It’s Just The Same Old Story…
I’d had a bit of time to think about this evenings game against Manchester City and I’m more annoyed than anything else with the defeat - mainly because every Gooner could see it coming from a mile away.
You knew it was going to happen!
Arsenal dominated the first half, wasting 5 or 6 great opportunities - with the less than sharp Thierry the main culprit.
And just like against Aston Villa and Dynamo Zagreb, Arsenal didn’t have the cutting edge and once again were scared to shoot on goal!
Arsenal had most of the ball in the second half but Man City keeper Nicky Weaver didn’t have a save to make!
What the hell is wrong with Arsenal - does Wenger dish out punishments if our players shoot outside the area?
And the worst thing was Manchester City weren’t even that physical. I dread to think what the hell is going to happen once we play teams like Everton, Bolton and Manchester United.
When a team dominates the game so much and doesn’t take their chances the opposition will ALWAYS get a chance to nick a goal.
ALWAYS.
And so it proved on the 41st minute.
A long diagonal ball played to Trevor Sinclair caused all the problems, and the inexperienced Justin Hoyte watched the ball but didn’t know where the player was.
And he succeeded in hacking down Sinclair for a penalty kick.
It was obvious Joey Barton was going to score - it was virtually their first chance of the entire game!
How many times in the past have Arsenal been left ruing missed chances?
Far too many times!
And the second half was the same old story - plenty of attacking possession but no desire to shoot and test the keeper.
The only player willing to shoot on goal in the second period was Robin Van Persie!
You may think I am over-reacting but unless something happens then we’re in for a very, very tough season.
Arsenal have only one way of playing and if teams play deep and with 8/9 men behind the ball they know Arsenal will not get through.
And can you blame them?
Days like today have happened far to often and Arsenal have to learn to score a scruffy goal!
Arsenal play a quick, slick passing game and without a player who can actually head the ball teams will play the same way against us. Too many times the ball is wide and instead of crossing it we play the ball inside and face a brick wall of defenders.
With players like Bergkamp, Pires, Vieira and Freddie at their peak this way of playing wasn’t a problem - we could keep chipping away and you knew we would eventually score.
But with the current personell Arsenal have to play differently but there are no signs of this happening. We are not the same team we were 2 seasons ago and the question is can Arsenal change the way they play?
We’ll have to wait and see…
August 26th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
Please, stop panicking, it shall be well, the team played well and as time goes on, they will gell, relax, time will tell, i was enjoying the game and i think they will come good, it is just the beginning two games and we are complaining? pls
August 27th, 2006 at 12:17 am
Disagree with your comment that city scored their first chance. In the 1st half Barton could have scored from a SLICK move & Corradi should have scored from another.
Still I can see your point, watching Arse you play with little width and there is no ariel threat whatsoever which is amazing for a premier team. skill & finess will get you so far but major trophies? What you gooners need is a big front man with a bit of class. Corradi is available in jan for 5m.
August 27th, 2006 at 12:36 am
The worrying thing is that the other ‘big’ teams like Liverpool, United and Chelsea would have made that huge amount of possession and attacking threat into goals. Arsenal miss far too many chances but that’s how it’s always been: we attack, attack and attack some more. Unfortunately we don’t have any Plan B if our passing game doesn’t work.
Pires is a big miss and scores a lot of important goals. We really could have done with him today just to take one of the chances!
Who else misses as many chances as we do? We’re just not clinical enough anymore.
August 27th, 2006 at 12:37 am
the way i see it is that as long as henry doesnt find his aim, arsenal will contine to create loads, but finish none. if henry is going to take till october as he said he is, im sure that would mean another 4 or 5 bad results….hoping he doesnt pick up an injury!
I hope that the ‘premiership club’ that is about to sign tevez is arsenal….he would be a great alternative and we would finally have someone firing when henry is not. However i hope he is not going to a club like chelski. i cant see hoyte holding out players like shevchenko, all the more if he is accompanied by a tevez.
I think i prefer flamini instead of hoyte. cole isnt worth being mentioned.
August 27th, 2006 at 12:57 am
Maybe they are all terrified of Henry shaking his head when people finish like he did today.
The goals will come and lots of them, but players like Mozart, TH14, Adebayor, Eboue all lack a lot of confidence and finishing so far….but that will come.
Helb, Walcott and van Persie looked great thou. Next generation Arse will be great, we just need the engine to get some more confidence.
