(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread (Part 2)

Err yeah......wonder if Bayern still do it when they get a home draw against say FC Augsburg ?

Either way - better the players be appreciative of the fans than dismissive of them .

Barcelona, hey it could be worse.

Barcelona eh, easy enough. 

I'm watching Leicester at the minute. I know Chelsea are shark, but my goodness how good are Leicester. Mahrez just scored an absolute beauty. 

https://youtu.be/H9ANBrUFLDg

Sure teams do in Germany, here is when Dortmund were bottom of the table last season in Nov:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/borussia-dortmund-plunge-foot-bundesliga-4724035

And when they lost to Augsburg, still bottom of the table in Feb: 

https://metro.co.uk/2015/02/05/borussia-dortmund-stars-mats-hummels-and-roman-weidenfeller-apologise-to-fans-after-latest-bundesliga-defeat-to-augsburg-5050093/

And Stuttgart, not that long ago Bundesliga champions, after many recent seasons of struggling still acknowledge their fans"

 https://youtu.be/H9ANBrUFLDg

 Bundesliga thread right here.

I can't face the thought of having to play them again tbh, but at least we won't have to go through the whole "DNA" and "he's only on loan" thing this time, though I imagine it won't be too many more seasons until they start that up for Bellerin. Sick of having to play Bayern and Barcelona every season. Not even bothered about getting one of the other big sides, would be good to get Real or Juventus or someone like that for a change wouldn't it?

Thought I suppose I'd rather be playing them than Midtjylland.

If you want to win the ECL you have to beat the best. If it's R16, Quarter, Semi, or Final you'll likely see the big boys, it's how tournaments work.

Ultimately if we want to have an easier route we should try winning our group, something we royally botched up this year.

We're either going to get an upset & move forward in the stages, or we'll get knocked out & focus on a prem title tilt.

As long as we have a serious crack at either I'd be happy.

As an aside what's the most successive FA Cups a side has ever won? Wouldn't mind us going for the hatrick!

We should have coq and possibly santi back by then. Are we at home or away first? Messi Suarez and Neymar at the emirates is pretty exciting and scary at the same time

I didn't say anything about an easy draw, just that it would nice to play someone else for once. Wouldn't have minded getting Real Madrid for a change for instance. Annoying the one time we did finally get an "easier" draw last season we managed to fudge it up.

It hasn't been won 3 times in a row since the 1880s. I really want to do it. Like the Unbeaten season it would be another unique achievement that just doesn't happen in the modern game.

I strongly suspect that neither coq nor santi will be available... 

Agreed. Jack will be back, and we all remember that game against Barcelona...

and

Looking forward to the Barca tie. Two great matches, no pressure, plenty to gain.

I don't think we'll go through mind, but you never know. Knockout football innit. 

Home first.

From F365 this morning

"Sometime ago, when things were going very differently for both men, Jose Mourinho called Arsene Wenger a ‘specialist in failure’. Why someone so respected and successful in their job would feel the need to say that to one of his peers, is beyond me. But as time has passed I’ve come to think that Mourinho was right.

One of Wenger’s biggest strengths has got to be his ability to bounce back from disappointment. Because, let’s be honest, there has been a fair few disappointments over the last few years. When half the squad is crocked at a crucial stage of the season he pulls a Coquelin or a Bellerin out of his hat. When it seems that ‘this will be the year that Tottenham will finish above Arsenal’ he goes on an incredible run and scrapes into the Top 4 on the final day. When things are going badly, when crisis strikes, he always manages to steady the boat. He is a specialist in situations of failure.

On the other hand, when things have gone badly for Mourinho, they have continued to go badly and they haven’t stopped going badly. It appears badly was just one of the stops on the way to Terrible Town. Throughout his career he hasn’t had an opportunity to ‘steady the ship’. A similar situation did arise when he was at Real Madrid, he just didn’t stay around for long enough to see it get this bad. The last few months have shown that when things go bad, he is lost out at sea. It seems, Mourinho really sucks at failure."

Amen to that.

Excited for City at the weekend, should see us getting at least a point if not the win.

