Arsenal v WBA Official Thread

As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
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butcher boy
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Post by butcher boy »

tonysaunders wrote:To be honest, you can't read an awful lot in to the first home game of the season. With that said, Nasri looked solid, Sagna and Clichy were their awesome selves. Dare I say it, Eboue actually played quite well (apart from the shooting, which was TERRIBLE!!!)
Spot on tony, djourou looked good as well.Did nt like the Ade booing, though the gooner back cover made me laugh, it wont help ade score !

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corkbarry
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Post by corkbarry »

You would have to give some credit to West Brom for their defense in the final part of the pitch,we played some pretty football in the middle but brom had someone always blocking the cross. I will accept a decent result.
A win is a win :)

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Galasso
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Post by Galasso »

butcher boy wrote:
tonysaunders wrote:To be honest, you can't read an awful lot in to the first home game of the season. With that said, Nasri looked solid, Sagna and Clichy were their awesome selves. Dare I say it, Eboue actually played quite well (apart from the shooting, which was TERRIBLE!!!)
Spot on tony, djourou looked good as well.Did nt like the Ade booing, though the gooner back cover made me laugh, it wont help ade score !
Didn't think an awful lot of djorou and gallas today. Wobbled when put under physical pressure.

Eboue was ok and almunia played well.

Walcott had a stinker

Adebayor - strength, speed, misses, offsides...you know the story

Nasri looks like a fighter.

Happy with 1-0 with the requisite biting of nails and second half frustration

:barscarf:

Kevinho
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Post by Kevinho »

General thoughts.

1st game, without Cesc, at a shit KO time against a promoted club on their first visit to The Grove, I'm happy with 3 points and especially a clean sheet which I didn't think we'd get after seeing some of our pre-season.

Nasri; has already convinced me what my new shirt will be:

ANTI-HLEB
8

Great to see him get off the mark in his debut and for spells during the first half I wondered whether he and Clichy can forge the kind of partnership Cashley & Super Rob had down the left side. Other standout moment was his glorious pass to release Ade in the second half. Good technical ability and more direct than Hleb will ever be; I'm pleased on my first look at him.

Eboue; one of my mates at work warned me Wenger had tried him at centre-mid in pre-season so I feared the very worst. But like tonysaunders said he showed some good things. :shock: Won a few fouls without too much theatrics, made a very good run to the byline in the second half to set up an attack. Made space for himself well to have one of a few shots. I have no confidence at all in him when he shoots and I think HE has no confidence in himself, how else can you explain his "technique" which consists solely of closing his eyes and trying to wildly smash the fuck out of the football. However as good as I've ever seen him, which is still not saying much.

Denilson; he and Eboue did not impose themselves in midfield enough for me but again Denny showed some good touches and tackles. Lovely run & cutback for the winner.

Djourou; Has a big chance in the absence of Kolo & Phil and did well generally including a vital goalline clearance (though why Gallas "congratulated" him by screaming at him I don't know).

Adebayor; should have killed the game in the second half but missed 2 quite simple chances. With some clumsy touches as well the (perhaps inevitable) thing I feared the most happened, Arsenal fans booing one of their own. Whatever he said or didn't say in the summer, I think that's fucking out of order from these "supporters" who were probably the same *word censored* that pissed off with more than 5 minutes to go. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:
I never heard Cashley get booed even though he was doing far worse than what Ade was supposed to have done, a sad thing to hear.

Walcott; oh dear. Timid, timid and er timid again. When is the boy going to grow some bollocks?

Toure; what exactly was his brief as 2nd half sub? Answers on a postcard please.

All in all, a decent start to the season and I'll take that thank you very much.

COME ON YOU REDS!!!!! :barscarf: :barscarf: :barscarf: :barscarf: :barscarf:

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Chippy
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Post by Chippy »

Just got back in and am surprised at the positive view on here. the only positives were 3 points which we were very lucky to get, Nasri scoring and being our best player. Other than that i thought we were completely devoid of ideas (how many shots on target?) and very lucky not to concede 1 or 2. :x

Still we were top of the league for a couple of hours. :roll:

Kevinho
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Post by Kevinho »

OK so we cleared one off the line soon after Manuel saved a one-on-one but what else did West Brom do?

We dominated the game, carved through them time and time again but more often than not our final ball was shit (I'll give you that). However if Ade puts away the 2 clear second half chances we'd have got a more realistic scoreline.

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Chippy
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Post by Chippy »

We're talking about a team that is almost certain to be relegated and we just scraped home. I didn't see a lot of carving but lots of passing around the box until somebody decide to try and hit the corner flag with a shot, and we can't blame hleb anymore. :roll:

Kevinho
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Post by Kevinho »

But we did scrape home, while not playing our best, without a host of first-teamers and a centre-mid partnership that is probably 6th choice.

