Arsenal Thread

[Nitey]

Nacho Monreal agrees to join Arsenal

Manager Arsène Wenger said: “We are delighted that Nacho Monreal has agreed to join us. We have been monitoring him for some time now and are really pleased that we’ve been able to agree this move today. Monreal is a strong left-sided defender with good experience at both club and international level. He is a technically gifted player, a good crosser in the final third and strong in the air. Monreal will add quality to our squad and of course, to our defensive unit. We all look forward to him playing for us.”

At least we signed someone. Described as a long term deal - 60k/week thrown around on twitter.

Kinda peed off that we werent' any more active - in a sense we've gotten weaker as a squad since we've loaned out a couple players :S. Anyway, got to get behind the team like never before now and quality for CL!

Edit: Caz and Arteta should help him settle in quickly

[Molo316]

Nacho Monreal agrees to join Arsenal



At least we signed someone. Described as a long term deal - 60k/week thrown around on twitter.

Kinda peed off that we werent' any more active - in a sense we've gotten weaker as a squad since we've loaned out a couple players :S. Anyway, got to get behind the team like never before now and quality for CL!

Edit: Caz and Arteta should help him settle in quickly

Yeah, you're right. At least we actually signed someone of worth, and in a position that we desperately needed some strength! It sucks that he's going to be cup-tied though.

As well, I'm also disappointed that we weren't more active. The prospect of being linked to Cavani and Villa [although it seemed Barcelona were tits about that] and once again getting neither of them sucked, but that's something we're pretty used to nowadays.

Apparently they're calling him the "Nacho Man". OOHHH YEEEEEEAH!

[DINAMO788]

Very happy we got a LB. from what I hear, Monreal is very good. Second to Jordi Alba for the spanish team. Good business, it really sucks for malaga though. Financial issues suck when it comes to being forced to sell on the cheap.
I also dont like the automatic Santos hate.

We def need to do something about defense. We shouldve won the pool game and instead lost two valuable points. even though we played pretty well.

COYG

[Molo316]

I didn't quite understand what you meant when you said the "Pool game". Thought we were talking about a different sport altogether

But you're right! Realistically, towards the end we could have won it at least 4-2 or something if we had taken out final chances; such as if Giroud was able to slide into Cazorla's grounded cross into the box, and connecting properly with Podolski's pass into the box. However, we also got lucky that Liverpool didn't grab another right at the end.

I'm quite worried about tomorrow's game against Stoke if I'm honest with you guys.
We all know they are rough bastards and I can only imagine them outmuscling and throwing our defence all over the place with crazy challenges.
I'll hope that the fact we're at home can count for something and spur us to play better together and take our chances going forward.

[Nitey]

Yeah, fucking stoke. Our attack is really coming together over the past few weeks. Poldi in particular is looking very lethal which is great for us, and Giroud is banging them in. It's that pesky defence again and again xP

Having had time to think about it (Omg ps4 ) it was great bit of business to get Monreal like Dinamo said. Excited to see him play

[DINAMO788]

I didn't quite understand what you meant when you said the "Pool game". Thought we were talking about a different sport altogether

But you're right! Realistically, towards the end we could have won it at least 4-2 or something if we had taken out final chances; such as if Giroud was able to slide into Cazorla's grounded cross into the box, and connecting properly with Podolski's pass into the box. However, we also got lucky that Liverpool didn't grab another right at the end.

I'm quite worried about tomorrow's game against Stoke if I'm honest with you guys.
We all know they are rough bastards and I can only imagine them outmuscling and throwing our defence all over the place with crazy challenges.
I'll hope that the fact we're at home can count for something and spur us to play better together and take our chances going forward.

by pool i meant liverpool. Sorry if no one in England uses that shorthand. I dont know all the proper shorthands.

And yes, we were unlucky to not win but we also lucky to not lose. Szczesny didnt perform well. Still hanking podolski for clearing that header off the line.

[Molo316]

Yeah, fucking stoke. Our attack is really coming together over the past few weeks. Poldi in particular is looking very lethal which is great for us, and Giroud is banging them in. It's that pesky defence again and again xP

Having had time to think about it (Omg ps4 ) it was great bit of business to get Monreal like Dinamo said. Excited to see him play

@ the random PS4 bit there.

I thought Giroud would stop scoring but thankfully he's still going. I hope this means he's somewhat found his form now.
I'm also excited to see the Nacho Man play. I hope it doesn't take him too long to adapt, since we all know we are weak in the left-back position.

by pool i meant liverpool. Sorry if no one in England uses that shorthand. I dont know all the proper shorthands.

And yes, we were unlucky to not win but we also lucky to not lose. Szczesny didnt perform well. Still hanking podolski for clearing that header off the line.

Yeah I got it in the end.
Don't apologise. I only got confused because it wasn't capitalised, but Pool is what I would (shorthand) associate with Liverpool. It's just me being a bit of a grammar nazi.

Yeah, Szczesny was pretty darn poor.
I couldn't believe when he tried the skill against Sturridge and almost got caught out.
I thought he was a confident player, so even though a goalkeeper shouldn't really be trying stuff like that, I thought he would have handled it better. That was another example of us getting off lucky.

