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

speaking of...

Daily Star (i know i know) reporting that Wenger, Sagna and Mertesacker have all put pen to paper on new deals... you little beaut if true

Good win. Giroud looks refreshed and up for it again. Ozil not so much. Im really starting to like nacho, hes turning out to be a very solid player.

Saw a piece pre-game about how wenger isnt going to sign anyone in jan. To me thats a lil worrying but in the professor I trust.

Next 3 league games;

Fulham (h)

Southampton (a)

Crystal Palace (h)

Then we go to anfield. By that time, Man City and Chelsea would have played eachother, Chelsea would also have played ManU and Westham (derby). Man City would also have had a resurgent tottenham. Perhaps some opportunity here.

yeah we needed 7 EPL wins in a row

4 down , 3 to go

should be a good game at Anfield Liverpool play some exciting stuff to.

after these 3 game we have liver man u everton and chelsea on the trott with some crap german in between as well from memory

not quite that bad... but it does get tough

Full list of remaining games until the end of the league season below (CL/FA Cup games bolded). I've put a space between games that are 6 or 7 days apart or more, so you can see where the tough sections are (although I haven't checked for any international breaks...)

Jan 18: Fulham (h)

Jan 24: FA CUP - Coventry (h)

Jan 28: Soton (a)

Feb 2: Palace (h)

Feb 8: Liverpool (a)

Feb 12: ManU (h)

Feb 16/17: FA CUP - round 5 (if qualified)

Feb 19: CL - Bayern Munich (h)

Feb 22: Sunderland (h)

Mar 1: Stoke (a)

Mar 8: Swansea (h) nb: this will be postponed if we qualify for the FA Cup 1/4 finals

Mar 11: CL - Bayern Munich (a)

Mar 15: Spurs (a)

Mar 22: Chelsea (a)

Mar 29: Man City (h)

Apr 1/2: CL - quarter final (if qualified)

Apr 5: Everton (a) 

Apr 8/9: CL - quarter final (if qualified)

Apr 12: Westham (h) nb: this will be postponed if we qualify for the FA Cup semi finals

Apr 19: Hull (a)

Apr 22/23: CL - semi final (if qualified)

Apr 26: Newcastle (h)

Apr 29/30: CL - semi final (if qualified)

May 3: WBA (h)

May 11: Norwich (a)

That last 10 minutes was intense, good to see the gents hold out but we were probably playing to 60% of our capacity today, gotta get the form back in the next few games for the big run against the big boys.

So stoked with holding on as there was decent pressure applied at the end, which is a good confidence builder, perfectionist would have looked for holding a clean sheet.

The Ox had a good run around, I swear I saw Podolski shaking his head as Ox came on and Rosicky went off, which is great if it was reference to him not being the one coming on, hungry lads will bring the competitiveness flowing through to the end.

Intense finish alright, great to see us grinding out those matches with solid defense.

Ozil still isn't feeling like an Arsenal player for me yet. He feels like this elite player who's taking a short term break with us before continuing on with his career. Maybe that will change in time, but for me he should be playing to Cesc's level of passion and skill, and he's not their on both fronts.

nice pass to put Nacho Nacho Man away for first goal

treat Ozil like Arshavin, he's in the team for skill. If the other 10 players in the side are smart and good enough he's worth 40 goals a season. 

If monreal's metatarsal is broken as suspected then the need for a centre half is even greater, given vermaelen will probably be needed at LB for a few matches.

Winston Reid please!

Kieran Gibbs?

Assuming we can pick up 4 points minimum from the Liverpool & United games, this run here is where the title is decided:

Mar 15: Spurs (a)

Mar 22: Chelsea (a)

Mar 29: Man City (h)

Seeing that little line up makes me nervous as hell

Really interesting piece on buy-out clauses for spanish players;

https://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/laliga/id/1346?cc=3436

The Draxler noises seem to be getting louder... I'd much prefer we got another striker than another "project" myself. Even though that'd mean waiting 'til the summer window.

