Match Reaction v Borussia Dortmund

[Cripps_orig]

Good point

More than i expected.

Could do f all with the goal we conceded.

Mertesacker :bow:

[AKBapologist]

We're far away from where we were. :coffee:

I guess this is what happens when you don't have 2 world class players in every position.

Lucky to go away with just a point, CDM's and Defence did Alright, midfield was shocking.

[Xhaka Can’t]

I can't fault the effort at all.

[Syn]

We faced a better side away and got a point...it's a good result. Very limited going forward and the organisation at the back was a mess as always but cannot fault the work-rate from the players. It wasn't an easy fixture.

New signings Benayoun and Arteta impressed with their efforts. Szczesny was good as always.

[Letters]

Quite happy with that. Would have taken a point and overall felt we played and defended well.
Bit disappointing to concede so late but you can't do anything about a goal like that and a point away in the CL is generally a decent result.

Overall, well done boys.

[hymppi]

could be an important point.
stolen from the german champions with a good effort but shit play.
liked the heart. hated the nervousness.
song was good on the second half.
mertesacker did well too.
and szczesny.

[gunnerrrrr]

Should have bought Mata, or someone who can run a midfield....now its all on young Wilshire shoulders because the majority of our midfield is fucking shit...good job Wenger

[Ollie the Optimist]

Really proud of that performance, boys stood up tall and gave their all. good goal for them but in reality imo they didnt really trouble chesney too much. remember a couple of seasons when we would dominate, conceded score late on and draw, well dortmund did just that.


also skys commentators today were cunts

[Özim]

Good if a tad lucky draw, the pr*ck can stay in the stands we seem to do better :coffee:

[selassie]

TBF that was a good point, I expected us to lose today.

In all honesty I think the group is wide open.

[Master Splinter]

Good result.

[Marc Overmars]

It was indeed a good point. Anything away from home in the CL is a good result particuarly against a side of this calibre.

Pity we couldn't hold on because we defended so well, but it was a great strike and there was nothing we could have done about it.

I thought we were wasteful in midfield and invited a lot of the pressure on. No one could really pick a pass, but maybe you have to give Dortmund credit for closing us down. Gervinho was the biggest sinner IMO, lost count of amount of times I was shouting "Look up!"...he just seems intent on running into brick walls.

A positive start to the group anyway which must be backed up with a win against Olyimpiakos, which I'm sure it will.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Should have bought Mata, or someone who can run a midfield....now its all on young Wilshire shoulders because the majority of our midfield is fucking shit...good job Wenger

what drugs you on?

[Arsenal Fan]

fairly annoying (particularly because of our habit of late goals conceded) but pleased with some showing of resilience

[Boss]

Good effort on the whole, a draw away from home against the German champions is a good result.

Mertesacker doesn't seem to be hindered by his lack of pace as his positioning has been spot on. Chesney with a couple big saves to keep us in it.

Not sure why we bring on Shitmakh, he adds nothing and is him coming on is the same as us going down to ten men.

Only error I can see is the tactics, Walcott for Frimpong was puzzling as we needed an outlet to take the pressure off our defense, they had free run at us for 25 odd minutes before their goal.

[Cripps_orig]

Arteta and Yoss impressed defensively in the 2nd half. Song was immense as well.

The big ass German gets my MOTM vote though.

Attacking wise, pretty shit. Gervinho missing sitters continues on his poor start for us

[gunnerrrrr]

Good if a tad lucky draw, the pr*ck can stay in the stands we seem to do better :coffee:
it was hilarious seeing the sub at 75mins....that has Wenger written all over it

[Cripps_orig]

Skjsahfksjfdhny and Sagna post match interview

[Xhaka Can’t]

what drugs you on?

good arguement.

[GP]

Shame. Deserved the win but Dortmund scored a great goal to salvage a draw.

Pleased with tonight's effort.

[Ollie the Optimist]

it was hilarious seeing the sub at 75mins....that has Wenger written all over it

expect uefa to ban him for telling rice what to do at such a time in game if situation was like it was

[Coney]

1-1 away for the first game with not a full squad against the German champions. I think that is a decent result, If they had not jammed their goal it would have been nicer but we picked up a good point there. Puts them under a slight pressure for their next game which has to be good for our cause. If we can pick up 3 points at home in the next game that would be a great start to the campaign.

[Kano]

a good point, dortmund deserved the point though.

gibbs needs to be dropped, he had a terrible game.

song had a great second half and benny got better as the game progressed.

good to see gerv back.

[gunnerrrrr]

what drugs you on?
come on we have gone backwards massively.....great point, great grit etc etc etc who can be bothered anymore...for a team built for technically ability we were awful

[Joker]

Good effort but the performance was shit. The midfield was almost non existent and defensively there was no organisation whatsoever.

I think we're going to have to get used to this sort of performance this season. The fluent, offensive play we've seen intermittently over the last few seasons is a thing of the past. Most games this season will involve us toiling hard to create any chances, and our football will likely be laboured, untidy and uninspiring.

[Joker]

Good effort but the performance was shit. The midfield was almost non existent and defensively there was no organisation whatsoever.

I think we're going to have to get used to this sort of performance this season. The fluent, offensive play we've seen intermittently over the last few seasons is a thing of the past. Most games this season will involve us toiling hard to create any chances, and our football will likely be laboured, untidy and uninspiring.

[Özim]

it was hilarious seeing the sub at 75mins....that has Wenger written all over it
:lol: Very true, the guy doesn't have a clue.

[Marc Overmars]

No one should be surprised at the shift Arteta put in, given that's what his old club is famed for.

[Özim]

expect uefa to ban him for telling rice what to do at such a time in game if situation was like it was
He likes it up there alongside his pal PHW don't worry.

[Cripps_orig]

No one should be surprised at the shift Arteta put in, given that's what his old club is famed for.

It'll be coached out of him for sure ;)

But defensively he looked good.

Thats not what we bought him for though

[Özim]

No one should be surprised at the shift Arteta put in, given that's what his old club is famed for.
Yeah showed a lot of fight, nice to see.

[milla]

Mers on Sky
If Van Persie stays fit this season, he will be playing for Barcelona next season. One the best striker in the world.

Very true tbh, cant see VP10 stays for another season. :coffee:

[Syn]

Also - although we didn't quite steal a win, it was refreshing to see a proper game of football with no diving or going down easy. There were many times when the Dortmund players could've gone down and appealed for a dangerous freekick or pen. The referee was always fantastic and didn't do the usual European thing of calling people up on slight nudges.

Overall, enjoyed it.

[Cripps_orig]

Fucking love Merson

What a legend

[gunnerrrrr]

Mers on Sky

Very true tbh, cant see VP10 stays for another season. :coffee:
i said to a mate he RVP must look around and think fucking hell what the fuck has happened....he is off to Madrid...and i would not blame him at all

[Niall_Quinn]

Stupid substitutions almost cost us the game, 1-1 MIGHT be a good result provided we don't throw away the easier matches like we did last year. I hate the way we play football.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Good effort but the performance was shit. The midfield was almost non existent and defensively there was no organisation whatsoever.

I think we're going to have to get used to this sort of performance this season. The fluent, offensive play we've seen intermittently over the last few seasons is a thing of the past. Most games this season will involve us toiling hard to create any chances, and our football will likely be laboured, untidy and uninspiring.

You must have been watching the Chelsea game, our perfomace was as good as it could have been away in the cirumstances.

[Cripps_orig]

Also - although we didn't quite steal a win, it was refreshing to see a proper game of football with no diving or going down easy. There were many times when the Dortmund players could've gone down and appealed for a dangerous freekick or pen. The referee was always fantastic and didn't do the usual European thing of calling people up on slight nudges.

Overall, enjoyed it.

This

Plenty wrong with Arsenal but not much of it shown tonight.

Ref was very good indeed.

Pleased with the nights work. On to Blackburn and the relegation 6 pointer

[Ollie the Optimist]

Wenger being kept in the stands until 15 mins after FT. uefa sent two people to escort him there too. what a fucking joke of an orgnastion. texting = death penatly, racist chanting and we hear nothing being done. CUNTS

[Olivier's xmas twist]

i said to a mate he RVP must look around and think fucking hell what the fuck has happened....he is off to Madrid...and i would not blame him at all

yeah because When they have benzema and higuaim they'e buy some injury prone 29 year old. but i agree the only reason he is here because he is crock and no one will waste money on him.

[RomfordPele]

Second half was good. First half was diabolical. Again.

Pleased with the result, not particularly reassured by the overall performance. .

[Power n Glory]

Not impressed with the performance. Dortmund could have put us to the sword nice and early. We got the draw and it looked like we battled but it was another disjointed performance from the midfield and wasn't that different from the Swansea performance. We just faced a better team.

Great goal, but we took off our attackers and invited pressure on ourselves. Wenger/Rice went against the original plan which was to attack to keep their main players quiet. That didn't work and we made matters worse by taking off all of our attackers.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Stupid substitutions almost cost us the game, 1-1 MIGHT be a good result provided we don't throw away the easier matches like we did last year. I hate the way we play football.

who else would we bring on though tbh to change the game.

[Syn]

who else would we bring on though tbh to change the game.

That Park Chu Young fella. 'Change the game' wasn't really what was required - more a bit of experience to not waste the ball in decent positions which Walcott was guilty of doing time and time again. I have no idea if Park would be any good at that sorta thing but given that we've bought him and it's all we have, we might as well use him.

[Joker]

yeah because When they have benzema and higuaim they'e buy some injury prone 29 year old. but i agree the only reason he is here because he is crock and no one will waste money on him.

Van Persie owes us, so if he starts making noises about leaving he should shut the fuck up and realise we've kept him on even though the logical decision would have been to ditch him. For the last 4 seasons, he's been paid wages despite being injured for most of the season, and then returning at the end of the season to score a few +1s to increase anticipation for next season.

He's 29, injury prone and hasn't really scored in big games. I doubt any big clubs would be interested in him tbh.

[Niall_Quinn]

who else would we bring on though tbh to change the game.

We didn't want to change the game, did we? That's what fucks me off, when we need to change it the guy persists but when it's going for us he changes it. Any if he thinks bringing extra defenders on makes any difference to our defensive capabilities then he's deluded. Plus when's he going to finally twig with Chamakh? How hard can it be to figure out the guy strengthens the opposition when he comes on?

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Good if a tad lucky draw, the pr*ck can stay in the stands we seem to do better :coffee:

That enough about PHW what about Wenger

[Cripps_orig]

Van Persie owes us, so if he starts making noises about leaving he should shut the fuck up and realise we've kept him on even though the logical decision would have been to ditch him. For the last 4 seasons, he's been paid wages despite being injured for most of the season, and then returning at the end of the season to score a few +1s to increase anticipation for next season.

He's 29, injury prone and hasn't really scored in big games. I doubt any big clubs would be interested in him tbh.:blink:

[gunnerrrrr]

yeah because When they have benzema and higuaim they'e buy some injury prone 29 year old. but i agree the only reason he is here because he is crock and no one will waste money on him.

Shows how little you know about football...move on to the netball forums son.

