Football (Soccer)

[Oriphus]

Well, it was a good day all around for me. Man Utd beat Newcastle 3-1, with Rooney scoring two greeat goals. Its good to see he can deliver when required. One was a very good volley as well just at the edge of the box. On top of that win, Real Betis managed to beat Barcalona 2-1, which was fantastic considering they were on top form and previously unbeaten this season. Long may it continue eh

Arsenals win was a good win, they never really looked liked loosing it, despite all of the goals.

Another penalty awarded to Unite, Shay Given certainly made contact with Scholes, so i think it was fair this time.

[Oriphus]

Well, Arsenal & Chelsea both can only manage a draw, and the crusading Manchester United closes in on them at the top. By Christman, if we win our next 6 (fairly easy) games, we should have the gap right down. Maybe even be sitting alongside you top table rankers. Come April, we'll be edging ahead to take the Premiership trophy that everyone thinks we have already lost lol - well i hope thats the case anyway

Great 2-0 win for UNited. Was a stroll in the park really....

[admin]

Arsenal have been playing like crap lately - relegation form actually. Draws against the 16th, 17th and 19th teams, 2 of them at home, (and a loss to some mid-table team ) is just not good enough. A definite slip in form which is just typical of Novembers for us. With that said, we're somehow still 7 points ahead of United and only 2 points below Chelsea, so it hasn't cost us as much as the results suggest. We're low on confidence right now, as we move the ball much slower, with much hesitation and too many pass backs. I think we need a good solid clean sheet victory (and the return of Sol Campbell) to lift us back to winning ways.

[Oriphus]

lol - that mid table team wouldnt happen to be this years potential premiership champions would it? lol. Yeah, Arsenal have seen a dip in form, but no doubt they'll still be top or 2nd after christmas. I expect it to be around mid January or February for United to be within a point a point of the leaders or so. I honestly think, after the match on Saturday, that we have the team there to do it. Paul Scholes and Roy Keane have both been in great form these past few games. Ronaldo looks wrecked and although Rooney isnt in as good form as id hoped, he still produces the goods at times.

Now that Scholes has a taste for goals, and his shots that have been drifting just wide might start to drift inside the post. Ryan Giggs is playing pretty well. Rio Ferdinand is full of confidence, too much sometimes lol, but still confident. Heinze is a great addition. I just think we have a squad that can do it now....

Give Ronaldo a rest so he can come back with some new tricks and a lot of confidence and pace.

[admin]

Seriously, I think everyone knows it was always going to be between Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United, it's only the order in which these teams finish that needs to be determined. Chelsea looked very good before their slip up against Bolton, and I think the psychological effects of losing a 2 goal lead when they had such a good defensive record cannot be underestimated.

Manchester United will have to win 3 or 4 league games in a row before anyone can say they're back in form.

Arsenal need to win a single game without conceding a goal stop our relegation form, starting at PSV.

[Oriphus]

Yeah, i agree with us having to win a few game sin a row, and put in good performances. We have 6 games coming up, all should be win games. It will be interesting to see how that fairs.

Looking forward to the matches tonight. Referee has said that he will stop the Arsenal game if he see's or heres any racial abuse.

Alex Ferguson's 1000th game in charge better be a victory lol. Even his old Pal Arsene Wenger had some nice things to say about it. Aw....

[admin]

I think abandoning the match is the wrong reaction to the problem, I mean if PSV "fans" were hurling abuse at Arsenal players while PSV was winning and the game is stopped, does it mean Arsenal get the win? How would they know who was hurling the abuse, Arsenal fans (who want the game abandoned so we can get the win) or PSV fans? What if PSV's rival fans turn up, pretend to be PSV fans to try to get the game abandoned so PSV would lose?

I think the best solution is to treat those that hurl racist abuse like any other hooligan, and ban them for life, and big fines for the club (not like the puny $20,000 fine that PSV was given last time).

As for the 1000th game, when Wenger was asked about it, his response at first was "I will be celebrating all week"

[Oriphus]

2 red cards and a draw, not the best night in Europe by any stretch of the imagination for Arsenal. Do you think they can manage the win Rosenberg to secure their progrssion? it could be close with Vieira & Laurent both now going to be missing out. Their goal however, was pretty impressive...

[admin]

When the ref said he was going to take players off because of racism, I didn't know he meant sending offs

But seriously, and not having the pleasure to have seen the game, I think it's a good result considering the sending offs and the early goal conceded. All this means is that both PSV and Rosenborg's fates are decided, and that we'll still go through if we lose the next game and Panathinaikos only manages to draw. Either that or we will have to win against a Rosenborg side that doesn't have anything to play for. I would say it's a lot harder for Manchester United to finish top of the group (needing to travel to Turkey and match Lyon's result) than it is for Arsenal to qualify. We'll even finish top of the group if PSV lose (a highly determined Greek side that has to win versus a side that has already qualified) and we win. Basically, we secure second place without needing a result if PSV wins or draws or if PSV loses, we finish top of the group if we win our game or we're out.

