Arsenal(FA Cup Semi Final) Post Match Thread

[Beyond Belief]

I'll settle for a draw on Thursday, the rags are having a decent run of form and we can't defend.

Depends on what the referees brief will be more than the players or the game. I'm not paying to watch the officials next season. Fuck this corruption!

 

[Beyond Belief]

I just hope you are right.. They had 7 and a bit days to prepare and recover for todays performance and thay all looked knackered.

The longer they rest the shitter the performance. I refer you to our 4-0 loss at Everton this season.

 

[Beyond Belief]

The officials got 2 wrong for us and 1 for them. We were 1-0 up and in control and lost 2-1, from what I remember at 1-0 there weren't any other game changing decisions.

Can't blame the ref for being 1-0 up and blowing it.

We did the same thing v Arsenal at the Emirates. After scoring with Sane early on it was like a switch was flicked and we went onto auto pilot.

Still should have won though with the non penalty we should have had last min with that Monreal handball the player even admitted to after the game!

 

[Beyond Belief]

Replays have shown our goal should not have been disallowed, what gets me is how accurate the officials are when we are involved, can you see a rag goal disallowed.

The rags in contrast have had 9 goals ruled out against them that were on side this season. They have also been allowed to score 8 offside goals.

Why isn't someone compiling all of this? It's beyond a fucking joke.

 

[richards30]

Fucking fuming still about yesterday! The current players aren't capable of playing the pep way

 

[City Raider]

Not difficult to organise a team into a solid unit, when defence is the only priority by putting 10 men or more behind the ball, whereas to make a team expansive and entertaining, playing to win games is far more difficult. That's why the top coaches capable of doing it are few and far between and why the likes of Allardyce and Pulis will only ever achieve top ten like success. IMHO Pep has over achieved with this aging squad with inherent weaknesses that the club for whatever reason have failed to address for a number of seasons.

Totally agree.

Impossible to judge him until it's his team and despite our love for Aguero, he's obviously not his first choice. Plus the shocking situation the club have allowed to develop at full back.

This is a fucking bitter pill but it should lead to club backing him properly this summer.

 

[Tom_mcfc]

But if the goal had been given then the penalty correctly awarded we'd have probably been 2-0 up, instead we're denied both, that would have made it 3-0 or 3-1 if their pen had been given. It'd be a totally different game by then, same as it would/should have been V Chelsea, v Spurs, v Arsenal away, v Liverpool. All the dodgy decisions come against us at key points in the game, Christ we didn't even get the Pen v Saints but thankfully went on to win it.

He was on their side from the off, the foul on Navas the the foul by Otamendi in the first 10 minutes were laughable.

I said that, we got shafted hard once more. The way the refs are we need a mindset that whatever they throw at us we will overcome it with our football. Regardless of the ref we still need to do our jobs

 

[Father Paul]

you'd sell sterling ?. hes had one of his best seasons. some of the best assist stats in the league and hes only young. what have you been watching ? it would be absolutely ridiculous if we sold him.

hes one of the last players we should be selling.

He is better but still not good enough for starters he is just not clinical enough in front of goal. Yes I would not hesitate to sell him if anybody was foolish to pay us
the 50m we paid the dippers for him. Much better value out there imo.

 

[inchy14]

I agree with you and have posted before on this. How is it possible that we get so many cards when we have the ball all the time.

Yesterday's penalty on reflection was one but not nearly as obvious as the one's on Raheem earlier this year. And a case could be made for Sanchez getting one as well which would have evened it up.

The cross from Leroy was a difficult call. It seemed almost impossible that it could have been in play. Although in fact it was. Very unlucky but don't think that was cheating.

Watch Cech, not once does he appeal he actually tries to put it behind for a corner yet can't reach it, his reaction alone says it wan't out yet the linesman just guesses.

I said that, we got shafted hard once more. The way the refs are we need a mindset that whatever they throw at us we will overcome it with our football. Regardless of the ref we still need to do our jobs

But how can we do that if good goal are disallowed, penalties not awarded?

We can't overcome blatant cheating when you can't appeal as you're fined or suspended for saying anything, yet everyone knows it was an incorrect decision (again).

 

[Father Paul]

He was poor yesterday so naturally that means all the good work and improvement he's shown this season means nothing.
Far too many posters on here are short sighted and reactionary and it doesn't make pleasant reading. I grew up (naively) thinking that blues were unique in their support but over the last few years it seems we've got as many gobshites following us as everyone else.

This gobshite has been following City since 1965. I believe Sterling is a good squad player at best but not worth the money we paid for him. Will he improve maybe as he has shown some good moments this season, but he will not bring us to the next level. Sane and Jesus might as might a few of the young lads who hopefully will put one over on the Chavs during the week.

 

[Manc Born & Bred]

Does anybody else wonder how a club sponsor can then sponsor a competition that their sponsored club takes part in? It's a bit like if City sponsored the PFA awards and the winner was a City player. Is there not a huge conflict or does money talk. Think I answered my own question

 

[blue ranger]

Didn't post yesterday after going to the game as wanted to calm down a little. But although the refereeing and level of officiating was pathetic, yet again we played well for half a game before tailing off in the 2nd half.

I remain far from convinced by Pep so far. I thought our build up play yesterday was so slow and tepid, we moved the ball quickly on very few occasions. I'm also disappointed with the way that Pep changes things from the bench. Can't understand why nolito wasn't on the bench (don't think he was) as bringing on delph and Fernando together in extra time was an absolute joke.

Also pissed off with him waving his arms at crowd as if that performance was our fault. As probably the best paid manager in the world i think he probably needs to look at himself.