RVP would be class in the slow moving, soft, techinical Spanish League and Mourhino knows this...being a good manager and all that

[Cripps_orig]

We didn't want to change the game, did we? That's what fucks me off, when we need to change it the guy persists but when it's going for us he changes it. Any if he thinks bringing extra defenders on makes any difference to our defensive capabilities then he's deluded. Plus when's he going to finally twig with Chamakh? How hard can it be to figure out the guy strengthens the opposition when he comes on?

Chamakh did nothing wrong when he came on

Youre pretty entertaining tbh but the Chamakh hating is getting dull and repetitive tbh

[gunnerrrrr]

Chamakh did nothing when he came on
This

[Joker]

Getting a draw away from home against the German champions is never a bad result, but it's a sign of how much we've declined that we're pleased with such a shit performance from us. We barely attacked them at all, struggled to put them under any pressure for a sustained period of time and gave the ball away constantly. It was as if we were the pot 4 side and they were the pot 1 side. Arsenal sides of the recent past would have at least had one period where the team were on the front foot, asking questions of the opposition even away from home. Now we're pleased just to keep the opposition out, and anything else is a bonus.

[Marc Overmars]

Stupid substitutions almost cost us the game, 1-1 MIGHT be a good result provided we don't throw away the easier matches like we did last year. I hate the way we play football.

It won't be as easy as last year to gain a head of steam, especially given how the fixtures have worked out, with Dortmund and Marseille away in the first 3 fixtures. It's fairly reasonable to suggest we will have 5 points after 3 games, rather than 9 like last year. So I imagine every game to be quite competitive with everything to play for, therefore we shouldn't be taking our foot off the gas again.

And yes, our football is a bit shit.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Chamakh did nothing wrong when he came on

Youre pretty entertaining tbh but the Chamakh hating is getting dull and repetitive tbh

oh the irony

[milla]

Good point

More than i expected.

Could do f all with the goal we conceded.

Mertesacker :bow:

First half, the midfield were shocking. Something about PerGirrafe, he doesnt move a lot but he seems always standing at a right place. Very commanding performance but I will reserve my judgement until he plays against Blackeye this weekend.

Second half was better, lesbo jew and Pants model worked off the socks but they are just not Cesc. We need to tweak this team to get more creativity out of our players. :coffee:

[Cripps_orig]

This

Hes a striker. We didnt have the ball after he came on.

What was he supposed to do?

[Niall_Quinn]

Chamakh did nothing wrong when he came on

Youre pretty entertaining tbh but the Chamakh hating is getting dull and repetitive tbh

He did nothing at all. As in, he didn't do his job - as usual. He's supposed to be the outlet, but where did he play? In the middle. Did he do the running required to make himself available? No. Did he do anything at all compared to Gervinho who was at least picking up and trying to hold onto the ball? No he didn't. That's because he's a total waste of a slot on the roster.

[fakeyank]

Why isnt Ding Dong (Park) getting any game time?

[Syn]

Chamakh did nothing wrong when he came on

He didn't. I don't think it was a horrific change. In general though - 'doing nothing wrong' isn't the limit of what we should be expecting. One thing that is very noticeable is that too many players do not want the ball and are just looking to hide. It's one of the biggest problems.

That's why it was refreshing to see Wilshere last season - always hungry, looking for the ball and trying to make an impact.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Van Persie hasn't really scored in big games.

i dont know if you watched the game tonight, but he scored then and that was a big game. he scored the equaliser in the barca game, that was big and carling cup final. just to name a few. if you are going to have a go at robin, at least make up a decent argument for it rather then horsehit

[Olivier's xmas twist]

We didn't want to change the game, did we? That's what fucks me off, when we need to change it the guy persists but when it's going for us he changes it. Any if he thinks bringing extra defenders on makes any difference to our defensive capabilities then he's deluded. Plus when's he going to finally twig with Chamakh? How hard can it be to figure out the guy strengthens the opposition when he comes on?

I sesne that tbh we were happy but i suppose if Gev was not wasteful then it might have been a diffrent story. All in all we settled whic was wrong but i supposed AW main priorty was to win or get a point and he did that.


Van Persie owes us, so if he starts making noises about leaving he should shut the fuck up and realise we've kept him on even though the logical decision would have been to ditch him. For the last 4 seasons, he's been paid wages despite being injured for most of the season, and then returning at the end of the season to score a few +1s to increase anticipation for next season.He's 29, injury prone and hasn't really scored in big games. I doubt any big clubs would be interested in him tbh.

Wll no you can't blame him if he decided he wanted to win things before his legs finnaly give way. But unless he stays fit he won't go no where if he does we won't get good money for him


That Park Chu Young fella. 'Change the game' wasn't really what was required - more a bit of experience to not waste the ball in decent positions which Walcott was guilty of doing time and time again. I have no idea if Park would be any good at that sorta thing but given that we've bought him and it's all we have, we might as well use him.

True

[Cripps_orig]

He did nothing at all. As in, he didn't do his job - as usual. He's supposed to be the outlet, but where did he play? In the middle. Did he do the running required to make himself available? No. Did he do anything at all compared to Gervinho who was at least picking up and trying to hold onto the ball? No he didn't. That's because he's a total waste of a slot on the roster.

Same as RVP and Theo then but of course they wont get any hating

Like i said

Dull and repetitive

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Shows how little you know about football...move on to the netball forums son.

RVP would be class in the slow moving, soft, techinical Spanish League and Mourhino knows this...being a good manager and all that

Never said he would not be class, i said why would they spend money on him if he is not fit. everyone knows he does not play a full season anhd jose is not silly to risk that.

The fact he seems like our only bit of quality i expect him to get injured again because he seems to be doing it all/ like Nq says Chamcah is shite and adds nothing.

so its down to park i guess.

[Cripps_orig]

He didn't. I don't think it was a horrific change. In general though - 'doing nothing wrong' isn't the limit of what we should be expecting. One thing that is very noticeable is that too many players do not want the ball and are just looking to hide. It's one of the biggest problems.

That's why it was refreshing to see Wilshere last season - always hungry, looking for the ball and trying to make an impact.

Not a horrific change at all.

We needed to keep posession and to bring Chamakh in to it who can hold it up. Unfortunately the midfield was non existent for the most part offensively,

Chamakhs fault though of course

[Niall_Quinn]

Same as RVP and Theo then but of course they wont get any hating

Like i said

Dull and repetitive

Theo, fair enough, but RvP?

I want Arsenal to win and it is so much harder for us to do that when Chamakh on the pitch. If we had Titus Bramble playing up front for us everyone would hate him too. Even though he's a better striker than Chamakh he's still shit and why would we want shit playing for us?

[Marc Overmars]

Far be it from me to defend Chamkah, who I think is as shite as they come, I'm not sure why he's been mentioned, given he was on for just 10 mins when Dortmund were all over us anyway. Maybe he was brought on to defend with his extra height? Dunno.

[milla]

Never said he would not be class, i said why would they spend money on him if he is not fit. everyone knows he does not play a full season anhd jose is not silly to risk that.

The fact he seems like our only bit of quality i expect him to get injured again because he seems to be doing it all/ like Nq says Chamcah is shite and adds nothing.

so its down to park i guess.

Well you dont know. Looking at our injury records, perhaps RVP will be fitter playing for team that focus on his personal conditioning. :coffee:

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Theo, fair enough, but RvP?

I want Arsenal to win and it is so much harder for us to do that when Chamakh on the pitch. If we had Titus Bramble playing up front for us everyone would hate him too. Even though he's a better striker than Chamakh he's still shit and why would we want shit playing for us?

Chamck needs a goal or too and he'd be fine. Even though i said he was shite in an earlier post. his confidence is low and all he needs is a few goals to get back up.

problem is he stuggles ina 433 or a 451, he needs to play in a 442

[GP]

Koscielny was superb, by the way.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Koscielny was superb, by the way.

Dont say that, some people will say he was shit just cos they dont like him.

[gunnerrrrr]

Koscielny was superb, by the way.
at what? giving the ball away throughout the match?

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Well you dont know. Looking at our injury records, perhaps RVP will be fitter playing for team that focus on his personal conditioning. :coffee:

no i meant i don't think jose would risk paying money for an half a season player. who will be 29 next summer. well he he does we'd get 5-10 mill tops.

[Cripps_orig]

Theo, fair enough, but RvP?

I want Arsenal to win and it is so much harder for us to do that when Chamakh on the pitch. If we had Titus Bramble playing up front for us everyone would hate him too. Even though he's a better striker than Chamakh he's still shit and why would we want shit playing for us?

Why is he getting critisism for a 10 minute display that he could do nothing about with the amount of pressure Dorymund put on us?

Why not mention Gervinho who was awful and missed sitters?

HAd that been Chamakh, we'd never hear the end of it

We've been through this Chamakh debate so many times and not once have i seen any legitimate critisism of him from you bar "hes shit". Pretty much says it all.

Im sorry he cant score 40 a game but no other striker does and you dont think they are shit.

The fact you thought Chamakh was shit before Xmas last year when he was scoring whilst being laughable pretty much tells me everything i need to know about your knowledge of strikers.

Sure hes only scored one goal this year but if you hardly play, you dont score.

Simples

[Olivier's xmas twist]

at what? giving the ball away throughout the match?

everyone in the team did that, end of the day Kos did what he needsd to do. He looks good when he is next to an organised defender like Per or TV 5

[fakeyank]

Koscielny was superb, by the way.

He got better as the game got along but he was atrocious in the first half. Almost cost us a couple of goals.

[Cripps_orig]

He got better as the game got along but he was atrocious in the first half. Almost cost us a couple of goals.

He was fucking shite for the first half hour

Got better as the game went on but hes a mistake waiting to happen.

Sooner Verm is back the better

[GP]

Dont say that, some people will say he was shit just cos they dont like him.

Yeah, but people are retards, so I don't give a shit.

[Marc Overmars]

Mertesacker scares me.

He seems to be at ease with what he's doing which is great, but his languid style is not easy on the eye and makes me think he's about to do something horrific. :lol:

[Özim]

at what? giving the ball away throughout the match?
:good post:

[Cripps_orig]

Mertesacker scares me.

He seems to be at ease with what he's doing which is great, but his languid style is not easy on the eye and makes me think he's about to do something horrific. :lol:

Our motm by a mile imo

First half hour, he was immense with Kos being Kos

[milla]

no i meant i don't think jose would risk paying money for an half a season player. who will be 29 next summer. well he he does we'd get 5-10 mill tops.

Like SAF, Moronho will get whatever he wants. The club could easily fetch 25 mil from selling RVP. :coffee:

[Niall_Quinn]

Why is he getting critisism for a 10 minute display that he could do nothing about with the amount of pressure Dorymund put on us?

Why not mention Gervinho who was awful and missed sitters?

HAd that been Chamakh, we'd never hear the end of it

We've been through this Chamakh debate so many times and not once have i seen any legitimate critisism of him from you bar "hes shit". Pretty much says it all.

Im sorry he cant score 40 a game but no other striker does and you dont think they are shit.

The fact you thought Chamakh was shit before Xmas last year when he was scoring whilst being laughable pretty much tells me everything i need to know about your knowledge of strikers.

