Arsenal Vs Middlesbrough | Premiership 15/03/08

[Trina]

The thing is,both Man U and Chelsea have a game in hand.

If Man U win theirs, they go 3 points clear at the top.
If Chelsea win theirs, they are joint second with us.

I just can't believe it to be honest and I am so disappointed. The thought of being able to drop to 3rd is just unbelievable.

[MistressA]

The thing is,both Man U and Chelsea have a game in hand.

If Man U win theirs, they go 3 points clear at the top.
If Chelsea win theirs, they are joint second with us.

I just can't believe it to be honest and I am so disappointed. The thought of being able to drop to 3rd is just unbelievable.

i know what you mean. if anything we deserve to be in the top too come the end of the season.

I hope we can beat chelsea, and pool can beat united. then we beat pool and chelsea and united draw.

[Windass10]

We have bottled it gutting indeed, lookslike its over going to be hard now,

[rogerthornhill]

The drawn matches are so expensive, 10 drawn matches = 20 points dropped, that's just one point short of losing seven matches.

[Alex]

I now know why my hair is going grey, it's the stress of being an Arsenal fan

[MissArsenal]

Are we cursed? I just CAN'T believe it. I couldn't see the 2nd half, I came back at home with a good feeling like we won them...And 1-1...

I am not ashamed to say that I cried...I don't want to think it's over now. I want Arsenal to win THIS title!

And f*** this f*****g referee!!!!!! Wenger will complains for a good reason now!

I'm so disappointed. WOW such a great week-end. Don't know if our Gunners can do it...Just dreaming of an United's defeat, or something like that. I'll wait Chelsea's game on sunday, if we can't win it,...I don't want to imagine that.

Anyway, we are the Arsenal.

[arseman]

You know, I think the fact that we were expected to win these games may have hindered us, next up is Chelscum, where we'll be the underdogs, and that might be in our favour.

[Gunner1988]

Well after today you know that Lady Luck has left Ashburton Grove. Utd and the Russian FC get out of jail in matches were they could have slipped up and Arsenal get rough justice again. I haven't seen Ade's 'goal' so I can't comment (no stream for 30 minutes!). AW's interview on the BBC said the ref says that it is offside because the intent was to pass the ball to the Arsenal player. AW said he doesn't know the law well enough. It sounds to me like Halsey trying to cover his **** again. Well after today Arsenal should not think about the league and just think about each game as it comes - win game by game and see whether Lady Luck can turn again Fergie's boys or the Money Launderers.

Its going to be tough with that run in.

The shame about that game is two decisions let Boro park the team bus in front of goal. Arsenal couldn't break them down - there was always a shin, calf, knee or something in the way to stop the fourteenth pass and just hoof it forward.

Ade wasn't able to win anything in the air vs Huff n Puff and Wheater. A couple of times when Arsenal players were left unmarked in the box the headers were off from Touré, Gallas and Ade.

Arsenal missed their 'get out jail free' moment when Cesc was clean through. You just know that Christiano Ronaldo Ronaldo or Fat Frank would have buried that. Funny that it was two ex-Arsenal players that frustrated the Gunners - Ali and Schwarzer (who spent a short time at Highbury early in his career I believe).

I don't want to criticise Ade too much after all the goals he has scored this season, but he still loses a lot of possession with his dodgy first touch. He just needs to learn to hold the receiving foot a little limper - not hard for a pro footballer to learn. The other thing that annoys me is that his first pass seems to always be backwards which stopped the momentum of fast attacks on so many occasions - he could simply turn on the ball or nip it forward now and again.

Good points today - Cesc was up for it and hungry. Walcott looked good when he came on - more so when he ran at players than when he sent in those long crosses. Touré and Gallas added a lot to the attack when they surged forwards. Eboué and Sagna provided a lot or urgency down the right - although Eboué still has no end product (he is more likely to score when trying to pass and make a good pass when trying to score!).

Bad points are the continued lack of an option to muscle a way through a packed penalty area. Considering that they are big lads and decent headers of the ball, Ade and Bendtner don't really cause defenders to loose sleep over their ariel defence.
I was annoyed at people for blaming the referee at half time but finally it hit me, he cost us the game. We threw everything at Middlesborough in the 2nd half but still we couldn't win it. Looking back at the decisions, he had a 100% clear view of Boateng's back pass to Adebayor yet he got given offside, ruling out the goal. The camera angle clearly shows that he see's it, how can he say he didn't? Then he gave them a free kick which lead to the goal, when Adebayor kept his eye on the ball, Boateng looked across to Adebayor and then proceeded to fly in with no intent to get the ball, but then won a free kick because he wasn't strong enough.

I'm not going to complain about Borough's goal because I see no problem with it at all, Aliadiere's intervention was minimum and although he scored, he didn't touch the ball or interview with anyone's view in that phase of play so for me, he's onside. However, the 93:58 the ball goes out for a corner, another minute should be been added on for the incident which happened prior but it wasn't and he blew, now I'm not saying we would of scored by come on, stick to the time.

