littlelunchbox

exactly

come on lads, hindsight's a wonderful thing but we got a draw lets move on, they got the most cleansheets in the prem this season, thats saying something. some of us are acting like they got no rights to earn a draw, like we have every right to win that game. had we came up from the championship and gone to a place like white hart lane and got a draw in that manner we would be dancing, swansea played well. we also played well until Best got injured or tired.

You mentioned what he wouldn't do as a winger. We didn't need a winger but Ben Arfa wouldn't have stayed in that position anyway so bringing him on for Obertan or Jonas would have given us other and much needed options. yeh for sure if he didnt stay in that position, but i would have brought him on instead of stroller, kept jonas and obertan as were were playing quite decent. maybe subbing obertan for sammi.

We played with Laurent Robert for a few years look where that got us. considering how much money we spent on him and the amount of debt we collected after spending that much on the rest of the team, not that far really. I'll just ignore you cause you are either being ignorant or just a WUM. yeh because laurent robert was solely responsible for getting us where we were lol

With 20 minutes to go when the opposition aren't attacking, what does it matter if he doesn't track back? it doesnt , but my point was if you seen my other post, he should have come on and played through the middle that was where we lacked penetration, swansea pretty much delt with everything from the wings.

We played with Laurent Robert for a few years look where that got us. considering how much money we spent on him and the amount of debt we collected after spending that much on the rest of the team, not that far really.

Exactly. There's no guarantees in anything. Pardew was always going to have two tests today: What team he'd pick and then what changes he'd make if needed. All in all he passed the first. But in the last 25-20 minutes when the game was dying he failed to do anything. i agree, i felt just as faustrated with pardew when we played qpr, he didnt change anything and we just played out a 0-0 draw on a day we were lucky to get a point but his subs were shocking. pardew is a good manager but he does seem to have this phobia of changing the shape of a team midway though a match, almost like he believes it would be too much of a disruption for the players to handle.

lets give swansea some credit, its all well and good groaning at our shortcomings but the opposition just come from the championship costing maybe a tiny fraction of our own team, they came to our own ground and defended with shear class and dealt with all that pressure we put them under in around an hour, a lot of teams in the prem would have faultered against us today. swansea play good football, yeh ok they had to defend allday but christ hadly anytime did they just kick and rush and lump it down the field, they stuck to their principles and played the ball out all day long. credit is due.

We didn't need a winger tracking back today, we needed somebody who could split the defence. we didnt need to attack on the wings either as every ball that came from there were headed out. if arfa was to come on, we should have played a three man uptop, Arfa Ba and obertan. maybe with arfa behind ba and obertan, that would have gave us the penetration through the middle. and played jonas tiote and cabaye in the central three midfield.

What? Jonas is right footed and plays on the left. yeh exactly, we had enough whingers on here today saying "oh we got two right footed players on the left flank" lol

people stop making out like Ben Arfa is the second coming, there's a reason he don't get played on the wings. he doesn't track back, putting Arfa infront of santon or raylor is like asking for trouble, raylor would be highly exposed without jonas covering his ass, santon would just plow foward leaving no one on the left flank. sure maybe he can play infront of simpson then people would whine "oh look he's left footed playing on the right flank"

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01235/SNA2409B1-380_1235593a.jpg best part of the game

Krul - 5.5 nothing to do. very clean gloves Simpson - 6 nowt much to do , put in a good cross though Santon - 6 did alright like. Coloccini - 7.5 classy Perch - 6 did alright wasnt really tested Obertan - 6 did ok better than usuall still faustrated at times (crowd needs to get of his back, yes i know he's crap but groaning at him aint going make him any better) Jonas - 6 worked hard and attacked more than usual Cabaye - 6.5 worked hard again nice passing. Tiote - 7 was his normal self, solid. Best - 8, was classy holding the ball up making it stick and great flick ons, worked tirelessly, the game changed when he came off. Ba - 7.5 was unlucky not to score, showed some class with his first touches and combined well picking up Best's flick-ons. but was invisible once his striker partner Best left the field.

