Arsenal and Swansea played out a frenetic FA Cup 3rd round tie at the Liberty Stadium as three goals in the last nine minutes saw the teams draw 2-2. Spanish striker Michu came off the bench to put the Swans ahead midway through the second half before quick-fire strikes from Lukas Podolski and Kieran Gibbs looked to have won the game for the Gunners. However, with only three minutes Danny Graham smashed home an equaliser to earn the Swans a replay.
Arsene, having promised to field a strong side, stuck to his word and made only three changes to his starting line-up; captain Thomas Vermaelen was replaced in the heart of defence by Per Meresacker and Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud came in in for Lukas Podolski and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The inclusion of the French striker saw Theo Walcott return to the right side of attack after a run of four games in the central role.
Neither side seemed particularly bothered about taking the bull by the horns after kick-off as the first ten minutes passed without any action of merit. Szczesny did have to beat away a Danny Graham drive on 12 minutes and De Guzman slashed a long ranger way over the bar as the hosts upped the tempo a little. Arsenal’s lacklustre input to proceedings was summed up by three Jack Wilshere free-kicks each casually floated straight into the hands of Swans keeper Michel Vorm.
Walcott, seemingly bored of being on the right, started to make a difference midway through the first half. A speedy foray through the centre saw him work the ball to Giroud, before Ramsey got involved and teed-up the onrushing England man to curl an effort which was blocked before threatening the goal. A second mazy run drew a free-kick on the edge of the box, but having picked himself up off the floor to take it, Theo could only find the wall. I’m still not convinced he’s the second coming of Thierry Henry despite his apparent self-confidence at set pieces.
Aaron Ramsey, on the left again, did well to wriggle his way through the six-yard box but having turned down an initial chance to pull the trigger he was left toe-poking a tepid effort straight at Vorm. Nice interplay between Gibbs, Giroud and Cazorla worked a nice chance for the Spaniard but his finish was similarly awful.
On 35 minutes Ramsey, who was mercilessly booed by the home fans for his Cardiff connection (perhaps a few Arsenal fans were tempted to join him) picked up a booking for a cynical foul 40 yards or so from goal and the resulting free-kick saw ex-Arsenal man Kyle Bartley crashed a header against the bar. It was the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock as the game petered out towards half-time.
In the second half we came out and played with far more purpose and then of course proceeded to concede completely against the run of play. Michu, who’d only just come off the bench, flicked his way past Koscielny found himself one-on-one with Szczesny and slotted home with ease. 1-0
Our reaction was to up the tempo, unfortunately, for all our desire the quality was all too often lacking. Tenacious work by Ramsey on the left wing saw him whip in a fine ball for Giroud just after the hour mark but the Frenchman could only head wide when he really should have scored.
Ramsey was replaced by Podolski with 18 minutes but we continued to struggle in the final third despite having plenty of possession. It took a comedy of errors on the part of Swansea before we had a second clear chance. Walcott was put through on goal by a terrible back pass but he could only slash wide when he should have equalised.
The panic on both sides continued into the last 15 minutes. Podolski was lucky the offside flag was waved after he missed from point blank range then Swansea hacked down Wilshere on the edge of the box and Cazorla did a Walcott by finding the wall.
Finally we did grab the equaliser we deserved. The ball bounced around the penalty area after a corner and Podolski swivelled before arrowing a powerful left foot drive low into the corner. There were only nine minutes left on the clock. 1-1.
A minute later we amazingly took the lead. Gibbs attacked down the left passed inside to Giroud who (like he did for Podolski against Montpellier) flicked the ball over the defence for our left-back to smash home a volley from 8-yards. It was a fantastic strike from a man not known for his goals. 1-2.
Five minutes to hold on, could we do it? Of course not. Arsenal being Arsenal we immediately suffered an attack of nerves and two minutes later conceded an equaliser. Danny Graham smashed home from close range after some abject defensive nonsense at a corner. 2-2.
Koscielny had a chance to win it for Arsenal in the final minute only for Vorm to produce a fantastic save, then Szczesny got lucky as a Swansea player hit the side netting have left himself flat footed pre-empting a cross. Five minutes of extra-time were played at a similarly manic pace but despite the end-to-end action there was to be no winner.
UPDATE – If we do beat Swansea in the replay we’ll play away at Brighton in the 4th round.
Shitty, boring 1st half, exciting and crazy 2nd half, a fair result at the end.
