A cup break.

FA Cup against Leeds on Saturday followed by the League Cup at Ipswich on Wednesday.
Think we'll see quite a few changes with the likes of Szczesny in goal, which is no bad thing, Eboue and Gibbs at full-back, Denilson and Rosicky in midfield (just to please my mate jak), Bendtner, Chamakh and AA in attack.
I think we'll win through to the FA Cup fourth round and a Wembley League Cup final. It'll be like the old days - although I trust we'll do better than some of those finals of yesteryear (Leeds, Swindon Town, Luton Town, to mention only a few).
Maybe we'll go on to a League and FA Cup double as we did against Sheffield Wednesday way back when - what are the chances of meeting the same team in both finals again?

jpr60 wrote:FA Cup against Leeds on Saturday followed by the League Cup at Ipswich on Wednesday.
Think we'll see quite a few changes with the likes of Szczesny in goal, which is no bad thing, Eboue and Gibbs at full-back, Denilson and Rosicky in midfield (just to please my mate jak), Bendtner, Chamakh and AA in attack.
I think we'll win through to the FA Cup fourth round and a Wembley League Cup final. It'll be like the old days - although I trust we'll do better than some of those finals of yesteryear (Leeds, Swindon Town, Luton Town, to mention only a few).
Maybe we'll go on to a League and FA Cup double as we did against Sheffield Wednesday way back when - what are the chances of meeting the same team in both finals again?

Very slim.

Tomorrow is one of my favourite footballing days of the year. We're not going to the game v Barnsley, I'll be on the sofa with Jeff & the lads, then watching Chavtown v Toon. Cheering on Chavtown, of course. Pizza & beer for dinner *burp*

Mine's a pint vicar.

jak wrote: Mine's a pint vicar.

I can't be cultured ALL the time, jak. You're welcome to share the pizza & beer, of course.

I'm saving up to be cultured.

jak wrote:I'm saving up to be cultured.

A painful procedure, I understand. On the whole, I'd rather have fun with my friends.

Well, that was an entertaining cup match, was it not? Obviously it wasn't our best eleven out there but IMO should have been enough to see off Leeds - but it wasn't, was it?
Be interesting to see what team we now have for Wednesday against Ipswich. I'd say Szeczney, Eboue and Gibbs did OK of the players coming in but the rest were below par. I'm sure jak will agree with me when I say that a couple of balls aside it was Rosicky's worst display for a long time, Denilson was marginally better although he gave away a weak penalty but was involved in some good stuff too, including two cracking shots at goal. AA continues to blow hot and cold, a couple of superb balls played through in the first half, a great half-volleyed left-footer later but on the whole an inept display, including a one-on-one which I'd have put my house on him scoring. Bendtner has started to seriously p!ss me off of late, also missing a one-on-one - he even missed the effin goal - heading way over when well placed. I know, he was involved in the move from which we got the penalty but he's not there to play clever balls, he's a striker, he should at least be able to hit the target!
Still we live to fight again - now for Ipswich in the semi-final!

jpr, I've never seen Rosicky or Denilson impress. They are complete shite and if they play together in midfield, you have a weak side. It's been proven enough times. They are a ball watching liability and are of no use whatsoever defensively.

jak wrote:jpr, I've never seen Rosicky or Denilson impress. They are complete shite and if they play together in midfield, you have a weak side. It's been proven enough times. They are a ball watching liability and are of no use whatsoever defensively.

I thought Denilson was or once looked like he'd be a top top player? Just not followed it through. He'd probably still walk into most teams in the league.

jannerblue wrote:

jak wrote:jpr, I've never seen Rosicky or Denilson impress. They are complete shite and if they play together in midfield, you have a weak side. It's been proven enough times. They are a ball watching liability and are of no use whatsoever defensively.

I thought Denilson was or once looked like he'd be a top top player? Just not followed it through. He'd probably still walk into most teams in the league.

I don't think so, Janner. He's not progressed, he's championship at best. Not had a sniff internationally even though Brazil were playing an old man in the form of Gilberto who's well passed it. Denilson was completely overlooked.
You just need to watch him play to see he would not get near any other top side.

IMO both Denilson and Rosicky are good squad players at Arsenal but the level is pretty high and they're not always consistent (in a good sense). Take yesterday :
Denilson Plus points : Covered a lot of ground, including being available to snap up a loose ball in his own penalty area to guide the ball to safety (albeit with a clever dribble whilst many panicking Gooners were yelling for a booted clearance). Had two good shots at goal, one bringing off a fine save from Schmeichel Jr.
Minus points : Gave away a weak penalty with a lazy attempt to tackle, lost Becchio who had a free header at goal (which Szeczney did brilliantly well to stop). Net performance : Could've scored two, gave away the pen and came close to giving away a second goal.
Rosicky Plus points : Tried to maintain midfield control and gave a couple of excellent forward passes in the first half - notably the perfectly-weighted ball to AA which the liitle Russian somehow failed to capitalize on.
Minus points : Gave the ball away with less-than-perfect passing too often.
Net performance : Could have made the difference with an assist but was not dominant enough and gave the ball away too easily on occasions.
If we're talking about less-than-ideal performances I'd lump Bendtner into the mix too. The bloke has bags of confidence and apparently talks himself up well but when he's given the chance to make a name for himself he still shows his lack of control and composure in front of goal. Having said that I wouldn't give up on him either, there was a moment yesterday when he gave to AA on the wing and sprinted into the centre for a good return which was just cut out by a defender. I actually believe he and AA work well together, I've noticed that on several occasions. I'd say Chamakh is the better man to lead the line at the moment. Still, that's only my opinion, eh?!

