Montpellier v Arsenal match thread

[Glitch33]

3 points, away win. Forehead and Podolski score. Backs to the wall most of second half but a bit of luck and held firm.

Excellent result and the team learn more about themselves.

[flash gunner]

what are you talking about ?

1- He had his hand up to his head, similar to the military salute
2- RVP never did that
3- RVP isn't a judas. we were all clapping when he posted that statement , why is he suddenly a hate figure?
4- Who cares about fucking celebrations ?
5- We fucking won

He WAS doing as i describe he did the exact same thing against Southampton Knobber...

And Dutch Judas DID do that - against the chavs in the 5- 3 win - It even came to the attentoin of some parts of the media when he did so...some dumbo (wonder who???) said it was like a heil hitler salute which IS BOLLOCKS...Oh! btw: Fuck off....Knobber

Fucking hell OBG whats happened to you

[Herd]

Bit worried about how anyone could be knackered at this point in the season but we won ...............end of !

[MutleyGooner]

We were a bit shit for all but a 2 minute spell in the match but we got the win and three points

[SteveO 35]

First of all I agree that any win, especially an away win in Europe, is always something to celebrate. The best team always wins the rest is just gossip blah blah blah

However, I think Tony Adams summed that one up with 'more by luck than judgement'. The most disappointing aspect was that the defending went back to being all over the place again. Whether or not it was slightly harsh TV5 made life easy for the officials with the penalty - why make a challenge in that position? In the second half, I'm not sure how they failed to score. The Great Abou presented them with a one-on-one, Mertesacker attempted a tackle with all the grace of Willie Young when allowing them that clear chance they put straight at Mannone, and generally there were gaps everywhere. A half decent forward for Montpellier and that would have been the wrong result. Shame because I thought the defensive performances at Stoke and Liverpool in particular were as solid as I've seen in a long time.......but it goes to show that just like it took GG with the great defence of the past, perfecting the art of defending takes months and years and not a few weeks. I'm sure Uncle Bouldie will know that and hopefully keep up the recent improvements

The other downside for me is what we will see exposed more and more regularly as the tests become harder i.e. the lack of a natural holding midfielder. Why on earth did we not use the opportunity with the Song money to sign a proper enforcer back there. Arteta and the Great Abou are fabulous players but they should not be finding themselves more in our own box than the oppositions - the make up of the midfield is still too attack minded for my liking. I can't see how the return of Wilshere or Rosicknote helps this out either. Coquelin has potential, Frimpong some very raw potential and Eastmond not good enough - I think this lack of natural ballwinning CDM will prove to be the achilles heel of this season in the way the GK and CB positions were in previous seasons.


Anyways - we won and City didn't. Nice work

[Red Member]

another average performance

luckily we had Mannone in goal.

I didn't realise the french mascot was playing until he got substituted

Jenkinson played well I thought

[1989]

SteveO,

Arteta has been brilliant in the DM role so far this season. He's not a "hardman" a la Frimpong but he reads the game like a book and his positioning is top class. His passing, long and short, from deep also helps our attacking play greatly. Arteta is a massive player for us and even more so this season since he re-invented himself as a DM.

[DB10GOONER]

SteveO,

Arteta has been brilliant in the DM role so far this season. He's not a "hardman" a la Frimpong but he reads the game like a book and his positioning is top class. His passing, long and short, from deep also helps our attacking play greatly. Arteta is a massive player for us and even more so this season since he re-invented himself as a DM.

Agree 100%. His reading of the game and his positioning is top class. He anticipates and moves accordingly, whereas The Plank Song could only try and react to situations, could never anticipate them. One of the things I like most about Arteta's game is how economical he is. He does the simple thing and does them well. Of course they only look "simple" because he has read the play and put himself in a decent position to deal with it. Very seldom overelaborates or tries to be too clever on the ball, unlike The Plank Song.

We rode our luck last night and were scrappy for most of it but a good away win in the CL.

[flash gunner]

Arsenal won, that's good.
Giroud however dear Lord. I'm being proved right on him, his all round play was abysmal.
I called it on. Belhanda too, Tony Adams and Stelling raving about him, he's quality.
Good run for Arsenal but if they play anything like they did in the second half tonight, Citeh will pulverise Arsenal mercilessly. Coquelin was shockingly out of his depth when he came on, he can bugger off to West Ham if he wants a game, he's been at Arsenal how long? Where's the progress?

Cazorla once again looked excellent, putting to bed the myths of "settling in period"


Vermaelen defending is concerning, the lack of a serious goalkeeper at the club will come back to haunt Arsenal this season. Mannone and Chesney aren't good enough full stop.

Good win but the quite frankly awful Giroud has to be (and probably will be) dropped for Saturday. It's just not his lack of goals, it's his all round play, awful first touch, lack of awareness and inability to hold it up. Watches him a lot last year and he was like Michael Ricketts, a poor player who went on an insane streaky run.
I'd like him to prove me wrong and score 25 league goals this season, but I doubt he'll even get 5 tbh

I do love that the first thing that pops into your head when we have a player as classy as Cazorla playing for us is that it backs up one of your boring arguments about settling in periods.

