Arsenal Show Hunger and Desire on Off-day – But a Little Too Late!
When Vermaelen somehow managed to nip the ball past Szczesny, many Arsenal fans had that same “one of those days” feeling. The Arsenal team had been playing poorly for the whole match and while we were unfortunate not to be a goal up, we found ourselves a goal down at our own end.
The tempo had been too slow. Arshavin was not getting out of second gear. Van Persie was being shackled well by Senderos and Hangeland. Arteta and Ramsey were looking for the sideward pass all the time. Even Walcott who had been fizzing great balls from the right looked ineffective. Gervinho and Chamakh, two players who had found little success in front of goal recently, were coming on.
But the Gunners did not give up the fight, they went forward relentlessly. Fulham had about 8 men inside the box for the last 15 minutes, I remember. Then it came, a superb cross from Walcott, and Vermaelen of all people came forth, literally flew past everyone to power a terrific header past Schwarzer.
In the end, there wasn’t really much of a chance for Arsenal to win the game although van Persie did have a half-chance to chip the keeper on his chocolate leg.
Not a horrible result, but not a particularly great one. Arsenal looked tired, unenergetic and were fortunate to get even a point. An off-day, but one where Arsenal showed good hunger and desire to salvage a point. Of course, it’s good but not enough really considering the top-four ambitions.
On the bright side, Arsenal do have a chance to rest players for the League Cup match against Manchester City and the Champions League match against Olympiakos next week (mid-week fixture). Lying three points off the pace for a top-four spot, Wenger has got to make sure Arsenal show the type of hunger they did in those last few minutes against Fulham – in every match, from the start. Fatigue is a problem but not an acceptable reason to drop points.
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YES all true but what i don’t like is persisting with ineffective players like arteta and ramsey. Wouldn’t mind rosicky, frimpong, coqcelin, and others.
When players automatically start even they may not be performing, then they start slacking.
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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agreed
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@ bergkamp, very true … should give others chance if the players on the pitch not playing as they should … gervinho shows his impact in the team now, he’s another man we cannot do without
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Cut them some slack mate….They have been on a brilliant run.Fulham didnt create any clear cut chances.Scored from an own goal.But have to give credit when its due they defended deep and defended well….and we showed enough hunger to be deserving of the point.So not a great result overall but a k result after a decisive champions league week……….. cheers
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He should have rested arteta, ramsey, Mertersacker, Song, and included Benayoun, Frimpong, Coquelin and Gervinho.the latter could have rested awaiting substitution so as to give them ample resting tym be4 being introduced or maybe they could b rested 4 the carling cup.I just dn get why we should over_rely on tired players or players having a one game off,for heavens sake Dortmund won a derby in bundensliga yet they played the same day we played and lost plus they also travelled to london hence were more tired and demoralized than arsenal!Wake up Wenger the squad is made up of 25 players ROTATE THEM!!!
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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we started slowly yesterday and it played into fulhams hands, if you dont get an early goal against these sorta teams its almost impossible to draw them out and they dig in like a starving tic! weve seen it so many times at home, then ofcourse they wait all match for that one chance to break and get there always undeserved goal.
we have to combat this by staying fresh, the team looked so mentally tired yesterday aswell as physicaly, its understandable as they have really been givng there all recently. ive mentioned rotation before and got slated but hopefully now you all see the importance and why its essential, wenger has got a massive squad and he just has to use it or this will happen more as the season goes on. fulham were never going to play to win or cause us problems so why on earth did wenger not give frimpong, park, benyoun, oxo, and others a chance, i gaurentee with there freshness and hunger they would of had more chance of opening fulham up and with the changes mite well of drawn fulham out.
on the plus side well done verm for scoring to put his mistake right, and big up djorou who put in a great shift and made 3 world class tackles, on a sour note ive never slated arsharvin before but if thats what he does when given a chance maybe it is time for him to move on, players like oxo and ryo must look at him and think “he seriously gets a game before us?” maybe its time to cut our losses on the russian coz he seems to of lost intrest.
