Leeds – Arsenal Highlights and Post Match Thoughts

I've heard that from several people, actually, that they moderate comments based purely on content, and remove comments/ban commenters who disagree with them.

I've discussed with them over twitter. The replies are always bite-back questions that are not fair within the context of the topic. But they have replied every time atleast.
It's sad when fair debate is muted simply because it contradicts.

Who, Le Grove?

That should have been "soon to be second-division team" in the last paragraph.

I prefer Ramzidane to Rambo! Rambo is a little too "Machete"...
Samir Nasridane, Jack Wilzidane, Andre Arshidane,
Marouane Chamzidane, etc....

My only concern ladies and gentlemen is that "WHERE IS OUR CHAMY?"
He looks like a wounded CANARD, somethings goin' on with OUR CHAMY!

The Rocket Bomb by non other than "BACARY SAGNA" the most under rated Right Back
IN DA W O R L D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just hope that his contract is not up soon, as I could hear Madrid knocking on his door.
way to go Bacary....

Yea, unless they are planning to move Sergio Ramos, I think not...

You're funny man, Sagna over Ramos any day brother.
He looked stupid in front of millions during the last el classico. Sagna solid as a rock!
Remember this conversation Feb 16th 2011 at the Mecca of our club.

Oh, so you beleive they will move Sergio Ramos

Thx for the videos!
And that attitude between Cesc and Nasri is beautiful! the way they felt next to each other, man they seem like brothers!

Hey Miquel look dreadful today looks like AW needs a CB for the reserves as well haaha

The Youth team was absolutely woeful. Miquel was brutal. It's shocking that he was on the bench for the 1st team.

Man, y'all are hard core. Watching the youth team matches as well. Do I have to turn in my Arsenal fan card if I don't watch the youth team?

Something to do while working. Split screens are awesome

I've had two screens for at least ten years now and would not give it up for the world.
Just need a card and the special cord from the back of the tower. The coolest part still is moving the cursor from one to the other, just like magic.

I hate to break it to everyone, but the Youth Team lost. 2-1 with the 2nd Chelsea goal right before final whistle. Our defending was awful. Really really bad.

At least Martinez had a good game... OTOH, Miquel was playing that game (and also one of the worst on the pitch), and Yennaris broke his ankle after a horrible tackle. Not a good day for Arsenal Youth.

Yeah, I heard Miquel gave everyone who had been asking "Why not give Miquel a run out to spell Koscielny and Djourou?" a pretty satisfactory and conclusive answer to that question today.

Oh he ain't ready. No, sir. He had a shocker today.

Once again; selling Nordtviet wasn't the best idea.

Yeah, but I think it had gotten to a point where it wasn't tenable. Reports are that Wenger wanted him to say, told him that he would get his chance if he kept working hard, and offered him a very generous new contract (much more than he got at Borussia Hairandteeth, according to reports).

But Nordtveit turned it down, said he thought Wenger had broken his promises, and he wanted out in January so he could play first-team football somewhere else. Obviously I wish something could have been worked out, but when a guy has 5 months left on his contract and says in no uncertain terms he wants out, a manager's hands are pretty much tied, so I can't fault Wenger too much for the sale.

Could've played him alittle! sheesh... :)

But you know as well as I do that had Wenger played him in a league match, and we had lost, the Le Grove crowd would have come out said "wut da fuk wenger whyy dunt u go by sum ecskspearyunced playaz endsted uf deez kidz al da tym!!!" And it would have been "Wenger out" here, and "you can't win anything with kids" there.

I think Wenger did want Nordtveit to play, but Nordtveit was hurt at the beginning of the year and Wenger wanted to wait to use him in the domestic cups, but by that time, I think they had their falling out. I just think Wenger is in a can't win situation -- if he plays the kids, he gets criticized for not buying experienced players. If the kids leave because he plays the experienced players, he gets criticized for not giving them a shot.

You named them! I always thought that was taboo in 'blog land'. Guess not.
There would've been some of that for sure, I agree. And the argument was always CB you want experience, and at RB Eboue was always behind Sagna.
I always thought, and this could be completely wrong, that when Eboue got injured and was supposed to be out for a month or so, Nordtveit was going to get his chance finally. And then he was suddenly fit again, after only a week or something like that. So by my line of thinking, either Nordtviet was finally going to play, and Eboue suddenly being fit screwed him out of playing and he got sick of waiting. Or Nordtviet had a falling out in negotations and that's why Eboue played.
And I think it should be noted that ever since that injury to Eboue, he hasn't looked right out there, and certainly not nearly as explosive as before. To me, at least

Yeah, I probably shouldn't have done it. But to be clear, I was actually talking about their commenters, not their bloggers. I have plenty of disagreements about their bloggers, frequently, too, but their comments section is a grammatical apocalypse, and people really have some crazy opinions over there.

Agreed about Eboue -- people aren't really talking about it too much on a larger level, but he has been abysmal this season. Bad before the injury, even worse after.

For a blog with the label 'Come and have an opinion, not get one' they sure do alot of giving and not much else. I tried commenting there before, and it was an argument against the poster, and it was moderated and never allowed to show up. It was by no way rude or crass or anything. So to me that tells you alot of the narrow-mindedness.
Still though, through all the stuff said there, they do bring up a good point now and then, Pedro especially.

