The Referee increased Everton’s chances markedly in the first ten minutes.
Fellaini should have had two yellows in that time.By not giving the cards when they were deserved he gave Everton license to make the game physical and disjointed.That was exactly what they did.
Fellaini was strong ,uncompromising and generally cuntish all night.He also dived to win free kicks at every opportunity.I don’t know about you but I call that cheating.
Now how Gibson escaped a second yellow is beyond me and any right thinking person.It was a total bottle job from the man in black.Gibson seemed to understand he had been lucky and never made another tackle all night.
Now we must give credit to our lads for matching them physically and not either losing their heads or wilting under the injustice and pressure.
For me there was little between the two teams in the first half.
The second half was all us.
I don’t intend to tell you all how things panned out ,you likely saw it yourselves.
Again the substitutes seemed to add momentum ,but sadly we could not make it pay.
Some of our player were immense.
Aaron was MOTM for me.
Laurent,Gibbs and Per,also had stand out games.Santi also in the second half.
Some were their usual high standard.Like Mikel and Bac.
Sadly.some were off colour.Theo,Giroud and Jack all failed to impress.Without any of them being particularly bad.Although Jack tried his hardest to get into the bad category.The only good think he did all night was get into a scuffle going down the tunnel at half time.
On twitter Giroud was being thrashed to within on inch of his on-line life.Personally I did not see anything to get that upset about.Yes .he perhaps should had scored from Ramsey’s wonderful cross,but it was anything other than a sitter.
I can only think that Arsene did not want to risk Tomas ,because he is miles ahead of Jack.The team needed exactly what he brings to the table.Better though not to lose him for the rest of the season.However in his absence the Wengerball has gone.For now at least.
All in all it was a game that we matched them ,then pressured them .They were hanging on for dear life in the second half .
It is also a game that we could have ,and in the past may well have ,lost.
This team is on the up.No question.
The fixtures are still in our favour,
Five more Cup finals to go.
Lets just get behind the club and support them to the end .That should not even be optional
Positively Arsenal 
The team showed immense fight and determination last night. I am happy about that. It was a better perfomance than Norwich. Deadwood Rosicky was obviously missed. Seeing them fight like this shatters any doubts about the mental attitude of this team. Of course that will be ignored.
Even though every point is valuable, I am satisfied with last night’s result because of our performance.
It is sickening to hear that Giroud was abused online. My advice to all our players would be to not have any online presence. Or maybe they can do one better. Choose the vilest online abuser, find out what he does (through facebook, etc) and abuse him everyday about what a big waste of space he is and regularly call for him to be arrested on crimes of wasting the planet’s limited oxygen supply.
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sorry about the spelling mistake which sent my comment into moderation
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I saw the same as you G
The two or thee half chances that Giroo had he did well to get into position for and connect with. It was a night when defences dominated and no attacking player had anything other than scraps to feed of. Pity he did not force a save from Howard in two of the three but hey ………………..
I have no doubt no one is more disappointed than the Frenchman that he was not able to break the deadlock. For 15 or so minutes Everton were on the ropes at the end and, although I have not watched every game EFC have been involved in this season, but the games I have they have not been pinned back without the ball for so long.
Onwards to Fulham – I said last night that the Ox I think has done enough to warrant and on a narrow pitch like Craven Cottage his tricky dribbling skills I see as very useful. Pondering the line up this morning I wonder whether the Boss might not have Gervinho in his mind also for Saturday, away from the abuse that damages him in home marches.
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A typical no nonsense summary of the game by you George. Just what I/we expect of you.
I only saw the 2nd half so I can’t comment on the refereeing but I share your sentiments. Like you I am simply amazed that after a hard battling display by both sides, with our team easily creating most opportunities in the 2nd, the best that many supporters can do is to scapegoat Giroud. Comments that he is not world class, not good enough, need to buy another striker, blah, blah, blah are simply trite and simplistic. This is a team game for heaven’s sake and Giroud worked hard for the team and put himself in positions to score, never hiding and shirking. That was outstanding. In my opinion he could have scored at least one if he was more composed. Wenger alluded to it when he spoke of relying less on power and striking with technique. For comparisons sake, I could see Giroud easily slotting in Mandzukic’s role at Bayern and these same fans would be calling him world class and demanding Wenger splurge a hell of a wedge on signing him. Bottomline, If we can work on our offensive efficiency we can be hell of a team.
