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Aye. People have to stop thinking that just because we're not playing Barca or Real Madrid that everyone else in the competition is shite.
They're all, by the very fact of them being there, one of the better sides in their league and in this group we've got a side from the French league and one from the German league. Neither are as strong as the PL but they're not shite teams. 4 points from 2 games is fine. Compare and contrast with Chelsea who drew with frickin' Genk last night!
Tbf i think it was more the perfomance that people were frustated about well the attack. like LDG said we'd all have taken 4 points from these fixture and lets be real if Both mancs win today then all then English clubs will be on 8 points from 4 games tbh.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters (TPFKA WWTL@WHL)
The only positive is compared to last season winning the group was not in our hands buy the time the 4th game.
The performance wasn't that bad though.
Wasn't that good either.
Meh. It happens.
On we go
:shrug:
defence we were alwsome, its clear we lack up front without RVP. What did you think on the merts/TV5 partnership or would you prefer TV5/kos
Nothing wrong with the result. Just a poor 2nd half which we seemed to lose any urgency. RVP's chipped effort was the only thing we could muster up and that was a shame. It's not like Marseille had us run ragged at the back, we dealt with them fairly well and restricted them to half chances. It's a missed opportunity but it would take something disastrous for us to not qualify, so there's nothing to dwell on here.
Ditto Letters. The performance was pretty boring to watch, but not too bad. We used to be reknowned for these/keeping a clean sheet - but secretly admired all the same!Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie the Gooner
Like I said on the other thread, Saturday was bound to raise expectation for yesterday, going forwards - but a similar performance was unlikely, particularly given our use of a rookie striker.
It makes me smile that some people seem to think that we should be steamrollering the second best team in France last season- when we are still recovering from a start that saw us concede 3 points to a team with only 6 overall in our league this season.
I think the games Mertesaker (sp) has impressed me most in have generally been CL ones so maybe he's still getting used to the PL. He's clearly not a bad player. In the PL I think I'd be happier with TV5 and Kos right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie the Gooner
Very true.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ice Berg Kamping
Merts reminds me of TA. Maybe not quite as good, but like TA, reads the game very well. He'll be very good for us IMO.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters (TPFKA WWTL@WHL)
Adams would struggle in this league with the high line we play. I actually think we're a better team all round when we drop deeper defensively.
Almost forgot.
Chesney :haha:
Where he took it round their attacker. :bow:
That was one of those ones which could have been :doh: but ended up being :lol:
You have to love his confidence.Quote:
Originally Posted by LDG
how good is it to see a GK of Our's shout and sort out his defence.
We dont have to win both games to top the group. We Already are top and if Marsellies drop points, a draw and a win could put us top.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie the Gooner
Im quite happy with last night in terms of keeping a clean sheet, that part of our game is far more important than scoring goals so in that sense we did well. Shame we didn't win but nothing to be to bothered about, Marsellies are a great team and 4 points from them is good enough. Confident we can win the group, as we have to to avoid an 'sods law' Barca tie.
Edit- Its a shame Koscielny might not be playing if Vermalean and Mertz get a good partnership, because he's improving greatly, but its a good decision to make now we seem to have 3 good CB's.
It's probably better we'll have to fight to the end to top the group. Look at last year where we thought it was going to be a breeze. Complacency set in.
He will play in the EPl i think merts will be for the CL and TV5 won't be dropped as he needs games but like you say its good for AW to have a headache over which CB to pick.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dog Toffee
Well if we beat Dortmunt and Olympiarcos(sp) gan grab something in france then were through and group winners.
Agree. if we can show the fight after going 2-1 down at chavs we will be fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
If this was still last season then you'd have a point but Marseille are far from the 2nd best team in France this season.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ice Berg Kamping
We should have steamrollered Marseilles, tbh.
Didn't know it was May 2012. Have I been caught in a wormhole or something?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ach
Oh yes - just like we did in France. Tbh.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
I thought we looked a hungover. Very little movement at times.
Fullbacks and Song seemed to be less prominent attackinglistically than usual, left us undermanned and short on options when we went forward, but solid defensively.
Park looked over-anxious and like playing with strangers, unsurprisingly. Disappointing nevertheless.
Both games against these dudes were boring as hell, they should play more of a high line, maybe fall over in defense now and again.
They have been awful this season. Where they finished last season has no significanceQuote:
Originally Posted by Ice Berg Kamping
Expectations were raised, I was expecting a similar result to Saturday.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ice Berg Kamping
:lol: 2 places and 1 point below our position in their league. And we've had a pretty awful season until recently, and if you take away RVP who wasn't playing for most of the match we'd have fared no better than them. It amuses me that because we've scraped some results and had a rare away win on Saturday, people expect us to blow a solid CL team away.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ach
Tbf i havent complained about the result. More the performance which was awfulQuote:
Originally Posted by Ice Berg Kamping
Fair do's - but I'll take a clean sheet performance.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ach
Id rather see a 3-3 than a boring ass 0-0Quote:
Originally Posted by Ice Berg Kamping
Depends. If we had to endure another shambolic defensive display there wouldn't be much joy in that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ach
At least id get some entertainmentQuote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
You'd have thoroughly enjoyed 92/93.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ach
Won 2 trophies tbh. Something we wont do with this team in 10 yearsQuote:
Originally Posted by Letters (TPFKA WWTL@WHL)
Thought it was the level of entertainment rather than the result that mattered to you?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ach
@Ach You're too young to remember how bloody boring it was though.
We scored 40 league goals in 42 games :yawn:
We've scored 20 already in 10 this year, and that's with that dodgy start.
I know what I'd rather watch.
