I can't complain about the way Porto scored their second goal last night. If the shoe was on the other foot I have no doubt many of us Gooners would be laughing.
When Thierry Henry put the ball into the back of Chelsea's net with that quick free-kick a few years back we loved it. Well, it's happened to us now. What goes around comes around.
Its no good Wenger having a go at the referee. Perhaps, instead of moaning about the ref, Arsene should take a look at some of his players. Maybe he will, in private.
I can understand the frustration because we should have had a penalty just moments before but we need to accept that the goal was purely down to a fuck-up made by us.
Why Fabianksi chose to pick the ball up is beyond me. I'm sure the best option is always the safe one. He should have just cleared his lines. It was Sunday morning football stuff really.
It appears we have a real problem between the sticks. Many feel that Almunia was dropped for this game. His 'twisted finger' a way to protect him.
If he was dropped then I think the timing was all wrong. He did well against Liverpool but if he should have been pulled at any time it should have been after the Manchester United game.
My opinion is that Wenger can not rely on Almunia and Fabianski at the moment. If that worries me, and many other Gooners, then fuck knows how much it worries our defence.
It must be horrible playing in a defence and not having faith in the man behind you.
Goalkeepers earn you points and win you matches over the season. Mannone earned a win at Fulham. Well, harsh it may sound but it seems to me that Almunia and Fabianski cost us more than they earn us over the course of the season.
I hope Wenger will address this because it may cost him his reputation.
If I was in Wenger's shoes I would seriously consider letting Almunia go in the summer. A year back I thought completely differently and perhaps, rather foolishly, compared him to the likes of Casillas, Cech and Buffon.
I can't quite believe how far backward he has gone.
In Fabianski's case I wouldn't give up on him yet. I'd send him out on a year loan somewhere. A place he would get regular football. It must be difficult to not play regularly and be at your best.
Although that is not an excuse for his amateurish attempts last night!
We need a keeper who inspires confidence in his defence. One who the defenders believe in. Surely Wenger can see that now?
Keep it Goonerish................
62 comments:
Rubbish goalkeepers! We've got the worst 3 in the Prem! Mannone got lucky at Fulham where all his saves where parried into danger zones but no-one was there to finish them off but when he did it at West Ham Cole headed in.
I cannot believe how terrible the goalies are. Fabianski is a great shot stopper but is clueless on every other aspect of his duties. Almunia should've been sold last season, Mannone is a calamity waiting to happen.
All i can hope is that Wenger either buys big on a goalkeeper - surely he can bag Lloris? - or he promotes our own truly quality keeper in Sceszny.
I was disgusted by last night's goalkeeping and this could be the straw that breaks Fabregas' back.
we can go on about the keepers all we want, but at the end of the day, the ref absolutely fucked us on that second goal. he took the ball of fabianski, knowing he was still out of goal, and then blocked off sol campbell, the only covering defender. like arsene wenger said, it was better than a penalty. it was a complete joke.
as for the goalkeeping situation, i think the best thing for wenger to do is to look for an experienced goalkeeper like he did with lehmann, and like aston villa did with friedel. why not go buy buffon you say? we already have one of the future best goalkeeepers in the world on our books, he just happens to be a teenager right now. so in the meantime, we need someone who can play for a couple of seasons until he's ready. thomas sorensen would actually fit the bill quite well.
Fabianski is a joke, we know that now and should never wear the shirt again.
But the same goes for Denilson and Clichy. They are so poor it is embarrassing! Denilson we always knew was average but what's happened to Clichy?
How Denilson gets picked ahead of Ramsey is a disgrace!
Could this be coz he was hardly given any games and we kept on playing Almunia for all premiership and Chmps lg games?
May be Wenger should play him against Sunderland to get his confidence back.
I have no complaints that Porto took a quick free kick, however you cannot compare what Henry did. He never had a ref that stood next to the ball & blocked off the nearest defender so no challenge could be made. Also I don't really understand the offside law with regards free kicks, but wouldn't the player who actually scored have been offside as he only had the keeper to beat as there were no defenders in front of him, or can't you be offside from a free kick??
