Well you're on a public forum mate. So if you're serious with the above comment PM her.

asajoseph wrote:

Crawley did not dominate at OT in any way. Same way Orient did not dominate against us.

Difference is that O'Shea and Smalling did a great job of closing their game down, whereas Gibbs, Miquel and Almunia cost us our chance.

Nah. Crawley was the better team for 60% of the match and largely controlled possession and even had a few chances.

They certainly played better than Orient against us

GaelForce wrote:

Not really bothered by the result. These players need game time, and I'm delighted Orient have gotten another big pay day and trips to the Emirates and Vegas (Barry Hearn you legend ). Was disappointed Orient didn't put up more of a fight though, it was so easy for us until Tehoue came on, making it all the more ridiculous that we couldn't kill the game off. Special mentions to Cesc wearing the 'Arsene sleeping bag' as he warmed up at half time, the Orient cheerleaders, the away fans singing that Leyton is a shithole (very true) and that all Os fans support Spurs (very untrue).

I've no idea what's happened to Chamkh, 'fatigue' was an excuse two months ago, it doesn't make sense now. Could the rumours be affecting his performance? Miguel was very composed on the ball but wasn't tested defensively until the end of the game, so we've learnt very little about him. Almunia was awful in what may be his penultimate game for the club - the replay hopefully being his last.

Pretty much the same feeling mate. We'll beat them at home, and the Orient fans get a big day out, which they wont forget. It'll only be our second string playing again, so the extra fixture doesn't in reality hurt us all that much. Great scenes at the end, and I was half pleased for them. Although really unimpressed with our pathetic, lazy second half performance.

Talking of Cesc's big coat - I was 7 or 8 feet away from him at half-time, and the the only thing I could think to blurt out to him was "Cesc, Arsene wants his coat back!".
Really pissed off, because I ended up getting there only 5 minutes before kick-off just caught the boys before the end of the warm-up. Pretty surreal seeing them all that close up.

Shows what a star Cesc is though, my cousin, a staunch United fan as well as obviously Orient, was completely star struck by Cesc, worse than me even. He was gutted he didn't get to see him play, and I could hear all the Orient fans around me in awe of him whenever he warmed-up in front of us.

Cesc, Jack and Samir warming-up right in front of me for the whole of the second half was tantalizing to say the least. Bloke behind me said of the three of them "that's about £70M worth of talent warming-up down there", I turned round and said "and some!". Disappointed they didn't get on, for the Orient fans more than anything. Although that would have killed their hopes in the game, for sure.

The Arsenal fans seemed pretty quiet throughout, and I was a little disappointed not to hear much from them.

My uncle hates us with a passion, and I ended up sitting next to him in the stands, and at half-time I said to him "you better hope Fabregas doesn't come on, it'll be good night if he does", to which he said "you better hope Tehouey doesn't come on" - I laughed my head off that he dared put Jonathan Tehouey in the same bracket as Cesc Fabregas, wish I hadn't, not heard the end of it since.

I was impressed by Ignasi "Iggy" Miquel, looked ridiculously calm and composed, and defended well at times in the second half. Looked a far better player than Squillaci, put it that way.

Kieran Gibbs was extremely good in the first half, scarily quick and dangerous on the overlap, but didn't go over the halfway line second half, and was done badly for their goal.

Arshavin, Rosicky and Bendtner also showed touches of real class, skill that drew gasps from the crowd at times. In fact, Arshavin looked easily the classiest player on the pitch. Rosicky has great technique and that sets him apart, but he doesn't actually do much - which is old news I know, but it was just confirmed yesterday. Bendtner goes from the sublime to the ridiculous, constantly - a great turn or touch, followed by a dumb pass or a crap shot.

Chamakh's missed tap-in was ridiculous. He's just not there at the moment. Squillaci and Almunia were poor for the most part. Denilson and Song not much better. There is just no intensity with the vast majority of these players. A stark contrast from the Cesc and co. And I knew it wasn't handball by Squillaci, I could hear it smack him right in the mush at the time - the Orient fans went mental at that though.

asajoseph wrote:

Crawley had a looping header which hit the top of the bar - it wasn't really as good an effort as all that, and certainly not the 'thickness of paint' that the media are hyping it up to be. In truth, Crawley just lacked the class. Orient, for my money, weren't that much better than Crawley. Tehoue, for me, was their only threatening player - apparently he's some super-sub specialist, but he was miles better than anyone else they had.

Crawley are a non-league side mate, Orient are flying in league 1 - there's quite a difference between the two right now. Although I agree, if our players played with the seriousness of the First XI, we'd have steamrolled Orient quite easily.

Yes, I know Orient ARE better than Crawley.

But Orient weren't MUCH better than Crawley if you compare the two performances, and standards they were playing at. Orient were, by far, the worst outfit we've played this season, based on how they performed on the day.

Great post Ricky, thanks.
Really enjoy hearing what it was like at the ground.

Shava's class translated well to TV, he was our best player yesterday.
Just a pity he hit only the post at the end.

asajoseph wrote:

Yes, I know Orient ARE better than Crawley.

But Orient weren't MUCH better than Crawley if you compare the two performances, and standards they were playing at. Orient were, by far, the worst outfit we've played this season, based on how they performed on the day.

I didn't watch the Crawley-United game, but Orient were very well organised, and tactically decent.

All the Orient fans I know were really disappointed with Orient's showing yesterday. They were clearly bricking it, virtually all of them - Charlie Daniels, their ex-scum left back was the exception - and they were terrible first half with the ball, a bit better second half, but organised and disciplined throughout, I thought.

