How poor was that 2nd half? Jeez.
Disappointing result.
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How poor was that 2nd half? Jeez.
Disappointing result.
The whole game was poor, in terms of the way we played.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
We had the chances to win it. You’d have put your house on Van Persie scoring when he was one-on-one. Rosicky’s brilliant pass there was one of the only right decisions any of our players made with regards to the ‘final ball’.
We had the ball in fantastic positions, we had players open - with the right decisions and the right, simple passes, we’d be in on goal. Defensively very solid and determined winning the ball back. Passing - very good working it upto the final third. After that, the wrong choices cost us the win. Ramsey and Van Persie should have converted the clear cut chances we did create. Thought Marseille did a good job too.
Not a horrific result. Plenty of positives - Jenkinson, Mertesacker and Vermaelen at the back were fantastic. Should be very interesting to see what defence Wenger puts out on the weekend - annoyingly, I think Koscielny will be left out again.
Never noticed he was not playing strange enough.Quote:
Originally Posted by Syn
Really poor game from us, hardly any creativity or spark whatsoever. Our midfield looks really turgid and lacking in inspiration. Song was trying to create but he's a defensive midfielder, Arteta's looking like a glorified Denilson and Ramsey was unable to replicate his recent form. And Walcott failed to build on his performance on Saturday, and fell back into bad habits again.
Yawn
Dortmund won't be shy to attack so there is still a lot of work to be done here to see this group out. Can't help but feel we missed a trick tonight.
Decent up to the final third.
Lack of urgency; need to correct that against Dortmund or we'll be in trouble.
Clean sheet :bow:.
Its the greeks who will be tricky we have to win both games to top the group nowQuote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Santos looks a terrible defensive btw. He should be second choice left winger rather than left-back IMO, because he seems to have no understanding of defensive positioning and looks unfit as well.
A draw would qualify us, at least. I can't say I am too arsed if we finish first or not.
Match was there to be won but the forwards were careless. Not great from Theo or Gervinho tonight even though they put a shift in. The defence were solid but Marseilles didn't offer much of a threat. Good to have TV back, easily our best defender.
Pundits in the Sky studio (including Dave Seaman) slaughtering us for some reason. We weren't great but we weren't that bad either.
Yeah I have a feeling we could come 2nd now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie the Gooner
We'll see how it goes.
He's certainly not unfit or else he couldn't do the amount of running he does. He's always having to charge back because he's often out of position, that's why he looks knackered.Quote:
Originally Posted by Joker
Should have started Arshavin and Rosicky Or even AOCQuote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
We know how that panned out last season.....Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
Arteta and Santos were poor IMO. One didnt contribute enough in midfield and the other disregard his defensive duty.
This weekend I'd like to see Rosicky starting alongside Song and Ramsey, add some pace to our midfield and creativity in our midfield. :coffee:
TBF only barca and real would be the worst to face if they won their groups everyone else not really that great.Quote:
Originally Posted by ItsMe
Yeah, I don't think Arteta is doing enough to justify his place in the team, he has a good engine and keeps things tidy but surely we need a bit more there, given Song is having to defend and create. I'd certainly be tempted to play Rosicky or even Benayoun, just to freshen things up.Quote:
Originally Posted by milla
Thing is though if you finish second you're more likely to meet one of those teams earlier, at least if you delay the meeting with them there's the off chance they could get knocked out by some other team.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie the Gooner
Welcome back Arsenal
Or more likely we'll get knocked out. Better to have a big night. We aren't winning this anyway so why not bring on Barca again?Quote:
Originally Posted by ItsMe
Just got back. Awful match. Awful performance.
Player ratings
Sirchesney - 6 Had nothing to do. Was a bit of an idiot with a couple of needless dragbacks but got away with it in the first half
Jenkinson - 4 Jebus fucking christ this guy is shite. Not good enough for Charlton but in the first team for us? Is that how low we've fallen?
Vermaelen - 9 MOTM. Stay fit you cunt. Did nothing wrong defensively and would have got a 10 had he scored.
Mertesacker - 8 Almost as good as Vermaelen and you could see the benefit of playing him alongside a decent CB. Long may this partnership continue. Arguably played in 2 positions this game as he was often covering the right back territory with Jenko being worse than useless.
Santos - 7 Needs to lose weight. No major concern defensively. Looks pretty good attacking wise
Song - 7 Did his job as a DM fine. What wasnt so good was him losing posession lots of times when playing a forward pass but then someone had to which brings us on to
Arteta - 5 Pointless player. Heard it said hes a glorified Denilson. Denilson is actually better than him.
