Back to normal II

Tha Arsenal playing well, throughout the team, with special mentions for Djourou and Wilshere. Lots of chances created, two well-taken goals by RvP, the first a killer volley and the second showing Arsenal at their best, four or five one-touch passes out of defence, through midfield and into RvP's run - brilliant!
No bad refereeing decisions, no over-the-top tackles, no sendings-off or serious injuries, just good, very good football.
Now for the next match.........the next matches actually - I'll just be happy to see us playing well and who knows what we might achieve?

I watched the match, and Hennessey spared our blushes on countless occasions! It could have been so much worse!

JPR, I watched the highlights this morning.Some great play by Arsenal but it must be frustrating to see your side waste so many chances.Van Persie is a class act, if he could stay fit he'd be a 30 goal a season man IMO.By the way regarding no bad decisions, Van Persie was offside or didn't you notice that?

RvP is a top top player.. It's taken him a long time to recover from injury but if he could stay injury free ( which he finds hards ) he would go down as one of the all time greats of the Premiership..

'Go Down' is the operative words.
He picks up more injuries than the entire West Ham squad.

QBVILLA wrote:JPR, I watched the highlights this morning.Some great play by Arsenal but it must be frustrating to see your side waste so many chances.Van Persie is a class act, if he could stay fit he'd be a 30 goal a season man IMO.By the way regarding no bad decisions, Van Persie was offside or didn't you notice that?

If you mean RvP was offside for the second goal, he wasn't.
We always "waste" chances - on the other hand keepers always seem to play well against us - it's written somewhere that whatever we achieve, whatever we win, we do it the hardest possible way. Just look at our more recent history. We were never "on" to win the Fairs Cup in '70, never going to win the league in '71 (what, get a point without conceding a goal at Tottenham, no chance?), win the '79 FA Cup Final against ManU after coasting to a 2-0 win then conceding twice near the death, win the league in '89 at Anfield in the last match (as long as we won by 2 goals) no chance?. The only time I recall us looking a racing certainty to win anything was the "invincibles" season.
So, to this season. Lose to WBA, Newcastle, give away a 4-0 lead and still be in with a chance of winning the league? Well, at the moment, yes. Beat Barcelona - probably the best team on the planet - to reach the later stages of the CL? No chance!
It's a bumpy but enjoyable ride, beeing a Gooner.

I think following any team is a bumpy ride. But probably less so being a Gooner.

jpr60 wrote:

QBVILLA wrote:JPR, I watched the highlights this morning.Some great play by Arsenal but it must be frustrating to see your side waste so many chances.Van Persie is a class act, if he could stay fit he'd be a 30 goal a season man IMO.By the way regarding no bad decisions, Van Persie was offside or didn't you notice that?

If you mean RvP was offside for the second goal, he wasn't.
We always "waste" chances - on the other hand keepers always seem to play well against us - it's written somewhere that whatever we achieve, whatever we win, we do it the hardest possible way. Just look at our more recent history. We were never "on" to win the Fairs Cup in '70, never going to win the league in '71 (what, get a point without conceding a goal at Tottenham, no chance?), win the '79 FA Cup Final against ManU after coasting to a 2-0 win then conceding twice near the death, win the league in '89 at Anfield in the last match (as long as we won by 2 goals) no chance?. The only time I recall us looking a racing certainty to win anything was the "invincibles" season.
So, to this season. Lose to WBA, Newcastle, give away a 4-0 lead and still be in with a chance of winning the league? Well, at the moment, yes. Beat Barcelona - probably the best team on the planet - to reach the later stages of the CL? No chance!
It's a bumpy but enjoyable ride, beeing a Gooner.

You're one eyed but i think you're great

Big match tonight. One for the connoisseurs, I trust. Great to be a Gooner - to be at the Top Table playing probably the best club side in the world - whatever happens I hope we'll show what we can do. If it's enough, great, if not, c'est la vie, quoi?!

I've got a great night coming up. I'm babysitting for a couple of mates who are off to the cinema. So they are cooking up a curry before going out, I'm taking some Bristol Beer Factory Gold and Exhibition and once they leave I'll get comfy and watch the Goons.

villainies wrote:I've got a great night coming up. I'm babysitting for a couple of mates who are off to the cinema. So they are cooking up a curry before going out, I'm taking some Bristol Beer Factory Gold and Exhibition and once they leave I'll get comfy and watch the Goons. Hopefully when they get back he'll be pissed, collapse into bed while i have my wicked way and smash his missus until her legs go bandy

As a Happy Gooner I'm now contemplating the immediate future, Leyton Orient in the cup this weekend, Stoke City in the league in midweek followed by a League Cup final at Wembley next weekend.
There'll be some squad rotation, enforced in the case of Djourou who has a back problem and perhaps Theo, but I'm quite confident that our squad is good enough to keep the good things coming. The win against Barca was fantastic, but it's the follow-up games that will show what we can achieve this season. More of the same please Arsenal!

Too much to expect two good performances on the trot from two very different teams I suppose, but these guys train together, must know how we play.
Full credit to Orient, they went about their business and never stopped trying despite being out-possessed most of the time. 1-0 was never going to be enough and, sure enough up pops the equaliser.
Oh well, another key match - doing it The Arsenal Way as usual and if we get through, up to Old Trafford in the next round. Something more to look forward to I suppose, meanwhile it's home to Stoke City on Wednesday, now that's a match I insist we win well!

