Arsenal (h) 19.08.2007 - Preview

[B.R.F.C]

Have to say the atmosphere was top dollar yesterday...place was bouncing 2nd half.

As for the 1st half it was pretty even with both sides not really doing much apart from Friedels error that gifted Arsenal their goal. Any attempt we did make to get back into it was thwarted by Alan Wiley who to be quite honest was bloody useless. Not only did he fall for Arsenal falling to the floor every single time he also managed to dish out yellow cards for it as well and as a result he became the centre of attention.

2nd half we upped the tempo and deservedly got the equaliser through Dunny who had a very good game and showed a bit of drive and skill that the "Old Dunny" showed. Have to say I thought Matty was quality against a tough defence and unlucky he didn't score in the 1st half. He ran into the channels well in order to get us posession in Arsenals half and worked his socks off against the likes of Clichy and Toure.

Good performance and a decent point overall with a referee not giving us anything. A couple of minor points I noted that could be improved on:

-Communication between the defence and Brad was poor and in effect cost us a goal yesterday and we were lucky not to concede a couple. Twice Brad came out to the ball whenever he didn't really need to and we got quite fortunate...especially the chance late on in the second half.

-I thought our set pieces were poor yesterday and something we need to improve on. We have 3 aerial threats in Roque, Samba and Nelsen and we didn't use them well at all, a lot of the ball from the many free kicks and corners from both Bentley and Pedersen was poor.

Overall pretty pleased

[brfc fan]

Has anyone got footage of the goal?

I have seen it but it's always nice to view again.

There was one on youtube but it wouldn't let me view it and the footytube one takes ages to load.

[brfc fan]

It's alright. I found a clip.

Dunny goal

[waggy]

best opening game at ewood for years,yes the ref tried to spoil it,but we do play the game on the edge of legality which is the best way to play.the 10 mins on motd2 was a disgrace,missed all the bookings except nelsen's.

the first booking on walcott,was simply a man against a boy,very harsh,the 2nd warranted a booking,i thought warnock had vp covered,and vp was looking to be fouled

the savage penalty,was laughable,in the ground i was up with everyone else for a foul,then on motd2 you see robbie place his foot in toure's and tumble,looked a little lucky not to get sent off some great preformance's and for once the great man that is brad looked human

[modes98]

Agree with most comments on here. Voted for Nelsen though it was a straight red (and 3 game ban not 1) so we got lucky with some poor refereeing.

No one argued with a second yellow and that's what it was, emerton was at least level and it wasn't a clear goal scoring chance.

Even if it was a straight red it wouldn't be 3 matches, just the 1.

[speeeeeeedie]

In the cold light of day I think 1-1 was about fair; if it was boxing we would have won on points.

Friedel didn't have one of his better days but didn't have much to do. The defenders were good. Nelsen deserved to get sent off (if you buy the first booking) as RVP was in, and he would have certainly scored. Our goal was fortuitous but we had one disallowed for no reason and hit the post. Wenger is a moaning sod. All in we look good, not top 3 material but mabe a cup chance this year.

Should we have a topic where we can discuss the weekend's other games? Leave it running for the season. There are always incidents, goals, controversies in other games, it would be nice to have somewhere to comment rather than adding them to the bottom of posts in other threads. Anyone agree/disagree?

[brfc fan]

Should we have a topic where we can discuss the weekend's other games? Leave it running for the season. There are always incidents, goals, controversies in other games, it would be nice to have somewhere to comment rather than adding them to the bottom of posts in other threads. Anyone agree/disagree?

Agree but there is already one here.

[robborover]

Has anyone got footage of the goal?

I have seen it but it's always nice to view again.

There was one on youtube but it wouldn't let me view it and the footytube one takes ages to load.

get on Virgin Media.com and go to football. you can watch all the match highlights for free!

[CAPT KAYOS]

seconded

I have responded

[speeeeeeedie]

Agree but there is already one here.

Didn't see it. Cheers.

[rover_groo]

Great result and again to see the team coming from behind to salvage something from the game. I think it's great to see Dunnie get on the score-sheet and hopefully he can put in a consistance strong run of performances.

One wee aspect that we'll need to review, is that we'll have to start off better and score the first goal and see what we impact/affect it will have on a full game. I think we're going to thimp some team with 5 goals this season and Derby could happen.

Nelsen hits post!!!

Is he alright??

[tcj_jones]

I'm off out in a minute so haven't read the rest of the thread as yet, but here's my somewhat late thoughts on the match.

First 15 we really came out of the blocks fastand Bentley was having a great time down the right. The Arsenal goal was a mixture of terrible defending, an EXTREMELY rare mistake by Friedel and furtuitous positioning and striking from Arsenal. After that, neither team seemed capable of putting any football together and we were poor until the end of the half.

Second half we were superb. Hughes obviously said something to the lads at half time and you could tell that he had told them to use the long diagonal ball from left to right. It really did work in our favour. It was an excellent performance, aside from a couple of bits of bad defending, where we completely out-played Arsenal. Dunn's goal may have been the result of a shocker from Lehmann, but the build up was sublime and he fully deserved it.

I felt the refereeing in the first half was abysmal, but significantly better in the second. I didn't see the Nelsen incident very well, but I presume it was a straight red? If it was only a second yellow, then I am relived.

Arsenal were a disgrace in the way they went to ground and looked nothing like the team of the past four seasons. Da Silva did not impress at all, neither did their other new signing, Sagna. In fact, none of their players really stood out to me.

