Arsenal 3 v 0 Rovers - Cup Semi Final

[eddiewac]

Finally, some fair reports! Watching Goals on Sunday and Chris Kamara got it spot on, he said we were just competing and the referee dealt with everything well and only missed one decision which was when Savage caught Fabregas on the knee and even then he said the ball was bouncing and it was there to be won. Ah well, looks like Newcastle are gonna lose!

[Rovermatt]

One can only imagine the carnage of the final. Will the media go into autospin when Arsenal and the scum start kicking lumps out of each other? I doubt it.

As an aside, how crap are Newcastle?

Edited April 17, 2005 by Rovermatt

[RevidgeBlue]

As an aside, how crap are Newcastle?

Not half as crap as they will be by this time next season if GS and his "coaching" staff are still there.

Good to see he has them conceding the standard four goals a game already.

[Hasta]

At least for 85 minutes of our semi-final it was still a game. The Mancs had todays match sewn up by half time.

[Manchester Blue]

Which was exactly why I laughed out loud when Lawrenson proclaimed today's match as being so much better than ours. Saying it was a great advert for cricket. These clowns really think you should just roll over like Newcastle did and that makes it exciting. Apart from a 10 minute spell I thought today's game was boring and embarassingly one-sided.

[broadsword]

Not half as crap as they will be by this time next season if GS and his "coaching" staff are still there.

Good to see he has them conceding the standard four goals a game already.

He's really lost it, Newcastle are a joke club at the moment.

Shame really, as he was a good manager once. He could've turned Newcastle into a team capable of challenging Man U/ Arsenal/ Chelsea.

But that ain't going to happen, is it?!

[tashor]

The geordies "open" style of play made for an ever so exciting game.

O.K. - it was a stroll in the park for the mancs but at least we did not see any of our favourite stars getting stuck in or being kicked.

The lack of any competition whatsoever was a joy to behold.

A hammering of the minnows by b.b.c. united !!

Much better than the over competitive stuff that we had to endure yesterday.

If I were a geordie I would be much prouder of my team today than I am of ours.

[1864roverite]

I hope your drunk Tash.

The Geordies only have their fans to be proud of. Even little ant and dec got in on the tv along with Fat Bobbie who thought he was clever giving the camera the fingers !

That team, although decimated by injury and suspension was poor. The defence was wide open from the first minute. The midfield was nowhere near good enough to compete with the manure midfield. The attack was toothless albeit for about 10 minutes of the game.

Players such as Robert is an absolute disgrace, he cant tackle, cant run,strolls around like he is a god, cant pass and certainly cannot cross. Just having him out there ensured NUFC payed with 10 men from the off.

Souness's tactics blew up in his face.

His defensive frailties were brutally exposed, it really should have been 6 or 7. If he has money to spend he needs a complete defence to build around Boumsong, another player who started well but was exposed too much in the second half. The midfield is in a shocking state. It reminds me of Rovers early season, no effort, no passion and no fight.

Up front Shearer is left to feed on scraps, his partner nowhere near good enough to support him. Ameobi should not have started before Kluivert.

Its just an observation but NUFC could really find themselves hurtling down the league now. After this week Newcastle could easily find themselves below Rovers if all goes well for us. They have a difficult run in, their confidence is shattered and they are playing on an individual basis with no teamwork.

How good it would be to see them below us in the league come next Sunday evening

[brfcshabba]

Does anybody have the foul count from todays game compared the semi yesterday?

[LeftWinger]

After the game we had a serious session around the city, having been on the razz since 0500hrs it was a long time. Ask Leftwinger, he had a great day out.

One of the funniest sights to recall was outside a pub called the slug and lettuce, the Rovers fan that was so drunk he could hardly stand up

Anyone wanna see my dog ?

(its a long tale but a funny one )

Ha Ha. Yes it was a great day. Anyone wanna see my dog? Class.

[tonygreenbank]

We had great seats in the lower section by the corner flag. I must say that I enjoyed watching Rovers put in a strong defensive performance for about 75 minutes and then it all fell apart. I know attacking play is good to watch but I think that defensive organisation and pressing the opposition are just as compelling. Arsenal had no time on the ball and the team deserve to be praised for that instead of being criticised. Only Flitcroft and Thompson were guilty of bad tackles but the others were not thuggish. Todd`s incident was accidental in our opinion.

