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

Good chance for you guys vs PSG on game day 1.

Playing them away while they have had an average start to the season - 3W 1D 1L

While that doesn't seem too bad, one of them was a 3-1 loss to Monaco and given recent years, you'd expect them to be 5 from 5. 

what time is kick off?

6.45am.

Kosc will start. 

Gabriel also back in full training, so our CB injury crisis has been averted fairly easily in the end. 

It's quite nice having 4 fit-ish CB's that I am reasonably confident in, I have to say.

Back in training, won't play in Paris.

Kosc and Mustafi will play tomorrow, Holding on the bench.

Gabriel back next week. 

Mertesacker back in Jan. Perhaps Holding will go out on loan at that point, depending on where we're at in the League Cup. 

Our squad has terrific depth right now, except up front (don't count Alexis or Theo as strikers per se)

It's getting better with Giroud & Perez currently battling it out, with Welbeck to come back into the mix, with Akpom, this new Japanese kid, and Sanogo as the yoof coming through.

Out wide Alexis & Walcott appear to be our starting wide threats, with the Ox & Iwobi fighting for spots too. This is actually the area I'm still most worried about.

FFS. Cavani left unmarked in the fudgeing 6 yard box. 

What's wrong with Giroud? The Ox keeps his starting spot, Iwobi comes in for Walcott, and Sanchez is out of the game again. Need Giroud & Xhaka on the park tonight.

this is very poor from us so far. 30mins to go and we havent got out of 2nd gear. PSG are attacking with ease and we are scrambling to cover every time rather than being prepared and setup for it. this is a worry. 

Good point, could have had all three. Sanchez was on a different level.

Good point. 

Team selection seemed odd at the start, but after getting a result, suddenly seems like we have a very fresh squad despite the fixture glut. 

Wouldn't be surprised if Cazorla/Coquelin now sit out, and Xhaka/Elneny start at Hull and then in the League Cup. 

We'll also be able to start Walcott and Giroud who should both be very fresh - depending on this "mild injury" that Walcott has apparently picked up. 

I'll take that. Ospina made some magical saves; totally different player from a year ago.

Also; Serge Aurier anyone? One of the best full back performances I've seen; and not surprising we conceded once he was gone.

The Ox is still having a mare of a time; while Iwobi should have won us the game.

did anyone else find the commentators annoying?

Alexis is not a striker........we let campbell go and kept Ox mmmmmmm

i'd take that point, even thou we are far far away from our best we are still picking up points 

I'm intrigued as to why Alexis started at striker now that we have Perez and Giroud, with Welbeck to return. 

Trying to think of reasons... 

1) Wenger is dead serious about this conversion, and Alexis is going to be our no.1 striker now, with Perez, Giroud and Welbeck all playing second fiddle. If that's the case then I imagine that Giroud and/or Welbeck would be leaving at the end of the season. Not sure on their contractual situations. 

2) Wenger really wanted to play with a fast striker this morning, he has deemed Perez not yet ready after the Soton game where he looked very underdone, so he put Sanchez in there. So basically Sanchez would be filling in for Perez/Welbeck until they are 100% fit, before returning to the left flank. 

3) Both Giroud AND Perez have been deemed not yet fit enough by Wenger. Perhaps this is the most likely reason? 

4) Seems very unlikely, but perhaps Wenger is looking to return to the old 4-4-2, and we need 4 strikers on the books to manage that?

They made a good point about us looking better once players were playing in their preferred position - Giroud on and Alexis to the wing

Will Giroud get 1 or 3 game ban?

Good point in the end and deserved after our second half.

Must admit my heart sank when I turned it on this morning and they were in the Bein studio with all the screens and showing the teams arriving at all the other games etc. Thought we were in for another 90 minutes of goal rush every 30 seconds but strangely they never mentioned any other game during the match.

So AFCamden just wrote a blog on the "madness" that was talked about through the transfer window, and why it didn't happen. 

The madness was apparently Marco Reus, and it seemed we seriously thought we would get him;

https://www.afcamden.com/single-post/2016/09/14/Sum...

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't - the does is Ozil, the doesn't is (probably) the likes of Benzema and Reus.

Also, very worried about Mustafi. He looks like very much like Vermaelen v2 to me.

Kosc and him play very similar games. One will have to be more reserved, and im not sure either have it in them. Koscielny plays much better on the front foot.

Bit too early for that. They are one week into a partnership during which Wenger has played musical chairs with goalies and midfielders. We are far from having a legitimate view of their partnership yet.

True. But initial impressions are usually at least somewhat right; taking into account he's playing next to Kosc who's in the form of his life.

Kosc and Mertesacker were both written off early as well.

Raw ingredients look good with Mustafi, a couple of errors so far, interested to see how he settles in. 

He seems more of the Koscielny/Gabriel style, an aggressive ball-winner, as opposed to Mertesacker and Holding, who seem positionally better, and more of a calm presence. 

I think Mustafi is a good player; I just don't think their partnership will ever work unless one of them changes their game significantly. Happy to be proven wrong.

Perhaps Mustafi/Holding (or Per) and Kosc/Holding (or Per) is the way to go.

truple posts

truple posts

Yea similar to what most of us were saying after Gabriel was signed - looks like a fill-in for Kosc, rather than a partner for Kosc. 

I'm still hopeful in the long term he's going to be the fill-in/heir to the throne. At 24 he's got 13 appearances in the German national team, which isn't short for CB talent. Give him a few matches, and as alluded to above a time for our midfield to get settled ahead of him.

I don't think anything will change the fact they're similar players, though - and Wenger doesn't know how to coach CB's at all, so wouldn't rely on him to sort it.

On Bein Pop Up 3 this week which hopefully means it's not a feature match and won't have goal rush.

https://arsenalist.com/f/2016-17/hull-vs-arsenal/goaaaalll-granit-xhaka-1-4.html

The boys got previous