WUMger is a loon. No excuses for him today.
WUMger is a loon. No excuses for him today.
Thank fuck for Giroud and Alexis
Crazy changes to the side. He's a liability that senile old man.
He left 2 players on for 120mins on their first game back. :haha:
That's prime time bonkers.
He took Coquelin off :haha:
Straitjacket job.
Yet again, individual players have pulled WUMger's arse out of the fire after he fucked up yet again with the team selection and tactics.
He's worse than an idiot. Even an idiot could figure out if you win 8 on the bounce leave fucking well alone!
Trouble with Wenget is he thinks he knows what he's doing.
He's dangerous.
A little harsh.
Glad we got the win in the end though. Amazing that he thought there was any situation under the sun to bring walcott on for.... wonders will never cease. Up the Arse!
Hopefully we get Villa.
Fucking shit! But we won!!!!!
The BBC are gutted too so it's all good now!
The only luck we had is that Pogrevneyak is shit and the Yak is big shit. also lucky was that Sanchez forgot to pass and shot at the keeper instead. Lucky also the Schneezy decided 1 fuck-up was enough for today.
Arsenal. :bow:
I'm sure supporting Arsenal will be the death of me one day.
A pub performance again but fuck it, a chance to become all time record holders for the cup. Come on you Gunners!
2-1 up in extra time and Chesney is rolling out a hospital pass to Ramsey on edge of box. There surely has to be some instruction from sideline there.
Crappy performance but got there in end. Bring on the final!
Shit performance, incredibly stressful and painful to watch, awful day for the players and awful tactics all round but WHO THE FUCK CARES? We're in the final baby.
If we win it no one's going to care about this match.
Oh yeah, one last thing ......... fuck off Szecheny you utter clown. He's gone to complete pieces ......... that hospital throw to Ramsey ........ Jesus.
Cech or Lloris please in the summer.
Chesney will cost us the final.
doesn't matter what wenger did today or how we played. we are in the final, thats all that matters. 90 minutes away from retaining the cup. Up the Arsenal
If we play that team and those tactics either of Villa or Liverpool will tear us a new one anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
It matters hugely. What's the point of going into a cup final having been thrashed in the title race by 15 points? It'll be a good day out (which is all the FA Cup is these days) if we have challenged for the title beforehand. Anything else and win, lose or draw this season will have been another bust.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie the Optimist
Anyway the real cup we should be talking about is the CL. We should have smashed Monaco and we could have beaten Juve too. But bumbling idiot intervened again. Let's not pretend the FA Cup is any comparison.
Challenge now is to push the chavs. Which means Wenger better get his head out his arse.
I know Wenger's set a precedent last year by keeping Fabs in goal for the final but really, the sensible decision would be to bring in Ospina. He looks like a broken man at this point and not the person you want up against Sterling, Strurridge and Coutinho.
If Ches is indeed leaving then there's no point in him benefiting from the experience of performing in the final and sharing in any potential victory.
Injuries could and probably will be a factor by 30th May. But if Ospina is fit then the sane thing to do would be to start him.
Which is why ches will play.
as I predicted 2-1. :blink:
Arsene knows how to prepare for semi-finals...by doping the team and dropping in rusty players :doh: Did our squad eat dodgy lasagne, rather a strange selection.
chez needs to go smoke his shit at another club, not a brain cell there :wacko:
We Looked like we were saving energy with the tippy tappy stuff.
I really like Gabriel, Sanchez tried hard solo but Giroud again just mixes thing up and seems to give the team a lift. Özil put in a good shift, Coq was flakier than usual but subbed for Theo :blink: BFG unlucky to score, I guess we'll see him next season.
Ramsay was sulking at being on the wing or nackered or both, Gibbs was actually winning a few headers but his final ball :banghead:, Debuchy was rusty, Wenger trying to play Welbeck into form :rolleyes:
Why was Santi so deep, not one of his best.
