(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread (Part 3)

Leicester 3rd! Man U outside the top 4, Gunners barely holding onto 8th with Spurs 1 point behind them (no change there really - but its usually 4th and 5th) Rest of the table looks about right.

martinelli and saka both re-signed, auba back at the negotiating table, good signs

Since moving to the UK the mrs football chats exploded. I told her about Martinelli and her response was “that’s good, but are we actually selling Torreira AND Mateo?” ?

In other news Norwich is on track to go down, would you take Cantwell? 22, English, scored 6 and set up 2 in the EPL. Could be a Ramsey replacement there if nurtured.

Pepe is out due to his wife being in labour...no Ozil & Guendouzi still. The balls on Arteta!

Torriera on the bench.

I celebrated tackles like it was a cup final. Huge result that. Get the fudge in.

best win in a long time imo

Gret mentality and attitude, the last "quarter" was a joy to behold

Well worth getting up for. Not spectacular, but a gritty win against a team higher than us in the league... it's coming together.

4 wins in a row for a very long time, multiple away wins now too.

I felt like we needed 6 points out of Wolves, Leicster, Spurs, and Liverpool games. Cracking to think we might actually pull that off if we can keep this form up.

Feels like the momentum we lost during the lockdown and at City & Brighton has been re-established.

I'd happily take Cantwell if he became available, hes young enough to still improve and has had the necessary exposure to the top flight to know what it's all about.

Artetas press conferences, geez, this guy has all the right words. Im falling hard.

https://www.whoscored.com/Players/297389/Show/Matheus-Pereira

This guy has 3 assists for WBA today only 70 minutes in. If WBA doesn’t make the EPL he good be a cheap pick up from the championship. 

All the right noises are sounding around Aubameyang potentially re-signing. I did not see that coming, throught he was gone burgers. Would be amazing if he re-signed.

Might be a controversial take but I am keen for Arteta to give Xhaka back the armband for next season. He is so crucial for us, and a real leader. I reckon he's our captain moving forward, even if Auba stays.

Man I was over the moon after that last 20-30 minutes against Wolves, we looked like a team possessed. 

AMN, Bellerin, Willock and Lacazette were all 10/10 coming off the bench. They were so committed, we were never going to drop those points. So awesome to see.

for me the biggest positive was seeing the energy and drive to win in that last drinks break with Artetasarms going everywhere and the players firing each other up. Ceballos gave one last come awnnnnnn and we went and did a job

Yes yes yes, couldn't agree more.

The attitude was very obvious, right across the team, every man was going to die for that win. I loved it. Not seen that kind of vocal commitment and body language in the side for quite some time.

It would be an absolute coup if Arteta convinced Aubamayang to stay, a real statement of intent from the player to the cause which should help with the image of the club immensely.

The next big question then lies of Laca, it would be time to renew him soon as he's going into his final 2 years. If Auba stays I'm less worried about him going, but if Arteta thinks he can get the player of the season Laca back for us then I'd be keen to keep him.

He might be the player sacrificied to upgrade other areas of the pitch though, i.e. a makeweight in a deal for Partey (rumours of which don't seem to be dying down).

a few different reports coming out this morning that Arteta is finished with Guendouzi. Apparently his attitude and application were grating on Arteta and now hes decided just to cut it and move him on. Mateo will train alone until sold.

If this is the end of Guendouzi in a gunners shirt, I am pretty disappointed. Im such a fan of him when he is good. This is shame for him. But good signs from Arteta in terms of how tight he is going to run this ship. 

Yea I will be really gutted, when the Emery team was down in the dumps he was one who was giving it the right attitude and application, so it's very disappointing seeing him go to the other end of the spectrum under Arteta.

If Arteta wants rid, then I'm on board. We should be able to make a profit on that one, we got him for pittance and put him in the shop window. Hopefully the attitude issues won't prevent a decent sale. Pity Emery hasn't got a new job yet, he might've been keen to take him.

I saw a stat yesterday, saying we have the youngest squad in the EPL? If Xhaka is going to stay, perhaps we would be best re-signing Ceballos, retaining Torreira, and adding another mid, thus giving us a fairly experienced group for those roles. Midfield does seem to be the weakest spot in our squad at the moment. Previously I might've said central defence was the weakest but they all seem to be improving under Arteta, and at least we have numbers there, which we don't in central midfield, particularly if Maitland-Niles is not going to be an option there moving forward.

If Guendouzi goes and we replace him with Partey, that'll do me... every time I watch him I get giddy!

Kinda disappointing if Guendouzi doesn't pull his head in and knuckle down but if it means we can some bring the Partey (and MG is being doofus) then I'm well on board!

