Official Gunners Thread

I'd swap Lehmann for Richards any day. I'd love it if Wenger bought him he's got a great future ahead of him and i think he'd get plenty of game time unlike if he went somewhere like Chel$ki.

Would you really start richards ahead of toure/gallas/eboue/sagna???

Its funny how we always pick on the other CD when they are paired with Toure. First Cygan (who wasn't completely useless), now Senderos.  I think senderos is a great CD but even Rio Ferdinand or John Terry would look crap playing alongside Toure. I am still amazed that every summer with all the rumors of big clubs stealing our best players, nothing ever gets mentioned about Toure? UberGunner2007-10-13 09:44:02

Very good point. Toure is absolutely outstanding year after year - perhaps the most underrated player in the premiership?

which makes losing him for the african nations cup, a major problem.

Agreed. We'll definitely need Gallas fit for that period. His experience will be indispensable without Toure there. Though I do rate Senderos, and Gilberto is able enough to play there, having someone like Toure or Gallas makes them look better and a lot more comfortable...

Hey boys. Was just having a flick through the ManU thread and thought a congrats is in order.

^^^^ nuf said!

Tbh paul i don't even bother going into the Man Yoo thread. No time for it.

Wenger only send Djourou out on loan untill jan so he can come back and be cover while toure goes for african cup. Maybe buy a keeper i reckon we seem to have most other areas well covered. on a side note check this freekick out from the weekend

Best fans for sure. 

Saw an article today that steve bruce has asked wenger to have bendtner back on loan in january... thoughts?

Great idea imo. He's obviously gunning (no pun intended) for some game time but isn't yet up to Arsenal standards. Adebayor won't be going to the African Cup now so unless we get an injury to a striker, let Bendtner out.

Yea just saw that about adebayor. For anyone who doesn't know;

Holy sh*t just watched that youtube link a few posts up... freakin amazing. Reminded me of the first of my hattrick at indoor footy on sunday

Another bit of positive team news for Arsenal is Lehman finally put on a perfromance worthy of all his self promotion lately. His form vs Ireland was excellant, and if he continues in a similar manner to the last time Wenger dropped him, Almunia may have a struggle keeping his spot.

as crazy as lehman is he is our number 1, i have never really rated Almunia as a first choice keeper for us, if we are going to do business in the transfer window i'm sure it will be for a keeper

It must be hard for Wenger to decide which players to give game time too. for the first time in a long time we don't have a plethora on injuries, and the team seems to be firing on all cylinders. we are so attack minded that at home we basically play 2-4-4, with both our left and right sides spending more time forward than back. We struggled to use our width last season and considering the amount of space we had at Highbury its no surprise that it took a while to adjust, but now with the pace and ball control we have out wide, teams struggle to contain us. Teams that last year where putting 10 men behind the ball where having some success because we seemed to only have one type of approach play, now we are whipping in pinpoint crosses behind those 10 man defenses and scoring nearly at will sometimes. I think when we play Liverpool and Man- u at the end of the month we will see how much ground we have made on the big teams. Lesser teams playing against Arsenal try to contain us. Bigger teams try and stick to their own game plan which they struggled to do against us last year, this year i think they will be in with the other teams, trying to contain us and scoring on the counter. I am really looking forward to seeing how this run into Xmas pans out as it is usually our weakest period of the season but I just cant spot any significant weakness this year.

yeah i do agree with you on that, the next 3games will be massive for us, bolton has been our bogey team for a couple of years even thou they arnt good as they used to be. if we can get 4points form liverpool and man u i'd be happy

speaking on strikers we have young mexican carlos vela out on loan in spain too

gunners vs bolton @245am sunday morning, sky has finally come to its senses

I'm all over this one. 

Predictions?

I'm thinking 3-1.

i'd say 2 nil, RVP should be raring to go as he didnt play for holland in the weekend, dont why considering he's been on fire in EPL. hope silva will come and score.

silva scored a goody for croatia. if you watch him before the bal gets centered he totally confuses the defender who loses him, then he does well to get to the ball and score. overall good. also hope he blossoms, which i dont see as a problem seeing his past form for club and country

Can't wait for the bolton game. Im predicting 4-0. Yes they have been our nemesis, but i think we have shown a lot of resolve this year and rough tactics don't seem to phase us like they have over the past two years. In saying that, Bolton are not necessarily playing that type of game anymore either. They are trying to play real football and failing miserably. It will be a hiding, all we have to do is keep a lid on anelka. I'm not really worried about how we'll perform against the big teams either. We coped with them well last year. All we need is for our midfield to control posession and hte goals will come. It will be all about our backs keeping drogba (if fit), torres, ronaldo etc under control - which i think they are well capable of. When these guys run riot it's generally due to their pace against cumbersome fullbacks and centre halves. Sagna and clichy have plenty of pace, and toure/gallas are no slouches. I am confident and i think we should be looking for 6 pts against manU/Lpool, although i too would be happy with 4 points. Lpool are down at the moment, and i think they should be targeted for a good beating. Knowing their rubbish rotation policy, you can bet more than one of their truly class players won't be playing either. Always a bonus...

Left out Eboue when talking about that midfield too...

international breaks are a pain in the ass, 4-0 is my minimum score, hoping for more tho...Besides Keepers is there any positions we need to fill??

I don't think so. Djourou will come back on loan to cover toure for the african nations cup. Who else do we lose for the african nations? Just Eboue? Sagna is playing well, and we've got Hoyte there... Bendtner is our fourth striker, and even if we had striking injuries, we are more than confident playing a 4-5-1 with RVP or Adebayor leading the line. paulm2007-10-16 23:09:48

Dont really rate Almunia much aye, doesnt let in howlers but does let in a few softies

PaulM is right. We couldnt be in a better position atm. everyone is in form, nearly everyone is fit. quality cover and competition in all positions, a carling cup squad that could beat most premier league teams. Tonnes of cash for transfers, but no reason to spend it :). The only downside at the moment is the international break makes the newpapers in spain a little nervous with no gossip to report so they have started the whole Fabregas rumors again. First it was Barca, now Real Madrid. I dont think Fabregas will want to leave Arsenal for another 3-4 years (if ever- and then only to go to Barca), But if someone coughed up the 100mil euros to buy out his 8 yr contract who knows?

i think he will repay wenger cos of the faith wenger should in him, well i'm hoping so. He is our future captain if he sticks around and has the x factor. Could trade him with barc maybe if they gave us messi LOL

Agreed ubergunner. I really dont think fabregas will leave - he loves wenger. But it doesn't make it any easier when reading all the rumours. I think that's something I'll never get used to. F*cking press!!!!

Better than Robinson?

Wont mind if we bought scott carson the liverpool keeper hes pretty good

If Lehmann hadn't been sent off in that match, then he probably could have saved both of the goals that Barcelona scored, but having said that, Almunia didn't have a bad final. Overall I rate him as a good goalie - nowhere near the best, but I'd prefer him to a lot of other premier league goalies. And when you say that Cech is better than Kahn in his prime, I think that's quite a big call to make. In his prime Kahn was a phenomenal goalkeeper. And I think Moss could give old Cech a run for his money any day

i thought he was out at loan at aston villa at the moment?? he was awesome for charlton last year, if he wasnt there charlton might have let in double the amount of goals

Heh. Bolton have let both their managers go 4 days out from this weekends game. They probaly said you have get a point from the Arsenal game or your fired, and he said "May as well quit now then!"