Villa Away 21/12/11 Match Thread

[arseofacrow]

the reason Mertesacker is decent for Germany is because he has a tactical manager who gives him the protection of Torsten Frings.

Frings is not any longer in the german national squad, he is not even playing in germany any longer...he plays in the us opera soccer world

Well done with the win, sack the three points and move on.

Best wishes,
Thomas

P.S.: BVB had a great cup game yesterday against the top team from the second division, over 90 minutes (was extra time, so 120 minutes) one men down and then they have won it in penalties 5:4

...against Fortuna Dusseldorf ...

[rigsby]

This year Rosicky has actually been pretty decent when coming on. His contract must be up, playing for it.

[arseofacrow]

This year Rosicky has actually been pretty decent when coming on. His contract must be up, playing for it.

Yes, I've given him some deserved stick...so I wonder where this seemingly new attitude comes from.

He was pretty tidy last night...lost possession once and immediately won it back with a great tackle. Was effective and kept things moving.

New 5 year contract please!

[hugh jardon]

An underpar performance but 3 points all important!

Frimpong seems to be another Nick Bendtner - in love with himself off the pitch and needs to concentrate on being a footballer rather than a wannabe celebrity. A very poor individual performance losing possesion in dangerous areas on several occasions.

Thought Coquelin has much better suited attributes than Djorou to play at right back. I'm not sure if he is good enough to get a chance in midfield so covering at right back could be his big chance to be regularly involved with the first team squad.

RVP still needs someone to share some of the workload upfront. Hopefully even Arsene can see this and will buy a proven striker in January.

Theo has been in good form recently and although his performance looked a little tired last night he did well to win the peno for the first goal.

Mertesacker seems to be getting a lot of stick for their goal but I thought TV5's header to him was short and the real cause.

Well pleased for Yossi to get the winner - a good pro who's example some of the others should be learning from!

[SammyDroppedHisShorts]

Was at Villa Park last night and what I saw was a difficult game won in a good honest hard working manner.

Granted at times some of our play was poor and some players were being carried but others.

Wojcech had one outstanding save to make right at the start...after that.....not a lot of note. For all of Villa's ball retention they created very little. That is in many respects an indication as to how hard a make shift back four worked its socks off. Kos was awesome, TV solid when at times Albrighton was running at will at him and making it very hard for TV. Mistake for the goal indeed but out of position. BFG was composed and reading of game superb bar the error for the goal, and young Francis coped well particularly second half from the Zog.

Midfield wise was a little jaded. Arteta for me was superb having to tidy up the mess often created by Dench and Rambo, whilst Gervinho played a game where he back tracked all game therefore killing his natural game.

Wally was ..........Wally and RVP RVP.

Good result, tight game, home side doing what home sides should...demonstrate control over the game and a three point steal....

Villa for me did not do enough to win....

[Dan_85]

Who were the twats behind me last night who kept screaming "DEEEEENCH!" every time Frimpong touched the ball?! Needed a good slap, them lot. How fucking old are you...

[SPARKSY]

[quote="hugh jardon"]An underpar performance but 3 points all important!

"Frimpong seems to be another Nick Bendtner - in love with himself off the pitch and needs to concentrate on being a footballer rather than a wannabe celebrity. A very poor individual performance losing possesion in dangerous areas on several occasions"

- Give the bloke a chance. He's only played half a dozen games. He's probably trying too hard and once he settles in will be able to play a better game.

[DB10GOONER]

One of those games. Took 3 good points but scuffed our way over the finish line. Fuck it - I'm happy to win ugly if need be.

[gonnernico04]

I thought santa looked great last night

on another note, what were the words to the Ramsey song

[Yankee_Gooner_Dandee]

I'd like to see our starting midfield be Arteta - Coqellin - Rosicky. Ramsey has very wayward passing and is slow. Rosicky is honestly the only one we have left who can create going forward....and he plays disinterested half the time.

[flash gunner]

I thought santa looked great last night

on another note, what were the words to the Ramsey song

Santa is an anagram of Satan

[clockender1]

when is wilshire back ?

that should solve the Ramsey/DM problem.

okay so we are winning ugly, but i don't think that was the case against Wigan or Chelsea recently was it.

these northern monkeys who set up two banks of four and pray for a point, don't let us play the fast flowing nice stuff, and I for one am glad to see goals coming from penalties and corners, and us beating these teams that hurt us in the last couple of years.

it seems to me that we are mixing it up a little more with long balls and the occasional long shot (arteta ) from outside the box, and again Jack the Lad will help with that.

I still think 3rd is in reach.

[SteveO 35]

Was at Villa Park last night and what I saw was a difficult game won in a good honest hard working manner.

Granted at times some of our play was poor and some players were being carried but others.

Wojcech had one outstanding save to make right at the start...after that.....not a lot of note. For all of Villa's ball retention they created very little. That is in many respects an indication as to how hard a make shift back four worked its socks off. Kos was awesome, TV solid when at times Albrighton was running at will at him and making it very hard for TV. Mistake for the goal indeed but out of position. BFG was composed and reading of game superb bar the error for the goal, and young Francis coped well particularly second half from the Zog.

