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

End of the month apparently. 

I wonder is this team will ever play together:

Szczesny, Debuchy, Koscielny, Mertesacker, **Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil, Alexis, Walcott, Giroud. 

**or.. umm.. Arteta?

left back might be handy hehehehe . seeing that line up just really highlights how badly we need a big bad DMF. i would love to see Ox alexis, wally and welbeck on the pitch together just pure for the pace factor

Arseblog is the best

Hahaha, yes. Gibbs too. I was getting too carried away with the prospect of figuring out DMF. For me it would look like this:

                   Szczesny

Debuchy  Koscielny  Mertesacker  Gibbs

            Wilshere      Ramsey

                         Ozil

 Walcott            Giroud              Alexis

That's a great team, potentially. Inverting the midfield to 2-1 rather than 1-2 would make the Wilshere / Ramsey combo more effective in my opinion. Ozil gets free reign and there are two speedsters playing off Giroud.

I'm hearing that Sanchez will not start this weekend. He was playing for Chile in Chile yesterday, so will be hard pressed to get back with any sort of freshness. The downside of having south american players...

Wasn't he also getting hacked to death in their previous game? Would think he will certainly be a bit fatigued. Think we will certainly see Ox, maybe Podolski will start too?

Some interesting stats for today:

Mins/assist in PL history

1 Reyes 214
2 Nani 225.9
3 Cesc 226
4 Bergkamp 236
5 Mata 243
6 Cantona 246
7 Silva 260
8 Berkovic 265
9 Smicer 269
10 Beckham 270
11 Giggs 287
12 Henry 288
13 Walcott 304
15 Arshavin 313
16 Cazorla 315

Yeah looks like it would be wise to give Sanchez a rest and start Podolski. Sounds like Koscielny might not make it either which possibly means Monreal at CB. Ox was a second half sub in both games and didn't have a massive amount of travel so would be OK with starting him.

Yeah a Bellerin, Mertesacker, Monreal, Gibbs is a very short sounding defensive line against Hull...

Reyes was a grand player. Unlucky to be kicked out of the league by the Neville sisters. Never forget his double on debut vs Chelsea.

A lot of injury news on ESPNFC.com article here.

"Ramsey will be back in full training on Monday and will be in the squad for Anderlecht on Wednesday," Wenger said.

Wenger: Koscielny is not in contention for Saturday, but he will not need to have surgery."

"The positive news is Walcott is back in full training, Gnabry is back in full training, Arteta is back in the squad. We have, as well, [Olivier] Giroud ahead of schedule, some positive news. In the defensive department, with the suspension of [Calum] Chambers, we are a bit short.

Wenger: “Rosicky came back with a kick on the calf but he should be available for Saturday."

"Theo Walcott will not play Saturday but will play for the reserves/under-21s tomorrow. It's about confidence going into contact."

Final team re-hash:

Szczesny, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Monreal, Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere, Cazorla, Ox, Podolski, Welbeck.

My guess anyway. Possible variable I see is Rosicky in for Podolski, but think the german will get the nod.

Anyone here know much about Jack Jebb? Stevenage just got him on loan from your lot.

Have heard about him before, but for the wrong reasons - having been found guilty of racist taunts towards a Norwich player for the u-18s last year.

Reading now though:

"The technically-gifted central midfielder made his breakthrough into the  Under-18s last season, playing seven times and scoring his first goal against  Leicester with a fine free-kick.

"Attack-minded Jack is an industrious figure in the engine room and can be  deadly from set-pieces"

Hull are going well. I'll take 3 points any which way, we need this.

I didn't realise that hull had made so many good/useful signings. This could be harder than i thought...

Yeah, they've been banging in some beautiful goals too.

Walcott got through 45 minutes for the U21s and sounds like he played reasonably well.

Exite! Feels like ages since I've watched an Arsenal game

That was poor. Their first goal was a joke. Their 2nd the defending was a joke. Well done to danny and sanchez for running all match 

Not much more to add kwlap, other than Welcome back to Ramsey from injury, Bellerin did good with his PL debut - some nice runs, and that Campbell was great, some really good runs, passes and balls. 

Should really be getting 3 points in those games if we want to get in to the top 4.

