Arsenal v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[The Situation]

there aren't any positives apart from the fact that this match is now over. I just want the City game out of the way without destroying our confidence or injuring any players.

I know what you mean. The "taking the positives" after yet another deafeat or draw where we've conceded with minutes to go is wearing thin. There are no positives to take unless we learn from our constant mistakes.

[eastie]

Say you were a neutral you would have thought that was an entertaining game between two well matched teams. Ok so we lost as we expected might happen but gave a very good account of ourselves. Played some good stuff and didnt look bottom three at all.

Alan Smith on Fox was willing us to win from the kick off. Just fell short of a badly needed point . Dawkins in his cameo shows promise.

Benteke was not on his game today.

It was dean sturridge not alan smith - agree with your other points though, there were some positives today.

[damon loves JT]

The trouble with competing directly with Wigan is that they seem to be able to put bad results behind them. Ours hang around our neck like an albatross.

But I think that's right, we need to outperform wigan to stay up.

[Ron Manager]

Say you were a neutral you would have thought that was an entertaining game between two well matched teams. Ok so we lost as we expected might happen but gave a very good account of ourselves. Played some good stuff and didnt look bottom three at all.

Alan Smith on Fox was willing us to win from the kick off. Just fell short of a badly needed point . Dawkins in his cameo shows promise.

Benteke was not on his game today.

It was dean sturridge not alan smith - agree with your other points though, there were some positives today.

Was it. When I hear a Brummie accent I just assume its Alan Smith!!

[seanthevillan]

If we'd lost comfortably, say 2/3-0, then I don't think anyone would really be surprised or draw too many conclusions from a match against a comfortably superior squad. The thing is we just showed, again, exactly the faults which have dragged us down this season and will be the hallmark of our relegation (if we do go down). That is what is infuriating, not losing, and mersey's mate is right - we could have been hammered.

[eastie]

Although i felt we played ok today the number of goals we concede in the last 10 minutes is far too many - i wonder where we would be if games lasted 80 minutes.

[paulcomben]

Game of the day on Sky Football First, for the masochists amongst us.

[Jimbo]

I feel like it's going to come to Wigan on the last day. With us needing a draw and them needing to win to stay up. Imagine the nerves before that one!

What worries me is this.

Wigan won 3-0 away from home today. For all the improvement I can see in some areas, for all the promising football we can play, taking all that into account, I try to imagine us winning 3-0 away from home against any team, in any league, and it just seems to utterly impossible to imagine.

It's not the first time Wigan have won three-nil away from home, either. Not only can we not win games convincingly - home or away - but we can't beat our rivals. We can't even not lose to most of them. And the same mistakes are being made ad nauseam.

People talk a lot about luck. True, we haven't had much, but we were not unlucky today. What happened today was totally predictable. But if we are to stay up this season, we're going to need a massive slice of luck, because we've shown consistently and emphatically that we're not up to saving ourselves without it.

[Ads]

I can see why, it was very open. Everytime Arsenal got a corner we looked lile scoring.

I have just remembered that free header Clark ballooned over. Bugger.

[eastie]

Paul Lambert on Arsenal loss.



Paul Lambert insists the 2-1 loss to Arsenal has done little to dent the confidence and belief in the claret and blue camp.

Lambert called the defeat at The Emirates "harsh" as his side played with gusto throughout.

And he says he won't need to pick his players up because the performance level was so high in an engaging contest in the capital.

He said: "The belief is there. We have been playing well for a number of weeks.

"We should have seen the game through at Everton and West Brom and we should have got something in the Newcastle game after the second half.

"The West Ham win then gave us a massive lift.

"We have been beaten today. But with the performance, we will take great heart from it.

"The confidence is there, that's for sure. And we are playing well enough. The way they are playing is a very, very high level.

"If we can keep playing like that? I don't need to rebuild the confidence after that. But I haven't for a number of weeks now. The confidence is there.

"The team were excellent against Arsenal. I don't think we deserved to get beat.

"We looked a threat throughout the whole game. In the first half we should have scored. But the way the lads played, I couldn't fault them.

"I thought they were excellent throughout.

"I felt we should have scored more than one goal. And I thought we should have been in front at half-time. I thought we were unlucky to be down.

"But we came out in the second half and went again - and got the equaliser. The equaliser was a brilliant finish, from a fantastic counter-attack.

"I then thought the one when Christian went through, he maybe should have slipped Andi in. A bit more care and we maybe would have got another one.

"But we certainly didn't deserve to lose the game."

[paulcomben]

No mention of DEFENDING then, Lambo.

[PaulWinch again]

We did deserve to lose Lambert, because we can't shut up shop and surely you realise that.

[FatSam]

I don't really understand the criticism of Lowton. I think he certainly did more good than bad, and was positive going forward. Yes, he conceded a couple of unnecessary corners towards the end, but I would have thought this was more to do with a lack of communication from others. Bennett was better than usual today, but does frequently get caught on the wrong side of his opponent.

I agree that Arsenal were there for the taking, and despite the fact that we played reasonably well, not enough of what we were trying to do going forward worked. Benteke and N'Zogbia in particular were both disappointing. There was lots of wasteful stuff like N'Zogbia running down blind alleys, and Benteke failing to hold the ball up - and generally poor decision making between the two of them.

I thought Delph looked good, apart from when he decided to do a Cruyff turn on the edge of the box when he was the last man. That said, he and Westwood as a unit struggled to exert their influence on the game. I really don't understand why we don't try to put more pressure on the ball. When they scored in the 6th minute, we had hardly touched the ball, and I'm fairly sure we hadn't been into their half. From then on we were chasing the game.

I had virtually no confidence that we would hold on for a draw. An unexpected point would have helped to keep a bit of momentum going. When the Arsenal fans were singing 'that's why you're going down' at the end, I struggled to disagree with them.

[Jimbo]

No mention of DEFENDING then, Lambo.

Wash your mouth out. That word isn't in Paul Lambert's vocabulary.*

*See also 'corner', 'set piece', 'possession', 'passing', 'victory', 'safety' and 'next season's Premier league campaign.'

[andyh]

Lamberts whole matra is 'coulda,woulda,shoulda'.