Arsenal Banter Archive December 27 2014

27 Dec 2014 20:45:27
Due to me being off for the festive season, yesterday was the 1st time I have had a proper look at Chelsea (V West Ham).

Jeez, they scare me.

Solid GK, solid back 4 with Terry at the helm.
Great midfield with Fabregas and Hazard pulling the strings and Matic and Willian grafting, and Costa banging them in for fun.

They look good and if they are the benchmark, we might as well pack up now.

Defeatist?
Nope, realistic.

27 Dec 2014 22:11:19
Maybe you should check out City Dags, cruising along in 2nd gear 9 wins on the bounce and not even a fit ST.

For me City are going to win it, Mangala is now looking the real deal, Silva has been awesome and they may even be top after the Christmas fixtures.

Remember they out played Chelsea by a country mile in their first match up.

Deeper squad, better players bar Courtois for me.

So unless Wenger gets his finger out of his proverbial we won't be winning the league anytime soon. He is seeing himself and off us if he really does believe we can win the league this season let alone next without 3 or 4 more top drawer players.

They are a team, we're a bunch of eleven players. They have the ingredients, we don't. They get respect, we dont. I predict we have amuch much harder time with west ham than they did. They will try and bully us. They couldn't chelski.

28 Dec 2014 00:16:44
Agree Red,

But I think Mourinho, like him or not, just slightly gives them the edge.

Agree Steve, well said.

I have a feeling city will win it. Yaya going to Africa cup is a worry but I think they need to Sign a striker in Jan.

27 Dec 2014 20:11:48
Glad Jenks ain't available to face us tomorrow but worried about Song, Cesc and Diame two we could have had in our squad have both had big says in games against us this season hope Alex doesn't make it a hatrick tomorrow

27 Dec 2014 21:50:12
G62,
Scrub my last reply, totally read your post wrong, lol.

Turkey overload :-)

You just know the big hitters will be in against us tomorrow, we need men tomorrow to step up, I don't see too many though. Big sam will exploit every weakness we have and I am worried. We need a win tomorrow and it doesn't have to be impressive. The only thing in our favour is the statue at west ham, Collins.

27 Dec 2014 16:51:35
January to December
2013
Arsenal PL 38 PTS 85
2014
Arsenal PL37 PTS 67
Even if we beat West Ham we will be 15pts worse off.
We have to do what's needed in January if 2015 isn't going to see us slip back even further than 2014 did.
I know we won the FA cup in 2014 but so did Wigan 12 months earlier

Schedule was easier at the start last year, that's why we fell off later. will be stronger finish this time.

Hakuna Matata partner!

Gunner any one with a small amount of football knowledge, could see last season for large parts, we were playing above our station. This year we are below standard. A few players are needed to get that coveted 4th place again. But that's always going to be be our everest until we get a special one. The league and not the fa cup tells the real story. People keep saying we should do better in Europe, its really a cup compition on steroids, that can be won by anyone, but we must be really seeded about 14th in Europe so I think we need a bit of luck in that as well. We are just going backwards in most things at the moment.

Lads we were winning plaudits from all in 2013 for our football plus as the stats show we were wining a lot of games too, .
I can't think of 5 of the 37 PL games in 2014 were we looked really good, before our calaspse in the second half of last season we won at Vila and Newcastle but looked awful in doing so and only Sanchez has prevented the stats being worse still this year.
We care losing ground on the best and have been caught up by a lot of the rest

27 Dec 2014 20:36:06
Have to agree with you all.

We have a good, but not very good, transfer window.
We bought good replacements and we strengthened well with Welbz and definitely Sanchez, but we are worse than last season.

Same old same old, but until we get a decent CH and DM we will never progress to where we want to be.

If you have a puzzle with 2 pieces missing, it doesn't matter how many times you move things around and shake the box, you will still be left with a puzzle with 2 pieces missing.

Good analogy that Dags,

28 Dec 2014 00:21:31
Thank you G62,

Although I have always liked your "No point having new carpets and curtains and leaving the front door hanging off its hinges".

27 Dec 2014 10:55:15
Just my veiw
2013/14
City 8.5
Liverpool 7 Suarez made into 8
Chavs 8
Arsenal 7.5
Everton 7
Utd 7.5 transition after Fergie made look 6

2014/15
Chavs 9
City 8.5
Utd 7.8
Arsenal 7.3
Liverpool 6.5
Everton 6.5
January will see some gaps close and others widen but anyone who stands still will risk going backwards that's for sure

27 Dec 2014 08:28:17
Expecting big things from Ozil in the second half of the season. doesn't have to worry about no christmas break, has recharged his batteries from world cup, seen a lot of the league up close to know what's he going on and I think he is a clever lad to learn and has more tools to use his skills with in Sanchez and Welbeck let alone healthy Theo - looking forward to it - should help us easily surpass ManU ;-))

I'm really looking forward to seeing Mesut Theo and Sanchez playing together too, as for catching utd :-) well if they stand still in the second half of the season as we have in the first half we might do that, but you know how sneaky they are they'll probably go and build on what they've done already knowing them, just not fair

I am not going to call them new signings as I would like one or two, but a healthy Arteta, Kos, Theo, Debuchy and Ozil will be an upgrade in 5 out of 11 positions -

I would rather good health than anything else - but if Santa could give us one more present Spyder would sure be nice!

Gunner
im very confident we will pass utd, they have robbed a lot of games in this 8 game run .
We seem to have thrown them.

27 Dec 2014 01:02:01
On the bright side to Giroud's red card, it will (hopefully) mean we get to see more of Podolski, who I am a big fan of. I mean, seriously, why would you do that right in front of the referee (if you are going to get revenge, do it in disguise), it could have cost us the game.

The key word being 'could'. I thought we played well, and at least we find out now that our new star signing is bad at penalties, instead of in the Champions League round of sixteen (I'm looking at you Özil).

When we (hopefully) beat West Ham we should go fourth, as Southampton have Chelsea. I'm hoping for Chelsea to win so:
A) We can go forth
B) Southampton's confidence will be low, as we are playing them after West Ham.

Hopefully results go our way (for once), and can start to climb up the table. I still think we have a chance of finishing third, but Sp*rs need to do us a favour and beat Man U.

Before I sign off, what do you think the West Ham v. Arsenal score will be?
I'm going for 1-3 to us. I think it'll be a good game, too bad, as I was going to go, before I had to cancel to go on holiday. I think Welbeck needs to score soon, so I think he will, and Sanchez will get the two others, with Andy Carroll scoring a consolation goal. Here's hoping.

Joshuafish

I don't see how spurs beating utd would do us any favours Joshua, I think 3rd is a long shot now and spurs west ham Southampton are our competition much more than utd in reality.

At the moment utd are way out in front of us in many ways. Podolski is a world class finisher, but second class in most other things so I think he may be gone in jan to enable other players to come in. 4th yawn is our goal again at the moment.