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

Oh sh*t I'm in stitches right here.

I had no idea who Claude and Ty were, just googled and watched it, oh man that's good. 

POL one thing you've said over and over is it's good to have the passion either way and I won't argue that one bit!

Worst thing is United are 7 points worse off from the same fixtures than the disaster that was last season.

Sad News. Aston Martin have announced they are going to release a DB10 to coincide with the new bond film. Only way it will work is if they get the Iceman doing the adverts

Well it's been a hive of activity in here of late, but turning to the stomach-turning fixture that is Stoke Away, what eleven do we want to see? 

Flamini has to play every game at the moment, Ramsey is the type of player that improves with consecutive games, but I'd give Cazorla a spell. Stoke might not be the best place for him anyway. 

I reckon this is the one for Rosicky to come in. And I'd go for our physically strongest front three. For me;

                          Martinez

Chambers-Mertesacker-Koscielny-Monreal

                  Flamini-Ramsey

           Sanchez-Rosicky-Welbeck

                           Giroud

Monreal ruled out.

Koscielny, Gibbs, Welbeck and Rosicky are doubts. 

Sanchez in the 'red zone'. 

Make-up of backline will be interesting.

Wenger quoted that Diaby will get a new contract if he can regain fitness.

Does that mean if he is injury free on x date for that one day, then bang contract signed for another 2-3 years?

This is the sort of thing that makes me cringe for Wenger and opens him up to the detractors, and opens up laughing stock opportunities.

I dear say any contract he gets will be on severely reduced wages, as long as he isnt costing us much, I would gamble on Diaby, he is a brilliant player when fit.

Im happy for diaby to hang around and keep giving it a crack provided he's on basically a cleaner's wage with big per-game bonuses or something like that.

If he ever got fit he would add value, and as long as the financial impact is virtually nil then fine.

Arsenal as a club has a reputation for looking after its people so I'd like to see us do that. He's not going to get a contract anywhere else, why not get him involved in the youth coaching set-up as well, apparently he's well studied and somewhat a scholar of the game from what Wenger has said in the past.

Brumbys that link is broken?

I like this, but having not played much of late, I'm not sure how good Rosicky will be, while Cazorla has been looking pretty good. I know it's almost sacrilege, but I reckon this is the best time to rest Sanchez. Next fixtures are Galatasaray, Newcastle and then Liverpool. Unless he can play all of them and be rested for QPR. Our dependence on him needs to be considered more than just in this Stoke game, where he could have a 20 min cameo if things aren't going well. In saying that, we know he'll be the first name on the team sheet. 

Bloody hell, getting down to the bare bones a bit isn't it? Sanchez needs a rest before we burn him out. Trouble is we can't really afford to leave him out at the moment if we want to win. We're already through in the CL and need Dortmund to get thrashed at home for any chance to win the group so I'd completely leave him out of the Galatasaray game.

http://www.espnfc.com/blog/espn-fc-united-blog/68/post/2181016/premier-league-despite-fan-commonalities-football-supporters-seek-the-extremes let's try that, bloody iPhones

Yup, play Sanchez this weekend, put him on the bench for Gala and then play him at Newcastle. There's 8 days between Newcastle & Liverpool which is a good chance for a rest. 

I wouldn't even put him on the bench in Galatasaray to be honest. Just leave him home without even having to make the flight. It's going to take an unlikely miracle to top the group anyway. Start him tonight and if the possibility is there take him off in the second half.

Sounds like Rosicky has a niggle anyway so that's my idea out the window!

Cazorla has been looking decent HW, perhaps we carry on playing him, but you have to wonder how in the 'red zone' he is as well.

Love the idea of leaving Sanchez at home when we go to Turkey. Maybe we give Isaac Hayden or someone a crack in that game as well to let Koscielny stay home too. 

If we can scrape through this week to the break between Liverpool/Newcastle that might be just enough breathing room for Gibbs, Monreal, Koscielny and Debuchy to get themselves up to scratch fitness-wise.

Absolutely leave Koscielny at home in midweek too. Giroud will be getting that one off too for obvious reasons!

Oh shark

ffs this is rid

Oh.

What a shocker, can we please practise how to defend just in general would be great, while we are at it let's practise taking corner kicks and free kicks to beat the first man in the defensive area.....

Alexis again to quick for his team mates at times and looks around to see where they are not, he must be think chalk and cheese about his transfer in as personal form outstanding team form is struggling.

Thankfully Welbeck put himself about and again the Ox played really well ad is building consistent form!

Forgot to point out another Mertesacker failing when Koscielny isn't playing, he failed to track Bojan for one goal and was at fault for another.

Makes me think we have two options

1. Buy another speedy CB like Koscienly to partner with Mertesacker if Kosc is injured like he gets at times. Would be fingers crossed that Mert could build another partnership with someone other than Kosc.

