The Arsenal Society VIII

What a fantastic game is all I can say, and I don't really have any complaints. I think the main way in which Spurs managed to pressure us was with Crouch's flicks to the other striker/onrushing player from headers, and the only way I can see us countering that is with the defenders cutting out such flicks, at which I think we were decent today. The other thing, however, was physicality, our deficiency of which became very apparent towards the end with Spurs players muscling us off the ball as soon as one of our isolated attacking players got the ball. On another note, though I don't quite agree with it, I can see the logic of bringing on Bendtner and Arshavin for the final ten minutes: Bendtner to give us an additional route to goal (launch) and Arshavin to keep the pace, as well as for his well know ability to produce a game-changing moment (also, I have no idea how to judge player fitness levels, so that may also have had a bearing on the decision - and if that is the case, it would be difficult to argue against the decision). It does mean that the title race is - well, as over as it was last week, which isn't as bad as some people may make out. Once again, good game.

Btw, does anyone still want the likes of Neuer to oust Szczesny? Great performance from him, imo.

They were pushing so high at that point that we were forced to go long a lot of the time, RvP wasn't winning any of the balls up top and that just invited more pressure. You can analyse how good Bendtner is generally all you like but we needed him on at the end there. Also, as much as it feels like it, we didn't lose the game and against Spurs, that's pretty damn important. Wrt Nasri off for Arshavin, I agree with that one, Nasri had looked fantastic all night and his link up with Cesc was sublime, didn't see the reason behind that (I guess Wenger was hoping he'd make the difference as he did against Barca) but Theo had tired himself out and seemed to be lacking the positional awareness that made him such a threat in the first half.

Its between MAn u and Chelsea now I think. Man city will defo get champions league now bad night for London teams well apart from Chelsea.

I really find it hard if I was an Arsenal supporter right now [I am a Liverpool fan] - Bottled it against Newcastle, Tottenham [x2], Birmingham [in Carling cup final], Barcelona, Liverpool. Time and time again you guys were in the title race and then out of it and then back in... Can't really see you guys winning the title now.

But a good match overall, and I really wanted you guys to win as a Liverpool fan, but of course you didn't. Maybe 3rd isn't a bad result - Wenger?

But as Spurs were pushing up, it would have been good to still have Walcott available to run onto any long passes we played. My main complaint with bringing Bendtner on is that we put him on the wing. If we played him in the centre of the attack and put RVP on the wing or up with him in a 4-4-2 then I wouldn't have complained. Bendtner is useless on the wing as his knock downs rarely reach anyone.

The question of significant importance is....who is next in line to give away a penalty at the Bolton game?

It's beyond me how people can criticise Wenger for bringing on Bendtner at that point. Theo was dead and had no impact in that second half, except for ****ing up the golden opportunity he'd had and we absolutely needed a big man up top to win the long balls we were forced into playing.

I've seen kids in the park who have more trickery on the ball than Bendtner.

Koscielny is overdue for something very silly.

Also, I'd like to point out
Walcott 8 goals and 7 assists.
Bale 7 goals and 1 assist.

and who gets PFA player of the year?

p.s. not saying WAlcott should get PFA player of the year here.

I've seen kids in the park who have more trickery on the ball than Bendtner.

What has trickery on the ball got to do with anything? We needed a big man up top to win the headers and Theo was completely ineffectual at that point. Like I've said, if you wanna talk about his general quality and worthiness of a position in the side then fine, do so, but to say it was a tactical error from Wenger to bring him on that that point is just plain wrong imo.

He had his moment though against Birmingham.