Everton at home

[Top Londoner]

bleu bleu bleu bleu bleu miss bleu bleu bleu bleu miss bleu bleu bleu bleu miss bleu bleu

Pale blinds drawn all day
nothing to do, nothing to say
blue, blue

[arseofacrow]

The second half we played very well. If only he had played Podolski from the off, I think we would of won.
Giroud not up for it at the mo, but hopefully next season will be a better player. Drogba wasn't the greatest when he started with chels.
Ramsey is getting better and better, playing in the middle is where hes got to stay.

chels? really? The Drog, no?

Is is that there are so many more Chelsea fans around North London (being generous to Enfield ) than in my day that people have more chelsea supporting mates and pick this kind of up. Just wondered, minor details, bit bored at the moment

[Bradywasking]

Last week before Norwich there was a report that Wenger said players were playing for their places next season. With arsenal that generally means playing for your place in the Manchester or Spanish clubs.. Anyway if he was to jidge last night's game and apply that rule what would he learn.? I have defended Giroud on here and admired his honest effort in the past. In reality I can do neither today. He isn't good enough and his early season enthusiasm seems long gone.
Thought the defence were generally ok last night, Jack isn't fit and he was also affected by Everton's targeting of him. Theo was poor , in his defence he wasn't involved enough or brought into the game often enough.
The first two subs did liven our attack and they freed Cazorla to do what he does best. Pod is a enigma, maybe he does have a fitness problem if not it is criminal that others are certaintys to start before him.
Thought Everton were physical and cynical, how Gibson didn't get a second yellow is beyond me, but I have a theory on it. They set out to target Jack in order to disrupt his game and to fire him up. They didn't have to work too hard to disrupt his game anyway but they certainly got to him. My theory on Gibson not getting second yellow. The ever impartial MOTD on BBC gave David Moyes a platform on Saturday, he was critical of the officials against Norwich and he got his message across .

[augie]

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.

This is the point I made last night - yes we all know that a lot of teams use petty fouls against us to slow the game down and no doubt Everton are one of those teams, but jeez we need to man up a bit more on some of those softer tackles For me when a set of players appear to be going down easily and whining to the ref it sends the signal that these players don't like any physical contact and it only perpetuates the theory that we can be roughed up which teams like stoke delight in

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

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.

This is the point I made last night - yes we all know that a lot of teams use petty fouls against us to slow the game down and no doubt Everton are one of those teams, but jeez we need to man up a bit more on some of those softer tackles For me when a set of players appear to be going down easily and whining to the ref it sends the signal that these players don't like any physical contact and it only perpetuates the theory that we can be roughed up which teams like stoke delight in

In fairness had the ref done his job last night they would have been down to 10 men on the first half and you can be assured that the cynical fouling etc would have stopped then.

I don't blame players for moaning at the ref when he is clearly not doing his job correctly, after all when we were winning things we had the worst team in the league for surrounding the ref and demanding decisions

[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.

This is the point I made last night - yes we all know that a lot of teams use petty fouls against us to slow the game down and no doubt Everton are one of those teams, but jeez we need to man up a bit more on some of those softer tackles For me when a set of players appear to be going down easily and whining to the ref it sends the signal that these players don't like any physical contact and it only perpetuates the theory that we can be roughed up which teams like stoke delight in

Exactly. As I said it's fucking annoying when teams repeatedly make cynical fouls and it's a perennial failing of PL referees that players are consistently allowed to make several intentional fouls to prevent an attack before getting a yellow. I can understand the frustration at that because I share it when watching the games.

But when we were going down clutching ankles etc at some particularly soft challenges, sometimes nothing more than a shoulder barge, it's embarrassing. The way to deal with the zealous pressing approach isn't to fucking whinge and moan, it's to sharpen up with the passing and show a bit of invention with the movement, and not take the manager's approach of hoping that the officials will sort it out for us.

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

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.

This is the point I made last night - yes we all know that a lot of teams use petty fouls against us to slow the game down and no doubt Everton are one of those teams, but jeez we need to man up a bit more on some of those softer tackles For me when a set of players appear to be going down easily and whining to the ref it sends the signal that these players don't like any physical contact and it only perpetuates the theory that we can be roughed up which teams like stoke delight in

Exactly. As I said it's fucking annoying when teams repeatedly make cynical fouls and it's a perennial failing of PL referees that players are consistently allowed to make several intentional fouls to prevent an attack before getting a yellow. I can understand the frustration at that because I share it when watching the games.

But when we were going down clutching ankles etc at some particularly soft challenges, sometimes nothing more than a shoulder barge, it's embarrassing. The way to deal with the zealous pressing approach isn't to fucking whinge and moan, it's to sharpen up with the passing and show a bit of invention with the movement, and not take the manager's approach of hoping that the officials will sort it out for us.

