Sep 18
Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
Had Pires not scored an extremely LUCKY goal, this would’ve seen the end of the streak and us dropping all points at home. However, we knew Bolton was going to be tough going, and they’ve now shown just why they’re in the spot they’re in right now.
Now we have tomorrow to look at — wow, Chelsea v. Tottenham, talk about lesser of two evils?!
26 Responses to “Arsenal 2 - 2 Bolton”
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September 18th, 2004 at 10:44 am
Real disappointment. Especially the passing - we gave the ball away sloppily too many times.
Wish Dennis had started. it was predictable that they were going to have men behind the ball and his passing would have helped a great deal.
neways, still gonna be top of the league come end of the weekend.. looking forward to a thrashing of man city next week.
May the ref screw the totts vs chelsea game!
September 18th, 2004 at 10:48 am
Yes, a dissapointing result… but we are not going to win every match in a walk…. but we should have WON this one…
Defending wasn’t the greatest… and we did give the ball away too much… and no, we were not moving the ball around the pitch like we’ve grown accustomed to seeing.
Who played well? I can’t single out many good performances on our part…
I don’t really understand how you’d see Pires goal as extremely lucky? He knew exactly what he was trying to do… redirect the ball towards the net. He didn’t get 100% of it the way he wanted to, and it didn’t scream into the back of the net, but it went where he wanted it to. I thought it was fairly skilled.
September 18th, 2004 at 11:20 am
Agree with you completely Stag. Disappointing, but the fact is we’re not going to go through the season with a 100% record. Bolton always gives top teams a hard time. It’s not a game you could say unequivocally we deserved to win, but it is nonetheless a game we should have won, and probably would have with Campbell in the team. Hope he is back on Saturday. On reflection dropping 2 points from a possible 18 with Cygan in the team is as much as we could have asked for.
Also think Wenger should rotate a bit, seemed some jadedness after the midweek game. I don’t think we are any weaker for having Edu in place of Gilberto, and maybe even Pennant could get a game here and there, in place of Freddie. I thought Okocha & co. bossed Paddy in the midfield, and for a moment I couldn?t help wondering if we were better off with Cesc. Arsenal progresses far in most competitions, and I’m just remembering how we were so tired towards the end, when we lost the Chelsea CL game, and almost collapsed due to fixture congestion, till we got the welcome break after beating Liverpoo.
Anyway, probably a fair result, we are going to drop points like everyone else, but only the end of the season will tell.
September 18th, 2004 at 11:37 am
I actually thought Paddy played well defensively. He was the only one taking command in the defensive end, especially in the 2nd Half. He was running his ass off… blocked shots… did what he needed to do. We didn’t link up well from midfield to the forwards offensively today. Not the usual mesmerizing display with the ball.
September 18th, 2004 at 12:27 pm
I thought Lauren was his usual quiet heroic self. Always there and saving us from many a potential disaster. But, God, Sol is needed. I’m sorry for Cygan - he’s having a rough time from the fans, as ever, and apparently (and unsurprisingly) longing to leave. Jens: as so often, a combination of good saves and moments of crashing incompetence. Clichy looked great. Maybe we’ll see van P getting a turn against City.
September 18th, 2004 at 1:20 pm
There was nothing lucky about Pires’ goal. Freddie had a magnificent and creative touch to get ahead for the cutback. Good point about Dennis’ ability to open up Bolton. Agree about seeing Pennant and others, however it must be said that Freddie is on a pretty good run. I think it is a fair and just result for Arsenal.
September 18th, 2004 at 1:28 pm
Where did you see something about Cygan wanting to leave? That would leave us with virtually ZERO cover. He’s not going anywhere!
September 18th, 2004 at 3:06 pm
Arseblog, who doesn’t provide a link for it, so it’s presumably not tabloid speculation but his inside source. It’s been a pretty reliable source - over the summer he knew about things way before they appeared in the press. However, Cygan didn’t go to Lens or wherever it was, perhaps because they didn’t want him, even for reduced wages. Still, the fact that he’s unhappy - and who can blame him? - can’t improve his game so let’s hope Hoyte begins to come good pretty soon. Or that we buy two defenders in Jan.
September 18th, 2004 at 3:18 pm
Unless Cygan leaves, we won’t buy a defender to replace him. I think he’s performed pretty well over this season. He is not Sol… who is? Hoyte did not play well in his lone match. He is not an option right now. I assume the other defender you are wanting is cover for Lauren? Whom I agree… is solid and playing well.
September 18th, 2004 at 3:34 pm
yup cover for Lauren is a must - he can’t play in every game. Senderos? I’ve almost begun to forget about him - perhaps his injuries last year have set him back a lot? - but by mid-season he’ll surely be ready to be given a chance? He’s captaining the Swiss under-21s so he must doing something good.