Wilshire = Excellent
Ramsay = Shameful dive
He tripped, that wasn’t a dive
Ramsey clipped his own foot, dived on the floor, then put his arms in the air, claiming a penalty.
A CHEAT
pure lad….
He did not clip his own leg, he was clipped no fucking doubt, you could even see it in real time
But he still claimed a penalty.
TomJ
I saw several slow motion replays and it looked like Ramsey *might* have had his foot clipped, then he tangled his own legs and went down. It was extremely soft and if it was given against us I’d call it a dive.
if his heel was clipped, even every slightly, how could you call it a dive. If you playing football and running at speed, a little touch your foot, especially from behind because you can no way anticipate, is enough take away your balance.
You can say it was an accidental touch by the Swansea player and would be a harsh penalty if it was given.
neutral
Youre just fucking wrong
Walcott Get Rid of
Why does Walcott take the set pieces ? Arteta set the ball up to take the corner a few times , but Walcott brushed him off to take some horrible corners. Arteta and Cazorla in the team and Walcott takes set-pieces. Illogical.
teams are window shoppin and walcott wants to look like a best and expensive item on transfer window…no doubt he wants to show he can do everything….he should let specialist do their job…..arteta and cazorla are freekick n corner specialists…giroud is central striker and thnx to walcott giroud was pushed wide…he cant do it properly himself but he doesnt let others do it as well.
@goonorhea
May be that is one of his demand
@Goonorea
Don’t get me wrong, I get the frustrations with Walcott, one week he’s the next Henry, the next he’s the next Jeffers. But, to be fair to him, his deliveries are, well, exactly the same! Many can’t beat the first man and then he provides a beautiful far post corner to Sagna which led to Podolski’s equaliser. And he has provided many others this season from corners or wide free kicks, eg. the og last week against the saints.
Hey arsehole, dive is what you do when you get into the pool. Ramsey whether clipped or not did not fucking dive. The clip is inconclusive and he might have been clipped way way before he went down or perhaps tripped himself. Either way it was no way near a dive.
Surely this performance must convince him now that he is not the central striker he thinks he is ?
Just sign the damned contract, Theo, and do as you are told.
There has been a lot of talk about this and to be honest both Arteta and Cazorla have had a chance to take the set pieces and neither has been very productive. Walcotts delivery wasn’t that bad today but it’s not been the best in the past, maybe there is something in training that we don’t see?
could have been worse… at some point when we didn’t look like scoring I prayed for a replay… I will take it!
fuck off Ramsey played fucking great
Yeah sure. He made messi look like shit.
Arsene. Podolski > ramsey, simple. Again showed today.
Great game though, nothing but positives, we seemed to want it.
Wow. No wonder our standards have slipped.
I think the only player who played great was Gibbs.
Bring on the thumbs downs.
Ugh. “Great”? He put in one good cross which giroud should have scored. Not “GREAT”. He wasn’t terrible that’s all.
Ya don’t need thumbs, ya need fists to your face. I’m not the optimistic of them all but i know we played well today.
1st half abit flat but we controlled play
2nd half…all arsenal and even the swansea goal came against the run of play. Last 30 minutes, total domination. Two goals via a lapse in defending cost us a win.
We played well, get the fuck out
okaayy, middle team, so 2-2 was okay!
Nothing but positives my hole. We got a replay against Swansea reserves, fucking great. The manager has left us short of the squad and quality we need to compete for one trophy never mind 3 or four
Where we watching the same match Coz we l swear we need to get rid of the likes of Ramsey .they keep around and give us false hope that. Arsenal needs much better qualify than I believe Ramsey poses. His decision making is really poor.
Ramsey’s still young enough to improve after that horrendous injury.
AW and the club stand by the player, who has great determination, is a good thing.
If the club does not support and stay loyal to its players, it will end up with a bunch of mercenaries.
And by the way, Ramsey alone is not by any measure the reason for the team’s inconsistency.
Let’s hope the team work hard, trust each other and find the chemistry.
God. We are terrible. Apart from wilshere. Wenger says he has built a new team. Excuse me. What team Arsene?
It wasn’t a penalty but it wasn’t a dive either. He caught his own heel, and he thought that it was the opposition player who clipped him.
If u honestly believe what u just wrote then wow..
His foot was clipped by the guys knee while he was running causing him to loose balance and trip over his own two feet, not a shameful dive, ramsey well within his rights to appeal for a penalty and webb was well within his to turn him down.
