Match Reaction - Arsenal vs Scrote City

[Letters]

And I'll take the liberty of pre-empting those who will inenvitably say SAF is greatest manager ever, by asking what has changed since the times when he and Wenger used to be considered of the same ilk?

The new stadium (which did initially restrict spending, even if Wenger now chooses not to spend money he has)
The billionaire owners fuelling the ridiculous spiralling transfer fees and wages.
Other clubs catching up with Wenger's training methods and diet.
Other clubs having global scouting networks which means Wenger can't pick up players as cheap as he once could before they were on other clubs' radars.

Plenty has changed in football since Wenger started with us. Wenger hasn't. Fergie IS the best manager of all time IMO, I don't believe their current squad under any other manager would be where they are.

[Cripps_orig]

Just saw the Owen incident. It was nothing

[Cripps_orig]

on the performance…
They made it difficult for us, they were well organised, defended very deeply and we didn't find the space but kept going. We were a bit lucky on the goal but overall we deserve this win. We had chances, their keeper made some saves. We played in one half in the second half especially and overall we deserved to win the game.


on the linesman flagging for the goal…
I haven't seen it. Honestly, from the bench I couldn't see what had happened. I thought the linesman gave offside, or maybe one of our players handled the ball - that is all I could think of. In fact, I heard Walcott was offside but not interfering with the game, so it was a goal.


on some flashpoints at the end…
There were some heated moments, I don't think there was anything exceptional in the tackles. Theo Walcott got good treatment today, but I am very happy because the way he responded to it was with full commitment and desire to impose himself. That is where you see that Walcott has become a different player recently.


on Shawcross' tackle on Koscielny…
I have to look at it again. I am not completely objective when it comes to Ryan Shawcross! That is why I am bit cautious with my statement.


on bad blood between the clubs…
They know that we try to play a game based on movement and technique and they oppose us with a very strong defence. You have to give them credit for the way they defended today, but overall I don't think too much happened. Apart from Theo Walcott, he got a few bad tackles that maybe deserved a yellow. Overall it was a physical game with a team who tries to get some points and we expected that. We prepared mentally for that.


on grinding out a win…
We are a team who can create chances, and score goals. Today it was not the case - we created chances but could not get the goals. But still I am happy that for a long time now, we didn't concecede and the defence looked solid. The satisfaction is that Nacho Monreal had a good start for a player who just arrived yesterday and is in the team today. He did not have time to think about it, but he got stronger and stronger during the game.


on Monreal's thoughts on English football…
There is no better culture shock than Stoke when you come from Spain! They had a very physical game and I think he dealt well with it.


on the race for the top four…
I said before the West Ham game and the Liverpool game that we are in a position where we can't drop points. We dropped points against Liverpool but we couldn't do it again today. What is more important is the quality of our performances is there, the spirit is there and the target to be in the top four is very important now because we have strengthened our belief and confidence.

theo is awesome

[Syn]

Having more money than others helps you a lot in terms of finishing above them. And in the extreme cases you're bound to win if you spend enough. There are other factors but football has increasingly become about which owners have deeper pockets. It is not impossible to out-perform someone richer than you because there's no law which says you can't. It seems ridiculous for me to feel the need to explain all that before getting to my point, but given the number of poor quality 'debates' you idiots have about them, I think it's a good move.

About Stoke, they are unlikely to out-perform us because they're not as rich as us. I remember watching a 2nd division play-off between Stoke and Cardiff in 2002 - they weren't, then, particularly known for being a rough side, but they became known as one as soon as they were in the PL. Part of the reason they have survived us that they're tough to beat and they want to keep this 'us against the rich twats' attitute and it's gets them into a battle. Teams don't particularly like playing them and that's fair enough - mission accomplished, this is their 5th season in the league and it's a massive achievement to get from the second division to 5 successive seasons in the premier league in 11 years. But with these sorts of attitudes and tactics, you can only go so far. If you keep playing for draws against the top 10, you're limiting the number of points you can get to around 60 (which you're not going to reach anyway).

Given that Stoke have the team they have, I think it's fair enough to go to Arsenal or teams much better than you and get into a rugby match and hope to come out with a 0-0 draw. I don't blame them for that. If I was Pulis, I'd send my team out to do exactly that. But looking at the longer term - given that it is now 5 seasons in the premier league, I think the club should be looking to do better than their usual 10th place cap. And in order to do that, they need to try to win some of the games they currently play for draws in. And in order to do that, they need to take more chances in the transfer market and playing style. They won't attract big names, but they can try to attract some promising youngsters. Some of them will turn out rubbish, so you play the numbers game and long term it should pay off.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Pubis irate:

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...ter-1-0-defeat

It was the correct decision given that Walcott was inactive, but Stoke boss Pulis was nevertheless irate.

[Xhaka Can’t]

I agree. Good football is the key and we're not playing it so resources can't be used as an excuse I'm afraid.

We're pretty much 4/5th in terms of resources and we pretty much finish...4th. But that isn't an argument for here, be a football fan and celebrate a win over an utter scrote and bunch of thugs.

The bigger picture will always be there, but moments don't last forever - enjoy the moment.

[Xhaka Can’t]

He knows he doesn't have the players to play us off the park so he goes with the strength of his team to try and take point off us. It's not pretty but it works.

We can't compete with Chelsea and City's resources but we could at least employ tactics that make it hard for them to beat us. Besides, we're not in 6th place because we've played teams with more resources than us all season.

Yeah, because we NEVER beat Chelsea or City.

[Xhaka Can’t]

His job is to do as well as he can with Stoke, his style isn't passing football but it is effective and keeps them in the PL every year and they get a few scalps every season as well, they're never in the relegation mix.

It's up to him how he does his job but as long as the fans are happy and the club is happy I don't see why he'd change or risk playing passing football and possibly getting relegated.

I wouldn't say we were that entertaining today (or in general either), we don't hoof it but the pass pass football is hard work I have to say.

You're wrong. Their fans are far from happy.

[Özim]

Fine. But he's saying it's his only option. It isn't. Having less resources doesn't mean you're forced to play hoofball. Swansea don't.

Yes that's true, but I'd say playing open football is much riskier, look at the likes of Reading who are getting carved open. It's not impossible for smaller clubs to play football but it's much harder to compete because ultimately they usually have inferior players.

In our case we clearly don't have the players of some of the other top sides (though IMO we could spend a bit more and get closer to them and certainly pick up some top players on the way) but at the same time we never adjust the way we play, we got out and try and pass it around them and 9 times out of 10 these days we get beaten.

It would be cleverer to adjust you're style or tactics according to the opposition, at least to try and nullify their game a little to give yourself the best chance of winning....the lack of a defence really hinders us particularly against top teams.

[Özim]

You're wrong. Their fans are far from happy.

I don't follow the Stoke forums but I assumed they'd be happy to be in the PL for x amount of seasons. Would they rather play nice football and get relegated, which is highly likely?