Laivasse

Taken from the Guardian match comments: Opposing fans pity us.

Stoke really taking the game to City here at the end. It should feel good to see City struggle but it just reminds me of the fight we failed to show earlier on.

Unlucky deflection on that one, took the ball a foot or two away from landing in between the keeper's palms.

Or N'Zogbia, and he's been abducted by aliens.

Goal of the season contender from Crouch puts Stoke ahead.

Losing hope for this guy as a prem player. Not fast, not smart, not skilled, not strong and needs a dozen attempts nowadays to put in a single decent cross. Cuellar today crossed once on his wrong foot better than Alby crossed all game. He does try though at least.

Well, actually he was. I remember some good, dangerous passes. Examples are one through the middle to Heskey which he didn't have the pace to challenge for and one lovely turn and pass to set Albrighton running on the counter-attack. But the key words are Heskey and Albrighton. It's like you're telling a one-armed man he's not clapping loud enough.

I still think he doesn't work in a 442. His good defensive work is almost all from tracking back and sneaking up on players, rather than defensive positioning, anticipation and closing down from the front which would be required with only one central midfield buddy. He was the best of a bad bunch today. However any of his good work was always going to go to waste. He could pass forward to a sluggish Heskey or wide to Alby and Gabby, each struggling either too wide, too deep, or too crap. He made good runs of his own once or twice but the timing was off. Never seen a clearer cut example of a skilled individual being wasted in a team, than his performance today.

What remains to be said about our performances that hasn't been said at this stage? This was another gutless performance like the one against Spurs and several others this season - we churn them out with such uniformity it's like they're factory-produced. People will say this was about our 'shit squad' and individual errors but no single individual in defence had a really bad game. Gabby, Albrighton and Heskey were poor, but what exactly was expected of them with that line up? Left footed floaters from Gabby's foot to Heskey's head and into the back of the net? Albrighton beating 3 people when he got the ball on the counter attack? Heskey using his blistering pace to run onto Ireland's through balls? Of course those are pretty ridiculous to any sane person. McLeish obviously thought some hoofball to Heskey with flick-ons to Ireland would do the trick, but it didn't happen once. AMc is a **** idiot and the shoddiness of this performance is all on him. Ireland just about best of a bad bunch for work rate and that tackle on Ox-Cham at the end.

I think Warnock and Collins have had solid games. Warnock memorably getting left in Walcott's dust was mostly about the superb pass to Walcott.

They've only taken the handbrake off, never mind 1st gear. They know a 2 goal cushion is just fine for them. Even if we got one back at this stage, they'd start playing snd we wouldn't have a hope of another.

Amazing tackle from Ireland, well spotted from Dowd in fairness. Thought it was a frustrated tackle and stonewall pen at first.

This whole season?? He was our best player by miles before December. We'd be deep in the relegation zone without what he did.

Strongly agreed. Our attacking football when the shackles are off has sometimes been excellent. Our defending when well motivated has been very good (eg. vs Chelsea). There's only one constant: when we've needed a plan there hasn't been one.

Have we really had no attempts on goal? ...wait, why would I even be surprised. Then again I remember Marc had a (bad) shot. Match statometer said 0 to Arsenal's 9.

Yeah, but it's too easy to stop there. Why are they so demoralised and demotivated? Because they just despise the claret and blue and they're evil leeches? Or because they realise like we do that they've been given no chance to win?

Alby is having a shit game but McLeish's tactics play a part, of course they do. We're sitting so deep that whenever he gets it his only real option is to run down a blind alley. He and Ireland have basically bugger all good options, what with no N'Zog and the man up front beign Heskey.

The 'good positions' we've been in - occasionally - are just good passing or crossing positions. Since we don't have a striker capable of tucking anything away and hardly any of our time is spent in their final third, that's meaningless.

If getting angry at 11 men qualifies you for a multi-million pound job then sign me up. I feel pretty qualified today.

Seriously, our best hope in this game is that Arsenal realise we can't play football so they stop trying, which will keep the goal difference down. Just like what happened against Spurs and Manyoo.

Well therein lies the rub. No matter how well or poorly the defence play, the best they can give us is a clean sheet. With nothing happening for us up the other end due to terrible tactics, that's never going to matter. Due to mediocre, demotivated defenders, clean sheets aren't going to happen either.

OMG Warnock. All is forgiven. Until your next mistake.

Let's not forget that the reason the defence ends up under such scrutiny is because there is absolutely no sensible attacking gameplan. For Arsenal this is like a training exercise against a team who've been instructed to do nothing but defend. Great turn from Ireland, sets Alby loose - totally isolated due to sustained pressure, terrible cross.

Ireland behind Heskey with Gabby wide just isn't doing anything atm. There are no flicks ons from heskey for Ireland to work with. Ireland, when he gets it, is afraid to slot anything through to Heskey because he knows he's too slow to reach it. So it goes wide, then when it gets crossed in Heskey's not there for the header. 0-2 Cuellar mistake. Is there even a point in watching any more? Hate to be cliched but '**** off McLeish'.

Oh dear. Poor from Given.