THIS!
No, although it wasn’t a penalty, it was not a dive either. Look properly into the replays and you will see that Ramsey’s right foot hit the defender’s leg and unbalanced Ramsey.
I though Arsenal played well in the second half. First goal came against the run of play and we switched off for their last. But after Southampton, belief should be built on the second half performance that pressing and playing at a higher tempo–without a handbrake etc–is the best for this team.
I see Clive Allen’s back again.
That 1987 League Cup Semi Final still cuts deep.
Too bad, an extra game is not what we need right now. I thought we had a very good second half and fully deserved to get the two goals. But why is it we always stop pressing and collapse into our own half once we’re in the lead? Swansea players could just pick out a pass, we would have won the game if we had just kept on pressing with the same intensity as before. One last remark: Ramsey was actually better on the wing than Walcott today. Constantly drifting inside, he offered no width. Once he got the ball,… Read more »
Wenger on the bench:
0:1
“Damn it Bouldy, we need new signings. This is pathetic”
1:1
“We already got a great signing this year!!!! I think we are good Bouldy”
2:1
“This guy just signed. We are golden. We don’t need anyone else. We are going to win the league and CL with this team!”
2:2
“I am so confused Bouldy”
i found this extremely funny
huahahhaaaa
thanks foe made me smileeee
aw
nice one jugo…maybe we should buy defensive players
very original.
Does this mean that Wenger actually speaks to Bould??
stupid feckin tabloids…
Ramsey had a very good game, that’s for sure. And this is what is so annoying about Walcott. He is set ut wide, but continues to drift inside even when he’s not supposed to, leaving a whole lot of room on the right which Sagna has to defend. And it is just so frustrating when I see him walk up to take a freekick in a good position. He should leave those to Arteta, Cazorla or Podolski. By the way: You should see the comment section on the Arsenal fanpage in Norway. It’s filled with complaining about Ramsey and Wenger,… Read more »
How do you, or the thousands of others on here know that Walcott is not supposed to take free kicks and drift inside? Do you think he just disobeys whatever Wenger tells him? Or Wenger says to the team, just go out there and play, you sort it out.
It is amazing how daft people are
Neutral
Is your point that no-one knows what Walcott was instructed to do before the game? If so, wow! Glad you took the time to sledge someone over that marvelous insight.
I think he uses more creative license than he should. Note that in the first half we was on the far side of the pitch from Wenger and played as an auxiliary striker and in the second spent much more time in his wide right position. In the second half Sagna was far more effective as he had another option and more protection.
True. Ramsey was better than Walcott today
Both of them were shit
Well i was hoping Ramsey get substituted in second half for rosicky or poldi , saying that i wanted Walcott to be substitued as well.But ramsey was better than walcott all over the field. If you ask Sagna whom would he have in front today i definitely he would have picked Ramsey. you can say theo scores goals and stats are with him but he hardly makes an effort or wilingness to fight for the ball and to track back which is why everyone loves Ox , rosicky even though stats are against them(still dont know why didnt they comeon… Read more »
As an ex – Bluebird playing at the home of the Jacks, Ramsey had extra motivation, and it showed.
On the other side, Theo was neutralised by a young lad who worked out early how to shackle his opponent., and did so with ease.
Theo needs to add another card to his hand – a crap metaphor for sure, but hopefully you lot understand what i’m getting at.
could only laugh at the predictability when michu came on and scored, but the response slightly made up for it. obviously it’s been pointed out ad nauseum, but what is up with our defense switching off! the clearances seem to lack that final effort and decisiveness and they just go straight back into the box, which hurts us almost every single game this season. oh well, was saying earlier in the game that gibbs should just practice shooting on his right he finds himself up there so often. or he could do what he did today. ramsey much better. i… Read more »
To be fair we was poor up front for 80 minutes again and then the usual shit defending takes care of the rest.
But hey arsene says we are sorted up front and he knows best.
Our defensive problems once again. But thank fuck, we got a draw!
To think we’re about on par with Swansea is really fucking sad when you think about it. They are not a great team. Neither are we.
Much better than Man U’s draw which Fergie needs world class strikers to get them!
