[Archived] Rovers 0 Arsenal 2

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Like others I think Mokoena for Tugay was a huge mistake by Hughes,these are the 'big games ' where the little Turk excels.

Onwards and upwards!

[joey_big_nose]

Pedersen was so "good "that Tugay had a right go at him for not being on the wing where he wanted to pass to him, and then didn't pass to him for the rest of the half.

Pedersen was back to his inept worst today. Hleb had the measure of him by a country mile.

And he's had his hair done a terrible strawberry blonde all over and cut in an EVEN more effeminate style.

I can't understand that opinion. He was excellent, by far the best attacking player in the team, almost everything we did came through him. Does anybody agree with Jan's assessment?

Just because he looks effeminate doesnate neccessarily mean he is a bad football player. Christiano Ronaldo has already blazed that trail...

edit- just realised Rev agrees with you. I have to say I'm still perplexed though, he had much more of aninfluence on the game apart from possibly Tugay in the second half.

[stuwilky]

I thought he was poor for most of it, especially (yet again) his set piece delivery.

He's frustrating me now, inconsistent in the extreme.

[pksrover]

I agree with you joey_big_nose! I've never been known as a keen admirer of Gamst, but I thought he played very well yesterday. His set piece delivery was very good yesterday, apart from one bad miss in the 2nd half. He was creating quite a lot down his left hand side, and seemed to have their right back (eboue or hoyte?) in his pocket for most of the 2nd half. Nice to see Gamst finally returning to form!

don't know what you are on about stuwilky, you just really hate him don't you? or maybe you are just the normal sarcastic Stu..

[gumboots]

I think Pedersen was the only Rovers player who looked anywhere near par yesterday. The others looked devoid of ideas, and unable to find any energy or invention to get through a 10 man Arsenal defence. Tugay was frustrated by the lack of runners but I don't really think he was entitled t have a go at Pedersen

[krislu]

Zurab lost Toure for the goal

I'm pretty sure it was Ooijer who lost Toure.

[stuwilky]

I agree with you joey_big_nose! I've never been known as a keen admirer of Gamst, but I thought he played very well yesterday. His set piece delivery was very good yesterday, apart from one bad miss in the 2nd half. He was creating quite a lot down his left hand side, and seemed to have their right back (eboue or hoyte?) in his pocket for most of the 2nd half. Nice to see Gamst finally returning to form!

don't know what you are on about stuwilky, you just really hate him don't you? or maybe you are just the normal sarcastic Stu..

Ive been nice about him when he's been good this season.

I'm pretty sure it was Ooijer who lost Toure.

It was.

[modes98]

I'm pretty sure it was Ooijer who lost Toure.

Not only did he drop and play him onside, but he watched as the only arsenal player that was in the box headed it in. If he had given him a little nudge or even just some pressure i think the outcome would have been alot different.

Derbs positioning and movement was top quality, however even with 2 goals under his belt, he doesn't look confident in front of goal. Could and should have got 2 yesterday.

[Neil Weaver]

Mokoena was awful in the first ten minutes but then did ok

Aha, I was watching the same game as Scotty. Only struck me this afternoon, him doing OK coincided with Arse having a midfielder sent off. Perhaps that gave him a bit more time to recover from his legendary first touch .

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Just out of interest,was yesterdays game classed as A+ category pricing?..........

[The Harwood Yankee]

I knew we were in for a hiding to nothing when it was on FiveLive, I cant remember a game we've won when they've had us as the main game to be commentated on

That's because we're only of interest to the media when we're fodder for the 'big clubs'. We established this many moons ago on this site remember! The irate letters to ITV about 'The Premiership' or whatever it was called, anti-Rovers bias by Preston hairdresser 'Lawro', Pinnochio Phil Thompson, MOTD, etc.

Infamy? They've all got it in for me, er, us..

[92er]

I'm pretty sure it was Ooijer who lost Toure.

MH talked on Radio Rovers about the defence switching off for their first goal-which he described as the killer goal. Watching again on Match of the Day it looked like Henchoz needed to be be 2 yards further back to have been able to challenge Toure and he was also out of position when Henry should have scored their 3rd goal. During the match, it appeared that Henchoz had played well.

