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After simmering down after Sunday's debacle, I watched the game again and unsurprisingly came to the following conclusions:
Wenger certainly has done his job on the FA. His team's spoiling tactics are there to see but not many people notice it. Yesterday, Arsenal kept the ball for long periods, passing the ball and making our players chase shadows, but when they lose the ball they tended to foul our players so that our momentum came to a sudden end. Especially when they were 2-0 up.
It's called spoiling tactics, Mr Wenger, and your team gets away with it. Howard Webb didn't help, I know, and it's not sour grapes, but no wonder we struggled to get any rhythm into our game when after chasing shadows for 2-3 minutes all we end up with is a free kick. I hope the Gooners get a taste of their own medicine but I doubt it.
Antony Matthews, Posted 15/11/2010 at 19:35:28
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After his third foul Song got little more than a mild warning whereas Heitinga for his first foul got a vociferous threatening lecture followed by a yellow.
Song went on fouling for the rest of the game while Johnnie was on thin ice and had to be subbed.
I also wondered why Fabregas without punishment was allowed to continuously get into the ear of our supposedly best referee. The TV commentators picked up on the same thing with one of them saying that Fabregas as usual was reffing the game.
There, Ive said it as I saw it and I don't care if its called sour grapes.
It seemed to me that we (especially in central midfield) were slow to see danger developing, and some of the time and space we allowed the Arsenal players was massively worrying.
Moyes seemed to have set the team up to defend zonally; although that can work against predictable sides, a team like Arsenal ? especially if you give them time on the ball ? is only going to play into their hands.
Couple this with the fact that Arteta must have had his worst game in an Everton shirt, and Heitinga seemed to be on auto-pilot, and I think that's why we lost ? although Arsenal's spoiling tactics and Howard Webb contributed in their own way.
What annoys me about our players is, we don't do the same. We are always the goody goodies asking refs not to book the opponents (Cahill), when they chase down the ref until he books our players. It's not right but that's the way it is and if we don't do the same, then we'll be stuck forever moaning in the pub after the game.
Arsenal make me sick and my mate at the match actually labelled Wilshere as his "New Robbie Savage", this is the same lad who lost it only once at a match and stood up when it was quiet and shouted "Savage you twat, if it's the last thing I do I will find you and fucking kill you".
Diving bastards the lot of them; however, twice Webb did well and told Wilting and Chakka Khan to get up and waved play on. About the only right thing he did all afternoon.
We had many pre-season, who were deluded enough to think that we were just as good as them.
Unfortunately, I just had a quick glance at the Telegraph stats page, hoping it would back up my point and I came to find that Everton have actually conceded one foul more than Arsenal this season... but they have amassed 24 yellow cards to our 13, and 4 red cards to our 1. So looking at those stats it's suddenly difficult to suggest they're getting away with it. Oh well.
Good luck to them if they stopped our attacks with silly little fouls ? win at all costs, gents, and that's about the end of it.
We were pretty bad, they weren't much better; man-up and move on.
We have all seen that it could have been so different on Sunday if Timmie had put away that early chance and scoring first for Everton is so crucial to get something out of the games. We have had a half decent run of late without being impressive whilst dodging a few bullets. However, teams like Arsenal make you pay.
On a side note, Sagna is not the first full back to score against the Blues this season and one wonders if more will do the same if defensive lapses continue like they have been?
1. When Saha was brought down by the last man, we hardly made any complaints about the 'last man' and he should have walked... If it had been Torres brought down, the entire Liverpool side would have been in Webb's ear; same with Man Utd or Chelsea... We are just too easy-going.
2. If we had any sort of fully functioning central midfield, we would have kept them out. Arteta was 3/10 material, Heitinga was always going to get booked for something minor and either walk or play poorly, Rodwell was unfit. Saha needs a slap to make him wake up too!!
3. Arsenal's spoiling tactics were making our possession so bitty that we could not generate any momentum. Again, clever tactics by a team that knew they could get away with it...
In fact, why bother with matches? We could just decide who's got better players and award them the points. What a lot of effort that would save.
Gareth and Brian (10 & 11), that's exactly the mentality that leads to refs favouring the big teams, and pundits not really kicking up much of a fuss about it. That you're happy to sit there and accept it is beyond pathetic.
And Tom (15) yours is a whole different issue. I could never support a Wenger team, a lying, whingeing hypocrite with absolutely no grace, class or dignity. That they knock the ball around well when they feel like it (but lose on a regular basis because the other team ? shock horror ? defend! And sometimes even tackle!) doesn't mean they can do what they like.
Just as we always start off crap, we seem to come good in the second half of the season.
Two or three wins before January and we'll still be in the mix. A couple of good signings in January should let the shirkers know that if they don't perform then it's the bench.
