Arsenal crashed out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 defeat to Blackburn at the Emirates today.
Laurent Koscielny passed a fitness test and started alongside Thomas Vermaelen, while there were returns to the side for Francis Coquelin, Gervinho, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Thomas Rosicky.
The visitors had an early chance when a free kick found Olsson at the back post but he could only hack his shot wide. Arsenal had their first attempt in the 10th minute when Abou Diaby flicked a header from a free kick beyond the far post.
Arsenal dominated possession, with Blackburn willing to sit back and get men behind the ball, and nothing much happened. Arsenal won a series of corners, each one less threatening than the last.
There was a shot of the Blackburn manager who looks like he was separated at birth from referee Mike Dean, and that was about as exciting as it got in the opening 20 minutes or so.
After some more corners, Arsenal finally tested the keeper when Abou Diaby planted a header firmly on target, but Kean showed strong hands to tip it over the bar. The young keeper made another good save from his own player after a defensive header was sent looping towards the top corner.
Some more nothing happened. Francis Coquelin tried to win a penalty by mimicking the front cover of Platoon and Gervinho dragged a shot wide. And the Ivorian was found wanting just before half-time after a great Rosicky pass sent him clean through on goal. With just the advancing keeper to beat, from inside the box, he screwed his shot wide when it looked easier to score.
In the second half there was early danger from Blackburn when Thomas Vermaelen deflected an Olsson cross just wide, and from the resulting corner Mikel Arteta had to head away a goalbound effort.
At the other end Giroud got a header from a corner on target, Oxlade-Chamberlain had a left-footed shot blocked and Abou Diaby fired a 30 yarder wide of the mark. It was pretty much one way traffic, but Arsenal were driving a Flintstones car and going uphill.
Tomas Rosicky tried a shot from distance, it went wide. He then tried again and hit the bar, before feeding Gervinho whose shot from inside the box was blocked. Abou Diady then tested Kean with a shot from distance which the keeper grabbed at the 2nd attempt.
Arsene Wenger made three changes, bringing Wilshere, Walcott and Cazorla on and taking Rosicky, Gervinho and Oxlade-Chamberlain off. Almost immediately though, Blackburn went ahead.
They got free down the left, Szczesny parried away a shot, it fell to Kazim-Richards, he mishit his shot into the ground, it bounced up, hit the post and deflected in as a bemused Vermaelen looked on. 0-1.
Arsenal pressed for an equaliser but struggled to create chances against a Blackburn side who sat deep. Nacho Monreal shot wide with his left foot, Diaby had a shot blocked then forced Kean into a good save, and the keeper was the hero again saving from a Theo Walcott header after a good Wilshere cross.
Late on Mikel Arteta smashed a shot into the side-netting but at no point did Arsenal ever really look like scoring.
It was depressing, turgid stuff from a team who were supposedly going to treat this game like a final.
Hardly enough to have Bayern quaking in their boots, and once again a season looks like it’s going to end potless.
Not good enough,
Why is it that shit opposition need only 2 chances to score 1 against us, while we need 50 to score 0? Poor defending on the goal, but why are we in a position that we can’t score a single fucking goal against fucking Blackburn Rovers with 150% of the possession? Why were we in a position that Gervinho and Diaby are so fucking retarded for Arsenal that we have to bring on Wilshere, Walcott, and Cazorla to salvage a game that should have been won in the first half? This was the only trophy we realistically had even a… Read more »
WTF
How many corners? How many goals?
We are shit. Complete humiliation and worse to come!
How can anyone disput what I have said here. And give it a thumbs down?
Did you not count how many corners we won?
Do you not realise it is an advantage to any team to convert corners into goals, something we are shit at and not just in this game.
FOR THOSE WHO BELEIVE WE ARE NOT SHIT.
remember this
We will win no silverware
We will not finish in the top four.
We will finish below the S**** shit
And we will still think the sun shines out of Wengers arse!!
Thank you for the memories and it is time to say GOODBYE, Arsene.
For the love of The Arsenal please just LEAVE Arsene.
Arsene IS the problem.
Arteta what a piece of shit.
Could not defend with his life for swansea game that earned them a replay then shoots wide when it’s upto him to simply win it. What a wanker!
And gervinho?
Should have got us the goal that would have seen us on our way to victory! The hell? I’d like to punch him in the face.
And Wenger.
When teams sit deep he has no other tactical change to make whatsoever. Just continue to pass the ball around and hope a goal comes from his arse I think? moreover when the team is continously hitting a brick wall. The fuck?. Pissed off is what I am ( we are!)
Wenger made three subs at once and from the resulting disorientation in the pitch, the arsenal player subbed on: walcott on the RW (who was supposed to track the run of Olsson {who had the shot} was nowhere to be seen)
This 3 panic subs at once! is a sign wenger is losing touch with reality.
