Match Reaction - Reading 1-2 Arsenal. 18th April. FA Cup Semi-Final

Other thoughts on reflection. Apologies for the tl;dr.


- I certainly agree with Atkinson being awful. They got away with perpetual fouling and roughhouse tactics with no punishment which meant they had license to keep on doing it. It was really quite annoying and the one where Ozil gets hacked from behind only be told by Atkinson to get up was particularly egregious.

- Even though Welbeck had a shocker up top and bringing on Giroud was the correct move, personally I think he should have stayed on the pitch but gone out wide with Ramsey (who was terrible) coming off.

- Speaking of Ramsey, I'm not sure playing him out wide against teams set out to defend is the correct move. It'd worked against Liverpool who only had three at the back but against a team like Reading it seems like a poor move. He doesn't have the pace nor natural flair to get behind the Fullback.

- Speaking of Welbeck, he really needs to work on his centre forward play. His last two outings in that position have been very poor (I know he scored against Utd but apart from that he was bad). At the moment it's not even a contest between him and Giroud and if we want to challenge next year we need two top quality viable options in that position.

- Starting both Debauchy and Gibbs was clearly a wrong move. Only one of them (probably Gibbs) should have started with the other on the bench as first defensive sub. I don't think Wenger planned on Debauchy playing 120 mins but BFG's injury forced his hand. He looked spent by the end and that nearly cost us.

- Gabriel needs to bulk up and be more confident in his passing.

- Coquelin had a decent game but his passing looks ropey as fuck. For all the shit Arteta gets (most of it rightfully) he has a fantastic ability to start attacks with quality passing. There were too many times yesterday where Coquelin got the ball and had no clue what to do with it, albeit in the face of some excellent Reading pressure.

- The more I reflect on it the more angry I get with Szechny. You can bet that a top keeper like Lloris or De Gea would have save that and we would have scrapped to a 1 - 0 win instead of going through the pain of extra time. Just fuck off.

- If you haven't heard Steve Clarke's post match interview have a listen to it. I was all aboard the "applauding the plucky underdogs and wishing them well" train but after that ....... Complete tosser who implies that the ref was the difference. Fuck off, we had the clearest chances out of the game and had Gabriel and Rambo had their shooting boots on we would have ended it without the need of extra time.

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Originally Posted by The Emirates Gallactico

Other thoughts on reflection. Apologies for the tl;dr.


- I certainly agree with Atkinson being awful. They got away with perpetual fouling and roughhouse tactics with no punishment which meant they had license to keep on doing it. It was really quite annoying and the one where Ozil gets hacked from behind only be told by Atkinson to get up was particularly egregious.

- Even though Welbeck had a shocker up top and bringing on Giroud was the correct move, personally I think he should have stayed on the pitch but gone out wide with Ramsey (who was terrible) coming off.

- Speaking of Ramsey, I'm not sure playing him out wide against teams set out to defend is the correct move. It'd worked against Liverpool who only had three at the back but against a team like Reading it seems like a poor move. He doesn't have the pace nor natural flair to get behind the Fullback.

- Speaking of Welbeck, he really needs to work on his centre forward play. His last two outings in that position have been very poor (I know he scored against Utd but apart from that he was bad). At the moment it's not even a contest between him and Giroud and if we want to challenge next year we need two top quality viable options in that position.

- Starting both Debauchy and Gibbs was clearly a wrong move. Only one of them (probably Gibbs) should have started with the other on the bench as first defensive sub. I don't think Wenger planned on Debauchy playing 120 mins but BFG's injury forced his hand. He looked spent by the end and that nearly cost us.

- Gabriel needs to bulk up and be more confident in his passing.

- Coquelin had a decent game but his passing looks ropey as fuck. For all the shit Arteta gets (most of it rightfully) he has a fantastic ability to start attacks with quality passing. There were too many times yesterday where Coquelin got the ball and had no clue what to do with it, albeit in the face of some excellent Reading pressure.

- The more I reflect on it the more angry I get with Szechny. You can bet that a top keeper like Lloris or De Gea would have save that and we would have scrapped to a 1 - 0 win instead of going through the pain of extra time. Just fuck off.

- If you haven't heard Steve Clarke's post match interview have a listen to it. I was all aboard the "applauding the plucky underdogs and wishing them well" train but after that ....... Complete tosser who implies that the ref was the difference. Fuck off, we had the clearest chances out of the game and had Gabriel and Rambo had their shooting boots on we would have ended it without the need of extra time.

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Bitter Chelsea cunt who looks like he hasnt showered in years.

