The Arsenal

1

By no means am I an Arsenal fan but by fook do that team deserve credit for that peformance tonight. I hope they go on to win the competition now and double up with the Premiership. How any team can beat Milan in the San Siro with Senderos at the back is beyond me but they somehow did it.

Couldnt understand why they kept playing everything down the right when Eboue was shite all night. Iā€™d say Maldini and the rest of the defence started crying when Walcott came on to run at them twice as fast.

I hope Cesc Fabregas manages to stay fit for most of his career cos that fella is a joy to behold. Also a note to the posters of the ā€œGoal Celebrationsā€ thread. Look at their reaction after the second goal.

2

Well done Arsenal. It keeps them in the champion league so they wont have a clean run on the Premiership. The United Arsenal game at Old Trafford is after the 2nd leg of the quarters. It could be a United Arsenal quarter. Lets hope not though.

3

canā€™t stand those whingy arsenal coonts but at least theyā€™ll be focussing on two competitions now so more likely their fragile temperment will be tested

4

They did well in fairness to them. Milan were awful and Arsenal probably deserved to win by more. They can only beat what is put in front of them though.

Nesta, Pirlo, Kaka, Pato, Ambrosini, Gattuso - all very disappointing.

Shows the importance of Seedorf to them.

Fabregas and Hleb immense for Arsenal.

Donā€™t want to see them win it though.

5

absolutely delighted not an arsenal fan but a football fanā€¦considering toure van persie and rosicky all didnt start tonight just shows you that they have a squad capable of doing the doubleā€¦very disappointed with united thought they would blitz lyon tonight but they wont win the champions league as ferguson seems too cautious in europeā€¦backed arsenal at 11 to 4 on betfair yesterday to beat milanā€¦FOOKING JOB

6

I donā€™t know who you support Jugs but Iā€™ve seen a lot of Manchester United fans describe Arsene Wenger as a whinger in the last few weeks. During that same period Ferguson has complained about the International fixtures, the Premier League fixing the Man city game for the Munich anniversary, Arsenal not having 4 players sent off at Old Trafford, Agents, arsenal being allowed 3 mins injury time against Villa and he is still refusing to talk to certain media.

Iā€™m surprised some football fans havenā€™t worked out that every team and every manager moans when things go against them. The biggest culprits are probably those nearer the bottom of the table, you just have to see how bad Jewell and Warnock were last year. Itā€™s probably easier for the media to single out Wenger as itā€™s bigger news and they are afraid to get on the bad side of Ferguson, but really he is no worse or no better than most other managers.

7

my point was in relation to wenger constantly complaining about his players being tackled/fouled - firstly its a contact sport, secondly the stats clearly do not back him up in this regard, and thirdly why does he only say this after dropping points to blackburn, bolton and birmingham (teams they should be beating if they consider themselves serious title contenders). Itā€™s also in relation to Gallas, the ā€œleaderā€ of this great footballing team - reference the birmingham game recently after c.93 mins, i think you know what i mean.

i donā€™t recall every team airing these petty gripes / displaying these reactions.

international fixtures, premier league fixtures are a common source of discontent among managers.

8

As Arsenal are top of the table, they probably can be considered as title contenders. Wenger is just sticking up for his team as any manager would. A lot gets written about Arsenalā€™s disciplinary record but when Wenger argues that they get kicked a lot more than others (in top 3 for fouls against) he is accused of whinging. Surely he has a right to air his side of the argument.

I watched the first Villa game on Setanta and Hleb had a great first half, with Arsenal completely on top. In the studio at half time Sherwood and McManaman both stated that Villa needed to start kicking Arsenal. Sherwood admitted he shouldnā€™t be saying it but that is what was needed. A few mins into 2nd half Hleb suffers a bad tackle from behind and has to go off. Against West Ham and Sunderland he was also kicked out of the game with awful tackles. Now Wenger has every right to highlight this.

After the Man city game Eriksson said that City only gave away 8 free kicks in the first half, and that isnā€™t enough against Arsenal.

I just think that the mentality of ā€œif someone is too good, kick themā€ is ruining the English league. Most of the teams are awful to watch and are only concerned with stopping the opposition. Only going back 10 years, most of the Premiership attempted to play decent football, now its just about stopping teams from playing.

Re the Gallas thing, anyone who has played sport knows that if a team concedes a stupid goal to throw away a game that the captain, and some other players, are going to go nuts after a game. The difference with Gallas is he stupidly showed his frustration in public. I certainly wouldnā€™t question his leadership as any captain I have seen (Keane,Adams, Terry) would have thrown a wobbly after such a stupid concession of points.

9

Iā€™m with you Jugs. Hate Arsenal. Team has always been full of dickwads, Keown, Henry, Pires, Cashley Cole, Viera, Lehmann, etc, really hateful players and altho they played good football at times, there was no air of graciousness about them or a sense of modesty. Players constantly moaning as much as their manager. Iā€™m not Utd fan, but that time when van Nistelrooy missed the penalty against them and Keown jumping aorund and goading him like an ape summed up that team for me.