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Another good aspect of last night is that Everton came out to hit us hard in the first ten minutes. That was no accident. In some games against CL rivals in the face of that early pressure we have cracked, most noticeably against Citeh and Chelsea
Last night we rode the storm well, stuck to playing football and slowly got a grip of the game.
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I read somewhere that in this game Arsenal “were their their own worst enemy.” Can someone explain what that means. Did we concede silly goals? Did we fluff sitters 10 yards from goal? I am truly confused. Can someone share some light, please?
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Stop reading in other placed Shotta.Its doing your state of mind no favours.
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Dont all talk at once
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George – I can’t help asking. Why such a prominently placed observation? I missed the 1st half so I am confused.
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the difference between cesc and the lot is simply his final ball.
irrespective of his overall gameplay on the given day..he always created chances and had almost the perfect weight on most of his final balls.
a trait i hope ramsey and wilshere pickup next season..not losing any of their fight in them.
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Another referee bottle job,Gibson should have got a second yellow but that buffoon last night chickened out,a regular feature of modern refereeing,bloody awful,tr7 will hopefully be back on Saturday-if he’d played last night we would have won,not gonna be to negative about Giroud, 3 missed half chances doesn’t warrant the stick he’s been getting from the doomers but maybe Podolski coming in would take the heat of him,he’s played a lot of games and all of them as a lone striker,I’m sure Arsene will make the right call,lets hope Fulham run their arses off tonight against the chavs and beat them in the process,one thing I will say about this current Arsenal team is (compared to recent ones) they certainly won’t be found wanting for effort or go to pieces under pressure,too many old heads and good eggs for that to happen-quick mention for the Everton fans,I was a steward away from them last night and they were funny,loyal,loud & knowledgable,different class compared to the usual away support we get.
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Shotta,nothing more than you should know what to expect on other sites.It is pretty much the standard to be critical with little understanding of overall contributions that players make.
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Arshavin23.Tomas has that instinct for the final ball.But I think he is the only one.Yet
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I’m sorry, Ninja George, but I wouldn’t count Giroud among those who had an off night. The kid ran his socks off and, bar missing a tight chance with his jambe au chocolat, kept their two centre backs busy all night. That may not look pretty, but it is one of the main reasons we were able to keep them pinned back most of the night.
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tomas does everything beautifully..expect staying uninjured that is :(.
his game is so elegant yet so so simple.
run if you see space, else pass. what a simple algorithm to play football.
good thing he can both run with the ball and pass it accurately.
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rosicky should aim to start atleast 20 PL games next season. 😀
seriously if our midfield continues to evolve like this..we should not bother trying to fit another new player in there next season.
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I think we are seeing the building of a championship winning side – next season is the time to challenge. My fear is that if the referees can be so blatantly biased when Arsenal far away from Manchester United, what will they do when we are closer to 1st place.
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Now I love Andrey even more http://bit.ly/11tD506
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Good report, PG. It might have gone our way, and we should have been playing against 10 men (although that might have been harder as they would have battened down the hatches) but I can take dropping two points against an up-for-it, hard-to-beat, on-form Everton. Especially as we didn’t concede. I do hope Mozart starts on Saturday, though.
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Slightly off topic but for those who heard Moyes’ reference to “Oop North” after last night’s game enjoy the definitive snapshot;
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Finest traditions of the Arsenal George – can see what the fuss is
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Morning/afternoon folks!
An excellent performance. Like Anicoll, I have not seen any team peg Everton back like that this season, even in losses.
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FunGun, I think it should have been against 9. Both Gibson and Fellaini should have seen red. The ref was pathetic.
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Good point, Paul_N!
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I was wondering how we would have looked with The OX instead of Wilshere. If I am not mistaken, he loves to play in the middle of the pitch and has done well there?
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I thought the same Paul.But Jack has to play himself back in.