So we get kicked out of the Capitalone cup by the mighty Bradford, and we have just been beaten, at home, by the might Blackburn in the FA cup.
This season is the most humiliating season that i can remember.
For once Balls is right. This is humiliating.
at least we will complete one “treble” this season
B-radford
B-lackburn
B-ayern Munich
all putting our trophy hungry players/manager/board to the sword
am getting so depressed logging in here now, pure dross delivered on an all too frequent basis now,
Every year with the status quo is another year further away we are from competing, Moyes is out of contract this summer.
At least Moyes’ side play with heart and determination every single fucking game. I would like to see what he could do with a squad more skilled than he has now. Saying that, obviously he would have to cut a lot of dead weight here.
We’d have a chance of getting get baines and fellaini. Oh wait we don’t like to spend our fortune on goo players. Tony hibbert it is.
You haven’t been watching long enough then. We have had many worse seasons. But that was then, and this is now, and we have a first team squad that can take Bradford or Blackburn apart at will, but a second string who Wenger likes too much to replace. He is too bloody nice for his and Arsenal’s own good. Coquelin was at the heart of all the crappiest things that happened today because he lacks experience.Oxlade-Chamberlain always tried the “clever” option when he should have gone for the basics because he lacks experience. The experience they need is playing week… Read more »
if someone wants to dislike my treble comment above at least explain why, we are a shambles, surely Moyes couldn’t do any worse. Arteta used to look like a goalscoring midfielder, set piece expert, not under us he doesn’t. ( Though I do rate him very highly indeed, quality in possession and has heart)
In response to gutbukkit…if our 1st string team doesn’t need improving why aren’t we at least challenging for the prem? Which is meant to be our aim! Lack of investment and lack of imagination = lack of trophies!
Bunburyist how dare you take the first comment!!
I was hoping to see Sir Balls: “this is why we should sell Wilshere and buy Bentley”
Apologies Bonjour. Next time, I’ll Sir Balls have his way with me.
What we have is a fairly decent 1st team a fairly average back and a piss poor 3rd team that is mainly out on loan or sitting in the stands. what is required is the sale of this 3rd team demote the other 2 teams and buy a whole new 1st team x1 imagine this x1 as your back up szceney sagna mertesacker vermaelen monreal wilshire arteta walcott cazorla podolski giroud with your third choices as mannone jenkinson koscielny miquel gibbs coquelin ramsey chamberlain diaby rosicky campbell just replace this x1 in the summer fabianski eastmond djourou squillaci santos denilson… Read more »
Diaby didn’t play bad
I’ve cooled down. You’re right. Diaby wasn’t nearly as bad as Gervinho.
Also, to be a little more fair in my criticism, it has to be said that Chamberlain was dire. Just dire.
Lets be honest, no one played well. We just lost to blackburn.
@Bunburyist
Gervinho should have scored, but the Ox was terrible.
When I first saw the team I thought: “yeah!! we’ll win”. I’m speechless.
idk, our midfield kept possession well but we didn’t attack very well.
I don’t think any individual player was to shoulder the blame today – maybe only in the context of the Ox delivering shit corners.
Instead we were “too respectful of the opposition”! Blackburn sat back and we were rarely able to play through the middle, so the whole game we crossed from the wing. We were too respectful in that most of the time we only had Giroud in the box, nobody with the follow-up, all the midfielders staying in midfield shit-scared of a Blackburn counterattack! This only changed after their goal, but by then it was too late.
What ?
He is awful mate, he slows the game down so much that the whole team is at walking pace. He dithers on the ball every time he gets it and the opposition have time to recover. He is useless and will be injured again soon.
Ohhh but lets not forget that …….
“Diaby is the key to this arsenal team” Arsene Wenger.
Best central midfielders at Arsenal: Wilshere, Cazorla, Rosicky, Arteta, Eisfeld.. Diaby is the most overrated player at Arsenal
We should have had 2 or 3 before their jammy goal. If they’d scored every shot they took we still should have won with the chances we had. Man Utd’s defence has been poor this season but they’ve out-scored anyone that had a go at them. Our forwards were piss poor today.
The only player that looked to have a go was Ox, Giroud was in ‘assist mode’ and his lay-off weren’t doing the trick. Gervinho……..made a nice run in the first half, the rest of the match he was…………..ineffective.
The controversy continues
Mike Dean
With him as ref we have won 1, drawn 7 and lost 9.
That’s 1 win in 19.
Seriously, this is one heck of a fishy stat… Yesterday I told my mates jokingly that we didn’t have chance with Mike Dean as a ref. I’m starting to believe it..
Oh would you please shut up! We were pathetic as a team today. Szczesny, Chamberlain, Arteta, Gervinho….pathetic. Deserved to lose that game is the only way to look at it. This team is not good enough, Wenger is not good enough. Sad times ahead.
Yeah blame it on the ref.
