Tuesday 6 April 2010

Stop rolling around please Messi et al

Fine, Barca are a very fine side, Messi is a fantastic player, but the way in which the eleven men of Barca have cheated in the first half has been beyond a joke. The Barca training routine probably involves a few forward rolls every time that one of their players feels the air of an opponent brush in their general direction. I can now empathise with Chelsea, it is that bad.

Wedid far better than in last week's first half, we took the lead when Walcott broke clear, he elected to sqaure to Bendtner whose inital effort was well saved, the young Dane reacted speadily and poked home the rebound, one nil to the Arsenal. It didn't last long and this may well be the massive regret for tonight's game, Messi pounded a brilliant twenty yarder past Almunia into the top corner. Messi then scored twice more and the defence was caught napping, Abidal looked a marginal offside for the second, there was no excuse for the third, we were caught badly out of position and Messi took full advantage.

What can you say about Messi? Well he's shown why he's such a great talent and such a cheating little piece of shit in one half. His goals were phenomenal, but his rolling when Denilson tackled him fairly was embarrassing to say the least. The theatrics of several other Barca players really took the piss, even their centre backs were diving to get our players booked. Rosicky and Denilson were booked very very hasrhly, while Milito was allowed a reckless over the top leg breaker on Nasri and Marquez was allowed a leg breaker on Rosicky, the ref also inexplicably kept his cards in his pocket as Busquets cynically chopped down Walcott on the break.

Given the number of players we've got out tonight, we've generally done all right, the frustration is that you simply cannot give the ball away in such dangerous aweas as we have done tonight, some of it has been too naive by far. Barca are a good side, but they are eminently beatable, as has been shown by the fact that we look like scoring whenever we break on them, I just hope we can give ourselves a small chance in the second half. There's no doubt that a lot of Barca's success is down to their persistent crowding and fouling in the midfield, combined with their cheating to win free kicks whenever an opposition player dares to try to win the ball back. I will never respect Barca as a great side because of this, they make Chelsea appear an ethical and moral team.

The second half saw a very even game and some good moments pass. Bendtner miscontrolled when the goal was at his mercy, Rosicky and Clichy fired high and wide from good positions, a couple of close offsides went against us. The Barca cheating continued, the worst being Eboue's booking as he was tugged back by Busquets who then feigned a non existent facial injury. Messi rubbed salt into our wounds with a calamitous fourth, the 4-1 score flattering Barca as the 2-2 score from the first leg had flattered us.

Overall we were too many men short against a very efficient Barca side. Our defence never looked right with Silvestre's inclusion meaning Vermaelen had to play on the right side where he never looked at home. There were just too many absentees to make up for, even so if we could have just taken one of those key chances it could have all been so different. Van Persie, Gallas, Campbell, Song, Cesc, Van Persie would have all added something tonight but it was not to be. We can learn from this in many ways, we need a bit more depth in certain areas, we must work a bit harder off the ball, we must be more clinical in the final third. Perversely tonight the players fought hard and didn't deserve to go down 4-1, at least they can look in the mirror and see faces not as ugly and cheating as that of Messi.

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

wenger out!! No trophy again!!!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I love how Wenger can say he'll decide his new contract on the potential of the team to win trophies - yet he controls how the money is spent so dictates the potential for winning trophies. Le Clown is near to retirement...or the glue factory.

Anonymous said...

Why does Diaby keep anticipating a backward pass from the Barca players. They just keep turning goalwards and leaving him like the thick he is 10 yards away from any Barca player

Anonymous said...

did we really expect to get through tonight with Silvestre up against Messi?

Wenger's seen the future and that future isnt Rosicky, Diaby, Silvestre, Almunia or Bendtner

Unknown said...

rosicky and nasri.. what a joke! Theo.. truly a brainless cock.. fluked the assist for our goal

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

We didn't play well enough consistently to go through, but Barcelona are the biggest bunch of cheats ever. They go round kicking ankles to get the ball back, they fall over under minimal contact when the opposition try to win the ball.

They're also a one man threat. No Messi = pretty football without goals.

1979gooner said...

a polite reminder to the stupid morons who insist on leaving the most ignorant of comments here, they will be removed

there is a big difference between going down under no contact and going down with blood oozing from one's calf

if you have no brain, they please express the illiterate jittering of your retarded fingers elsewhere

regards

ven said...

What was Silvestre doing out there?

Anonymous said...

Humiliated. We cannot do the basics.

Anonymous said...

Utterly outclassed. No other team in world football could live with this Barcelona side. Isn't it such a shame that they spoil it all with such dirty cheating?

Anonymous said...

you call yourselfs supporters???

Anonymous said...

Silvestre vs Messi,well done Wenger!

Anonymous said...

Any of West Brom,Sunderland or Fulham would have beaten this Arsenal team tonight. Starting Silvestre says it all!

Chrispy said...

No shame going out to FCB with half our team out....theres always next year which is more than any fan other than us , ManU & Chelski can hope for......Wait for a Spud muppet to pipe up...