Regardless of all that though, I'm just totally depressed that we played such an awful side & still managed to lose. Even with injuries any other top european team would've finished porto off in that game, its so sad to see.
mate ref was a pure c***.
first of all we should have had a pen, but ref shouldnt get any blame tha way porto scored coz boy r keepers r shit i cant belive we got done like that i mean why instead of world class players we got clowns in our squad, sack clown no1 an clown no2 an bring a new keeper maybe frey an bring seaman as a coach as well, im sure we got gona through im 100% sure but these nights make a great club an decide ur season, if faby decide to go we cant blame him coz just look at our clowns alclown, fableamon,denilson, walcott, clichy, dudu(plays 1 game then hes injured for 10games) but still im 100% behind wenger an still trust him.
None of our keepers are fit for purpose, if Arsene cant find better then something is seriously wrong at our club.
I think a greater part of the problem is the reluctance to spend any money, and constantly doing things on the cheap. Clearly defense is not our manager's strenght, why not bring back Keown.
The answer to the goalkeeper problem is within the club.....Wojciech Szczesny. He's awesome, and he's only 19. Casillas started playing when he was 19 and the experience from playing at that young only helped turn him into the keeper he is today.
i am suprised that a ref that made such a high level mistake (france vs ireland) is allowed still ref at high level football uefa are a joke
great commentary last night on itv by the way. after 60 seconds, sol campbell was too old to be playing for arsenal. after 18, he was an arsenal legend.
i'm surprised i'm yet to see the headline 'that was for ireland' or something along those lines considering thierry henry still plays for us, and the fact that the emirates stadium is actually in paris.
ill never forget some cunt who works for the mirror was waffling on about how thierry henry had now tarnished his arsenal legacy. do they think we are all braindead?
W7 you really our losing your faith all players have bad times in there career.
Almunia lost a family member last year and took a month off to get over it.
So you can be sure it aint out his system yet.
I hope he can come back to the form he showed last season.
As for fabianski last night if actually look at his postioning for the first goal it was right if the cross had come into one of the attacker the problem is it didnt was behind him at pace and low.
you put buffon, iker who ever you want in there and it would have had a job deciding to stick or twist.
the fault really lies with the openness of the game cos we didn't push up cos of sol's lack of pace & valera and falcao pace. this left clichy and nasri alot to do covering valera on the right. (he looked in hot form)
As for the second goal
Did sol actually touch i still cant work it out and how the swedish ref can from 30 yds away with sols and ruben's in front of it is beyond me.
But fabianski must have been sure so he just picked it up he's the one with best view on the pitch.
the ref then demanded the ball from fabianski and didnt even lift his arm to signal play had started he gave it to ruben and only actually lifted his arm when falcao had the ball.
not to mention the obstruction from the ref on sol.
we can do them like last year 4-0 at the grove
if wenger has lost faith in almunia tho would like to seb frey or Hugo Lloris
GMR, he made the run from deep, he wasn't offside mate.
JW, great comment there.
Those commentators were wankers. The amount of times I heard them say Sol had fucked up when in fact he made ammends for Denilsons poor pass.
RSD,
I'm not losing faith mate. I just think that we need a better player between the sticks because the one's we have at the moment are costing us.
I know if I played at the back it would be disheartening to see such a thing happening like last night.
I believe that we will give Porto a hiding at home. It will be comfortable.
Daz,
3-1 win in the home leg cos we can't keep a clean sheet for shit!!
3-0 home win second leg and Almunia/Fabianski to have a blinder! ;)
We need a commanding goalie. Someone who ain't afraid to come for crosses. Jens Lehman in my opinion was one of Wengers best ever signings as mad as he was he was a top draw keeper. Im not sure there is a really outstanding keeper in world football - there all a tad dodgy. Though we have the worst 2.
@JW problem with most commentators, pundits and wapping journilists is that they expect you to play as if your on a highlight reel. Probable because thats they only ever watch the highlights. When they do get down to a game they’re astonished that the teams turn around at half time.
