OB1 said:
CaliforniaBlue said:
Count me in as well. If one of our attempts had sneaked in and several things hadn't gone right for them in a row leading to Diouf's goal, we'd probably all be pretty happy with the performance. Not our best form, but far from our worst - it reminded me of a Mancini-era performance against a team that parks the bus. As noted above, we could play exactly the same way and win that game 6 or 7 times out of 10.
It's hard not to be heavily influenced by the result, but you have to look at how we play regardless of the result (and that goes for games we win as well). Don't forget we had some similar games at the back end of last season that could easily have gone the same way, but in those games we eventually got the goal we needed and the rest is history.
Okay, that's the best I can do - now back to being pissed off that we lost and that I have 2 weeks to dwell on it...
I am hugely pissed off and there is no denying that we totally lacked magic and sparkle but the facts show that we dominated possession, had a reasonable pass completion (88%) , had 11 corners, 16 shots....
It's the fact that we don't learn that wicks me off. Every time we face a Pulis or Hughes side, full of 6ft 4' giants, determined to park a dirty great bus, we always end up making an almighty ordeal of it. Pellegrini got it totally wrong for me today, much as Mancini always did in these circs. You have to have some pace out wide when you play these bastards, you can't chip the ball hopefully in to a 5ft 8' centre forward surrounded by enormous defenders, and you have to move the ball quickly from side to side. Nasri and Ya Ya killed our tempo today, and the latter of those is playing in such a half arsed fashion generally, I suspect he will not be here next season.
Every time I watched Sagna play for Arsenal, he bombed forward and whipped in some evil crosses. First game or not today he was a pile of shit. Poor distribution out of defence and never once got beyond his opposite number.
Kompany was the only one who earned his corn today and even he fucked up for the goal. Only after Navas and Dzeko, who has been our go to guy against the bus parkers, came on did we start to get in behind Stoke.
As to Joe Hart, beaten again by a piss weak shot at the left hand near post, I suspect his days are numbered.
Even allowing for that utter c**t Lee Mason, that was an absolute shitbag performance today from all concerned. This season will be tighter than ever and we can't afford a repetition.