Who would have wagered that we’d have to go till the last day of the Champions League in our easiest group on paper but somehow we managed to bottle it. Losing away to Braga and Shaktar was very demoralising but we have to finish the task at hand in order to qualify.
Partizan, have lost all of their Champions League games so far which may lead to conclusions that they are the proverbial doormat of the group.
It may seem that way but I am sure they will want to leave a mark in the competition and history suggests that too. Add to that, we like to make things harder than they should be, especially at home this season! But, as we’ve been saying for a few weeks now, which side will turn up???
Our defence has been under the spotlight after consistent howlers in almost all our games now. It’s so infuriating that we dominate games so well but we find ourselves level or behind due to our shaky defence. I personally think that the personnel isn’t the problem. Even the cult heroes we all loved would struggle with how little cover our defenders get.
Arsene Wenger has admitted he wants Song to win the ball early which is fine but this leaves Jack Wilshere, who is in his season debut, with loads of defending to do. Barca who play almost similar to us always have Busquets playing in between Puyol and Pique ensuring they are never exposed. If you watch them closely they always have three men at the back and as a result they rarely concede.
Going forward we have got to be among the best teams in Europe. The variety in which we can decimate an opponent is mind-boggling which makes it even more puzzling as to why we can’t fix issues in defence to set a platform for our attack to work on. If we really want to win our first CL this has to be resolved.
On a final note I’d like to commend Nasri on his recent form. He has been awe-inspiring and its moments of pure genius like Saturday that we live for as fans. I have been a harsh critic of his because I knew he had it in him. Rumours are circulating that he is set to be rewarded with new contract and im very happy for him, he truly deserves it.
Keep it up Nasri…….
Tonight will give us fans the answer we all are so desperate to know, will we be in the knock-out of the Champions League or will we have to settle for playing in the Europa League?
Written by K-TR7
morning all…
no djourou for tonight then 🙁
He’s resting Rico………….. 😛
Morning WATH, ready for Monday I hope 😉
Can we play him with the other two monday so we can play an extra defender, wonder if they will notice 12 players on the park..?
😆 WATH, our defending is getting a bit of a joke really, even AA has been speaking about how we are rubbish at the back…
If we muck this up tonight, we go into the Europa cup don’t we?
Yes we will I’d rather of finished last that 3rd….. What a joke if we can’t beat this lot at home though, am sure we will win….! Then we finish 2nd and get a team who won their group you know it will ne Real…..! 😉
I’m confident we will wipe the floor with them in all honesty… yep, you just know it will be old jose we end up facing, still, we can do to them what barca did 🙂
Even Partisan want to leave a mark in the CL, I expect win and Braga win too! With those two scores, we going ahead and to the top! Also, we win more money for our victory and going through the next round.
Let’s wait and see
Best wishes
Hi Joaquim, can’t see braga getting anything from their game – they are dreadful and even if shakatak rest a few they will still be too strong…
Morning Rico,
Very nice Post KT and not a stat in evidence! 🙂
I am uneasy about the game tonight. It all sounds too easy, but as Wath said, if you sit on a wasp you get stung on the ass! 🙂
Morning RA,
for once i am very very confident, i wouldn’t be surprised if we hit double figures tonight 😉
Double figures……….. u still got cricket mindset Rico…??
Well I’ll go with your gut feel Rico.
That way if we win I will be delighted, and if we lose, I will happily blame your female intuition! 🙂 Perfecto!
“Cricket mindset”? Are you American too Wath?
Not nice asking Rico if she has a grasshopper’s mind! Tut tut! 🙂
Good Afternoon.
So Arsenal need to beat Partizan Belgrade in their final match to guarantee progress. Shakhtar Donetsk will top the group if they avoid defeat to Braga, who are also in the hunt for a place in the next round. Arsenal can still go through if they draw or lose to Partizan Belgrade but only if Braga do not improve on that result. The Gunners can also still top the group if they win and Donetsk lose to Braga.