Special mention for the ref...useless cunt. If we get a similar one in the final Gerrard will starfish his way to a hatrick via penalties <_<
Oh well on we go, I fear for the Chelsea match if Wenger tried his "smart" shit again.
Actually feel a bit sorry for their 'keeper.
Another nice stress-free day in the life of a Gooner...
Poor performance but in a cup run there will always be some games where you have to pub team it a bit.
End of the day we're in the Final. :scarf:
Btw, I really don't think any other club could be in 2nd place and in the Cup final and have fans so hostile and scathing towards the manager.
Wenget will play him for the laughQuote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Really dont see why AW is being criticized tbh.. it was a cup semi-final and we won.. I could care less how we did it. The biggest game for me is next week when we play the cunts from West London. Beat those bitches and that'll be a display of 'bigger change' in the club than this win.
Let's go out and win this cup and hope Villa kill those cunts from Liverpool. You damn well know that if Stevie G is in the final, the refs will do whatever it takes to give the 'son of the soil' his dream farewell.
Szczesny has managed to master all the posturing and bravado of a top keeper but not the actual ability needed for this level. Decent but not good enough for us.
Wenger took a huge risk playing Debuchy for the whole 120 minutes after so long out, although at least his match fitness will be up. Kos was as solid as ever whilst Gibbs looked like a guy who hadn't played in a while.
Le Coq was solid, Caz worked hard and Ozil was off his game. Becks gave his all as always but badly needs to develop his centre forward play, which is hard when he'll struggle to get a run in this team. Out wide he's reasonably effective, a goto squad player.
And Sanchez is something else. Can be relied on to run his legs off upfront, chase back, retain the ball under pressure, bring others into an attack and consistently shoot on target. This sort of calibre of player won't stick around if we don't seriously challenge for the PL or CL.
Winning 9 (or 10?) in a row means we won't always be at the top of our game and we just done enough, forcing our luck today. We have a defeat looming sometime soon because I don't think anyone has ever won more than 12 on the spin over here. How we play against Chelsea - win, lose or draw - and how we pick ourselves up after our next defeat will hopefully prove something to a lot of us unconvinced fans.
Actually no I think this is worrying, I wouldn't mind if its a year ago and we don't really have any natural width or pace then I could understand but it was abundantly clear that a physically strong and hard working Reading side struggled against pace and yet we haul Welbeck off when bringing Giroud on and wait until extra time to bring Walcott on.
Not only that there is the lunacy of starting Debuchy despite being out for three months, and this totally arbitrary notion of having the second choice goalkeeper play the cup games no matter how horrendously out of form they clearly are.
Winning despite playing badly allows you to ignore the glaring deficiencies in performance and tactics, and to get anything against Chelsea we will need to be at our best (Man City at the Etihad best).
:blink: Are you all right? You're scaring me!Quote:
Originally Posted by fakeyank
Playing Chesney was a mistake IMO. I'm ok with having a 'Cup Keeper' to an extent but Chesney has become a liability. There was a bit of bad luck with the goal, it did deflect, but a better 'keeper would have kept it out IMO. And on a few other occasions he punched the ball rather than catching it and looked far from convincing, I fear for us if he plays in the final.
I don't have a problem with the rest of the team, we had more than enough quality to beat Reading and while we made hard work of it it's often like that in a semi-final when the underdogs are playing the game of their lives. These sorts of games are rarely thumpings.
End of the day, we're in the final. That's all that matters.
I put less weight on the Chelsea result than you, it would be nice to beat them but the title is gone. It's out of our hands and they won't slip up, or not badly enough. We need them to lose 3 games and they've only lost 2 all season. One of those is against us or course but you know Mourinho will park the bus, he'll come for a draw and probably get one. I'd rather win the Cup final than the Chelsea game. Both would be nice, of course.