They got rid of these players tho, and looked to be a good young modest team. But then we get Gallas, Eboue, Fabregas who is one of the mouthiest players around, Adebeyor, van Persie, all of hte same vein, mouthing and moaning on the pitch. I like Hleb, rosicky, clichy, players like that who get the head down and play ball and dont go mouthing off and whinging.

Wenger is by far the worst manager at it tho. Yes, he may have a right to feel agrieved that his players get hit, but it goes both ways. Bentdner put in an awful tackle on Andy/Andrew Johnson a few weeks back, and the time Nani was messing around with the ball and they all trying to burst him out of it then. Arsenal arent afraid of putting the boot in. Wenger has no air of graciousness about him, heā€™ll never admit fault or give an honest assesment, always that either his team are great, or they were cheated out of it.

re: the Gallas thing, he wasnt sulking coz they conceded a goal, he was sulking coz the decison of the ref went against him. A good leader wont collapse like that and make a show of himself. Heā€™d have been better of going into the dressing room and telling the players to remember that day and turn the season around from that.

oh, and well done to them last night. didnt see the game as I was training, but I didnt think theyā€™d do it, and by all accounts, they were by far the better team and fully deserved a 2-0 victory. Still hope they dont go on and win it, but last night should set them up well and give them a boost of confidence they need.

10

Spot on there Gman. I donā€™t like Wenger and I never have done. I rate him as a manager and if he pulls off even one trophy this season it will be a great piece of management to realise that he must sell his best player in order to make his team better. But he has to be the whingiest fucker around (David Moyes challenges him here) and has double standards all over the place.

11

[quote=ā€œGmanā€]Iā€™m with you Jugs. Hate Arsenal. Team has always been full of dickwads, Keown, Henry, Pires, Cashley Cole, Viera, Lehmann, etc, really hateful players and altho they played good football at times, there was no air of graciousness about them or a sense of modesty. Players constantly moaning as much as their manager. Iā€™m not Utd fan, but that time when van Nistelrooy missed the penalty against them and Keown jumping aorund and goading him like an ape summed up that team for me.

They got rid of these players tho, and looked to be a good young modest team. But then we get Gallas, Eboue, Fabregas who is one of the mouthiest players around, Adebeyor, van Persie, all of hte same vein, mouthing and moaning on the pitch. I like Hleb, rosicky, clichy, players like that who get the head down and play ball and dont go mouthing off and whinging.

Wenger is by far the worst manager at it tho. Yes, he may have a right to feel agrieved that his players get hit, but it goes both ways. Bentdner put in an awful tackle on Andy/Andrew Johnson a few weeks back, and the time Nani was messing around with the ball and they all trying to burst him out of it then. Arsenal arent afraid of putting the boot in. Wenger has no air of graciousness about him, heā€™ll never admit fault or give an honest assesment, always that either his team are great, or they were cheated out of it.

re: the Gallas thing, he wasnt sulking coz they conceded a goal, he was sulking coz the decison of the ref went against him. A good leader wont collapse like that and make a show of himself. Heā€™d have been better of going into the dressing room and telling the players to remember that day and turn the season around from that.

oh, and well done to them last night. didnt see the game as I was training, but I didnt think theyā€™d do it, and by all accounts, they were by far the better team and fully deserved a 2-0 victory. Still hope they dont go on and win it, but last night should set them up well and give them a boost of confidence they need.[/quote]

Was gonna write a post here but Gman has saved me the hassle, I admire the Gunners for all of the above reasons.

Cracking result, san siro is very difficult place to go, they whipped another English team there last year at the Quarter Final stage didnā€™t they?

12

[quote=ā€œbriantinnionā€]Was gonna write a post here but Gman has saved me the hassle, I admire the Gunners for all of the above reasons.

Cracking result, san siro is very difficult place to go, they whipped another English team there last year at the Quarter Final stage didnā€™t they?[/quote]

No, they beat Bayern Munich 2-0 away from home in the second leg of the quarter final last season after a 2-2 draw in Milan.

13

Dead fooking right David Gold is here. Shut up Fabregas.

Birmingham chairman David Gold has slammed Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregasā€™ verbal attack on defender Martin Taylor, who will make his comeback in tonightā€™s reserve clash with Tottenham.

Taylor has completed his three-match ban after being sent off against the Gunners three and a half weeks ago for the challenge which saw Eduardo suffer a broken leg.

Fabregas has claimed it is unfair Taylor can return after missing the games with Tottenham, Portsmouth and Newcastle, while Eduardo will be sidelined for a year.

But Gold believes the Spaniardā€™s comments are out of order and is concerned Taylor will be haunted by the incident for the remainder of his career.

