Dec 27
It seems that both sides were still as hungover as I was yesterday, as a drab 0-0 draw was an anti-climatic ending to my Christmas vacation. Tomas Rosicky did have a few good chances, but it seemed that no one could kick up a gear. As a result, the Gunners drop to second in the table, but as Arsene says, it’s
“…not that big a deal”.
14 Responses to “Portsmouth 0 - 0 Arsenal”
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December 27th, 2007 at 10:47 am
Too late Mike .. all commenting done on the earlier thread
December 27th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Oh, I know. Just have to have it there for a place marker!
I’m surprised Dan hasn’t been around. I should call him….
December 27th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Hold up, I haven’t put in my two cents’ worth.
Historically speaking, getting 0-0 at Portsmouth is no bad thing. But it didn’t take me long to just know we weren’t going to score. There were too many players a) not gelling and b) not compensating with more drive.
Against Sp*rs we got away with it. But there was no setpiece to bail us out this time.
Without the interpassing flow of midfielders pushing up, we are relatively easy to hold off. Ade had to drop ridiculously deep to get a ball and lay it off, and his walkabout to the wings means we have no target man for those crosses that don’t fly into the stands.
It’s partly form, partly tactics. Partly time to shift a few players around. I’m all for Bendtner coming on at the 60m mark and shifting to 4-4-2.
He actually creates through balls and angled passes. We need more of his cockiness to cut through the pretty-pretty perfect goal bullshit that tangles us up.
Here’s the glum conclusion I’m struggling with. This was the moment we revealed we don’t have what it takes to the win the league this year. We can rally and go on a great run again, but unlike ManUre we don’t have a source of great individual goals to count on when we’re collectively below par. Or the experience in every position. Defensively this ManUre are horribly on top of it now too. Plus they don’t look mentally erratic like we do. Cesc was barely recognizable from the sparklng maestro who started the season.
My optimistic-but-realistic hope for this season was that somehow we could push Chelsea for the number two spot. Well, Chelsea are obligingly having some major mood swings and helpful injuries. But I’m not expected any freebies from ManUre anymore.
And at this rate Everton will confirm the problem. That said, I’m going to try the Eboue ‘thousand salaams” method of asking for help!
And it
December 27th, 2007 at 11:23 am
I think the team, physically, gave everything they had last night but weren’t clever enough to get through Portsmouth’s determined defense. Flamini and Rosicky were outstanding last night and tried their best to make a difference. Flamini realises that the position in the team is his to lose to very capable competition. It’s truly bringing out his best as that was his best game in an Arsenal shirt last night.
Our biggest problem is the young players were giving the ball away too cheaply. Vieira absolutely did not play that and the team are missing that no-nonsense leader on the pitch. It’s not a dis on Gallas but PV4 realized how important it was to keep the ball and strongly stressed playing for the team and not for themselves. Last night it was plain to see players out for themselves. I’ve never seen an Arsenal team lose the ball so many times dribbling. Since when is dribbling Arsenal’s strength? It’s as if the young guys are starting to believe the media hype. Gallas and Wenger need to check that.
I’ve been critical of Wenger’s tactics throughout the season. Like I’ve said so often this season, you have to apply tactics that give your team the best chance to win. I won’t beat that horse anymore. My only criticism of the players is if you’re going to have a lone striker, he’s got to stay in a central area. Even if Ade doesn’t know, then Wenger should know.
I also told you guys in the summer to respect what Hleb did out wide and that Eboue only had one move and wasn’t dynamic enough to do what Hleb did. I had to apologize after watching him in the Emirates Cup against Inter Milan but time always tells the real truth.
December 27th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
You know you’ve gone over the top when your team has a draw but it still feels like a loss and that’s how I feel today. Gutted by the draw?
Kudos’ to Tony, Harry and their men.
December 27th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
i said around october when everything was rosy, that goals are a worry. everybody was shouting it down cos we were the leading scorers. the problem then was that everybody was on great form - something that can not happen all season……PLUS almost all our goals were “magical”, sparks of creativity. very few of those goals were “routine”, semi-repeatable kind of goals. i dont know if any body understand what i am talking about.
to win a league, your key players must have a sort of formula for getting a goal, a routine. ronaldo, giggs and co have those. they are repeatable in some aspects too. this repeatability ensures that even when you are not on form (or your manager seems clueless), your key players may still be able to spring a simple trick.
a lot of times i see ronaldo doing the same things over and over and over again. and he remains a success. pires had his late arrivals in the box and his NON-random roamings around the box. ljunberg had his sudden cuts on the shoulder of the last man amongst others.
this sort of routine ensures that u can beat the lowly teams that abound in the premiership with ease, with low form, and with minimal effort.
while most of our goals except those involving setpieces are basically unrepeatable. just plain magic from cesc or hleb. ofcourse this makes cesc and hleb look very good. but makes for an inconsistent team when they are off form.
in the light of being ruthless and winning the league, rosicky and eboue are useless.
eboue is useless because he has no presense of mind, he doest make assists, he is not a goal threat, his crossing is terrible. he provides defensive reinforcements is that really necessary in the PL? ronaldo hardly does any defensive duties and wes brown or whoever hasnt suffered.
rosicky is useless because, he doesnt make assists, he is not really that great a goal threat, he does not take responsibilty, and quite frankly it is either him or hleb.
eboue should be replaced by a striker, and hleb MUST only play right midfield.
rosicky should be replaced by a GOALSCORING attacking midfielder.
rosicky will then make an awesome impact player from the bench.