August 27th, 2006 at 1:06 am
I agree with you completely. But that’s how Wenger’s team gonna play and I can’t see it changing very quickly. If you look at our wingers, they are not exactly wingers who play wide and send in crosses. They are those who love to drag in and play through the middle.
If you look at our centre forward, they are not the typical Ian Wright / Bent forward who play with directness and thirst for goals.
It’s not that we can’t win playing the way we do, it’s just that we won’t be able to win playing that style unless our players are in top condition.
Anyway..It’s still two games, too early. If Wenger were to correct the mistake, add in the right players, this is the best time to do so.
August 27th, 2006 at 1:44 am
i said in another post*
calm down man…. we would have won this game on a different day, the ref did us no favours.
we can get 1, 2 , 3, 4, in the league.
this team i have faith.
this team can go along way.
i said last year the same thing. i know.
but, wait, we are down on players, not because we have not bought some, but because they are injured.
1 defeat and you guys go mad!
chelsea lost one.
spurs lost.
arsenal lost.
blah blah blah, give the boys a chance man, who said last year we couldnt get to the champions league final? we almost won it for fuck sake.
i said last year we could win the league, but the team didnt think so coz of pat leaving,
this year i say we can win the league, win the champions league, win the fa cup, and the league cup.
i think i am the only one, apart from Arsene and the team to think this.
we need a couple of more players, but if they do not come, we can still do great things.
give them a chance.
August 27th, 2006 at 3:48 am
The latest result doesn’t inspire much confidence.The next match against Boro provides a retn to last season’s match. Boro shd have been pulverised but managed to win the match.It was a case of overplay or overkill of the chances created.
Teams know Arsenal don’t usually score with the head so one problem is eliminated.Arsenal over rely on Henry for goals.If Henry is pursued by a possee of defenders he has no chance.
These are early days but if things don’t improve quickly,don’t be surprised if more stars clamour to move.
August 27th, 2006 at 3:58 am
It simply because no one able to shoot from outside of penalty box. Look at Saha or Shevc , few goals they scored are outside the box.
currently they just wait all players included opponent defenders regroup at the back only try to shoot the wall instead to the net!
At 1st i thought Rosicsky is the answer to this, as he done always in his previous clubs, even worldcup. But wonder how come now he just seem ordinary like other players in Arsenal….
We really need someone can fire at will, before those defender regroup and play men behind ball.
August 27th, 2006 at 5:55 am
at the risk of repeating myself before the start of the season;
1) gilberto - fabregas pairing in 4-4-2 just wouldn’t work
2) our wingers are not actually wingers. rocisky & hleb are converted from their favoured attacking cm position, hence they do not make crosses.
3) since the beginning of wenger’s reign, we are known for having wingers who could consistently hit 10-15 goals / season e.g overmars, pires, ljungberg. rocisky (not to be deceived by his 2 goals in wc against usa. check up his career stats) & hleb have very poor scoring record with their former club(s) / country.
it has been a long time since i didnt feel disappointed when we lose a game. perhaps it has something to do with adapting my expectation - the same feeling i got during the 80s & early 90s when we were not challenging for the title & only deriving excitement finishing above spurs. are we gonna win it this year? if you are really sincere to yourself, i suppose you know the answer.
questions:
1) why is hoyte starting in front of flamini? i cant judge if he is really good or bad but i can say for sure he is not suited for left back.
2) who is the best candidate to partner henry after db? reyes was crucified for being incompetence. sooner or later, would rvp & adebayor suffer the same fate?
3) what is our actual game plan? try to walk the ball into the net for 70 mins & wait for walcott to safe our ass in the last 20 mins? unfortunately the plan did not work out in the last game.
August 27th, 2006 at 7:58 am
Calm down people! Only Utd have made a perfect start and that’s been down to teams gifting them goals as much as their ability to “hit the ground running” from the opening game. Liverpool and Chelsea have had slow starts and all the other teams are beating eachother…it’s going to be a very open season in my opinion.
We are not playing like we were last season; still too much “overplaying” but this season we are actually creating chance after chance without putting the ball in the net. That’ll change as players get sharper.
Last season, we played numerous away matches where our forwards may as well have stayed at home because we never got the ball beyond our midfield (Everton away comes to mind); that’s not been the case so far this season. Against Villa and City, if we’d converted half of our good chances, we would have knocked in 3 or 4.