I can't specifically recall our players going down holding their ankles after being shoulder barged but will have to take your word for it.

The one player I remember going down and holding their leg was theo after a terrible tackle from gibson after which he applies as much pressure on theos knee when he is getting up while theo is still on the deck. That tackle would have floored every player in the pl.

Of course some players make a meal of a tackle but 75% of the pl does so it's not exclusive to us, everton are probably th most physical team in the pl and some of those tackles will hurt it's as simple as that.

[highburyJD]

Fellaini should clearly have been booked early on for one of several cynical fouls to stop us countering,
the Gibson obv 2nd yellow looked stupid and clumsy live, he DEF thought he was gonna be sent off, terrified reaction

we still created enough to win the game, our failure to take chances, lack of options off the bench
and (IMO) tactical over valuing of the point, cost us
remember when we used to end up with three, four or more stikers if we needed a winner?
looked like a draw with Toffee's was considered a decent result yesterday
maybe it will be - still think we could have gambled harder for all three

[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.

This is the point I made last night - yes we all know that a lot of teams use petty fouls against us to slow the game down and no doubt Everton are one of those teams, but jeez we need to man up a bit more on some of those softer tackles For me when a set of players appear to be going down easily and whining to the ref it sends the signal that these players don't like any physical contact and it only perpetuates the theory that we can be roughed up which teams like stoke delight in

Exactly. As I said it's fucking annoying when teams repeatedly make cynical fouls and it's a perennial failing of PL referees that players are consistently allowed to make several intentional fouls to prevent an attack before getting a yellow. I can understand the frustration at that because I share it when watching the games.

But when we were going down clutching ankles etc at some particularly soft challenges, sometimes nothing more than a shoulder barge, it's embarrassing. The way to deal with the zealous pressing approach isn't to fucking whinge and moan, it's to sharpen up with the passing and show a bit of invention with the movement, and not take the manager's approach of hoping that the officials will sort it out for us.

I can't specifically recall our players going down holding their ankles after being shoulder barged but will have to take your word for it.

The one player I remember going down and holding their leg was theo after a terrible tackle from gibson after which he applies as much pressure on theos knee when he is getting up while theo is still on the deck. That tackle would have floored every player in the pl.

Of course some players make a meal of a tackle but 75% of the pl does so it's not exclusive to us, everton are probably th most physical team in the pl and some of those tackles will hurt it's as simple as that.

There were one or two which looked painful, but off the top of my head I can remember Wilshere alone going down clutching his leg/ankle at least 4 or 5 times in the first half. A few of them may have been genuinely painful but most were when he was only clipped (albeit late).

I don't mind exaggerating fouls a bit to make it obvious to the ref - Coleman was a great example yesterday when he exaggerated a stumble once and gave a dip of the shoulder another time in response to a minor shirt-pull and came away with soft free-kicks both times. But on several occasions one of our players had been eased off the ball legitimately and then instead of working back to win the ball they went to ground in pathetic fashion for a free-kick that was never going to be and never should have been given.

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

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.

This is the point I made last night - yes we all know that a lot of teams use petty fouls against us to slow the game down and no doubt Everton are one of those teams, but jeez we need to man up a bit more on some of those softer tackles For me when a set of players appear to be going down easily and whining to the ref it sends the signal that these players don't like any physical contact and it only perpetuates the theory that we can be roughed up which teams like stoke delight in

Exactly. As I said it's fucking annoying when teams repeatedly make cynical fouls and it's a perennial failing of PL referees that players are consistently allowed to make several intentional fouls to prevent an attack before getting a yellow. I can understand the frustration at that because I share it when watching the games.

But when we were going down clutching ankles etc at some particularly soft challenges, sometimes nothing more than a shoulder barge, it's embarrassing. The way to deal with the zealous pressing approach isn't to fucking whinge and moan, it's to sharpen up with the passing and show a bit of invention with the movement, and not take the manager's approach of hoping that the officials will sort it out for us.

I can't specifically recall our players going down holding their ankles after being shoulder barged but will have to take your word for it.

The one player I remember going down and holding their leg was theo after a terrible tackle from gibson after which he applies as much pressure on theos knee when he is getting up while theo is still on the deck. That tackle would have floored every player in the pl.

Of course some players make a meal of a tackle but 75% of the pl does so it's not exclusive to us, everton are probably th most physical team in the pl and some of those tackles will hurt it's as simple as that.

There were one or two which looked painful, but off the top of my head I can remember Wilshere alone going down clutching his leg/ankle at least 4 or 5 times in the first half. A few of them may have been genuinely painful but most were when he was only clipped (albeit late).

I don't mind exaggerating fouls a bit to make it obvious to the ref - Coleman was a great example yesterday when he exaggerated a stumble once and gave a dip of the shoulder another time in response to a minor shirt-pull and came away with soft free-kicks both times. But on several occasions one of our players had been eased off the ball legitimately and then instead of working back to win the ball they went to ground in pathetic fashion for a free-kick that was never going to be and never should have been given.

