Arsenal Vs Spurs | Carling Cup SF (1)

[Inchpräctice]

i no the midfield was bad, but on the few occasions bendtner came short to get the ball he played hopeless passes to robin/eduardo or he would just lose it.

our midfield was a disgrace tonight, but we can;t put the blame just on them.

BTW who else thinks that taore's free kick was quite possibly the worst free kick ever!!!

It was a terrible free kick and Denilsons weren't much better.

[Git]

I still think we should field the reserves next leg.

We just need to ring the changes.

Gilberto off. Diarra on.

Eddy up front.

God, any combination where balls are fed to our forwards and our passing isn't so bloody awful.

[absolutely_fabregas]

i thought senderos played well when the ball was on the ground near him, he got caught with the ball over the top a bit too often though, i thought hoyte did ok esp when he went to CB

i dont think denilson should take our indirect free kicks, fabianski shouldnt have thrown the ball to denilson for their goal, and we took far too many gambles dribbling it out of defence

bendtner won a lot of headers and flick ons so that was encouraging, although not a lot of them ended productively

it wasnt a great perormance from us, but when you sit back and think about it rationally, they had ther first team out against our reserves plus RVP(whos just gettin his fitness back after his injury), and they still couldnt beat us

[niko197]

yeah, bendtner was disgrace, and that free kick...oh my god..he was traing to hit spurs fans i guess...
next game diarra/flamini for gilberto(he don`t wanna play i think everyone can see that), eduardo in front and i would really like to see RVP on the left!!!!!!!!!!

[niko197]

it wasnt a great perormance from us, but when you sit back and think about it rationally, they had ther first team out against our reserves plus RVP(whos just gettin his fitness back after his injury), and they still couldnt beat us

i agree with that

[Younggooner08]

I couldnt watch the second half. we were so bad in the first i didnt wanna know what happened. Thank god for Theo, I LOVE YOU

[Gunflash]

We were poor by all acounts. But Spurs still can't beat the Arsenal! They may have an away goal, which gives them a theoretical advantage but in practice their defence is so porous that Arsenal should have little problem wiping out that away goal in the second leg. I'd make us favourites to reach the final and make Spurs pay for missing their chances.

[rodney]

Absolutely delighted with the result from that game after the performance we put in. Today Spurs were the better team and pretty much were better all over the pitch. So I am really happy to come away with a draw and still being in the game. Spurs only have themselves to blame for not winning this match. They had enough chances, very good one's at that, in order to win the match. If we're going to win at the Lane we need to produce a far better performance than that. We should get Gilberto out of the team and put Diarra in the team. I really hope Diarra hasn't left, as I can't see why he wouldn't have been put in the team, he has played in every other Carling Cup game.

First half we started off pretty well and had the large majority of possession and were looking threatening when we were going forward. We created the first good chance after a great ball from Van Persie to Hoyte who put a good ball into the box and Cerny made a good save from Bendtners header. After that Spurs pretty much took control of the game. O'Hara curled a free kick just wide and Malbranque missed two really good chances. The first after a pretty decent tackle from the abysmal Senderos on Robbie Keane, the ball fell to him and with plenty of time Malbranque stabbed it wide. Then after a great ball from Berbatov who was easily the best player on the pitch, stuck out like a sore thumb, Keane crossed for Malbranque who headed a pretty good chance wide. Then the goal came and there was two big errors. The first was Gilberto watched Jenas run past him, great credit to Jenas to get on the end of the ball from Keane, but younger and more determined legs in Diarra wouldn't have allowed it. The second was the positioning of Senderos throughout the move was useless. Fair play to Spurs they deserved their lead at half time and we certainly needed to change something.

We brought Van Persie who tired towards the end of the first half and Djourou off and brought Sagna and Eduardo on. Imo Wenger should have started with Eduardo and given Van Persie the last half an hour which would have given the team a real life seeing him brought on. Spurs came out and didn't control the game, but looked very comfortable and we didn't look like breaking them down. We lacked real penetration on the wings and without Hleb and Rosicky we lose a lot of creativity. Theo needs to do more in the final third to get past his man. His tactic at the moment is just simply head down and run. He needs to look up and go for a pass, or learn to put a decent ball into the box instead of running down blind alleys.

