Arsenal

[London Blue]

Watched most of the game. Have to say I was impressed by our defending and our attacking play up till the 65 minute mark when we really should have bought on Ovido for Pienaar.

 

I think the champs league is still on as the teams above us have to play each other and have some other tough games like Man U, Shite, Villa Away etc. Plus Chelsea and Spurs have horrible fixture congestion.

 

Win at Sunderland at it is still game on!!

Edited April 16, 2013 by London Blue

[pete0]

 

Actually yeah, I would agree with that Pete. I'd have stuck on Oveido/Hitz so we could have had some better link-up between the defenders and attackers but it wasn't Moyes' worst game. There have been times where he deserves criticism but I don't think he should have had it tonight. He wasn't negative as like BlueBlood says he went 4-4-2 and played Barkley. If that would have been the case a few months ago people would be rimming him.

Its just so frustrating that he keeps making the same mistakes. Wenger made changes around 60-70, Moyes should have followed suit. Our players were running on empty.

[chicagoblue]

Defensively we played well throughout. Unfortunately, we couldn't match our pace and intent from the first 10 minutes throughout the match. Think that was a winnable game, but we just didn't get forward with enough purpose or retain enough possession in the final third, or really anywhere. Also, far too sloppy at times. Pienaar and Mirallas especially. Also thought Vic's touch was much looser than it has been.

 

On the plus side, Fellaini was imperious and Ross looked a player. Jags, Distin and Coleman were all excellent. Can only remember the one shot of any consequence.

 

Decent effort, but not enough to take us to Europe I fear.

[Bailey]

Great game that albeit probably not one for the purists! I definitely think that was a fair result too, even if the ref was hopelessly one sided at times.

 

The players gave that a really good go today and win, lose or draw you cant really ask too much more than that. I thought Moyes put out the best team available in their best positions as well. Some of the players in the 2nd half were brilliant, namely Jags, Distin, Coleman and Felli. Barkley was doing well until he came off too.

 

Credit goes to Arsenal as well. When they arent up for it they can be bullied out of the game but when they do have that bit between their teeth they are a very good team and we matched and probably just about bettered them for 70mins until we ran out of steam and they stepped up a gear at the end.

 

The only negatives for me would be the lack of input from the whole left hand side. That was probably as bad as I have seen Baines play this season and Pienaar wasnt much better. I would give Oviedo the run out in our next game ahead of him. Vic was too easily brushed off the ball at times and he could never get control of it. He did work his arse off though. With Moyes, I think the first sub was wrong. I can understand Ross coming off but I would have liked to have seen the pace of Oviedo on the wing with Pienaar shifting centrally. The latter may have at least got on the ball then and helped us keep hold of it. The last two subs took an age to come on as well but other than that it was a really great performance from all concerned. We might not be able to get 4th but if we play like that until the end of the season we will give those above us a bit of a scare!

[Zoo]

I'd like to see Pienaar and Oviedo swap roles. For me Pienaar has been average for too long, he needs to be given a spell on the bench and Bryan needs to show us what he can do. I think he'd shine against Sunderland too as their defence is piss poor.

[Matt]

Great game that albeit probably not one for the purists! I definitely think that was a fair result too, even if the ref was hopelessly one sided at times.

 

The players gave that a really good go today and win, lose or draw you cant really ask too much more than that. I thought Moyes put out the best team available in their best positions as well. Some of the players in the 2nd half were brilliant, namely Jags, Distin, Coleman and Felli. Barkley was doing well until he came off too.

 

Credit goes to Arsenal as well. When they arent up for it they can be bullied out of the game but when they do have that bit between their teeth they are a very good team and we matched and probably just about bettered them for 70mins until we ran out of steam and they stepped up a gear at the end.

 

The only negatives for me would be the lack of input from the whole left hand side. That was probably as bad as I have seen Baines play this season and Pienaar wasnt much better. I would give Oviedo the run out in our next game ahead of him. Vic was too easily brushed off the ball at times and he could never get control of it. He did work his arse off though. With Moyes, I think the first sub was wrong. I can understand Ross coming off but I would have liked to have seen the pace of Oviedo on the wing with Pienaar shifting centrally. The latter may have at least got on the ball then and helped us keep hold of it. The last two subs took an age to come on as well but other than that it was a really great performance from all concerned. We might not be able to get 4th but if we play like that until the end of the season we will give those above us a bit of a scare!

spot on, though to be fair the ref didnt send Gibson off, which was a huge let off. Baines and Pienaar were beaten by good tactics in my opinion, neither did much wrong, nor right...

