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

Limited minutes, a bad injury, and yet 16 mil for welbz is still a snip...

That was so massive.

Wow.

That was the best game of football I've seen since in ages, the suspense was unreal.

To add to the suspense my laptop died in the 85th as Giroud was about to pull the trigger for what went on to be a great save.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

The key thing for me today was we found a way to win, even if it was on the last throw of the dice.

Wow fudgeing yes. What a result. And Welbeck of all people. Whatever you think of him, the winner at Old Trafford in the FA Cup and that goal pretty much pay back his transfer fee. I can’t remember going that berserk and rolling around on the floor over a goal for a long time and then couldn’t breathe when I got back up and sat down. Players looked like they really wanted it today, think like us they realise how close this is and that they won’t get a better chance than this. Shows how thin the line can be sometimes and every point counts. Those 4 games from Liverpool to Southampton we dropped 9 points and now we’re 2 points behind. Game against Spurs shaping up as massive now.

That Kante lad is fantastic. He was everywhere, best midfielder on the pitch.

This could finally be the time that Leicester start to fade though I feel. They rely heavily on the continuity of their starting lineup given their small squad, and now have Simpson suspended, and possibly also Drinkwater given his high lunge was not punished, and could be retrospectively reviewed. Their substitutions unfortunately showed up what little they have to draw on - a 19yo came on and lost his man for the equaliser, and when they needed a replacement fullback they had to send on a CB who ended up giving away the freekick that cost the winner. A long way away from the quality seen on our bench today, I'm hoping that might be the difference come season's end. 

The result itself will also take a bit of stuffing out of them too, Ranieri has a big job to do this week. 

It's us v Spurs for the title in my mind.

Big, big win; but the game at WHL is even bigger.

Spurs are playing the best I have ever seen them play - even better than when Bale  was on fire.

Anyway, great to finally win one of these ones. It always seems inevitable that we will stuff it up when the odds are weighed in our favour.

Saw some highlights from their game, that peno call was bloody lucky, for me that was less a penalty than Kante's handball against us.

Apparently Gabriel was out with a 'slight hamstring injury', but more worryingly, someone on twitter claims to have run into him at Sao Paulo airport. If true that would indicate a slightly more severe injury...

Hope Koscielny's injury isn't bad otherwise we'll be a tad short at CB in the coming weeks. 

Agreed paul, that Kante looked one hell of a player. Arguably just as vital to them as Mahrez or Vardy.

Do I feel bad for Leicester? Do I f*ck! Massive result and great to see Welbeck get his rewards for all his hard work. Wenger the best though faol? Easy on.

3 weeks time is the biggest derby since the 93 Cup semi surely.

Came to say the same thing. Just watched it. What a load of crap that is. Barely hit his elbow!

Kante's was a nailed on hand ball for mine.

It's a big run coming up for us now. We have the week off before Hull in the FA Cup on Saturday at home, then Barcelona at home mid week, before away to United.

Should be an interesting end to the month.

Regarding CB I didn't mind Chambers at CB, he looked confident. He doesn't seem to have the pace of Gabriel or Kosc, so I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Monreal revert to CB instead and Gibbs comes in. They're just as make shift options as each other I guess.

I thought Chambers had a great half and looked like someone comfortable to be playing in his proper position compared to looking out of sorts at right back. He was also the one driving the ball forward late on too.

Well we did spend most of the half camped in their end, and I thought when the ball did come near Vardy he looked nervous & unable to match his pace. 

Also - how good was Cech's save when Vardy dominated Bellerin in the air? 

Quite easy to look good when we had 80% of possession or something ridiculous in the 2nd half, though..

Good 4th CB though.

Agree about Chambers. I actually thought there was a moment where he showed a bit more pace than I expected as well - I saw an interview with him a while back and he said his main work-on when training by himself is speed, and that he's been doing a lot of work with a specialist around his running technique. I know it was only one moment I saw but I wonder if the hard work is paying off. He does look good bringing the ball out too. Wenger seems to think he has a future as a defensive mid which should be interesting. Agree with Valeo, he is definitely good quality for a 4th CB option.

And agree that Cech was great, particularly for that Vardy header, but also for a couple of other key moments. It's funny, no matter the game situation, he always seems to stand out with a key save somewhere, in every game. The guy is a model of concentration which is the key attribute at this level I feel - every keeper in the prem is a great shot-stopper, they have to be to get there, but only a few have the concentration and mental strength to really stand out like Cech.

Also agree with Valeo on the Kante peno call. I was flabbergasted by the commentator confidently saying it was the right call - he was 100% sure before he'd even seen the replay and stuck with it like a right chump. He was looking at the ball, he moved his hand toward it, seemed a definite pen for me. Perhaps some might claim he was pulling his arm in to avoid it, but didn't look like it. Either way, it was nowhere near as cut and dried as the commentator claimed.

Whoops wrote a lot there, and said 'agree' about a thousand times, but hey, happy days!

