Come on Arsenal

quote:

Originally posted by steviekoi:
You can do it just like we did last year .

We?

WE (LIVERPOOL FC)

yes but i hope we're not 3 down by half time !!

lyndon

this thread might more imaginatively have been titled - "Up the Arse"

Phil

come on ye ten men lol

quote:

Originally posted by Polarbear:
come on ye ten men lol

...and they're even score the goal.

1-1...ouch!

ah... 2-1

Shame. Looking on the bright side for England, Campbell & Cole looked to be on the up.
matt.

Congratulations to Barcelona, they were the better side on the night.

They deserved to win.

I was disappointed with the lack of sportsmanship displayed by Thierry Henry in his post match interview.

quote:

Originally posted by Peter C:
Congratulations to Barcelona, they were the better side on the night.

They deserved to win.

I was disappointed with the lack of sportsmanship displayed by Thierry Henry in his post match interview.

As much as I hate to say it, he was dead right though. The ref was a disgrace.

quote:

The ref was a disgrace.

True.

He should have played the advantage allowed the Barcelona "goal" and then sent Lehmann off - which was apparantly the 63rd red card of Wenger's decade at Arsenal.

It was never a foul for the free kick the ref gave that resulted in the Arsenal goal as there was no contact whatsoever from Puyol.

Throughout the game the ref seemed to be biased in favour of Arsenal and definitely NOT against them. The Arsenal players consistently went to ground Pires-style after legitimate challenges perhaps as a tribute to him having to make way for the sustituition after the Lehmann sending off.

......and as for Henry's post match interview petulance!! Although to be fair that response was not untypical of him, having failed yet again to turn up for a big game.

Chris

There was no question the better side won; not sure what Henry's problem was, as he'll be with Barcelona next year.

I thought the full back dived for the free kick that led to the Arsenal goal: should have been a booking and no goal.

The Barcelona goal after the Lehmann foul should have stood and Lehmann simply booked.

Otherwise I thought the referee had a good match.

Sol Campbell played well IMHO - thought he was the pick of the Arsenal players.

Larsson ensures Celtic go straight into champions league, beautiful.

As a neutral I'd agree that the referee didn't have the best of games, however it was Barcelona that suffered worst from his mistakes.

The sending off was always going to be a difficult decision - pretty much everyone would have preferred to the goal to be given and the keeper perhaps just booked. If the goal isn't given it's 100% a sending off offence however. The dive for the Arsenal goal was the single worst decision of the game and the lack of any comment about it from the Sky commentary time was entirely unsurprising, given the level of bias in the commentary generally.

The 1st Barcelona goal might have been given offside however the player was more or less inline when the ball was played so in those circumstances the benefit of the doubt is supposed to go with the forward player.

The Barcelona players did get away with a fair amount of fouling before a card was shown, however Arsenal's defenders got away with quite a bit of fouling just outside their box in the 2nd half without even a free kick being given. Henry's own booking was a soft one, but if you dive into a challenge with the studs showing and your foot of the ground in European games then a booking shouldn't be a surprise to you.

It's a shame that the sending off spoiled what could have been a good game - sour grapes from the team of professional whiners that is Arsenal was entirely unsurprising and I hope Henry is disciplined for his comments after the game.

Henry's booking was a mistake, he played the ball not the man.

Arsenal's freekick that lead to the goal struck me as a stumble, rather than a dive. I agree it shouldn't have been given as a freekick.

Just had this sent via email.

quote:

Originally posted by Peter C:
Arsenal's freekick that lead to the goal struck me as a stumble, rather than a dive.

Not only was it as blatant a dive as you'll ever see but the player was already on a yellow card (and lucky that hadn't been a straight red) and therefore should have been sent off.

Love Arsenal, next year, will be stronger!

quote:

Larsson

Yeah, gotta love Henrik.
Fredrik did a good job, especially in the second half, but Larsson!
Two brilliant passes, two goals.
It sure looks good in view of the more important!? matches ahead.
Go Sweden, Go

Henry stays! Yay. Get in.