(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread (Part 1)

Agree on the Gervinho point, so frustrating to watch at times, I do think he is better than you give him credit for but I'd definitely be starting Giroud ahead of him. I've been very impressed with every non-shooting part of Giroud's game so far, strength, touch, positioning, the runs he makes, I'm confident in his future.

giroud was good this morning, got fruit this time though, hopefully he goes on a run now

good fight  to win that 

theo two successive good showings from the bench, i wonder if it's lighting a good fire under him sitting on the sideline

we have a lot of attacking options, the ox and arsh both not required today

hope gibbs isnt hurt, didnt look good

 yes it's never an easy game so good spirit and belief to win from behind

Meatsack went good I thought, but Arteta and Carzola look high class in the middle.

Nolan should of scored straight after Walcott's goal so bit lucky there. 

I'm always pleased when we beat a side coached by Sam Allardyce becasue I think he's guilty of football cockery from time to time.

3-1 v WH was a good result, concerning that we conceeded so easily though. Theo looked good today, although listening to the commentary they were saying he is in talks for a new contract and he is pushing to be a cnetral striker? He's never played there - EVER? He looks his best coming from out wide and shooting, how can he possibly justify starting ahead of Podolski and Giroud?

Yea he's been pushing to play CF for a while le prof

Apparently that's the sticking point in the contract negotiations, or so we're told

I'm not opposed to it given his finishing and movement appear to be his best assets behind pace, but Giroud appears to have very good movement/work-rate up top, as well as physicality, and now that he's got the EPL goal monkey off his back I can see him being first choice moving forward. And with gervinho scoring 5 so far this season and lookin good centrally you'd have to say he's the next cab off the rank

theo best be thankful for any minutes he gets in a squad of this depth although his time will likely come when we get some injuries up front - the only area we're fully fit at the moment

he's still only 23 and hopefully we get more important goals off the bench like that until he gets his chance to start

Was at the game on Saturday evening, and it was good fun - very good atmosphere, and a decent game between 2 teams with pretty contrasting styles.  I said before hand that Giroud would score - West Ham are always very accomodating to players who are in a funk, and he played well throughout.  Gervinho was again very average (IMHO) while Carzola was different gravey.  What Chelsea did really well against Arsenal was close down that space in the Jonesy (aka between the lines) so he couldn't operate, but West Ham allowed a tonne of space for him, and he punished us.  Key turning point for the game was West Ham not being able to go into half time at either 1-0, or at 2-1 (with Nolan missing that sitter just before the half). 

there is a westham thread somewhere you know

meh - you find it and I will copy the comments about West Ham there.

Can someone please sort out a room for Paulm & JD's love in... 

Meanwhile... Sagna on his way next? Or Theo? Or...

Walcott got seriously crocked playing for England this morning. im guessing one of our younger players might get some first team time off the bench now.

possibly gnabry, he's been impressing for the U21's recently - miyaichi on loan at wigan so not an option

still plenty of depth though, the Ox hasn't got a starting spot right now either, and ramsey is a good option out wide when we're leading

giroud scored a good header in the dying seconds for france this morning. Jack could be back within a few weeks, wonder how good he will be after such a long layoff??? Decent start to the season so far not too many complaints from me.....however ramsey doesnt annoy the crap out of me sometimes as he goes from awesome to shark within mins.

Bit disappointed that Ryo hasnt been getting much time at all at wigan

Just got a text from a "mate" who's in London for a coupla weeks with work saying he's been offered a ticket to a game next Wednesday and do I reckon it'd be worth going to. Prick. Haha!

With Wilshere quickly returning to fitness, who is going to make way for him in the midfield. Personally, I can't see Cazorla or Arteta being dropped and Wilshere won't be playing wide. Any thoughts?

Bench

cazorla plays in the advanced role with arteta and one other mid sitting behind - diaby prior to injury - so i assume wilshere will start along with cazorla/arteta, and when diaby comes back we'll have another dilemma

in saying that, wilshere has been playing in the advanced role in his come back games, and has the number 10 shirt, so who knows what arsene has planned 

Koscielny Gibbs and Theo all out for Norwich, Theo with a lung injury - ouch. Might be time for the Maverick, let's go Andre!

I got up at 5am after three hours sleep to watch that crap. Arsene may be a genius but he's definitely flawed. How many times have we seen that over the last seven years - and still no response/change.

Abysmal.

Two different teams and performances this season, with Diaby and without Diaby.

Jenkinson seems to be consistently improving, I like how he gets up and down quickly, Podolski looked closest to scoring and was subbed early again...

