All hail Don Vito Mannone
Saturday, 26 September 09, 02:23 PM · Comments(17)
Well, that was about as much fun as being forced to sit through a Spuds player of the year dinner wasn't it? Say what you like about the performance, fact is we won 1-0 despite playing worse than we did against both Manchester clubs and coming away with absolutely nothing.
Fulham were the better team. For the entire match Diaby was lost and clueless, Cesc's passing was askew by some distance, Arshavin never got going (which seems to happen a lot against 'lesser' teams), and at the back we looked rocky.
Well, except for young Don Vito who put in a man-of-the-match performance to keep us in this match enough to nick it. Sure we had other chances, Eboue had at least two when he came on as a second half sub and Nik had a few himself, but it was our new Gladiator that was the busier by far of the two keepers for the whole. I hate to say it, but if Almunia had've played today we would have lost this match.
At times you could see that his decison making wasn't the best, but that's what you get with a young keeper, and, more often than not, he got it right. The first wonder save which was followed by an immediate second might have just bounced of his head, but he was sharp enough to get up from the first to get himself in the way of the second. Last time I checked, that's exactly what a keeper is supposed to do. Doesn't matter if they know nothing about it, he got in the way and stopped it going in, and that's all he's paid for.
He was, simply put, the Godfather of his penalty box
What more can you say? For years we have been battered by our inability to hold on in games like this. As Maurice Voltz quite rightly said after the match, when Chelsea win 1-0 in games like that they are heralded as 'professional' and I don't know about you but I'm sick hearing about how the reason United are Champions is because they win games when they are playing poorly.
Well, we played poorly and won. You can't use that as a reason to say we won't win the title, though many will try. We have lost two matches, two very very tough matches, that we should have won. I think the belief this game will give us about our ability to grind out a result (and this was very much ground out) and that can only be a good thing.
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PedroRamirez said:
... Your right but i nedd to go d pup and more things
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LadyArse
belfast, GB
Arsenal and the world of football from a woman's perspective
17 Comments · Add yours
i agree wholeheartedly. not the best performance, but a win is a win and 3 points is 3 points. but i'm reading other blogs and all they're doing is complaining, including all the comments. do we have fans that are just never happy?
Reply to Danking:
I'm having a bit of a 'thing' on twitter with a guy who is the same, bitching how crap VP has been for the past year, and how as I'm a girl I know nothing about football and as I don't go to every match I can't be a 'true' supporter...some people just don't have a clue. Did you hear Voltz after the game? He nailed it perfectly....
And then, when we play brilliantly but don't win they bitch about that...can't win with some 'fans'
Does Wenger give his first clue that Almunia is a gonner not a gooner?
About Mannone he said:
"I believe we will give him 10 out of 10 because everything he did was right. For a goalkeeper that is most important. He stopped everything he had to stop, didn't make any wrong decisions and overall he has shown he has the potential to be a very good goalkeeper.
"He is goalkeeper No 3 but goalkeeper No 4 is exceptional as well. I believe Wojciech is quality and he has shown that against West Brom and I gave Mannone the advantage because he's three or four years older and has more experience.
"Until the next game he is No 1. In this job you have to go from game to game. He has played a fantastic game today and the consistency is the first sign of quality.
"He kept us in the game in some unbelievable situations. You say that keeper sometimes look unbeatable. Today he looked like he could make the save needed every time."
I love what he says about Chesney, it's clear he really, really likes him as a keeper. But what's going on with Almunia? I don't think on today's form anyone has a problem with Almunia being dropped, but it the Don ready for the big-time full-time?
He might just be...
if nothing else... mannone wud be right kinda pressure to keep almunia on the toes! just like wenger says, its the consistency that counts.
Its about time (actually overdue by a few years) that Arsenal learned how to play below average football and still walk away with 3 points. Hopefully Arsenal will learn from this game and adopt a more dogged style against teams like Fulham,Stoke and Hull because you win titles over 38 games and not just the Big 4 or the city derby fixtures.
Although I'm a Barca fan my fav team in the EPL is Arsenal. From the Mourinho years I (along with lots of other Arsenal fans) have watched Chelsea play horrible (to watch at least) football and become both an English and a European powerhouse.
Even Man U's greatest strength in my humble opinion is their back 4.
I know its strange coming from a Barca and Arsenal fan, but I'd rather see my team(s) win first because once you've secured your 3 points you can switch to the style mode.
I see there has been absoluetly no mention of Pantsil's challenge on Bendtner which should have been a straight red. BBC didn't even show it as they showed Arsenal lasy yet again on MOTD, and what makes it worse is that it was the same player, the same ref, in the same match doing the same thing as he did last year. How he only managed to pick up one yellow yesterday I'll have no idea.
After the Edurdo incident v Celtic I've been keeping a record of such incidents (red cards not given, or given incorrectly etc) so it'll be interesting to see how it looks at the end of the season.
A valuable 3 points.
Gallas was brilliant again yesterday too.
Am i a bad influence
Scene:
Me. messing about on the computer, Jamie (my 8 year old) playing on the xbox - fifa '07 Arsenal v Liverpool.
Me: "How ya doing Jay"?
Jamie: "Good, dad"
Me: "but your losing"
Jamie: "yeah, but i got Adebayor sent off"!
Reply to Tobzzz:
Well done Jamie.
Reply to LadyArse:
I noticed ythe really bad MOTD coverage also. Thought you may have sonmething to say about it. They did hardly any talking or analysis about Arsenal after either. I was quite dissapointed..
Reply to IAWWT:
It doesn't bother me because I don't like listening to them anyway.
Reply to JamrockRover:
Ditto...
I watched MOTD a few weeks ago for the first time in ages. I haven't watched it since. It's too bite sized. The beeb need a more comprehensive football show. They also need to clear out the old farts and get in some fresh perspective from people who don't resort to 'nailed on' and 'stonewall' in every sentence.
Jon Champion's commentary on ESPN really annoyed me on Saturday evening too. I mean REALLY annoyed me...
lol.
Reply to EduardoIsInnocent:
We have Johnny Giles, Eamonn Dunphy & Ronnie Whelan over here and they're not afraid to give a real opinion at times. I don't always agree with them but it makes for good TV and Saturday's highlights programme is always on by 8 on a Saturday night.
Reply to JamrockRover:
Eamonn Dunphy is always arguing with co-pundits, isn't that right?
Didn't he have a bit of a scrap with Liam brady at one time too? I think I saw that on Youtube.
At least it's fun. MOTD is pisitively dour by comparison.
pisistively?
heh heh...
I'm gonna hit the hay.
Reply to EduardoIsInnocent:
Dunphy likes nothing more than the sound of his own voice. He has fallen out with most of his co pundits at some stage. He had a big falling out with Brady and he also had one with Giles when he accused him of purposely breaking an opponent's leg during his career.
Reply to EduardoIsInnocent:
Good night. I'm still finding it hard to sleep.