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Arsenal...
Posted:
Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:45 pmby 115-1073096938
You'd think they'd won the league already.
They're getting stupidly complacent and everyones saying its in the bag already.
Well lets look at this way, they beat an Everton side missing there best player in Rooney and another two of there better players in Steve Watson and David Weir and they've conceeded 3 goals at home to Middlesborough. Boro were missing Southgate and Ehiogu.
If Boro can score three past the ******, then that to me says they aren't unbeatable. Liverpool, Chelsea and United all have better defenders and a more compact system and are unlikely to conceed as many as boro did.
I understand they're missing Vieira, Campbell and Pires has only been a sub so far, but i can't see them improving on the performances they have put in already. They've started superbly, but they always give teams a chance. If Boro kept there concentration after going 3-1 up i think that would have been curtains. As they say n football, ur most likely to conceed when you've just scored.
I think with the right gameplan and attitude they can be beaten.
Posted:
Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:53 pmby taff
They are definitely beatable but credit to them they are the best team in the league at the moment.
All we can do is play our own game and improve our performances and hopefuly come the spring let them worry about us
Posted:
Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:58 pmby banana
We should not think about other teams performances. We should concentrate on our own game and try to pick up as many points as possible. By the way Boro scored three goals only because Lehmann screwed up big time. He will not do that every game.
Posted:
Tue Aug 24, 2004 1:09 pmby Fowler_E7
arsenal always have this problem after they have a succesful season, simply because there an arrogant bunch of idiots, you can see this by the way the celebrate after each goal (pires and henry especially), this could lead to there downfall this season (i hope). There are beatable but will be very difficult to beat because they now to put away teams quickly and also showed great resolve in coming back vs Boro, this whole unbeaten record thing is clearly spurring them on to keep winning as they want to beat the record
Posted:
Tue Aug 24, 2004 1:19 pmby Ola Mr Benitez
Without doupt they are the team to beat. However, in the Premiership the bottom teams can (and often do) beat the top teams. This is because this league is the best in the world and although you can always pretty much say where teams will end up, everyteam has some amount of class that can change a game.
Arsenal will get beaten, sooner rather than later but the team they play after that game will probablly get slaughtered. They have class in depth throughout the team, which means when they are stuggling in the game there is always someone on the bench who canb come on and cause havoc.
Posted:
Tue Aug 24, 2004 1:20 pmby maximus
come on guys, credit where credits due. Yes of course they are beatable. law of averages will confirm that sure enough.
Arrogance is oftem misunderstood and mistaken with confidence, they are playing class football which lets be honest, we would love to see at Anfield.
Under Rafa, I am sure we will get there, they are certainly the benchmark at the moment.
Posted:
Tue Aug 24, 2004 1:54 pmby stmichael
i'll put money on reyes scoring more goals than henry this season. 
Posted:
Tue Aug 24, 2004 2:24 pmby kenco
stu_the_red wrote:You'd think they'd won the league already.
They're getting stupidly complacent and everyones saying its in the bag already.
Well lets look at this way, they beat an Everton side missing there best player in Rooney and another two of there better players in Steve Watson and David Weir and they've conceeded 3 goals at home to Middlesborough. Boro were missing Southgate and Ehiogu.
If Boro can score three past the ******, then that to me says they aren't unbeatable. Liverpool, Chelsea and United all have better defenders and a more compact system and are unlikely to conceed as many as boro did.
I understand they're missing Vieira, Campbell and Pires has only been a sub so far, but i can't see them improving on the performances they have put in already. They've started superbly, but they always give teams a chance. If Boro kept there concentration after going 3-1 up i think that would have been curtains. As they say n football, ur most likely to conceed when you've just scored.
I think with the right gameplan and attitude they can be beaten.
Stu, dear oh dear, and their was me thinking you know your football. Arsenal are by far the best side in the league by a long way. They are well ahead of everyone in every department, but that still dose'nt mean their not beatable,for sure they are,but just a lot less than everyone else. 
Posted:
Tue Aug 24, 2004 2:38 pmby Santa
Arsenal are the best team in the league by a mile, until proven otherwise. Their strong point is that they seems to play with so much self confidence, and their forward don't miss chances after chances (like we did with Owen & Heskey the past seasons). However, their midfield and strikers seems to masked their weakness at the back. The thing is, I don't think our current back four are much better than theirs. The central defense partnership of Hyypia and Carragher are the same as the one that got whipped by Henri & Co last year. Unless we sign a top class CB, let's not get carried away and think we can match Arsenal over the course of the season. For Rafa's 1st year in charge, realistically, it is no shame if we finish 2nd to this current Arsenal team.
Posted:
Tue Aug 24, 2004 3:06 pmby kenco
Posted:
Tue Aug 24, 2004 3:17 pmby bpm1976
Any honest fan be it Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U, sorry Man U and honest, scrap that one. Would admit they are at present Numero Uno, however with the right attitude if we can get at them and attack them we can beat them!
Posted:
Tue Aug 24, 2004 3:26 pmby Redtribe
I would not call the Arsenal team arrogant!
Yes they are confident and most definately belive in each other and themselves!
I for one would love to see that type of spirit at Liverpool.
Arsenal are the best in the EPL at the moment and possibly Europe but that is something else that they have to prove before they can call themselves a Great Team!
As others have said, they can be beaten. All teams are beatable lets hope that we are the team that ends there unbeaten run when they come to Anfield!
Posted:
Tue Aug 24, 2004 3:32 pmby JBG
Arsenal are an excellent team, have no doubt about that.
I don't think we should be concentrating on how to beat them, that may be a pointless exercise.
Look at Man UTD's success. They have never been great at beating us, Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle, but they hardly ever slip up against the others. The might occasionally lose to someone like Wolves or Southamption, but they always seem to win 80% of their games against the "lesser" teams.
That was always a problem under Houllier. We'd do ok against the big teams but always dropped silly points against the Bolton's and Birminghams of this world.
If Benitez manages to beat everyone else I don't worry if Arsenal beat us, as long as their is a marked improvement this year.
Posted:
Tue Aug 24, 2004 4:00 pmby azriahmad
Agreed, JBG!
Our biggest fallacy under Houllier was the lack of consistency. Before the big wobbles of the past 2 season, we had the measure of Manure but would always, curiously, find sides like Charlton, Bolton, Portsmouth etc very akward and would on too many occassion fall to them even at home.
The league championship is spread over 38 games and one or 2 high profile games deos not make the whole season or rather, the whole championship. While Arsenal are the benchmark on a playing level, we have to make sure that we are better at winning consistently over the whole season than them and we can end up opn top of them even if we lose to them in our match(s) against them.
Winning consistently is the key and we should focus on this.
Against Arsenal, we have to defend and attack well if we are to stand a chance of beating them. Defend well is a key element because they are awesome in attack. Their team spirit is also very strong.
Posted:
Tue Aug 24, 2004 7:39 pmby anfieldadorer
Arsenal is the most likely team to win the EPL, yet not an unbeatable team. We can beat them but that's not our (and other teams) main objective.
Most of all; what's the point in wasting the whole season by focusing on beating Arsenal? (- I don't think Rafa will be that idiotic)