2. Buy a whole new pairing and try and play pairs - risks there though

Chambers is so young and although doing well overall is not what we need at CB right at this point in time

Defensive injuries aside the defending continues to be comical so again seems like one of two things, either the players are not good enough or Steve Bould is not giving them the required coaching and should be looking for a new job?

Also what a bugger we didn't capitalise on Chelsea dropping 3 against Newcastle, would have reduced the gap to 10

Also what a bugger we didn't capitalise on Chelsea dropping 3 against Newcastle, would have reduced the gap to 10

Haha, as if we will catch Chelsea.

Disappointed but wasn't surprised.

Bring on Galatasary and a January transfer window where we get quality, not just cover.

what a bull sharke first 45mins. just soo depressing. 

there are some big issues with this team at the mo. i dont know if a buy in January will fix it, but at least it will help.

Not the game to start Bellerin, what is he, 40kg dripping wet? Poor lad got thrown into Middle Earth with a ring to protect.

We didn't have any other options though so that goes back to our failure to buy that CB. I'd give my left arm to find out what happened with that epic failure in the transfer window. 

Today also pointed out that when we do get the CB he needs to be high high quality. With no Kosc next to him Mertesacker is half the player.

Kosc starts and we win that game. Chambers has been great this year but he's 19 ffs. 

Giroud was really poor this morning, really poor. He'd been rested midweek probably because in theory he was perfect for this game. Big, strong, throws himself about, and generally p*sses off his CB opposite. Instead he was the one p*ssed off, his hold-up play was poor and he missed the big chance which would've changed the course of the game.

I hate Stoke. The fouling was persistent and blatant. The ref stopped giving the small ones because there were so many blatant ones. Adam on Sanchez was just ridiculous and epitomised their approach, how is that not a yellow (or isn't it a red if you touch the head/face?). Booing Ramsey is just ridiculous, can't get my head around that one. 

Ramsey getting booed is mental. Makes not one bit of sense.

The only highlight was all of this 'The Next Invincibles' bullshark being quashed.  

Ressies vs Gala please. Any starting players who are remotely fit need to remain fit for Newcastle. If we don't win against them we'll be in real trouble.

Never said we would, purely said it would reduce the gap.....

At least ArsenalFanTV is a laugh. And Chelsea won't get near going unbeaten. Positives.

Just at a loss, can't really face analysing it any further. Way to come down from the high of the Phoenix win. I don't know what level of "defending" that was but we wouldn't have conceded those goals in Wellington capital 8. On the plus side at least the unbeaten record remains for another season, was starting to look in doubt with how formidable Chelsea had been so far.

never in doubt.

Yes Stoke away is the worst fixture on the calander

Fold the club.

Playing Bellerin at right back and Chambers at CB for a game away to Stoke is one of the stupidest fudgeing decisions i've ever seen.

We are the most predictable team on the planet. No guts. No heart. After Ramsey scored, instead of pushing on like we should've - we had fudgeing a good 15 mins to come back - we stupidly gave away a bunch of fouls and gave away all momentum

Mert is not good enough. Guy can't even win headers against Bojan , let alone Crouch. He's like Chris Wood - doesn't use his height properly.

I too thought the bellerin decision was mental but unfortunately there were no other options.
In hindsight looking at how the game progressed Flamini would've been better but if the lineup at kick-off came up with Ramsey and Ox in midfield I would've screamed blue murder. We had to have Flam in there in light of no other options.

No CB and DM purchases have cost us big time, BIG time. 

Out of our 'defensive 6' (keeper, back four and DM), we had two first choice players there today, one of whom appears to shrink when his best partner is not there. Two of that six were teenagers and another one was in his 3rd league start. 

That's the singular reason we lost the match for me, snd I feel the blame lies with our club not purchasing the necessary players last window (with a splash of sh*tty luck thrown in with injuries). 

Stoke away, the bane of my life.

Yup, I think as much as we've discussed around Wenger and transfers the last few weeks I think we'd all agree the defensive buying was a total failure.

We have to get through 6 games before we'll get someone in (counting SOTON as that games Jan 1st):

Gala (a), Newcastle (h), Liverpool (a), QPR (h), West Ham (a), SOTON (a).

Yes Debuchy and Kosc will hopefully be back for some of those, but it's going to be a rough month.

Reflecting on this transfer debarcle can you recall a time we had our defence geared up to win the title? We've had players like Squillaci, that French git we got from United, and Andre Santos lining up for us. We've then flicked on the likes of Djourou, and Miquel when we're short because we couldn't think they'd cut it. Well I'd have either of those two starting right now.

Oh, and HOW is Isaac Hayden not getting a crack?

Since when do we get anyone in at the beginning of the window Brumbs?