1 + 7 + 9 = 17
But you’re right, it is very fishy.
agree we never win with Mike Dean, but the game should have been over by HT. However clear penalty on Walcott denied because he was offside? bollocks, got robbed of a critical penalty in the last 10 mins.
The only controversy is how the board can keep allowing Wenger to keep serving up this absolute shite
Dean made ZERO contoversial calls.Was it his voodoo that made Gervinho miss with just the keeper to beat. Hes usually Mr. reliable isnt he? Unbelievable
Will someone please think of the children!
Ken – the offside on theo was wrong. clear as day. that in turn meant he didnt need to give the penalty when theo was fouled. besides that there were the odd calls you might disagree with but nothing critical. when a games not going for you and you get that slice of luck like being fouled in the box or what not, and you need the officials to do their job. anyway this is all bs cus really we should’ve won it with each player doing better on their opportunistic – gervinho 1-on-1, girouds headers, walcotts header, and artetas… Read more »
Personally, I still think we have a chance to beat Bayern. So, for now, let’s just leave it at that. Finishing is the problem for us. Lack of depth is the problem where, if we don’t start our best players, we can’t even beat the like of Championship BlackBurn. We thrive on pace and quick passing; none happened. Diaby and Arteta slowed down the flow of our game today. Since the most recent injury, Diaby doesn’t look the same. Wenger needs to make some hard decisions this summer. Sczecsney, as arrogant as he is, is not quite in the same… Read more »
We played a full team against bradford
Shit TomJ, you’re right!!!! We’re fucked then. Season over.
Arsenal can’t even score against teams like Blackburn. How can we score against Bayern Munich (the best defence in the world atm). They conceded just 7 goals from 25 matches and have a goal difference of above 50.
@GUN, football is played on the pitch, not on paper. Last year, we lost to Man Utd. 2-8. That team lost to Man City 1-6. We won against that Man City 1-0. So don’t decide whether we will lose or not based on the stats alone. Plus, Bayern play in Bundesliga where the pace of the game is not as fast as in BPL. If we go out and play with urgency starting in the first half, and play our usual quick, one-touch football with accuracy, we can surely catch them off guard. Anything is possible on the pitch. That… Read more »
The same way Blackburn would lose to Millwall or Barnsley or any other 2nd div team in the next round. It’s called consistency Mr Gun, something that’s required in any sport with a season and what separates the champions from us.
I second the comment above, wouldn’t be surprised if we beat Bayern and then possibly lose against Villa – just not sure which Arsenal shows up to the next game.
Lot of “ifs” there.
No smartarse, the season will be over for me when the last ball Arsenal game is over, even if we were in 15th, and I remember when we were finishing there
Arteta played fine… I’m mad at Gervinho. And Arsene.
Wenger was talking about how there havent been many giant killings under him. Well Wenger this year theyve been 2. A sign that he has really lost his touch perhaps? The guy is not a winner anymore. He constantly jokes with the press about how “we never score corners!” or “its surprising we scored from a set piece!”.. Ok so youre acknowledging that were shit at set plays… and have been for years.. and that is actually just FUNNY to you?? That is not a winner. Diaby is scared to play which is understandable but forget the nice guy bullshit… Read more »
Squad not good enough…..
Start with the strongest team then take off your stars, another fucking trophy less season, I feel sorry for the fans that go every week
I don’t. They are well-off enough to attend games.
Stupid comment. How the hell can you judge peoples’ financial postion? Many fans of all clubs make sacrifices to watch their team play live.
i blame the fuckin gunnersaurus, It didnt cheer up anyone, KILL IT,KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!
Who came up with that embarrassing shit? Gunnersaurus FFS! Got absolutely fuckall to do with The Arsenal.
Let’s go out and beat Bayern 4-0
I’m going to support spurs now.
Cock.(on a fucking beach ball).
Why punch the ball into the middle of the park?!
Basic goalkeeping! FFS!
Any one that still thinks we can beat Bayern over 2 legs after this farce, needs to be locked up & that includes Arsene.
This is final straw, I’ve had enough, I’m not giving any of my hard earned cash to the club anymore.
Who cares? I mean, who the fuck are you?
Whatever happened to supporting the club through thick and thin?