More clumsy defending nearly allowed Berbatov in again and for once his touch let him down. I just can't see how we're going to get away with Senderos at the back for five EPL games. Tonight he came up against two very good strikers and was simply terroised. His positional sense is atrocious and there was far too many times when he just backed off Berbatov, the Defoe chance at the end a good example. Keane broke through again and Senderos was nowhere, but Hoyte did well to close the space down and Keane fired wide.

We got a major slice of luck in then getting our equaliser. We had begun putting pressure on Spurs and a superb ball from Eduardo through to Theo who left Lee and King. Lee got a last ditch tackle in, but only managed to divert the ball into Theo's midrift and past Cerny. I was delighted with the goal, as we simply didn't look like breaking Spurs down before that. Theo came off injured after and hopefully it is nothing too serious. Spurs still had a great chance to win the match after I think it was Berbatov played Lennon through he played the ball accross and Defoe fired over. He should have done a lot better and it was a great chance to win the match.

Was a really disappointing performance and we will need to be a lot better if we're going to win at the Lane. We haven't lost though despite our poor performance and are certainly not out of this tie. We still have a very good chance of going through and with an improved performance we definitely can.

[bigben]

i thought hoyte did ok esp when he went to CB

Me too, he was more reassuring than both the swiss lads, i think he should be considered as a replacement for kolo as the two other replacements didn't look as confident as he was.

Now, what i never don't want to see Diaby in the left flank again, absolutely useless, i don't remember him crossing or even breaking in succesfully. so le boss might be better off considering a reserve winger, than playing diaby in the left, who could do much better in the middle.

Gilberto really lacked motivation, and denilson is still learning the game, he's 18 so I wont be so hard on him.

Bender wants to redeem him self, and has worked his ass off up front, but as everyone else mentioned, he wasn't so succesful.

I don't think it was a good game for us, too much mistakes, some times we were really off the game, and we have been very lucky to score and don't conceed even more goals, and most importantly, I'm not happy because I know the lads can do much much more better, obviously the final result is very good, but if it was a 1-1 playing otherwise, I would have been happier.

[Windass10]

I think we was lucky and credit to Spurs they outplayed us allover no doubt about it, Berbartov was class in the first half amazing indeed. We on the other hand did struggle but a draw isnt end of the world.

[ozgooner]

why wasn't gilberto handed the captains armband in gallas' absence , did he not start or somethin ?
if he was overlooked that tells me he will be leavin us , he must of fallen out with le boss

[StLGooner]

why wasn't gilberto handed the captains armband in gallas' absence , did he not start or somethin ?
if he was overlooked that tells me he will be leavin us , he must of fallen out with le boss

he played the whole game actually. not sure why he wasn't captain, maybe he's trying to boost senderos' ego/confindence, since he'll probably be the one filling in for King Kolo.

[rvtheace]

What a lucky result that was! Thank goodness it was the spurs, who really cannot seem to stand the idea of beating us.

Terrible performance.

[Cheese]

why wasn't gilberto handed the captains armband in gallas' absence , did he not start or somethin ?
if he was overlooked that tells me he will be leavin us , he must of fallen out with le boss

No Gilberto said at the start of the season, after not being given the armband he wanted one of the Carling cup players to be captain during the competition.

so far it's been Senderos, Fabianski, Senderos, Senderos who have had the armband in the Carling cup.

[Libertine]

I'm not unhappy with that result.
We played poorly but still nicked a draw.

I thought Traore went to sleep for their goal. The midfield allowed Jenas to run but it was Traore who allowed him too much space before reacting too late to the situation.
He did it a few times last night but his pace normally got him out of trouble.
Seeing as Diaby is looking very uncomfortable on the left of midfield, i'd be tempted to have a look at Traore in that position for the 2nd leg.
Diaby could switch into the centre and partner Denilson.

The yids must be choked by that result last night.
They must wonder if they'll ever beat us?

Bring on the 2nd leg!