For their second Champions League game of the group stages Arsenal started with the following line up:
Mannone, Jenkinson, Gibbs, Koscielny,Vermaelen,Coquelin, Arteta, Gervinho, Cazorla, Podolski, Chamberlain.
It was a strong line-up compensating for the loss of Diaby, while Mertesacker was not even on the subs bench!
The following took their seats in the dug-out:
Shea, Santos, Giroud, Walcott, Ramsey, Arshavin, Djourou.
Several questions could be raised.
Why no Giroud from the start?
What has happened to Mertesacker who has been a good leader at the back?
Is there a reason why Theo is not starting games?
It depends upon who is asking the question and how he/she perceives it. Questions, the answers to which we might never know.
Olympiakos kicked off the game. However, Arsenal soon settled down to their usual rhythm of passing the ball around, trying to build from the back. They started to build the game up and forcing the Olympiakos team to defend near their own penalty area with the AFC defence playing a high line.
The first corner went to Olympiakos, courtesy of a communication cock up between Mannone and Vermaelen, who seemed switched off as early as the 5th minute. Back up at the other end Chamberlain and then Gervinho forced the Greek defence into a couple of mistakes from which Arsenal regained their composure and possession.
We started pressing from the right through Jenkinson and Chamberlain, both of which were greatly helped by Cazorla, who used his past experiences on the wing to put in some good crosses (some of which had Giroud screaming all over them), none of which came to fruitful end. On the other side Gibbs seemed to have all the freedom of Islington (or Ashburton) to go on his rampaging runs to deliver some good crosses.
Gervinho, Podolski, Cazorla and Chamberlain were all switching positions between them at will. At one point around the 20th minute Arsenal had 70% possession of the ball. However one aspect which was very noticeable was the constant harrying from the front four players whenever the Greeks had the ball. This team defends from the attack and this obviously helps the defence in reorganizing and recovering.
The Gunners soon started to crank up their tempo and began playing more direct passes as opposed to sideways. This increased sense of urgency saw some miscued passes and rough tackling from both sides, the result of which saw Koscielny being the first one to get a yellow card.
A mistake by Vermaelen, who gave the ball away, saw the Greeks presented with a good chance, however Mannone saved the day from a good shot by Mitroglou.
We had another massive let of when Maniatis crossed from the right and the ball dropped at the feet of Machado who managed to miss the goal which was at his mercy, by poking it over the bar when it was easier to score.
Back up at the other end, a comedy of errors and the ball pinging around the Greek penalty box saw Gervinho latch on to a loose ball after a good tackle by Arteta. After sidestepping the defender he shot towards the far post and the ball crept in to make the score 1-0 to the Arsenal and for him, his fifth goal of the season.
Yet again, this came exactly around the 40 minute mark, however there was time enough for another cock up by Vermaelen and Koscielny before the defenders cleared the lines. Just before 45 minutes, the Greeks launched another attack and soon had the ball in the net through Mitroglou, who managed to head a good cross from Greco towards the far corner and passed the despairing dive of Mannone.
Arsenal had yet to get going and were lacking a spark to see them dominate a well organised Olympiakos team who had got the tactics right and were flooding the midfield.
The ref blew for half time and Steve Bould headed off to the dressing room to have a good chat with the team.
The first half could have gone worse for Arsenal. Although many times the team defended from attack, the midfield were not doing enough to protect the back four, while the shape of the team was in a sore need to be fixed. The defenders were constantly left exposed and the attack sorely needed a focal point.
Would Bould oblige and send out Giroud before the 60/65th minute, or make a change both on a personnel and tactical level?
The second half saw Arsenal kick off and go into the Greek half immediately with the Olympiakos players happy to sit back and absorb the pressure. However they nearly paid for it when Gervinho’s tenacity gained possession of the ball and Cazorla sliced a shot wide of the post from his square pass. Then Podolski latched on to a poor pass from a Greek defender, however he showed a lack of team awareness when he opted to safely pass the ball to Gervinho instead of putting it behind the defence on the right hand side for Chamberlain who would have had a direct run at goal.
He made amends around 5 minutes later. Again Gervinho’s perseverance paid off when he managed to regain possession near the six yard box and he squared it to Podolski who managed to squirm the ball between Megyeri’s legs to make it 2-1.
The million dollar question now was……Would AFC go for a third one to make it safe or concede another gift goal?