Come on Carew, bully the cockernees

villanfromluton wrote:Come on Carew, bully the cockernees

Oh yeh, he's joined The Gentle Giants, another clod-hopping awkward barsteward to add to Pullis's collection of trundlers - I suppose we can reckon on a few injuries then, that'll make a change!

jpr60 wrote:

villanfromluton wrote:Come on Carew, bully the cockernees

Oh yeh, he's joined The Gentle Giants, another clod-hopping awkward barsteward to add to Pullis's collection of trundlers - I suppose we can reckon on a few injuries then, that'll make a change!

You are a right whingeing old git . Do you know where Jak is JPR?

villanfromluton wrote:

jpr60 wrote:

villanfromluton wrote:Come on Carew, bully the cockernees

Oh yeh, he's joined The Gentle Giants, another clod-hopping awkward barsteward to add to Pullis's collection of trundlers - I suppose we can reckon on a few injuries then, that'll make a change!

You are a right whingeing old git . Do you know where Jak is JPR?

If that puts me in the frame with Arsene Wenger, according to you, then that is an honour I am more than pleased to accept. So, thank you, kind sir.
No news from Jak - it's getting a touch worrying. I mean, we lost whatsisname in Portugal, which was careless, now Jak in Spain - could it be the weather in western Europe?

And Malachite, lost in space.....

Seems like someone is abducting the old feckers of this site, Finn has gone awol as well. Reddi and JPR will have to watch their backs

villanfromluton wrote:Seems like someone is abducting the old feckers of this site, Finn has gone awol as well. Reddi and JPR will have to watch their backs

If I just disappear without trace it'll be because my time has come. Hopefully that won't be for a good while yet but, whenever it happens (and before the Fat Lady sings) I'd like fellow jwnders to know that :
a) It's been a pleasure to have communicated with you;
b) I thank you all for your "friendship" (if that is what our level of communication can be termed as);
c) I love you all (to varying degress, it must be said)!

Meanwhile, (this is The Arsenal site innit?) looks as if we'll be without Vermaelen, RvP and Koscielny for the game against Stoke tomorrow. At least those three are free from the threat of decapitation or similar injuries whilst trying to play football against the Oafs of Stoke!

We got the three points, that's the main thing. We got bumped about a bit, as expected but there were no broken limbs so we must be thankful.
Stoke truly are a crap side though, football-wise. I don't think they put more than three passes together, it was long-ball - bang - hoof it up the field - bang. That would drive me crazy if I were a Stoke fan although they had some travelling, singing out Shawcross's name as if he were some kind of football god. He almost got a header on target too - now that would've been hard to take TBH. What I appreciated far more was his attempted crash/slide tackle on AA who deftly side-stepped before playing a cut-back to Theo who wastefully missed the goal. Theo could've had a hat-trick, the ball coming back from the post into the beaten keeper's arms in the first minute, then he blazed a shot wide just afterwards - I thought we were going to score a hat-full as we mesmerised the Stoke defence for the first ten minutes or so - still, 1-0 does the job.
Theo out for a couple of weeks - his foot got caught in the turf after Whitehead banged into him, knocking him over on the edge of the area (not even a free kick - the bloke made no attempt to play the ball, just the man) and Cesc has a hamstring problem again. Oh well, we're lucky to be able to bring on the likes of Arshavin when we get an injury.
Birmingham at Wembley next - obviously it will be a test for whoever is chosen to play although it certainly won't be our strongest eleven who start the match.

Relax, jpr60. It won't be our strongest 11 who start the match either.

Oh I'm pretty relaxed. Whilst the next game is always important, therefore we want to win, last night's game was more important in terms of priorities, as will be the match against Sunderland next weekend.
Meanwhile we've two cup games to play, the League Cup Final and an FA Cup replay. We have to select the players to do the job in both instances, without necessarily risking key players with doubtful levels of fitness.
I'd be surprised to see Cesc play on Sunday, although from an emotional stand-point it would be great for him to lead his team out at Wembley. I doubt that RvP will start, although he'll be on the bench if needed. It'll be interesting to see who Wenger starts with in defence, does he bring back Koscielny and perhaps give Djourou a rest, or does he stay with Squillaci-Djourou who played well enough last night?
The midfield will probably include Diaby and Nasri - will Wilshere be rested? In attack I'd expect to see Arshavin plus Bendtner and Chamakh.
Whatever he chooses I trust :
1) They'll play to their potential and
2) We'll have too much for Birmingham!

Arsenal resting players for the League Cup? It'll never catch on.

I may be wrong, but I get the feeling that you're not too excited about the prospect of playing us at Wembley in a Cup Final? Or is it that you think the result is a foregone conclusion?

You haven't even started a dedicated 'Wembley' thread FFS!

What's wrong with you man?

Tilton wrote:Arsenal resting players for the League Cup? It'll never catch on.

I may be wrong, but I get the feeling that you're not too excited about the prospect of playing us at Wembley in a Cup Final? Or is it that you think the result is a foregone conclusion?

You haven't even started a dedicated 'Wembley' thread FFS!

What's wrong with you man?

Here's the thing. We have to win on Sunday, therefore I trust we will. It's not the trophy TBH, it's the confidence thing that's gonna be the plus. Of course it's nice to be playing in a final at Wembley and of course there'll be some excitement on the day but there's also that feeling of inevitability, it's going to happen - OK, enjoy it - but it's what comes after that'll be really interesting.
Still -
"We're on our way to Wembley, we're on the Wembley way,
We're on our way to Wembley, we're on the Wembley way............."etc