December 27th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
It doesn’t help that RvP has been out for so long. He should be our top goal scorer! I agree that Eboue needs to come off the bench. He has great speed but doesn’t provide enough in my opinion.Diaby can score the goals we need but he still seems so hot and cold to me. Depends on what Diaby shows up! Over all not bad to draw away at Portsmouth, but it sucks to give ManUre 1st spot. It is only a point. And they will drop points somewhere along the way.
December 27th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Our fast start obscured the truth of this particular set of individuals: that they’re a long-term investment destined to mature beautifully over time, but not necessarily this year. Even if we finish a distant second, I hope the disappointment spawned by this brief flirtation with the title won’t cause Wenger to panic and reconfigure the team drastically. If all goes well, I predict a string of titles round about 2010. So settle in.
December 27th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
One more thing. The criticism of Eboue here there and everywhere has reached that same mindless crescendo as the ritual slatings of Hleb last year (and look how that turned out), and yet, for my money, he was one of the few threatening-looking players out there yesterday. He combined with….was it Adebayor? nicely to set himself up for a decent enough opportunity, then flubbed the shot as usual—but then what Arsenal player doesn’t ultimately flub the shot nine times out of ten? I know he’s not the classiest player and thus an easy target, but I see no reason to make him the scapegoat week in, week out.
December 27th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Nicosian, I agree that all the Eboue bashing is unfair. I rather like Eboue and believe he, along with the rest of the team, went out and did their best. The real fault lies with the management. The comment I personally made about Eboue was more to show the contrasting difference between he and Alex Hleb.
I made those comments last summer after we signed Sagna when people were saying crazy things like we should play Eboue out wide and drop Hleb to the bench. My comments were made not to put down Eboue but more to show how dynamic Hleb really was and that he’d be missed if Wenger preferred to play Eboue there instead of Hleb. I don’t think Eboue’s a bad player but he’s simply not capable of doing what Hleb can.
I started posting on this site regularly about three years ago. In that time I’ve learned that there are some pretty smart guys (past and present) that post here. Likewise, a few members have short memories. You even have a few that don’t really know the game but are just Arsenal fans and want to have a forum to discuss what they saw with other fans. I’m sure we have some that visit but don’t post at all but just want to hear what this particular group had to say. Bottom line is you can’t take everyone too seriously. Enjoy your holidays, bro.
December 27th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
No RvP against Everton on Saturday. Oh, dear!
http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=485766
December 27th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
All I can say is, if you love Eboue then you don’t love football. He is a disgrace to the Arsenal shirt with his pathetic antics, and I wish Arsenal would sack him - I don’t care how good he is or isn’t. In my 25+ years of supporting Arsenal I have never disliked a player as much as Eboue - he stands for everything rotten about modern football.
I still think criticisms of Arsenal’s performance against Portsmouth are a bit OTT, they’re defence is tight as arseholes at home - nobody has scored against them in six of their last seven home games.
Perhaps Wenger could have opened them up had he been more tactically aggressive, but maybe he wouldn’t - there are no guarantees.
I think Man Utd will drop plenty of points between now and the end of the season. The fact is they have played easier away games than Arsenal so far, and only have one more point from their travels than we do. If you look at the remaining fixture list it’s obvious Arsenal has much easier away games left than they do.
I don’t think we’ll win the title, but as AC Milan will probably knock us out the Champions League we might be in better condition to make a proper challenge.
December 28th, 2007 at 12:01 am
I think lack of competition for places is hurting us. I know the squad is huge but certain positions are still lacking.
A good example is Ade. When Henry and RvP were in the team, he worked his socks off as he could never take his place for granted. This year, he is the main man and thanks to Eduardo struggling has, quite frankly, zero competition. Again, I am not saying he is not working hard (he usually does), but sub-consciously you tend to relax knowing that a bad game will not see you on the bench in the next one.
The same is true for Eboue. He is not a bad player but with RvP’s injury and Wenger’s liking for the 4-5-1, Eboue’s place is all but guaranteed. Ditto with Rosicky. Hleb did not perform very well last season but is doing so now. I can’t say that it is down to competition but Eboue/Walcott are better than Ljunberg was last season.
December 28th, 2007 at 12:11 am
ManU and Arsenal have same number of points from home games. ManU have one more in away games than Arsenal despite losing two games as opposed to Arsenal’s one. The difference is wins.
ManU have 5W 2D 2L while Arsenal have 4W 4D 1L. While it can be argued that a defeat has more psychological damage to a team’s morale and confidence, 1 win and 1 loss does yield one more point than 2 draws.