Football (Soccer)

[gchester]

pretty gutted about the portsmouth score i think they deserved to draw at least, but 8th in the league after 6 games is still good for a team that only came up from the 2 division two years ago!!! harry redknapp is a star, the hammers should never have let him go anyway enough of that, on a more serious note man u v's the guooners 2-1 to the red devils, cant even watch the game anyway, in australia and have no satellite tv will have to watch the replay on SBS tomorrow night ps oriphus as your from ireland i think? do ya watch any of the gaelic international football ?

[admin]

Good ol' fashioned fighting spirit ...

That was the best scoreless draw I've ever seen

Good enough result for Arsenal normally. A great result considering the disaster on Wednesday.

[Oriphus]

It was a disgraceful performance by the Arsenal Players, especially from Patrick Vierra, who kick out at Van, though no where near him, had intent. Parlour and Keown were disgraceful too and ashley cole had his hand strangled round someone as well.
I was at the match and it was really good, especially the first half for us. United i felt were the better team with more chances and deserved to win it.

[Oriphus]

A bit more in depth:

Well, back from the match, was an amazing atmosphere. Really really loved it and had amazing seats

The first half from where i was sitting looked so easily a Man Utd first half with us dominating most of the play. We should have scored once (free kick) maybe even twice in the first half. Rudd Van Nistelroy didnt have a very good game in my opinion, the penalty miss capped that off. Ronaldo had a very very good game making Ashley Cole look like a twat a few times.


The second half started much better for Arsenal but i still wasnt too worried as there wasnt much in the way of penetration by the Arsenal team into the United box. What did Howard have to do the whole match? Nothing. Rudd may have had a bad game with United, but where the feck was Thierry Henry?? Was he even playing lol.

The tackle that got Vierra sent off. Well firstly it was a red card for Rudd Van Nistelroy, i think you can see he is frustrated by his poor performance more than anything. But what Vierra did afterwards was totally with intent, whether he hit him or not. Rudd reacted by jumping back and looking round at the ref. That is what he should have done. However, i think Vierra should have gotten a straight Red card and not a second yellow because as the laws od the game dictate, violent actions with intent will warrant a red card, whether contact is made or not.

Next comes the penalty, which was a penalty because he was pushed to the ground before the ball even reached him. Rudd steps up and misses his 3rd in a row, which was such a disappointment to me. I feel the reason he is missing is that he is trying to change his style of penalty taking, though he was close with that attempt. The actions from the Arsenal players (and fans outside) where completely wrong and the players should be punished. Those 'animals' Keown, parlour, cole and laurent should be banned for a few games. Vierra should've had a straight red instead of a second yellow then red. Arsenals record speaks for itself when it comes to discipline. The man who stood out as a true level headed player on that field after the whistle went was Roy Keane. Even Patrick Vierra gave him a pat on the neck as keane tried to stop everyone brawling.

The most important thing in my opinion though was that i did an interview for BBC and Skysports after the match, and i was on skysports at around 35mins past the hour from 9.00pm on Sunday to around 7.00am on Monday. The story had Wenger interviewd, then ferguson, then Keane and then me giving my opinions on the matter. Was on for 15 seconds or so. If you were wondering who i was, i had Red united shirt on and a man utd scarf and flag. Im a cele now

[admin]

The Arsenal players did to RVN what *most* fans have wanted to do to him for ages. It wasn't violent, and it didn't leave any bruises on him (unlike RVNs jump and kick at Vieira, although I do agree that Vieira deserved the second yellow for intent).

Most of the messages I've seen from fans of other teams is that, while the Arsenal players were out of line, it was pure justice that RVN missed that penalty, and that United were denied a last minute winner via a penalty. The following spat is just a reflection of the frustration at United and their way of "winning" games in this fashion, and most of the time through RVN.

What a lot of United fans don't realise (or don't want to realise) is that RVN is considered a cheat by many fans and pundits in the game (as a Liverpool website column puts it : "Ruud Van Nistelrooy is the biggest cheat I have seen in over 30 years of watching the English league"). The reactions, while should not be tolerated, are just a reflection of that. To para-phrase Martin Tyler : it's not something you want to see, but it's perfectly understandable.

This was a game that Arsenal needed to build up team spirit, and re-ignite the rivalry with Manchester United. The point earned may have cost quite a bit (if the FA follow up on their charges, or even dock points), but IMO, it was certainly worth it.

Steve Bennett is a horrible ref - completely losing control of the situation, not helped by the somewhat dubious penalty (I've seen them given, but many not given) being rewarded at such a "sensitive" time.

And to end with my favourite quote from a Guardian piece on the Vieira "kick" :

The fact that there was a yard between the boot and Van Nistelrooy did not prevent the Manchester United man from producing the sort of ham reaction last seen when Sofia Coppola, as Michael Corleone's daughter, stopped a bullet on the opera house steps in The Godfather III.

Great Godfather reference

[Oriphus]

Typical Arsenal fan

"Same Old Arse-nal
Al-ways Cheat-ing"

I sang that loud and clear for good parts of the game. In my opinion the best part about Sundays fixture was a part that only people at the stadum saw. It was around 2.25pm, nearly 2 hours before kick off. I went in early to have a look round and i was sitting in the second tier of the the North standium along the half-way line 17 rows back with my season ticket in hand I looked out on to the pitch to see Arsene Wenger and two of his staff having a walk around the pitch. As they were walking along the half-way line a truely funny incident occured. Obviously our groundsmen have a sense of hunour because they turned the pitches sprinklers on and soaked wenger HA HA HA All couple of thousand of us in the stadium laughed our bollocks' off at him. He jumped a few feet then ran back into the tunnel.

