Bournemouth v Arsenal

[Whitechapel]

Match day chat

 

[AFCB_Mark]

The midweek round of games was a good step towards safety for us, accruing 3 points over everyone else in the battle. We can relax and have a go at this one, and if, as likely we lose, it shouldn't be a massive problem.

It'll be interesting to see Arsenal's reaction when they see the trouble Benik Afobe can cause. Whether we'll be able to get enough of the ball to supply him with chances I don't know, but he's a nuisance, no doubt about that. The Championship has made him battle hardened in a way he'd be unlikely to have gained staying at Arsenal.

This is a shot to nothing, see what happens. If we can get through the opening 20-30 mins level then perhaps some pressure will begin to tell on Arsenal. They on the opposite scale to us are under all sorts of pressure, they're slipping behind Leicester and are risking letting their best chance for a PL title in forever slip through their fingers. They're even behind Spurs now on GD. They have to win. And whilst they probably will, let's give them something to worry about.

 

[Whitechapel]

Nope, it's written in the stars, Afobe will score the winner.

 

[JimJams]

Yeah but for who?

 

[PDS]

The results mid-week make this a bit of a free game for us in many respects. We can afford to, and almost definitely will lose.

Arsenal's form has dropped off and hopefully Afobe scores like everyone seems convinced he will do, but our style plays right into Arsenal's hands. We'll try and out-football them and that's never going to work. The game in December was run in extraordinary fashion by Ozil and I still don't think we'll get anywhere near him.

 

[Dirty Harry]

1-0 afobe x

 

[JimJams]

 

[JimJams]

 

[AFCB_Mark]

For 20 mins that was going well, kept a good shape and let arsenal pass on halfway, and inevitably they gave it away after a while wih a daft pass.

But Gosling and Surman both lose their men and mark empty space, and bang 1-0 from arsenal's first chance. Lose the plot and concede the killer second immediately before we even regain any shape.

And we've had our chances. 3 genuinely good openings at goal, yet not forced Cech into a save with our reluctance to get the shot off.

So rather frustrating, and it's very hard to get back from here.

Decent shout for a straight red early on? Looked nasty from the stand, but Kevin Friend won't be giving that against arsenal.

 

[HarvSFC]

For 20 mins that was going well, kept a good shape and let arsenal pass on halfway, and inevitably they gave it away after a while wih a daft pass.

But Gosling and Surman both lose their men and mark empty space, and bang 1-0 from arsenal's first chance. Lose the plot and concede the killer second immediately before we even regain any shape.

And we've had our chances. 3 genuinely good openings at goal, yet not forced Cech into a save with our reluctance to get the shot off.

So rather frustrating, and it's very hard to get back from here.

Decent shout for a straight red early on? Looked nasty from the stand, but Kevin Friend won't be giving that against arsenal.

Flamini got the ball first.

 

[slaphead]

Flamini got the ball first.

So what. He went in with both feet off the ground so therefore out of control. Straight red all day long.

 

[George Reilly's Hairpiece]

So what. He went in with both feet off the ground so therefore out of control. Straight red all day long.

Absolutely right. Shouldn't even be up for debate.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Flamini got the ball first.

If it's deemed reckless then the ball is irrelevant. Haven't the benefit of replays but looked a decent shout, but we won't be getting those against a big club this season.

Lost the game in two daft minutes. For much of the game, was quite pleased. Definitely deserved a goal to make it interesting. Eventually started working Cech. And his distribution is even worse than Boruc's!

Ultimately ending up with Stanislas Grabban and King up front isn't likely to worry many top 4 contenders, but they caused a few moments of worry and King should have scored no question.

Arsenal a bit too much quality in the few moments that really counted to hurt us. And that was that. Plenty of positives to take into a run of fixtures with potential for decent points.

 

[PDS]

Other than a funny five minutes, that was a very good performance. We battled hard and actually we're the better team second half imo. We had a few semi decent chances but Cech was just too good.

We never really got to grips with Ramsey in the middle which cost us.

Play like that next week against Stoke and I think we'll get something

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Graham Poll certainly pretty incensed by the lack of a red card. Had to laugh at his point about Wenger going on about it until well into next week if it had been on an Arsenal player.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ar...-lunge-Arsenal-s-win-against-Bournemouth.html

Together with Sanchez on Smith, we certainly learned today the hard way that Arsenal are no angels as media reputation might suggest.

Ozil is class mind. Seems about 3 seconds ahead of everyone else on the pitch.

 

[Whitechapel]

Some decisions go for you, and some against. We were lucky Flamini stayed on the pitch. 2 fantastic goals, Ozil again showing why he's the best number 10 in world football.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Some players are able to gain time on the ball because of their first touch. Others because of their speed of thought. Ozil has all of it, didn't get near him. The only way to stop him was forget trying to contain and instead go on and attack Arsenal, thus taking Ozil out the picture because he'll never track back. Which we realised too late sadly.