NLD: post-match thoughts and stuff
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 12:00PM Okay, so it’s the morning after, and I've stated countless times I have no intention of excusing the 4-1 loss, but there is no reason to perhaps add perspective to the result and try to understand it.
I know Arsenal fans are desperate to wipe clean the memory of the 5-1 and last seasons 2-1 which ended their season (deal with it Wenger) but let's get some perspective here. Had we won last night, the game would not have got a dvd release.
Selections and formations
Harry stated, a while back, that the game is fundamentally about the players. No matter the formation. 10% about the formation, 90% about the players on the pitch. To quote him:
"If you have the best ones and they do their jobs, then they can pretty much play any way you want them to"
So no shocker then that when you play Palacios in an offensive midfield position, Bentley on the wrong flank, Gio on the wrong flank, then stick in some debutants including Sandro - who, let's be fair, is not going to be that confident in the side fielded unlike say a side with the likes of Bale, Huddlestone, Modric and vdV surrounding him.
I don't blame Harry for playing the players he played. Rock and hard place. If he's not going to play key players, he has no choice but to play the fringe ones. To be honest, I didn't expect Wenger to select so many first teamers in his squad - and then play all of them. I guess he really wants to win something this season.
I stand by my pre-match belief that a NLD is exactly that and we should never be looking to field a non-competitive side. Fact is, the patched up ethic doesn't work for us. It's not so much to do with out of form players or even out of position players (although that has an influence). It's to do with the lack of an in-house top to bottom philosophy.
Philosophy you say?
Our first team is rather good. Our first team would have beaten the team Arsenal put out last night. I'm confident of that. More than confident. Arsenal's first team? Well, that would have been a full blown NLD, blood and thunder and silky skills. We got nothing of the sort last night. So why can Arsenal play a mixture of youth, fringe players and first teamers and look so comfortable against our side of not so many first teamers, put plenty of supposed quality and promising youth?
Well firstly, the supposed quality is either spent or inept. And the promising youth is just that, but not yet excelling. Simply put. Wenger, the canny s.o.b. and the culture he has instilled into their club means that from top to bottom they play a distinctive style. Players are signed and developed to fit into a style of play. Its all very specific, and although arguably, at the moment (at least in the past half-decade) its not proving to be successful in terms of silverware, they do produce very clean, crisp, technical football. They are still massive c**ts, blatantly, in terms of moaning/diving/non-acceptance of defeat - but what it does mean is that they can mix and match and not betray their philosophy of play. There appears to be no detrimental effect, although, under-strength Wenger sides have had their arses spanked before. There are limits. The hype is just that.
There is also no doubting we play with a swagger and style. We always have. It's also the culture of the club to play sweeping pulsating football. But what last night proved is that if you don’t play a spine of first team players, if you take key players out of the equation, it all falls apart. It's not so much sweeping, but more sleeping. Yes, Harry did not help matters what with players out of their natural positions. And some of the players did not help themselves (what is the point of David Bentley again?). There was no cohesion or togetherness out there from our lot. Disjointed the thought of the day.
Our players are player-dependent. The system, it works best when the key players are starting. If we miss key players, there is still enough about the collective, mental strength wise, to still pull it altogether. Far too many light-weights, in the head department, last night. Then again, this is just the one game, so I won't be looking to scape-goat. More on Harry and the players below.
I'm not suggesting an overhaul of the academy, re-introduction of the reserve team etc - although that would be fantastic in terms of long term plans. In the short term, if we're going avoid risking key players but still remain competitive, then for starters - let's have some consistency in formation and balance the team out so it can at least pretend to try and play like a full strength first team. This would mean, signing a particular ilk of player. It's not an over-night solution. And Harry - long term - might not have the inclination to work in this way. Levy - wise up and get on it. If anything, the academy really has to start pushing on at same point soon.
Quick-fire player reviews
Pletikosa - Not very convincing
Naughton - Struggled
Caulker - Played well, but clumsy needless penalty. Would want to see him involved in more games because there is defo something about him that would have me think he has a future
Bassong - Meh
Assou-Ekotto - Was fine, nothing more, but you try looking effective with Bentley up ahead of you
Gio - Had to be subbed. This kid must have something if you can do it at international level. Time Harry cut him same slack ON the pitch
Sandro - Debut, NLD, showed glimpses but can't be too critical, considering the surroundings
Livermore - Struggled, not quite ready, even for a lower-tier cup game
Palacios - He's a DM, not a very good one at the moment regarding form, so why start him in a more offensive position?