Midfield wise was a little jaded. Arteta for me was superb having to tidy up the mess often created by Dench and Rambo, whilst Gervinho played a game where he back tracked all game therefore killing his natural game.

Wally was ..........Wally and RVP RVP.

Good result, tight game, home side doing what home sides should...demonstrate control over the game and a three point steal....

Villa for me did not do enough to win....

Exactly how I saw it too Sammy. Arteta was indeed superb but seeing that the assessment criteria for him from most people on here is that he needs to be able to be Makelele & Messi all rolled into one, no doubt he'll get lynched for not scoring a hat-trick, making a dozen Cruyff turns and endless Maradona dribbles

Also agree with some of the comments from some of the other posters on here about Frimpong - definitely his worst game in the shirt to date. We shouldn't slam the kid as he's still finding his way but all this self-hype bollocks, DENCH etc......he's starting to look as daft as Stuart "The Brand" Baggs in the Apprentice

[piresistible]

We won. 3 points. That's the positive.

However....

I am sick and fucking tired of pregnant forehead c**** GERVINHO.
What an absolute piece of shit he truly is. £11 milion of dog shit. Useless, I won't tire of saying it but he is the Ivorian Tony Daley. No vision, no brains, no footballing intelligence and no clinical finishing. He is fucking shit.
If people have a go at Walcott for running very fast and nothing else then what does this overpaid c*** do? He does not 'need time' he is shit.

He does not have the intelligence. When Pires first struggled in England you could tell he had intelligence and knew how to give it, he just needed to adapt to the pace.

Next up, another of the shower of shit panic buys from the summer: Per Mertesacker. I thought that John Terry goal he was guilty for at Chelski was a joke. But then I saw the goal he fucked up on at Norwich. If that was bad enough, what about tonight? Mertesacker more and more with each passing match looks like the German Phil Senderos. No pace, no positioning. I actually called this when we signed him: the reason Mertesacker is decent for Germany is because he has a tactical manager who gives him the protection of Torsten Frings.

At Arsenal, he has brainless morons like Alex Thong.

Oh and what about Aaron Ramsey? After his flicks and tricks galore at Citeh, he thought he would treat us to another exhibition of how to perform like a lamb shawarma stuffed with vomit dressing. Pathetic, don't care about his age it isn't acceptable.

And how about the amazing Arteta? The myth? Pfffft.

This Villa team is abysmal and Arsenal scraped and struggled to get anything out of them. That team out there tonight would have been destroyed by Arsenal's Carling Cup team of 2002. You put a team with the likes of Grimandi, Wiltord, Kanu, and even Franny fucking Jeffers then they'd be better than some of the clowns I am seeing in an Arsenal kit.

FRIMPONG?? Who is this little upstart? Reading his Twitter, you'd think he was ballon d'Or. Why was a child playing at right-back tonight? Why? And getting skinned and destroyed? A club with over £80 million in hoarded profits is playing a child midfielder at right-back. It's fucking ridiculous.
And the reason he was playing here?

Why, because our reserve right back from League1/Conference was injured.

This Arsenal team is unbelievably mediocre, it lacks balance all over the place and has horrible players in various positions earning fat wages. It's a joke. January can't come soon enough.

I can't wait for Wayne Bridge to come in myself....

You hate practically everyone on the squad, but you are excited about a loan move for Wayne Bridge?? What is wrong with you?
And the bit bit about Gervinho, the guy who orchestrated so many of our key goals this season. Your memory is short

[SteveO 35]

Baba, you know I enjoy your posts mate, but I just wish you'd lay off Arteta sometimes and give the guy some credit for once. He went toe-to-toe with some of the top midfielders in the country against City and looked every bit worthy of his place on that field against them. Last night when we were weathering a bit of a storm, I watched him closely and his drive and ability to break-up play and play the right pass almost every time is second to none in our squad. When we didn't have a player like him at the start of the season we looked like a car crash waiting to happen and a game like last night played without him, I think may have ended differently.

Should the GIC have signed a Goetze, Hazard, 'M Vila when Cesc and Nasri left? Damn right he should. Should he have a better option than Song at CDM? Of course he should...

...but neither of those things are Arteta's fault.

It seems he gets criticised for being too simple in his play. Well if it was that fucking simple to play the easy ball everytime then Ramsey, Frimpong, Song, Arshavin and Rosicky do a damn good job of making the simple look difficult.

I think Arteta is a player that people will miss when he's not there in the same way Gilberto was. The fact that the guy is playing a deeper role than he did at Everton for the benefit of our team shape, makes me think even more of him and proves that a good player can adapt accordingly....something that 7 years of being one of the PL's consistent midfielders has given him confidence to do.

I'd like to see everyone's 'cult hero' Frimpong develop into as good a player as Mikel Arteta