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Originally Posted by Letters

:blink: Are you all right? You're scaring me!

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:lol:

I am not going to criticize him when we won a cup semi-final. Sure, we couldve done better but there is a time and place for that and its not after a win in cup semi-final!!

I'm not angry WITH Chesney, but he does not inspire confidence. The deflection did him no favours for the goal but a top keeper would save that. If Wenger plays him in the final (quite likely) and he makes a mistake which costs us (entirely possible) then Wenger wants a punch.

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Originally Posted by AFC Leveller

Bitter Chelsea cunt who looks like he hasnt showered in years.

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If you look at the space between those up turned eyebrows and the down turned mouth, you can clearly make out the shape of an x-wing from star wars.

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Originally Posted by LDG

If you look at the space between those up turned eyebrows and the down turned mouth, you can clearly make out the shape of an x-wing from star wars.

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Between having an alcoholic for a manager and a junkie up front, they did quite well to push us as hard as they did.

Merts injury was also picked up in what should have been a red card studs up assault. And Kos was deliberately smacked in the face. But we've had this all year. According to the refs it's fine to foul Arsenal. But it is imperative to book Arsenal players for a first offence. This is normal.

disappointing performance but a win is a win. doesn't fill with confidence for remainder of season.

I hope Ospina plays in the final.

I hope I win the Euromillions on Tuesday.

:lol:

Chesney vs BenTekkers.


Us :rose:

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Originally Posted by Bob Loblaw

I hope I win the Euromillions on Tuesday.

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Will you lend me a fiver if you win it?

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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn

Will you lend me a fiver if you win it?

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As long as I win more than £3.20

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Originally Posted by Bob Loblaw

I hope I win the Euromillions on Tuesday.

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Looks like my next match to the Emirates is going to be on the house! :)

Has anyone laughed at Liverpool and Stevie Me yet?

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Originally Posted by Gooner23

Has anyone laughed at Liverpool and Stevie Me yet?

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Only to myself, but there are a couple of Liverpool fans at work to lol at
:dance:

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Originally Posted by Gooner23

Has anyone laughed at Liverpool and Stevie Me yet?

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Yes. For quite a few years now.

Does anyone remember the time he told all his team mates not to slip, and then he slipped?

lmao.

I don't know many Liverpool fans so I don't find their plight as amusing as I would with other rivals. I'm just enjoying the meltdown of the pretentious fans over on RAWK who believed they were on the cusp of something great. :lol:

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

I don't know many Liverpool fans so I don't find their plight as amusing as I would with other rivals. I'm just enjoying the meltdown of the pretentious fans over on RAWK who believed they were on the cusp of something great. :lol:

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To be fair, Liverpool did have something really good happening.

But they sold him to Barcelona.

I think it was fairly obvious to most that once Suarez was bye-byes and that lipstick wearing, quilted jacket numpty bought half of Southampton, they were going to "slip" away a little.

I mean come on. Last season they played about 4 games all season, so were relatively fresh most of the year, especially when Suarez had plenty of rest time for biting people.

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Originally Posted by Douglas Reynholm

To be fair, Liverpool did have something really good happening.

But they sold him to Barcelona.

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Or what he said.

Remember when Alexis apparently chose us because of London and nothing else?

That was funny.

They'll be in for Walcott in the summer.

Oh noes.

Awful performance - the 4-1 against Liverpool was an acceptance to the rule, even though we still contrived to let them back into the game by turning off second half, the past few months have seen the pattern of us defending leads against weaker opposition & getting away with it. This pattern is now embedded in this team, we will only try to attack when level or behind. Forget 2nd place & a cup final its not what I want to see as a gooner, its not what I pay big money for & I'm pretty sure its not what the likes of Ozil & Sanchez signed up for.
Yesterdays decisions.
Playing Debauchy when not match fit
If playing Debauchy who isn't pacy & known for attacking runs, we needed Theo to add pace to the right hand side. Ramsey & Sanchez both naturally cut inside which makes it easy to defend in numbers - too congested.
If Wumger wants to continue with Ramsey on the right then we need Bellerin running beyond to give us width.
Playing Welbeck when Giroud has hit form - I'm not a big Giroud fan but he did more in his first 5 minutes than Welbeck did all game.
Gibbs has never improved, he is West Ham, Newcastle, Spuds quality - not Arsenal quality. His first thought when receiving the ball is to go back to his centre backs even when he has space to exploit. Final ball is woeful.
Taking Coq off

Our manager is getting away with it this year, he's decision making is getting worse & he has given up on his principle of quality attacking football in order to pub out results. It what Chelsea did to win the Champions league & Di Mateo got sacked coz Red Rom was sick of the football. I left Wembley embarrassed on Saturday.