Bentley - Honestly mate, stick to setting your foot on fire and diving into in-door swimming pools
Pav - No service, is not the type of player to carve out something from nothing
Keane - He scored. Hit the woodwork. Didn't do too badly, but if we're comparing him to Keane of old, it's all a bit depressing. He has lost the mojo.
Lennon - Little room for movement, little effort when the ball was at his feet. Do we need to draft in a psychologist?
Kranjcar - Out of position
As for the swamp things?
Plenty of possession, movement and passing. Didn't create that much though, did they? Two penalties won them the match, even with our complete incompetence to resemble a competitive side, it flattered them. I know, that's subjective. I wonder if Wenger will play a full strength side if he faced Chelsea in the next round? Probably beat them, innit, what with them being wonder-kid toddlers with mental matrix skillabilities. Gooners are really milking this, bless 'em. I guess they have to take what's handed to them on a plate and make the very most of it. At least they care enough to gloat. Take the bragging rights - no argument - but don't kid (lol) yourselves. It's not half as impressive as you'd like it to be. But then, you know that.
Conclusion
Harry got it wrong. It happens. Did he honestly think Wenger would play the under 11's? Whatever it was he tried to do failed, epically. It's frustrating that, say the likes of Gio who hardly gets a chance, gets one but is played out of position. Bentley, who you'd hope would want to change his application to something that doesn't involve him pouncing around like a really crap David Beckham impersonator, failed to ignite any hope of redemption. I'll stop now, I did say - no scapegoats.
If he can learn something from this, it's some players really do need to be gone in Jan and others need to be developed and used effectively. It's a shake of the head from me that Harry didn't follow his own belief about playing players where they play best.
Even so, what with all the post-match reflection this morning, the game changed on the first penalty decision. The chances created prior to that (our chances) were better. So, in the grand scheme of things…don't read too much in it. It sucks losing to them, its never acceptable to lose in a dejectable manner, but that's football.
Roll on Saturday.
Reader Comments (181)
Weird atmosphere last night. Got good after we scored and then really started rocking when we were 4-1 down and half the crowd left. Not the usual WHL NLD intensity. What happened to our 12th man?
It's not fair, they played better players than a bunch of teenagers like last time. Cheats, scummy cheating c**ts. We would have won if they didn't play good players.
Deluded.
We're not as loud as we used to be at the Lane :(
Why Niko didn't start was beyond me! He needs playing time. Period.
1 player started from our best XI. Stop whining it's embarrassing. Should of been 2 or 3-0 up by HT if if weren't for an incompetent linesman.
Created better chances?? Kicking it long on the counter then shooting for 20 yards out isn't a chance.
Deluded.
Dan. Stop missing the point being made. It's not an excuse. It's a statement of fact. You know, if you want me to say it's an excuse, I could, and then that would make us 1-1 in terms of the last Carling Cup. You know, what with Arsenal fans telling me, countless times, that they player a second string and it never counted and such.
Any ways, the point of the article is to try to get a clear understanding, if wasn't clear enough already.
i.e. we were crap.
I'm still hurting even after countless heinkens! Never ever should we field a weak team against the scum. Every competition we should put out a strong team, I don't care I'd its called the mickey mouse cup with a better team we would have had a good chance of winning it more so than the champs league......but we can dream. COYS
I'd say hitting the wood work, coming close a couple of times and Bentley missing a sitter were clear chances. So the author is right. You lot used the same excuse when we beat you 2-1. Apparently holding and passing the ball amounts to more than scoring. Well done on the pens. Dont delude yourselves it was won anywhere else than in the box with clumsy tackles from us.
Dan, you're name calling now. That's a bit cheap.
We played a second string this time like you. Last time wasn't even a second string for us, it was team made up of 7 teenagers, yes 7 against your first XI. You had 1 teenager out last night and are talking about having played too many inexperienced players. Imagine playing 7 teenagers at the emirates against our first XI because that's what happened 3 years ago.
Fuck off Dan, have you nothing better to do than post cuntish comments on spurs forums. i cant wait till our 1st team get to play your abused bunch of fucktards.
well done to the lads who stayed and sung their hearts out last night it was good to see. i did think about leaving at 4 - 1 but couldnt do it. although i do understand why people did!
