Arsenal Vs Birmingham | Premiership 12/01/08

[rachel83]

Man U 4 Newcastle 0 not even full time

we really needed a win today and why we didnt i wont know untill later when i see the game

make that 5-0. Hat-trick for Ronaldo

[AFC RED ARMY]

[AFC RED ARMY]

6 FUKIN NIL

[rachel83]

Man U 4 Newcastle 0 not even full time

we really needed a win today and why we didnt i wont know untill later when i see the game

make that 5-0. Hat-trick for Ronaldo

make that 6-0...

[niko197]

f**k, i really hate them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and that pu**y ronaldo!!

[arseman]

oh for fucks sake they couldn't even keep it respectable, the morons..

they visit the emirates stadium in a couple of weeks, expect them to be all fired up, play the game of their lives, and sneak a draw...

[AFC RED ARMY]

SMITH 0 RED CARD

[rvtheace]

Unfortunately, couldn't watch the second half thanks to stupid cable.

What an unfortunate result. We were playing so well and did not put away our chances. There goes top spot for now. Let's hope we manage to recover it!

[SE13]

Can we keep that game for the relevant thread please.... viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3660

Keep this one for our game.....

[MistressA]

I ha a bad feeling about this game

Something about it just made me think of last year

We had to slip up again sometime and I just hope we can learn from this and win the rest of the games for the rest of this month

Pressure is increasing with the mancs now back on top with a better gd and Chelsea not so far behind us.

Hopefully wenger can sort out the team and fix the problems

[She_Gunner_Wales]

I didnt get to watch the game, so what if Walcott had a bad day?
Things cant go our way every game & i didnt hear anyone complaining when Theo saved us from embarrasment on Wednesday against the yids in the Carling Cup.

It is not a case of one bad day (which today was diabolical) it is a case of too many bad days. I have never seen a player that has so many areas of his game that he needs to work on to be competent. I know he is young but he is not ready to be in our team at the moment or in the near future. He does not seem to have learnt much over the last year which is suprising. Believe me i like Walcott and am itching for him to succeed but nevertheless i cannot deny that he is nowhere near good enough to wear an Arsenal shirt at the moment.

Sorry but i find that whole paragraph a little hypocritical, on one hand your saying he is not good enough, on the next your saying your itching for him to succeed & he needs to work on x-amount areas.

Dont you think that is partly the reason why he hasnt started every game? Theo has made (20 apps)this season, 10 starts, 10 as subs.
Its clear, at times, he lacks confidence, but surely that is the reason Wenger is sticking with him, so Theo has got to be doing something in the training ground to warrant this.
Im 100% behind him & i dont think sticking him back in the reserves is the answer, he needs pitch time @ top level, he'll come good, i have faith in the kid.

I dont think we will agree on Theo at the moment, so i think its prob best that we agree to disagree.

[rodney]

What an absolute awful day that was. London transport is an absolute f***ing joke. The trains terminate at Millhill (the next stop from me) for the next six weeks and all they have to offer is two f***ing buses to get to the game meaning I'll need to leave about three hours early just to get to the bloody game for the next six weeks. They've also raised the cost of a bloody travelcard. £7.00 for a travelcard and they can't even get me to the place that I want. Got to the game at 2.59, was bloody lucky with the trains and buses and had to go a completely differernt route to the one they suggested. London f***ing transport

Onto the game. We started off very well and had two early chances, Ade came close and Taylor did well to save his shot. Could have been a penalty as Schmits was all over him and Ade lost his balance, but too soft for a penalty. Then out of nothing Kapo played a superb through ball to Jerome who ran onto it and had a great strike at goal and Almunia made a great save. I was right behind it and going down would have been a real problem for us. The little clenched fist showed it mean a lot to him.

We thengot back on top of the game and Hleb produced an absolute superb ball into the box and how Eduardo didn't put in I don't know. If he had put it either side of Taylor and it was a goal, instead he put it straight at Taylor. It was an absolute blinding ball in by Hleb and makes you wonder where those types of crosses have been over the last few years. Definitely something I'd like to see more of with Ade and Eduardo who has shown he isn't bad in the air.

Then after some superb play from Eduardo and Hleb put Eduardo through on goal and Stephen Kelly made a good tackle on Eduardo who dithered on the ball for too long. I'm assuming to Down it looked like Kelly went through the player in order to get the ball and that's why he gave a penalty. Ade usually puts it to the bottom right and Taylor had dived that way long before Ade even took the penalty, however it was so well placed he still couldn't get to it. 1-0 up and deservedly so and I expected us to really push on and grab a second as soon as possible.