Now that was as dire an Arsenal "performance" as I've ever seen (and I've seen a few)!
WTF is going on? We had losses against WBA, Newcastle - we had a decent win against Chelsea just a couple of weeks back since when we've had a "wake-up" call against ManC, another one against Leeds and now this! We're a match away from a cup final and we've gone back to sleep.
Aside from Szeczney and Gibbs and, in patches Djourou every single player in the Arsenal side was carp last night. Every single one and that includes Captain Cesc. Whatever it is that affects the likes of Bendtner and Arshavin these days is obviously catching cos most of the team played like them - effin useless! IMO the player who scored was offside when the ball was played through but Ipswich were worth their win (and if Szeczney wasn't as sharp as he is we could have conceded another). "Effin Come ON!" he shouted to his team-mates after keeping the score down to 1-0. I would have liked to see our captain doing some yelling and shouting too - or doesn't he care? All very well to say he leads by example but if he can't effin play at least he could shout!
Mark my words. This team is beatable by any team that cares, that fights. It might well be we lose to West Ham at the weekend (I assume they care about their Premier League status) and both Leeds and Ipswich in the second cup games, because they're not afraid to go for it. What a bunch of limp-wrists we are - atrocious!

I see Fabregas and Wenger are being magnanimous in defeat as always.

Ezekiel 25:17 wrote:I see Fabregas and Wenger are being magnanimous in defeat as always.

Well, Wenger said we were naive - probably true.
Fabregas effectively said that Ipswich didn't really play football, criticizing the way they scored. Well it's true, Ipswich obviously can't play football à la Barcelona/Arsenal but they did what they did with effect, whereas we hardly did what we're expected to do and failed to score. So I'd say we've got something to prove in the second leg - I just hope the players are prepared to put in a shift otherwise we'll be bleating about long-ball football forever, whilst playing endless one-twos in the box until we lose the ball.
The match this weekend now becomes more important - a test of whether this team truly wants to win stuff. I'm expecting West Ham to arrive full of commitment - I just hope we can show we're committed too. It certainly wasn't evident last night.

jpr60 wrote:

Ezekiel 25:17 wrote:I see Fabregas and Wenger are being magnanimous in defeat as always.

Well, Wenger said we were naive - probably true.
Fabregas effectively said that Ipswich didn't really play football, criticizing the way they scored. Well it's true, Ipswich obviously can't play football à la Barcelona/Arsenal but they did what they did with effect, whereas we hardly did what we're expected to do and failed to score. So I'd say we've got something to prove in the second leg - I just hope the players are prepared to put in a shift otherwise we'll be bleating about long-ball football forever, whilst playing endless one-twos in the box until we lose the ball.
The match this weekend now becomes more important - a test of whether this team truly wants to win stuff. I'm expecting West Ham to arrive full of commitment - I just hope we can show we're committed too. It certainly wasn't evident last night.

Selfishly, I hope you're absolute pants.

Denilson. Nothing going forward. Nothing defensively. You play him, you start with ten men.

Aarh, that's better, we played again. A few Cole lunges aside I'm not sure West Ham looked all that committed TBH but at least we knocked the ball about and RvP finally looked like the player we know, not that shadow that seems to have been running about of late. Walcott put some good runs in - OK, he should have done better after getting into a scoring position in the first half (in fact we should've scored six but hey, this is The Arsenal, at least we scored three) but West Ham must be wondering why they've signed Bridge, he looks like a player who's used to not playing.
So, happy enough with the game - Lord knows we needed a good performance/result - now to beat off Leeds at their place (that's gonna be some match - the atmosphere will be top-shelf at Elland Road). Wonder what team we'll have.

Haven't seen the WH game yet. Pleased with the result though.

jak wrote:Haven't seen the WH game yet. Pleased with the result though.

Good result, pretty good performance too. Wilshere was ace (my man-of-the-match), RvP looking like the player we know and love! Let's just get the result at Elland Road and we're up and running (again)!

I just wonder, given the 'effective' size of our squad, if we're fighting on too many fronts.

jak wrote:I just wonder, given the 'effective' size of our squad, if we're fighting on too many fronts.

That's always been the problem jak, hence our putting out "The Kids" in the League Cup (which usually got us quite far) and a less-than-first-choice team in the FA Cup (which usually saw us seen off in the semis) in recent seasons.
This time around there has been some kind of recognition that we really should win a trophy (or two) this season. The youngsters in the first eleven would enjoy it (as would we all) even if it were only the League Cup (to begin with) and it might just give us that spring in confidence to continue in winning a more significant trophy.
If everyone were fit I think our squad would be good enough to go for all four trophies this time around. However Vermaelen being out stretches our central defence to breaking point and if we keep playing our better players every four days we're sure to incur injury, if only from fatigue.
League Cup With all due respect if we can't beat any/all of Ipswich/West Ham/Birmingham with any combination of the players in our squad I'd be very surprised.
FA Cup We should be able to beat Leeds (we'll find out soon enough) but after that who knows?
CL Even with our best eleven (whatever that might be) we'll be stretched to overcome Barcelona but, over two games, who knows? It's football (that also applies, of course, in our opponents favour in the FA/League Cup)!
Premier League Title As Arsene says, consistency is the word. ManU are favourites, unbeaten and yet (to me) don't look that good. We take three points off them at The Grove and it's wide open. I believe it's us or them for the title. Need a strong team out, every match.
So, we start our best available eleven in the CL and Prem matches, we start a "good enough" eleven in the other cup matches. If (or until) we get knocked out of one of the competitions the atmosphere in the squad has got to be good, no? It's a balancing act in any event.

I agree with most of what you say, jpr. We are very thin at centre back, I think Vermaelen's absence has been a major blow for us. I would imagine there's a lot going on to sign another CB toute suite.
Also we have the problem of a back up midfield that is never up for the fight.
We need a big change of luck as far as injuries are concerned, then, who knows.