I feel the van persie call was bullshit but i am glad for the result
as for chelsea
They can save their season but let's not forget a repeat championship was all but guaranteed at the beginning of the season...the luiz move was great but the torres situation has really lead to a misbalanced squad.
Even though we beat blackpool (hope they avoid relegation) torres was milk carton and you bench malouda and anelka and they hesitate to go on as drogba is clearly injured
this team had almost every position figured out and torres has negatively tilted the scales
Suarez at liverpool on the other hand...
I agree the challenge was bad. But what was Nani doing getting up and coming over and then falling down? Just seemed so odd. Takes a little heat off the error of the 2nd goal I guess.
I'm glad Kuyt had a great game. The guy deserves some shine. And it always feels great to see ManU lose.
I'm topping this high off watching all the Fernando Torres goals & skills for Chelsea .
Opposition apart I can't be mad at Dirk getting a hat trick, especially one of such signature awful quality. The guy has suffered so many position changes and disinterested treatment at Liverpool and yet still gives it all.
Just to confirm on this Nani crying thing, I take it's only acceptable to bawl it on a pitch when you sit in the centre circle after your team have lost in an away match? :-P
Watching the match last night I started to suspect that Barca were using their tried and tested plan to beat Arsenal:
- Identify Arsenal's most influential player
- Make an unsettling bid for him in the summer
- Watch him choke miserably when you play them later in the season
However I honestly did begin to think they might wing it after the bizarre own goal and the fact that they were riding their luck very nicely on penalty decisions and the like. I actually think the VP decision was harsh but entirely within the rules, the guy can claim he didn't hear the whistle all he likes but if that was so why blast it first time at a disinterested goalie rather than take it down and try and score? Stupid thing to do.
I'll admit that I did chuckle when Almunia came on but thought he was outstanding. Nasri also played very well but I think, when Arsene stops his normal routine of feeling the world is against him, they'll concede that they made too many individual errors.
Slightly off topic, how bad must Serie A be if Roma qualify for the CL every season? They're truly abysmal. Dream tie in th enext round would Shakhtar vs Barca.
I actually think the VP decision was harsh but entirely within the rules, the guy can claim he didn't hear the whistle all he likes but if that was so why blast it first time
Because that's usually how he scores goals. And to Barcelona's credit, by that stage of the game Arsenal players had been closed down within seconds every time they got the ball. Assuming he had the time to take a touch would've been the error - taking a shot because he thought he was through on goal wasn't.
11 vs 11 and we were doing alright. Barcelona looked great against 10 men though.
too many individual errors
Howler from Cesc. Rosicky invisible. Bendtner even had a chance to win it. Expected to lose, but not like that.
Other telling game statistics:
Barcelona ____________Arsenal
0___Yellow Cards___5
0___Red Cards___1
Like I said, harsh and the referee could easily have given him the benefit of the doubt but it is entirely within the rules if he interprets it as time wasting by kicking the ball away when the whistle has been blown. Watched it again this morning and not quite as clear cut as I remember last night but the shot still looks like one blasted in irritation. I can't find footage but wasn't the yellow for slapping someone round the head? You could say he was lucky to still be on the pitch.
Anyway, not looking to put the boot in so happy to agree it was very harsh. Shame it couldn't have gone 11 v 11 all match but I don't think him staying on the pitch would have made that much of a difference sadly.
Hmm.. I was just quoting Sir Andy the Gray, but now I'm actually a little annoyed.
The player he 'slapped' was Dani Alves, one of the biggest play-acting cunts to play profeshional football. RvP barely touches him, imo it could have as easily been deemed an accident. But no, apparently it's a red card offence. I guess he should have used his elbow and then it would've gone completely unpunished.
For the 'Greatest football team in the World' they don't half like to dive and cheat. But hey that's what football is about right.. getting the opposing side players sent off for bullshit offences to make the game completely one sided. It's certainly not about a fair contest.
If you watch the replay you can see the Barca defender that is level with RvP also plays on, maybe he should be booked for coercion. We should definitely be booking more players for menial offences like these, it will make the game so much more interesting. fuck playing football. Tackles like this are completely acceptable though.
