Arsenal Thread

[DINAMO788]

Good group for us. Should win it but Shalke and Olympiakos are no push overs either. Best of both worlds, no place for any complacency

Don't expect anything tomorrow lads and you won't be too disappointed. Another epically mismanaged summer. lol @ Walcott, guess I was right.

As i remember from last year, when we were in a rut, it took a big breakout game for us to get into the groove, and those games usually came against big teams. We sometimes have this horrible habit of stepping up when we play big teams and really pushing it to them and not having that same intensity against mid/lower teams. So im slightly nervous yet excitedly hopeful that tomorrow we'll get it together and really show what this team can do. Liverpool, although very strong defensively, play a much more open game so im looking forward to it.

And im not feeling one way or the other about Walcott. I dont think hes a bad guy and I do think he wants to stay, but we've known that he rates himself higher than most other people do (probably in part thanks to his agent) and believes he's entitled to more money. I personally think 75k is plenty fair and if hes holding out for the 100k he wants, then Au Revoir. (i'd love it if we could somehow get Navas but I realize thats all just transfer hype BS)

[Cyn]

As i remember from last year, when we were in a rut, it took a big breakout game for us to get into the groove, and those games usually came against big teams. We sometimes have this horrible habit of stepping up when we play big teams and really pushing it to them and not having that same intensity against mid/lower teams. So im slightly nervous yet excitedly hopeful that tomorrow we'll get it together and really show what this team can do. Liverpool, although very strong defensively, play a much more open game so im looking forward to it.

And im not feeling one way or the other about Walcott. I dont think hes a bad guy and I do think he wants to stay, but we've known that he rates himself higher than most other people do (probably in part thanks to his agent) and believes he's entitled to more money. I personally think 75k is plenty fair and if hes holding out for the 100k he wants, then Au Revoir. (i'd love it if we could somehow get Navas but I realize thats all just transfer hype BS)

I was talking about the transfer deadline day, we play Liverpool on Sunday . A lot of people expect us to do some late business, I'm just saying don't hold your breath. The manager has well and truly lost the plot in my opinion, there is absolutely nothing to suggest our current squad is good enough to challenge on any level. And I don't think we ever got into a groove last season. We had a couple exciting games against the bigger sides, mostly due to shambolic defending by everyone. But we were muck from August til May.

[DINAMO788]

I was talking about the transfer deadline day, we play Liverpool on Sunday . A lot of people expect us to do some late business, I'm just saying don't hold your breath. The manager has well and truly lost the plot in my opinion, there is absolutely nothing to suggest our current squad is good enough to challenge on any level. And I don't think we ever got into a groove last season. We had a couple exciting games against the bigger sides, mostly due to shambolic defending by everyone. But we were muck from August til May.

oh, then i agree. im not expecting anything. The best I can hope for is to sell Chamakh and Bendtner. I'm kind of caught in the middle. I dont think our team is no the same level as United, City, or even Chelsea. I still love Wenger, but I do get annoyed with the "IN WENGER WE TRUST!!!!!" crew.

[Nitey]

Park to Celta Viga, loan I think

Bendtner to Juventus.

Hopefully that paves the way for someone, anyone? Spurs have broken their fucking transfer record. £22m for Moutinho. He's fantastic, was impressed by him at the Euros.

Javi Garcia to Man City.

Top 4 is going to be incredibly hard when our 'rivals' are all strengthening and we just bite our tongues and hope everything falls in place.

Still don't expect anything though

[Suley]

Why sign Park in the first place? He's hardly gotten anytime to play.

[Molo316]

Why sign Park in the first place? He's hardly gotten anytime to play.

Indeed.
Last season, Lille wanted him and we hijacked the deal, which probably didn't do any chance we had of signing Eden Hazard (at the time) any favours.

I can only hold the memory that I saw Park score a good goal against Bolton in the Carling Cup last season.

And by the way, check this tweet out!

Click me.

[DINAMO788]

It really does suck seeing everyone else making all these moves and we're just sitting on our hands. The best we could do is a couple of loan deals for our deadwood...
I hope we get something in January. I mean, Liverpool is gonna get Dempsy, not to mention they got stronger by getting rid of Adam and Carroll alone.

[Nitey]

Welp. Saw it coming at least.

Spurs have done really well to be honest. They signed all those players and still made a profit. Dembele and Lloris would have walked into our team. Possibly Dempsey too

Our squad is under the same pressure as last year now; if we lose one/two first teamers to injury we look substantially weaker. Our first 11 is good but as usual we lack depth. Same story every year

It's funny, even when we had the likes of RvP, Cesc, Nasri et al we were always '3 players away from the league'. Mainly our defence is where we needed to strengthen every year. Scoring a lot of goals with our attackers was a given, but now, it seems we've got a decent enough defence and GK (excluding our full backs, bar Sagna), and getting goals may end up being where we struggle this season, until Giroud and Poldi start firing anyway.