Anonymous said...

i have to say, with the amount of key players we had missing it wasnt that bad. yes we lost but against a player like messi it was predictable. as for all of you calling for wenger to be sacked and players not being gd enough etc. take a step back and look at it properly, today we were missing gallas, arshavin, fabregas, song and van persie. thats nearly half of our starting line up. we just got to admit that tonight we were second best due to a combination of ridiculous luck with injuries and the other team having possibly the best player in the world

jiji said...

the result was inevitable with our injuries. i hoped for a miracle which was not to be. despite all these, losing 4-1 really hurts.

ArsenalDK said...

I get sooo angry with some of you so called FANS/SUPPORTERS!

YES we lost! did you expect anything else? everyone saw the doom and gloom even before the first match! then we played 2-2, and then everybody thought we were going through! now that we are out, Arsenal are suddenly the worst team in the world!

and what about silvestre!? who would you have played!? an injured campbell?

And we had TONS of injuries against the best team in the world!

Shut up, and support the team! We are still in the race for the title, and van the man is coming back slowly.. lets smash the spuds!

Gabriel said...

On Denilson's tackle on Messi: while he clearly gets the ball first, there's some clamping on Messi's leg right after that. I don't think it's intentional so I see no foul (much less a yellow card worthy one), but it still looks painful. A player going down doesn't mean he's trying to cheat, even when the tackle is fair.

Anonymous said...

you guys call messi cheat are u out of u r minds!!!!!!!!!!. he is god man . too bad he showed arsenal what crap they are

Anonymous said...

You don't see other teams fans turn like this. Wenger is a legend!!!!

Anonymous said...

Let's all watch now as the media drool over how 'amazing' Barcelona are when in fact, without Messi they would have been perfectly beatable. As for their cheating, they go on about Arsenal being cheaters but my god Barca's is outrageous and they make it so painfully obvious. Yet of course again, the media will overlook this. It was not a surprise that we lost tonight but I think we did well to keep the goal gap down. It could have been so much worse. We now to focus on the prem and see how well we can do there and then Wenger really needs to stop being so stubborn and get his cheque book out! We need a few more experienced players I think.

Viva La Arsenal!

Anonymous said...

I am proud with our lads although we lost. I have a feeling that Inter will beat them at the semi-final. Let's wait and see, amateur cheater (Barca) vs master cheater (Inter)...

Anonymous said...

Scandalous! Silvestre against Messi? Wenger has lost his mind! Silvestre was directly at fault for the first and third goals. To say nothing about the offside that never existed and stopped Bendtner from scoring a second goal and the one that produced the second Barca goal - a deja vu from the 2006 Final. Absolutely gutless display from Diaby, Rosicky and Nasri. Worst ever decision making in key moments from Rosicky and Clichy.

Anonymous said...

musher said... I fear our players would lose their beliefs after this game, I feel many players would leave during this summer. Worst, I think Wenger might leave.. without him, we would just an average club, probably fighting for UEFA slot, and that's the end of Arsenal.

Anonymous said...

the whole team need first touch lessons, come on guys Silvestre is not Arsenal class, can any one disagree???

Anonymous said...

GOOOOOOOONERS!!!!!
GOOOOOOOONERS!!!!!
GOOOOOOOONERS!!!!!
GOOOOOOOONERS!!!!!
GOOOOOOOONERS!!!!!
GOOOOOOOONERS!!!!!

Show some faith and love for your team you spineless twats. If you just want trophies go support Chelski, Manure, or Barca.

I LOVE THE ARSENAL

Anonymous said...

We always have injuries and they always multiply when the business end of the season rolls around e.g. Gallas.
Yet again we've been shown how tactically inept we are without the ball. After the farce (and not freak) defeat in the semi-final against Manu last year I wondered would Wenger finally wake up. Well we've well and truely seen the answer to that now.
On the up side we're a money making machine that is nearly always gauranteed to make the QF of the Champions League. Just not Winners

Anonymous said...

Ars*nal.....no trophy this year either. By the way...you support the worlds biggest clowns. How about Barcas injuries? Of course you loose because of all diving...HAHAHAHA...will be easy get to work tomorrow....bye from Sweden

Colin said...

Barcelona played a great game tonight and they deserved to win. Yes, there were a couple of theatrics from Barcelona, but it's not surprising really, considering the number of dodgy tackles from Arsenal. I'm surprised that no Barca player hobbled off with a stud in his foot. Of course, if Arsenal had won we wouldn't even been talking about this. But hey, that's football. As for Messi, he just knows how to make the best of a moment. Or four.

Anonymous said...

Barça won, end of...
We're still in with a shout of the Premiership, so lets focus on beating the Spuds!

FE Gooner said...