Ramsey - 6 Missed a sitter. Took forever to shoot for another chance and did nothing else.
Gervinho - 5 Biggest cheer of the day when he was hauled off. Basically Diaby with a big forehead.
Park - 4 Come back Chamah. All is forgiven. Nowhere near good enough and not as good as Chamakh or RVP. At least we sold some shirts in Asia which is why he got a 4 and not less
Walcott - 6 Much like Per, had to cover at right back most of the time. Was in plenty of space in the opposition half but the midfield 3 couldnt managae a pass between them. When he did get the ball, he was too deep cos he was doing a very good defensive shift.
Subs
RVP - 6 Too arrogant when clean through. Just blast it you twat. However did more in that half hour than Park has done in his career
Rosicky - 6 Better than Ramsey and Arteta
Arshavin - 6 Surely a starter now ahead of Gervinho?
http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...-gamble-failedQuote:
Arsene Wenger admitted his gamble of resting Robin van Persie did not pay off after Arsenal drew 0-0 with Marseille at Emirates Stadium in the UEFA Champions League.
Victory over the French club would have ensured the Gunners' progress from Group F into the last 16 of Europe with two games still to spare.
It was therefore a surprise Wenger decided to rest Van Persie, with the Arsenal captain's hat-trick at Chelsea on Saturday having taken his scoring total for 2011 to 28 goals in 27 Premier League games.
But Wenger, who had an eye on the coming home game with West Brom, told Sky Sports when asked about the decision to only introduce his skipper as a 62nd minute substitute: "It was a bit on the edge."It was a gamble that you can say tonight didn't come off.
Strong position
"But, overall, he was very tired after the game on Saturday. He has played many games and I took the gamble to rest him first and make him come on."
Van Persie had an opportunity to win the game for Arsenal in the second half, but his attempted chip was comfortable for Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda.
"I felt he had the chance. If he scores, it is perfect play. But overall we didn't create enough," Wenger admitted.
But the Arsenal manager was not completely disappointed, having defeated Marseille in France on Matchday Three to leave his club with a superior head-to-head record over Didier Deschamps' team.
Wenger said: "Overall, I must say, we took four points from Marseille in the two games. So now we want to win the Dortmund game at home and then we are in a strong position.
"But, of course, it is good that we didn't concede tonight because it was difficult to score in the second half."
Also why was RVP rested?
Oozing with confidence. Just scored a hat trick and Wenger rests him?
He just had a week off.
He can rest when hes injured for 4 months later in the season.
Wenger :doh:
Good to see he agrees with meQuote:
on Robin van Persie...
He had a great chance when he came on, you know? He tried to chip the keeper but overall you cannot say that one player always has to make the difference.
on the 0-0 draw...
I felt it was a game where we were not physically at our sharpest. Marseille started stronger than us and after that we got back in the game. In the first half I feel we had opportunities to kill the game. After that we were disciplined, we were willing, but you have to give credit to Marseille - they defended very well. They stopped us from playing and we were not sharp enough to get them out of position. The positives are that we did not concede a goal, Marseille only had one shot on target and overall we know that in the final third we can do better.
on his back four...
I was happy with them. It's not all perfect but we have rebuilt a back four. Overall Vermaelen had a good game, Mertesacker had a solid performance tonight, Santos as well. Jenkinson has just come back and he lacks experience in certain situations but overall he did well.
on Andre Santos' attacking nature...
I am happy when he has the ball. I feel personally he is much better defensively than many people think. He is getting stronger in every game. He is a very intelligent boy who learns very quickly and obviously he has to adapt to the pace of the English game. That is not easy, to play game after game.
on what Saturday's game took out of his team...
Emotionally more than physically maybe. It is difficult to be on a high three days later again but we still had opportunities, especially Ramsey in the first half, he had two great chances. Gervinho had a chance, and in a game like that you still expect to take one of these chances.
on Ju Young Park…
He did very well last week. Tonight you could see that he lacked the pace of the game a little bit because he has not played enough games.
on not securing qualification…
Well we wanted to achieve that tonight but you have to say as well to be fair that we have taken four points against Marseille in our two games. Four points overall is not too bad.
on hopes of finishing top of group…
I just looked at the numbers of Olympiacos, who did extremely well tonight. They dominated possession and they played very well. Everybody thought that Olympiacos would be the easy game but you could see that even in Dortmund tonight they lost just 1-0. They were strong in the game from what I've heard. If we win our next home game we have a good chance.
on any injuries from the game…
Everyone looks alright.
