Pre-match snews –
Wenger has explicitly stated that Almunia is going to be number 1 for Arsenal from here on out, unless he gets another chest infection. I guess he was out with a combination of a chest infection and some kind of family tragedy, which the rumor mill had pegged. We should be a little careful here in jumping on Almunia, I think, give him a chance to get back to his best. Yes, I know, he’s not Akinfeev or whomever scored highest in FIFA 10, but he’s our keeper until January at least, so getting too vitriolic isn’t helpful.
My favorite quote from Wenger about keeper goes like this:
Goalkeeper is a position that is guided by fear more than any other. You have only negative stress. A striker has a positive stress. He thinks, ‘I can be a hero’, but the goalkeeper thinks, ‘I don’t want to be a villain today’.
As someone who has been forced to play in goal I can agree with Wenger here. In fact, I was asked once what it was like to play keeper and I described it as “44 minutes of boredom and 45 seconds of terror.”
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Lineup –
Looks like some pretty major lineup changes according to YouAreMyArsenal’s twitter: Almunia, Diaby, Sagna, Fabregas, Vermaelen, Eduardo, Gallas, Van Persie, Ramsey, Arshavin, Gibbs with a bench of Senderos, Rosicky, Nasri, Song, Silvestre, Mannone, and Eboue.
Interesting choice there, Song must be on the bench to avoid a yellow ahead of the Sunderland match on the 21st where his strength and size will be critical.
Moment of silence
Well done there, not a single person acted up.
Kickoff — And Wolves get us started. I liked Wolves better when they were sponsored by Doritos.
4′ — Wolves playing VERY physical to start, Rambo fighting back nicely. This camera angle making me a bit seasick…
5′ — Mindless mistake from Diaby, but Vermaelen recovers with a great tackle.
8′ — Rambo is our holding midfielder today. Does Wenger see him as a viable solution to the Song Conundrum?
10′ — Gallas with the Yellow and Arsenal are reeling. Wolves have a ton of belief and are buoyed by the crowd here. Arsenal need a goal, stat.
14′ — Stonewall penalty denied, that was a knock on effect from Sportsmail’s “anti-diving” campaign against foreigners.
17′ — Yan is the first one in the comments, only to say that he can’t watch the match. Damn, sorry Yan. Meanwhile, Arsenal get lost on a free kick and Wolves blow a wide open header.
20′ — It takes 20 minutes before Arsenal are able to hold a shape and get an offside. Rambo is playing hard but Wolves have a little bit more belief at the moment and a lot more energy. Arsenal attacking a bit and put a little pressure on Wolves end. More of that please.
23′ — Arshavin gives away a free kick while Diaby is off with a knee injury. Fuck. Song on, he needs to not get a yellow, we need him against the beasts in Sunderland.
26′ — @WC — Song was being reserved because he’s on his 4th yellow, one more and he’s getting a suspension .
28′ — Own goal to Fubar. 1 nil to the Arsenal. Frankly, I don’t care how it happens, should take the wind out of them a bit, and sure enough, Arsenal are on top right away. Let’s get another! Rambo, now with two shots!
32′ — Arsenal clicking now. I like the combo of Rambo and Song, there’s a lot of strength and talent in that pair.
While we’re in a lull, would anyone care to explain what constitutes a foul in the air? I can’t for the life of me figure out how they make these calls.
36′ — Arsenal defend very well and Wolves leave a huge gap of space which is exploited by Rambo and Eduardo chips a shot which is defelcted for the second own goal. Dudu raises his shirt and it says something that I don’t understand. I wish Yan had seen it, maybe he could translate.
40′ — Arshavin yellow, professional foul.
44′ – @WC, that all makes sense, what about when a player is backing in to another player? DAMN! Rambo is everywhere, both putting in great tackles and poor headers!
46′ — Arsenal football at its best, Fab to Sagna (Fab keeps running), Sagna to van Persie, who lays off for Fab, who just makes a nice goal. 3-0 to the Arsenal!
HT — Wolves lasted 20 some minutes before Arsenal’s class just shone through and since then they’ve been at 6′s and 7′s. Early on, Arsenal looked crazily disorganized and Wolves had a very clear chance on goal which was wasted. They’re also executing their plan and getting loads of free kicks in our area but they can’t get anything on them. Frankly, I’ll be surprised if Wolves don’t get a goal out of this match. It will be down to the start of the second half and how hungry Arsenal come out of the tunnel. They need to want the clean sheet, they need to grab this game by the throat and force a clean sheet, however you want to put it. Mick McCarthy will have this Wolves team geed up and an early goal might give them belief, get the crowd back, and Arsenal could lose some of the attitude they garnered in that first half.