The performance of ourselves now was poor in the first half, conceding f**k us up big time. This allowed Borough to sit back and defend a lead, something which psychologically gives them a boost rather than just holding on to a point. The Mido incident after we scored summed it up when Mido kicked off and smashed it out of play for a throw in, Middlesborough thought they were in the NFL, gaining yards.

We lacked invention in the 1st 45, Adebayor couldn't control and distribute, Hleb refused to shoot when he had acre's of space and van Persie was clearly rusty. Hleb outside a packed penalty box is like having Phillipe Senderos as a playmaker, it's doesn't work. He needs some kind of room so instead of dribbling his way through, he should cross or shoot. Not only did they stick 4 players in the corner at one point to stop him, they actually held the ball in their own corner to waste time which is pathetic.

The thing that really gets to me is that Adebayor will now start against Chelsea, when he doesn't deserve to at all. Bendtner should of started today, when he came off the bench he gave us something Adebayor didn't have, control. He plucked the ball out of the air and distributed without trying to dribbler, Adebayor always tries to dribble past someone or try a stepover before laying it off. van Persie is rusty and I think we'll go 4-5-1 at Stamford Bridge, does van Persie fit in? I want Bendtner to start against Chelsea, but I know he won't, which disappoints me.

We've given United a potential 3 point lead and handed Chelsea the chance to take 2nd. We've shot ourselves in the foot but most of all we've put pressure on ourselves. Finishing 3rd after such a promising start will kill the players, they were so hungry and now we've just burnt out, something which the media will use against us sooo much.

I'm trying to sound not too negative here but 3rd place looks most likely unless we prove at Stamford Bridge next Saturday that we are good enough, imagine losing there and at Old Trafford, being 9 points off the top and 6 points off Chelsea. Then facing games against Bolton and Liverpool, don't know about you but I'm excited.
And, I think AW was right - the result was disappointing not so much the performance.

[bigben]

F*CK!

[singaporegooner]

A few things i gotta get off my chest :
1) ref's a sucker and shit, but we should have buried the game WITHOUT having to worry about the ref's intervention.
2) we should not be in a position we blame the ref for robbing us, we are miles ahead of Boro in terms of technical ability and skills
3) while the result is very very disappointing, RVP back in action is a plus point, and hopefully he doesn't suffer any ill-effects after today's game. We NEED him for Chelski next week
4) what's happened to Ade after he cut his hair? He STOPPED scoring except for the Milan game, which was practically served up to him by Theo
5) doctor says i have hypertension now, i suspect its got to do with being an Arsenal fan

Games over, time to focus on the next match. I hope something magical happens and Rosicky recovers to take his place next week.
We can do with a full squad now with the whole title run-in being so bloody tight now...

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!

[Leody]

Right then... as you guys will learn I often watch the games late. I TIVO them and watch later or I go over to my mate's house to watch them on his HUGE TV. Thus, I am not here too much to post live during matches. Anyway, I didn't post right when I got back yesterday because I was a bit upset and didn't want to sound like a madman.

First, the ref was indeed rubbish. That should not have been an issues as we should still have beat a team like 'boro, but that was a horrid performance put in by him. Some of his decisions were mind boggling. So woefully inconsistent, he would blow for a foul on us then 2mins later 'boro would commit the same sort of offense and it's now a foul on us again...

Helb looked good today. Fabregas had himself a solid game. Toure had a solid return and a goal to boot. However, this is not our season for the league. Granted, I'm not going to give up hope because it is March and we were in the lead going into this weekend so naturally we have what it takes to win it this season. We may be good enough THIS season, but if you can't win matches like the last 4 we have played then you're not good enough to be champions in most seasons.

Not giving up hope, but I don't have much left at this point...

[Fabrestuta]

Not having a go Leody, but I thought apart from a few dazzling runs Hleb was average. His passing was below par (for him) and he still refuses to shoot for some reason, he'd rather pass the ball to a teammate who's surrounded by defenders when he has a clear sight of goal from 20 yards.

Halsey was muck, but we can't possibly claim that we didn't win because of some bad decisions, we didn't deserve to win and thats about it.

[Leody]

Can't argue that... I thought he stood out more than the rest of the midfield outside of Fabregas though. Perhaps I've just gotten so used to seeing him pass all the time that I don't expect or look for him to do anything but.

Also, I was drinking while watching the game... and then as it started to get deeper and deeper into the game I started drinking more and more and faster and faster... Then after the game it was all over, I was drinking till I couldn't remember my name. Made for a long morning this morning though.

[Fabrestuta]

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.

[ozgooner]

according to the here australian boro keeper schwatzer had a blinder . i don't think i wanna see the replay of this game today were we just unlucky and schwartzer played outta his skin or were we just shit ???