[Archived] Arsenal Preview

[chocky]

It seems that Allardyce's war cry is now "We deserved something from the match"...

[USABlue]

I thought Papa Diouf was excellent today, never seen him do so much for us. I thought we matched Arsenal well and just about deserved a point, we lost it when Dunn came on it seemed to take us 20 mins to get back in the game after that.

I think we will be just fine this season.Oh and just so you know the same anti Rovers sentiment exists here, Arsenal could do no wrong we could do no good. I laughed when the commentator mentioned Arsenals domination and creating chances and our physical approach, then they put the stats up and we had the same number of fouls and more shots on goal.

It seems that Allardyce's war cry is now "We deserved something from the match"...

Nothing wrong with that, I'd have to agree.

[JAL]

I'm afraid I can't agree with the first sentence. I felt we sat back from the moment the second half kicked off which allowed Arsenal to play better than they had in the first. One of the good points about the first half was that by attacking Arsenal we effectively defended in their half which as we all know makes it much harder for the opposition. By sitting back in the second we invited them to attack us at will.

You're certainly right with some you win, some you lose and had we continued to play Arsenal I'd have no complaints. I don't understand why we should sit back for 45 minutes, at home, apparently content with a 1-1 when the game could well have been won or at least lost with a great second half.

I can understand that but can't say I thought we looked tired at half time which is when the changes became apparent. Secondly shouldn't this lead to a question as to why the players ran out of steam after 60 minutes? Not all of this team played against Norwich and Arsenal presumably have had much the same tiem on pre-season as Rovers?

We didnt sit back because Sam Allardyce told his team to sit back, it was Arsenal who went on the front foot more, they upped their game, controlled the ball more, or better than they had done in the first half. credit to the opposition Paul.

The tactics from Rovers and big Sam were exactly the same as they have been for the past six months or so.

[chocky]

I thought Papa Diouf was excellent today, never seen him do so much for us. I thought we matched Arsenal well and just about deserved a point, we lost it when Dunn came on it seemed to take us 20 mins to get back in the game after that.

I think we will be just fine this season.Oh and just so you know the same anti Rovers sentiment exists here, Arsenal could do no wrong we could do no good. I laughed when the commentator mentioned Arsenals domination and creating chances and our physical approach, then they put the stats up and we had the same number of fouls and more shots on goal.

It seems that Allardyce's war cry is now "We deserved something from the match"...

Nothing wrong with that, I'd have to agree.

My point is why is it they just can't produce in front of goal. The result doesn't seem to emulate the performance. That is the worrying thing. It seems season after season it's the same thing.

[JAL]

When Rovers went a goal down 6 minutes into the second half, within 5 minutes of this the manager made a substitution by changing a defensive midfielder for an attacking midfielder.

Was this right or wrong thing to do, or what would you have done?

For me it was the right thing to do, the only problem was the attacking midfielder wasnt right(fit and able)to play in this game.

[RoverRich]

When Rovers went a goal down 6 minutes into the second half, within 5 minutes of this the manager made a substitution by changing a defensive midfielder for an attacking midfielder.

Was this right or wrong thing to do, or what would you have done?

For me it was the right thing to do, the only problem was the attacking midfielder wasnt right(fit and able)to play in this game.

I don't think it was a bad move but like you say he wasn't fit enough to play the required role. IIRC didn't Pedersen stay up supporting Kalinic/Diouf with Dunny playing deeper? Maybe if he had been playing further forward with Pedersen dropping in then it would have worked better. I think it was only when Nzonzi came on that he move forward and had more of an impact.

Don't know if it has been mentioned and I missed it but did anyone else notice on MOTD Shearer said Walcott outmuscled Emerton at one stage. Emerton didn't even get on, it was Phil Jones!! I thought MOTD were very harsh on us last night, showing a couple of goal kicks from Robbo and using that as evidence we were playing route 1 football!

As fo Kalinic, he will have quiet games but he has done enough to suggest he is a class player. He may well have done better in the first half when he eventually got the ball in a good postion but Pedersen ran into him and got in his way! He just needs things to break for him.

[JAL]

I don't think it was a bad move but like you say he wasn't fit enough to play the required role. IIRC didn't Pedersen stay up supporting Kalinic/Diouf with Dunny playing deeper? Maybe if he had been playing further forward with Pedersen dropping in then it would have worked better. I think it was only when Nzonzi came on that he move forward and had more of an impact.

