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

Bein are such a cluster f*ck. They're all excited to release a new feature to their app which doesn't appear to load for me (although I am up to date) while their website is currently replaying Chelsea vs Burnley or Ligue 1 highlights. What. The. F*ck.

Sky 053.

oh dear

penalty! We have to score

We need a new penalty taker.

Jesus George 

"No one said it would be easy"

ref getting a torrid time

Still think we could of bought Vidal

Vidal/Xhaka as a combo would have been delightful.

Take that, we really came back into it towards the end of the second half.

Well in this.

Did Mustafi even jump then?

Mustafi didn't track run of Thiago?

Soon as Kos went off we were fudgeed

Can't let Gibbs be isolated. Clear 2v1 , totally asking for trouble. 

We could lose this 6-1

What the fuc* was that clearance?!

Bloody masacre. All went down hill after we lost Koscielny which is a shame. Mustafi got woefully exposed for 2 of their goals, team let them down for Thiago's second, and the final goals what happens when you're chasing the game!

Not far off foal.

Embarrassing. Same.old.

LFC fans: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

AFC fans: At least we're in UCL 

LFC fans: Y tho?

and to think Ospina made a couple of great saves too.....very disappointing really

can't see Alexis sticking around to be honest, Ozil no show yet again. iwobi needs to learn how to defend and track back, left Gibb's exposed far too often. 

Still think we need a leader in the team, we lost the plot after going down 2-1

Yup, I see us losing Alexis in the off season. Or losing him on a free the season after. Just hope he doesn't stay in England.

fixed

Third goal fudgeing hilarious. Mustafi was it? yelling at other players and not paying any attention to the ball as a Thiago blissfully runs past him. Then proceeds to blame everyone else!

The usual annual 2 week period we go out of everything. The FA Cup game against a non league side on a plastic pitch should be fun next week. Can't sum it up better than the commentator on the coverage we had. "If things don't change, they stay the same."

After the extent to which the collapse after the Leicester win last season broke me, I've managed to successfully keep myself reasonably emotionally disconnected from it this season because I just don't want to put myself through that again. Still watching every game of course even though it's feeling more like a chore than something I look forward to at the moment, and can't remember a time it affected me as little as this. That's probably shown by how little I've been posting compared to the last couple of seasons. 

That last paragraph would sum the feeling amongst quite a few of us gooners that look beyond the bubble of the Emirates. And in fairness to Arsene, it's not all his fault. The way the club is right now is a terrible model for a football club however exactly what modern football attracts (mostly).

I don't expect us to win anything, however I want to go in knowing we might have a chance. The idea that we might give something a proper go and come out of it being beaten by a better team, but not embarrassed in the manner we consistently are. The state we are in right now I think we would need a few seasons to clear out so many of our current ways and if that means we aren't in the top 4 that's fine by me.

One positive, Ospina looked good and could keep his spot rest of the season. Cech hasn't been great for me this year.

I'm torn on the model. In a world driven by greed & debt I deeply appreciate the bastion for sustainability that Arsenal is. That said it seems that all that work has set us up well only for Wenger/Club not to kick on and be ruthless. After last night I am confident Simeone is the man I want to see him replace Arsene. He'll come in, kick players into winning, kick the opposition as they take throw ins, and spend wisely. That said it would be a death kneel for Ozil/Sanchez staying with us. Only upside would be if we invested in equal quality to replace them, and some of the dead wood.

This sums it up for me.

Last 3 seasons we've been prepped and ready to win big, but we've not done it, we've collapsed at the crucial stages each time. I feel we've had the squad and the quality to do it, but we just haven't - last season in particular was the big failure for me. Whereas other failed seasons saw us losing to big rivals, last season we actually beat Leicester, and then flopped in pathetic fashion to ManU and Swansea, and that was that. 

Wenger has done everything right except win those crucial games when it counts. He's totally built our club up to be what it now is, he has set us up with a brilliant squad who are more than capable of winning things, but they're just not delivering. 

I really want the classic "move him upstairs" thing now. He is absolutely brilliant when it comes to running all facets of our club, aside from basically the mentality of the first team, that's all he's missing in the modern game for me.  The new Manager would have to already have similar values and ideals as our club and playing style to fit in well - otherwise he has to basically run the entire club like Wenger has, and that's not really possible any longer, Wenger will be the last of those types. We don't have any football nous on our board, they rely on Wenger so heavily, so a new guy simply won't be able to fill his shoes entirely. 

Personally I want Henry, quite blindly really, just got a feeling that he would be an excellent manager. If he's got the right technical quality in his coaching team, he would be a great one to bring winning mentality to the fore of this squad, probably without needing too much of an overhaul of the personnel.

Not sold on Simeone. Yes he's been successful but I'm not really a fan of his style, and he's also a pretty volatile individual, I could see him clashing with club figures like he has at Atletico, which I really don't want for us. 

To be honest Guardiola was really the Arsenal type of guy, but a) he's obviously at City now, and b) his penchant for short term deals turns me off a bit. 

Tuchel, don't know too much about him, but he has had favourable press. Allegri seems favoured around the place but again, I know very little about him. Someone like Howe would be a real gamble. 

Sampoli or bust

Open the Chq book to get him in

Trust me I know what I'm doing. 

He's doing well at Sevilla isn't he.

Pretty fantastic at Chile prior to that. 

Just for something a bit lighter, this is the Sutton keeper. 45 years old and 20 stone.

Tactically he's out there for the Prem

He'll be like Wenger '98

It's a point of difference 

We now have the club, we just need the football. 

Well I'm sold ;)

The Chile connection may help keep Sanchez too!

Good game for us to do some small rotation, but not in areas where we don't have depth.

Chance to rest Mustafi and give Gabriel/Holding some game time, while rotating the front 3 + the Ozil role. Need solidity in CM, and for Ospina to play if not Cech.

Can't not go after the FA Cup this year.

we have got a very favourable draw with Sutton and then lincoln.......just need to make the most of it now

Starting with a big win in the morning. 

If we don't bottle this draw it'll be us, City, Sp*rs, and either Chelski/United in the semi's.

So we're likely to come 4th in the FA Cup as well? :)

Millwall will give Cocks a fight