Kenny Dalglish Won't Be Delivering the Module: English Premiership 2011-12

matt, the first half was awwwwful

Timed it well then...

PPS rvi has a nice touch. woo, fucking, hoo.

FP'd you for this! You don't deserve such an amazing player/season if that's how you treat him. What was it you said in the fall, Van Persie's not as influential as Song or Vermaelen b/c 'this team can score from anywhere, even full-back now Santos is arrived' or similar? shameful.

― boxall, Sunday, 25 March 2012 16:06 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh come on now. taken out of context that looks bad but the context, dammit! the context of "relying on 1 player for any styled attacking threat is shocking for a club like arsenal". the context is week after week feeling dismayed whenever our other forwards or playmakers get on the ball.

it is not a distant memory watching a stylish and exciting arsenal team - it was only last season we had the possibly the best playmaker in europe! that passage was quite obviously about the disappointment of a season based around us not being anywhere close to the standards we held ourselves too just a year ago. Oh but we have 1 great attacking player instead of the 4 we had last time. No wonder he's not signing a new contract.

[i still don't agree with the one man team thing but if you were to change that to 'one man attack' i'd have no issue.]

Admittedly the midfield is more workmanlike than it's been in a long time - tho Song is v underrated as a passer (overrated as a dmid) and if Rosicky & Benayoun were rotated more w/ Ramsey they might all have found better form.

Admittedly Gervinho and usually Walcott are dispiriting to watch.

lol rosicky has played quite a bit this season and has been awful up until about 2 months ago.

only 12 league starts, that's 10 fewer than Ramsey who began to look tired quite early, you'd think Wenger would've learned his lesson w/ Wilshere's never ending succession of stress reactions.

The first time Arsenal had had two English goalscorers in the league since October 1997, when Platt, Parlour and Wright registered in a 5-0 win against Barnsley.

Platt! Totally forgot he played for Arsenal.

Lovely second from Newcastle. Counterattacking goals should count double.

Has the Shearer's Island given in to erosion?

It has, it's gone. He's got a kind of five o'clock shadow there and that's it.

getting a bit ridiculous on MOTD2 about the Crouch goal

The lurker block vote for the Saudi guy really ruined that top ten keepers thing

it is funny how Dalglish's name is in the title of this thread

I agree with DC that 0-0 at Chelsea is a good result for almost anyone and is thus effectively, objectively, the end of a bad run of results.

that's true to a point (literally) but 9 pts from 24 isn't much better than 8 pts from 21 looking at it objectively.

It'll be judged in hindsight depending on whether we pull out of it (justifiable run down to fixture list vagaries) or continue to struggle (bottled it again down to players, redknapp, rotation)

i feel wenger should be treated like kkingkenny and be moved 'up' and more importantly 'away' at the end of the season. i dont even know what he adds anymore.

I don't think there are many managers who would have been able to pull that group of Arsenal players out of a start as abysmal as the one they had this season, certainly not enough to get them third and winning more or less by routine. There's a real "careful what you wish for" thing going on here.

I just mildly praised Arsene Wenger. God.

his players

Wenger is worthy of praise. Criticise away for the shambles they were left in in September, but the turnaround since has been astonishing. That I suspect the team still isn't much good is cause for even more personal acclaim tbh.

Lop out the first seven games and they'd be level on points at the top.

who can we talk to about doing that?

actually, after 15 seconds additional thought, i'd rather not.

I'd now be putting that down to the consequence of some internal power struggle which Wenger eventually won, except that you weren't so far from a similar shambles in February imo.

take away the last 7 games they'd be languishing wherever.