Arsenal started to ping the ball around the pitch again, however the Greeks were not taking it lightly and tackled the AFC players roughly. In fact Contreras got a yellow card for his pains in trying to upend Chamberlain. From the resulting freekick, Koscielny headed high.
The 69th minute saw the usual timely substitution. Theo came on for Chamberlain in a direct tactical replacement. The Arsenal players started to refrain from going gung-ho for the third goal and began defending in their own half instead of playing a high line. The team retreated into its own half to defend their slender one goal advantage. However, whenever the red tops regained possession after absorbing the Greek pressure, they quickly opened up to launch counter attacks with direct football.
With 12 minutes left, Steve Bould bought on Ramsey and Giroud for Gervinho and Podolski, both of whom had a good game.
Both teams were stretched now, although Arsenal seemed more compact of the two. This was to be expected with both Giroud and Walcott staying more up rather than helping with the defence like Gervinho and Podolski had done. It was clear that both sets of players were tired.
From a quickly taken corner Cazorla squared to Giroud whose shot cannoned off a defender for another corner. Ramsey then shot wide before the 4th official signalled 3 minutes of added time.
Again the Arsenal team retreated into their own half with the intention of spoiling Olympiakos’ attacks, however before the final whistle blew, Giroud sent Ramsey away with a well calculated header and the little Welshman made it 3-1.
Six points out of six and we sit nicely at the top of the group.
Next up, the Hammers of Sam and his ilk.
Written by devilgunner
Mertesacker out with a virus which is why he didnt start.
Good morning gooners, we won and everybody still in bed. lol
Mertesacker out with a virus which is why he didnt start
Morning all,
Good match report there devil 🙂
Kos and TV really are starting to worry me, especially the latter. He went to sleep when Mannone threw the ball to him, who turns his back on a keeper??
At 2-1 his trying to play centre forward, what is he on?
And Kos, well how he stayed on the pitch I don’t know….
Both our experienced defenders are being out classed, out played and shown up by our two young full backs who again, had a great game.
The club must have a virus going round then Matty, Theo brought it back from the England camp…
Morning all.
Nice write up DG.
Got to my seat last night a few minutes after KO, we were on the clock end about 10 seats from the away support, what a noisy bunch they were, credit where it’s due, they made more noise than the rest of the ems put together! The arsenal fans didn’t really get going until we scored and then that was short lived, would love to see more passion from our fans from the off.
The first half was pretty boring to watch TBH, we lacked any real drive and the passing was very sloppy. I was quite gutted giroud didn’t start, although gerv did what he was there to do so cant really complain, I just think he needs a run of games to get the monkey off his back. We can all se he’s good, he just needs a chance to prove it. Still he’s wracking up the assists. Second half we upped it when we needed to but never really got out of third gear after our second. All in all a good result, I predicted 3-1, shame I didn’t put money on it!
Jens had another great game on the right, everything that came his way he snuffed out and was always a threat going forward. MOTM for me.
Jenks*
LOL yea maybe Rico, but then again i aint been all convinced with Theo this season so i wouldnt bother me if he was strucked by a cold!
Excellent analysis as usual Dev.
I am happy with the result. Its not the players fault everyone and his dog underestimated the greeks. I said yesterday I would be happy with a narrow 2-1 win.
Now time for fat Sam and his cronies. On MNF on sky he played a decent game, albeit against a struggling 10 man QPR team. But against us it will be back to pub rugby tactics. We haven’t done ourselves any favours with some of our defending so the media have something to bill the game up with.
Personally I am not falling for the shaky defending rubbish because across the whole of Europe we are in the top 3 or 5 of the least shot conceded against. What about $hi££y and the manures defending? I am pleased we are defending as a unit. The down side is that SB has concentrated so much on the team shape thus far that players are not as willing to make personal decisions in and around the penalty areas because no one wants to mess up the teams shape.
With time there will be a fine balanced struck between team shape and individual decision making.
Finally, I just wanted to clarify I have nothing against Theo per se. What I dont like is the fact that he has the audacity to hold us to ransom whilst their are better players like Agbandahour, Adam Johnson and SWP playing for teams such as Villa, QPR and Sunderland. He should be begging us for a contract not the other way round.
Nice post indeed. But d defence is stil nid improvement cuz we r considing goal from set piece, luk at our match against chelsea
Hi Lewis.
