Cheers Gunner - teams cancelled each other out for much of the game but your extra creative quality told in the end. we had a lot of the ball but didnt have the inventiveness to make it count (balls into the box were especially poor). could be an interesting season for you guys and for us we should have enough for midtable (aslong as we dont start believing too much of our hype!) and a good go in Europe.
if you have a good go in europe , just read that back to yourselves . you have come a long way . Laudrup has got you on the right path , but its a marathon , not a sprint .
Its strange, I should be sitting here defalated after that loss, but I am not. Fact of the matter is any team who has to change two of their main stay defenders, are going to struggle, it doesn't help when its agaisnt a passing team like Arsenal, and for me, this was shown in both their goals. If Williams and Rangel were on, I think we would not have conceded tonight. Up front, I personally thought Michu had one of his worst games for us, no nothing bad, just his passing wasn't quite there like usual. I mention this due to a comment back there about Bony's first touch, but some of the balls from Michu were over hit, or under hit, putting Bony under pressure there was no need for. I said in the second half that I would take JDG off and bring on Bony, but he took off Shelvey, wasn't disapointed, as up to that point I felt JDG was ding alright, albeit a little slower second half, and when you consider the game time Shelvey has had, he needed to have arest of sorts. So wasn't too bothered. Although agree with the above that JDG in that challenge that led to the 2nd, was appauling, which was the moment I first thought, now if that was shelvey........ I also think Laudrup made the right call taking Routledge off, have a real think, was he involved in the second half at all? Taking Dyer off would have been just due to his past performance, who I have been very critical of, but tonight, he was playing better than Routs. And for me, Laudrup got the subs right. Its just one of those games, 2 silly mistakes in a defensive setup that had 50% changes. Man Utd struggled when they lost Vidic, we are going to struggle too. Even more so considering it was against a top team. I also think if we had started with Bony up top, and a more offensive setup, we would have got hammered tonight, due to those defensive changes, so for me Laudrup got everything right with what he had, against a team, that can pass like us. We would have mullered a team with 2 new defenders, so why would we expect not to get mullered The fact we didn't get mullered by an inform arsenal, is credit to the players IMO.
This , tactics and substitutions I felt were spot on , there was nothing between us before the first goal which no denying was a very good team effort with some lovely interplay and movement l .I have muted criticism of Tiendalli who's crossing normally is a strength of his was missing tonight but considering the game time he's had I'll forgive him for that .Considering who was missing from the both us & Arsenal tonight it was an entertaining game just a pity we just didn't have enough in front of goal to make it count
I thought we did well in the first half - one of the best halfs of football I have seen for a while. Arsenal had a late chance but I thought we had done enough to be 1-0 up at HT. Arsenal upped the gears in the second half, controlled the first quarter of an hour and got the goals which their extra speed of attack deserved. We huffed and puffed, but Arsenal were very strong defensively. Nice to see Ben get a goal, but our attacking play in the final ten minutes was poor with some shocking deliveries from crosses/free kicks. I thought Canas and Shelvey stood out for the Swans. A good game of football, but disappointing to lose, but at the end of the day, Arsenal are not top for nothing.
I think a draw at least was deserved, I suppose we can only guess that on another day we could walked away with a win.
What the guvnor said - http://www.swanseacity.net/news/article/laudrup-arsenal-post-match-1083779.aspx
Most definitely , but thems the breaks I suppose , not sure of the very loud (crowd shout ) for a penalty in the latter of the second half but Clatttenberg acknowledged it but waved play on .
Yep, Arsenal just clinical in front of goal, except Giroud missing in the first half. This the penalty would have been harsh on them.
Its clear to see there is a big case of jacks getting ideas above their station, only 13% thinking Arsenal were going to win says how delusioned we are becoming IMO. It was the same with Spurs away as well . I think we should be treating these games as bonus games and if Laudrup sees it as a way of trying different things then that's fair enough. Laudrup knows the best way to play the bigger teams early on and I think we should respect his call, I don't think we could have gone up against ozil,ramsey,wiltshire,flamini and not given them special treatment, add in 2 new defenders for this game and you can understand the logic of Laudrup .
I take exception to the idea of us being delusional. We have outplayed 'Pool and Arsenal for long stretches of matches and come up with less than our performance deserved. We are competitive with these teams - I say team and not club because I don't want to step into the big club / little club nonsense, and on any given Saturday our team can be competitive with any other team in the Prem. Results have not supported our performance in the league matches to date. It is not delusional to have confidence in your team, well founded belief in our ability to control the game in matches at this level and an expectation to obtain a result. It is realistic based one fair minded observations to date.
Disagree there NJ, if we play at our absolute best, we have a squad of 16 players that can beat any side in the league at home this season
Yes, but does that 16 include no Ash, no Rangel, no Hernandez? I had us down for a cheeky 1-0 win, after all a full strength Swansea I felt could match Arsenal at home. BUT....there is a big but, the moment I seen the team sheet, is the moment I realised we would be lucky to get anything out of the game. The players who came in (Tiendalli and Amat) in the back line, although good players, were not going to be match fit enough, or clued up with our defensive line against a team like Arsenal. One change we could possibly get away with, as the other 3 are clued up, and match fit, but 2 was asking a lot. And you could see that for both their goals, both could have been defended a hell of a lot better, and probably would have been defended if we were not forced into making 2 changes in the back line. As mentioned, Man Utd struggled when they lost Vidic, Man City struggle when they lose Kompany, why are we expected not to struggle when we lose Ash and Rangel? I whole heartedly agree with Norway, that soem are getting a bit disillusioned with who we are.
I think you're spot on there, seems like we got done by the extra quality Arsenal have. Let's not forget that they're the form team in the league and they've won like eight in a row or something away from home. Personally I think that if Bony had started and we didn't have Williams and Rangel out, we would've got at least a point - although Amat played well to be fair to him, it was just Tiendalli that was crap.