Edited April 16, 2013 by Matt

[marcopaulo]

Pains me to feel we are a class player or two away from winning these games and gettin the top 4 every year

[Matt]

Pains me to feel we are a class player or two away from winning these games and gettin the top 4 every year

queue Haf and the investment argument

[Zoo]

We're moving in the right direction - that is good enough for me. If we have a decent summer then I think we'll comfortably get into Europe next year.

[marcopaulo]

We are zoo i just worry about replacing the older players..this year was a real chance of top four...that money could have replaced them or at least gone a long way...feels like it is slipping away..and sadly i see it being more difficult next year..a point away to arsenal in their current form is still a good point though

[Zoo]

We are zoo i just worry about replacing the older players..this year was a real chance of top four...that money could have replaced them or at least gone a long way...feels like it is slipping away..and sadly i see it being more difficult next year..a point away to arsenal in their current form is still a good point though

 

Same here. That's what I meant about having a good summer, I think that we need a mass clean out this year and we need to make sure that the players that come in play to the standard that we are at already. It would kill me to see us take two giant steps backwards when we've been so close to Europe in recent years.

[Blue4Ever]

This was really a game we should be going to win 20 mintues to go not shut up shop.

 

We defended well, fellaini was more his usual self think we would have conceded if he played further up the pitch though. pienaar had the worst game i can remember him playing but to be fair he hasnt been at his best for a good few games.

 

Coleman what a buy he was my motm but distan and jagielka were both solid themseves, arsenal will create chances against any opposition at home so i suppose a draw isnt bad and a fair result but we needed to win to really have a chance on champions league draw feels like a loss to be honest but it was a fair result in the end. they missed a few good chances.

 

Baines hasnt been involved much lately. arsenal obviously knew baines would be a big player and he took him out the game by putting him in his own half most the game.

 

need to win at least 4 out of 5 to have a chance on europe.

Edited April 16, 2013 by Blue4Ever

[marcopaulo]

Part of me wishes he'd have gone for it cos i'm not sure how much use a draw is to us...although arsenal dropped points too so you never know..keep positive eh! ;-)

[Bailey]

spot on, though to be fair the ref didnt send Gibson off, which was a huge let off. Baines and Pienaar were beaten by good tactics in my opinion, neither did much wrong, nor right...

True but Gibsons first yellow was a good tackle.

[Blue 250]

That wasn't too bad, we've played worse.Pretty sure the time Ross spent on the pitch will have done him a lot of good, maybe he can replace Fellaini and we can spend the £28 million on 3 really good players next season.

 

Everton are friggin hard to beat, 5th place is still on!

 

Ref would have played 6 extra mins if Arsenal had kept the ball.

[SimonButtle]

Not happy that the ball is hoofed long and just goes off the head of Vic or over him other than that very happy, well done lads good effort.

It was a total waste, the Arsenal CB were much taller than Vic and won every ball, we might as well have stuck Fellaini up front.

We gained a point from a match that we would probably have lost in recent years, Barkley showed he has something to offer the first team, needs to sort out his pass selection though he has some bad habits there. The back four were immense throughout the game, faultless. I thought our problems lay in midfield, Pienaar looks almost a different player at times, im coming to the conclusion that if an offer was to come in the summer for him we should take it. Gibson i find very indifferent, he had a few good challenges, but he gave it away a few times. Maybe we will go back in for Fur in the summer again, who knows? Overall im fairly pleased with tonights result.

[Steve_E]

Good effort from all the lads. Just too bad Vic couldn't make any of the long balls stick to him or head them into the path of a teammate.

 

Hopefully we'll see more from Barkley in that position as well. If only that curler went in.

[Sideliner]

Well done Everton - good first half -

Barkley showed that he should have played much more this season -

Jelavic should have replaced Anichebe -

the moment Barkley went off Arsenal took control of the midfield -

we clearly settled for the draw halfway through the 2nd half -

Baines was disappointing in defence - we should get someone else taking corners on the right hand side of the field

Fellaini showed his worth in a more defensive role -

Coleman fought like a terrier in defence

[Steve_E]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZLJ8HNsmU9c

[Zoo]

SUPER KEV!

 

I think that shows that Moyes told our players to wind Wilshere up.

[Toffee_in_LA]

Gotta admit, I got a kick outta that. Not to mention those youtube comments going on right now

[pete0]

He hasn't looked over his shoulder, mightn't of meant it. I used to poor the first bit out myself.

[Avinalaff]

I saw the 2nd half only, and thought Arsenal looked a lot more comfortable on the ball than we did.

[Zoo]

I saw the 2nd half only, and thought Arsenal looked a lot more comfortable on the ball than we did.

 

They did for most of the game to be honest. They didn't wipe the floor with us but if anyone was going to win it would be them.

[mcirony]

Love this quote from Moyes in response to Arsene Wengers moaning about Everton being physical:

 

"Do you mean when we were a little bit rough with the tackling? Up north we do that quite often. That's actually allowed in football, " he said.