The first 10 minutes of the next half are crucial.
@nycgunner: Robin van Persie, half man alligator half shark, all BergkampHenry.
46′ — I don’t want to take anything away from Diaby, but watch how Rambo gets both forward and has the positional awareness to get back. He may be one of the smartest players on the field.
51′ — Arsenal all over Wolves, they need a goal to cap this spell off and put this Wolves to bed. I was worried that Wolves would come out and show some fire, but they really just look tired.
56′ — Mooney comes a long way out and claims a free kick. Arsenal’s defense looking very organized, Wolves will find it very hard to break this down.\
59′ — Fabregas scythed down and the ref calls a foul, giving a card to Gibbs. Yes, well, he deserved it for a late challenge. This is followed by another yellow, this time for Wolves, who put in the “Dorito Crunching Tackle of the Night” on Sagna.
65′ — Wolves sub, meh. Come on Arsenal, get a goal… Arshavin with a shot forces a great save.
66′ — There it is: Arshavin fires Hennessey’s clearance into the lower left, clean goal. 4-0. I fancy a 6-0 line, with goals from Eduardo and van Persie.
69′ — Vermaelen lucky to escape a yellow for a high boot that hits Doyle right in the nose.
71′ — Rosicky on, Eduardo off. Fine, let Rosicky get the 5th. By the way, Goonerholic is at this match with his son, taking the boy to his first Arsenal game. What a first game eh?
74′ — Rambo looking jaded, was a bit ponderous with the ball and lets someone disposses him from behind, but overall he’s been remarkable tonight and shows it as he tracks back and makes a good tackle. As for the goals scored, yes, it’s 55 in all competitions so far, and 36 in 11 Premier League matches. I WANT MORE, X-BOX 360 ON EASY STYLE.
78′ — Arsenal working hard for the 5th goal, blown chance from Cesc, but you can sense that this team wants to score as many goals as possible.
84′ — Refereeing the scoreline, as Cesc marauds forward while Mancienne is dragging him back and gets no call.
85′ — Commentators are criticizing Robin for beating the keeper twice and not having a shot, but he didn’t have a shot because Wolves got back and defended well. Maybe he could have done a bit better but not much really.
88′ — Correct DF, we’re seeing the harvest of young talent at Arsenal this year and it is bountiful indeed!
89′ —
| Descendents – Clean Sheets | ||
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| Found at skreemr.com |
Come on boys… I know it’s more symbolic at this point but a clean sheet would have been nice.
FT — Well, a great performance all around. I kinda wish that we’d kept the clean sheet, but as I said a few weeks ago, this team is just not built that way. Plus, you can’t really be too upset when they concede at 4-0 up.
Yes, I’d like them to be ruthless but we don’t know how they felt at the end there, were they tired, risking injury? I’d rather we played a 4-1 win and don’t suffer an injury to a key player like Vermaelen or Cesc, than get a clean sheet.
Also, shout out to Gibbs and Ramsey. Sure, they made some mistakes but so too did our experienced players; Eduardo and van Persie. In the end it’s not the small things, but the score line that matters.
Finally, earlier this week I called for a decisive away win to show our title challenge credentials. Our away record has been mediocre but today I think we announced ourselves with a decisive win against a motivated team.
Right, now we have two weeks before proper football. Arsenal in second place, a 4-1 away win… not a bad way to enjoy the Nationalism breaks.
See you tomorrow!
Damn fox annonced that they were going to show the match live. To my dismay, there is a Federer-anyone on right now.
It’s a shame and a disaster how these people can give you accurate information on their schedules…..
WC Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 9:56 am
@Yan, I’m watching it live on an FSC feed so I’m not sure what you’re getting.
14′- Yep, and the announcers right away go to Celtic…
Yeah we definitely need a proper CM because Ramsey is working his hardest but just does’t have the experience for that position against this team. Is Song being rested? Injured? Wenger should have started Eastmond or Coquelin if he wanted to not play Song.
WC Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 9:59 am
@WC, As soon as I send my comment on comes Song. Should have started him instead of wasting a 24 minute sub on Diaby
@Tim
Fouls in the air are usually leading with the elbow and jumping with no intention of playing the ball. Usually any player who jumps and turns their back to cause a collision is deemed a foul because there’s no intention to play the ball if you turn your back. Oh also using an opposing player’s body to gain an advantage i.e. holding onto their shoulders and holding them down while gaining some height.
Diaby. Fuck is right.
Come on Arsenal, bury them. BURY THEM.
Fucking genius. Fucking genius.
The announcer makes a great point: the most difficult thing to do in football is to put the ball in the back of the net. And unlike every other team in the league, week in and week out, Arsenal put 8 outfield players on the pitch who are above average goal scorers.