Team pick:

                             Cech

Bellerin Mertesacker Koscielny Monreal

                   Ramsey Flamini

Campbell               Ozil             Walcott

                          Giroud

If we win the midfield battle I would back our defence to keep them out and Ozil/Walcott/Giround to score.

Probably the biggest league game we have had since the one at Chelsea a couple of years ago last time we were in a title challenge (though it may still be a bit early to call it that). Sadly we all know what happened that day. Would bite your hand off for a point if offered it now.

I think that away victory at City last season was a bit bigger... after all the talk of us and big games, we were under real pressure to perform that day and we did. In fact we've done pretty well in our big games since all that shenanigans. 

Personally I'm afraid of this match though, I don't have a lot of faith in our new midfield when it comes to the defensive side of our game - I think we've been quite lucky not to concede more goals since Santi and Coq were injured, and with the quality of forwards City have, even without Aguero, that is a worry. 

I feel we need to get an early goal to rock them mentally if we're to win this game. Also wouldn't be surprised to see a high-scoring game, regardless of the result. 

I would agree with this. Ox is bang out of form, too soon for Alexis, and Campbell seems to be improving game by game with the run he's had in the team.

Also think that Walcott has looked quite decent on the left using his pace to scare them in a similar vein to Alexis. Monreal doesn't quite require the tracking back on that side like Bellerin does either, so it's a perfect fit with Campbell on the right - he is defensively excellent for an attacking player. 

The key thing is Flamini STAYING in our half, and getting his positioning right. He just doesn't get in to make those snappy tackles like Coquelin does and we are missing that so bad right now. Toure etc will tear us apart in transition if we don't get that right. Villa had plenty of opportunity to do that but were woeful. Quite a few cracks papered over in that game I feel.

Good news is we've had this rest so I expect us to come out firing and be full of motivation - and when we've done that this season we've been impressive - think Bayern at home, ManU 3-0, Olympiakos away, all massive games where we were up for it big time.

Who would have thought we'd possibly be 2nd to Leicester at Christmas while Chelsea are hovering just above the relegation zone?

agreed with most of the comments above.......win/loss/draw will depend hugely on how well Flamster goes....to be fair he hasnt really be tested so far.

Alexis has a "slight chance".

So I guess he'll start. 

And play 90 mins. 

Correct me if I'm wrong but are we the only team to beat them away? From memory United & Sp*rs got draws while Chelsea & West Ham lost...

We are the only team to beat them in the league, the only other loss they've had this season was on penalties in the league cup. 

We did it pretty easy too. End to end game, plenty of chances, we just had more firepower. 

They have a very tough draw coming up. That Chelsea win was just the formbook playing true, now they've got a tough draw to deal with, their next 10 league games;

Everton away, Liverpool away, Man City home, Bournemouth home, Spurs away, Villa away, Stoke home, Liverpool home, Man City away, Arsenal away. 

It's not really the Chelsea fans fault mourinho is such a f*ckwit so rather than clog up their thread with grave-dancing, I'll just do it here...

From F365;

If evidence was needed (it isn’t) of just how self-serving Mourinho really is, here’s a pictureof him celebrating “Chelsea’s” title win last season.

I say Chelsea’s, really it’s “his”. Those eight fingers he’s holding up show how many league titles he’s now won as a manager. Way to go, Jose.

This is how it ended:

On another note, just realised how much of a fanboy I am today. Wore my new Arsenal jacket to work for the first time while carrying my Arsenal backpack which held my Arsenal indoor football boots and Arsenal towel for my lunchtime game today and my keys on my Arsenal keyring. And on my desk at work is my Arsenal desk calendar.

True, forgot to mention I have my Phoenix work bag here too!

Santas Sack delivering anyone some Arsenal gear?

I really wanted the knitted xmas snowman jumper but it sold out as soon as the club tweeted Özil wearing it lol.

He is a trend setter

Have to laugh at the bandwagoners lauding him now.

#NickingALiving  

Still those guys are employed as "football experts". More money than sense is our beloved Premiership. 

£5 @ 1000/1 for Leicester City to be top at Xmas appears to be a very good bet. 

I think we will beat City.