Arsenal Saturday...

...really up for this £#%&!er now.
It's been a long week since that pathetic excuse for a performance on Sunday (still yet to hear any excuses/explanations from the players or Fergie)
Obviously that defeat was compounded 24hrs later by Arsenal's Title clinching win on Monday.

There's been wall to wall gushing superlatives from the Arsenal sycophants in the press ever since.
Even the £#%&!ing Radio Times (flicking through it in WHSmiths this morning) had a page dedicated to the Genius of "Proffessor Wenger"

Rooney & Evra are back. The players should be hurting.
We owe Arsenal after our last 3 games together.


I don't know if I'm kidding myself though. There are a lot of question marks over our attitude & ability to recover this season.
We don't look anywhere near as hungry as last season.

The thing putting me off this game is I get the impression from peoples thoughts that this is like a Cup final and we have to beat them etc and it seems very similar to a few years ago where games against Arsenal and Chelsea at O.T were out Cup finals , we should be in the driving seat now and it should be them having to beat us hoping to knock our confidence.

Only Fergie could £#%&! such a promising situation up with a wealth of options in midfield.

Originally Posted by MJ Ramone

We don't look anywhere near as hungry as last season.

Absolutely spot on.

Europe this year, now.

personally, i'd much rather have a league game this weekend to get 3 points in the bag and back on track.

the team we start with will dictate how things go.

i hate to say this but id rather see our veterans sit this game out tbh.

arsenal will play a young team which will be equally "inexperianced" but will be more athletic etc.

i dont think giggs and scholes should start the game at all. i cant see any advantages in it tbh.

let our youngish team go out there and play.

the old guard can play against lyon which will be ideal with their experiance etc

I am not really arsed tbh. One because I go that many games, two because ive got more important things to think about at the moment. I’ll go and do all the normal and will probably look like a psychopath to on lookers, but my heart wont be 100 % in it.

I wish i could say i was confident about saturday but unless we seriously improve on our last two shocking performances we'll get nowt from this one. Thank £#%&! rooney's back, should provide a bit fight and passion in there!

Originally Posted by 1MUFC

I am not really arsed tbh. One because I go that many games, two because ive got more important things to think about at the moment. I’ll go and do all the normal and will probably look like a psychopath to on lookers, but my heart wont be 100 % in it.

Fascinating stuff, do keep us informed.

I'd sooner it was a League fixture too.
..but it isn't.
It is a chance for us to wipe the smug look off Wenger's face though.
It is a chance to restore a bit of confidence.

We've £#%&!ed the League up the wall in recent weeks.
It wasn't too long ago that we were sitting 2pts clear of Arsenal...there's been a 7pt swing in their favour since & we haven't really had a particuarly hard run of fixtures.
Very dissapointing.

i'm afraid that the govan toolmaker will stick with scholes out of pure bloody-mindedness.

he looks in that sort of mood to me.

I get the feeling 'half an eye' will be on Lyon so I haven't got a clue what the side might be.
Maybe Fletcher will get a start?...seriously.

Originally Posted by MJ Ramone

I get the feeling 'half an eye' will be on Lyon so I haven't got a clue what the side might be.
Maybe Fletcher will get a start?...seriously.

I wouldn't mind if he did, always plays well in on the big occasion.
I haven't got any confidence that we can win going into this season, the last 2 games have just drained my confidence in this team.

Originally Posted by Rhodzy

I wouldn't mind if he did, always plays well in on the big occasion.
I haven't got any confidence that we can win going into this season, the last 2 games have just drained my confidence in this team.

do the other 30 games we've played mean nothing then?

Originally Posted by Jack Duckworth

do the other 30 games we've played mean nothing then?

Yes but they weren't the last two games, the game earlier on in the season at Arsenal I was quite confident due to the momentum we had from previous games.

have faith, young rhodzy. have faith

Originally Posted by MJ Ramone

...really up for this £#%&!er now.
It's been a long week since that pathetic excuse for a performance on Sunday (still yet to hear any excuses/explanations from the players or Fergie)

What do you want to hear? How about this: the players were too emotionally involved in the occassion and couldn't find the edge they needed on the pitch at the end of a long week. It's not rocket science, mate. It was a great shame. But it was hardly a great surprise and there is certainly no shame in it. You should be glad they care. There are far more important things than football.