I don't know what to make of Szczesny. By far, he's the best goalkeeper we have at the club at the moment, but all the potential I've heard of him in the past, he still doesn't look the "real deal" to me. Sure, he's still got time to develop, but something inside me just makes me a little (unwantingly) cynical towards him.

[Nitey]

Szczesny is a weird one yeah. He's had a ruuuuun of games but I have to say the last two he's made crucial errors and he has begun looking suspect on corners, which I always felt he was decent at - especially compared to Fabianski and Almunia. :/. Hope he sorts it out

I was reading some stats that Giroud has more goals at this stage of the season than the likes of Drogba finished with in their first season, which is impressive. He just needs that killer goal, that one crucial goal, agaainst one of the big boys to really announce himself. Not taking away his contribution so far though

Jack Wilshere though - he's playing better than he was before he was injured as far as I'm concerned. He contributes so much to our game it's unbelievable!

Btw saw this on Arsenal FB page



"Poldi Power: Lukas Podolski is IN-FORM this week in EA SPORTS FIFA13 Ultimate Team!"

Awesome

[DINAMO788]

funny thing is, after i wrote "pool", i thought to myself, I really ought to capitalize the P, ehhhh w/e they'll get it. So i agree it looked weird lol.

Szczesny i think is good enough, but this isn't the first time hes been stupid. I dont know how much he can still smarten up but hopefuly more experience will calm him down and get him more focused.

I liked Ramsey in the second half of the Pool game. As a Ramsey supporter, i usually still dont like the way he plays most of his games because its always too slow and too backward. In the second half though he finally started taking the ball up the pitch himself and making more direct forward passes. I just want that allllll game please!

[Molo316]

Ha ha, don't worry about it. Wasn't a major crime or anything. All good!

Yeah, Ramsey's a bit too inconsistent. When he plays well though, he plays very well. Like you say, it would be great if he can start playing well all game.

I've only seen the score, but does anyone know how we played today overall?

Podolski is slowly becoming my new favourite player, after Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry.
I love his effort and light-hearted humour.
I was really glad when it came out that we signed him.
(Man, I sound like I'm just jumping on his bandwagon right now )

[The Boy From School]

I was able to catch the final 15 minutes.

I saw the deflected gol and the scuffle.

I read that we dominated.

Monreal was hardly challenged so it's hard to make judgment on him.

Chelsea losing and Everton drawing was huge.

Ryan Shawcross is one huge mofo. I'm gonna call him Frankenstein.

[Nitey]

Honestly, had we not won that game my opinion of the general play would have still been positive. Even before Caz and Poldi came off the bench at 0-0, we should have wrapped the game up long ago. I'm just glad we did

It felt like watching the early 433 cesc days were we absolutely dominated possession but missed chance after chance, or came face to face with an unbeatable keeper. Begovic is class. That's how much we controlled the game/ball/possession

Giroud overall play was good
Theo was on fire 1st half
Per looked good in the air when they launched it into our half during final 10 minutes when they sub'd on 3 forwards
Kos was comfortable imo
Monreal looks good on the ball, as you'd expect. We didn't really use him as an outlet as we would Gibbs but he has that thing about him where you're comfortable with him on the ball or trust him to make the right decisions. Good signing from first impressions. Then again, stoke hardly attacked so can't draw too many conclusions
Ref constantly letting Stoke challenges go unpunished. Even the commentators were like how is that not a foul, etc.
Wilshere again very commanding - I wish he got forward more often though as his dribbles are nothing short of world class at times

Diaby and Ox looked a bit rusty. Was nice having Arteta back

Just some general thoughts. Haven't got much time! Enjoyable game despite the scoreline

[Molo316]

Hmm, sounds pretty positive. Thanks for yours thoughts, guys.

About to watch the highlights now. Hopefully it's an enjoyable watch.

Just seen highlights of Newcastle-Chelsea.
I'd actually be glad if we signed up Lampard. Scored a great goal today, but the fact is that once again, he showed he's still got something. Chelsea are fools in my opinion not to keep him on come the end of the season.

And I just need too throw some criticism Alan Pardew's way. The fact that he was digging at us a few years ago, saying that we were ruining English football, and now 80-85% of his transfers and team are French, makes him such a hypocritical tit!

[Nitey]

Indeed. Pardew is a tit of the highest order lol. Wasn't it during the our 06 CL final vs Barca he was laying into Wenger for not fielding any Englishmen?

On 2nd thought Campbell played that game so maybe my memory is failing me, but yeah - Pardew -_-

Sissoko looks a player tho

[Molo316]

Aye. Even if you have got it right, and Pardew did say that then, Campbell even scored our goal.

Yep - Sissoko played very well today.

Match of the Day did a brief run down of Monreal today. He looked like he was trying to get into space to receive the ball, and they showed a good example of him closing down a Stoke attacker and intercepting the ball. Today, he did well. I hope he can continue to do so.