Last season the ground was near empty for the lap of appreciation at the end of the season. Will be interesting to see his reaction if it's the same this time, because we have spent £150-£200m and certainly not progressed.

 

[Beanies Nosebag]

The saddest thing I saw today was on the pitch after the final whistle. Pep approached Zaba to offer a hug and gets the brush off. Hope I'm not reading too much into that.
I love Zaba and I believe in our future under Pep.
On another day we could have been home and dry 3-1 winners and this thread would be cork popping.

1. Robbed by linesman
2. Penalty
3. Woodwork near misses
4.Arsenal hackers go unpunished


sigh...............

I agree, Zabba should have played.

Navas defends like a frightened girl

 

[Father Paul]

Didn't post yesterday after going to the game as wanted to calm down a little. But although the refereeing and level of officiating was pathetic, yet again we played well for half a game before tailing off in the 2nd half.

I remain far from convinced by Pep so far. I thought our build up play yesterday was so slow and tepid, we moved the ball quickly on very few occasions. I'm also disappointed with the way that Pep changes things from the bench. Can't understand why nolito wasn't on the bench (don't think he was) as bringing on delph and Fernando together in extra time was an absolute joke.

Also pissed off with him waving his arms at crowd as if that performance was our fault. As probably the best paid manager in the world i think he probably needs to look at himself.

Last season the ground was near empty for the lap of appreciation at the end of the season. Will be interesting to see his reaction if it's the same this time, because we have spent £150-£200m and certainly not progressed.

Still think he needs to be given one more window and pre-season before judgement is cast. I am falling into the glass half empty category but in all fairness
I will wait untill we are out of all competitions and struggling to make top four before I will call for his head.

 

[west didsblue]

Didn't post yesterday after going to the game as wanted to calm down a little. But although the refereeing and level of officiating was pathetic, yet again we played well for half a game before tailing off in the 2nd half.

I remain far from convinced by Pep so far. I thought our build up play yesterday was so slow and tepid, we moved the ball quickly on very few occasions. I'm also disappointed with the way that Pep changes things from the bench. Can't understand why nolito wasn't on the bench (don't think he was) as bringing on delph and Fernando together in extra time was an absolute joke.

Also pissed off with him waving his arms at crowd as if that performance was our fault. As probably the best paid manager in the world i think he probably needs to look at himself.

Last season the ground was near empty for the lap of appreciation at the end of the season. Will be interesting to see his reaction if it's the same this time, because we have spent £150-£200m and certainly not progressed.

That's the one thing that hasn't been the same since Mancini left. If we were behind when Bobby was manager, there was always the feeling that we'd pull something back. He'd throw on additional strikers and up the pace of the game. These days, when we go behind I don't get the same feeling that we're going balls out to get back into it. In the season we won the league, it seemed we ended quite a few matches with Aguero, Tevez, Dzeko and Ballotelli all on the pitch having got back to a winning position after being behind. Yesterday, he took Aguero off at 1-1 and the feeling near me was they were going to score soon which was exactly what happened.

 

[blue ranger]

Still think he needs to be given one more window and pre-season before judgement is cast. I am falling into the glass half empty category but in all fairness
I will wait untill we are out of all competitions and struggling to make top four before I will call for his head.

I'm not advocating getting rid of him mate. Agree we need to give him a chance with a rebuilt squad next season. But for me this year is even guaranteed to be worse than the shit served up last year and we have spent millions.

I can't stand mourinho but at least he has a plan B to go more direct. We keep playing the same slow tippy tappy shite. We get chances to take a free kick into the box and we go backwards. Its crazy.

 

[blue ranger]

That's the one thing that hasn't been the same since Mancini left. If we were behind when Bobby was manager, there was always the feeling that we'd pull something back. He'd throw on additional strikers and up the pace of the game. These days, when we go behind I don't get the same feeling that we're going balls out to get back into it. In the season we won the league, it seemed we ended quite a few matches with Aguero, Tevez, Dzeko and Ballotelli all on the pitch having got back to a winning position after being behind. Yesterday, he took Aguero off at 1-1 and the feeling near me was they were going to score soon which was exactly what happened.

It seems Aguero was hurt, but bringing on delph and Fernando was very naive as it's more about the message it sent to players and fans, i.e we can't win this game from here.

Final point.... our lack of fitness was very obvious yesterday. Looked at the number of players lay on the floor at end of 90 mins and was convinced we were done.

 

[mekonmcfc]

Bravo did nothing wrong, Back 4 did nothing wrong and full backs supported well. Sterling was utter dog shit, Fernandihno and Yaya controlled most of the game. Sane worked hard with no end product, Sergio awesome goal but did little else in the game and De Bruyne didnt do enough again he worked harder than he has recently, and had more of the ball.
Subs - Kelechi is useless, Delph worked hard and out himself about but is not a top top player that we need. With Silva off we lacked the guille to unlock a boring Arsenal with everbody behind the ball.

 

[@BluePhil8]

I agree, Zabba should have played.

Navas defends like a frightened girl

Navas does everything to a wank standard.

 

[Scar Tissue]

Combination of bad luck and shocking officiating did the team in.

Can't believe the lack of protection David and Sergio get week in week out. How were those challenges not carded?

Fair play to Arsenal for the grit they showed in the second half and ET, but that came off the back of the officials keeping them in the game in the first half, when they were abject.

Majestic finish by Sergio for the goal. Yaya tried so hard. Fantastic player still.

Hope the knocks to David, Sergio and Fernandinho not serious. We need them.