Lets Talk Football

Jesus... 4-2 to a ***** team. Koscielny ultimate crap, Djourou useless. Little to no organization in the back. Offensive play all over the place. There's no insight or overview on the midfield. I don't think I've ever seen a weaker Arsenal in all my 10 years as a fan.

Yeah, without Vermaelen, Arsenal's defense are very ******. But mostly, Arsenal have just been, either unlucky, or just good play by Blackburn.

Come on you spurs!

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4-3 now thanks to that class ball by Van Persie. Nice finish of Chamakh, but that wasn't what I'd call a terrific team-effort goal. More of a class ball by Van Persie hoping it would end up on someone's head.

Mertesacker you useless ****. And Robinson saved the finest team-effort chance of the entire game.

The end for Wenger? Sad to see him like this but who the heck of sufficient class would take the job on?

Aaaanyway, after this morning:

Are you watching, Sir Les Patterson?
Are you watching, Nick Cave?
Are you watching, Bouncer out of Neighbours?
Are you watching, Bryan Brown out of films?
Are you watching, the guys who nick our best Gaelic Football talents?
Are you watching, Alf Stewart?

Your guys took ONE HELL of a beating!

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Congrats Tatty, They did it

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

My cousin's just emigrated to Australia and got off the plane on Friday. I bet he's popular right now.

So where did he get off the plane? I may meet him in the street

Not sure where he flew in to but he's gonna be living in Perth. Big, handsome blond guy in his late 20s, you can't miss him.

Perth, only 6hr flight from here I do have friends there so I will ask them to look out for him there is a lot of money to be made in WA

Surely not. I can't see why they would sack him, as it's not as if they could get someone in to get them top 4. If they're not going to finish top 4, which I think is still possible seeing as it's only 5 games into the season (though I admit I appear to be in a very small minority and agree that 5th or worse is more likely) then there's no point getting rid of Wenger as he'll do no worse this season. He's not going to get them relegated and Europe is still a probability, so I see no reason to change it at the top. In the summer, however, serious questions need to be asked and the board have a very big decision to make about Wenger, the ambition of the club (though we probably know that already) and what they're going to tell the fans.

Arsenal may not have the spending power of City or United, but they've spent well over £50m this season and still not really addressed the problems the team has, even if you take the panicked last day transfers out.

Anyway, despite the defeat, which I didn't think was much of a surprise, I don't see the need for panic at Arsenal. They've as much chance of finishing 4th or 5th now as they did before kick off. The gnashing of teeth seems to be coming from two directions. The press and media, who get paid to gnash teeth about far less than 1 win from the first 5 games and who, should the 4th or 5th place be Arsenal's finishing place, will be triumphantly telling anyone who listens, that's what they predicted at the start of the season.

The second is from the Arsenal fans themselves, upon who it's starting to dawn that their team isn't considered a challenger for the title anymore. Sadly for them, that's something that's been apparent to most of the non-Arsenal fans for a good few years now.

From what I've been hearing and reading over the last year or two, the fans seem to be pinning their hopes on UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations evening things out among the top teams. I can't see it working, at least, not for the teams that Arsenal want to be competing with. They'll find their way through it somehow as they have the money and lawyers to do so. They won't be able to be so blatent and City won't be able to just put £100m down and buy someone, but they don't have to anymore. Well, not unless they were buying a Ronaldo or Messi. But even if they did that, I'm sure they'd find a way to include future earnings or merchandise sales or something to be accepted as profit and get it on the books somehow. That's just the way the world works.

I didn't come here to write any of that. I'd just finished watch MotD and wanted to ask if anyone else could believe that Leon Barrett's 'challenge' on Klasnic didn't result in a red card for him? Thoughts of Schummacher knocking out (was it) Papin in 1982 raced through my mind. A decision made all the worse for Klasnic being sent off for a 'headbutt' later in the game.

Secondly, were I an Arsenal fan, I think I'd be as worried about leading twice away from home and losing as I would be about the defense and Weger. Let's face it, an organised and better team than Blackburn probably wouldn't have even let Arsenal get close to thinking about scapping a 4-4 draw, after being two goals up.