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Originally Posted by Dein-machine

Awful performance - the 4-1 against Liverpool was an acceptance to the rule, even though we still contrived to let them back into the game by turning off second half, the past few months have seen the pattern of us defending leads against weaker opposition & getting away with it. This pattern is now embedded in this team, we will only try to attack when level or behind. Forget 2nd place & a cup final its not what I want to see as a gooner, its not what I pay big money for & I'm pretty sure its not what the likes of Ozil & Sanchez signed up for.
Yesterdays decisions.
Playing Debauchy when not match fit
If playing Debauchy who isn't pacy & known for attacking runs, we needed Theo to add pace to the right hand side. Ramsey & Sanchez both naturally cut inside which makes it easy to defend in numbers - too congested.
If Wumger wants to continue with Ramsey on the right then we need Bellerin running beyond to give us width.
Playing Welbeck when Giroud has hit form - I'm not a big Giroud fan but he did more in his first 5 minutes than Welbeck did all game.
Gibbs has never improved, he is West Ham, Newcastle, Spuds quality - not Arsenal quality. His first thought when receiving the ball is to go back to his centre backs even when he has space to exploit. Final ball is woeful.
Taking Coq off

Our manager is getting away with it this year, he's decision making is getting worse & he has given up on his principle of quality attacking football in order to pub out results. It what Chelsea did to win the Champions league & Di Mateo got sacked coz Red Rom was sick of the football. I left Wembley embarrassed on Saturday.

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Still, it's sunny out.

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

I don't know many Liverpool fans so I don't find their plight as amusing as I would with other rivals. I'm just enjoying the meltdown of the pretentious fans over on RAWK who believed they were on the cusp of something great. :lol:

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Nine :haha:

His butler will be getting a sound thrashing right now.

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Originally Posted by LDG

Still, it's sunny out.

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And we're 2nd.
And in the Cup Final.
:cool:

Yet to watch the game. I'll catch the highlights. But it just sounds like another game where the pressure affected our performance.

I hope we avoid the same crazy jitters that has us 2 down in last years final. We've got to get a grip on this.

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Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory

Yet to watch the game. I'll catch the highlights. But it just sounds like another game where the pressure affected our performance.

I hope we avoid the same crazy jitters that has us 2 down in last years final. We've got to get a grip on this.

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What "pressure" - we were playing Reading.

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Originally Posted by Dein-machine

What "pressure" - we were playing Reading.

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Pressure of the occasion. We lost to Birmingham in a League Cup final once. Drew one of the weaker teams in the CL and we buckled. It's just one of those things we never quite get a handle on.

I don't think it was pressure this time.

I think we were too relaxed if anything. We didn't prepare for Reading dominating the 50/50 balls. It's obvious to you and I, but if it's an FA Cup Semi-Final, whoever you are playing, you should expect them to be 100mph. We should have been the same....

Debuchy starting was a horrendous choice. I can understand Gibbs, and to a degree, Chesney. But when we should have been looking to smash them with pace, the team selection was poor....

...but for me, not respecting Reading, and assuming we'd walk it is the worst thing.

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Originally Posted by Dein-machine

What "pressure" - we were playing Reading.

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In a cup semi-final.

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Originally Posted by LDG

I don't think it was pressure this time.

I think we were too relaxed if anything. We didn't prepare for Reading dominating the 50/50 balls. It's obvious to you and I, but if it's an FA Cup Semi-Final, whoever you are playing, you should expect them to be 100mph. We should have been the same....

Debuchy starting was a horrendous choice. I can understand Gibbs, and to a degree, Chesney. But when we should have been looking to smash them with pace, the team selection was poor....

...but for me, not respecting Reading, and assuming we'd walk it is the worst thing.

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I’ll have to watch the game but with this team it’s hard to suss the problem when we play like this. Pressure vs being blasé about the opponent – it’s hard to differentiate. If we pull out the same performance against Chelsea next week, I can imagine some saying we choked on the big stage and it was the pressure. But against a team like Reading we assume they’re not focused and overconfident, which seems out of character for this particular team. Same performance but a different assessment based on the opposition. But you’re right about our preparation. Maybe it was just the wrong tactics and we didn’t know they’d be physical. That’s something Wenger and the coaching staff need to look into.