My only thing with Jenks was the goal, but am being harsh. He dropped off the player giving him time but then i think there were two of their players near the ball. Gervinho was also lurking, he didn’t hassle the player either…
Poss being a tad harsh on Gerv too as he was all over the place throughout the game…
Happiest birthday Lil Mozart a.k.a Uncle Tom
We miss u, get well soon buddy
You may be right there RICO, was down the other end so it true AW style, ‘I didn’t see it’ 🙂
Morning all… the defence worries me a lot too…. the midfield not compact enough….the attack with giroud will come good soon.hope he starts against West ham…
I think the cross for the goal we conceded was excellent. We should not have allowed the ball to get to the LW though. Where was Ox? A syou said earlier Rico, Gerv could have done better but has should be protecting that area not Gev and the central defenders and Jenks were too far apart.
TV was piss poor his decision making at the moment is comparable to Miguel who has had a hand full of first team appearances.
Yesterdays non interest from TW14 confirms why he is not starting games especially without Sagna playing behind him. We will not be praising the performance of Jenks thus far if Theo was playing in front of him.
😆 Lewis
lolly, Hb to Tomas indeed, he should be back soon…
Hi bondex – I just don’t get why we spend £13 on a player and don’t play him…
On second viewing maybe gerv deserves MOTM.
5 more games this month. 5 more wins should be expected.
Don’t know what happened there, a few comments went into moderation – all out now…
My final mention on TW. I don’t know if it is he or the club who are not sorting his new contract out. Some say he wants more money, the player says not. Surely we should believe him until such times as we ‘know’ different.
Until he goes, if he goes, I just hope that when/if he gets a chance he takes it, and by that I mean more than ten minutes. I’m not mentioning him again other than after he’s played 😉
Reading away will be tough Lewis…. I’m hoping I might get a ticket for that one 🙂
Hi Tsgh, the defence worries me, TV worries me the most though, he need to stop going all Messi on us….
I think AW has learnt not to be generous to players who have commitment issues. He’d rather give committed players the opportunity to improve than allow TH14 do a RVP on him.
Fingers crossed for you rico. Yes it will be tough, a good test for the youngsters. I don’t see any game as easy but if we are to do anything this season the teams we have coming up are the ones we have to beat.
TSGH, re: the theo comment on Adam Johnson etc. totally agree.
Merts back in for Kos on the weekend.
AA & Chamakh – what does their future hold?
Hope so Lewis, or even Merts for TV?
I think mertz and Tv have both done better jobs together than koz with either of them.
Thanks Lewis, my fingers are crossed too 😉
Good point bondex, maybe the best pairing is TV and Merts, Merts does seem to bring some calm into the defence. Thats what a German International does I guess..
He is definitely much better than last season…
Why is everyone so worried about the defence suddenly??
Are we,the mighty,mighty Arsenal,immune to conceding goals??
How does our goals against record stand thus far in the league?
How does it compare to last season?
Come on guys…..so many are overly harsh.
As i said the other day,you want to watch shitty defending…watch the Spuds V Utd game from the weekend.
Oh,and how many goals have we let in with Diaby on,compared to with Diaby off???
Hi Scott – it’s not the goals, its the way in which we concede them and last night some of TV’s game last night was worrying..
Hi Rico . On your 10.12 re Jenks, Gervinho didn’t track his man and left Jenks with two which is why he had to drop off to cover both options.However it was a good cross and the scorer got between T.V and Kos.The rest is history.
Fair enough Rico,but we are much better than last season,and more improvement can be expected.
walcott doesnt start because he wont commit to the club “simples”
Hi potter, good point made there about Jenks…
We are Scott, but always room for improvement 😉
Off to walk Fido, back in a while….
Sad day for English football. Shawthug called up by Hodgson!
I knew Roy Hodgson liked a bit of pub rugby.I would have called up Michael Mancienne instead but hey ….
Jenks wasn’t at fault at all on the goal. He had to do if the ball to stick their winger who was making a move down the flank. Whoever was playing in that side ahead of Jenks, be it gerv or ox, feel asleep and did not decide to pick up the man on the ball. Morning all!
Do you reckon Arsene is holding giroud back for when gerv is off to ACON?
When is that by the way?
why so many typos in my last post? I meant Jenks had to drop off the ball… And “fell” asleep. But I’m sure you smarties picked that up.
Good Afternoon my Esteemed Fellow Gunners.
Thanks for the comments.