[Nitey]

On the subject of managers. Did you see/read Pulis's post match comments? He was arguing the goal was offside and that the offside rule is inconsistent bla bla bla - How the fuck was that goal offside? Even if it hit Giroud, which it didn't, he was miles onside o_O. He also highlighted the fact that our players "surrounded" the ref and that it swayed his decision. He also stated that Arteta's perfect challenge on Owen, who reacted to it by attempting to throw a punch, was a bad tackle? Yet Shawcross almost ripped Koscielny's balls open as well as all the kicking and dirty tactics they employed ALL game

Infuriating. So glad we don't play these oaths for the rest of the season. I look forward to the day they collapse or get relegated. Him along with his team are the biggest wankers in the English game

[Molo316]

On the subject of managers. Did you see/read Pulis's post match comments? He was arguing the goal was offside and that the offside rule is inconsistent bla bla bla - How the fuck was that goal offside? Even if it hit Giroud, which it didn't, he was miles onside o_O. He also highlighted the fact that our players "surrounded" the ref and that it swayed his decision. He also stated that Arteta's perfect challenge on Owen, who reacted to it by attempting to throw a punch, was a bad tackle? Yet Shawcross almost ripped Koscielny's balls open as well as all the kicking and dirty tactics they employed ALL game

Infuriating. So glad we don't play these oaths for the rest of the season. I look forward to the day they collapse or get relegated. Him along with his team are the biggest wankers in the English game

I know. It's like he was talking out of his arse!
And for once, Wenger spoke sense in saying pretty much any team would surround the ref. We see it all the time from any team when a decision crazily goes against them, and it's never really been an issue post-match.

I never thought Michael Owen would be the sort to throw a [half-assed] punch. It was good that Jack, an Englishman, came straight in to sort him out/resolve the situation in his own way.

It's always a danger to play Stoke, because of the way they fly into tackles. It's like they think they're a rugby team sometimes.
I also hate it when any team has to go to their ground because they use a bloody towel to wipe the ball down.
I don't know if other clubs don't do it because they believe it to be unfair, but if that isn't the case, that is totally unfair and I don't like it.

[Nitey]

Dude, during the game I saw Tony Pulis catch the ball and wipe it against his tracksuit top before lobbing to Shotton who is their designated long ball throw in guy

There is so much not to like about that team. Commentators/media love them up though. Don't get it

[Molo316]

Dude, during the game I saw Tony Pulis catch the ball and wipe it against his tracksuit top before lobbing to Shotton who is their designated long ball throw in guy

There is so much not to like about that team. Commentators/media love them up though. Don't get it

They never showed that on Match of the Day. There's a cover-up for ya

Yeah I know. I always get the impression that media, and the like, would say that Stoke's tackling mentality is down to "British spirit", and that's the way the game should be played, with "Welcome to the Premier League" comments.

Urgh...

[Nitey]

Brilliant and hard fought win. Jenkinson almost screwed it up but what a performance

Really really pleased with the way everyone played.

AGAIN, though, we should have been out of sight with the amount of chances we wasted. But our forwards and MFs have much better chemistry now than earlier in the season - it's very easy to see. Jack out for a few days to a week says Wenger. Should be fine for Bayern

[The Boy From School]

WE SURVIVED!

I shat a brick when Jack went down; it looked serious.

Monreal was solid although he got beat a couple times.

Sagna impressed me at CB; looked better than Bramble.

Agreed with all those wasted chances.

Szczesny.

We can beat Blackburn without Jack.

[DINAMO788]

WE SURVIVED!

I shat a brick when Jack went down; it looked serious.

Monreal was solid although he got beat a couple times.

Sagna impressed me at CB; looked better than Bramble.

Agreed with all those wasted chances.

Szczesny.

We can beat Blackburn without Jack.

Said Jack shouldn't be out for long. I hope Koscielny isn't out for long. Sagna was def good. Szczesny saved us quite a few times that game! he was a monster.

[Molo316]

I really am laughing at us today. I honestly am.

Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong. We played at home, against a division 1 team, and this was potentially our best chance of winning a trophy this season and we blew it.

Quite sickeningly hilarious.

[Nitey]

Yeah make that 8 years without a trophy >_>

Stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of team selection though. Kind of had to rest for Tuesday to stand a chance in a tie that we're never gonna get past anyway. So we're basically out of 2 cups after one game Pessimism at it's finest.

The players that did start should have easily won though. But it was so messy, there was no chemistry between anyone at all. Wingers were shit, Giroud has hardly played with them. Diaby Arteta and Rosicky wasn't persistent and penetrative enough. We kept the ball easily but lack of ideas. And even with all that we stil should've won. Sigh

Welp. Maybe next year.

[LC77]

Yeah make that 8 years without a trophy >_>

Stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of team selection though. Kind of had to rest for Tuesday to stand a chance in a tie that we're never gonna get past anyway. So we're basically out of 2 cups after one game Pessimism at it's finest.

The players that did start should have easily won though. But it was so messy, there was no chemistry between anyone at all. Wingers were shit, Giroud has hardly played with them. Diaby Arteta and Rosicky wasn't persistent and penetrative enough. We kept the ball easily but lack of ideas. And even with all that we stil should've won. Sigh

Welp. Maybe next year.

I think you're in the wrong thread, that is the Liverpool motto.