FA: Arsenal vs Manchester United | 21/05/05

[kel varnsen]

man utd need a fox in the box :wink:

finally we play 4-5-1. lets hope its the last time, for all our sakes.

are you having a laugh? we got hammered today and name one time we've actually played some decent football using 4-5-1...? :roll:

kel, are you for or against 4-5-1? cant really tell from your post if you are agreeing or disagreeing with me.

...and i can't tell if you're for or against it... :roll: i guess the beer is getting to me.

anyway, i despise it. we don't have the players for it and it isn't our style. we should stick to what we know, 4-4-2...

 

[Henry IV]

I'm so happy today. OK we were terrible and I always thought Man Utd would win. You could so we were lucky and maybe we were but it's not our problem if Rooney, Scholes, RVN etc can't finish a chance. I think Man Utd's goalscoring problems during the season came back to haunt them. Once it went to penalties I always fancied us because of what happened at Sheffield Utd and the fact that Lehmann is usually worth a penalty save. We were stubborn at the back and it was the sort of performance that Bertie Mee or George Graham would have been proud of. It was great to finish with a trophy, making it four successive seasons of silverware, for the first time since the 1930s. When PV4 stroked home the winner I dived on top of my brother. Seeing Ronaldo cry made my day.

 

[sabret00the]

I hate that we never beat them, i hate the 4-5-1, i hate that wenger didn't have faith in two strikers, i hate that we never had more shots on goal, i hate that we never broke any legs, i hate that the sun didn't shine, i hate that there wasn't more champaigne, i hate that all commentators support man u, but i ****ing love the fact that we ****ing WON!!!!!!

ARSENAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

bergie & reyes were sooooooooooooooooooooooo poor. time and time again reyes is dominated by the united defence.

we need another striker.

 

[JGooner]

Lauren isn't that bad. I wish we had someone quicker and more productive offensively but he is a consistent 7 out of 10 performer and has been almost ever-present in our title victories recently. And he can take a penalty!

 

[Jkreffer]

Reyes was hot and cold. Showed glimpses which is more than others showed. Still who gives a ****.

 

[the dawn raids]

the tactics are what were poor. it was almost as if we played like we were down to 10 men. a cup final is hardly time for experimentation.

i stand corrected about van Persie; he should have started. the only threat to score really. we had a few chances, but no one took them, the extra pass was ALWAYS played. and its not as if Carroll isnt prone to **** ups; we should have made him work a few times, even though the possible shots were from tight angles or far out.

we also had no answer to Ronaldo except to run into him. Laurens lack of pace has to be a concern.

that being said, much credit to Lehmann of course, as well as Senderos and Toure.

we did what was needed today, and thats all that counts, whether we deserved to win or not.

 

[Biggus]

HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha........ oh the irony

 

[AFCG7]

The most satisfying thing about today was that we were so terrible going forward and hardly had a shot on goal, yet they still couldnt beat us.

 

[thegame24]

im just glad that little jinx is over, back to beating them as usual next season i believe.

 

[gooner_329]

It was, in truth, a complete travesty. A sporting robbery of the highest order, with only Lehmann's brilliance and a goal-line clearance from Freddie Ljungberg having kept Arsenal in the game at all.

espnsoccernet


yes! finally luck on our side!

 

[Guns and Arses]

The most satisfying thing about today was that we were so terrible going forward and hardly had a shot on goal, yet they still couldnt beat us.

It's an extraordinarily good defensive display by the CBs and of course the keeper.

 

[quattro]

absolutely f*ckin mental.

we looked second best throughout the game hardly creating anything. but somehow i just felt that if we could hold on and take it to penalties we were going to win it. and we DID. hats off to jens lehmann. he was class the whole game.

three losses this year to the ****. but when it really counted it was ARSENAL on top. gloating rights to the gunners. it makes waiting for august to come around so much sweeter.

oooooooooooooooh YEEEEAAAAAH!

 

[Jinn]

The only shot on goal was RVP's freekick. Agree about 4-5-1 - never again.

 

[Muppy]

1 shot on goal and we won, now is Arsenal going to have the luck that teams like Chelsea and Milan have?

 

[joe3428]

but 4-5-1 was the one that kept us on the game, we lost Th14 - mean no striking force available, wenger knew we couldn't compete with Manu if we play open game.... at some point of the game I think we tried to play 4-4-2....

but who cares! we won the match!

 

[Gunner4Eva]

I dont understand why Wenger will all of a sudden switch to a 4-5-1 and defer from his usual 4-4-2 tactic. Its just crazy. I have no doubt we would've performed much better had we played our usual style.

at some point of the game I think we tried to play 4-4-2....

We did, but I think it was in the 85th minute, or whenever it was Van Persie came on.

 

[Sin-gunner]

The FA cup final really show the weakness of our team and what need to be change.

1) Youngster not experience enough to handle high pressure matches, but of course this can be rectify when they play more next season. (Though i felt that cescs and Senderos have play well in the season and can only get better.)

2)No replacement for our ageing leading player(Bergkamp & Pires), thought they are still great for our team but their lack of pace will distrupt the wengerball system. This will probably be the achilles heel of our team next season.

 

[satan_beckham]

i have nothing against the 4-5-1 formation, wad wierd is that, bergkamp is that target man, thing is hes a writhdrawn striker, so defintely he will have a bad game......

maybe wenger have learn after seeing liverpool play i nthe champions league, next season champions league, we use such tactics and we will do good!!!

 

[thierrys_girl]

The 4-5-1 formation didn’t work at all and hopefully now we have learnt that this sort of structure doesn’t work for us at all. I can’t believe Utd played so well as still didn’t manage to get on the scoresheet in 120 minutes, I suppose we can thank Jens and Freddie for that.

As someone else said it seems that luck is finally on our side but then again maybe this is our revenge for that 2-0 defeat that ended our unbeaten run but all that really doesn’t matter now. We won the cup and that is that.

Well done lads