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

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/mar/28/c...

Mustafi and Xhaka are only 24 years old, very young for their respective positions and styles. I think both will potentially be "first-tier" in years to come, particularly Xhaka. 

Remember, a year into his Arsenal career, Koscielny was 26 years old and written off as a calamity by a lot of Arsenal fans. Centre backs and Defensive midfielders take longer to mature. 

With our current troubles, and Xhaka's bad press, it's notable that Bayern are sniffing around him as a Xabi Alonso replacement. 

Ok... so who took the wenger-out banner to the AWs game... cmon lads, fess up

Must say I cracked up when I saw the pics this morn.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/wenger-out-b...

Heh, brilliant. Anyone know them? Wellington is a small town so chances are one of us will do, or know someone who does.

My money was on Pride of London!

Although to be fair, he'd probably protest against the board in the first instance, which I would not disagree with. 

Haha as much as I would love to lay claim to this I cannot unfortunately. Being overseas now I wouldn't even know who it was.

Massive plaudits for whoever did it though. 

City this weeekend, wouldn't mind seeing a 4-4-2 for something different  

I wouldn't mind a 4-4-2 either. Feel like it's something a little un-tapped in the EPL at the moment, and we do have personnel that would suit. Xhaka and Ramsey in midfield would fit well, Giroud with anyone in a front two would be pretty good. Sanchez can play anywhere anyway. Fitting Ozil into it is the only tricky bit - he'd either have to play wide, or as one of the front two. 

It was fudgeing embarrassing to be honest.

Throw Lucas & Welbz up front with Sanchez & Walcott out wide and Ramsey/Xhaka through the middle. Sit deep and counter hard.

If that doesn't work bring on Ozil & Giroud and adjust accordingly.

New interview from Sanchez

'Want to stay in the same City and play in a winning team'

So is he moving to Chelsea?

? Apparently he quit today. 

I read it an article by Avril Foolio

The lack of posting in here after such an important game is probably a good sign of just how disillusioned we all feel right now. 

To be fair I was happy with a point. Anything but a humiliating loss was more than welcome, especially after conceding so early. What was Bellerin thinking on that first goal??? Totally lost. Also, off topic but cut your stupid f*cking hair son, you look like an absolute knob end.

To be fair the quality of the game overall was actually really bad. Tons of really bad giveaways, passes straight out, etc etc. 

Not much more to be said about it. 

Felt like top 4 was really gone before this morning's game, nothing much has changed. 

In the league we have 5 very winnable games now, before a tough finish. We need to win these damn games and get ourselves some momentum up to finish strongly;

Westham (h)

Palace (a)

Boro (a)

Sunderland (h)

Leicester (h)

Gosh I re-read that post and it's sad really - totally devoid of feeling. 

Basically it's just "sigh", but with more words.

5 straight wins for sure

And book in a FA Cup final

Turn that frown upside down

Apparently a sign at Wrestlemania too now hahahahaha

Workmate hilariously suggested that Wenger Out = the new Bring Back Buck

Cracked me up

At Coldplay's Singapore concert too:

Game had a weird nothing to play for sort of feel about it. Atmosphere sounded dead, and rather than a big game it felt a lot more like the pre-season Asia Cup or something. Glad we didn't get humiliated which is probably about the best we can hope for from the remaining games.

If you thought Hector was out of place for first goal what about Mustafi? Goes flying ahead to cover the midfield and loses the header. He'd actually have been better faking a run forward and sitting back to keep the back 4 together than create such a massive gap.

Great point Brumbys

It's great when Mustafi/Koscielny win the ball with those types of plays, and they often do, both are very good at it, but when they don't win the ball we can be badly exposed. 

That's probably what caught Hector out, they shouldn't lose those against small players. And also, Sane must be one of only a few players who can out pace Hector. Interestingly Hector could have got the slide in on Sane had Ospina not come out, but had to jump Ospina who was stranded like a whale.

Mustafi was promising before he got injured but he's been poor for a while now. Xhaka though has been a truly dreadful buy. Brainless, ill disciplined, basically a walking yellow/red card and clearly not suited to the pace of this league. I'm usually patient with players new to the league but would be quite happy to bin him in the summer. A major liability in the side and up their with Wenger's worst pieces of business so far.

Agree on Mustafi. 

Disagree wholeheartedly with the Xhaka sentiment though. I think he's a fantastic player and will really come on next season if Bayern don't steal him away, as has been rumoured. 

see I'm somehwere in between on Xhaka. Has be been terrible? Not often. Has he been amazing? Rarely. Has he contributed to the team? yes. 

But if Bayern come knocking with more than what we paid for him, then i would seriously consider it. Hes not miles better than le Coq or Ox or Elney

Saying that, i think Ox is off to city or manu isnt he? or is it liverpool this week. I havent been able to catch up with the rumours around him 

Everton doing their bit

Swansea to hang on for a draw tomorrow

Chelsea v City

We win that's gaining ground. Chins up!

I think he's got way more about him than Coq or Elneny. He hasn't transitioned well, mainly because of the bad press around his discipline, but I think he'll get better and better from here. 

If he can cross that barrier of confidence and start to really impress himself on the games, he'll be quite the player for us I feel.

farking williams! Toffees throw it away at the end. 

Still, win tomorrow and we go above ManU, and hoping Chelsea do us a favour and beat Man City. 

just saw the table, we are still in it for 4th.....very suprising consider how terrible we have been

Xhaka is head and shoulders above coq and eleny in my opinion, he will come right next season and will be a great leader. a lot of focus has been on him as we as a team have be sharkhouse

I feel like Xhaka will turn into a real leader for us, eventually. But in his first season, at 24 years old, with other experienced heads around him that have been here a while, you surely can't expect him to step up and take charge of the team. And even if he did I doubt it would go down well with him being a new kid on the block.

Once he's got a season under his belt I feel he'll be far better placed to start expressing his personality.

So apparently we're going to get an official warning from the FA for not having a designated captain in the 2nd half after Koscielny went off the other day, as it's a breach of Premier League regulations. Can only laugh at this point. We're an absolute farce.

It worked for Patrick Vieira and he was only 20 when he arrived at Arsenal and made an immediate impact.

well needed  big win

Ozil good nice immediate impact. Lol at no Monreal penalties. 

Swansea threw it away....

that'll help. 

Not sure what Giroud has done to be on the bench behind Danny... He seems to always score for us, but never gets to start....

It is odd isn't it? I get that Alexis up front had us in dominant form - but it's incredible to think that when we go back to having a taller striker it's Welbeck not Giroud.

Oh well, 3 pts is 3 pts and Giroud still keeps scoring from the bench!