*Official* English Football Season 2009-2010

[Pothas]

Haha Kanu sinks Hull. WAG.

Great man, wonder how old he is these days?

Important win for the Bees today, just need to get these games in hand out of the way now.

 

[GIMH]

League table looking ominous for us, could well get trounced away to Brighton next week, eeeeeeek

 

[PhoenixFire]

Haha love Diamanti so much. Just nailed my two least-favourite Arse players in Bendtner and Nasri. WAG.

 

[Jarquis]

Guessing the Nasri hate is for when we beat you 2-1 woth him getting both?

Almost forgot .... ALMUUUNIA!!!!!!!!!!

 

[BoyBrumby]

2-0. Hopefully job done. Made slightly hard work of it but the way we're winning without really playing that well can only be a good sign.

Vermaelen's sending off and presumable ban a pain tho.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Guessing the Nasri hate is for when we beat you 2-1 woth him getting both?

Nah, just for being a little **** basically.

Didn't really look that deliberate from Upson, but none of the Hammers complained so it probably was a penalty.

 

[grecian]

Still not convinced by this North London title challenge, think the next two away games are key, don't think they'll win either tbh.

 

[sledger]

2-0. Hopefully job done. Made slightly hard work of it but the way we're winning without really playing that well can only be a good sign.

Vermaelen's sending off and presumable ban a pain tho.

Will keep him nice and fresh for the Barcelona games

 

[BoyBrumby]

Still not convinced by this North London title challenge, think the next two away games are key, don't think they'll win either tbh.

Spurts game will be a toughie, obv, but Brum don't scare me overly.

Most important game for us is tomorrow's IMHO. If Pool take points off ManU I might start to cautiously move from outright atheism to agnosticism.

 

[Furball]

Dunno- as I said when Arsenal were knocked out, I don't remember it ever working like that. When has a team floundered in a title challenge towards the end of the season because of a cup run?

Rangers, 2007/08.

Although that was down to unique, and ridiculous, circunstances.

 

[Craig]

I think Marcello Lippi was starting to froth at the mouth when he said this:

“I have said many times that Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool are owned by Americans or Arabs, have managers who are French, German, Scottish and Spanish. Therefore it is not English football.

“The definition of English football is in the smaller clubs and the national team. Let's see what they manage to do.”

I guess he would have a point if Arsenal were owned by an American, and one of those four clubs were actually had a German manager. As well as Chelsea being owned by a Russian.

 

[Jarquis]

2-0. Hopefully job done. Made slightly hard work of it but the way we're winning without really playing that well can only be a good sign.

Vermaelen's sending off and presumable ban a pain tho.

Hmm, 1 match ban for denying a goal scoring opportunity/professional foul so I hope we'll be able to manage just the one game without him. Campbell and Silvestre hardly an inpsiring combination though. The fact it's only one game makes me question whether it's worth appealing, Wenger obviously felt the decision was wrong (as do I) but, is it worth risking an exension to the ban?

Though Alex Song was pretty awesome today. How I love that man.

 

[sledger]

Hmm, 1 match ban for denying a goal scoring opportunity/professional foul so I hope we'll be able to manage just the one game without him. Campbell and Silvestre hardly an inpsiring combination though. The fact it's only one game makes me question whether it's worth appealing, Wenger obviously felt the decision was wrong (as do I) but, is it worth risking an exension to the ban?

Though Alex Song was pretty awesome today. How I love that man.

Alex Song was great today, he really was, and he has been for a while. He really is vindicating Wenger's decision not to sign another defensive midfielder. Apart from Cesc and possibly Vermaelen I would say he is clearly our player of the season, so far at least. Looked a bit uncomfortable playing as a centre back but still put in a top performance. Is fast overtaking Kolo Toure in my eyes as "the best lad ever".

 

[PhoenixFire]

Agree with everything you said apart from 'he looked uncomfortable' as centre-back. Thought he was awesome TBH, looked like a natural.

 

[sledger]

Agree with everything you said apart from 'he looked uncomfortable' as centre-back. Thought he was awesome TBH, looked like a natural.

Well, tbf he has played centre back a fair bit, particulary in the early part of his career, and you're right he did a good job. I think his uncertainty just came from him being not used to being paired with someone at the centre of the last line of defence. On a few occasions both he and Campbell ended up going after the same player/man and looked slightly shakey. Have more faith in him in that position than Silvestre though, evidently Monsieur Wenger thinks so too.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Probably got something to do with Silvestre being ****.

 

[Jarquis]

Alex Song was great today, he really was, and he has been for a while. He really is vindicating Wenger's decision not to sign another defensive midfielder. Apart from Cesc and possibly Vermaelen I would say he is clearly our player of the season, so far at least. Looked a bit uncomfortable playing as a centre back but still put in a top performance. Is fast overtaking Kolo Toure in my eyes as "the best lad ever".

Yeah, he has been terrific this season. I'm a huge admirer, I just him. Ot was only a few years ago I was really questioning his future at the club but he's really come on leaps and bounds over the last 12 months. Has been instrumental in our success as without him our formation just doesn't work the same way it does with him in the side. He really compliments our attacking players beautifully.
Thought he was really good at centre back myself, for somebody who doesn't play there regularly, even if he has done in the past, he looked more than competent. Credit to him as it was about four years ago he looked a bit of a clown anywhere on the pitch.
In short....
Love him. Love him. Love him.

 

[Jarquis]

Well, tbf he has played centre back a fair bit, particulary in the early part of his career, and you're right he did a good job. I think his uncertainty just came from him being not used to being paired with someone at the centre of the last line of defence. On a few occasions both he and Campbell ended up going after the same player/man and looked slightly shakey. Have more faith in him in that position than Silvestre though, evidently Monsieur Wenger thinks so too.

Yeah, played there a fair amount in the Carling Cup for us as well IIRC. I wonder what the plan is whilst we're without Vermaelen. I think part of the reason Song went to CB today was because he's more than good enough to play there but it didn't involve making a substitue. Do you expect Song to start there in our next league game? That would probably involve Denilson in the holding role which never seems to work as well as it does when Song's there.

 

[Pothas]

Alex Song was great today, he really was, and he has been for a while. He really is vindicating Wenger's decision not to sign another defensive midfielder. Apart from Cesc and possibly Vermaelen I would say he is clearly our player of the season, so far at least. Looked a bit uncomfortable playing as a centre back but still put in a top performance. Is fast overtaking Kolo Toure in my eyes as "the best lad ever".

That is a title that cannot easily be awarded.

 

[sledger]

Yeah, played there a fair amount in the Carling Cup for us as well IIRC. I wonder what the plan is whilst we're without Vermaelen. I think part of the reason Song went to CB today was because he's more than good enough to play there but it didn't involve making a substitue. Do you expect Song to start there in our next league game? That would probably involve Denilson in the holding role which never seems to work as well as it does when Song's there.

Uncertain. Would probably rather stick with Song in midfield to be honest, though Denilson has been playing better than usual for a while now, I still don't rate him at all in terms of defensive capability. Just doesn't get back and cannot tackle. If it's just for one match then I'd probably go with Silvestre. That said, Diaby helped sure things up a lot once he came on...whatever Arsene chooses will be fine with me tbh.

On the subject of not making runs, Arshavin looked totally knackered after about 25 minutes today, looked completely off colour. Much as I think he is great, he's one of the most frustrating players I've ever encountered.