Not really its Common sense even Wenger has too see it lolQuote:
Originally Posted by Ach
I'd rather not play the bigger sides, reckon they'll annhiliate us this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Would prefer to see a game against a team we're more evenly matched with that might be a bit more interesting.
Didnt watch a game that I thought I'd wake to see we had won, by the sounds of it I wont bother watching the 3 day delayed airing we are shown over here!
Looks like Wenger had shown similar complacency in 'resting' RvP, surely the right thing would have been to bag the group then rest players for the next games.
But what it does show is to Wenger is that there isnt much else in attack other than Robin, Ju had his first game aside from the CC and I wont come down on him for that but he knows the big stage and he will be expected to produce, lets wait and see, have a feeling we will see more of him over the run of so called 'soft' games we are about to embark on.
We do however need a true talent on par with RvP to make us a serious threat and to relieve the pressure on RvP. Tevez is not cup tied right, I mean the hissy fit he threw avoided that, right?
This is becoming a no brainer - loan the guy in January IMO better still buy him and see if he will take a wage cut cos 250k is unheard of at our club!
Am I the only one to have missed his Henry-like finish?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ach
What happened?
Was it disallowed?
Tevez might have played in the first CL match v Napoli. Not sure as I haven't seen any of their matches
I think if Citeh went out of the Champions League he might be allowed to play for another side in the Champions League. UEFA have complicated a rule that was pretty simple to understand.
Good result, albeit a tired display, against a very good team. Whilst Marseille lack quality in the final third, they are a very dangerous side, full of power and movement.
Thought we battled hard, and won back possession really well, and bar the first ten, defended excellently. Jenko, Verms and Merts were very very good.
Walcott looked more dangerous on the left, soshould have stayed there.
Park was off the pace, but for me, showed some good movement off the ball. His time will come, but for now we only have one top draw striker.
No shame whatsoever in that result, and the kneejerk bollocks of "welcome back Arsenal" is more blind than the three blind mice, in the dark.
Good result. Not exactly what we wanted, but we have a tough group, and we're sitting on top of it.
Pretty much. Wasn't a terrible performance, wasn't a great one either. Meh. Not a terrible result and we should qualify.Quote:
Originally Posted by Syn
On we go.
Oh yeah, 'cos if we'd won our group we'd definitely have won the CL...Quote:
Originally Posted by ItsMe
I don't have a problem with Wenger resting RVP. The truth is, we should have put away our chances. Ramsey and Gervinho wasted a lot of good chances in the first half.
Sloppy finishing, bad passing in the final third and poor ball control. It wasn't a bad performance but I think one two players were a bit too cocky. Ramsey had a few chances to pass for the easy goal but went for glory instead. He'll learn. What a snooze fest of a game though. I fell asleep around the 70th minute.
It's not complacency, it's common sense. The bloke is made of balsa wood and he's by far our most important player. We HAVE to keep him fit this season and if that means playing him a bit less then so be it. Results haven't suffered so far in games when he's been put on the bench, maybe we'd have won had he started but maybe he'd have got injured too. It wasn't a 'must win' and a draw isn't a terrible result.Quote:
Originally Posted by Japan Shaking All Over
Pretty much. We've got 4 points out of Marseille. I'd have taken that at the start.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters (TPFKA WWTL@WHL)
This. I can understand that people feel a little deflated after the weekend - but Saturday was never going to herald an Invincibles style-change. This was a CL game, remember - there aren't many totally shite teams in the comp (apart from Genk - tee hee), and Marseille were a lot better than at their place. Our players were understandably a bit jaded - it must be draining when after our start every game is so important with little room for error.Quote:
Originally Posted by LDG
I think the comments about Arteta being a rich man's Denilson are a bit unfair. He seemed leggy last night but has been told to play a more holding role than at Everton (while Ramsey gets forward more) and does the simple things quite well. We suffered form having a 'green' striker on the pitch for 2/3 of the game, but given the complaints about our lck of options there, the boy has to be given some experience/opportunity to improve.
We didn't have to win this game and I would take clean sheet draw over a scoring one (Chelsea) any day!
I was gonna add this, but forgot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ice Berg Kamping
And, of course, you're right.
Just because it's not Barcelona, Madrid, Utd, City or Chelsea, we have no right to expect results against quality opposition.
Marseille are in the comp for a reason, and from one of the better leagues, you have to expect them to be a bit better than Stoke.
The CL has always been a patient team's competition. You stay compact, patient and take your chances. Unfortunately we looked a little too leggy last night to convert, but there's no shame in that result.
If someone had said a draw away, and win at home against this lot, everyone would have taken it. That it was a reverse shouldn't really matter....and if we end up level on points with them, we'll go through by rights.