PL: Wigan Athletic vs Arsenal | 19/11/05

[YourFriendPaul]

Whatever happend to all that talk of ..."the mark of a true champion, is to be able to play poorly and still win..." ?

Alright, so maybe we didn't bring our 'A-game' , and a handful of players were a bit off- yet, we still managed to walk away with 3 points, away, against the second place team in the league (and an exciting performance on both sides, no less). Everyone should be happy! Sheesh!

 

[Allyboy]

We are improving......... slowly!

Rocky did you see what, if anything, happened after the game mate?

I was walking back to the car park and something seemed to be kicking off inside the stadium, at least both sets of fans seemed to be having a go at each other.

Could have just been banter of course.

I think the atmosphere was great when you consider the fact that:

a) It was a morning kick off

b) Most of our fans would have had ridiculously early rises

c) It was freezing cold

and

d) We had never played them before so there was no basis for rivalry.


Not a lot to say about the game, played some nice stuff in patches and Henry and RVP look like they have the basis of a great partnership.

The defense was awful, cygan as expected was terrible and Sol wasn't much better.

Toure did some good stuff but looked shaky too.

I thought Lehmann was going to attack Roberts for his elbow on Fabregas, I have not seen him that heated for a long time!

Oh and Poll is a complete dickhead, was astonished no one was sent off!

 

[James]

I didn't see anything kick off after the game, but i was right by the concourse entrance and could see how packed it was down there at half time...certainly didn't look too cosy.

Great support today. Seemed to be the same old "Arsenal, Arsenal..." some of the time, but it certainly picked up. The banter seemed pretty friendly between us and the Wigan fans until they made things a bit personal with a few chants.

 

[14teranga]

With just Henry and RVP, we won a valuable 3points away against a very good side. And that, my friends is huge. Just imagine when the 11 players on the field perform as we all know they can do, we will be devastating against any side of the world.
Up goes the Arsenal!

 

[14teranga]

oh and I and I hated Graham Poll today! We should have won so many free-kicks, RVP and Pires had been kicked like a ball and all he coulld do was f***g waving! A yellow card for thet elbow, f****g ridiculous!

 

[thierrys_girl]

Our first away win Woohoo. We didn't play brilliantly but we did what we had to and got the points. Our defense was quite weak today and the Wigan strikers caused us quite a few problems. Wigan were a handful and we knew that going into this match and think we handled them quite well.

Thierry and Robin have a great partnership going, it is good to see them connecting well.

The Ref was ridiculous, the amount of times our lads were fouled and nothing was given was crazy.

The away supporters sounded great on the tele so well done.

 

[Anonymous]

Toure wasn't as bad as made out on this thread. He covered for sol.
Infact Toure stopped a certain goal.
Toure is the most solid CB we have atm. If Sol has another 2 bad games. Get Senderos back in there.

I stick by my ratings. Damm all democratic dolphins.

The best thing about the match, other then the away win.

Was that for the first time in a long while...

We now have a proper strike pairing.

 

[hellolo]

Eboue was injured i think thast why he didnt play....

 

[the dawn raids]

ok, just got off of work, so i havent read much of what has been said. but just wanted to say a few things. this game was SCREAMING OUT for Reyess' pace in the second half when Wigan were wearing down; why he wasnt on (and RvP was off for that matter) i just dont understand. the second half was better than the first, especially defensively (not that thats saying much).

of course ill take the three points but we have GOT to start closing games out better. also, id say the need for another defender became a bit more apparent today.

 

[celestis]

Yuo bad decision , Reyes should have come on instead of Bergkamp . Would created an outlet with his pace.

 

[kel varnsen]

Whatever happend to all that talk of ..."the mark of a true champion, is to be able to play poorly and still win..." ?

Alright, so maybe we didn't bring our 'A-game' , and a handful of players were a bit off- yet, we still managed to walk away with 3 points, away, against the second place team in the league (and an exciting performance on both sides, no less). Everyone should be happy! Sheesh!

problem is, it is the middle of november and we've only put in one great performance so far this season(home to fulham). that is the only really good performance this season and it is worrying.

