[Archived] Arsenal Preview

[AHoyle90]

I have now caught up with the goings on within the messageboard and on this particular thread there has been some utter tripe written, some of it has been constructive, some suggestive and some just downright crap.

Rovers fared well against a team that is expected to finish 3rd at least, in fact we gave as good as we got.

With their pretty tippy tappy football just how many chances did Arsenal create ?

How many saves did Robbo have to pull off ?

Rovers were unlucky not to get at least a point.

The football they showed they can play was as effective as Arsenals, the run by EHD and finish by MD was great.

I have to say Grella looked very good but he just isnt match fit. Dunny on the other hand looks like he has eaten all the pies and more (rumour is he has taken over Benni's contract with macdonalds).

I cant disagree with the formation as we performed very well, we coped mostly with van persie, Arshavin and Walcott, we fought with Fabgregas in the middle ans we caused allsorts of issues with their defence. So for me Rovers did well.

Those thinking kalinic was shocking need a wake up call, he did well. Its just a pity that we dont have the central midfielder that would have seen us beaten Arsenal as thats all we needed.

With there intricate passing and sublime movement, they controlled the best part of the second half making it impossible for us chasing the game. They were ruthless in front of goal, which counts for more than forcing Robbo into routine saves. Kalinic did not do well, he didnt do enough to impose himself on there backline and did not hold the ball up well enough. However I still firmly believe he will have a good season.

We did pretty well, but we didn't do enough to win the game. The Birmingham game is hurting us atm, we need to make sure over the course of the season we pick up maximum points in games we dominate especially away from home.

[philipl]

Van Persie out for several weeks with ankle injury. Hopefully we will get no witch hunts over the Rovers player he collided with. The commentators at the time described it as the sort of injury you pick up when not yet 100% fit.

[only2garners]

With there intricate passing and sublime movement, they controlled the best part of the second half making it impossible for us chasing the game. They were ruthless in front of goal

In the second half they scored once with a fairly fortunate rebound and they messed up another couple of decent chances - hardly ruthless was it? I suspect they created more clear cut chances when we beat them earlier in the year. After their second goal they seemed to relax and started their normal passing game, which had not very evident for the first 50 minutes - even then I'm not sure you could describe it as sublime - there was an awful lot of passing it across the park in front of our defensive line up. Very effective in stopping us playing but hardly designed to rip us apart either.

[thenodrog]

just a post script to Arsene's usual stance......

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/sep/03/arsene-wenger-tony-pulis-tactics

and this is 3 years old!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-522821/Arsenals-red-card-hall-shame-Arsene-Wenger.html