Song bossed the game like a man who had beaten Barcelona.
Bendtner was dominant, only let down by his shooting. Arshavin is back in form.
Rosicky’s goal was excellent and he perked up after scoring.
Chamakh is struggling for sharpness, but will have more impact as the season rolls on.
Denilson is not made for games like these.
Squillaci did what he needed to do.
It’s good to see Sagna back.
Miquel was sparky, but didn’t handle his major test well.
Neither did Gibbs.
To blame Almunia for the goal is harsh, but Szczesny would have saved it.
The replay is welcome, not unwelcome: it gives our second team another run-out together.
I’m looking forward to seeing our first team again on Wednesday.
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Thank F*ck someone who is not slitting his wrists over that result. every one banging on about a fixture pile up, back in the 80’s we wouldnt have a squad nowhere near as big as we do now, and nowhere near as fit. 10 changes we made, so thats a nice week off anyway.
Chin Up gooners
It wasn’t dreadful, there were some positives such as the ones you’ve mentioned above. But, the less said the better.
We have more important fixtures to talk about. Such as the Cup final on Saturday; the second leg at Nou Camp; when and where the Spurs game will be re-scheduled and even the Stoke game in a few days time.
Contradiction is your real name mate…”Almunia not at fault nor defenders” so sall we blame the striker? If Almunia had stood up he could have side footed that shot out but as he has done forever he went down too fast.
Miquel was excellent as was Gibbs……one error and you moan?
Denilson is not AFC quality at all so he should go asap.
@ GunnerPete – Me? Moaning? Where’d you get that quotation from? Certainly not my article.
You’re not exactly spreading the love, are you.
I thought The arsenal controled the game with good passing movement. Unfortunately at 0-1 the apposing team are never out of the game. I dont think your boys looked hungry enough to kill the tie earlier and seemed to be happy with the one goal half an hour from the end. Did you notice how they picked up the pase onec the O’s had equalised. Why not play like that to make it 0-2 rather then relax.
@shambo how did we look last night. Although we looked half deasent going fwd our defending from Cole backwards looked soft and sloppy. Can we go the whole way? as long as we can score five in every round. ha ha. Up de ammers!
My love for arsenal pours out like rain in the raining seasion. No matter the second leg will be fine. God’s blessing to all Arsenal fans. Amen
I still believe we are third position material. I bed our fall will start rolling in after we narrowly loose the Curling Cup to Birmingham City.
I really thought we played football not curling…
I was glad Wenger rested a lot of players for that fixture, as was normally. Also I got to see Miguel for the first time, I was curious and he seems a promising young player. To be honest, it’s matches like this when he should get a chance. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about how the boys played, they seemed a bit lazy to me, but I’m not willing to give too much thought to that. We have the rematch on Emirates, it’s a done deal, we’ll go forward to meet Man Utd. Like someone said on a priot comment, I’m looking forward to seeing our best XI tomorrow night, we need a victory to close the gap to only 1 pt, even though for only a couple of days.
For me i think the second string wants to play again, and thats good everyone will be satisfied this season,we played well the one error at the end cost us the match, most of the players looked good in the match, Rosicky getting a goal should help his confidence, Chamakh needs to get back his sharpness and needs to show that he really want to start or get back to the real squad. Its good for the orient because they will make extra cash for a small club so that is all good.
SO let us go hard in the replay to frighten Barcelona. Okay our players seems alot stronger this season season so i dont see stoke as a problem lets go GUNNERS
Andrew good job!thank you
as u said i don’t want to blame almunia but i am sure that could have been a piece of cake for our sensational young polish keeper.well we have to give the goal keepers coach post for almunia coz he will use his vast experience of making terrible mistakes and our two polish goal keepers plus vito mannone will be more error free.
A season full of trophies is coming,be ready to celebrate!
cheers
@ Emmanuel: 3rd place material?? Are you serious. It really makes me very sad that there are still Arsenal supporters out there that believe we will fail. How much more do you want our boys to do before you have some bottle and actually stand behind your boys. We thumped Chelsea at home, we have beaten Barcelona (whether or not we win the return that result is still a milestone for this squad) we are still in all competitions and we have a cup final on Sat, which you think we will lose to Birmingham? Not matter what happens at the end of the season I am endlessly proud of the gunners. AFC for life.
I disagree with a few things:
I fell Song had a bad game misjudged passes led to losing the ball, not completely his fault, Denilson is the problem, the weak link! the boy does not fit in anymore, his passing is weak, his game reading is worse, his skill has become none existant, the only thing Brazilian about him is his surname and that’s not 100% brazilian! Chamakh was very poor, I know he has admitted struggling with the pace of our league but that doesn’t give u a get out of jail free card, his lack of awareness and shot power is so worrying, he looked like a lost child had wondering onto the pitch
Come on you gunners…..
A replay was the least we expected from you especially after the Barcelona game.
We must have commitment and passion running through the whole of the players,staffs at Arsenal FC.We cannot say that it was our 2nd string…this and that.A great club like Arsenal FC cannot make excuses.