The frustrating thing is we probably will beat Bayern in one of the games such is our inconsistency
I’m sick to death of us being undone by teams that park the bus and nab a goal with their only chance of the game. It’s pathetic
extra time, whistle blows, turn off the game and get a little frustrated. we have these contradicting thoughts on why even bother with watching the game. All these questions on why weren’t substitution made earlier, how couldn’t he finish the chance, why is it that we are always losing against lower teams. Then after cooling down we check the website to find post match comments and reflect on the game, hateful comments arise to let out our frustrations, it helps a little but still leaves us with a little sour taste in the mouth because we know inside we don’t… Read more »
Well aren’t the dire Arsenal brigade out today. We didn’t convert our chances, can happen to anyone. We could mull over reasons why we could have done better: the referee, gervinho missing, bringing on players too fucking late in the game, and our second string players, bereft of enough playing time, not gelling together well enough to beat such an opposition. Frankly, I’d rather hold my head up for the game on Tuesday. Wenger has asked to be judged, and will be, at the end of the season. I want to support my team so we beat those mangy Sp*rs… Read more »
lol, this is hilarious. i just knew today’s comment section would be special. you lot can really change your mind quickly.
we’ve been much better recently. in general, we’re about the same in the post-invincibles era.
change doesn’t happen overnight.
shit happens. could and should have won it, blackburn got a fluke which would not go in in 99 times out of 10. let’s move on and hope the first team will do their best against bayern.
Just all of you, pretending to be arsenal fans, FUCK OFF when you say Diaby, Gervinho or the Ox are shit… Yes just FUCK OFF and just support some other teams because you are the same that just said “I don’t want to see Ramsey in an arsenal shirt again…” and are now saying “Ramsey is great”. Are Arsenal supporters some 8 years old pussies? i am wondering when i read such poor comments about our team players, I just want to puke on you people (pretending to be arsenal fans). Come on Arsene I trust in You!
I can’t help being born a white male and I can’t change the fact that my blood is red. Being an Arsenal supporter/fan is like that too.
Up The Arsenal!
Bum 🙁
That’s what the team gets for overconfidence. And Wenger clearly lacks a Plan B for teams that sit back and defend!
The Plan B is actually very simple – have more than 1 player (Giroud) in the box when you cross the ball, high or low! Or, have more than 0 players in the box when it’s Giroud who makes the cross!
Giroud today had an off game, bet he was busy flexxing his muscles for the linelady!
Or learn to fucking cross!
We dont have any good crossers of the ball. Not our fullbacks.not our wingers. Its easy defending against us these days. Pack up the midfield and make us move the ball to the wing. Where more often then not we ll put in a shit cross. God forbid when we clear the first defender.
I hate Arsenal. Why did I ruin my life supporting this crap club of losers who only ever turn up with 20 minutes to go and so go out of the FA cup to a bunch of cloggers owned by chicken farmers?
fuck off spud, you should support arsenal through ups and downs!!
Down was Bradford… This is a whole new level of down..
Losing to a determined bunch of lower league players who have a great team spirit and are going for their one and only chance at glory in a minor cup (well, it should be to us) is actually just about acceptable as all big teams have suffered at the hands of giant killers at one time or another., and at least Bradford were a League team, not non-league. I don’t like it as it stays in your head for life, but these things do happen. Losing in the FA Cup to a team who the world laughs at for the… Read more »
Fuck off cunt.
Yeah, now that your life is ruined I’m sure you’ll find a new hyperbolic way of saying “I want to like Tottenham”. Jesus, go away.
Friendly suggestion… Go to white heart lane then. Take a shit in the center of that pitch, find the highest bridge in UK and jump off of it. Cunt.
When are you blind blinkered Arsenal fans going to wake up?
WENGER OUT!
how is this result his fault? lack of finishing cost us this game.
It’s cost us all season already, nevermind this game!
I suppose nothing is Wenger’s fault then? At the end of day every season is getting progessivly worse, selling best players, highest paid manager in the league, picking rubbish players, the list goes on and on and on. But hey that 4th place trophy will keep you happy right? Make sure you pay your £1.5k season ticket next season.
WENGER OUT!
Enough is enough.
no, i said this isnt wengers fault, we had our chances to win in the first half. he puts on 3 solid changes and we concede a shitty flukey goal. mike dean denies a penalty on walcott ruling offside when he wasnt, and its another game we’ve lost when he’s refereed – which is besides the point. the starting XI are more than capable of winning this game, and they didnt, blame for me lies with diaby gervinho and ox today unfortunately, very wasteful.
Should have kept the best striker in the world.
@AGunner Take your blinkers off and look at the bigger picture.
Arsene is the manager, he is responsible for bringing the players in, selecting the team, tactics (or lack of them) and motivating the players. Gibbs aside he had practically a fully fit squad to work with all week and choose from today. The buck stops, or at least should, with him
@D lol okay mate, ill just join the wenger out bandwagon and get someone else in who will inherit a big sum of money that will finally be made available this summer. personally i want to give wenger one more season, we will finally have money to spend, but if its same old, then yeah its time for a change, but without him the past 7 years, forget trophies, we wouldnt even be in the CL right now. as for this game, if bayern wasn’t midweek, you think he would’ve rotated? damned if you do, damned if you dont. he… Read more »
Arsene IS the problem!!!!!!!!!!