Sure hes only scored one goal this year but if you hardly play, you dont score.

Simples

Your own post adequately explains why Chamakh is shit. In a game where we're under the cosh, teh last thing you need is Mr Anonymous up front. It's not about the goals, it's not about missing sitters, it's about getting some time on teh ball and making yourself available so the defence can attempt top relieve some of the pressure. Gervinho had to have the ball to fuck it up, didn't he? And just by having the ball it was a help for the defence. You asked before, why get at Chamakh, he did nothing wrong. In fact he did everything wrong, as usual. He provided no relief for the defence whatsoever, therefore there was no reason for him to be on the pitch. In fact it was detrimental having him on teh pitch because we replaced a player who at least saw some of the ball. As I said, Chamakh is of benefit only to our opponents.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Like SAF, Moronho will get whatever he wants. The club could easily fetch 25 mil from selling RVP. :coffee:

we'd never get that much

[Joker]

Koscielny improved but he was a bombscare especially in the first half. How many times did he lose the ball in dangerous areas? Moreover, some of his attempts at playing offside were abysmal, and nearly cost us. Too often simple long balls down the middle caused us problems because of his shit positioning. Vermaelen can't return soon enough.

[Cripps_orig]

Koscielny improved but he was a bombscare especially in the first half. How many times did he lose the ball in dangerous areas? Moreover, some of his attempts at playing offside were abysmal, and nearly cost us. Too often simple long balls down the middle caused us problems because of his shit positioning. Vermaelen can't return soon enough.

Apparently he was brilliant though :lol:

[milla]

we'd never get that much

Same was said before Berbatov went to Manc. :coffee:

[Özim]

Let's be clear here, Koscielny is sh*t, there isn't a match that he plays in which goes by where he doesn't make some sort of horrendous error (or more as is often the case).....and for a defender that's awful.

He's been a terrible signing so far.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Let's be clear here, Koscielny is sh*t, there isn't a match that he plays in which goes by where he doesn't make some sort of horrendous error (or more as is often the case).....and for a defender that's awful.

He's been a terrible signing so far.

i believe you said merts was shit signing too but for a wonder goal they would have held out for a win, just like they did on saturday. if thats shit, ill take that

[Cripps_orig]

Let's be clear here, Koscielny is sh*t, there isn't a match that he plays in which goes by where he doesn't make some sort of horrendous error (or more as is often the case).....and for a defender that's awful.

He's been a terrible signing so far.

Pretty much

No doubt people will mention the Barca home leg last season where he apparently kept Messi at bay, the same Messi who had countless chancess as he got away from Kos time and time again and thankfully had an off night with his finishing but that was all down to Kos obv who was miles away from him every time

[fakeyank]

Our motm by a mile imo

First half hour, he was immense with Kos being Kos

MOTM was Scjreihkjf

[milla]

MOTM was Scjreihkjf

Either Scjreihkjf, Scze3nczey or Giraffe. :coffee:

[Marc Overmars]

Koscielny arguably saved us the game, when Dortmund were pushing for a winner he made that brilliant tackle in the box to block what looked like a sure fire goal.

He's not perfect of course but we all have our favourites and scapegoats. :coffee:

[Joker]

i believe you said merts was shit signing too but for a wonder goal they would have held out for a win, just like they did on saturday. if thats shit, ill take that

If it wasn't for shoddy finishing they'd have been out of sight in the first half. The fact that they didn't score in the first half had nothing to do with good defending.

[Ollie the Optimist]

i dont buy this defence is shit thing, all of dortmunds pressure, they scored one goal, late on to draw and chesney only really had about 4/5 saves to make. that shows me, they did pretty fucking good

[GP]

Koscielny arguably saved us the game, when Dortmund were pushing for a winner he made that brilliant tackle in the box to block what looked like a sure fire goal.

He's not perfect of course but we all have our favourites and scapegoats. :coffee:

Pretty much.

[Tony Tuesdays]

Considering we had 3 players signed just the other day, playing down the spine of the team, and performing for the most part like a set of individuals rather than a team, I say that's a bloody good result. As has previously been stated Dortmund's goal was a GOTS contender.
I'd blame the disjointed display on the fact they were signed so late in the summer. Give them 3 or 4 more games and we'll see a composed team at play.
Chesney did well yet again, I thought Kossie was the better of the CBs considering PM has played Bundesliga all his life (would still have preferred Samba but that's for another discussion). Saying that PM played okay.
I thought Yossi was better once he was shoved out to the left. He was a nuisance... to us!!! in the centre.
Gervinho needs to look up once in a while. TW requires a left foot.
Arteta was tidy without being outstanding. Song played well in the 2nd half, someone must've reminded him he's supposed to be a DM; a shield for the defence, not a dribbler, at half time.

But all that being said it was a good result.

[Ollie the Optimist]

If it wasn't for shoddy finishing they'd have been out of sight in the first half. The fact that they didn't score in the first half had nothing to do with good defending.

funny how most moan when arsenal do what dortmund did to us today, but because its dortmund its ok. they never really had any clear shots in that half hour imo

[milla]

Koscielny arguably saved us the game, when Dortmund were pushing for a winner he made that brilliant tackle in the box to block what looked like a sure fire goal.

He's not perfect of course but we all have our favourites and scapegoats. :coffee:

In the 2nd half, the rest of back four was great IMO. Very unlucky with their goal. :coffee:

[Ollie the Optimist]

and based on chesneys performances so far this season, and de gea valued at 18m, i value chesney at least double that. he has been exceptional, calm, collected and makes sure he gets the ball. number one for years to come and he will be the best keeper in the world one day

[Özim]

If it wasn't for shoddy finishing they'd have been out of sight in the first half. The fact that they didn't score in the first half had nothing to do with good defending.
Pretty much, in the final third Dortmund were awful tonight, generally very poor finishing and shooting and at times overplaying.

I do think we battled hard but we were pretty lucky their finishing was way off as well.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Also - although we didn't quite steal a win, it was refreshing to see a proper game of football with no diving or going down easy. There were many times when the Dortmund players could've gone down and appealed for a dangerous freekick or pen. The referee was always fantastic and didn't do the usual European thing of calling people up on slight nudges.

Overall, enjoyed it.

Spot on.

[Özim]

funny how most moan when arsenal do what dortmund did to us today, but because its dortmund its ok. they never really had any clear shots in that half hour imo
One of these days you'll have to watch a match, then you'll understand I think.

[Niall_Quinn]

Let's be clear here, Koscielny is sh*t, there isn't a match that he plays in which goes by where he doesn't make some sort of horrendous error (or more as is often the case).....and for a defender that's awful.

He's been a terrible signing so far.

Agree with that. The difference with him though is he puts in a great effort, his heart is there but the poor lad has no clue how to defend. He wouldn't get a sniff in any other PL team, other than maybe those newly promoted. Kos will cost us lots of points this season but he'll put in 101% effort. It's quite sad in a way.

[Özim]

and based on chesneys performances so far this season, and de gea valued at 18m, i value chesney at least double that. he has been exceptional, calm, collected and makes sure he gets the ball. number one for years to come and he will be the best keeper in the world one day
That's great, Wenger will be pleased you value him at 36 million, seeing as we sold Cesc for less though can't see him being sold for anywhere near that if he is.

[Özim]

Agree with that. The difference with him though is he puts in a great effort, his heart is there but the poor lad has no clue how to defend. He wouldn't get a sniff in any other PL team, other than maybe those newly promoted. Kos will cost us lots of points this season but he'll put in 101% effort. It's quite sad in a way.
I'd feel sorry for him but he gets way too much money for that.

[Ollie the Optimist]

One of these days you'll have to watch a match, then you'll understand I think.

i did watch that match, and what happened was dortmund pressurized us lots but didnt score till the last minute. now that means our defence held out till then. they didnt score millions with all that pressure, if that was arsenal, we would be moaning saying how we should have scored and all the possesion means nothing with no goals. arsenal did what htey had too, defend and counter, we nicked the goal. they just got lucky with theirs at the end

[Özim]

i did watch that match, and what happened was dortmund pressurized us lots but didnt score till the last minute. now that means our defence held out till then. they didnt score millions with all that pressure, if that was arsenal, we would be moaning saying how we should have scored and all the possesion means nothing with no goals. arsenal did what htey had too, defend and counter, we nicked the goal. they just got lucky with theirs at the end
Our defence in the 1st half was caught out numerous times with simple balls through the middle, no sign of good defending there.

Dortmund were lacking in the shooting department IMO, maybe it was an off night or maybe they are generally like that, I don't know...one thing's for sure, we were lucky.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Our defence in the 1st half was caught out numerous times with simple balls through the middle, no sign of good defending there.

Dortmund were lacking in the shooting department IMO, maybe it was an off night or maybe they are generally like that, I don't know...one thing's for sure, we were lucky.


dont think we were, we were leading until they nicked a last minute equalizer with a good but flukey goal :) but if the situation was reversed, you would be calling for wengers head and you know it

[Niall_Quinn]

i did watch that match, and what happened was dortmund pressurized us lots but didnt score till the last minute. now that means our defence held out till then. they didnt score millions with all that pressure, if that was arsenal, we would be moaning saying how we should have scored and all the possesion means nothing with no goals. arsenal did what htey had too, defend and counter, we nicked the goal. they just got lucky with theirs at the end

If we beat Dortmund at home and play well in the process then I'll agree and say we got a pragmatic point today. But if we play the same way I'll just conclude we are now a very, very average team. We're so boring to watch it's hard to reconcile it with what we used to see. It's like a period of shock, some of us will take longer to come out of it I suppose.

[milla]

Agree with that. The difference with him though is he puts in a great effort, his heart is there but the poor lad has no clue how to defend. He wouldn't get a sniff in any other PL team, other than maybe those newly promoted. Kos will cost us lots of points this season but he'll put in 101% effort. It's quite sad in a way.

He is not as bad as potrayed here though. Kos is definitely the best tackler in the team, he made clean tackle looks easy. :coffee:

[Olivier's xmas twist]

I'd feel sorry for him but he gets way too much money for that.

You don't know how much money he gets

[Ollie the Optimist]

If we beat Dortmund at home and play well in the process then I'll agree and say we got a pragmatic point today. But if we play the same way I'll just conclude we are now a very, very average team. We're so boring to watch it's hard to reconcile it with what we used to see. It's like a period of shock, some of us will take longer to come out of it I suppose.

at the moment, how we play is irrevant as long as we get good results, a win today would have been amazing but a draw is a dam fine result too. over next few games, we just need to win, or at least draw (depends who we playing, if we have chavs etc coming up, a draw would be fine) and just get the team winning again, with that confidence will come back. wenger is right when he says, confidence goes quickly and comes back slowly. winning ugly is just what we need to do right now, get the results right, performances will follow. win first, improve second

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Agree with that. The difference with him though is he puts in a great effort, his heart is there but the poor lad has no clue how to defend. He wouldn't get a sniff in any other PL team, other than maybe those newly promoted. Kos will cost us lots of points this season but he'll put in 101% effort. It's quite sad in a way.

