chanreborn博客主頁 Arsenal's Season is over - 4 more games to play..

Arsenal's Season is over - 4 more games to play..

2010/04/16 16:57:53 網誌分類: 波經

16 Apr

Frankly speaking , who cares their remaining games against Wigan , Man City , Blackburn and Fulham ? Even Fulham season is STILL going on but Arsenal season is OVER .. in case Chelsea win the double of EPL and FA cup this season , or in case Fulham going to win Europa league final , or ironically Portsmouth is relegated but win FA Cup . How will other people rate Arsenal ?

Will Wenger sign proven players now?

By Myles Palmer

Wenger's golden proteges were 2-0 down at Spurs after 67 minutes.

Then Robin Bang!Persie came on and played the best 25 minutes of his Arsenal career.

He fed Walcott, who crossed for Bendtner to make it 2-1 with five minutes to go.

But keeper Gomes made four good saves to win the game.

My preview, describing why Arsenal would win, was reckless and misguided. It shocked some of my friends. I've had some flak about what I wrote. I did a double, backing Arsenal with Barcelona to beat Deportivo. That was 3-0.

The game I thought I was going to see never started because Wenger's golden proteges did not compete.

Arsenal were already in trouble before Vermaelen went off with a calf strain which put him out for the season.

Their best player was a 35-year old Englishmen, Sol Campbell. Since that 3-1 win at Stoke, Sol has been a beacon. He sprinted after Gareth Bale, the quickest Spurs player, and kept up with him at the end of the game. Pace has to be driven by desire and Sol still shows a lot of desire.

Far from being tired and demoralised, Spurs played with far more energy, fire and intelligence than Wenger's dim-witted rabble.

As a snapshot of the Arsenal squad, this 2-1 defeat was perfect. It was a polaroid/X-ray/ scan all rolled into one and it revealed all the cracks.

Arsenal only played in two thirds of the pitch and in wide areas and gave the ball away far more than usual. They played as if it was a training game but more sloppily.

Spurs wanted it more. Spurs wanted fourth place far more than Arsenal wanted the title !

All through the game I wasn't thinking about how wrong my preview was. I was thinking : This is the final flop, flop, flop of Wenger's kids project. This season and that project are over on the same day, kaput, finito, dead and buried .This is the end of Almunia, the end of Eboue and Diaby, Denilson and Walcott, the definitive and farcical meltdown moment for Wenger's proteges.

In the absence of his good players, we saw how clueless his bad players are.

As Bayern Munich coach Louis van Gaal said last month, "These are the weeks of truth."

We saw the truth at White Hart Lane. Forget that RVP played his best 23 minutes ever, forget that if the game had gone on for another 10 minutes, Arsenal would have won.

Cesc Fabregas makes the others look better than they are.

Without Fabregas, Diaby, Eboue and Walcott are revealed as athletes who can't play football. Denilson is a mid-table Premier League player, Sagna and Clichy have been going backwards for two years, and Almunia is a clown that you've been paying £1,700 to watch for the last three years. Nasri is a young guy who looks like a player but how often does he score a goal or make one? When Bendtner gave him the ball in space in the box after 75, he miscontrolled it.

Since the first Barcelona game on March 31, Wenger, the legendary holistic trainer, the brilliant sports scientist, has lost all his key players to injury He lost Gallas and Fabregas and, amazingly, he left Fabregas on the pitch with a broken leg.

He lost Arshavin and Song and he's now lost Vermaelen, who has played every meaningful game until recently.

So Arsenal's season is over and the transfer speculation starts. And Gooners have to ask themselves one question. Just one question : Do I trust Wenger to sign the experienced players Arsenal need?

Always remember that White Hart Lane has played a big part in Arsenal's history. They played there during the war when Highbury was bombed and won the league there twice.

This was a massive moment too. A bad moment but a big, defining moment. On Wednesday, April 14, 2010, Arsenal's season ended at White Hart Lane : another failure, another season without a trophy, another year of spin by the greatest spin-doctor that football has ever seen.

After losing to 2-1 at Spurs, Wenger said, “We lacked maturity."

What audacity! If Arsenal lack maturity, whose fault is that?

Apr 16, 2010

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慳妹 2013/01/10

chanreborn:

Happy anniversary to you and Little Bee!

慳妹 2012/01/10

chanreborn & Little Bee:

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花姐 2011/12/07

看完真的茅塞頓開

非常認同「人生有破缺，喜悅自相隨，人生無破缺，喜悅從何說。」

你很幸福有如此賢妻

祝夫妻恩愛白頭偕老

chanreborn 2011/02/17

Wilshere and Szczesny give Arsenal far more authority and guts

By Myles Palmer

Arsenal 2 Barcelona 1

Villa 26, Van Persie 78, Arshavin 83

____________________________

The key player in the Nou Camp will be Szczesny.

