctance of the fullbacks (johnson especially) to overlap and get properly forward. Quite often we had the ball centrally, and it was just begging for a pass out wide, but too often there wasnt anyone there. I assume this was a deliberate instruction from Roy, but it was weird to see. Likewise defensively, where i'd be expecting to see Dirk sitting in front of GJ and offering protection, far too often i saw Arsenal play the ball to their left flank, with Dirk stuck in the centre and Johnson left exposed. Slightly concerning.

On a plus side, our corners were mostly much better and we also dealt with setpieces very solidly from a defensive point of view, looked very solid and organised. Interesting to see us going man-for-man from corners too.

Positives:
Skrtel was pretty faultless
Mascherano was superb
N'Gog already looks better than last year, a bit stronger, a bit 'wiser' if you like, led the line well, held the ball up, linked the play and scored a good goal. Delighted for the boy.
It'll be about another 6 years before we see another mistake from Pepe.
Defended very well and restricted them to not much, for all their possession.
Carra's marshalling of the defence.

Negatives:
Reduced width
Showed them too much respect in the first half
Kuyt and Jovanovich a bit hit and miss
Carragher's hoofing
Joseph! Oh Joe...no no no!

[DannyMan2006]

I think we lacked width as Arsenal tend to play through the middle. the best bet was to close in and keep it tight, and move across as a team.