Arsenal should have points deducted and Keown, parlour and laurent should definintley serve suspensions and pay fines. Vierra will get his one match ban and thats enough. The Arsenal fans are no better either because after they came out of the stadium they taunted the United supporters (i was among them) and through bottles at us. Big mistake as a load of United fans made a charge at them and then the police broke it up. I did a Rudd Van nistelroy and got away from the stadium as soon as the fights started. There were some really gutsy Arsenal fans who actually walked through 62,000 United fans singing with their shirts and scarves. It was good that no one touched them though as i feel fans shouldnt have to be worried about meeting opposition fans outside the match.

[admin]

We've been playing like crap since the start of the season (apart from the game at Boro), and I think the only thing that has kept us going is the "them versus us" attitude, that the media/FA are all out to get us (and in some aspect, it's true). Arsene's been a lot more vocal in speaking out against our "opponents" - for example, saying out loud that RNV's a cheat (something he wouldn't have said last season) - and I think this has been intentional to fuel this type of mentality.

If they suspend all 6 of our players, and dock us points, then so be it. It will just add more to the "them versus us" mentality, and hopefully give our youth a chance. Remember that United players were also involved in the fracas, throwing punches after the game and Fortune's body tackle on Lehmann after the penalty was given (not to mention RVN's original kick/stamp on Vieira) - if the FA does nothing about them, and only charge Arsenal players, then I can't see the players or the fans not think that the FA is out to get us.

And just a reminder that the last time we were docked points, we won the league!!! COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MPS]

wasnt it like 9th red card for vieira in P-ship? he's so violent and so... french

[admin]

And how many of Vieira's red cards led to a player being injured (how many of them were double yellows, as opposed to a straight red)? In fact, how many players have Arsenal players injured VERSUS how many Arsenal players that were injured by other teams (and those other teams not even getting booked for it?). While the media concentrates on Arsenal's horrible disciplinary problems, we were actually mid-table in the disciplinary rankings last season. So why isn't anyone making a fuss about the 10-12 teams that were worse than Arsenal when it came to cards?

And what does being French have to do with being violent? Are you saying that Barthez and Silvestre are violent?

[gchester]

would like to add somthing but its all been said!!!! roll on next week

[gchester]

ps admin how did my post's get reset done a lot more than 94 matey!!!!

[admin]

@gchester : see the other thread titled "Good Job Admin" :

http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?threadid=25461

Basically, when I made it so that posts in the off topic forum do not count towards your post count, it applied to all posts, not just new posts, and so all the posts you have made in the off topic forum have been removed from your post count.

[Oriphus]

And a good thing too. I hate post counts. As my new title suggest - im a sexy bastard

(not to mention RVN's original kick/stamp on Vieira)

It was a bad tackle, nothing more, nothing less. He deserved the yellow card he got for the tackle, but no matter how bad a tackle is, reacting to one is not allowed by the rules. Also, i didnt see any punches thrown by United players. Ronaldo pushed laurent but that was about it bar some holding people back. I hope Arsenal players get a fine and match bans, the team should get points deducted and the game will go on. If it was united players doing it, i would still feel that was the right thing to do, even though i would hate to see my players getting banned or points getting deducted. One other thing, Roy keane behave very well and Vierra even gave him a pat on the neck.

[MPS]

@admin: a red card is a red card i say anyway i like the rough play we find in premiership, soccer is a tough man's sport
barthez was violent, violent to the MU supporter's nervous system when he did his stupid golakeeper moves that cost us goals, including those crazy-a,ss trips outside the penalty box i'm a Howard fan now

[Oriphus]

Looks like 6 Arsenal players have been charged and rightly so.
From FA

WENGER ASKED TO EXPLAIN COMMENTS

Skysports

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been asked by the FA to explain his post-match comments regarding Ruud van Nistelrooy following last weekend's draw at Old Trafford.

Wenger accused the Dutch striker of cheating after the post-match melee which has caused six of his players to be charged with either improper or violent conduct.

The Arsenal boss will not automatically be charged with misconduct, but he must at least provide a written explanation to the FA as to why he was so scathingly critical of the United striker.

Van Nistelrooy was at the centre of all of the trouble on Sunday, as his challenge on Patrick Vieira enraged the Frenchman enough to cause him, petulantly, to kick out at him.

And, after the final whistle, Van Nistelrooy was set upon by a number of Arsenal players which led the FA to charge them with misconduct.

Wenger sought to defend his players immediately after the bad-tempered finale to Sunday's game, while accusing van Nistelrooy of cheating.

Wenger said at the time: "Van Nistelrooy does not help himself. He's a great player but his attitude is always provoking and diving. He looks a nice boy but, on the pitch, he doesn't always show fair behaviour."

Vieira, along with Lauren, Martin Keown, Jens Lehmann, Ray Parlour and Ashley Cole, will be before the FA's disciplinary committee to answer the charges.

United will be forced to defend Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs.

Now it looks to me Admin, that the FA disagree with your opinions on Rudd Van Nistelroy.