@AGunner Fair play to you my friend. I agree that Wenger leaving doesn’t necessarily mean a new manager will come in and guarantee success, but change is what the club is crying out for. I love Wenger like every other gooner, he’s transformed the club, but recent years have shown he just isn’t up to the task anymore. For me David Dein leaving was a huge blow to the club, as since then no-one has had the power to stand-up to Wenger and put pressure on him to succeed.
As for “money to spend”, really? Wenger? “Money to spend”?
@D lol i know mate, wenger spending, but thats been his excuse, so lets see if hes up to it next season, if not his contract expires anyway so good time for a change. im happy with our first XI now, they’ve gelled and look good when we click, its just frustrating why we cant rotate our squad and win.. theres no way we can compete in all comps if we dont rotate so clearly we need to get in some good players this summer. guess we’ll wait and see!
@AGunner – did you seriously just say give him one more year, he’ll have money to spend? Has your head really been that far up your ass the past 3-4 years? Wake up, all the money in the world can’t fix terrible managerial decisions and a narcissistic drive to create the world class player, not buy him. His time is done.
Cos he’s the manager that assembled the squad and picked today’s team. He’s also the guy who refused to strengthen his squad in January- more ‘super quality’ nonsense. What the fuck is wrong with some of you AKB’s? What’s it gonna take for people to see change is long overdue?
@AGunner “its just frustrating why we cant rotate our squad and win” I ask you, who is to blame for that?
“guess we’ll wait and see!”
No, sorry I refuse to go through another season like this. I wouldn’t mind next season getting knocked out of every competition (I would), just so long as we have a straight talking manager, who doesn’t lie and take us for idiots in every presser, with his “top top quality” rubbish.
I just want the same old tune to CHANGE, even if it’s a bad change. I JUST WANT IT TO CHANGE!
yeah, i do want to give him one more year, does that make me oblivious, or have my head up my ass? no, probably makes me more patient than you. his “narcissistic drive to create the world class player” was born more out of circumstance rather than desire as we’ve had our hands bound since we built the emirates. fact is we have a board who dont want to pump more money into the club, we have a board thats happy as long as they’re being paid, and we have a manager whose taking the brunt of all accusations towards… Read more »
@D, thats your opinion mate, change can be a good thing, but more importantly it has to be the right change. its no point changing if its going to get worse as who wins? surely not us, the fans. anyway clear to me im probably the very few fans whose left in the pro-wenger camp, my opinion won’t be swayed very easily as there have been darker days in arsenals history when we haven’t won anything for a decade or so, so i guess its time for me to hit the pub before i spend more time debating wenger’s recent… Read more »
How could it get worse than 8 years without a trophy?
But AGUNNER, when we rotate our team as we did today we ALWAYS become vulnerable to losing by a single fluke goal.
It’s his *responsibility*.
He selected the players, he chose the formation. He chose not to buy more players because he trusted this lot to get the job done. Clearly, either he’s wrong about how good our second string is or he’s grossly incompetent at motivating them.
While there’s questions over some of the players and they need to take a look at themselves, it’s his fault that those are the best players we have and that this is the best they can do.
How is it not his fault?
@Cygan’s Magical Left Foot
Advice:
Do not use multiple punctuation marks unless you really want your readers to think you are a moron.
Thanks.
Honestly think the tide may have turned today. Had always supported the manager ’til now, but there comes a point when you have to change if you want to move forward. It’s that old saying, madness is doing the same things over and over, and expecting different results. Sad day all round.
Yeah, I think I might be the last person to jump off the Wenger bandwagon. But said wagon is moving really slowly and the ground looks super soft.
Once Gervinho missed you could sense they would be able to defend for the full 90 and, given our recent history, it was almost a given we’d give up a flukey goal. Something has to change.
I felt exactly the same
You know what? I think i just woke up.
Somethings not right, if no trophy and no top 4 at the end of the season, wenger should offer his resignation and admit failure.
Ps. This hurts as i love arsenal and arsene
Thank for seeing the light, I have been saying it for 3 years.
Arsene IS the problem.
I think he’ll see his contract out for the final year personally. I don’t really share the anger, find it a sad ending more than anything. We would have fared no better with someone else, but the last few transfer windows have been devastating. We must use our resources, and he refuses. It’s that simple.
B team clearly not good enough. fucks sake, i try not to dislike gervinho but that 1-on-1 clearly cost us.
Agreed, thought he grew into the game a bit, tried not to see the negatives but unfortunately he’s not good enough for The Arsenal.
This is what happens when you play all of the passengers at the same time. Rosicky (fitness and match time) Diaby (fitness and match time) Chambo (just not himself and over confident in his technique atm) and Gervinho (Is Gervinho). You need at least 8 to be on their game to win.
Oh well, such is life. Concentrate on the league now please
Concentrate on the league? You mean concentrate on trying to finish fourth in the league. That is the height of this club’s ambition now. What a fucking joke.
Or third my friend
Ha! 3rd. Good one.
