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

What an utter fudgeing shambles our defence is.

I know - let's break our transfer record on (another) forward!

FFS.

Perhaps we should've bought a defender or a decent midfielder instead of buying a poacher/getting rid of the only player coming off the bench who I'd back to score in a situation like today.

Selling Giroud with that as his last game will leave an extra sour taste in the mouth.

In all seriousness, is this now our aim for the season? 

We should go for a total swap. Play the kids in the league, and the experienced team in the Europa League, and the League Cup Final. 

If we do that we'll f*ck it up and lose the final, then find we finished 9th and have nothing in Europe next year and a bunch of out of contract players leaving on bosmans.

I'm trying SO hard to be positive about things but hot damn do days like today make it tough!

A lot of others have been whinging about Xhaka for some time now and I'm finally beginning to come round to that. 

Does his positional switch mean he's essentially been dropped for Elneny anyway? 

Elneny has been excellent since he came into this role, and was actually really good this morn until he went off. He concentrates, he makes good defensive decisions, he shifts the ball quickly and simply. All you want at the base of the midfield. 

We all want more fancy trickery with the long balls and long distance goals etc, but the rest of Xhaka's game is just so bad, and seemingly not getting better. 

If Ramsey and Wilshere are both fit he has to be benched. He was good against Palace in his current role, but he just doesn't compare to Wilshere/Ramsey in a box to box position. 

He seems to be trying to be Santi as a deep lying play maker, but he isn't good enough for that. I'd like to see him given a shot as the box to box late run player, but he's essentially got Ramsey and Wilshire in front of him. He's showing he can't be relied on defensively, which is really disappointing given his billing from the Bundesliga.

Recorded it but accidentally saw the result so that's probably for the best. Quick summary anyone?

As for Xhaka Paul, it beggars belief that we have needed a top class central midfielder for a decade and ended up spending the money on this. We're eventually going to have to spend 2-3 times the amount to fix it. Can't we just give Chelsea him and Welbeck and maybe throw in some money too to sweeten it?

It was wet.

We played 4-3-3 with our best back 4, Elneny, Ramsey, Xhaka and Iwobi, Ozil, Laca.

We struggled in the wet and with their pressing game.

We scored first against run of play.

Then they scored 1 minute later.

Cech then failed to clear and they scored.

Giroud and Mkhitaryan came on to help rescue us.

Then Monreal failed to clear and they scored.

Ozil was sad.

Then we sold Giroud to Chelsea only for Auba to ditch on the transfer because he didn't like how badly we played.

Basically exactly what you thought would happen when you saw it raining, wet and without Jack starting.

Basically exactly what you thought would happen when you saw it raining, wet and without Jack starting.

Basically exactly what you thought would happen when you saw it raining, wet and without Jack starting.

Basically exactly what you thought would happen when you saw it raining, wet and without Jack starting.

Basically exactly what you thought would happen when you saw it raining, wet and without Jack starting.

Basically exactly what you thought would happen when you saw it raining, wet and without Jack starting.

Can we talk about how terrible Laca has been? He couldn't even get his first touch sorted today. It was embarrassing to watch. Giroud is a better player than him right now.

A number of our recent big signings looked much better at their previous clubs (Lacazette, Xhaka, Mustafi) while the players we sold look better at their current clubs (Szceszny, Fabianski, Gabriel, Chamberlain). Usually takes a season but Lacazette looks busted already. Time for Monreal up front it seems. Maybe we had Auba at the training ground as it was the only way we could ensure he didn't watch the game.

How was the Manc reject when he came on?

Just read this back to yourselves. We scored against the run of play. 

We were playing Swansea.

Swansea were 20th before the start of this match.

Unbelievable.

Why are we so awful away from home?

We have played 7 of the current bottom half away from home this season.

We have beaten one of them. Palace 3-2 around Xmas/NY time.

Two draws and four defeats from the remaining 6 games.

How are we so bad when we leave the Emirates? Actually how are we so bad when we leave London? Unless my maths is off i believe we have a grand total of 8 points outside of London this season (3 Burnley, 3 Everton, 1 Soton, 1 WBA).

Surely the current playing group can offer better than this? We have only dropped 7 points from 36 at home all season.

Who said aubameyang deal is off? Sounds like it's completely done;

http://www.espnfc.com.au/story/3366145/arsenal-acc...

Also talk that Ozil is re-signing, aubamayang deal supposedly key, which is very interesting. 

Giroud gone to Chelsea for 18m, and sounds like we could be in the mix for Evans or another CB up until deadline. 

Ornstein reporting that Ozil will extend thru 2021.

Auba in, Ozil extended, Giroud out. I think i feel most emotive about the last one. I'm gonna miss that giant frenchman. 

I'm going to really miss Giroud.

:(

I'm really gonna miss Debuchy.

Bring him home in 18 months for free

It's funny, RVP and Cesc leaving made me angry and frustrated. Giroud leaving made me sad. He was just such a good man, a loyal soldier to the end with a majestic beard and an ability to flick his long levers towards anything half useful and score.

Heard rumours we were making a late bid for Kosta Manolas - sounds like a better CB option for me than Jonny Evans or David Luiz.

