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

dissapointing

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/10583285/Arsene-Wenger-shoves-Jose-Mourinho

I do wish Jose had embellished and drived, and rolled over and over on the ground 3 or 4 time clutching his shin. That would have been quality comedy.

Wenger is never going to beat Mourinho, that's been clear for a long time.

At least it wasn't 6 and a humiliation again. Scoreline may sound more respectable than last time and it was only 1-0 for a long time but let's be fair, we were never in the game at any point. We never got near their goal and there was no chance we were going to score. Absolutely schooled and taught a lesson by them again. We just didn't seem to have any sort of game plan when we got the ball, we never really do against them.

Taking emotion and recent history out of it, we lost a tight game at the home ground of the current form team and league leaders. Some luck with ref decisions and koscielny brain-farts and it could've been very different, but that's the form guide right now isn't it - Chelsea took two of their limited chances, both of which should've been preventable, we didn't take ours, e.g. Wilshere's heavy touch when he really should've done better (a fit Ramsey would've been all over that), Sanchez not quite able to bring it down first time before knocking out Courtois, there were flashes but not quite enough - and for all the talk of dominance Chelsea really had very limited chances, they were more clinical than us on the day.

Yeah agreed Paul, I think games like this your relaise what a top quality DMF offers. Apart from 2 moments of quality i dont think Chelsea did that great, once they scored you knew that they were just going to play deep. Oscar was playing for like a defender then attackers. As for Ozil i'm running out of excuses to make for him, i dont think him playing centrally will change/fix him.

Ozil is a luxury player, when he is out of form it is almost like playing with 10 men. Would rather have seen Ox start somewhere in that line-up too. Even as a midfield workhorse in place of Cazorla, who was overrun at times there.

Usually i can't stand international breaks, but i'm relishing this one. Few players waiting on return from injury and a few more with knocks and niggles. Will be good to hopefully come back fresh and ready to put a few past Hull and get us back on track.

Chelsea deserved the win, defended well and Matic and Cesc were better than Flamini and Carzola.

both Cahill and Welbeck should have been sent off. 

The most damning statistic is that we didn't get a shot on target. First time in 11 years that has happened, apparently.

Was just as bad as the 6-0; just without the calamity of a red card.

Funnily enough I thought Flamini was our best player - and I don't rate him at all.

Yea agree with that valeo. It's easy to look at the scoreline and think "oh well, only 2-0 it was close." But for me there was night and day between the teams. Mourinho knew he just needed to score first then they could sit back, get everyone behind the ball and we wouldn't break through them, and we didn't. Then they'd likely get a late chance or two on the counter, which they did. There was never any point in the game where it felt like we might get a result.

Anyway moving on we have a winnable looking set of fixtures coming up after the international beak. Our next 10 look like:

H - Hull
A - Sunderland
H - Burnley
A - Swansea
H - Man U
A - WBA
H - Southampton
A - Stoke
H - Newcastle
A - Liverpool

Any predictions on how many points from that lot? We usually tend to bottle it against United, but would be great to go into that one on the back of 4 wins on the trot which looks possible.

10 wins in a row

Maybe a draw at WBA

We will be 2nd for NEw Years Day.

Go put you house on it. :)  lol

Rumours swirling that Wilshere denied Fabregas the shirt swap. Interesting move from Jack, I think it's fair to say the team can't be too happy about seeing him in blue.

International call ups:

England

Welbeck, Gibbs, Wilshere, The Ox, Chambers

Spain

Cazorla

France

Kosc

Germany

Podolski, Ozil

Costa Rica

Campbell

Colombia

Ospina

Chile

Sanchez

I always get nervous during these breaks, hopefully we don't lose any off that list. Particularly concerned about Gibbs, Chambers, Kosc, and Welbeck.

Also, Ospina. Wasn't on the bench v Chelsea - so was obviosuly injured - and is still called up? What's going on there?

Was hoping he'd be challenging Chesney by now, who I think isn't good enough.

Chesny is well and truly good enough! You realised he got golden gloves last season shared with Czech? I think Ospina was flu/sickness rather than injury...

Ozil out 10-12 weeks with a knee injury :( Found while at International training...Awesome... :(

Well as injury plagued as we have been this season I would settle for a top four and a couple of good cup runs (CL & FA)

Agreed at this point, just been crazy.

Fucking hell. Same shit every season. Won't be long until Wenger comes out with that old line that "we couldn't have planned for injuries." Did Ozil, Ramsey and Walcott play a game together? Reminds me of Fabregas and Van Persie. There was some crazy stat that in all the years they were at the club they only started 25 games together or something ridiculous like that.

Gibbs will be stoked with his call-up, he deserves that. He's been plugging away at an england berth for a while now but has always had Cole/Baines ahead of him, as well as Shaw of late. 

Yeah happy for Gibbs, he's been called up a few times over the last 2 or 3 years and always seems to get injured in the game before and has to pull out. Should be ahead of Shaw in the pecking order for now.

Think he's been off for a while. Look at his distribution - it's always terrible. His shot saving isn't bad. Decision making not that great - quite prone to brain explosions. Think he needs tough competition from Ospina.

double post

Getting back to Ozil, got laugh as other option is cry!

When we have these regular long lasting injuries like this makes me think we need to maximise the squad depth (release Diaby as he takes a valuable spot) and be grateful for having the likes of Podolski and Rosicky ready and waiting.....

Oh well, Cazorla looked pretty grumpy coming off against Chelsea - this should cheer him up a bit! 

Shayde Forsthye really does have his work cut out

That is shite news.

heh, add Kos to the list of injury scraes atm.

Brilliant quip from F365 today:

"Woah there Yohan, stop sweeping for a minute. Please come back. You could play for Arsenal, and if you time it right you could sustain the inevitable three-month injury to coincide with the summer break and miss no football."

Friday afternoon funny:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/santi-cazorlas-guide-being-happiest-4402779

This is a cool vid 

Lots of great interplay I dont recall because it didnt lead to goals. We haven't got anywhere near this kind of form so far this season, it'll be awesomely scary when we do.

What an absolute joy it was to see 5 Arsenal players playing for England this morning (does Welbeck count this time Leggy or is it still a "bit of a stretch?"). Didn't think that was something I'd ever get to see. Walcott to come back too and I'd imagine he'd start when 100%. Rooney was always going to be captain someday and I always thought I'd find it very difficult to support a team captained by him but it's just happened to coincide with a time when Arsenal have a lot of players in and around the side.

Really happy for Gibbs to get 90 minutes for England too. He deserved that chance having been called up several times over the last 2 or 3 years and then always getting injured and having to withdraw. Should be ahead of Shaw and I don't particularly rate Baines aside from set pieces either.

Get a life. He is an Arsenal player and I have to add was the worst player on the field against Chelsea.

Heh, no surprise who was first in here I guess.

The question is--- was I correct?

Not on the life, got one thanks. As for Welbeck against Chelsea, noone was any good, but that discussion was done after the game and was irrelevant to what I posted.

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