Spot on, But whilst he's an Arsenal player ill support him unlike others. We all know he is 3rd choice anyway so he can't cost us points if he is on the bench.

Its obvious TV 5 will be 1st choice. that a new CB partnership that will have to build. But when he comes back im sure we will here how shite merts is by some on here.

Give kos a chance id say

[Olivier's xmas twist]

at the moment, how we play is irrevant as long as we get good results, a win today would have been amazing but a draw is a dam fine result too. over next few games, we just need to win, or at least draw (depends who we playing, if we have chavs etc coming up, a draw would be fine) and just get the team winning again, with that confidence will come back. wenger is right when he says, confidence goes quickly and comes back slowly. winning ugly is just what we need to do right now, get the results right, performances will follow. win first, improve second

Nah its not allowed on here if they don't play like Utd City or Barca then we have problems, feck giving the team time to gel. forget us rebuilding.

[Niall_Quinn]

at the moment, how we play is irrevant as long as we get good results, a win today would have been amazing but a draw is a dam fine result too. over next few games, we just need to win, or at least draw (depends who we playing, if we have chavs etc coming up, a draw would be fine) and just get the team winning again, with that confidence will come back. wenger is right when he says, confidence goes quickly and comes back slowly. winning ugly is just what we need to do right now, get the results right, performances will follow. win first, improve second

This thinking applies to good teams who have lost form. During those periods, exactly, get the results even if the performance is bad. But good teams find their form again. My fear is we are just a bad team, actually it's not a fear it's an observation based on the evidence. I agree, we did well today, about the best we could hope for with this team. Maybe it will be the season high point.

[Ollie the Optimist]

Nah its not allowed on here if they don't play like Utd City or Barca then we have problems, feck giving the team time to gel. forget us rebuilding.

if we were playing like barca right now, gw would be having a meltdown. they been fucking up leads

[Ollie the Optimist]

This thinking applies to good teams who have lost form. During those periods, exactly, get the results even if the performance is bad. But good teams find their form again. My fear is we are just a bad team, actually it's not a fear it's an observation based on the evidence. I agree, we did well today, about the best we could hope for with this team. Maybe it will be the season high point.

true to an extent, but we are not a bad team imo. if you look at our strongest team, its actually very strong imo. get jack back, get tv5 back, and we have a strong first team, strong bench and a strong youth. we will come good again, give this team time to settle in next few games, get them winning and i think they will do something

[Niall_Quinn]

Spot on, But whilst he's an Arsenal player ill support him unlike others. We all know he is 3rd choice anyway so he can't cost us points if he is on the bench.

Its obvious TV 5 will be 1st choice. that a new CB partnership that will have to build. But when he comes back im sure we will here how shite merts is by some on here.

Give kos a chance id say

TV is not really the first choice if he can never get on the pitch and Kos isn't really a 3rd choice if he's always starting. Fact is we should have bought another CB in the window. But Wenger has made the same mistakes as he;s made in the past, we didn't buy anyone, Kos is here so yes, let;s hope he can play above his level and do a job for us.

[Niall_Quinn]

true to an extent, but we are not a bad team imo. if you look at our strongest team, its actually very strong imo. get jack back, get tv5 back, and we have a strong first team, strong bench and a strong youth. we will come good again, give this team time to settle in next few games, get them winning and i think they will do something

I don't think the manager will allow us to come good again. It's not just the quality of our players, which has dropped across the board, it's Wenger's crazy ideas that have been disproved over and over without any sign of him taking notice.

[Ollie the Optimist]

I don't think the manager will allow us to come good again. It's not just the quality of our players, which has dropped across the board, it's Wenger's crazy ideas that have been disproved over and over without any sign of him taking notice.

i think he is, in last two games, it seems to me that we have been set up better defensively, transfer window, signed two experience prem players and one international. changed his policy on height with merts.

i will agree with you at end of october i there is no improvement in terms of results and performance, but if there is, (and i believe there will be) this team will know how to win both pretty and ugly and will come good

[Özim]

You don't know how much money he gets
I know it's too much.

[Özim]

dont think we were, we were leading until they nicked a last minute equalizer with a good but flukey goal :) but if the situation was reversed, you would be calling for wengers head and you know it
I'm calling for Wenger's head anyway, I've made it clear I want him out.

[Globalgunner]

disHonorable mention goes to kieran gibbs who was really really poor. the only thing it seems he can do quite well is pass the ball back to his keeper which he must have done oh? 20 times or more durinmg the game. If this guy is our 1st choice LB then heaven help us. The midfield was really poor incapable of holding on to the ball or blunting the dortmund attacks. Arteta did his best but Benayoun was pants just about being woth of a place in the game but no more. Lets hope he improves. Song is a conundrum. He does a lot of things well but is really bad at doing what he should be doing: holding on to the ball at crucial times and giving it off to the creative midfileder. When he holds the ball he tries to manouvre with it instead of trying to lay it off. Invariably he loses it leading to opposition attacks. We should be able to do better than this guy. Finally Gervinho every run ended up into a cul de sac............More work needs to be done...urgently

[fakeyank]

and based on chesneys performances so far this season, and de gea valued at 18m, i value chesney at least double that. he has been exceptional, calm, collected and makes sure he gets the ball. number one for years to come and he will be the best keeper in the world one day

:gp:

In a couple of years, with market inflation, I see us nicking 40 odd million quid off of Chelsea, Barca etc

WIN

:dancingman:

[server too busy!]

I felt Gervinho was marked quite heavily, he always had 3-4 players surrounding him, can't blame him too much, his drive will be invaluable.

Arteta to me looks like he's running in quick sand and doesn't seem to be the sharpest, got caught out in possession a few times. I really think we need to change formation, so often we struggle because RvP is isolated, we need 2 up top. I really want to see Park, got a feeling he will be useful in a Theo role.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

TV is not really the first choice if he can never get on the pitch and Kos isn't really a 3rd choice if he's always starting. Fact is we should have bought another CB in the window. But Wenger has made the same mistakes as he;s made in the past, we didn't buy anyone, Kos is here so yes, let;s hope he can play above his level and do a job for us.

Kos was always bought to be 3rd choice tbh if you know what i mean, he was never meant to play so many games last season. I agree Cahill should have been bought abd hopefully in jan he will be.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

I'm calling for Wenger's head anyway, I've made it clear I want him out.

Have to agree with zim he'd call for wengers head if we had beatern united 8-2, he still be go on about how flukey we were lol

But zim has always hd this stance on Aw so ill back him on that.

[Marc Overmars]

I felt Gervinho was marked quite heavily, he always had 3-4 players surrounding him, can't blame him too much, his drive will be invaluable.

I really think we need to change formation, so often we struggle because RvP is isolated, we need 2 up top. I really want to see Park, got a feeling he will be useful in a Theo role.

I agree we need to maybe rethink the set up of the side for the new players. Find a system that makes them the sum of their parts, because it's painful watching them attempt to play how the Cesc-led side did. There's no cutting edge and we seem to be bumbling through games at the moment. I understand these guys need a string of games to settle but I really don't see much in terms of creativity here and I have a feeling we will see a more pragmatic Arsenal now, which might not be a bad thing but we just need to tweak it a little to find a balance somewhere to get the best out of these new guys.

[Niall_Quinn]

i think he is, in last two games, it seems to me that we have been set up better defensively, transfer window, signed two experience prem players and one international. changed his policy on height with merts.

i will agree with you at end of october i there is no improvement in terms of results and performance, but if there is, (and i believe there will be) this team will know how to win both pretty and ugly and will come good

Well I hope you're right and I'm wrong. But the lack of quality is alarming. Every team we've played so far has looked the better team on the day, and I include Swansea in that.

[WilshereourGHEL]

a good point, dortmund deserved the point though.

gibbs needs to be dropped, he had a terrible game.

song had a great second half and benny got better as the game progressed.


good to see gerv back.

Gibbs had a quality game if you ask me marking one of the best youngsters in the game at the moment

[Japan Shaking All Over]

Apologies but I didnt see the game but just read the match repirt and it sounded as if we came out with what we deserved which tbh considering is a good result.

We played the champions of Germany st thete home ground and came away with more than some expected, Dortmund are an extremely tidy team, rate Goetze and Kagawa very highly.
It was good to hear Song and Gervinho played there part and they will be very welcome additions at the weekend. . . .like a couple of new signongs (just wanted to say that)

Papering over the cracks finished, I still think a CB is needed, Cahill in Jan is realisric but whether we are still fighting on four fronts as was the case last year remains to be seen
I would also like to see our firmation change, this I appreciate is wishful thimking but a more direct approach would work better with a team which in truth is at the moment is inferior in quality to a Cesc led team, this cant be avoided and we should look for new strengths to play to. . .such as pace and dare I say it heart which Cesc led teams lacked

And heart is something that takes time as does confidence which I tgink some should remember is obviously still lacking within the team. . . .although self inflicted, the team went through an horrendous end to last season and the loss of two star players during the summwr, these kind of blows to morale are not fixed by two weeks at Club 18-30 - forced to watch a manager+20 fumble their way through to the transfer deadline
as well as suffer the heaviest ever defeat by an Arsenal team, it ay become clearer that although disappointing, it could also be deemed as a good result, something to take up Blackburn.
a win would have been great but a draw is good, the team may not be the best in the league but we can only use the players we have, Kos included, we can wait and see if this is addressed later

[Cripps_orig]

on whether Arsenal were unfortunate not to win the game…We battled really hard and we knew it would be a hard, hard game. To be able to defend well is a high-quality skill and that is something all of our players did this evening. I shouldn't think many teams will come to Dortmund and beat them and we were very, very close to doing that.?on Robin van Persie’s goal…It is nothing unusual to see Robin do something like that. It was a great run from Robin and it was also a terrific ball through [from Theo]. It is unusual to see Robin hit it with his right foot but it proves that he is not just a left-footed footballer.?on the captain’s leadership… Robin is obviously the Club captain and we encourage him to be verbal both on the park and also off it, especially in the dressing room. He was just asking me one or two things that he thought we could have done better and I was just saying one or two things that we could actually do to make the team better.?on withstanding a lot of first-half Dortmund pressure… As I said before, to actually defend well is a high-quality skill and our players did it very, very well. Don't forget Dortmund are a really good side, there is no question about that. Would we liked to have won the game? Of course we would, we were so close to it and so very, very near. But the same thing happened to us as when we played Tottenham and the boy [Danny] Rose hit and unbelievable shot from about 35 yards. It was the same this evening. I should imagine that he could try that 25, 30, 40 times and he would hit it over the bar or at the goalkeeper. It was a great goal.?on whether Dortmund’s style made it like playing against Arsenal… Yeah, very, very much so. Now we know what it is like whenever we are or form! But, as I say, our lads stuck to it well. It was a very hard game, as you could see. When Gervinho went through, the game could have been over if he had stuck it in the back of the net. So, really and truthfully, a point apiece was a good result.?on a strange situation without manager Arsène Wenger… First of all, it was extremely strange not having the manager next to me because usually he is shouting in my ear: 'why did he do that?' and 'why didn't he do that?'. Did I like it? Not really, no. It has never been one of my ambitions to be the manager of a football club. It is very strange. It is too stressful for me.?on two positive results after a difficult start to the season… Very much so. It seems, especially the game on Saturday, it seemed to me personally that it was the start of our season. Because of the uncertainty as to whether players would leave us or whether they wouldn't. The players that we have acquired are very, very good players, contrary to what other people have said. I have no doubt that they will show it in the games to come.?on Per Mertesacker… Per, from my point of view, is a terrific player. The amount of games he has played for the German national side means he cannot be a bad player. It is impossible. He is showing that gradually with us. I thought he was terrific tonight alongside Laurent Koscielny and I can only see him getting better and better when he gets used to the Premier League.Don't disagree with any of that bar the Kos thing

[Globalgunner]

The problem with the Pat Rice comments isthat it again illustrates that these muppets have no idea how to fix whats wrong with this team. Yes it was a "wonder" goal. but teams are always scoring wonder goals against us. Rose, the chap at Newcastle last year. How many such goals are csored against Manure.....cant recollect. The problem is that when we are under the cosh, we all fall back on top of our keeper, inviting more pressure. If this had been united yesterday, somebody like Anderson or Fletcher would have chareged out at the chap Perisc and closed him dowm before he got the shot off. instead we just sit at home and hope for the best. We never learn, that s why top priozes will elude us with the dim twins Rice/Wenger) at the helm.