I couldn't give a fuck about loosing to Barca, I never expected us to go through against them, as I, along with everyone else can recognise they are the better team. It was a very one-sided match, but Barca games generally are. The game plan was definitely to try and hold out till the hour mark and then go for it when Barca inevitably got tired. The sending off scupered any real chances of us pulling off our planned late come back.
But if we had scraped through, then maybe we could've gone on to make to the final, but you just know by that time we would've picked up so many injuries we would have to play the reserves in the final. So fuck it. I don't like the CL anyway, it always seems to be at the detriment to any league or domestic hopes, so I'm quite happy to go out early.
I don't feel passionately enough to argue the point and rest assured that I would be having a fit if it was a Utd player (as Rafael's sending off last year confirmed). My original point was, while it was unnecessary, if the referee did believe he was time wasting then he's within reason to book him. I did wonder if the ref had forgotten he'd already gone in the book as that would, in my eyes, make it more understandable. Looking back it probably wasn't the wisest thing to bring up on here this morning so apologies to L'Arse clan on here, I think it was just the utter cry baby whining on about it by Tyler and Smith on Sky last night for the whole rest of the match that prompted me to vent along with the knowledge that it would be all that Arsene talked about post match.
Anyway
I don't like the CL anyway, it always seems to be at the detriment to any league or domestic hopes, so I'm quite happy to go out early.
I'm going to look forward to using this line next week unless we a) Sort out our shite dense b) break our poor record against French teams.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
Paul said:
LOL. Carragher's tackle cut to the bone. Shows the insane level of denial with people claiming his injury photo was doctored because that brutal gash doesn't fit with the 'Nani's a pussy' narrative.
Even Guardian writers are getting in on the macho posturing. Pathetic.
Boy who cried wolf, innit? It was a real alehouse challenge from Carra, and if he'd got a red for it (irrespective of the gash) there wouldn't have been any serious grounds for complaint. But let's not kid ourselves here - if it had been any other player apart from Nani on the business end of it, sympathy wouldn't have been in such short supply. His theatrics in this season's OT fixture, for example - going over like he'd been clothes-lined by Konchesky when the actual contact that had taken place was negligible (not to mention Ferguson's touch of Wenger-itis) - are fairly typical of his attitude to the most benign of challenges, let alone the kind of full-blooded clattering Carra administered on Sunday. I'm glad it wasn't a career-ending injury, but I seriously doubt it'll make Nani reflect upon the way he approaches the "contact sport" aspects of the game. He'll be back next season, swan-diving all over the place like it was nothing.
LOL. Carragher's tackle cut to the bone. Shows the insane level of denial with people claiming his injury photo was doctored because that brutal gash doesn't fit with the 'Nani's a pussy' narrative.
Even Guardian writers are getting in on the macho posturing. Pathetic.
Boy who cried wolf, innit? It was a real alehouse challenge from Carra, and if he'd got a red for it (irrespective of the gash) there wouldn't have been any serious grounds for complaint. But let's not kid ourselves here - if it had been any other player apart from Nani on the business end of it, sympathy wouldn't have been in such short supply. His theatrics in this season's OT fixture, for example - going over like he'd been clothes-lined by Konchesky when the actual contact that had taken place was negligible (not to mention Ferguson's touch of Wenger-itis) - are fairly typical of his attitude to the most benign of challenges, let alone the kind of full-blooded clattering Carra administered on Sunday. I'm glad it wasn't a career-ending injury, but I seriously doubt it'll make Nani reflect upon the way he approaches the "contact sport" aspects of the game. He'll be back next season, swan-diving all over the place like it was nothing.
Sure he dives but I think the affront is more that people still find it amusing to laugh at Utd players when they've been genuinely injured (poor smudge :down: ). Anyway, let's be honest here, most big name players aren't opposed to a bit of theatrics now and again......
you can argue iniesta and alves go down a bit too much
calling them one of the worst diving cunts in the game is harsh on some gatusso shit
busquets you would have a point but they are not angel di maria or the italian squad by any means
djourou played great but even on 11 men it was pretty clear who would come out on top
i thought we played slow in the beginning and your counterattack was composed but 0 shots is where this story is told
you can argue iniesta and alves go down a bit too much
calling them one of the worst diving cunts in the game is harsh on some gatusso shit
busquets you would have a point but they are not angel di maria or the italian squad by any means
djourou played great but even on 11 men it was pretty clear who would come out on top
i thought we played slow in the beginning and your counterattack was composed but 0 shots is where this story is told
One of the unofficial rules of supporting two (three?) teams is that you can't refer to all of them as 'we'.