I have faith that they will be just fine, but it's just ironic how things have ended up

On Sky Sports they had a summary of the number of players that each club had brought in. A few days ago we had comfortably gotten more players than many other teams, tonight we're at the bottom after the flurry of activity from clubs over the past couple days. So we've strengthened the squad the least [in terms of numbers], whilst selling our best 2 players of last year.

Looks like another tough season with many ups and downs ahead, at least last year we had the brilliance of RvP to bail us out of games we weren't really in (Liverpool away comes to mind). Looking forward to it!

[Firefox]

Very Very disappointed by our transfer dealings this window. Yes Giroud, Podolski and Cazorla are great... but we haven't made the moves to ensure success. A few injuries and we'll struggle to make it in the top 4.

[Nitey]

Indeed :/. Other teams, mainly our 'rivals', are ensuring some form of success or at least they are making it easier for themselves. We, on the other hand, are gambling and playing a lottery much like we do every year. Hoping players that come back from injury can reproduce dazzling form, and if they don't they will be picked regardless of the hindrance they put on the team. I'm sick of it to be honest. How sad is it the pressure that Wilshere is going to have on him to perform immediately when he returns.

I just hope Wenger doesn't burn him out like he did before.

What if we don't make it to top 4? lol. It can go one of two ways - we digress and remain competant as a mid-table team or at europa league positions until we pay off stadium debt and hope that prick Kroenke gets lost. Honestly, one of our attractions as a club is that we offer CL. For a club that doesn't win trophies that, at least, is a huge pull in the transfer market.

The other way would be an 'uprising' . We could delve into the huge sums of cash we [apparently] have and buy ourselves back into relevance. We'd be paying over the odds for average players and their wages as we won't be able to attract them without CL anyway. Anyway, I don't see that ever happening. Not with our board

I shudder to think if we don't get into CL next year. I remain confident that we can, but it sure is underwhelming seeing us sitting on our hands while others strengthen

[The Boy From School]

So who's that quality signing that would've put us over the top?

[DINAMO788]

So who's that quality signing that would've put us over the top?

This is what I would've asked. Out of all of the recent signings, the only one thats really quality is Javi Martinez and he's wayyy overpriced. The market is saturated in overhype and inflated wages and is light on real talent. Out of all of the name's i've heard, the one i'd like the most is Navas, but thats only if Theo left and only if there was any truth of him being open to leaving.

[Firefox]

So who's that quality signing that would've put us over the top?

Quite jealous of Liverpool getting Sahin and Yesil to be honest... both players I've been watching for years and both amazing talents. Hopefuily Sahin doesn't decide to stay for our sake. And Sp*rs getting Lloris.. top top goalkeeper.. underrated to be honest and should be mentioned with some of the best goalkeepers in the world.(definetly above Cech at least)

Sp*rs also got Vertonghen.. and you know how long I've been going on about him in this thread for years. This window has been all the players I've wanted at Arsenal going to rivals.. I'm heartbroken .. and you know I'm usually the optimistic one in this thread.

[DINAMO788]

Quite jealous of Liverpool getting Sahin and Yesil to be honest... both players I've been watching for years and both amazing talents. Hopefuily Sahin doesn't decide to stay for our sake. And Sp*rs getting Lloris.. top top goalkeeper.. underrated to be honest and should be mentioned with some of the best goalkeepers in the world.(definetly above Cech at least)

Sp*rs also got Vertonghen.. and you know how long I've been going on about him in this thread for years. This window has been all the players I've wanted at Arsenal going to rivals.. I'm heartbroken .. and you know I'm usually the optimistic one in this thread.

I was surprised they were able to get him from Lyon so cheap. It sounded like he wanted to stay. Aside from that, Sahin on loan and Vertonghen I guess would be the other ones I'd want as well lol. Here's to January!

[DINAMO788]

Wenger choosing Mertesacker over Koscielny is a bad move. He can't handle Suarez at all. This game will be completely different from Sunderland/Stoke. Poor decision.

After 2 games:
Podolski: C
Giroud: C

After 2.5 games
Podolski: A
Giroud: D-

Podolski is at LEAST twice as active as Giroud and is showing a lot more effort.

[Firefox]

Dinamo I always disagree with your pre-match analysis.. this time I didn't even bother to respond.. grading after 2 games really? Giroud isn't that type of player so not sure where your criticism is coming from. Mertesacker has always been composed and great for us bar a few rare slips.