Don't know if it has been mentioned and I missed it but did anyone else notice on MOTD Shearer said Walcott outmuscled Emerton at one stage. Emerton didn't even get on, it was Phil Jones!! I thought MOTD were very harsh on us last night, showing a couple of goal kicks from Robbo and using that as evidence we were playing route 1 football!

As fo Kalinic, he will have quiet games but he has done enough to suggest he is a class player. He may well have done better in the first half when he eventually got the ball in a good postion but Pedersen ran into him and got in his way! He just needs things to break for him.

Think the MOTD or the BBC have well and truly put the boot into Sam Allardyces style of play regarding his England ambitions. Its now upto big Sam and Rovers to change that perception, surely any professional who has confidence in ones self will relish the challenge to prove them wrong.

[Steve Moss]

We've 3 points from three games. And those points were gained with a huge slice of luck. It'll be a long, hard season methinks.

Three points against three top half teams. It's not like we've been playing the likes of Blackpool, WBA or Wigan.

[Amo]

Think the MOTD or the BBC have well and truly put the boot into Sam Allardyces style of play regarding his England ambitions. Its now upto big Sam and Rovers to change that perception, surely any professional who has confidence in ones self will relish the challenge to prove them wrong.

I haven't enjoyed MOTD for awhile now. It's too self-satisfied and much of it is spent going through the motions, with uneven analysis of the weekend's highlights. I understand they only have so much airtime, but it's absolutely insulting when Lineker makes some throwaway line about one team before transitioning to the next match - OR, in a lot of cases, ignoring teams altogether. Hansen and Shearer just sit around, picking apart elementary defensive errors, that a blind man could spot, and the show never explodes into any controversy or heated debate. It's such a patronizing snore-fest.

[Mattyblue]

I haven't enjoyed MOTD for awhile now. It's too self-satisfied and much of it is spent going through the motions, with uneven analysis of the weekend's highlights. I understand they only have so much airtime, but it's absolutely insulting when Lineker makes some throwaway line about one team before transitioning to the next match - OR, in a lot of cases, ignoring teams altogether. Hansen and Shearer just sit around, picking apart elementary defensive errors, that a blind man could spot, and the show never explodes into any controversy or heated debate. It's such a patronizing snore-fest.

Spot on.

It's like their live coverage.

Lineker will 'hope for goals'

Hansen will say 'you've cursed it now'

then they will predict the score and 'witty banter' will ensure about who gets most predictions right.

They will all discuss how they 'hope for an open game' whoever is playing with no thought for the differing quality of the sides.

Then Lineker will say a pointless stat like 'These two sides took more throw ins than anyone else last year'.

All done with a look of total smugness and satisfaction.

[grizfoot]

I'm comforted to see that I'm not the only one that finds MOTD a total waste of time these days, The only proper way to judge a match is to watch the full ninety minutes yourself or extended highlights on Football First (preferable with mute on to avoid the torture of having to listen to Gary Birtles on the commentary). But the MOTD analysis was indeed a total disgrace last night, yes they highlight the performance on Walcott which was good (partly due to the fact we had a centreback playing fullback and a Diouf-mk1 who's not the best and getting back and defending) but fail to highlight the performance of Diouf-mk1 who was on this rare occassion our best player on the pitch. Seemed to pick up an extra bit of pace and held up the ball well on numerous occassions. Second half he faded a lot, as did the majority of our team but it would have been nice to hear some analysis on how we where far the superior team against what must be very close to Arsenal's full strength team. Instead we where treated to a selection of free-kicks from long-range trying to indicate that we only had that one style of play, yet our goal was a decent move from Samba to Diouf-mk1 to Diouf-mk2. Then they have to nerve to say passing football won the day, when in fact I'd say we deserved a point out of the game for the way we played the game. Best idea is to just totally boycott MOTD and that's what I'll be doing from no on, last night's show just confirmed that to me.

Back to the game in hand, like I mentioned earlier I think a point would have been fair outcome. First half we were far the superior team and really should gone in ahead with the amount of chances we had. Second half not so good, suppose all the chasing tired us out slightly. Like as already been mentioned the subs were a bit baffling in taking both our strikers off, but both were looking tired and weren't really involved in the game. Still seems strange to take both strikers off and then shove Samba upfront on his own to win the knock-down but with no real goal threat outside of Dunn to support him up there.