Obviously that defeat was compounded 24hrs later by Arsenal's Title clinching win on Monday.

There's been wall to wall gushing superlatives from the Arsenal sycophants in the press ever since.

who cares? no really, I'm serious;who gives a £#%&! about the football press?

Even the £#%&!ing Radio Times (flicking through it in WHSmiths this morning) had a page dedicated to the Genius of "Proffessor Wenger"

Rooney & Evra are back. The players should be hurting.
We owe Arsenal after our last 3 games together.

That's better!


I don't know if I'm kidding myself though. There are a lot of question marks over our attitude & ability to recover this season.
We don't look anywhere near as hungry as last season.

The team are being asked a few questions, that's true. Whether they can come up with the answers quickly remains to be seen. We might be thanking Arsenal for challenging us so completely come May. Though it might turn out to be next May!

Yeah, well as you well know the press DO wind me up!
Just one of those things.

I don't buy it that the players were weighed down with so much emotion that they couldn't perform...there have been too many similar performances this season to put it down to that.

Agree that Arsenal pushing us should be good for us, but we've allowed them to open up a very sizeable gap...there's no excuse for that.
City are a very average team.

I've just lost a lot of confidence in the players after Sunday. Hopefully a good win over Arsenal will make things look a lot brighter..

At this point i just hope we dont get battered, i cant help but feel were going through a blip in form and its not the best time to be facing those #@&%!ernee £#%&!ers.

Originally Posted by MJ Ramone

Yeah, well as you well know the press DO wind me up!
Just one of those things.

I don't buy it that the players were weighed down with so much emotion that they couldn't perform...there have been too many similar performances this season to put it down to that.

Agree that Arsenal pushing us should be good for us, but we've allowed them to open up a very sizeable gap...there's no excuse for that.
City are a very average team.

I've just lost a lot of confidence in the players after Sunday. Hopefully a good win over Arsenal will make things look a lot brighter..

At some point you have to just say, look, our central midfield has not been able to assert any authority on a game anything like often enough or effectively enough. Anderson has failed to score and his effervescence and dynamism can't mask his inexperience and lack of discipline, Carrick has one goal and only a handful of proper performances to his name, Scholes has missed half the season, and Hargreaves has only recently been fit from one game to the next.

What is happening right now imo is that the central midfield is finally hitting the steepest part of a rapid learning curve - for the players, the coaches, the manager, and the fans. Whether they can make it work quickly will be the key to the whole season. I believe we have been the best team up to this point. But there comes a point where you have to accept that Arsenal, on merit, deserve to be right in the thick of this title race. They are clearly potential champions.

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

At some point you have to just say, look, our central midfield has not been able to assert any authority on a game anything like often enough or effectively enough. Anderson has failed to score and his effervescence and dynamism can't mask his inexperience and lack of discipline, Carrick has one goal and only a handful of proper performances to his name, Scholes has missed half the season, and Hargreaves has only recently been fit from one game to the next.

What is happening right now imo is that the central midfield is finally hitting the steepest part of a rapid learning curve - for the players, the coaches, the manager, and the fans. Whether they can make it work quickly will be the key to the whole season. I believe we have been the best team up to this point. But there comes a point where you have to accept that Arsenal, on merit, deserve to be right in the thick of this title race. They are clearly potential champions.

You're right in 90% of what you say. but I feel that we make our own problems so many times, or more specifically -fergie does. Selecting a clearly nowhere near match fit scholes has cost us dearly in the last two games. Anderson, for all his inexpeirience has one thing scholes doesn't have anymore - the legs for the job. And Carrick does a much better screening job infront the back 4 than ANY of our other midfielders, he reads the game better defensively.

And you're right, arsenal deserve to be where they are. 1 defeat all season is testament to that.