[Coney]

on whether Arsenal were unfortunate not to win the game…We battled really hard and we knew it would be a hard, hard game. To be able to defend well is a high-quality skill and that is something all of our players did this evening. I shouldn't think many teams will come to Dortmund and beat them and we were very, very close to doing that.?on Robin van Persie’s goal…It is nothing unusual to see Robin do something like that. It was a great run from Robin and it was also a terrific ball through [from Theo]. It is unusual to see Robin hit it with his right foot but it proves that he is not just a left-footed footballer.?on the captain’s leadership… Robin is obviously the Club captain and we encourage him to be verbal both on the park and also off it, especially in the dressing room. He was just asking me one or two things that he thought we could have done better and I was just saying one or two things that we could actually do to make the team better.?on withstanding a lot of first-half Dortmund pressure… As I said before, to actually defend well is a high-quality skill and our players did it very, very well. Don't forget Dortmund are a really good side, there is no question about that. Would we liked to have won the game? Of course we would, we were so close to it and so very, very near. But the same thing happened to us as when we played Tottenham and the boy [Danny] Rose hit and unbelievable shot from about 35 yards. It was the same this evening. I should imagine that he could try that 25, 30, 40 times and he would hit it over the bar or at the goalkeeper. It was a great goal.?on whether Dortmund’s style made it like playing against Arsenal… Yeah, very, very much so. Now we know what it is like whenever we are or form! But, as I say, our lads stuck to it well. It was a very hard game, as you could see. When Gervinho went through, the game could have been over if he had stuck it in the back of the net. So, really and truthfully, a point apiece was a good result.?on a strange situation without manager Arsène Wenger… First of all, it was extremely strange not having the manager next to me because usually he is shouting in my ear: 'why did he do that?' and 'why didn't he do that?'. Did I like it? Not really, no. It has never been one of my ambitions to be the manager of a football club. It is very strange. It is too stressful for me.?on two positive results after a difficult start to the season… Very much so. It seems, especially the game on Saturday, it seemed to me personally that it was the start of our season. Because of the uncertainty as to whether players would leave us or whether they wouldn't. The players that we have acquired are very, very good players, contrary to what other people have said. I have no doubt that they will show it in the games to come.?on Per Mertesacker… Per, from my point of view, is a terrific player. The amount of games he has played for the German national side means he cannot be a bad player. It is impossible. He is showing that gradually with us. I thought he was terrific tonight alongside Laurent Koscielny and I can only see him getting better and better when he gets used to the Premier League.


Don't disagree with any of that bar the Kos thing

You don't think "he was terrific tonight alongside Laurent Koscielny"? What was it that Mertesacker did that meant he was not terrific? :unsure:

[Özim]

Gervinho is a busy player but I have to say he totally lacks an end product, when well placed he messes up his chances time and time again, why is it we're constantly signing players with no end product in the final 3rd.

He's energetic but he's not going to score many goals based on what we've seen.

[selassie]

I thought whilst the workrate was commendable, we lacked quality last night.

We quite easily could have been 3 down in the opening quarter of an hour, defensively we were all over the place, Kos & Kieran Gibbs especially were getting caught out of position and incorrectly playing the offside trap.

Once we settled down we were still second best but grew into the game and began to defend quite well.

RVP took his goal very well and it came at a perfect time.

We improved second half and actually created a few chances, Defensively we played a very good game second half, special praise should go to Chesney who I thought was outstanding, Koscielny who was flawless 2nd half & Song who was immense.

Offensively we still lacked cutting edge and I felt we looked quite disjointed in Midfield too.

Overall it wasn't a bad result considering we were 2nd best for large chunks of the game, big improvement is needed though.

[AKBapologist]

Why are people still talking about getting Cahill in jan? We saw what a good CB looked like last night in Hummels and Subtovic, a class above tbh.

[LDG]

Defended badly in the first half. Defended excellently in the second half.

Did exactly what we should have done against a very good side, away, in Germany, and under all sorts of pressure of late.

Great point.

Feel sorry for 'em that we didn't get a bit of luck. Those goals always seem to fly in against us. you can't legislate for them.

Haven't got a clue what globalgunner is on about btw.

[IBK]

I think a point is OK in the circumstances, but I was gutted, absolutely gutted, that we conceded the late goal. Why do these wonder strikes always seem to happen to - and not for us??? I disagree with people who are intimating that we are basically shit now compared to last season. We are better going forwards than last night showed, but we are so lacking in confidence that it hurts. I've said before that we are the most vulnerable team in the league to a drop in confidence because of the way we are set up to play - and that's why I am so disappointed with their goal, because a win, even when we played ordinarily first half would have been a real confidence boost. A point not so much.

Happy with the effort and desire in defence. Koscielny - for his flaws is a brave defender, and I think he could thrive alongside Mertesacker. As usual - people are destroying Chamakh - and I can see the antipathy given his goal drought - but its so naive to expect a performance from any striker brought on for the last 10 mins against a team desperate to score and playign at home in front of 80000 fans it makes me smile.

[Flavs]

I am made up tbh, i thought we showed everything we didn't against Manyoo. Solid at the back and quite a threat when we got forward, Everyone except the useless Theo Walcott pressed and harried and the back four looked solid after a bit of a shaky start.

Arteta and Benayoun really impressed and to see to supposed "creative" midfielders winning headers and flying into 50/50's was brilliant.

I also thought after a shaky first 20 minutes or so Koscielny and Song were awesome, everything you could want them to be really.

Good result and Pat Rice for manager!

[Flavs]

I agree we need to maybe rethink the set up of the side for the new players. Find a system that makes them the sum of their parts, because it's painful watching them attempt to play how the Cesc-led side did. There's no cutting edge and we seem to be bumbling through games at the moment. I understand these guys need a string of games to settle but I really don't see much in terms of creativity here and I have a feeling we will see a more pragmatic Arsenal now, which might not be a bad thing but we just need to tweak it a little to find a balance somewhere to get the best out of these new guys.

And still no set plays from erm set plays...

Even Big Al was ranting about our lack of throw in routines last night and nothing has changed with Free Kicks and corners as far as i can see.

[LDG]

I am made up tbh, i thought we showed everything we didn't against Manyoo. Solid at the back and quite a threat when we got forward, Everyone except the useless Theo Walcott pressed and harried and the back four looked solid after a bit of a shaky start.

Arteta and Benayoun really impressed and to see to supposed "creative" midfielders winning headers and flying into 50/50's was brilliant.

I also thought after a shaky first 20 minutes or so Koscielny and Song were awesome, everything you could want them to be really.

Good result and Pat Rice for manager!

Aye. Bit overboard mate, but pretty much.

I agree on the Arteta / Banayoun thing especially. Both showed their experience and willingness to do a job. With Cesc and Nasri in that line up, we would have lost that game last night. I have no doubts about that.

[LDG]

I agree we need to maybe rethink the set up of the side for the new players. Find a system that makes them the sum of their parts, because it's painful watching them attempt to play how the Cesc-led side did. There's no cutting edge and we seem to be bumbling through games at the moment. I understand these guys need a string of games to settle but I really don't see much in terms of creativity here and I have a feeling we will see a more pragmatic Arsenal now, which might not be a bad thing but we just need to tweak it a little to find a balance somewhere to get the best out of these new guys.

I think that's how we HAVE to do it at present. We've come off the back of some horrendous times just recently. What we've all been crying out for is some backbone to go with the style. Right now, I think the manager is settling for some dogged results, as shown against Newcastle, Udinese, Swansea and Last night.

We have to get ugly again for a bit. Scrap some wins, gain some confidence, and then the attacking stuff will come.

There were some cameos of what we can do last night. Some of the balls in behind, with players ACTUALLY MAKING RUNS :faint: were good to see.

Walcott dissapointed again though. The lad just loses himself. He's too timid and doesn't look to make things happen himself like RVP. At least gervinho was trying to make stuff happen...and his time will come when he settles in.

[Syn]

We are better going forwards than last night showed, but we are so lacking in confidence that it hurts. .I hope you're right because I genuinely think Dortmund are a better team than us. They were on another level technically. Three of the guys they had attacking (gotze was one) were unbelievably good. They are a seriously good team and I'm not sure we are technically good enough to compare anymore. Watching those guys slam it to eqchother and control instantly just highlighted what technically gifted players look like. I believe we have benayoun, arteta, van persie and wilshere who have great first touches, but the others aren't just average, they are awful at it. More often than not, gervinho/walcotts second touch is a tackle. Big problem if we are going to be more fluid going forwards.

[Marc Overmars]

Arteta and Benayoun really impressed and to see to supposed "creative" midfielders winning headers and flying into 50/50's was brilliant.


I think that's the benefit from getting seasoned pros in, particuarly from the Prem. That was the very least David Moyes would have expected from Arteta. Benayoun was part of a Liverpool side who had a solid defence as well so he would have been drilled for his off the ball duties.

We shouldn't have any concerns on the battling front if last night was anything to go by. Of course it wouldn't be Arsenal though if we solved one problem without creating another, now we seem a bit limited going forward!

[Xhosa_Gunner]

Mostly tap ins

[Japan Shaking All Over]

Gervinho is a busy player but I have to say he totally lacks an end product, when well placed he messes up his chances time and time again, why is it we're constantly signing players with no end product in the final 3rd.

He's energetic but he's not going to score many goals based on what we've seen.

Shit zimm thats unlike you to give someone the benefit of the doubt for more than three games!

One more game for the Areta crew before we are treated to another blast of your world famous dont know the difference between a good player and my elbow

[Young Guns 11]

dont think we were, we were leading until they nicked a last minute equalizer with a good but flukey goal :) but if the situation was reversed, you would be calling for wengers head and you know it

How can you think that the defence wasn't caught out numerous times in the first half?! So many times one through ball dissected our defence. We were very lucky they didn't have their shooting boots on.

