As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Chippy wrote:Father Ted is not coming back. For at least 24 hours anyway!
Thank fuck for that. How has he lasted this long?
I know most people don't believe it but we really hate banning anyone on this site. We probably wait a lot longer than other forums, but we like a bit of diversity on here, even AKBs.
Well played Chippy.
I'm sick and tired of Father Ted's constant trolling of augie tbh. If he returns and contributes something other than that then fine, but if he comes back on and takes up trolling again I'm banning him permanently. We all like and encourage banter and friendly piss taking on here, but to follow one member from thread to thread insulting and provoking them for no obvious good reason is trolling.
Even if the target is a fat bald culchie goat botherer.
They made that so much harder than it needed to be didn't they?
Ozil worried me a bit yesterday. Didn't really seem that interested and some of his passing was pretty sloppy. Having said that, I thought for the last 15 minutes he showed his experience and was one of the few players that kept the ball and drew a couple of fouls to relieve some pressure.
DB10GOONER wrote:It was a good win. Not a good performance for most of it but a good win. I honestly think if we'd drawn or lost there last night then that was it, we'd slip away down the league and be back to our more normal scrapping for 4th or 5th. Not saying we won't be doing that come March/April (because if Arsene doesn't strengthen before the end of January, we will be) but it is nice to still be up there for a little while longer.
Mert was my MOTM, not that he had much competition as no one was outstanding, but he made some great tackles and read their few attacks mostly very well. His positioning for their goal was poor but dictated by him not thinking Santi would piss posession away like he did. The ball in was brilliant, if Mert had tried to touch it he'd have put through his own net, and you can see him pull his leg back in realisation.
Jack had 2 flashes of brilliance - one for his goal and one for his assist to Giroud. The rest of his game was the usual running into blind alleys and losing posession. Giroud battled well enough as the lone striker and his first touch for the goal was excellent as was his finish (the touch off his knee in between was lucky) but he very obviously tired late on and looked leggy. And what the fuck he is doing tracking back to make tackles on the edge of our box when he is the 1 in a fucking poxy 4-5-1 is beyond me. Respect the effort and intent, but such a stupid waste of energy and time.
Ozil and Santi were absolute pants, apart from Ozil's ball in behind for Nacho. Accepted Villa parked the bus George Graham style (who says you can't play 9 across the back 4?! ) but we reverted to tippy tappy too easily and let them just sit there soaking it up. 4-4-2 with 9 of them sat across the box will nearly always stifle out 4-5-1 by the basic fact of denying space. If you persist with 4-5-1 then you absolutely have got to have 2 wingers or overlapping wing backs getting down to the touchline and whipping in crosses - something we absolutely don't have with Gibbs and Sagna, two of the worst crossers of a ball I've ever seen.
Letting them back into it in the last 15 minutes was criminal and we were lucky not to be punished.
Lots of negatives, Villa are pure shit, but we won and it's a good 3 points.
I think sagnas crossing has improved massively this season. He put one on a plate for Giroud early on.
rodders999 wrote:Phew. Hope lessons were learnt tonight. Never ever ever ever should Cazorla and Ozil both start a game away from home again.
nope. and to make matters worse - he then subbed in rosicky - leaving us with 3/4 midfielders as tippy tappy bollockers.
you should know by now, Arsene Learns Nothing. TM.
Any decent manager would take our team at halftime at 2-0 up and say - "they're on the ropes, first 10 - muller them, high balls into the box, long shots, shoot whenever you can, one goal and they're fucked"....
instead we get "weel, show patience and qualitee and we'll get a goal our football deserves"
a better team than Villa will and has come back to take points off us too many times.
Clockender1 for manager
With tactical gems like that you could definitely get the England job
Sure it wasn't a vintage performance, but we just keep on winning. Give credit where it's due, both our goals were quality and yes we switched off, but bringing back 3 points is all that matters.
Chippy wrote:Father Ted is not coming back. For at least 24 hours anyway!
Thank fuck for that. How has he lasted this long?
I know most people don't believe it but we really hate banning anyone on this site. We probably wait a lot longer than other forums, but we like a bit of diversity on here, even AKBs.
Well played Chippy.
I'm sick and tired of Father Ted's constant trolling of augie tbh. If he returns and contributes something other than that then fine, but if he comes back on and takes up trolling again I'm banning him permanently. We all like and encourage banter and friendly piss taking on here, but to follow one member from thread to thread insulting and provoking them for no obvious good reason is trolling.
Even if the target is a fat bald culchie goat botherer.
rodders999 wrote:Phew. Hope lessons were learnt tonight. Never ever ever ever should Cazorla and Ozil both start a game away from home again.
nope. and to make matters worse - he then subbed in rosicky - leaving us with 3/4 midfielders as tippy tappy bollockers.
you should know by now, Arsene Learns Nothing. TM.
Any decent manager would take our team at halftime at 2-0 up and say - "they're on the ropes, first 10 - muller them, high balls into the box, long shots, shoot whenever you can, one goal and they're fucked"....
instead we get "weel, show patience and qualitee and we'll get a goal our football deserves"
a better team than Villa will and has come back to take points off us too many times.
I can see why he brought on Rosicky but he subbed him for the wrong player. Gnabry was excellent in dropping back to help Sagna out so he was rarely isolated against their wing backs.
Santi should have gone because Ozil's better at the Hollywood pass even if he does seem to tire out at the end of games. Now we know why Maureen always subbed him 70mins into games.
We got 3 pts and should have had a clean sheet but for Santi doing all the hard work of winning the ball in a dangerous area then promptly gives it straight back to them. WTF. Glad he got a rollicking from Per. The back 4 didn't deserve to give up their clean sheet so cheaply. We aren't the leaky defence bin dippers FFS
I'll get me coat 