 | Baptista - Hopeless |
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No Henry, Adebayor, Gallas, Djourou, Eboue, Hleb, Diaby, Ljungberg or Walcott. Lauren was not fit enough to start and Fabregas was rested on the bench. Which left us not enough to do proper battle at Sheffield but that cannot be used as an excuse. We were never in the game and hardly came close to testing their keepers, either of them in fact. Watching, as I was, in a pub I've no idea how well Aliadiere played because I couldn't see any of the running he did off the ball he had the odd shot, once when he should have laid it off, but overall he appeared to get zero service
Jens was hardly overworked but didn't have much chance with their goal, Hoyte for the most part did his job but didn't get forward enough to help our attack. Kolo was very much at fault for their goal and looked decidedly tired, or does that make me sound too much like Wenger? Senderos looked the best of our defenders but he was rarely tested to anything like an extreme. Clichy was generally speaking too busy to get forward as much as usual, but he did his job well enough for the most part, Flamini battled well but cannot be described as creative at the best of times and wasn't so today. Mathieu did nothing much wrong but it was obvious how much we missed Cesc throughout the proceedings. When he finally got on the game, in my opinion was already lost. All he achieved when he did get on was a booking for his first tackle. Rosicky was pretty well a waste of space. Our captain for the day Gilberto had an in and out sort of game, covering quite well and also coming closest to scoring with a downward header from a corner that hit the deck and bounced over. Baptista was apparently on the pitch but we might just have well played with ten men, when he did get the ball he tended to hit the deck faster than a speeding bullet. quite why he wasn't subbed at half time is beyond me. Possibly other than the fact that there was no one to bring on and Wenger wanted a longer look at him. Can't say I wanted a longer look at him but then I've been wrong before and will be again.
 | Van Persie - Best of a bad bunch |
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Van Persie looked the most likely, he took some digs and got booked, his eighth yellow card of the season, but had he been English I don't think he would have smelt a yellow card. Are some referees racist? Do English players get preferential treatment? Well yes they do but that's no excuse either.
A long through ball before half time saw Christian Nade beat Kolo all too easily, draw Lehmann and calmly slot home. United had a couple of other chances that they wasted but neither side exactly set the world on fire. Although it has to be said we were well on top for the first ten minutes, just a shame we didn't keep up the momentum and never got our one touch game into a groove. After that we were for the most part totally ineffective. Shooting is good and but we didn't do that, not an unusual thing for Arsenal except in this match we didn't even create our normal quota of shooting opportunities. Kelley in the United goal injured himself just after the hour mark and with no keeper on their bench. Jagielka went in goal but wasn't tested in the last half hour although judging from the way he punched away he looked more than capable.
I can't quite recall how many pints I had down the pub, but it certainly wasn't enough to cope with a naff performance like this one. It was a totally forgettable performance so that's what I'm going to do. I agree with Le Boss that bringing in new players will stunt the chances for the youngsters but we need the Champions League next season and at this rate we might be pissing in the wind when it comes to a top four finish. It is no coincidence that the average age of all the top Clubs is miles older than ours. Experience is what has got United on top, it's what the Chavs have purchased at great expense and its why the short term strategies of Bolton and Portsmouth have been effective. Our future looks brilliant and I can wait whilst enjoying the youngsters coming through but this won't suit every Gooner or every player we need to keep happy.