Yes we did fall back into our bad habit of pass, pass and pass again outside their box but we're still getting the Hleb virus out of our system. :D

With the goal, the Bendtner near-post header, the Gallas screamer in the first half & the 2 Ade chances, RVP'S improvisation with the outside of his left boot and the last-ditch tackle off Theo's toes in the second half, I think we made enough to have won comfortably.

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Galasso
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Post by Galasso »

Kevinho wrote: Djourou; Has a big chance in the absence of Kolo & Phil and did well generally including a vital goalline clearance (though why Gallas "congratulated" him by screaming at him I don't know).
Maybe because it was djourou's fault the guy got through in the first place?

Wembley Gooner
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Post by Wembley Gooner »

well played Nasri, Denilson, Clichy, and Eboue (yes Eboue) today - deserve a special mention methinks

Kevinho
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Post by Kevinho »

Galasso wrote:
Kevinho wrote: Djourou; Has a big chance in the absence of Kolo & Phil and did well generally including a vital goalline clearance (though why Gallas "congratulated" him by screaming at him I don't know).
Maybe because it was djourou's fault the guy got through in the first place?
Are you speaking with certainty here? If so, I bow to the knowledge gained from your vantage point. I'll have to see it again on MOTD.

Magic Hat
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Post by Magic Hat »

Questions guys, you know the effort cleared off the line? Could Almunia have done better or was it just the camera angle making him look bad?

Overall, with it being first game of the season, both sides with injury problems, too easy to see too much into this. Thought WBA did themselves a lot of credit after that poor start, defense sorted itself out to be surprisingly resilient, Miller was a real pain in the back. We may not have won many balls in the air but that is fine when thirty yards out, we have plenty of time to win the ball from there, credit to the team for not allowing WBA to use Miller's height close to our goal.

Positives:
We won, that is always good
No injuries, again always good
Kept a clean sheet. Miracles do in fact happen
Nasri scored on his debut after a wonderful flowing move, he was solid.
We had lots of possession thanks to a far better midfield performance as a group.
Gallas was superb, always covering the mistakes of others around him.
Van Persie showed a glimpse of what he can do
Toure got a run out
Far better from Denilson and Eboue, the two seemed to have a partnership going and Eboue, shooting aside, looks better as a dm then he does on the right.
Almunia did play well, made some important saves, good distribution, brave, did everything required.
During the first 25 minutes, Walcott joined the attack and the front three created havoc, better final ball and Walcott might have got clear once or twice.
Djorou showed why he is admired, some very good tackles/blocks, got back to clear off the line...

Negatives:
However his positioning was awful. Every single WBA chance came about from two things, Miller's impressive efforts and Djorou failing to be where he should be. Including the block off the line, came due to his failure in the offside trap.
Sagna didn't seem anywhere near his best, Gallas had to cover from him
Walcott hugging the touchline after first 25 minutes, far less effective and never looked like a danger out there
Nic started well enough, made himself a target man but as time went on, his passing went to pieces and he faded
Ade was superbly marshaled by my man of the match, young Barnett, while he got one chance and a few decent low crosses, Ade can do better.
All possession, no penetration. Should improve with players back and with more games played but we only had three or four clear chances from open play, a poor return for the amount of time we had the ball.

gus ceasar is a legend
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Post by gus ceasar is a legend »

Was a weird one for me today!

Nasri and Clichy look already like a fantastic partnership on the left! Nasri is fucking top notch and Gael was reading his mind! Brilliant!

Djourou looked good to me alongside Billy and huge respect to the skipper to come over to where we sit after the game to give us a clap! It is the little things like that which counnt in my mind. As our skipper he respects and remembers us and that is a good thing trust me!

Right here goes......Eboue played quite well in central midfield!

Sorry I feel ill now!

All we nees is a cutting edge as we could have won by 6 if we needed to!

Samir Nasri.....what a fucking debut!

Sorry if I make little sense but on a train home pissed and Blackberrys have tiny buttons!

Oh forgot to say.......got off tube at Arsenal today and saw a guy with North Bank Mexican on his back! Pure chance! Said hello and a great fella! Beer soon matey!

Sold a ticket to ****'s son and both really good people! The cropwd that I go with enjoyed their company but then again they aint seen him starkers!

Saw Kev/Gooner Ed too and the poor man looked fucked! Was looking forward to a pint and a kip! I did offer to take over the editorial roll on the Gooner but Kev/Ed was uncommital about promoting me! I will keep you updated.

Anyhow apparently I have to go to a BBQ when I get off the train so I will see you tomorrow!

1-0 job done but must do better!

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Sutch
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Post by Sutch »

What was the atmosphere like lads, only saw the first five minutes as I recorded it on sky+.

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Rob
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Post by Rob »

Haven't read anyone else's posts - but anyway.

Good for the 3 points.

Otherwise the game and the performance stank. :( The redeeming feature is that the injured should slowly filter back.

Also plenty of empty seats in the upper and lower tiers and not just at Club Level.

We'll get a clearer picture in the coming weeks.

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