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

Such a big win yesterday, it's not an easy place to go to. Really hoping chavs/sp*rs drop something today...

And sp*rs bottle it hahahaha. Three losses in a row for them now. 

We can do this. 

oohhhh yesssss

they're doing it again :)

and they have to play Man City and Chelsea.

If man city carry on as they are they'll be drawn into this battle too.

Next 3 fixtures:

Arsenal:

Reading (H)

West Brom (A)

Norwich (H)

(and we'll also play everton at home 4 days after Norwich, to make up our game in hand)

Spurs:

Swansea (A)

Everton (H)

Chelsea (A)

Chelsea:

Southampton (A)

Sunderland (H)

Tottenham (H)

Man City:

Newcastle (H)

Man United (A)

West Brom (H)

We could well be in front of spurs by the time these are played out. 

We will need to be in front by then I reckon as we then have Man United at home in Round 35 (two rounds later).

Tottenham have Man City in R.34, so at worst a loss to ManU hopefully wouldn't be too damaging. Would be great if ManU had the title sewn up by then.

Spurs also have two legs against FC Basel scattered in there to make things difficult.

This is completely in our hands.

We could win every game and still finish fifth. So it's not completely in our own hands and we still require other results to go our way!

We all know Spurs will continue to drop points from here on in though.

Great win by us and great loss by spuds. i'd be pretty stoked with 4th considering they way we have played some games to be honest. hopefully theo and poli can start firing in the run in home.

Confirmed they are hanging up in pretty much the same area, both look in pristine condition.

We'll finish fourth.

Aboubou did his ACL in training yesterday.  Out for the rest of 2013.  Surely his contract was up this summer??  If not it's now time to settle his contract and wish him all the best.

bad luck for Diaby

hard to say what happens to him now, poor guy.

Jack out for a few weeks as well. 

Off to the Emirates COYG. Really hoping in four hours' time we will have gained on the enemy.

another round, another 3 points gained. 

hoping Chelsea beat the Chq Book Champs on Tuesday AM

Brilliant performance yesterday although Reading were poor. Some of the best passing football I've seen of late. 

Ok, totally irrelevant stat time. Arsenal, Man United and Chelsea have scored four or more goals in an EPL game six times this season. Man City three times and Spurs only once. Interestingly, Man United haven't scored more than four in a game. We scored seven against Reading away, six against Southampton, five against Spurs and West Ham.

7 against Reading was in the cup.

Sorry, you're right. We scored five away against Reading in the EPL. I also forgot that we put seven past Newcastle. In fact, the weekends win against Reading was the first time we'd scored four and not gone on.

 8 games left

9 points so far from the last 12 rounds tipping comp.

couple of dead rubbers, but  possibly 3 x matches v relegation battlers. It's possible we could send Newcastle down on the final day.

Christ that was almost unwatchable for the last 20 minutes. Top four though!!!!

Yeah rough last 20, hate to say it but bigger concern could be having Vermaelen back in there, although silly challenge from Mertesacker, I have really enjoyed the confidence and cohesion the Mertesacker/Koscielny combo have brought.

Ramsey had a good game and Rosicky showed what he can do when he strings a few games together injury free...

If your guys had defended like they did in the last 15 mins yesterday, for the other parts of the season, you'd be 2 points behind Man U. Held out brilliantly.

I thought so too. We're showing a lot of defensive fight at the moment and getting the goals at the other end too. All without wilshere, walcott and podolski. Norwich next, 2 points behind spurs/chelsea with a game in hand on spurs

exciting

Couldnt remember how many points I predicted for the Foal30 Tipping Comp (TM) and took me ages to scroll back and find it, so here's an update to help us out;

Predictions:

Foal30 - 31

Paulm - 29

Arsenal - 28

Brumbys - 27

Buffon -24

Surge - 19

12 games:

Villa, won 2-1

Spurs lost 1-2

Swansea won 2-0

Reading won 4-1

WBA won 2-1

to play:

Norwich (h)

Everton (h)

Fulham (a)

ManU (h)

QPR (a)

Wigan (h)

Newcastle (h)

My repsych versology is working well! 

Interesting, we play twice before Chelsea play next, and 3 games before Spurs play next. If we can win those games we'll be third and put a sh*tload of pressure on them. Good little analysis here with G.Neville;

https://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/gary-neville-talks-through-the-remaining-fixtures-for-chelsea-spurs-arsenal/?

Didn't click as to just how tough Chelsea's run-in is. Wouldn't be surprised if it's them who miss out on the top 4. 

Everything is stacked in our favour. 

There's only one thing I like about Piers Morgan and Samir Nasri:

They don't like eachother 

Hilarious. I hope they carry it on. 

Jack and Walcott at 90% chance of playing against Norwich. Rosicky likely out with a hamstring niggle.

I really hope we don't rush Rosicky back, he's too goood!

I've recently become addicted to Sporcle, check these couple of Arsenal quizes out:

https://www.sporcle.com/games/Segaboyno/arsenalpremscorers

https://www.sporcle.com/games/Freddie/UCLArsenal

I'd prefer to leave Jack and Rosicky out to be safe. I'd also leave walcott on the bench - he's coming back from a niggle, hasn't scored since Jan, plus Gervinho is going great guns right now and is very much a confidence player. Poldi to return this week maybe? He's a curious case at the moment. 

Perhaps this;

                     Fabianski

Sagna-Koscielny-Vermaelen-Monreal

                Arteta-Ramsey

         Gervinho-Cazorla-Podolski

                        Giroud

This was fun and also provided a blast from the past with some names.