In his lunch time press conference Jol confirmed that Damien Duff is still ruled out and Frimpong is not eligible. Sidders is of course back and Kaca has been included in the squad. The bad news is that Sascha Riether is a doubt The right side was always going to be a problem but this news makes it double trouble. Whatever, Jol must resist playing Bryan there - he just has to go for Berba up top with Ruiz behind him. I believe he ought to risk giving Mesca a chance on the right. This would mean Kara missing out on the starting line-up or Enoh. On this occasion, while Enoh and Sidwell are similar in style and I just love Kara's enthusiasm, I'd go for a strong tackling central midfield. On the left the choice is Urby or Kaca. Jol hasn't recalled Kara without reason and I think he wants some assurance of width in this game (Urby is a bit of a floater). So Kaca it is. ................Schwarzer.......... ..Riether..Senderos..Hangeland...Riise.. ............Enoh.....Sidwell.... ...Mesca......Ruiz............Kaca.. ................Berbatov.... Obviously Manolev to come in if Sascha fails his late fitness test.
That would be a good line up C58 but I don't think it will happen. I think it's time we saw a bit of youth given their chance but I think Jol wants 3-4 points more before he experiments. ................Schwarzer.......... ..Riether/Manolev..Senderos..Hangeland...Riise.. .......Enoh.....Sidwell....Karagounis.....Richardson.. ......................Ruiz.............. ................Berbatov........ The Ref tomorrow will be FA Cup Final Ref Andre Marriner
... Enoh on the wing? I think that's less likely than anything in C58's post, with all due respect SuperBri.
Hope he makes it this time - he was the guy who called off for the Sunderland game and we got Mr Probert instead! Mr Marriner like Mr Dean on Wednesday, is another we haven't seen much of this season - the only previous game was the 2-1 defeat at the Cottage to Swansea. Now that he's been appointed the FA Cup Final ref, I hope he keeps a low profile.
................Schwarzer.......... ..Riether..Senderos..Hangeland...Riise.. ..........Enoh... Kara......Sidwell.... ........Ruiz............Berba.... ..............Hugo...... Strong midfield and the three on top... Hugo can play on the back of the defence and cut through..
Don't use him as an out and out winger, Riether will do the job of over lapping on the wing. Enoh will hold back and do a job Murphy used to do pushing the ball into space for the likes of Ruiz or Berbatov.
Not confident about today. Our record in London Derbies this season hasn't been great and Arsenal are a good side. Would like to see Hugo, Ruiz and Berba all playing. Hopefully Petric won't get a look in.
Unfortunately Sascha Riether is OUT! The Cottage is looking good in the sunshine though https://vines.s3.amazonaws.com/videos/BE84A707-BF59-4A10-96AD-6FBE0D905D8E-15166-00000A21A619103F_1.0.6.mp4?versionId=UFCnagCoNNY7on.jEYtOoGllEFlg02Gh
Pretty much summed it up, very harsh red card for Sidwell, but if he keeps putting himself in these situations where the referee has to make a decision then he is going to be in trouble a lot of the time. Arsenal outplayed for long periods of the game and very fortunate to have got the three points but a million times better a performance than we gave against Chelsea. Emmanuelson, Richardson and Enoh all excellent.
I've got to agree Bandit. With Richardson having his best game for a long time. Red card aside, I thought our performance today was a hard-working one, maybe deserving a point. Arsenal were a little lucky today and particularly disappointing in the second half. C O Y W
Well, Sidwell is done for the season then. A second red attracts a 4 match ban. I thought Kaca was excellent in the first half before fading in the second. Manolev seemed to be the opposite; in the second half he seemed to realise why Riether spends so much time overlapping Duff - that right foot helped get several threatening balls into the box. I had plenty of doubts over Manolev going into this game but his attacking game seems to be good (jury is still very much out of his defensive skills). Urby and Richardson were good today and Enoh seems to bring some important energy to the team. Ruiz was his usual frustrating self, good when we were going forward but a liability going back. He spends so much time in CM anyway that we didn't seem to miss Sidwell as much as you might think. Overall I think we deserved at least a point. In many ways the second half reminded me of the second half of the Swansea game at Christmas. We dominated the second half but we left ourselves too much to do; against Swansea it was two goals to claw back and today it was a goal and a red card.
I agree with Bandit re Sidwell. I like the guy but he cannot keep getting sent off. If he does not learn to moderate his tackling, think twice, or stop putting himself in situations where he makes the referee make a decision then he is a liability and we are better off without him. Passion & commitment are all very well but it must be controlled. That's twice in two games (in effect) that he has let his team mates down and left them in the lurch. I mean the game was only 12 minutes old today - what was he doing? Not good enough Sidwell. Learn, shape up, or ship out. Christ, I'm angry with him. Jol must be incandescent.
I needed a couple of hours to get over this frustrating afternoon. Sidwell did nothing wrong. Probably a yellow card for a rushed and hard challenge but not a sent off. One footed tackle. The sending off later was justified as two footed tackle. Similar to the one Ivanovic did on Wednesday and got only a yellow. We outplayed them. Emmanuelson, Kaca in the first, Enoh and Manolev in the second very good. Also Richardson had a great game. Ruiz frustrates me so much holding the ball... In any case heads up! Come on you Whites
Just got in from the game to hear the sports headlines: 10 men Arsenal beat Fulham, who also had a man sent off !!!!! You couldn't make it up. Why do they keep watering the pitch. Players go out to warm up and get use to the surface then they water the pitch!!!!! Our players kept slipping, and from where I was sitting it looked like Sidwell had slipped slightly and then had to make a poor challenge for the sending off.
Thought the game was over when Sidwell got his Red. (need to see it again but it looked a red to from where I was sitting) Arsenal even with 11 men were poor and I have no doubt we would have beaten them if Sidwell had managed to stay on the pitch. Can't fault anyone in the team in those circumstances. I thought they all played well. Manolev, Kaca, Richardson, were exceptional. Arsenal fans were very quiet considering there were quite a few of them. All in all gutted today.
Yes, I've cooled down now as well. And you've made all the relevant points I would Madness. Without doubt the MOTM was Urby Kaca Eyong Manolev. Tomorrow I'll probably re-visit with my thoughts about Mr Marriner. Excellent point SuperBri.
I thought that Senderos was good today too, after all the flak he's taken recently. What is concerning though is how many goals we are conceding from set pieces. Terry twice and now Mertesacker - it's frustrating because our general play has been very good. If we were losing due to lack of quality or poor performances it'd be more worrying, but I am just frustrated with the manner of the last four goals conceded.
Agree Senderos had a reasonable game today,but my worry is that with his method of play is Sidwell becoming a liability.
