Aston Villa under-10's vs Arsenal -FA Cup Final Post-Match Thread

[pauliewalnuts]

Guzan is alright. I mean that in the sense of acceptable.

The problem is that for the last few years we've got to the point where "alright" is about as high as we can aim.

[john e]

GKs do tend to be quite cheap though, supply and demand, quite a huge supply, not a great demand. I wonder if Guzan has just hit his natural wall and needs to move to another club and go onto bigger and better things. Sometimes it happens with keepers, a lot of their game is so psychological.

Mignolet who I wouldn't swap for Guzan cost in excess of 9 mill

I think our money is better spent elsewhere

[Toronto Villa]

It probably hasn't helped Guzan and won't help any new keeper if we have comedy defending in front. That has to be fixed first.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Arse could have been 2 or 3 up by half time - they weren't, and I thought we would take the game to them with serious intent in the second half. The early Sanchez goal killed us - you could see the players' heads drop, and I do remember thinking at the time, "why didn't Hutton just get to the ball then and knock it forward?" - there was clear movement and dip on the Sanchez shot and it's easy to see how Given didn't get a hand to it. The marking for the 3rd goal was shocking as it was for the 4th, which was embarrassingly easy for Wilshere to cross and for Giroud to tap in without breaking stride.
The better team won, and Arse did surprise me with their work rate at harrying us and closing us down...why the fu*k didn't we do that to them? - didn't think they had it in them to "spoil" opposition play as effectively as that.
No arguments with the result.
Absolutely gutted by the nature of it.
Reading were unlucky to lose to Arse...we were totally outclassed and outfought.
Difficult to be positive today.

That's the thing, Reading actually have them a game. We surrendered right from the kick off. Horrible, absolutely horrible.

Arsenal were well below par for that game, as I put in another thread that was the wake up call Arsenal needed for the final ,unfortunately for us.

Don't think we should so easily dismiss the opposition.
In most games a team is only as good as the opposition allows it to be, sets itself up to challenge, counter, respond.
I doubt most professional teams just turn up and see what happens and play well or not.
In the last few weeks Swansea and Sunderland gave Arse tough games...that wasn't just because Arse had an off day.

[john e]

The reason Arsenal don't win the league isn't because they can't beat teams like Villa,
it's because they can't beat teams like Chelsea

[SashasGrandad]

Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily think Given should have saved it.

I just think we should have been playing the goalkeeper who is half a foot taller and has a bigger reach and would have had a better chance of reaching it.

3" to be precise - Guzan  6' 4"    Given 6' 1"  - does 3" make all that difference?
[/quote]

3" makes a lot of difference - said the actress to the bishop.

[Toronto Villa]

The reason Arsenal don't win the league isn't because they can't beat teams like Villa,
it's because they can't beat teams like Chelsea

Relatively speaking it's a little like the jump we need to make it compete with Arsenal. It's not just the huge investment it's a massive cultural shift that would be required. For Arsenal to catch up with Chelsea they would need a similar leap and another big one to bridge the elite CL gap.

[ChicagoLion]

That game was lost with the selection, we were getting over run in midfield and I was praying for Nzog to be replaced by Sanchez.

The sad thing was that they wanted it more than we did, they were first to every ball and won every 50 50.

It was a total embarrassment.

[martin o`who??]

Talking before the game we all said we'd got our hand full to match them - just looking at both teams on paper was bad enough but the least we wanted was to not get mullered and score at least once, suffice to say I haven't  bothered checking my lottery tickets this morning.

[Risso]

If Guzan was capable of saving the second goal, he'd be playing for Real Madrid not Aston Villa.

[tomd2103]

The reason Arsenal don't win the league isn't because they can't beat teams like Villa,
it's because they can't beat teams like Chelsea

Relatively speaking it's a little like the jump we need to make it compete with Arsenal. It's not just the huge investment it's a massive cultural shift that would be required. For Arsenal to catch up with Chelsea they would need a similar leap and another big one to bridge the elite CL gap.

It's a much smaller gap for Arsenal.  They need 2 or 3 top players to take them to the next level.  They have the finances to do it, but for some reason Wenger seems reluctant of is too stubborn to address those issues,  We would need the kind of investment that gas happened at Manchester City over a number if years to even get near the top four again,

[john e]

We needed our three best players to perform yesterday if we were ever going to have a chance of winning the cup

 Delph,Grealish and Benteke I'm not blaming them but other selections are irrelevant pretty much, so much hangs on these guys, the flowing pass and move football between them just wasn't there

After the first 10 minutes you knew it wasn't going to be

[SteveN]

I got nervous when I saw the team selection. Would preferred to see Sinclair &Blacuna in to give us width

Even more nervous when someone wished Sherwood good luck and he replied "We will need it".  Didn't look confident from the off.

[Risso]

I've been a big fan of Sherwood since he arrived, but he was found wanting yesterday.  He seems to have the mindset that the 4-3-2-1 worked against Liverpool, so it must automatically work against Arsenal, and it quite obviously didn't.  The three of Cleverley, Delph and Westwood were completely bypassed, and Grealish and N'Zogbia offered nothing at all.  I know it's easy to say with hindsight, but the signs were there in the Southampton game, and so I'd have gone:

Given/Guzan
Bacuna Vlaar Baker Richardson
Grealish Sanchez Cleverley Delph Gabby
Benteke

[Holte L2]

We needed our three best players to perform yesterday if we were ever going to have a chance of winning the cup

 Delph,Grealish and Benteke I'm not blaming them but other selections are irrelevant pretty much, so much hangs on these guys, the flowing pass and move football between them just wasn't there

After the first 10 minutes you knew it wasn't going to be

I'd definitely agree with that. Just arrived home. Bitterly dissapponted, obviously.
The manner of the defeat hurts the most. We' had enough talent to give Arsenal a game.
I don't think I'll get over the fact that we got to the FA Cup Final and couldn't manage a shot.