Didn't read through this thread so apologies if I'm repeating what has already been said. I was there last night, 5-10mins late so I missed the first goal. From what I saw, we were way too open. The Walcott-Sagna relationship just wasn't working, they were playing too close to each other. In the middle, as I stated before, huge huge gaps. Van Persie was isolated and hardly got any time to influence the game. Santos pushed up way too many times. I've got to go to work now but I'll give a full analysis later. And no, it wasn't the worst performance this season by a long shot. After going 2-0 up, Wigan played mostly with ten men behind the ball and hitting us on the counter.
His number of assists would say otherwise. But then we all know you think sunday league players are better than Song.
Show me him doing that again Oh you can't can you .. because that was his one and only time EVER doing that. The sun shines on a dog's arse some days.
and John Jensen did this all the time didn't he [video=youtube;M5WQ8phrh7A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5WQ8phrh7A[/video]
Enjoy the 4 minutes and 8 seconds of eating your own words. http://soapextra.com/video/youtube/id/sFCoFS3kRXs
I strongly diasagree. I think any team in the PL except Man Citeh would have him in their starting line up.
Magic Man: 1) was a cross - standard. 2) was a side foot pass along the ground away from goal Gervinho turned into an assist 3) was a ball in the air to OXO who then got a lucky ricochet off the defender before shooting inside the box 4) was a pass along the floor far too hard to RVP who turned it into an assist with sublime skill 5) sidefoot pass to RVP who dinkked the keeper, nothing creative about the pass - standard stuff. 6) through ball to Eduardo who raced in on goal and slid past the keeper - decent pass. 7) another over hit pass controlled by Henry majestically and slid past the keeper - decent-ish pass. 8) good turn and great pass to Santos who slid the ball past the keeper. 9) no way an assist - dummied himself trying to do a trick and the ball landed at Nasri's feet who scored 10) beautiful lofted pass to Eduardo who scored with outside of his boot. 11) clumsy awkward looking long pass to Walcott who then scored. 12) delicious clipped pass to RVP who volleyed in to the near post. 13) fantastic back heel to Eboue who then scored. 14) lovely clipped ball to RVP who volleyed in to the far post. 15) great run and dribble to then pass to RVP to head in. Thats his best assists from 2006 apparently Half of them I can ignore totally. The stand out assists were 10, 12, 13, 14 and 15, the rest were frankly nothing.
In no way was that our worst performance, not even in this season. We actually played very well in long patches of the game, but it was a frustrating game. Wigan did what they had to do though, and at 2-0 down that was going to be a tough game for any team. If there's a plus in there it's that we were yet again exposed through the left side, and maybe we'll invest in a LB with better defensive qualities. We will concede more without Koscielny on the pitch, that is for sure. As I've said before he is our most solid defender this season by a mile.
PNE I pretty much agree with you here and I have said it all along. He doesn't excel at anything so what is his point ? He is not good defensively and he is not skilled enough creatively, we'd be better off with specialists in both areas. To me Song would be good backup in midfield but not a starter at Arsenal frikkin football club. As for getting in any other top team, keep dreaming. Man U - Carrick Man City - Barry/De Jong/Toure Spurs - Parker Newcastle - Tiote Chelsea - Essien Everton - Fellaini Liverpool - he could get in their team because Lucas and Spearing are pants. Sunderland - Cattermole Fulham - Diarra (ex Real Madrid) I can't see any of those teams in the top 10 swapping their midfielder for Song - except Liverpool
I really don't get our fans..... We lose 1 game, the wrist slashers come out in full force, picking out individual players. This is a team game fellas, I don't think we played too badly yesterday, but we were not our usual fluent best, and I am sure what irks a lot of fans, was the fact that they had a win as a sure banker..... Well it did not, I had the Mancity game as one we'll lose, and we picked up 3points. Yup we lost yesterday, we move on to the next game, we know we are much better than that! Criticising Song or any other player is just silly, these guys as far as I am concerned have been immense for us this season. We still have in our hands to secure 3rd spot, so lets get behind the team!
The argument about Song is long running and not based on this game, I haven't singled him out as a reason for us losing at all, in fact, in post #8 you can see my point of view. The conversation turned to Song because of a comment made by someone which I thought was utterly absurd
Agreed We did play well but struggled overall to get to grips with Wigan's play. Yes Song and Walcott didn't cover themselves in glory, but not many of our players did. Wigan didn't let us play the way we wanted to play and that is credit to them. When you stop a teams ability to play the way they want, things will inevitably go wrong. This will lead to certain players getting exposed and look bad. Sagna was repeatedly being exposed by Moses, this wasn't due to him playing badly, it was down to the way they broke us down and exposed our frailties.
Is that your best retort? I was just responding to your post. I especially like the EVER in capitals. Just because you state something as a fact (even in capitals), doesn't make it so.
Just because you show me a clip of Song's career highlights showing him make 5 good passes - that doesn't mean he is good or creative Career highlights And more to the point - you still haven't showed me a clip of him doing anything like that dribble again so my point remains firm -
As we seem to be able to meltdown at such unlikely matches - I do wonder how the hell we are still serious for 3rd place. What does it say about the ones below us?? Is this meltdown now contagious in the PL?