How can we be `down` after our result against Barcelona? I`m still on a high.Seriously,I believe that if we had made a couple of substitutions on 80 minutes…we probably would have won the game.So,it means another replay squeezed into our already tight fixture list but…we are still in FOUR competitions.Providing that we beat Orient,our first team should beat Man Utd…where ever we play them.In fact,it would be Crawley that were waiting to see who they played as they deserved to win!
how can we be down after our result against barca?i”m still worried about tohteham,i belive that if we made a couple situation look like barca;s it would have been more easier to recolect oursevles
better manone than almunia,why wenger send manone on loan transfer and let almunia stay.?let almunia go during summer break,he is not arsenal quality,i could stop the shot if could be between the posts..having almunia between the posts its like having a picture on it..i love arsenal not almunia at all
I’m still happy after the Barcelona result, that’s for sure. And a cup final this weekend? It’s brilliant. I can’t change certain supporters natural disposition to be negative and fearful but I can enjoy the week ahead with others who feel the same as me. Get involved.
I’m over Barca but at the same time I’m looking forward to the weekend.
Win or lose, dosen’t matter as long as they show commitment and passion. Don’t care about AKBs or AMBs but I really wish Song changes his hairstyle, my niece cried when she saw Song’s pic.
@ laninja – You’re over Barca?! How? You must be Swedish with a temperament like that?
Denilson is not made for much of anything.
Miquel did not do anything remotely close to failing his “big test.” The lad did well and the late goal was only partially his fault-errors all over the pitch on that one!
If i am not mistaken although wld like your opinion, i did not see the game, but from where ever i have read stuff that Song was abs awful. It quite clearly looked he was tired and was not playing his part as a DM but rather looking to create, Diaby was sorely missed in some people’s opinion, although i am really not worried, the replay actually doesn’t really harm us there was i aint all that worried
@ Aman – Song was looking to create because we had 80% of the ball. There was no need for anyone in the midfield to do any defensive work and Song was the most proactive of the midfielders.
From the Arsenal FC News Feed, just saw that Van Persie and Koscielny are injured. How can that be yet they did not even feature on Sunday?
Chamakh will be okay. Squillaci didn’t tick me off too much. Denilson is not made for game of soccer at all. (Football, futbol, fussball, voetbal, calcio, whatever.) Miquel wasn’t horrendous but is clearly not ready for a knockout tie. Gibbs was as much to blame for the goal as Almunia was, but he’s done enough for us to forgive him. Almunia must never appear in another Arsenal match.
And by no means should we put out Team B for the replay, because, with no additional replays as in days of yore, it will be even more of a knockout tie and absolutely must not fool around. While Orient played very well and deserve all the plaudits they’re getting, in the replay they MUST be put to the sword, so that we can move on to the Fergiebastards.
Bring on Tony Pus and his Stoke City Rugby Football Club.
Am wondering how fans on this blog can tolerate mediocrity on the pitch yet the season is promising so much. Chamakh aws again at his pathetic best. Good he conceded that he is tired . Why then play him. He never even shows you what he intended to do on the pitch by not even trying. To me drawing to a championship team is like loosing. B52 should have led the attack and we do away with this lady Moroccan who just runs around the pitch. Miguel was the only positive thing for me. I have no praise for the goal scorerer cause he has been pathetic several times. Wwe must be serious and competitive on all fronts. I really dont think Almnia will complain at all if relieved of his duties come may. We have had enough of him and are tired of taking any more gambles. Am just afraid that if Shezn got injured against Barca we will definately play him and remenber what happened in 2006 finals iin france.
I think this post has alot of Post-Barca-Victory-Emotions in it. crediting almost all of the players and not being overly critical on them, which is both good, and bad.
I beg to differ on the opinion of Song. He was absolutely awful that day. he was mistiming his tackles all afternoon. And I think ur right in saying the cause of the many balls lost by Song is due to his role in trying to create chances. He should do less of that. I haven seen him play this bad before. But still, he had a very bad game, a match to forget IMO. If bendtner was awful because he was played out of position, you wouldnt have credited him this much.
The only player who performed really well throughout the match was Arshavin. the rest of the players, they were merely average, or far below par. the fact that arsenal have the majority of possession lies in the way we play and with all due respect to Leyton Orient, they willingly let us have the ball.
I hope this team could get into form before fatigue and injury starts to hit the rest of the 1st team.
Just my opinion.
Just a word in Chamakhs defence. At the beginning of the season when RVP was injured Chamakhs goals got the momentum going, By his own admission the pace haas got too much for him, but give him time he’ll come good. Arshavin has been awful at times but he seems to be coming back.
as an aside I see Barcelona are upset rthat we are threatening to steal another starlet (ala Fabregas) thats great lets give them a taste of there own medicine, Am sick to death of heaing Fabregas Barca stories
Against Barca, we played 10 of our top 11(Sagna suspended) and won. Versus L Orient we started only 2 and conceded late for a replay. We must look at the positives! One more time we’ll have to play another patchwork side, but not until after we play our best available against both Stoke and Brum. We should not save anyone out of the Stoke match for the Carling Cup. This would show way too much respect for the least of the “silverware”.