People calling the 0 shots thing a shambles weren't saying the same when Inter had the same stat the other year, I don't know if they'd have been able to deal with the pressure for 90 minutes with 11 men but still, the defence were doing a decent enough job until then.
i agree on both counts
the arsenal squad bar??a faced were really missing walcott's flank pace
cesc's little back heel in front of the box was the dagger (horrible timing)
I'm sure I've said it here before but Barca's diving and cheating seriously sours all the great things you see when watching them play. They have the quality to just play teams off the park yet they still need to play-act and cheat.
No mention of Suarez's bitch move in pulling Rafael's hair?
Agreed on Pcmr's usage of "we" for the team he supports in just about every match discussed...haha
Anyway, let's be honest here, most big name players aren't opposed to a bit of theatrics now and again......
If you're a integral part of the England set up it gets ignored doe. If you're foreign you get labelled a dirty cheat at every available opportunity. (good to see Eduardo getting a goal last night related)
If you're a integral part of the England set up it gets ignored doe. If you're foreign you get labelled a dirty cheat at every available opportunity. (good to Eduardo getting a goal last night related)
Ha that one's superb, combination of tripping over own foot with theatrical fall right in front of ref is to be applauded. The choice of Gerrard was just a childish pick for the response to Doc as I can't think of one big name player who doesn't do it these days (seriously, would love for some to be listed who don't do it) and Man U are certainly not exempt. Just seems the thinking that Nani in anyway deserved this is a bit off no doubt related to your above point.
Anyway, his masterly last minute ruin of Ronaldo's recent almost wonder goal for Portugal should really endear him to English PL supporters for life. Once more for the memories.
SO, Tevez off to Inter at the end of the season - seems very likely.
FFS, what does he want? Or more accurately, what hold does his agent have over him to get him to jog away from perfectly good club setups, time after time? Is the weather that bad?
And I can't stomach the thought of Ibrahimovich coming in and doing an "Adebayor", but for twice the outlay.
Congrats to Spurs for gettting through. Always nice to see an Italian team lose to their own tactics but have to say watching that match was a reminder of how bored and over saturated I am with football at the moment. Think i need a new sport to follow, maybe garden bowls? Which leads me nicely on to
Website design apart I'm liking this guy's all out Fuck Yeah attitude. Favourite parts so far are when he states that USA won the world cup in 91 and 99 and attacks the leaning towards European nations in the world cup before following on with a reference to baseball.
Had to call out MrWheeler on the ebay thread, IIRC he was an E*ith stalker wierdo? He used to have BANNED in diagonal red A-Team font across his avatar BITD.
Damn that's a good memory Jimster. Ebay is like a cruel and taunting mistress at the moment flaunting her wares, demanding that I show her the money which is sadly lacking so hadn't checked that thread. Just checked on google and you're right, it was someone with that handle who was banned for basically stalking A****y a few years back.
Himabitch was reassuringly shite last night which does make the world a better place. Definitely could see him transferring to Citeh in the next year. Having said that was reading about their line up for tonight's game and had entirely forgotten they bought Dzeko for 24 million. Gone in the summer or a valid replacement for Tevez?
Last night, I was paying attention and it was in HD, so I could, if I was so inclined, rewind his contributions to the game which basically consisted of emptying the contents of his massive hooter on the reg, and slapping his thighs when he was dispossessed.
Really, he did nothing last night. Pato looked busy, Merkel looked lively when he came on, but Spurs deserved it, and if Crouch had been sharper, may have had a couple on the night.
Kiev tonight with Shevva, who was Dzeko's idol as a nipper. I predicts hella snoods, and 1-1.
