Team News: Birmingham v. Arsenal

Like the lineup too. Chamakh rested?

Hehehe that slight deflection makes it even sweeter! Robin needed a goal to get his confidence back. Nice strike!

Yet another *****ty club,championship at best.

It will cost us GunnerLou......... it always does.

You always get the sense we're going to rue those missed chances. I don't think the conditions/pitch are helping though, dare I say they're more suited to the type of percentage game that Birmingham play.

what were the fans on here slabbering about foreigners and diving by a wigan player.i hope you are brave enough now to come out and say the same about that diving foreigner van persie.not so mouthy now are you.

What dive??? And penalty??? When??

why u mad johnney

no dive obviously all the experts are all wrong then.i take it you arent watching the match.the slow motion shows an oscar winning performance by persil for the free kick he scored from.

***** this another chance goes begging.....we are so going to pay for those missed chances.

Coming on here when we're battling these dirty, tugging, stamping, mouth breathing scumbags and pulling us up over making sure the ref saw a foul lol. What a halfwit. Naaaaaaaaaassssssriiiiiiiiiii u feckin beauty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My my Johnny did you see what Lee Bowyer did to Sagna? No? Well he stamped on Sagna deliberately. That Dirty foreigner.........Sagna that is. Poor Lee led into temptation by that dirty French frog, tut tut, hope he gets over it quickly. Lee that is.

ha ha get in, pick that out

3-0 up where the frig are the subs? vp and cesc should be cosying up on the bloody bench as soon as that tw*t turned the 3rd into his own net

Yeah Niko, some of the Gooners there were singing the Arshavin song earlier in second half so I thought he's warming up.

Seriously tho, come on Arsene ffs! nas vp and cesc off - we know how malicious these McCleish led dogs are, we're asking for trouble.

***** and now my stream has gone

94912

we want 4, we want 4!!

Are we gonna keep our first clean sheet for two months? Am I asking too much? corners to the Arse, everyone up inc fabianski probably :)

RvP has again done his best in keeping the scoreline normal... Nice ball in and his weak header got saved. Now a Brum break sent the ball in through the middle, Fabi stayed alert to save.

ooh awesome cross into VP whose header back across goal was just too soft. With wins for manure, citeh and the scum the pressure was really on us here today to keep apace and with our recent history of combustion here it's been a great showing. Whistle blown on a 4/5ths empty Julie Andrews.

Thanks for the updates guy's and 3 more points.

Creditable performance from the team today though they could have run up a cricket score with the kind of chances on offer. Thats 7 points out of a possible 9 in the last 3 games which is decent. The wigan game was dissapointing but the reaction to the result from many quarters was surprising - it was as if we had dropped out of the title race.

McLeish says van Persie didn't dive but did have a handball in the box. Fair assessment.

C'mon Vin there's rotation and then theres rotation 3 more of todays players playing 3 days ago and vice versa IMO wouldn'tve affected todays result but may well have had a bearing against the pie loving egg chasers. Still it's dusted now and we look ahead to mankini and the oil mercenaries.

So if we beat Wigan with the Chelsea 11 and draw here because of lack of energy what's the points difference GV? A little rotation is always necessary but 8 from your 1st 11?

We had a nailed on penalty denied us in the Wigan game so I guess what goes round comes around. Would rather we'd got the decision at the DW and today's had been given though!

Niko/Iceman - I take on board your points. These things are always easier with hindsight I guess. I still maintain we were in a winning position against Wigan and our draw there wasn't just down to rotation. My gripe at Wigan was us generally taking the foot off the pedal in the 2nd half there and Wenger not bringing on Nasri and Walcott earlier.

Bowyer stamps on Sagna: http://arsenalist.com/video/?id=xgdc7m

mind you it's still early.

Why so much focus on the award of RVP's free kick in the media? I thought he was pulled off balance. Pity no-one has yet shown the incident from another angle but it seems to me the Birmingham player hooks his arm just to put him off. I think even Mcleish realises this when he watches the replay. Want to see a real dive? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HleeT_8FBrg

We didn't draw against Wigan because of rotation-there's too much talk about AW's 8 changes - tho I think 8 was too much. He's done that 3 times before and never won a game - lost twice and drew once (before Wigan on Wednesday). Maybe 5 changes might've been enuf. Why Theo didn't start is beyond me. We drew against Wigan because of crap, incompetent training and coaching our players get at set pieces (we've conceded half our goals this season from set pieces). We drew because we showed less urgency and intent than we did against Chelsea. It's staggering that a manager of the stature of AW at a club of our stature comes out with a comment that exposes his total failure to prioritize set piece training. His comment on the failure of anyone to take charge at set pieces exposed this-it's as if he thinks he has no responsibility to drill his players into communication, organization, having someone take charge at set pieces. Really unbelievable comment. It proves that our problems are NOT the players we have or don't have but the COACHING and TRAINING they're getting (or failing to get). As for today's game-superb result. Whether or not RVP "dived," I don't care. Teams that go out to kick and assault the way Bham did deserve every single possible dirty trick played against them. They deserve no respect, no sportsmanship whatsoever. We have absolutely nothing to apologize for for today's game.

If theres one thing we've learned as Arsenal fans it's that resting players rarely has the desired effect, we generally don't get a good result from the makeshift team sent in to do the job and not only that but the A team often subsequently turn in sub par performances in the game they're supposed to have been rested for, which was why today was such a nice surprise I guess. You say rotation wasn't the cause Jaelle but then go on to say 8 changes was too much and that 5 would've been adequate? I too think 5 changes would've been likely the optimum given the close proximity of the games to maintain some kinda continuity in the side but if 8 was too much then it must've had some bearing on why points were dropped otherwise why was it too much?

Don't be Tony Cocky Horror, run off and play with your geriatric golden balls. and Please please play the old tart against us.

If you do decide to play the old codger maybe we'll draft in Merson again for one game just to even things up. Sound fair?

I can't wait to see golden tadger inflict his ruthless, sun drenched, spurting revenge on your wee Frenchies. After all, he's a Spurs lad at heart!!! As for Merson..the old **** would never pass the drugs test!!

Still there's probably another ghost written autobiography in it. "From the Galaxy to Uranus" - with the by header "hollywood boulevard to Wipe Shart lane, a riches to rags story.

A man who supports ARSE nal might wanna go easy on the botty references. I can see it on the silver screen too: the return of England's favourite footballing son to play for England's finest team. Well, it's better than the 'Itchy Hemorrhoids Stadium Mystery'.

The stat on set piece goals conceded is a bit misleading as it includes penalties and free kicks like Alex's at SB which I suppose you can train to try to stop but not with any great chance of success. It's true though they we do have a problem with defending at set pieces though it isn't quite as bad as some would believe. That isn't down to lack of training or competence as much as it is to the lack of familiarity between our central defenders. Even with Vermalen back it would be 4 players who had never played together before this season. They'll get better together but it won't be a strength of this side over this season.

Was it just me or did everyone get ******** irritated by the camera at St Andrews?? I couldn't see clearly what happened at the other end of the pitch

Amos I would like to look at the stats for set piece goals excluding penalties and free kicks that went directly into the goal. That would be a better indication of our defensive frailties at set pieces

Brilliant Niko - LOL! I see delusional Tony disappeared...

G_V. Why not Andy Serkis to recreate Gollum to play Luka Modric LOL