BOLTON GAME THREAD

djhdjh · Post by **djhdjh** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 7:05 pm

Good to see Wenger making tactical changes to help us out when under pressure. Putting Diaby back to DM gave us more control of the midfield with and without the ball and pulling Cesc deeper and letting Merida take the advanced role meant we brought the ball out from the back with less pressure.

Cesc magnificent, Vermaelen and Gallas not far behind.

Number 5 · Post by **Number 5** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 7:30 pm

Only one post from me tonight as I'm currently absorbed in the NFL playoffs.

That was fucking tripe from Arsenal today. Absolutely fucking shocking display. I spent the whole game shaking my head bar the opening 10 minutes when we looked fairly decent.

Bring that shit to the table in any of our upcoming games against Villa, Man U, Chelsea or even Liverpool and that'll be any title ambition we have done for another year. Any team with even a half decent front line and the ability to create even half what Bolton did tonight and we'd be needing 3 goals just to take a point from the game.

Loyalty to your players should only stretch so far. How Traore even made it to half time is beyond me. If the best tactical switch Wenger can come up with is to take throw in duties away from the full backs and then the opposition still rape your left hand side causing all the other back 3 to rotate over so the right becomes weaker, I'll be bald come May.

Good points only in the ability to manage a win when heavily riding your luck.

Come Wednesday we must crush the same team with a much more convincing display. It's in there for the team to do it but please God no more like today.

thatgooner · Post by **thatgooner** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 7:45 pm

2 games in a row that in seasons gone by we would have lost, 4 points picked up.. this is a representation of progress in my opinion.
Hopefully we can emerge from this poor run of form with a good win midweek.

SMR · Post by **SMR** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:03 pm

Why are some people so negative!?

We kept a clean sheet, won 2-0 away from home, against a team with a new manager so the players were going to try harder, against a style of football we don't usually do well against and we have some significant injury problems.

We can go top on Wednesday with a good win against the same team we beat today, a side that are seemingly limited going forward and we'll be at home.

Get some perspective people. We played well in the circumstances and scored two good goals.

Vince · Post by **Vince** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:03 pm

I think Bolton was the luckiest team on the pitch, we had much more possession, more clear chances, and the ref didn't see the penalty in first half for us.
It was more close to 3-0 than 2-1.

Post by **DB10GOONER** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:04 pm

A vital win. We would have drawn or lost that game last season playing like that, but we held on and grinded out the result. Of course the fact that Bolton are shite helped but at least we are now winning whilst playing poorly. Great result.

Metalheadz Gooner · Post by **Metalheadz Gooner** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:10 pm

Don't know why anyone has any reason to moan. It was a hard game against a team of players all playing for their futures.

We stood up to the battle, played some decent football at times. And most importantly we got the 3 points.

We will play better this season and we will drop more points. But give the team a break when we have got the 3 points.

Metalheadz Gooner · Post by **Metalheadz Gooner** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:12 pm

Basically what SMR said.

Post by **SPUDMASHER** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:13 pm

For me this was an average performance with the occasional glimmer of what we are capable of. Great result all things considered and the kind of result that allows me to think that we have a chance this year. Of course, that feeling will be totally destroyed after the Manure and Chavski games but hey, it's nice while it lasts.

Merida's control for his goal was superb. Don't underestimate how difficult that skill is.

Now all we need to do is beat them again on Wednesday and go top. I know we'll have played one more than the chavs but rather the points in the bag than the game in hand!

tinpot lane · Post by **tinpot lane** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:18 pm

Professional performance. Player pretty poor overall but a great result. Still convinced we won't win the league with our current squad though.

augie · Post by **augie** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:29 pm

tinpot lane wrote:Professional performance. Player pretty poor overall but a great result. Still convinced we won't win the league with our current squad though.

I'd pretty much agree with that statement bar cesc, who was different fcuking class, and vermaelen who in my opinion is holding that back 4 together at times

I know many of ye feel gallas is having a great season but he just isnt convincing me defensively especially in the air which is funny cos he always looks dangerous when he goes forward for our free kicks and corners

The importance of cesc to this team simply cannot be overstated and it makes a mockery of those who questioned whether they guy is over-rated by Gooners

On a negative side you really have to question the performances of traore and diaby - traore looks so bad both positionally and from an awareness point of view that you have to wonder if he is good enough to be a pro player at all much less for our club

In fact if it wasnt for the fact that he brought a knuckle duster with him when going to support the team at shite hart lane a few years ago (arrestable offence by all accounts

) then I wouldnt have anything good to say about him at all

Diaby, imo, has shown for the last 2 games again that he is not good enough and the odd good game against shite opposition cannot hide that fact forever

He still fcuks about and loses possession, his passing is poor and his zero effort at protecting a badly exposed left back was a disgrace

Do I even need to mention the customary almunia fcuk up ? No I didnt think so

How some say that he did well today is beyond me cos the guy had fcuk all to do all day long

Metalheadz Gooner · Post by **Metalheadz Gooner** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:34 pm

augie wrote:
tinpot lane wrote:Professional performance. Player pretty poor overall but a great result. Still convinced we won't win the league with our current squad though.

