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2010-2011 Football Thread

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Ooh, the FA may charge Rooney for t'elbow after all. A three match ban means he misses Chelsea and Liverpool.

The gist of which is - it all depends on why Clattenberg gave the free kick against Rooney, because without the elbow which was a sending-off offence, what exactly was the free kick for then?

Basically he has to say say he saw the elbow but deemed it not an elbow... or summat...

Jaffa Cake said:
Hmm. The 15 shirt was allocated to foppish wastrel Daryll Duffy that season , I believe...
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A player I had to look up in wiki - yet another Scot I see! I never realized Ray ended up at Hull as I always thought he finished his days out at Boro.
 
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Well done to the Hammers! Liverpool never got going until the 65th minute or so, and by then they lost Kelly and Meireles to injury. Even a Gerrard dive couldn't help them.
 
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Geez, how krap is Kenny? I don't know why you were always so enthusiastic over his appointment, Lordy. ;)

Update - bah, injury to van Persie now. So come the Nou Camp five of Arsenal's best players will now either be carrying injuries into the match or out completely. Up to Bendtner to win this one now. Maybe in Barcelona too.
 
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Oh dear. Arsenal.

Credit to Birmingham, but frankly Arsenal had no business losing this match, and in such an embarrassing manner! I must admit I'm pretty shocked.

The old defensive problems are back for Liverpool.
 
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Shame really...i just had that nagging feeling as the game went on and sure enough. Oh well, another trophy-less year it is and true to form Arsenal crash in February again.
 
And I had the nagging feeling when I saw Obafemi Martins coming on that he would score.

Arsenal I think had the wrong mindset leading up to this match, talking about Cesc lifting the trophy before a ball was even kicked. Kudos to Birmingham, first silverware for 50 odd years and now in the Europa Cup.
 
The wheels have come off so fast it's startling...injuries, morale-sapping loss to an unfancied side via a massive, basic error...I can only shake my head and wonder how such a good team can be so habitually unlucky.

Meanwhile, Birmingham have come under a lot of criticism for their plodding style of play and lack of goals this season. It's obviously a huge boost for them. They're probably safe from the drop, but this was really their only chance to win anything and they've taken it, against a top four team too.
 
Far too overconfident. Only Wilshere showed up to play. Pisses me off really :mad:

Can we really not win a match without v.Persie, Walcott, Fabregas & Nasri on the pitch to blot out defensive mistakes with 2 or more goals. I mean come on!

...and we lost to Birmingham of all teams. Ugh!

Now v.Persie is out too to add injury to insult.
 
More grumblings about Liverpool: The team played exactly as badly today as they did at the end of Benitez's reign and for most of Hodgson's tenure, so while Dalglish has turned things around in many ways, we can still see that the basic flaws of the side remain to be solved.

Johnson may have scored, but I have changed my mind about him and question his ability to defend well enough to justify his place in the squad (some people have been saying this all along). Skrtel is a decent player but I don't know if he's quite as good as we hoped he would be. The club has moved decisively to revamp our attack, but strengthening the defense and midfield are going to be our goals for the off-season. We are simply not good enough at the back.
 
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Foster played fantastically well today, it should be said.

It's been discussed long and hard, we've mentioned it on here many times – Arsenal needs to sort their goalkeeping situation out, they need to sort their defence out. When you watch them, they don't look solid enough at the back – you always think they're going to concede. Lo and behold, a massive cock up by two players from the problem positions has made a major contribution to costing them the League Cup.

I think daneoni and awmazz also have a point when it comes to overconfidence. When Arsenal slip up – be it in the League or knockout competitions – it all too frequently seems to be against teams they should by rights be getting the better off. Sometimes it almost seems like certain players seem to think they can just tip up, play some nice football and that will be enough. As they find out too often though, it isn't.

Anyway, commiserations to our Gooners, and at least it could be worse – it could have been Spurs you lost to. :eek:
 
Spot on, Jaffa. I was thinking that winning the Carling Cup would give Arsenal a nice boost of confidence to carry them through the rest of the BLP and UCL seasons, but now they are going to be hard pressed to recover after losing the match in such a horrifying way.

Like you said, their goalkeeping and defense are obvious frailties, but I feel like their entire squad lacks mental toughness, or doesn't have that somewhat intangible sense of what it takes to win consistently. Even though their squad is as flawed as I've seen in a while, United still has that attitude throughout their squad, and it's carrying them through quite nicely even if they don't always look good doing it.

