Unlucky Arsenal

[FarmerJon]

tbh wingbacks is an issue for us, but in midfield we have two quality right wingers (Lennon & Routledge) two england players in the centre (Carrick and Jenas, although Jenas hasn't performed 100% yet) Tainio is quality too, and Davids (if he stays) is only 32 & brings a LOT of experience and bite to a team. the place we are weakest is left midfield, where we'll be looking for a quality winger according to all accounts. However, your estimate of us being lucky to finish top 7 doesn't really take into account we have two world class centrebacks, a truely amazing goalie, 3 england squad players in midfield & 3 international strikers. As for you finishing top 2 with an injury or so less, well its comedy...without a new player or three your young players will be knackered by christmas & with Man U being stronger in pretty much every position to you & chelsea having unlimited funds to buy players I don't really see anyone touching either of them. I also think its impressive you managed to blame injuries when Henry played every single game from the start of february onwards...you're not the only team who had injuries, and it was only at left back where you missed a lot of players, everywhere else you missed one player for a while & then another for a bit, just like every other team in the league.

[Kebab]

If you had bothered to read properly, I did mention Lennon, Carrick and Tainio as quality midfielders.

2 world class centre backs? King and??? Dawson potentially but not yet. And how many of your centre backs are going to the WC? none so far, we have 4.
And despite your amazing goalie and your 1 and half world class centrebacks you still have conceded more goals than Arsenal, despite Arsenal loosing the best LB in the world for most of the season, their main right back for half of the season, their senior CB having a nervous breakdown, and trying 9 different LB in the season.

3 international strikers mmm how many of them are going to the WC? none so far, though Defoe might. How many of our strikers are going? 5.


Our young players have played throughout the year because of our injuries, and they have lasted so far.

The only reason that your yougsters were still seemingly fit at the end of the season was because you've only played 40 games this season, that has to be the lowest number of games any professional team has played in the country, or amongst the lowest.

[davidstone28]

Thought Arsenal played well but I don't know what all the moaning is about regarding the refThe ref could have sent off Lehman AND given the goals - he's fully entitled to under the rules of the game. They also got a free kick (which wasn't a freekick or foul) which led to the Campbell goal.

The whole things seems like sour grapes by Wenger & Co.

[FarmerJon]

laughing a lot as your point just illustrates how poor your excuse that you had injuries last season really is. The only reason (& you know it) that King isn't goigng to the WC is because he's injured & even then i'd play him over Campbell every time & i think you would too. For all your supposed injury crisis (actually i think you've actually played 7 rather than 9 players at LB this year) Toure's played a full season & Senderos has been fit almost throughout too. Cole is worldclass there's no denying it, but of all your players going to the WC most of them are playing in (lets face it) rather less competitive squads than our players. Keane would walk into pretty much any team ahead of adebayor for instance & as for your four centrebacks, well Senderos is playing for the world renowned swiss team which Daws would just as easily walk into, and who's your fourth international centreback? hmm, i'm sure he's worldclass anyway huh? Just out of interest of your five strikers going to the WC (henry, reyes adebayor van persie & walcot who by the way hasn't actually played for you yet) how many would you honestly have in your first choice england squad other than henry? Face it, you have a couple of true world class performers (Henry, Fabregas & Cole) surrounded by some athletic players (eboue & Toure) and some has beens (Campbell Ljungberg and Lehman & soon Silva) and some youngsters who are very promising but really aren't top 4 material yet (Reyes, Van Persie Diaby Adebayor). You've been a dominant force in english football (albeit you're not really an english team on the pitch) but without some investment you won't even be top 4 next year...anyway, we digress from the point of the thread...

[Kebab]

mmm Dawson would take Djourou's place fair enough but not Senderos, Keane would not walk into the spanish nor the dutch nor the french national team nor the english one, if Reyes was english would have been selected for the england team ahaead of Defoe, he has scored less than defoe, 8 goals against Defoes 12-15 but he has 16 assists this season and can play left midfield, He would also walk into the world dominating Ireland squad, and the best footballing african nation egypt. As you see we can spin these arguments around and around. At the end of day none of your strikers or your centrebacks made the WC.

About King being injured, I thought you said he was going to be fit by now? But to be fair I would have played King ahead of Campbell, but if i were to only judge Campbell on his performance against Barca, then I would not be so sure anymore.