Fair enough, I do think Jack does play act a bit but I also think he gets caught late more than most players so he is probably trying to get the ref to hand out a card therefore making the game easier for himself and less painful.

Going back I think the worst two for this in an Arsenal shirt were Denilson and Eboue, going further back.....Pires

It's part and parcel in the game now so I don't see it getting any better in the short term and unless the refereeing standard gets significantly better then it will continue to get worse imo.

It could Soon be like watching a Barca v Real "dive-a-thon" every week in the pl

[highburyJD]

Wilshere always stays down, typical English cheat
After losing Cesc and vanStaplecunt our team is seriously lacking in wankers
JW10 is a bit of a bastard on the pitch, good, we need that

[Top Londoner]

I enjoyed the skills shown by some of the Everton players in tight situations, and of course the flick at goal by Ramsey. Never miss an opportunity to flick on I say.
Sagna is infuriating though. The times he stops to a standstill with the ball at his feet, and prefers a pass backwards instead of looking up for a forward pass.
The pointless 1-2's 3-4 and 5-6's is laughable too, especially when we're 25 yards from goal.

[augie]

[quote="highburyJD"]Wilshere always stays down, typical English cheat
After losing Cesc and vanStaplecunt our team is seriously lacking in wankers
JW10 is a bit of a bastard on the pitch, good, we need that[/quote]



And I loved the fact that he went for miralles at half time when they were going down the tunnel- that is exactly the type of fight and "don't fcuk with me" attitude that this team is badly lacking. Imo jack did not show anywhere near that attitude on the pitch last night - maybe that was because he is injured and if so he probably shouldn't be playing but it was the whining that pissed me off more than the lack of physical challenges from him last night. People can claim, with some justification, that jack is often targeted and that we as a team constantly are forced to deal with cynical fouling but jack should be the last player to complain about it given the amount of hard challanges that he puts in when he is fit

[Top Londoner]

David Moyes has defended his team's muscular approach during Tuesday’s 0-0 draw at Arsenal.

Everton's gutsy, full-blooded display earned plenty of plaudits but Gunners boss Arsene Wenger felt otherwise.

Wenger said: "I felt that in the first half the referee didn't deal at all well with the intimidating physical challenges."

But Moyes responded in bullish fashion.

“Do you mean when we were a little bit rough with the tackling? Up north we do that quite often. That's actually allowed in football,” he said.

"We weren't going to come here and let Arsenal stroke the ball around and make 600 tackles. He was upset. I just thought he was quite a lot."

Wenger felt Darron Gibson was fortunate to escape a red card after some robust tackling in the first half but the Everton manager insisted he was never worried that the Blues’ physicality would overstep the mark.

Moyes added: “I wasn't nervous because I thought we made it a right good game. Everton got the crowd going. I've been at the Emirates and it's been quiet, but Everton got the crowd going.

"Because you make tackles, not every one is a foul, and not every one means you have to kick it out of play."

@Everton FC site

[SPARKSY]

David Moyes has defended his team's muscular approach during Tuesday’s 0-0 draw at Arsenal.

Everton's gutsy, full-blooded display earned plenty of plaudits but Gunners boss Arsene Wenger felt otherwise.

Wenger said: "I felt that in the first half the referee didn't deal at all well with the intimidating physical challenges."

But Moyes responded in bullish fashion.

“Do you mean when we were a little bit rough with the tackling? Up north we do that quite often. That's actually allowed in football,” he said.

"We weren't going to come here and let Arsenal stroke the ball around and make 600 tackles. He was upset. I just thought he was quite a lot."

Wenger felt Darron Gibson was fortunate to escape a red card after some robust tackling in the first half but the Everton manager insisted he was never worried that the Blues’ physicality would overstep the mark.

Moyes added: “I wasn't nervous because I thought we made it a right good game. Everton got the crowd going. I've been at the Emirates and it's been quiet, but Everton got the crowd going.

"Because you make tackles, not every one is a foul, and not every one means you have to kick it out of play."

@Everton FC site

Moyes is right. Good hard tackling is part of the game, or used to be. People like Wenger would eradiacte it completely to allow his perfect passing game. Why should a team come to ours and stand back and allow us to play lots of pretty passes around?

Fact is Everton were physically stronger than us. Their players looked bigger and stronger. Our team, in particular the manager, need to man up. Why people whine when a team get stuck in fairly is strange. Everton didn't go over the top at all.

Good even game, unfortunately our star striker, while doing his share of running, can't hit a barn door!!
Fulham is a must win, as for sure, Ferguson will love to rub our noses in it next week and just re-iterate how far ahead United are from us.