Draxler thing seems to have more legs than anything else. Websites reporting that wenger sees him as his newest 'turn a winger into a striker' project. Interesting. Keen to see that for the future but it won't help us this season really - apparently he has an achilles injury and can't play until March.

37mil also seems rather steep for a 20yo project. 

Guess we could do worse i.e. Chelsea - buy a player for 1.5mil, throw him away as part of a swap deal, then buy him back 2 years later for 21mil... hmmm

That Chelsea deal is laughable. #Chelseaconomics

ramsey back in the squad this weekend, you beaut

we've won all 4 games without him...

something about this team... plenty of injury setbacks this season yet we've managed through all of them thus far

Sounding like monreal may only have bruising, no fracture - not confirmed yet though

My folks are back in town next weekend, so I got some tickets to the Arsenal vs Coventry cup game.  I think (and I am not sure) that I was at the Emirates the last time Coventry played there - wasn't it 6-0 or something in the Rumbelows Cup?

from last night

Wenger also confirmed that Tomas Rosicky underwent surgery after suffering a broken nose in the 2-1 win over Aston Villa, while Mikel Arteta, Nicklas Bendtner, Aaron Ramsey and Thomas Vermaelen are all set to miss Saturday's meeting with Fulham.

"Ramsey and Arteta are both out for this game. Vermaelen, too. I personally believe the three will miss the Coventry game as well and will be available after that. Bendtner has a little chance to make Coventry. But in all probability it will be after that.

"Monreal looks a doubt for Saturday, a big doubt, because he twisted his foot on the kick. It is not the bruise, he turned and twisted the ligament." 

I imagine we'll see:

           Szy

Sagna Per Kosc Gibbs

   Flamini Wilshere

Podolski   Ozil   Cazorla

         Giroud

Bench: Fab, Ox, Gnabry, Jenkinson, Frimpong, Park, Ryo

Injured: Walcott, Diaby, Ramsey, Vermaelen, Monreal, Rosicky, Arteta

Starting to get thin on the ground there...

thin on the ground or not - I firmly believe we've got it sorted this season - Wenger has had years of injury marred seasons to re-learn how to manage the sqaud though all challenges. We'll carry on the run this weekend and have it in the bag.

Oh and I'm not doubting we're still up for it, I'm just highlighting that we're light for a couple of games. Additionally we're fortunate that they're games where we're unlikely to be hurt by blooding some youngsters if required, and provide good rehab fodder for the Ox and Podolski.

Just signed up to PPL for the rest of the season, can't wait for this weekend!

seems that all our injuries seem to right themselves just in time for someone else to go down - perfect really... well sort of, you know what i mean!

So looks like we'll get 5 back for southampton away. The rest of our squad should be able to cope with fulham and coventry. 

Will do an injury update when i get a minute...

Also remember Stevan Jovetic? The fiorentina striker we were chasing but went to Man City? Looks like we dodged a bullet eh...

Injury Update:

Arteta - possibly available for Southampton away (Jan 28)

Ramsey - possibly available for Southampton away (Jan 28)

Vermaelen - possibly available for Southampton away (Jan 28)

Monreal - possibly available for Southampton away (Jan 28)

Rosicky - possibly available for Southampton away (Jan 28)

Bendtner - possibly available for Southampton away (Jan 28)

Sanogo - not sure... no recent updates from the boss...

Diaby - available approx March

Walcott - out until next season

Injury update comes complete with bonus off-topic statistic;

The last time we lost a game in which Mertesacker and Koscielny both played 90 minutes was January 2012. 

Thats an amazing stat!

Nice that, Walcott aside, the  should be looking pretty complete going into our tough stretch in February. 

Words have a tendency to disappear when I'm editing posts on my phone. 

New Arsenal sponsorship deal with.....HUAWAI:

https://www.bit-tech.net/news/industry/2014/01/17/huawei-and-arsenal-announce-global-partners/1

mid-table troll

Ramsey looks so pleased to be in those facebook Huawei photos, on the other hand Poldi and Ozil are feeling the vibe lol

Manbangang wrote a now timely piece on the Importance Of Being Santi

there is vomit in my mouth as I type but Chq Books could lend a hand in the morning.