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

Well a striker that scored 26 goals in the league they played in last season, scored 2 goals for their country at the Euro's and has a career record of better than a goal every other game was just was sold for 6million pounds a couple of days ago. Wenger speaks his language, better than he speaks English.

Stop being so vague....

Where is the fun in that? 

Won the Bundesliga with two clubs (of which one has now been relegated), the UCL, been player of the year of his country, top goalscorer in a couple of leagues and an international comp...

Maybe the clues to give it away, always has slick hair and looks a lot like the actor most famous for playing a dad in a very famous 80s movie trilogy.

A similar player to Giroud, possibly a better finisher but maybe not as good in buildup and would be a decent EPL squaddie.

But boat has sailed and don't know why Wenger, seemingly keen for a bargain, didn't jump at the chance to sign.

This argument seems to go round in circles forever, but the simple fact is that we're not looking for an upgrade on Giroud (especially one who is older, and arguably not an upgrade), we are looking for an alternative option up top, a player of a completely different style.

A player with pace, specifically. 

Sounds like we did actually have a bid for Lacazette knocked back as well as Vardy - they are the sorts of players we're after.

Bullion, you paint a convenient picture, but Gomez is not what we're looking for at all.

"Like a new signing"

"We could buy but we also have Welbeck coming back soon who we don't want to kill"

etc

We aren't looking for an upgrade in Giroud.....Is that because we really believe 4th is better than 1st?

One of the more reasoned articles I've read in a while, I can't see it ending any other way - https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/au...

Naming Mertesacker as captain after he is ruled out 5 months is not far off naming Walcott captain on his 200th game in one of our biggest games of the season.

So Pogba just completed 90 minutes safely for United. What's our excuse for Ozil and Giroud not being fit yet?

Yes. Yes that's exactly it... 

lol

But seriously it's an alternative style we're after, Wenger has said it all along, for months now, not sure what's so hard to understand about that. 

We want that player so that we can pick and choose depending on the game. And preferably the pacey player would suit how we want to play better than Giroud, so that he's generally the starter, with Giroud off the bench where we know he can do a good job. Throw on the big man when we we're in trouble and need to go direct from everywhere. 

Essentially we're looking for an upgrade on Walcott/Welbeck, rather than an upgrade on Giroud.

Because they've been in training for one week.

Funny how Wenger and the fitness team get crap all the time about rushing players back, then when they take some precautions, they get crap about that too.

Bottom line is that when you lose a game, all the decisions look wrong, and when you win, they all look right. And that's the space us fans live in. We just don't know what goes on behind the scenes.

edit: cocked that up

Yeah that's fair enough, but again why do the other clubs seem to be able to get their players fit earlier than we can? A number of players who went deep in the Euros played last week with no problems. Pogba played 90 minutes today fine. The one we played wasn't ready and is now crocked. Isn't this supposed to be Fraudsythe's job?

Not saying rush them back when they are not ready but questioning why our fitness staff can't get them fit as quick as other clubs can.

I'm picking the following for tomorrow:

                      Cech

Bellerin Holding* Kosc Monreal

                 Xhaka Elneny 

Ox                 Cazorla          Sanchez

                      Walcott

*If Holding starts over Chambers it'll be brutal for Chambers confidence, but I wouldn't hesitate to pick Holding over Chambers in the current scenario based on last weeks match.

1 - Giroud isn't the reason we're finished 2nd. The missing alternative to Giroud is. Walcott doesn't cut it, Sanchez doesn't play well through the middle on his own, and Welbeck almost offered it for us only to get injured again.

2 - That article wasn't very reasoned. Specifically his questioning of Ozil & Sanchez not doing anything consistently good in an Arsenal shirt was madness - Ozil led the league in assists in a season where we didn't fire up front.

3 - Totally agree. I like Per, but right now we need on field leadership & it would be good to have named a leadership group to take charge. The Walcott thing on his 200th was also ridiculous - you do that for Sunday pub matches, not the big boy leagues.

