Monreal back, gibbs out, Ozil possibly travelling...the sides coming together.
I'm thinking we'll see
Szy
Sagna Mertesacker* Koscielny Monreal
Arteta Flamini
Podolski Ramsey Cazorla
Giroud
*although I could see Mertesacker getting rested as he's played the last squillion games in a row for us...
no doubt you tech savvy young cats are up to speed with this guy
https://twitter.com/usasoccerguy
quite funny
E's Flat Ah's Flat Too
What's the situation with the Ox?
He was struggling at the end of the Wigan game and didn't play against Westham, I'm assuming he's back for Hull? If so, I'd give Arteta a rest and go for;
Szczesny
Sagna-Mertesacker-Koscielny-Monreal
Flamini-Ramsey
Ox-Cazorla-Podolski
Giroud
Ah good shout, I thought he was still out with a niggle. Agree on resting Arteta. I'm still worried about Per, according to Wiki he's clocked up 46 games for us this year across all competitions, with 5 games left in the season that'll be an absolutely mammoth effort. We've had 51 games so far this season!
https://www.arsenal.com/first-team/statistics
Top 5 players for appearances:
Mertesacker 47+1
Szy 43
Sagna 42+1
Giroud 41+5
Cazorla 37+5
That's a lot of football, especially given they're all currently still fit and available for selection for the remaining 5 matches..
Rosicky and Downing are obviously good mates off the field, and decided to take a tab of acid together just before kickoff. That is the only explanation I can come up with for their performances.
LOL
Frankie you are seriously our full-on good luck charm this season, you best have an FA Cup final ticket sorted
All I do is make the stuff I would've liked
Reference things I wanna watch, reference girls I wanna bite
Now I'm firefly like a burning kite
And yousa fake fuck like a fleshlight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw580fgdaU0
Get some of this in you, Arsenal's road to the FA Cup final.
I've partially resigned myself to dealing with a Liverpool win as being less onerous handling their fans than should they bottle it from here.
It's not the Cocks and it's not the Chq Books so hardly a nadir season.
E's Flat Ah's Flat Too
If Liverpool win I'll be stoked because it's a moral victory over buying titles and instead focussing on playing fantastic football.
Although the jealousy comes in that we've been trying to do that for years and never pulled it off.
Remember a couple of seasons back they were splashing 15-20 mill each on players like Stewart, Downing, Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson, admittedly Henderson seems to be getting there, of recent 10 mill on Borini and 15 mill on Joe Allen has been very ordinary.
Then there was 35 mill on Andy Caroll, now that takes the cake!!
I wonder if we added up all the spending over the last 3-4 seasons they may well have spent more than us
Things are within our grasp in the coming seasons, the gap to winning this thing is smaller than we believe sometimes - Liverpool's success shows us that more than anything. It's hard to believe we were equal with them just 5 games ago.
They will probably be champions yet we beat them 2 out of 3 times this season, including the FA Cup game when they were at the top of their game.
Hell if we had managed to beat Villa on the opening day, won at Stoke, and not conceded that late one to Swansea, we'd be 2 points behind them and in with a huge shot given they're still to play Chelsea.
I know it's all ifs and buts blah blah blah but still, those simple facts show that it's certainly not out of our reach.
Great win this morning. Shows how much we have missed Ramsey. Two more goals for Podolski. I really hope we keep him. His left foot is lethal. Everton still keeping up the pressure for fourth after their win against Man United. Now two home games in a row.
Hopefully this win doesn't make us complacent for the cup final although both Shane Long and Jelavic will both be cup tied which helps.
That game was almost a carbon copy of many matches in the first half of the season. Toe to toe for the first half an hour, then we establish a lead through a couple of moments of real quality, before controlling the game easily for the remainder.
Ozil was very good. Not as prominent as others but if you watched him he was excellent. A lot of key passes, such a smart player with the ball. Also notable that players like Monreal, Cazorla and Giroud look a lot better with Ramsey and Ozil buzzing around them.
Remember a couple of seasons back they were splashing 15-20 mill each on players like Stewart, Downing, Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson, admittedly Henderson seems to be getting there, of recent 10 mill on Borini and 15 mill on Joe Allen has been very ordinary.
Then there was 35 mill on Andy Caroll, now that takes the cake!!