Edited April 17, 2013 by MoyesForPM

[marcopaulo]

wenger is such a tool

[Zoo]

I used to like Wenger but in recent years he's turned into a bit of a nob. We didn't do anything wrong against Arsenal, if they don't like a physical game then they shouldn't be in the Premier League.

[Romey 1878]

I thought we started the game extremely well. We were right in their faces and looked like we could open them up. Not at will but we showed that we had the quality to do it if we put our minds to it. Pienaar really should've buried his chance. It was such an opportunity missed. If he'd have put that away then it would've dented Arsenal's confidence and upped ours. Anichebe had a glorious chance after a lovely slide ball from Barkley. But a great tackle put paid to that chance. Sadly, we obviously couldn't keep up our high standard the whole time and Arsenal got a foothold in the game and showed that they could open us up too. But our defence was right on top of it's game and stopped pretty much everything thrown at them. I was very impressed with our defence last night; particularly in Jagielka and Coleman.

 

Second half we came out and started well again, but it was for a lot shorter time period (5 minutes, 10 minutes max). We didn't do enough going forward and didn't threaten them an awful lot in all honesty. They had control of the game and we just sank deeper and deeper. So we had no out ball either and just resorted to hoofing it mostly. But, once again our defence was magnificent and are the reason we got a point out of this game.

 

A point is better than a loss but I really felt we had to win last night. Fingers are still firmly crossed though.

 

 

Howard - The defence stopped the majority of things but when he was needed he was right there.

 

 

Coleman - Didn't have much opportunity in an attacking sense but what a defensive shift he put in! His defending has always been what could stop him being our first choice RB but last night showed just how far he's come in that regard. He dealt with Gibbs almost flawlessly, and that tackle to stop a certain goal when Chamberlain put the ball across was out of this world. A top draw performance.

 

Jagielka - An absolute rock from start to finish. Nothing was getting past him last night, nothing. The amount of blocks he put in was crazy, and he even came close to getting an assist in the first half. My MOTM.

 

Distin - A different sort of performance from him than his partner, but no less effective. He wasn't there making blocks and putting his body on the line but his pace was paramount in combating Walcott and he did it brilliantly.

 

Baines - Non-existent going forward, but considering he had a wandering Pienaar on his side of the pitch he did quite well defensively. And he did have a lot of defensive work to do because Arsenal really targeted that side of the pitch.

 

 

Mirallas - Before the game I was excited to see Mirallas up against Arsenal's slow defence but he barely tested them. And a lot of his defensive work made me have my heart in my mouth!

 

Gibson - Did well considering his early booking. He knew he couldn't put himself about (which was obviously part of our game plan) so he had to be smart in his defensive play and he managed to provide good cover for the defence.

 

Fellaini - I do love him being a proper midfielder and breaking things up. He was a great barrier for the defence, he broke up a lot of Arsenal's attacks before they could even get to our defence. And he was very effective at bringing the ball out from in front of the defence (in the first half mostly).

 

Pienaar - What a poor, poor game from him again. His passing was terrible, he was actually a bit of a hindrance to our attacks as he was constantly stopping to turn back with the ball, he left Baines totally exposed all game long and he missed a golden chance. I don't know what's going on with him but he needs to sort it out.

 

 

Barkley - I'm not going to go overboard about his performance, like the naysayer's did after his last start. But I was very encouraged by his showing. Being higher up the pitch is definitely where he needs to be played (particularly while he learns, and maybe permanently). He still showed a lack of awareness at times and gave the ball away (that's one reason why higher up the pitch is better; less risk losing it there) but he also showed a lot of intelligence with the ball and played at least three through balls ( ) during the game, one of which Anichebe very nearly slotted home. He also showed a nice bit of skill to completely fool Arteta, and made room for a curling shot that came oh so close to going in in the second half. And as the game progressed he seemed to grow and we actually looked worse once he went off. He has the ability to be a lot more creative than Osman so if we can keep his learning curve going in the right direction we'll have no problem when Osman calls it a day.

 

 

Anichebe - He started the game brilliantly and I really thought he'd bully the Arsenal defence all night and would be why we'd get the three points (if we managed it). But service to him descended into just hoofing it up to him and he had a tough time of it, and just got more and more frustrated as the game wore on. Hopefully he can just put this game out of his mind and carry on his good form in the coming games.

[MikeO]

Did I imagine Sagna pretending he'd been kicked in the head (by Pienaar)?

 

Can't find any mention of it anywhere .

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

Did I imagine Sagna pretending he'd been kicked in the head (by Pienaar)?

 

Can't find any mention of it anywhere .

 

 

No you didn't, he went down clutching his head and then tried to make out he had been caught on the top of the arm