Middlesbrough 2-1 Arsenal – 09/12/07 – (Premier League) 9 December, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Premiership.trackback
I don’t usually like to write a match report immediately after we’ve lost a game because my emotions are a bit wild. But screw it. Both we and Liverpool broke our unbeaten Premiership runs this weekend and we’re now only a point clear of Man United.
I’ve seen us play shit before, but we were absolutely fucking terrible today. Shocking. There wasn’t a single player having a good game, and even if some one did something creative. There was nothing on the end of it.
We started with Eduardo up front for some reason. I said Bendtner should’ve started but no. He came on at half time for Da Silva who was completely anonymous again.
‘Boro got off to a good start and were 1-0 up inside 4 minutes. Toure gave away a silly, silly penalty. And Downing or some one put the ball in the back of the net but Almunia should’ve saved it. We never got back into the game. Absolutely dreadful. I can’t really give you minute-by-minute highlights of what happened, because nothing did happen. Middlesbrough looked like increasing their lead at times, which was just unthinkable.
The first half wasn’t as frustrating as the second. I thought we still had plenty of time to come back.
The question I put to the team was whether they’d learnt any lessons from the last two games. They had a little bit, I mean we weren’t so much under pressure, and at times we looked like we were going to create something. But we didn’t.
We went 2-0 down in the 74th minute. Game over. No way back. Didn’t really pay much attention for the rest of the game. We got one back with the last kick of the game, Rosicky was the scorer. Good finish by him but we all know that goal meant nothing.
As there’s not really much to discuss about the game. I’ll give a mention to some players:
Almunia – Can’t really blame him. Could’ve saved the penalty I suppose.
Sagna & Clichy – Not themselves. They’ve been excellent this season but both had their worst games so far. Often found themselves with the ball but didn’t know who to pass to with the lack of movement.
Toure – Worst game in a long time. Completely to blame for the penalty. Wake up Kolo.
Gallas – Possibly our best player, did all he could from the back but had a lot to deal with.
Eboue – Absolute cunt. I’m getting to the stage where I hate him. He’s been getting better recently but he made up for it all today. Should’ve been sent of twice and was just a general idiot all over the pitch. Diving useless fairy lanky knob. Don’t want to see him play for us. Hopefully the FA will see look at the video replays and give him a ban.
Walcott – Better than Eboue anyway. He really tried but he couldn’t inspire anything. His passing wasn’t good; he’s got to work on his game ahead of next week.
Gilberto – Another bad game for him. Caught in possession all the time, falling over, bad tackles, the lot. Nothing good to point out for him. I bet he doesn’t feel too good about himself this afternoon. Sorry Gilberto, thanks for all the good times, but goodbye.
Denilson – I was praying for him to be brought on but he didn’t make a massive difference like I’d hoped. Up there with one of our best players today. It was frustrating him watching him try but not pull anything off.
Rosicky – Tried to be creative. He wasn’t that bad to be honest but he had no support. Good finish at the end
Adebayor – Awful. Learnt nothing from his mistakes in the last game. He still thinks he’s Thierry Henry or something. Being top scorer in the league got to his head. Probably should drop him but we cant afford to and we wont.
Eduardo – Who? Another bad game for him. Can’t have done his confidence any good. Didn’t get into the game at all.
Aliadiere – Could’ve done with him today. He had so much desire about him game and worked his socks off. Got a great reception when he came off.
The worst performance we’ve seen in a long time. The worst match report too. A proper one here.
We’ve got Chelsea next weekend. If we play like that again we’ll get embarrassed. Hopefully we’ll have some players back for this one, we missed them so much. It’s the Champions League on Wednesday though. Build up to come.
You’ve absolutely echoed my sentiments. Normally I wait a good few hours ’til I start my match report, but today I began writing it as soon Boro scored their second. I didn’t wanna stew over it, just wanted to release the pain while it was still raw.
And a good point about Ade too, he is tryna be too clever these days, he needs to stick to what he’s good at.
Our first loss in the league missing 3/4 of our midfeld. Think your being a little harsh on certain players, especially Ade and Eboue.Whilst your right about Ade being frustrating he has scored some important goals for us so far this year. As for Eboue he is definately is a clown but not as bad as you say. As for Gilberto I think he is the kind of player who is good if he is getting a run in the team, if he is just being used now and again he will always be a liability. Let’s hope we pick it up for Chelsea next week, this has highlighted how Hleb is basically our most important player this year. He holds it up and makes the team tick as does Cesc, also missing Flaminis aggression. Let’s not panic though it’s only our first loss( the Sevilla game was irrelevant). Come on you Gunners!!!
what’s amazing is how little ball control we had wihtout cesc or hleb. you’d think somebody could just pout their foot on the ball and control the game.
Yeah it was a bit harsh but I pretty much mean what I say.
You got one thing wrong: you said your match report was no good.
We have hit a patch of bad form in the last few games. But to be without 4 of our first choice midfield and striker, and most of them our attacking players then we of course were gonna struggle. Without Hleb and Cesc our ball retention and attack are weakened considerably. On this seasons form theres no team that wouldnt miss those 2.Flamini has been a revelation and his drive was missed most yesterday as both Gilberto and Diarra were anonymous. And when you need a player who can get you a goal from nothing we have been without VanP for a while now and he would have made a differences against boro. Add to this that we have just played 3 games all away and up norf without those linchpins then something was gonna give. Now its time to see if these guys have what it takes to pull it around. The sooner those players are back in the team the better as they are absolutely vital.
Eboue seems to be everyone’s fall guy. He is a better player than Theo at the moment and always gives his best to the club. His face may not fit but he isnt really the one to blame always.
I´m a bit bored at the moment.