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

[Power n Glory]

What "pressure" - we were playing Reading.

Pressure of the occasion. We lost to Birmingham in a League Cup final once. Drew one of the weaker teams in the CL and we buckled. It's just one of those things we never quite get a handle on.

[LDG]

I don't think it was pressure this time.

I think we were too relaxed if anything. We didn't prepare for Reading dominating the 50/50 balls. It's obvious to you and I, but if it's an FA Cup Semi-Final, whoever you are playing, you should expect them to be 100mph. We should have been the same....

Debuchy starting was a horrendous choice. I can understand Gibbs, and to a degree, Chesney. But when we should have been looking to smash them with pace, the team selection was poor....

...but for me, not respecting Reading, and assuming we'd walk it is the worst thing.

[Letters]

What "pressure" - we were playing Reading.

In a cup semi-final.

[Power n Glory]

I don't think it was pressure this time.

I think we were too relaxed if anything. We didn't prepare for Reading dominating the 50/50 balls. It's obvious to you and I, but if it's an FA Cup Semi-Final, whoever you are playing, you should expect them to be 100mph. We should have been the same....

Debuchy starting was a horrendous choice. I can understand Gibbs, and to a degree, Chesney. But when we should have been looking to smash them with pace, the team selection was poor....

...but for me, not respecting Reading, and assuming we'd walk it is the worst thing.

I’ll have to watch the game but with this team it’s hard to suss the problem when we play like this. Pressure vs being blasé about the opponent – it’s hard to differentiate. If we pull out the same performance against Chelsea next week, I can imagine some saying we choked on the big stage and it was the pressure. But against a team like Reading we assume they’re not focused and overconfident, which seems out of character for this particular team. Same performance but a different assessment based on the opposition. But you’re right about our preparation. Maybe it was just the wrong tactics and we didn’t know they’d be physical. That’s something Wenger and the coaching staff need to look into.

[Letters]

I don't actually think there's much pressure on the Chelsea game. They're going to be champions. Clearly. We might give them a bloody nose but we needed them to drop points against QPR and/or Utd and they didn't. If we were 5 points behind or fewer and a win would put real pressure on them or even see us overtake them then yes, that is a pressure situation. As it is I don't think either team are under huge amounts of pressure. The only pressure on us I guess is trying to maintain 2nd position but that's a pressure in every game.

On Saturday...these games are almost never thumpings. The underdogs always play above themselves. We maybe took them a bit too lightly, we did seem to be playing within ourselves.

[Niall_Quinn]

Has anyone laughed at Liverpool and Stevie Me yet?

Of course. That's what rival fans are supposed to do. But the shit in the media this morning is out of order. One minute they are building players into super heroes, next they are following them around town calling them losers. The media stinks to high heaven. They do it because they assume that's what the fans want, as if they are part of our culture. They aren't, they are hateful outsiders taking a free ride on the game.

Why did we really "hate" Gerrard, as fans? For the same reasons we "hated" Roy Keane or any of the leaders of our bitter rivals, players who could take away the things we wanted. It was good rivalry, it made the blood stir and boil. They hated Veiria in return. But we wouldn't have changed any of it or got rid of any of them. They are what made the game.

The media doesn't understand stuff like this. They have a shallow and transient association with the game and the fans and all their grubby headlines reflect the fact. Fuckers.

I actually think it's a shame Gerrard didn't get one more run out at Wembley in a cup final. Especially against us. Could have been a spectacular game, the sort of game that makes you scared and excited at the same time. Villa is a bit meh by comparison.

I didn't like Stevie Me's starfish routine but I grudgingly admit he was a hell of a player in his prime, the engine of the team. I don't feel sorry for him, he's got a tidy amount stashed and he's off on another adventure of the type we don't get a sniff off in our humdrum existences. But I'm not going to write off what he put back into the game, like the shitty media are doing this morning so they can sell a few more chip wrappers and emergency shit wipes.

I'll say it if nobody else will, good luck to Gerrard. I enjoyed the fact he was part of the game.

That Nistlerooy bloke though. I actually did hate that cunt. Real hate I mean. What a fucking tosser he was.

[Niall_Quinn]

Wenger's reason for playing Debuchy for 120 mins.

Bellerin has played recently with some ankle problems and Debuchy was back so I thought it was a good moment to do it. Debuchy had cramps just before the end of the game but I couldn’t change him, but he is a French international and must be capable of playing in a semi-final against Reading.

Okay. But why change the other fullback too? You know Debuchy is a risk, why are you doubling up the risk?

[Letters]

I always quite liked Stevie G actually, he didn't sell out and join a club where he'd have won more medals, he was a great player.
I wouldn't have begrudged him one last hurrah, but not against us

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Remember when Alexis apparently chose us because of London and nothing else?

That was funny.

It was just so irritating to hear that all summer from them.

Despite the fact they've finished 6th -8th for most of the years pre last year's title challenge and the fact they haven't consistently finished in the CL for ages they seriously thought it was just the "London factor" which swayed Alexis's decision to come here. Not that we're a bigger and more attractive club than them now.

Sigh, there's no reasoning with most of them tbh and the sane ones like Cibbles are a minority these days.

Speaking of club attractiveness for players, at the moment I rank it as follows:

Chelsea
Arsenal/Man Utd
Man City
Liverpool/Spurs

Pre Fergie retiring Utd would have been comfortably ahead of us, but losing him and also their car crash of last season has pushed them down whilst we've also simultaneously improved considerably with our new financial muscle and bringing in world class players like Ozil and Alexis whilst also discarding our previous image of being a "selling club".

Man City are still generally viewed as a billionaire's plaything and haven't shed that imagine to the same extent that Chelsea have now. With FFP coming into effect and them supposedly not being able to offer the same astronomical wages they did in the past I think they'll really suffer to attract players now. Don't think you'll see Nasri/Adebayor/Sagna situations happen again now unless something major changes in either of our plights.

[LDG]

I always quite liked Stevie G actually, he didn't sell out and join a club where he'd have won more medals, he was a great player.
I wouldn't have begrudged him one last hurrah, but not against us

"I've always had a soft spot for Adebayor"

And Gerrard makes it into Letters' top all time favourites that nobody else likes (us being Gooners and all). So far

1. Teddy Sherringham
2. Stevie G
3. John Terry
4. Samir Nasri
5. Ashley Cole


10.Hitler



I've never liked Gerrard. Tosser who hits people in clubs and gets away with it. Horrible scum.