Let's be quite clear

No apologies for the supposed Arsenal fans

Ozil as per Arshavin and before him Hleb and before  him Bergkamp

Their role singularly in importance is to create a one on one chance for somebody else in the team to score a goal. It matters not 1 fudge wether a goal is scored. They just have to create that chance. The responsibility for scoring lies elsewhere. 

Currently there is no better player in the World at doing this than than Mesut Ozil. If you cannot grasp this then in all seriousness don't bother talking football with me because it's not worth MyTime. 

Right, let's go deal to the current champions. 

3 goals zero points

Zero goals one point

It's a funny game

Be a lot more why haven't we bought a striker this week. 

Lucky to draw it. Could have easily had a peno against us at the end. Could have also had one at the end of the first half.

We just need to be more clinical in general, as a whole team. We created lots of chances and had a fair few shots but fudge all hit target.

On the plus side, one point towards the magic 40 mark ;)

All other things aside, Koscielny was incredible this morning.

Wouldn't go that far, could have easily given away a pen.

Joel Campbell to Sporting Lisbon on season long loan??????

generally this means a signing is imminent 

Except it's us so maybe not

I thought we had Aumbeyeng but everything seems to have gone quiet. 

Yup, we're either landing another wide player and using Walcott/Alexis through the middle to supplement Giroud, or we're landing another striker, cementing Alexis/Walcott back in the wide areas.

Hopefully it's the later, because Alexis through the middle is a nightmare as he doesn't spend any time in the middle & we look boring as hell when he's playing there - although that could be on the account of not having Ozil starting.

Is it just me or did we look like a thrown together Sunday team to make up the numbers on the weekend, with players really not knowing what to do/where to run/in sync with each other at all.

Oh, and Mustafi looks imminent with Wenger publicly commenting on him after the match.

Is Walcott doing anyone elses head in? I just don't get why Wenger keeps him on at the expense of the Ox on the weekend.

Oh & Lacazette has score 5 goals in 2 games...just saying.

I think the Sanchez-at-striker experiment needs more time. If it ended up working it would be hugely beneficial. There just aren't many players of his quality readily available on the market in that position - but there are high quality wide players around, that we could buy.

Wenger is right in saying that he has similar qualities to Aguero and Suarez, and he did play there for Barcelona a bit, in an environment where positional discipline was strict - under Guardiola. 

I don't think Sanchez' form is down to his position, I think he'll come right. I say persevere for the next couple of games. If we could get it working, and replace him on the left with someone like Draxler, then we could shift the Ox to the right, and I'd be pretty excited by that attacking unit, with Ozil pulling strings.

Agree that Walcott should be turfed. I think his lifeline has been Welbeck's injury, and Giroud coming back late. Otherwise I think he could've already been sold, and Campbell kept with the squad instead. 

Makes F all sense to me personally, everytime he played last season he was very good for us. He's way better then wally for me, very good defensively too. 

Only reason i can think of is that Gnabry will come in and take his place

Yep. Can't stand him anymore. Nowhere near good enough for someone on 140k pw.

I thought Theo was actually one of our best against Leicester, but his best still isn't good enough.

He's been our most threatening player in both games, despite not being particularly great.

I don't have time for a Sanchez expierement 

When we are 5 points behind Hull

Are we there yet?

Arsenal suffer another transfer setback as West Brom demand £25m for Jonny Evans. Wow, imagine if Arsenal actually bought him for that price...

We aren't signing Evans.

Pako Ayestarán, Valencia's manager, has apparently stated on a Valencian radio station that Mustafi is staying. Tweet.

We aren't signing anyone. Just make peace with it and look forward to trying to make 4th, dropping out of the CL early and watching Man Utd win the league.

Yeah was confident Wenger would find a way to make 4th as he always does but without a centre back or striker added it's going to be a real struggle this season. He admitted Koscielny played with a back injury last week too so guess we know how that's going to end if we're forced to play him 90 minutes every week without letting it heal.

Pessimism is bad for your health