To be fair, Giroud made an immediate impact. Ramsey should have wrapped it up in normal time. And he's in far better form than Walcott. Also, playing badly and winning is what sides who win trophies do. No team plays well every game. It wasn't a terrible performance yesterday, nor an outstanding one. We did enough though, that's all that matters in a cup.Quote:
Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie
It's not bringing Giroud on that was the problem (I agree he did provide a positive impact when he came on) it was leaving one of many central midfielders on and making the midfield more congested and giving them time to get back when we attempted to break.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
Ozil, Ramsey and Cazorla could have taken one of them off, and I disagree I think Walcott actually gave us a good attacking outlet when running against tired legs and could have been deployed earlier to just as good effect.
Talking Coquelin off was also suspect as we were finding it hard to clear our lines and got ourselves penned in for large periods of the second half of extra time.
I agree that you can win games without playing well, but I think most managers will still address why the side isn't playing well my worry with Wenger is that it doesn't matter to him whether his tactics and personnel worked if he wins despite this it doesn't matter.
Yesterday we were let off the hook in a big way, and to say we don't need to learn from this would be a fatal error, we didnt look that great against Burnley either and if we think a more talented and capable side like Chelsea won't work just as hard as Burnley and Reading than we have a big surprise coming to us.
This is what a lot of fans and certainly the media just don't get. Each game is important not just for the result but also in terms of the team performance and the performance of each individual. You build a settled team, nurture the squad so you can slot one or two players in to cover injuries and suspensions. You keep winding the performance levels up a notch each game until you have a machine, like the chavs or barca or marketing.
There's a huge difference between consistency peppered with the odd loss, that can happen to any team, and randomly picking up wins and points bouncing from fixture to fixture constantly on the edge of defeat but somehow scraping through before falling off a cliff.
Top players can help you paper the cracks and disguise managerial incompetence, players like Alexis. A poor tactician and man manager like Wenger relies on these individuals to bury his own inadequacies. You see when we lose he blames the players, not his lack of tactics, cohesion or his failure to build genuine rather than random momentum and understanding between the players. He'll say we lack sharpness, or we play with a handbrake, or our energy levels dropped. He never admits his crazy team selections and subs and inappropriate tactics are the root cause.
Wenger loses silly games, he promotes under-performance in straightforward games, he takes stupid risks when they aren't necessary, he goes conservative when there's no threat. Basically he's a handicap we have to overcome every match and he showed that again yesterday.
A decent tactician could get so much more out of this squad and team, could take us up that step that is unreachable for Wenger.
What we needed against Burnley and Reading were two confident, efficient and progressive performances with the intent of peaking for the chav game. Instead we get shit performance #1, but it was a win so ignore it, and embarrassing and shit performance #2, ignore it again because now we are in the "Can't Win a Big Prize" Cup final. Hopefully the players can pull it together all by themselves next week, but a lot of that will depend on what team is put out.
Indeed, the title is all but gone. So there is absolutely ZERO reason not to go for after the chavs big time next week. If their goal is to park the bus we need a smart manager who can overcome that. We need to surprise them, shock them, shake them out of their comfort zone. We need Maureen and his chavs to leave that pitch thinking fuck, okay we won the title this year but we're going to have a real fight on our hands next season.
Wenger won't be thinking like that. He'll be thinking shit like a 1-0 will do no matter how we play or what message we send. He'll be thinking we're in the cup final and that's all that matters. He'll be thinking the title is gone but second isn't bad.
LOSER stuff, like that. Only losers think like that.
Yesterday there should have been continuity in the team, regardless of it being the cup, a fast tempo, respect for the opponent but homework done to find their obvious weaknesses (they are a lower league team after all) and ruthlessly exploit them. Now if the opponent battles you to a standstill, good for them. But when they are in the game because you can't be bothered to be in it, fuck that. The result can't hide that basic lack of competitiveness and drive. The manager instils none of that. Alexis embarrasses him. Alexis would manage this team much better. He knows what it takes to win. He's a winner.
Too many excuses for Wenger floating around after a decade. Fans can console themselves with the FA Cup if they like but don't expect anything more than consolation while this guy is in charge.
His substitution of Coquelin yesterday was astonishing. Absolutely stunning. No other manager would even contemplate lunacy on that scale.
