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

Last season a Benzema/Suarez/Rooney wouldn't have got us the title. We lost it against the big boys when we got caught on the attack. We leaked goals. I'd much rather see us pick up a DMF that's world class ahead of another striker. If I were a Chelsea fan in this position then I'd expect 2 of each.

The reality is we probably need both to win the league IMO.

Giroud is 100% your man for this. Surely we can all remember how well he links up with Walcott? Ozil behind Walcott - Giroud - Alexis is going to be wicked.

Quote from ESPNFC that sums up the mood in this thread at the moment.

Its from Arseblogger, Andrew Mangan

We could have taken those hidings last season and still won the league had we beaten Stoke, Villa and a poor ManU when we should have.

The margin to winning the league is not great, Liverpool nearly bloody did it with no decent defenders, we were only 7 points away. When someone wins, then the narrative is adjusted to show how supposedly good they were. Man City failed to take many chances to take the initiative last season, yet were still handed the title when a defensive Chelsea sucker-punched a naive Liverpool. If Man City had not won, we'd be talking about how they didn't have enough quality at CB or enough midfield depth to win the title, and that they were two players away from being good enough. 

Balotteli on his way to Liverpool, I really do think that could have been a good gamble for us, especially when you're talking 90k in wages and a 16m fee.

.

True, except Man City did win it so they did have enough quality and depth, and we didn't win those games so we didn't. Could've should've would've......didn't. When it's a knockout competition, sometimes you get lucky on the day. But over a 38 game league season, the best team always wins. Perhaps a top class DM goes some way to preventing us losing by 6 goals to our rivals, and the top striker does something special to drag us to a win in those other frustrating games like Henry used to do.

But I do agree, we're not far away. We just lacked a bit of luck with injuries and a little bit of extra special quality to get over the line last season. It was clear for all to see that we needed a striker in January. We were top and had a real chance and Wenger chose not to take it. Hopefully Sanchez is that player this season.

Yea saw that balo will be a pool boy soon. I would have liked him, but in the same bat shit way I loved having pav around the nix. $2 he will start a fight with stevie g on the training paddock.

Yeah Balotelli at Liverpool can only end one way surely.

time to get Khedira

If we will not renegotiate his Madrid deal we should be in.

Giroud is class. 

Issue was Walcott's injury. With Sanchez in we are OK, it will not be lack of goals that stop us winning this season.

Balotelli  yes an interesting one.

I think I would of liked to see him work with Wenger but probably not an expierement required when we need a CB and DM

20 Questions with Ramsey up on PLP now.

I really really think Balo would have been worth the punt. Agreed Giroud is class but i wouldnt call him world class. Agreed Theo and Alexis can play striker but both are ideally suited to the flanks. Wenger knows best thou

a really good DMF we do need thou

got a couple of massive gooner supporting mates over staying with me for a week, so went to the Palace game in the weekend, and I have got us away tickets at Everton for tomorrow. Palace game was pretty average, although the late winner meant that everyone left happy. Everton will be tough, and I imagine that they would be happy with a point.  Main concern is not getting caught in some slum scouse alleyway, and hearing the words "hey, have you met my mate Stanley....."

How do you manage to get tickets? Membership?

First Tuesday Club podcast for the season is up if anyone listens to it.

I see the Winston Reid rumours have re-surfaced on the ITV website today. Don't know where they're getting them from. It must be that the media people have a group of bankers, in terms of rumours, that if they haven't got much else to say they go back to those on rotation.

I did pick up rumours Lukaku was out for this one but nothing concrete on the rumour threads today. 

Big game this one, I'm predicting we'll see:

                              Szy

Debuchy Mertesacker Kosc  Monreal

                            Flamini

Sanchez  Ramsey    Wilshere    Cazorla/Oxlaide Chamberlain/Joel Campbell

                         Giroud

• I don't think we want to over play Chambers early, good time for Per to come back in
• With Ramsey out for mid-week we want to get 90 minutes out of him
• I'm not sure whether Cazorla needs a break or not, wouldn't be surpised to see him rested for the Ox/Joel Campbell

From the bench I imagine we'll see Rosicky definitely get a run & probably Ox/Joel/Santi depending on who starts. That said we could lose a defender in 10 minutes and it would get very interesting quickly.

Oh and on the transfer front, I think we can't under estimate how important Wednesday is for transfers. If you're Manolas, I imagine you'd want to make sure you're moving from a champions league club to another champions league club. If you're Arsenal you want to ensure you've got the finances in place to afford things.

It's quite nice to think we've spent a net of about 45m without Champions League secured yet.

Ive heard Ozil is likely to get a run out tonight. could even be a start.

If Ozil is in that would be great. I would replace Wilshere. If no Ozil, I would bring Cazorla in to the middle at the expense of Wilshere and bring in Ox. We then get pace and width on the wing with some creativity in the middle.

Cazorla looks like he needs a break imo. Has been horrible these last couple of games. Would put the Ox in for him.

