By Boris Mellor
August 29 2009

It's hard to be objective for a fan, when the result goes against the team you start looking for the negatives. I usually blame van Pants, and I was annoyed he didn't score today, but he got into some good positions. If Foster hadn't made a great save against him, if Gallas hadn't strayed offside he would be the two goal hero wouldn't he?

Did Vermaelen and Gallas fail the "test", they certainly didn't, they were excellent, and they shouldn't be blamed for the fact that Almunia and Diaby had rushes of blood to the head gifting two goals. It was individual errors that caused the defeat, for long spells the team outplayed United.

Last season we beat Man U at home 2-1, I swear that this was a better performance, and without Nasri and Fabregas. We dominated United for long periods of the game. They couldn't score a goal in open play for toffee, the bulk of their chances came after Diaby kindly put them ahead and the game became stretched. Man U were restricted to four shots on target (including the own goal and the penalty).  Van Pants hit the cross bar with his best free kicks in weeks.

The Arsenal defended and attacked as a team. Arshavin scored a brilliant goal, and nearly scored another, he was refused a dead cert penalty, but never mind when UEFA see it they will hold an enquiry.

Even at 2-1 down the Gunners kept trying, and it was heartbreaking that an error by Gallas cost us the equaliser. If Arsenal play as well as this every week I can only see one team that could give us a hard game, that won't be Liverpool, but it will be Chelsea.

I could make a list of poor refereeing mistakes but why bother, the main cause of the defeat was self inflicted, learn from it and move on. As for the sending off of Wenger that was the most ridiculous thing ever, the guy kicked a bottle in the air, it wasn't aimed at anyone and no one died. Even Match of the Day pundits argued it was silly, and that means it was very silly indeed, otherwise they would have been calling for a 30 match ban to clean up football.

I don't believe this will destroy Arsenal's confidence, it should make them angry and ready to fight back when the league resumes some time half way through next month. It's a bit like stopping for a tea break at the 4^th fence in the National, what a way to run football.

Meanwhile the press will gloat about Wenger's sending off and Eduardo's hearing. Good bring it on, it will help unite the players, manager and fans.

Let's accentuate the positive - better than last season

Discussion started by Arsenal Times , 29/08/2009 23:33

Arsenal Times
29/08/2009 23:33

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:09:04:20:47:37 by Padre Pio.

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Zainy
29/08/2009 23:38

Good. Its so easy to lash out when things dont go your way. But we did well today. It was as you said, two mistakes that cost us otherwise United hardly had a sniff to that point.
the second real test for this team begins now - how we pick ourselves up and move forward.

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Chapman's Ghost
29/08/2009 23:52

Unite the players? We all remember how wonderful their
response was when Ed broke his leg.

Not convinced despite our good performance. This was
our big chance to sink Manu and we blew it because
our stupid gk went to ground when Rooney was going
nowhere anyway.Poor judgement. And then Diaby scores
an og for some bizarre reason. And why didn't we have
Ed on from the start?

We need more experience so get the cheque book
out you tight ba**ard.

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Padre Pio
30/08/2009 00:03

When Eduardo broke his leg Flamini and Hleb were signing contracts behind Arsenes back. Hopefully the remaining players are loyal, they are certainly playing that way.

Vermaelen and Gallas are a sgood a centre pairing we have had in a long time. My fear is that any injury will not see a suitable substitute. We need anothe CB - unless its Song?

If Nasri, Rosicky and Fab come back can Diaby replace Song? I have my doubts.

Nonetheless can you deny that this was a good performance?

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Merlion96
30/08/2009 04:10

Let's wait:

12-Sept
- Almunia vs Givens
- Denilson-SOng vs BArry-Ireland
- Arshavin vs Robinho
- Walcott vs SWP
- RvP-Eduardo vs Kolo-Lescott
- Vermaele-Gallas vs Adebayor-Tevez

15/16=Sept - CL Cup

21-Sept - CC CUp
How good is Arsenal Reserves?

....................Mannone

...Coquelin...BArtley...Silvestre....Gibbs

..........Lansbury.........Coquelin
...................Merida

...WIlshere........Barazite.........Traore

Or by Sept-1, we had bought der Van Haart and Chamakh..and Subtco?

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Chapman's Ghost
30/08/2009 06:28

I said it was a good performance but why is
Eduardo sitting on the bench? IMO he's our
no.1 striker.

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Merlion96
30/08/2009 06:38

Mental and psychological problem OG.

AFter that Divign Saga, mentlaly, Eduardo is bound to be affected.

Wenger is protectign him from those chanting sh*ts.
Plus also a suspicion that physically and mentlaly, he still need time to get over that injury.

Wenegr's policy is always to give his player a 6-game run beofre he is benched.
If RvP still does not scored, then it si Edaurdo's trun.

Internaitoanl week si good for Eduardo; especialy if eh scores against England.

Then against ABu Dhbai City, I wouldn't eb surprised that Eduardo si the mains triekr with Van Persie out at right flank in lieu of EBoue/Bendtner....with Walcott as supersub when teh feet had been ran out of Abu Dhabi Defence.

I wil love to see a puffing Kolo against Walcott in the 70th minute...with him draggign Walcott down in the box.

Screams wil be heard "cheating c**t"....

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Chapman's Ghost
30/08/2009 06:42

All our players should blatantly dive in the next
game so they can't single out Ed. Solidarity.

We're at war with the media, UEFA and
just about everybody. Let's fight dirty!

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djarse
30/08/2009 07:42

I agree with Padre and have listed the positives in a separate post.

But for me there was one negative too (as well as the final score !): Eboue's dive.

In previous years, I have been unpopular on this site for arguing that Eboue is an embarassment for his diving and cheating (feigning injury etc). I thought he had overcome it and was prepared to give him another chance. Then, just days after the Eduardo incident with all the publicity and rubbish resulting from it, he dives blatantly in full view of the media and the ref in the biggest game of the season.

How he squares his cheating with his alleged religious beliefs is a mystery to me. I reiterate that he should go, despite his footballing qualities because he is a consistent cheat. And we simply don't need that at the club.

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Bergmars
30/08/2009 10:18

We outplayed Utd for large periods and it was two errors that you cannot account for.
Not having Cesc hurt but in part that was self inflicted,but I agree with CG get the money out no more excuses.

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AJ The Gunner
30/08/2009 10:28

this was hard to swallow simply because utd could not and would never have won that game. almunia was crazy and diaby whom i simply can't trust decided to score a classic goal that would have shamed drogba.

sending wenger off is plan silly as well as some of the crazy decisions that went down.

wenger should just beef up this team cos injuries will never let them fulfill their potentials.

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lovefire
30/08/2009 11:22

diaby was man of the match until he scored the own goal
denilson was poor to say the least and gave away the ball in some crucial positions as well as the foul which gave the free kick which led to the goal....defence was superb and i think if we keep playing like this(minus the errors) we will win games and have a really great chance in the league

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Philly the kid
30/08/2009 12:38

I thought Denilson and Song were bossing the midfield pretty well until the penalty myself. Agree with everything else you said though Lovefire.

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Bergmars
30/08/2009 13:31

Diaby had a good game,but he has to eradicate his casual distribution and his own goal was pathetic.

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Gööfle11
30/08/2009 19:53

This was our performance of the season until it became catch up, and we of course looked like conceding at that point, and with Ramsey and Diaby as our only options as creative central midfielders, no wonder we looked isolated.

Official 1000th poster in the classic transfer rumors thread of 2014.

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