Tomo

wow bit of a over-reaction there. Roman does not sack managers solely on PL and CL success/failure, the managers departure's ran deeper than that, i explained imo why he doesn't it in detail in another thread and really cba to do so again tbh. Don;t think we can say Josh won't make it on the basis he is not playing week in week out at the age of 18, Iniesta was still awaiting his Barca debut at the age Josh is now.

Im going to add a bit of realism to this. We need a point in the last 2 games to be through, more often than not 9 is enough. We won our home games drew our away games which is the main rule in football. We just need to go through i could not care less if it is first or second if we want to win this we will have to play and beat atleast two of the elite teams anyway. Disapointing result yes but lets not go overboard qualification is still well and truly in our hands, its not like this result has left us on the brink.

My opinion that we should have brought Falcao in the summer holds more substance now, Torres has done ok this season but with Falcao we know what were gunna get, goals and lots of them.

I don't buy this Abramovic itchy trigger happy finger i really don't well not to the extent every one thinks. Claudio Ranieri - Nice man he undoubltably is, can you believe it was a coinsidence we stopped our little run of domestic cup wins when he got appointed? Jose Mourinho - Great 3 years but slowly and surely we were declinining and Mou was constantly causing boardroom battles Rafa would be proud off and his football is the opposite of Roman wants. Avram Grant - On the outside people remember the CL, can't speak for you guys but all i can remember is awful tactics, constant throwing away of leads and horrendus man management. Phil Scolari - Out off his depth, exposed as a one trick pony by Benitez and never recovered. Guus Hiddink - Caretaker, had no intention of staying and made it clear from day one. Carlo Ancelotti - I wanted him to have one more season but you could see Roman's worry, last season was horrific and if it got worse it could have been tragic. Out of the managers Roman has sacked, the future didn;t look partically bright with any of them. For argument's sake if we end this season with a younger fresher squad, Kaloudanelka heading for the exit, 3rd place with a domestic cup and exit the CL kicking and screaming basically things looking really good could you see Roman sacking him really?

TO be fair Ballack had his critics at Chelsea and Malouda ended 09/10 on fire.

Positives: Juan Mata and Frank Lampard were absolutely outstanding.

fair point although Carvalho was a serial giver way of free kicks too for us. Im happy to admit he can be reckless at times but the comparision with and without is alarming, had it been the other way round im sure some of us, rival fans and especially the media would be first to pick up on it.

I know this Luiz threads are growing old and there he has somewhat split opinion on this forum especially, sorry to do another one but i thought these stats deserve a serious mention. Looking at the stats in games with and without David Luiz on the pitch since his arrival on winter transfer deadline day, its looks even more than his "liabilty" tag is harsh. Season 11/12 so far with Luiz playing Played 7 Conceded 4 Clean sheets 3 Season 11/12 so far without Luiz playing Played 8 Conceded 13 Clean sheets 1 Season 10/11 with Luiz playing Played 11 Conceded 7 Clean sheets 4 Season 10/11 without Luiz playing (after his arrival) Played 9 Conceded 10 Clean sheets 2 OVERALL with Luiz Played 18 Conceded 11 Clean sheets 7 OVERALL without Luiz (after his arrival) Played 17 Conceded 23 Clean sheets 3 I included Liverpool at home in without Luiz as the damage was already done before he came on. Interesting that we conceded as many goals in 1 half against Arsenal than we have all season with in the 7 games David "liabilty" Luiz has played In those 7 games Luiz has played this season only Saha has scored against us from open play. The contrast is astounding, if this don't prove that David Luiz is one of our if not our most important player i really do not know what does. Imagine if he was not a "liability"

Despite what the media and rival fans like to think Roman does not sack managers solely on trophies, i think he cares about progression just as much. Lets say for argument's sake we finish 3rd this season with 80+ points, playing better attcking football, go out of the CL kicking and screaming and pick up one if not both the domestic cups and have younger players looking more ready, do you honestly think Roman will sack him? He sacked Carlo because we were labouring and stagnating, Scolari was sacked because for a supposed flair anager the likes of West Ham and Stoke were coming to SB and containing us with ultimate ease, we are creating numerous chances under AVB, i would be more worried if we were not creating them (ala Scolari final days). I still don't think the league is completely beyond us, if we can claw back a 18 point deficit in March to 3 im May, we sure can do 9 in November.