i dont think he had too many choices, Best got injured so that was a forced change, we were already failing to score with two strikers, it wouldn't have made too much sense putting Arfa on in place of Best as he would be playing behind Ba most of the time not beside him, besides Arfa is not enough of a threat in the air. only thing i can think of was, we could have tried three up top, putting jonas tiote and cabaye in midfield and stuck arfa ba and potato head far upfront with a proper three spearhead attack in the last 25 mins. but no garentee that would have worked either

we were clueless without Best, lost the ball everytime we played it into the last third of the pitch, shola cant hold onto the ball to save himself, fair play to swansea, their defence is awesome, we could do alot worse than sign one of their centrebacks come jan.

swansea keeper has got the most clean sheets in the prem, what does that tell you, probably that their defense is class. on another day Ba could have had a hatful

game has changed now Best has gone off, he was giving the swansea defence no time on the ball, shola is just standing around letting them do what they want

oh no its stroller. now that iv said that he's gonna score ofcourse! yeah!!!!!!!

that lineswoman

with all these corners, we would be one up if saylor was playing

we must not get carried away, as swansea still looks dangerous when we allowed them foward,

people are ignoring Best's contribution, He changes the complexion of our game, giving more option in attack, whenever we need to play the ball high or long, or just fire it into Best's body and he will make it stick or flick it on. very useful player, and does things that shola can only dream of.

what utter bollox, oneil=most overated manager in the country. a lot may think he had relative success at villa, ask villa fans and most will tell you he flatter to decieve, no plan B, just direct football, root one a lot of the times, lump it up to carew, if that fails, then they're screwed.

to be fair i remember on a few occasions he did get the ball and dribbled up field having absolutely no one near him to pass to, i thought to myself , where is our movement, fair enough i gave him the benefit of the doubt, but alot of other times when he had space to pass to another teamate that was vacant he just kept onto the ball far too long and lost it. right now he is what a call a luxury player, he can dazzle and have some moments but most of the time he's just a liability, my biggest complaint with him is his lack of conviction when it comes to tracking back, he does try to run back and get into positions to cover, but then he shirks away from 50/50 challenges, like a little girly man, there's no place for that in the premier league, you need courage and agression to survive in this league. you know what? obertan is your typical arsene wenger type of player. quick, fast, dazzling at time, love the one-twos, love to dribble, but cant cross to save their lives and no final ball, big pansy when it comes to physical challenges, and mentally vulnerable. didn't see the game today but he heard he missed a massive chance to set up an unmarked ba and his defensive work often seem better at home. i saw that chance, to be fair it wasnt exactly a nailed on goal even if he managed to pass that ball, Ba was near the opposite of the flank whilst potatohead was on the other side with a norwich defender in between so it would had needed a decent technique to get ball to Ba, wasnt that easy, especially potatohead was running flat out, he tried to slow down and look for the pass but by that time he was already caught up by the defender and lost out.

to be fair i remember on a few occasions he did get the ball and dribbled up field having absolutely no one near him to pass to, i thought to myself , where is our movement, fair enough i gave him the benefit of the doubt, but alot of other times when he had space to pass to another teamate that was vacant he just kept onto the ball far too long and lost it. right now he is what a call a luxury player, he can dazzle and have some moments but most of the time he's just a liability, my biggest complaint with him is his lack of conviction when it comes to tracking back, he does try to run back and get into positions to cover, but then he shirks away from 50/50 challenges, like a little girly man, there's no place for that in the premier league, you need courage and agression to survive in this league. you know what? obertan is your typical arsene wenger type of player. quick, fast, dazzling at time, love the one-twos, love to dribble, but cant cross to save their lives and no final ball, big pansy when it comes to physical challenges, and mentally vulnerable.