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

er,um.

Yellow shirts is late '60s. I think 68/69 season

Why we changed to yellow I am not sure. Black and white TV maybe? Or color TV playing a side whose home strip was red and white?

Yeah, having watched the extended highlights from Stoke I can't believe the goals that Theo & Giroud missed. I'm glad they both scored, but dear lord if they can't hit the target from 6 yards in an empty net we're f*cked.

Lineup for this morn

                  Ospina

Debuchy-Gabriel-Koscielny-Gibbs

            Cazorla-Arteta

          Ox-Ozil-Sanchez

                  Giroud

Arsene's got an eye on the weekend... Ramsey doesn't make the bench - rest/niggle?

Assuming this means Bellerin, Monreal, Coquelin, Cech and Walcott will all start against Chelsea.

Good example of our depth - but only if we win!

1-0 down

Jammiest rebound goal, may have been off Ox. 

We're dominating but vulnerable on the break. Missing Coquelin big time in that respect, Arteta not quick enough to shut it down. 

Giroud red. 

First yellow for dissent, second incredibly harsh.

Can we be any more unlucky thus far.

Can't see this going well. Hopefully Zagreb get cocky against 10 men in the 2nd half and start trying to take the game to us. If they continue to sit back and play on the break I can't see us being able to get through with 10, and they might be able to pick us off on the counter again.

Apparently we wore a dark navy blue beforehand but the league made that a no-no due to clashing with refs. Initially it was publicised as gold - though the colour was yellow thanks to Umbro, and away it went from there - particularly after some successful cup replays.

making it hard for ourselves in the champions league again...

That was truly awful. My only hope is that Coquellin marches into that changing room & slaps Giroud across the face with his dick for being such a muppet.

The ref wasn't giving him anything, so instead of adjusting his game he mouthed off then gave the ref the chance he needed. I'm not sure the second yellow was warranted but Giroud needs a kick up the arse for that.

Can't add much more. That was dire. Similar to Monaco last season really - we just assumed we were better and would easily win so didn't bother with any sort of game plan. Didn't make much sense to me resting so many players for the first game so early in the season and now we're in trouble given we have to play Bayern twice and go to Greece where we don't tend do very well. Chelsea have found form with an easy 4-0 win too.

Shrug.

Lets move on.

Anyone going to the Fever Quiz? An AFC table?

That could be fun.

Giroud's sending off was fudgeing stupid. Anyway on to Chelsea now. Need to get some sort of result there.

Um somehow I doubt this ever actually happens at this level of football!

Well of course that's not what we actually did but it sure looked like it. One thing that is consistent is Wenger getting tactically outperformed in Europe season after season. And not only to the biggest clubs. Miseries like today against some supposed minnow are a staple of our European campaign, not a one off. No lessons learned from Monaco last season.

i wouldnt actually call dinamo zagreb minnows and their home record is really good, i think a draw would have been a pretty good result for us.

personally i'm a bit over all the giroud hate, yes he's not the greatest but he isnt as bad as people make him out to be. Not sure how "fans" expect all the hate to make play better, get behind the poor boy

Not just us - look at Man City; ripping up the EPL and still can't catch a break in Europe.

Sometimes a loss can simply be a few players playing poorly, and doing dumb sh*t... e.g. Debuchy, Ox, Giroud yesterday... 

It's a bit of a stretch to state as fact that we don't plan for games and are consistently outperformed tactically...

We get outperformed tactically in Europe every season, it's been happening for years. That's consistent and the one constant is Wenger. Zagreb's manager summed it up perfectly:

Anyway no point discussing it further, onto Chelsea now.

I think you're both right. I think the absence of a game plan was due to us having a game plan, it being read, and us not being tactically set up to make the right changes in response.

I thought bringing on Coquellin & Walcott was the right idea, but it needed to happen at half time, not 60th minute plus. I thought Joel Campbell was a gamble and would have rather seen someone like Ramsey come on.

For me this game highlighted our vulnerability for lack of striker with Welbeck out & Giroud sent off, we had no one up front to get in the box & provide some muscle. I hate to say it but Sanogo would have been a better off the bench option that Campbell was.

All in all, lets go get some Chelsea action this weekend.

i think Campbell is a good option but we can't expect him to jump on and score a goal. IF we do manage to get him some decent gametime he will produce

I think Campbell is horrid, to be honest. He's a stop gap. I'd rather have Akpom.

I didn't even realise Campbell was still at the club until he started warming up to come on. The subs were too little too late really.

Yeah the no game plan comment was kneejerk in the heat of the moment straight after the game. More accurate to say there is one game plan, but it never seems to change in response to what is happening. The Zagreb manager's comments that we did exactly what they knew we would, that it was nothing new, and it's the same way they see other teams beat us say it best.

Be fantastic to finally beat him in a league game this week and pile more misery on them. 

I still have that forboding feeling that we will be the ones to let Jose out of the hole; but lets hope we finally get one over him in a competitive fixture.

Sadly I have punted the draw

Would like Ox to play instead of Ramsey.

Walcott, Sanchez, Ox should trouble any/all sides

Ramsey offers more than Ox defensively and was rested mid week..

Yeah I'd be starting Ramsey, Ox gives the ball away and exposes us against the counter, which Chelsea love. Just re-watched the 5-3 goals from the Bridge a few years ago, gives me chills.

I'd be starting:

Sanchez         Walcott           Ramsey

                          Ozil

              Santi              Coquellin

Monreal    Kosc    Paulista     Bellerin

                      Cech

Although I'd be tempted to swap Santi & Ramsey around for running power through the midfield against the Fabregas, Matic, Ramires combo.

between mourinho and the rest of the cods in the chelsea team I find myself rooting for you guys this evening.

#mouout

I <3 Gabriel

Fudge sakes

Costa your a cod
Costa costa your a cod!