I agree with Will XL. Blaming Jenks for the Greek goal is a very short sighted opinion. The winger in front of him did not do his best to help him out, while the other three defenders were more than 10 yards behind him to cover him at an angle. Jenks was left with a double situation…..should he tackle the player with the risk of the Greek player going past him or back off until he is properly covered so that he can tackle. Jenks backed off which is what he should have done in such a situation.
He was never at fault.
Slow day today. My esteemed Gooners are always pleased into quietude after a midweek win. 😀
I didn’t know there was such a thing as the Ramsey Curse
Did Jenks and/or Gibbo get in the England squad?
Here you are habib. hope you are ok.
England squad
Goalkeepers: Fraser Forster (Celtic), Joe Hart (Manchester City), John Ruddy (Norwich)
Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Joleon Lescott (Manchester City), Ryan Shawcross (Stoke), Kyle Walker (Tottenham)
Midfielders: Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Tom Cleverley (Manchester United), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Adam Johnson (Sunderland), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), James Milner (Manchester City), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Theo Walcott (Arsenal)
Forwards: Andy Carroll (West Ham), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Danny Welbeck (Manchester United)
Did we be confident yesterday?
The Portuguese Olympiakos coach said the score was misleading.
In both Champions League matches we had a poor performance and we were lucky with the final score.
If we compare our performance with all those who had now 6 points, there are a big gap in quality and performance in all levels.
5 in 5 for Gervais, happy for the lad.
Hi Coach.
I am good, thanks. You as well, I trust.
Sagna as a def/mid, what do you think?
That was a mighty fine post habib.
Not sure where everyone has disappeared off to?
We need some controversy
Evening guys and gals….
Hiya Rico.
Hi Adam, did you enjoy the game?
Enjoy is a strange term Rico. I enjoyed the fact that we got all three points and this enjoyment was enhanced when I saw that Man City had only drawn. Schadenfreude I believe it is called. But, did I actually enjoy the game? No. The second half was a little better than the first but, to me, we seem to have taken all the good stuff we were doing against Liverpool and Man City and thrown it out of the window to ensure we are a complete shambles again. TV was shocking and Coquelin was so bad it was almost funny. I am not saying he is a bad player but last night he fell well below the level that Arsenal should be looking at. I see a trend of chaos and ill disciplined players and a team without shape developing before me and it ain’t good.
Has anyone heard that Cabaye deal was agreed nut Newcastle pulled out all of a sudden.
Is someone sabotaging most of our deals we try to do with other english clubs?
Alonso, Mark Schwarzer, Barnes to name a few
Leighton Baines I meant
TSGH. If they did pull out it must have been at the last minute. When you think that Wenger had months to tie up a deal for a CM player I do wonder why we had to wait until then.
It didn’t look much different on the television Adam… Not sure what has happened to TV, or Coquelin..
Like you say though, Coquelin is not a bad player just this season I don’t think he’s at his best. Maybe someone has told him that too and he knows playing time will be minimal, hence his recent comments.
Where did you hear that Tsgh? That is a real shame if it’s true…
Maybe because he thought he was getting Sahin Adam?
Yes, the issues are piling up are around the team Rico. The Walcott question The TV captaincy. The Ox’s position. Sagna’s future. Who is going to score the goals? Getting rid of the deadwood. The £37 million profit doing nothing because, as we are often told, nobody takes anything out of the club. The goalkeeping situation. The list goes on.
possibly Adam but not in all cases. Even the ginger man on talkshite mentioned it today.I heard about the Cabaye deal weeks before the window shut.
Nice to have a back-up though Rico. Capoue perhaps? Eggs, basket?
The source came from an estate agent. He mentioned Song’s putting his house on selling too before the end of the season.
I can’t really see Cabaye being the right man myself. He’s another lightweight French flake for me. Look through the spine of our team last night and you see players like Mannone, TV, Coq and Gervinho/Giroud. Hardly intimidating is it compared to Seaman, Campbell, Vieira and Henry? Where has the power in our team gone?
I have completely forgotten about Song. As far as this team goes he is a complete irrelevance. Or he would be if Wenger had spent the money they got for him on a decent striker instead of Giroud/Chamakh/Bendtner.
On Le coq, he is similar to flamini. The reason being he thinks he is a cdm but they are both best at fb.
AW always says he is a back up to MA8 but he has never played him as a cdm.
