Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Liverpool 4-2 Arsenal

We had it, and we blew it...twice. I've never felt as depressed after a single match as I did after this one. Which is right now as the match ended five minutes ago. I'm in no mood to write a match report properly for this, so if you want to read one I'm sure you can find one somewhere else. I'm just going to say a few things I'm feeling and it may quite possibly turn into a rant.

First off, the first twenty minutes were absolutely 100% the Arsenal we all know and love. It was beautiful football at it's best and Diaby took his goal wonderfully. The way we were playing at that point I thought we could go on to win pretty easily. When their goal came on 30 minutes, however, we completely shut down. Adebayor couldn't create any space, Cesc was too afraid to ever take a shot, Flamini got hurt and Gilberto brought nothing to the team in his place, and Diaby dissapeared. Add to that Eboue's usual rubbish play and it didn't look good for us at all.

I wasn't feeling so bad at half time with the score at 1-1 though. It still gave us a good chance to go through with one goal or if no goals came we still had extra time. But we were just as bad in the second half as we were after their goal in the first. We couldn't hold on to the ball and both wingers did nothing. I was shocked that we started Adebayor as a lone striker when we clearly needed goals to go through. I was even more shocked that Eboue got to keep his place in the team instead of Walcott, who made an absolutely beautiful run and cross for our second goal. He brings so much to the team that Eboue never ever ever could.

The penalty called on Toure was absolute shite. He jumped to avoid our own player, then moved his arms trying to stay off of Babel and Babel fell and he gave a penalty. The last goal everyone was forward for a free kick and there wasn't anything anyone could do really so I don't give a tit about that one, but the first two are exactly what I talked about in my preview. I said we would score first and they would come at us, and they did just that, and just like I feared, we conceded the goals. Senderos was at fault for both of them and it wasn't his best game by far.

I don't really know what else to write. I just had to get all of this off of my chest because I'm sick of all the goals we concede and the way we play after we do. We knew it was going to be tough but to be set to go through not once but twice and blow it both times something needs to be changed. We need wingers, and we need something else at the back. I don't know who or what but it's really come to show at the end of this season.

That's all I'll rant about for now. Leave a comment if you're as pissed as I am.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I feel you man, I'm pretty much at a loss as well. But even after we scored the 2nd goal, I still felt like something was going to go wrong. It never really sank in for me that we were so close to going through, so I guess its good that the penalty came right away instead of in stoppage time or something.

Champions League, 2nd leg, @ Anfield, and we are going to win after Gerrard whiffs a shot and we take advantage to pull ahead? That kind of stuff just doesn't happen.

Theo's run and dish off to Ade was magnificent though. We shouldn't let what happened after diminish that play. Straight clutch. I hope to see him a lot for these last few games and watch him show off some more for us.

Anonymous said...

Brutal penalty...I hate to be a sore loser...but we didn't get the penalty on Hleb in the first game...then Liverpool gets this penalty...I don't think there was a conspiracy or anything...we just got screwed. I think I'm going to remember this season more for what could have been had we not lost Van Persie, Rosicky, Eduardo, and Sagna at such crucial points of the season. I know that's football...and I wished Arsene had spent during January...but you can't lose that much talent and not take a hit. I'd be happy to never see the likes of Eboue in an Arsenal kit again...and wouldn't miss Gilberto, Lehmann, Senderos, Hoyte and Bendtner too much either. Tough one. The high of pulling level to the low of the penalty and watching Babel finish it off. Just Brutal. This is why god created alcohol....

Unknown said...

I hope I'll remember this season for the good moments:

Coming back against Fulham on Opening Day

Cesc yelling "Fuck Off!" at Rio Ferdinand after we levelled in the 90th :)

Seven Heaven in the CL

Captain Gallas heading in the winner against Chelsea

Almunia saving the penalty and then Nicky Bendtner beating Spurs with his first touch

Those few weeks when Adebayor was the next best thing to Pele

Two Nil in the freaking San Siro

The amazing comeback against Bolton

and yes, even Theo's run to almost sink Liverpool

But what I'll probably end up remembering is that in the games that really cost us the FA Cup and the League we played with less than our best lineup :(

Dreaming of Vela and some better bench players for next year, but this wasn't such a bad ride.

1979gooner said...

http://anotherarsenalblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/tale-of-two-penalties.html

eboue did ok tonight

shit shit decision for the penalty

ref was piss poor for the whole second half allowing lots of fouls from behind by lpool

fucking gutted

ArseNole said...

Like I said in the article, we need new additions. I don't know who but they have to come. I cannot live through another season without a winger. While Diaby's goal was good he is no winger, neither is Eboue. Walcott may go to striker next year and hopefully Vela will be able to do some things on the left for us but I'd love to see Ben Arfa or someone come in. We could use a new central defender to go along with it. I wish Wenger would spend some money sometimes :(

Unknown said...

Totally agree about AW spending some money. We constantly hear about this huge surplus Arsenal has, and how the Emirates has made more than they even expected. That doesn't do us much good if we leave it in the bank. Especially when United, Liverpool, Chelsea are willing to incur debt to stockpile more players.

ArseNole said...

Don't get me wrong, I want Arsene to spend money, but I don't want it to be like Chelski or United or the scousers. But last summer we lost Reyes, Ljungberg, and Henry and only brought in Eduardo. I just think spending 10 million quid or so on someone like Ben Arfa and another 5 million on a good defender wouldn't be a bad idea. No spending sprees, just the spending that is neccessary