Speaking of winning attitude, they're sure going to need it Tuesday night at the Bridge.
 
awmazz said:
PPS. I agree with the Wigan boss, Rooney should have been given an early shower for that incident. Considering he ended up being instrumental in the win, it could have altered the result of the game plus whether he'd be facing Chelsea, and so possibly the entire season. How a single fleeting referee decision can change the future.
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Thankfully bad refereeing didn't cost Birmingham City.

Three matches - Liverpool, Leyton Orient and Bolton Wanderers - is a fair price to pay to not be taken out by the thug McCarthy. It's only a problem if Berbatov and Hernandez get injured.


Manchester United need to play wide against Chelsea, put diagonal passes over Terry, and stick Hernandez on the aforementioned lump.

Cheers,
OW
 
Silencio said:
Spot on, Jaffa. I was thinking that winning the Carling Cup would give Arsenal a nice boost of confidence to carry them through the rest of the BLP and UCL seasons, but now they are going to be hard pressed to recover after losing the match in such a horrifying way.
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While Wenger may not take the League Cup that seriously, I can't help but think he's missed an opportunity with it – his team is still a young side, and a League Cup win or two over the past few season would have helped to instil a winning mentality in his charges. The more his players are used to appearing in finals and winning the lesser prizes, the more they'll be prepared to go out and win the bigger trophies when the opportunity arises – such occasions will be familiar to them and they'll have past experience to call on to try and gain a positive result.

In any case, it's going to be interesting to see how he picks his players up after today – the next two weeks are hugely important so far as the remaining competitions are concerned, and if heads are down they could very well find themselves out of the cups and slipping up in the League. Time for the manager to earn his corn.
 
Happy Blues fan tonight. Though some Arsenal fans are banging on about Eduardo still.

Anyway - scary thought Birmingham in Europe next year, will probably be the first time I'll watch the europa league on Channel 5 (or wherever is it).
 
oscillatewildly said:
Thankfully bad refereeing didn't cost Birmingham City.
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Could easily have gone the same way as the CL final with Lehman getting sent off in the first 0.3 nanoseconds. Same result anyway; 2-1.

Mind you, Arsenal playing the whole match with 10 men could possibly have improved their chances to score more goals - playing on the defensive drawing Birmingham up to leave gaps for the quick counter.

Well, it looks like the 2002 FA Cup final is still the only one of the total of 8 finals they've played this century where Arsenal have managed to score more than one goal. And three wins from eight overall is not a good batting average either. I think they're now at the the point where they have to overcome the psychology of being chokers now in the next final they reach.
 
pivo6 said:
Liverpool never got going until the 65th minute or so, and by then they lost Kelly and Meireles to injury.
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I accept the responsibility for Meireles, sorry! :eek: I just put him in my FF team so he was always doomed :( I seem to have also been responsible for Bale, Lampard, Jagielka, and a major loss of form for Bebatov, Torres & Drogba :eek:

Lord Blackadder said:
Ah, the Europa League. Nowhere else do you get a chance to watch your B-team draw 0-0 away on a Wednesday night in former Soviet client states.
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'Concentrating on the league' are we? :)



Jaffa Cake said:
Foster played fantastically well today, it should be said.

It's been discussed long and hard, we've mentioned it on here many times – Arsenal needs to sort their goalkeeping situation out, they need to sort their defence out. When you watch them, they don't look solid enough at the back – you always think they're going to concede. Lo and behold, a massive cock up by two players from the problem positions has made a major contribution to costing them the League Cup.
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Yeah, well played Ben Foster. Arsenal certainly turned up the heat early in the second half to which he was equal too, before Arsenal self destructed.

It seems everyone bar a certain philosophical Frenchman who 'should have gone to Specsavers' agrees that Arsenal need a commanding centre back. As good as Fabregas is, he ISN'T a leader, someone who's going to bark orders and pick people up when they're down. Inspiration needs to be more than a few good passes...

Anyway, enough of the doom and gloom, we managed to get our first win under Megatron, something that many fans thought wouldn't happen for a few more games :)

Edit: Seems Rooney has gotten away with the elbow, the FA aren't taking any further action. Guess it can't have been that bad then :rolleyes:

Also, it seems 'The Guv'nor' isn't too happy with the current fashion trend amongst Premiership footballers. Still, footballers have always done annoying things, like giving themselves nicknames that would have once been earned :rolleyes:
 
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garybUK said:
Ugh! just because it's united and/or Rooney you lot have to pipe up, when it's Terry (who thinks he knows more than any ref) or Gerrard oooooh its different.
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I wouldn't care who did it, it was thuggish behaviour and should be stamped out.

I'm very disappointed with Fergie and Phelan defending him like that, they must have borrowed some of Wenger's dodgy specs. Do you think Rooney was not in the wrong?
 
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