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Vicki, I generally enjoy your interesting polls but this one just downright sucks.

Ronaldinho won Barca the CL too don't forget. Yea I originally wrote that but since I dumbed-down Gerrard winning it, I couldn't turn it around and say that because Ronaldinho won it, he's the better player I'd just be contradicting myself, making me look like an arse and hence make my whole argument invalid.

Fucking hell, it's a football forum. If you don't like the thread, don't fucking read it. I've never heard of him but maybe Testa has? She's the french football expert here (I think).

Agree with tmonkey. If you put Gerrard in the Barca team, he wouldn't have half the impact that Ronaldinho has when he's in that team. Two different players, different styles but obviously, to people who aren't biased by the 'all-effort' type of player that Gerrard is, Ronaldinho is the better player. And consider the fact that Ronaldinho is the team that has won the past two La Ligas most important player, he is the better player. The best in the world. If Gerrard is so good, why the fuck haven't Liverpool won a league title? Isn't that how players are supposed to be judge? And don't talk about that Champions League, they only had to win 10 games (not that I'm saying it was easy) but when comparing to carrying a team to back-to-back titles, it's just not the same thing.

That's people coming round to how over-rated he is. (hopefully) No. Just shows how fickle some of us can be. Or how peopel are realising that he is a quite good player who looks great because he's playing alongside shite. Disagree. The way we play will obviously enhance/hinder the performances of players at our club. The way we started playing this season, Parker was made a key player and showed his quality. Now, however, we've changed (yes, we have, especially in our last two away games) and that's why the quality of his performances have dropped. This is why Henry excels at Arsenal and not so much when he plays for France. It's not because he's overrated at Arsenal or he isn't motivated enough for France, it's just because the style of play isn't suited to him.

I don't think anyone with much sense thinks Cashley is a great defender anyway. Bridge is a better defender. Althoguh Cole is better going forwards. His performance in Euro '04 against Portugal is still one of the best defensive displays by a left-back I've ever seen, so don't disregard him as a defender because that is his job description. However, saying that, Cole's main strength has always been his ability to support the attack and that's why he was so successful at Arsenal and why, imo, he won't be at Chelsea. Thinking about it, Bridge is arguably a better defender (more consistent imo) and at last at the start of this season, he showed his attacking prowess is not something to underrate as well. But at the same time, Mourinho will never drop Cole because of all the trouble he's gone through to get him.

That's people coming round to how over-rated he is. (hopefully) No. Just shows how fickle some of us can be.

Silvestre is shite, but he's still better than basically all the defenders at our club. Heinze is class. Has all the attributes needed to succeed and was the best left-back in the league before he was injured (and that's counting Cashley Cole as well - Heinze just has much more aggression and his power and strength, especially in the air, gives him the edge even though attacking-wise, Cole is better). Has yet to regain his form from before but undoubtedly will.

But RELATIVELY, they have been poor. Many of the nationalities has had some ****ing proper failures, even just at this club - france (Boumwrong), Spain (Marcelino, Luque), Africa (Faye, Babayaro, Ameobi), Croatia (Maric), Ireland (Carr), et al. Oh, and the person who said Arteta was just average - unbelievable. Do you post just for the sake of posting? FFS nothing is black and white. Every nation will have decent players that have made it - France (Henry, Vieira), Spain (Alonso), Africa (Drogba, Essien), Ireland (Given, Duff) et al - and they will have players that haven't made it. I'd say Park has made it; getting regular appearances for the team on top of the table isn't something to look down upon. Sun made it till injury ruined this past couple of seasons for him but before that? A mainstay in a decent-ish Man City side. It's not a relative thing. If you ARE going to look at a 'relative' thing, then how many English players don't make it? Just count up all the players in the Championship, League 1 etc. etc. and you'll find out. Relatively, English players make the worst Premiership players but that's obviously an absurd statement and that's why we can't look at things relatively.

There's not enough of a sample to actually judge 'oriental' players. The only ones that have tried to make it are Li Tie, Sun Ji Hai, Park Ji Sung, Nakata, Inamoto and a few others. Seriously, not enough of a sample to judge.

For tomorrow.. Home Home Away

Since we all seem to be playing FM, spend 15 million on Kompany, Van den Borre and Bridge then the other 10m on Huntelaar.

Are they a one-man team? Last week without Henry they couldn't break us down and only survived because of his brilliance and this week, again without him, they've crumbled.

Can't stand the way Bolton play.

Come on Arsenal.

Bollocks. He's class. Has excellent control, fantastic technique. Just because he's a simple player (similar to Alonso) doesn't mean he's 'average'. He does what he's supposed to do extremely well when in fact, he could actually do a lot more (like he showed when he was with Athletic Madrid and Rangers) but doesn't need to. We would be lucky to have him in our team and dictating the game.

Re: post regarding Argentinians. It's absurd to be judging Tevez and Mascherano after what? 2 months? Pathetic. Heinze's is arguably the best left back in the world so I don't know where that came from. Crespo also played well, was top scorer (iirc) during his last season here. And regarding Brazilians, Juninho was a star when he was here. Don't know how anyone could say he was one of the 'worst' Prem players. Similarly Gilberto has been a lynchpin in an Arsenal side that has played brilliant football. Edu was class for Arsenal, we should have snapped him up when he was on a free and with Baptista, how can you judge him after 2 months?

Always knew he'd make it after destroying us in the UEFA cup game. Took awhile though, the tit.

FT all the games. A paltry sum of 7 goals in 5 games. And the games were excruciatingly boring as well.

1-0 Gerrard. Suprisingly his first league goal of the season.

Just realized only 4 games are being played now.

The lack of goals so far is astonishing. Only Reading have scored!

Big Pro for the game = coming from a goal down and getting a win.

Rest Dyer. We're basically through already. There's no need to risk any of the first-teamers against Celta. Fuck the getting first place or what not, if we're going to win the trophy, we're going to have to beat the best teams sooner or later so why not now? Blood in some of the youngsters and just let them play.

Let's not gan bonkers. They still had about 3,000 shots on goal and Given had to make at least 3 excellent saves to deny them. Arsenal always have those chances with any team they play so the fact that we restricted their game that much shows me that we defended well. The only time I believe our defence was breached was when Fabregas had his left footed shot and maybe when Henry tried to curl it in. At other times, it was just shots which were thumped from outside the box. Arsenal were never able to do their intricate passing within our area or have multiple one-on-ones that they always do against other teams. This shows that, to me, at least today, we defended well. Bollocks, tbh. They did everything but score. Shay made 3 excellent saves. The rest were routine. Fact? Yep. Do Arsenal have these chances against almost every other club? Yep (see Champions League last yea, see Liverpool last week, see Manyoo away.. I can point alot more out for you.. Arsenal ALWAYS create chances yet we limited them to basically three and none were exactly clear cut) Fabregas didn't have much time on the ball. Henry's chance was from an acute angle. Another one deflected and hit the post (but was going straight to Given and from an acute angle). The other Henry chance was his curling shot and that was from outside the box.