Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013/14 mod warning post #5144

Galvasean

niallo27 wrote: »

The probably deserved a draw maybe. They didn't create **** all though to say they deserved to win the game. It really was a poor game but I don't think arsenal fans care at this stage.

For a team with so much attacking possession they created precious little in the way of clear cut chances (probably the same as or even less than Arsenal overall). Most of their attacks lacked imagination and consisted of pumping the ball into the air and hoping for the best or lashing it low and hard from 30 yards into a sea of players - really layman stuff.

Alfred Borden

We need to win 7 out of 9 with 2 draws to win it i think. One of the wins has to be against Chelsea or City though.

bad2dabone

Mickeroo wrote: »

If we finish within 5 points off top I won't be looking back regretting poor results against Chelsea/Pool/City it will be the draw with Southampton and the loss to Stoke.

Not to mention the five points dropped to man u.

monkey9

tayto lover wrote: »

I was there in '71 :D
Ray Kennedy R.I.P. got the goal.
My first year working in London and living in Caladonian Road 5 mins from Highbury.

Jumping the gun there man.

EuropeanSon

I don't think we should blame dropping points at Stoke etc. Every year you'll drop some points against poorer teams. It's the poor performances against Utd and Everton (the upper mid table, where we've 2 from 9 so far) and the top 4 (4 from 12) where we've underachieved compared to what you'd expect league winners to get.

Obviously we beat spurs, but then they were ****e.

Mr.Micro

Raf32 wrote: »

We need to win 7 out of 9 with 2 draws to win it i think. One of the wins has to be against Chelsea or City though.

We were so lucky against Spurs yesterday. They could have had 4 against us, though we missed a couple. Need to be a lot better to get anything from Chelsea.

gnfnrhead

The two United games I would look at. We really should have beaten them at least once.

Galvasean

The fact that we didn't get so much as a goal against United this season is shameful.

gosplan

niallo27 wrote: »

The probably deserved a draw maybe. They didn't create **** all though to say they deserved to win the game. It really was a poor game but I don't think arsenal fans care at this stage.

I think what Sherwood is missing is that we scored after 70 seconds and then focused on our new revolutionary tactic of not conceding.

To say Spurs had most of the ball or did most of the attacking when we weren't really trying to attack is rather pointless.

greendom

Mr.Micro wrote: »

We were so lucky against Spurs yesterday. They could have had 4 against us, though we missed a couple. Need to be a lot better to get anything from Chelsea.

Think you were watching a different game to me. The Chadli effort after Szez's handling error was the only clear cut effort that I can think of. Even that was brilliantly dealt with by Kos & Merts

Mr Blobby

If Ox had scored that chance then they game was over and done.
I think people are giving the Spuds too much credit.. Spurs only created a few chances with everything else being knocked away by Mert and Kos.

bad2dabone

We let them have the ball because we knew they could do nothing with it. winning the nld at 40%. great.

omega man

What's with the Liverpool media love in at the moment, Christ you'd swear we were 20 points off them.

I get they're having a better than anticipated season, league wise anyway, but give me a break. In saying that it probably takes some pressure off us but we get such media negativity such as the "9 years blah blah" and the "annual feb/march collapse" yet we're level on points with them , ahead of bloody city and we're in an fa cup sf. Annoying :mad:

Rant over:pac:

EuropeanSon

To be fair, Pool have a much easier run in than us.

Looking at their games, they'll probably be favourites in all of them. Even vs City and Chelsea at Anfield. We won't be. Plus they've generally looked more impressive lately.

Hopefully Suarez takes another chunk out of somebody before season ends and their wheels come off.

I do think City will win the league now, though.

bad2dabone

omega man wrote: »

What's with the Liverpool media love in at the moment, Christ you'd swear we were 20 points off them.

I get they're having a better than anticipated season, league wise anyway, but give me a break. In saying that it probably takes some pressure off us but we get such media negativity such as the "9 years blah blah" and the "annual feb/march collapse" yet we're level on points with them , ahead of bloody city and we're in an fa cup sf. Annoying :mad:

Rant over:pac:

it's grand. They're playing well, have the best striker in the league and are well rested considering they had no european competition and we're put out of the FA cup by us and the LC by Man Utd. Their manager has done very well this season for them.


However as much as their fate is in their hands our fate is in ours.

The advantage they have is momentum and confidence, and those are two serious advantages to have. Also - few if any injuries to key personnel.
If we had a player with the ability of suarez up front we'd be out and clear at the top of the table.

