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

Seen a rumour of a bellerin swap for ousmane dembele.

Interesting thought. 

We'd have to go shopping for 2 new right backs though. 

Also a rumour that PSG have already made contact with Wenger. 

if you believe the times, then wenger thinks he is the only one who can lead the club out of this mess, as is telling the coaching staff he can will be there next season

Wenger won't be the one to make this decision, that much seems clear. 

The drums are beating louder and louder for him unfortunately.

http://global.espn.com/football/arsenal/story/3410...

Wenger to PSG would be ideal - he'd get the funding, resources, and mandate to just win things without worrying about legacy, youth investment, and stadium debt. Hopefully he'd get a crack at the ECL or at least the Ligue 1 title. It's going to be a very interesting summer at board level too with Kroenkes son Josh undertaking a review and likely taking over as chair person - given their lack of action previously I'd be loath to back them all to stay on, but would love a refresh, especially if we were to either move Wenger up there, or get some more footballers up there.

...Juve winning is the highlight of our season

Forgot about Szy's Arsenal related banter on Instagram. Still can't believe we sold him.

TAB gave me a free $5 bet. Dumped it on a multi of an Arse W, Black Caps W, Nix D. Feeling ripped off that it's only paying $125!

Nix will probably win in the 90th minute.

I thought it about it and confirm that you are correct.

I'm one who thinks that terms such as 'passion', 'hard work', 'backbone' etc. are overused in professional sport; but I actually think that is our biggest issue at the moment. There is no one in the team that really picks up the game by the 'scruff of the neck' (to use another cliche). Wenger likes to let players lead and organise themselves; but that doesn't work when you have no real leaders on the pitch.

Mkhi and Auba are two more players who can best be defined as 'flakey'. 

I'd say the spurs win, or the chelsea league cup semi win, or even signing Aubameyang would be my highlights personally. And if it wasn't for Liverpool's bloody equaliser the comeback in that game was good too. 

fudge yea mikhi!!

geez this is an open game, i cant seeing it staying at 0-1

welbeck just doesnt know what to do when he is through in on goal...

Walcott is still the better finisher than Welbeck IMO. Mhiki hits the bar, this could be on!

ohhh that was beautiful!!! the ball from Ozil (who else) and the composure from Rambo.oooohhhh

Fudge yes!!

What a first half! Totally deserve to be 2-0 up.

COYG!!!

I hope we dont sit back now, i want to see us keep going for it. we all know that we are more than capable of fudgeing this up on the return leg.

Imagine if we took a 4-0 back to London we could defend, rather than needing an at home miracle!

Also with Bellerin, Monreal, and now Kolasinac out injured we're looking really light at full back!

Wenger just took off Ozil and replaced him with a CB - this is not your regular programming.

what the hell happened to Welbeck then??? just fluffed it..ffs

was not expecting that. pretty happy with it though

Fantastic performance. Fantastic result. Hopefully enough there to defend back at the Emirates next week.

Meanwhile Dortmund lost at home to Salzburg. Could be another big team gone.

Dortmund lost at home as well and gave up two away goals...........unfortunately Atletico Madrid look like they're cruising through

Still some beatable teams in the mix - will be interesting to see who makes the quarters.

Also, anyone else keen on signing Saul from Athletico? Kid is awesome.

Lots of players at Atletico I'd like to sign, that we have no chance of signing! Out of all the teams, Atletico is the one I think 100% will beat us.

Anyway, typical Arsenal performance when you think about it - given no chance by anyone and step up out of nowhere. Whatever you say about Wenger, he has always dug us out of our slumps eventually.

We played as a unit and it was a surprisingly mature performance in the second half. Ramsey back makes a huge difference when we're going forward, but also thought Xhaka and Wilshere were quite compact and disciplined for once.

Milan were kaka going forward. Absolute trash. It's funny; I think Milan's decline has really mirrored ours so it's fitting we're playing each other - they're at about the same spot on the table/in Europa league etc. If we replace Wenger with Henry or similar, then the comparison will grow even closer.

Only half done, lets hope Monreal/Bellerin/Kola are OK for the next game; though I think Chambers really grew into the role.

What a result. Didn't see that coming. Wenger really is the ultimate survivor. Trust him to pull something like this out on the day that could have put the final nail in the coffin.

That was refreshing.

I liked Mkhitaryan playing in a role from the left, similar to how Iwobi sets up for us on the pitch. Ozil dropped slightly deeper and was on the ball a lot more. I also loved seeing Wenger getting Ramsey and Wilshere both on the pitch in a way I haven't seen before. Despite his goal Ramsey was the deeper of the two, and often stayed deep with Xhaka. I wasn't sure Mkhi/Ozil and Rambo/Jack could all start in the same side but now I'm feeling more enthusiastic about that. 

Take Welbeck out for Aubameyang and it's a really good set-up.  

The biggest differences were;

1. Xhaka had two energetic midfielders with him to mask his deficiencies

2. Milan did not press Xhaka at all; in most EPL games, Xhaka and Mustafi get pressed into errors

3. Xhaka was allowed to pass out of defence easily because of this and completed the game with 95% accuracy. This meant that Ozil and Mkhi did not have to drop back to receive the ball, which helped with the fluency in attack. 

You can come out now Foal30

Cech!!! So good. Please tell me Cech tweeted about his Cajones to get 200 PL clean sheets haha!

Good to see the team showing a bit of backbone for once. 

Auba and Mkhi are starting to hum. 

Doom and gloom aside, our attacking unit is looking rather formidable when they all click. 

Monreal and Bellerin will be back for the 2nd Milan leg, but good to see guys doing well in their absence. Kolasinac is improving, Chambers has done a job at RB, and every time I see Maitland-Niles he looks the absolute business. 

I really liked that formation from the Milan game. When fully fit, I think this eleven would be my preference;

                    Cech

Bellerin Mustafi Koscielny Monreal

     Ramsey Xhaka  Wilshere

  Ozil     Aubameyang  Mkhitaryan

The whole thing hinges on the performances of Ramsey and Wilshere really though. Against Milan it was obvious they were picking and choosing moments, and the two of them virtually never went forward together. If one was forward, the other stayed back. And both of them got out to help the fullbacks. Xhaka was always deep, and sometimes dropped into a 3rd CB position when we lost the ball. 

Ozil became the fastest player to 50 assists as well, beating Cantona's record. 

Such a bugger that Aubameyang's not available for Europa League. 

It's murphy's law that we sell Giroud to get Auba only for Laca to get injured and need an op after the window closed. Welbeck won't win us Europa league - hopefully Laca can be back in time for semi-finals if we're still in it.

Welbeck played pretty well against Milan, he does a great job, makes good runs, is very athletic, but is just such a shambles in front of goal. We can win it with him, but the rest of the side need to be clinical with their chances to make up for him unfortunately. 

That penalty was a season highlight. Where were his cojones?

For me, I'd rather see him play wide and give his striking minutes to Nketiah or another young prodigy.

I don't think that's going to happen given the importance of the Europa League from here on in.

I think we'll see Welbeck playing striker in the 2nd leg, and continue to play there if we progress. In fact I'm not sure Lacazette will get a look-in when fit either, if we are winning without him. 

That's madness for me Paulm, a $50m striker who can finish vs a $20m striker lacking in form where it matters most. 

Laca will need a while to get back up to speed/match-fit and was hardly in supreme goal scoring form even prior to the injury.