• devday

  It’s been a decent start – West Ham have had marginally more possession.

  Van Persie scored after some good work from Sagna, who crossed the ball well, Green tipping the ball into the path of Van Persie.

• devday

  West Ham are pressing… Carlton Cole is a beast

• devday

  PS, if we do win, we’d be on 21 points from 9 games – Man United have 22 from 10 and 24 from 10!

• devday

  2-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gallas from a VP corner!

• wills

  That’s how to take a corner! Great delivery and a brilliant header!

• Berth

  good work from Diaby and Eboue so far.

• devday

  Behrami fouled Cesc 3 times in a row under the ref’s nose and no yellow card

• devday

  Carlton Cole is like a different person all together than the player we saw last year – transfer speculation, he is coming to Arsenal in Jan from the commentators!

• devday

  Cesc – What a strike! Amazing strike… so unlucky not to score…

• devday

  West Ham have had a few dangerous moment… but then Arshavin’s just had a great strike!

• devday

  Arsenal 2 – 1 West Ham – Carlton Cole

• Pete

  Bugger! 2-2

• devday

  Absolute disgrace from the referee. How on earth was that a penalty – West Ham are the luckiest team in the world – 2-2…

• Debs

  Bloody Arsenal!

• wills

  Looked so comfortable at half time, such a shame we didn’t close the game out, this was a great chance to put United and Chelsea under some real pressure.

• Debs

  Anyone else absolutely MAD with us? TWICE in the same bloody week! There I was looking forward to being on virtual top spot! It sort of seems we can’t handle the pressure nowadays? Maybe that’s what London derbies do to you. And guess what’s next in the league? Another frigging derby! Urghhh! It’s so frustrating sometimes, the way we can’t win games when we’ve been coasting for massive periods of times.

• sam

  That was just painful.

• Debs

  I kinda thought playing Mannone would come bite us back in the bum, and it did! The first goal was the turning point. Didn’t think I’ll be saying it, but please bring back Almunia. Not saying Mannone isn’t good enough- he’s fabulous! But I don’t think he’s ready to play week in week out just yet, especially with all the other keepers fit.

• Debs

  OK, I’ve vented. I guess you can’t win 100% of the time. As long as we don’t make it a habit, all will be forgotten Bring on the Spuds!

• Berth

  Arsenal cant win the league. May be the Carling cup is feasible but not the league.

• Debs

  ‘Course we can, Berth. Chelsea and Man U aren’t killing teams off either, and that will only play into our hands. Man U and Chelsea and Liverpool WILL drop loads of points this season. I think we stand a better chance of winning it this season than any other season, because I feel as if the quality of the opposition has dropped ever so slightly, whilst we’ve remained the same, or even arguably, we’ve improved ever so slightly. There’s still hope people!
  That’s what I think anyways!

• sam

  The way we throw points away is worrying, otherwise we’re still up there, and we’re still one of only 3 real title contenders.

• VJ

  youre wrong bearth were third with game in hand, wenger is going to kill the team you can bet, he looked so furious, same old story, dominate till 75min then we screw up, fuk that was annoying, we need to start killing off the game, we didnt even try in the second half just passed the ball around, no real intent, were taking it far too lightly at the moment, even at 2-1 we assumed a third goal would come, never thought they would equalize, mannone not great might get dropped against sp*rs for manuel, hopefully we can beat liverpool. we cant do this against tottenham our defense is still weak, sagna and clichy need to get back quicker, fabregas sorry to say didnt play great for once and didnt really lead the team like he should have. this is exactly what the pundits have been saying, just hope we can recover.

• jien

  maybe we are really lacking strenght and size at the back..kind of hurts me when i see cole holding up the ball with 3 of our defenders surrounding him but still lost to him. perhaps we should try rotating our CB according to our opponents? like using senderos for this game instead of gallas….

  2-0 in a football game is never enough, unless it is into stoppage time already. so sad tat today we lost 2 points…huh

• Berth

  Debs its good to be optimistic but in reality and modern day its extremely difficult for a team that has won nothing to win a league esp the premiership. if we are to win a trophy players like Arshavin and fab and the back four should be able to handle pressure. We are just weak under pressure, so weak that we cant win tough and winning tough is a characterisic of champions. And again Diaby and Ebuoe should not be starting away from home. Its very sucidal.

• Pete

  Guess we can welcome back the doom and gloomers after a few weeks of good wins.