As for the point of this thread, I think it was about having a laugh at arsenal for losing the CL so you will understand if I don't care about much about steering this thread off its ever so important course.

[FarmerJon]

Walk into the irish team? ahead of Duff? don't think so & id have a player like duff 100/100 compared to a diving so & so like Reyes who pretends to get hurt & then gets back up to walk onto the pitch & collapse again in order to slow the games down. & as for spinning things one way & another it could be argued (despite you saying we needed new fullbacks) then that Lee is a better full back than clichy, or Lauren since he's going to the wc & they are not...however i think we'd both agree that's a complete fallacy. Keane WOULD be in the french squad i think & might have made the squads for other teams too...I don't think you give him even nearly the credit he deserves as he managed 16 premiership goals this year in considerably less games than the strikers either above or below him on the goal scoring charts. Defoe also has been very unfortunate to miss out & should really be in the england squad. In any case back to the topic...laughing at you goons for falling on your faces in the final the other night...i know you'll just come back with "well when were you last in a european final then!" but sticking to this season, I know you guys played well, but contrary to a lot of statements of "we'd have won it if..." followed by various statements about the referee or whatnot...truth is that you guys had your chances & you missed them. I think that 11v11 they would have won comfortably & that playing with all men behind the ball was the only reason they didn't score earlier tbh... as i said, you had your chance to win it & you didn't, I think that's really what's bugging most goons, that your HERO, the centre of your one man team, your captain even, choked horribly and missed those sitters...can't see anyone else to blame for those misses than him, though maybe the ref put him off by making fart noises in the distance?

[Kebab]

I never said we would have won it if the ref wasn't ****, but just laughed at your claims that we were lucky.

As Henry choked horribly is rubbish, the first chance should have been away fair enough, but the other he hit the post, and the third he had no juice left, and Valdes was lucky to stop it with his foot.

11v11, Barca might have scored earlier than they did, but the 2 goals they scored Lehmann would have saved, and we would have scored as well. At 11v11 we were the better team, ok you cannot judge a whole a match over 20 minutes, but that was all that was played at 11v11.

And we didnt play well this season, 11 defeats is a crap season. finishing 4th is not satisfactory. You can make all the comments you want, but over the whole season this is one of our worst in 10 years, and alledgedly your best in 10 years, and we still finished above you, reached the CL final, put on a great display, while you've nearly made the CL spot.

Take the piss out of Reyes all you want, but despite his flaws, he is a player that went 49 games unbeaten, what is the most number of games any players in your squad has been unbeaten?

[FarmerJon]

mate, don't start that, he didn't play in all 49 games....how many of your players have been in more than one champions league final? none? hmm, Davids has, in fact he's won more silverware than any of your team both domestically AND in european terms thank you very much. As for us, we'll b back next year, and a LOT better...with a team with SO SO many new faces in it we managed fifth & except for a rather unlucky incident prior to the last game of the year might have held onto 4th...that didn't happen, but we'll be there next year & much much better...Just wait untill lennon gets near his best!

[Aaron]

Oops!

[kidzer]

haha, excellent!

[Kebab]

You be being better next season is normal most teams do get bette, Lenon will get better especially if he has a good WC and carrick shouldnt drop in form, but your not sure Davids is going to stay, and you dont know yet what players you will have in the position you said you are lacking, while we have had a mediocre domestic season, our young players will have so much more confident next season we dont actually need new players.

We are strong in every position. We even have cover for injuries (albeit not too many long term ones). You saying Silva or Lehman being has beens, please, Silva has had trouble adjusting to Viera s absence in the beginning of the season but he has adjusted now, as he has shown in the last 3rd of the season, and against riquelme and ronaldinho. Lehmann looks better than ever, and hasnt shown any signs of tiredness or age. Ljungberg still runs his socks off, not scoring as many as he use too but that is because his role has changed this season. Campbell proved he is still an awesome defender against barca. Hleb is a class act, Reyes will grow in stature and will score more goals so will van persie. Fabregas is Fabregas. And we still have Walcott to come.

You saying that we wont make at least fourth is obviously a biased point of view. Looking at the squad we are in a stronger position than you are and that is without any addition to our squad.

[Clunk]

Oops!