Think positive I say to myself,surely we can’t make a pig’s ear of this game tonight against a team who have only scored 1 goal in 5 matches.
The line up will be intereseting and I hope the Man U came is put firmly aside for the time being.
Double figures,blimey,that’s a tad optimistic 🙂
I am a great believer to play the players that are in form and not to rest them, so I see little change from the team that played fulham,though Theo tends to excel himself in these type of games and possibly he will play some part in the match.
RA you been smoking ur socks again….. how the fuck is mindset yankie…??? and cricket def ain’t yankie either…! Think those tabs of your are failing dismally…! It’s ok Erick will be here soon he can sort you out with some “herbal” stuff that might stop a little of that drivel…! 😛
Ok scrap that idea Erick’s “herbs” may indeed increase the drivel… Bad idea…!
😆 WATH, i’m just really confident and i haven’t felt that in a while.. 😉
RA, no blame coming my way 😉
Morning kelsey, best eleven for me tonight too, we can’t take this win for granted, despite this old gal thinking its over before its begun….
Morning all,
Been looking through some of our latest games, i have complained about our defence of late, but in all honesty they are not that bad, i know its hard to understand that our results have not been that good and i’m saying there not that bad,but the cover they get, thats the back four,is absolutly rubbish, the midfield seem to be more to blame than anyone, the amount of careless passing is amazeing,granted we have scored some good goals,but those same players are heaping pressure on the guys at the back.a lost ball given to our opponents who breakaway fast leaves the two fullbacks in nowhere land, while the midfield lay on the ground or hold their heads in their hand while the two fullbacks race back.
It is not as though we throw numbers into the box while attacking they normally camp outside so why is there not cover while going forward, if we rectify this maybe we can progress a little safer.
Good comment, Kelsey.
I suppose Theo will come on as an impact player for at least part of the game.
If Vela plays, he will need to pull out all the stops, or that will probably be the final nail in his Arsenal coffin. (He might be going anyway, in Jan, but I hope not).
Steve, that’s a view shared by many.
Arsene wants SingaSong to play “high up”, and that’s all part of his “total football” concept.
Which is good …… if you have the right quality of players to put it into effect ….. which we don’t.
Got to take the dogs out, will be back in a couple of hours for the rest of the day – aren’t you lucky 😆 😆
RA,
I understand what your saying but i believe we have the players to achieve this but their all out injured, infact we have on paper probably the best team in the league if they were all fit and used in the correct way, we need to bring in a tactics man that understands this, buying more defenders will not solve this problem, i understand Wengers our man but with all the other duties he has it appears he only looks one dimentional its time for a change in tactics
Wath,
Sorry about the delay in replying, I had something important to do. 🙂
I am delighted and flattered by your august recognition of my ineluctable drivel. Thank you.
As the Master of Drivel, for which you are well known, you are the undisputed practitioner of this arcane art.
I look forward to learning much more at the feet of such a connoisseur, and any little soupcon will be greeted with esteemed respect before being dutifully despatched! 🙂
Anyway about tonight,
I expect us to win,but only by scoreing more than we concede (if you know what i mean)
But Monday, They attack in numbers and fast, we dont like to sit back and our midfield is lazy, unless they buck up i can only see a loss, play it right and as a team and who knows a luvly 3 points
Good comment SP.
Gilberto is missed, now he’s the type of player we dearly need,but then we go back to the debate of yesterday about Song going forward.
It all depends on who we are playing and of course the actual score at any given time during a game.
We have plan A and err plan A
Steve,
When we have everyone available, Ramsey, Diaby etc I think Arsene’s philosophy will work.
But you correctly described the mismatch between our defence and our attacking options. Until this probelm is addressed I think we will always leak goals.
AA, the Meerkat, admitted today that he cannot always track back to help cover Clichy because he is too tired attacking, (not fit?) with the result the opposition winger is free to launch crosses into our penalty area.
