Almunia

[SPUDMASHER]

Okay, you highlighted a mistake but it didn't cost us points did it. Surely if anyone cost us that night it was Clichy falling over his own arse in the last 5 minutes and our entire defence finishing the game early, not Almunia.

We conceded 2 goals due to his errors, without that we would have won 4-2 or even more as Spurs would have been out of it before then.

Rubbish in my opinion. That result was down to the team resting on their laurels and thinking the job was done. To blame him for that is simply wrong.

[Magic Hat]

I blame him and Clichy for that draw, both were at fault for silly goals, I also blame our midfield for nobody dropping back into the hole for 4th goal. I'm not trying to berate Almunia, as hadareud has pointed out, he has us more games then he has cost us this season

[SPUDMASHER]

My point really is that to single him out in that game is really unfair. Yeah, he made a mistake with Bentleycunts goal but how many keepers would have been on their line expecting that to come? I would guess very few. Just as with Big Dave's one from Nayim. Bentleycunts shot was speculative at best and he got lucky.
The whole team were responsible for that DVD being released not Almunia alone.

[Magic Hat]

Fair enough SpudMasher, I just think the 40 yarder wasn't even that good whereas Nayim (or Ronaldinhio's) effort was well hit. Each to their own

[piresistible]

Denilson, Diaby, Nasri and Eboue all played well. Eboue’s performance in the final third, passing and finishing, was hugely disappointing as usual. Bendtner’s was too. He definitely had a nightmare overall. VanPersie did well to win a penalty but wasn’t able to make something happen like he did all through January. The defence did well. One can see that the fullbacks are going forward less often, and that’s playing a part in being solid defensively as well as create more space during our attacks because the opposition has to deal with lesser players, and therefore they don’t need to get all 11 behind the ball. But we’re still too slow going forward. The movement just isn’t as intelligent and threatening as ManUtd’s. They rarely misplace a pass. The speed, precision, and placement of the pass is so unbelievably accurate that it’s scary to watch. We don’t scare teams like that. We wait too long to make a move, and by that time the opposition has too many men already in position in defence. The performance today was one of the best performances of our season in terms of creating chances, but because we’re not finishing well, I’d say it compares poorly with the Invincibles. For this team, it might have been one of the best performances, but for the Invincibles, this would’ve been an average performance. That tells you how our level has dropped, and it’s sad.

We’re still in a decent position. We only need to score one goal, which has been quite a challenge for us lately, specially from open play, as we’ve still not scored in 3 previous premier league games and one champions league game (overall 3 home games and 1 away game). But because Roma should try to go forward more often in the second leg, hopefully that means more space opening up for us to utilize. And if we have Eduardo and Walcott back, it does seem that we’d be better off than we are now with Bendtner and Eboue, but I’m not sure how match-fit Walcott will be. Eduardo though will definitely be a boost in terms of finishing ability.

Eboue does look like a changed person. Wenger said he’d spoken to him and that he’d changed. Let’s see how long he can go without resorting to his usual self. Good to see an improvement, but imagine if we had more clinical players in place of Eboue and Bendtner. We’d be so much better off and under much less pressure to perform every time, because we’d probably be finishing off better and converting more chances to goals.