Arsenal

[wev]

We were really rather poor, but Wengers substitutions made us even worse

[Rev]

I think the substitution was decided before the match started. Clearly Wenger is desperately hoping Arshavin will do something (anything!) positive but it wasn't the time to give him his nineteen millionth chance.

That AoC made the Arsenal goal and Arshavin made the Man Utd goal is a fairly neat summary though.

[Stig]

Not even Man City would touch him.

Have a mate who's a Boro fan and even he wouldn't take him there.

I'm cometely bemused at the decision I take off one of your best players for a man who clearly just turns up to get his cash and cares so little.

[Dude Ranch]

It's Arsene Wenger's Club and he can do what the fuck he wants. End of.

[humdrum]

i really wouldn't mind seeing us revert back to a 4-4-2. it just seem to easy for teams to isolate van persie, we don't really seem to play a proper 4-3-3 as walcott and gervinho never seem high enough forward to catch teams on the break or far enough back to help us overwhelm teams in midfield ala a 4-5-1.

rvp and someone else up front. gervihno and ox as the two wide players and and wilshere and song in the middle.rotating in arteta ramsey.

[toythatkills]

"He had started to fatigue."

Whatever.

[The Fox]

It's Arsene Wenger's Club and he can do what the fuck he wants. End of.

Not sure if serious.

[Dude Ranch]

Not sure if serious.

I mean he's untouchable, he controls things and he doesn't really get questioned from inside the Club.

[Mars]

i really wouldn't mind seeing us revert back to a 4-4-2. it just seem to easy for teams to isolate van persie, we don't really seem to play a proper 4-3-3 as walcott and gervinho never seem high enough forward to catch teams on the break or far enough back to help us overwhelm teams in midfield ala a 4-5-1.

rvp and someone else up front. gervihno and ox as the two wide players and and wilshere and song in the middle.rotating in arteta ramsey.

Apt avatar.

[Rev]

The trouble is, Arshavin is not only a bit shit but he's also constantly out of position - he needs to be behind RVP, not required to put crosses in. That's ridiculous.

Taking Ramsey off and telling Arshavin to go in the middle might have been interesting.

[BlinkyBear]

I'm a horribly blindly loyal fan. I think that the likes of Rosicky, Walcott and Arshavin are superb who just need a goal or a bit of luck to really hit a run of form and show what they're capable of. I'd take them over most of the Spuds midfielders and think that these players are better than most of the squad players in the top 6. I support Wenger's transfer policy and don't see what throwing a load of money at the problem will do.

At least I did. The squad has hit a dead-end. Looking dispassionately at the midfield and we're not progressing at all anymore. We need to throw money at the problem. Rosicky, Arshavin, Diaby (sorry fella), Arshavin and Benayoun offer nothing of note to the club. Get rid. Build the midfield around Jack and Ramsey (who desperately needs a couple of weeks off). Make sure Gervinho and Arteta are played in their natural positions. Go back to 442. Bring in a couple of genuine quality players like Goetze and M'Vila, Tiote and Hazard and another striker (Park might be decent. No idea. When has he played enough to know?) to replace Chamakh.

The defence is, oddly enough, fine, I believe. Mertesacker had another good game, I'm pleased to the point of being smug about being right about Koscielny and Vermaelen is obviously quality. As for the full backs; Sagna is one of the best in Europe and I've been incredibly impressed with Jenkinson. As a third choice, Niko looks great and a perfect age for that role. At left back Santos is ahead of Gibbs for me, but either way it's a decent choice and both offer attacking promise as well as decent defensive nous. As a third choice Miquel looks a real talent and I think he'll be pushing Gibbs long-term.

Essentially; it's time to pony up and bring some players in. We also need to look at Wenger at the end of the season.

[Steve007]

I'm so frustrated. Having just equalised and The Ox really causing all sorts of bother whenever he was on the ball we could have even snatched an undeserved win, but the substitution was a disgrace. The fans quite rightly let Wenger know how they felt. You'd have thought that would have inspired Arshavin to at least give an extra 10% to prove everyone wrong but his involvement for United's winner was outrageous. That bastard must never be allowed near the first team again. Utter wanker.

As for Wenger, he's done wonders for the club in the past and has been the best manager we've ever had but now he's just making absurd decisions that are costing points. Fergie didn't need to gee his team up after RvP scored, Wenger took the wind out of our sails all by himself. Idiot.

[Rocafella]

"I can understand that the fans are upset about the substitution, especially when it doesn't work, but he (Oxlade-Chamberlain) had started to fatigue," he said.

"He was sick in the week. Arshavin is captain of the Russia national team.

"You have an 18-year-old kid making his first Premier League start and a player who's captain of his country and they are querying the substitution? Let's be serious."

Beggars belief.

[toythatkills]

That bastard must never be allowed near the first team again. Utter wanker.

We've been saying that every week for about 18 months. He'll start the next game so that AOC can have a rest, being so fatigued and all. And he is the captain of Russia, don't you know.

[wev]

Can't argue with that.

Our biggest issue appears to be a case of trying the same thing all the time. The formation we play, and aguably the players we use, should allow us to change things easily and try something a little different. Today for example, Rosicky was slowing us down drastically and offering next to nothing, but we still stuck with that same 3 man midfield in a game where the opposition were going around them.

