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

Initially welbeck was left with sanchez right, but in typical wenger fashion the whole three of them tended to swap around a lot at the front. I even saw Sanchez sitting behind in the 10 role with Cazorla out wide at times too. 

I noticed on the cool little thing they displayed showing Welbeck's touches that despite predominantly hanging out left, he was coming inside to receive the ball centrally a lot too. I think his skill-set suits us so much more than at ManU. 

Also thought that although he was occasionally rusty, Giroud was excellent foil to have out there. No one says it but we've missed that guy, for many reasons. So many of our best team moves start with a touch or clever ball from Giroud, and his hold-up play is excellent. Another strength of his not often spoken about is the defensive set piece. Our team is usually fairly short overall. With him at the front post and Mertesacker behind we are 100 times stronger in that area. I actually thought Arsene was taking a risk subbing him - it's understandable why he did it but I thought he'd be valuable defensively when WBA start coming at us in the final minutes.

Fair enough. Whether they were the best in the world or not, the point still stands they were absolutely top drawer and best in the league at the very least. 

Anyway, great to get back to winning ways yesterday. Wasn't pretty for the most part and I felt nervous while it was still 1-0 but we really needed to grind one out. Thumping header from Welbeck and better all round play from him after being a bit woeful for some time. Cazorla was fantastic I felt and ran the show. Hope the injury news is not too bad this time. We always seem to be in an injury crisis but this season so far seems ridiculous even for us.

http://www.football365.com/faves/9585509/F365-Says this is a very interesting write up based on Welbecks positioning, good to see he was still central 

Wasnt Ajc28 wearing one like that at the FA Cup final? My memory is hazy

Ahhh the stool incident, now that was funny

Did one of your mates shift it for a joke or was that a genuine mishark?

Edit: Mishark wtf? I actually typed m i s h i t

Haha yeah I was wearing a red one for the FA Cup final but it wasn't me at the BB yesterday. I was sitting next to Hawk when he fell off the stool although didn't know it was him at the time.

It wasn't Surge was it?

That was never quite settled, I screamed foul play at the time, but missing the target from less than one yard is also quite possible. 

Yea i do remember it quite well and I thought it was foul play too... cant remember where your two mates were at the time but the stool definitely seemed like it had been moved back a tad...... 

What a night that was though, roller coaster of emotion. 

Yeah, I'm going to go with foul play then! But yes indeed, what a night. 

I'm moving to Tokyo in January so will have to find somewhere to be among gooners for the big games!

I'm sure there will be a massive contingent of gooners in tokyo. Reckon there'll be some huge supporters clubs etc. 

From the super lolz files, Vermaelen is out until next season, so Barca aren't going to get a single competitive minute out of him for this entire season! Mental.

Arseblog hilarious as usual, talking about what a piece of business it was for us;

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/thierr...

Henry confirming he's finished with the Red Bulls and considering his future. Would love to see this guy in and around the squad for the rest of the season and inspiring the team and hopefully moving into a coaching role (should he actually suit coaching).

Have to get Henry involved in some capacity if there's a chance.

I've been talking to someone at work about that ajc. Henry simply has to be bought into the fold, and now. I don't know if Wenger will get long enough but I'd love to see him mentor Henry into a manager. 

After reading the Phillipe Auclair Henry biography I was absolutely convinced that Henry will be our manager one day. 

Even if he's just some sort of mentor to the squad, his influence could only be positive. Getting involved while working towards his coaching badges would seem ideal. Interestingly as well as his statement today about leaving New York , he also changed his Facebook cover photo to this:

Get him straight in there with the reserves or u-21s.

No doubt he will still want to train with the lads too. 

Either way, get him in and around the club. Whatever he would be doing will be a help. 

I absolutely love that he said something died inside of him when he left Arsenal, and that as a grown man it was the only time he had cried. 

Happy enough with the result on the weekend, just as happy with the banner that came out in the Away End too.

Not sold on what kind of role Henry should have at the club though if he does get into coaching it would be great to have him working with us from the start rather than DB10 who now we have to work hard to bring back to the club.

That celebration the statue is based on is an amazing picture, I've got the pic framed on the wall - he hated the Yids as much as the rest of us and it was good to see their fans repaying the gesture in the background too

Bergkamp was offered a role at Arsenal upon retirement but said he was not interested in coaching, only to change his mind two years later in Holland and undertake a special dutch coaching diploma and a trainee role at Ajax.

Asked about the possibility of an Arsenal return, Henry replied:

“Christmas is arriving soon, so it’s a wish.

It’s a wish. Its not something that’s going to happen like this, but it is a wish.

I do think I still can play.’

It’s all a bit blurry right now. It’s only a day. We will see what happens.”

I love the guy but I think ideas of him still playing for us might be a bit fanciful... 

Still, lets get him in and around the squad, got to be good for the mentality of the lads.

I'm not sure I want to see him turn out for us, but I'd love him back mentoring at a minimum. Just having Henry there to train with Welbs, Theo, Sanchez, Giroud would be so good for their development.

I reckon he's worth it just because Wenger's usual tactic is to bring attacking players on with 10-12 minutes to go.

Therefore the expectation of huge minutes is fully nullified and it would only be a 4-5 month contract, so he can go balls out. Also from what I've seen in MLS he still has the technique to get a goal here and there in the Premiership.

So could be a good sub, he's certainly better than Sanogo and Campbell also look at our injury record over the last few years.

What would we have to lose???

Not interested in him kitting up. Hes lost a lot of pace.  Bringing him as a mentor might work.

Who will be at LB for the soton game. Bellerin?

Flamini supposedly, but can't see that happening with no other recognised DM.

Once Debuchy is back I wouldn't mind seeing Chambers for a game at DM

Would be quite interesting to see how this went, I'm still intrigued by this:

              Chambers Per   Kosc

Debuchy   Ramsey  Wilshere   Gibbs

                        Ozil

              Sanchez Giroud

It's a slight variation on what you're suggesting but pretty reflective of how we play, Ramsey & Wilshere able to run all day and feed Ozil, who has Sanchez/Debuchy/Gibbs for pace out wide and in behind, and Giroud for hold up play.

With daylight saving are we 12, 13 or 14 hours different to london?

Looked at a time difference converter and it is saying kick off will be 9:30am here, where local kick off is 7:45pm, is that right??

13. Should be 845 kick off.

Thanks!

I always find checking www.livescores.com the night before the match useful as it gives you the kick off time based on your phones timezone :)

How does Toby Alderwield go from Champions League final, and winning La Liga with Atheltico, before ending up at Southampton? Surely we missed a chance there.

0-0 draw on the cards

Scratch that, SANCHEZ

Nah.