[Archived] Rovers Versus Arsenal - The Final Home Match Of 2009/2010

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Any speeches or farewells such as MGP?

What was Sam's closing speech?

He was asked if we were going to buy Messi but he said "Why do we need Messi when we've got Keith Andrews".

[Heinz]

Fully deserved to win today and 3 MASSIVE points!

[philipl]

Fantastic win and a decent crowd on as well.

Lifts the end of season beautifully!

[imy9]

Question: Fulham have Arsenal away and Stoke United away last game of the season so ideally what result do we want when they face each other? A draw or Stoke win?

[jim mk2]

Brilliant result. Well played Rovers.

Rovers victory on Monday, Labour triumph Thursday: it's going to be a marvellous week.

[Messi422]

Still have chance to be the 9th if we beat Villa 3 to 0 and Birmingham lose to Bolton for 4

[Balwer]

Unsurprising comments from Arsene.

'Both their goals were not regular'

'The goalkeeper was not given a chance to play'

'The goalkeeper was not at fault'

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Wenger didn't find any fault with Flapianski. Said it was a push

He also said Salgado fouled Van Persie. Should have been a penalty.

[Veevs]

Question: Fulham have Arsenal away and Stoke United away last game of the season so ideally what result do we want when they face each other? A draw or Stoke win?

Err is that a trick question???

[Heinz]

Question: Fulham have Arsenal away and Stoke United away last game of the season so ideally what result do we want when they face each other? A draw or Stoke win?

If both Stoke/Fulham lose their last game a draw amongst them Wednesday would mean we only have to draw against Vila to stay 10th right?

[Guest roverspogges]

Awww... Poor arsenal. Wenger looks like he's going to cry saying we bullied fabianski. Feck off arsene we beat you deal with it.

[Harry Balls]

Great second half performance. We're at our best when we try to play football, so I hope we see less of the hoofball crap next season.

Dunny was my man of the match, but it's a difficult one to call as I thought everyone played pretty well, even Keef...

Going off the current table and the remaining fixtures, I reckon that as long as Fulham don't beat Stoke and if we get a draw at Villa, then that should be enough to seal a top half finish.

10th: Blackburn - 47 points

11th: Fulham - 46 points

12th: Sunderland - 44 points

13th: Stoke - 44 points

Fulham vs Stoke

Arsenal vs Fulham

Villa vs Blackburn

Man U vs Stoke

Wolves vs Sunderland

[Kelbo]

Brilliant result. Well played Rovers.

Rovers victory on Monday, Labour triumph Thursday: it's going to be a marvellous week.

about as much chance of a Labour win as Burnley winning the champions league next year, yes, you're right, they are not in it

[Veevs]

9 Birmingham out of reach 50pts and better goal diff

10 Blackburn 37 -15 47

11 Fulham 36 -2 46

12 Sunderland 37 -7 44

13 Stoke 36 -11 44

Remaining games...

Fulham v Stoke

Arsenal v Fulham

ManU v Stoke

Wolves v Sunderland

Villa v Blackburn

So we have a decent chance of 10th but we do need a draw in the Fulham stoke game.. and Sunderland or us draw in the last game.

[trueblue]

What a fantastic result!!! Well done to Big Sam and the boys! a great way to end the season at home.. Bring on Villa!!!

[Harry Balls]

Question: Fulham have Arsenal away and Stoke United away last game of the season so ideally what result do we want when they face each other? A draw or Stoke win?

As long as Fulham don't beat Stoke, we'll probably only need a draw at Villa to seal 10th given both of their final fixtures.

So, answering your question, either will do.

[philipl]

Labour win on Thursday is about as likely as Rovers finishing 9th

[broadsword]

Jim just can't help himself.

He's like a robot being given two countermanding orders. He cannot compute a Labour defeat, so he's going into meltdown and trying to wind people up as he does so.

[Tom]

Fantastic result. Poor as a spectacle in the first half but we did exactly what we needed to bar a couple of defensive lapses and uncertainty from robbo.

I thought Pedersen and Keith had great games, Pedersens deliveries were a danger throughout, he should have bagged himself though. I think he showed enough to show he will be hard to replace.

Well done Sam on the change, grella wasn't able to tackle due to his booking and when hoilett came on we somehow looked more balanced.

No real poor performances today on the whole apart from our forum members at half time, I hope the guy who slipped is on here

[Exiled in Toronto]

I only saw the 2nd half not having spotted that it was a Bank Holiday and thought we did really well. Harried them more than I can remember for a long time, which meant, given the number of passes they play, they made quite a few errors so we saw a lot of the ball in promising break situations. We really could and should have scored 3 or 4 while they mustered 1 shot all half.

Very amusing to read all the expert comments on here earlier when the team was announced - Andrews and Grella both did well in the half I saw and I believe I even heard a few cheers for Keef when he got stuck in a few times. Roberts was at his best I thought - really gave them no peace at all.

Allardyce made a good, positive substitution bringing on Junior for Vince. I was a bit worried when he took Dunn off as I felt we needed to keep the ball, but it worked out as Arse, of all teams, resorted to aimless hoofs near the end.

The biggest thing that struck me compared to when we played them away was our team spirit, they really have pulled together in the last months.

[Stuart]

Just give 'em a game Rovers....

2-1

Att: 28,300

Funny feeling we might just nick this - I fancy them to score but if Niko can adjust his radar slightly I fancy us for 2-1...

If Samba plays - I have a funny feeling we might win. Given their record - I think they would struggle with our set plays.

Either way - last game of the season - be wonderful if fortune smiled on us and we sign off with another home win.

Nothing for them to play for so not suprising. Would still hope for a 25k+ attendance though given its our last home game for a few months!!

2-1 Rovers, Basturk screamer!!

what time does it kick off?

2-1 Rovers

All very good. But the winner is...

Van Persie to score first and Rovers win 2-1,i did it beginning of the season with the villa home game with Agbonlahor (sp) to score first and it netted me a nice wedge!

EDIT:70/1 on skybet so,it should be worth a couple of quid!

Hope you put that bet on!

On the whole very pleased with today's match. It mightn't have been pretty especially first half but we got the first at exactly the right time. Arsenal couldn't cope with our set pieces and seemed devoid of ideas.

Some good battling from our guys - even Andrews (and I'm one of his fiercest critics). Not sure about Roberts being MOTM - probably because he hates the job he's been asked to do. I'd probably have given it marginally to Dunn.

It's a results business and this result could prove very very important come the end of the season.

Such a good feeling walking out of the ground after beating the likes of Arsenal. I think I was smiling all the way home.

Well done Sam and the rest of the team. Here's hoping we can kick on next season!

[Rovermatt]

Fantastic result! Our football was utterly dreadful for the vast majority of the game and Pedersen in particular was as bad as I've seen him in recent games but we sensed that Arsenal were there for the taking and man-handled them accordingly. They really are a soft-centred outfit and as soon as we went ahead the wind was gone from their sails. They never looked like getting back into it.

[sambo]

The end of the game was incredible, the fans bouncing etc. I adore Rovers.

[only2garners]

Fantastic result! Our football was utterly dreadful for the vast majority of the game and Pedersen in particular was as bad as I've seen him in recent games but we sensed that Arsenal were there for the taking and man-handled them accordingly. They really are a soft-centred outfit and as soon as we went ahead the wind was gone from their sails. They never looked like getting back into it.

You clearly saw a different game to the one I've just come back from - Pedersen was arguably man of the match for me.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Probably the first game this season where Andrews hasn't had many, if any, negative feedback.

He's either winning you lot over or you're scared he's going to squirt you