I wonder if we added up all the spending over the last 3-4 seasons they may well have spent more than us
They've spent shark loads more than us mate:
Disclaimer: unlikely transfer rumours post...
Few rumours around regarding Fabregas... apparently been getting booed a lot lately at the nou camp and not having a nice time of it. Marca poll said 50% of Barca fans want him sold (and 80% want song sold for that matter)...
Long odds I'd say but one can dream. In saying that I'm pretty sure we have buy-back clauses in both of those contracts. Fabregas is not the type of player we really need but I think we'd want to accomodate him, I'd probably even make him captain given his previous standing in our club. When asked on who they missed most out of those who left, szcezsny and wilshere both said Cesc, so he is obviously looked up to by all our young players. If we want to make harsh decisions on improving our squad you'd have to say he'd be a Cazorla upgrade?
Anyhow I'm probably wasting my breath but to be honest I'd love to have him back.
Also see some rumours that Real are wanting to offload Benzema so they can get Suarez. We've been linked with Benzema a lot and Arsene is a known admirer. Although I don't like the idea of having two strikers that are also competing for a national team berth, if you put that aside Benzema certainly has the qualities and it the type of player we are after - a good finisher with pace and intelligent movement, rather than a 'big man' who is good with his back to goal - completely different skillset to Giroud, thus offering us that other option we need for particular games. I'd be very happy with our striking situation if we had those two with Sanogo as the young protege, as well as Walcott back from injury as back-up.
Ozil's individual highlights from Hull;
Couple of rusty touches which can be expected but overall you can see the real quality he brings. That turn and pass basically made the first goal, he won a stonewall peno, and plenty of other excellent pieces of skill.
This guy is brilliant, am so excited to see what he brings next season. I particularly liked his fend on one of their players as he accelerated towards goal - showed strength and tenacity that I don't think he would've earlier in the season. He's learning the ropes of english football... also feel he's much faster than people realise, as evidenced @ 2:33
I watched the MOTD highlights:
https://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/hull-0-arsenal-3-motd/
I know Keown does a bit of work with the beeb but is his main job now the running of a Spearmint Rhino franchise? He's got the look down pat.
How old is Leggy? Is he 12 or 72?
OMG Diaby played 45mins for the u21's......Wonder if we will offer him a new contract? If he can still injury free he could be awesome
just wouldnt want Wenger to claim him as a new signing thou LOL
I'd be happy to offer him a pay-as-you-play deal. Reckon he might take that too - what club would take a risk with a proper contract?
He is quality when he gets on the pitch every other year. But yes he is not worth a 'regular' contract by any stretch.
Guys. I've solved our transfer problems, or at least figured out where Wenger went wrong.
Firstly he should have swapped Giroud for Mandzukic + $5m. Then spent August - December playing Mandzukic into sublime form, before finally convincing PSG to swap Mandzukic for Cavani in the January window. We'd be guaranteed to win the title.
Well, that's how it's worked out for me on Fifa 14.
Guys. I've solved our transfer problems, or at least figured out where Wenger went wrong.
Firstly he should have swapped Giroud for Mandzukic + $5m. Then spent August - December playing Mandzukic into sublime form, before finally convincing PSG to swap Mandzukic for Cavani in the January window. We'd be guaranteed to win the title.
Well, that's how it's worked out for me on Fifa 14.
Lukas Podolski has now played 57 times for Arsenal. He has scored 24 goals and registered 12 assists.
How does he not get more game time.
Aaron Ramsey has now been involved in 17 goals (nine goals, eight assists) in his 21 Premier League appearances this season.
The kids on form.
Arsenal have taken 47 points from a possible 54 against bottom-half teams.
Just couldn't do it against the big boys.
https://www.football365.com/f365-features/9278295/Numbers-Stats
In my opinion when Walcott is on the right Santi is our best pick on the left.
Podolski's greatest strength is how clinical he is in front of goal so his stats always look good. If he was playing striker that would be good enough but we expect more from a wide player. He needs to be looking to influence the game when he gets the ball but unless he's in sight of goal, he doesn't.
In the games he scores he's great, but if he doesn't score, he doesn't give us a lot else. I feel he has this pattern of scoring a goal or two in one game, but being virtually invisible in the next. He has all the ability, I just wish he was a more constant threat in the bigger games against the bigger sides.