I think out of the three I would go for Manone but again he is young etc etc. In Fabianski's defence GK's need runs in the team. It was asking alot for him to come in and perform on such a big stage. Like I said on my blog lets look at Glichy getting skinned (yet again) for the first goal. To me this was equally as bad. And on the 2nd goal lets take a look at all the defenders jogging back and not paying attention. Its totally unacceptable and blaming the ref is a complete cop out. Porto deserved their goal for quick thinking.
I don't think Almunia is a bad GK, I just think he is a good back up GK and no more. He always trys his best but his best is not good enough for what Arsenal aspire to.
Apparently we have an excellent GK out on loan at Brentford. I was listening to a Bees fan talk last night and he was saying it maybe at a lower level but he thinks this GK is one of the best he has seen for his age. Think his name is Cszezny?? Excuse spelling.
JR
i think blaming so much on the ref is really short sighted of my fellow arsenal fans. he got our penalty call wrong (yeah, should have done better) but there seems to be an attitude that if we commit a foul as we did, then it is our god given right to have enough time to organise our defense and nullify most of the chance which we were stupid enough to hand them. the ref is entitled to take the ball back from us, it is THEIR free kick and you should blame fabianski for giving him it, not the ref for asking for it. as for his position being in the way of campbell, i think he wasn’t expecting porto to take it so fast, but after they did saw no real reason why it didn’t deserve to be given. all this talk of him blocking campbell is nonsense! when the kick was taken campbell was NOT EVEN LOOKING, he was not going to block it whether the ref was there or not. if we scored an identical goal none of us would complain and we’d blame it on the opponent for bad defending and that’s really all there is to it. god knows how many times henry took quick free kicks or quietly asked the ref if he can take it early without givcing the opponentsd a realistic chance to get prepared in time and he scored several goals that way. we have no right to complain and we should take full responsibility, i’m sick of all this finger pointing at refs every time things don’t go our way.
if arsenal don’t want to concede goals to quick free kicks when we are not ready for them there are two solutions, don’t give away the stupid free kicks or pay attention and be prepared when we do. we did neither and were rightfully punished. the only majorly bad decision the ref made last night was not giving our penalty, but once again we looked quite impotent up front and so maybe if we were better in and around the opponents’ box we might not have to blame not getting a penalty against an average team for the reason why we didn’t win. it’s ARSENAL’s fault that we lost, not the ref’s. sometimes the way arsenal fans will complain about refs in every game i think they’ve been listening too much to wenger, who as much as i love him, is frankly the most biased and blind manager in world football when it comes to refs. decisions against us are apparently all wrong and decisions for us rarely are, it’s nonsense and any excuse to take blame away from ourselves.
just watch the footage back and notice campbell when the kick was first taken, HE WASN'T PAYING ANY ATTENTION so how would he have blocked it if the ref was anywhere else? just want to say i love campbell and have every confidence in him as a player, he had a fantastic game other than that one-off mistake and it's the sort of one-off thing which can happen to any player once or twice in their career, he shouldn't let it get him down. i'm far more concerned with mistakes from our keepers because they come with frightening regularity. but when it comes down to it, if we had scored the way they did last night NONE of us would complain, so lets not be hypocrites here.
The second goal was perhaps fair enough, we should have stopped them from taking it quick as everyone else, and at least not turn our back against the situation as Sol and Fabi did. However, Sol Campbell didn't intentionally touch the ball it seemed, it just hit him because surely he was in the end screening the ball to the keeper. According to the rules it should NOT have been a indirect free kick.
totally agree anon 16.08.
I would add to that Bendtner up front at the top level (althought only just back) is a huge worry as well. Yes he will prob bang in goals against weaker teams but I just don't think he has got it. Thats a whole different argument which will no doubt surface before the end of the season.
Joppa, links up mate
Cheers Wrighty...much appreciated.
I don't know why I do it to myself but just been watching Thierry Henry on UTube. That goal when he runs from his own half vs Spurs. I just love it. Wish we still had him.
His reputation will never be tarnished as one of (IMO the best) Arsenal's greatest ever and fck the biased media.
sell almunia send fabianski on loan..keep mannone and buy joe hart!! he is worth the money paid for him and he is just 22..man city have two of the best goal keepers in the world..given and hart..get the one on loan..