With players around like Arshavin and Rosicky, is it really too much to expect a little experimentation or risk taking on their behalf? They've shown they can do it in the past but neither has done anything even remotely reminiscent of their individual abilities for some time.

If our level is challenging for fourth each season, I can sort of accept that (obviously I'd love for us to be winning things), but when we go into a game and you literally have no idea which Arsenal you're going to get, or worse you know all our hopes rely on one man (a situation we've suffered from for years, but with different players it feels) it really begins to grate. Obviously you never want a player like van Persie to be missing from your line-up, but it'd still feel absolutely wonderful if we could look at our squad and think "they could do a job".

[toythatkills]

And now Szczesny's leaving twitter. What a crap day.

[Dude Ranch]

Beggars belief.

I know, I find it insulting. I can't believe he said that.

[SMD]

Sorry guys, know last thing you want after a loss is a fan of another club butting in but I saw this and pissed myself:

[The Fox]

Idgi

[SMD]

[The Fox]

Oh ok

[Daley]

Sad that the Wenger years are ending like this. Have no doubt, this is the end. The reaction of the fans was amazing. Loud boos, followed by a nice clear chant of "you don't know what you're doing". Never have I seen a substitution so clearly cost the team the game. Best player off-useless lazy shit on who allows Valencia to breeze past him and make the winner. 100% Wenger's fault.

I wonder what he will think next season when there is nobody there to boo his decisions and instead he is faced with rows of empty seats.

[Jonathan_Kerr]

Not agreeing with Wenger's substitution decision, but let's not forget that he did choose to start AOC and took off Djourou when when he was being rubbish. He made a call, it didn't work. It's as much the lazy Russian's fault the goal was scored, as it is Wenger's.

Can't help but feel that this decision could be the straw that breaks the camel's back -- moves RVP to another club. On one hand, I love it that RVP is so passionate and expects the gold standard from his teammates. On the other hand. It wasn't that long ago that RVP was made of glass and Wenger/Arsenal fans have been very patient with him.

And on my third hand, Arshavin needs to go.

[Daley]

On the plus side Twitchy's trial starts today and it looks like there is a very good chance he will go down.

[wev]

Whilst its true that we've had to be patient with van Persie due to his brittleness in past seasons, I do believe he has thanked the fans and rewarded them as best as he can each and every time he has returned. It's not really his fault his legs were made from sugar glass, nor was it Wengers. However, it is/was Wenger's fault that no suitable replacement has been found in all that time, likewise it's Wengers fault there was no suitable replacement lined up for when Fabregas eventually left, he knew it was going to happen, and whilst Arteta has been a wonderful signing, plus we have Ramsey and Wilshere, we're still playing a system that was constructed around Cesc which only really works when we have our full strength line-up on the pitch.

We're now missing Arteta, Rosicky and Benayoun are decent squad players, but they're not Arteta, Ramsey isn't Fabregas either, but once again, Wenger's failed to act on what is in front of him and his own stubborness is really beginning to hit the bone rather than chew at the flesh of his own arse, which has culminated in a substition that even Rafa Benitez would be proud of.

[Dude Ranch]

I wouldn't have any ill feeling towards van Persie if he decided to go. I think he's given us every opportunity to convince him to stay, I think he wants to stay. He's world class and wasted at times playing for us, the players we've bought over the past half decade have been well, well short of the mark. Why should he have to struggle alongside Arshavin, Walcott, Park, Chamakh etc.?

[Steve007]

The real issue is the owner of the club. I've said it many times but I cannot stress how important it is that he declares his intentions.

We can have a go at Wenger all we like, but Stan Kroenke needs to stop hiding behind the board & Wenger and he needs to start talking. No one knows what his plans are because he hasn't said anything. No one knows his transfer policy because he hasn't talked about it. No one knows anything and it's no way to run a football club.

The fat Russian that everyone seemed to hate made his intentions very clear. He was prepared to chuck substantial amounts of his own multi-billion fortune at the club with David Dein overseeing the running of the football club. That would have been really disastrous, right? (sarcasm).

[Mars]

The fat Russian that everyone seemed to hate made his intentions very clear. He was prepared to chuck substantial amounts of his own multi-billion fortune at the club with David Dein overseeing the running of the football club. That would have been really disastrous, right? (sarcasm).

What gives you that impression? I didn't know he was that well off, I can't find any quotes and his performances on the pitch don't seem to back up that level of desire.

[wev]

Not only that, but Kroenke has been majority shareholder for, what, a year? and I do remember him stating he wanted full control, if he's not happy to go into partnership with Usmanov but has the "controlling" stake, who can blame him for sitting on his hands? Reports suggest Usmanov (who's from Uzbekistan, so technically not "Russian" despite the country being a former member of the USSR) is really rather dodgy, if Kroenke goes into business with him, theres a high chance he could be considered to be involved in whatever Usmanov gets upto away from Arsenal.

[Rev]

Not aimed at anyone specific, but...

Jesus. Lighten up. It was a completely inconsequential match - winning would have been a useful 3 points, but that's all. On the same weekend Liverpool messed up entirely, Chelsea are proving that they're fallible again, and Spurs have shown that if they lose one player they're made to look unimpressive.

And we need to spend millions because we conceded one crappy goal after 80 minutes against the defending champions? Fuck off.