If they win the title fair play to the players and manager.
I don't think they will though. it's still between the Oil clubs.

batistuta9

bad2dabone wrote: »

Thanks for turning me on to that link Bati.

did you listen to it?

bad2dabone

batistuta9 wrote: »

did you listen to it?

only the first 15 mins so far - then the kids interruped me and i haven't got a chance to listen to the rest.

GeorgeBailey

omega man wrote: »

What's with the Liverpool media love in at the moment, Christ you'd swear we were 20 points off them.

I think it's fair enough that Liverpool are getting a lot of attention. They have a lot of momentum right now and have been winning impressively (including hammering Arsenal). Whereas Arsenal have been stuttering quite a bit of late (including getting hammered by Liverpool!)

batistuta9

bad2dabone wrote: »

only the first 15 mins so far - then the kids interruped me and i haven't got a chance to listen to the rest.

they start talking about injuries around 19 mins or so, i listened to it earlier but was a bit hungover so i'll give it another go.

some interesting enough stuff on wilshere & walcott

ronjo

Talksport are doing a Wenger special at the moment with the 1,000th match coming up.

batistuta9

EuropeanSon wrote: »

I don't think we should blame dropping points at Stoke etc. Every year you'll drop some points against poorer teams. It's the poor performances against Utd and Everton (the upper mid table, where we've 2 from 9 so far) and the top 4 (4 from 12) where we've underachieved compared to what you'd expect league winners to get.

Obviously we beat spurs, but then they were ****e.

probably a case for both, though i'd tend to be more on the side you're talking about.

especially the top 4 or your direct rivals. the points in those games have more an impact on both sides.
take arsenal & l'pool both on 62 points, each having won the home game, if either had drawn their away game they'd be on 63, 3 points clear of the other.

in the upcoming games i think arsenal need to beat both chelsea & city.

EuropeanSon

batistuta9 wrote: »

probably a case for both, though i'd tend to be more on the side you're talking about.

especially the top 4 or your direct rivals. the points in those games have more an impact on both sides.
take arsenal & l'pool both on 62 points, each having won the home game, if either had drawn their away game they'd be on 63, 3 points clear of the other.

in the upcoming games i think arsenal need to beat both chelsea & city.

I don't have the numbers, but I'd bet that versus the bottom half, we've been by far the best performers.

tayto lover

batistuta9 wrote: »

probably a case for both, though i'd tend to be more on the side you're talking about.

especially the top 4 or your direct rivals. the points in those games have more an impact on both sides.
take arsenal & l'pool both on 62 points, each having won the home game, if either had drawn their away game they'd be on 63, 3 points clear of the other.

in the upcoming games i think arsenal need to beat both chelsea & city.

I agree BUT I don't think we are strong enough to do it with the injuries we have.
Yesterday Spurs bossed midfield and both Chelsea and City are much stronger than them.
We need players back urgently but we won't have them back in time.

ronjo

tayto lover wrote: »

I agree BUT I don't think we are strong enough to do it with the injuries we have.
Yesterday Spurs bossed midfield and both Chelsea and City are much stronger than them.
We need players back urgently but we won't have them back in time.

Unfortunately I tend to agree with this. It's such a shame we have these crucial players out. Aguero is about the only key player missing from any of our rivals I reckon.

bad2dabone

tayto lover wrote: »

I agree BUT I don't think we are strong enough to do it with the injuries we have.
Yesterday Spurs bossed midfield and both Chelsea and City are much stronger than them.
We need players back urgently but we won't have them back in time.

hard to disagree

Looper007

tayto lover wrote: »

I agree BUT I don't think we are strong enough to do it with the injuries we have.
Yesterday Spurs bossed midfield and both Chelsea and City are much stronger than them.
We need players back urgently but we won't have them back in time.

Maybe so but let's back them. Villa weren't any great shakes and they contained Chelsea very well. Let's not make out Chelsea are world beaters here, It's not like it's Real or Barcelona we're talking about. It be tough but we can beat them.

tayto lover

Looper007 wrote: »

Maybe so but let's back them. Villa weren't any great shakes and they contained Chelsea very well. Let's not make out Chelsea are world beaters here, It's not like it's Real or Barcelona we're talking about. It be tough but we can beat them.

We'll all be behind them BUT we do need players back. These teams are better than Spurs and our record is poor against them.