Out of the mouths of our own players, eh?
Good point Kelse, bur er plan B needs a little work
RA,
then one can only assume that this all out attacking policy should be revised.In fact we get caught more and more on the counter attack for the reasons you describe.
AA will never give you more than 70 minutes at best.I don’t think it is fitness it is a lack of stamina,a subtle difference.
RA, it seems you’ve taken those lessons on board very well your now officially a jedi drivel master…. Have a word with the nurse on ur ward though am sure she’ll help with the soup and cleaning up after you….!. 😀
morning all…good post, k. we have only ourselves to blame for allowing qualification for the next round to come down to the final match. so lets just take care of business. if i can offer one piece of advice for arsene, i would say just win this one, and worry about looking pretty next time.
morning ra – it looks like jeter has been resigned. winter meetings ongoing in orlando. they will be going hard after cliff lee, and perhaps carl crawford. that sick contract jayson werth signed with the nats has pushed the crawford – a far better player – value through the roof.
kelsey, yrs ago TA sat down and told Paddy and Petit that they offered the back four no protection what so ever, only after this conversation did we start to win games, it’s exactly the same now no cover for the back 4 but who will throw their toys out the cot and demand protection from the midfield..? noone unfortunately..!.
RA,
All that first class traveling has caught up on him, i wouldnt mind seeing young Gibbs in that position if only for a game,i see more in him than i think Wenger does
I don’t know if you noticed in the fulham game,they had a corner in the first half and Jack, out of all people, who was covering the near post area, was screaming at Song to drop back inside the area .That tells it all.
W.A.T.H.
If the two at the back keep bashing their fffing heads in, they will shout allright
Think we all seem to agree on all major aspects!
Now all we need to do is get Arsene to agree with us and this year we will win the EPL and CL. 🙂
Next year …… ?
Hi Oliver, How are you?
The Jeter news is excellent and I am really hopeful of a positive outcome re Cliff Lee.
I had not heard anything about Carl Crawford being a target, but I would not say no! 🙂
I need to go get some lunch, so see you guys later! 🙂
Steve that bashing of heads sums it all up, and they both french and yet stil no talking….! it’s quite pathetic really…!.
enjoy your lunch ra. the crawford news popped up when jayson werth’s contract was announced. i think the line of thinking is that if werth is getting $126 million for seven years, crawford will command wages that only one team can afford. when the season ended, anaheim were the front-runners for crawford. now everyone is reassessing. it is no secret that the yanks are long time crawford admirers – he would give them easily their best all-around centerfielder since bernie williams in his prime. we’ll see what happens.
Afternoon peeps…
Anyone see Freddie on the news, he’s back in London and looking for a PL club, bet he starts training with our lot soon…
Looks like i’m all alone ….. 🙁
😉
Hi Rico,
Well you have always got the hounds! They probably make more sense than us bloggers! 🙂
hi rico, i am here too. remember our discussion yesterday – a win and a clean sheet. if we squeak through with a draw or stuttering win, it does nothing for the team’s confidence ahead of monday.
It’s nice and peaceful RA, the hounds are fast asleep having been run on the beach 🙂
Oh and it was nice and peaceful here too 😆
Partizan are without three of their ‘better’ players, not sure whether thats a good thing or bad, often the squad players have a bit more fight in them…. except our squad players of course….
Hi oliver, i do remember, nothing other than a big win will do tonight, Ferdinand could be out for the mancs on monday…
Rico,
Don’t tell, if it is confidential, but have you moved or are you on hols? Where, roughly?
OK, I admit I am just a nosey so and so! 🙂
i have a sneaking suspicion ferdinand will start on monday. i think scholes is more likely to be unavailable for selection – if so, and assuming we suffer no key injuries, we should be able to dominate in midfield. whether that will translate into goals or not, depends on our players approach and ability to convert the chances i am confident they will create.
that’s a discussion for another day. focus must be on tonight. a professional, minimum-of-fuss win and we can then start focusing on united. not yet.
