Arsenal vs. Manchester United

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Pogue Mahone said:
:lol: you're coming out with some crackers tonight!
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The previous one was sarcasm, genius.

Arsenal was there for the taking. A draw does us nothing. He made conservative substitutions against an Arsenal team very lacking on confidence and still wounded from their thrashing. Seemed pretty obvious to me. You handled the difference in our opinions like a champ, though.
 
Still a glaring deficiency in midfield. Cleverley simply doesn't have sufficient guile or power to be playing at this level.
 
Some good individual performances. De Gea, Smalling, Ferdinand and Cleverley did well. Vidic had a hard game and lost a couple of battles but in the end I think he won more than he lost against some big guys. Carrick did alright but passing questionable. Valencia decent but still can't cross. Rest pretty average.
 
All this shows is we're a team of big game players, Arsenal are a team of big game wilters.

Seems like we've become a typical Moyes team, all geared up for our cup final but no where to be seen when we need consistency.
 
I think we did fine. The players were negative at the end but we've been punished a lot this season in the final moments of games and I think it's something to build on. I wouldn't blame Moyes for how we ended that game. We've seen Sir Alex's teams perform like that - but those chances that Van Persie had tended to go in. A draw was probably fair. I wouldn't praise our defence too much as their centre forward is useless.
 
Strange game, I thought we were very poor in possession and our attitude in the last twenty minutes was appalling given the circumstances (I don't think that's Moyes, he was gesturing at everyone to push up and looked apoplectic when we had a break at the end and decided to go backwards) yet in all honesty we should have won, Van Persie has missed two fantastic chances that he should have scored. Still, it's something to build from, it's not a bad result and it means the confidence and mood of the players ahead of the Dubai trip is much better than it would have been had we lost.
 
AlwaysRedwood said:
The previous one was sarcasm, genius.

Arsenal was there for the taking. A draw does us nothing. He made conservative substitutions against an Arsenal team very lacking on confidence and still wounded from their thrashing. Seemed pretty obvious to me. You handled the difference in our opinions like a champ, though.
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Maybe you really are a comedian!? You're on form tonight. You, of all people, lecturing people on how to handle differences. Classic!
 
Nick 0208 Ldn said:
Moyes' usage of Mata is the only major annoyance for me.
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Pretty much... ending was meek but you can appreciate the players caution - we've been stung late so often this season and that can't help but damage confidence.

The mata/rooney/kagawa issue just isn't going to work by battering away at 442. We need a big change there and I worry Dave isn't brave enough to try something completely different.
 
Was biting my nails praying for arsenal to not score the whole match. Second half was backs against the walls stuff. Good point and defensive display but by god isnt that the most depressing way to play football.
 
Bottle job for both teams. I can't understand that approach really, it is shit or bust for us at this point of the season. Arsenal could say that they needed to steady the ship but we need to stop ours from sinking.
 
Duafc said:
Pretty much... ending was meek but you can appreciate the players caution - we've been stung late so often this season and that can't help but damage confidence.

The mata/rooney/kagawa issue just isn't going to work by battering away at 442. We need a big change there and I worry Dave isn't brave enough to try something completely different.
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In a way this game has damaged Arsenal's confidence more than ours.
 
AlwaysRedwood said:
The previous one was sarcasm, genius.

Arsenal was there for the taking. A draw does us nothing. He made conservative substitutions against an Arsenal team very lacking on confidence and still wounded from their thrashing. Seemed pretty obvious to me. You handled the difference in our opinions like a champ, though.
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Wounded Arsenal? What about a wounded United???

Prior to the Pool hammering Arse had won 8 of 9.

Which team was at home?

Which team is 2nd in the league?

Which team was there for the taking and which team held on well/ could be forgiven for not wanting that all too familiar sucker punch feeling?

Bit of objectivity wouldn't go a miss.
 
Mickeza said:
Strange game, I thought we were very poor in possession and our attitude in the last twenty minutes was appalling given the circumstances (I don't think that's Moyes, he was gesturing at everyone to push up and looked apoplectic when we had a break at the end and decided to go backwards) yet in all honesty we should have won, Van Persie has missed two fantastic chances that he should have scored. Still, it's something to build from, it's not a bad result and it means the confidence and mood of the players ahead of the Dubai trip is much better than it would have been had we lost.
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Yes. I agree with all of that. I think the players were so shook by the late goals this season they just lost their bottle in injury time. Not ideal but understandable.

Good point about Dubai too. League table aside, this is a very good result to take away with us and regroup for the run-in.
 
Rednotdead said:
Still a glaring deficiency in midfield. Cleverley simply doesn't have sufficient guile or power to be playing at this level.
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The problem with our midfield is that they're not expected to attack. Cleverley was solid defensively and played the ball around, basically he did everything that was asked of him. People forget we have 4 out and out forwards on the field, the role of the midfield today was give them the ball and allow them to do something with it. Our midfield is like our situation with Mata and Kagawa. We basically put them out wide and ask them to play in a system not suited to their strengths. You could stick the most attack minded CM in the world and ask him to do what Cleverley and Carrick did tonight and you would get the same result.
 
Jimy_Hills_Chin said:
Bottle job for both teams. I can't understand that approach really, it is shit or bust for us at this point of the season. Arsenal could say that they needed to steady the ship but we need to stop ours from sinking.
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I think Arsenal had more at stakes than us by winning the match. We have basically nothing to play for this season and they're competing for the title.
 
Jimy_Hills_Chin said:
Bottle job for both teams. I can't understand that approach really, it is shit or bust for us at this point of the season. Arsenal could say that they needed to steady the ship but we need to stop ours from sinking.
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I think we needed not to lose just as badly as them. That result will give the players a badly needed confidence boost. Going for broke and conceding another late goal would have been catastrophic for the team, mentally. This at least gives them something to build on.
 
Duafc said:
Wounded Arsenal? What about a wounded United???

Prior to the Pool hammering Arse had won 8 of 9.

Which team was at home?

Which team is 2nd in the league?

Which team was there for the taking and which team held on well/ could be forgiven for not wanting that all too familiar sucker punch feeling?

Bit of objectivity wouldn't go a miss.
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Yeah, you could tell by the way Arsenal gave up an easy chance to RVP right off the bat that they were on form and not effected by the thrashing.

If you're in 7th, you go for it because there's zero difference between 7th and 17th. We should be playing for the win. Arsenal playing for the draw is understandable.
 
Emmm. . Dunno what to say.

Two terrified teams afraid of losing? Thought Arsenal might have done more though.

Our attacking play was awful and I thought Cleverley was pathetic at times . . Disappointed by both teams
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I think we needed not to lose just as badly as them. That result will give the players a badly needed confidence boost. Going for broke and conceding another late goal would have been catastrophic for the team, mentally. This at least gives them something to build on.
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It is sad that we are working on damage limitation at this point of the season. At least Cleverley played well. Him and Carrick are too similar in their roles though. I think that the performance was just as tumescent and disjointed as most of the others this season. The only plus being that we did not concede so couldn't lose.
 
.Rossi said:
Emmm. . Dunno what to say.

Two terrified teams afraid of losing? Thought Arsenal might have done more though.

Our attacking play was awful and I thought Cleverley was pathetic at times . . Disappointed by both teams
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Harsh on Cleverley. He protected the defence brilliantly. It was clearly his job tonight, alongside Carrick.
 
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