Credit to wenger he's built arsenal from a team of undefeated champions to a group of players that only perform when the pressure's definitely off, nothing different here than any other year since 2004 imo, unless anyone thinks that, even if they continue this run to season's end, they will go through to the end of next season without an enormous lolworthy collapse landing them in....well, 4th or 5th or 3rd.

i stan for wenger and arsenal and their economic and aesthetic approach but let's not pretend anything has changed here like

Arsenal could've been this year's this year's Liverpool, if you want a comparator.

xpost

absolutely, I don't think anyone actually IS pretending that. the only difference is that the end of Spurs' run has coincided with the beginning of Arsenal's and you weren't far enough clear to avoid being overtaken and (apparently) consumed by bitterness at the unfairness of it all. sorry about that btw.

of course it's only the last seven games that have made the season so there's obviously a much wider range of factors involved. does it make wenger a genius of any kind? will enough have changed by the start of next season to allow us to contend in any competition? fuck knows. still, i'm gonna enjoy this for what it is at the moment. it's not just the players that enjoy the pressure being off and i'd much rather be sitting 3 points clear of spurs in 3rd than level on points with united, clinging foolishly to the possibility of winning the league whilst knowing with absolutely certainty that it won't happen.

no, look, fair play, the respective fortunes of the clubs have been a severe contrast since 0-2 at the emirates and this isn't about that, and charging the way you've done out of a seriously challenging time is impressive, but you'll do it again next year, maybe swapping late resurgence for late collapse after flying into contention (like us), and that it's not a pattern that wenger hasn't looked awfully bothered about answering at times over the past several years

btw, we're going to finish third.

and you can sit level with utd and enjoy it without harbouring hopes of a title challenge! We did it this year!

I am v much enjoying the feeling that we can contend with arsenal now and in the next few years, this isn't a bitterness thing- it's just 'meh' about this run of results disproving anything about current arsenal when imo it reinforces everything we already knew - have talent, no depth, brittle like a dime bar

but srsly dalglish out hodgson in this 'performances are better and club is united' shit just can't wash any longer

the amount you've spent talking about arsenal these past couple days (if not longer).... doesn't sound like "meh" to me.

and you can sit level with utd and enjoy it without harbouring hopes of a title challenge! We did it this year!

no, you can't. that glimmer of possibility burns you up and makes you fucking miserable.

see you at the finish!

meant to add "pip pip" to the end of that.

i think ppl eulogising 'meh' is the no.1 cardiac threat in sport, ilx, lyfe

Tally ho

and arsenal are interesting!

The way we've come to speak of Utd, it is the death of football, hope, everything.

just me or after suarez bundled it in with his hand, did he celebrate by running very fast and KISSING HIS HAND??

ferguson is sauron, arsenal saruman, arry's bilbo, mancini is elrond and gareth bale is gareth bale

Can we just nip this dreadful line of conversation in the bud immediately please?

I just want rid of ferguson now, I don't care how. He can retire unvanquished and king of the EPL forever and I'll be happy. This is no life. Thank fuck for Barcelona.

xposts. he kisses the tattoo of his daughter's name on his wrist

Strikes me that whatever Ferguson does to United players to get them to collectively not choke, even when the limitations of the squad are screamingly obvious, is something Redknapp, Mancini, everyone really should get up on. I can't think of anything to explain it beyond "in league with the devil".

homosexual satan wasp

ah Chris OK!

lol kind of wish he had actually kissed his hand in a 'haha, suckers' kinda way

It took me a few mins to work out what you were talking about Chris - I thought it was some Tolkien detail applied to Ferguson.

presumably he went with the wrist as tattoo location to maximize trolling factor of future handball goal celebrations

I don't think there are many managers who would have been able to pull that group of Arsenal players out of a start as abysmal as the one they had this season, certainly not enough to get them third and winning more or less by routine. There's a real "careful what you wish for" thing going on here.

i dunno about that - if you look at the recent winning run are their wins really "routine"? If you take out robin van persie and plonk him into another team say swansea could they be doing equally well/better now?

'yellow card is a bit harsh'

as giggs tries to separate dembele from his ankles

yeah, Le Tiss laughed at him in fairness

good from fulham but utd look brutally efficient in possession- rooney looks good