Exciting at the end. Furious about the passing for the last half hour. Pablo was rubbish - expected more from him. Bartley was impressive. What to do about Danny ??? Three in three for him now, which is more productive that any of the other strikers we have played. Can't expect any more from him really.
Will be a good 4th round tie whoever gets through. Brighton looked very good yesterday and will be very tough.
Actually when Arsenal had us user the kosh Ki was no where to be found. Neither was Agustien. Dyer was hardly playing either.
If he doesn't buck up his ideas I can see ML moving him on in the summer and I for one would agree with him.
Time and again I've bemoaned the way we sit back and invite teams into our third. We seem to stop playing and good teams will punish you if you give them enough invitations.... as happened today. Our team lacks a leader and it's not because Ash was missing today; it also happens when he plays. All too often we become disjointed, can't keep the ball and can't win the ball. We have too much of a soft centre in midfield and that has to be rectified. We need a battler in there and we need him soon. As for our play, we need to sharpen up the passing. We keep stroking the ball about and under hitting our passes. This means that the pass is either intercepted or the receiver gets man and ball. We need to ping it about to stop this happening. Anyway, we got what we asked for today. Invite that sort of pressure and you invite trouble. It only takes one man to switch off, as happened, and the other lot are straight in. Of course, I'm delighted that we salvaged a draw but, for many reasons, I wonder if that is a good thing........ MORE MIDFIELD BITE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dyer has gone totally off the boil and needs to shape up or ship out. Ki was good in attack with some useful contributions but was his usual liability in defence and Kemy was pants to be honest.
Agree. The last 3 matches from him prove he is a better option than Moore or Schecter. Unless we have someone better that we are planning on signing then I'd keep starting with him up front and Michu behind him.
Vorm - dealt with everything that he could, could do nothing really for either goal. Tiendalli - Doesn't close down enough to stop crosses, switched off big time for their 2nd. Bartley - Fantastic looking player. Chico - solid as usual Davies - Getting better each game, still think Taylor is the better choice, as he is more tecnically gifted, where as I see Davies being a good center back with his presence. Dyer - crap yet again, looked so disinterested 2nd half. Needs a kick up the backside. Routledge - quiet 1 from him today still worry that his first touch in dangerous positions is poor. Britton - His good old self Ki - My man of the match today, done very little wrong, controlled the game well and his passing was great. De Guzman - seemed a lil quiet then usual Graham - Great at causing the Arsenal back grief with and without the ball, didn't stop running Michu - need i say anything about this guy. Hernandez - really poor from him, putting it down to getting back into the swing of things after his injury. Agustein - Anothre who fell asleep for the 2nd, didn't feel comfortable with him in place of Britton. I would have preferred him to come on for Dyer, as Dyer's defensive work is lacking to say the least, and left Tiendalli in all sorts of bother at times. Was a great game to watch, was great to see Ki have a good game, hopefully he can keep it up.
That's why I hope to God that ML brings in a Roy Keane type midfielder to do the donkey work and steel up our midfield.
They are having a similar autopsy as us and coming to the same conclusions. We have players that are not the best in the league, they make mistakes, funnily enough so did some of the gunners team. It's right we examine the performance of players, but a little bit more perspective is needed, every team has places to improve, if there was no room for improvements there would be no goals scored as most goals come through a lapse or mistake. Just saying
I wasn't disagreeing with anything you said I was just pointing out that we also need to acknowledge the quality of the opposition.
I accept what you say but we have been guilty of going into our shell and being pressed by lesser teams as well. Recently, I can point to Fulham and Villa where we came under the cosh for longer than I was happy with.
Did enough for a draw but arsenal were much better than us overall throughout the game. credit to us for keeping it tight and stopping them from scoring. after saying that we had the first two chances in the first half and if one of them had gone in it may have been a different story. I enjoyed the match and was glad michu came on as he is class when it comes to getting a goal and he duly scored to put us one up. I did not think we had won the game because i could see arsenal getting a goal back and they did but what a second goal by them that deserved the match and i thought then fair enough with a goal like that but for the third game in a row up pops Danny assisted by Ki to save the day......well played against a strong arsenal team and a replay that both teams did not really want with the winners away against Brighton who have a couple of ex jacks on their books.....
Isn't the point that yes, Arsenal pressed us very well after they went behind but we didn't help by giving away possession cheaply. Can't remember the last time we passed the ball to the opposition so much. The two goals were gifts - an unnecessary corner by Agustien and a gift from Hernandez. Worst game I've seen from Dyer in a Swans shirt. Let's hope the Ki debate will now turn in his favour - he had a great game with yet another assist. That said, Arsenal are an excellent team and will in all probability be top four again this season, and we're disappointed we didn't win. Just have to pinch yourself sometimes to remember how far we've come so let's not be too harsh.