He said: 'Fabregas has got this wrong and I will stand by Martin through thick and thin over this. It may be his opinion but I would ask him to listen to the majority of voices who have been in the main supportive of Taylor.

'It wasnā€™t a malicious tackle, Martin is incapable of such vengeance. Look at the body language.

'Why is Fabregas still talking about this three weeks after the event? I donā€™t deny that Martin has to take responsibility but he (Fabregas) is talking about there being intent.

'Is he saying he thinks Martin went into the tackle to deliberately hurt Eduardo? If he is then itā€™s outrageous and it does the player, his football club and football no favours at all.

'This could have happened to anybody and letā€™s hope Fabregas is not involved in something similar one day where he accidentally injures a player.

'Itā€™s time to get off Martinā€™s back and that includes Fabregas and people like Sepp Blatter. They donā€™t know Martin Taylor. I do and I know it was an out-and-out accident with absolutely no meanness of spirit - but he is being demonised.

ā€˜This is an ill-informed judgment by Fabregas and it does not stand up because it is ā€˜guess-timationā€™ on his part.ā€™

Gold added: 'Martin is a professional and will get on with his game, but I fear he will suffer because of this. The incident will stay with him for the rest of his days because he is not the person that Fabregas has portrayed him to be.

ā€˜If he was, he would get over it because dirty players do, but Martin is a man of conscience.ā€™

Fabregas had said: 'Taylor did it and he knows why he did it. Of course he is not going to say he did it on purpose.

ā€˜A good player gets injured for a year and the player who makes the free-kick gets suspended for three little games. It is very unfair. This type of tackle shouldnā€™t be allowed. It doesnā€™t help football.ā€™

14

If Taylor did mean to cause such an injury then itā€™s common assault. Iā€™m sure the police etc would be looking to ask questions, thats certainly not the case so Fabregas should know his role and shut his mouth.

15

Also Eduardo himself said that Taylor didnā€™t mean it.

The poor fooker probably feels terrible and you have that mouthy fook Fabregas stirring it all up againā€¦

16

Fabregas was silly to talk about it again, especially considering that Arsenalā€™s focus should be on addressing their slump in form. However, what he said is correct, there should be stronger punishment for these reckless tackles.

There is no question that players are told to get stuck in to Arsenal and other top teams/players, especially early on in games (Ronaldo gets similar treatment). As a result of this a player has broken his leg and the 3 game ban is not sufficient. The FA did not act and as a result we have seen incidents like Makelele attempting to do similar damage to Fauberts leg.

Now Iā€™m an Arsenal fan and Iā€™ll get accused of bias, but Iā€™m saying this because Iā€™d prefer to watch good players being allowed play football rather than watching mediocre premiership teams kick lumps out of each other. And if an Arsenal was guilty of a reckless tackle Iā€™d say the same thing. In fact Fabregas himself was guilty of an awful tackle in a cup game against Sheff Utd a few years ago, that he should have been brought up for.

The reason the Premiership has become so dull is because kickers are allowed to flourish and most teams wonā€™t even attempt to play football. In the build up to tonights game on Sky they were praising Kevin Davies as the hardest working centre forward in the game. They then showed 5 clips of him, 4 of which was him committing fouls, with Jamie Redknapp adding ā€œok he goes in two footed but there is nothing malicious, he just wants to win so badlyā€. Only in England could they praise a striker with one goal all season because he kicks defenders.

17

I agree that Arsenal shouldnā€™t be bringing it up again as it must be taking their focus away from the task in hand.

Iā€™m not so sure on the point about stronger punishment though. I think people are only calling for stronger punishment in this case as a result of the extent of the injury suffered rather than the actual tackle itself. Itā€™s near impossible to conclude with certainty that he maliciously intended to harm Eduardo in my opinion.

I definitely take your point that players are instructed to rough the better teams up though I have no problem with someone aggressively and fairly winning the ball and laying down a marker. Itā€™s when it involves two-footed tackles, elbows etc that it needs to be stamped out. But as I said, I just donā€™t think anyone can say that Taylor deliberately intended to break Eduardoā€™s leg and be sure of it.

As to the general point about the EPL, we were watching that earlier in the house and all laughed when Redknapp blurted it out. He also went on about Daviesā€™ two-footed tackles ā€˜getting the crowd up for itā€™. That sort of schiedt isnā€™t even football.

18

Just watching MOTD2. Wenger shaking his head at Diabyā€™s sending off when he said that Taylor should never be allowed play football again after his tackle on Eduardo.

I would say that both tackles were similar in terms of horror. Typical of Wenger the hypocriteā€¦

19

What? Wenger said afterwards that the red was deserved and he had no complaints. How can that be hypocritical?

Iā€™ve said before that all managers are hypocrtical and Wenger is no better or worse than the rest, but making up stuff to have a dig at him is a bit tabloid-ish. You will have to use a different stick to beat him with.

20

SIndo-ish if you ask me!

Disgraceful tackle btw, red card was the right option.