PL: Arsenal vs Newcastle United | 14/08/05

[mood]

Obviously Hleb will make it as a starter.. but he has to play those 90 minute games sooner rather than later.

**** the other midfielders.. he's the man to watch at the moment. Start him next game Wenger and BENCH Pires... and make him earn his place back into the starting line-up with good performances ( a bit like last season ).

 

[arsenal98]

Good result though we were up against it when Jenas got red and the geordies
put 10 in defence. I feel our midfield will miss PV4 immensely because already visible is that the deterrent, the fear factor if you like, is gone. Opponents dare
harry and hassle our CM much more because of our colossus is missing physically. This is no critique of our Cesc or Bert, they´re impressive, it´s mainly the psychological effect on opponents that´s changed. For us to play the way we play we need a very strong CM and we´re absolutely not going to be able to replace Paddy, we have to change the play and that´s not visible yet. With the lack of signings to address this I sincerely hope Arsène gets it right sooner rather than later.

 

[ccc]

No his left. Deft touch too

proves once more never trust bbc live text they said he scored with his right foot, the way it's described, somewhere back in this topic, it sound like a typical cage football goal (going for the near post). Going to watch it now.

Actually, it's hard to judge how he scored even for ppl watching live. There were still somebody thought it was an own goal by defender. replay from 5 or 6 angles, only one of these told the truth exactly.

 

[Chips&CurrySauce]

It was a very tough game, even when the Geordies had 10 men.. Although they are weak up front they do have a very strong midfield who are very hard to break down if they are intent on defending.. Having said that the quality of our game was very poor at times...

A people have said Dennis and Pires were very ineffective and it has to be said Thierry was very poor aswell.. I'm a bit concerned about Henry's form, he was poor in the Amsterdam tournament, he was poor in the charity shield and he was poor yesterday aswell.. Hopefully he is just rusty, but we really need Thierry to be on top form this season...

Obviously the game changed for us when Hleb came on... I think he is the ideal player to have when teams just sit back with onlty hte intention to defend.. Hleb is a brilliant dribbler, but he runs with the ball with his head up, so he is always looking for the killer pass.. Also when you run at defenders, you draw the opposition towards you, thereby creating space and holes for others, which is exactly what is needed in this kind of game.. Up until Hleb came on noone was trying to take on the geordies and it looked like we were never going to score (which is a concern)

Have to say Freddie also had a good game as did Lauren and Ashley.... Cesc was decent, I feel he deserved to stay on insteadof Pires who was totlly anonymous! I still do worry about Gilbertos touch at times, and for me the centre of midfield is still a big concern as we don't have a top class ball winner in there!

 

[sabret00the]

It was a very tough game, even when the Geordies had 10 men.. Although they are weak up front they do have a very strong midfield who are very hard to break down if they are intent on defending.. Having said that the quality of our game was very poor at times...

A people have said Dennis and Pires were very ineffective and it has to be said Thierry was very poor aswell.. I'm a bit concerned about Henry's form, he was poor in the Amsterdam tournament, he was poor in the charity shield and he was poor yesterday aswell.. Hopefully he is just rusty, but we really need Thierry to be on top form this season...

Obviously the game changed for us when Hleb came on... I think he is the ideal player to have when teams just sit back with onlty hte intention to defend.. Hleb is a brilliant dribbler, but he runs with the ball with his head up, so he is always looking for the killer pass.. Also when you run at defenders, you draw the opposition towards you, thereby creating space and holes for others, which is exactly what is needed in this kind of game.. Up until Hleb came on noone was trying to take on the geordies and it looked like we were never going to score (which is a concern)

Have to say Freddie also had a good game as did Lauren and Ashley.... Cesc was decent, I feel he deserved to stay on insteadof Pires who was totlly anonymous! I still do worry about Gilbertos touch at times, and for me the centre of midfield is still a big concern as we don't have a top class ball winner in there!

