Arsenal: Back from the procession

[Cubes]

So ...

HKR has to start every game - only player any element of skill
Ledge cannot play another game - glaciers move faster and would track back better than him
We don't have the skill energy or talent to only play 2 central midfielders - 4-5-1 it has to be
We actually looked slightly dangerous with jobi part of a an midfield.
Gary Nevile's assessment of our weakness was so spot on you wonder how our coaching staff haven't addressed the issues in half a season compared to Gary's 15minutes.

[floyd__streete]

Regarding Guthrie, McDermott said he wasn't involved as he had a slight thigh injury, although he is set to play for the reserves tomorrow. He hasn't played 90 mins of football for 6 weeks, so McD said he wanted him to get some match fitness and then he should be in contention for Saturday

Sounds sensible to me.

Nonsense decision not to have him on the bench though, if only to appease some hysterical fools on the internet.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

GUTHRIE REFUSED TO PLAY FOR THE CLUB SIX DAYS AGO.

Why is everyone fawning over him like he's the new Kevin Watson?

HE ALSO APOLOGISED

Shit, must remember that the next time I kill someone.

"Err yeah, sorry about Your Honour, i'll learn from this and move on"

"Okay that'll do son, be on your way"

Not like McDermott to hold a grudge against someone is it though? Pearce, Roberts, Guthrie..... going down and it's his fault.

[Scutterbucketz]

I got back in time to hear Gary Neville nail exactly why we keep getting tonked and suggesting a way to stop it, by not not playing 442. Anyone else hear it on Sky Sports?

[yappy]

McD said Karacan should play for the reserves tomorrow too, so hopefully Guthrie and Jem will be back in contention soon, as Legs and Tabb are clearly out of their depth.

[SPARTA]

Fed 6
Cummings 4
Mariappa 5
Gorkss 3
Kebe 6
Tabb 5
McAnuff 2
Legs 1
Hunt 5
Pog 4

==========

Le Fondre 6
McCleary 4
HRK 6

Tactics were frustratingly shit again. Nothing ever learnt.
Leigertwood shouldn't be in that side.
McAnuff shouldn't be in the middle.
Le Fondre gets us goals and then gets dropped. Mental.
Guthrie missing again tonight although fit and back for a fresh start we were told... Tonight was the right time to bring him back in and told to work his arse off and prove a point. But no...

I don't mind losing. I don't mind going back down. I do mind watching a team that clearly don't look united as a unit, or like they're playing for their manager, and it's no surprise with all the bickering going on and the funny way BM is man-managing them.
HRK 6

[floyd__streete]

Anyone else hear it on Sky Sports?

Crucially, according to Wimb McD has Sky +'d Red Dwarf series 6 on Dave instead, so it doesn't look good for Saturday I am afraid.

[Rob-Royal]

GUTHRIE REFUSED TO PLAY FOR THE CLUB SIX DAYS AGO.

Why is everyone fawning over him like he's the new Kevin Watson?

HE ALSO APOLOGISED

Shit, must remember that the next time I kill someone.

"Err yeah, sorry about Your Honour, i'll learn from this and move on"

"Okay that'll do son, be on your way"

I didn't realise he actually committed a crime too!

[SHORT AND CURLY]

WILL SOMEONE TACKLE PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!

YES I AM SHOUTING!

All I ask for is to at least try. Even that seems beyond most of that team.

Shorey & Feds only semi decent. The rest just bloody useless.

Good Night

[_royal]

By the way, best Bill Oddie the East Stand has produced after goal 2 as far as I'm concerned.

Bill Oddie chants may be what makes this season even slightly bearable.

[Scutterbucketz]

Anyone else hear it on Sky Sports?

Crucially, according to Wimb McD has Sky +'d Red Dwarf series 6 on Dave instead, so it doesn't look good for Saturday I am afraid.

Bugger! It was good stuff too. Just basic information on how to defend. McD and the team could have learned a lot

[RoyalBlue]

GUTHRIE REFUSED TO PLAY FOR THE CLUB SIX DAYS AGO.

Why is everyone fawning over him like he's the new Kevin Watson?

HE ALSO APOLOGISED.

McDermott said we should move on from the saga, created by the club itself, but evidently he just loves Leigertwood and his array of shit passing.

To be fair McDermott now reckons that Guthrie has a slight thigh strain. 'He would have been on the bench tonight but for that'!!

[LoyalRoyalFan]

McDermott better get those Swindon scouting DVD's out.