[McClarky]

I thought we were excellent in the 1st half but their class shone through in the 2nd. All in all a decent performance and the lack of depth in our squad, especially up front, was obvious when you saw the changes we made compared to them. Hopefully we can improve that by Tuesday. Not disheartened though as if we play like that regularly we'll end up around where we were last season I would think. Next home game is huge for us now though.

[92er]

I thought he came across as a nice guy and pretty level headed. Certainly doesn't deserve some of the stick he gets.

The same could be said about Pedersen but it doesn't seem to affect your postings.

[Amo]

I'm comforted to see that I'm not the only one that finds MOTD a total waste of time these days, The only proper way to judge a match is to watch the full ninety minutes yourself or extended highlights on Football First (preferable with mute on to avoid the torture of having to listen to Gary Birtles on the commentary). But the MOTD analysis was indeed a total disgrace last night, yes they highlight the performance on Walcott which was good (partly due to the fact we had a centreback playing fullback and a Diouf-mk1 who's not the best and getting back and defending) but fail to highlight the performance of Diouf-mk1 who was on this rare occassion our best player on the pitch. Seemed to pick up an extra bit of pace and held up the ball well on numerous occassions. Second half he faded a lot, as did the majority of our team but it would have been nice to hear some analysis on how we where far the superior team against what must be very close to Arsenal's full strength team. Instead we where treated to a selection of free-kicks from long-range trying to indicate that we only had that one style of play, yet our goal was a decent move from Samba to Diouf-mk1 to Diouf-mk2. Then they have to nerve to say passing football won the day, when in fact I'd say we deserved a point out of the game for the way we played the game. Best idea is to just totally boycott MOTD and that's what I'll be doing from no on, last night's show just confirmed that to me.

Yes, I was aggrieved, but not surprised, to see them totally overlook the fine link-up play for our goal. I mean, why bother to do that, when you can just lazily typecast both teams?

Also, was I the ONLY one who thought Walcott didn't have a great game? He took his goal well, albeit helped by Givet sleepwalking, and had a few bright sparks, but I wouldn't have reserved him for such praise. Of course, he's flavour of the month lately, and our media love any opportunity to fawn over the next English hope.

[bazza]

Also, was I the ONLY one who thought Walcott didn't have a great game? He took his goal well, albeit helped by Givet sleepwalking, and had a few bright sparks, but I wouldn't have reserved him for such praise. Of course, he's flavour of the month lately, and our media love any opportunity to fawn over the next English hope.

I agree that Walcott was good but not that good.

He has improved from last season. He deserves a call up to the England squad. But he has a lot to learn yet.

[RibbleValleyRover]

The same could be said about Pedersen but it doesn't seem to affect your postings.

I have nothing personal against Pedersen, just don't think he is as good as some make out and that if we are to progress as a team he will need to be replaced.

Check out the Andrews thread and some of the stuff is clearly personal and has nothing whatsoever to do with his playing ability or contribution to the team.

[RevidgeBlue]

I have nothing personal against Pedersen, just don't think he is as good as some make out and that if we are to progress as a team he will need to be replaced.

I have to agree, I don't understand all the fuss about his performances, he looks like a winger playing out of position in central midfield to me.

Doesn't look any more a central midfielder than Jones imo. The difference is at his age Jones might grow fully into his role whereas I can't see MGP doing the same.

[RevidgeBlue]

As for the game for 50 minutes that was as well as we've played under Sam imo - he got it spot on with his team selection and formation at the start. Arsenal were reduced to playing on the break and even though M. Diouf was operating from the right we look so much better with two genuine forward men on rather than lumping the ball up to a lone stiker.

Unfortunately as one or two others have said we got progressively worse with every substitution. There was no need to change anything despite going 2-1 down as we were playing well. I thought Grella was having an outstanding game and the game was lost once he went off and was replaced by Dunn who looked unfit and way off the pace. Subsequently reducing us to one and then no strikers when we were chasing the game was just as inexplicable.

On an individual note, M. Diouf looks like an outstanding player to me. Again his goal looked simple but he made a great little run to confuse the centre backs. By way of contrast Kalinic looked bang ordinary.

E H Diouf was also outstanding in the first half and looks a different player to last season.

Not a bad performance overall but the wrong result yesterday and the failure to put Brum away is making the Fulham home game look like a must win fixture already assuming we get nothing at Eastlands.

