Everton at home

[g88ner]

gibbs did well too absolutely pointless putting Monreal on for 1 min.

Must have been an injury though, surely? It would be idiotic to change a left wing back for tactical reasons in the 90th minute.

[northbank123]

gibbs did well too absolutely pointless putting Monreal on for 1 min.

Must have been an injury though, surely? It would be idiotic to change a left wing back for tactical reasons in the 90th minute.

Idiotic and therefore an entirely plausible decision

Although more likely it's another injury for the Straw Man II.

[donaldo]

You buy shit you get shit.Thats what Giroud is.Like Forehead the year before him we sign crap from the French league.He's not good enough and never will be.

Walcott has taken the piss since he signed that £20m contract as some of us warned.

Carzola is a good player when he is playing against anyone but a top 6 team

[goonertux]

wenger HAS to be sacked now...any propper team would have smashed a lowley team of alsorans like everton, this on the back of 2 disgeceful desperat performances against the 2 smallest clubs in the league

You really do live up to your name! A 'lowly team of also-rans'? Are you sure?

[richpye]

Thought it was a really good game of football to be honest. Lots of passion and effort with a lack of quality in the final third.
For me the difference is somewhere between composure and fluency/understanding of those around you. Giroud, Ox, Arteta, Gibbs, Sagna all guilty of wanting that 1 extra touch that the elite players just don't need and that was the difference between tonight's result and winning 3-0.

I thought defensively we looked good. Mertesacker was immense tonight for me
The midfield was solid but with the exception of Santi never looked like creating a real opportunity, I'm guessing Rosicky must not be fit or something?
Up front Giroud just needs not to be a lone striker, it just doesn't suit him at all and makes him look like a carthorse.

Subs were interesting, I thought Ox looked good (but should have shot earlier when he went clear) and the Monreal for Gibbs sub (unless he was injured) was a bit weird as it stopped our creativity down the left side.
Finally, the Pod conundrum. I might (but will await flaming) have worked it out. I saw him on two occasions just trying to accelerate from a standing position and he looked lame as if he just couldn't kick off. I'm not trying to defend Giroud being picked above him, just trying to solve one of life's great mysteries

[knee_jerk_reaction]

a draw is more or less a defeat now, we have NO right what so ever to even dare call ourselves the 3rd best team in the league. when you look at wenger you have to ask yourselves what is so special:
tactics: 1 up front at home, pass like barca but no movement at all
signings: he dosnt...nuff said
sportsmanship: dosnt shake oppo manager hand unless he wins
installing passion: what a joke, its obvious hes lost the dressing room players just out for a stroll
playing smart: he never gets his players to go down in the box, or wind up the oppo with sly little fouls or roll around and waving the imaginary yellow card

in conclusion, any manager could do better than wenger...he is an utter DISCGRACE

[northbank123]

Thought it was a really good game of football to be honest. Lots of passion and effort with a lack of quality in the final third.
For me the difference is somewhere between composure and fluency/understanding of those around you. Giroud, Ox, Arteta, Gibbs, Sagna all guilty of wanting that 1 extra touch that the elite players just don't need and that was the difference between tonight's result and winning 3-0.

I thought defensively we looked good. Mertesacker was immense tonight for me
The midfield was solid but with the exception of Santi never looked like creating a real opportunity, I'm guessing Rosicky must not be fit or something?
Up front Giroud just needs not to be a lone striker, it just doesn't suit him at all and makes him look like a carthorse.

Subs were interesting, I thought Ox looked good (but should have shot earlier when he went clear) and the Monreal for Gibbs sub (unless he was injured) was a bit weird as it stopped our creativity down the left side.
Finally, the Pod conundrum. I might (but will await flaming) have worked it out. I saw him on two occasions just trying to accelerate from a standing position and he looked lame as if he just couldn't kick off. I'm not trying to defend Giroud being picked above him, just trying to solve one of life's great mysteries

Really????? I thought it was one of the worst games I've watched in a long time and the only thing that made it remotely engaging was the importance of it.