Comments
as for chelsea
They can save their season but let's not forget a repeat championship was all but guaranteed at the beginning of the season...the luiz move was great but the torres situation has really lead to a misbalanced squad.
Even though we beat blackpool (hope they avoid relegation) torres was milk carton and you bench malouda and anelka and they hesitate to go on as drogba is clearly injured
this team had almost every position figured out and torres has negatively tilted the scales
Suarez at liverpool on the other hand...
I'm glad Kuyt had a great game. The guy deserves some shine. And it always feels great to see ManU lose.
I'm topping this high off watching all the Fernando Torres goals & skills for Chelsea .
LOL.
Opposition apart I can't be mad at Dirk getting a hat trick, especially one of such signature awful quality. The guy has suffered so many position changes and disinterested treatment at Liverpool and yet still gives it all.
Just to confirm on this Nani crying thing, I take it's only acceptable to bawl it on a pitch when you sit in the centre circle after your team have lost in an away match? :-P
Watching the match last night I started to suspect that Barca were using their tried and tested plan to beat Arsenal:
- Identify Arsenal's most influential player
- Make an unsettling bid for him in the summer
- Watch him choke miserably when you play them later in the season
However I honestly did begin to think they might wing it after the bizarre own goal and the fact that they were riding their luck very nicely on penalty decisions and the like. I actually think the VP decision was harsh but entirely within the rules, the guy can claim he didn't hear the whistle all he likes but if that was so why blast it first time at a disinterested goalie rather than take it down and try and score? Stupid thing to do.
I'll admit that I did chuckle when Almunia came on but thought he was outstanding. Nasri also played very well but I think, when Arsene stops his normal routine of feeling the world is against him, they'll concede that they made too many individual errors.
Slightly off topic, how bad must Serie A be if Roma qualify for the CL every season? They're truly abysmal. Dream tie in th enext round would Shakhtar vs Barca.
Because that's usually how he scores goals. And to Barcelona's credit, by that stage of the game Arsenal players had been closed down within seconds every time they got the ball. Assuming he had the time to take a touch would've been the error - taking a shot because he thought he was through on goal wasn't.
11 vs 11 and we were doing alright. Barcelona looked great against 10 men though.
Howler from Cesc. Rosicky invisible. Bendtner even had a chance to win it. Expected to lose, but not like that.
Other telling game statistics:
Barcelona ____________Arsenal
0___Yellow Cards___5
0___Red Cards___1
Do me a favour..
Anyway, not looking to put the boot in so happy to agree it was very harsh. Shame it couldn't have gone 11 v 11 all match but I don't think him staying on the pitch would have made that much of a difference sadly.
The player he 'slapped' was Dani Alves, one of the biggest play-acting cunts to play profeshional football. RvP barely touches him, imo it could have as easily been deemed an accident. But no, apparently it's a red card offence. I guess he should have used his elbow and then it would've gone completely unpunished.
For the 'Greatest football team in the World' they don't half like to dive and cheat. But hey that's what football is about right.. getting the opposing side players sent off for bullshit offences to make the game completely one sided. It's certainly not about a fair contest.
If you watch the replay you can see the Barca defender that is level with RvP also plays on, maybe he should be booked for coercion. We should definitely be booking more players for menial offences like these, it will make the game so much more interesting. fuck playing football. Tackles like this are completely acceptable though.
I couldn't give a fuck about loosing to Barca, I never expected us to go through against them, as I, along with everyone else can recognise they are the better team. It was a very one-sided match, but Barca games generally are. The game plan was definitely to try and hold out till the hour mark and then go for it when Barca inevitably got tired. The sending off scupered any real chances of us pulling off our planned late come back.
But if we had scraped through, then maybe we could've gone on to make to the final, but you just know by that time we would've picked up so many injuries we would have to play the reserves in the final. So fuck it. I don't like the CL anyway, it always seems to be at the detriment to any league or domestic hopes, so I'm quite happy to go out early.
Anyway
I'm going to look forward to using this line next week unless we a) Sort out our shite dense b) break our poor record against French teams.