You just cannot defend that – not for 90 minutes.
@Tim
Backing into a player is also a foul. I believe it’s almost the same thing as obstruction because you essentially hinder the opposition from a fair chance at the ball by backing into them and bungling them over.
The game started… It was Wolves on TOP than BANG BANG BANG… its 3-0 to the ARSENAL!!! GET INNNNNN
hopefully the scoreline will break their spirits and the game will get less physical. i do NOT want any more of our players getting a yellow card ahead of the sunderland and chelsea games.
how about that lay off from rvp though? tell me that’s not a touch bergkamp wouldn’t be proud of
“Dorito Crunching Tackle of the Night” LOL
Fucking buried.
Tim, Can you check how many goals we have scored up to now??!! surely we have broken some sort of record. ARSHAVIIIIN
Matt Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 11:02 am
@Atbin19, I think it is 55 in all competitions.
The traveling fans have been in fine voice tonight.
Despite the long train trip, despite the rain, they have been singing for 70 minutes. Just lovely.
Vermaellen’s first shot of the night…into Doyle’s mug
Eduardo should have had one Tim, you’re correct, but not now he’s gone off
RVP not on song tonight (ummmm, on second thought, actually thats a good thing…..),anywho, so I fancy him to score.
It looks like the 2 goal slip up against the hammers has actually woken us up. Were still making alot of mistakes but man were looking lethal.
Kevin Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 11:19 am
@Shaun,
agreed, it will be much easier for him to score 25 goals this season if he would just SHOOT the ball, no matter which foot!!
Shaun Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 11:24 am
@Kevin, He has been strangely off tune tonight. Overhit passes, not shooting early enough, not shooting…. But if he is to have a bad game, this was the one to do it in.
I think Ramsay and Gibbs have a good game until now. They may
misplace misses, make wrong decisions, but they are young; they need games to learn. Dont forget Song has played for two seasons and being booed, condemned as not good enough for Arsenal
before he becomes the player he is today. Fans should be more tolerant, more understanding about young players. Dont just say
“take them off”, “buy a better player” whenever these young players do not play well. Modern men are too impatient, too eager to have “instant” results.
Shaun Reply:
November 7th, 2009 at 11:25 am
@DF, I dont think anyone disagrees with you mate. The only umbrage I take with what your saying is that AW was persisting with quiet a few of these “types” of players at once. And when your not winning anything it doesnt take much to rock the boat.
Use the Chocolate Leg RVP!!!!! He should have scored from that terrible back pass
Ah hell.
token consolation goal
i surely hope this season DOES NOT come down to goal differential, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot
Man, a clean sheet would be good! Asking for too much maybe?
Did Vermaelen just duck that header…..??
Wolves outscored us today, 3-2!
Nice all round away performance from our boys.
Good game for Ramsey to gain some experience. We also get some rust off of Rosicky, Eduardo, and Nasri.
Hopefully Sunderland can serve as a further tuneup for us prior to our Chelsea game. Sunderland just could not compete today without Jones and Cana who were suspended.
According to the Telegraph, Eduardo’s t-shirt was demanding an end to the drugs war in Rio – and the FA are taking no action, though such political messages aren’t allowed.
Now for two weeks’ crippling boredom while our players get injured and slightly concussed. They always look stoned verging on demented when they return, it seems to me.
b Reply:
November 8th, 2009 at 8:00 am
@Mia, Oh goody, can’t wait for the wave of pundits complaining about the dirty furriners coming in and politicizing football and getting away with it
The table never lies: if that’s true, and if goal difference is almost as telling as points, then there’s a massive gulf in class between the top two and the rest. Also, if goal difference is key, Pompey might stay up and – joy! – Hull and Blackburn go down.
I was perusing another team’s forums to see what was by said about the world’s richest team. This EPL ‘galatico’ squad has its supporters in criticizing the players committment and their managers ability to do the job. Their defense can’t defend and they have no creative spark in midfield. Tevez is the new Paul Dickov. Adebayor appeared sombulent. They are indicting Bridges, Lescott and Ireland on Burnley’s 3rd goal. There is some really funny stuff there. Yet they still managed to beat us. I have a funny feeling that the next league game will be a tad different.
All I want today is a 0-0 draw. I have the feeling that Man U is in for a very bad beating today.
Late comment, but anyway. Here in S america I assume the programme is differend. Fox was showing federer’s semi and they were going to start the match only after tenis was over, which was like 45min after kickoff. I cant recall what Dudu’s t shirt said exactly, but it was in the lines of “PAZ EN KENNEDY”, which is Peace in kennedy, I assume kennedy being a town or a favela(small villages where police doesnt exist)