@A Yank – as much as I agree that reaching 4th being the extent of our ambitions is a fucking joke, you know what’s worse than that don’t you? Failing to reach at least 4th.
Burn their asses and everything else till they get to a point where they get to know what desire means. Fuckers how can you play like that.When the commentator said we havent lost at home in fa cup for a long time i knew it was gonna happen.how many past records have we given away this season and last.
Come tuesday role reversal with bayern with them attacking us defending only difference would we are gonna get fucked because we are bad in defending bad in attacking but still an average side.
Yeah, those records fucking hurt alright. Same with Schalke, earlier this season, the Emirates was a fortress in Europe. A downright disgrace.
Bayern was always going to be tough, I just fucking hope, after this disgraceful perfomance, they know how to finish a given chance. Bayern will not do a Chelsea on us so that should give us a glimmer of hope because there will be space.
Fuck me, this makes me sick.
agreed Johnny, such a shame cus they have the ability to see off this type of game, but the whole ‘if we dont miss we’ll get another chance’ mentality is what cost us.. we have to take our chances and without theo poldi santi and jack we rarely do.
When he was put through I though “Brilliant! Here come’s ACON Gervinho to start his new run of form in the league”. Then, when I saw the finish I realised ACON Gervinho stays in Africa. League Gervinho never left.
comes. Not come’s.
I thought this was one for Poldi. We really shouldn’t need him at home to Blackburn but I’m far more optimistic that we’ll a chance when he’s on.
Those should have been Arsenal’s priorities:
PL – get 4th place for next year
FA – realistic chance for a trophy
CL – two nice games, but in our situation, not completely relevant
Except that we can’t afford to lose the money the CL brings us. Without it the “good times ahead” will be “Oh, I didn’t expect to still be too poor to buy players”.
This January was the opportunity to strengthen the second string so that we could rotate the team without fear, but we dropped the ball. This February is the result, and 99% of the fans saw it coming in November.
Exactly, which is why 4th place must be the top priority. Once again we made it through the first round which seems to be our minimum requirement from a financial point of view. Progressing one more round – or not – will not make so much of a difference from a financial point of view.
Pathetic pchizophrenic Arsenal! Embarassing…
I can’t even stomach the thought of watching the Bayern’s game….
I honestly don’t think we’ll do too badly against Bayern though. We aren’t “shit”, we’re just completely unpredictable, so we should learn not to predict. We might even pull off a hard-fought win. Anyway it’s impossible to do much worse than 0-4 Milan, and it isn’t going to be a 2-8 United.
Hands up all those who knew we would lose when they realised we had rotated four of our best five players onto the bench for the start of the game (and we know that that means 70 minutes, no matter how poor we are playing).
Sagna – Bradford game is a warning Wenger: ‘We prepare like it’s a final each time’ Szczesny: ‘We hope we can give our fans something to cheer in the FA Cup. It’s massive for us. We’re three wins away from a final at Wembley now so we’ll give it everything. Diaby – Let’s keep showing character All talk, no action. Sick and tired of seeing these players talk and talk and then see no actual results. Now I understand that these reviews are not the reason we lose. But it just annoys me to see players who are more willing… Read more »
interviews*
his mistakes keep on happening, I remember a match 3 years ago against Birmingham just before we were gonna play barca, Wenger also rested our best players only for us to draw against birmingham and lose our title hopes and then we got smashed by Barca still. same here, we lost our one chance of a trophy for the chance of a fairytale win over bayern that will never happen, and even if it does we won’t win the UCL in our wildest dreams.
If Wenger can’t get his team to beat lower league opposition in cups anymore then I’m afraid he’s not good enough.
i’ve been quite good at managing expectations and taking each game as it comes this season, but i felt like fucking puking when that ball bounced over the line. numb.
Utter dogshit.
Judge AW at the end of the season? Well it’s here already.
About as clinical as Dr Nick.
I feel like im goig to be sick. This is a worst feelig than after the bradford game, at least we were away…
This is bullshit, that is all.
Serious Serious questions have to be asked about our performances
Aye, not good enough once again.
Unbelievable how many chances we missed. Gervinho 1st half?! Okay, their goal might have been a little bit lucky but where is this absolute will to win this game? SZ’s clearance?!
Players know as much as us fans that this was the last chance for a trophy, it’s in their hands on the pitch. That’s what I don’t get. Yet again we only started fighting and beleaguering when it was far too late.
Fuck off, if you can’t beat a shit team in the middle of championship you can just fuck off…..
Who should fuck off??
Every single player that started the game, its one thing to waste chances, its one thing when you walk around for 45 mins and don’t even put in effort to atleast try and make something happen
Enough chances out there, how many wasted? Fucking all of them. It’s a godforsaken shame.
8 years and counting
And I’m amazed by all the people who said that “side should be good enough to beat blackburn”.
What gives you the confidence to say that? This is the side who lost to a League Two team, and we were playing the Championship side today.