Arsenal being Arsenal. The first half, well…
Why do we have Rosicky on the bench and not use him. ffs
Erm because of the manager
Because playing Rosicky would literally kill Diaby. Wenger loves to prioritize the development of Diaby…from a 2-game per season midfielder into a 10-gamer at least. I can’t wait. Soon we’ll have the new 10-game Vieira!
muscular injury apparently, doesnt want to aggravate it.
Michu.. Seriosly.. F**k you very much..
mucho has some good legs anywai
Great game for the both sets of fans and
neutrals alike. Proper F.A cup game, Arsenal
we deserved to win this one, really
deserved it. But I guess Swansea now have
to come back to the grove so we will set
things right and unleash a can of whoop ass
to them. Ramsey? No? Okay.
The Arsenal of 2012/13 in a nutshell in that game.
that fucking self-destruct button
Next time we play Swansea, just tune in for the last ten minutes.
Seriously need some investment. Bad thing is that’s another match to add to our calendar…
Ah Cher up! Look on the bright side – we get another Arsenal game to watch, no mid week lull. Well, maybe just 10 minutes for you!
I meant cheer up!
‘to Cher up’! Oh dear! I presume it’s a euphemism in San Fransisco.
Cher up? You mean get a silly haircut and sing dodgy pop music?
so to “Cher up” is the same as to “Nicky Minaj” then…
Nawti olu maintain
Frustrating game but it ended up fairly.. I must say arteta should had thrown his body at the player who scored the second goal for Swansea but why isit that AW takes so long to sub some players.. ? Cuz Santi looked so tired. But in fairness I thought we should had lost that match. But out supersub podolski came n saved us ! And what a goal from Gibbs.. It kinda reminded me of podolski goal.. Against montpelier ..
Poor defending and aimless dancing in the midfield cost us this game today especially in the first half.
Santi being tired is not even it. Our CBT pair were generous. Until the second half with the exception of Wilshere, we were not probing the Swansea goal area with intent. Just moving the ball around with no end result.
Ramsey just sucks.
would you mind fucking off?
that cross to Giroud was gold.
I think Ramsey has the potential to be a good player, but apart from that one cross he was utter shit. Having said that, Walcott was way worse than him.
Yeah! Your mind is frozen Antartica… this cross was only good thing he done.
And will you fucking stop talking about that ONE cross already?!
Ramsey had a decent game today. He isn’t a winger but then that’s down to arsene, it’s the forwards that where piss poor, giroud is never going to give us enough goals to compete and theo is too inconsistent .
We need a proper proven goal scorer who will make his own goals and not have to rely on shit crosses or through balls that never seem to come from the midfield.
Well said. We need a striker who always has that ” moment of brilliance”. The guy that united brought off the bench yesterday to save their asses comes to mind.
You’re move Arsene. Cough up or cock off mate. Falcao is ripe for the plucking.
Hello Groggy, are you suggesting Baloteli again or that was just to jerk with people?
Are you actually trolling?
The clue was in his last sentence when he mentions falcao, but we are going for his less talented stand in when its him we should be going for, sums us up charge Harrods prices but we shop and liddl
Heh. Only on an arsenal blog could suggesting that we buy a proper striker to address the glaring issue in the team, be called trolling. What a fucking idiot.
Baloteli is a frustrated man just like you Groggy. He is not a proper striker for Arsenal !
You are living from getting people fight you… you are pathetic. Sweet dreams, enjoy the moment then.
There were four players on the bench who should be starting left wing before Ramsey. Rosicky poldi the ox and Santos are all far more effective wingers.
One of them comes on, suprise surprise we learn how to attack again.
we couldn’t hold on for 5 or so minutes…. >.<
Sell Walcott. Buy a big name striker, a defensive mid-fielder(a real one) and a PROPER winger, someone who doesn’t get in the way of Giroud when he’s supposed to play on the right hand side.
That or we ain’t winning anything.
We got defensive problems and problems with scoring, Podolski and Giroud had a lot of chances.. We need 2 or 3 new players.
Theo needs to stop taking set pieces, he keeps wasting good oppurtunities
Agree he thinks he should take fucking everything
Do you really think Theo decides what he should do? You must have very little respect for Wenger to imagine he is such a pushover or that he does not give the team instructions to follow.
To be honest, at this point I’ve no idea what Arsene tells the squad. Because he sure as fuck isn’t giving the the proper instructions on how to not fuck up every time we have a slim lead with ten minutes to go.
