Man City v Arsenal Team Lineups

Er so Fran isn't suspended. Though with a bit of luck, we're soaking up the pressure and attacking with some purpose when we can.

Hughes is desperate, trying to get players sent off because he can see how WEAK the ref is and that he will only book the youngsters and not big egos like Tevez who's foul on Rosicky was the easiest yellow of the game.

Hughes is doing everything he can to save his job ..... You can't blame him, but it does make him look ****ish. Ref is a moron. Traore is living on the edge. Vela is playing quite well, with a bit more support I can see him having a bit of joy. One thing that does scare me is that how clumsy Song can and how he's playing at centreback ..... nervewarcking to say the least.

As a side note did David Platt actually play for us? Why do all our ex-players who turn to punditry turn out to be complete knobheads?

You can see Booboo is a really popular guy. Pro bench-warmer Robinho couldn't resist the temptation to hug him. ;)

FFS. All those kids on the pitch and it's the first teamers who let us down.

Oh, looks like Tevez scored a screamer. Poor Arsene Wenger, I'll bet he never saw that.

Can't believe it. That's so sloppy from Rosicky, though he was making some creative difference before then and trying to redeem himself since. Eboue and Song could have marked Tevez a bit more tightly too. :s

It says more about JT that he felt the need to post that than about Wenger or Tevez or anyone ellse.

LOL @ Silvestre... Although he did put in a good amount of effort into his performance. He was the only one of the back 4 to actually prevent that previous breakthrough... The other 3 literally were not budging. I find that a bit appauling really, the slowest of the 4 making the only run.

Silvestre has done alright .... but yeah, he's pretty funny to watch.

Oh well. Game over.

was that Silvestre or Traore that Swp ran past?

Yes indeed... Traore does not have what it takes to break through imo after this performance. Not just this match of course but today was quite clear.

Should have been red for Song ;)

7 yellows and we get a fine, i think

In a way this is good cos it forces Arsene's hand to buy in Jan lol. Just how we get through Dec is another question lol. Can't believe I'm laughing.

what are the odds that we are going to be inundated with Man Citeh fans!!

At least the kids are getting their "lose big games" training in nice and early.

All these things add up to a huge amount of pressure on Arsene and the kids in the FA Cup after our CC exit. Some kids might have that one chance against West Ham to keep their Arsenal careers going. With quite a few of our first-teamers still young and hard to displcae, it's make-or-break time for someone like Traore and Randall.

I see Wenger covered himself in glory again at the full time whistle.

Completely right iceman10 - no phoney sanctimonious posturing from Le Boss. He's a truly bad loser and all the better for it.

LOL Iceman - get the lose big game training in indeed. Just when you thought we wouldn't have the same feelings about Arsenal again...I'm sure it must be groundhog day coz this is how I felt 5 years ago watching us. Oh well, we're no longer a winning club, it's a simple as that.

The worst thing about losing tonight was Wenger refusing to shake Hughes' hand. Ok, Mark Hughes is a Tw*t of the first order, but Wenger doesn't need to be that ungracious. He's clearly feeling the pressure.

Wenger's body language during the game speaks volumes for me. The hand wringing, spats with other managers and constant harping to the officials. This isn't the Wenger of a couple of years ago. He may be smiling during the press conferences but believe me the man is under pressure. It's written all over his face.

Pressure? Certainly not in the Carling cup. Wenger's thoughts must be far away with the next EPL game. As always, every Manager will hope that whatever he puts out can win a game, but to say Wenger was not half-expecting the young guns to lose will be pretentious. He stated at his last press conference before the game that the Cup was not a priority for the club and that is it. It will have been nice to beat the Mancs with these young lads, though. My concern is how to ensure that Losing to 'big name players' clubs does not become a habit for the kids.

Didn't they? However, I felt their heads dropped too soon, unlike the swagger they had in the Game against the Scousers. It was as if their was no real belief they could win the game. The all-round confidence in the team seems to be low (after the Chelsea & S/land games) and needs some lifting and fast. A run of wins will be a good way to achieve this.

sort yourselves out boys and have a word. you need to be on top form when you come to the lane. if we beat you i want to beat you when you are playing well its a real victory then. you have a cracking team just need that big strong guy upfront he doesnt even need to be prolific because the way you play if he holds it up then the rest of your guys will break through and score. john carew me thinks would be good for you but who wants to take advice from a yid lol

My thoughts, exactly. What was Rosicky doing, worrying about muscling his way out of a situation, instead of picking out a pass or clearance; then, he loses the ball and does nothing to track back, as if in hope that nothing will go wrong. Song kept bombing forward like he didn't remember he was playing a different role that game, plus knowing Silvestre will be challenged for pace, if a break was on. The break did come and I was appalled to see Song strolling back, as if he didn't wish to be part of the impending goal. It was a shame, really and I am not sure that the kids benefited from playing alongside the seniors that night. I am not one for unsporting behaviour, but after the game, our senior players might as well have been putting on blue shirts, the way they went about cavorting with City players; I would have felt better if they looked sober all round, tbh. We really must win the next 5-6 games, now to restore some confidence, even as we await the return of Bendtner & co.

quite right amos however if you watched the game it was obvious who the better team was the difference was we werent that up for it but we still had the better quality on the ball and created the best chances it just looked like we were not interested in progressing in the cup. i think our players are concentrating on a top 6 finish and nothing else. as for you guys can you honestly tell me you dont need someone like carew. david bentley and co are hardly our first team either.