This squad, aside from the starting 11 who are average, is shit, plain and simple.
Sigh
It felt like that sort of day when Gerv missed his chance. Not blaming Gerv by the way, he played well today, it was Ox that made me want to scratch out my eyes.
Ox has a serious problem of over confidence.
What a joke. We’re not clinical enough and we concede far too easily. We’re an utter shambles.
The boos weren’t enough ….
Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
This squad just is not good enough to be in 3 competitions. Our starting XI will give Bayern a run for their money this week, but when you throw an XI together like today this is the result we should expect.
Its good enough to beat Blacburn at home, that we didn’t is just freaking terrible. We had chances that were wasted but if you look at the end of the game we didn’t create enough. Another thing , the endless crossing is plain useless if you only gonna have 1 player in the box, its not exactly hard for blackburn to defend in the box when Giroud is totaly alone inside the box….
Especially when Gervinho is that lone player for half the crosses. Interchangeable striker and wingers only happen in the first team with Walcott, Giroud and Podolski. The second string (which is Gervinho and The Ox, I suppose) cannot do it as we see every time they play. Rest Walcott, Podolski, Wilshire and Cazorla and we don’t have anybody in the team that can create chances for Giroud. Leaving all of them out today was the stupidest thing I have seen Wenger do. He put out a team entirely bereft of the skills to create a chance against a parked bus… Read more »
Same old fucking shit every time. Plays like its a dead given win, doze off and opposition scores a soft goal. I’ve said it so many times Wenger has issues motivating his team. I really don’t mind a change with that in mind. And Coquelin fuck you, play acting when we’re chasing a game. Idiot!
What would you do after being kicked in the face by a lumberjack?
as much as i love wilshere and santi, the game died when chamberlain and rosicky got taken off the field today and wenger really needs to find a solution against teams who park the bus against us.
I don’t know if I’m sad or just angry .. My emotion have been played with in past 8 years .
Did anybody else think as soon as the fuckin forehead missed that we were gonna lose?
No. I was already pretty sure of the result once I saw the team sheet.
Expecting a team with people like gervinho on it to win is like expecting to enjoy feeding your own genitals through a meatgrinder.
Fucking disgraceful! Losing at home to lower league opposition with more than half your 1st choice players in the team! Disgusting!
rosicky should have stayed was beginging to open them up, wenger u made a boo boo. a well no one will hold it against u.
Bayern are gonna absolutely crush this weak willed team (and manager), no shadow of a doubt
Weak willed, really? After the Sunderland performance? Blame doesn’t really apply here when I can honestly say Blackburn are lucky fuckers.
weak willed yes, the sunderland game (at home) should have been finished long before jenks got sent off, and it was a one off. we have not moved on since 90th minute v birmingham Lge cup final, i might even suggest we haven’t moved on much from birmingham game with such incidents as eduardo, gallas sitting down etc..
No surprise to see without pod, sagna and wilshere there was no grit in there
Spot on mate
Lets beat Bayern!
This has to be Wengers last season.
Doubtful. The board loves wenger even if he ain’t gonna win us anymore trophy.
Really hope so!
Just when you thought we turned a corner, a new low..
Our season could be over by Wednesday if we lose to Bayern Munich. All we’ll have left is the fight for fourth…again. We didn’t buy anybody in January except an emergency left back because there was NOBODY who would have improved our team, we were told. Nobody better than Coquelin. Nobody fitter than Diaby or Rosicky. Nobody able to do the basics better than Oxlade-Chamberlain. No strikers better than Gervinho. Our season will be over less than three weeks after we decided we couldn’t find anybody better than anybody in our second string.
Blackburn were just 10 walking polesticks. They were so bad, so so bad, and we played like we expected the game to win itself. This wasn’t even first gear, the whole team moved like it was a warm up. FUCKING DISGRACE!
Complacent bunch of Wankers..
This is the epitome of what is wrong with our squad. We never show up against the smaller teams and lately haven’t been showing up at all. Everyone (myself included) was happy with the signing of Monreal, but we clearly require something in the attacking department as well. We had TWELVE corners in the first half. We retained what seemed to be100% of the possession. Yet Blackburn manages to finish their chance while we can’t score even 1 of our 30 chances. Something is very very wrong with our club.
Definitely some time spent on shooting and corners should be in order. I mean wtf, do we even practise corners any more? No one can even cross, its like we spend our whole time doing one twos in training.. which we’re not even that good at
The Ox often gets into crossing positions, but he’s almost always moving so fast that he can’t actually aim his crosses. He is not really a winger. He has speed but against a parked bus he is not able to use that speed to any great effect.
Does it actually mean anything for these players to pull on an Arsenal shirt? Anything at all?