I don't actually think there's much pressure on the Chelsea game. They're going to be champions. Clearly. We might give them a bloody nose but we needed them to drop points against QPR and/or Utd and they didn't. If we were 5 points behind or fewer and a win would put real pressure on them or even see us overtake them then yes, that is a pressure situation. As it is I don't think either team are under huge amounts of pressure. The only pressure on us I guess is trying to maintain 2nd position but that's a pressure in every game.

On Saturday...these games are almost never thumpings. The underdogs always play above themselves. We maybe took them a bit too lightly, we did seem to be playing within ourselves.

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Originally Posted by Gooner23

Has anyone laughed at Liverpool and Stevie Me yet?

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Of course. That's what rival fans are supposed to do. But the shit in the media this morning is out of order. One minute they are building players into super heroes, next they are following them around town calling them losers. The media stinks to high heaven. They do it because they assume that's what the fans want, as if they are part of our culture. They aren't, they are hateful outsiders taking a free ride on the game.

Why did we really "hate" Gerrard, as fans? For the same reasons we "hated" Roy Keane or any of the leaders of our bitter rivals, players who could take away the things we wanted. It was good rivalry, it made the blood stir and boil. They hated Veiria in return. But we wouldn't have changed any of it or got rid of any of them. They are what made the game.

The media doesn't understand stuff like this. They have a shallow and transient association with the game and the fans and all their grubby headlines reflect the fact. Fuckers.

I actually think it's a shame Gerrard didn't get one more run out at Wembley in a cup final. Especially against us. Could have been a spectacular game, the sort of game that makes you scared and excited at the same time. Villa is a bit meh by comparison.

I didn't like Stevie Me's starfish routine but I grudgingly admit he was a hell of a player in his prime, the engine of the team. I don't feel sorry for him, he's got a tidy amount stashed and he's off on another adventure of the type we don't get a sniff off in our humdrum existences. But I'm not going to write off what he put back into the game, like the shitty media are doing this morning so they can sell a few more chip wrappers and emergency shit wipes.

I'll say it if nobody else will, good luck to Gerrard. I enjoyed the fact he was part of the game.

That Nistlerooy bloke though. I actually did hate that cunt. Real hate I mean. What a fucking tosser he was.

Wenger's reason for playing Debuchy for 120 mins.

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Bellerin has played recently with some ankle problems and Debuchy was back so I thought it was a good moment to do it. Debuchy had cramps just before the end of the game but I couldn’t change him, but he is a French international and must be capable of playing in a semi-final against Reading.

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Okay. But why change the other fullback too? You know Debuchy is a risk, why are you doubling up the risk?

I always quite liked Stevie G actually, he didn't sell out and join a club where he'd have won more medals, he was a great player.
I wouldn't have begrudged him one last hurrah, but not against us <_<

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

Remember when Alexis apparently chose us because of London and nothing else?

That was funny.

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It was just so irritating to hear that all summer from them. :lol:

Despite the fact they've finished 6th -8th for most of the years pre last year's title challenge and the fact they haven't consistently finished in the CL for ages they seriously thought it was just the "London factor" which swayed Alexis's decision to come here. Not that we're a bigger and more attractive club than them now.

Sigh, there's no reasoning with most of them tbh and the sane ones like Cibbles are a minority these days.

Speaking of club attractiveness for players, at the moment I rank it as follows:

Chelsea
Arsenal/Man Utd
Man City
Liverpool/Spurs

Pre Fergie retiring Utd would have been comfortably ahead of us, but losing him and also their car crash of last season has pushed them down whilst we've also simultaneously improved considerably with our new financial muscle and bringing in world class players like Ozil and Alexis whilst also discarding our previous image of being a "selling club".

Man City are still generally viewed as a billionaire's plaything and haven't shed that imagine to the same extent that Chelsea have now. With FFP coming into effect and them supposedly not being able to offer the same astronomical wages they did in the past I think they'll really suffer to attract players now. Don't think you'll see Nasri/Adebayor/Sagna situations happen again now unless something major changes in either of our plights.

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Originally Posted by Letters

I always quite liked Stevie G actually, he didn't sell out and join a club where he'd have won more medals, he was a great player.
I wouldn't have begrudged him one last hurrah, but not against us <_<

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"I've always had a soft spot for Adebayor"

And Gerrard makes it into Letters' top all time favourites that nobody else likes (us being Gooners and all). So far

1. Teddy Sherringham
2. Stevie G
3. John Terry
4. Samir Nasri
5. Ashley Cole


10.Hitler



I've never liked Gerrard. Tosser who hits people in clubs and gets away with it. Horrible scum.