Gee, people like to bag him, he is worth carrying as when he shoots, it more often than not goes in.
Him and Ramsey are the only ones in the entire squad we can be confident on when shooting.
Podolski is a slow starter and gets better as the season goes on, I am looking forward to him starting for the rest of the season.
Yea my post does come across awfully negative, I didn't intend that entirely, I do love Poldi.
He is all effort and his finishing is world class, I just feel he should be giving us something more - he should be better than just a finisher. Often he'll be great in one game, and then in the next he'll get subbed and as he's walking off I'm thinking 'I can't recall any of his touches in the last 60 minutes'.
I always thought he should be a striker for us but his hold-up play just isn't at the same level as Giroud. Arsene said last season that he'd been working with Podolski a lot in training as a striker, yet nothing ever came of that.
I feel Walcott plays a similar way but on the other side, his finishing is probably second best in our squad (maybe third after Ramsey now), but Walcott gives us more than Poldi with his pace - he is a consistent threat and makes fullbacks sh*t their pants. His outside-in runs are basically second to none.
Still, having said all that, having Podolski in our squad gives us great depth - he is the quality of player we need off the bench (or starting when there are injuries) if we want to win the title.
Gee, people like to bag him, he is worth carrying as when he shoots, it more often than not goes in.
Him and Ramsey are the only ones in the entire squad we can be confident on when shooting.
Podolski is a slow starter and gets better as the season goes on, I am looking forward to him starting for the rest of the season.
Remember a couple of seasons back they were splashing 15-20 mill each on players like Stewart, Downing, Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson, admittedly Henderson seems to be getting there, of recent 10 mill on Borini and 15 mill on Joe Allen has been very ordinary.
Then there was 35 mill on Andy Caroll, now that takes the cake!!
I wonder if we added up all the spending over the last 3-4 seasons they may well have spent more than us
They've spent shark loads more than us mate:
Gee, people like to bag him, he is worth carrying as when he shoots, it more often than not goes in.
Him and Ramsey are the only ones in the entire squad we can be confident on when shooting.
Podolski is a slow starter and gets better as the season goes on, I am looking forward to him starting for the rest of the season.
Horses for courses and Podolski is clearly a valuable player for certain games. However I can understand why he is not considered an automatic starter in all games by Wenger.
In other news, Diaby picked up a groin injury in the u21 game mid-week. No joke.
Remember a couple of seasons back they were splashing 15-20 mill each on players like Stewart, Downing, Charlie Adam and Jordan Henderson, admittedly Henderson seems to be getting there, of recent 10 mill on Borini and 15 mill on Joe Allen has been very ordinary.
Then there was 35 mill on Andy Caroll, now that takes the cake!!
I wonder if we added up all the spending over the last 3-4 seasons they may well have spent more than us
They've spent shark loads more than us mate:
Indeed.
This pasted from F365's mediawatch column;
Investment
Mediawatch can't help thinking that Luis Suarez has over-egged his surprise at Liverpool's success in the quotes that are doing the rounds on Friday.
"It would be something amazing, even to the whole of England, because of the investment made by Chelsea, City and Arsenal," said Suarez.
"Even Tottenham have spent over £100m and we, with so little investment, are in that position. It would be incredible."
(As an aside, the Daily Mirror's Martin Lipton then interjects: 'Not, perhaps, as incredible as Suarez's own transformation, from the most criticised player in the country to arguably the best.' Again, for those hard of understanding, those two considerations are not on the same gradient. Scoring goals does not make you a better person.)
Anyway, back to Suarez, who obviously has a point about Liverpool being the poor cousins of City and Chelsea, but is stretching it by bringing Arsenal and Spurs into the equation.
Indeed, what with Liverpool fans so obsessed with 'net spend' arguments, they might be keen to know that the Reds are fifth in this regard over the last five years, with total purchases of around £310m resulting in a net spend per season of around £18m.
Spurs and Arsenal are 17th and 18th respectively, with the former spending around £750,000 net per season, and the latter actually recording a negative net spend each year.
Liverpool's title win would certainly be an extraordinary achievement, but let's not bulls**t people and pretend they haven't invested.
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