For having a French namesake, the Le Grove crowd sure don't know any grammar conventions at all.
And I understand how Wenger was pretty much helpless over the Nordtviet sale. I'm actually more than a little disappointed with the kid- obviously he didn't have the patience to wait a few weeks before he would have been handed an FA Cup/League Cup start, and now he's at a bottom club. Hey, at least he's starting!

Agree with that 100%. And aside from being self-interested as an Arsenal fan, it just seems like a stupid move for him. He could have stayed here, played in 4-5 cup matches if not more, and gotten his name out there a bit more. Then in the summer, his contract would have been up (although, like with Merida, we would still have been due some compensation) and he could have picked his own team, and I'm sure he would have had plenty of suitors from mid-table sides in some of Europe's best leagues. As it is, he joined a team that's marked for relegation, so he'll either have to switch clubs again at the end of the season, or play next season in the German Second Division.

the kid is 20 years old and had has a couple stop-start seasons already. How can you blame him for wanting to play. And if he is good enough like everyone says, he will get a chance at a top flight club again soon enough.

Didn't say that. But his choice, as I see it (assuming he had made up his mind to leave Arsenal), was either: (a) at least 3-5 first-team (cup) matches for Arsenal, and then be able to choose which team he played for next season, where he would have almost certainly been able to play for a solidly mid-table team in one of Europe's big leagues; or (b) leave and play for Monchengladbach, where he would be able to get 15-20 matches this spring, but then have to play in Germany's second division next season and possibly after that.

So as I see it, he gave up a chance to get on with a mid-table team to go to a second-division team, all so he could play an extra 10-15 matches this season. Just doesn't seem worth it to me.

Ya, but you aren't 20 years old and eager to play anymore are ya Martin? ;)

OK, now y'all have me a bit confused. JG said Wenger was pretty much helpless to sell Nordtveit. Then Martin mentioned we'd have gotten something for him in the summer, even with him leaving as a "free agent."
So that begs the question... Since we didn't exactly get a huge fee for him in his sale, and since we'd get a little something for him in the summer anyway, why did we feel we had "no choice" but to sell him now? And since our club is known for making business decisions almost more than soccer decisions, wouldn't it make more sense to get a tiny bit less for his departure, than to let him leave and then spend additional money in January to replace him?

Well, yes, it would have made more sense. And I honestly think that if Squillaci had gotten injured a month earlier, Wenger might have told Nordtveit he had to stay until the end of the month at least to provide cover. But it seems like an agreement was actually unofficially reached several months earlier, and they just had to wait until January to officially put into action.

I think the "no choice" thing comes into play because (and obviously this is speculation based on reports which may not be 100% true) Nordtveit was really unhappy and had made it clear he wanted to leave the club, so there is a real question as to how useful he would have been had he stayed around. If he was in that mindset, there was no real point in keeping him around.

And from what I understand, we didn't actually get a transfer fee (or not much of one) for him, but instead negotiated a pretty hefty sell-on percentage, so if and when Nordtveit leaves Borussia Hairandteeth, we'll be entitled to a substantial piece of that transfer fee (in the same way that we got some of the money Madrid paid Porstmouth for Lass Diarra). Could end up being a pretty solid piece of business, depending on the particulars.

leeds very class

with the wheater deal sealed and talk of vela's move..is it safe to assume g.cahill is coming to the Emirates?

It may make it more likely, but I still think it's far, far away from being a safe assumption.

Can we all just appreciate the quality of Bendtner's cross one more time? Brilliant. Not a winger, sure, but that was as good a cross as we'll see all season.

And his running with the ball and pass to Nasri leading up to Sagna's goal was also excellent.

Am I becoming a fan of Bendtner?

Yes Sir we have a new right winger (yester best striker in the world) Bendtner and a new Rocket Launcher by the name of S A G N A !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hop on up -- there's plenty of room on the bandwagon and I could use the company.

I've honestly been a fan for quite awhile, but, unfortunately it was more for hair and number than play (except when he bailed us out a few times late in games). I'm not sure where he fits in the squad, though.

Ive been a Bendtner fan for a long time, he was my first and still is my favorite Arsenal jersey, but he performed better then he has as a striker on the wing, and it was definetly his best game this season.....i liked how he contributed to two goals

Yeah, good on you for defending Arsenal Brasil. It was a fair interview, and it wasn't in any way a "gotcha" or trick question designed to get Denilson to say what he said. And they didn't mistranslate. They weren't trying to make him look bad or make a name for themselves in any way.

I think Denilson just had an "oh shit" moment when he realized what the fallout would be, and knew he had to try to distance himself from it somehow. His claims that he was only referring to the fact that the squad was young & inexperienced is complete crap, since in that exact same portion of the interview he said young players could be great leaders and that leadership had nothing to do with age. And his claim that he was mistranslated is false as well.

He had to say something to distance himself from it, I just hate that he had to throw them under the bus, since they didn't do anything at all wrong. But the most important thing is that since the interview has been released, everyone involved has acquitted themselves pretty well -- Denilson backpedaled from his comments, Cesc and Wenger have completely downplayed it, and the team is just focusing on winning instead of dealing with this sort of distraction. All as it should be.