On 58 minutes I turned to my wife (pictured above) in Oscar's bar in Lipscan, Bucharest and said, "It's going to be a long 30 minutes!" I had spent the first half wondering if Walcott was injured. When he came on, with McCartney at left back, there was only ever going to be one winner.
All summer I warned, either we buy two full backs or we are in trouble, but amazingly the obvious deficiency in the squad and team was not addressed. So today, McCartney, a carthorse in the Championship, was our only option at left back, and when Demel was injured - and his fitness record aint great is it? - Tomkins came on to play at right back. Game over!
To be fair to McCartney, only one goal came from Arsenal's right and Collins and Jussi have to share the blame. True Linda was trailing in Walcott's wake, but that was inevitable. Collins, however, was yet again at fault, playing the England man onside by dropping a yard deeper than the rest of the backline, and Jussi's positioning was wrong: where Green stood on his near post in the play off final and invited a shot across him into a gaping net, Jussi allowed far too much space at the neat post and paid the price. Credit to Walcott, he took the goal well, but Jussi made it unnecessarily easy for him.
That was as good as curtains, but Allardyce ensured an Arsenal victory when he then withdrew Diame and sent on Cole. The thinking exactly? We needed to score to save the game so why on earth, based on current form, would you send on Carlton? Meanwhile, the removal of Diame threw open the door for wave after wave of Arsenal attacks. It was a dumb decision and Arsenal rammed home a third almost immediately to prove the point.
Any pluses? Diame's goal was sublime. Noble's reverse ball into Vaz Te was as good and but for a professional block before the collision with the keeper would have almost certainly resulted in a goal. Noble knockers might also like to note that two Arsenal players were booked for fouls on him and Carroll should have scored from a Noble corner.
Diame made a mistake for Arsenal's equaliser but, that apart was very good. He is a huge presence in midfield. And Nolan could, and should, have scored twice.
We lost and Arsenal deserved to win. But so what? Arsenal will finish in the top four and will win many more games than they lose. We move on. The big worry centres on Demel. If he is out for a run of games, we will struggle.
Player ratings: Jussi 5; Demel 7, Collins 5, Reid 6, McCartney 5; Noble 6 Diame 8; Jarvis 5, Nolan 6, Vaz Te 4; Carroll 6 Subs: Taylor 6, Cole 4, Tomkins 5
24 comments:
The debate is already on. Was that a very impressive Arsenal performance or are west ham just shite?
You forgot- outwitted,outshone,outmanoeuvred,outrun,with your out dated style of football,out of the closet you cockney bum bandit.
Just like your daddy and grandaddy told u, let's just stay up and have a run in the cup. Come on the irons!! Please can one of u just let me know just what is the point exactly?
Smashed ......pmsl u dog dick ;).....now we will begin to see you sink to where u belong .....gina b fun ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
But if shite ham had of won by a penalty ! Then that wud b fine eh ? ...Wot a cock u r fella .
You warned all summer that w,ham needed to strengthen the defence? And the management and coaching staff took no notice? How dare they? I reckon all us Leeds supporters should get in touch with the club and vouch for you and your valuable opinions. Don't you just love george mccartney though?
out of interest, who would you have us sign to play full back?
One constant in every game this year: Collins, at being god awful. Every game he looks scarce and scared. JT and Reid are young and talented. I don't understand the week in and week out selection of Collins.
Us HF
Why are these Leeds supporters worried about West Ham? Its not like they are gonna be in the same league as us next season!!
I think you got the match ratings wrong though HF, my opinion is Jussi 6; Demel 7, Collins 5, Reid 8, McCartney 6; Noble 5 Diame 8; Jarvis 5, Nolan 5, Vaz Te 4; Carroll 7 Subs: Taylor 5, Cole 4, Tomkins 5.
I think Reid was immense at the back, again. I am a big fan of Noble but think he gave the ball away more than usual as well. And Nolan should of scored so gets marked down.
You see, in my opinion, blogs like these are about having an opinion and a debate about football matters. Very easy to turn it into personal attacks and not actually talk about football.
Guess if thats your mentality then no matter how silly you look you cant change that.
Agree Noble gave away possession twice but also did more with the ball than any of the others, apart from Diame's goal. Yes Nolan should have scored, as I said, but he at least got on the end of things and found the space.
Collins has been poor all season. I wanted him back but he is making a crucial mistake every game. He lost his man for the first goal - albeit Arsenal constructed the goal superbly - and played Walcott onside for the second. Expensive errors.
Was Reid that good? Arsenal had to many shots for any defender to get 8 in my opinion Appy.
Spunkbreath!
Your wife must be a right slag if she tolerates your porn obsession and does nowt to stop it. See you have a penchant for teenage girls too. Filthy cockney paedo.
Collins and McCartney too slow for premiership football, hence two goals that need not have been scored. No one else to replace McCartney but James Tompkins far better than Collins in every respect except for experience, and that is the only plus that I can think of why he is in the team.
AppyAmmer I admire your confidence in Leeds but to be honest the only way we will get promoted is through the play offs and we've never really been a cup side. As such it pains me to say it but looks like we will have play (and no doubt beat) West Ham a couple of times next season after all.
Btw love the comment about debating all things football as wasnt it you hurling all the racist abuse to that poor fan the other day? With all due respect to HF there WOULDNT BE a blog if comments were restricted to debates over football issues as the articles are not good enough to stimulate this (go on, have a look at the comments and tell me I'm wrong). That said I thoroughly enjoy my time on this site hence the reason I keep coming back.
Anyway, whay are you so upset? Thought you were supposed to be appy?
i see your noble arse lickin continues. even if he was as shit as the rest of west hams team.
Appyhammer is right about one thing, we won't be playing in the same league next season. We will be swapping places
08:32 learn to spell you cretin! "Arsenal had to many shots" WTF?!. - Even 11 year old schoolboys can do better than that.
as soon as you play a decent team ya get ruined,its gonna b a long hard season for west ham buddy!
out----of the closet
why have you got pornographic images of women shooting each other as the picture for this story?
The story board is called outgunned. That is pornographic? My, you are a Presbytarian kill joy aren't you?
Hammer you into snuff as well? Its no wonder you live in Romford
Like most people, you don't go far enough back in the chain of events for the cause of Walcott's goal. Poor decisions by a couple of players to commit themselves forward in the attack from which Arsenal countered. But mostly NOLAN, the slowest player in the Prem, failed to track Giroud in the effort to stall the counterattack. He made a halfhearted attempt at the ball instead of following Giroud and preventing that pass out. Nolan is a tremendous liability against quick possession teams. I've got a better,quicker midfield defender in my U14 team here in Canada!
20:17 you're from a bygone age... where people like you, Gary Glitter and Jimmy Saville had a very misogynistic view of women.
Let's hope no low life turns your girl in to a "glamour" model, eh? #sicko.
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