I'd pretty much agree with that statement bar cesc, who was different fcuking class, and vermaelen who in my opinion is holding that back 4 together at times I know many of ye feel gallas is having a great season but he just isnt convincing me defensively especially in the air which is funny cos he always looks dangerous when he goes forward for our free kicks and corners The importance of cesc to this team simply cannot be overstated and it makes a mockery of those who questioned whether they guy is over-rated by Gooners

On a negative side you really have to question the performances of traore and diaby - traore looks so bad both positionally and from an awareness point of view that you have to wonder if he is good enough to be a pro player at all much less for our club In fact if it wasnt for the fact that he brought a knuckle duster with him when going to support the team at shite hart lane a few years ago (arrestable offence by all accounts ) then I wouldnt have anything good to say about him at all Diaby, imo, has shown for the last 2 games again that he is not good enough and the odd good game against shite opposition cannot hide that fact forever He still fcuks about and loses possession, his passing is poor and his zero effort at protecting a badly exposed left back was a disgrace Do I even need to mention the customary almunia fcuk up ? No I didnt think so How some say that he did well today is beyond me cos the guy had fcuk all to do all day long

Would you rather Denilson had played today or Diaby. I know who I prefer and would prefer seeing playing week in week out. Because one day Diaby is going to find consistently and will be the player we see every 2-3 games. Also just think back to his performance against Villa and keep the faith.

Almunia is a cock though and needs to fuck off. I hate hating on players, but he is a weak link and needs to be shipped back to where ever he came from.

wlchuccc · Post by **wlchuccc** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:40 pm

TeeCee wrote:Fantastic result although I'm not sure how we won with Diaby and Eastmond in midfield having absolute shockers. Eastmond you can kind of forgive but Diaby just showed why so many people have doubts about him. After a couple of very good games, he wasn't just bad today he was totally shit, anonymous and when he got the ball gave it away almost every time. Eastmond was so out of his depth, to be honest he's been poor every time I've seen him but what do i know . Traore was very poor again at left back, great to have Clichy back. The positives....Fab was fab again, we're a totally different side with him playing. Central defenders solid, Almunia was ok but his distribution was really poor...why did he keep on hoofing it up the pitch straight to their CB's? We lost possession pretty much every goal kick we had.
So overall, I think it's an excellent win considering, they had several decent chances, we'll have to be very careful on Weds.
Why do so many of our players keep picking up 'niggling' injuries?

I disagree. Diaby was not great today, but he did quite ok in the second half when AW asked him to play the defensive role in the midfield (except he made a shit pass to gallas/cesc in the second half). He also won a lot of headers at the back, and made some good tackles...

Boomer · Post by **Boomer** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:40 pm

tinpot lane wrote:Professional performance.

That was excatley the phrase that sprang to my mind. Result wise great, what we hoped and expected. Performance was....well..meh! but hey! it's the results that count.

I'm not going to grumble, try to stay on a positive vibe.
2-0 away at Bolton is a good result. Even the invincibles struggled there!

We've players starting to now come back. Good to see Clich.
Thought Rosicky (Everton aside) is continuing to get better and better. Once is gets a run he'll be great but you can see he's rusty.
Though Eastmond was very decent. Better player as DM then Denilson. Okay he was a little sloppy at times but we all look at the negatives but I did see a lot of confidence and showed for the ball and wanted to take it forward.

Where's Nasri? [Edit - Hamstring on Friday just found it!]

Providing Bolton don't park the bus we'll be top!

Especially if we score early enough we'll more then match the 2 goal target!

wlchuccc · Post by **wlchuccc** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:48 pm

Metalheadz Gooner wrote:
augie wrote:
tinpot lane wrote:Professional performance. Player pretty poor overall but a great result. Still convinced we won't win the league with our current squad though.

I'd pretty much agree with that statement bar cesc, who was different fcuking class, and vermaelen who in my opinion is holding that back 4 together at times I know many of ye feel gallas is having a great season but he just isnt convincing me defensively especially in the air which is funny cos he always looks dangerous when he goes forward for our free kicks and corners The importance of cesc to this team simply cannot be overstated and it makes a mockery of those who questioned whether they guy is over-rated by Gooners

On a negative side you really have to question the performances of traore and diaby - traore looks so bad both positionally and from an awareness point of view that you have to wonder if he is good enough to be a pro player at all much less for our club In fact if it wasnt for the fact that he brought a knuckle duster with him when going to support the team at shite hart lane a few years ago (arrestable offence by all accounts ) then I wouldnt have anything good to say about him at all Diaby, imo, has shown for the last 2 games again that he is not good enough and the odd good game against shite opposition cannot hide that fact forever He still fcuks about and loses possession, his passing is poor and his zero effort at protecting a badly exposed left back was a disgrace Do I even need to mention the customary almunia fcuk up ? No I didnt think so How some say that he did well today is beyond me cos the guy had fcuk all to do all day long
Would you rather Denilson had played today or Diaby. I know who I prefer and would prefer seeing playing week in week out. Because one day Diaby is going to find consistently and will be the player we see every 2-3 games. Also just think back to his performance against Villa and keep the faith.

Almunia is a cock though and needs to fuck off. I hate hating on players, but he is a weak link and needs to be shipped back to where ever he came from.

Agreed. Diaby was not great today. But he played ok when AW asked him to play Song's role.

Same here. I just want Almunia to leave asap. Though I admire his hardwork and loyalty to the club, I don't think that he is good enough to be the number 1 for us....