My 2cents; its maybe based on performance on UCL/europe for past couple of season.. Real never get past
last 16 this past few season. That's why all EPL teams in the pot 1(they always march through quarters-semis-final)

Wow to be honest pot 2 is like a second pot 1 lol. I wouldn't mind any in pot 2 but would of course like to avoid the likes of Fiorentina and Atletico Madrid in pot 3 to avoid a group of death situation.

i've dloaded the full match. i prefer to watch the full game rather than watch just the highlights so i can see better our players play

kazek bro, Boruc indeed did not lay a finger on Dudu but he did lay a knee on him

on a serious note, there are no mistaken that Dudu made the most of the incident and won the penalty for us. like SG said, it depends on your own perspectives. i thought there was definitely a contact however marginal that was. i'd prefer Dudu to not do whatever he did to win the penalty but we would have win anyway without the penalty incident

point to ponder, will it (the media reactions) be the same if some 'honest' English star i.e. Gerrard, Rooney etc would have done the same?

on the note side, i like Denilson's aggression last night

This post has been edited by toshio14: Aug 27 2009, 01:10 PM

IMHO. Only the goalie or Edu's know. If there is no contact at all there shouldn't be a penalty. Then I'm conned too. My apologies then.

Anyway all this is moot. Celtic was outplayed, downed 0-2, and would never have won at Emirates anyway.

ramsey will not feature in the united game?
well, we really could cope with the injuries that we having at the moment
with fab,nasri,rosicky,silvestre and walcott. we are scoring more than 2 goals per game
arshavin has added more ummph in our team, this guy will give a heck of a problem to our opponents.
i tink tis performance is largely contributed from the performance last season.we were without fabregas,walcott,eduardo due to long layoff
and this gives the other players to step into their shoes.
when we have creative players back,this allows players such diaby,gallas to move around abit.to allow our team to score from different sources.

I replayed the video at 0.25 speed and it is possible that:
1) Eduardo was preparing to shoot as he had already laid his planting foot with full momentum before Boruc approaching him. If he were to kick, he would have hit Boruc at his face so he had no choice but to choose not to kick and what after that? He surely would fall naturally and yes he did.

2)If there was a contact, it would surely be Boruc's knee and Eduardo's right leg which was pulling away. But it is difficult to see if there is any contact because the ball was blocking it.

3)He has learnt to be more intelligent now. If he lets the keeper tackles him down easily chances are that he would be injured again. What he did is to avoid injury.

Haha, anyway, things like this can happen in football. Whether intended or not intended, the keeper shouldn't pull off a slide tackle like that because it would give chance to the referee to issue penalty.

Denilson and Song were absolute class last night. My praises for Denilson is usually few and far between but he played a blinder last night. Song was again immense both in simplicity and tenacity.

And Vermaelen... What a player! I think its his personal goal to win every aerial duel during the match. The bigger the opposition, the bigger the motivation for him I think.

And yes, Eduardo dived but the way the commentator (with help frm the broadcast director) kept going on and on about it just sickens me. And now there are a few websites calling it a disgrace while the Celts want Dudu banned.

My reaction is... WTF? Stevie G does it. Wayne Rooney did it against us. Cristina Ronaldo lets not even go there. So why the manhunt on Eduardo? Its not as if it was a game changing incident. We were already 2-0 up on aggregate!

Really can't stand the English media...

Eduardo dived but whether he dived for penalty or to avoid injury i dunno (sounds like Wenger, huh? lol)

I don't think he dived for penalty (would be different opinion if it was Eboue, lol), he's been through a horrible inury and i think he got that instinct to avoid anymore unnecessary injury.

Just happened that the ref gave it, I don't think he will complained if the ref has other opinion.

This post has been edited by harrychoo: Aug 27 2009, 01:53 PM

... simply because whatever linked with Arsenal sells better


Yes, diving itself is bad. We as football fans, should condemn this act.

The problem is, it still happens. From history, unfortunately, we have tasted far too many kind treats from this act. Therefore, I can understand why some fans are happy with the win even with the alleged/reported dive.

