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

Cech should've read Aguero's heavy touch a lot quicker...

Arse playing well from when I tuned on... trying to think of how this will be Arsene's fault...

Ramsey thoughtlessness 70m upfield was the catalyst 

Not penalties please

Good to see Welbeck still being Welbeck.

Taking Aguero off looks pretty stupid right now.

Can see why Sanchez gets so frustrated... just give him the ball ffs.

Arse much better team from what I have seen. The effort getting behind the ball has been really great.

thought we were pretty plain in the first half, but got much better in the second. still not convincing, but shart load better than what we have served up lately

random fact - Nacho's last two goals have been scored against manchester clubs and have been setup by the Ox. Ridiuclous stat that doesnt add anything, but is the kinda of thing football throws up!

That was really nice.

Impressed with Ox this morning

MOTM 

Thought Giroud went well and big effort from Holding

Welbeck certainly brought a lot of running around but yeah nah

Holding really came in to the game, good work with ball at feet on a few occasions. 

Thought Welbeck was a bit part of the reason we won - provided the impetus. Made some poor decisions and should've had one or two goals, but eh.

Best game I have seen from Gabriel in an Arsenal shirt. Was commanding.

Gab with Ox looks good.

If we had Santi in with Granit...

Did not expect to win that so great to have a Cup final to look forward at the end of what has been a horrible season. And don'r have to worry about losing it to Spurs either. Thank heavens Welbeck was Welbeck and took the airshot so Sanchez got the chance.

Just feels weird to feel joy and excitement about football again, can't remember the last time. Thinking back to the game, what a fudgeing performance from Gabriel. Have mostly found him to be panicky, lacking composure and a bit of a clown so did not see that performance in him. Absolute monster and the 3 centre backs seem to suit him. Holding looks a great talent for about 1/25th of the price of Stones too.

Gabriel was so good. Wenger's comments about it after the game were interesting;

"Gabriel has played some positive games as a right-back,” said Wenger. “I felt that he has good pace, and today I felt that he could intervene for Oxlade-Chamberlain on Sane going through.

“Sane goes through a lot in behind and I felt that he had the pace to cover, to tackle and he did that very well.

“Especially in the second half when I think he saved three of four balls. So I just thought he was well-suited for this position.

“He played right-back, he played centre back and he plays at the moment in a position that is between the two.”

Holding looks such a talent. Loved this too;

https://twitter.com/ChrisWheatley_/status/85647656...

The confidence of the lad!

Arsenal 3 Foxes 1 Ox Ozil

NL Derby will be triple point round

wrong thread Foal

Go home you're drunk

Been meaning to make a comment around formations and Wenger's history with them, but was struggling with research and the old memory bank... then was reading a piece by the excellent Michael Cox this morning and he summed it up very succinctly in a couple of sentences;

"That 20-year absence of a three-man defence has not been a surprise -- it's not simply that Wenger doesn't like it, it's that he doesn't particularly like dramatic formation changes at all. Wenger has also, for example, not once used a midfield diamond, and his formations have always been very simple; the early 4-4-2 (which might now be considered a 4-2-3-1) for the first decade, a period around 2007-08 where he sometimes shifted to a 4-4-1-1, a move to a 4-3-3 a couple years later, and a 4-2-3-1 from around 2010 onward, with a 4-3-3 used as an alternative for big matches over the past couple years."

Full piece here if anyone interested;

http://www.espnfc.com.au/club/arsenal/359/blog/pos...

Late own goal from Huth gives us victory. Huge 3 points that, take it any way we can coming off a big FA Cup semi 3 days ago. 

Now we head to the weekend for the big one, and I'm nervous as f*ck already.

Ramsey and Ox have been nicely rested. 

I would start Welbeck over Giroud. Only change from the City game for me. 

COYG.

2/2 in the mother of all run ins, good start!

COYG.

2/2 in the mother of all run ins, good start!

if playing 3-4-3 has to be Giroud. 

I'd bring in Elneny to team with Xhaka

So what's our best result in the Man Derby? Draw or City win? 

Hard to say. Chelsea and Spurs really guaranteed one and two now. So we need to overtake two out of Liverpool and the Manchesters. 

Liverpool and ManU seem most vulnerable right now, so perhaps a City win would suit us. 

Although it looks like we need to win every game, I do think we could probably afford to take 4 points from Spurs/ManU if we were to win the remainder. 

Regardless, we cannot lose, or draw both. Massive week and a half coming up. 

CBC's are a truly awful football side. Anti-Football. City should of won you 5

Be a bad thing to finish below them. 

anyone in doubt for the weekend? has Kosc over come his knee(?) thing?  hopefully Sanchez can recover from being shot in the head, but I'm sure hes fine. 

Kosc's knee looked bad in the game. I'm worried. 

do we still go back three without him? ... Gab, Holding, Nacho?? that does not fill me with confidence against the likes of kane, son, alli and erikson

God I'm nervous about Sunday.

Although there is a real opportunity here.

If we could win, somehow, then that would be victory in the last NLD at sh*te fart lane, and we would basically end their title challenge and ensure their 10th (I think) consecutive trophy-less season. 

So yea they're finally going to finish above us for the first time in 20 years, but we have this opportunity to put a real dampener on it and basically nullify their celebrations. If we could win the FA Cup Final as well, sheesh, that would be a good slap in their face too. 

Seems risky but would this be the right time to give Mertesacker a start in the middle of that back 3 if Kosc is out? We need a leader in that role. 

Mustafi is back fit now as well I think. 

More anti-Wenger protests

Emirates Stadium

Highbury

Can't wait for the derby against the yids, expecting at least a draw to remind them that the only club to win the EPL at their sh*thole is the Arsenal and the last yid captain to win it was Sol Campbell. Quietly confident for this one too.

The protests I'm still happy with, making the Cup final/winning it should not change anything. What I would prefer though is for him and the club to announce now that he's moving on, everyone comes together, the protests can stop and we can win the Cup along with making the top 4.

I agree POL but surely it's clear to everyone that Wenger has signed a 2 year extension? 

http://www.socceronsunday.com/article/wenger-signs...

Bit ridiculous that is almost totally believable. Only things missing are "Arsene built the club" and "thanks for your interest in our affairs."

Anyway, the Arsenal in NZ Facebook page has advertised a t-shirt they are getting PUMA to make for the Sydney tour, so check it out if you're going and want to order one.

sounds like both ox and kosc will be cleared to play. good boost for the team and our chances

get in there Swansea

so I just woke up to a Tsunami warning (false alarm) turned on the TV to watch the first goal and then the penalty - what a shark night.

everything to play for then don't play

Just not good enough

Game basically matched the league table. They are a lot better than us right now. 

So finally after 22 years they're gonna best us. Oh well, guess they deserve to revel in it, they've been through a lot in that time. 

Results went our way in other matches luckily though. Win our last 5 and we'd probably still make the four.