7-5!

as an arsenal fan I was appalled by the performance, there werent too many players that you can say played well. Theo and Giroud are the only ones I can think of who excelled. cant see what Arsenes beef is with Theo, he wants to stay at the club, he is one of our best players and we need to hold on to him.

Defence was poo, Jenkinson did well.. Need a stronger team if we are going to progress to Semi's because you know we will get Man U or Chelsea
 
But if you can score more than the pooey defines concedes,( a la kev keegans Newcastle from way back)then surely it makes for an exciting edge of your seat game!
 
philly169 said:
as an arsenal fan I was appalled by the performance, there werent too many players that you can say played well. Theo and Giroud are the only ones I can think of who excelled. cant see what Arsenes beef is with Theo, he wants to stay at the club, he is one of our best players and we need to hold on to him.

Defence was poo, Jenkinson did well.. Need a stronger team if we are going to progress to Semi's because you know we will get Man U or Chelsea
Click to expand...

Wenger bloodied some youngsters and also players that havent seen a lot of first team football for various reasons. Yes they didnt start very well but all things considered it was a brilliant result. The jury is still out with Walcott. In my opinion if it wasnt for his exceptional pace he wouldnt of made it as a footballer. His touch and footballing brain isnt the best, Wenger wants to pay him what he thinks he is worth and not a penny more.If he goes for more money so be it.
 
A few points, now i've had a few hours to process what happened.

First half was the worst 45 minutes of football i've seen from an Arsenal side. Even worse than the 8-2 at Old Trafford last season. Absolutely gutless showing.

Second half/Extra-Time was much better. A bit of desire was discovered at half time and players were wanting to pull it back for each other and the supporters. A quality effort. Giroud changed the game, and Chamakh showed that there is still a footballer in there when his confidence is high. Him and Giroud complimented each other nicely.

Walcott. His best performance in an Arsenal shirt, by far. The noises are that he should be due a start at United on Saturday, but the frustrating thing is that we all know he will spend 90 minutes hiding behind the left-back, shying away from the ball. He is that inconsistent, and there is his problem. One thing I will note though, is that i'd thought he had probably had his head turned in the Summer, and had lost interest in the Arsenal cause. His performance last night put that idea to bed though, fair play to him. I hope he gets his contract extension.
 
....are you not entertained........!


All games should be this exciting. Nil-nil st Johnston v Dunfermline just isn't worth the cash.

I like the American idea, bigger goals and if a draw at full time then.....MMMMmmmmmmmuuulllllllltttiiiiiibaaaaaalllllllllllll:whistle:
 
philly169 said:
as an arsenal fan I was appalled by the performance, there werent too many players that you can say played well. Theo and Giroud are the only ones I can think of who excelled. cant see what Arsenes beef is with Theo, he wants to stay at the club, he is one of our best players and we need to hold on to him.

Defence was poo, Jenkinson did well.. Need a stronger team if we are going to progress to Semi's because you know we will get Man U or Chelsea
Click to expand...

That clearly wasn't our first team....... there were a few young 'uns, a couple returning from injury and some who aren't getting regular starts. In fact, there were only three players who'd been anywhere near the first team for any time this year in Walcott, Koscielny and Giroud. Maybe Arshavin and Gnabry had 5 minutes at one point but that's about it.

First half was shocking from our perspective, I was panicking every time Djourou got the ball, he was woeful. Kos wasn't much better - can't blame him for the own goal, it was a deflection and somehow got between the keeper and the near post, too much being made of him scoring an own goal when it couldn't be helped.

Midfield were pretty rubbish too, Coq and Frimpong were non existent in the first half, but once the second half started, wow......what a game. I was getting angry at the ref, he was letting a few tackles against us slide, didn't book Hunt for deliberate handball, nor give a penalty for stone wall hand ball in the Reading box. Reading player jumps all over Giroud, gives nothing when two seconds later Reading get a free kick on the edge of our box when Djourou does exactly the same thing to a Reading player. Was beginning to think he was Readings "Howard Webbb", but he did leave Kos on the field, who could easily have been dismissed in another game, and the "tackle" on Jason Roberts would have been a con as Roberts a handful of Kos' shirt and dragged him down first...but hey ho, he stayed on.