One thing i found odd yesterday was the reaction by the media to the keepers mistake. It was painted as a tragedy and the worst thing that could have happened etc etc. You have to feel sorry for him and all that bollocks.
Just like they felt sorry for Szcesney when he did it v birmingham.
FA Cup syndrome. Little guys against the giants. I don't think it was aimed at us, they do that for any underdog.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ollie the Optimist
That said, their keeper was awful. He was very lucky not to concede minutes before the second goal when he again made a howler but got away with it.
he was also lucky not to be sent off for tripping alexis early on in the game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
The bitter Daily Mail, on the other hand, had Michael Hector as MOTM, narrowly edging 2 goal Alexis. :haha:
Things didn't go according to their prayers in their funny little fantasy land.
I love the Daily Mail, it stands to be about the only positive thing about a potential Labour victory....just imagine how vitriolic, self-righteous and mean spirited they would be then.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Oh is that what's happening? The Blair years are forgotten already? System reset, the goldfish goes around the bowl again? Haven't been watching it. I think Martin Samuel should stand (if he can still defeat gravity). Then he could pass a law that makes the gypos too big to fail.Quote:
Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie
The 'small' teams always know they have a chance against us. Look at our run last year. You'd think that after getting taken to a penalty shoot out against Wigan we might have learnt our lesson. Nope, two-nil down in 10 minutes against Hull. We get taken to extra time and just about manage to avoid penalties.
Same old shit again yesterday. Wenger doesn't know how to motivate his team, and he has about as much tactical knowledge as the Highbury squirrel.
That might be the only chance most of their players will ever get to play in a cup final, so you need to prepare for an onslaught it but it seems like we were just going through the motions again and only started to play when they scored. We'll never learn but cup runs are always about the result, you don't get 2nd chances to put things right and no one is going to be bothered on cup final day about how we made it.
This is why i added the caveat "potential"Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
To be honest you do have a situation where first time voters at this election are probably too young to remember Tony Blair
On policies i am probably more with Labour than any other party, but Ed Milliband and Ed Balls are atrocious
But this is not the thread for which such things should be discussed....so i shall say no more
They'll be bothered if we play the same way though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
It's not quite the same. It's probably the biggest game of that Reading keeper's career and that mistake will haunt him. I do feel for him. But not too much :dQuote:
Originally Posted by Ollie the Optimist
Debuchy, Gibbs, Sanchez and Welbeck were really poor. Especially in the first half.
Gibbs improved and Sanchez obviously got the goals, but even the players who had decent games (Coquelin, Ozil, Cazorla) had sloppy moments and the passing was erratic.
No surprise that WUMger replacing three of our most consistent and impactful players ruined our momentum.
Still, despite us actually losing according to Lineker and his pathetic little cronies at the Beeb, we hit the woodwork three times, Federici made four good saves (and one shit one just before the winner) and we should have won by about three clear goals if not for the lack of composure from Ramsey, Ozil and Cazorla in the final third.
Chelsea are on the verge of winning the League on the back of several errors from goalkeepers. But genius Mourinho of course.
Compared to other teams in the Cup this year, we've cruised through while they've scraped over the line like drunkards or been well and truly knocked out by actual pub teams. And aren't these games always close at the end of this competition, whoever the opposition? Wigan won it FFS.
It was Reading's best game ever and we were laboured, but we won. WUMger is a problem, but as long as you overcome these heroic, plucky opponents and the cheating ref, it's fine as long as it keeps some momentum going.
The ref was fucking terrible by the way. Poor Reading and the two offside calls. What about the one against Giroud? And why was Sanchez allowed to be hacked in half? And why did he allow play to continue as one of their cloggers raked Ozil's ankle right in front him? Poor Reading though.
Actually fuck Reading tbf. And the BBC. And Stevie G. And your mum.
We're in the final and we're going to break a few records by winning it again.
Sanchez :bow:.
Ozil :bow:.
Coquelin :bow:.
Wenger :bow:.
Arsenal :bow:.