 

[kel varnsen]

Toure wasn't as bad as made out on this thread. He covered for sol.
Infact Toure stopped a certain goal.
Toure is the most solid CB we have atm. If Sol has another 2 bad games. Get Senderos back in there.

absolutely not. sol might not be at his best right now, but phil is a liability.

 

[invisibleman18]

quite an entertaining game actually. it confirmed what we all knew before, that Cygan would play at left back and would be absolutely ****e. but no need to elaborate further on what has already been posted in here.
good to finally get 3 points away. was a bit strange really, a 5 goal thriller yet i cant recall 1 real save made by either keeper apart from the one RVP kicked into Filan's face.
thought cesc was tremendous today. had a commanding game and his passing was top draw. easily man of the match for me. i loved henry's celebration after the free kick where he just stood and nodded as if to say "thats the ****, thats how its done."
whats van persie's celebration all about? he did that same thing with his arms the last time he scored, does it mean anything or is it just some celebration?

 

[whoztheman]

for an away match against a tricky team i thought we dominated the game. we were playing extremely well till rvp went off-henry went silent, bergkamp did nothing-and wigan had a couple of close chances in the last ten minutes leading to the general impression around here that we played poorly for the whole game.

henry-rvp look really solid-both are intelligent footballers-who have different attacking styles-and they seem to enjoy giving each other chances on goal. FLAIR, CLASS are the words that come to mind.

toure played well enough considering he covered for sol-cygan's goofups. cygan is just pathetic. he's just not good enough for a team like arsenal.

cesc was quality. pires-ljungberg were ok. the subs were a bit bewildering.

like rocky said what we need now is someone with creativity from midfield fueling henry-rvp ahead.

great game all in all. we cant look back now. we cannot afford any more injuries-especially henry and rvp. they are the only two players in the team now who look majestic and confident.

 

[tgr]

henry: clinical. rvp: dangerous. love that striking tandem.

note to wenger: never have pires and bergkamp in the same lineup cos they are redundant

i cant agree more

 

[14teranga]

I think, Wenger took off RVP to protect him because he was getting a lot of kicks not given by the referee. As for Reyes, him coming on would have been a bit of a gamble: because he could have come run on defenders and assisted or scored as well as losing possession in a critical position and we are doomed specially that the c***t Poll was hardly giving fouls.

 

[Anonymous]

Toure wasn't as bad as made out on this thread. He covered for sol.
Infact Toure stopped a certain goal.
Toure is the most solid CB we have atm. If Sol has another 2 bad games. Get Senderos back in there.

absolutely not. sol might not be at his best right now, but phil is a liability.

Kel, you can rely on Sol for as long as he lasts, but you know that he won't be here for that much longer. Look at his eyes ffs. It's end game.
Personally I've spoken my piece in the CB thread. But eventually, Senderos is going to have get a slot.

 

[hellolo]

toure was poor he can't head the ball for crap he gets no distance on his headers and it goes straight to the opposition whihc leads to more pressure
Toure is brilliant on the ground but in the air he struggles

 

[asajoseph]

Some great performances yesterday mixed in with some terrible ones - Our central midfield was excellent, thanks to a much-improved Gilberto, and some good passing from Fabregas. And Henry and RVP look to be really cementing a superb partnership.

Campbell though was pretty shakey at the back, Cygan made too many mistakes (although was actually pretty good for most of the 2nd half), and Pires was lazy and ****e.

Anyway, the travelling fans were great yesterday. Lots and lots of singing, cheering, and great banter with the Wigan boys.

 

[_scorpion_]

In all honesty while Sol looked shakey...Roberts did well. He would put the wind up Terry and Ferdinand too.

The **** up for me was Cygan....

I'm sorry but in the end, Sol, Toure and Freddie covered for Cygan , weakening the team.

Phil should start with Sol in our next game and Toure at Left Back.

I agree that it is about time to dip into the market for a Cb to partner Phil or Toure longterm. Sol is on his last patch but by no means is he totally out of it. He just needs to be realistic and treat the WC 2006 as possibly his last international tournament and give back something to Arsène and the team.

That being said, I'd like to see either Kompany or Chivu bought in the transfer window to help our team deal with the inept Cygan and the loss of Toure during the African Nations cup. We need direct qualification for the CL next season and to finish as close as possible to Chelsea....lets not take risks by having a weak defence.