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I don’t know why Wenger plays Arshavin. He is a player we should sell. Gerv made such an impact when he came. I also noticed Arshavin is lazy and there was a run he could of made after Ramsey did well to dribble, but he just stopped running. No effort. Also I think Fulham defended very well second half especially when we applied pressure. They had one or two lucky saves, players and keeper in the right place at the right time. It could have been worse, a draw is better than nothing. Let’s hope City drill Liverpool so we bump up above them
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agreed toby arshavin n maybe chamakh need replacing, Arshavin pissed the shits out of me yesterday he just showed he doesn’t give a f#$k anymore so let’s just ship him 2 Anzi 4 15m n get a proper & natural LW n Papiss Cisse from freidburg would be the perfect replacement 4 chamakh especially his affordability but the problem is he n chamakh r going 2 the cup of nations along with gervinho n frimpong we at least NEED a LW cause we saw wat arshavin’s been doing this past year, gervinho is gone & Miyachi is too young n inexperienced 2 start all those EPL n CL matches but let’s c wat arsene does the logical thing 2 do would be 2 buy a LW but knowing arsene n his stubbornness i just don’t see it happening
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ya why not Benyun , Rosisky, frimpong, park & Ox , I am tired of Mr. wenger bulshit ! at least thee lads could have got chance to show themselves ! He could have assessed the performance of the squad in the first half & changed the situation before it was too late ,I couldn’t understand 1-1 draw at home after surprising Chelsea 5-3 away. we are lucky to draw yesterday & I was also impressed by fulham players confidence even at the back !
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It was all yeah easy 4-0 and that yesterday now you are just slagging the team off for the sake of it fulham didn’t even score we did it for them.Off days are gunna happen we just have to get behind our team and stop the negative vibes.I was glad we didn’t get beat considering we played poorly.STOP targeting the same players cos there gunna play more games this season.GET BEHIND OUR TEAM MORE WE’VE GOT WHAT WE’VE GOT UNTIL JANUARY.Come on Arsene the OX should av been a sub yesterday start him against city and wigan.
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I know that people want to see City beat Liverpool so that we end up moving up in the table, but I really think it would be better for Liverpool to win..
A) It would shorten the gap between City and the rest of us.
B) I don’t see Liverpool sticking up above us for too long. I think it’s likely for them to be falling back later in the season.
I’d rather get closer to stopping Shitty from winning, and staying behind liverpool for a longer time, than seeing Shitty pulling further away, and taking over the Scouse right now…
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REST IN PEACE GARY SPEED TOP MAN
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AW should have subbed ramsey & arteta sooner ..
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Why are people hating on ramsay he looked tired yesterday but still gave more than arshavin . And in recent weeks has been one of our best performers . The match against fulham was really frustrating but without that sloppy own goal I’m sure we would have gone on to win , but u can’t win them all . Up the arsenal
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On the bright side, ye Gooners, think of this.
If we had drawn the Chelsea match and beaten Fulham, we would have been well satisfied…..3 points gained.
There’s always a silver lining but you have to ferret for it!
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fulham is never an easy team to face, city only dropped points to them and liverpool.
however, i do think we need another winger/striker to cover for ‘tired’ players. podolski seems the best option, he can play on the wings, behind the striker, and even as a striker.
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we’re playing at home,why always with the the tired reason?? our players were fragile?
we should hv started like these against fulham;
szc
djourou-song-tv5-santos
diaby-arteta
walcot-arshavin-gervinho
chamakh
robin for chamakh,coquelin for arteta,ramsey for arshavin or gervinho in the scond half,and we shud hv seal it already! arshavin shud b try to play in the ramsey role on that match.yea need to move oon n acept it. n for shity mylineup shud b;
fabianski
yennaris-djourou-koscielny-miquel
diaby-coquelin
chambo-rosicky-benayoun
chamakh
change to 4-4-1-1 in scond half..bring arshavin as the attacking midfielder and park upfront.
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ramsey is improving but for me as much as i rate the kid he is trying to be too skillful and loses the ball too often,
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it’s typical for Arsenal to have the Lion’s share of possession and be 1-0 down early. Bad habit. We need hard defenders
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Guys after all that let us hope shitty down the head of the league and beat the hell outta them tonight . They have got david silva we have thomas tonight , they have jullian lescott we have the verminator , they have kun aguero we have Robinhood , they have hart we have wojciech , and finally we’ve got the emirates and thousands of fans tonight . So we will beat them for God sake .
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