QPR match thread

[worthing_gooner]

Went to the game yesterday and more pissed off about the police than the result. Honestly, they wonder why people hate them then they go and behave like thugs.

Coming out of the ground yesterday, a QPR fan came out giving it large behind the police line, my mate ran up there with his arms out giving it some verbal back, and two coppers grabbed him by either arm, literally dragged him up to the fence. I heard with my own ears one of them going "oi c**t, you want to mind your mouth before I nick ya you silly c**t".

My mate's dad saw his son being dragged away, and ran over and said what's going on, that's my son, they told him to "back the fuck off" and shoved him hard back into the road. I turned round to some woman copper and said, literally, "is that really necessary? Come on" and she berated me for nearly treading on her toe. I was nowhere near her bloody toe and even if I was, how was I to know she was standing right behind me?

At this point, the bloke's dad got angry because they shoved him and went back in a bit of a rage so I went to grab him and pull him away, just as another woman copper came steaming in, I got there first and pulled him away from her, getting myself between him and her, and she bumped into me and said "don't fucking push me son, I've had enough of you lot. I'll nick ya".

Honestly, what an absolute fucking joke. The whole time, none of us did anything really wrong, except my mate who threw a bit of banter back at a QPR fan who started mouthing first. The police come steaming in, way too heavy handed, no thoughts about handling the situation calmly. They escalate it themselves, make people angry.

I went back to get one of their numbers - this one tall bloke with long grey stubble - who was a complete dickhead the whole time. He went to me "want my number do you son? There you go. Now piss off" and literally pushed his shoulder badge thingy into my face.

Arsenal fans in general are a good bunch, and there's no real friction with QPR fans, but it felt like it yesterday. I haven't seen that much trouble with the police at a match ever before. It came across as far too heavy handed, completely out of order. Way over the top. Bunch of power hungry mugs.

[SWLGooner]

Police at football aggressive, overbearing, and unhelpful? Yeah, right...

[SteveO 35]

Hmmm, where to start?

The second half of the game in particular felt like going back to the dark days of January - a laboured, sideways passing, predictable 45 minutes of tedium where the opposition keeper barely has a shot to save worthy of the name (RvP's effort when clean through the key exception from memory).

This Arsenal team is consistently inconsistent, especially on the road - able to extract maximum points from trips to Anfield, Stamford Bridge and Goodison Park, and able to return no points from Loftus Road, Ewood Park, Craven Cottage and the Liberty.

I still think we get suckered into finding these games all a little bit too easy at times and then the tendancy to overplay and get complacent in the final third sets in. For all bar 15 minutes in each half we played out the game in their half of the field and the balance of possession is so one-sided, I often feel we adopt the pass, pass and more pass, approach in the hope that eventually the goal will come. Then the oppo sits deeper and deeper and its at that point where I think our lack of star quality in the creativity department shines through - that a Cesc, Goetze type player can provide and what probably separates us most tellingly from the very top sides. We need to fix that if we are going to compete at the very top and fast - probably has cost us a dozen points or so against the sides that defend like mad. Its that little difference for me, that keeps Man United up there and their away record bears this out - often they are out of a game away from home but somehow through either Valencia, Nani, Scholes, Giggs etc etc, someone pops up with the key piece of creativity and a 1-1 draw becomes a 2-1 win....it happens too often to be an accident

When I look through our current fit and available midfielders - Arteta (who I think is fantastic at what he does), Ramsey (disappointing), Rosicky (much improved but not top quality in a CL sense) - we have lots of endeavour and they are all reasonably technically skilled, but that £25m-£35m playmaker is still a gaping hole.

On a more specific matter, why the fucking hell is the Ox playing 2nd reserve behind old light-bulb head "Tony Daleyinho" on the wing. I'm afraid I still see nothing from Gervinho to suggest he is going to be anything other than a modern day Franz Carr - what does the guy do exactly as an attacking player - poor distribution, poor crossing, poor finishing - he's just quick...that's about it.

TV5 at fault for both goals but the second one could happen to anyone and the guy has been a rock lately so we shouldn't over-react to that.

Someone also needs to tell Alex Song that playing the outside of the boot, hollywood pass works once in every 20 games. Not once every 5 minutes - stick to the bloody basics pal. Cost us cheap possession far too easily yesterday.

I don't think anything else can be added with regard to the lack of support for RvP from the bench - that's the elephant in the room.

[Babatunde]

Hmmm, where to start?