Fabregas and Hleb played some more superb stuff and Cesc was unlucky to see his shot deflected over. We didn't seem to really push on and attempt to get the second which would have killed Birmingham off. We seem contempt to sit on what we had and that in the end cost us. If we had really pushed on and attacked Birmingham I really thought that they were there for the taking. I'm sure the lads will learn from that and Wenger will show them that they need to kill teams off after taking the lead.

We came out for the second half and were completely asleep. We were strolling and Birmingham took advantage of that and caught us napping. They won a corner and O'Conner won a header and an unlucky deflection off Cesc took it into the back of the net. I really thought that we had seen the last of goals like that at the Emirates. It's what cost us so much last season at the Emirates and since we've cut that out the home form has improved dramatically.

One point on today was how awful Theo was, he was so bad he made Eboue look like a good player. Every time he got the ball he lost it and although he usually does that today it was worse than usual. There was such a clear difference between him and the rest of the team. He seems to lack the quality and ability to be a first team regular on the right hand side and I can't see him getting a starting slot up front. I really think we need to go out and sign a quality winger in this transfer window. It would give the squad a massive lift to see us bring a new face in and give us that something extra we need in order to take the title off United.

Senderos had a good chance with a header from a free kick from Cesc, but Taylor saved well. Fair play to Senderos I am always the first to criticise him but he played really well today and won 3-4 brilliant tackles. Looked a lot calmer and I was impressed overall with him. We broke through again Eduardo getting through on the left hand side, but again he waited and we just couldn't force the ball in. Birmingham by now just couldn't get out of the penalty area. As soon as they got it they gave it straight back to us. Hleb and Fabregas were again at the heart of another superb move only for Bendtner to put it wide. Time was running out and the players were giving their best and the atmosphere was really good. We were willing the ball in and credit Birmingham they defended very well today.

With the clock running down Bendtner hit a poor shot over the bar which pissed me off so much, as it was a ridiculous effort to attemt and went well over when we had an excellent opportunity. Bendtner atoned though and played a great ball through to hleb who played the ball accross seemingly for Gallas to put into the empty net, but somehow it didn't go in. We had completely piled on the pressure and given everything for the win, but just didn't have it in us to unlock their defence. Right at the end Cesc had a great shot from 30 yards which missed the top corner by inches.

Very disappointed to have dropped two points at home especially to Birmingham a team I really expect us to be beating. We just didn't have a cutting edge in the final third today. Maybe due to the fact we were missing Robin and Tommy who both are superb at unlocking defences, but that tells me maybe are squad isn't strong enough. Which as I said earlier suggests to me that we should bring someone in who when we have our star players out can produce that something special to win the match, as in Diaby and Theo it isn't there.

We're now second joint on points with United and must let the disappointment of today's result push us on to better things.

[arseman]

Another great report, Rods

I'm with you, Hlebs cross for the Dudu header was a peach, makes you wonder if we wouldn't be better off playing him in left midfield more often (given that he isn't averse to using his left foot), and play rosicky on the right...

[Cheese]

2 points droped at home

After a week of talking about wether our back four would be ok with the absence of Kolo Toure while on ACN duty it was actully our play makers Cesc, Hleb and Walcott who we should have been talking about.

Crazy as it sounds, Senderos was probabaly our best player yesterday which is very embarrassing especially with the fact we were the home team and after going one nil up in the first half we seemed to controll the game up until half time.

I had just got to my seat when Birmingham scored at the beginning of the second half and for the next 45 minutes had nothing to cheer about and found myself struggling to believe that Arsenal couldn't find an answer or a second goal, truely shocking!

At full time Frank McLintock was the extra time entertainment and obviously felt the fans needed to be entertained after watching 90 minutes of shite. he was brutally honest and said Man Utd are to strong and would win the league and that our forwards were shit today. I think he may of had a drink or two during the game because there was a fair bit of swearing lol.

I do keep reminding myself though, it's not all doom and gloom we are still joint top of the league and in three cup competitions so lets battle on and look forward.

I enjoyed the rest of my day as i meet up with a group of Irish blokes over from Limerick and we had a goon evening going from the Rocket to Phibbers (formaly known as Tommy Flyns) and then around 11 took a walk to Finsbury Park into 12 pinns, so even though Arsenal didn't round of my day to make it perfect we still had a good time

Fulham away next, Bring them on!

[absolutely_fabregas]

i knew eck was gonna take points off us, hes a flukey manager and he will take some more big scalps this season

cant believe garry o'connor scored he is a useless lump of shite in general


another week in the topsy turvy title run, expect more ups and downs with us an man u



ps their 6-0 wn, is good on paper but having seen the game an newcastles situation i ont think the result should hold any relevance they were gifted 4 goals, one didnt cross the line, newcastle had one wongly ruled out...