Also love the Arsenal fans take the piss through wikipedia, he's already signed for us apparently:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostas_Manolas

Well... most arsenal fans have been saying for a long time that Giroud wasn't good enough and we needed to upgrade. 

In the last 1-2 years that opinion has changed and now everyone loves him and is sad to see him go. Credit to Giroud for just carrying on and doing his thing to change that narrative. 

I'll be wearing my Giroud shirt for casual friday tomorrow in tribute. 

Ozil re-signing is absolutely massive. We needed that. 

I saw a tweet where someone said does this make him our first proper Emirates legend? I reckon so. He came in, we won 3 FA Cups after a long drought, he's played consistently well in a tough environment where everyone questioned his ability and commitment constantly, and then against the backdrop of Sanchez leaving, he re-signs and commits to the team, when there were apparently good opportunities to go elsewhere - decent sources reckoned he had the pick of ManU, PSG or a big money China move. 

If we were to get a CB this morning as well that would be amazing. And can we re-sign Wilshere please. 

Astonishing news if Ozil signing is true. Feeling sad about Giroud and giving another player to another rival, but the signings today give reason for hope. Got to get Wilshere and Ramsey signed now.

Sounds like we went back in for Jonny Evans and were rejected. Signing a striker and attacking midfielder then with 5 minutes left realised we needed a CB too. Classic Arsenal.

The moment you realise you've gone from one clusterf*ck to another.

I suppose that a transfer window in which we have let players go to United and Chelsea as well as signing a United reserve is our best window in a decade or more says a lot about how bad they usually are!

We re-signed Ozil. That's a signing in itself.

We have upgraded on Giroud for a world class striker in Aubameyang. Chelsea are the ones picking up back-ups from another big club there don't forget. How the tables have turned, from them buying Diego Costa and us trying to pick up their scraps in Remy and Ba, to us setting our transfer record and feeding them our scraps. 

Meanwhile they are dogged by rumours of Hazard and Courtois leaving, while we've actually re-signed Ozil against most people's expectations. 

It seems that out of nowhere, we are a bigger drawcard, and have more financial power, than the current russian billionaire-funded EPL champions. What's that about. 

Maybe that's where FPP is working? They haven't built up the business model yet?

Quick fact check on myself and found this:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jun/01/p...

Fascinating read. Chelsea is behind us in revenue, ahead of us player wages, and runs a significant loss compared to our negligible profit. That might valide your theory there Paulm.

It's finally catching up to them. Unlike Man Utd, they can't rely on ridiculous amounts of revenue.

Anyway, weird transfer window. I am really sad to see Giroud go. A real club man. I like Ozil, and am glad he has re-signed, but I don't have the love for him as I do the big handsome French bastard.

Even though he's gone to Chelski, I still wish him well. (unlike Sanchez)

Personally I do not think Auba will fit in with this team, unless we change to a pure counter attacking side. I think it will be a pretty big failure, but I hope I am wrong. I just think it's crazy we've spent so much on strikers who are known for their good finishing but not much else; they are not RvP, Alexis or Henry.

See Theo scored 2 for Everton too. I always thought he'd do well at a Sam team.

So how do we line them all up?

              Auba  Laca

  Mhiki                      Ozil

           Elneny Ramsey

Monreal Kosc Mustafi Bellerin

                    Cech

Looking at that as a side you'd expect summer would bring another CB/CM and GK acquisition too.

No Wilshere?

I really want us to try Maitland-Niles in the middle, his proper position. He has looked really good. 

If it works well I'd make him a full first teamer next year and leave the midfield alone. Elneny is a great squad player, and either Xhaka sorts his sh*t and blossoms, or Maitland-Niles overtakes him becomes a beast. I really think Maitland-Niles has got it. 

Save the cash to splash on a CB and a keeper. Sounds like we're pretty rich these days so we should have a bit to spend. 

Also when the transfer window business wrapped up, Arseblog pointed out that our net spend was actually only 7m (!). We also cut a huge chunk out of our wage bill with the sales, but then basically gave that all to Ozil to re-sign him. 

So we did all of this at basically a net cost of nothing. Pretty amazing business really, especially when you consider the dire state of some of our player contracts going into it. 

JW10 is a tough one to include for me when you're playing 2 strikers and 2 attacking midfielders ahead of him. For me, at the moment, Elneny is our best option in midfield as our only player who can tick things over and doesn't fall asleep defensively. Then it comes down to who you pair him with, and I think Ramsey is our better option, he can make those late runs into the box to confuse the sh*t out of opposing defences and has a better track record of that than Jack. I'm a big Jack fan, but Ozil, Laca, Auba are the guys we have to build this team around.

It's a really subjective argument trying to pick a favourite out of Ramsey and Wilshere. Reasons for both are pretty sound, it's really down to personal preference I guess.

Gun to my head, if I gotta pick between Rambo and Jack, I'd pick Jack.

The fitness issues are the only thing holding him back. He has impressed me massively this season. 

I say make him captain and include him in that list of players to build this team around. 

Ramsey makes great runs and scores more, but Jack leaves him for dead in the tackle, is a far better dribbler, loses possession a lot less, and has the best passing range in our team aside from Ozil, in my opinion.