TV- I think it is to do with playing 3 90 minutes international matches as well as the league matches when he was not fully fit. You will find Kompany who has played the same amount of games as him is struggling too
Dotmond have no power in the spine apart from Lewandowski but they over powered $hitty. When was the last time manure had a Viera in the team? The same time we had PV4.
I dont think its that. We do not have players who enjoy tackling apart from Arteta, Yennaris, Dench. The rest will all prefer to be a TH14 or DB10
Arsenal Ladies 4-0 Barca.
Beattie with a hat-trick and Little got the goals
Now if we did that against the men.
NexGen match??
Tsgh….you can dd Jnks, Gibbs and Kozzer to the list of tacklers
If that is the case with TV then I would suggest that he confine himself to a CH role and win the ball and play it off, time and time again instead of flying up the pitch like he was on steroids trying to be a CF too. Hold your position, run the game from the back and give the team a shape from which to play. The problem last night was that Cazorla’s starting position when our defence has the ball seems to have become wide. Last night we had no movement up front and no guile through the middle of the field. When the defenders had the ball there was simply no one to pass to. What followed was a series of aimless and speculative passes or an endless stream or knocking the ball square. There was no serious wide play and we hardly ever got behind the Greeks. For me Ox is not really a winger. I imagine that Wenger is sending a message to Theo by not starting him as he won’t commit. This really is a joke and should have been sorted long before the season started. You can see that we don’t really have a proper wide man at the club so everything is played in front of the opposition’s defence through the middle or through a whipped in cross from Jenkinson with Gervinho getting bullied out of it by a big CH. Our options seem to be limited.
Dortmund look a very scary team. I know they are quality, but their display yesterday was a sight to behold. Anyone but Hart in that goal yesterday and city would have conceded 4 or 5. Lewandowsky had an off day as well. I can actually see them winning that group. Real’s 4-1 scoreline was flattering too. The match could have gone either way up until 75 minutes. Ajax got the equalizer and totally shanked it. Group of death indeed.
I’d love to have seen us sign Capoue Adam… or anyone similar…
Adam I disagree on lack of movement up front last night. Gev did a lot of movement. What has affect SC19 in the last 2 games and partially against $hi££y is when teams revert to 4-1-4-1. When opponents have a player occupying the hole he likes to occupy he gets cancelled out.
Last night in the 2nd half I dont know who made that decision but he started almost deeper next to Arteta and Gibbs and that made him loose his marker.
If you can remember Cesc sufferred similarly the season he left because none of them are natural number 10 like DB10 or even Kanu. The issue is AW is players who are traditional no. 6 or 8 in that position whilst naturally it should be players like Silva Jolevic.
Remember this is the first time SC19 has ever played in that position. He has always played as a winger. Juan Riquelme played in that position at Villareal
Thanks Tsgh, possibly quite true then, unlike AW not to say he tried but….
Will, I didn’t see any of the other games so can’t comment, watching us was bad enough 😉
Me too Rico. I would love to see a number of things. A great striker for one, a top goalkeeper and a midfield monster. I have a familiar feeling I will go on wanting though.
I have always said Capoue was the one for me. MVilla is a Denilson with attitude.De Rossi in my dreams maybe but at the moment we have the best in Arteta
Dev- I didn’t mention them because they are defenders. Another one who should be playing in a different position is TV. He likes bombing forward but hates playing LB. It doesn’t make sense.
TSGH. We’ll have to agree to differ on those points.
Same here Adam… on both!
I think by playing Arteta where we are, we are losing a bit of flair in attack. As good as he is in his role, I’d still prefer a beast of a DM and let Arteta does what he does best…
And what was Kos playing at last night going in two footed?
I rather the defenders suffered now that post January.
Again most of you will disagree but most of the individual mistakes are due to the emphasis on keeping the team shape. They are all playing according to instruction given. A balance has to be struck between making authoritative decisions and team shape or we will concede goals like the 2nd against the Chavs.
But bombing forward surely isn’t in the training manual? Only in the summer, Wenger was saying that sometimes we are too attack minded etc etc..
3-1 up and 2/3 mins to go is fine but 2-1 up are hardly cruising, for me, is suicidal…
But, why are we suffering them at all?
The two youngest, inexperienced players in defence are shining, the two more mature and more experienced are having too many blips..