Anyways... What a player Suarez is.. act like he broke his leg there.

[The Boy From School]

Happy B-Day to DINAMO788.

[Nitey]

Scintillating performance by the Arsenal. Fuck me.

I had my doubts going into this game because of Liverpool's convincing display against city last week, but our midfield played spectacularly this afternoon! I did mention that our play always seemed to slow down or go sideways whenever the ball came to Diaby in our first 2 games and that that position in midfield needed to be occupied by someone that will play much more directly, and more powerfully with the ball. Daaaaaaamn, did Diaby turn that on today or what?? Wow, and in an away game too. Very very impressed by him! I pray he stays fit for the season and continues to push for these kinds of performances I was blown away by the way he played tbh. Reminded me of Arsenal of old the way he and our other players combined

I can't really fault anyone in particular. There was a few misplaced passes from Jenks and Mert but their overall defensive performance was very impressive as well. Mert in particular. But fuck it. What a win

Sure Liverpool had their moments, but they were at home attacking the kop end in 2nd half, it would be naive to think our defence would keep the likes of Saurez and Gerrard completely zipped up for 90mins. In those moments you just hope the opposition didn't score and stick to it, and that's exactly what we did.

Over the moon to see Podolski and Caz get a goal and an assist each! Just goes to show that the players just need some time to gel. Podolski and Ox did great helping the fullbacks as well, and Gibbs was a straight beast

Wish Giroud could have put away one of the chances he did get, but it wasn't to be. Still played his heart out and some burden off his shoulders that we got goals from other areas today.

Hope Ox and Verm are okay. Vermaelen is an amazing captain. We got some great options seeing as Theo and Gervinho didn't even get out today, and Arsha didn't even make the bench. Still got our number 10 to come back as well as little Mozart. Ramsey again looked decent and good on the ball when he came on

It's a shame that it's a fcuking international break now to kill some momentum. But we sure needed a win of this calibre before the break and that's all that matters right now I guess

Our away fans are fantastic btw. Couldn't even hear the Liverpool fans half the time. "He drives how he wants, Andre Santos, he drives how he wants"

I wonder how Sahin feels

Excuse the long post . Up the Gunners!

Edit:

Injured Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna on Twitter: "Hey! Abou! Everyone already knew he was very good...for the ones who still wonder...he answered properly to your questions!"

Keep it up Abou!

[DINAMO788]

Thanks Boy From school. What can I say, Arsenal gave me the best gift I could ask for. Not only did get a win, but we got it in good fashion too and the game was exciting!! I think the whole team played great (bar one) and we had a few really exceptional performances. I'm really enthusiastic about the partnership that can be formed by Podolski+Gibbs.

And as i type, Southampton just retook the lead against United

[Nitey]

Happy birthday mate

Yeah Southampton playin well. Just saved a PK from greasebag

[DINAMO788]

I feel so fucking bad for Southampton D:

[Nitey]

Carries Arsenal, leaves for a more ambitious team, carries them

Still buzzing from the win at Anfield!





Edit:



Wtf

[Nitey]

Can't wait for the game this weekend.

[Cyn]

Very pleased with the result and the performance was encouraging too. Cazorla is twinkletoes, love him. Glad both he and Podolski got off the mark, Poldi is gonna score plenty for us, he was my MOTM, was quality. Like the way he plays left wing, he drifts around and plays with Cazorla and the other midfielders centrally and that lets Gibbs overlap

Defence is looking like an actual, bona-fide premier league defence now. Early days though, they were definitely tested against Liverpool who clearly don't have the best strikeforce in the world.

Regarding the transfer window, well who saw that coming, no more players. lol. IMO Wenger has just created a rod for his own back this summer. There's plenty of money but he just isn't interested in spending it. Fuck knows why. Lots of quality players around too, it drives me mental. We are in the same position as last season really - minus the best striker in the world. We have a good first 11 when they click and can give most teams a game, however we have nothing to back it up. Our bench is weak and it's only just September, there will only be more injuries from now on, not less. That lack of any kind of depth is why we won't challenge for the title, probably finish 15+ points off the top again.

Hope we can have decent cup run. If Chelsea can win the CL, anything can happen

[Firefox]

Diaby was MOTM by far he harassed Liverpool's midfield to no end and he completely changed our team going forward. Watching Arsenal Fans' Forum Live on Arsenal Player right now and they also are praising Giroud for what he brings to the team.. I agree. He'll fight for the ball and he'll come good.

Also I'd like to pay tribute to Mertesacker's tackle on Sterling yesterday. *Salute*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0-zh1642PM



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH2qswi63R0