September 18th, 2004 at 3:40 pm
The rest of the weekend is going to be interesting. I was thinking today about our pre-season predictions. Most of us tipped Middlesborough to do well; also Liverpool, who are definitely beginning to bubble. But Birmingham have been surprisingly poor. As to the totts, who would have thought it? Tough choice but I’d like them to beat Chelsea - don’t forget the cocky tiny Defoe is a gooner . . . I wish we’d drawn the tougher teams - Liverpool, Manu and Chelsea - earlier in the season.
September 18th, 2004 at 5:43 pm
Allardyce speaks:
“I am really pleased we didn’t waste the opportunity because Arsenal looked a little tired to me and gave us more room than I expected - you can only have a go at Arsenal if Arsenal let you have a go, and they let us today because they weren’t as high tempo as normal.”
Arsenal vs. Arsenal’s fixture congestion. Same old story. Fatigue exposes their weaknesses, and the fact that they cannot compete with big teams in the air is one of them. Especially if those teams have something to prove. To drop the lead twice …arrrgh.
But, still unbeaten and with a full week’s rest to come.
September 18th, 2004 at 5:58 pm
I don’t think Pires’ goal was lucky as well. Don’t take anything away from Le Rob, didn’t him the one who got into the right position at the right time at the first place? And he’s our wide midfielder…
The one who disappointed me was Gilberto. His pass today found the oppositions more than his teammates.
Anyway, fair play to Bolton, they played very well. And i gotta hold my hand up and say they deserved the point.
September 18th, 2004 at 7:49 pm
Yep! Same old problem of fatigue. 3 games in 8 days. I think Arsenal today were beaten more so by their own jadeness than anything else - hence the apparent lack of concentration at both set pieces which resulted in the Bolton goals. I can understand the benefits of playing the same team as often as possible but could Wenger have tried to rest Gilberto and have Edu start instead.
I fear once the fixture starts to pile up, we will not have the players ready to rotate in and perform. We are well covered in midfield with Fabregas and Edu ready to step in. In attack, I think Wenger needs to blood van Persie soon so he is ready to play for the first team when called upon later in the season. In defence, I am surprised that Wenger has not used Sendoros at all this season. Wenger has been very quiet about the readiness of Sendoros but came out to say that van Persie will get his chance in the first team soon.
I hope Wenger address the fatigue problem soon.
September 18th, 2004 at 8:40 pm
After only watching the first 10 minutes or so today I thought we were going to have problems . The passing seemed a bit of and we just gve the ball away too easily. No doubt the players were a bit tired after the recent interntionals and CL games.
I also think that the Pires, Reyes, Henry combination is still trying to jell. Occasionally they seem to confuse each other and I think the balance is better with Bergkamp there and either Reyes or Pires on the bench. I’m confident that eventually it’ll work but it’s not there yet.
Regarding Cygan. Of course he’s not as good as Sol but for now he’s the best we have available in that position so no point in slagging the guy of. He’s doing his best even if his best is not as good as would like.
Anyway can’t win them all and a deserved point for Bolton.
September 19th, 2004 at 12:36 am
I agree with you that more players need to be rotated in. Pennant? VanP?
Having said that… Edu did nothing from the time he came on… and is not nearly as good defensively as Gilberto.
Its obvious that Arsene’ does not think Senderos is ready to play for the first team…. he is not going to get a chance unless there are major injuries.
September 19th, 2004 at 12:43 am
well we should hve won that one, as i’m sure you all feel the same. to lose the lead twice is always maddening. it feels eerily similar to last season’s fixture with bolton, giving up an extremely late equaliser and to pedersen! will someone please knife him the next time he performs that outrageous goal celebration? i was hoping not to witness that today, but i must confess feeling dread when he subbed on. it didn’t seem as though we held the ball nearly as much, but the final stats showed posession well in our favor. like so much cheese, this side binds you up and gives you a constant stomachache.
as far as the lads go, i thought bergkamp was missed in a starting role. reyes just wasn’t up to his best form today. his runs were ill-timed, or not at all. his passes were slow and/or off the mark. he just seemed to be out of sync. gilberto was so-so, and appeared lethargic. paddy is still shaking off the rust, and needs to stop going to ground every other challenge, or the cards wil start flying. and pires had better watch out, his reputation as a diver is only going to increase after this match. who could forget lehmann, who seems like superman with kryptonite boots! will someone tell him white men can’t jump! stay home more often, and we can avoid those freaky goal-mouth mishaps. cheers to ashley cole in solid defense, freddy ljungberg and his constant bust-your-ass play, and even cygan who, stepping in shoes he can’t fill, did admirably if not spectacularly.
after all that, we still get a point and keep the streak alive! i will say that a sub-par arsenal is better than most other sides’ elite, but it is hard to watch a b-movie when you are used to oscars!
tottenham 2-1 chelski (defoe 2, eidur g 1) liverpool 4-0 manUre (baros 2, cisse, gerrard 1)
September 19th, 2004 at 6:39 am
Don’t forget Garcia and Alonso - those two linking with Gerrard look pretty formidable to me. Hope Paddy had taken notice of Real’s ignominious defeat last night. Tee hee.
