Arsenal Preview

[G Somerset Rover]

To be honest if your to get anything at one of the top clubs then you either need to grab a goal from a set piece, or secondly to hit them on the counter attack. Considering that Arsenal's game is quite often based on the counter itself and that we are possibly the worst at it in the Premership then at one down after 4 minutes you'd have to say that we played well.

Personally though, I'm slightly worried about where the goals are going to come from right now. Although we've been hard to beat of late, we're simply not scoring, and with us going behind in literally every game, it's making it near impossibe to take 3 points from a match.

Edit-Just seen the ooijer news..it's pretty frustrating that our best player of late would appear to be a serial crock.

[roversmum]

Indeed.

In fact Id go as far as saying it was "good", although having read some of the comments I think I watched a completely different match - quotes like "didnt attack once" and such like dont seem to ring true, especially after we dominated the latter part of the second half and were unlucky not to score through Benni McCarthy.

I agree, Stu. Sandwiched in between policemen in the disabled area I quite enjoyed the match. Bruno was out of his depth but on the whole the lads did quite well and were unlucky to concede a second goal in the final minute. Still at least that woke the Arsenal supporters up in time to go home. We had a couple of good chances and on another day it could have been a draw. The Arsenal supporters I spoke to thought we gave them a good game. Bring on Bolton.

As for the stadium, it looks nice from a distance but I noticed a fair bit of concrete and the concourse was very disappointing. Very nice in the ground itself though. Needs to be set in a nice area to do it justice!

Funniest part of the trip, when we were having a break at the services, a Fraser Eagle Executive Travel coach drew up beside ours, with the legend "Burnley FC Official Team Coach" on it. Turned out that they had flown down to London for their match today and the coach was on its way to transport them around. Caused a fair bit of banter, and, it has to be said, looked better than the one our players have

Edit: Sorry about poor Andre. Feared the worst when he left the pitch. Looks like Samba and Kizzy for the next few matches then.

[joey_big_nose]

I thought we played well last night. Shoddy defending at a set piece and a goal on the break aside we looked remarakably solid. The big disappointment for me was Benni who I thought was extremely poor all game. Berner gets a slating but to be honest he is a left back playing on the wing who is a reserve. I would have preferred to have seen Treacy but then i suppose we might have been slaughtered by Sagnol on the counter.

We are looking a little out of our depth now, tiredness and injuries are taking their toll. If Ooijer is out for 3-4 weeks that is bad news as he is a big player for us- he was excellent last night.

However- just to have a bit of optimism! We do have the core of a very good side:

Cruz (26), Bentley (23), Reid (27), Emerton (29), Warnock (27), Samba (24). All those players are doing really well for us and look like individuals we can take forward and expect things from for several seasons into the future. On top of that I would be confident that next season will see Nelsen, Ooijer and Freidal continue to perform. The bad news is that Dunn, Pedersen, Roberts and McCarthy all don't look like players who can maintain our current level. All of them could potentially have upturns in form which changes this, but I wouldn't lay money on it.

From our point of view if we can add three names to that core list of goo youngish players up there in the summer then we will be in good shape. If we could just find a bit of money from somewhere....

I am still hopeful we can finish this season strongly. The biggest boost we could possibly hope for would be Nelsen to amek a full recovery and be the player he was. We shall see.

But as far as the game goes yesterday I thought we were decent and certainly did not disgrace ourselves.

[rover6]

As for Bruno Berner JFHC. I don't think he passed the ball further than two yards all match. If you couldn't dip into the Championship and find at least twenty or thirty players better than him I'd be amazed. Once again the question of the Academy rears up, if it can't provide cover at least as good as him, it's got problems.

This is what I moan about all the time - but not in response to bad performances but in anticipation of.

For the life of me I do not know why we sign a guy who's getting on and not good enough for the Swiss national team. And we let go Andy Taylor - who's no Roberto Carlos - but is he worse than Berner? Seeing as Ronnie Moore has been suggesting that Andy Taylor could be the next Ryan Taylor, possibly not. And even if Andy Taylor was as bad as Berner - at least he had youth on his side to improve.

I get seriously annoyed whenever Mark Hughes or JW start pontificating about how good a player needs to be to be worthy of joining the Great Rovers team. Err Bruno Berner? Maceo Rigters? Aaron Mokoena? Seriously, the club should pack the academy in. If we have any gaps in the squad we can easily bring in a floating Bosman 31 year Uzbek former U21 international or Quinton Fortune.

BTW I know Treacy's injured but is Sergio Peter injured? If not, he really must be out of favour...

Rant aside, expected Rovers to lose. Could not believe the Lee of Official Site Fame, was billing the game as a clash between two in-form sides!

