Arsenal Vs Middlesbrough | Premiership 15/03/08

[Fabrestuta]

Schwartzer had a good game, but it wasn't as if he played, or had to play, the game of his life.

Almunia probably had to make the more difficult saves.

[She_Gunner_Wales]

Oh don't get me wrong, I didn't think Hleb was terrible. He just doesn't seem to have that jump he had earlier in the season. To be fair it wasn't just him, yesterdays game was possibly the first time I could say that Sagna was shite.

There seems to be a sort of malaise thats seeped into the team lately.

Not sure if it was just me being bias with my red tinted glasses on but on the subject of Hleb, did anyone else notice that he seemed to get foulded constantly & nothing get done.
Ade was at the other end of the spectrum, ref kept blowing for a foul BY Ade when they were perfectly good legit challenges just with Ade's height & build he was getting the better of the players, muscling them off.

We all know the ref was shit but at the end of the day we SHOULD have scored from the other chances we had, just was one of those days where the ball couldnt find the back of the net, seems to be happening more often these days.

[Leody]

Schwartzer was good, I wouldn't say he had a blinder or anything though. He did make a good save from a Fabregas chance that saw him through on goal. Other than that we never REALLY tested him. A few decent saves other than that one, but nothing that I would classify as a WOW save. Or to put it another way, had he not made them it would have been a let down for his team.

Gotta love the stat line though... according to ESPN.com (which is wrong alot)

We had 57% possession to their 43%

We had 17(9) shots to their 4(1)...

And then the stat that matters... 1-1 on the scoreboard. I'm having flashbacks to last year where we would DOMINATE a game, leave several chances and then the opposition would score with their 1 shot of the game and pack it in for a draw.

[Fabrestuta]

^ The West Ham game comes to mind, we had 198 shots on target and still lost.

[Leody]

^ The West Ham game comes to mind, we had 198 shots on target and still lost.

Thanks... I'm not going to sleep tonight thinking about that...

[Inchpräctice]

^ The West Ham game comes to mind, we had 198 shots on target and still lost.

That was the first thing that occurred to me after the game. The striking similarity between this one and the West Ham one. We have hundreds of shots on goal but we can't score and they have one and score it.
It's also a bit like the PSV game that knocked us out of the CL last season.
I hope the boss has also noticed this recurring pattern because something has to be done about it.

As long as we continue to struggle to breakdown teams who park the bus in front of goal and as long as we are still vulnerable to balls over the top this will keep happening.
It seems that several times this season we've had to watch our back four running towards goal with one arm in the air trying to persuade the ref that it's offside while the opposition effortlessly sprint past and score.
We either need faster defenders or we need to be better prepared for this situation and stop relying on the linesman to bail us out.

The ref had a shocking game but then we can't keep blaming him because the ref had an unbelievable shocker in the Milan game and we still won it.
I worry that teams are starting to figure us out and they will all come to the Emirates and put 11 men behind the ball and hope to get a lucky penalty or a quick counter attack.
I've also noticed that in games when we are totally dominating like that one, our back four lose concentration because they are so rarely needed.
Something needs to change fast if we're going to win anything.

[SE13]

Dear Supporter,

It was a very disappointing result for us on Saturday because we have now dropped eight points in the last four games. When you're in the race for the championship, especially when you have the opponents we have, that's a big disappointment.

There were a number of talking points in the Middlesbrough game itself. Mido was sent off for a high challenge on Gael Clichy but I don't think there was any intention there. He hit Gael on top of his head because he just headed the ball at the moment Mido wanted to play the ball.

I believe the referee gave the red card when he saw the injury, because Gael was bleeding on the top of his head, but it was very difficult to assess that Mido wanted to hit him on his head.

Was Middlesbrough's goal offside? They say the offside situation is judged every time the ball is played and of course the ball wasn't played to Jeremie Aliadiere at first. But, in the spirit of the game, he was offside.

Emmanuel Adebayor was ruled offside even though he was played through by George Boateng, the Boro midfielder. The referee, Mark Halsey, explained to me afterwards that the intention of Robin van Persie was to play the ball to Adebayor, who was offside. That means the deflection of the ball doesn't count anymore. I didn't know that but, at least I learned something new on Saturday!

The result is disappointing but, for now, we don't know how much damage it has done to our title hopes. We'll see that at the end of the season. A draw is not good enough but we have to keep our belief, our spirit, and focus on the next game.

Thanks for your support.

[gaelclichy]

come on gunners...i think the result will be 3-0....
cesc.rvpand theo will goal!

[She_Gunner_Wales]

come on gunners...i think the result will be 3-0....
cesc.rvpand theo will goal!

LOL aint you in the wrong matchday chat?