City v Arsenal Post Match

[TCIB]

I read and don't post. Just felt like it today. Some of this will of been said elsewhere....but

... in my opinion Arsenal were not excellent. Praised to the hilt by Neville and others for being resilient and organised: for playing a different style, for having a Plan B like never before! What a pile of crap.

They scored first and proceeded to do what most teams would do.

We had two thirds of the possession and they had what? 3 attempts on target?
Arsenal did an OK job - really no need for the over-the-top TV punditry but as we know - that is what they do on TV.

After only 15 or 20 minutes that there was an apparent problem - David Silva was isolated whenever he received the ball in the final third.


Neville jumped on the fact that David's performance was the most ineffective he'd ever seen him have. I can't see that David was to blame - he
wasn't isolated by Arsenal's brilliance, he was isolated because Yaya and Nasri wern't there beside to work the one-two, slide the through balls
and do what City almost always have to do to break down the often numerous obstacles in front of them.

It's not a shocker - we've all seen it time and time again, we dominate possession and as fans we maybe become a little anxious or frustrated - but
we know that sooner or later our good football will find a way through.
Invariably that happens. Not always. We know there are times where we have relied on moments of individual brilliance to turn matches our way and that can't possibly happen all the time either can it?
With players injured, otherwise unavailable or lacking match fitness it makes the task much harder.

Coaches aren't stupid and neither are players.

Just a couple from this thread:
'Wenger got his tactics spot on.....made sure Silva always had at least one man on him..'
'Arsenal did good... defended very narrowly and didn't allow much space for our creative players'

Add to those Gary Neville's revelations about Arsenal protecting their defence.

These are new ideas in football!?

Come on ffs - doesn't just about every football team in the world at least attempt to do those things? Arsenal were playing Manchester City away -
of course they'd attempt to.


Many people would of selected the same starting team in the circumstances. We had Fern and Fern and Milner, players who's
mindset is most often to do a job for the team.
I've been a big fan of Milner but it was not surprising at all that Jovetic came on. We had to try to start creating something. Introducing Jovetic was the obvious change.

All water under the bridge I know. We did not play well yesterday but Arsenal we not awesome either.

Believe that things could of been different if we had happened to score first.

Post more you **** or i'll tell SWP back you kicked his dog :-D

A fair and reasoned post, we really need more of it 7letters.

 

[paulchapo]

That was the best i have seen Arsenal play in ages and they even admitted as much themselves.They did do a job on us.Our main threat is through Silva in the middle and Zabba overlapping on the wing and yesterday they hardly ever had the chance to do either.Silver dropped so deep i thought he was our holding midfield player and Zabba hardly ever got a chance to get those runs going down the wing.

They set out to frustrate us and hit us on the break like a lot of teams do it is just they have better quality players to operate it.Having said that both their goals were down to appalling defending by us,especially the second goal which from a set piece and given the experience of our defence was unforgivable. Three Arsenal players could have scored it such was the non marking as the ball came in.

At 1-0 down just after half time we had a purple patch where we absolutely battered them and they were hanging on for grim death but with no Ya Ya pressing and surging and a not match fit Aguero and Navas hitting the ball anywhere but into the area from countless good positions we failed to score.The second goal knocked all the stuffing out of us.

We seem to have this patchy period at this time every year.Aguero is injured or just coming back from an injury and Toure is off on his bloody ACON jolly. It has been compounded further by Kompany's and Dzeko's injuries too,then yesterday Nasri is out.

Of course if we go to Chelsea and win by whatever means next week yesterday will be all but forgotten, but given our important players missing and trying to regain full fitness and Chelsea being full strength and on top form this looks highly unlikely but we can pray and hope!

 

[capiloton]

our set piece really poor this season. this game is a classic example, 16 corners without an attempt on target.

 

[Bill]

just seen the pen incident for the first time on tv. it wasn't a pen. not only did the player brush vinny there was two players between the ref and the incident. he couldn't have seen it.

edit.
just found this.