  Even though we drew it feels like a loss. Its such a shame as the first half was sooooooooo good. Agree with you Deb, Manone has shown class, especially at Fulham, but he’s made mistakes in the last few weeks. Arsenal deserve an experienced keeper between the sticks.

  Fair play to West Ham though!

  Title race is still open, though performances like that wont help. It’ll be won by the top 4 team who makes the least mistakes, but at the minute thats quite hard to tell who that’ll be.

  Chin up Gooners, got to be philosophical about these things.

• Berth

  Debs its good to be optimistic but in reality and modern day its extremely difficult for a team that has won nothing to win a league esp the premiership. if we are to win a trophy players like Arshavin and fab and the back four should be able to handle pressure. We are just weak under pressure, so weak that we cant win tough and winning tough is a characterisic possesed by champions. And again Diaby and Ebuoe should not be starting away from home. Its very sucidal.

• Pete

  Well the reality is we’ve hammered most of our opposition so far this season by huge scorelines. Thats not being optimistic, thats a fact. Our goal difference and points-per-game tell us that. The downside to making such a good start to a season is that supporters get disgruntled with lesser wins or draws. Yes, today was a bad day at the office for us, and we should be hard on ourselves for it, but its not the end of the season. Far from it. Best thing to do is put it behind us asap and carry on.

  Chelsea, United and Liverpool have all had terrible results already too and on more than one occasion, and it wont be the last. We’re not immune from days like that either, but what can work in our advantage is that our rivals look like they will drop more points to so-called “lesser” teams this year than in previous seasons.

  And in Diaby’s defence, he does seem to be improving.

• Gooner Get Ya

  What the he’ll is wrong with arshavin. Is it just me that thinks he strolls around looking pissed off most of the time. Doesn’t look like he is enjoying it at all.

• wills

  Arshavin didn’t look comfortable at all today, kind of the same against Fulham, I don’t think he’s used to the smaller English grounds where the fans are so close to the pitch like that.

  The only thing I don’t like about Arsenal sometimes, is the inability to close out a game, three examples this season, United away, and the past two games. If Chelsea or United were 2-0 up at HT at Upton Park, you can guarantee 9 times out of 10 West Ham would’ve got nothing.

  On to the next game though, hopefully we’ll give Liverpool a good game on Wednesday, the result will depend on who Liverpool put out, Tottenham on Saturday though is a must win.

• Debs

  I think the worst thing about today was the fact that we did a Man City! They were 2nil up and ended up drawing, and that felt good! Then we go and do the same! We’re definitely a better team than City, and our result would have only given them a bit more confidence. It would have been more frustrating if man U had won today. They didn’t, and frankly, they never looked like doing so anyways, so it wasn’t that bad a day in the office for us. An away win would have been sweeter, ofcourse.
  But yeah, we’re up to 3rd with a game in hand, and as long as we learn these lessons today, they become experience for tomorrow.

• Marc Callan

  I am disappointed with the draw(feels luke a loss) however I think the goalkeeper was not that bad, he was unfortunate with two east given fouls that contributed to the goals…

  Van nearly got us the 3rd but unfortunately good save by green…Honestly the team needs to learn from their failures…I don’t think it’s good enough us thinking Carling Cup win is good enough for this club, I see this team and club winning something better…

  It’s time for this team to grow up and stop losing to the “lesser” teams…I have full faith in this team it’s just frustrating…

• Debs

  Yeah, Mannone made a few great saves, and even if he had repeated his stunning performance from Fulham, I still think it’s time to give him a break for a while. Remember he had only played one or two first-team games for us before he suddenly became our only available goalie. I just don’t thikn he’s ready just yet. Imagine if Wenger was playing Wilshere all the time, just because he had those stunning games in the Emirates Cup. It’s a similar situation here. Mannone is definitely on his way to being world-class, if he isn’t even there yet, but I don’t think now is his time. Few more mistakes here and there will only dent the confidence he’s acquired so far.

• Debs

  And true Marc Callan- if not for Green’s last minute save, we could have won 3-2. But I guess ‘could’ isn’t good enough. I think we’ve definitely got it in us to win more than the Carling Cup or FA cup. I’d be disappointed if we ended the season with only one or the other. We should be able to do better.

• Marc Callan

  Totally right Debs, it’s fair enough to say we need to win silverware but I much rather win nothing than win the Carling Cup…The Club is better than that…

  As said in previous blogs by other people, we need to learn…

• Al

  How ever you look at it today was a dissapointing result. 2.0 up to eventually draw. I still think or hope we will win the leauge but if we dont these are the games why. Champions win these sort of games. Still a long way to go tho, but we gota learn from these mistakes. Been saying that for years now but we never seem to learn.