For me this game was a mixed bag of emotions, i dunno what i felt half the time, at times i'd be watching the likes of Pires, Bergkamp and Henry and wondering just what they were doing on the pitch. Dennis for all of the shadow striker in him really isn't helping us, with him and Thierry trying to be shadow strikers we're f*d because Dennis plays even Deeper. Pires is just showing his age i suppose and Henry's just not showing that goal machine that he was, the predatory instincts seem to have lapsed in favour of making it as a great captain here and i think ultimately that will be his demise whether it's as Captain or as a prolific goal scorer.

I thought a few players were fantastic, Cesc, Ljungberg, Gilberto, Lauren, Cole and Senderos were the players that stood out for me, from my point of view (north bank) they were the only ones that really seemed to want this game and want to win from the get go, Cesc was amazing and this season seems to have grown to the point of negating Bergkamp's influence, i knew that him and Cesc would be a dangerous combo and i was proved more than right today. Senderos seems to have returned home and i'm more than happy about that, thought it could be a different story when the ball's on the ground, in the air he's definitely not to be f*d with and i spend a good minute cracking up at how far back his show rebounded off the defender. Ljungberg never had the game i would've liked him too but he was trying and making the different when he was playing. Gilberto was that Solid rock that we need and i felt comfortable knowing he was playing, Lauren helped to make Freddie's game what it was, he played that strong and hard game and i'm grateful for that. Cole was straight up amazing but towards the end simmered down, but he's trying to let his football do the talking in his fight to win over the fans.

Then we approach the substitutes and how they changed the game, i felt they were left a bit late in their introduction, but Hleb and van Persie made that game for us, it made a huge difference to have them here, while with the way that van Persie plays he's not as involved in the game as Bergkamp is, he makes it harder to say that he's having a good or bad game without him scoring but you honestly he had a good game, he was running finding space, drifting, nodding ball's through, i just feawr that in arsenal's spirit of the game and the way it's played, he'll be villianised for not doing enough, which i think it quite sad, i hope he does well and the fans embrace a new form of arsenal attack.

Newcastle played well and in their game never seemed a man down once, they played like very dirty northern bastards though, and in the same vein as that, Henry never deserved to be on the score sheet at all for this game and the audacity of him taking the penner after such a poor show out previous to that goal was so f****g sad, but meh.

 

[air]

I was so excited about it all beginning again. There's so much quality on display and it was a joy to watch.

Hleb's play looks very good, he's going to be amazing and probably one of my favourite players. I can't wait to see more of him.

I thought Bergkamp started well but the more the game went on the more he disappeared. Pires was also very much out of the game. Lauren did well linking up with Freddie down the right.

Van Persie's goal was the kind that not many teams are capable of scoring. Arsenal... and maybe Real Madrid... but mostly Arsenal.

Sure, it was a frustrating game and sure there's people who definitely would have wanted a big target man we could have put on at 60 minutes. I'm glad we're not doing that, instead just playing the Arsenal game and coming away with a 2-0 win.

I also thought about how I felt about our championship-winning chances after this game. In my view we're not the favourites but what I do like about our chances is that when we play well, we can beat anyone. It's not "if we defend well we can keep a clean sheet" or "if all our 25-million-pound signings play, one of them can crack a 25-yard screamer and by keeping a clean sheet we'll win". When Arsenal pass, move and create to their best ability there's a good chance of winning.

 

[dev_atdi]

Jenas's red card has been reduced to a yellow. Steve Bennett (Ref) has admitted his error in judgement to the FA and now Jenas escapes the three game ban.

Fair/unfair?

I'm not sure. I thought it warranted a red, it was extremely dangerous and blatantly two-footed. I'd feel quite lucky if I were JJ.

 

[clockwork orange]

Unfair, was a stright red, you can't tackle like that, he could have ended Gilberto's carreer.

 

[ccc]

Unfair, was a stright red, you can't tackle like that, he could have ended Gilberto's carreer.

what's unfair? the red card or the cancellation of red card ?