Certainly even the side we started against Orient will bring us through at the Grove. We know the pitch was the same for both teams, but our side will be much better on the Emirates turf irrespective of the 12th man.
Then we can get ready for Sunderland, Barca and ManUre. Why not play our best 11 in all three matches with just one or two changes? These guys are all young professionals and are all in good shape.
The only thing I’m worried about is Brummie cloggers knocking one of our guys out for a week or more.
Have faith! C’mon you Gooners!
Does anyone know anything about the van Persie injury? or the Koscielney injury?
I mostly agree with you Drew,
I thought the team looked pretty good all around. We played a lot better in our draw than ManU(re) played in their win which I guess sums it up. We needed either a second goal or better goalkeeping. We didn’t get either one and that means another game.
Still I think the lads are becoming a team. Whether or not Denilson or even Almunia will be in it for long is a question.
I know we’ve been asked to spread the LOVE (a good suggestion mind you) and I know you guys know I’ve spent the better part of the last three seasons making excuses for(deckchair) Denilson. No it wasn’t a paid job! I just like him but the truth is I don’t think he’s top league material though a nice enough fellow.The same may be lovingly said for Almunia who had one shot to stop and well er…
OK enough.@the Grugster what’s the surf like in your neck of the woods mate? It’s cold in the Cruz flat and glassy. Oh well no swell; just another reason to go to work.
Come on you Gunners back on the winning side of the tracks if you will!!!!!!!
PS Americanarsenal, Sky sports News said that BOTH are out of the next 2 games.
@ gooner Russ,
you’re right, there isn’t much Brasileiro in Denilson’s play. But my folks hail from Boa Vista,Roraima and his surname is as portuguese as they come.
RvP has a minor hamstring strain and should be back on the weekend and Koscielny has a back injury and will also only miss the Stoke game. At least that’s what the Grauniad is saying.
I am assuming that NB52 will start against Stoke. I think we’ll need his physical presence if only to help defend against the Delap long throws! The thought of Squillaci at the back does not exactly fill me with confidence. But three points tomorrow is a must and will put some pressure on Manure. Great win by Balckpool overnight!
I think this “Arsenal B” have this problems:
*Chamack and B52 make me think we play 4-4-0, I mean both try to be first striker choices and obstruct the game in the front BUT there’s no other option, with Vela on loan, JET making his first steps on the club it’s really hard to replace them.
*Denilson and Song can’t play together, they play the same rol at the midfield.
Denilson need a real partner like Diaby or Rambo not Alex.
*Squillaci should be more solid and calm, he’s the most “experienced” player in the back, if he is nervous all the players in the back are nervous too.
Good for Arshavin, Rosisky and Gibbs I think they play really well, they show A Team skills, , good for Miquel’s too was his debut at the club….I wish him the best.
For the replay I espect the same team, maybe Diaby for Song or “someone” for Almunia, finally we need to stop talking about the glorious game with Barcelona and be focused in the games to come Stoke City it’s a nightmare for us with Delap and his rugby boys are a threat 3 really important points for the title race (Don’t forget it) and the final to enjoy this sunday….
Theres nothing wrong with the draw as the majority of the personel used in the first game will be recalled for the home fixture, my only dissapointment is the continuing failure to kill off these regarded ‘lesser’ teams, when you see the way Leyton Orient celebrated after the game with their fans and in their dressing room you get an insight into how much this game meant to them and the desire that goes with it……the thing is we should have known that before the game with an experienced manager and go out and score like we did, but then push on to kill the game, not run down the clock and coast as we all to often do.
I dont know about anyone else but I see this as a touch arrogant and more often than not we get punished. I dont blame the boss at all I think there are too many passive players in our group, Im not saying I want any of them sold or dropped but I would like them to learn their lesson……sometime soon.
I was impressed with Miquel, after all his CB partner was Squillachi and that cant be easy, Denilson is, well Im not going to repeat but he is not DM, he has no desire to chase down an opponent to shut down counter attacks, he invites opponents onto our goal and allows them to play, at least Alex will stifle attacks by fouling but Deni is a bluffer in my opnion, he only wants the ball off our CBs to give to our full backs and my sister could do that and have such a ‘high success pass ratio’.
That said we are the only PL team contesting for four trophies at the end of February, weve beaten the best team in the world and weve a Wembley date this Sunday, its good to be a Gooner.
@Ice,
The tide has turned at Upton Park with the January signings mate, whilst you didnt sign any Galacticos youv rejuvenated the squad and it looks like guys are playing for places now, which is healthy.
Premiership survival wont be easy now though as West Brom have appointed Hodgson and thats a major boost for them while Wigan and Wolves are playing good stuff at the right time, Im hopeful for your lot though as I lke West Ham, even moreso since they beat Spurs for the Olympic Stadium….just remember pal, you get relegated, we get Scotty.
I pray we beat Stoke tonite & Man-U lose 2 Marseille!