Rico, yo analytical powers are keenly tuned.. Excellent observation reg. Barca’s game plan where Busquets stays just in front of their CenterHalves to protect them against a clean break away – while ours is spotted marauding on the right when the opponent break away. No pt in blaming Squidgy or Kozzer, even if Tone had been repeatedly left exposed like that we wouldn’t have that stoic image of his imprinted on our minds!
just on a break RA, home tomorrow 🙂
in the words of Lena Martell oliver – ‘one game at a time’ … mind you, i think her version was ‘one day’ 😉
Hi Rennie, it’s KTR7’s good work, not mine 😉
…ok then.. Great job KT, really hit the nail in the middle! if only Song was instructed to do the same, he could easily patrol those huge gaps like he did last season, then we’d be a solid unit… I just can’t understand why Wenger disagrees
Rennie, I don’t get it either, Song was doing well playing in his DM role, why Wenger has changed him I don’t know….
But that’s just what wenger does with players, it crazy..
Blame it on his tactics! He wants to keep pushing higher & higher (..yeah baby) & yet looks absolutely flummoxed when we let the opponent score on the break. This just shows his total lack of respect for the opponent… Someone’s gotta tell him that we aren’t still playing in circa 2001! Most of the clubs in the PL have a potent weapon or 2 who can take advantage of all the open spaces we seem to leave
rico/rennie, i don’t like it any more than you do. this is where i see the value of a strong number two – someone to say “look, boss. i understand we are an attacking side, but results show that we are losing far more than we gain by pushing our defensive midfielder so far forward so often.” arsene may blow him off, but just having someone say that – which i suspect pat rice does not – would be valuable.
i think arsene wants all his players interchangeable. i don’t think it is realistic, considering the experience and maturity levels of much of our squad. that said, i also do not expect him to change, and i think we will continue to see more of the same, at the expense of goals against and results when they count…
agree completely, rennie…
Rennie, he has this we will score more than them approach, sadly though that’s worn thin….
couldn’t agree more oliver, but the sad thing is, i’m not so sure he’d listen… unless the number two was a really strong character who would stand up to him…
Pat Rice certainly isn’t going to – i did read something about him retiring at the end of the season…
rico, he probably wouldn’t listen. if so, that would say more about where our real problems are than anything on a blog…it is what it is…
i am not so confident about tonight – i think our side’s confidence is extremely fragile at the moment. not only because of our defensive weaknesses, but i don’t think our players consistently blossom on the pressure we are now facing (knockout round qualification and maintaining our top spot hold). a few early goals should settle the players and hopefully allow us to keep it tight. but should we bang away for the entire first half with no goals to show, will arsene really overcommit some players forward? will our players tighten up are starting playing with an inhibiting fear of losing? i don’t expect us to have a problem concentrating and focusing for 90 minutes, as previously. if we don’t score early, i am really concerned that our players will tighten up, overplay certain things, and make silly mistakes through this.
sorry to be pessimistic, and i certainly don’t want to bring others down. but so much is riding on the result, and i am not sure our players are collectively mentally strong enough to get the result.
on paper, it is no contest. at home, against a very, very weak side with zero points from five ties in this competition. the intangibles, however, are what continue to worry me…
I’ve been super busy but i felt i had to create time to come here.3 points and we’re through…
good job with the post, k. we need the points to qualify, that is job one. job two is a decent performance – and by that i don’t necessarily mean a glut of goals, rather a tight, disciplined defensive performance – to boost confidence ahead of monday’s visit to old trafford.
Oliver its scary how shaky we can at times look in games we’re in complete dominance.if that is resolved am sure we’ll be more confident when facing bigger sides.
oliver in a word I would say you are …..nervous 😉
I am a worrier and if I have nothing to worry about, I worry why I haven’t got any worries.