At least three of them were so fresh back from injury that they were probably not 100%. Sadly Wenger seems to have looked at this as an ideal game to get them match fit. They’d have been great coming on at 70 minutes for the three that replaced them today as we would have been winning at that stage probably. He should have worried about Bayern Munich on Sunday, not Saturday.
I think that’s it for me. Wenger should go at the end of the season. No other club would put up with this. Losses like this happen all the time in th fa cup, but for it to happen to us again couple with th loss to bradford i just feel like someone isnt doing their job properly.
It just isn’t good enough for Arsenal Football Club.
This. As much as it hurts, it’s possible to dismiss one loss to a lower league side as a fluke but to see it happen twice, and to see such a fuck-awful performance each time… sorry but there’s a problem with this squad.
Oh to have bought Mata instead of Gervhino and Park <- about the same price.
Mata is so clinical
Mata was a target but we couldn’t compete with wanky Chelsea. He chose to go to them over coming to us, presumably because they were offering him more in money and opportunities to win things. Can’t blame him really except that he plays for a classless whore of a club.
We wouldn’t meet the buy out clause for Mata dithered and dawdled as usual. Deadline for his buy out clause expired they then wanted more money then chelsea came in later on with an offer for him. Believe he was on 60k a week until recently thats about the money we pay to Diaby,
Today’s game just depressing!!!!
He didn’t want to come to us. had nothing to do with price. We were only allowed to be mentioned as a potential target for him in order to ensure he got the best deal he could from Chelsea.
Proof if any were needed that our squad is about as deep as a bottlecap and that serious transfer business will need to take place this summer.
Woeful.
What the fuck was that?
we had about 10-15 corners and not even once we had a perfect cross. Alex oxlade chamberlain is today’s flop of the match.
Possibly the worst 70 minutes of football I’ve ever seen. Thanks only to Blackburn it got interesting in the last 20. Terrible.
“We will beat Blackburn.”…
Jonah.
Jonah is an improvement on cunt I suppose jjb, and probably why I don’t gamble as I’m shit at predictions.
I also said I think we had turned a corner but that turned out to be dead end too.
Agree manure in the final would have been worse mate because its written somewhere that rvp would have scored the winner just to round off the season.
On the plus side mrs v is taking me out to dinner and she’s paying so every cloud and all that.
But I do agree with what you said. Its always the way, we concede, then the crowd has a go, then the team have a go. Normally we pop at least one in but whats done is done. Losing to Mancs in the final would be so much worse.
So it wouldn’t be worse???
It would be worse at the time, but unless we were humiliated it would become a “good try” and an “honourable loss” very quickly. I feel no lasting pain about losing FA Cup finals to teams like United… Just hate :-). Swindon Town, on the other hand, I still cannot get over. This loss is the same as that, except that Swindon were brave and we just had an off-day. We had a team that could have torn Blackburn a new one, but we lost because we didn’t pick that team. This loss will be with me til I die.… Read more »
Blogs..can you answer a simple yes or no question?..Do you want Arsene gone at the end of this season??
I just have one question…do these players even practice taking corners?
I regret that I am only allowed to give you one thumbs-up.
Do we even practise crosses?
Do we even practise anything?????
Walcott and Arteta take our corners you fool!!!!! Walcott was deliberately barred from takling corners for 70 minutes today by that scumbag Mike Dean. Arteta was clearly still suffering from his injury and probably couldn’t kick the ball properly, but at least he got a good run out before going onto the bench for the Bayern Munich game.
Actually, I am already blocking memories from this game. Who did take those 16 corners?
We had corners ?
Same shit, different year. Changes needed.
I have never seen a person as stubborn and pig-headed as Wenger. Once he thinks he is right, nothing makes him change his way. Even humiliation after humiliation handed to him even by lower league teams.
Yeah, playing like it’s a final each game. Fuck off. It just doesn’t look like our players know what to do when we have the ball in the final third. Gervinho is the reason we didn’t buy anymore in the transfer window? Well that is a relief. Bringing back Henry would even have been better, as he actually knows how to score.
Remember the shambles of our last final? We played exactly like that today.
Havent seen the game. Sounds like a typical performance of this season. Im not gona jump on the bandwagon. Im not surprised, in fact, im pretty calm when writing this. Makes a change. Lets just get this season over with, and deal with squad/coaching/managerial/board issues at the end of the season. On to the next one…….(im so calm, my standards have dropped so low, thanks Arsenal F.C).
Sucker punch!
We bossed possession and somehow lost. Our attack didn’t turn up. I thought Giroud should have been rested. I thought we deserved a goal atleast.
shit of a performance. should have won in the first half. don’t understand why wenger said he is totally for FA cup then put second strings for the starting lineup. does he fancy any chance with bayern munich, who have only conceded 7 in their last 27 matches. gawd! how are we gonna play against munich. spielberg get your screen writer ready, we are expecting another tragedy.
Fuck this shit.
It’s 9 am and now my whole day is fucked.
God damnit Arsenal. Why?