Just a word: When Bentley took the first free kick, wide on the left, I said to a mate: "I bet he goes for goal rather than try to pick out one of the big guys." He did. Then he broke through, in a three-on-two situation, Gio on his left and Pav on his right. He blazed a shot over from outside the area. I'm not too concerned about the result, but our man David is showing just why he doesn't get picked. He's a glory hunter.
Just had lunch with a gooner mate at work. I told him to just 'get the gloating out the way' and he said he couldn't gloat based on the fact it was the CC and the teams put out. How refreshing. He might have hit his head this morning, so I'm not getting too excited by this rarity of modesty. He said the Sunderland game was far more important.
I guess it differs from one fan to the next. Still hoping the day tripping gooners half attempt to debate and chat, but I'm not holding out for a miracle.
Bentley hit the woodwork with a header, I'll give you that one. That's it. The Keane post was offside so isn't a chance, your goal was offside so shouldn't have counted. That's 2 of your 3 chances that weren't actual chances. Talking rubbish. Lennon had your best chance when his shot was blocked but we had 4-5 like that which were blocked by CBs before getting to the goal.
It was Arsenal's 2nd string team, it was our 3rd string team.. Some of the team had never even played for the 1st team, others had never started. No excuses, just fact..
They dominated us 1st half.. At 1-1, 2nd half we had a few chances that really should have burried it for us.
1st penalty, definately not a penalty for anyone who has ever played the game.. All the Arsenal fans saying he tugged his shirt, then why did his kit stay flush with his body and pull away from it?
2nd penalty, fair play, total penalty... All over from there on in..
I've had it with Bentley. Show pony, in fact, he's not even good at that. Not right in the head. Has to go back to a club like Blackburn where there is no pressure on him. He's the perfect example of the type of player we should never buy again. Marquee Bullshit.
Succinctly put Spooky as usual! We fielded a team who didn't know one another never mind played together. For all their brilliant football etc we held them for 90 mins, we could've won it as well before ET. The penalty?? did us in, we never recovered. Hindsight for team selection is a wonderful thing! Harry should've known that the Arse would not field a really weakened line up against us again!! Hurts like hell today but onward and upward lads. COYS!!!
quick run down is their 2nd team convincingly beat our third team, we can bitch about it, we can claim cheating but niether really sate the hunger for victory.
Things I noticed though were a) ex footballers really shouldnt be allowed to commentate on matches involving their own clubs, not just alan smith and I like their opinions in the breaks, but the actually commentary should be impartial, taking smith as an example, last night he was obviousley jubilent, and I dont hold that against him, I would be, when arsenal are getting beat he's whiney, either way its not a pleasurable experience for one half of the viewers, yet on the liverpool man utd match his comments were pretty insightful. b) no one seems to have mentioned the shots on target statistic in the first half (tottenham 0, arsenal 1) and that the goal keeper had very litle to do all night (applies to both until extra time). Lastly c) the captaincy, a small thing, and regardless of how it effected the team or the personal beliefs in the ability of the player one thing did stand out and that was Bassong being captain didnt affect his game. Thats useful for the future as we have had plenty of great players go to pot with the armband on and not recover till an alternative steps up, but his communication with the back four and centre of midfield seemed to be good in a game where no one seemed to be on the same wavelength. the way I see it is defending is a skill that can be taught and improved upon, captaincy not so much, so while not a factor immediately, it could prove useful in the future if king retires and dawson takes up the role of one-legged-spurs-centre-back.
Also, livermore looked pretty sharp in the opening minutes before we realised we actually recognised most of their team ;)
Arsenal had once chance in the first half and scored. The Arsenal fan - stop trying to distort the facts. You could get a job with Sky if you continue with your over the top post match commentary. I've already seen headlines staying 'young guns'.
Average age for Arsenal? Around 22. Average age of Spurs. Around 23. Fucking whoop de fucking do.
Arsenal can never win, they have to win and it has to be this almighty amazing thing.
I can't wait for the league game. Gloves off. Then you're free to slate us or not.
What facts have I distorted? Name then please. go:
Frankly i don't care. I just want by £50+ quid back from those robbing barstewards. If you're gonna do what we did, don't charge people top whack.
Oh yeah, anyone seen any movement on the season ticket waiting list this year? Another piece of dodgy business carried out by those who run the club.
Getting sick of being ripped off, CL or no CL.
Dan Dan Dan - you do know your persistence has an air of desperation to it? Look at us, we beat Spurs 4-1 on our home patch, Equally strong sides, blah blah. You are doing exactly what you lot have accused us of being guilty of.