Yep. How i feel too. Spurs worry me more than anyone else this season. They have been getting better and better each week. The derby is going to be incredible.

Saying that Leicester and City are still well in the race. What a season!

I still can't believe we actually won. It does feel like the first match in a long time when the chips have been down, we've had a hostile referee, and we've still somehow pulled out a win. These occasions usually go according to the same horrible script. When did we last score a result changing goal that late too? We never win like that. We usually concede that late, usually against Liverpool.

Welbeck's goal must be the biggest moment at the Emirates since we moved there.

what a game aye lads, i honestly thought the winner would never come.....props to wenger for throwing welbecks in there ahead of campbell. what's the story with Alexis finishing lol i thought Giroud worked his socks off in the game too, he dropped very deep at time to win the ball back. i did give wally a bit of stick a week or 2 back but he has scored big goals vs city and now leicester.

Vardy peno was a dive allday everyday....good to see Nacho will the freekick that won us the game. he has been very solid for us this season.

Hopefully wilshere and santi can make Welbeck like impact once they return :)

How good was the save from the giroud shot in the 85th min.

Metsacker and Chambers CB pairing would be one of the slowest, i know chambers played well last night but we would get found out over 90mins.

United at OT is going to be huge as well......one game at time lads

United are proper shark though. We have to be able to put them away surely.

Reality check. Leicester are still top by two points and have you seen their run in compared to ours?

Anyone read the Leicester forum? Hilarious. Any sympathy you might've had towards them goes out the window.

https://www.foxestalk.co.uk/forums/topic/104688-ars...

Apparently we're all cheating f*cks and they lost the game because of poor reffing. No mention of the no-pen call on Kante and DD almost breaking Ramsey in half of course.

Man, I'm going to be in a bach in the sounds for the NLD. I'm hoping tethering my phone on 3g to my iPad will get me across the line. 

There's a sp*rs supporter coming along on the trip so one of us aren't making it home.  

One thing I noticed that I am not a fan of is our players doing the whole Chelsea-esque thing of waving their hands about asking for cards as soon as they go to ground. That needs to be stamped out imo. Sanchez a big offender in that regard.

Agreed. Not a good look. Need to reel that sh*t in. 

Southampton and West Brom to do us some favors I reckon.

Think I made a similar noise to this commentator: https://twitter.com/TelemundoSports/status/6988685...

From football 365:

It’s a statement of the bleeding obvious, but nothing hampers a club’s progress quite like injuries. Let’s take roughly the most important ‘spine’ of each of the title challengers:

– Manchester City (Hart, Kompany, Silva, Aguero): Started four league games together this season.

– Arsenal (Cech, Koscielny, Coquelin, Ozil): Started nine league games together this season.

– Tottenham (Lloris, Alderweireld, Alli, Kane): Started 20 league games together this season.

– Leicester (Schmeichel, Morgan, Mahrez, Vardy): Started 24 league games together this season (replacing Mahrez with Kante takes it down to 22)

Tottenham and Leicester’s title challenges are obviously huge surprises, but Pochettino and Claudio Ranieri have both been able to call on their dependables for the majority of the season. It really, really helps.

By way of comparison, here are Liverpool and Manchester United’s:

– Liverpool (Mignolet, Henderson, Coutinho, Sturridge): Started one league game together this season.

– Manchester United (De Gea, Smalling, Schneiderlin, Martial): Started 11 league games together this season.

Also: what the f*ck Debuchy - https://www.football365.com/news/debuchy-annoyed-with-wenger-for-blocking-united-move

When you look at this, we're actually doing extraordinarly well. Both Spurs and Leicester have been supremely lucky with injuries.

I've been unhappy with Debuchy's attitude. I mean I know he's had a tough time of it with opportunities, but so have many others, past and present, who have handled it in a much more professional manner. In the end the only positive from that signing was preventing a gooner meltdown for not "replacing" Sagna. As it turns out we needn't have!

Also may we please receive many more yellows like this in future :)

Looks like your boys got a little carried away at their great rivals Derby fella.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/feb/16/manchester-united-repairs-bill-after-300-seats-damaged-fans-derby

Danny Mills = Shark for Brains

now a stat from the twilight zone...

arsenal have scored more headed goals since 2013 than any other EPL team

not even joking

and giroud has scored more headed goals than any other player since he came to the league as well

Season ticket holder does hernia celebrating Welbeck's goal. Absolutely brilliant.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/danny-welbec...

Quite a change from a few years ago when we were all a bunch of midgets.

I saw that ajc, hilarious. Might be a tad mindful myself next time we nab a late one!

Me too. I couldn't breathe, thought I was having a heart attack haha. It was very much a Colin Firth in Fever Pitch moment for me. The last one I can remember like that was Walcott's run against Liverpool in the CL which was then cruelly taken away from us while still rolling around on the floor celebrating.

Apparently it was the first injury time goal we've scored in the league since Ramsey against Crystal Palace in the first game of last season. And the first time we have won after being behind at half time since 2011