Sounds like MA is keen to keep both PEA (obviously) and Laca (surprisingly) but, given the youth coming through if we can make the numbers stack up and they're in the right headspace regarding their roles over the next few years then it makes a whole lot of sense to me... notwithstanding the uncertainty over the transfer market and the likelihood we won't me able to spend much more (if anything) than what we can bring in through sales.

Also great to hear AMN clarify his position re his, er, position.

I'm excitified!

I too am excitified.

Would much very much appreciate if Arsenal can take points off Leicester please. Thanks in advance

Emi Martinez: "We knew Mikel would be a good manager when he signed here, but we didn't know he would be this good. He is incredible. He knows how to deal with experienced players, with young players. He gives us a gameplan against anybody and gives us hope when we do the training sessions.''

"He knows what position you have to be in in every department, whether you are a goalkeeper, a striker or a left-winger. And then, when we go into the games, those scenarios we worked on in training actually happen, so we start believing in every word that he says.''

The one thing making the lockdown in the UK better is having Arsenal to watch every few days. Gives you a weird sense of routine trying to catch matches so often.

Fizzing for tonight. If we can win at Wolves away you'd expect us to really be up for it tonight.

Finally signed up to the Athletic. Just kept seeing too many Arsenal pieces I wanted to read...

Amy Lawrence, Michael Cox, David Ornstein are probably my favourite football writers (along with football365's Sarah Winterburn), so loving having them all in the one spot. James McNicholas is decent too.

Wee bit pricey though... for the best value you gotta sign up for a whole year and pay US$60 (approx NZ$90) in one hit... if you sign up for 6 months only, you pay the same amount(!), but in 6 instalments.

Great start here, we're playing some lovely football

should be out of sight by now. Laca has fluffed a few chances. But looking very positive. Ceballos is playing some lovely football in the deep lying play maker role. 

there are a few discount codes around. I know there is one relating to the Totally Football podcast. try totally or totally football as the code

Only saw it once, but looked like a soft red. gonna make a big last 10mins. COYG dig in!

shark

Fckn Laca.

Great for my tips. Poor for the team. Should have won that by a canter but lucky to hold on in the end. 

Still plenty of work to do to get where we want to be, but that first half was excellent, best football we've played in some time.

Nketiah was unlucky but just a little too exuberant there, deserved sending off, hopefully he learns from that one.

We really should've put it to bed in that first half. Plenty to work on, but plenty of positives to take away.

Looking at this I think Auba and everyone is now fighting for the jersey with passion. They want to be there and Arteta has shown if they don't buy into it they'll join Matteo. Compare these faces to someone like Højbjerg who wants to leave his club and just looks bloody miserable on the pitch it convinces me the vast majority of the playing group want to stay on and make stuff happen, its great to see and really positive.

Really gutted we didn't get the three points on reflection, but I'm not letting go of the good vibes coming through in that first half. Dominating possession, patience, waiting for the opportunities, then cutting them to bits. It was wonderful. Pity we couldn't finish one or two more chances and put it to bed, but very positive nonetheless.

We should be kicking ourselves for not taking 3 points there. Nketiah's red opened the door for Leicester when we should have slammed it shut. Bellerin & Lacazette had a couple of cracking chances to put us 2-0 or 3-0 up.

Great shout on the athletic Paulm, I've thoroughly enjoyed it - especially reading without ads!

Especially as Wolves lost this morning. 

How good has Martinez been since Lenos injury?

Really solid. And a great kicking game. I like that he catches everything, he doesnt like to punch and he doesnt seem to drop it.

This has beena blessing in disguise. There is talk that his performances have made the heirarchy change their mind, and that we wont be going to the market for someone to compete with leno now. I would agree, and boy we can use that money elsewhere.

Completely agree, but to play devils advocate I think the fact that Leno's injury isn't as serious as first thought has helped too. Martinez showing his mettle proves we'll have a battle for the #1 jersey again, and the third spot can go to yoof.

Even if Martinez was amazing I can't imagine if Leno was missing half the season we wouldn't have looked into a Cech type signing again.

With Wolves & Sheffield United winning we cannot afford to drop points today. Would put us 4 points above them with 3 to play, pretty much ending their tilt at Europe. Cannot fudgeing wait for this!

Classic fudgeing Mourinho. Classic fudgeing Kolasinac. Classic fudgeing Arsenal. 

There's us out of Europe next year, and I imagine the funds to sign Auba with it.

Also, why the fudge is Tierney marking their CB? Huge size mismatch.