Good win for Everton. Our resident Evertonian must've been pleased.

Looking forward to todays games. Hoping for a Spurs/United double, but so long as United win, I don't care. There's a few who seem to think that United and City are going to walk the league and, even if both teams finish 10-20 points ahead of third place (which I don't think'll happen) it's not as if both will sweep aside all others. This isn't La Liga and, even there, Real and Barca get a game occassionally.

Of course, were United to hit Chelsea for 3 or 4, I'd be more than happy.

I am!
Just been talking to my brother. Most Evertonians seem to be convinced that Moyes will move to Man U on Sir Alex's retirement

That's been one of the rumours doing the rounds since Everton finished 4th in 2005. I think he's good enough, what I don't know is if he's got the mentality to take the Old Trafford job. I think one of the things in Mourinho's favour is that he's proven that he's got the mental toughness to be at the top, with the expectation of winning every game that comes with it. As well as spending the money.

I think it'll probably be Mourinho who takes over, even though there's a lot of opposition against him doing so at the highest level at United. Sir Bobby, for one, is known to be completely against it. Whoever takes over has an impossible job, IMO, as it's almost impossible to do better than the man who's left the job. Let's face it, you'd have to win three European Cups with United before you could even put forward an argument for bettering Fergie's record. Even this Barca team took 5 years to win CL titles and they're a one of the best teams of the modern era.

I'd be fine with Moyes getting the job (atm anyway) after Fergie leaves, but only if the owners were prepared to stick with him, as the only reason I can see to give him a go is because he'll continue with the youth set up. Whereas the consensus seems to be that Mourinho will practically ignore it or even shut it down. The pro-Mourinho camp say that he's looking to become a legend, like Sir Alex, and stay at a club for a long time. Were that to be the case, then I'd certainly go with Mourinho over Moyes.

Sadly, I don't think Moyes can stay at Everton for too much longer without risking getting dragged down with them. If Everton stop overachieving and spend a few seasons fighting relegation or, even worse, get relegated, his reputation could be wrecked and that slim chance at a top job (in this country anway) could be gone forever.

It's been a great day of football for me, today. Scouser's lost. United won and City threw away a 2 goal lead. All in all, I was happy.

That said, I spent a very uncomfortable 90 minutes watching United. Apart from winning 3-1 we were crap. Nani, Young and Jones were great. De Gea had a decent game. He didn't put a foot wrong and made a couple of good saves. Smalling was ok and, as he's not a right back I give him extra credit. Everyone else was from poor to shocking. We couldn't pass and gave the ball away constantly, especially Anderson, Fletcher and Rooney. I don't know if Rooney had a bad day or if he was so overconfident that he wasn't concentrating, but he had a poor game. I can forgive the pen as he slipped (although he looked so relaxed before taking it I predicted he'd miss) but he missed a sitter and had the chance to set up a couple and underhit the ball both times. I'd have Fletcher and Anderson's eyesight checked immediately, as I think they both might be colourblind. They seemed to just pass the ball to the person closest to them regardless of who it was. Evra veered widly between brilliant and shockingly bad. Hernandez had a pretty ineffectual day, though he wasn't helped by the poor passing. However, the absolute nadir of the team was Jonny Evans. Shocking all day. When Torres went pass him for his goal, I swear I thought he was going to ask for his autograph. If you watch that goal in slowmo, you can actually see him just stand there and watch Torres run past him. He's almost got his hands on hips admiring his movement. Drove me mental all day.

So, we won 3-1 but were crap. Now, I'll take that week in week out, but it's bloody maddening. I was exhausted by the end of it.

I was thinking more of Wenger taking (Judge Dredd reference ahoy!) the Long Walk than them sacking him. The guy is looking unwell right now.

I know he's the most stubborn man yet born but surely, when he's sitting in the bath (his rubber ducks aren't exactly cheap but they don't float where he wants them to and they sink far too easily) he can admit that it'll take far more than some average players getting their confidence back to make the club a force once again.

If he or the club can't or won't spend big then will Wenger just put his time in for the next few seasons sitting next to Pat Rice (who, for all we know, might have died in 2004 - those shades can mask a lot and it would explain plenty) telling the press that Alex Chamberlain will be much better than Theo Walcott, who departs for QPR at the end of 2011-12?