Well, Crawley looked like they were quite up for it, but ultimately they just didn't have the quality to really cause United a threat. I can't say I've watched either before this season, but seems obvious that Orient must have played below their normal level, and Crawley above theirs.

I thought our team played a very similar standard of game to United, and Crawley to Orient - if Crawley had had Tehoue, they might well have snatched a draw too, because he was the only player from either team that looked half decent to me!

And if we had played Orient at home, we probably would have won by a bigger margin than 1-0......

Thank you for the great post Ricky!
The Cesc/Tehouey thing caused me to actually lol...

asajoseph wrote:

on another note, anyone know when return game tickets will go on sale? Don't think it's covered by my ST any more.

Silver Members at 9AM tomorrow, Red Members at 2:30PM.

Can anyone tell me what happens with disabled supporters at our ground? If I bought a standard ticket for my cousin, who is in a wheelchair, in the Arsenal end, would he sit in one of them empty spaces that are in front of the stairs? Or would I have to buy a special ticket for him, where he would have to sit in a specific disabled section? (I've never seen a disabled section, but I might have missed it).

Thanks for that link Capi.

Facilities for disabled supporters at the new Emirates Stadium include places for up to 241 wheelchair users on platforms located throughout the ground. There are also a further 98 places available for both visually impaired and ambulant disabled supporters again, situated in a variety of positions around the ground.

While the majority of places will be taken up by season ticket holders, a number will be kept for home match ticket holders and away supporters.

Still unsure as to whether I could just buy him a standard ticket (and he'd sit in the nearest gantry area, designated for wheelchair users) or whether he would have to be a "Purple Member" and need a special ticket? I'll give them a ring tomorrow.

Yeah, reckon that is the best course of action. They haven't presented the clearest instructions on that page.

Ricky1985 wrote:

My uncle hates us with a passion, and I ended up sitting next to him in the stands, and at half-time I said to him "you better hope Fabregas doesn't come on, it'll be good night if he does", to which he said "you better hope Tehouey doesn't come on" - I laughed my head off that he dared put Jonathan Tehouey in the same bracket as Cesc Fabregas, wish I hadn't, not heard the end of it since.

You should have said- You'd better hope Almunia doesn't break a leg or it'll be a good night for us.

Captain wrote:

kamikaze wrote:

easy there, princess!

That was witty. Well done.

thanks, capi. was debating whether i should've gone with the hackneyed cliche (redundant, i know) like you did!

what's gotten into you lately? i wasn't even talking to you, initially, so i've no idea what moved you to comment, and it's not like i was the only denilson hater two years ago..

You've spent three seasons saying every player under the sun is shit. Cliche or not, it was apt.

Ricky1985 wrote:

My uncle hates us with a passion, and I ended up sitting next to him in the stands, and at half-time I said to him "you better hope Fabregas doesn't come on, it'll be good night if he does", to which he said "you better hope Tehouey doesn't come on" - I laughed my head off that he dared put Jonathan Tehouey in the same bracket as Cesc Fabregas, wish I hadn't, not heard the end of it since.

Haha, that's hilarious. My mate warned me about Tehoue as well, saying he's "crap but will score". Apparently he's awful in all the games he starts, League One's Hernandez?

Agreed that Orient were poor too, disappointed they didn't give us much of a game, the midfield just sat off Denilson and Song. Even read somewhere that we set a new passing record for the season.

Also, did you see the stewards checking if people were actually Arsenal fans? I had to wait outside a gate for one of my mates for about half an hour (missed the first five mins), and seven or eight people were sent away for wearing Arsenal shirts under their jumpers! Stewards also asked all of us if we were Arsenal fans when we gave them our tickets.

Everyone said the same to me; "he's crap when he starts".

The stewards were dickheads. The main steward really was an utter plonka, Martin his name was, I know this because he told 15 times whilst he made me stand in the St.Johns Ambulance section because he didn't believe me when I said I had a ticket which allowed me to sit in the disabled section. He then told Nasri to "keep moving" when he was warming-up because he was blocking the view - which I thought was particularly hilarious.

I saw quite a few get chucked out for wearing Arsenal shirts under their jumpers, and the stewards weren't letting any Arsenal fans get near the players entrance/exit at the end of the game. They got quite aggressive actually with a few of the kids, who only wanted an autograph, not trouble.

Also noticed that when Cesc, Samir and Jack were warming up, a kid with a programme asked for their autographs, Cesc and Samir shook their head, Jack stopped and signed it for him and shared a smile with him too. Gotta love Jacky boy!

Captain wrote:

You've spent three seasons saying every player under the sun is shit. Cliche or not, it was apt.

first of all denilson IS shit. the sooner you embrace that, the better off you'll be. secondly, i think you're confusing me with biggus i actually thought we'd win the league in the summer before 08/09 (or maybe 07/08, they kind of blur together). i know, it's crazy! and no matter what happens this season, i'm already thinking we'll win the league next year. i'm one of the few guys who still rates diaby.

anyway, my mistake, i'll make sure to run my opinions by the opinion police from now on.

Tony Montana wrote:

Well you're on a public forum mate. So if you're serious with the above comment PM her.

Lol. PM? Tony? Are you guys serious? For a moment there, I thought I was free to tell any poster, anywhere, and at anytime, that I'd missed seeing them/their posts.. or is this some form of Graysism?

Anyways, otbagg, good to see you here, and hope you come around more often.

For the record Nela- I've missed you as well. Was never quite certain you was a goonerette.

Oh and yuv mar ken sweetheart, I love you too.