Arsenal basically plays with 3 midfielders and 2 center backs..rest of them just make up the numbers..wouldn't be surprised if fabregas leaves in the summer..
interesting point joppa on your blog about us moaners
but least with the henry freekicks if memory serve's me correct
(havent bothered checking youtube yet)
mike dean or was it the harrow ref
give the other team an indiction by running away from the ball.
which didn't happen last night
if you havent seen the pole in goal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOY63kPwFYo
he looks great one for the future whether he could do a iker is a different q.
and why do we do it to make sense of the maddness i guess.RSD
give = gave
The games we have lost this season are due to piss poor judgment in going forward where everyone gets stuck in one corner of the pitch passing the ball around and no one is there to kick the cross in once its done..therefore its just all play and and no goals..even while defending its the same..all the teams attack from the right and all the arsenal players go right and there is one cross towards the left to clichy's side and then BHAMMM goal..how much can than guy do?? Like school children we just all chase the ball..no sense of positioning nothing..all the players are technically gifted but there is absolutely no tactical plan to win the match on the pitch..its all down to the stupid errors made by the opposition from which we have scored..if their defending is solid then we have no chance of scoring any goals..that has been showcased in our last 5 matches..TELL ME IF MY EVALUATION IS WRONG!! and yes we need a goalkeeper..right now we just don't have any..might as well play with the ball boy..will not make much of a difference..
Totally agree on both the keepers and the free kick. Wenger has to see it.
Upon hearing Fabianski would be in the lineup I had visions of calamity. I was just uncertain how it would unfold and hopeful it would not. Unfortunately it did. It seemed to me there was a total lack of communication between the keeper and the back line on several occasions. Though I guess it is hard to shout out orders to the back line when you are constantly uncertain. Shame really as this team is only a few pieces away for me.
i cant believe we are in february and our best keeper is off on loan,scheczny should be recalled immediatly and start saturday,since lehmann left our keeper which ever one, has let us down except vito(who is 3rd choice)almunia and fabiamski should be brought into arsenes office shown tapes of their point costing,season defining howlers and shredd their contracts in front of them and say,sorry but its not good enough,clear out your lockers and dont come back!!!!!!!!!!!!
yes,we desperately need a new keeper badly. so badly if arsene dont realize this then we are well and truly fucked! Our goalkeeping situation is really bad that they have cost us ALOT of lost points! 2 goals yesterday both purely fabianski's fault.
I wouldn't go overboard and call our whole team average or crap because if we had a good goalkeeper, we would have had won 1-0. Simple as, the blame lies solely on the manager who refuses to face the reality that our goalkeepers are below average.
And also,Porto away is a tough game to go to despite what people say. Manutd only won there because of a wonder missile shot goal from the halfway line from c.ronaldo. We need to start winning games badly away from home in europe. And we can start doing that by having a world class keeper!... And a world class forward of course.
RDS, have just watched that link on Schzney at Brentford. Bodes well for the future IMO. Looks better than what we have already and he shouts. I like that in a GK!
he does but remember is only division
as they saying the program is good to see he doesn't want to sit on the bench
ok wrighty... why did Fabianski pick up the ball... I'll answer that for you (you thick fool). Sol was trying to sheppard the ball back into box so keeper could pick it up. sol was in two minds about wheter it would reach the box, sol didnt mean to touch it but he twitched due to him being in two minds. Fabianski was not expecting the twitch and continued to pick up the ball.
As for the Henry FK it was a quick freekick after a foul.
should these types of free kicks be allowed to be taken quickly after a back pass ?
a normal foul suggest the team in possession may want to take it quick as the foul may have broken up play while the attacking team was in possession.
a back pass means the attacking team was not in possession and hence have no need to take it quickly to retain any attacking incentive they may have created on the pitch
Wrighty your a tw@t
Thanks Shivendran,
Are you saying that Sol has a twitch like Harry Redknapp?
I say give Mannone a chance, or maybe even call back sceszny from Brentford. I'd prefer to see either in goal than Almunia or Fabianski. If push comes to shove, I'd take Fabianski over Almunia. He was at fault for both goals, but at least he attempted to save them, and made a few decent saves during the match.