[Ian Royal]

Federici - 8 MOTM not much you can do with Arsenal breaking through the porous blue and white gauze infront of him. Some good saves - I wouldn't say many were great, Arsenal giving him more chance than they should maybe.
Cummings - 4 part of the defensive shambles
Mariappa - 3 see above
Gorkss - 4 one of his best games this season, I thought. Didn't notice many hugely glaring errors
Shorey - 5 sadly he's catching bad aids of the defence.
Leigertwood - 2 hopeless.
Tabb - 6 he gives the ball away not too often, tries hard, gets stuck in, runs. But he's got nothing to work with and he's not good enough really.
McAnuff - 4 perked up when he went through the middle. A little anyway. He knows we're down.
Kebe - 6.5 caused some danger - defensively weak, but hey, wouldn't have mattered if he'd played like Ashley Cole at his best
Pog - 6 bugger all to work with, was it me or did he look a shade quicker and lighter?
Hunt - 5 bless he tries but he's just not good enough

ALF - 6.5 scored his only real chance and registered a SO later. Had bugger all service obviously but was game
HRK - 7 looks a real player sometimes. Others looks predictable and mediocre. Today was a good day
McCleary - 6 well he's fast, but I'm not sure I really rate him.

McDermott 1st Half: 1 (that's for actually managing to hand in a team sheet - something at least that he's capable of) 2nd Half: 3 Switched to the way we should have started and we improved - drastically for 10 minutes. Although only because Arsenal were already in the showers. Things quickly returned to Arsenal dominence once Wenger got them back out again.

[kwik-silva]

We need to learn how to kick teams, and to actually put a tackle in to stop them from completely dominating it. When we actually gave away a couple of fouls and got stuck in we actually started looking better.

Had money on 2-4 so the last goal was obviously lamentable defending or something.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

GUTHRIE REFUSED TO PLAY FOR THE CLUB SIX DAYS AGO.

Why is everyone fawning over him like he's the new Kevin Watson?

HE ALSO APOLOGISED.

McDermott said we should move on from the saga, created by the club itself, but evidently he just loves Leigertwood and his array of shit passing.

To be fair McDermott now reckons that Guthrie has a slight thigh strain. 'He would have been on the bench tonight but for that'!!

He's playing for the reserves tomorrow.

[If you still hate Futcher]

Maybe this time we can learn something from the game and move on - BMcD has to stick with the 4-5-1, it's just a shame he had to wait until half-time to implement it though as Arteta was orchestrating the play throughout the 1st half.

With the change in formation we had a much better shape and it was noticeable that Jobi and Tabb were told to stick with him and Wilshire meaning that it was the 2 centre backs that were left to play the ball out from the back. Fair enough you can say that by the Arsenal were taking it easy and the game was gone, but we were harder to play through.

Trouble was we were probably a bit tired from following shadows and as we had to commit so many forward chasing the game we left ourselves open to the counter attack that Arsenal are so good at. I also don't think we actually put a tackle in until Alf knocked Mertezacker flying and then Tabb got stuck into Wilshire a couple of times - we needed to be doing that sort of thing in the 1st 10 minutes not the last 20.

Would also have liked to have seen McCleary about 10 minutes earlier and for us to actually use his pace as soon as he was on the pitch - it seemed like he hadn't done a warm up and needed 10 minutes to get into the game.

[kwik-silva]

How much of the increase in fortunes in the 4-5-1 was down to Arsenal not being oxf*rd, though?

[Jano]

I feel sorry for Pog. He's trying and we're giving him scraps and hoofs. I'm convinced if he had decent service to his feet in and around the box he would be scoring left right and centre.

Gorkss, Cummings, McAnuff and Leigertwood were something. I'm not sure what, but it's not footballers.I genuinely hope Gorkss was only in the side as there was no one else available at all. If Cummings is truly a better option than Gunter I've yet to see it, you just can't give players of that quality that much time and space on the ball. If McAnuff is truly an option at centre mid at this level then I've clearly been watching the wrong games, and if I was captain on that performance I would be too embarrassed to accept the arm band again, ever. Leigertwood, well the kids at half time were more accurate with the ball than he is.

There needs to be a change but I'm honestly not sure what exactly would make any difference.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

I feel sorry for Pog. He's trying and we're giving him scraps and hoofs. I'm convinced if he had decent service to his feet in and around the box he would be scoring left right and centre.

Gorkss, Cummings, McAnuff and Leigertwood were something. I'm not sure what, but it's not footballers.I genuinely hope Gorkss was only in the side as there was no one else available at all. If Cummings is truly a better option than Gunter I've yet to see it, you just can't give players of that quality that much time and space on the ball. If McAnuff is truly an option at centre mid at this level then I've clearly been watching the wrong games, and if I was captain on that performance I would be too embarrassed to accept the arm band again, ever. Leigertwood, well the kids at half time were more accurate with the ball than he is.

There needs to be a change but I'm honestly not sure what exactly would make any difference.

You can see Pog has plenty of quality. The poor sod must be realising what a monumental error he has made coming here....