Arsenal Banter Archive December 27 2015

 

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27 Dec 2015 22:44:16
Saw a Denis Law interview today.

Interviewer: "Do you think your Team would beat the current Manchester United team? ".

Law:"Yes, 1-0".

Interviewer: "why so close? ".

Law: "Well, most of us are over 70 you know".

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27 Dec 2015 23:53:04
This season they'd stand half decent chance of winning the league still.

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27 Dec 2015 20:27:31
Early prediction for tomorrow.
2-0, Walcott and Ozil.

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27 Dec 2015 22:02:02
Im not as convinced as you dags, i'm going for 2-2. I hope i'm wrong.

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27 Dec 2015 22:12:59
Teams who come to the Emerirates with a positive well organised game plan tend to score goals and cuuse us problems, if we're up for it 100% we should come through with all 3pts but it won't be easy that's for sure and a score draw is a decent shout Steve.

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27 Dec 2015 22:33:13
It's the 2 glasses of mulled wine Steve :-)

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28 Dec 2015 00:10:25
Like it Daggers.. Get beered up fella.. I'm going omfor 3 - 1 to you lot.. Hope I'm wrong..

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28 Dec 2015 00:28:19
Ha ha more like the two bottles of brandy. Over the festive period not tonight only.

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28 Dec 2015 01:12:48
We will let a goal in I think.

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28 Dec 2015 08:11:24
Lol Northeast,
Hope you are right mate.

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28 Dec 2015 09:32:28
We need fresh legs in the team today, particularly against Bournemouth who have some inuries themselves and not a huge squad to choose from. Bring in Debuchy, Gabriel, Gibbs, Chambers and Ox. Wenger has played the same team for the last 4 matches and they were clearly jaded in the Southampton defeat.

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27 Dec 2015 20:00:31
Bournemouth are on a run and have beaten both utd and Chelsea in recent weeks, OK niether of them are exactly in top form at the moment but we can not and should not take Bournemouth lightly.
They will come to us far more excited than fearful and with their team spirit at 100% and if they get the lead we could be in for a very long night.
We must treat them with the respect they've earned if we're not to drop points tomorrow night.

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27 Dec 2015 21:20:45
Bournemouth like to attack, that could/ should work in our favour.

I do not expect a capitulation like we did at Southampton.

We have to forget what happened at St Mary's. We got battered but sometimes that can work in your favour.
We have to organise and regroup, get back to basics and get back on track tomorrow against Bournemouth.

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27 Dec 2015 19:17:28
Hi Ed002,
Hope you are having a nice festive holiday.
You mentioned the other day about Basel's Mohammed Elneny.
Tabloid reports pretty much have him bagged and tagged and ready to sign for Arsenal.
Any further news for us please Ed?

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{Ed002's Note - I understand the tabloids are pretty much spot on with that. I checked with a scout and he says he thinks it will go through but cannot help with what the club will do with the longer term plan.}

27 Dec 2015 21:11:30
Much obliged Ed.

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27 Dec 2015 21:31:50
Ed,
Do you know much about the young man? I saw a few YouTube clips but didn't really jump out at me, bit if a worry as they were highlights : (

Also, anything on Hernandez?

Thanks again.

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{Ed002's Note - No and no.}

27 Dec 2015 22:12:49
Thanks Ed - one CDM down and an attacking midfielder and striker still on the list.

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28 Dec 2015 01:19:28
So where is everyone now who said wenger will only sign top class players? I told you all he is looking to get a player who will not kill coquelin. Sad but true.

All summer we will only buy top class who improve the squad. He's back tracking now Jan has hit injurys are here. Zzz.

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28 Dec 2015 11:19:42
Very true Derby many people did insist Arsene would only go top class if at all, I welcome the kid because at least there's a chance of he might come good but it does make a mockery of all those who said Wanyama was setting our sights to low :-)

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28 Dec 2015 14:26:19
Wanyama would come in and you already know what you are getting, knows the league as well. This guy is a gamble, just hope he learns quickly. Wanyama would be more money but a ready made replacement.

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28 Dec 2015 15:40:45
62 people also said shaqiri wasn't worth the fee or good enough. i'm a big fan of his. Id of loved him here around better players.

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27 Dec 2015 19:32:40
I think Mr. Wenger needs to sign a CDM in January, maybe not a world beater but someone who can come in and do a job at the bare minimum. We would all love to see Carvalho being signed but at the end of the day signing Eleny or Wanyama would be better than staying with Flamini or Arteta particularly. We know he will not buy for the sake but against Southampton we didn't have someone who sparked some life in the centre of the park, someone who made things happen in that deeper role. Also, a striker would also be a welcome addition to the squad with Welbeck seemingly never returning and Giroud prone to a sour patch in front of goal, although he has been doing rather fine as of late, there is of course Theo but another striker to offer something different would help our aim for the title. We have heard about Kokorin on loan and admittedly I do not know a lot about him but in the end we will see what Arsene will do to (hopefully) strengthen in January and help us win the league.

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27 Dec 2015 20:10:26
I was reading today that without Le Coq we have created half as many clear cut scoring opportunities and conceeded 3 x as many clear cut chances.
Statistics are a very flexible tool and can be bent to suit each argument but for me Le Coq is the premier league best DM and whoever comes in will need to up their game to match him, just get the very best DM available in january or we will almost certainly wish we had in May.

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27 Dec 2015 20:26:43
Basel's Mohammed Elneny is looking like a good bet at the moment.
Could do a good job until Coq returns.

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27 Dec 2015 20:51:48
Dags why do you think Arsenal will sign a player to cover for Coq, when we have Flamini, Arteta and Chambers.