It might just be me, but I'm sick of watching Arsenal concede whilst Almunia stands there and watches the ball fly past him. If Wenger doesn't have faith in any of the keepers he has, I hope signing one is top of the list for the summer. I have a sad feeling this won't be the case though.
Wenger has a very sketchy record of signing keepers. Leahmann was his best keeper signing and Lehmann was already 30 something when he signed so why doesn't Wenger learn from himself and sign experience at the back? Wenger has also given up on alot of very good keepers because of his cheapness. I remember when he wanted to sign Cech and thought 3M was too much for a Rennes keeper. Ranieri was much wiser on that day and signed up what turns out to be one of the best keepers in the league. Wenger could have signed Seb Frey when he wanted to leave Parma and thought they wanted too much for him. Frey's one of the most consistent keepers in Serie A. Wenger almost signed Rene Adler a while back when he was just starting out but due to some slight complication in his medical he refused and now Adler is one of the best keepers in Germany. Wenger has the eye for talent but his stupid quirks pretty much have put him in the position he's in now.
Shivendran
Firstly - Fuck off back to the Spuds.
Secondly - Fuck off again.
It seems that all Arsenal players who dont play are better than the ones who play. When Alumnia is shit, fans cry for Fab. Now when Fab is shit, they cry for Sceszny...it sounds so pathetic.
What worries me most is that the team is demoralized, especially Cesc. When he is being kicked, no one comes to his rescue. None, not even Diaby, nor Campbell, nor TV5...What has gone wrong? I cannot imagine that players like Keown, even Henry will tolerate Viera being kicked about like that. I counted--there are 7 kicks in the first half only...Cesc is being left alone to suffer all this...no wonder he is pissed off and made an inappropriate remark after the game (schoolboy error) As a captain, he should not say that. Wenger and SAF, Benitez also criticise the referee after a loss, to distract and draw attention away from the performance of the team. It does not mean he is blind to the team's naivete, but he likes to keep it in the dressing room. So should Cesc. But I understand his frustration, not only of the loss, but also the lack of character of the rest of the team. Many times he gets the ball, he cannot find his team mates running into space to get his pass. They just stand around, or behind him, and wait for the pass...
I wonder if the team is demoralized; we will see that against Sunderland this Saturday. If we cannot win this one, this season is over...
I cant quite rmember, but was Henry's freekick vs the chavs inside the box or not???
Coz I can't ever remember a referee ever allowing a quick free kick INSIDE the area...? It would be like allowing a quick penalty!!!
Jumping on the band wagon I see Wrighty7...
Tut, tut...
Bet you used to slate Song and Diaby too mate!!!
Im sick of spending £985py + usually 1 away CL trip costin between £3-400 to watch some of these useless cocks! Mr Wenger you are a legend but right now you are insulting us gooners and taking our loyalty for granted by fielding such low quality players such as Fabianski. We are everyday people, going to Portugal for a football match is a big financial commitment and we deserve to see better! I feel for all you lot that travelled last ngt, you continued to maintain our rep as away fans and you were insulted ...
Towards end of Henry career at Arsenal Ref's did not allow Henry to take quick free kicks. Remember when he got booked for doing so?
Please explain how this is jumping on the band wagon Spike?
What band wagon Spike?
Spike,
jumping on the bandwagon? what you on about?! what bandwagon seriously.
As much as most arsenal fans including me want fabianski to make it, no one can deny he was awful yesterday. And at stoke, chelsea last season. Fabianski cost us those 2 goals. those goals weren't unstoppable shots at all, they were howlers, complete blunders,pushed into his own net, a what-the-fuck moment.
It's amazing how some fans just do not want others to have an opinion and one non positive post then we apparently are 'joining the bandwagon'.