No matter what the actions from UEFA or FA, please do it flat and square to EVERYONE, including those happened seasons ago ! Then we'll see some players have no chance to play for this season UCL

---

Added on August 27, 2009, 2:02 pmYes, the commentaries from the channel I watched the game mentioned that in certain situations, strikers/forwards have no choice but to jump or else they would be badly hurt during crashes with the GK - regardless if the GK has the right on the ball or not.


Imagine:

You are the striker chasing the ball of your possession, the GK rushes out and lands a heavy tackle (on the ball or you). What you can do:

1) Play the ball as normal but risking the possibility to be involved in a serious crash

2) Jump away and let the GK have the ball despite the ball is under your possession.

3) Jump and land carelessly to give an impression to the referee that a foul may has happened if you did not jump


What's your pick?


What I condemn the most are obvious dives, especially on the edge of the penalty box. The intention is clear: I'll get into the box with the ball, whatever touches me will send me to ground and I'll roll a meter away holding my leg and cry!


Well, this is a common topic and should discussed outside the Arsenal thread if you want more "unbiased" (or the opposite) inputs

This post has been edited by kimhoong: Aug 27 2009, 02:02 PM

our defence looked eager to attack, haha it surprises me to see vermaelen sometimes being the target man. denilson and song was like sentinels flying everyone all across the pitch, denilson in particular had a very convincing game. a few class touches from the brazillian as well. eboue again is very eager to attack and good feign and composure for him to score that goal. eduardo playing in the center forward positions looks different than the time he plays at the left flank. i dunno, i think he can play both very well.

i like how we're scoring loads in all of our games so far, and yeah it's sort of worrying how we're not keeping lots of clean sheets. tho i still think the real test and nail biter is the next 2 games against manchesters

Agreed. We don't want some serious injury like Petr Cech happened again if they crashed.

Is good that we played in dirty ways, but I think eduardo was lucky. If I am the Celtic player, I will break his leg again.

i dont think we will lose to celtic without goal from dudu..
hope he dont get banned from UEFA..
still early stages but good win!!!

Comon la guys don't make excuses for Eduardo. I have never seen a dive as blatant as that for a long time now. When Babel dived and effectively knocked us out of the ECL or when Rooney dived which led to the end of our unbeaten run I don't see anyone doing the same ? If lets say McGeady did the same to us I'm sure all of you will be seething. And fact is that first goal was the turning point of the game. How sure are you people that we were going to win for sure without that goal? Yes we certainly were favourites but by no means guaranteed to win. Anything could have happened. I know its only natural you want to support the player from the club you love but I don't think Eduardo has any case for defense and lets be realistic. The replay says it all and what Eduardo did was clearly wrong. Just accept it. I hope Wenger has a very strong word with him about his future conduct on the pitch.

I do admit though that I agree with you guys that the pundits, media alike have gone overboard and have blown the situation out of proportion which is a shame. When the Gerrards or Rooneys or Drogbas do it game in game out its because they are "winners" and do whatever it takes to "win". All I can say is be prepared for not being awarded a penalty for a long time now that we've been targeted. Especially Eduardo. I remember after Pires dived in the match against Pompey he couldn't even buy a penalty with all the money in the world for a very long time.

I don't condone cheating or whatsoever of course but I'm actually pleased to see us get these kind of decisions and goals go our way for a change. We have always been on the receiving end in the past and its always nice to get that bit of luck once in awhile.

yups.. definitely agreed... two wrongs don't make a right, and i hope arsenal doesn't that take that road.... we should win comprehensively, not in manner which is debatable...

i'm against the witch hunt that is happening now, but it doesn't make the act right in any way.

where to download full match for arsenal celtic match?? my bittorrent not working...

^ i had it off mininova, try searching for it there

TQ

Spot on. People always point at the likes of players from other teams diving and getting away with it. But that doesn't mean we should sink as low as they do. Again I hope Arsene has a word or two not only to Eduardo but to all of the other players in the squad as well.

Yeah the way these people are targeting Eduardo is certainly a shame. If anything the conduct of the media and pundits alike are even more of an embarrassment than the dive itself.

This post has been edited by sigheart: Aug 27 2009, 03:32 PM