Stoked with Alexis and Welbeck, we need a good fourth choice CB after Chambers coming in for January.

Then in the off season the number one target has to be a quick, strong world class DM and splash the Ozil/Alexis sort of money on that position.

Diame has some qualities of that and monstered Flamini off the ball (albeit a foul), just highlights how weak Arteta/Flamini/Wilshere type players are and then our defence gets exposed more than it should.

Dissapointed Mertesacker was beaten to the ball for the second goal, that is unusual for him though.

Only team positive is we didn't lose

Alexis and Welbeck worked their nads off for us but we really need that quality DM.

That was an atrocious lose, and you have to put a lot of that down to the officials. There is no way you can give that first goal when he puts his hands on Flamini's shoulders and pulls him back. Then you've got the time wasting that goes on, and to top it off not giving critical calls our way, Ramsey had one go against him & Jack got completely ignored a couple of times. Gah. Would really enjoy that ref not being involved at this level again.

Fair play to Hull though, Diame is a beast & as already highlighted has the power & pace we need in a DMF, while Abel Hernandez is a great striker, I'd happily have him in my side.

Word is Wenger has 20m to work with in January, for that money I'd be stoked to see Reid & Rabiot come in.

I thought rabiot was off to roma. But reid would be nice

Only the latest rumours, could still come our way.

Anyone signed in January could well be too little too late. Title challenge is already certainly out of the question and we need to start winning games very soon to even be in the scrap for 4th.

Thank heavens for the equaliser, would have been a travesty to lose at home to Hull. Especially after the start, we were absolutely battering them. Unusual for me but even I sat back and thought nothing to worry about here, this is going to be comfortable. Flamini was fouled, but you have got to be stronger there surely. Still had a chance to stop it if everyone else didn't stop playing.

Remarkable how quickly Sanchez has settled in. He's already our best player by a long way.  

And why does it happen so often that our opposition score their only 1 or 2 chances?

This is reminding me of the run of draws the Nix had a few seasons back..depressing stuff.

Strange thing is I honestly thought we played alright; just a couple of lapses as per usual costing us. We will never challenge for the title until our mentality changes.

Or until we get a world class DM and excellent depth across the back four.

I'd be getting a CB as fourth choice as Chambers staying as CB and on that performance alone Bellerin being 2nd choice RB.

And get a LB and let Monreal go, he is not title winning quality, seems like a great guy in all but man we need to lift defensively, and only when we do bring better quality defenders will we challenge for the title.

Release Diaby at the end of his contract (June 2015) to free up 50k per week wages to someone that can actually play!!

Bring on 2015/16...

Don't think that new players are the answer to all of our woes. Even if we had Bayern Munich's squad, we would still struggle with the way we approach games and defend as a unit.

An example of this is how Chambers didn't pick 1 yellow card up for Southhampton but has already picked up 5 for us.

This new mentality of wanting to bring in players every time we lose a game is stupid. That team out there against Hull should have been good enough to win.

Also, has anyone noticed that Jack and Aaron have been rotating injuries lately? Ramsey comes on and Jack immediately gets a knock..

What a wonderful player. Where the hell would we be without him this season?

I'm beginning to think the previously unthinkable.

Perhaps it is time for change?

Me too. There is always the risk that we do a 'Moyes' and hurtle down the table - but something needs to change. I'm a huge fan of Wenger and think what he's done in the last 10 years without many resources is admirable, but we are going nowhere fast.

Of course, there is no point him leaving if we don't have an able replacement. We need someone similar, for mine - a complete upheaval would be nigh on impossible. There are only one or two coaches in the world that I think are able replacements - Klopp, for one, but even his Dortmund team are flagging now.

Agreed Valeo - I'm just sick of seeing the same old thing season after season. Same excuses, same reasons, same tactics, same outcomes.

The league has moved on but I'm not seeing where we are.

Case in point: The DM discussion.

He's done a truly fantastic job over recent years with limited resources. I'm just not sure he's the right guy now the focus is changing (and it's not the mid 90's any more). And yes, we need to be very careful/selective in who we choose next - and depending who that is AW may even stay with the club in another role - he's more than earned it.

Absolutely. Forget about winning the league immediately or anything like that, I'd settle for seeing us make different mistakes at this point.

Heh, just came to post that.