These are my player ratings.

Friedel - 5 - It pains me to say it, but Friedel's mistake cost us a goal.

Emerton - 7 - Had a very good game, linking well with Bentley. He is just so much a better right back than Ooijer

Warnock - 8 - Made one dreadful mistake, but saved us a certain goal with a great last ditch sliding tackle in the second half. I thought he used the diagonal ball to Derbyshire and Bentley extremely well in the second half.

Samba - 6 - Quite a few little mistakes by Samba, who was done for pace a few times. He was lucky to save himself from a poor bit of positioning that could have led to Van Persie going clean through.

Nelsen - 6 - Again, not the best performance from Nelsen, for me. Capped by his red card. He will still be hugely missed.

Bentley - 8 - Very good game for Bentley. Only criticism for me is over his set pieces.

Pedersen - 6 - Fairly quiet game for Gamst.

Dunn - 8 - Pretty anonymous first half, but with a couple of sublime passes and through balls through the course of the match. He was much more involved in the second half and fully deserved his goal. He had been pretty quiet before now, but he has the ability to be a match winner, or saver as was the case this time.

Savage - 6 - I felt that Savage was limited in his game by the disgraceful going to gound of the Arsenal team. He didn't play badly, but didn't really excel.

Derbyshire - 9 - Every time I see him, I am more and more impressed. He showed everything yesterday that a Premiership quality striker needs. He has developed very well. When we played the diagonal, he showed excellent control, the ability to hold the ball up, to run at defenders, to use the channels and to pick people out in the box. He was my MOTM.

Santa Cruz - 8 - Another competent display from Roque. He is quite a handful for defenders whether the ball is in the air, in Rqoue's possession or even if they have the ball themselves at the back.

[Ricky]

Think your wrong on the ban Modes

Pretty sure a straight red is a 3 match ban, I'm sure that's what Henchoz got last year for his joke of a red card.

[Ozz]

[pksrover]

Think your wrong on the ban Modes

Pretty sure a straight red is a 3 match ban, I'm sure that's what Henchoz got last year for his joke of a red card.

nope, I'm pretty sure a red card for a 'professional foul', as a last man foul would be, is only one match ban.

edit: I might be wrong though..

[tcj_jones]

Amazing picture. I LOVE how Bentley goes straight up to Lehman to rub it in.

EDIT: or have I seen thing wrong, is Bentley actually celebrating in front of the fans? I don't suppose anybody on here, who was behind the goal can remember?

[thenodrog]

Derbyshire - 9 - Every time I see him, I am more and more impressed. He showed everything yesterday that a Premiership quality striker needs. He has developed very well. When we played the diagonal, he showed excellent control, the ability to hold the ball up, to run at defenders, to use the channels and to pick people out in the box. He was my MOTM.

Don't agree. Derbyshire for me at the moment is a superb impact player to bring on as sub when legs are tireing. On from the start he struggles with his markers and his 1st touch is not good. He is poor at holding the ball up.

[den]

I think it's only for violent conduct, that a player gets a three match ban.

[den]

Don't agree. Derbyshire for me at the moment is a superb impact player to bring on as sub when legs are tireing. On from the start he struggles with his markers and his 1st touch is not good. He is poor at holding the ball up.

Yup.

[tcj_jones]

Don't agree. Derbyshire for me at the moment is a superb impact player to bring on as sub when legs are tireing. On from the start he struggles with his markers and his 1st touch is not good. He is poor at holding the ball up.

Perhaps I have not seen quite as much of him as some, but I thought that yesterday his first touch, control and holding of the ball (although infrequent) was excellent. Don't get me wrong, he will never be able to play as a target man in a million years, and doesn't have the strength to do it week in, week out but, on the basis of yesterday, I stand fully by what I wrote.

I do, however, agree with your point that he is a great impact player. We have a great selection of strikers at the moment. However, I thought that he really did deserve a full 90 minutes and that he did very well.

[bellamy11]

Don't agree. Derbyshire for me at the moment is a superb impact player to bring on as sub when legs are tireing. On from the start he struggles with his markers and his 1st touch is not good. He is poor at holding the ball up.

100% agreed. I think Matty is the perfect player to take advantage of defenders who have tired because he has a fantastic ability to get straight into a game. His goal record as a sub is pretty fantastic and in two consecutive league games (Reading, Boro) his first contributions were goals. I think the reason his goal record is so good is because people like Roberts have done a lot of donkey work and given defenders a hard time for the majority of the game. I never quite feel that Matt can do the same sort of damage when he starts a match.

[Exiled_Rover]

Amazing picture. I LOVE how Bentley goes straight up to Lehman to rub it in.

EDIT: or have I seen thing wrong, is Bentley actually celebrating in front of the fans? I don't suppose anybody on here, who was behind the goal can remember?

Pretty sure he was rubbing it in.

[Eddie]

For me Derbyshire is well behind Benni and Santa Cruz (based on what he has shown so far) and they are without doubt our two best strikers for me and I'm really looking forward to seeing them together. I would still rather see Roberts start ahead of Derbyshire. Derbyshire impresses me more everytime I see him and I do think he is improving, but I'm still not sure if his game will ever really be complete enough.

[den]

What Matt lacks at the moment is physical strength. That might come soon, as it did with Bentley.

[brfc fan]

What Matt lacks at the moment is physical strength.

Also experience as well I think.