Still can't recall the first one, but my view of the second incident was that it wasn't really a chance because the ball was just a bit too high for him.

We thought the lack of a challenge for a very inviting pass from Pedersen was a reflexion on Chris- a better striker would really have gone for it. Chris is certainly probably going to turn out to be better than Kuqi, but maybe not the Premiership striker I want us to have.

[MarkBRFC]

Just out of interest,was yesterdays game classed as A+ category pricing?..........

Yes.

As for the game, no complaints Arsenal were just better full stop.

[Ozz]

At half time, I was stood near a group of three blokes, well dressed and speaking in Norwegian I think. In the Jack Walker upper bar, BBE end.

Possible takeover buyers or MGPs family?

[roversmum]

here we go again

[brfc_jonesy]

I can't understand that opinion. He was excellent, by far the best attacking player in the team, almost everything we did came through him. Does anybody agree with Jan's assessment?

Just because he looks effeminate doesnate neccessarily mean he is a bad football player. Christiano Ronaldo has already blazed that trail...

edit- just realised Rev agrees with you. I have to say I'm still perplexed though, he had much more of aninfluence on the game apart from possibly Tugay in the second half.

I have to agree with Jan, I thought MGP was there for his wages yesterday just like the rest of them, I thought Emerton was abysmal, that bloke is just a squad player no way should be playing right wing because he cant beat a man, and right back he just runs next to the player doesn't but in any tackles, useless aussie git! bring in mcevely on the left and play neill back to right if he stays that is.

[Billy Castell]

here we go again

Hypocritical, lying c_nt. I hope Arsenal win nothing whilst that lying turd is in charge.

[yorkblues]

we lost to a better team .don't think any rovers player played well

[92er]

I have to agree with Jan, I thought MGP was there for his wages yesterday just like the rest of them, I thought Emerton was abysmal, that bloke is just a squad player no way should be playing right wing because he cant beat a man, and right back he just runs next to the player doesn't but in any tackles, useless aussie git! bring in mcevely on the left and play neill back to right if he stays that is.

McEveley, despite playing well at Everton last week in what Radio Lancs described as his best ever display for us, will never be a Premiership full back.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Unbelievable match - if only for the totally pro-Arsenal garbage spouted by Sky that I have just seen. Absolutely amazing - if Gilberto hadn't reacted I doubt it would have been a card for either player - and yet Sky thought Robbie should have been sent off (as does our friend Mr "please don't tackle my players" Wenger).

On the day Arsenal scored the goals at the right time - whereas the limited chances we had we missed. It could have very easily been 1-1 prior to Henry scoring the killer goal - and would have been an entirely different match from that point. I am probably alone - but I felt we put in a controlled performance against one of the best counter attacking teams in the Premiership - and arguably the best team at this moment in time.

The big shame is that this game would have been tailor made for Bentley - whose quick feet get us so many free kicks on the edge of the box. It is also the type of game suited to a certain Mr Dunn - at the moment he is the type of player we lack, with the ability to go past a player and create a little bit of room against well organised defences.

[Hasta]

Hypocritical, lying c_nt. I hope Arsenal win nothing whilst that lying turd is in charge.

"At the beginning of the season I felt we were not as committed away from home as we are now.

"We have learned a lot, we now have the right balance now between what is needed in the Premiership without losing our football.

"There's a great combination between strength, commitment and real class.

"Blackburn went for a direct style and you have to win the challenges in the air but not forget to bring the ball down and play your game.

"For that you need to be calm and not panic under pressure and sometimes take risks and we did that well."

To be fair Wengers not really said anything there. It's Sky's headline and article writers who are labelling us bullys.

[FourLaneBlue]

Hypocritical, lying c_nt. I hope Arsenal win nothing whilst that lying turd is in charge.

Have you even bothered to read the article?

Wenger is quoted as saying next to nothing about us. The 'bullies' bit has been made up by the journalist who wrote it, Martyn Ziegler, who obviously doesn't mind making things up to sensationalise a headline.

