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

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.

Quote:

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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.

Quote:

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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.