From : Jeff
They can scrap, pull off some nice little pieces of play, tackle decently in midfield, but no, they can’t really play without Fabregas. How I would love to have seen this game with him involved. Manyoo were there for the taking, and Arse couldn’t do it. At least not without Cesc. Arshavin once again wasted out left….
From : Pal
I have followed Arsenal FC since I became interested in football as a kid in 1969, and I enjoy reading your comments. I agree with most of your comments as I do prefer to read non rose-tinted views of Arsenal`s performances.
I watched Arsenal play Man U yesterday, and after watching the match for some minutes, I thought Arsenal might well get a good result against Man U even without Fabregas because Man U looked like an average team as long as Vermaelen and Gallas kept Rooney well in control. After the first half I thought: Arshavin scored a good goal shortly after he should have had a penalty. Van der Sar might well have saved the shot, but Arsenal deserved to be in the lead.
But also imagined what it could been like if Arsenal had had Fabregas available instead of Eboue, and Arsenal had bought a decent striker to replace the overrated van Persie, and Arsenal had bought the classy Van der Vaart who they might get for 12 million pounds and played him instead of Diaby who unfortunately does that much of a football brain.
If that wishful scenario had been the case, I think Arsenal could have been leading Man U by 3 goals to 0, and possibly humiliated Man U even further. Not that Arsenal played so well in the first half , but they played better than Man U which fielded a poor midfield.
In the second half Almunia showed again why Arsenal need a better goal keeper by rushing out in front of Rooney. I saw the incident in slow motion, and Rooney dives before there is any body contact, but Rooney might well have bumbed into Almunia even if he did not dive because he was so close. Still, it was a situation almost all referees will award a penalty for unless they see the situation extremely from close up. And this is Old Trafford.
Do I need to say more? You could see that Arsenal`s confidence level dropped as soon as Rooney scored, and Man U also showed more fighting spirit than Arsenal. Then Diaby showed why it is said when he is bad, he is very bad and Man U were up 2-1. When Arshavin had to go off I thought: Game over. He was the only Arsenal player that looked dangerous as usual.
It is a pity Arsenal did not go for a decent striker,Van der Vaart and a better goal keeper. With 3 high quality players Arsenal would have a decent chance to win somthing this season. Chelsea should win the title.
This has not been an attempt to cover the whole match, just to share some thoughts with you.
Sincerely,
Pål
PS Have you looked at the compilation of Ronaldo divings for Man U on YouTube? He
must be the worst diver in the history of football.
From : Steve Fadairo
Mr Myles,
I reference a quote from you (below). Bearing in mind what transpired during the Man U v Arsenal match, I can only say how right you were!
“What a shame. Arsenal don’t need to cheat to beat Celtic. Cheating is bad karma and YOU ALWAYS PAY FOR IT LATER.”
We surely paid big time yesterday – Almunia’s foul & Diaby’s own goal. A classic case of what goes around comes around.
From : Rhys Jaggar
Wins:
1. Germany Ladies winning two games at Euros – they played at home and they won their previous games. Today it’s 1/6 – not worth backing.
2. Spurs beating Birmingham yesterday: just.
3. Arsenal beating Celtic Wednesday.
4. Arsenal beating Portsmouth last weekend.
5. Newcastle beating Huddersfield CC in midweek – just.
6. Bayern beating Wolfsburg yesterday.
Losses:
1. Liverpool at home to Villa Monday – previous win 4-0 home to Stoke. They got hammered.
2. Leeds at home to Watford in CC – won every game this season, silly buggers conceded an equaliser with 3 mins to go. Winning in extra time doesn’t work on the exchanges….
3. Zenit at home to Nacional – silly idiots conceded in 89 minutes. Thank you Mr Putin!
Breaking your rules and winning:
1. Spurs away at Doncaster in CC – good odds for Spurs/Spurs HT/FT.
2. Man City at Palace.
3. Leeds at Colchester yesterday.
4. Rangers at Hearts last weekend – by the skin of their teeth.
5. Spurs at West Ham last weekend.
Too hard to say whether your system is good or not – but if it’s what you’re comfortable with, stick with it. But once Spurs won 5-1 at Hull, I reckoned they were on a roll, so backed them. Now Modric has broken his leg, I might revisit that. Similarly Arsenal with two wins on two wins- I didn’t touch yesterday’s match – far too hard to call.
I wouldn’t touch today’s Primera Liga matches – nothing stands out unless Juventus’s activities of yesteryear were but the tip of the iceberg……
And I’m glad I didn’t touch England Ladies vs Russia Ladies: have you ever heard of 1/8 on England at half time when they led 3-2 after being 2-1 down? You could get better than evens when the score was 1/2. Marvellous chances there for cleaning up, eh? If you knew what was going down..
From : Simba
I love your website, keep up the good work guys. I may not agree with everything but as a young semi pro coach, your opinions push me to think.
