Arsenal Thread

[Malenko]

Now, Reyes needs to feel at home in order to settle, and I don't think he does, there are a few players who always seem to moan when he does something wrong, Henry and Ljungberg are two people that I have seen do it and especially when Henry shunned Reyes when he scored against Aston Villa. Part of the blame goes to Aragones, since this racist comment he hasn't been the same.

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[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Ahahahahahahahahaha! What an equaliser! PENALTY in the 90th minute!

Sheffield United deserved to draw and Arsenal were dirty dirty and Pires diving away blatantly as usual! Clearly a handball and Sheff Utd's first goal should have stood either except the ref suddenly panicked about sending Bergkamp off....

I haven't cheered so loud as that in AGES! What a delight to watch...What a cup tie, COME ON THE BLADES!

Arsenal...You didn't play too good and your defence was awful.

[FLiam]

Fuck.

[MDK]

I haven't cheered so loud as that in AGES! What a delight to watch...What a cup tie, COME ON THE BLADES!

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Same here, best moment of my day when they equalised

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Same here but no point in feeling happy because I'm quite confident Arsenal will destroy them in the replay.

[public enemy]

Reyes facing lengthy ban

Arsenal's Jose Antonio Reyes could be hit with a three-match ban from the FA if they launch a video investigation into allegations that the player was guilty of slapping Sheffield United's Andy Liddell in a stormy fifth round FA Cup tie at Highbury.

The Gunners are already reeling from the prospect of losing Dennis Bergkamp for three games after he was red-carded for pushing Danny Cullip in the melee that also involved Reyes and Liddell.

Manager Arsene Wenger confirmed that the club would appeal against Bergkamp's dismissal - the 57th Arsenal player to be red-carded under his managerial tenure - but then accused Cullip of sparking the affair by deliberately stamping on Cesc Fabregas.

He said: "We will appeal against the sending off. We will appeal on the grounds that he didn't hit him, he pushed him. But I must say I was shocked by what I saw against Fabregas.

"Their number 32 hit him on the head. The intention was there although he didn't hit him hard. But I don't like to see that. He hit him on purpose. We will accept everything the FA does.

"We have no other choice but we do not want to lose Reyes. Reyes may be a yellow card but I don't see why one case should be linked with the other. The FA look at the whole game anyway."

Wenger's side were robbed of a place in the quarter-finals when Andy Gray converted a last-minute penalty after Philippe Senderos had handled.

Earlier, substitute Robert Pires looked to have put Arsenal through with a 78th minute strike as Arsenal made light of Bergkamp's dismissal 10 minutes before the break.

Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock was still at a loss to understand why referee Neale Barry had chalked off Cullip's first-half headed goal and backed up suggestions that Reyes has been guilty of raising his hands in the fracas that followed Cullip's challenge on Fabregas.

Overall though, he was pleased with Barry's performance but added that United might have wasted their chance to progress into the last eight.

Warnock said: "It is a fantastic result for me personally and the club itself. It is not very often that you come to a place like this and get the right result. It looked like it was going to be a bit cruel.

"I didn't think we deserved to lose. When they scored I think everyone wrote us off but we have got a lot of character in the team with a 'never-say-die' attitude. What we lacked in technique we made up for with big hearts. It was a good time to get our first penalty for a year.

"We also thought we scored a good goal but there is pressure on referees at places like this. It is very intimidating. Overall I thought the referee did well today because there was a lot of intimidation.

"Sometimes you look at incidents and look for things that are not really there. But I think he will be disappointed when he sees the goal.

"Other than that he made some brave decisions, especially the sending off and the penalty in the last minute. So I have no complaints. I didn't see the incident that led to Bergkamp's dismissal but I thought he had sent the wrong man off. We thought Reyes slapped somebody and should have got sent-off.

"I don't think we will get a better opportunity of going through than today. It will be disappointing if we don't fill Bramall Lane this time."

[FLiam]

No they shouldn't have.

They were up against ten men, who had an average age of about 21 and created harldy any worthy chances.

Yeh they had that goal disalowed but apart from that I don't remember much, a draw was fair in my book.

[fineintent]

No they shouldn't have.

They were up against ten men, who had an average age of about 21 and created harldy any worthy chances.

Yeh they had that goal disalowed but apart from that I don't remember much, a draw was fair in my book.

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[FLiam]

Arsenal are reportedly considering tabling an offer for Rosenborg's Daniel Braathen.

The Gunners have been monitoring the 22-year-old for some time, even before he joined the Trondheim-based club.

Only an injury disrupted plans to offer Braathen a trial at Highbury and Arsene Wenger has continued to track the Norwegian prospect.

"I have had several talks with Wenger regarding Braathen and he is interested," his agent Jan Olsson told Adresseavisen.

"Wenger has studied Daniel a long time."

The forward came on as a substitute in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal in this season's UEFA Champions League and also figured in the 5-1 drubbing at Highbury that sealed the North Londoners' qualification to the knockout stages.

The transfer window may be shut until the summer, but Olsson seems convinced that there could be developments later in the year regarding his client

source: planetfootball.com

I remember him from CM 03-04 and he was amazing, but he isn't as good as that in real life.

We do need a right sided midfielder but I want Wright-Phillips, I mean at least it can shut up these idiots talking about our foreign squad and plus Wright-Phillips is amazing.

[Malenko]

Arsenal are reportedly considering tabling an offer for Rosenborg's Daniel Braathen.

The Gunners have been monitoring the 22-year-old for some time, even before he joined the Trondheim-based club.

Only an injury disrupted plans to offer Braathen a trial at Highbury and Arsene Wenger has continued to track the Norwegian prospect.

"I have had several talks with Wenger regarding Braathen and he is interested," his agent Jan Olsson told Adresseavisen.

