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

Man we ground that result out, but what an effort! Can't believe the two chances they had from Szy flapping they couldn't convert, big ups to the defence once again. 9 games to go, it's going to be a massive run in. Oh and United did us no favours whatsoever.

That >>>>>>>>>>> Ellen's selfie

I love mertesacker's eye in there, and the sp*rs 'glory' crap in the background hahahahahaha

Actually thought we were a bit sh*t this morning. Luckily spurs are an absolute rabble. We gave them soooo much ball and they screwed their chances hilariously. Good defending from us at set pieces and crosses but we looked really holey at the back in general play before flamini came on. Gibbs struggled with townsend and eriksen going at him.

Giroud and Cazorla were really non-existent. Cazorla in midfield wasn't a bad ploy against bayern but it didn't work here, he got beasted by bigger stronger guys. Ox was great again though, he's really coming on. Pity about that shanked finish, coulda set us off for a big win if we'd nabbed a 2nd there. 

I love our ability to close out games though, can only remember late goals in the champions league (dortmund and bayern at home) this season, have we conceded late at all in the prem? Maybe that everton one but that wasn't that late? We certainly look comfortable retreating to 5 at the back and keeping teams at arms' length, a complete turnaround from a couple of seasons ago when we would sh*t our daks at the 80 minute mark on a regular basis. Szczesny's improvement this season figures a lot in that as well (despite a couple of really sh*t flaps today). 

Good start to our march madness schedule then. 

Chelsea game this week is going to be huge, no rameirza and willan either and they also have Champs league mid week. IF we can sneak in 3 points at the bridge we will be in a really good position heading into the final 1/4 of the season. 

I was watching the coverage right up to the end and when Rosicky gives his shirt to a guy in a wheelchair, made me tear up. Emotional rollercoaster of a game, found the perfect moment of release.

Arsene has never beaten Jose as we so often hear.

It's his 1000th game, great time to break the hoo doo?

Wish we had ramsey or wilshere for this one, our midfield's not the same without one of those two in there.

Chelsea will probably sit deep and be boring as f*ck as usual, runners playing off giroud will be key to try and unlock them. Early days to pick a lineup but maybe;

                    Szczesny

Sagna-Mertesacker-Koscielny-Gibbs

                Arteta-Flamini

          Ox-Rosicky-Cazorla

                      Giroud

wow forgot chelsea have champs league this week, huge advantage for us.

some of our lads looked tired after a massive week

Some great photos coming out from after the game this morning, some of the players we have now finally know how to connect with the fans.

Great result, Chelsea with 2 players out this week due to suspensions and it's all to play for. Yiddos forever in our shadow.

Need a BIG game from Giroud

Anelka - what a douche bag: https://www.football365.com/news/21554/9216989/FA-Anelka-Ban

Run in is looking interesting:

https://www.football365.com/chelsea/fixtures

https://www.football365.com/arsenal/fixtures

https://www.football365.com/manchester-city/fixtures

https://www.football365.com/liverpool/fixtures

In terms of tough fixtures here's what I'm observing:

Arsenal - Chelsea away, City home, Everton away

Chelsea - Arsenal home, Liverpool away

Liverpool - Sp*rs home, City home, Chelsea home

City - United away, Liverpool away, Everton away

Based on current form I'd suggest City's run in looks best, although they've got a tonne of games to catch up on making March/April/May the most congested of all 4 teams.

Hopefully Chelsea win tomorrow and carry on in the ECL.

can't see Liverpool having any problems with the Cocks

I think they'll beat Chelsea and MCFC as well

but fail away to WHU and Crystal Palace.

therefore allowing us to win by 1 point. 

In the build up to the weekend Wenger was quoted as saying he was going to be looking into the mounting injury list to try and find some answers. I'm pretty sure we've had an injury crisis every season for the last decade, surely he should have noticed sooner...?

Great goal , great result #FOYS!

Was nice to hear that Rosicky gave his shirt to a fan in a wheelchair which is cool and as said above its nice to see a bit of spirit in the team again.

Interesting to hear that Girouds missus wants him to move back to France at seasons end....if it happens it'll be a real shame he really found his feet this season and if we had another quality striker we could have had a decent attack (not that out attack is good) and also means that AW will need to hunt for two decent strikers.

If we can beat Chelsea this race is going to go down to the wire which is nerve racking and exiting....so tempting to head over for a holiday and catch the last 2 or 3 games of the PL and hopefully an FA Cup final. 

I recall a couple of years ago there being an investigation in to this, looking over training facilities / training fields etc, and then Wenger coming out and saying this:

"We have so many injuries because we keep hold of the ball more than other teams and this exposes the team to more knocks from opponents. It is also because we have a lot of small-sized players, and the fact we take part in so many competitions increases risk of injury." Link.

Sorry, after reading that article compared to the one I got the quote from, it appears that was from Girimandi. But that link has some interesting info anyway..

We've also built a brand new medical facility that was opened within the last 2 years I believe - in response to our injury issues. 

I think it's a bit too convenient lumping it all in together and saying we've have a decade-long problem though. 

Last season I felt our injury record was about fair. 

This season if you look at them in isolation it tells a fairly straight-forward story I feel...