[den]

Unbelievable match - if only for the totally pro-Arsenal garbage spouted by Sky that I have just seen. Absolutely amazing - if Gilberto hadn't reacted I doubt it would have been a card for either player - and yet Sky thought Robbie should have been sent off (as does our friend Mr "please don't tackle my players" Wenger).

On the day Arsenal scored the goals at the right time - whereas the limited chances we had we missed. It could have very easily been 1-1 prior to Henry scoring the killer goal - and would have been an entirely different match from that point. I am probably alone - but I felt we put in a controlled performance against one of the best counter attacking teams in the Premiership - and arguably the best team at this moment in time.

The big shame is that this game would have been tailor made for Bentley - whose quick feet get us so many free kicks on the edge of the box. It is also the type of game suited to a certain Mr Dunn - at the moment he is the type of player we lack, with the ability to go past a player and create a little bit of room against well organised defences.

That's how I saw it as well DMTP.

[USABlue]

Despite the gulf in class the game hinged on Derbyshire's miss with roughly 20 minutes to go.

Absolutely pivotal. He put's that away its a different game. My first visit here since the loss I was that dissappionted. We seemed to have little real desire, we had a good spell in the second half and sorry for Derbyshire he missed it. Benni and his offside again, it does not bother me in the least if we are going forward and he get's caught trying to gain the advantage. I can live with that cos as we've seen sometimes he gets it right. What infuriates me is when he is walking back and get's caught because he hasn't come back quick enough from our last foray up front.

I saw one shining example of this we win possesion and a wonderful ball is play over the top to him but he is offside, had he made the effort to get back quick enough he'd be through.

I have thought in the "streak" we rode our luck a bit but the games I saw we did not play particularly well but got the result. I'm afraid we can end up right back in it if this does not improve, perhaps the lads were a bit down cos of Reidy but at City next week I want to see an honest effort. Some football too please we do seem to be starting to play the long ball a bit too much for me.

Oh yes, almost forgot, I thought Robbie Savage had a very quiet game yesterday. Love him or hate him he does really help make us tick, he did not seem to be up for it.

[Paul]

Paul before you get holier than thou about time wasting cheats (and I'm with you 99% of the time) but please consider Tugays usual substitution routine.

Yes I know but overall I would suggest our team doesn't waste time, fall over etc. Sure we're happy to fiddle around by the corner flag in the dieing moments of a game to relieve pressure, but I don't feel Rovers deliberately waste time during throughout the game. A few examples from Saturday, all of which happened throughout the match:

An Arsenal player close to or stood by a dead ball would turn and walk away from it leaving the player who would be taking the throw/free kick perhaps 20 yards to walk. I can just about understand leaving it for the opposition but not your team-mates.

Every free kick/thrown/corner an Arsenal player would walk as slowly as possible to the spot from which it was to be taken

Lehmans would deliberately fail to collect or deflect away every ball returned to him for a goal kick. He's a goalkeeper!!!!!!

Feigning injury, Fabregas was not the only one. I found myself stood up shouting "I hope you break it next time." Which is hardly what I expect of myself or anyone for that matter.

Lehmans, again, during breaks in play for an injury, to be re-started by a goalkick, would walk to the opposite side of the six yard box from which he was planning to take the kick. Stand holding the ball. Once the treatment was finished he walks back again and then prepares for the goal kick.

No matter how good their football and the individual performances Arsenal, for me, will from now be thought of a team of cheats. And as for Wenger? Here is a highly intelligent man who insults his own intelligence and everyone else's with the utter nonesense he spouts after a game. Why are the top managers such total idiots - Fergusson, Wenger, Mourhino, Benitez - all idiots. complete and utter rubbish falls from theiwr lips every day.

Yes, I'm unhappy

I can't understand that opinion. He was excellent, by far the best attacking player in the team, almost everything we did came through him. Does anybody agree with Jan's assessment?

I'd agree MGP was our best player on Saturday, unfortunately that doesn't say a lot, He simply was better than the rest who were awful. I couldn't describe his performance as excellent. The last few games I've felt he was getting back to last season's form.