Barca was the better team but we were not without a chance. Had Diaby made the right pass to Walcott instead of to Bendtner this could have resulted in us leading 2-0. Had Bendtner not being wrongly flagged offside, we could have lead 2-1. Barca players were seasoned professionals while ours were like innocent naive ones trying to play the beautiful way. Note the little cynical fouls by Barca players to stop Arsenal's advantage without getting a yellow card. Little things like running across the ball to prevent a quick free kick. All these are a second nature to them. A side note to all negative OTT posters - either get a real life or retreat to your world of computer games managing Arsenal...LOL

Anonymous said...

im amazed at how much arsenal fans whine about stuffs when they lose.this is football.expect rough tackles.the smartest team wins and that includes knowing how to get the ref on your side.barca did and arsenal didnt.to call messi a cheat is simply too much.at least be a good loser like wenger and accept u lost to a much better team.stop making excuses.im an arsenal fan and i accept that arsenal lost to a better team.

Pommy Gooner said...

They think it's all over, it is now. The fat lady has sung and we couldn't get past the injuries, or the spectacliar Messi. He was pretty awesome wasn't he?



Him apart I think we did pretty well. The were some defensive mistakes and with any luck Silvestre will now be put out to pasture, hopefully in a glue factory. Did you see the one two he played with Messi for one of his goals? I didn't think they used Walcott well. That move to him out on the wing in the last quarter of the field was good for a goal in each game and an almost, so why didn't they use it more? It wasn't like Barca came up with an answer for it. He didn't get anywhere near enough passes.



That said it was the injuries that beat us and will probably prevent us from winning the premiere league, you can't lose players like Fabregas, Song, Arshavin, Gallas, Ramsey, shall I go on, at this time of year.



Of course a major hurdle was going out onto the Nou Camp in a Tottenham kit Who the fucks idea was that? No one's ever going to win anything sifgnificant looking like Spurs. It's time we went back to our traditional blue and yellow away kit. I know it's all about money and you can change the design for that, but the colours should be sacred. You'd think whoever is in charge of that kit had never watched football, we now go out looking like either the Spuds or Chelski.



The good news is I got a new big arse TV on Monday, 42 inch High Definition. So it all looked beautiful in bright colours and almost life size. Apparently more life size than for the Arsenal supporters who went, who were in the 3rd tier of the Nou Camp, which I think is equivalent to being just outside Lloret de mar. The TV is a Panasonic and the model is called a Viera, whoa oh, Viera, whoa oh oh.

Pommy Gooner said...

Most of you people making comments on here should be ashamed of yourself. Don't dare call yourself Arsenal supporters, getting into the team and manager after every stumbling block.

They lost last night to probably the best team in the world at the moment, where's the disgrace in that?

We've got some fantastic talent in the squad and the best manager in the world for finding and nuturing that talent, even though he baffles me with his tactical decisions sometimes. But I wouldn't feel confident with anyone else I can think of in his position.

If you are going to be a supporter do what is required SUPPORT don't jeer we've the opposition to do that.

Ted said...

With 12 hours reflection, I don't think any team with 5 first XI players out would stand a chance against Barca at the Nou Camp.

And Messi, for all his theatrics, was terrific. Silvestre was not the only one he mugged last night!!!

Anonymous said...

listing 2 andy gray suck messi cock and not say anything about the cheating made me sick .. we wont ever win silverware under wenger again but we will play great football .. i love they way we play but jesus we cant defend 2 save our lives and its getting worse every year .. also the massive amount of injurys means were always sort of cover .. silvester makes me puke the sight of him marking messi made my arse explode with liquid shit

Drew said...

For those of you who are lambasting Silvestre, can you name a moment when Silvestre was at fault for a goal? And don't say the first one, because Messi's shot was gorgeous.

Uncle Mike said...

Can we be honest here?

Wenger had a choice: He could have put in the even older, but still more effective, Campbell. Putting Silvestre in against Messi is like bringing a knife... a knife long since gone hopelessly dull... to a gunfight.

I forgive Wenger for this awful decision, though. There's a reason he has built up so much veneration: He has earned it.

Yes, Silvestre screwed up on goals 1 and 3. Yes, Rosicky was awful. Yes, Nasri was not even close to being a second-class Cesc (which is still better than 90 percent of Premiership players), as he has been at times. Yes, Bendtner played as if he was NOT being called on to deliver the kind of goal I've often called "Bendtner Time."

It was bad. But we move on. We have 5 games left, and, with a little help, we can still win the League. Let's keep the faith with the guys who are still standing, especially since a couple of the injured are on their way back.

Up The Arsenal!

Drew said...

It's more than harsh to blame Silvestre for the third goal. The gap was left by Vermaelen, who missed the initial header. Asking Silvestre to cover that was impossible. I can only think of one time where it was Silvestre against Messi, and Messi didn't score on that occasion.

Anonymous said...

I agree another season without trophy. Wenger finally realises he needs new signings....
Some intresting comments in here...

http://arsenalfbc.blogspot.com/

Pecci said...

I love Arsenal and I think that Wenger is good coach... Arsenal is playing beautiful football, unfortunately there are no trophies, if Arsenal have money to buy some players for defense it would be great and the trophies would come... Wenger shouldn't sell Eduardo, that kid really deserved to stay in Arsenal till end of career...