That said, we took our one chance very well, improved vastly in the 2nd half and were very unlucky they scored such a great goal.

[LDG]

Shit zimm thats unlike you to give someone the benefit of the doubt for more than three games!

One more game before we are treated to another blast of your world famous dont know the difference between a good player and my elbow

:haha:

[Japan Shaking All Over]

Why are people still talking about getting Cahill in jan? We saw what a good CB looked like last night in Hummels and Subtovic, a class above tbh.

We were after Subtovic before right?

[Japan Shaking All Over]

I think a point is OK in the circumstances, but I was gutted, absolutely gutted, that we conceded the late goal. Why do these wonder strikes always seem to happen to - and not for us??? I disagree with people who are intimating that we are basically shit now compared to last season. We are better going forwards than last night showed, but we are so lacking in confidence that it hurts. I've said before that we are the most vulnerable team in the league to a drop in confidence because of the way we are set up to play - and that's why I am so disappointed with their goal, because a win, even when we played ordinarily first half would have been a real confidence boost. A point not so much.

Happy with the effort and desire in defence. Koscielny - for his flaws is a brave defender, and I think he could thrive alongside Mertesacker. As usual - people are destroying Chamakh - and I can see the antipathy given his goal drought - but its so naive to expect a performance from any striker brought on for the last 10 mins against a team desperate to score and playign at home in front of 80000 fans it makes me smile.

I agree, techinically Cesc and Nas could make us look great but I cant help feeling that if this team can grow and gel together we could be looking at a more balanced unit.
I do think we have to be realistic and say the pretty football is behind, a lot of results are going to have to ground out on guts, Jack will thrive in this environment, as will a few others.
Man U are a monster team, SAF has something very special and although we may not reach those heights there is no reason why we cant be dangerius again, with a couple more additions.
Confidence is missing and I said before that it would take more than the summer to get that back, throw in the loss of Cesc and Nas we have some work to do.

BTW NQ is the only one allowed to criticise Chamak because they live together.

[Flavs]

We shouldn't have any concerns on the battling front if last night was anything to go by. Of course it wouldn't be Arsenal though if we solved one problem without creating another, now we seem a bit limited going forward!

Well if someone could have a quiet word with Theo and tell him that doing one thing a game isn't anywhere enough we would be better, he should be watching Gervinho and seeing how he dribbles and runs and passes and kicks and stuff, football Theo that's this game you useless prick. See how when he gets passed the ball he doesn't just let it bounce of him to the other team, see how he tries to go round players rather than through them? See how when he loses the ball he tried to get it back?

:angry:

[Niall_Quinn]

BTW NQ is the only one allowed to criticise Chamak because they live together.

Kicked him out because he couldn't hit the bowl and kept pissing on the floor.

But please, a striker's game is much more than just scoring goals. Chamakh has nothing to his game, he used to have a few goals in him but even those dried up. When the team is under pressure, as we were last night, the striker has to offer an outlet even if he's on his own up front. He has to at least worry the opposition defenders so they can't pile forward and add to the pressure. Chamakh doesn't do this, he's always a yard behind the play often just chasing the ball aimlessly around. He's not an intelligent player, he's not a brave player. I agree, anyone criticising him for not scoring in the last 10 minutes last night is being unrealistic. But criticising him for not doing the other things strikers should be doing is perfectly valid.

Or summed up - he's shit.

If we want the current team to gel and grow in confidence then every player needs to play a part in that. We can't have ten guys ripping their guts out and one waster undoing all the work. That goes for Theo too, he needs to sort his shit out fast or he should be dropped. It's so much harder to play football when there's a seriously weak link in the team. Chamakh is certainly a weak link and Theo is starting to look like one. Same goes for Gibbs who is an awful defender, in fact I don't think he's a defender at all - he's more a winger and probably better than Walcott doing that job.

[Fist of Lehmann]

Could just be my imagination but Theo's body language looks different this season.
He's always been patchy footballistically but I never once questioned his attitude before.

Maybe he has seen Wenger bring in someone younger and uglier to replace him and feels under threat.
We have better options on the wing now than just Bendtner.

[Boss]

http://www.gingers4limpar.com/2011/09/why-dortmunds-goal-was-not-unstoppable/?

[Daniele]

In the first 15 mins we could have been 3-0 down, as I predicted. But then, we settled down and played quite a decent game to me. After a shaky start Kos and Song blossomed especially when we defended deep in the SH. Jury is still out on Merts: so far he looks like a player who knows his limits and does his bit. Maybe we need something more.

I think Kos could be a good defender if someone teaches him to be more focused and play with brains: he has pace, anticipation, good heading. he lacks brains, like most of our players....

Gerv worked his socks off but has to be more effective at shooting.

Walcott was piss-poor. As usual, he can only run and shoot sideways.

[Flavs]

Hopefully we will drop Walcott and play the Chu against Blackeye and Shrewsbury.

Really interested to see what the CC team will be actually.

[Joker]

I don't know if Chu is suited to playing in a wide right position tbh. I wouldn't mind if Oxlade is given a go, to show Walcott that his position is by no means secure and he must do more to justify his starting position. At the moment he's extremely one dimensional, and we need more from our attacking players.

[Daniele]

I don't know if Chu is suited to playing in a wide right position tbh. I wouldn't mind if Oxlade is given a go, to show Walcott that his position is by no means secure and he must do more to justify his starting position. At the moment he's extremely one dimensional, and we need more from our attacking players.

Walcott loses too many balls on the cheap. Last night he lost out on the left once in the second half and it sparked a counter-attack. Then he even struggles to beat his marker. I mean, if he's supposed to be one of the players we rely on....

[LDG]

http://www.gingers4limpar.com/2011/09/why-dortmunds-goal-was-not-unstoppable/?

Every goal is preventable in some way shape or form.

Bit of a silly article.

There are some defensive mistakes we make which are unforgivable. This is taking moaning to an extreme.

[Cripps_orig]

Theo has had one bad game and people already want a League one standard player to replace him? :blink:

[Fist of Lehmann]

Every goal is preventable in some way shape or form.
I would tend not to agree.

A great many goals are preventable, but occasionally you just have to take your hat off to great attacking play or supreme indivdual skill.

I agree with the overall sentiment though. Being unable to acknowledge the qualities of your opponent strikes me as overly Arsecentric.

Gingers4Limpar. Not as much fun as his name suggests.

[LDG]

I would tend not to agree.

A great many goals are preventable, but occasionally you just have to take your hat off to great attacking play or supreme indivdual skill.

I agree with the overall sentiment though. Being unable to acknowledge the qualities of your opponent strikes me as overly Arsecentric.

Gingers4Limpar. Not as much fun as his name suggests.

You get me wrong mate. I meant that if you wanted to be pedantic, you could say that every goal was preventable. Like you say, some times you just have to doff ya cap to a wonderstrike....

I think we've become so introspect about our defensive liablities, that EVERY goal we EVER concede now is used as a stick to beat the team up. They balls up quite a bit, fair dos, but goals get scored against everybody...not just us.

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

solely blame song for their goal. their player was running towards him, then cut outside to the right hand side. he was going nowhere. we had 2 players surrounding him yet song the idiot feels the need to stick out a leg and trip their player.

typical rash thinking from the idiot. giving away needless freekicks in positions we shouldn't. wondering if he has a brain in that orange blonde head of his.

[Cripps_orig]

Dont blame anyone for the goal.

Great strike. Unstoppable

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

needless freekick given away.
so i blame song.

[Cripps_orig]

Still a lot to do after the free kick

[Japan Shaking All Over]

needless freekick given away.
so i blame song.

if he floats it's his fault
if he drowns its justice

FFS

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

if he floats it's his fault
if he drowns its justice

FFS

oh be quiet. i hardly criticise alex and have in fact stuck up for him over the years even when other people have been against him.

however last night summed his temperament up, made a needless and rash challenge.
but had a good game apart from that.

[Japan Shaking All Over]

bit tetchy arent we love

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

no far from it. just venting a bit of frustration. that's what this forums for pal.

[Japan Shaking All Over]

you dont say, as is a bit of playful banter

but theres word going round that such a thing is lost on some........wonder who?

[Fist of Lehmann]

You get me wrong mate. I meant that if you wanted to be pedantic, you could say that every goal was preventable. Like you say, some times you just have to doff ya cap to a wonderstrike....

I think we've become so introspect about our defensive liablities, that EVERY goal we EVER concede now is used as a stick to beat the team up. They balls up quite a bit, fair dos, but goals get scored against everybody...not just us.Let's just agree to agree.

[Ollie the Optimist]

two interesting facts i learnt from last night. first being that dortmund havnt lost at home to an english team since the 60's, so that shows that its fucking tough place to go and a point is dam good.

also second one, mainly for joker this one really, but Rvp scored his 98th goal last night. for someone who is supposdly shit, doesnt score in big games etc etc, thats a lot of goals in 6 years

[Japan Shaking All Over]

Yes, and BD are champoins of Germany and no push over, we groaned when we were drawn with them so we always knew it was going to be difficult, just think some were not so much doubting their credentials more we were not at our imperial best........which I think we are still some way off from seeing......I think 1:1 is a very decent result, wish we hadn't conceded but BD were intent on going for it

RvP is the man....will have the odd shit game, may seek the left peg too much but in no way is he a bottler

Joker probably wont answer.......getting ready for the Citeh game tonight!

[LDG]

Let's just agree to agree.

No :angry:

[Cripps_orig]

98 goals in 6 years is good for a midfielder

For a top class striker, its average

[Marc Overmars]

98 goals in 6 years is good for a midfielder

For a top class striker, its average

He's obviously not played as many games as he should have though.

[Unai Tea]

98 goals in 6 years is good for a midfielder

For a top class striker, its average

But then he's only played half the games. So when he's healthy, which is about half the time, he's pretty top drawer.

[Niall_Quinn]

two interesting facts i learnt from last night. first being that dortmund havnt lost at home to an english team since the 60's, so that shows that its fucking tough place to go and a point is dam good.

also second one, mainly for joker this one really, but Rvp scored his 98th goal last night. for someone who is supposdly shit, doesnt score in big games etc etc, thats a lot of goals in 6 years

We're the first English team to play them at their home since 18 March, 1968 when Crewe Alexandria beat them 8-1.

[Master Splinter]

As great men have said in the past, RVP's only problem is staying fit.

His goal and assist record is comparable to anyone.

He worked hard to win that ball in the first place as well.

Some Drogba-esque defending from him too last night.

No Joker RVP thread though, which is disappointing.

I blame GB..

[Xhaka Can’t]

We're the first English team to play them at their home since 18 March, 1968 when Crewe Alexandria beat them 8-1.

http://www.scribbleoneverything.com/images/uploads/WallDecals/cartoon/bam.gif

[gunnerrrrr]

i dont give a fuck if the Germans were unbeaten at home etc etc

My issue is with Wenger and the same old shit....the tactics, the 75min subs, the defending etc.

Oh and we looked good in defending because they made us sit back so we became compressed...naturally.

It is a far cry from being raped because we try and attack but play this fucking ridiculous high line which Wenger insists on, if we had a chance to keep possession and attacked these guys we would have reverted to type.