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i just want to make some ramarks about giroud. judging from the reaction of fans toward this guy,.it seem many arsenal fans are either fustrated or having unhappy lives.
many agreed that giroud is hardworking , many agree that he can get involve in biuld up play. his record suggest he can score goals and assist and we all know that he gets involve in defensive duties. but because he doesnt play the easy on the eye football, he is not arsenal quality. what is arsenal quality i ask?.
with 17 goals and 11 assist in his first season, he has done well. even rvp that is the best striker since adam has only 25 goals including 3 or 4 penalty goals. and most of his assist are from free kick and corner kick. this is for a player who is in his 9th year in the league and on 300k/week.
some fans are also asking for poldi to be played through the midle. i really dont know why they believe it will work. poldi has over 100 caps for germany scoring 44 goal. but has never played through the middle. not even once! he played for bayern, never in the middle. the only club he ever played for in the position was a relegation battling team. and his record there was not nearly as good as girouds even including penalties. i am not saying poldi cant play through the middle but if there is anyone who ia capable of converting a wing forward to a centre forward, that person is arsene wenger. i believe he is working on it and when it is the right time he will use him there. wee all knew what happened early this season when walcott thought he was ready to play thrugh the middle just because he does it in training. now we know better.
many strikers have been linked with us. i checked on jovetic recently and his stat is not better than girouds let alone workrate.
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Yes, PG’s right – we need Jack match-fit so we have to play him – there are too few games left.
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That is true, George. I am just thinking we would have had a better chance of winning. Jack will get there but it obvious he struggling a bit..no surprise there.
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FunGun, ironically, the few games is why I would have liked to give The OX a try and maybe work Jack in at the end of games or some reserve matches.
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jack needs to play himself back into the team rather than force himself. he is trying too hard. he needs to play it simple.
3rd is still the target.
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Nice to see you posting layksite
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With just 6 games left and if Rosicky is fit again, I’d rather we start him every game and only use Jack towards the end of games. Firstly, we can’t really wait for Jack to play himself back into form, at least when we have alternatives available. He isn’t as instrumental to our play as some people make it out to be, he will eventually get there, but right now, even at his best this season, I don’t think he should get into the team ahead of Santi, Aaron or Tomas on merit.
But secondly, and in my mind far more important, is to ensure he gets proper rest. Yesterday’s game, especially with the way Everton and the referee mistook it for a Rugby bout, could have easily led to Jack having another injury and being out again, maybe even for a longer term. I have never really been a fan of us rushing players back from injury, though in some cases it hasn’t been avoidable. Even a half-fit Cesc was still capable of creating chances and scoring goals plus he was instrumental to our play. Jack isn’t that player and therefore, we don’t have to use him at any opportunity that presents itself throwing caution into the wind.
I think Arsenal will benefit if we don’t overuse Jack when we have him next season, fully recovered and with pre-season under his belt and ready to help us challenge for titles.
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Nice one George.
Just seen the controversial footage of Andrei (young man in too much to drink shocker!!). We’ve all been there. I think I’d enjoy a drink or two (or three, or four or even five) with Andrei.
I think it’s all been said on last night. Decent point I thought. Everton are a tough nut to crack, especially this season. and even more so when the ref gives them impunity to kick our players to hell and back, which he did for the first half hour, and we still ran ’em silly in the latter stages of the 2nd half. But for sharper finishing we would have won. ‘Nuff said.
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Hello there, Layksite!
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I would like to Chime in on Rosicky. A fit Rosicky is one of the best players in the world. He is truly a world class player. He may not get the credit but that is only due to his injury woes.
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excellent points, Layksite!
I don’t know what it is with some Arsenal supporters. They have “lost the plot”. You tell them over and over than not many strikers score 20+ in their first season and that all goes for nought.
I was watching espnfc press pass yesterday night an old Arsenal player, Paul Mariner, kept harping on and on about the back 4. He annoyed the heck out of me. He was talking about Per and we need another CD to play alongside TV and how the right side is not sure with Sagna and Jenks! Makes you wonder how Arsenal have one of the best defensive records in the PL.
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george and paul, thanks
its great to see most former aclf faithfuls here in this place. i just hope you guys will not allow this place to be taken over by aaa. that former stadium we use to go is now ‘a cultured le groan’.