Kieran Gibbs = Barnstorming
He normally gets confused in the penalty box though. But he played well as a winger today 🙂
Good assessment, Thrillho
Thrillho, given your choice of name, i thought you might have said: Kieran Gibbs = BoneStorming
Can someone please tell me when is walcott leaving? Someone who wants to play for arsenal with more heart can slip in in that idiots place.. Even when we play him out wide he wants to play in the middle.. Totally narrowed our tame on the one side.. Ramsey and gibbs were much better.. But good game.. Was just pleased we ddn lose..
giroud was anonymous after his injury and cazorla was clearly tired after the 70th minute. wenger should have brought on rosicky and the ox especially after gibbs’ goal seeing that swansea city had used all of their subs.
Except for the assist for Gibbs, eh?
which is why i said wenger should have made the sub after gibbs’ goal. with less than 10 minutes remaining, 2 fresh (and speedy, in the ox’s case) legs we could have maintained better possession or have the option to continue attacking.
That 10 min period showed what urgency and confidence can do in the game.but last goal for swansea also showed our complacency. The bench looked pretty good but we didnt make complete use of it.
Ramsey shouldnt be allowed to play for us anymore. Theo can fuck off! He thinks hes the best striker fuckin kept shiftin in the middle and providin no cover for sagna. He needs to play where hes told otherwise id rather him go and we get a decent winger and a striker we need so badly. Plus get cover for diaby. Felt we missed him so much today
Great. A replay! We only have Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool to play against this month, as well as an additional fixture vs West Ham.
Just what our shallow squad needs…
Shallow squad? This is officially the best squad we have ever had, arsene says so.
@AAllenSport, your report is not good. Writing parallel to a game doesn’t help your writing. It is boring and no in-depth statements. I think 1st half was typical: impotent, predictable and slow. Swansea was a smarter team. Only Wilshere, Szcz and Kos were very good. All others were i-p-s. We definitely had a new formation – some weird 4 4 2 sorry 4 3,5 2 (not much help from Arsens greatest talent that ever lived). I’m really getting sick of watching Ramsey on the flank, watching Ramsey at all. But today not so far were Cazorla and Arteta… thats even… Read more »
“Ramsey invented new kind of diving: unintentional diving. Sick! What else he needs to do for Wenger to stop playing him?”
I think the one doing the shit writing is you, mate. Kindly fuck off, yeah?
@ lapidarij
Love the irony of your first sentence!!! Maybe you should start your own blog providing your witty analysis!
Can someone help me on the formation, really trying to understand it, and I think the part of the comment that related to Ramsey diving kind of distracted from that point.
Were we playing some sort of 4-5-1 / 4-4-2 hybrid, with Santi or Arteta shifting to the right to allow Theo the option to play closer to Giroud? Is there a more accurate technical description for the formation we used today?
‘4-4-Theo Does What He Wants’, or ‘4-1-shit-1’, your choice.
I am afraid that Wenger is sucking Walcott’s XXXX just to convince him to stay with us. I would like for Walcott to stay but what is enough is enough!
So formation was based on this. I mentioned yesterday that we had to play
Szcz
Jenks Per Kos Gibbs
Rosicky Arteta Wilshere
Walcott Giroud Cazorla
but I knew that won’t happen 🙁
Dear lapidarij, you suck. That’s all.
You hate Ramsey, I just dnt think he is a good player for us.
Grog, you are just trolling as always. 🙂
Mitigating circumstances…(and yes this was not my best work) 1) I was watching on a shit stream which cut out from 46-55 minutes which meant I missed the penalty incident and Michu’s goal. 2) I was watching said shit stream in a 3×3 inch box in the corner of my browser while typing. 3) I was massively hungover. And tired. 4) I was trying to eat a delicious pizza while writing. 5) From experience most people comment on these reports inside 5 seconds to moan about Gervinho and/or Ramsey before even reading what’s written. 6) Writing while watching a game… Read more »
Way to feed the troll andrewallen. A simple ” fuck off” would have been Sufficient.
I am sorry @AAllenSport for my comment.
I understand all the reasons. Expecially I hope that reason “3” was after some nice party
also I think there is nothing wrong with eating a pizza while writing. 🙂
When was the last time we could satisfactorily argue that we won a game ‘solidly?’