So pray that nothing happens to Arsenal’s goalkeeper between now and Tuesday, March 8th.

Barcelona’s style is cleverly-timed runs onto sharp little passes, which ｃｒｅａｔｅs a lot of one-on-one chances with the keeper.

Wojciech Szczesny’s fine positional judgement makes him a master of making opponents shoot into the side-netting or just past the post.

On the goal, he was a bit unlucky because David Villa, a razor finisher in these situations, slotted between his legs.

By contrast, he got lucky on the loose ball after his save, when the scrambling Messi headed in but was flagged offside. Messi wasn't offside.

For me, Szczesny was Arsenal’s best player last night for that reason. Making Messi miss was the name of the game.

Yes, Koscielny played his finest game in an Arsenal shirt.

Yes, Jack Wilshere played with remarkable authority at the heart of the team. England need to play Jack football, Fabio - not Capello football.

Yes, of course, CL knock-out ties are a game of four halves.

Arsenal lost the first half 1-0 and won the second half 2-0 and halves three and four will roll round 20 days from now.

Arsenal raised their tempo after half-time and the game turned on 68 when Keita and Arshavin came on.

Keita replaced Villa to stiffen Barca's midfield, which was running out of steam, and allowed young Busquets to go ball-hunting further up the field.

Arshavin’s arrival (for Song) allowed him to link in a cool manner with Clichy, who played a killer ball forward into the box with his right-foot and gave Van Persie a chance to hit a mighty left-foot shot on the half- volley inside the near post of Victor Valdes for 1-1.

Valdes has always had flaky moments. That blunder by allowed Arsenal back into a game that Barcelona were still playing mostly in Arsenal's half.

Still, defending deeper can be good. You can only counter-attack if your opponents are in your half of the field. You can attack too much in a game. If you attack less, you often score more.

Frankly, Fabregas, Eboue and Walcott had been crap.

All three played crap. Only a blinkered, badge-kissing nincompoop would say any of those three played well last night.

Arsenal had nothing on the right flank but now, suddenly, that was where the winning goal came from after a fabulous move.

The cool Koscielny picked up the ball in his penalty area, passed to Bendtner, who passed infield to Wilshere, then quickly forward to Fabregas, who instantly released Nasri with a superb ball down the right flank.

Nasri could have tried the obvious with a low cross to the far post but chose instead to play a lovely pass which allowed Arshavin to curl his sidefoot shot behind Abidal and into the net from 15 yards.

That quality goal gave Arsenal their first victory against Barcelona and it set the seal on the pulsating, rocking, thrilling night that the Emirates has needed since 2006.

Sporting Gijon was a factor last night because game was much harder than the Wolves game was for Arsenal .

After two and half years of staggering success, and intensifying pressure, Barcelona are showing signs of burn-out, so Pep has to husband his resources very carefully.

Coming back off an international break, which is mostly where Barcelona ｄｒｏｐ their points, he conceded an early goal at Gijon in a game that was very passionate, intense and physical, since Gijon are fighting for their lives just above the drop-zone.

I was really enjoying the game but as the second half went on I was thinking : This is taking a lot out of Barcelona !

Indeed, it was a helluva battle that was taking a lot out of both sides.

Just as the commentators began to say that David Villa was about to be taken off, he glided onto a wonder-pass from Messi and chipped the keeper from the edge of the box and it finished 1-1.

Success brings a heavy schedule.

The more games you win, the more the pressure is on you. To handle that you need character and guts. Wilshere and Szczesny have given the team a lot more personality and authority than it had last year.

Big characters, big difference.

As Rufus Thomas said, age ain’t nothin’ but a number.

_________________________________________

ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Szczesny; Eboue, Djourou, Koscielny, Clichy; Song (Arshavin, 67), Wilshere; Walcott (Bendtner, 77), Fabregas, Nasri; Van Persie. Subs not used Almunia (gk), Rosicky, Denilson, Squillaci, Gibbs. Booked Song, Nasri, Van Persie

BARCELONA (4-3-3): Valdes; Alves, Pique, Abidal, Maxwell; Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta (Adriano, 88); Pedro, Messi, Villa (Keita, 67). Subs not used Pinto (gk), Bojan, Mascherano, Milito, Afellay. Booked Iniesta, Pique (misses second leg)

Possession :Arsenal 47% Barcelona 53%

Shots on target Arsenal 8 Barcelona 7

Man of the match: Szczesny.

Referee Nicola Rizzoli (Italy)

Crowd 59,927.

Arsenal's Season is over - 4 more games to play..

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