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

Thought we were announcing Mahrez signing today/tomorrow. Obviously it was a shark source? Seems to have got quiet there. 

Eh? From what I've been reading Mahrez is plan b for Lemar. Per previous comments that signing is totally dependant on Sanchez. If he stays we should go Lemar, if he goes we should go to Mahrez.

They have arrived in Sydney so at least turned up and not cancelled which has happened to me when I've traveled for events before. Decided to get the new home shirt when I passed a sports store today. I don't get it every season and the latest one I have is the first Puma one from a few seasons ago so figured if I've spent this much money to come to the games I may as well have the latest shirt too!

Wenger still seems adamant that Sanchez will be playing for us this season, new contract or no new contract. Loving that. Mertesacker seems to have backed him up on it as well. Ozil will stay, and it's starting to look like the Ox and Giroud might stay too. 

If we keep these guys we have got a cracking team this season. Added two new starters, on the hunt for a 3rd it seems, and only losing dead wood. 

Very promising. 

Preferred starting lineup for Day 1? Mine changes every day but right now I'm leaning toward;

                     Cech

    Holding-Koscielny-Monreal

Bellerin-Ramsey-Xhaka-Kolasinac

                      Ozil

          Lacazette-Sanchez

Bench: Martinez, Mustafi, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Elneny, Iwobi, Welbeck, Giroud

Only thing I'd change there Paulm is take Holding out of the mix. I love the kid and think he's an immense talent, but we've got to protect him. Based on the FA Cup final Per is going to look great in a back 3, and I think Monreal offers something different on the left hand side. Would keep Mustafi on the bench but the BFG deserves a start (based on his last outing).

Yea I'm on board with that too, tbh. 

There are pros and cons to all our CBs to be honest, I would be happy with just about any combination! Holding looked fantastic at the end of last season, and when Mustafi came back he wasn't quite as good as he had been earlier in the season, hence my pick there. However I'd be entirely comfortable to sit Holding down and bring in Mustafi, or to sit both down and put Per in the middle with Kosc on the right, and Monreal left. 

Hell tbh, if he was fit, I even really really liked Gabriel on the right hand side of the three. He was absolutely immense against M.City there, shut Sane down with ease. 

The formation does suit pretty much all of our defenders in one way or another. Monreal's shift to inside left CB has been awesome as well, he really fits that role quite nicely. 

Yup, I agree. Just don't want Holding to get ruined by the early pressure. Could even do well with a Chambers esque loan this season knowing we have Per, Mustafi, Kosc, Gabriel, Monreal as the 'seniors', and Chambers/Holding battling it out for a chance to start. The good thing is when Per retires end of season we won't really need a replacement. Only when we lose Kosc will we need to consider a balls out bid for someone on his level.

Pretty cool seeing so many people around town wearing Arsenal gear which we never get back at home. Also this evening by chance I stumbled upon some sort of Puma event for the tour at Circular Quay which I didn't know about, but sadly it was just finishing as I got in and all I saw was a couple of people being announced as winners of signed shirts.

Quotes from the both Per & Ozil seem to be trying to rally Sanchez to stay. Ozil's affirmed his commitment to re-signing. It was interesting as he indicated they'd be looking at the new contract upon his return. I wonder if that's the same with Sanchez - as in we won't see any Sanchez re-signing for a few months - just so long as we hit September and he's still on the books.

You might be right kwlap... he's been named in a back 3 to begin with, if the formation on the arsenal twitter account is correct

I hope it is a back 3 as that would give a strong indication to the formation we'll play this season

I feel sorry for anyone who paid hundreds of dollars to watch this trash

I don't - chance to see the guys play when you live on the other side of the world is once in a lifetime for most fans!

Players looking good:
Nelson - RWB
Brammel - LWB
Bielek - RCB
Willock - CM

Players not looking good:

Walcott - Sanchez role
Welbeck - Striker

Looking forward to seeing the subs come on and mix it up!

Oh and pers goal was taking the piss from the big man!

Lacazette with the easiest of finishes - good to score on debut even if the opposition was so far beneath us.

Interested to hear how the game went ajc and others who might have travelled...

City paying 50m for Walker...!

They paid more than 50 for Stones...

Sheesh how well have we done picking up Holding and Bellerin for a combined 2m...... 

And on Bellerin... Barca just paid decent coin to sign a portuguese RB last night, so that's that. 

This is rather significant I feel, a far cry from the days when Fabregas was squeezing his way out despite having years to run on his contract. Seems we won't be pushed around any longer. 

Stayed up to watch the game and the second half was a bit chaotic will a full rotation of all outfield players. Had a back 3 of Maitland-Niles, Elneny, Monreal. Fair to say we were pretty sloppy at the back as we tried to play out with some awful passing! Hope AJC has some good insight, pumped for tomorrow night!

Look at F365 "3 transfers tops"

I was looking at the lineups before (didn't watch game) and was struggling to work out who was playing at the back after all the subs. Elneny and Maitland-Niles, jeez!

Fair to say we're a little light on CBs as they all come back from holidays. Gabriel injured, Holding, Chambers, Koscielny and Mustafi all played internationals in the break... 

Yeah Kosc was on the bench but didn't get a run, Ramsey was the same I think. It was definitely very light at the back, quite scary but then it's only a friendly.

I'll try and post some more later, but briefly it was an awesome experience and even got a pic with Gunnersaurus. On way to the free fan day at the stadium now.

Jeez pre season games are dull as dishwater, aren't they? The only thing excting about that game was Nelson doing his best Zelalem/ Jeff Reine-Adélaïde pre season impression.