I think it might have been Coventry, on the 15th of September.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Enough. Barely deserved anything from that game. I’d rather we would have gone out, as we struggled. We couldn’t defend for toffee and Swansea had two absolute gilt-edged chances that they should have buried. Substitute was baffling at best. Ramsey was one of our best players on the pitch. Not using Rosicky or the Ox against a tiring team? Awful, awful decision. The manager’s lost it, the team looks tired (but most of them are capable), and yet we have millions sat in the bank. Meanwhile, the sp*ds have already spent £10m and are looking to spend £30m more. Where… Read more »
What game did you watch? Swansea were more clinical but they in no way outplayed us, not even close.
I didn’t say they outplayed us at all. They had the better chances – that was it. They should have scored more and didn’t, we were very, very lucky.
Doesn’t matter if we have 98% possession if the other team gets five easy chances to win the game.
We were poor.
Wenger is reaping what he sowed.
There is no understanding between the players, like strangers at times.
Santi was touted as the signing of the summer, wonder if that will be true come end of the season, Arteta was a good stop-gap purchase, never imagined him as the fulcrum of our midfield, he is not good enough.
more later, I lost my last comment to the internet gremlins and I am just tired of the same crap every week. The team is worse than the players.
Seriously, why does Theo take the free-kicks and corners? What is happening to Sagna another terrible game.
Sagna was too busy in covering the whole right side as Walcott decided to playing in middle up front.
One of the most frustrating things for me when Walcott so selfishly drifts into the middle is when I see Giroud have to go and fill the space that has been left. Thats not going to help us at all.
After that performance I’d be okay if Walcott moved on this month, he isn’t playing for the team.
I’ve been saying it since Walcott started playing regularly this season…
He is playing selfishly and ONLY wants to take advantage of Wengers ‘must keep Theo’ desperation by playing where he wants and does what he wishes – much of the time, to the detriment of the team. It looks EXACTLY as if while on the pitch, Walcott’s middle finger is perpetually pointed in the direction of his only loyal fan: Wenger.
Sell now, get what you can, and sign a DM, true speedy winger, and a left FB.
Why didn’t Arsene bring on Rosicky toward the end of the game?
Shitty defending once again cost us this match. I had already given up and you can lay the blame on our consistent inconsistency. Kos and Mert both welcomed Michu onto the pitch with their legendary defending while we could not hang on to the lead by allowing the Welsh side into the game. Ramsey is never a winger and don’t tell me about him being better on the wings today. He had a fair game though but he messed up while plying pleasure on the Swans. I don’t know why we have Rosicky and Chamberlain and Giroud on the bench.… Read more »
I think that the first goal (although Kos had a whiz-banger of a sliding clearance) was all on Mert. He is a big player that doesn’t play big (Kyle Bartlett out jumps you?); he is slow on the pitch (game literally stops when he gets the ball); and he seen as an ‘easy back-pass’, disrupting the teams forward thrust. Now, having said that – I think Mert is a very good defender and great reader of the game, but he just isn’t quite up to what many of us consider Arsenal snuff. A big central defender needs to play his… Read more »
*screams* AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
what frustration to concede! that is all.
amen
It seems to me If we could have punished Swansea’s mistakes as ruthlessly as they punished ours, we’d have won that game 10-2.
Alright guys, a decent result I must say but everything was not great. 1. Ramsey played well in the final third and put in a few good crosses to Giroud however I simply don’t like him as a winger, his lack of pace and inability to take on players is bad, he’s no Nasri but most of all his tackling and defensive work is poor he commits far too many fouls or gets beaten easily. I actually prefer to see Ramsey in Cazorla’s role or the Fabregas role that way he can play those through balls but not have to… Read more »
P.S I know Walcott is being a contract rebel and Arsense has to do everything to make him feel at home. But WHY THE FUCK IS HE TAKING ALL OUR SET PIECES?! I want to see Cazorla and Arteta do their work.
re: #2 where would you play Pirlo, I wonder?
The difference is Pirlo has a DM besides himself. That way he can go forward, Wilshere is not a DM and neither is Arteta. For the double pivot to work one player has to be the DM and the other a CM. When you play 2 CM’s together your losing your defensive prowess.
Compared to podolski and Gervinho’s and Walcott even, Gibbs is the best winger of the lot. But he can defend too so he plays at the back. Need to get rid of Walcott and throwing that uncoordinated fool Gervinho the fuck out
Yep u got that right Ramseys best game in the hole was against Chelsea 5-3
Our off the ball movement has been bad this season. Breaking news.
