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

Paul's long post 

Henry thanks Arsene before the club

The next time I hear Arsene out cries I'll be reminded of this.

not for me Clive.

Turning attention to the mugsmashers injury update as follows:

Arteta, Wilshere, Ramsey, Koscielny, Ozil are all out but 'making progress'.

Walcott is back in training and he might travel, Ox isn't training and will have a fitness test on Saturday, Ospina is back in full training, and Rosicky is back in training next week. Monreal might also be available.

Based on that update, the fact that Liverpool play a passing/direct game rather than dominating headers from open play, and last weeks performance in defence I imagine we'll see:

                     Szy

Chambers Per  Debuchy Gibbs

                  Flamini

Sanchez Cazorla  The Ox  Welbeck

                Giroud

However should The Ox not make it I imagine Coquellin will be in line for a start alongside Flamini with Cazorla/Welbs/Alexis/Giroud given more licence to roam forward.

Assume that's the line up, with Debuchy probably right back.

On the topic of Debuchy and headers though, how good is that guy in the air? His aerial battle success percentage would have to be pretty high!

All that talk of Henry recently, be good to see that #14 back again if not this weekend then soon.

I'm in agreement brumbys, with all of that.

Except I think wenger will likely have chambers at CB with debuchy out right, even if personally I'd prefer it as the way you have outlined it!

There could the chance of seeing Ozil, Sanchez, Walcott and Giroud all play together soon.

Some might find Giroud a weird inclusion there, but I reckon he's important to make all that attack link up.

Absolutely important. 

His key weakness is pace which is completely negated when we have the likes of Sanchez, Welbeck, Walcott or the Ox buzzing around him, so he can just sit in and play his tricky flicks and one touch passes off the midfield balls coming his way. 

It's amazing how many chances he creates with single touches in otherwise non-threatening situations.

Most underrated striker in the league in my opinion.

Yeah, I think our shared love for Giroud has been stated a few times on here :)

Both of his goals against Newcastle were quintessential Giroud goals, late run in to the box and a powerful header, and a near post flick goal. With pace on both sides of him, he can only be better.

Giroud is excellent when he has pace either side of him, which is why the wheels kind of fell off for him last season when we lost Walcott. Now we've enough options to have plenty of pace flanking him so he'll be a lot more effective. Wonder if we'll ever get to see Sanchez, Ozil, Theo and Ramsey all on the pitch together!

Yeah I feel like Per is so much better when partnered with pace and someone who can jump. Let's not forget that first goal at Stoke and Chambers inability to clear an uncontested header. Debuchy would have smashed that, or would have been out wide shutting down due to his pace and Per would have had it. I think the benefit of Chambers at RB is that he has the relative safety of playing wide, but we can utilise his height along with Giroud and Per at set pieces (defensively and offensively).

That said I wouldn't be surprised to see Debuchy at RB and Chambers at CB.

That was amazing. 

I had to pause for a second there, listening to it at work, felt a little bit overwhelmed!

Great point re: set pieces brumbys

Giroud is also valuable there when he plays

Huge one tonight.

Despite the anfield debacle last season we did beat them 2 out of 3 times. Unless they are in form and hit us with a fast start, we know we should have their measure if we can play well.

Ox, Walcott and Ospina apparently all trained last night.

I think we'll most likely see;

                     Szczesny

Debuchy-Chambers-Mertesacker-Gibbs

                     Flamini-Ox

         Sanchez-Cazorla-Welbeck

                        Giroud

I've got a feeling we will score a couple from set play's tonight, maybe BFG from a corner and a Alexis or Cazorla free kick.

Well it seems we've been practicing them anyway! You do wonder sometimes given how poorly we've defended them for years and that we rarely seem to threaten from attacking ones.

Debuchy at CB COYG!

Im following the twitter feed and it sounds all Liverpool.  COYG

Ffs!! We are looking 2nd rate

Debuchy!!! Get in my son!!!

Shark performance, shark result.

Are you fudgeing kidding me

This fudgeing pisses me off. Why is Mertesacker acting like a cowardly cod here? Just weak.

Three points lost. We threw it away in the last 20 minutes - why on earth AW thought we could sit back and hold them out I'll never know.

Meh, un-marked at the back post, run not tracked. same old, same old. shame we dropped 2 points, but at least they were the ones desperate to get a point, and throwing the kitchen sink at us. How many times has that been us this season.

Also I reckon Ox will be out for the next few, looks like he aggravated whatever he just recovered from.

Absolutely devastated, we really needed that and it feels like a loss. To get so close. But Liverpool scoring in injury time to deny us victory is as sure as night follows day these days. How many times has it happened to us in recent seasons? Almost as if because of 1989 all the gods conspire to ensure they deny us "right at the end." Knew it had to happen and especially with the onslaught they put us under I watched most of the stoppage time from behind my hands. Also when Skrtl got his head bandaged up you knew he was scoring a header. So of course we left him unmarked on a 97th minute corner. 

In fairness we probably didn't deserve to win, but it's gut wrenching all the same. I can't remember another game ever where we had so little of the ball. Even against Barcelona and Bayern. But with what happened up there last season I guess we had to keep it tight and not commit too much.

At least it was enough to go ahead of Spurs. Despite their and United's terrible starts we could have been behind both at Christmas.

Also Wenger subs were awful. We just do not have the quality in defence to see out results like that. But Wenger complicates things by bringing off Giroud, normally a good first line of defence, especially on set pieces, and brings the pointless Campbell on? He just has no idea anymore. Poor as we were today was a golden opportunity to grab something, but under Wenger's tenure more often than not we fall short when these moments come. Same against City earlier this season with an idential equaliser conceded.

Sorry mate but those are two big girly posts. You got a draw, nobody died, it was a football match.

A draw against a shark team where we got comprehensively outplayed. Certainly reason for concern.

Also you might want to watch out or chopah will come in here all offended because you used the term "girly" with negative connotations. 

We can't use "girly" anymore?

No otherwise Chris Kerr will call you a keyboard warrior and label you sexist.

fourth place looks an awful long way off

Looking at the table and fixtures I wouldn't be surprised if we're in 4th 6 days from now. 

we were terrible

Lucky point

Big improvement needed forthwith.

We are sharke.

Internet wins. A statement that obviously means something, but "Sharke" has absolutely zero context that I can discern.

Might as well say we are Choux Pastry, at least it is relevant regardless of how obscure it is.

'sh*t' auto corrects to 'shark' now, hence, with the deduction of a WW2 codebreaker, I said 'sh*te'

Well if we're shark, hopefully QPR are sharkfood?