The issue is Wenger, Wenger, Wenger and i was firmly in the Arsene we trust brigade for a long long time...for whatever reason the guy has lost the plot and i dont even remember our last world class performance..perhaps when we beat Chelsea at home last year 3-1 (lets not say we were better than Barca when we beat them at home)

Shit tactics, shit management and now we are close to having shit overrated footballers bar a few.

Yesterdays shit draw changes none of the above and until Wenger decides to change we will see this kind of performance throughout the season.

[Master Splinter]

I wouldn't mind 1-1s at difficult European grounds tbh.

[Xhaka Can’t]

i dont give a fuck if the Germans were unbeaten at home etc etc

My issue is with Wenger and the same old shit....the tactics, the 75min subs, the defending etc.

Oh and we looked good in defending because they made us sit back so we became compressed...naturally.

It is a far cry from being raped because we try and attack but play this fucking ridiculous high line which Wenger insists on, if we had a chance to keep possession and attacked these guys we would have reverted to type.

The issue is Wenger, Wenger, Wenger and i was firmly in the Arsene we trust brigade for a long long time...for whatever reason the guy has lost the plot and i dont even remember our last world class performance..perhaps when we beat Chelsea at home last year 3-1 (lets not say we were better than Barca when we beat them at home)

Shit tactics, shit management and now we are close to having shit overrated footballers bar a few.

Yesterdays shit draw changes none of the above and until Wenger decides to change we will see this kind of performance throughout the season.

Rice made the substitutions.

[Power n Glory]

Because we played the German Champions, people are seeing a different performance and praising it, but if we play that way next week against Blackburn, the knives will come out.

Dortmund are a good team but our team has serious problems and our performance was more down to us lacking confidence, direction and cohesion. Dortmund should have rolled us over but it's not because they are so good. Credit to them as a team but you can't ignore the sort of performances we've put over the last few games.

We didn't prepare well for that game and if you go back to Wenger's comments about attacking to keep super Mario quiet, you can see that it didn't go according to plan on the night. We could barely string together 3 passes. They pressed us and kept a high tempo but we couldn't do the same. This is why you've got to question Wenger's tactics. When we don't have the ball....what next? Does he have a plan for that? We don't seem to have an effective defensive strategy and are incapable of winning the ball back or dealing with teams that press tight and with numbers. We struggle to put away lower league teams because our attacks are too slow but when we come up against elite teams, we're going to struggle because we have no clue what to do without the ball and judging from Wenger's subs, he has no idea either.

[gunnerrrrr]

Rice made the substitutions.
at 75 mins exactly...they are and always will be Wengers subs

[gunnerrrrr]

Because we played the German Champions, people are seeing a different performance and praising it, but if we play that way next week against Blackburn, the knives will come out.

Dortmund are a good team but our team has serious problems and our performance was more down to us lacking confidence, direction and cohesion. Dortmund should have rolled us over but it's not because they are so good. Credit to them as a team but you can't ignore the sort of performances we've put over the last few games.

We didn't prepare well for that game and if you go back to Wenger's comments about attacking to keep super Mario quiet, you can see that it didn't go according to plan on the night. We could barely string together 3 passes. They pressed us and kept a high tempo but we couldn't do the same. This is why you've got to question Wenger's tactics. When we don't have the ball....what next? Does he have a plan for that? We don't seem to have an effective defensive strategy and are incapable of winning the ball back or dealing with teams that press tight and with numbers. We struggle to put away lower league teams because our attacks are too slow but when we come up against elite teams, we're going to struggle because we have no clue what to do without the ball and judging from Wenger's subs, he has no idea either.

someone who actually knows what he is talking about

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Because we played the German Champions, people are seeing a different performance and praising it, but if we play that way next week against Blackburn, the knives will come out. Dortmund are a good team but our team has serious problems and our performance was more down to us lacking confidence, direction and cohesion. Dortmund should have rolled us over but it's not because they are so good. Credit to them as a team but you can't ignore the sort of performances we've put over the last few games.

We didn't prepare well for that game and if you go back to Wenger's comments about attacking to keep super Mario quiet, you can see that it didn't go according to plan on the night. We could barely string together 3 passes. They pressed us and kept a high tempo but we couldn't do the same. This is why you've got to question Wenger's tactics. When we don't have the ball....what next? Does he have a plan for that? We don't seem to have an effective defensive strategy and are incapable of winning the ball back or dealing with teams that press tight and with numbers. We struggle to put away lower league teams because our attacks are too slow but when we come up against elite teams, we're going to struggle because we have no clue what to do without the ball and judging from Wenger's subs, he has no idea either.

Not at all yesterday was not about perfomace it was about getting the teams confidence up by getting a point and a draw and we achieved it. People are praiing the effort of the players not the tactics. and Wenger had nothing to do with changes or tatcis all down to rice yesterday.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

i dont give a fuck if the Germans were unbeaten at home etc etc

My issue is with Wenger and the same old shit....the tactics, the 75min subs, the defending etc.

Oh and we looked good in defending because they made us sit back so we became compressed...naturally.

It is a far cry from being raped because we try and attack but play this fucking ridiculous high line which Wenger insists on, if we had a chance to keep possession and attacked these guys we would have reverted to type.

The issue is Wenger, Wenger, Wenger and i was firmly in the Arsene we trust brigade for a long long time...for whatever reason the guy has lost the plot and i dont even remember our last world class performance..perhaps when we beat Chelsea at home last year 3-1 (lets not say we were better than Barca when we beat them at home)

Shit tactics, shit management and now we are close to having shit overrated footballers bar a few.

Yesterdays shit draw changes none of the above and until Wenger decides to change we will see this kind of performance throughout the season.

WFT you on about we got a good point at a hard place neraly one the things thats all that matters in the early stages. Barca never put a world class perfomace on. this was the ist game of the Cl ffs not the 1/4 final.

[Cripps_orig]

It was a good point at a tough place.

Unlike at the weekend where a performance was needed, yesterday was all about getting a result and we got that

Job done

[Özim]

Most disappointing thing about Dortmund was their end product and shooting. Despite pretty football they really lacked a cutting edge, many of there shots were gentle shots or just off target. In truth they didn't really threaten the goal that much.

Was a bit disappointed with them to be honest, think they could use a quality striker up front as well, thought they were very wasteful.

[Marc Overmars]

Dortmund will give anyone a game at home and it's generally accepted they are a very good team. We drew the short straw in getting them from the pot of so called whipping-boys.

There's really no need to disect last night too much. I thought we defended well for the most part and any other side would have been praised for a brave and robust performance. No one is saying we weren't without our faults but we've all seen far worse from this team and against lesser opposition as well.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Most disappointing thing about Dortmund was their end product and shooting. Despite pretty football they really lacked a cutting edge, many of there shots were gentle shots or just off target. In truth they didn't really threaten the goal that much.

Was a bit disappointed with them to be honest, think they could use a quality striker up front as well, thought they were very wasteful.

anything to have a go at Arsenal eh. you can't give credit where its due, Dortmund where as good as they could have been yesterday not our problem, you go on like you wanted us beatern maybe you did.

[Master Splinter]

Was a bit disappointed with them to be honest, think they could use a quality striker up front as well, thought they were very wasteful.

Like Lucas Barrios?

[Özim]

Like Lucas Barrios?
Not sure, not familiar with him though he seems to have a good goal record.

Was he injured?

[Özim]

anything to have a go at Arsenal eh. you can't give credit where its due, Dortmund where as good as they could have been yesterday not our problem, you go on like you wanted us beatern maybe you did.
Not really thought we were pretty sh*t, defended ok enough but the rest of our game going forward was poor.

Dortmund were the better team they just had no cutting edge, aside from the wonderstrike they barely had any decent efforts on goal.

[Maestro]

Why are people still talking about getting Cahill in jan? We saw what a good CB looked like last night in Hummels and Subtovic, a class above tbh.

Now this I can agree with!

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

Not at all yesterday was not about perfomace it was about getting the teams confidence up by getting a point and a draw and we achieved it. People are praiing the effort of the players not the tactics. and Wenger had nothing to do with changes or tatcis all down to rice yesterday.

if you honestly believe that then you're deluded. you think wenger said to pat, 'listen do what you want and call the shots' ?

not a chance. wenger will have sat down with pat before the game for an hour and listed out all the different possibilities and what to do depending on how the games going.

and if he didn't do this he needs to be sacked because it's basic responsibilities expected from a manager who's paid £6m a year.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Not really thought we were pretty sh*t, defended ok enough but the rest of our game going forward was poor.

Dortmund were the better team they just had no cutting edge, aside from the wonderstrike they barely had any decent efforts on goal.

Harsh to say we were shit, but its your Opinion so i repect it, we went there and did what we needed and get the point all gooners would have taken at the begining of the night. Obviously things need to change and we need to perform much much better.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

if you honestly believe that then you're deluded. you think wenger said to pat, 'listen do what you want and call the shots' ?

not a chance. wenger will have sat down with pat before the game for an hour and listed out all the different possibilities and what to do depending on how the games going.


and if he didn't do this he needs to be sacked because it's basic responsibilities expected from a manager who's paid £6m a year.

and risk another ban. Of course Wenger had things to do with it, but pat rice would used him on brain when to change players. i doubt he would have done it right on the mins wenger said

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

and risk another ban. Of course Wenger had things to do with it, but pat rice would used him on brain when to change players. i doubt he would have done it right on the mins wenger said

he would not be risking another ban at all. you do realise it's a 'touchline ban'? so he can talk to the team and assistant before and 15 minutes after the game? he can talk to the team at the hotel before leaving and talk to pat rice then too. which is what he most probably done.

[Master Splinter]

Not sure, not familiar with him though he seems to have a good goal record.

Was he injured?

He's their best striker, and yeah he was injured.

[Ollie the Optimist]

We're the first English team to play them at their home since 18 March, 1968 when Crewe Alexandria beat them 8-1.

given the fact they were in our Cl group in 2002, it means we played them too at theirs. :)

[Japan Shaking All Over]

Not at all yesterday was not about perfomace it was about getting the teams confidence up by getting a point and a draw and we achieved it. People are praiing the effort of the players not the tactics. and Wenger had nothing to do with changes or tatcis all down to rice yesterday.

Have to agree, although conceding a goal in the 88th minute left me gutted, I do feel we can come away with a certain sense of achievement, all things considering.
People who think that the things that have happened to us since lets face it January, shambles of a second half to the season, the constant media stories, Cesc, Nas sagas, the unconvincing foray into the transfer market and the Old Trafford gang rape, have not left dead wounds are seriously mistaken. The players hoepfully will come away with a confidence, sire as pros they will be disappointed it wadnt a win but it gives them something to build on. Blackburn will be a test.

I do feel empathy for those that question the tactics the team does still have problems and yhings need to be corrected but I feel we have the players (hopefully a couple more additions) to put us on the right tracks. Some have only known the sugar frosted donut era that Wenger swept in on. Not that it means anything but I have seen far worse Arsenal teams than this, if we can get the mental confidence thing right we may have a chance to get things back on track.