Your mish mash side beat our one. Fact.
The game was won on a penalty. Fact.
We clearly had chances to win it before said penalty. Fact.
Did Spurs deserve to win it? Probably not in terms of how poorly we played as a unit. But just because you played pretty possession football doesn't mean you did either. You got the breaks. Well done. Good luck with it. Enjoy it.
Hi there Spooky,first time poster but i have been reading your blog for a few months now & LOVE it.Great humour.!!Just a couple of things if i may....firstly Giovani "Dontgiveatoss" is a liability & should be the first out the door in January & secondly thats what happens when you play too many unfit/matchfit players together at one go.......Roll on saturday at the Pikey"s 3 point park...COYS
2nd team vs 3rd team ha ha ha ha h aha h a h a ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! bloody hypocrits and u say wenger is a whiner....................u all tiny totts very well know that even with your fit first eleven u r below avg (forgot match against young boys and wigan ) spurs are going nowhere top 4 this season and may be for another 50 yrs just like it was this time and the difference between so called first team and second team of arsenal and spurs is that arsenal first team is world class and second team is good while spurs first team is medicore and avg and second team is total shit , u should all thank lucky stars that it was a fluke last season u got in top 4 enjoy till it lasts , ha ha ha ha ha ha...........cant believe how we owned and laid spurs team , white fart lane and spurs fans last night , what shambolic and shit support u hv.....
Dan - don't you have more important things to do than to spend your life on the blog of your rivals? Why are you here?
You must lead a sad, boring existence if all you can do is post on here.
I for one wouldn't sully myself by even looking at a g**ner blog.
Now go away
I saw a video of Bentley at Blackburn. Hairless, determined, slim and fit, and playing without any stupid flicks and aimless dummies. My god what a player he was! I started wishing that he would be given a chance again at Spurs. But alas! What appeared yesterday was a monster man! a horrid monster with oily hair and a fat belly.
What did we do to the guy?
I understand Jenas. No other manager wants him in the entire premiership and championship and he earns more than Luka Modric at Spurs thus his "I'll fight for my...cheque" comments. But why can't we just give Bentley to Pompey as friendly aid? We were conned. the sooner we accept it the better.
Giovanni Santos=Jose Dominguiz with good P R..!!
No one going to talk about our fitness levels? What is going on this season?
"You are doing exactly what you lot have accused us of being guilty of." bingo!
We got the breaks?
A perfectly good goal disallowed for offside to make it 2-0.
An offside goal for you allowed to make it 1-1.
"We clearly had chances to win it before said penalty. Fact."- You did, what were they? Keane hitting the post when he was given offside, Pavlyuchenko shooting for 25 yards over and over again, Bentley shooting from 40 yards at every set piece. They're not chances lads. Get over it.
Listen to yourselves... just stop and listen.
We were missing:
Almunia
Clichy sub
Sagna
Vermaelen
Squllaci
Song
Diaby
Cesc
Theo
Ramsey
RVP
Bendtner
Arshavin sub
Chamakh sub
We had our 4th string striker and a right winger that's played a handful of games for us. Average age was younger (despite your acclaimed inexperience) and cost half as much.
Not having Theo is an advantage. Try listing the players we had missing.
Do you get it?
Can we just agree to disagree? Since when do either set of fans ever back down and admit the opposite of what they say? Never.
Dan. Enjoy it.
Everyone else. Let's move onto West Ham.
What was the "Daily Star" headline?
Totts 1
Toddlers 4
Yeah, Toddlers my arse!
With the exception of Lanscombe, Wilshere & Koscielny every single one of their players was well versed in Arsenal football be it Premiership or cup competitions.
This is a list of their club appearances:
Fabianski - 37
Koscielny - 6
Djourou - 79
Eboue - 190
Gibbs - 32
Rosicky - 100
Nasri - 82
Denilson - 123
Wilshere - 7
Lansbury - 1
Vela - 53
Total - 710 appearance between them.
Compare that to our starting X1:
Pletikosa - Debut (not played club football for a year!)
Naughton - 4
Caulker - Debut
Bassong - 40
BAE - 104
Bentley - 60
Livermore - Debut
Sandro - Debut
Palacios - 61
Gio - 19
Pav - 66
Total club appearances: 260!!!
So how exactly are Arsenal the "inexperienced" ones????
Credit where credit is due though. For the full 45 mins of the first half they played like they were the home team. Granted, little actual efford on goal, but plenty of possession, making us chase the ball and do all the work.
