kyle04

Er perhaps Wolves and Watford this season....

I remember a similar negative tone here around Xmas last year during a poor run of form, until RK and the boys came up trumps with a strong finish to the season. Then we do what we do and lose a good manager and our two best strikers (although Pelle had a pretty indifferent season to be fair), and are back to square 1 once more with a weakened squad and a manager with no PL experience. However its only fair to judge this seasons "progress" after 10 - 15 games IMO. I do believe however that a few squad members are simply not good enough to be part of a strong competative PL side (Targett, Cedric, JWP and Austin for sure, Long works hard and can be a pest but lacks the clinical finish, Tadic has class but drifts out of games on a regular basis, Redmond is played in the wrong position..). I think JRod needs to start games up top, he was the only player that looked like scoring today. having said that he may have a good season then f*** off to liverpool next year cos he want CL football, not the signing on fee or the wages hike....

After losing a challenge in midfield you could see VW go after the player and lunge in, if his timing had been better he would have cleaned him out completely, so the intent was there and a red card probably correct although debatable. The fact that Clattenberg went for a yellow first then changed his mind after WHU player pressure shows at best weak refereeing, and later decisions showed a lack of consistency. That makes him a poor referee, if hes the PL #1 ref is doesn't say a lot for the rest...

The possession figure does not in itself mean we should have got beat - thats not what I said if you read it properly.... I've been watching this game long enough to know raw stats aren't the whole story by any means, but based on all the factors, Arsenal created enough situations to have won the game comfortably. If we had lost 1-0 would anyone have said the result was unfair ? The second half in particular was backs to the wall for a long period, and great credit to our players for the effort in thwarting some of the mosted gifted players in the PL - the spirit was amazing - i remember Van Dijk's last ditch tackle that fell to Giroud I think who then brought another great save by FF and the ball went behind for a corner - Van Dijk gave a fist pump like he'd just scored, great stuff. I take the point that playing Arsenal you're gonna be without the ball for most of the game though....

We had 33% possession apparently, which despite the positive result showed a real lack of general cohesiveness all game. In all honesty we deserved to get thumped but wasteful finishing and the great FF meant somehow we didn't concede - RK admitted to having been lucky post match - I love the guys no nonsense honesty. He had a spat with Wenger in the tunnel after the match apparently, Wenger said to the ref "you're always the same", RK heard this and replied "YOU'RE always the same - you had 10 chances to score and didn't take one of them so why blame them...." (the officials)

Or perhaps one of the 3 officials opening their eyes and having tha b**ls to signal a foul, I've seen some given but most ignored so whats the policy here? Outside the box its 100% free kick if spotted, Smalling does it all the time, even in restaurants apparently.....and still gets away with it.

That's a fair point, mistakes you might see twice a season seem to be made nearly every game for some reason. Our concentration levels and fitness have to improve for sure, and that's something you can achieve. Lack of talent is another matter , but player for player are Bournemouth or West Ham more talented than ours...? We're still above Chelsea though......

In that interview RK looks alomost resigned, no enthusiasm at all. I wonder if he's lost faith in the whole set up and is now hoping for the best while waiting for the inevitable bullet?

On the face of it losing narrowly to a talented vibrant Palace team these days is no disgrace. What is disappointing is the lack of ambition from the start. Against organised hard working teams we frankly don't look like scoring and lose concentration far too often in recent games. Stek has come in for some criticism but as someone pointed out earlier, apart from Arsenal, we have scored just 6 goals in 10 games. We are not getting thrashed however, losing by the odd goal so often recently must be frustrating for all concerned. The post match stats for what they're worth are generally favourable, but in 10 games or so RK has not managed to find a solution to our losing streak - I feel that should be long enough. Either RK does not have what it takes or the players simply aren't good enough, although the first third of the season was not spectacular but acceptable/good so whats gone wrong ? The Arsenal result should have been a springboard but we lost the next 3 games and conifidence is low again. The next 2 games are vital, we must win at least one of them.

I agree we should try and hang on to RK, a club like ours needs a degree of stability, I think Wenger for example would have had a lot more success but for the City and Chelsea owners having more money than brain cells (and Fergie of course...). RK I think generally has the support of the fans, the dressing room I'm not so sure, I detect the team spirit is not quite 100% - compare us to Leicester or Bournemouth for example. The spend/sell issue will be continuous for us, the question is can RK manage all aspects ? In perspective we haven't really been dicked this season except Liverpool and maybe City away - 3-1 and we gave them a game for a while no disgrace there. Its the annoying defeats that p*** me off (Stoke 0-1, Norwich 0-1, West Ham 1-2, Palace 0-1) - come on Shane, stay behind and pactice, the Playstation can wait !

Nearly all of the best talent at the club have gone in the past 2 years - the cupboard is alomst bare save Mane and Vic (apparently), who now appear ready to leave also. If JWP had developed into another Morgan (I know....) he'd be on his way too. Players / agents are greedy and utterly without loyalty, but so are chairmen and managers, its a vicious cycle of greed and unrealistic ambition. Everyone at the sharp end knows this and its way past the point of changing (Lawrie Mac and Matt are a thing of the past...). But most here will remember our pre-lower league teams - we are at the point now of where we have "normally" been. We've over achieved for a couple of seasons IMO and everyone expects us to be a top 6 club. We're not, and very rarely have been, when we have had a decent set of players the club get raided by the "big boys" (what are Spurs and Liverpool gonna win this year - same as us most likely : F*** All, so its was just the money Adam). All together now : "owen who oh when ........"

We need a goal scorer - Pelle does well with knock downs etc but needs to do more than that. Long just isn't PL quality and none of the midfield look like thay have a goal in them. Mane is hit and miss and can be too selfish at times. Only Villa and Swansea have scored less goals than us this season. Yes we gave away stupid goals today but with little attacking threat we have no chance of winning games, or saving games from a losing position.

Yes another predictable SMS result, another glum MOTD evening. Our home form this season in particular has been truely abysmal - dare I mention the "R" word. Too many good players gone, too many makeweights as replacements and this is the result.