I haven't seen the red card incidents, but we only got our first booking of the competition last match day, so it's a bit of a shock to suddenly get so many cards. According to reports, Lauren gets one for waving an imaginary yellow card, Vieira probably deserved a booking, but not a red and van Bommel was kicking everyone in sight and not even a yellow. The ref might have been a bit biased.

And we're still unbeaten in the CL this season though

[Oriphus]

Still unbeaten in the Champions League, very true, only problem is you keep drawing with everyone - 4 draws and only one win. Manchester UNited are unbeaten in the CHampions League as well, except the difference is, we have won 3 and drawn 2. We should beat Fenerbache to go top of the table, no matter what Lyon does.

Arsenal may just hope that Panathinaikos doesnt beat PSV and that you do more than draw with Rosenburg. You can still go through with a draw, but a win guarantees it.

Looking forward to the Arsenal versus Liverpool match tomorrow, i think thats a match that you could loose points, if Liverpool have their act together. I don't think it will be a win for liverpool, but i think a draw is a fair chance.

Imagine this, Man Utd beat Southampton, Arsenal draw with liverpool and Chelsea loose to Newcastle. The table is then like this:

Chelsea 33
Arsenal 31
Everton 29
Man Utd 27

6 points in it - i hope that happens.

[admin]

Chelsea is playing Charlton and Man U is away at WBA isn't it? I think the games you're talking about are next week. By then, we should already know how well our kids have performed in the League Cup against your lot - any idea what kind of line up you'll using?

As for Liverpool, should be a good game. It's on here at 3am again, but it's well worth the loss of sleep. The thing with Liverpool is that even their substitute strikers are all injured, so they would most likely play for the draw. It then all depends on whether we can break down their defense, and how well we deal with their counter attacks. We really need a win, and they really need a draw - could be a good opportunity to get the league campaign back on track.

[Oriphus]

Yeah, you were right - my calender is well out for the list of games - i use it from the initial league fixture email that says who plays who and when, forgot that some were changed shortly after.

Well, we got a well deserved win today. Actually, to be fair, we didnt even get out of second gear and still managed to completely outplay West Brom. Very happy with the result and the performance, and Scholes is back in scoring form lol.

Im really looking forward to our League Cup clash with yourselves. Im hoping that both sides will field a reserve style team. I guess both managers will probably discuss with each other, though they'll deny later, whether or not they are going to take it very seriously, or let the reserve and fringe team palyers fight it out, with a bit of muscle on the bench.

Im guessing Wes brown, Spector and O'Shea will probably start at the rear for us. Liam Miller and Kleberson will probably be in the midfield and Alan Smith up front with Bellion. Apart from that, i think Chris Eagles, Kieren Richardson, and the other usual suspects will probably be in there somewhere.

What type of game are you hoping for? Full competitive one, or a reserve performance?

[admin]

Two of our last three victories were by our reserve/under-21 side (against Man City and Everton), so they are playing much better than our first team at the moment and I trust them to play a good and competitive game. A lot of these kids are on the fringe of the first team, so they have something to prove and this is the best opportunity for them.

[Oriphus]

Yeah - i agree. Beaten again today mind you. Arsenal are maybe having a difficult time. All in all though i wouldnt call it a disaster. You win some, you loose some, Arsenal are still a top team and a major contender for the league title, as are Man Utd and Chelsea.

[admin]

I don't know if you watched the game or not, but that was a disaster. We have lost form, yes, but instead of playing like an average Premiership team, we've become at best an average Division 1 (or is that Championship) team.

We had only 1 shot on target the whole game, and that was the goal we scored. There were 2 other shots off target, but one was from Henry on the half way line, and another was a blocked shot that barely reached the 'keeper, let alone the goal. For the first half, we didn't even go anywhere near their goal - the best we would do was play the ball around the half way line (before we would eventually lose the ball and allow Liverpool to launch an attack). We didn't even have one corner the entire game.

If I had to rate the team (6 being average), most of them were 3's or 4's, and a couple of players like Reyes and Pires 1's or 2's. I think the scoreline actually really flattered us - we were no where near that good, and Liverpool could have scored more goals to make it embarrasing.

Right now, I'm not too concerned about the points gap (5 points in November means nothing), but it's the quality gap between Chelsea and Arsenal that's worrying. 5 points may mean nothing if Arsenal starts to play like they used to, but on our current form, 5 points might as well be 50.

I hope this is a wakeup call for the team, as this is the worst I've seen Arsenal play in years. Otherwise, we'll be fighting for the Champions League spot come May, and not the title.

Go you Gunners!!!