It was the first pre-season friendly so I never expected the greatest game of all time. But it was a pretty surreal experience to be surrounded by so many people in Arsenal gear. Pretty massive stadium to what we're used to as well. There was surprisingly little queuing despite there being 80,000 people. At half time we were able to leave our seats, go to the toilet, get drinks and make it back in time for kick off which we struggle to do at the average Phoenix game with 5,000 people. Also as we stayed back a short time to look at merchandise and have an ice cream we then got on the train immediately, compared to the couple of hours it can take getting out of a concert at Mt Smart with half the people. Everything just seemed to be organised better.

As for the game, it took a while to figure out who was who as we were so far away. But Welbeck and particularly Walcott were absolutely woeful and made their keeper look good. Nelson looked good on the right and Willock was decent. Bramall seemed ok on the ball but crossing wasn't great. Ozil was the classiest on the pitch. Also, how are we pronouncing Lacazette? Ground announcer had Lack-a-zetti which I didn't think was right.

My advice:

Never trust Australian pronunciation.

Went to the free fan party day yesterday too which was pretty good of the club to put on. Was in the stadium, and first they had Ospina, Ramsey, Xhaka, Elneny, Walcott, Welbeck and the FA Cup on stage for some Q&A and a game with some kids. Then Ray Parlour came on for a bit of story telling, then finally the team had an open training. Seemed to drag on a bit as the keepers were out for a good half hour before the team who came on much later than schedule, possibly got stuck in traffic on the way. MC was the actual ground announcer for Arsenal so they have even brought him out. Whole thing has been done with class as you would expect. Was interesting watching training, especially the keepers being one myself. Lehmann got some cheers but just seemed to be the guy who fetched the balls from behind the goal and didn't have any input!

As for the strikers, Giroud was the best finisher. They did a crossing drill, and though he started off poorly by struggling to get anything on target, once he found the net a couple of times he started banging them in from all over, even scored a scissor kick from the edge of the box. Lacazette on the other hand barely got anything on target, let alone score. Welbeck and Walcott didn't seem to be in that group and were up the other end doing some sort of passing drill which was probably just as well.The cries of "SHOOOOOOOOT" every time the ball went near Xhaka got a little tiresome after a while.

Reckon 20,000 people could have turned up yesterday.

Arsenal pre-season friendlies:

See here for NZ viewing schedule for all pre-season friendlies on beIN Sport 2 on Sky TV and streaming live on beIN Connect website:

https://connect.beinsports.com/nz/tv-guide/

All the International Champions Cup games are live on beIN 2 in NZ:

Held in three countries: USA, China, Singapore.

Arsenal supporters see here:

China tournament website:

http://www.internationalchampionscup.com/territori...

China line-up: Arsenal, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Dortmund, Bayern, Lyon

First game 11.10 pm Tuesday NZT beIN Sport 2 AC Milan vs. Dortmund

Arsenal vs. Bayern is 11.10 pm Wednesday NZT beIN 2

USA tournament: Man Utd joined by Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juve, Man City, PSG, Roma and Spurs.

First USA tournament game 2 pm Thursday NZT Roma vs PSG

Man Utd vs. Man City is the next day.

USA Tournament website for schedule:

http://www.internationalchampionscup.com/territori...

Singapore line-up (end of July):

http://www.internationalchampionscup.com/territori...

Chelsea, Bayern, Inter Milan

Looking forward to Roly v Arsenal

Haven't had a chance to get on here today so just briefly, was another awesome experience last night and was in seats a lot closer so easier to work out who was who. Back to Wellington tomorrow morning so will post in more depth once back home.

Game on the weekend was great to be at! The crowd was awful. Whenever a chant started it didn't last a full rendition before it died. Got plenty of filthy looks for 'dirty cheating b*stared' when the WSW players got a bit cynical with their tackles. Regardless always special to see the guys in the flesh - and enjoyed Sydney way more than I thought!

Agree with AJC's thoughts on the stadium experience, really organised and easily able to get into the loos, get access to drinks etc.

I don't think I'd go over again to see them play another a-league team, but think they would benefit from doing a match against a comparable side.

Really loved Ramsey's goal too, showed a willingness to play route one when needed, especially when he's making that run forward from CM.

Where on earth did this come from

The humanity

https://twitter.com/JOE_co_uk/status/8865927289094...

So if Sanchez wants to win the CL surely City isn't a better option than us - they've only made the semi-finals once since they got some cash. PSG are rumoured to be back in the mix - that would be a better option for both Sanchez and us.

transfer rumours -

sanchez is leaving

more noise about Lemar this morning, but i still don't see any movement on it

Sanchez is staying

Jack to head to either Palace or Sampdoria

More and more suitors are lining up for Giroud

Debuchy's (who i completely forgot we still had) has had his move to Nice canned as they found someone else. 

Sanchez went for a walk... which was interpreted as he is leaving

Forgot to mention how impressed I was by Bielek in Sydney. His passing, touch, composure on the ball was first class. He also looked to have a good burst of speed on him too, and only once recall him being beaten at the back.

Wenger re-iterated yet again that Sanchez will not be sold, and will play for us this season. Obviously we take that with a grain of salt given what's happened in the past, but this article puts an interesting slant on it;

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jul/18/a...

Suggests that it's actually to our financial benefit not to sell him, and risk him leaving on a free. If he stays and helps us secure Champions League at least, then that extra revenue covers the lack of a fee for him, if he were to leave anyway. Also mentions the inflated wages you have to pay to get quality players when you don't have champions league status. 

I also think that if he were to stay, and we were to challenge (or win) the title, and re-gain champions league status, then there is probably a pretty good chance he would sign a new contract at the end of it. His recent comments about wanting to play champions league suggest to me that he would have re-signed if we had squeaked back into the four at the end of the season... 

Pretty cynical & deserving of a red but I'd rather be on the receiving end of that than if he'd gone full airborne horizontal on it.

You ain't seen nothing yet mate!