Looper007

tayto lover wrote: »

We'll all be behind them BUT we do need players back. These teams are better than Spurs and our record is poor against them.

Records are meant to be broken and maybe that start on Saturday. Of course we need players back any top team does but we have injuries like most teams get. We have to just get on with it. The team we have now is good enough to beat Chelsea on the day.

Galvasean

Wenger to finally beat Mourinho in his 1,000th Arsenal game - how fitting would that be?

Soups123

Looper007 wrote: »

Records are meant to be broken and maybe that start on Saturday. Of course we need players back any top team does but we have injuries like most teams get. We have to just get on with it. The team we have now is good enough to beat Chelsea on the day.

We've got the most depleted squad of the top 4, you take 4 firsteamers out of Liverpool and they'd be fcuked. Chelsea and City have bigger squads so would suffer but cope a little better

In saying that lack of a centre forward and Merales and Will i am suspended I think a draw is manageable.

ronjo

Soups123 wrote: »

We've got the most depleted squad of the top 4, you take 4 firsteamers out of Liverpool and they'd be fcuked. Chelsea and City have bigger squads so would suffer but cope a little better

In saying that lack of a centre forward and Merales and Will i am suspended I think a draw is manageable.

You mean Ramires. The other geezer has long gone from them

Soups123

ronjo wrote: »

You mean Ramires. The other geezer has long gone from them

That's him

batistuta9

EuropeanSon wrote: »

I don't have the numbers, but I'd bet that versus the bottom half, we've been by far the best performers.

checking the results of the top 4 against the top 7 (easier), the remaining games in brackets.

cfc - p10 w6 d3 l1 pts21 (afa h, lfc a)
mcfc - p8 w6 d0 l2 pts18 (mufc afc lfc efc all a)
lfc - p9 w5 d1 l3 pts16 (thfc mcfc cfc all h)
afc - p9 w3 d3 l3 pts12 (cfc a, mcfc h, efc a)

i'm not 100% sure & it's from 8th down but i'd say you could be right, certainly one of the better records against them teams

greendom

ronjo wrote: »

Talksport are doing a Wenger special at the moment with the 1,000th match coming up.

Anyone listen to this? The one thing I've seen is Parlour stating that Wenger had to sign a 5 year contract to ensure that the banks would provide a loan for the Emirates.

EuropeanSon

batistuta9 wrote: »

checking the results of the top 4 against the top 7 (easier), the remaining games in brackets.

cfc - p10 w6 d3 l1 pts21 (afa h, lfc a)
mcfc - p8 w6 d0 l2 pts18 (mufc afc lfc efc all a)
lfc - p9 w5 d1 l3 pts16 (thfc mcfc cfc all h)
afc - p9 w3 d3 l3 pts12 (cfc a, mcfc h, efc a)

i'm not 100% sure & it's from 8th down but i'd say you could be right, certainly one of the better records against them teams

Yeah, we're level with Pool, so if we've 4 less in those games, we've 4 more against the lesser teams.

Hyzepher

This whole head to head against the other top 7 teams is a red herring - especially this year where teams are dropping points against lower positioned teams.

it annoys me when pundits talk about Arsenals record against the other title contenders and immediately discount our chances but then say nothing about the other teams dropping points against the lesser teams - something that we have done less of.

You'd swear that the teams who have done best against the top 7 teams are miles ahead of the rest in terms of points.

it doesn't matter who you lose against - you still only fail to pick up 3 points. This is true for the teams who fail to beat the top 7 and those who fail to beat any of the rest.

tayto lover

Hyzepher wrote: »

This whole head to head against the other top 7 teams is a red herring - especially this year where teams are dropping points against lower positioned teams.

it annoys me when pundits talk about Arsenals record against the other title contenders and immediately discount our chances but then say nothing about the other teams dropping points against the lesser teams - something that we have done less of.

You'd swear that the teams who have done best against the top 7 teams are miles ahead of the rest in terms of points.

it doesn't matter who you lose against - you still only fail to pick up 3 points. This is true for the teams who fail to beat the top 7 and those who fail to beat any of the rest.

To an extent I agree BUT that is still ignoring the elephant in the room.
Our record against the likes of Chelsea, City and United (the worst Utd team in decades this season and all we took was 1 point from them) cannot be ignored. We seem to have a mental block when playing them. Now our season depends on getting something from the Chelsea and City games no matter how well we do against the lower teams. I reckon we just have to beat at least one of the two.

batistuta9

Hyzepher wrote: »

This whole head to head against the other top 7 teams is a red herring - especially this year where teams are dropping points against lower positioned teams.

it annoys me when pundits talk about Arsenals record against the other title contenders and immediately discount our chances but then say nothing about the other teams dropping points against the lesser teams - something that we have done less of.

