Viewing Thread:
"Merry Christmas Arsenal"

Chelsea 0 Southampton 0
Liverpool 1 Blackburn 1
'Boro 3 Man Utd 1

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After a fortunate win against WBA, Arsenal go 4 points clear at the top with he table looking like this:

1. Arsenal
2. Chelsea
3. Everton
4. Man Utd

United have lost both of the last two games and we are simply not the team we used to be - at 8 match unbeaten run has meant nothing if we throw it away against average teams - weve only won 2 games away from home this season, with the driver and hunger being lost somewhere along the line.

That is simply poor.

AbsoluT Neó wrote:
> Well, to be honest we didn't really see Roy screaming at anyone
> yesterday

Perhaps Phil Neville should be brought back into the team :)

Well, to be honest we didn't really see Roy screaming at anyone yesterday - we just didn't defend like a team, played too many long balls in the box which their big defenders cleared with ease, Veron again was given a defensive role next to roy which is stupid because Seba is a play maker. if you look at most of the Goals, Blanc was out of position a lot of thetime and on one of them he couldn't keep up with Job for the 3rd goal - if Silvestre or Rio had been there they wouldn't have happened, it is obvious from the replys. The frustration is immense, but chopping and changing the team is not helping, I think Roy has been put in there too early after a major op and it is not working.

So Roy Keane returns and for the second league match running we throw it all away like we've already won the league or something!

Coincidence? No, I really think Roy Keane is causing us problems!
He is a great player and all, and he deserves to be at a massive club like United, but with his last 2 comeback appearences I really think he's had a bad-effect on the team.

For a start, I still don't think he should be captain anymore.
We were doing much better recently without him in-control, when Beckham or Giggs or someone wore the armband, and the team looked like a team, with no one-man trying to control them like an on-pitch manager or something.
Yesterday, when the ball got near our 18-yard box, there only seemed to be the back 4 and Barthez there to stop the attack. But in the past - before Keane's return - we've seen the whole midfield, and even van Nistelrooy back there defending, and I really think that helped us to not conceed goals - especially in the big-games like the Chelsea one.

But with Keane there, this isn't happening. It's all being left to the players in `defence`, when defence is actually something that starts in the attack!

So I think Sir Alex Ferguson should just hand-over the armband to Beckham or Giggs, and leave Keane free to do his midfield duties, and not to control the game. I've never seen either Beckham or Giggs screaming at theri team-mates for club or for country, and I can't seem to think of any real bad games they've played as captains.
So why not??

Everton are in 4th by the way.

Aint all doom and gloom though.

Liverpool should give Arsenal a tough game at Highbury, and Leeds have seem to have found some sort of form for thier game against Chelsea.

We got a couple of **relatively easy** games against Birmingham and Sunderland (both at OT) coming up which should put us in good shape for the new year.

You must have been watching a different game to me then.

Your right - there's no point going on about it, as you were fortunate today and we did play you off the park at OT - Fact.

I think it was Ashley Cole, diving at the Wheels of the Cart rolling around as if he had been shot, he done it again today - As you said how long will it take the fans to get out the boards?

Yes, but as I said - it started with mistakes by us. But for those two mistakes, you wouldn't have scored.

Anyway, it's irrelevant. 7 points behind again now. not only did the wheels fall off the wagon, but someone shot your horse as well.

(You could tell by the way he went down in the area... :-)

Yes it was - your team failed to close down our attackers from the dodgey clearnace and the throw in - the goals didnt come directly from that - there was a lot left to do, Scholes still had to fly down the wing and cross it in and for the scond goal he still had to take on you defence - when Henry literally was 1 on 1 with the keeper - and even he was racing out to get the ball.

Cygan's dodgy clearance happened with no real pressure on him, and the second came from a poor throw-in by Ashley Cole. Neither error was forced.

WòókieeMøn§??® wrote:
> But it's undeniable that your goals came from our
> mistakes. You were the better team, but won only because we presented
> you two relatively easy opportunities.

> We were the better team today (though not amazing), but we only won
> because of a defensive error, and not a chance of our own making.

What a load of Bull, the mistakes came because we closed down your players and didn't give you the room to pass and move on the field - today the idiot in defence went play a long ball and made a mistake by himself - big difference.

You only won because of an defensive error by one player not because of the team ebing outplayed and made to make mistakes.