I am taken aback by all the negative press but perhaps we could use it to our advantage as other teams will be wary of us and adapt their style of play. Palace and City will be great to watch now.

[tashor]

Being serious these semi-finals illustrate what is going wrong with modern football.

In our game a skilful team managed to break down the dogged underdogs in an interesting tactical competitive match.

In todays game a skilful side took the pish out of a woeful defeatist side of underdogs who merely rolled over and died. The game was hardly worth the effort of watching.

And yet it appears that our nation of armchair fans much preferred todays match

The sooner a European league is set up to remove the blight of armchairfootywanklernumpties the better

[greggyk]

The geordies "open" style of play made for an ever so exciting game.

O.K. - it was a stroll in the park for the mancs but at least we did not see any of our favourite stars getting stuck in or being kicked.

The lack of any competition whatsoever was a joy to behold.

A hammering of the minnows by b.b.c. united !!

Much better than the over competitive stuff that we had to endure yesterday.

If I were a geordie I would be much prouder of my team today than I am of ours.

erm.... proud of a team that cost around £60m to put together and have an average wage of £40,000 a week.

i think not

[Eddie]

I believe he was being sarcastic.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Disapointed with the scoreline yesterday , the Rovers had their game plan which was to disrupt Arsenal's rhythm and stop them playing, Arsenal had their game plan which was to fall over in every tackle, working on the assumption that the ref would give them 75% of the free kicks and they were right.

If the Arsenal way of playing is allowed to prevail football will not be the game I played and watched for 40 years, it will become a soccer version of rugby's tig and pass with physical contact not allowed.

I admire Arsenal's football but their gamesmanship was sickening, I've never seen a team spend as much time lying on the grass.

They had guys built like light-heavyweight contenders, Lauren,Toure, Vierra and co. going down when tackled by midgets like Thommo and Dickov as though they'd been hit with an axe.

I'm prepared to give Todd the benefit of the doubt but given the disgraceful hue and cry lead by the London media I expect the F.A. will throw the book at him, today's Observer was particularly outrageous and I'm certainly going to change my Sunday paper after today.

From a Rovers point of view the defence played well , but we lack creativity in midfield, Oh for a Berkovic type player who could carry the battle into their half, Pedersen was peripheral as was Thommo and Flitty. Reid and the Axe did their best but you can't beat Arsenal without everybody playing 100%. Up front we'd nothing, our lack of pace allowing Arsenal to play a very high line in defence and catch us off side all afternoon. Senderos turns about as fast as an oil tanker but we never got him turning all afternoon.

We need to concentrate on achieving safety now with two home games on the bounce, four points from these two will do.

[Robertson]

Feel the same as many fans on here, a great day out and our fans were superb.

The arsenal fans were quiet and especially pre-match nowhere to be seen or heard! On the pitch it just confirmed what we already know, we need a top quality striker, full backs and a creative midfielder. We had a lot of space first half and better passing would have got us through on a couple of occasions.

Still in bristol at the minute, waiting for my mates to return from the newcastle game, bet they are

Glad I came down for it, my only concern is that the two fans with belts for skirts may have caught a cold, the policeman were perving on them and we had good crack with the police, singing 'sheep, sheep, sheep sh*ggers' and they joked they were going to arrest us. Cannot wait for next season!

PS. cheers stuwilky for waking me up when we got back to bristol, had been a long and emotional day!

[thenodrog]

Todd quite obviously did not elbow van Persie.

Behave yourself Theno, he nearly took his bloody head off !

View the vid on LeChucks earlier post AS and then tell me how anybody can elbow somebody when looking away and when their arm is firmly held at the side of the body......... until AFTER contact was made? Cheating tactics as employed by Arsenals divers brings football into more disrepute than a collision.

People have such short memories haven't they? The Ars are hardly frickin angels are they? Crikey it was them that virtually patented cynical play in their "1-0 to the Arsenal" days that they are so proud to sing about now. Bould, Adams, Keown committed far more indescretions in those days every week than Nelsen and Todd ever do. How about the discipline record of the Arse and the amount of red cards under Wenger? What about their fines for their part in their regular battles with MU?

