It's harsh to blame Sir Chesney (Sky!) but he made 2 or 3 great saves beforehand and kept it 1-0 until the sending off. Put into context, yes he made one mistake but he excelled in the rest of the match, especially the save from Ruiz.
even my Mrs said 'surely you don't change the team with minutes left, and isn't that Squishy bloke useless like you say?'
Jayram, you've been the one telling us that we should be 'playing for a point' away from home, setting up defensively. I've argued against that because it simply invites pressure. When Wenger brought our two wingers off, that's what he was doing, trying to consolidate our position and play defensively. But it didn't work because we had no outlet and it invited pressure. If Arshavin had come on it would have given us an outlet. You argue a point in one breath and then contradict it in the next.
Until we admit to fact that our midfield is very weak we're are going to lose a few games. When under pressure we cannot keep posession of the ball. our midfielder player around the back because they can hardly find the opening to go forward. Ramsey continue to over used the ball, playing himself in difficuly situation as if trying to prove how good a player he is but in the end making stupid passes. I cannot find words to discribe Walcott and Gervinho.Thsese guys have nothing they call ball sense. They get the ball in advantageous position but but always find away to **** on the play.Many people will oppose this but Chamberlain is far better than Walcott and I know he'll make mistake but I believe he's a far smarter footballer than both.
How can people try to defend the indefensible ?? The current Arsenal first team is mediocre. The squad is worse. We do not learn from our mistakes. We cannot defend. We rely on one player to score. We don't have a plan B. We are a pathetic shell of what we should be. The stupid run of good results against the bottom half teams secured a belief with "some" that we had turned some corner and were better than we were. Every team played often over Christmas. Every team has injury woes Arsenal are now like a bloated heavyweight with a glass jaw, we are not heavy hitters, you can delude yourselves that all is ok and when we get Wilshere et al back everything will be hunky dory, but I know better than that.
Most of the time, true to Wenger's style - the midfield MUST pass back and then across the middle, usually turning 180 or 360 to avoid the challenge. By then the other midfield are back, and the defence has organised. So - now we face the worst problem - only RVP trying to get in the box, and would be wingers who cannot deliver. No wonder why we create 'chances' that come to nought. Tippy-tappy with no cutting edge.
It's still a flawed idea, as demonstrated yesterday. Playing for a point, just invites pressure. If it doesn't work against Fulham, then it sure isn't going to work against the likes of City or Utd.
The only scapegoat I see here is Wenger !! He is making mistake after mistake. How can he expect a team to defend that cannot defend and who do not practice defending ??? Absurd decision.
I blame Arshavin, he showed no effort and looked like he did not want to be there, so much so he actually was not there. Seriously I was surprised how jaded and tired we looked in the 2nd half. Fulham played as many games, there was no excuse for having a CL game or anything like that. The team do not look fit. "Tired legs" - that is what Wenger said. How come we were so much more tired than Fulham, even though we have rotated some of our players recently? I think we are a bit short of fitness, I can not help thinking about what Nasri said about training regimes in Arsenal and ManCity.
players were tired. because there is no rotation. if there was sufficient squad depth 3 or 4 players could have been changed between the two games over the last 2 days, and the team would have won both.
Our players LOOK tired because we cannot kill off teams. We make it so hard to score with our tippy-tappy brand. The opposition never fade because they are always in with a chance. We pass it around but do not break down defences - so we are tense the whole game. Its a direct result of the pass pass pass boredom of the style.
Fulham haven't played european games, and perhaps they have more rotation in their squad? arsenal literally have zero non-essential rotation. the only things i can think of this season are Arshavin started for Gervinho once, and Rosicky started for Ramsey once. otherwise it's the same team every game.
I thought it was rather hard for some of the teams to be playing again so soon after Saturday with only one full day's rest. Liverpool on the other hand played on Friday and won't have to again until tonight, a gap of three clear days. However it remains that Fulham played as though they wanted the three points more than us. I only hope that what our manager couldn't do to change the flow of play in the second half is not carried onto the second half of our season as it did in the previous year. That would be too much to bear!!!
fatigue is a gradual thing. the issue for me is how many games has each individual player played. ramsey / rosicky is the only rotation i think could be made effectively in the team right now. arshavin has been off, rvp is irreplaceable, frimpong has gone on loan so it's song all the way, arteta has played well, theo has no decent backup that can play 90mins. that's the problem. the same players are playing EVERY game.
The problem is - we have no depth in the squad. Mind you, there are a lot of defenders in sick bay at the moment and that includes one very energetic midfielder. That said, I think our problems are deeper than this. There is a lot of sorting out to do as discussed elsewhere and I hope our manager does this quickly.
WRONG Fulham's European games started in JUNE until knocked out in December = they have palyed more games this season than Arsenal with a smaller squad.
