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

A perfectly bad round if you're a Gooner

From Press Conference:

Wenger says young journalists these days create "lies" in the media "to get a response".

Reporter: "As an old journalist..."

Wenger: "For me you're not old. I would say you are a young journalist."

Must win against City, really is.

Still seems relevant.

That was fudgeing shark.

What a waste of getting up early/sharke start to the week.

Shark game, shark performance, shark week.

For all the highs sport gives you it knows how to give you some awful lows. Stupid fudgeing game.

Hopefully Ox not too bad

Great pass from KDB

Why was Ozil grumpy from about the tenth minute?

Let's not sub Ox for Elney at 1-2

When Sanchez is demanding movement is he yelling at Theo or Ozil? 

Title challenge over for another year.

long way to go. 

Nothing has changed for us, despite having the best squad in a long time. It's a mental block. One I don't think we'll ever overcome with Wenger in charge, unfortunately. Really want to see him win another one.

I'm not giving up yet, although given the form Chelsea are in & their abscence of CL duties it's hard to see them faultering.

its not all doom and gloom.....we are only 3 points off 2nd. Chelsea will have drop points soon surely

If they carry on at the same rate they will get 96 points. That's not going to happen.

Yeah but everyone predicted Leicester would drop off after this time last year but they kept going...

Thing is, Leicester did drop off enough to be caught, but they weren't. 

From this exact date last season, Leicester's next 7 games were one win, four draws and two losses. 

They ended up winning the title with only 81 points, the lowest since 1998. 2nd place getting only 71 points is virtually unheard of these days. 8 years ago we got 83 points but only finished 3rd. 

In reality it was the lack of competition that ultimately helped them to win the title. They should not have been first at the end of January, that was the key period that they managed to survive through, thanks to everyone else failing to put together a decent run of form. 

If Chelsea's form stays this way through to the end of the season then they will get a record points total, and other teams just won't have any bearing on them, but that's extremely unlikely. 

We need to focus on our own form and basically forget about the table for now - a loss away to Koeman, a known banana skin for us in recent years, and an unlucky loss at Man City, are hardly major issues. It's about how we respond - the next 6 league games are all very winnable, I think this stretch is going to tell the real story. 5 or 6 wins and we're well in it. Another loss or two, or a few draws, and that will probably put us too far out, and we'll be in a top four scrap for the rest of the season. 

Also, as an aside, saw some reports that Ozil has been playing with the flu over the last week. Was kinda relieved to hear that, because his performances in those two games were very worrying. I wanted to throw things at him at times. 

Draxler signs for PSG

edit

That was a really important goal

For sure

Great cross and header

got Palace next. On moral grounds this is a must win game

I thought we actually played quite well. WBA defended with 10 men behind the ball the entire game and we still fashioned quite a few clear cut opportunities. In the past, we would've got 0 shots on target until late in the 2nd half.

Too bad no one dropped points this round so we're still stuck in 4th.

Glad to wake up to the result. Up in Kaitaia with no access to it so had to miss this one. No surprise Foster had the game of his life against us as usual.

Whatever the Liverpool/Man City result we will have a chance to go 3rd against Palace on Monday morn. 

At home against Crystal Palace, must win. 

Teams are usually up for it and full of determination after they lose their Manager, as Palace have, so could be a tough one again.

Not been my usual self keeping on top of injuries etc, but looks like Mustafi is back fit, and Walcott, Ox and Rambo are still out? Gibbs out too it seems, just googling.

I'd like to see Perez given another crack on the right, but equally wouldn't be surprised if Giroud started and Sanchez moved to the left.

My preference;

                      Cech

Bellerin-Mustafi-Koscielny-Monreal

             Coquelin-Xhaka

            Lucas-Ozil-Iwobi

                    Sanchez

If Mustafi is fit enough of course. 

From what I've seen of Gabriel at both RB and CB over the last couple of months, I'd almost be tempted to let Jenkinson and Debuchy both go in Jan, and keep Gabriel as the RB back-up to Bellerin. He's been easily the next best in that position for me. 

With Mertesacker returning from injury and Holding definitely looking EPL-ready (not a lot of talk about just how impressive he has been to be fair), we should easily be able to handle that numbers-wise. 

Pretty healthy competition at striker to be fair

Welbeck back now too

must win

I'll take a dodgy 1-0 

Feel like we're already out of it, but this is a must win to keep us solid in Top 4.

Cocks v Chelsea midweek so yeah we have to get 6 points in 4 days

Goal of the season from Ollie G for sure.

Massive three points and a clean sheet.

Watched Giroud's goal about 18 times

Iwobi looked fantastic in the no.10 role today. Definitely his best position for me.

Xhaka was also excellent. 

Agree with both, we did not miss Ozil at all. As commentators pointed out this morning we have a great squad - we just seem to lack the steel to win against the big clubs (current top 6). Loses to Man C and Everton could well hurt our title chances this season.

Record against the top 6 this season is 1-2-2.

Not great but hardly the disaster that's being described in the latest narrative produced for the commentary team. 

Our next top 6 game is against Chelsea, which went pretty well last time, hopefully the lads don't forget that!

Does Iwobi still play for Nigeria and therefore away for ANC with Elneny too?