Wrighty mate if you cant see that the referee made a mistake in that 2nd goal then your either blind or your being totally stubborn mate, i respect your blog opinon and this is one of the main blogs I come to after each game. First problem is that yes we have a goal keeper problem because they need to FIX up I can understand this if it was in the beginning of the season but towards the end is another thing, they need to be dropped full stop for a while and put Mannone in. The second thing is that yes we should've had a penalty but we didn't. Third is how can a referee ask for the ball from the keeper give it to the opponents get in the way of a defender, not order a 10 yards positioning of the ball from the goal, not order for a wall to be positioned and finally not make the most simplest rule and common sense of indicating for the opponents to take their free kick, which ends up to be a goal. IT IS RIDICULOUS. That means next time I can take a free kick quickly regardless of the referee even confirming or making any kind of indication to take it, because that is exactly what happened to us. And for people to be comparing the free kicks which thierry henry use to take is ridiculous because he always use to ask the referee before anything if he can take it, and with the link above taking you to the arsenal vs chelsea game you can clearly see that henry confirmed with the referee can i take it plus gudjhonsen was infront of him and behind that was the chelsea wall. Now in our case we didnt have a wall, no confirmation from the referee whatsoever plus he was in the way of sol campbell, and the ball was not even 10 yards away from the goal since it was in the box and an in-direct free kick, anyways whats happened has happened nothing can be changed but i just cant wait till the return game at the emirates we are going to rape them people believe me, revenge, anger and goals will be exposed onto porto I just hope we don't have the same referee, his a disgrace to football!
plus his the same referee that refused carlos vela a penalty away at AZ Alkmaar at the last minutes of the game when vela was hacked down, so hope he doesnt ref us!
Whatever...
But can anyone tell me where the henry free kick was taken, coz I cannot remember....
And it is so funny how quickly some have to jump to the defence of their player hating ways.
He's an Arsenal player, one who aint had any sort of a run in the team and you cant help yourselves in picking over his mistakes, they must be ingrained in your memories, the ease with which you can reel em off....
The 2 mistakes yesterday were horrendous, still doesnt make it right that he be castigated like he's raped a nun FFS.
I read this kind of over the top shite in the tabloids all the time; one minute he is the best thing since Buffon, then he is the shittest keeper in the history of the game.
Wrighty7;
The bandwagon that has written off the likes of Song, Diaby and now Fabianski.
Did I really need to spell it out?
Yo Wrighty, the rule about back pass/free kick says...
the ref must raise his arm to indicate the direct free kick - that knob last night raised his after the ball had been kicked....
that has to be wrong
haha, spike trying his best to spell out how wrighty have already jumped on the bandwagon by completely writing fabianski off when wrighty clearly didnt.
"In Fabianski's case I wouldn't give up on him yet. I'd send him out on a year loan somewhere. A place he would get regular football. It must be difficult to not play regularly and be at your best."
So again where is he writing him off exactly? That was in the blog post.
Spike, I haven't written off Fabianski completely mate and I understand that he needs games.
That's why I said send him on loan.
"In Fabianski's case I wouldn't give up on him yet. I'd send him out on a year loan somewhere. A place he would get regular football. It must be difficult to not play regularly and be at your best."
Did you read as far as that in the post mate?
C'mon, you know me. I wouldn't write something negative unless it really warranted it!
Shit that was spooky!
Hi Rico,
I think it is easy to blame the ref here. Yes he made it easier for Porto to score but at the same time it was our mistake that caused the free-kick that led to the goal.
Had Fabianski cleared his lines this would never be up for debate.
Wrighty,
Dont get me wrong, Fab should have hoofed it to row ZZZZ but the ref should have done bit better..
Havent seen you chatting to ave and JJ recently :(
Chesney will be our keeper next season with O'shea as No2, he has just signed a new deal...
Erm, I admit I never actually read your whole piece Wrighty7!!!
Hahahahaha!
Sorry mate!!
You donut Spike!
I know Rico. I miss the pair of them!
I haven't really had the time to be honest. I've heardly been blogging.
I'm glad AR is back on track though!
Still has an eye for talent but is way too cheap in most cases and this is what you get.
Wrighty mate I think you have a bit of selective myopia on this one.
Don't get me wrong I 100% agree with what you said, but normally when someone questions the manager they get a tirade of abuse. Now suddenly its ok.
Wenger has to take responsibility and stop blaming everyone else.
None of that Goons_With_Guns!
Indeed - Poor defending let us down but I think with a full strength squad we can win the return leg
Wrighty,do you know which ex. players Bob Wilson was talking about having a pop at the team?
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