Sportsmail's Graham Poll believes it was an 'excellent decision' by Dean to award Arsenal the spot-kick that got them on their way, regardless of whether the official was looking at the incident.

wtf?

how could he give what he didn't see? why could it possibly be an "excellent decision".

 

[Bill]

I watched the section of the game immediately before the penalty because of the debate on here. A few seconds before Vinnie had made a great interception and set off up field. When he got to the halfway line he stopped, slipped and was dispossessed. a couple of quick passes by the Arsenal players and they were at the edge of our box, impede, penalty. That passage of play summed up our approach for most of the game - slow of mind and body, whereas the opposition were alert and chasing everything that moved.

once vinny slipped we were in trouble. ref got it wrong but we were fucked by vinnt parading up the field because of no outlet.

 

[SkyBlueTX]

It's been said countless times before, but when any two of Silva, Nasri, and Yaya are missing we are seriously lacking creativity in our possession based attack. Aguero and Vinnie obviously still not being fully fit didn't help, nor did Navas's crosses that were more of a threat to dislocate an opponent kneecap than find a target in the box.

We'll be fine once we get everyone back, and back to full fitness. In the meantime, we need to tighten up the defense and keep clean sheets. And work on corners.

 

[Bill]

It's been said countless times before, but when any two of Silva, Nasri, and Yaya are missing we are seriously lacking creativity in our possession based attack. Aguero and Vinnie obviously still not being fully fit didn't help, nor did Navas's crosses that were more of a threat to dislocate an opponent kneecap than find a target in the box.

We'll be fine once we get everyone back, and back to full fitness. In the meantime, we need to tighten up the defense and keep clean sheets. And work on corners.

and bony, dont for get him. he'll be a right asset at both ends of the pitch.

 

[Blue Mooner]

just seen the pen incident for the first time on tv. it wasn't a pen. not only did the player brush vinny there was two players between the ref and the incident. he couldn't have seen it.

edit.
just found this.

Sportsmail's Graham Poll believes it was an 'excellent decision' by Dean to award Arsenal the spot-kick that got them on their way, regardless of whether the official was looking at the incident.

wtf?

how could he give what he didn't see? why could it possibly be an "excellent decision".

Not only this why has no one in the media pointed out that 'impeding the progress of an opponent' (what we used to know as obstruction) is an indirect free-kick. Even if the ref had seen it (which he clearly didn't) then it should have been an award of an indirect free kick inside the penalty area, not a penalty.

Even if you think it was a foul all Vinny does is step across the path of the player. He certainly wasn't trying to tackle him as the ball was nowhere near.

Anyone who knows anything about football knows the first goal is critical in these big games. I personally am sick of referees having a direct impact on our results.

Burnley offside goal given
Burnley 2nd free kick
Sunderland 2nd goal penalty
Everton equaliser dodgy free kick
Arsenal 1st goal penalty
Arsenal 2nd free kick

Of course I realise that for free kicks we have a job to do but if you keep getting free kicks given against you eventually something has to give and the opposing team will make one count - particularly when without Dzeko and Yaya we are not the tallest of sides. We are certainly not conceding many goals from open play that's for sure.

Sundays penalty was a joke and as usual the ref couldn't wait to give it when buzzed from the stands.

 

[Don Karleone]

just seen the pen incident for the first time on tv. it wasn't a pen. not only did the player brush vinny there was two players between the ref and the incident. he couldn't have seen it.

edit.
just found this.

Sportsmail's Graham Poll believes it was an 'excellent decision' by Dean to award Arsenal the spot-kick that got them on their way, regardless of whether the official was looking at the incident.

wtf?

how could he give what he didn't see? why could it possibly be an "excellent decision".

Because it was against us. It really is as simple as that.

 

[mosssideblue]

Don't post much but as far as a left back goes we should look no further than Angelino. Never been as impressed by a young defender as by him

Not having a dig mate but how many PL games has this lad played. Big difference in excelling at a lower level and expecting to do it in the PL.