What about Laurens assault on Downing last week? Far worse act of violence imo.

What about Van Persies similar assault on Le Saux? Not just 'clashes' both of those were career threatening acts of violence.

The entire reporting of this match is just pathetic and I am Goddamn sick of it. Thank God for the voice of reason from Jimmy Hill on Sky sports who absolved Todd and instead condemned the divers and cheats (Ronaldo today for one. I dont often praise Riley but he was spot on today).

Arsenal have enjoyed the vast sums of Champions League bunce for many years. That is why they attract the best players. When playing against teams with better players the opposing teams can only hope to bridge the gap through physical means. That usually means extra effort, strength and teamwork. What is wrong with that? What have we to do otherwise? Simply capitulate from the first whistle and allow the other team carte blanche to slaughter whilst all the match we supporters (after paying our £50 quid to build some overblown corporate monstrosity that we dont even want) stand in silent admiration respectfully wringing our caps with the occasional ripple of polite and respectful applause?

[Rovermatt]

Thank God for the voice of reason from Jimmy Hill on Sky sports who absolved Todd and instead condemned the divers and cheats (Ronaldo today for one. I dont often praise Riley but he was spot on today).

Hill did though infer that Van Persie had over done the incident. The blood in his mouth would suggest otherwise.

[stuwilky]

Thank God for the voice of reason from Jimmy Hill on Sky sports who absolved Todd and instead condemned the divers and cheats (Ronaldo today for one.  I dont often praise Riley but he was spot on today).

Hill did though infer that Van Persie had over done the incident. The blood in his mouth would suggest otherwise.

Having bust my lip a few times as a result of falls, elbows, slaps etc. i can honestly say I have never rolled around on the floor for 2 or 3 minutes afterwards. One of them was so hard it loosened a tooth. I bled. I didnt act like I had been shot like Mr Van Persie did.

[Rovermatt]

Perhaps, but Van Persie was wheeling away in celebration and was caught totally by surprise with a stray arm going in the opposite direction. He was completely floored.

[jobo380]

I admit it didnt look great but tensions were high we had just gone 3-0 down and the captain was just trying to do his best for the team and get back as fast as possible, but he was over zelous when it came to the tackle and was a bit late, forget it and move on.

the only reason its been blown up into sucha big story is beacuse of todds past 'bad record', which was shown this morning on Talksport as rubbish because he has only been sent off once.

[stuwilky]

Perhaps, but Van Persie was wheeling away in celebration and was caught totally by surprise with a stray arm going in the opposite direction. He was completely floored.

And Andy Todd looked equally as surprised by the contact.

[1864roverite]

A few answers to the unanswered

firstly, pre match the reason why there so few Arsenal fans around is that they were already in the ground drinking tea and coffee and eating whatever whilst the whole blue and white army were supping the pubs dry, walking around admiring the City whilst displaying their pride in the colours of our great club.

Secondly, and probably more importantly, film buffs will know that a second version of that well known American vietnam film is shortly to be made and the Arsenal had invited the Director of that film to have a look at their players who all wanted to audition for parts as extras

and finally, the reason why the Arsenal fans were so quiet is that there were so many foreigners (and that is not being racist I might add) that they simply couldnt speak to each other having no understanding of the others language. I think its called in its correct form (no speakie de Inglish!).

[AlanK]

I`ve spoken to many fans of many clubs since yesterday and none of them think Todd did that on purpose. The lad ran in to Todd`s shoulder as they were both watching the ball hit the net. It was only after the contact that Todd flung his arm out to push him away. Not pretty but not on purpose.

Still proud as punch to be one of thoses rovers in that stadium yesterday.

I was also playing spot the Jim mk2 because I knew the old bean would be there.

Saw about 11 versions.

Seems there was a fair few of us in block UN3. I was in block 640 row18 seat 25.

[Paul Mellelieu]

I've never been to a Liberal Democrat conference, but I

imgaine it to be full of Arsenal fans - middle class, smug, with kids called Jasper

and Daisy and with all the passion and commitment of Charles Kennedy.