For me, the title race is wide open; my prediction in the summer was Chelsea favourites but literally any of the “big four” were capable of putting a run together and taking the title; not even Arsenal’s dodgy start has changed my mind on this…
August 27th, 2006 at 9:16 am
Ambrose is right - A bit of a slow start, sure. Not the Arsenal we all want to see - Agreed, but here you are panicking like some little old lady. We’re 2 games in and past seasons should indicate to you that in the Premiership anything can happen. Are you this much of a big, blubbering, panicking baby elsewhere in your life? I do hope.
I don’t see the world with rose tinted specs, and it is painfully obvious that our squad needs strengthening, but within the next week we’ll finally see how it all ends up and we’ll hopefully have cut out the rotten pieces - Reyes and Cashley. Then the squad can settle and dig in for the long haul. It’s funny how quickly you hacks forget what Arséne Wenger has brought to this club and what they have achieved off the pitch recently. They’re playing the long game and trying to put the things in place that will ensure we can be successful on the pitch once again - As a fan you need to have more faith even when it looks like the club don’t know what they’re doing.
I was enraged at how poorly we played yesterday - Everyone was out of sorts, and I would have put Flamini at left back, but it wasn’t to be and it’s not going to change anything. Of course RvP was shoved in the back and we should have had a pen for that, but you can’t go relying on the hope of penalties to win games. We fluffed our lines and paid the price.
In the end they played badly and frankly they got what they deserved. Get over it.
August 27th, 2006 at 9:22 am
As a Man City fan, I would just like to thank you lovely Gooners for yesterdays result!
Seriously though, You have only played 2 games this season, granted, they have been against teams that on paper, you should have beaten, but it’s still early days. The reason that Un***d are doing well is due to the teams they have played (no disrespect to Fulham, Charlton or Watford).
Relax then my Arsenal friends, enjoy the new Emirates, but never forget Highbury!
On a seperate note, what is happening to Highbury? Let’s hope it doesn’t end up like Maine Road…..heartbreaking!
August 27th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
Youre right. After the first 30minutes I had the feeling we just wouldnt score. I think all the problems came from defence. Because of them our midfield had to sit deep and make long passes up front or run it all the way…and neither way is arsenal football. It wasnt Henry or Hoyte but Eboue who lost us the game, plain and simple! He was wasteful, lacked discipline and frankly showed no respect to his team. Ashley has to stay! We have jokers in our defence right now.
August 27th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
We are skint and i dont have a clue !!!
August 27th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
How the hell could i waste seven mil on Adebayor ?????
August 27th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
….i must have been pissed ???
August 27th, 2006 at 2:00 pm
I have lost the plot.Please someone tell me how it should be done.
August 27th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Every Arsenal fan who has watched games in the Wenger Era could see after 25/30 minutes that we wouldn’t score and that City would get one chance to punish us - it’s happened far to many times before!
I don’t care if Arsenal ’should’ have beaten City, the fact is we didn’t. While other teams are always more clinical and win games Arsenal just ‘deserve’ to win games.
What matters is the 3 points after the match! You don’t win trophies by ‘deserving’ to win or having more possession - you win games and honours by sticking the ball in the net!
Arsenal have just forgotten the basics and are over-complicating things as usual.
August 27th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
hoyte is shit!, adebayor is crap, and djorou is not good enough yet! it’s fucking annoying, buy some class players for fucks sake!
August 27th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
now that was supposed to be among our easiest fixtures (Villa and Man City) what the fuck do we do when we play difficult ones like Bolton, Chelski, Manyoo, Liverpool? like Blackburn, Watford, Sheffield…countless others…. really annoying this season is! pray wenger makes some bold moves - otherwise we could really be fucked up this season
August 27th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
hoyte is a fucking calamity for gods sake! that cunt will cost us games! can’t wenger fuckin see that
August 28th, 2006 at 11:44 am
Hoyte is utterly useless; defensively awful, offensively invisible. I would seriously rather have Cygan at LB than someone who should be nowhere near the Arsenal first team. Flamini must come in NOW.
There were some good things in both the Villa and City performances, but nothing to make me think we’re going to get anything but heavily beaten at Old Trafford.
If Boro scrape a draw or, god forbid, win then we could very easily be looking at a single point after four games - and we’re playing catch-up for the CL places by mid-September.
Experienced, quality signings are clearly needed, but equally clearly will not be made. The fantastic run to the CL final convinced AW that, for yet another year, experience could be replaced with youth, and no significant forays into the transfer market; which ignores the flaws which last season’s domestic away campaign so brutally exposed.
August 28th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Can someone tell me why Mathieu Flamini wasn’t playing at left-back at the weekend? He was so impressive last season - doesn’t that justify a place in the first eleven?!