Ox and Walcott did knee ligaments. Some players do a knee at some point in their career. You land awkwardly, it's bad luck a lot of the time. 

Diaby, well we all know the reasons behind his career hitting the sh*tter. 

Gibbs is injury-prone and I feel is only starting to come out of that now. It's been proven that players in the 19-23 bracket can be very prone to repeated muscle injuries as they complete their growth maturity (this also goes some way to explaining some of the issues we had around 2006 - 2010 as the majority of our squad fell into that age bracket). 

Monreal's injuries have been largely impact injuries which can't be pinned on anyone really.

The players I look at and feel wenger has let himself down this season are Ramsey, Ozil and Wilshere. Ramsey and Ozil were basically played until they dropped. He didn't rest them enough in my opinion and in that situation something has to give - in this case Ramsey's thigh and Ozil's hammy. Playing Ozil continually when he looked so tired was just bizarre. Especially when he wasn't playing that well either. It just seemed like wenger's stubborness was shining through there. I read a funny twitter comment the other week: "Wenger with Ozil reminds me of when I was little - my parents bought me the handheld Donkey Kong game for xmas, so I promptly played it non-stop until the batteries ran out". 

Wilshere had a really bad ankle injury that required special workload considerations. A combination of wenger over-playing him and wilshere himself hiding his strains to keep playing has contributed to ongoing problems. However putting that aside, you can't help an impact injury like a cracked bone in the foot which he has now. 

Aside from at left back our backline has been relatively injury-free. There was vermaelen's back but we didn't get much info around what happened there.

Absolutely love it, thought they would have got it used to it by now. "To dare is to do, to dare is to do....13 league titles, you've only won two"

Can't wait for the Chavs game this weekend

rosicky has 2 league goals this year - the spurs one and the one in ubergunner's sig. 

not a bad pair...

He also nabbed that fa cup goal against spurs too, when he stole it off rose and scooped it over lloris. 

His goals are fairly rare but almost always quality... love that man

off-topic, a wee stat courtesy of goof666: apparently 453k people have 'unliked' manU's facebook page since yesterday... ARF!

Ooh it's gone back up 9k since then kwlap, must be because of this

The Old Trafford match on Sunday:  Men against Moyes...

Jokes aside (just for a minute or two mind!) it does make you wonder about how, after a long reign and a coming to an end - how does a club even begin the search for a new manager?  Ol' Whisky Nose had so much mana - and it was well earned - that he seems to have single handedly picked the next manager at ManUre.

In the next year or three is it prudent that Wenger would have that much power?  What if he likes that guy that played for Blackburn, Tim Sherwood?  I kid, I kid but it is a serious poser.  Many thanks to the Mancs for giving us a lesson on how not to do it.  Hopefully there is a firm hand in the Arsenal boardroom come that time.

Right, back to yer jokes:

Roberto Martinez has been mentioned a few times as a quality contender for the Arsenal job if/when Wenger steps aside.

yea and its showing how manu was held together by Sir A. Moyes isnt a bad coach, in fact I quite liked him at the toffees. When Wenger gives up the ghost, I imagine us going through a similar season(thought I hope not!).

But look at the squad and name a player who is playing like they care about the club? most of them are over inflated on past success, and personally I love it.

(thought I still want them to finish higher than Spurs, that's just because I want everyone to finish higher than spurs. )

I recall reading about Dragan Stojković a few years ago. Wenger managed him at Nagoya Grampus Eight, and by all accounts are still close friends. They caught up when we did our preseason tour of Asia. He has been mentioned in the succession of Wenger, which would be classic 'Wenger plucks an unknown out of nowhere' situation. Dragan has followed Wengers footsteps and has been the manager at Nagoya Grampus since 2008. 

So to actually answer the question, I think Wenger should have some power given to SAF in regards to finding his replacement - maybe not unquestionable power though. 

Here's a small section from Wikipedia on him:

Dragan is the guy that also did this.

Also this article about Wenger and Dragan.

I don't want to think about a post-Wenger Arsenal.

 Dragan Stojković was amazing in Italia 90, so should be given any job related to football that he wants.

Yea I remember reading that a few years back, but havent heard of him since.

I'm not going to lie, having a coach named Dragan is bad ass.

Rambo, Cazorla & Zelalem have signed new deals: https://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20140318/cazorla-ramsey-zelalem-sign-contracts

Good indicator from the club. At 29 I hope we've secured Santi through to 32, he's got the ability to do a Rosicky as far as I'm concerned. Zelalem is also exciting, and I hope we threw the wage structure out the window for Rambo.

I read Rambo is getting 90k p/w. How true that is, who knows?

I don't see why people are so scared of Wenger moving on. The club won plenty before Wenger, we will win plenty after he leaves, though in his early years he provided us with highlights that are unlikely to be matched which no-one can argue against.

I'd like one of the Germans or Simeone as a new gaff. Wenger to have some input into the decision when he does move on but BlackTaranatula said, he can't have complete power on this like he seems to do now. As long as it's not a mediocre Moyes appointment.

The manU fans are a tad sensitive to a bit of trolling, so will continue to post jokes here... another beaut courtesy of Goofy666;