 I've seen that game before

Libertango

podolski was virtually invisible for large parts of that game, i thought his substitution was justified

gerv wasn't having a good day but at least he was involved and trying things, poldi seemed very anonymous

whole team just weren't hungry enough

vermaelen worries me, i wonder if  he's actually our third best CB. He seems better in the air than koscielny which i saw as his strength, but he lost every header against holt in that game, and his play on the ground is not as good as kosc imo

sorry didnt see who wrote it, but the diaby reference was an important one, we miss him a lot for someone who hasn't played that much over the years. Perhaps wilshere can fill that void once his fitness is up to speed.

ramsey was not good enough positionally or defensively in that match, he seems a better player off the bench or in an advanced wide role for the bigger games - like benayoun last season

have to say tiredness from the int.break must  have played a part for some of our players - but man city, man united and chelsea all won despite that, so that can't be used as an excuse, we need to be more professional and deal with these short turnarounds

as an aside, are any of you the dad i met in the wgtn childrens hospital yesterday? guy was a full on a gooner, he saw my tattoo and started yarning, was genuinely slutted about the norwich result, love meeting passionate gooners

Well that was absolutely fudgeing abysmal.

Aside from our left sided defence (Santos) our right sided attack (Ramsay - really?) our left sided attack (Poldi) who should have been swapped with our non-finishing striker (Gerv)... the most concerning thing about that was an almost total lack of leadership, particularly after we went behind.

We showed NO heart.

Gutted.

I think arshavin deserves a start right now. He looks in very good shape, perhaps the fittest I've seen him, he was very hungry when he came on in the norwich game. And he always delivers an assist or goal, even if he's playing poorly

we appear to be lacking a bit of creativity, something which he has in spades. I'd love to try him centrally with cazorla on the right and poldi on the left. Not as much pace without gerv, theo or ox on the pitch but could work

wilshere's creativity should add something now he's all but back, will be interesting to see if he plays centrally, perhaps cazorla might go out wide at that point

I definitely think Giroud should be given a run of starts to bed himself into the team further, he's our only out-and-out striker apart from Chamakh, we need him to be a regular in the starting eleven in my opinion

ps man city lolz they are just woeful in europe

 haven't seen the game and will now probably give it a miss given the 2 gentleman's above posts

if Ox is fit then he and Arsh should both play.

very gutting week arrrrrh does ramsey drive anyone else up the wall, i try and have faith in him but is he really up to gunner standards? i have to say theo would have been handy in the last 2 games, santos is a waste of space. QPR this weekend is going to be tough

on a postive note....i have been really impressed with Jenkinson this season

Well QPR overnight, hopefully there is some fizz to the attack, play Polodski 90 minutes, hes not everyones one cup of tea but always looks likely to score. Get Ramsey away from the starting lineup would be a bonus too!

phew needed that, bad

no coincidence we looked best once we had arsh and theo in the wide roles, they perhaps look our freshest and liveliest options at the moment

liked the look of giroud this morn, he looks a real proper striker, big, good in the air, good movement, and likes to shoot from anywhere

league cup midweek then Old Trafford here we come

TV5 to take a lump outta the dutch skunk

More like we looked best when QPR went down to 10 men. Man Utd & Chelsea would bury the bottom team in the league about 3-0 or 4-0 at home. I'll take the 3 points but it hasn't filled me with confidence for the rest of the season. At least Wilshere looked good.

Our form is not the best at the moment, this was a step forward, we've looked very tired since the international break. Against that back-drop I'd take a hard-fought win any day. That's often how titles are won - ManU thrive on victories like that. 

The two previous games we had 1 shot on target each. This time we had 9.

And take Cesar outta that game and 3-0 or 4-0 may well have been the result (not to mention Cazorla's terrible miss). 

Reading in the league cup tomorrow morn, old trafford this weekend

Szczesny has returned to full training, thank f*ck for that

3-0 down after 20 minutes, good god

Kosc lost his marker for the first, Kosc oggie for the second, keeper error for the third... 

Well it is halloween I guess

wow

so much happened between the above post and the end of the game... insane stuff...

we scored in fergie time to make it 4-4, then it was 5-5 with a minute of extra time to play and we got two goals, final score 7-5

Walcott (2), Chamakh (2), Giroud, Jenkinson, Koscielny the scorers, although jenkinson's could be attributed to walcott as well, perhaps the dubious goals panel will have a look

7-5! Please dont leave Walcott

Wow. Just wow.

Incredible game and according to the Eurosport commentary, some of the Arsenal fans started leaving at the 37th minute mark when we went down 0-4. I bet they will never do that again. Hopefully the goal highlights are shown on Arsenal.com. This I just have to see.

Absolutely mental. Went out at 0-4. Came home and it was 5-5, then immediately we go and score two more!!!

Yeah it's only the League Cup, it's only Reading, blah blah. Still a great comeback.

 Arshavin and Walcott, 3 goals + 6 assists.

How is Steve Bould?