• Bonathan

  It’s time we introduced almunia back into the first team. He should have played today. Bad goalkeeping error for their first goal. Don’t get me wrong, mannone as done well in his run in the team, but he is still prone to big mistakes and i don’t know why wenger has left it for this long. Fair enough to reward him with last weekend and maybe europe, but today should have been almunia. You gotta know when to take them back out. Be interesting who plays in midweek, cos almunia could do with a game before the north london derby. unless he sticks with VM.

  penalty was harsh but it was a needless challenge from song.

  Diaby is still hit and miss. I thought wenger might have made a change when you could see the tide of the match was changing. Would have been a wise move, but he left it till after they equalised. a mistake in my opinion. Why was Nasri on the bench if he had no intention of bringing him on?? He would have been an ideal person to come on at that point.

• mesol

  Yes, as I said earlier, bring back Almunia..it is just a stubborn silly decision by Wenger to still stick with Mannone..Experience needed here..Mannone is good and sincerely I think he’s better than Fabianzski but it is not his time yet..few games back is just like one hit wonderfor from him..

• VJ

  guys every team going to drop points the main point is that we don’t have that many concerns we can score every game, we just need to close them down better and that will come, soon hopefully, with experiance, once players like nasri and rosicky who know this come back we will be fine, next week united play chelsea, in that game any result is good for us, we need to focus on beating the scumbags sp*rs and closing the gap on them, were only 5 points of chelsea witha game in hand, so if they lose or draw against united and we win our game in hand then were top of the league, were not in panic mode yet

• wills

  Just watched the highlights again and I have to say, the refereeing was awful!

  He got 4 major decisions wrong – the free kick they scored from wasn’t a foul, they should’ve had a penalty when Gallas tripped Parker (not given), the penalty they scored from wasn’t a foul, and Parker shouldn’t even have had a free kick given against him when he got sent off.

  All in all they probably balance themselves out but refereeing of that standard shouldn’t be allowed in the Premier League.

  @VJ, good point about United and Chelsea playing next weekend, I’m hoping for a draw, which means if we beat Spurs and win the game in hand we’re top on GD and 2 pts ahead of United.

• patrik

  Hello guys… Rather disappointing end to a game we should have won comfortably. Still not learnt how to kill teams off – will we ever learn? This team is a testament to AW’s philosophy but something is definitely missing. That special ingredient I feel is another ‘ant!’ Let me explain. David Ginola said a perfectly balanced side is a mixture of ants and butterflies. It is clearly obvious we have many beautiful butterflies in our team too many in fact and not enough ‘ants’ I.e WORKERS! What I would give to see a good old fashioned ENGLISH midfield grafter in that side. Someone like a Parlour, Keown, Keane, Robson, Vieira (I know PV, RK, arn’t English but I hope your intelligent enough to understand) or from todays lot of players a Parker or even a Bullard. Someone who won’t care what player it is but will let them know if they are not pulling their weight in a game. I believe Wilshire could be that guy but alas maybe 1 or 2 years away. 2) This may be a contentious point but I believe all is not right right with AA. He has said some things in the press already about London, England the EPL and it was clear yesterday he is – at this moment – simply going thru the motions. In fact save for his wonder strike against UTD I can honestly say he has been pretty average this season so far. There must have been good reason why he was at Z St. P’s for so long in his career and why he hasn’t played for a top side before now. Maybe 2nd season syndrome? I feel that IF he continues to show a lack of appetite and a lack of respect to his team-mates then maybe we should look to exchange him for Hleb, Flamini or someone of that ilk come January. There is no disguising the fact that all is not well in Andre’s world right now.

• Debs

  Vermaelen’s that kind of guy.
  Arshavin’s definitely still in 2nd gear, or at the worst, in neutral! But I think most of the players HAVE been playing in 2nd gear as well.
  He’s definitely a big game player, and I guess the game against Sp*rs will show us whether he generally can’t be bothered or like the rest of the team, he’s simply just taking him time to get into his stride. I don’t really mind the fact that it’s taking him so long to get into his groove, because there’s still a long way to go in the season, and as far as I’m concerned, I’d rather he was at his best mid-way through the season, than if he was firing on all cylinders now and ends up fizzling out as the season comes to an end. I definitely don’t think we should exchange him for anyone! Not at all! I’m sure he’ll come good as the season reaches it’s crucial point- that’s when we need all our big game players.

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