[Mozzer]

we wasnt a disgrace at all...

defensivly i thought emerton, zurab, ooijer and warnock were outstanding-yes we conceded too goals-but one was by mcarthy's inability to defend, and one right at the death we was going for a draw...

this season im so proud of the lads-we are 9th, havent dropped outside the top ten, and still up there going for europe on a limited budget..theres no better manager who could get us where we want to go then mark hughes..

obviously we need to spend money in the summer-but with only 12 games to go-if we can keep majority of our squad together we can get into europe..

i also thought yesterday we played some good football..

on to bolton were hopefully a win..

[Hughesy]

Well im not too disappointed today because without Dunn, Pedersen, Nelsen, Samba, Derbyshire – 2-0 away at Arsenal isn’t the end of the world. Before the game I didn’t expect anything – in fact in truth I expected 3-0 or 4-0.

We did well to hold them and we closed down there spaces quite well. Warnock and Ooijer looked very good in my opinion, although Ooijer did get out paced by Adebayor once.

I think last night we were abit too aware of the media and didn’t want to get stuck in for that reason. If we had gone about putting our foot in, I think we could have made a better game of it, but to be honest we were never going to win with the bares bones of our squad showing.

1 thing that last night definitely showed was that Berner is not premier league standard, yes he did plenty of running but that was it. We would have got as much if not more from playing young Treacy there + he would of gained vital experience for his development. Also does anyone know where Peter is? He hasn’t been around all season – he could have been useful last night.

It also showed that while Tugay can still pass a ball, he is an extra player that we are carrying as he no longer has the legs to run and he does often get caught out with the ball.

As for the people who constantly moan about McCarthy not getting goals. Yes he hasn’t scored as many as last year; however he has still scored as many or more as Rooney, Drogba, Defoe and Crouch in the league. He works hard, he is being asked to drop back to midfield a lot – which isn’t his position and he is good at keeping hold of the ball when given to feet! It’s just a lack of confidence in front of goal – hopefully he will be given a chance against Bolton – where I think he could break his duck in front of goal. If he can regain his goalscoring then you will see a different player.

[den]

Could not believe the Lee of Official Site Fame, was billing the game as a clash between two in-form sides!

Well it was, wasn't it? Look at the form tables.

[pksrover]

Funniest part of the trip, when we were having a break at the services, a Fraser Eagle Executive Travel coach drew up beside ours, with the legend "Burnley FC Official Team Coach" on it. Turned out that they had flown down to London for their match today and the coach was on its way to transport them around. Caused a fair bit of banter, and, it has to be said, looked better than the one our players have

Must be a nice coach then since I'm pretty sure the price of the Rovers official team coach was around £1 mill. Maybe Burnley have put their money on styling the bus' exterior, instead of giving the players any comfort. Bet the players have to sit on wooden benches and Mr. Coyle has to draw his tactics on some napkins from McDonalds, after the players enjoyed their match day meal after a pit stop and the McDonalds drive-in.

[modes98]

BTW I know Treacy's injured but is Sergio Peter injured? If not, he really must be out of favour...

What's up with Treacy?

Sergio has had 2 or 3 injuries this season, which all seem to fall when he would get a shot at the first team.

With 12 games left, we have 2 against the "top 4" Liverpool (a) & Man Utd (h). Other than that we have 10 games which are winnable. We have to go from strength to strength to get a push on up into Europe.

[Rovermatt]

To be honest I thought we played quite well last night. Our performance was solid enough and we may well have got something against another side.

To allow Arsenal the initiative so early however was unforgivable. They played most of the contest in third gear. Sure we frustrated them for a lot of the game but they really should have had at least four save for the efforts of Friedel.

In reality we were never going to win this fixture, let's move on quickly to the next game.

[jim mk2]

. Could not believe the Lee of Official Site Fame, was billing the game as a clash between two in-form sides!

Rovers unbeaten in 7 and lost only 2 matches away from home all season so two very much in-form sides judging on results if not performances.

Finally seen the 1st goal on TV and McCarthy's poor attempt at marking should be another reason to drop him. That said Friedel should also have come for the ball.

Poor match reports in the nationals: only the Sun and Henry Winter in the Telegraph offer any semblance of balance. The Times twerp even suggests Arsenal should have won 6-0.

[modes98]

The Times twerp even suggests Arsenal should have won 6-0.

Another good example of the unbiased media we have. Maybe they watched the trimmed highlights because they can't have watched the match or even looked at the stats.

Bully boys Arsenal committed double the amount of fouls we did. They had a massive 2 more corners than us. The only major difference was in the shots on target, but to suggest a 6-0 victory would have meant them scoring 2 of every 3 shots they had on target.

[Hughesy]

55% possesion at home - compared to 45% against a team currently in 9th.

More shots off target for us

2 more corners for them

more fouls from them, more bookings from them

Bully Boys?!??! Yeah ok! Hate Arsenal - just hope they fail and dont win anything, hopefully Cesc will get his 10th booking soon and they may well miss him for those 2 games.