Anyone watching Panathonikas (spelling)
Yes Spuddies 1 up
Lloris is a wonderful keeper 😆 😆
1-1 now Tsgh 😛
Rico. I think you are misunderstanding me. Individual errors are individual errors. When even Maureeniho, Girard and Klopp are saying this is the most organised arsenal side they have seen in a long time I would listen to them than ‘Rednap’ or some alley way pundit on tv.
We are mourning about how shaky we are but we have had the least goal attempts against according to opta in the epl and no. 5 in europe.
But if a team has 3 attempts at goal and 2 go in no coaching can sort that out I afraid.
So if the individual errors persist Tsgh, at some stage AW must see that they are not good enough.
Because if they can’t learn in training, see and then rectify what they are doing wrong, then they can’t be good enough
I truly hope the errors soon cease because if they don’t, it’s not going to be a very nice season….
LLoris is good. A bid was also made for him 2 seasons ago but he said he wanted to stay with Lyon.
Lets look at the FC Nordsjælland v Chelsea match as an example. The media will say chelsea are so awesome but I watched bits of that game and they were not brilliant. They had 6 shots on goal against a a very poor team but scored 4. They conceded 3 goals against. Info according to guardian. link below
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/match/2012/oct/02/476854
Lets say we all saw our match and we all know we played badly. Is that because our expectations are too high?Did we deep down expect to beat them 6 nil?
According to guardian we had 5 shots on target against us. 2 more than what chelsea conceded against a much poorer side. $hitty conceded 7 shots on target and Dortmond conceded 10 shots on target.
Sky said our defence or team is weak but we conceded the least shots on target across the whole of europe last night.
I am not saying lets all gravy but lets try to be realistic abit. We can not go from conceding 70 goals last year to not conceding at all.
And to answer your question yes Bould would have to intervene there. We bid for Cheikhou Kouyate and possibly Mbiwa this summer so I believe he is looking.
From watching that goal Lloris conceded, he was awful…
I think you are right Tsgh, Bould will be the one to intervene, and to answer the question you asked me the other day. Yes, I think Vermaelen could be gone in the summer….
Re TV why that opinion now?
Rico watching Cabaye now you are right we have about 10 of such players already.
Will we ever take to a De Jong type player at Arsenal? Have we all forgotten how Gilbertos last season was with us. Whenever he gave a ball away we were all on his case.
Personally us supporters are like spoilt children when it comes to our Arsenal. We even expect our goalie to be as good as You know who and JW10.lol
Tbh, ever since the armband was given to him I thought, ‘is he the next’. But people will jump down my throat if I had mentioned it.
Then of course there is the is the departure of RvP, those two together started something good and strong within the camp and I suspect they became close.
The first few games, TV and Merts were superb together but something has happened, whether it is a simple as Kos and TV can’t play together I don’t know..
Of course it is only a hunch and as I said the other day, his comments suggest that he is here for a long long time.
I hope its just a blip and we soon see the real TV again…. and of course, he stays…
I think that was Adam about Cabaye, but yes, he’s not the kind of player we need..
If only Frimpong was a bit taller, he’d be perfect, but then 5′ 10″ didn’t stop Essien being a beast for Chelsea….
I totally agree. His new goal friend is works for BBC Real hustler So Salfords may be closer. And with the way the Red Noses team CH pairing are conceding goals like Stepanovs and Oleg Luzny pairing anything is possible.
Talking of Stepanovs (new Steve Bould) and Oleg Luzny AW should never be trusted to sign a defender ever.lol.
You lost me there Tsgh?
TV to Manure do you mean?
girl fiend I meant to say at 8:23. Jes I can not multi task lol
https://twitter.com/i/#!/Persie_Official/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2Fru2NdKKK
Yes. Rico
NCU 1 up against Bordeaux
I second that suggestion……
Mind you, Jenks is an exception 😉
Got you… Men can’t multi task Tsgh – leave that to us ladies 😉
At least Theo and Mel weren’t in that photo 😆
AW did not really sign Jenks. It was Brady. I know scouts do the recommendations but if you compare the defensive signings that AW says he signed due to recommendation from a friend re Squid, Grimandi, Cygan and Koz to name a few. Only Koz is good. The rest like TV, Miguel and Sagna they were signed as a result of scouts recommendation
Theo too young to be out at that time of the night.lol
Hey Rico I would not take that lol. I should be better at multi-tasking based on what I use to do for a living but hey its too late so I will let you have the last laugh.lol
Ah, I didn’t know Brady was behind the signing of Jenks, So just Big Sol then 😉
Could add a few more to the ‘shocking’ list….
