Arsenal 0 - Aston Villa 2

Long balls don't work against a team set up like Villa and to win the second ball you have to have players close to the target man. It isn't a tactic for us and we wasted much of the first half in a silly attempt to pick Bendtner out. Bendtner took a lot of flak - unfairly for the most part - for a tactic that lacked imagination and creativity. The midfield set up was awful. Walcott can run very fast indeed and - well that's about it really.

well as hes suspended then we will see if there is life after cesc

You guys getting nervous about qualifying for the Champions league this season?Villa probably should have won by more than 2,thats a bit unheard of for you at the emirates!Not trying to wind you up,its an honest question

Sometimes as a fan you really do just have to accept critisism if it's the general consensus, however much you don't want to hear it and would prefer to adopt a siege mentality. Let me explain - the last two years Liverpool have taken it hard in the press over their league form and there have been three major bones of contention that jouro's always harped on about with us (bear with me there is a point to this). 1 - Zonal Marking. In this case the press were just being xenophobic to a foreign system. Yes we were initially suspect with it but once we got it working properly we became one of the tightest defences in the league. 2 - Rotation. Again some of the press's views were over-simplified and narrow-minded, but we have cut out the unnecessary changes this year and it's yielding results. 3 - width. Every reporter in the country used to scream about our lack of genuine width - we signed Riera and suddenly put the three together and it's starting to look good for us. Now this is relevant to Arsenal I think because everyone keeps going on at you about signing some big-name experienced players. They don't even have to be superstars outright so long as they are quality and proven and capable of filling the glaring holes in the Arsenal system. You need a centre-back, you definitely need an anchorman and you could probably do with another striker to ease the burden on Adebayor when RVP is missing (as he is frequently). What I'm saying though is that this is what rival fans and journo's have been telling you all season and still Wenger defends his young team. I'm sorry but what is the point in beating Manure only to lose the next week? If it were an isolated case then I could understand, but that's four defeats this season now for you lot. Spend in January or risk losing your CL place. (By the way I'm not actually doing a 'told you so' or anything, I want Arsenal to keep their CL place).

honestly, out of our 6 shots on taget, how many of them really troubled their keeper? the closet we got was Ade's header against the outside of the post. Wenger really should play a youth side in PL to wake up the starting eleven. we lose anyway. with a youth side, we don't feel as angry if we lose.

By 'We're just lucky that the likes of Villa, Everton, Pompey, etc. haven't been consistent enough to challenge us either' I meant up to this game. Now after beating us fair and square, Villa have indeed started their challenge at this point. In fact pre-season I thought they were the best equipped team to challenge the top 4, not Spurs, not Everton. They were a strong team that also came 3rd in terms of net spend on summer transfers. With less rotation (don't know if that's MON's policy or what) and UEFA Cup, it'll be very interesting to see how Villa cope with the increased workload and progress this season. If we lost to MU and beat Villa, we wouldn't be having this conversation. But as it stands, we lost to the very team that's currently standing the best chance of taking our/a CL place by bringing us and them level on points.

I anyone really shocked? Yet another shocking performance from Fabregas...The boy is either burnout from his summer with Spain or he doesnt want to be here. I cannot think of 1 game he has dominated yet this season, Denilson has been doing the job asked of him for the last 5 games and still no upturn in performance from Fabregas, If the squad is as good as Wenger has been telling us then Diaby or Ramsey should be starting ahead of him now or at least replacing him when he is constantly giving up possesion and many times in dangerous areas. Wenger says he wont buy because he doesnt want to impede the youth players coming through? Where were the youth players yesterday? Wenger would rather fiddle around with formations than substitute of replace players like for like i.e RVP out Vela in, Walcott playing like a poor mans Aaron Lennon Wilshere in, Centre backs all at sea play Djourou. The league season is over in terms of winning the title....we have gone backwards and 4th is now the only aim and we must aim to secure it by the time the champions league knockouts start. Congratulations to any Villa fans reading by the way...superb and good to see your youngsters getting the call ups they deserve.....oh and Mike Riley.... your a c*@t and a clear cheat with some problem with Arsenal judging by your differing opinions of stopping play for Villa players but not ours.

Mike Riley is a first-class twerp, of that there is no question. I've just seen the replays of the second Villa goal and Vela was definitely fouled. Not that we deserved anything from the match. It's come to us having to rely on Bendtner playing alone upfront and simply not being good enough to do so. I'm sick and tired of hearing about how young we are, we had a very young midfield blah blah blah, like its some kind of excuse for whenever we lose. Arsene has taken the decision to go this way, it's not been forced on us. I know people are saying we could do well in the cups but I honestly don't think we can. How can you when you have no consistency.

With all do respect, it may have been a foul for the 2nd goal, but to say he's a cheat and against Arsenal is a bit of an overstatement. Maybe he was making up for the 15 minutes of extra time he added to the game at the Emirates last year that came from nowhere. I still don't see you guys slipping the 4th spot. I think Liverpool will fall soon enough, they always do.

How did Denilson fare in terms of tackling?

Memory can be even more misleading prits. I can't find the 6th but attempts on target that I can find are Cesc 14 & 83mins, Walcott 58 mins, Denilson 73 mins & Gallas 91 mins.