For some it is deep rooted, hate for Wenger is not going to go away and the frustration at times is understandable but I hope that the hate does not cloud the thinking of some, it is important to appreciate that this project may take a little more time, it is amazing what a few good results can do, and I hope to see a bit more come Saturday.

NQ who sounds like he is from around my era is the only one allowed to rant, cos he is a bitter, twisted, short sighted hermit living on an island and still thinks the Pacific War is going on but but somehow has cable telly

[fakeyank]

My anger and disappointment comes from the fact that we are constantly being sold new projects by the board and AW. The concern is that with the way football is going, by the time we come to a decent standard, we will be miles away from the top clubs. Agreed Dortmund is a very good side but the failure to pose a credible threat to their goal for 90 minutes concern me. I agree to the fact that I still live in the pre-2007 era of watching us play fast attacking football and it hurts to see us being so bad now.

Yesterday I couldnt doubt the effort of the players. They had more commitment in that match alone to eclipse what they put in during the last 13 games of last season!! What is sad is that if we had made signings and a little bit of tweeks to our tactics last season or the season before, we'd have been right there at the top of the table come the end of the season.

I guess my questions are... if this is another project 'how much longer'? Are we going to be able to hold onto our best players? Will we do business when we need to or wait for the 'waiting period' to get over? There are tons of questions and mainly concerns which have been there for a few seasons now and I just do not think AW or the board is the answer for it.. IMO, we need a fresh approach about the club from top to bottom.

[Super Ghel]

Why are people still talking about getting Cahill in jan? We saw what a good CB looked like last night in Hummels and Subtovic, a class above tbh.

Who cares about real quality when you’ve got narcissistic self fellatio possibilities with a super ‘GEL’? :p

[Coney]

NQ who sounds like he is from around my era is the only one allowed to rant, cos he is a bitter, twisted, short sighted hermit living on an island and still thinks the Pacific War is going on but but somehow has cable telly

Tell me about it. I see him on the beach every day. Happily, though, he never visits my hut. I think he doesn't like the smell of the raptor cooking on the fire.

[Super Ghel]

My anger and disappointment comes from the fact that we are constantly being sold new projects by the board and AW. The concern is that with the way football is going, by the time we come to a decent standard, we will be miles away from the top clubs. Agreed Dortmund is a very good side but the failure to pose a credible threat to their goal for 90 minutes concern me. I agree to the fact that I still live in the pre-2007 era of watching us play fast attacking football and it hurts to see us being so bad now.

Yesterday I couldnt doubt the effort of the players. They had more commitment in that match alone to eclipse what they put in during the last 13 games of last season!! What is sad is that if we had made signings and a little bit of tweeks to our tactics last season or the season before, we'd have been right there at the top of the table come the end of the season.

I guess my questions are... if this is another project 'how much longer'? Are we going to be able to hold onto our best players? Will we do business when we need to or wait for the 'waiting period' to get over? There are tons of questions and mainly concerns which have been there for a few seasons now and I just do not think AW or the board is the answer for it.. IMO, we need a fresh approach about the club from top to bottom.

A proper Sheikh up is what we need if we’re to harbour any hopes of landing the PL trophy tbh. Just face it FakeYank, no matter how hard you’ve been trying to ram the Frenchie’s hole with imaginative delight, the fact remains that, going forwards, the odds are highly stacked against our club winning the PL in this “competitive” climate even with a new stud in charge cos’ there’s very little doubt he’ll also have to serve the board’s primary MO first (which should be evident to all by now, otherwise monsieur Wenger wouldn’t be here today and you wouldn’t fall under the board’s categoric definition of a moron). FFP, for all its intents and purposes is just a farcical myth and unlikely to curb shit. Hey, maybe you could try dipping your finger(s) up the real yank in the club for a change and tell us if it’s any stinkier than the Frenchie’s? :shrug:

[Power n Glory]

Not at all yesterday was not about perfomace it was about getting the teams confidence up by getting a point and a draw and we achieved it. People are praiing the effort of the players not the tactics. and Wenger had nothing to do with changes or tatcis all down to rice yesterday.

I doubt this result with give the players a confidence boost. They conceded a late goal and that’s got to sting.

Also, before the game, Wenger said the best way to keep their best player quiet is to attack. Even though he was banned, Wenger sets the tactics and preparation before the game. He mentioned Mario Gotze as the player their danger man and set the team up to attack. After 15 mins into the game, it was clear as day that it wasn’t going to work and the players played with the handbrakes on, as Wenger would put it.

[Darth Vela]

My anger and disappointment comes from the fact that we are constantly being sold new projects by the board and AW. The concern is that with the way football is going, by the time we come to a decent standard, we will be miles away from the top clubs. Agreed Dortmund is a very good side but the failure to pose a credible threat to their goal for 90 minutes concern me. I agree to the fact that I still live in the pre-2007 era of watching us play fast attacking football and it hurts to see us being so bad now.

Yesterday I couldnt doubt the effort of the players. They had more commitment in that match alone to eclipse what they put in during the last 13 games of last season!! What is sad is that if we had made signings and a little bit of tweeks to our tactics last season or the season before, we'd have been right there at the top of the table come the end of the season.

I guess my questions are... if this is another project 'how much longer'? Are we going to be able to hold onto our best players? Will we do business when we need to or wait for the 'waiting period' to get over? There are tons of questions and mainly concerns which have been there for a few seasons now and I just do not think AW or the board is the answer for it.. IMO, we need a fresh approach about the club from top to bottom.

So, you wanted change, now you have change and you want to bitch about change?

Okay.

Anyway, pretty happy with the performance personally, we still look like a team somewhat lost at times in our offensive game, mainly because of the changes in personnel and as time goes on they will improve together. Defensively, we were pretty much spot on throughout the match, the entire defence did very well (Gibbs less so than the others but still did his job) along with the midfield who were sitting in there and helping out nicely which gave us more solidity but hindered the transition to attack, again with a little more time together I think we'd improve on that.

Going in the right direction but still a little pissed off that we couldn't spend a little more to make us title contenders (as I think we *probably* could have done) as there's a base there that can get things done now but in need of a little more pizazz to go all the way, I hate tramsition.

[Alpha]

After Manchester City result ( 1-1 at home against Napoli ) and Man away vs Benfica ( 1-1 and they were very lucky not to lose this game )
Are we still willing to criticise our team and expose their weaknesses ?

[Niall_Quinn]

So, you wanted change, now you have change and you want to bitch about change?

Okay.

Anyway, pretty happy with the performance personally, we still look like a team somewhat lost at times in our offensive game, mainly because of the changes in personnel and as time goes on they will improve together. Defensively, we were pretty much spot on throughout the match, the entire defence did very well (Gibbs less so than the others but still did his job) along with the midfield who were sitting in there and helping out nicely which gave us more solidity but hindered the transition to attack, again with a little more time together I think we'd improve on that.

Going in the right direction but still a little pissed off that we couldn't spend a little more to make us title contenders (as I think we *probably* could have done) as there's a base there that can get things done now but in need of a little more pizazz to go all the way, I hate tramsition.

People want the club to stop making profits in the transfer window and instead invest some money and buy the players that would allow us to seriously compete rather than console ourselves by celebrating when we scrape a draw against a team who, decent enough as they are, are not winning the CL in a million years. People are fucked off we've gone from being a top club to an average club that plays deathly boring football. People would like to be genuinely in these competitions rather than making up the numbers. I guess.

[Cripps_orig]

After Manchester City result ( 1-1 at home against Napoli ) and Man away vs Benfica ( 1-1 and they were very lucky not to lose this game )
Are we still willing to criticise our team and expose their weaknesses ?

Have you seen their start to the season and ours?

[Niall_Quinn]

Have you seen their start to the season and ours?

You can't argue with facts I'm afraid. We're as good as City and Utd because they only drew too. In fact we're better than City because they drew at home.

Man City :pal: All that money and we're better than them.

[fakeyank]

So, you wanted change, now you have change and you want to bitch about change?

Okay.

Anyway, pretty happy with the performance personally, we still look like a team somewhat lost at times in our offensive game, mainly because of the changes in personnel and as time goes on they will improve together. Defensively, we were pretty much spot on throughout the match, the entire defence did very well (Gibbs less so than the others but still did his job) along with the midfield who were sitting in there and helping out nicely which gave us more solidity but hindered the transition to attack, again with a little more time together I think we'd improve on that.

Going in the right direction but still a little pissed off that we couldn't spend a little more to make us title contenders (as I think we *probably* could have done) as there's a base there that can get things done now but in need of a little more pizazz to go all the way, I hate tramsition.

Wheres the change? Just because we signed players at the last minute does not mean that we have turned the corner. We still spent shitloads of money on OAC when that cudve gone into buying an experienced player i.e. Cahill, Samba etc.

Right direction for me would be getting rid of AW and the board, since thats unlikely it would start by us playing some decent football and stop with the Barca lite bullshit, playing players in their right positions and finally actually growing some balls in pressure situations. With AW n :patrice: in charge, I dont see it happening

[Niall_Quinn]

Rice made the substitutions.

He's gone off the boil.

[Coney]

You can't argue with facts I'm afraid. We're as good as City and Utd because they only drew too. In fact we're better than City because they drew at home.

Man City :pal: All that money and we're better than them.

Plus manu got the easy group so we are home and dry. Might as well just give us the trophy now, tbh.

[Coney]

He's gone off the boil.

As long as he is not all sticky.

[Niall_Quinn]

As long as he is not all sticky.

He was in a paddy the whole night.

[fakeyank]

People want the club to stop making profits in the transfer window and instead invest some money and buy the players that would allow us to seriously compete rather than console ourselves by celebrating when we scrape a draw against a team who, decent enough as they are, are not winning the CL in a million years. People are fucked off we've gone from being a top club to an average club that plays deathly boring football. People would like to be genuinely in these competitions rather than making up the numbers. I guess.

:gp:

Exactly my fuckin point. Why are we happy to be rebuilding again? Wasnt that supposed to be the first couple of years after moving to Emirates? Wasnt the new stadium a path to signing bigger better players? Just because we lost our best players and our manager at the last minute brought in some players, we should give him time 'again'?! FFS, the expectations of some ppl are so low.. we were one of the top clubs in Europe, now we seem like a midtable club in freaking England! Go figure what AW and the board has done to u lot..

[Cripps_orig]

:gp:

Exactly my fuckin point. Why are we happy to be rebuilding again? Wasnt that supposed to be the first couple of years after moving to Emirates? Wasnt the new stadium a path to signing bigger better players? Just because we lost our best players and our manager at the last minute brought in some players, we should give him time 'again'?! FFS, the expectations of some ppl are so low.. we were one of the top clubs in Europe, now we seem like a midtable club in freaking England! Go figure what AW and the board has done to u lot..

:gp:

[Niall_Quinn]

We are building a team for the future, except with old players this time.

[Coney]

He was in a paddy the whole night.

Racist. And homophobic.

[Coney]

We are building a team for the future, except with old players this time.

So like Chelsea then.

[Cripps_orig]

Only time a manager should be given time is when hes new to the club.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Only time a manager should be given time is when hes new to the club.

Wenger is like a new manager! :jumpnana: