FA Cup

Coats for goal-posts, eh? FA Cup weekend, Arsenal v Aston Villa - it could be from another age.
I'm hearing Villa will be putting out their strongest team - the local logic being "We're not gonna be relegated and are unlikely to qualify for the Europa League so the FA Cup is to be won" which is sound thinking. I'm hoping we're not downgrading the competition in our push for a Top-Four place - I'd be chuffed with Top-Four and The FA Cup at the end of the season!
So Arsene, kick-start our come-back with a strong team against Villa on Sunday, there's a good lad. You'll still be getting sh!te from the schyzophrenia-Gooners whatever you do from now on so best just get on with it and win stuff without their support!

I am sure Villa will pick their strongest team, will be amazed if Arsenal dont do the same

Villa will put out their strongest side and we'll lose

I'm hoping to go to this one. I feel lucky and think we'll get a result.

villainies wrote:I'm hoping to go to this one. I feel lucky and think we'll get a result.

It's the cup - anything can happen. Obviously I hope The Arsenal will re-turn the corner and get back to winning ways but, as was always the case - "May The Best Team Win"!

jpr60 wrote:

villainies wrote:I'm hoping to go to this one. I feel lucky and think we'll get a result.

It's the cup - anything can happen. Obviously I hope The Arsenal will re-turn the corner and get back to winning ways but, as was always the case - "May The Best Team Win"!

Feck off, I want the Villa to win

Hey, whaddya know? The best team won (for a change)!
0-2 down at half time in no way reflected which was the better team. Full marks to Villa for taking their chances and yes, defensively goal no.1 was your typical (recent) Arsenal bad defending. Goal no.2 was well taken by Bent - he got lucky to latch onto the rebound but put the ball away very well. But, know what? I wasn't in the least down at half time (pity some of the other Gooners couldn't have realised the match lasts 90 minutes). Bloke sitting next to me was giving it a right old moan - "Effin Wenger don't know what he's doin'" etc. So I asked him "You reckon we're out of it then, do you? We can't win this game?" - "No effin way, with that defence......". OK; he didn't boo at half time - if he had I might have admonished him further, the miserable cnut - perhaps he realised that, eh?
Second half and we turned our superiority into goals - we finally got a couple of penalties awarded to us (we usually see'em clearly enough but we don't get'em) and I thought RvP did very well with taking them. Theo's goal was a touch fortunate but, then again he'd run the goal-line, stuck the ball inside Given so that it came back off the post and followed up - nice to see Hutton bang the ball home off Theo (that's the same Hutton who kicked The Ox in the ankle after the ball had been played, early doors - he's an arsewipe that bloke, The Ox never stopped showing him tha ball after that and then roasting him)! Shame the BFG didn't get on the scoresheet with his header, Ireland off the line I believe.
The only time I was a touch worried (OK, penalties being taken worry me too TBH but, as I said RvP did the business there) was near the end. We've given goals/games away at the death recently and I was concerned that something might go wrong again but no, it was not to be.
"0-2 down, 3-2 up" - could be the title of a new blog!

jpr60 wrote:Hey, whaddya know? The best team won (for a change)!
0-2 down at half time in no way reflected which was the better team. Full marks to Villa for taking their chances and yes, defensively goal no.1 was your typical (recent) Arsenal bad defending. Goal no.2 was well taken by Bent - he got lucky to latch onto the rebound but put the ball away very well. But, know what? I wasn't in the least down at half time (pity some of the other Gooners couldn't have realised the match lasts 90 minutes). Bloke sitting next to me was giving it a right old moan - "Effin Wenger don't know what he's doin'" etc. So I asked him "You reckon we're out of it then, do you? We can't win this game?" - "No effin way, with that defence......". OK; he didn't boo at half time - if he had I might have admonished him further, the miserable cnut - perhaps he realised that, eh?
Second half and we turned our superiority into goals - we finally got a couple of penalties awarded to us (we usually see'em clearly enough but we don't get'em) and I thought RvP did very well with taking them. Theo's goal was a touch fortunate but, then again he'd run the goal-line, stuck the ball inside Given so that it came back off the post and followed up - nice to see Hutton bang the ball home off Theo (that's the same Hutton who kicked The Ox in the ankle after the ball had been played, early doors - he's an arsewipe that bloke, The Ox never stopped showing him tha ball after that and then roasting him)! Shame the BFG didn't get on the scoresheet with his header, Ireland off the line I believe.
The only time I was a touch worried (OK, penalties being taken worry me too TBH but, as I said RvP did the business there) was near the end. We've given goals/games away at the death recently and I was concerned that something might go wrong again but no, it was not to be.
"0-2 down, 3-2 up" - could be the title of a new blog!

QBVILLA wrote:

jpr60 wrote:Hey, whaddya know? The best team won (for a change)!
0-2 down at half time in no way reflected which was the better team. Full marks to Villa for taking their chances and yes, defensively goal no.1 was your typical (recent) Arsenal bad defending. Goal no.2 was well taken by Bent - he got lucky to latch onto the rebound but put the ball away very well. But, know what? I wasn't in the least down at half time (pity some of the other Gooners couldn't have realised the match lasts 90 minutes). Bloke sitting next to me was giving it a right old moan - "Effin Wenger don't know what he's doin'" etc. So I asked him "You reckon we're out of it then, do you? We can't win this game?" - "No effin way, with that defence......". OK; he didn't boo at half time - if he had I might have admonished him further, the miserable cnut - perhaps he realised that, eh?
Second half and we turned our superiority into goals - we finally got a couple of penalties awarded to us (we usually see'em clearly enough but we don't get'em) and I thought RvP did very well with taking them. Theo's goal was a touch fortunate but, then again he'd run the goal-line, stuck the ball inside Given so that it came back off the post and followed up - nice to see Hutton bang the ball home off Theo (that's the same Hutton who kicked The Ox in the ankle after the ball had been played, early doors - he's an arsewipe that bloke, The Ox never stopped showing him tha ball after that and then roasting him)! Shame the BFG didn't get on the scoresheet with his header, Ireland off the line I believe.
The only time I was a touch worried (OK, penalties being taken worry me too TBH but, as I said RvP did the business there) was near the end. We've given goals/games away at the death recently and I was concerned that something might go wrong again but no, it was not to be.
"0-2 down, 3-2 up" - could be the title of a new blog!

Not so, my man. We had most of the ball - agreed we hadn't looked much like scoring or, to put it another way we didn't make the most of the opportunities we had whereas Villa scored twice from two opportunties - which is pretty-damned efficient. The fact that I was feeling relatively optimistic at half-tme (I wasn't pissed) reflects what I had seen, a team capable of turning stuff around. I certainly didn't think we deserved to be 2-0 down or that Villa were 2-0 better than us. Had that been the case I'd have joined the other miserable feckers in their doom'n gloom. I'm a realist (oh yes I am) - I know what I see and from what I saw in the first half I thought we'd come back out and do the business. We did!

JPR, Villa dominated the 1st half.Any possession Arsenal had was in areas where Villa were comfortable.It's been a long time since i've seen a Villa side that comfortable against Arsenal.Second half totally different.Arsenal battered us and we simply weren't good enough to compete.The fact the second penalty came from a foul by our lone striker sums up just how under the cosh we were.

First ten minutes Arsenal were the better team, after that Villa were very comfortable and looking the more dangerous team IMHO. Can only recall Given have one shot to save. from Vermalhen in the first half

villanfromluton wrote:First ten minutes Arsenal were the better team, after that Villa were very comfortable and looking the more dangerous team IMHO. Can only recall Given have one shot to save. from Vermalhen in the first half

You're right Lutes - and that's the criticism I'd have of The Arsenal in the first half. We looked in control, had most of the ball but rarely created something dangerous (Vermaelen, Walcott, Ramsey but nothing special). Second half we went for the jugular - direct and lethal.

You started the second half a lot more positive, moving the ball far quicker