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

FA Cup Round3

Away to Nottingham Forst 

Tricky one 

Yep, understand Mustafi and Ramsey (though that also opened up the pass down the middle) but why did Monreal go in? It was absolutely kamikazie, especially from a player usually so reliable.

Interesting line up tonight; relatively strong. 

                         Ospina

Debuchy Chambers Holding Maitland-Niles

                   Coquelin Elneny

            Walcott    JW10    Welbeck

                           Giroud

4 at the back for the first time in a long time, should be interesting. 

walcott smashes the ball into a defenders head, then sets up le douche for a goal. not a bad first 10mins

geez, looking at our bench, it looks like bring you kid to work day!!

Debuchy screamer!

Wally with the second after a very welbeck run. e.g. good work to get into the box but the final move fails. Luckily the ball falls to Wally who puts it home. 

And JW10 putting them to the sword.

not sure i can handle JW playing well again... i just know whats going to happen...but i always hope it wont'!

cracking oggy from BATE. The move was started by another perfect JW through ball...

He'll go ice skating and break his ankle.

https://twitter.com/JackWilshere/status/938034734394945538

Lovely goal from Elneny hit first time

Watch us get Dortmund or Napoli in the next round.

A Madrid for sure

Fairly sure they are seeded like Arsenal.

Wilshere has looked pretty bloody good most of this season, and appears to be getting through injury free for once. 

I want him in our first eleven, but how?

Wenger doesn't like him deep, and he can't be picked ahead of Ozil, Sanchez or Lacazette. 

Feels like we would need to switch to 4 at the back to accommodate him, which I wouldn't be doing given how well we've been playing overall with 3 CBs. 

Oh yea also Ozil got EPL player of the month for November. 

It was interesting playing some new teams for a change after playing the same old opponents every season in the CL, albeit even if a couple of the games were a bit dire to watch (ie, the 2 before yesterday). Been fun seeing some of the promising youngsters get some time too but expect normality to resume against Dortmund in the next round.

big lift required here

That was bang average from us. Once again defensive f*ck up from the word go putting us on the back foot.

Poor performance, lucky to get a point, thankfully most other teams around us dropped points so not too bad in terms of the top 4 race. 

With Mustafi out and Mertesacker looking THAT rusty, I'd be tempted to go a back 4, to accommodate Wilshere, who looked excellent again this morning. 

Although perhaps with Ramsey injured now Wilshere will get his chance in midfield anyway. 

Assuming Rambo is buggered:

                  Cech

Bellerin Kosc Monreal Kolasnic

         JW10      Xhaka

    Ozil                 Sanchez

       Lacazette  Giroud

Horror reading for Sanchez:
http://news.arseblog.com/2017/12/southampton-1-1-a...

Watching him at the moment I'm realising he's not without his faults and is replacable. Very much coming around to Foal's view that not keeping Ozil will be an impossible void to fill.

Same.

Sanchez was frankly abysmal this morning. Yes he contributed with the assist, but we might have scored earlier had he not given the ball away more than 30 (!) times. He gave it away more than 30 times against ManU as well. That's not acceptable at all. 

Would Monaco take a swap for Lemar? Or PSG a swap for Draxler?

I can't see how Guardiola would even want him now, considering how well his forwards have gone since he last tried to sign him. 

Wilshere and Xhaka in the middle is a recipe for disaster. Ramsey is a big miss - think he's been our best player this season.

Xhaka is the most frustrating player on our books. Can't tackle. Can't defend.

I think it's more can't tackle without risking a red car or serious injury to opponent...

If Ramsey is injured then go to a 4-2-3-1

Drop Xhaka 

Jack and Elneny

Theo Ozil Sanchez

Lacazette

Bellerin and Theo go well and at the very least the opponent has to prepare for speed. 

draw for the next stage of europa league

Borussia Dortmund vs Atalanta

Nice vs Lokomotiv Moscow

Copenhagen vs Atletico Madrid

Spartak Moscow vs Athletic Bilbao

AEK Athens vs Dynamo Kyiv

Celtic vs Zenit St Petersburg

Napoli vs RB Leipzig

Crvena zvezda vs CSKA Moscow

Lyon vs Villarreal

Real Sociedad vs Salzburg

Partizan Belgrade vs Viktoria Plzen

Steaua Bucharest vs Lazio

Ludogorets Razgrad vs AC Milan

Astana vs Sporting CP

Ostersund vs Arsenal

Marseille vs Braga

Upon seeing this, did anyone else ask what the fudge is an 'Ostersund'?

Should win that comfortably.

The BBC did a story on Ostersund recently.

They were founded after Wenger took charge. 

Napoli v Leipzig is good, one of the bigger favourites will get knocked out there. 

Just caught the gist of their rise too, one manager (English bloke) taking them from 4th tier to top flight and Europe - not a bad knock. Wonder if this will be his chance to get into the mainstream with a couple of good showings.

Guess it will be the biggest game in their history so can't afford to not take them seriously. Wouldn't take it for granted that they didn't exist 22 years ago either. We regularly lose to Chelsea and Man City.

Did you guys hear about the fracas after the United v City game with about 20 players and coaching staff involved. It reminded me a bit about the time Arsenal was involved in a similar thing at Old Trafford only this time, there wasn't any pizza thrown.

Apparently Lukaku threw several punches at City players. One hit the wall, another the ceiling and the last one hit his own defender.

Take notes Buffoon, this is actually comedic.

Still crying about the city result in your thread I see. 

What a pathetic man you are.

Certainly need 3 points in the morning

Given how appalling our away form is I would take a scratchy 1-0 win right now

Surely some line up changes as well. 

Same as last year at the taxpayer stadium will do nicely.