I often feel we adopt the pass, pass and more pass, approach in the hope that eventually the goal will come. Then the oppo sits deeper and deeper and its at that point where I think our lack of star quality in the creativity department shines through - that a Cesc, Goetze type player can provide and what probably separates us most tellingly from the very top sides. We need to fix that if we are going to compete at the very top and fast

Hey SteveO what do you mean we are lacking a top-class holding midfielder? Have you never heard of the mercurial Alex Song? He makes a thousand clipped chip passes every game don't you know! He's better than David Silva, Modric and Goetze combined! I mean, just totally forget that when a clown like Diakite strolled in for the winner completely unopposed and in all the space in the world, Song was nowhere near him at all, not tracking. That isn't his job after all is it? No one llikes things like 'defending' and 'discipline' and 'tracking' at the Wenger school of French ballet choreography!

Alex Song is now like Rivaldo so stop moaning about us needing a Goetze. And never forget what Wenger's cheerleaders told us: Ramsey is Cesc's 'natural replacement'

ROFLMAO


Oh but I forget 'we can still finish 3rd'

Finishing 5th this season would be wonderful. It would silence the AKB for good, and all of Wenger's recent arrogance would come crashing down. Doubt Gazidis and Kroenke would be impressed...£7.5 mil a year, 4th highest paid coach in world football, gets a footballing lesson by QPR. You gotta laugh!

[Bradywasking]

Steve O I agree with you on everything except comparing Gervinho to Franz Carr..Carr pushed the ball behind defenders and then done nothing with it, Gervinho takes the ball to defenders and then does nothing with it.
Yesterday we reverted to type, Lacked conviction in final third and made stupid mistakes elsewhere. TV was awful on the goals but I would rather have him than not. The pitch was terrible, so I thought common sense would say move the ball quicker instead of tyaking it back into the centre all the time. Yesterday was labourious and predictable. Theo got man of the match on Arsenal.Com . Beat fullback twice and wasted ball and scored but what else. (Having said that Chamack got 3% of vote for Man of the Match so that says a lot) I don't like the criticism of Ramsey but yesterday he didn't seem to have a clue what he was to do, one player too many in mid-field. Sczcesney blundered by not coming for the ball previous to their second goal. Was there to be taken but ended up being hacked clear and they scored from following throw. Kos was our best player and I never felt anyone else could come out of it with complete credit. Thought at 1-1 we would go on to win , not that we were great but I felt that we would get a spell in the game that would move them around and we would get a goal. Maybe the Ox and a bit of directness was called for. Anyway have to improve a lot for City...the garden isn't that rosy looking today.

[ThomasMitchell]

Truth is yesterday had been coming for a while. We have been winning but not with any great ease in many cases. At Liverpool and Everton we were lucky. Scratch below the surface and this team is still totally venerable with too many average players littering the squad. The decision to play Ramsey on the wing (where he was absent most of the time anyway) was a total joke and yet again exposed Wenger's obsession with playing players out of position. Bringing on Gervinho ahead of Oxlade-Chamberlain was also bizarre. Wenger is so pig-headed that it would never surprise me if he is still smarting over the booing he received for taking him off against the Moaners and therefore showing the fans who is boss. Everyone can see Ramsey is not doing it at the moment, everyone knows that Oxlade-Chamberlian has been on a rich vein of form - everyone except the Dear Leader that is.

[armchair]

Steve O I agree with you on everything except comparing Gervinho to Franz Carr..Carr pushed the ball behind defenders and then done nothing with it, Gervinho takes the ball to defenders and then does nothing with it.

Yea. Watch the forehead. Brings the ball up to the fullback. Stops. Turns around, goes back and passes it back or inside.
Never beats a man and puts in a decent cross. Never seems to have the ball completely under control. Never seems to know what hes doing.

[ThomasMitchell]

Steve O I agree with you on everything except comparing Gervinho to Franz Carr..Carr pushed the ball behind defenders and then done nothing with it, Gervinho takes the ball to defenders and then does nothing with it.
Yesterday we reverted to type, Lacked conviction in final third and made stupid mistakes elsewhere. TV was awful on the goals but I would rather have him than not. The pitch was terrible, so I thought common sense would say move the ball quicker instead of tyaking it back into the centre all the time. Yesterday was labourious and predictable. Theo got man of the match on Arsenal.Com . Beat fullback twice and wasted ball and scored but what else. (Having said that Chamack got 3% of vote for Man of the Match so that says a lot) I don't like the criticism of Ramsey but yesterday he didn't seem to have a clue what he was to do, one player too many in mid-field. Sczcesney blundered by not coming for the ball previous to their second goal. Was there to be taken but ended up being hacked clear and they scored from following throw. Kos was our best player and I never felt anyone else could come out of it with complete credit. Thought at 1-1 we would go on to win , not that we were great but I felt that we would get a spell in the game that would move them around and we would get a goal. Maybe the Ox and a bit of directness was called for. Anyway have to improve a lot for City...the garden isn't that rosy looking today.