 

[Feis-al]

I think being a new season, yesterdays performance was fair but for the likes of Bergy and Pires, I will state just like most guys, It's not acceptable. Let me wait for just next weekend and see how we change.

 

[Mark]

Unfair, was a stright red, you can't tackle like that, he could have ended Gilberto's carreer.

what's unfair? the red card or the cancellation of red card ?

Try reading the rest of the sentence. :wink:

 

[ToonFan]

ended Gilberto's carreer.

Go an watch basketball or something if you want to watch a non contact sport. Jeez, it was a foul nothing more. Two footed = No, Red card = No, bad decision that changed the match = yes.

 

[Army of Me]

i don't think there was any malice in it, it looked like gilberto's foot got stuck under jenas more than anything.

yellow yes, red no.

 

[yonatan]

You're right it shouldn't have been a red card but it was two footed and it could have ended his career.

 

[ToonFan]

I always thought two footed was classed as both feet leaving the ground leading into a tackle. If you are classing that as two footed then sliding tackles will have to be outlawed altogether. Its a natural progreesion as you lead with one leg then other has to follow which happend in the Jenas tackle, similar to the if you jump to head the ball then your arms/elbows will follow. His second foot never made contact or was anywhere near touching Gilberto leg. it was the inside of his thigh that hit Gilberto's standing leg. What made it appear bad was that one player was standing and the other running, if both players had been running and that tackle was made then they would both come to ground and get up.

The fact that the red card has been changed to a yellow confirms most peoples beliefs that it was not a two footed tackle.

 

[MK5]

We won the game and I gotta say I feel we did quite well. Fabregas looks more powerful this season and if him and Gilberto can get to play the majority of the season together in the centre of midfield I think they can form the best partnership we’ve seen at Highbury since Manu-Paddy in their heydays. Hleb looked great when he came on and hopefully he can become a really important player for us this season. Senderos commanded the defence and looked as solid as TA6 himself.

The negatives though wa,s as many of you guys have mentioned, the set pieces. I really can’t understand why Henry is taking the corners. He’s not very good at it and also one our best headers of the ball, Which says quite a lot about how weak we are in the air.
What was even more annoying though was the way we just had to pass the ball into the net. Even when Newcastle had 5 or 6 men in their own box we still refused to finish further than 3 yards away from the keeper, It’s just ridiculous to watch at times!

 

[kel varnsen]

ended Gilberto's carreer.

Go an watch basketball or something if you want to watch a non contact sport. Jeez, it was a foul nothing more. Two footed = No, Red card = No, bad decision that changed the match = yes.

go watch rugby you * neanderthal... it was an insane challenge. no where near the ball and could have ended gilberto's career if he had been unlucky. no f*ck off to wherever you clueless *****.

 

[sabret00the]

ended Gilberto's carreer.

Go an watch basketball or something if you want to watch a non contact sport. Jeez, it was a foul nothing more. Two footed = No, Red card = No, bad decision that changed the match = yes.

go watch rugby you * neanderthal... it was an insane challenge. no where near the ball and could have ended gilberto's career if he had been unlucky. no f*ck off to wherever you clueless *****.

last time i checked, he got the ball as well as the man but i'll rewatch it, before i go on record with that one.

 

[RockyRocastle]

It was a very bad tackle, but ill admit I was surprised when the ref got the red card out.

Having seen the reply a few times I think he got it spot on.

I just cannot believe these ****** in the media, how do some of these people get a job? According to them it is all Gilbertos fault for not controlling the ball, i mean ffs.

 

[kel varnsen]

ended Gilberto's carreer.

Go an watch basketball or something if you want to watch a non contact sport. Jeez, it was a foul nothing more. Two footed = No, Red card = No, bad decision that changed the match = yes.

go watch rugby you * neanderthal... it was an insane challenge. no where near the ball and could have ended gilberto's career if he had been unlucky. no f*ck off to wherever you clueless *****.

last time i checked, he got the ball as well as the man but i'll rewatch it, before i go on record with that one.

he got the ball after he mauled gilberto.