I haven't watched either game completely, just going on something I have felt should be the case most times that Ozil isn't playing, that Cazorla should be central. But if he's looking tired then yeah.. Guess we'll see. 

Looking forward to watching my first live game. 

Both OX and Ozil should play. 

Listening to talksportuk and it seems like Poldi is off , back to Germany with Wolfsburg I think it said.

Half  time, shit. 

Full time, decent.

Big difference in the second half. Everton doing all they could to allow Arsenal back in to the game. Good to see Giroud make an impact.

Giroud made a massive difference. Nice to have options like that on the bench.

Credible point in a tough away fixture when we were 2-0 down with 10 to go.

how did the germans go on their return? i havent heard good things about ozil playing on the left

I thought we played awful today , think a draw was a massive steal (on Mersey side of all places) but a points a point :)
Ozil looked like a fish out of water playing wide and I thought Per still looked knackered. Tough game to watch , considered turning it off glad I didn't as the ending was good.

That first 70 odd minutes were tough to watch at times, Ozil and Alexis both playing out of position just didn't work.

Ozil has to play in the hole and Alexis will be brilliant down the flanks and either side for mine, Giroud for all his doubters earned the point almost single handedly!

Biggest observation is we will struggle to win the PL without a top class DM, we have all said it before but Arteta is to slow and Flamini can't pass without being intercepted and Wilshere is a red card waiting to happen.

Also I hope we get a CB that can cover LB, Gibbs is injury prone and Monreal doesn't ever appear to be strong in defence or attack, just average at both.

Liking Debuchy so far......

It's a plesure watching Chambers in how calm, confident and skillful he is, best purchase outside of Ozil from the last couple of seasons!

Chambers had a good game, although I'm pretty sure it was his rather unnecessary foul that lead to their first, and then he royally bottled it when chasing down Lukaku in the build up for the second goal.

That said he also pulled out some brilliant tackles.

Totally agree with Alexis/Ozil out of position, just didn't work. I also thought Campbell did himself no favours with his first touch being a bit heavy and passes being a bit weak. That said that appears to be a team wide problem at the moment.

interesting comments, I thought OX and Ozil went well.

No luck required for the point,  in fact unlucky it wasn't 3.

Going to be a good season lads

I thought Campbell did well with his 15 mins, showed good energy and got himself around the place. Was stoked to see him given some meaningful time anyway. 

I don't think Wilshere and Ramsey should play together, our midfield was totally unbalanced this morning. 

Any word on how serious that Giroud injury is? With Gibbs, Sanogo, & Arteta out already and possibly Giroud I think that has to reenforce the need for more through the spine of the team.

i thought giroud, ozil and chambers were our three best this morn

Ox, sanchez, ramsey (aside from his goal), wilshere and debuchy were not much chop for me

Actually quite liked Ozil on the left, he has played there a lot and it suits his game - he ends up out there a lot of the time anyway when playing centrally. Might work even better with Walcott down the right. Wouldn't mind seeing Cazorla playing centrally in that type of set-up. 

Sanchez doesn't look fit yet, needs more time. 

Mertesacker looked waaaaaay short of a gallop, an accident waiting to happen when they broke. 

Blimmin excellent for the lads spirit to pull that one out of the fire, should give us a bit of a confidence boost.

Interesting that Wenger stuck with this new formation even with Ozil starting. I am starting to think he really wants to shoe-horn Wilshere and Ramsey into the same side at any cost. I'm not a fan but if it starts to click then cool, Wenger's come up trumps with these sorts of things before. 

Agree with Paul. Didn't expect much from Ozil out wide but he was one of our best and was a satisfying performance for his first game back. Mertesacker was a bit dodgy but also his first game back and with a new partner so nothing to worry about. Was right to rest Koscielny for midweek as he's picked up a knock last week and probably needed the Besiktas game off the other day too. The game in midweek is absolutely massive so we need him 100%.

Great comeback in the 2nd half. 1st half we were dire and it was much the same story of the past couple of seasons getting battered away against our rivals. I'll be honest, at half time I feared 4 or 5. We got back in it and deserved something in the end. Really happy with Giroud's performance. He changed the game by giving us some sort of presence up front and was unlucky not to score earlier. It showed exactly how I feel about Giroud. We need a top tier striker ahead of him but great option off the bench when we need to change things. What he did today should be his role in the side.

Not sounding too good with his injury, but like Arteta I wonder if it could be a blessing in disguise in forcing Wenger to buy a striker.

Ramsey still looks a bit off the pace which is surprising for a non World Cup player, but he's got the goal both weeks which was never going to be anyone else. He has the extraordinary ability to be in the right place at the right time for these sort of moments. May be a bit early to think like this but as we seem likely to fight out 3rd-4th again this season, expect a mega bid from Real next summer when they look to buy next season's Galactico. As we've seen over the last 5 years, these players always end up leaving because we won't surround them with enough quality in key positions and the big clubs offer them titles.

Anyway, absolutely massive game in midweek. A bit worried without an away goal as 1-1 puts us out and we're bound to slip up in one of these eventually. Need someone to step up big time without Ramsey.