I despair when I see things like this. "He scored a goal, so he must have been the bestest! Feo, Feo, Feo". Forget the fact that he was totally average for the other 89 minutes – even though he is supposed to be one of our headline acts.

[ThomasMitchell]

Steve O I agree with you on everything except comparing Gervinho to Franz Carr..Carr pushed the ball behind defenders and then done nothing with it, Gervinho takes the ball to defenders and then does nothing with it.

Yea. Watch the forehead. Brings the ball up to the fullback. Stops. Turns around, goes back and passes it back or inside.
Never beats a man and puts in a decent cross. Never seems to have the ball completely under control. Never seems to know what hes doing.

A perfect summation of the player.

[Macca]

It had to happen sooner or later as we'd been nicking game I suppose...
But, they need to seriously get some urgency back and chase and play for everything, yesterday that was missing.
For the first goal .How can the ball be passed from their half to the edge of our area? It seemed to go through a couple of our players and where was the shutting down from forwards/midfield?
For the second goal , yes a slip, but who was picking up that guy who strolled forward and scored? He had so much time and space, that's unacceptable.
And as we've all be saying , when attacking , there is a serious lack of creativity, killer passes, shots on target....
So , maybe a blessing in disguise , a reminder that the seasons problems are still there, the paper over those cracks is coming off that wall...
Please Swansea win...gloating Scum have started texting me again !!

[SteveO 35]

Just read Wenger's post match comments and again, credit where it's due, he has not ducked the issues this time round (ditto the defeat in Milan). He has highlighted the issue of commitment and that was so desperately lacking, especially in the attacking third yesterday. I actually agree with him as well saying we were too open - the way they scored both goals was very slack

No nonsense about blaming the pitch or the ref either - long may it continue.

[Dan_85]

Just read Wenger's post match comments and again, credit where it's due, he has not ducked the issues this time round (ditto the defeat in Milan). He has highlighted the issue of commitment and that was so desperately lacking, especially in the attacking third yesterday. I actually agree with him as well saying we were too open - the way they scored both goals was very slack

No nonsense about blaming the pitch or the ref either - long may it continue.

Could you decipher this comment on our defensive mistakes though SteveO?!

"It is a good shock to come back to what has made our strength recently."

[AFCasap]

Just read Wenger's post match comments and again, credit where it's due, he has not ducked the issues this time round (ditto the defeat in Milan). He has highlighted the issue of commitment and that was so desperately lacking, especially in the attacking third yesterday. I actually agree with him as well saying we were too open - the way they scored both goals was very slack

No nonsense about blaming the pitch or the ref either - long may it continue.

did he say anything about why he never moved out of his chair for the full 94 mins of dross

[SteveO 35]

Just read Wenger's post match comments and again, credit where it's due, he has not ducked the issues this time round (ditto the defeat in Milan). He has highlighted the issue of commitment and that was so desperately lacking, especially in the attacking third yesterday. I actually agree with him as well saying we were too open - the way they scored both goals was very slack

No nonsense about blaming the pitch or the ref either - long may it continue.

Could you decipher this comment on our defensive mistakes though SteveO?!

"It is a good shock to come back to what has made our strength recently."

Errrr...no.

It wouldn't be the same without one Arseneballs comment though

[northbankbren]

Can't argue with our home form, but away we still look vulnerable.

Today shouldn't surprise anyone. Even in our 3 recent away wins (Liverpool, Sunderland and Everton) we've been mostly poor, and could have lost all 3 on another day (in fact, we lost at Sunderland in the cup and humiliated in Milan during this recent league run, so it's not all rosy away from home). The win at Anfield was daylight robbery ( ), at Sunderland we needed an Henry stoppage time special to sneak a win, and at Goodison we were on the ropes for bloody ages - and they scored a perfectly good goal!

Our away form has been poor all season. The recent away results just papered over the cracks.

Pleased with our home form though, so lets go and beat Citeh.

To be fair though we do have the third best away record in the league apart from the arab/yank mancs.

And that is while our performance as you've said have been overall poor. So to have the away record we do is an acheievment.