I personally think booing is wrong but we should be complaining Hell, lets pull a Blackburn and start protesting...if that doesn't alert the suits then I don't know what will
not at the end of the game, but when the sub was made, without a doubt the majority were booing, I didn't boo when that happened, I was just silently shocked. I let the boo's out at the end, but i did clap for RVP when he clapped for us.
You know what I noticed today aswell, the famous team unity that has been there since as far back as I can remember, is disappearing. RVPs well publicised reaction at Oxo's substitution was one thing but I saw Ramsey and Walcott show poor discipline on more than one occasion, throwing your arms in the air and balling out your team mates isn't on, early signs maybe that AW is losing the dressing room....
I think we overlook this a great part of the time. Arsene tends I believe to concentrate on skills but skills alone do not a match win. Look at some of the teams which are believed to be below us in stature who have won with ten men on the pitch or who have acquitted themselves well. Team unity is no longer our strong suit.
Big sigh of relief. It seems that RVP's reaction was aimed at the cretinous fans booing the manager and not AW for the substitution. All is well again
Spot on. Look at a team like Norwich, far from the most gifted PL side, yet they work hard for each other, and fight as a team, not individuals.
Us Spurs fans have felt like this for years. You should count yourself fortunate to have only experienced one bad season.
Wenger said that he took Oxo off because he was sick in the week and was starting to fatigue, so that was his reasoning. It didn't look like a good substitution at the time, RVP was clearly pissed off about it and it turned out that Arshavin was culpable for the goal that lost us the match, so it just reaffirmed the belief that it was a bad decision. That aside, our overall performance was pretty solid and we had done enough to put ourselves in a position to win this game. Instead we threw it away because of another mistake, which we keep doing. I've said plenty of times before - the margins in football are fine. I'm as frustrated as anyone seeing my team losing games because we keep the same mistakes, but you have to remember that we had put ourselves into a position where we could have won this game, so I don't buy the idea that our players are **** and our manager doesn't know what he's doing. We are making mistakes, it's a problem that desperately needs remedying.
I don't think all our players are **** but there are those who fit the bill. Our manager today reminds me of Benitez at his tactical best. He is making a lot of mistakes and for a long while. Sadly I don't see much change here Piskie.
It's worrying, but I think you have to remember that Arshavin should be a quality substitution to make. If Arshavin had come on and scored, we'd be saying it was a masterstroke. But as it was his mistake that led to the goal and the way in which Wenger introduced him to the game, it looks like a howler of a decision in retrospect.
Why should he be? Because he was an excellent player 3 years ago? At what stage does he stop being out of form and start being a poor player? As far as I am concerned he has completely lost it.
The Arshavin of old might have been a reasonable substitution to make since he could turn on the magic. The Arshavin of today can be so clueless. Oxo didn't look tired as far as I could make out and we have had players on the pitch in the past whose fitness was perhaps more in question. I hope we can get over this. It's the third occasion we have missed out on the opportunity to close in and consolidate on a top 4 place. We were fortunate in a way that Newcastle and Liverpool lost while Chelsea drew. But Chelsea are that much further away now and while it's only one point more, this time last year I think we we much further ahead of them and look what happened. Arsene himself said no CL would be a disaster. This downward trend is very uncomfortable.
It's frustrating that we keep doing it, but I still think that if we can arrest our propensity for making mistakes, then we're still good enough to challenge. We've already made it hard for ourselves this season, so I think 4th is going to be a realistic target to aim for; Chelsea look as likely to slip up as we do.
The idea that bringing Arshavin on 'could have been a masterstroke' is belied by the simple fact that he's been gash for ages. He is not a match winner, simples!
Im kind of with Piskie on this. Losing 2-1 to United with an injury list as long as ours is a pretty good result. Whilst Arshavin did make the mistake, no one can say with any certainty that Ox would have done any better. Valencia has been known to beat a few players in his time. It is very easy to criticize and say that if Wenger did this or that then something might be different. Man Utd are a top class team, booing our players (and the manager) because they don't beat them is really harsh and unproductive. The players will play worse next week because of it. My own opinion i that they are very very tight and nervous and that is what is affecting their play. Their desire to play well for Wenger and the fans expectation is so high. Most of them owe their carreer's to Wenger and they are gutted at the criticism he is getting. What he fans are doing is hurting the team far more that Wenger, believe me.
Piskie - we can say the team is crap because they make the same mistakes over and over and don't learn - hence their crapness. If they were not crap they wouldn't keep making the mistakes. It really is that simple. When we were no crap we didn't make the same mistakes ALL THE TIME ! I don't care that we were close to winning. I don't care that we bossed possession. We LOST - like always. I take no pleasure from "coming close" to winning, none at all. The blame must be laid squarely at Wenger's feet because he buys the players who are not good enough and he picks the team that always makes mistakes. We never learn and until Wenger changes our philosophy we will always be WEAK and FRAIL.
I think we're a confidence team. When it's flowing, we're able to beat anyone and go on long unbeaten runs. The problem seems to be that when we get a bad result it really affects us mentally and we play nervously and in fear of making mistakes, which by it's very nature means that we are much more likely to make them. In turn, confidence falls away and we begin to struggle. We are not crap at all, far from it. But we do not have the ability to take defeat on the chin, knowing that we can come back in the next game and put it right.
Yeh but the manner in which you said that it was at the booing fans suggested it wasn't just hope, but you had proof. Either way, I don't think Arsenal fans are suggesting 2-1 against the current champions is a bad result, it's the manner of the defeat which has left them fuming. Pretty much everything good was coming through Oxo so to see him come off and Arshavin, who had been one of your worse players for quite some time, combined with the laziness of his 'tackle' on Valencia and you can see their anger. Awful sub. Injury list or not, the game wasn't out of reach with Oxo on, looked as if you were just as likely to score.