You'd swear that the teams who have done best against the top 7 teams are miles ahead of the rest in terms of points.

it doesn't matter who you lose against - you still only fail to pick up 3 points. This is true for the teams who fail to beat the top 7 and those who fail to beat any of the rest.

That's all well and good but if arsenal are 3rd now (likely 4th when city play their games) and have probably the best record against the weaker teams and worst against the top 7
Where do you think the problem is?

Losing games to direct rivals matter more, that's the only result of theirs you can influence & the points between the teams is influenced more
Take Tottenham 9 points behind arsenal, if they'd have drawn both games or even won one they'd only be 3 behind them but the lost the two of them are 9 behind

mike65

Soups123 wrote: »

We've got the most depleted squad of the top 4, you take 4 firsteamers out of Liverpool and they'd be fcuked. Chelsea and City have bigger squads so would suffer but cope a little better

Lucas, Sakho, Cissokho, Coutinho for example? Hmmmm I guess it depends which 4 you take out.

jester77

Lads, some positivity, it's mid-March and we have a great chance of winning a cup and very much still in contention for winning the league. There is the possibility of doing the double

When was the last time we could say that at this time of year!

greendom

batistuta9 wrote: »

That's all well and good but if arsenal are 3rd now (likely 4th when city play their games) and have probably the best record against the weaker teams and worst against the top 7
Where do you think the problem is?

Losing games to direct rivals matter more, that's the only result of theirs you can influence & the points between the teams is influenced more
Take Tottenham 9 points behind arsenal, if they'd have drawn both games or even won one they'd only be 3 behind them but the lost the two of them are 9 behind

Our head to head with our direct rivals is not bad tho (except for goal difference) parity with Liverpool and Chelsea and - 3 with City. Beat City at home and get a draw with Chelsea and its completely even Stevens

Skylinehead

mike65 wrote: »

Lucas, Sakho, Cissokho, Coutinho for example? Hmmmm I guess it depends which 4 you take out.

Well if we're drawing parallels with Arsenal, then your leading goalscorer from last year, the best midfielder in the league, your big money signing, and another first team midfielder. So Suarez, Gerrard, Coutinho and Henderson :pac:

Mickeroo

mike65 wrote: »

Lucas, Sakho, Cissokho, Coutinho for example? Hmmmm I guess it depends which 4 you take out.

I'm sure he meant 4 of the ones that are really good

Agueroooo

Arsenal:

12/1 to win the title on Paddy Powers and 18/1 for the double.

that has to be a mistake?

ronjo

Agueroooo wrote: »

Arsenal:

12/1 to win the title on Paddy Powers and 18/1 for the double.

that has to be a mistake?

Liverpool at 3s and Arsenal at 12s does seem a bit crazy alright.

bad2dabone

ronjo wrote: »

Liverpool at 3s and Arsenal at 12s does seem a bit crazy alright.

probably reflects the amount of money they've taken in from liverpool fans.

batistuta9

greendom wrote: »

Our head to head with our direct rivals is not bad tho (except for goal difference) parity with Liverpool and Chelsea and - 3 with City. Beat City at home and get a draw with Chelsea and its completely even Stevens

Yeah that's true if happens. Even if it did arsenal would still have the worst record against the top7 from the top 4 teams though

A better result for any of teams there would've affected both teams points
The Chelsea game is a 6 pointer

gnfnrhead

Not a gambler, but that 18/1 is surely worth a tenner?

Agueroooo

bad2dabone wrote: »

probably reflects the amount of money they've taken in from liverpool fans.

Yep.

during our darker days there was a pretty penny to be had betting against Liverpool.

someone said that the Asian markets really skew LFC betting with the amount of bets wagered.

ugsparky

I know I shouldn't but ... headline of the year in the Daily Fail ... the rag that doesn't allow truth to get in the way of a good story ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2583209/Sherwoods-tactics-bizarre-Levy-prove-hes-job-Sandro-cares-hair-Tottenham-laughing-stock-Premier-League.html

... and if Mourinho keeps bleating about Foy maybe the ref will be kind to us at Chavski Bridgski