Marseille Vs Arsenal | Champions League 19/10/2011

[friedslice]

A solid win but the lack of class in the midfield stands out a mile and we'd have dropped more points in the premiership. there's nothing coming from our midfield this season, and i wonder why, Wilshere, Nasri and Fabregas out of the side and no proper replacements

Starting Theo and Arshavin with RVP on his own is basically playing with 9 men (RVP left isolated).

[friedslice]

YES

That's just the kind of game this team can learn from; defend properly, play as a collective and you can always get something out of a game

Don't you think it was a fluky win?

Nope nothing like yours yesterday

I'm sure an avid fan like yourself can see that

I'm not really sure what you're on about. I asked a question as I didn't watch the second half,

You're such a WUM.

Nothing flukey about it.


Really pleased with that performance. Very disciplined and patient and every player worked their arse off to keep possession and cancel out their attacks. We fully deserved that result.
I must say that in the last few games our squad has worked really, really hard to get the results so fair play to them for that.
I just hope that if we get a few wins under our belt they don't become complacent.

Bit of a Jekyll & Hyde from Santos, awesome against Sunderland and poor tonight, what happened there?
Kos was a beast again, when he plays well he really is good.
Great composure from Ramsey at the end to win the game. Ironic that he's been playing so badly lately but then he does that.
Also ironic that Djourou who aint the world's best RB played an important part in that goal.
Happy for the travelling fans who schlepped all that way and stood in the cold to be rewarded in the end.

He came up against a decent player.

[CynicalGooner]

He said City were so just wondered if his views were the same that's all.

You were.

[Est83]

Missed the game as I was at work... can anyone give me a short summary?

[Inchpräctice]

Missed the game as I was at work... can anyone give me a short summary?

Tactical stalemate as both teams defended very well (yes, even us) and cancelled each other out.
Very few chances created at either end.
We dominated possession especially in the second half and despite our patient build-up play we couldn't break them down for 92 minutes, until Ramsey (sub) scored with a cool finish from a Djourou cross in injury time.

We went into the game as underdogs against the French champions who had recently thumped Dortmund and came out with a scrappy, hard fought and deserved win.
Kos was a beast, Santos, Theo and Arsh were pants.

[Est83]

Thanks mate.

Sounds good, I'd quite happily trade a little (just a little) midfield chemistry for some resiliance... because how long have we lacked resiliance!?!

Our supposed hardest fixtures are done and dusted and we're sitting top of the group... plus Dortmond lost to Olympiakos!!! Things are slowly getting better me thinks!

[Leody]

Thought Lille were French champions...

[friedslice]

What winds me up is our attacking tactics - as well as the defense - has gone to pot the past 5 years. It's like wenger only trains 2 touch mini football with possession the key to victory over goals scored. More than ever we seem to play sideways passes with no end product.
Re-watching the match as i speak, 54th minute we broke free through an empty midfield, Arteta released Jenkinson to run through the middle and he had theo in acres of space on the shoulder of the defenders just screaming for a through ball with a massive gap in the defence in which to play it and instead he held it up and got tackled.
Once upon a time Pires, Ljungberg etc would have thred that ball without needing to think about it and Henry would have been in on goal putting us 1 up. That was our major source of goals (defence splitting through balls) but even when they're available to play this current team choose a side ways pass. It's slow, it's aimless and it's the same old story with this current side.
The woeful defending masks the fact our attack is impotent.

I'm now 60 minutes into the 2nd time watching this match and I still don't think I've seen Theo touch the ball...please f**k OFF YOU USELESS c***.

[friedslice]

Missed the game as I was at work... can anyone give me a short summary?

Sideways pass, sideways pass, sideways pass, pressure from defence, backwards pass....sideways pass, sideways pass, cross to noone.
Walcott and Arshavin annonymous throughout, Rosicky's passing poor, RVP isloated upfront and a general overall lack of creativity, innovation or intensity.

it was a battling performance and good 3 points, a fighting, defensive effort, but mostly the same old thing, in the premiership it'd have been more dropped points.

watching it again now it's just making me angry just how shit theo and arshavin are (as we're attacking and arshavin misses controls a simple ball inside the box to go out for a goal kick).

[friedslice]

AHHH It's enfuriating the number of times we had their defence stretched on such a big pitch but the final ball or touch that would have taken us through clear on goal was lacking every time. I guess that's to be expected when you lose 3 top class midfielders from the team but the lack of quality showed. Arshavin has either given it away or miscontrolled it breaking up several attacks, jenkinson missed that superb passing opportunity to theo, RVP just messed up his control when a simple control and pass would have had the overlapping Gervinho through on goal and Theo when actually getting the ball one on one with the keeper miss controls it and falls over AS USUAL.

So frustrating, just glad i know we scored....in the end

[Arsenal~Fanatic]

It was one of the best collective performances of the season so far imo . The team
played like a unit , defended as a team .We looked like the team in control . We were disciplined and played
on the counter really well . We got bodies in the box in the second half which paid rich dividends . I mean i find
it hilarious when people call it a flukey win.If we play like the way we did yesterday we will have a bagful of
points by the end of the season .

My ten commandments

1] Both the CB's dominant in the air as well as ground . Kos particularly had a tremendous game

2] I have been very vocal about Theo's non performance and yesterday's game was another example .
Forget about quality , none of his cross cleared the first man , its simply atrocious . He was been the worst
player for AFC this season by far .

3] Arshavin looked sharp in the previous game . I thought he would continue to improve but he was useless
in the game .

4] Alex Song despite having booked early on , was a monster .He won so many crucial challenges in
the middle of the park.

5] Rosicky looked decent a few misplaced passes aside. He has really looked sharp and enthusiastic all season
and yesterday was no different .

6] Santos was little clumsy could have been sent off . Jenkinson had a decent game .

7]RVP had a quiet game .

8]Arteta did well but nothing great .

9]I had said before the match Gervinho provides more than Theo but still looks way off his best .
Gervinho has this nasty habit of taking the ball on his own till the touchline , neither taking a shot
nor passing the ball . It can be really annoying .At-least he looked sharp .

10] I hope Ramsey's goal would help him regain his confidence.

THe highlight of the match for me was , the way we were disciplined while defending .
We never looked like conceding yesterday .

[dannyjohnson]

Must win  

[Inchpräctice]

Thought Lille were French champions...

Sorry I meant nine times champions. Won a few cups last season as well.

[whee]

THe highlight of the match for me was , the way we were disciplined while defending .
We never looked like conceding yesterday .

Pretty much agree with most of your post, but the thing that stands out for me was the quote above.

There was a moment in the first half where Valbuena got in behind Santos and slid a ball into the box. Song hadn't tracked his man and all the player needed to do was angle it across Ches. Fortunately, it slid wide.

Much like the Dortmund game, if we defend like that and come up against a team with quality up front, we're going to be in trouble.

[Forest]

I was worried as Song started doing his Essien impression again alot of the time, esp in the first half but 2nd we deff tightened up defensively as Song and the FBs didnt go forward too much.