Hi kelsey.our defending at times is apalling and will always make us doubt the team no matter the opposition.
oliver, i think we know where the real problem is and thats with the boss…
he doesn’t defend
he doesn’t spend
he doesn’t listen
and he certainly doesn’t learn…..
Hi KT and kelsey
thanks for the post KT, sorry i forgot the photo 🙁
kelsey, stop worrying 😉
Evening rico and KT.
Of course i know our frailties and I actually put more importance to the PL.But when you support a team such as we all do, and always feel nervous when we are 2 goals ahead,there is fundamently something wrong.
Invariably the team that concedes the least over a season wins the league.
Cup competitions to an extent are a lottery.
We should win tonight and then as runner up will have to play whoever first at home,and that may actually suit us this season, going by our away form, though I accept that is in the domestic league.
Unfortunately I will not be able to watch tonight but though elsewhere my mind will be on the game.Good night everyone.
Spot on there kelsey, no longer does a 2-0 lead make me believe the game is done and dusted, in fact the opposite, i sit and think the oppo will score and sadly they usually do…
But, that will always be the case until we get a Sol Campbell kind of defender and a Gilberto kind of midfielder, always said he may not have been the quickest but he read the game, and that quality is priceless….
Night kelsey, have a good evening….
kelsey, re your earlier about coming second and home and away fixtures, you could be right, didn’t we come second in our group in 2006…..
Right fine folk, off to watch the game then heading home in the morning so i’ll post in the afternoon sometime…
here’s to a big win and a CL knock out draw with us in it…
Be good and enjoy the game….
not particularly happy with denilson and song in the midfield together. one or the other, but not both.
sure i’m nervous. so much at stake tonight.
it’s still early, but i am not happy with what i am seeing so far. the players look tight out there, and despite dominating possession – as usual – no real clear chances. At the moment, we don’t really look like scoring. As I type, Eboue has to come on for Gibbs, who looks to have done his ankle – again.
still a long ways to go, but i am not particularly encouraged by what i am seeing. the players look nervous and tense.
ok, robin brought down and converts the penalty himself. lets get a few more goals and keep it tight. not that partizan are threatening, but braga were similarly unambitious at home – until they hit us with two sucker punches…
now let’s see robin get a few from open play…
ok, one – nil at the half. it’s been poor, but at least we have a lead. braga are doing nothing in donetsk, so we are 45 minutes from advancing.
as much as i would like to see some more goals – especially at least one for robin from open play – the result is now the most important thing. our players still look tense and inhibited – if that will prevent them from getting too casual, it’s not the worst thing in the world. we do need a few more goals, so hopefully those will come.
cannot believe how useless partizan are – how did we ever allow ourselves to get into the situation where we have not yet qualified from this horrible group? we should have taken 18 points, the other teams are that poor.
disaster.
we just cannot keep clean sheets. good start to the half, now we are back to square one.
now we are really shaking here…
thhheeeeeeeoooooooooooooo!!!!!!
donetsk just scored. we are nearly home and dry now.
and as i type that, samir gets our third. that should just about do it.
braga are 2-0 down now. i think they are finished and we are through. even if we pile on some late goals, qualification is about the only thing to be satisfied (and barely, at that) regarding this. we were scared and tense tonight, and conceded from literally the first attack – yes, it deflected off squillaci, but he shouldn’t have even got a shot off in the first place. runners-up from this garbage group is nothing to be proud of…
and now sagna has been dismissed…why, oh why, do we insist on doing these things to ourselves?
that’s it. i cannot remember being so angry after a win. we avoided elimination, that is about all i can say. nothing else positive in my opinion.
Hmmmm comes as something when ur so upset oliver and ur Mr Positive as well normally, so many months of telling us all off for being negative or having a go at someone and now comments like this from you doesn’t bode well
Hi all, just got back home, will pop Olivers post up in two minutes….
NEW POST UP ….
at last 😉