2nd half was better balanced and everything went their way in extra time.
Bill G - shouldn't you be in (infants) school?
It's simple fellas. Arsenal were the better team. Regardless if we fielded a "weaker" team - which I don't believe is true; we just fielded the wrong mash up of players - we should have won. Especially at home. Whining and complaining that they had a better team and all that jazz has no merit today. WE LOST. BADLY. Worst of all were the supporters at the Lane last night. A total disgrace in my opinion. Never witnessed something that bad.
I'm depressed.
Bentley has reverted to type and should be shipped off as soon as possible. All he does is choose the wrong option, lose the ball trying fancy tricks, and waste set piece opportunities. He cannot beat a full back, his famous crossing ability has never materialised, he is never going to make it at Spurs.
Am also surprised that most people seem to think Sandro had a good game or was our best player - what game were you watching? He showed some glimpses of potential but was caught napping several times and was totally dominated in central midfield. He will need to be brought on carefully, I hope he turns out to be excellent but last night he proved he's not ready for the first team quite yet, clearly it is very difficult to adjust to English football and he needs time. No knee jerk though, he showed some moments to suggest he might turn out to be useful if managed carefully.
Keane was much better and more influential than Gio. Yes he has lost his spark, but he was making runs and tracking back in a way Gio just doesn't offer, our whole tempo and competitiveness was raised a notch after he and Lennon came on, and it wasn't really down to Lennon who once more was quiet. Keane still has a role to play in our squad.
yes u can say or cry whatever u want on this blog but where were u pathetic so called fans when ur team needed u, everyone saw how u ran out of whit fart lane with ur asses plugged with rusted poles
So because you played new signings (pletikosa has played 80 internationals and is over 30, sandro has played for Brazil) that makes you less experienced?
The only inexperienced players on that field were WIlshere, Lansbury, Gibbs, Caulker, Naughton and Livermore.The real issue is that the Arsenal 3 are far better players than the spurs 3.
Their reserves beat our reserves. Harry made 10 changes players making their first start and kids to boot was always going to be a chance of something like this happening and they got 2 soft pens imo they were clumsy if anything. Im a bit dissapointed in Harry to be honest he should have picked a stronger team after all we were playing the goon's. No reason why Lennon, Keane and Niko didn't start with Hudd coming of the bench along with maybe 3MP at some stage as the game went on. These guys are pro's and should be well able for at least 60 mins during the week. All in all cant really read to much into this result as both teams were second string though I hope Harry has learned another lesson. Never play such a unfamiliar team against the goons ever again especially at home. Let's beat the Spammers at the weekend take it out on them.
COYS
This sums it up:
We were not just playing our 'B Team', we were practically playing our 'C Team'. 3rd choice goalkeeper, arguably 4th choice right-back, 5th and 6th choice centre-backs, 3rd choice left-midfielder, 3rd choice right-midfielder (if you include VDV), 4th, 5th & 6th choice central midfielders (if you put Jenas ahead of Palacios) and 3rd and 4th choice strikers. So 7 from our 'C Team', 2 from our 'B Team' and just 1 from our 'A Team'.
- The score at full-time was 1-1, not 4-1. Everything went wrong in extra time, but that has put an unfair skew on the game as a whole. Sure they dominated the game in terms of possession and quality, but what about chances over the 90 minutes? If you look at the highlights here http://footyroom.com/tottenham-hotspur-1-4-arsenal-2010-09/ , I think it was fairly equal. In fact I think we had the best two chances (Lennon's one-on-one and Keane hitting the post.
Guys Dan has a point, when we beat them 5-1 they did have all their kids out. Gallas, Sagna, Diaby, Fabregas, Hleb, Eduardo, Walcott and Adebayor coming on with 35 minutes left of the game. HE HAS A POINT :-s....Dan get off our blogs mate. stop trying to convince yourself that we had a strong team out yesterday.
Back to the blog, I think Sandro was very good considering he had all to do for himself, he is everywhere in the right place at the right time. Thats one positive. we should have fielded our second string team like Jenas, Hutton, Keane should have started, Kranjcar, Gio on the left and bentley on the right...i feel sorry for Gio because he has always been thrown in the deep end, he never gets to play with bale behind him, modric to the side of him, lennon on the other flank, huddlestone to thread him through, crouch or defoe to service the ball to. oh yeh, and king, gallas, corluka dawson to protect him if he makes a mistake...ohhhhhhh and also van der Vaart would also thread the little mexican through.
