Other Games - 2010/11 Season

[Dante Lavelli]

They also looked so comfortable on the ball. On numerous occasions I thought they'd passed themselves down a blind alley but they never panicked and would just keep moving the ball, even a few yards, until they could pass it out of danger (by which time they'd have sucked in three or four arsenal players).

The saying 'good players always look like they have time on the ball' has never been so unequivocally demonstrated.

I must admit that arsenal are a guilty pleasure for me but Barca are different gravy.

[pauliewalnuts]

I must admit that arsenal are a guilty pleasure for me but Barca are different gravy.

Arsenal are good to watch usually, but last night was bizarre. I'm no fan of excessive hoofing towards bigger players further up the pitch, but sometimes there is a time for it.

Last night, in Arsenal's position towards the end, that was the time for it, but instead, they just carried on what they'd tried and failed to do for most of the match, except now they were down to ten men.

Barcelona were great, but Arsenal were a bit naive. With the above, and also, playing the back four so narrowly bunched around the box to stop Messi is one thing - and Barca do go through the middle an awful lot - but some of the space it left on the wings was incredible.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Same old thing with Wenger.
He and his back room stuff are geniuses at finding bargain basement talent and coaching brilliant free flowing football.

Where it all falls down is his reluctance to splash out on experience, he's said many times that he doesn't want to pay big transfer fees, but it's been obvious for some time that they've lacked a commanding centre half and keeper.

He's also a biased, one eyed bastard, but I still like him.

[PeterWithe]

Not stopping to think about the fact that, maybe, Wilsheres "never stops running" thing might not be of much interest for Barca, as they don't chase anything

Not sure about that, Souness picked up on the mass harassing of the opposition as soon as Barca lost the ball, wherever it was on the pitch, rather than all the players retreating backward. It takes some level of fitness to do that, probably.

[WikiVilla]

Well here's hoping Milan turn up tonight and do the business & Everton too, could be another nail in SHA's coffin

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Dog shit are again without Barry Ferguson and Craig Gardner.

No reason why Everton can't turn them over, then the big one for them, away to Wigan.

[WikiVilla]

Cant see any problems for Everton now that their season has begun in March as it does every year

[The Left Side]

Come on the Toffees!

[Olneythelonely]

Come on the Toffees!

I always find that it sours the taste somewhat.

[The Left Side]

Come on the Toffees!

I always find that it sours the taste somewhat.

Nice!

[Olneythelonely]

I'm still laughing at my own joke. What a prick!

[Holtenderinthesky]

I'm still laughing at my own joke. What a prick!

It was funny though. 

[pauliewalnuts]

The Fiver very funny, and bang on the money about Arsenal last night.

SAME OLD STORY

They marvelled at the sharks in the local aquarium, wondered what all the fuss was about upon seeing the Sagrada Familia, and then Arsene Wenger's excited pupils gorged on toffee and fizzy pop before their kindly old professor took them on the highlight of their trip: a tour of the world-famous Camp Nou stadium! On a match night and all! "Ha! Those riff-raff from Tottenham High are going to be so jealous when they hear about this!" chortled the kids triumphantly. But once they got to the legendary ground the din of 95,000 boisterous locals rather unsettled them, and those 11 strange blue-and-claret insects that flitted around them all night were downright scary and, actually sir, can we go home now please? And so the young Gunners' adventure ended in tears - again.

So what do you do with a teacher who never learns? Yet again Wenger failed to prevent his players bottling it on the big stage. And for the second successive year he goofed by bowing to sentiment and allowing Cesc Fabregas to play when not fully fit. Throw in the facts that his cherished young goalkeeper toddled off after knacking himself in the most pathetic manner since Rob Green fell over a ball and missed out on the 2006 World Cup (but not, alas, the 2010 World Cup), the lack of cover for the absent Alex Song was more exposed than a shorn sheep on Page 3 of Ewe Stunnah magazine and Nicklas Bendtner offered yet more compelling evidence that he will never be as great as he thinks he is (then again, even Leo Messi may never be as great as Bendtner thinks Bendtner is) and last night amounted to a damning failure of the Wenger project. He needs to make adjustments. Continue to refuse to do so and he risks being called not merely stubborn but insane, if the definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing yet expecting different outcomes.

And yet, of course, what may fuel Wenger's craziness, or at least his frustration, is the knowledge that last night could have been different. Barcelona almost completely dominated both legs from start to finish and yet still came within a trademark Bendtner-up of being knocked out. If Robin van Persie had not been sent off by a referee who if he were a judge would send jay-walkers to the guillotine, he would surely have converted the chance that Bendtner contrived to miss. Nevermind that Barca, whose footballing exhibition included an entire wing dedicated to freakishly bad finishing, squandered several far easier chances and were denied a certain penalty, just as they had a good goal chalked off in the first leg, Wenger was given a scrawny straw to cling desperately to.

So desperately cling to it he did. His protestations to the inept referee were such that he, along with Samir Nasri, has today been charged with improper conduct by Uefa. The charge relates to comments reported by the referee Uefa has yet to decide whether to react to comments made in the media, such as Van Persie branding the referee "a joke" and Wenger pointedly harrumhping that "it's not a surprise the referee didn't book a single Barcelona player". Maybe Uefa wasn't paying attention.

The more pertinent question is: was Wenger paying attention to the most important post-match comment, which, fittingly, came from Pep Guardiola, who declared: "They didn't string three passes together. If they believe they lost because of [Robin] Van Persie's sending-off they won't go very far and will always remain on the outside looking in."

[Monty]

Same old thing with Wenger.
He and his back room stuff are geniuses at finding bargain basement talent and coaching brilliant free flowing football.

Where it all falls down is his reluctance to splash out on experience, he's said many times that he doesn't want to pay big transfer fees, but it's been obvious for some time that they've lacked a commanding centre half and keeper.

He's also a biased, one eyed bastard, but I still like him.

Agreed 100%.

[Monty]

Guardiola's comments are interesting. To be honest he almost sounds as frustrated with Arsenal as a fan.