September 19th, 2004 at 6:53 am
Fatigue, yes. I think we should rest Gilberto before the Rosenborg game. Also Reyes, who played a lot of games pre-season. And maybe Henry, Pires and/or Freddie should only play 45 minutes.
September 19th, 2004 at 6:57 am
Let give credit to Bolton and the fat man for their game plan and now people know why I’m not happy with our defence. We can’t go on like this forever and sooner or later the luck will run out. Their is nothing great about being too good going forward and poor at the back. Twice in the lead and blow it. Pires goal was not a lucky goal.
AW red and white army.. We hate Tottenham. On come Chelsea beat the crap our of the scams..
Not scare of Chelsea is all about good competition and anyone scare of competition must as well follow M Schumacher and his F1 team.
September 19th, 2004 at 8:24 am
Yeah, But it might be worth a scum win to get rid of a litle of Murinho’s smug grin
September 19th, 2004 at 9:20 am
Murinha or watever his name is, is a big pile of sh3t and I understand you but as the song anything for Spurs naaa!!!!!!!!
I dont really care who win that game.
September 19th, 2004 at 12:07 pm
as much as i hate totts, i really want them to beat the heck out of chelsea, because that would really put the knife in J.M’s throat. as for lehmann bad performance like u all agree. even though reyes is our player of the month, i still think that henry has been the most consitent out of the two so far, regarding his achilles tendon and summer euros. his created 8 scored 5. and has for bergy long live the ice man
September 19th, 2004 at 12:29 pm
1/ Pires’ goal was not lucky, though his footing did not seem to have enough leverage to give the shot more power. Bottomline is, it went in.
2/ Poor defending got us. It is easier to just blame Cygan these days. But when you look at the goals, it was poor performance from the team/defensive unit. On the first goal our players were ball watching. The second goal looked a bit like the ones Manure are conceding - sloppy and passive defending, as we had three chances to avoid conceding this goal - Toure failed to clear and Cygan allowed Pederson to hold onto the ball for the flick. Lehmann went down too early and lost his bearing allowing the ball to trickle through. I agree with many that we need Campbell back - more specifically to organise the defense.
3/ We played better with Cesc in the line up before Viera came back. Paddy contributed in one of the goals on Saturday but looked rusty. Some of you wouldn’t like it and will call me naive - but Cesc should be allowed to play more.
September 19th, 2004 at 1:39 pm
I like the format for the preceeding post, so I will follow it.
1. The Pires goal was not luck
2. Cygan frustrates me. Yesterday he made several well timed runs to kick the ball out when most of our defense/team was high on the ball. I give him full marks for that. Still, he regularly looks clumsy on the ball, he passes poorly, and he fouls too often for my taste. He was in good company yesterday with other sub-par performances.
3. Somebody mentioned Ashley Cole, and I’m glad they did. He played very well yesterday, as did Lauren and Freddie. Mixed bag with Henry, who never played poorly, but who should have scored on the breakthrough. He played the right ball, but he put it too close to the keeper. He had a lot more room inside the bar. He’s only human though.
4. I think Bolton deserved the point. They did enough and more to earn it. This game didn’t leave me with the hollow feeling I sometimes get after we drop points - as with Leicester’s late equalizer last year to earn a point. In short, I don’t feel we wasted points on Bolton - even with two leads. I’d rather take a reality check against Bolton than against Chelsea or ManU.
5. Finally, can anyone explain to me why a team as talented as Arsenal would get into a stupid game of one ups-manship down the left side when ball movement is our forte? 33% of the game was played as each side attempted to bludgeon the ball up the chalk line. We play right into the opponents hands whenever we do that. Cross-field pass - open it up - good for Arsenal. Anyone want to address this?
September 19th, 2004 at 3:44 pm
Apparently me and the rest of the site have a differing definition of “luck.”
Pires’ goal was pure luck. He had no control of the ball whatsoever. He basically flicked it and let the ball fly where it would. Now, yes, bottom line it went in the net, and that’s what really matters. But it was such a wild, random shot that had it not gone in it wouldn’t have surprised me. THANKFULLY tho….
Meanwhile, another double goose-egg draw for Chelsea. HA HA HA HA HA.
— Geoff