Ha ha – only kidding ya, don’t tell me, you were a juggler….
😆 re Theo…
Juggler would have been safer. lol.
Lets say its a job most people think is glamorous but from my background everyone seemed pretentious.
Similar to being in the military but ….
You tease, you will have to email me now Tsgh 😉
Have you read this i/v with Liam
http://soccerlens.com/interview-with-liam-brady/6307/
Interesting point on Casley Mole
ok rico. You drive a hard bargain.lol.
I am sure you have guessed it.
How did you get to start this blog then?
From blogging on other sites really and then just decided to go it alone a couple of years ago…
I will read that i/v tomorrow…
And no, I haven’t guessed….
I love this site. But my work performance has gone down hill because of it. lol
I will try to write a post during the international break.
Thanks Tsgh, glad you found us, albeit you took your bloomin time 😉
Fab re the post, look forward to it…
Re job. I wish it was a commercial airline pilot but hey maybe in the next life.
Its nothing illegal so dont worry. Just that it is a public forum. And you may never believe anyway.
You should have a rough idea from my posts ref observations, even if you disagree with most of my comments.lol
I will have to keep thinking then – something to do with footie I guess…
Totally understand re the public forum bit…
Ian Holloway thinks Ince is better than TW14 and the Ox. 😀
I wish something to do with footie. Ok within Civil Servant and leave it there.
I could lie and say I was an analyst for …
Liverpood 1-1
What does Ian Holloway know, he thought Charlie Adam was a top player 😉
Suarez diving after ball is gone. 😀
Rico I was not being rude by the way at 9 : 28
He didn’t get a pen?
So did Daglish
I know Tsgh, I emailed you 😉
And what a waste of money, Rodgers has sold him hasn’t he? Or just not playing him….
1-3 😆
2-3 – suarez, fine free kick
Haven’t received it. Liverpood 2-3
I sent it to the one you have on here, could be in your spam?
Hes off to play rugby with Poulis
He’ll get on well there, another dirty player…
got it
Is Suarez like Gervinho
No, Suarez finishes more often 😉
Sterling is a bit nippy…
Liverpool lose 3-2, how sad for them…..!!
Your rotten Rico poor ole dippers
I’m heading off for the day now…
Have a good evening Tsgh, what is left of it, night to you and all….
Bloomin heck Wath, I go and up you pop 😉
Offski now
Sorry Rico, you know what a weeks it’s been……….. I’ll chat 2u in the morning…!
Wath, you been bunking off school again?
Not sure what to think about our defence?
I rate both Koscielny and Vermaelen highly, despite both their dip in form.
To me, the missing element is BFG…
When Verm partnered BFG, he concentrated on his defensive duties.
None of us can be certain as none of us know for sure, but I imagine that BFG was in Verm’s earhole, reminding him of his priorities.
The ManCity & Chelsea results seem to be rumbling on in people’s mind’s, with the defence taking the brunt of the criticism.
But to me, both those games would have been won if our attacker’s had been more clinical.
So maybe our focus should be less on our defender’s and more on our attacker’s???
AK,you are the voice of reason.
Top sides will score goals against us at som stage,whether our defenders play well or not.
We just need to take more of our own chances.
I met a dyslexic Yorkshireman last night…he was wearing a cat flap!
Morning all……
😆 Lee…
Morning to you and all…
New post is up…
Morning Gunners,
Devil
Good balanced write-up Coach, although you have been kind on Manno. 😉 He seemed nervous to me. Did you see his miss-timing frog jump straight up? What the hell? Never seen something that clownish. Even late on, he tried to rush out on a ball that fell far from the area he should be commanding.
On the Vermanator speeding into scoring position on a fragile 2-1 up, pure frustration to me. Think he felt like; kill this game now and be done with it.
On defence performance, well, Capoue would have been ideal to provide extra length on set pieces. The man is a beast in air-to-air combat. Would have covered the Diaby curse, doubled the DM position if pressure requires and still provide flexibility to change game tactics/strategy on the fly.
Furthermore Capoue would have allowed Arteta to move forward when calm distribution is needed higher up the pitch. Santi could then concentrate on making more splitting runs to draw out opposition shape and slip through his well weighed passes given time for vision when he receives balls in space. It drains much unnecessary energy if Carzola has to shake off dogs whilst ball on feet.