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I thought Hughes showed Arsenal far too much respect at 1-0. It was almost as if we were thinking "Ok, we're happy we've got our goal, now we're just gonna sit on it and hope we can keep them out".

We were far too deep, and there was rarely more than 2 of our players in their box when we broke.

Fortunately at 1-1 he went for the jugular, credit to him for that.

Arsenel were by far the batter team for most of the second half apart from a 10 minutes spell where we scored 3 great counter attacking goals.

There wasnt much Hughes could have done to stem the flow without making us even more defenisve. They would have outplyed most teams with their movement and passing in the first 20 minutes of the second half. We chased shadows.

Maybe Ireland could have come off earlier for Zabs and maybe things would have been different with Komps in there rather than De Jong. Whatever, its pretty much nitpicking.

We've along way to go as a team but Arsenel are still one of the worlds best sides.

That's my point though Grob, we let them be the better team by inviting them onto us showing them far too much respect.

Blue Toy wrote:That's my point though Grob, we let them be the better team by inviting them onto us showing them far too much respect.

We had to stand off. Had we got too tight thay would have been in behind.

It worked in the end didnt it?

Yes - I just think we could have avoided the anxiety!

Blue Toy wrote:Yes - I just think we could have avoided the anxiety!

In time as we get better we will avoid pressure like Arsenel created today.

I see what your saying though.

i thought hughes had blown it. just got it wrong. fortunately, we then upped it and ripped them apart. it bothers me the way we sat back in that first 20 mins 2nd half. not good at all. then again, we can just breakout at any time. ever seen a faster team? me neither.

Grob wrote:

Blue Toy wrote:Yes - I just think we could have avoided the anxiety!

In time as we get better we will avoid pressure like Arsenel created today.

I see what your saying though.

We could have avoided it by not giving them the centre of the park uncontested. I was amazed to see we had 52% of the game played in our third....that's the most I have ever seen played at one end. (Sometimes the centre third gets that high) When you add it to the fact that we scored 4, well I can't explain it, but we didn invite an awful lot of pressure on ourselves and the likes of Stevie and Barry should be on everything as it comes into our half and forces it to be played quicker than Arsenal would like. They really weren't on it like they have been today, Stevie looked decidedly off colour. (I am not saying anything on the player who should be marshaling the final third, I think I have established my opinion on him)

Slim wrote:

Grob wrote:

Blue Toy wrote:Yes - I just think we could have avoided the anxiety!

In time as we get better we will avoid pressure like Arsenel created today.

I see what your saying though.

We could have avoided it by not giving them the centre of the park uncontested. I was amazed to see we had 52% of the game played in our third....that's the most I have ever seen played at one end. (Sometimes the centre third gets that high) When you add it to the fact that we scored 4, well I can't explain it, but we didn invite an awful lot of pressure on ourselves and the likes of Stevie and Barry should be on everything as it comes into our half and forces it to be played quicker than Arsenal would like. They really weren't on it like they have been today, Stevie looked decidedly off colour. (I am not saying anything on the player who should be marshaling the final third, I think I have established my opinion on him)

Ireland was noticeably struggling today. Off the ball it looked like he didn't know what his role was/what areas to run into.

Slim wrote:

Grob wrote:

Blue Toy wrote:Yes - I just think we could have avoided the anxiety!

In time as we get better we will avoid pressure like Arsenel created today.

I see what your saying though.

We could have avoided it by not giving them the centre of the park uncontested. I was amazed to see we had 52% of the game played in our third....that's the most I have ever seen played at one end. (Sometimes the centre third gets that high) When you add it to the fact that we scored 4, well I can't explain it, but we didn invite an awful lot of pressure on ourselves and the likes of Stevie and Barry should be on everything as it comes into our half and forces it to be played quicker than Arsenal would like. They really weren't on it like they have been today, Stevie looked decidedly off colour. (I am not saying anything on the player who should be marshaling the final third, I think I have established my opinion on him)

Almost everytime Stevie or Barry got too tight they were turned and someone ran into space behind them. Its classic arsenel.

Lescott got to tight and challanged RVP, got turned, 1 each.

I see what your saying but tactical criticism after what we viewed today seems very nitpicky when you look at Arsenels recent history against our own.

One day we will boss teams like Arsenel. Arsenel have bossed and beaten better teams than us. At least today was our day.

Dunne's Half-Time Pint wrote:

Slim wrote:

Grob wrote:

Blue Toy wrote:Yes - I just think we could have avoided the anxiety!

In time as we get better we will avoid pressure like Arsenel created today.

I see what your saying though.