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we have 3 of the best centre defenders in the world. only chelski can boast of something like that. our left back is the best in world football (two of the best players) our right back is well covered. we already have another being groomed in the shape of bellerin. what is lacking is understanding. which i’m sure will come with time. next season will bring out the best in our defence. the more reason i dont want us to sell sagna even if he refuses to extend his contract.
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‘Cultured le groan’ heh. I like it lakysite
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Just got back from the game. Excellent game of football. Really intense. Everton came out to press us but they got the same back. MotM for me was Aaron again and I didn’t see any poor performances. I thought that Olivier had an excellent game and the two chances were not easy. The lad with learning difficulties who likes to hug that cunt who manages the cunts would probably not have scored them.
…and well done to Carl who insisted on staying to have his photograph taken and giving autographs to hundreds of fans by his granddad tile..
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Spot on George, and in fact everyone else. Particularly good points from layksite at 4.06
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great report George but I have to say again that I find it increasingly difficult to believe these refs season after season just mistakes or bottle it, like I said previously I seriously think money changes hands. Anyway I thought we played well yesterday and the team is definitely growing and I am more and more confident about the squad. All successful teams need some luck and with that this squad and the youngsters joining it can achieve BIG!!!
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Btw I thought the crowd were very good last night. Not so much whinging, and an increasing number seem to be staying to applaud the team off at the end.
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…and to TfL for taking out the down escalator at Highbury & Islington for six months, necessitating the closure of the station at some point after every home game….BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!..
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…and lastly to Arsenal who are still on course for top three. Yeeeeeeehhhaaaaaaaaa…Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenal….Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenaaaaallll..Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenal….Arsenal….ARSENAL
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It’s disappointing to see the Giroud criticism on twitter getting ever more scathing, now beginning to tip into mockery and abuse. Other than not being as clinical as he could be he’s had a strong first season. He might be 26 but he’s not the finished article yet, for a player of his age he has little experience of top class football, he was in the French 2nd division until almost 24. As he gains experience and confidence he ought to relax in front of goal, at which point he will be about as complete a CF as you can get.
What’s stranger still is how Giroud has actually exceeded the very low expectations many fans placed on him at the beginning of the season, when they told themselves and others not to hold him up to the standard of the man he replaced. I would have thought they might have learnt by now to trust Wenger when he shows faith in a player – Koscielny, Jenkinson, Ramsey, Walcott just a few to have proved his faith correct, and the ‘wisdom’ of the average fan utterly wrong.
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Good write up George. Here in the States, the “0-0 tie” is the standard joke folks love to make about “soccer”. The implication being that a game must surely be a bore-fest if no one scores. I think I’ll keep this one in my back pocket as a an example. It felt to me like a battle that could turn at any minute, and I was on the edge of my chair the whole time.
On the ref: Maybe he was just auditioning for SAF’s payroll, given as he was at the game.
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I really like Olivier as a centre forward. A different player to the one who sold his soul but a much better work rate. OG has no protection from referees whatsoever but he just takes it and gets on with his job. I would argue that Fellaini had his game of the season last night precisely because he was detailed to keep an eye on OG. Praise indeed. But as expected OG began to get the better of him as the game wore on. OG has greatness in him…..and he is nearly four years younger thanthe other bloke. Probably have a longer career too.
Consider that OG was supposed to be playing alongside the deserter not as a replacement for him. Some would do well to think about that….
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Layksite, Paul N, LeoS et al: The nonsense on Twitter and elsewhere about Giroud has really gotten on my nerves tbh. It is the usual scapegoating, which we are all too familiar. I am willing to bet most of these “critics” of OG’s 17 goals and 11 assists, in his first season, were the same ones bemoaning the sale of Van Traitor and demanding a “world class” replacement. Didn’t Wenger tell Viera some time ago “we don’t buy world class players, we make them”? It is self-evident that OG is becoming a very good striker and will become even better next season. (If anything we need to cure the lack of consistent support from midfield and wide forward positions.) By the time it becomes apparent OG is “world-class”, these professed experts would have moved onto some other scapegoat without an ounce of remorse..
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