He is well on the way to another 20 goal season even with a "lesser role", if anything he is getting better with age.

Even as a Carlo fan i would not go that far, when Carlo teams click they are devestating but they don't "click" consistently as we found out. The annoying thing last season is when we were 5-0 up we were puping and pressurising teams like we were losing and when we were actually losing or drawing we were cruising like we were 5-0 up.

Last time Essien played against Arsenal he was the worst performer on the pitch tbf.

1. David Luiz is a must against any half decent opposition, especially Arsenal. i was worried when i saw him out of the lineup, you can go on about him making a few mistakes if you like but would he have made as many mistakes as any of our backline did today? Infact i will go as far as saying the first, second and fifth goal would have been prevented. The 2 RVP goals he would have intercepted (especially the first one). 2. Bosingwa must never play a big match again, he has played against Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool a combined 14 games and we have won twice (one of them he came off the bench late on) and lost 11. I said it before he returned from injury and it was laughed off infact people blamed that stat more on Scolari but it is proven now beyond doubt that Bosingwa at right back in big games won't win us any points. I cannot believe this is a coinsidence, especially when we do much better against the big teams when he does not play (IE he did not play when we won 6/6 against the "big four" in 2009/2010 and even more so considering the fact our record against the "big four" prior to his arrival was unrivalled). 3. Juan Mata and Frank Lampard are class, if the rest of the team today played half as good as this duo Arsenal would not have touched us. 4. Romeu has to start playing reguarly, i am by no means a Mikel hater far from it but Romeu is more suited to the way AVB wants to play and is a battler, has big game player written all over him and is made for games against Arsenal especially. 5 We are not ready to play big teams at their own game, i said a few weeks ago we have a long way to go before we take on the likes of Arsenal at the you shoot we shoot match and i got pasted for it, they have been doing it for years we have just started. For the return match at The Emirates atleast we must go back to the counter attacking rough them up tactic that got us 6 points against them with relitive ease in 2009/2010. It works against Arsenal it makes sense.

Torres (bar the 4-4 draw against Liverpool at Anfield) has never really done anything against Arsenal so no need to look to deeply into this display.

If Ballack stayed and played today i bet he would be first on the scapegoat firing line.

Why does AVB always throw Lukaku on in the prem when we are chasing the game, today and against United. I thought Mata was our best player today, thank fuck we have him.

Luiz and Romeu are must's when we go to the Emirates. TBH this match could be a blessing in disquise if it makes AVB realise that Bosingwa playing in the big matches won't win many if any points and David Luiz has to play every game.

Our most solid displays have came with David Luiz playing, coincidence?

Now do you see the importance of David Luiz?

Now can you all see the importance to David Luiz in our team?

Completely different era's. Although i guess before Roman we had loads more players we idolise than we do now (IE Zola, Di Matteo, Poyet). Has any one bar Lampard, Terry and to a lesser extent Drogba and Cech came close to touching them group in terms of fans affection?

Whats happened to Alex? ever since the Old Trafford game last May when he came on at HT and IMO single handedly prevented a cricket score he hasbeen horribly off form. We have twice played a Bosingwa-Ivan-Terry-Cole back line against Arsenal and got turned over, hopefully AVB is aware of that.Infact i would prefer Paulo Ferreira over Bosingwa for this one as bar the match at the Emirates last season Paulo has always done a good job against Arsenal (remember his little trick at the end of this fixture last season? )

No offense but was it you that said we would lose to Everton a couple of weeks ago aswell? Luiz should have played this one but he won't now considering he played all of the last 3.

Fergie was there because United had Everton on Saturday. Sturridge is slowly turning into the scurge of Everton and it serves the fuckers right.

I thought Suarez was more comprable to Gudjohnsen in a footballing sense, likes to play a bit but does not have an amazing goal record for a forward.