We could have avoided it by not giving them the centre of the park uncontested. I was amazed to see we had 52% of the game played in our third....that's the most I have ever seen played at one end. (Sometimes the centre third gets that high) When you add it to the fact that we scored 4, well I can't explain it, but we didn invite an awful lot of pressure on ourselves and the likes of Stevie and Barry should be on everything as it comes into our half and forces it to be played quicker than Arsenal would like. They really weren't on it like they have been today, Stevie looked decidedly off colour. (I am not saying anything on the player who should be marshaling the final third, I think I have established my opinion on him)

Ireland was noticeably struggling today. Off the ball it looked like he didn't know what his role was/what areas to run into.

I think the positive we take from this is that last season when he had an off game we invariably lost. He didn't play well today and we won so we are not so reliant on Ireland as our crux or barometer.

Players have bad games, but if he turns it around next week he will be a god.

On a day when theres too much to celebrate my greatest concern is the value of Lescott

Patrick wrote:On a day when theres too much to celebrate my greatest concern is the value of Lescott

We'll revisit in 20 to 30 games time, like i have done with De Jong today.

First impressions are lasting though

Grob wrote:

Patrick wrote:On a day when theres too much to celebrate my greatest concern is the value of Lescott

We'll revisit in 20 to 30 games time, like i have done with De Jong today.

First impressions are lasting though

Lescott was top today,i dont care what anyone says.

Well worth the small change in the Sheikhs pocket.

Patrick wrote:On a day when theres too much to celebrate my greatest concern is the value of Lescott

I said this before we got him. Gives us a lot at attacking set pieces. Decent distributor. Would Dunne have given RVP that sort of space... no.

He is very good in the air, made a horrific decision to dive in against RVP but it was a quality finish as well and on another day that shot goes wide or is saved. I thought we were buying an end to these silly mistakes and that obviously is something that needs time to play out. My big concern with him is his penchant for lumping it upfield. That plays against everything we excel at and 99/100 hands the ball back to the opposition and gives them another go.

Slim wrote:He is very good in the air, made a horrific decision to dive in against RVP but it was a quality finish as well and on another day that shot goes wide or is saved. I thought we were buying an end to these silly mistakes and that obviously is something that needs time to play out. My big concern with him is his penchant for lumping it upfield. That plays against everything we excel at and 99/100 hands the ball back to the opposition and gives them another go.

that's a myth. I thought he was good today - great challenge to initiate the bellamy goal as well - but he's not as dominant in the air as you'd hope for a man that size. He jumps early i reckon. That said, an encouraging if not flawless display.

In terms of aerial defence though - how fucking good is Adebayor on that near post (set pieces)... we were keeping count and I think he cleared about 5 in a row at one point.

lets all have a disco wrote:

Grob wrote:

Patrick wrote:On a day when theres too much to celebrate my greatest concern is the value of Lescott

We'll revisit in 20 to 30 games time, like i have done with De Jong today.

First impressions are lasting though

Lescott was top today,i dont care what anyone says.

Well worth the small change in the Sheikhs pocket.

I agree completly LAHAD, Allways a big Dunnie supporter and fan but I have to admit Lescott is a vast improvment!
We need t oremember that for a large part of the start of the 2nd half we couldnt get out of our half! FFS, all the players played well to defend but it just kept coming back at us.

Anyway back to the OP - Agree that the tactics were pretty negative to start, it worked up until Wenger realised how to hurt us at half time and our 4-5-1 formation worked against us.

What I'm more impressed with was that we saw that the starting formation wasnt working so we changed to 442 with Petrov on the Left Wing and bellers up front with Ade, we still had a lot of attack to soak up but Arse couldnt comitas many forward as before!

Plus - WE FUCKING BATTERD THEM !!!!! :-)

Dunne's Half-Time Pint wrote:

Slim wrote:He is very good in the air, made a horrific decision to dive in against RVP but it was a quality finish as well and on another day that shot goes wide or is saved. I thought we were buying an end to these silly mistakes and that obviously is something that needs time to play out. My big concern with him is his penchant for lumping it upfield. That plays against everything we excel at and 99/100 hands the ball back to the opposition and gives them another go.

that's a myth. I thought he was good today - great challenge to initiate the bellamy goal as well - but he's not as dominant in the air as you'd hope for a man that size. He jumps early i reckon. That said, an encouraging if not flawless display.

In terms of aerial defence though - how fucking good is Adebayor on that near post (set pieces)... we were keeping count and I think he cleared about 5 in a row at one point.

I thought he was good in the air, Sagna spent a lot of time crossing today and most of the time it was cut out by Lescott. I am currently reading an Arsenal forum match thread and they even made mention of it.

Ade is a monster, he does a lot more work than people realise and really put a good shift in at the back. £25M seems a bargain at this stage, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Not goin to bitch about todays play.The Arse are a settled squad and Wenger and his players deserve respect.The way they play is a joy to watch at times.I expected for us to be under the cosh at times.
Im so dam impressed the way City came back at them at 1-1.
TBH i was fookin bemused at Hughes bringin Petrov on for Superman but it didnt weaken us and we trashed the fookers in that 10 min 2nd half spell.
Is this all a dream.