Having watched the OT match, I come to the conclusion that I’ve seen enough. I agree with you. Arsenal’s too full of players you cannot put in that category, SERIOUS PROFESSIONALS. And they will not change, after a 100 or 200 appearances. I’m afraid Ramsey now joins Diaby, Eboue, Bendtner and the dearly missed Adebayor in that category.They will not deliver a title.
From : Neil Youngson
Dear Myles,
A lot has been written over the last week about the Eduardo penalty incident and UEFA’s response to it. It seems to me that if UEFA, and the other footballing authorities, are serious about stamping out diving they need to go back to basics.
The principle behind the penalty rule is to ensure fair play. If a striker enters the box and is fouled in a way that prevents a goal scoring opportunity then a penalty should be awarded.
In principle, what Rooney did at Old Trafford was exactly the same as what Eduardo did at the Emirates. In both cases the striker had lost control of the ball and any real chance of scoring, so both went to ground hoping to win a penalty.
The fact that in one case the keeper made contact and in the other he didn’t should be irrelevant. In Rooney’s case he had kicked the ball out of play just before falling to the ground and colliding with the keeper – slow motion replays clearly show him starting to go down before he made contact with Almunia, but even if this had not been the case it still should not have been a penalty since no goal scoring opportunity was denied him.
The football authorities need to get back to the principle of the law and instruct their referees accordingly if we are to see fair play win over cheating.
Keep up the good work, your blog is always interesting.
Regards
Neil
———–
From : Zach Yu
I am a Chinese reader from Hong Kong, found your site this season and started to check it out daily. Good work, keep it. Stay in your tune, only way to be unique.
I gambled a lot. I gambled weekly and had a record of 8 seasons, only 1 season I lost.
Here are my rules and some guidelines for myself:
To decide which team I bet on I base on five things.
1) Trend, last 5 games they win or lose, mainly morale factor.
2) Home / away; home game much more easy win.
3) Leahal weapon count, how many players within a team can score. And how hot they are…
4) Fitness, how many games have they played within 10 days.
5) Injuries
There are some extra rules for myself:
1) never bet on Liverpool, Newcastle, Madrid Athletic. Inter used to be in here. These 4 teams I call them gambler killers, never consistent, and always score around 90 minutes.
2) the most easy bet is European league 3rd round and group stage. The skill level or what you call class is always a big gap between 4 main league and others.
3)If you can’t decide when a team is having too much handicap, then buy the result to be Big (3 goals) or small (less than 3 goals) would be much more easy.
4)Mid-standing team v low-standing team in the table is much more safer than buying big4 (if there is big handicap)
eg. AZ in Holland, Espanol in Spain. and last first half season of Aston Villa.
Hope you enjoy and have fun
From : Raymond de Verte
Hi Myles,
I am writing this immediately after the Man Utd v Arsenal game, having taken my time to think over the game I just watched on the internet/listened to on the radio.
Four points come to mind:
1. Arsenal played very, very well. Tempo was good and the commitment and belief through the team was impressive. The team though do need to be ‘ruthlessly efficient’ in front of goal. We should have gone in at half time at least two goals up considering our play and the chances created.
2. Man Utd did not score in open play. We scored a good goal in open play, needlessly gave away a penalty, and scored an even more unnecessary own goal – with no pressure. (I know in the end the only statistic everyone is concerned with is who won.)
3. I think we need to increase the focus of the team as a whole and I do have to admit that I think Almunia needs to up his focus and game. Since the start of the season I have noticed a few moments when he has not been concentrating (Celtic comes to mind). I think Arsene should have a quiet word with him as you do not want your goalkeeper to start causing an element of doubt to creep into your defenders.
4. Once Man Utd scored the mental recovery time of the team was too long. They dropped for too long a time instead of getting straight back in the flow of the game they were playing. This is understandable, but to be a professional you have to deal with these instances immediately and get back in your groove.
5. Overall we played well and have to be positive about our team play, from what they showed on the pitch today. On the balance of play Man Utd were very lucky to get all the points from this game (frankly, I think we should have won it – and that is without my Arsenal tinted glasses on). It augers well for the team for the rest of the season, so far as the recovery time from this blip is addressed. I think we need to take our chances (as we did in the Everton game) as they present themselves otherwise we will pay dearly for this in later games of the season.
Regards
From : Daniel Nystrom
Rooney dives for a penalty. He goes down before Almunia …….I am so disappointed. And no one is talking about it. He did what Eduardo did. Arshavin tackle was a penalty. I am crying now………………. it is a cruel game.
Best wishes from Sweden
From : Ai
I’m Arsenal fan from Malaysia…but tonight I’m very-very upset because Arsenal defeat by Man Utd. For me Arsenal lost because of referee…why he give penalty to Rooney? Almunia doing his job as a goalkeeper…that why we call tonight match referee bullshit…because of him Arsenal defeat tonight…I think referee have to be more alert…don’t sleep…adios…
From : Tim
One word: Karma.
Man U looked rubbish for most of the game.
Turning point : Foster’s save from Van Persie.