Boy who cried wolf, innit? It was a real alehouse challenge from Carra, and if he'd got a red for it (irrespective of the gash) there wouldn't have been any serious grounds for complaint. But let's not kid ourselves here - if it had been any other player apart from Nani on the business end of it, sympathy wouldn't have been in such short supply. His theatrics in this season's OT fixture, for example - going over like he'd been clothes-lined by Konchesky when the actual contact that had taken place was negligible (not to mention Ferguson's touch of Wenger-itis) - are fairly typical of his attitude to the most benign of challenges, let alone the kind of full-blooded clattering Carra administered on Sunday. I'm glad it wasn't a career-ending injury, but I seriously doubt it'll make Nani reflect upon the way he approaches the "contact sport" aspects of the game. He'll be back next season, swan-diving all over the place like it was nothing.
Sure he dives but I think the affront is more that people still find it amusing to laugh at Utd players when they've been genuinely injured (poor smudge :down: ). Anyway, let's be honest here, most big name players aren't opposed to a bit of theatrics now and again......
Manchester United's Nani has invested a proportion of his wages in a life-size marble statue of himself. Maybe he really is a suitable replacement for Ronaldo. Can this be true?
calling them one of the worst diving cunts in the game is harsh on some gatusso shit
busquets you would have a point but they are not angel di maria or the italian squad by any means
djourou played great but even on 11 men it was pretty clear who would come out on top
i thought we played slow in the beginning and your counterattack was composed but 0 shots is where this story is told
One of the unofficial rules of supporting two (three?) teams is that you can't refer to all of them as 'we'.
People calling the 0 shots thing a shambles weren't saying the same when Inter had the same stat the other year, I don't know if they'd have been able to deal with the pressure for 90 minutes with 11 men but still, the defence were doing a decent enough job until then.
the arsenal squad bar??a faced were really missing walcott's flank pace
cesc's little back heel in front of the box was the dagger (horrible timing)
No mention of Suarez's bitch move in pulling Rafael's hair?
Agreed on Pcmr's usage of "we" for the team he supports in just about every match discussed...haha
If you're a integral part of the England set up it gets ignored doe. If you're foreign you get labelled a dirty cheat at every available opportunity. (good to see Eduardo getting a goal last night related)
Ha that one's superb, combination of tripping over own foot with theatrical fall right in front of ref is to be applauded. The choice of Gerrard was just a childish pick for the response to Doc as I can't think of one big name player who doesn't do it these days (seriously, would love for some to be listed who don't do it) and Man U are certainly not exempt. Just seems the thinking that Nani in anyway deserved this is a bit off no doubt related to your above point.
Anyway, his masterly last minute ruin of Ronaldo's recent almost wonder goal for Portugal should really endear him to English PL supporters for life. Once more for the memories.
FFS, what does he want? Or more accurately, what hold does his agent have over him to get him to jog away from perfectly good club setups, time after time? Is the weather that bad?
And I can't stomach the thought of Ibrahimovich coming in and doing an "Adebayor", but for twice the outlay.
Website design apart I'm liking this guy's all out Fuck Yeah attitude. Favourite parts so far are when he states that USA won the world cup in 91 and 99 and attacks the leaning towards European nations in the world cup before following on with a reference to baseball.
Had to call out MrWheeler on the ebay thread, IIRC he was an E*ith stalker wierdo? He used to have BANNED in diagonal red A-Team font across his avatar BITD.
Pretty dumb to come back with the same handle?
Himabitch was reassuringly shite last night which does make the world a better place. Definitely could see him transferring to Citeh in the next year. Having said that was reading about their line up for tonight's game and had entirely forgotten they bought Dzeko for 24 million. Gone in the summer or a valid replacement for Tevez?
Last night, I was paying attention and it was in HD, so I could, if I was so inclined, rewind his contributions to the game which basically consisted of emptying the contents of his massive hooter on the reg, and slapping his thighs when he was dispossessed.
Really, he did nothing last night. Pato looked busy, Merkel looked lively when he came on, but Spurs deserved it, and if Crouch had been sharper, may have had a couple on the night.
Kiev tonight with Shevva, who was Dzeko's idol as a nipper. I predicts hella snoods, and 1-1.
Yes.
How very dare you. I am a collector damn you, A COLLECTOR!