"Wenger has studied Daniel a long time."

The forward came on as a substitute in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal in this season's UEFA Champions League and also figured in the 5-1 drubbing at Highbury that sealed the North Londoners' qualification to the knockout stages.

The transfer window may be shut until the summer, but Olsson seems convinced that there could be developments later in the year regarding his client

source: planetfootball.com

I remember him from CM 03-04 and he was amazing, but he isn't as good as that in real life.

We do need a right sided midfielder but I want Wright-Phillips, I mean at least it can shut up these idiots talking about our foreign squad and plus Wright-Phillips is amazing.

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[supergrass]

Not for the first time I have to say I wish we were being linked with a defender, and a bigger name at that.

Regarding yesterday's flop in Berlin, I'm interested to get everyone's thoughts on Arsenal's European history. It's so up and down, great one mintue (5-1 in Milan), awful the next (last night, our game in Valencia etc...).

Most people have a hard time putting their finger on it. I don't mean just mean last night's game (in which you could blame injury or just the team playing very badly - which ever way inclined you are), I mean Arsenal in Europe in general. Some say it's the style of play of our opposition, some blame Arsenal themseleves because we don't alter our game at all for Europe. Is it psychological? Are we just not as good as the rest of Europe? Did we busy into our own hype when made favourites at the start of the season?

I think a lot of our problems now are psychological, when we were a goal down in Berlin heads didn't necessarily drop but things weren't how they used to be, the same confidence perhaps isn't there. But it had to stem from somewhere. So what do you think? How would you put things right?

[Guest Pirate Chasin' Booty]

I believe a great deal of it is psychological, take this seasons defence record and then look back at last season, that back 4 can be superb, but for some reason they're just not cutting it right now, which is a real bitch to sort out because other than beating those mental problems Arsene can't do much.

Its just so sad that at one point in history we had a brick wall defence, since then we became an exciting team, luckily whilst still maintaining a good defence, but thats all changed.

We're as good as out of the CL already, if it wasn't for that away goal I'd be 100% and I'm not going to predict a big come back because In my mind I don't believe it'll happen and right now we don't deserve it. Things at Highbury need a change, signings need to be made, not necessarily to the starting lineup (but certainly in goal, I've had enough of Lehmanns calamity acrobatics) but definitely in reserves and backup. Theres also too much reliance on Henry, find a new partner, someone that'll score goals and ease the pressure, just another option.

We don't adapt to european standards, we can no longer blame it on experience, we've been there, we've been knocked out, nows the time to form a plan.

Concede a goal at Highbury and we're dead and buried, we need to defend like a bunch of savages, but at the same time we need to get that ball up there and kick arse, the likelyhood of it happening is very small, but there needs to be an injection of passion or a good ol' british kick up the arse before we can even considering making any type of comeback.

[G-O-D]

This season has really been a bad one for you guys.

Campbell is rarely 100% fit

Reyes and (presumably)Cole are unsettled

Vieira hasn't shown his past form

Gilberto's injury

Lehmann and Aluminium

IMO, the main reason why your defence is leaking goals left,right and center, is down to Sol Campbell. He has struggled with injury, and he is not in good form understandably. The Arsenal defence really misses him. Not that having calamities like Lehmann helps either....

Edited February 24, 2005 by G-O-D

[fineintent]

This season has really been a bad one for you guys.

Campbell is rarely 100% fit

Reyes and (presumably)Cole are unsettled

Vieira hasn't shown his past form

Gilberto's injury

Lehmann and Aluminium

IMO, the main reason why your defence is leaking goals left,right and center, is down to Sol Campbell. He has struggled with injury, and he is not in good form understandably. The Arsenal defence really misses him. Not that having calamities like Lehmann helps either....

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[public enemy]

Reyes given three-match ban by FA

Arsenal's Jose Antonio Reyes has been given a three-match ban by the Football Association for violent conduct in Saturday's game with Sheffield United.

Reyes, 21, was found to have struck Andy Liddell after an incident between Danny Cullip and Cesc Fabregas in the FA Cup fifth-round tie which ended 1-1.

The offence was missed by referee Neale Barry, but the FA brought the charge after looking at video evidence.

Reyes will miss the replay and league games with Southampton and Portsmouth.

Team-mate Dennis Bergkamp was sent off for his involvement in the incident and had already been banned for the same three games.

The double blow leaves manager Arsene Wenger in a difficult situation, with only Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie available as senior strikers.

[RawIsWar]

Definately a negative thing, they could have real problems in the next few games, but there not too bad attacking wise it's SOL CAMPBELL they miss him hugely

800th post Woooooooooooo

[G-O-D]

A 1-1 draw doesn't really do much good for either Southampton or Arsenal.

Van Persie is a promising talent, but he needs to curb his aggressiveness.

[FLiam]

Fucking hell.

Pires out for two weeks. For fuck sake Prutton you cock, and he had the nerve to complain about it, both tackles could have easily been straight reds.

We have two strikers available, one is about only 75% fit.

We have Clichy as a left winger and no-one else.

We are screwed for a little while.

[Liam]

Fucking hell.

Pires out for two weeks. For fuck sake Prutton you cock, and he had the nerve to complain about it, both tackles could have easily been straight reds.

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To be honest, out of the four booked challenges, the only one that deserved to be a "straight red" was Van Persie's elbow on that Southampton player.

The other 3 challenges got yellows as the ball was there to be won, but they were late, a little high, and a little OTT. For that, you tend to just get a yellow.

All 4 challenges were nasty though.

Paul Smith had a great game in goal for Southampton as well.

[FLiam]

Well in my opinion Pruttons two tackles could have easily been reds, especially the first, he was high, late and it wasn't pretty at all. And the second he damn near snapped Pires' ankle.