Lads we have a fantastic squad, but our squad is meant to cover 1st team injuries, not the full 1st team.BRING ON SATURDAY!!! COYS
I think that 5-1 bashing a couple of years ago hurt the little gooners more then they made out! You would have thought they had actually managed to win a trophy the way they are carrying on. Let me take this opportunity to congratualte Wenger on the team last nights performance, this is obviously evidence that you are really improving year on year and that everyone can now see the Prem league and Champions League has your name written all over it. Fergie and Ancelotti must have watched that dominant 1st half performance (..1 shot on goal... cough!) and gone into work today and demanded a January warchest of cash to compete with your on going onslaught.
By the way does passing the ball around in the middle of the park make you dominating now? :)
Besides which, when the Goons get knocked out, their fans will go back to it being a mickey mouse competition.
I'd rather we lost last night having given some players new experience, rested others and let others recover from injuries, than put out a stronger side and risked damage.
Let's just have everyone raring to go on Saturday and then for the CL game next week.
The run of constant cames will again take it's toll physically on Arsenal anyway.....
In my opinion Harry was right to play a 2nd / 3rd string team. If we didn't get Champion League football last season (thanks for the vital 3 points arsenal) then my opinion would be different. Our KEY players are picking up many injuries and priority has to lie in the other three competitions. The main thing that pisses me off is that our kids / 2nd string are good individually and this would have been a good chance for them to get playing time, bond as a unit and of course be kept happy!
......also was i the only one who thought Pav was fucking digusting last nihgt?......no effort, disinterested and shit all round. Usually a big fan of Pav with the point of view he should lead the line in a 5-4-1 but opinion starting to sway!
Dan, why have you ignored the positive comments be it heavily disguised comments that spooky made in the blog post? He's clearly stating you won because of the set-up Wenger lives and dies by. That's actually quite a massive compliment.
(Spooky you judas)
DAN:
The arsenal team defeated 5-1 was
Arsenal: Fabianski, SAGNA, Justin Hoyte, GALLAS, Traore (EDUARDO 65), HLEB, Denilson (FABREGAS 18), Silva, DIABY, WALCOTT (ADEBAYOR 65), Bendtner.
Forgive me if i'm wrong but that would seem to be around 8 of your first team over the course of the game (in capitals). Last night you started 2 of your 1st XI and we started 1(2 at a push), on that basis i hardly think you can draw much from last night.
However i do think that if we had the equivliant of arshavin (Modric/Bale) and Chamak (Defore/Crouch) avaliable to stick on at the 65 min mark rather than out-of-sorts Keane and Lennon we might have sneaked it in 90 minutes much as neither team really deserved to win it in normal time.
all spuds can do is talk shit and run their mouth and fingers on this blog but when tough gets going on pitch all spurs players ,manager and especially spurs fans run like burning effiel tower is plugged into their backsides , what crying whining specimens u lot r bringing out theories of 2nd vs 3rd , diving and blah blah u were lucky even to score one goal and we not one more, u talk like ur first eleven are world beaters but in reality u avg pile of shit who got insanely lucky last season and everything will balance out this season as u will finish somewhere 9-10th where u belong....and even worse if harry screw u big time financialy as he had done in clubs b4 , but u cant ignore the act spurs fans r bunch of cowards who run when tough gets going whole world saw that last night and even got bullied by travelling fans , everyone heard that ...........
'Keane still has a role to play in our squad.'
Events manager?
Billy G - if you're going to try and insult us and our club at least put some effort into it boy! I've heard better more knowledgable footie banter from a 6 year old West Ham fan (TRUE)....and that's saying something.
@Ginola4teen-
"The arsenal team defeated 5-1 was
Arsenal: Fabianski, SAGNA, Justin Hoyte, GALLAS, Traore (EDUARDO 65), HLEB, Denilson (FABREGAS 18), Silva, DIABY, WALCOTT (ADEBAYOR 65), Bendtner.
Hoyte, Traore, Denilson,Cesc, Diaby, Walcott, Bentdner. All teenagers 4 years ago and not first team players.
Thats like in 4 years, if Caulker is a starter for you at 22, saying he played last night and was a starter.
Just because our young players go on to have careers with us 4 years down the line, doesn't mean they were stars or first team players at 18 and 19.
You had 1 teenager playing last night, we had 2. We had 7 that night.
@cock-grill
yes yes its very easy to pretend like a stud and play cool behind ur computer screens , isnt it....