Im glad im not the only one who thinks this

[rigsby]

The sign of a good team is playing badly and winning. We did that.

Arsenal are not going to play well in every game this year, when you play shit sometimes its important to get over the line. I doubt anyone will remember this game bar the result.

Must say Gibbs/Jenkinson are doing v.well at the moment.

[Bendtners Drinking Buddy]

We rode our luck - but we defended really well for the most part - the BFG was OUTSTANDING - we kept our shape and i can only think of two clear cut chances for them - which is acceptable away from home in Europe, sometimes you need the woodwork or the GK to save you.

Would we have got that result last season?

[kite]

I see you won but after reading some of your comments I get the feeling it wasn't the best game so was it a deserved victory or were you lucky?

[DB10GOONER]

I see you won but after reading some of your comments I get the feeling it wasn't the best game so was it a deserved victory or were you lucky?

TBH we were a tad lucky. They REALLY should have scored 2 more goals but fucked both chances. But in fairness we fought hard for the result.

[Babatunde]

Arsenal won, that's good.
Giroud however dear Lord. I'm being proved right on him, his all round play was abysmal.
I called it on. Belhanda too,

yes you also said Podolski was unproven, and Montpelier were better than us on a smaller budget too...



...as i said, low self-esteem issues

If you can prove that I ever said anywhere, that Montpellier were better than Arsenal then I'll pay for your brain transplant myself. I did say they had a smaller budget, but they are shite. Everyone knows this, it's Belhanda and 10 gimps in that team. Oh dear, keep inventing them though. Awaiting proof I said Montpellier were better than Arsenal please,...

[Babatunde]

Obvious only a few games in so too early to make any real judgements but I am a bit concerned about Giroud fitting into the team rather than his ability. He's a real handful and even though he's hardly looking lethal in front of goal his movement is decent and he'll find some kind of goalscoring touch I'm sure, and he fed a few neat lay-offs into Pod today including the goal. What worries me though is that we don't seem (so far) to have been playing to his strengths. So many times in the Stoke game in particular he was not only winning headers against the two Orcs at centre-half but also directing them into the path of where somebody should have been supporting, only to find himself isolated. He is immense in aerial battles, but that's pretty futile if the only time we use that is hoofing long balls to him from the keeper with nobody else near him. Don't want Arsenal to start pumping high balls aimlessly upfield but look at the value it can yield with Ameobi's chest down to Ba yesterday for the second equaliser.

Saying that, if you turn it on its head he's played at Stoke and Anfield (two difficult places to go) where he put in real shifts for the team in what were very disciplined performances, and was admittedly poor tonight but wasn't offered much hope in a second-half performance that saw even Santi and Arteta throwing away possession. It'll likely be a similar story on Sunday but to be honest in a lot of ways he's well suited to the task because we'll likely be backs to the wall and will need somebody up top who'll get through a lot of running and not give the centre-halves an easy time. After all of course he is new to the league (and the team) and may well show what he can really do when he gets a start at home.

You make very good points here but the highlighted bit is a carbon copy of what Liverpool fans said about Andy Carrol almost word for word!
It is also a carbon copy of what Arsenal fans were saying about Chamakh when he had started struggling 'where is the point if we don't play to his strengths'

Let me tell you something here mate: Giroud is good in the air but his heading isn't actually that good. He can win offensive first balls though. The reaosn his signing was hilariously inept is because Arsenal in attack absolutely need a player with at least one of the two following attributes:
1. Pace
2. Incredible technique

Henry had both. RVP definitely had technique, arguably had pace (he's faster than Giroud). Adebayor had pace.

Giroud does not fit in at Arsenal, he fits in better at West Ham or Bolton, sorry but that's his level no matter how many times people try and delude themselves into believing otherwise. He isn't good enough and it's nigh on unbelievable that Wenger wasted £12 million overpaying for a French player (again).
The kind of striker Arsenal need is someone like Falcao, someone like Jovetic of Fiorentina, or someone like Benzema.
Strikers who have pace and technique.

Wenger has screwed Arsenal again.
Just like last season when Arsenal were a single RVP injury away from complete oblivion, this season it will take one injury to Podolski alone to expose the shocking neglect from Wenger in the attacking department. I'd add that it would take an injury to Chesney to expose what a farce the non-addressed goalkeeper situation is, but right now Chesney and Mannone are both awful goalkeepers.
It was also rather alarming to see just how easily the Montpellier midfield, wee Montpellier, were strolling through great big gaps in the centre of midfield. Give Yaya Toure or Hazard that kind of room and they'll murder you.

Curiously enough, the parts of Arsenal that are looking increasingly vulnerable, just a month into the new season, are the parts most fans thought desperately needed urgent addressing:

DCM, Attack and goalkeeper.

The full-backs don't look as dodgy for the time being and Gibbs seems to have improved under Bould drastically so every cloud etc...

Arteta can do a job but he alone isn't enough, a specialist is needed in there and relying on Diaby all season is laughable. Still, we shall see eh?