& I don’t get this playing 2 CM, 1 as a DM & 1 as a LW thing. Jeez, Arsene.. Why can’t we play a proper players at their real positions?
Sigh.
Swansea’s second goal was one of the worst we conseded ever..
True, as shabby as anything Gus Caesar or Igors Stepanovs were involved in.
Podolski with the assist ofcourse. Shame.
Arsenal game scenarios this season :
1. Being completely lifeless for 85 minutes and having first shot on goal in extra time.
2. Scoring 5 or more goals, everybody looking like their Messi’s long lost cousin.
One thing is constant- defense inconsistencies that do not allow us to hang on to the leads.
Walcott’s infamous consistency in patches must have afflicted the rest of the team. Get rid!
Ramsey did trip but he kinda made an appeal for something that made it a bit uncomfortable.
That was pretty much full strength out there. With some “big” games coming up, the knock to squad confidence is one we could well do without at this time.
Hope not to hear any words like mental strength & belief because that performance was simply appaling. Sorry but it was. We should be better than that. Some of the missed chances were really bad. Frustration and inner angst by the bucketload.
Arseblog
Michu flicked Mertasacker not Koscielny!
Exactly – Mert was way too square to the attacker – he’s too square most of the time. Basic defending is to never face an attacker squared up but body angled to one side (preferably a side that will force the attacker and/or the ball into another defender).
Yes, it was a quick transition, but one has to be ready for anything – especially if you’re a millionaire 😉
10 years ago we were full of confidence.
Now don’t look at the players faces, they are confused..
cant understand wengers stubburoness with carzorla. im sick of watching him floating through games. we need options. this team our style and attitude piss me right off. wenger sort it out. sell rosicky its annoys the fuck out of me to see him sitting on the bench week in week out
Wenger out
Since when did Wally Walcott become our player/manager?
Decides where he plays,takes free kicks & corners…VERY badly for the most part,he was terrible again today…maybe it was his own decision not to substitute himself for Rosicky or the Ox!
When your biggest and most loyal fan is the manager (one who is willing to sacrifice the team, year in and year out over a player or 2), you can get away with anything.
Being VERY serious here: when the manager states that he will wait for ONE PLAYER to decide his future BEFORE any VERY needed team additions are brought in – faith in that manager’s ability to not only see, but understand reality MUST be questioned. Really? Now Walcott has arsenal over a barrel and THAT pisses me off as a fan.
Unbelievable how many people on here criticising Ramsey after that game. He played out wide on his weaker side but still did 5 times as much as the guy on the other side of the pitch who is demanding 100k/week. Ramsey is no messi or ronaldo for sure but he doesnt pretend to be either. walcott on the other hand has had his ego so pumped up by his advisors that his own view of his talent far surpases the reality.
I despair sometimes at some of my fellow supporters.
Today’s flop of the match is Theo walcott. Seriously why does he takes set pieces when we have cazorla wilshere and arteta. Too selfish i guess
Dreadful, soporific first half, brilliant exciting second one…
We deserved to win it but our usual shit defending let us down…
Giroud not good enough, and there’s absolutely no point in playing him without supplying him with quality crosses – so why Ramsey out wide?
Tons of possession but not enough penetration…our forward play was crap…
Wenger nearly fucked it up by not making the substitutions earlier…
Chez at fault for the second goal – he went down too early…
At least we are still in it…and Brighton away is a decent fourth-round draw.
If I started today we’d have demolished Swansea
yeah, if you had started for them, we’d have won 10 – 0
Ramsey could be good. Why Wenger starts him on the wing I have no idea. He isn’t that fast or dribbly. WTF Wenger seriously mate. First Bendtknob now Ramsey on the wing. Please just stop this Wenger!!!!!!!!!!!
So sorry, Mr Wenger’s nice guy attitude is no longer working for crying out loud! surely walcot drifting in to the middle and taking those shite freekicks is not what arsenal needs! Holla at your players, holla at the board Mr Wenger for God’s sake!! Do something!!
You could see the frustation with Poldi & Santi when Walcott tries another Messi-run trough the middle, just to eventually lose & fuck up promising attacks. He should set-up Cazorla to but instead goes for own glory & misses. & I’m so happy, i thought i was alone in the thought of ‘since when dafuq is Theo the free ball specialist???’ I got the feeling its part of his demands or something, but i don’t know. I do know that it fucking annoyed me to see him get behind free balls. I’m afraid Sagna is also being pulled down by… Read more »