it was important to me as i believe silverware is good even though the CC is considered the lowest form of silverware available, i just dont think the players felt like that wining breeds winning and as me and you amos have discussed on other threads once a team reaches a similar ability to that of its peers (us-yourself-utd) it then comes down to that winning mentality you have it over us at the moment and utd have it over you (chelsea are on there own). back to the front man you know arsene will want a technically good centre forward and you know you need a big strong one, carew is the one ithought of as he is tried and tested in the PL but if thats not an issue i would have a look at Fred

read the post properly shewore before commenting and looking silly i was refering to utd being our peers. and besides if you look up the correct meaning i think you will find every team in the whole football league is technically one of your peers

besides shewore why dont you stop focusing on one point and join in the conversation with something positive and intelligent i know you are capable as i have seen some of your other posts on other threads

I reject that, I felt Eastmond was one of our better players (in that he did his job, nothing more, nothing less). I saw effort and willing in Wilshere, the problem was that nobody was up ahead of him bar Vela. When Vela had the ball, he lacked confidence and support. Ramsey was poor but I can understand why Vela and Merida lacked confidence judging by a) the attitude of the more established pros around them (Silvestre's attitude wasn't poor, but his performance was, how can such an experienced player look so panic ctricken every time a football comes near him?) and b) the manager had chosen the day of this game to tell everyone he didn't believe in his striking options sans van Persie. Eboue and Song looked like they wanted to be anywhere else and as though they felt playing was an affront to their status. Rosicky I feel displayed that attitude for about 50% of the game too. Wilshere and Vela tried but weren't supported and I would have been looking to Rosicky, as our most senior forward player, to have been guiding them. He didn't, largely he only took interest when the ball was at his feet. That reveals a big problem with the Arsenal team that Chelsea schooled us in on Sunday- when we don't have the ball, we're not interested in winning it back. Only when the players have the ball do they seem to show interest. You could see the confidence of the side was low as City's defence was very porous but we didn't have the slickness to exploit it and the midfield did not help the strikeforce at all. Therein lies a big flaw with our style, everybody has to be operating at their top level for it to work, when they are slightly below that level, we have no way of winning.

I'm not on here to wind people up but I was at the game and I watched the highlights later. I'm shocked that Wenger would say those things after 5000 fans made the way up here to support the team. As a regular away fan myself I want to feel that, if I lay out the money and make the effort to travel half way across the country, then everyone concerned is committed to the cause.

Your view of Eastmond's performance seems to describe perfunctory well enough LD. The kids are bound to get a little more latitude because they are kids - and quite rightly to. But if you can ignore that then most of the problem was that midfield couldn't retain possession well enough or be creative and penetrating enough. You can lump a fair responsibility on Rosicky shoulders as the senior player but he wouldn't have been helped at all by the performances from the four teenagers along side and around him. For me the kids would have got a great deal more out of playing with the seniors we did put out than the seniors got out of playing with the kids. It was burden, away from home, that was just a bit too heavy for them to carry. But then for us that's what these games are all about.

That's the whole point - only one man does know or has a clue jljyid. The rest is just clueless speculation enjoyable for those who get a buzz out of joining in and amusing entertainment for those of us who wonder at some of the bizarre suggestions. I remember not too long ago someone suggested in all seriousness that Jan Koller was the answer to our prayers.

That's just it, it's not so much giving latitude to the younger players, but the experienced players were put in there for a reason and I don't think they even tried to perform the function expected of them. I think Wilshere and Merida etc did try to perform their functions with varying degrees of success, but I really was looking to Eboue, Song and Rosicky to provide a bit of guidance and I think Song and Eboue failed spectacularly. Rosicky did bits and bobs but his part in the first goal was farcical. I recall Anelka losing the ball in a very similar position on Sunday and he broke his neck to go and get it back. The players looked low on confidence and I didn't see any usggestion that the older ones were providing leadership- I think they felt insulted at being asked to play. I have to say, this is possibly the first time ever that when the players came over to acknowledge the fans, I turned my back and walked out. I felt too many went through the motions and that wasn't acceptable and I'd like tot hink the manager will communicate that to them. Silvestre as captain was a disaster as it was at Burnley last year because he looked absolutely petrified every time the ball came near him- whether he was in possession or had a City player running at him. I said on the forum last week that I would have left this game solely to the kids with only Rosicky in there to provide a bit more cutting edge. At 1-0 the players gave up and that wasn't acceptable. I was looking for the senior pros to at least open their mouths, say something, but none of them did and their body language stuck out like a sore thumb.

Ever get the feeling you're posting something similar to last year...? That's a genuine question by the way, just feels like we're in a limbo.

In regards to the Senior pros not being up for it the way Wenger talks about the competition doesn't help at all. When asked about its importance he always mentions the Premier league and the Champions league as priorities so why would the Senior players not adopt the same attitude? As LD says we might as well not play any Senior pros because going out there with the mind set that the game isnt a "priority" means you cannot be 100% committed to the cause, In fact id go as far to say its not the type of attitude I want anybody from our academy adopting.

3-0

Wyn, you are simply WRONG about AW not shaking Hughes' hand. THANK YOU, FTK! Throughout the entire game Hughes totally baited and disrespected Arsene and then he whinges to the media that Arsene didn't shake his hands! Hughes cursed at him, baited him, yelled at the ref to have his players booked and sent off. So after 90+ mins. of disrespecting ARsene, he expects Arsene to show HIM respect??? And then he whines to the media about it??? It's a DELIBERATE CYNICAL MEANSPIRITED tactic by Hughes to have the media attack Wenger, that's all. He's a lowlife scumbag. He's always hated Wenger and this was totally deliberate on his part.