When Giroud and Eisfeld came on though, they made a massive impact, helped pick everyone up, even Arshavin and Chamakh who had both been hugely infective in the first half started to play better. In fact by the end, I was praising Arshavin because he didn't stop running and trying until the final whistle, maybe using up the energy that he'd been storing up through the first half......

All in all it was an astonishing comeback, the "Fergie time" extra minutes came from the Reading subs and the crowd hanging on to the ball etc. No real controversy there. Glad I stayed on until the end, was very tempted to switch off at half time, but my office is in Reading, half my department are Reading season ticket holders, and I was in for a ton of stick. Thought it better to watch to help deal with all the crap they were gonna throw at me this morning......

What can I say.....4 - 0 and you still couldn't win......:ears:
 
Since when do you add on over a minute of extra time for a substitution ? Hunt was blatantly pushed over in the box which should have been a penalty. Even more difficult to come back from 5-1. Reading starting line up included seven players who are unlikely to start the next league game. Not just Arsenal that were under strength. Shame we played with the slowest back four in history against Walcott. Big game against QPR Sunday.
 
Wasn't going to bother watching this last night, but was a toss up between the footy & pride of britain awards. The footy won out. What a game for us neutral spectators, have to say I though Arsenal were awful in the first 50minutes, the Walcott goal was only bit of adventure and guile they showed in the first half.

I thought they brought Steve Bould in to sure up the defence and make them more steely at the back. Regardless of people saying it was a first string team, you only have to look at the players and realise these guys are regulars in the premier league (maybe not every game but a fair few starts) Jenkinson, Koscielny, Djourou, Walcott, Frimpong, Arshavin, Chamakh. Theirs plenty of team experience in those players in all competitions, and I think a little bit of arrogance perhaps that the Arsenal team though Reading would be a bit of a cake walk for them.

Reading showed good fight and determination to stay in the game when it had all gone wrong. As for Walcott, yes he scored a couple but as an outsider for me didn't show anything that would warrant starts against Utd, Chelsea et al. He showed flashes against a lower quality premier league/good quality championship team. But he still goes missing against the big teams, with big game players and world class defenders.

For me the best 2 players on the pitch were the 2 subs, Eisfeld & Giroud once they came on they had a cutting edge in a midfielder that could dictate where the ball was going and a forward that scare the defenders.

But hopefully Reading can bounce back from this and take heart from scoring 5 goals in a game then go on and beat Mark Hughes's QPR.
 
I remember many moons ago when I was a kid, my team, Doncaster Rovers, won a game 7-5. The opponents that day were, unbelievably, Reading. Kerry Dixon scored a hat trick for Reading and still finished on the losing side. Happy days.
 
I turned down a ticket at 7pm because I didn't wanna pay £20 for a League Cup game!

Some poor decisions from our manager and the ref gave Arsenal a way back into a game they deserved nothing from in normal time. However they dominated extra time and from then on deserved the win.

I hate time wasting subs after 90 mins and our manager did that, which cost us. Overall we'll take confidence from our attacking play again but our defensive performances are ridiculously bad. That's 10 goals conceded in 2 games but we've managed 8 goals!

We seem to be turnng into a team neutrals want to see because we provide entertainment. Much rather be like that than how normal relegation fodder play with 5 man defences and boring football! We've got attacking quality and a great spirit, which is what I think will keep us up. At least last night was the League Cup and not the league :)
 
Wildrover said:
I remember many moons ago when I was a kid, my team, Doncaster Rovers, won a game 7-5. The opponents that day were, unbelievably, Reading. Kerry Dixon scored a hat trick for Reading and still finished on the losing side. Happy days.
Click to expand...
Dixon scored four that day, and 30 in a season we got relegated. Great signing from non league and sold to Chelski at the end of the season. Went to a lot of the games that season at Elm Park, glutton for punishment !
 
It was all about being at the DW Stadium last night. What a night, not had many nights like that recently. Bradford did us proud, Wigan were poor granted but even still with half a premier side they should be beating a 2nd division side like us. The penalties were fantastic, atmosphere was amazing - we sang our hearts out and went home happy despite not getting into the ground until 20 minutes into the game because of traffic!!!!
 
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