[Herbie6590]

I've sent a complaint to the BBC regarding Shearer's observation of "Emerton being outmuscled" - what do these guys do from 5pm till 10pm on a Saturday ? Clearly they don't read a bloody teamsheet. It's shoddy & half-arsed "journalism" at best.

[Amo]

I've sent a complaint to the BBC regarding Shearer's observation of "Emerton being outmuscled" - what do these guys do from 5pm till 10pm on a Saturday ? Clearly they don't read a bloody teamsheet. It's shoddy & half-arsed "journalism" at best.

Almost as bad as the FOX commentator I had for the game:

* Confused Almunia for Robinson.

* Commented that we had three 'Players of the Season'.

* Half-way through the game, randomly started pronouncing Pedersen as 'Pee-dersen'.

* Mixed up Nzonzi for Mame Diouf moments after they just replaced one another.

[AHoyle90]

I'm not the biggest fan of Match of the Day for some of the reasons that have been stated. But complaining to the BBC because Shearer got Jones and Emerton mixed up? That's going too far.

[RIML]

I've sent a complaint to the BBC regarding Shearer's observation of "Emerton being outmuscled" - what do these guys do from 5pm till 10pm on a Saturday ? Clearly they don't read a bloody teamsheet. It's shoddy & half-arsed "journalism" at best.

I complained back in September last year, this was their reply.

Thanks for your e-mail regarding 'Match of the Day' broadcast 26 September 2009.

I understand you're concerned with a number of comments made by our pundits regarding Blackburn Rovers Football Club and you feel that their remarks were completely unwarranted and somewhat biased.

Whilst I fully acknowledge your concerns as a passionate supporter, BBC football commentators and pundits are experts on their sport and are paid to give their fair and unbiased opinions. We always aim to report in an impartial way but our experts are expected to give their views, to avoid bland broadcasting and to better inform the audience.

We believe 'Match of the Day' should be a healthy mix of skilful commentary, first rate sports journalism and opinion; opinion that is challenged and whilst it can be passionate, should be respectful. Anything that puts these elements at risk in the eyes of our audience is taken seriously.

I'd like to take a moment to assure you that I've registered your complaint regarding 'Match of the Day' on our audience log.

This is the internal report of audience feedback which we compile daily for all programme makers and commissioning executives within the BBC, the production team responsible for 'Match of the Day' and also their senior management. It ensures that your points, and all other comments we receive, are circulated and considered across the BBC.

Thanks for taking the time to contact us with your concerns.

Regards

Gerald McCusker

BBC Complaints

You should look forward to receiving this email, it'll probably be the same just with different dates

[1864roverite]

I have now caught up with the goings on within the messageboard and on this particular thread there has been some utter tripe written, some of it has been constructive, some suggestive and some just downright crap.

Rovers fared well against a team that is expected to finish 3rd at least, in fact we gave as good as we got.

With their pretty tippy tappy football just how many chances did Arsenal create ?

How many saves did Robbo have to pull off ?

Rovers were unlucky not to get at least a point.

The football they showed they can play was as effective as Arsenals, the run by EHD and finish by MD was great.

I have to say Grella looked very good but he just isnt match fit. Dunny on the other hand looks like he has eaten all the pies and more (rumour is he has taken over Benni's contract with macdonalds).

I cant disagree with the formation as we performed very well, we coped mostly with van persie, Arshavin and Walcott, we fought with Fabgregas in the middle ans we caused allsorts of issues with their defence. So for me Rovers did well.

Those thinking kalinic was shocking need a wake up call, he did well. Its just a pity that we dont have the central midfielder that would have seen us beaten Arsenal as thats all we needed.

[Herbie6590]

I may have missed it earlier in the thread (if so apologies) but a big disappointment to me was that some of our supporters decided to ape the Old Trafford morons by singing THAT song at Arsene Wenger. I'd rather hoped that with the Blackburn End's earlier inspired wit of "You're supposed to be in Spain" (chanted at Fabregas) that we were above that to be honest.

[joey_big_nose]

Those thinking kalinic was shocking need a wake up call, he did well. Its just a pity that we dont have the central midfielder that would have seen us beaten Arsenal as thats all we needed.

I agree with all of your points apart from this. Kalinic was okay, but I never felt the defenders were worried about him. The two diouf's and Samba caused the defence far more problems than Kalinic.