[RibbleValleyRover]

A great positive has to be after the 1st goal went in early we didn't crumble. A lot of teams have in the past and will continue to in the future, go 1-0 down to a Arsenal side and end up with a real beating.

[Eddie]

Rovers unbeaten in 7 and lost only 2 matches away from home all season so two very much in-form sides judging on results if not performances.

Finally seen the 1st goal on TV and McCarthy's poor attempt at marking should be another reason to drop him. That said Friedel should also have come for the ball.

Poor match reports in the nationals: only the Sun and Henry Winter in the Telegraph offer any semblance of balance. The Times twerp even suggests Arsenal should have won 6-0.

What I want to know is why is Benni picking up a central defender for a corner? Now generally it's central defenders who score from corners as they are big and usually good in the air. Benni is ok in the air, but he certainly isn't huge and even if he had done a better job marking, Senderos would have had a serious height advantage on him. If Benni is going to come back then he has to be picking up someone less important than probably their 2-4th target.

[waggy]

writing this before i read other post's,give my reflection off the game instead off following others.

as a football fan off a team that has aspirations mainly off survival and at best a european place you have to be pleased with yesterdays preformance,we played well and for a 15 minute period before halftime had arsenal reeling.however from the 50th minute to the 65 th we could not get the ball.still proud off the team

points

1-benni should not be in our area when we are defending a corner,free kick lost senderos aka ronaldo at ot

2-i thought we could possibly have no one worse than mgp at the mo,step forward berner

3-will hughes bring on the subs earlier,roberts should have been on with 20 mins to go at the latest

[Rovermatt]

as a football fan off a team that has aspirations mainly off survival and at best a european place

I don't agree that our main aspiration is survival.

[waggy]

and i do not agree with half the messageboard going ape because we lost 2-0 at the emirates

[CAPT KAYOS]

Don't know whether this means anything or not, and I didn't see the game however comments from UTD fans here at work said they thought we played fairly well in general.

Comments upon Benni though and how so many of our attacking play breaks down due to him losing the ball or being offside when he should be doing better - dwells too much.

[Flopsy]

writing this before i read other post's,give my reflection off the game instead off following others.

as a football fan off a team that has aspirations mainly off survival and at best a european place you have to be pleased with yesterdays preformance,we played well and for a 15 minute period before halftime had arsenal reeling.however from the 50th minute to the 65 th we could not get the ball.still proud off the team

points

1-benni should not be in our area when we are defending a corner,free kick lost senderos aka ronaldo at ot

2-i thought we could possibly have no one worse than mgp at the mo,step forward berner

3-will hughes bring on the subs earlier,roberts should have been on with 20 mins to go at the latest

agree with all of that - 30 minutes to 20 minutes is the minnimum time an attacking sub needs to be on the pitch

[waggy]

Don't know whether this means anything or not, and I didn't see the game however comments from UTD fans here at work said they thought we played fairly well in general.

Comments upon Benni though and how so many of our attacking play breaks down due to him losing the ball or being offside when he should be doing better - dwells too much.

i'd be happy never to see benni in a rovers shirt again,he was fouled in the build up to the 1st goal which would have been seen if it was in the other area,but the guy is not intrested,give me derbyshire anyday

[Eddie]

I'm pretty sure it was Mokoena who lost Ronaldo at OT, but I still agree.

[RevidgeBlue]

Not been a fan of Benni's efforts this season but the first goal apart, I didn't think he was too bad last night, he seemed to me to be giving it his all, the trouble was is his confidence seems to be low and nothing whatsoever went right for him. He seems to be stuck between two options at the moment, should he hang on the shoulder of the last man, (by which he will be caught off side a lot) or drop back into midfield.

I'd sooner take a few offsides tbh, when he drops back into midfield his effectiveness is absolutely zero.

All that said, can't see the point in offering him an improved contract, if someone is willing to give us 5m for him in the summer then so be it and lets move on. The only benefit would be is if we know another club would definitely give us quite a bit more more than 5m without "the clause"

[John]

Late reply to this.... however, my thoughts.

Slightly surprised on comments from Hughes that we bossed the game. We did ok not to drop our heads after the early goal, and certainly the players were working hard for the cause. However, there was a distinct lack of quality in our attacking play, which is frustrating because we were playing an Arsenal team not in top form (on the night).

Thought Andre Ooijer had an excellent game and really was impressed with his performance. I hope we are offering him an new contract, as with recent performances, he has got a role to play for us next season.

Probably repeating what most have said, but midfield needs a some fresh, quality faces, as our inability to pass/keep the ball is certainly not top six material at the moment.

The attitude, grit and determination of team is carrying us through at the moment, but can only take us so far.

[RevidgeBlue]

Highlight of the game for me was after about 28 mins when the Setanta cameras panned in on a frustrated looking Sparky at the precise moment he bellowed

"GET F ' ING IN 'EM!"

at his players.

Conveniently glossed over by the commentators of couse.