Arsenal

[pinholestar]

Real battle, this game. Can see us getting done over if we're not careful.

[The Fox]

Nice freshly ploughed field they've got down at Selhurst Park.

[pinholestar]

That'll do.

[Silent Runner]

Welbeck key in both goals. For all their running I don't think palace had a shot.

[Gotters]

Odd sort of half, we conceded all the possession but stopped them troubling the keeper at all, and always look the more likely to score on the break.

Very competent half, if not a little dull.

[The Fox]

Ugh should have been 3, brilliant from Özil.

[toythatkills]

United losing, alright day if this carries on.

[toythatkills]

Only Arsenal could come so close to throwing that away. In the Champion's League places though, so that's cool.

[Silent Runner]

Jesus fuck, off the post in the 95th minute. Only arsenal.

[pinholestar]

Fucking hell, at 90mins I went off to start dinner & came back to see that we'd almost thrown it away. Decent 3 points in the end.

[The Fox]

Yeah Palace were decent, they kept up some pretty intense pressing until the very end. 2-1 probably a fair result.

Ospina was shite again btw. I'm not totally convinced Szczesny is good enough but he's definitely better than that guy.

edit: Also the second game in a row Giroud has been bloody awful but still got on the scoresheet!

[Silent Runner]

Really good article on Wengers time at Monaco and the corruption in French football at the time.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/feb/21/arsenal-arsene-wenger-scarred-monaco-marseille?CMP=share_btn_tw

[toythatkills]

Southampton are going to lose and I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Liverpool feel like they'll be more of a threat in the latter stages of the season than Southampton.

It means we'll be legit third, though. Five teams separated by four points!

[carlito]

I thought Liverpool were very poor contrary to the opinions of all the pundits.

They basically had one completely speculative shot from 30 yards in the first 60 minutes of play and it happened to go in. No corners, no other shots on or off target and no attacking moves of any merit.

That they didn't concede, bar the cast iron penalty that wasn't given, was due to Southampton fluffing their lines rather than decent defending.

They have a lot of young players who are almost really good and will almost certainly be really good in time but without Champo they might struggle to hold on to them for that transition.

You know I'd be all over a greasy bid for Can if Liverpool don't make the grade.

[The Fox]

They are on a good run of form but yeah they weren't great yesterday, Southampton and the ref were both really shit on the day and that aided them.

I second the Emre Can thing but purely so we can maintain our team's aesthetic qualities, which have taken a dangerous blow with the signing of Gabriel.

[carlito]

Yeah man he's got more fucking teeth than Carragher in that mush of his.

Real tough spot facewise.

[Rev]

Gabriel could pair with Martin Keown at his worst and the latter would have come out looking good.

[carlito]

Keown is definitely getting worse with age.

[Gabe]

I thought Liverpool were very poor contrary to the opinions of all the pundits.

They basically had one completely speculative shot from 30 yards in the first 60 minutes of play and it happened to go in. No corners, no other shots on or off target and no attacking moves of any merit.

That they didn't concede, bar the cast iron penalty that wasn't given, was due to Southampton fluffing their lines rather than decent defending.

They have a lot of young players who are almost really good and will almost certainly be really good in time but without Champo they might struggle to hold on to them for that transition.

You know I'd be all over a greasy bid for Can if Liverpool don't make the grade.

We were poor and were shocking defensively in the first half, but shored-up in the second. It was a pretty rubbish game overall, really, neither side looked to have any ideas about how to score and it was scrappy without a great deal of quality (Coutinho's strike aside).

You can keep your paws off Can, though, I firmly believe he's going to anchor our midfield for as long as he wants to stay at the club. He's a real talent. Jordan Ibe was the only other real bright spot. I said in the Liverpool thread that he's basically Sterling with more strength and a better dribbler.

Keown is definitely getting worse with age.

Keown is starting to look like Plug from the Bash Street Kids.

[Rev]

Keown is definitely getting worse with age.

He definitely was better for a bit, but yes.

[Petrousgyre]

I've been reading my daughter the BFG and noticed Keown looks startlingly like the Bloodbottler. For reference:

http://www.e-reading.link/illustrations/1010/1010572-_19.jpg

[Rev]

Nice that Keown got a mention in Per's autobiography.

[Mars]

Keown is definitely getting worse with age.

[toythatkills]

I'm blaming all you fucks who were wondering who we'd be playing in the next round.

[pinholestar]

Frustratingly complacent performance devoid of any urgency so far & we deserve to be behind. Need to wake the fuck up.

[The Fox]

Ospina is shite. God knows where anyone was who could have closed Kondogbia down too. Rubbish so far.

[Mars]

Playing like a bunch of dopey twats.

[toythatkills]

Ospina is shite.

It's like when Almunia replaced Lehmann, except Szczesny is shite as well.

[Rev]

Who'd have thought that the word complacent would appear in this thread when we got a decent draw in the Champion's League.

It's been dire. The number of attacks we've had that have relied on the tactic "run down middle of pitch, fall down" is ridiculous.

[hauk]

Hopefully we'll have a 2nd half turnaround.