Probably right. I was an Arsenal fan then but i was Ollies/WMUGs age around 10 or 11 so dont remember much bar the trophies we won. It was from the season after to 2010 where i watched football religiously and wouldnt miss an Arsenal game for the world but the 2 games ive been to this season have been awful to watch. Won 1-0 and drew 0-0 in the other. You want your moneys worth when you go to games and i havent had itQuote:
Originally Posted by Letters (TPFKA WWTL@WHL)
The games i attend, entertainment over boring shit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ice Berg Kamping
Well I agree it's not been great this year but it's got better of late. OK, the Marseille game was a bit of a damp squib but I thought we were pretty good against Stoke, looked a bit more like Arsenal again. The summer was a disaster and the early season results compounded it and after the Utd game we were on the floor. We've slowly picked ourselves up again though and while we're not a great side this year there are a few signs now that we're not quite as bad as our early season form indicated and we could do OK. I doubt we'll win any trophies but with billionaires throwing money around they're not as easy to come by as they used to be.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ach
In 92/93 our league run from November on was:
LLLLDDLDWLLWDLDWWDLWLDDDLWL
That's P27 W6 D9 L12. 27 points from 27 games. We finished with 56 points - Crystal Palace went down that year and they got 49. We scored 18 goals in those 27 games. In 16 of them we didn't score at all. In brief, we were a pretty shit, boring side back then but we did have a bit of fight in us and the ability to raise it for the big games.
We won two trophies and there are moments which I did 'thoroughly enjoy' in that season (The Spurs semi-final - revenge for '91 - and of course the two (well, 3 with the replay) Cup Finals). But even those were boring games of football in which we ground out results, it all seemed great at the time because I was at them all and more into football than I am now. But those games could easily have gone the other way and all we'd have to remember that season by is the boring football and the fact that it was the year I genuinely thought we might go down. There were a few exciting results but over the course of a 9 month season it wasn't great. Fine if you only care about the end result but if you follow them on the journey you want a bit more than that.
Anyway, things could be better right now but there are a few signs of hope so let's hope for a good win on Saturday and keep the run going.
:scarf:
Wouldnt disagree. We've been more boring and for a longer period in previous times but im specifically talking about games ive gone to. 2 games this season = 1 goal and 2 shit performances and the goal was a keeper error so it easily could have been 0 goals. Compared to the first 2 games i went to last season where i saw 10 goals (granted we lost one of those) and overall in the 8 games i went to, i saw an average of over 3 goals a game. Was oping to see more of the same this season. Cant see it now.
Plus cos i work now :( the last 2 Arsenal games ive seen (2 Marseille games) have been really dull and missed the games inbetween including the Chelsea game and watching the highlights for that, already knowing the score isnt as exciting, I can genuinely say i havent been entertained by Arsenal since early 2011. Probably the Barca home game
The cup runs were great to be honest, don't know how you can call those boring I really did enjoy them and it was nailbiting at times.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters (TPFKA WWTL@WHL)
The league may not have been great but the cup runs more than made up for that and that's very much what we focussed on hence the results in the league.
Incidentally we were never going to go down and at no stage did I think we were either.
The stuff we get these days is a real bore, what's more it's compounded by lack of success as well, please tell me what's enjoyable about watching a bunch of overpaid pansies putting next to no effort in and making the same errors, week in week out, year in year out!
I've lost a lot of interest in our games, basically because most of the time it's just boring repetitive rubbish that's just not enjoyable.
There were some good and exciting games in those cup runs. I seem to remember a marathon against Leeds, didn't we play them 4 times? Even then I seem to remember the home games being BLOODY boring although the away ones were exciting.
And yeah, towards the end the Spurs game was great as were the cup finals. All awful games of football for a neutral but for those of us involved it was brilliant. But you're still talking about quite a small number of games in a long season. In the week to week slog of the league we were mostly awful. And this, remember, was only 2 years after we'd finished champions.
6 wins out of 27. 16 games out of those we didn't score. 40 goals in 42 league games. It was pretty crap.
You enjoyed the end result (which could have been very different, there are fine lines in football sometimes) as did I, and there were some good games in the cup runs but I don't believe for one minute you enjoyed the football we played or think that the football even this year is as bad.
If you only care about the end result, don't go to games and only care about trophies then yes, I guess that was better. If you're following a team week to week and going to games then the football is miles better now - although admittedly not in all games this season but it has got better of late.
Pretty much all players are overpaid pansies these days which makes the whole experience of football less enjoyable these days although we have shown a bit more fight recently, we were behind twice at Stamford Bridge and pegged back to 3-3 and we won, we were pegged back against Stoke and Sunderland and won. There are some signs for cautious optimism that this season won't quite be the disaster we feared early season.
I have to say I didn't find the cup runs boring personally, I enjoyed seeing those matches and watching us progress with some hard fought wins.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters (TPFKA WWTL@WHL)
The results stat has to be put into perspective, we very much focussed on the cups and thus our league form suffered, it wasn't our priority and the results illustrated that.
It's not all about trophies but watching your team show heart, fight for every ball and hunger (in the cups) is great, had we not won it would have still be a great cup run the fact we did made it even better....the wins against the odds against a superior Wednesday side were brilliant and the last gasp goal was one of those moments where you couldn't help going crazy after an enthralling encounter.
At the end of the day it's not all about trophies but you know what, a club of our stature should be competing and should be picking up trophies here and there, our lack of heart for the fight and casual attitude are awful traits and together with our repetitive football makes for a rather boring experience.
It's just not enjoyable watching a team who you already know are going to fail before they've even started, and that's what I liked about the Graham team, sure they didn't play great football and maybe lost games they shouldn't...but at the back of your mind you always knew they were capable of upsetting the odds and beating the big boys, I haven't had that feeling with Wenger's sides for a long time.