West Ham Utd 0 Arsenal 1 (29/09/07)

Relive every moment of every first team game since the beginning of the 2005/06 season. Our archive of matchday threads originally posted in the General Discussion Forum.

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Alf Garnett's (Ex) Missus
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Post by Alf Garnett's (Ex) Missus »

I have to agree with the poster who thought Ashton was poor, the movement from him was terrible and although it's not his fault he is crap in the air and so our continual punts up to him were a waste of time.

Camara was pacey and thats about it, Parker was a spectator for much of the 1st half and although it pains me Muillins made a difference and at least got a foot in, Lundberg and Bowyer were pretty ineffectual I would have played Etherington and Boa Morte and gone for width. Is Solano injured? We were desperate for some creativity yesterday.

Upson was mugged too many times, as was Ferdinand, Neill played another shocker and lost the ball on countless occasions trying to carry it forward and was then out of position.

Their movement off the ball was superb, and although they are cheating c****, they showed us up to be pedestrian and predictable and should have been 4 or 5 nil winners.

The officials were a disgrace, Wiley was blatantly biased and the linos were bloody terrible.
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Andy
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Post by Andy »

apart from that I thought we played well!! :lol:

No one wants to lose lets face it, especially not to Arsenal but despite a general **** performance at the back, a lack of midfield and a strike force lacking in pace and penetration, we didnt do too bad and could have won the match given a bit of luck and a linesman with eyes both looking in the same direction.

We will play worse than that and get results IMHO. Arsenal are a top notch team who will probably win the league this season and our overall TEAM performance wasnt that bad.

Individually, some of our team went missing, played down blind alleys, let their midfield take over and looked lost in defence (if the bloke behind me reminded everyone that Upson was a '7 million pand waste of ****ing time' once he did it about 48 times), but I thought it was a good battling display that deserved something from the game.

As it turns out that was a definite when Ljunbergs goal was actually 100% kosher, but sometimes that happens.

We need to dust ourselves off and pull together like that at Villa and we will be ok IMHO.
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Harveys_HammersLH
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Post by Harveys_HammersLH »

I have to agree with the poster who thought Ashton was poor, the movement from him was terrible and although it's not his fault he is crap in the air and so our continual punts up to him were a waste of time.
You must of been watching a different Ashton to me then.

Movement off the ball was very good and won a lot of headers. Some of the runs and touches he showed on Saturday were first class. I can't see how anyone can say he's crap in the air when he's obviously not.
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GeorgeParris'Pet
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Post by GeorgeParris'Pet »

Harveys_HammersLH wrote: You must of been watching a different Ashton to me then.

Movement off the ball was very good and won a lot of headers. Some of the runs and touches he showed on Saturday were first class. I can't see how anyone can say he's crap in the air when he's obviously not.
Ashton was crap against Plymouth and crap against Arsenal. I think the guy is quality but he hasn't been at the races for the last 2 matches. He doesn't look match fit to me.

He scored a very good goal against Plymouth granted, but that was despite playing badly.

He will get a lot better I'm sure. If he doesn't he deserves to be dropped.

That said, we need to start playing to his strengths. Getting the ball in the box from wide areas would be a good start - instead of hoofing it up to him when he has his back to goal.
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Post by otter_of_despair »

Guy at work is a member of arse fan club and got this email today 'from arsene wenger':


Dear Supporter,

We were a little bit cautious at the start on Saturday, probably because we lost at Upton Park last year. But then we scored our goal through Robin van Persie and in the second half we got the ball down and played a bit more.

We did not make the same mistake we made at Blackburn in August when we sat back a bit. We continued to play and try to go forward. We tried to score the second goal. Robert Green made some very good saves from Van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor but we got the three points.

We had a lot to deal with in the air with West Ham's long balls and the second ball, so it was important to keep the pace of the game high. It's natural to slow the game down when the ball goes in the air so we raised the tempo and played more than we did in the first half. I think that shows the team is maturing tactically.

Mark Noble's tackle on Alex Hleb forced him off the pitch. If it was an accident it was a very bad accident, because if you see Alex's leg it is red and bruised from the knee down to the toes. Noble is usually a fair player but he caught him badly.

I don't think Alex will play on Tuesday against Steaua Bucharest because he could not walk properly after the West Ham game but I am more optimistic about Adebayor's chances. He went off after a kick on the thigh but he looks like he has a good chance to play in Romania.

We are still top of the Premier League and, although there is room for improvement, I am very proud of what the team is achieving at the moment. I believe we can challenge for the title.

Everywhere we go we try and grow and improve - on Saturday we dealt with a slightly different problem because West Ham made it hard for us to play our normal game. We are young so it is normal that in October 2007 we are better than in September 2006.

Thanks for your support.
No mention of ljungberg's goal the c*nt
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Post by bubbles1966 »

We only lost 1-0. Arsenal on form look dangerous against everybody - they scored 6 at Anfield last year, tore Manure apart at OT, cruised past Spurs and their reserves totally outplayed Chelsea in Carling Cup Final.

We made a couple of very good chances and Arsenal didnt miss much - Green saved it which is his job!

We're mid table - comfortably better than the Boros Readings and Wigans of the league - and in touch with the UEFA Challengers.

Good chance also in the Carling Cup - particularly if our injury situation improves.

Bellamy, Zamora (who has been great against Arsenal last couple of years), Faubert, Dyer all missing - Parker and Ljungberg coming back. Bound to weaken us a bit - bit we're competing better than last year.
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fleetyfoot
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Post by fleetyfoot »

Only watched the match Sunday night because I download all the matches with bittorrent and watch on the computer. So as usual I'd already read a lot of the comments on here before watching the match.

I really felt we had a good match overall except for a couple of flat periods. I've watched a lot of Arsenal matches this season and we did better against them than other teams I've seen. You are not going to play this Arsenal team without a few individual lapses.

By the middle of the second half it was looking like a game we could win and that's saying a lot considering just how well Arsenal have been playing this year.

So, even though we lost I was quite proud overall of the performance.
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