andym

damn it gabby go higher!

really happy with the defence now, i go into every game confident they can give us a chance to win. richard dunne is a complete steal however, the lack of goals is a serious worry. 4 games without a goal for a team chasing top 4 is unacceptable. despite the £40 odd million spent on the midfield we still dont create loads of chances, and upfront we have gabby who blows hot and cold, heskey who isnt a goalscorer and carew whos injured so any chances we do create often arent taken. we have only scored 29 goals this season! we need a spark upfront, whether thats getting a striker in short term, giving fonz a go- he has to do something. it makes no sense that MON is willing to spend so much on other positions but doesnt see the need to get a top notch striker- something you need if you want to get champs league. hes spent more on full backs! big game at fulham up next. really need a win there

i dont particulaly rate shorey, but surely it would have made sense to play him and put luke young back on the right? whats the point of recalling him otherwise?? he could even have had young at LB but put beye Rb if he really didnt want shorey starting as it is carlos is once again out of position on the right. i could understand it against blackburn to counter their hight and set pieces, but arsenal dont play like that. i know he will do his best and work hard but i fear hes gonna really struggle against the likes of arshavin down the wing. and i just cannot understand how he thinks jimmy and a half fit stan, no matter how hard they work can cope with arsenals 3 man midfield that contains fabregas. we got overrun at the emirates with them both fully fit!! everyones gonna have to play a great game and work very hard to get a result tonight. heskey in particular has a vital role- he needs to get back to help the midfield and also make sure the ball sticks to him upfront.

playing 442 against arsenal is difficult at the best of times, they are very strong through the centre of the pitch as they usually play 3 in the middle. playing it with a half fit stan and a less than ideal defence of cuellar at RB and young at LB would be madness we played 451 at home boxing day last season and we completely outplayed them the whole first half and then the last 15 mins of the game. we created enough chances to win comfortably but kept hitting the woodwork. id like to see delph in alongside stan, play downing, ash and jimmy infront of them all swapping around and then gabby up top.

just seen the goals in ITV, some nice build up and finishes for our goals. albrightons run was nice, shame he got injured. delphs goal was a quality move poor defending for both of brightons. Guzan was right to stay on his line for the first, there was lots of players he would have had to come through and we had enough defenders in there to get rid of it, they just didnt. 2nd goal was poor by luke young who allowed the guy to get the ball, turn and get a shot off.

sloppy

excellent finish by delph apparently... and jimmy sets up another with a great ball. milner is already way more creative in CM than barry ever was

ha, just watching fat sams interview again on SSN "last game we had an outstanding ref in clattenburg, today we didnt and the ref has cost us a place in the final" etc of course you thought clattenburg had an outstanding game- he missed 2 pens and failed to send off at least one of your players when they deserved it. moaning about gabbys goal as well, saying hed seen the replay and it hit his hands. the replay they showed on BBC one from behind the goal showed it hitting gabbys stomach, nothing wrong with it. thankfully MON put him to rights in his interview

crazy game. first 20 minutes we were so nervous, and that wasnt just guzan, pretty much everyone but dunne and petrov were making errors. guzan was poor but we didnt help him by letting blackburn defenders pressure him so much right from the first corner of the game. get dunne in their protecting him. and why was warnock marking kalinic? poor defending for the second. once we got the 1st goal though we looked better and the sending off and 2nd goal put wembley on a plate for us. i liked the way we took advantage of the extra man, some lovely football going on. for me milner is already better at creating and scoring from open play than barry ever was. still, poor marking by collins for the overhead kick and the corner for their fourth should have been cleared by heskey or downing- but they deflected it and wrongfooted brad. that annoyed me a bit. but it was a nice goal by ash to really finish it dont get what sam is moaning about. clear penalty and sending off. makes up for the 2 pens denied last week, and they could have had a couple sent off there as well. gabbys goal was not handball either- hit his stomach, you could see the shirt move on the replay. so happy we finally got to a final. never thought it would be such a mad game to get their though. still i suppose thats what cup football is all about!!

nice one ash

sidwell got lucky there, nearly lost it in a dangerous position

slight deflection off heskey or downing i think

**** hell gabby, you are really off form at the moment

jimmys run his socks off tonight, give him a rest MON bring on delph

come on its been over 10 minutes without a goal now!!

nice take by guzan despite being fouled. do his confidence good should bring on delph, perfect situation playing against 10 men. all that space for him to work in

brilliant passing in the build up, great ball by jimmy and a nice finish by emile, although he managed to fall over as he scored and blackburn get one back, poor marking but a great finish

hahaha emile!!!!

lol deflects slightly off gabby and thats comes from passing the ball on the deck, keeping possesion

jimmy!!!!!!!!!!!

good posession, and goal off the corner!!!!

crazy half we started out pathetically, hoof ball which plays right into blackburns hands, incapable of keeping passes in play. 2 awful goals conceded. need to give guzan more protection on set pieces. he should have made the punch yes but we are not marking players very well- why was warnock marking kalinic who is much taller?? got the 1st goal and then grew in confidence. clear penalty and red card, blackburn can have no complaints. even the first goal wasnt really a foul by gabby, and given the ref missed 2 clear pens and probably a sending off last week its all even for me. playing 10 men now we need to pass the ball. it will tire blackburn out and they are not as good defending that way anyway. we will create more like this i think. they are good at defending long balls and deep crosses, so why we spent the first 20 minutes playing direct i dont know. we need more goals

clear penalty, ref got that one right nice one jimmy!!!!!!!!!!

downing really needs to sort out some of his passing and crossing

why are we pumping the ball long at every opportunity?? playing right into blackburns hands