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

Reckon Ramsey will be out for a long time. Has the usual Arsenal 'won't be out for long' bs.

Not surprising Kos and Wilshere aren't playing considering it's going to be a frozen pitch or artificial turf

can see us losing this

Nah we'll be fine. Tough it out over there and come home and beat them by 6.

Problem is the 2nd leg is 3 days before the League Cup Final, so we don't want to have to play a full strength lineup in that game. 

It's very important that we win tomorrow, in my opinion. 

Going well so far.

Can someone explain why Aubameyang is cup tied? He hasn't played a game in this competition yet. If Dortmund were still in the CL like United are then he would be fine to play. Seems like a really weird rule.

and win big. 3-0 at the moment. I'd be happy with 4-0

It is a dumb rule. I did read why somewhere and I think the reason is because Aubemeyang played for Dortmund in the CL and they have now dropped into the Europa League so he can't play in the Europa League for another team. The difference with Mhkitaryan is that he played for United in the CL but they are still in the CL so he's ok to play in Europa for us.

Excellent result. 

Peno save too, unheard of, our first one since 2013. 

Was a terrible game, but we won and that's what counts.

AMN I think showed why he hasn't been given more game time in the middle - he made a lot of rookie errors; poor passes, and got muscled off the ball several times.

No one really played great, only Mustafi played poor at the back though. That guy is an absolute liability and the sooner we get rid, the better imo.

Welbeck did not take his chance at all. Was poor.

Ozil was in 1st gear and still looked the best on the pitch.

In freezing conditions on a plastic pitch, with a makeshift lineup, I'm not concerned so much with the actual performance, since the result is basically perfect. 

Ozil, yea, what a player. The guy is such quality. 

The fact we are almost certainly through with 90 mins to play is very pleasing. Means we can rest players before City.

Napoli look to be gone. They seem to be concentrating fully on the league anyway. One big hurdle out the way.

Only teams like Dortmund, Marseille,Milan, Leipzig, Milan,A. Madrid  left. Should be easy.

Milan have entered two teams?

Milan have entered two teams?

AC Milan beat Ludogorets 3-0 today.

That has literally nothing to do with what i asked you.

Atletico is by far the most likely winner, for mine. I hope we avoid them.

I could see us losing to any of those teams though.

We've just extended our shirt deal with Emirates. Figures of around $40m per annum but freeing up space on the sleeve for extra sponsorship opportunities. Put's the deal 2nd only to United's, not bad going.

Sounds like we barely improved the current deal and have locked ourselves into a long-term contract, which means that other teams will be renewing prior to that for much bigger deals. Sounds like very poor business.

Valeo I think you and I are on the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to how we view Arsenal at the moment - but is it really that bad? We've increased the value of the deal, locked in in for a reasonable amount of time from a commercial deal perspective, all against the back drop of falling behind in our performance on the pitch...

http://news.arseblog.com/2018/02/financial-details...

Jeremy Wilson from the Telegraph said: 

"Arsenal's new Emirates deal is worth around £40m a year until 2024. Similar to Chelsea's as second highest in PL after Man Utd on £47m. Spurs and City are around £35m and L'pool deal, which is up next year, is about £30m."

I've got no problem with that. 

Man City knocked out of the FA Cup by Wigan this morn, and Delph got a red so is suspended for the League Cup Final. 

Not sure if this is a good or bad thing to be honest, could be a bit of a backlash on the cards. 

I read that our deal with Puma may be cut short by a year as well. Not sure how that works or if it has any substance or who would step in as kit supplier.

Yeah that is very interesting - wonder why that is? Saw some examples of what Adidas kits could look like - loved the idea!

I quite like our Puma kits tbh. Adidas do make some lovely kits though, none more so than the German national team kits.

An interesting stat regarding Europa League ahead of our game tomorrow.

Since granting winners of the Europa League automatic qualification in to next year's Champions League, all three winners have been teams who would otherwise not have qualified for the Champions League through their league performances. Sevilla won it twice after finishing 5th and United won it last year after they finished 6th. 

I cannot see us making top 4 so maybe this stat can work in our favour.

Looks like 4-5-1 with Jack captaining.

                   Ospina

Bellerin Holding Chambers Kolasnic

            AMN        Elneny

   Iwobi        JW10         Mhiki

                Welbeck

Slightly worried Bellerin is playing, he's the only one in that lineup gauranteed to start against City at RB. Will be interesting to see how much time Jack and Elneny actually get.

Yea I was surprised, didn't think he'd put out a side that strong. 

I would've thought Wilshere, Elneny, Mhkitaryan, Bellerin and Iwobi could all start against M.City, depending on various factors - the fitness of Ramsey and Ozil etc. 

Looks like a pretty open game so far, chances for both sides. 

Mhiki is cup tied for Sunday. This 'strong' side is losing 2-0. WTF.

Oh true, of course forgot about that. 

2 goals conceded in a minute in a tie we should be comfortable in. I'm not even surprised. 

#thearsenalway

2-1 Kolasinac scores

Xhaka has come on for AMN at HT, not sure if that's tactical or injury forced, but that has to be a bit of an inconvenience for Sunday too. 

gee our reserves are terrible.

As poor as that was we got through - hopefully more seniors are involved from here. Napoli with a shock exit, thankfully not going to be us.

wow that was terrible, man welbeck couldnt score to save his life. Will iwobi get better? 

i miss Giroud and wally LOL

Qualified Teams:

Arsenal

Red Bull Salzburg

Viktoria Plzen

Lyon

Marseille

Borussia Dortmund

RB Leipzig

Lazio

AC Milan

Sporting Lisbon

CSKA Moscow

Lokomotiv Moscow

Zenit Saint Petersburg

Athletic Bilbao

Atletico Madrid

Dynamo Kyiv

No seeding, so we can get anyone, draw tonight approx 1am our time I think. 

I'd want to avoid going too far east, and obviously don't want Dortmund, Atletico or some of the other stronger sides. 

A trip to France or Portugal wouldn't be the worst, or perhaps Salzburg.

Plzen please. 

Any of those teams can beat us.

Yep. And we can beat any of them.

The beauty of knockout football.

Milan. Not easy.

while Milan isn’t the best draw, they are quite an arsenal type team, meaning they are a bit of a shambles. So if we can pull it together before then, we should do ok against them. 

Ah well. Was mildly interesting playing some different teams for a change before the inevitable round of 16 walloping from one of the bigger clubs. Normal order resumed.