We are all disheartened and rightly so. There's not been a lot to cheer about. I just hope history repeats itself after January.
If Pienaar goes in January, what three players would enhance our side and give us the impetus we need to qualify for Europe?
Hopefully this downer won't last to long.
Well for Moyes's sake I sure hope not.
This I suppose could be a whole new thread, but I will keep it simple and to the point, and apologies if I'm straying from the original post... Is it just me who thinks that, since Arteta signed his new contract, he has forgotten two things:
1. He has forgotten how to take control of a game from midfield, like he used to on a regular basis; this is also not just against so-called stronger oposition but also against the average teams of this league.
2. His movement and vision seem to have completely dissapeared.
I could add a third with his set-pieces and not being able to beat the first man but this has always been part of his game, so will leave that subject alone.
The reason I say this is because I expected him to kick on after signing and turn in performances we know he is capable of on a more consistent basis, but if anything he has gone in the opposite direction and it doesn't bode well for the remainder of the season if he carries on in his current form. I hope I'm wrong on this and he starts performing but I ain't holding my breath!!
Touching on the MotD debate from a few days ago. The presenter went to discuss the Arsenal yellow cards only to have the producer whisper in his ear to move and discuss how Marcus Hanaman cuts his sleeves up to his shoulder.
We got a raw deal on Sunday and it's gone unsaid by the media. Can you imagine Wenger putting up with that? Fucking press conference sharpish from the moaning twat that's what.
Anthony, totally right mate.
All this whinging is why we get called bitter, we always have to make ourselves out to be hard-done-by.
The way some of you go on, it's as if we are whiter than white; don't forget we have the Yak who is prone to the odd dive, we have Cahill who likes leaving his foot or arm in now and again, we have the tit Fellaini sitting in the stands for 3 games, after kicking out... I couldn't believe we had lads who actually backed him for doing what he did. Also, Fellaini is a bit tasty with his elbow as well.
I don't just accept it, I was actually fuming at some points in the game. I just think after the game's over, you should just get on with it, and move to the next game, because all this moaning just makes us out to sound 'Bitter'.
We played very timidly until we lost the goal and don't forget we were at HOME. We were second-best in passing and simple ball control for long periods and, if we played that way, our fans would love it.
My God, in the derby match, Cahill deliberately kicked one ball into the far corner to hopefully waste time; if we could play keep ball as well as Arsenal we would not be hanging onto leads so often at the end of games.
So long as fans of ours call the refs names when they don't decide things our way and, conveniently forget the decisions that DO go our way, like disallowed goals, we will be producing bile for the rest of the season.
Look at what is lacking in our own team and don't blame other sides for our errors. We have bags of endeavour with limited ability... I'm afraid that most of the other Premier League sides have improved while we have stood still!!!
They bossed us and we needed someone strong to stand up to them. Silly fouls notwithstanding, at least Johnny got stuck in.
As one match commentator even said, Fabregas was constantly in the Ref's ear, and the fact that he said afterwards they knew what to expect, that we were a long-ball team, makes me dislike him even more.
Get a grip, lads ? it's pathetic.
We weren't shite (or if we were, so were Arsenal) for 80 mins, that just isn't true. We probably slightly edged the game up until they scored, and if we'd taken two crucial (and not particularly difficult) chances, we probably would have won.
You guys have turned it more into a ref conversation, when my main point is actually about it being a fairly even game and us missing chances.
That you're bothering to come on here and be an arse to fellow Evertonians about it beggars belief.
Should I run my posts by you first in the future, just to make sure they are okay to send in?
We can all 'give our opinion' but I'm wondering why you've bothered when it seems designed to heap more misery on already suffering Everton fans.
Has doing it made you feel better at our expense?
Those different opinions translate into different emotional reactions to what went down, and different levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the performance and/or the result.
Come on here to discuss those aspects by all means, but no need to start slagging off, please.
Anyone remember a few years ago when Toure went down at the Park End goal like he been coined and stopped the game for 5 minutes. We were battering them at the time. Then Fabregas got Arteta sent off. Flamini didn't leave the ref alone all game.
While we'd like our players to be a bit more ruthless, I don't think our fans want our players cheating as bad as Arsenal. It's just never been the Everton way. Plus we'd never get away with it because we're not fashionable and don't have a shameless hypocrite like Wenger as manager.
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1 Posted 15/11/2010 at 21:07:42
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I'm pretty sure we played more balls to our own keeper than we played into their box up until the final 5 minutes where we suddenly began to pressure. Their players are some of the worst divers, just look at the youngster Wilshere and new boy Chamack. Fabregas could be sent off in just about every match but does usually pick up at least a yellow.