As to The Moyesiah, I can't see him going to Old Trafford or any of the big clubs straight from Everton but, like HK, don't see him at Everton an awful lot longer.

It must be soul destroying for the guy but I don't see anything in his record which would make a club like Man Utd take the risk on him. Look at Hodgson and Liverpool - He came in after overachieving but also had masses of experience in European coaching. I can see Moyes heading somewhere like the above-mentioned QPR, especially after Colin gets found out and Tony Fernandes sacks him.

Talking of Liverpool, all those years on the golf course seem to have made Admiral of The Fleet Kenny as prickly as Fergie when you tell him that he's down to his last bottle of red. My heart bleeds.

That's the plan.

He's working the fishing boats. Dunno whether it's prawns, fish or whatever.

Smelly when raw, tasty when cooked anyway.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/...-201109194319/

Heh, I see that Wenger's been given the dreaded (is there any other kind? ) vote of confidence today.

"We can't afford to sack him" "We'll not sack him" says Gazidis, which leaves out resignations or, the most common one these days it seems, mutual terminations.

There is obviously a God in Heaven. And he's an Ulsterman!

Bye bye Nige, you were a great servant as a player and remarkably inoffensive as a bloke but, lets face it, the job was beyond you.

Managing an international side like Northern Ireland (even more so than one of the bigger nations, I think) is like taking charge of cup tie after cup tie. The nous for one-off tactical choices and the ability to motivate guys to play above their level for 90 minutes is key and Nigel couldn't do either.

He was shockingly defensively-minded too, even against weak sides at home.

I remember after he was appointed (to the sound of a collective yawn from the Green & White Army), listening to a few Norwich City fans. Worthington, they said, was a capable league manager for them but completely hopeless in the cups. Oops.

Lawrie Sanchez (what's the betting that he's already emailed off his application?) was the opposite and had us punching well above our weight before the bright lights of Fulham turned his head. Not the most likeable of blokes (and his touting for the job long before Worthington resigned was crass beyond belief) but I'd have him back.

Dunno if the IFA would be as quick to forgive, though.

My turn:

1-6

Touche. You're not a City fan, though, are you.

Though it was 1-0 when Johnny Evans was sent off. I thought we'd lose today and thought 2-1 or 3-1 would be the result so, while it was soul destroying to see them do that to us, they wouldn't have done that to us with 11 on the pitch and the 2-1 or 3-1 would've been the probable result.

On the plus side of this kind of spanking (if there is one) is that's been coming for a while and, though I'd rather it'd happened against Chelsea or Arsenal than City, I hope it'll be a wake-up to a United team that've played pretty careless football this season. I'm hoping it's a result of the defensive problems and not being punished for it, rather than a belief that we can win the league playing like that. As great as last season was, there's no doubt that we only won because Chelsea imploded, Arsenal were Arsenal, City weren't quite there and no one else is good enough. No matter what 'Arry says or Liverpool fans think.

A few questions. Was/is Jones not 100% fit? The only reason I can think of (other than that and. tbh, it's what I would've done) for his exclusion for Evans was that Fergie was pretty sure that City would win and didn't want him torn apart (either in the press or by Silva and Aguero) and, therefore, sacrificed Evans who, surely to God, won't be at United next season. I think he thought similarly about Vidic who surely would've gotten himself sent off. As he's only just come back (and already been sent off) I think it's much more important to keep him in the team and starting to bed in, rather than play one match (no matter who it's against) and miss another three. The league's what's important and I'll take two City drubbings a season, if we win the league at the end of it.

A couple of things about the Chelsea game. Firstly, for those who didn't hear the Fanzone commentary, you missed a real treat. It was a 'celeb special' and Andy Jacobs was the Chelsea fan. Hysterical stuff as he sulked virtually the whole way through (unsurprisingly given the game) and slagged off Chris Foy at every opportunity (which I didn't blame him for at all. Terrible ref.) The other bit I liked was David Luiz throwing his curly hair at the ball instead of heading it. Reminded me of Keegan at Espana '82.