We barely got near their goal for most of the game and although their shape and pressing was fantastic they were just lumping the occasional ball in the vague direction of Anichebe who was isolated and stood little chance against our centre-halves, who managed to last the game without any fuck-ups. It wasn't until the last 15 minutes that we/the game picked up and even then the quality was poor and nearly every move was thwarted by a lack of invention or poor play.

Nobody in midfield looked comfortable passing the ball and neither keeper was really called into action.

They came and aimed to restrict us. And they did, certainly for 70 minutes, although they then flagged a bit and couldn't push on despite a few subs.

[goonertux]

a draw is more or less a defeat now, we have NO right what so ever to even dare call ourselves the 3rd best team in the league. when you look at wenger you have to ask yourselves what is so special:
tactics: 1 up front at home, pass like barca but no movement at all
signings: he dosnt...nuff said
sportsmanship: dosnt shake oppo manager hand unless he wins
He shook Moyes' hand tonight!
installing passion: what a joke, its obvious hes lost the dressing room players just out for a stroll
playing smart: he never gets his players to go down in the box, or wind up the oppo with sly little fouls or roll around and waving the imaginary yellow card Do you want us doing this?
in conclusion, any manager could do better than wenger...he is an utter DISCGRACE

Strange opinions as usual!

[richpye]

Maybe the importance played a part, and the typical bit of nerves I guess. But certainly have seen worse this season for sure

[g88ner]

Maybe the importance played a part, and the typical bit of nerves I guess. But certainly have seen worse this season for sure

Importance? the daft thing is, you're probably right but if that's the case then there's something very wrong with the make up of our players at the club!! (as if we didn't know that already )

Top teams thrive on big, important games like cup finals, and title deciders, but if we're inhibited by a game against Everton in the virtual trophy run in, then it's no bloody wonder we've bottled every chance at winning a trophy in recent years!

That said, I think it's more a lack of quality than anything else.

[richpye]

Maybe the importance played a part, and the typical bit of nerves I guess. But certainly have seen worse this season for sure

Importance? the daft thing is, you're probably right but if that's the case then there's something very wrong with the make up of our players at the club!! (as if we didn't know that already )

Top teams thrive on big, important games like cup finals, and title deciders, but if we're inhibited by a game against Everton in the virtual trophy run in, then it's no bloody wonder we've bottled every chance at winning a trophy in recent years!

That said, I think it's more a lack of quality than anything else.

Sorry, I didn't quote who I was responding to. I was just explaining why I thought the game was quite a good game. My original post pretty much agrees with you (but in a lot more words)

[Herd]

We needed a win and couldn't get one ,Everton were shit today and could have been rolled over .
Once again Failed Tactics , Failed Team selection from a failed manager of a failing team.
For the first time since 1974 Im actually thinking of not renewing !
Sleepless of Singapore !

[northbank123]

Wasn't impressed at all with the way we conducted ourselves first half. Yes the cynical fouls are particularly annoying when they go unpunished and a ref with bollocks (if such a creature exists) would have clamped down and at any rate sent Gibson off.

But every bit of contact we were exaggerating and whining about, no wonder Wilshere was off the pace - he seemed to put all of his effort into complaining to the ref. At one point we were repeatedly overrunning the ball and going down at the slightest contact to try and win a free-kick that was never coming instead of working hard to get the ball back and making sure we made use of it next time.

Aware that most posts here take a pop at Wenger whether it's justified or not but to me our players reflected the manager - when faced with a team that didn't play into our hands instead of working to find a way to counteract that or changing things we resorted to complaining to the officials over largely trivial issues.

We're the first ones to complain when teams like Barcelona and co try and do the same against us.

[SE12red]

Biggest farce tonight apart from Giroud's finishing was Highbury & Islington Stn where there's no down escalators until October. 20 minute queue to get into the station. What a joke.
You expect the so called big players to turn up in games like tonight but Theo and Jack were poor as was Arteta. I reckon Fergie will be putting a decent bid in for Fellaini this Summer.

[Macca]

IMO....Wrong team selection, Jack shouldn't have played, where was Thomas? We NEEEED a striker so badly??!!
We were nervous, we passed sideways tooooo often, where was the movement up front?? (go back to team selection).
Everton were average...not looking forward to Fulham as they will attack us, maybe that will get us going??
Come on City...!!