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27 Dec 2015 21:16:32
Bambam,
I believe Wenger is in the twilight of his Arsenal career. He will want to go off with a bang and win the prem, this season or next.

Will he spend £25 on William Carvalho in January? No.
Will he spend £5m on Mohammed Elneny? Yes.

He knows we need cover for Coq. He knows Flamini is ok to cover, he knows Arteta is finished.

He will spend £5m as cover but not £25m.

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27 Dec 2015 21:16:54
I have almost zero confidence in Arsene getting a player in a position we obviously need who is capable of doing the job I'm afraid.

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27 Dec 2015 21:56:48
I have to :-) when i read about chambers playing DM, he's lost at RB and CB but is an option for us as a premier league DM because he played their at youth level for Southampton :-) man city and Leicester must be rubbing their hands at that plan.
He could play Striker too no doubt if Olly and Theo are struggling or kepper if Ospina and Cech are out.

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28 Dec 2015 00:11:39
Oh the old doubters have set in.. Wenger out, Wenger out.. Ha ha ha

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28 Dec 2015 11:26:01
I've never stopped doubting you'll finish 5th, again and again and again . And again.

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27 Dec 2015 12:21:54
The accident waiting to happen finally did. the hole team was dire. but mert was found out last night. its time to give gabrail a chance. people were talking about bellerin covering mert. bellerin should be able to play his own game, without having to worry about mertsacker who is a liability. as I've said before a captain should be someone to inspire a team, be able to drive a team on and get a team going when the chips are down. germany took him out of the team and went on to win the world cup. we have to do the same. teams will continue to target him as a weak link. as Steve said we need more than two players. its time to bring them in. because I honestly think Wenger was not going to buy anyone in January, before last night. Game. have to get six points next two games., to get our season on track.

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27 Dec 2015 12:45:18
We need to buy two defensive midfield players, to protect the back four. We must use attacking midfield players, such as Ramsey, Wilshere and Cazorla played further forward, which may help in stopping the serious injuries these players are suffering. We need to buy Wanyama and another powerful defensive midfield player.

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27 Dec 2015 14:33:57
Merts can go. Don't know what people have seen in him over the years.

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27 Dec 2015 14:44:04
Arsenal won't be buying in January end of.

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27 Dec 2015 15:23:43
No signing no title. I see city. Chelsea buying a player. Manu possilbe too. Klopp will buy at least one.

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27 Dec 2015 15:58:40
I agree Banbury we won't buy a player for the first 18 in January maybe at besr a, young player for the future but that's it.
No outfield player in the summer or January window and if let's just for a second let our imagination run wild and say if we finish 3rd or 4th again what question will be asked of Arsene by the board? Will you please stay on a bit longer Mr Wenger!
That's not good for Arsenal football club IMO.

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27 Dec 2015 16:18:47
Wengers already said he was right not to buy a striker as we have plenty, and also we have so many players coming back from injury. You know the old ' having . back is like a new signing' we all know the crack.

Fingers crossed we win the league and he steps aside so we don't miss out on Pep, but I feel we've got more chance of signing Messi in January then any of those things happening

Let's not let the Sants result get us down to much, in all honesty the only player I'd like to see come our way in Jan would be Wanyama.

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27 Dec 2015 09:10:28
Mertesacker isn't my favourite player full stop but why more teams don't play him as Southampton did I will never know.
Its such an obvious thing to do against us because apart from the obvious effect of getting behind him it also stop Belerin attacking as often plus throws Kos Monreal and Flamini/ Le Coq out of position trying to cover him.
Imagine Mertesacker playing for utd Chelsea city or where ever we'd all be screaming for Theo to get at him and behind him.
I'd have thought Bournemouth and lots of other teams would have looked at last night and ' thought there's our chance of not onky 1 but maybe 3pts ' and Neymar Saurez and Messi must have been thinking how many they could possibly get each when we play Barcelona.

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27 Dec 2015 10:22:40
Mert isn't my favourite player, but to single him out from last night is a little unfair. Flamini showed he is only a short term replacement ie four or five games max. Cech showed his weak point, crosses. Kos showed his proneness to rashness when under pressure. Walcott giroud and cambell were ineffective. Ozil disappeared. Bellarin and monreal couldn't cross to save their lives last night. Just about the only player who played well was ramsay. For some reason it wasn't a bad performance, but a damn awfull display, which we put in when sometimes, you least expect it. When we get beat sometimes we just get mullered and that shouldn't happen to good teams.

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27 Dec 2015 10:51:26
Steve if you was a manager of a team playing Arsenal where would you see as your best chance of scoring goals?
Who would you single out as the player to test most?
Surely when you pick your side to play each game you put yourself in your opponent managers shoes and ask yourself how would I try and beat us?
Petr Cech? 1 in 12 chance of him having a bad day
Kos Monreal Belerin? Not renowned for being weak.
Flamini? There's definitely room to test him and his positioning and tackling.
Mertesacker? He's always been very slow and he's not got any quicker with age, plus once your past him that's it he will ball watch and might as well be in the crowd.
As Ann Robinson would say?

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27 Dec 2015 11:20:54
Im not defending mert just saying he wasn't on his own. His weakness was exposed last night but so was a few others. They wanted it more and that's worrying, when we should have been the team that wanted it more after man citeh.

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27 Dec 2015 09:40:40
You right G62 I got some stick over the summer for calling him useless, although the past few months he has actually surprised me and I thought maybe I was been too harsh, then last night happened and I obviously lost my mind because it's always just waiting to happen with him there.

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27 Dec 2015 12:01:24
For me its all to cosy, the board would have said ooops never mind we're very happy with things in general, Arsene will say these things happen and I'm happy with my squad once everyones available and the players will say we just had a bad day, again.
For me expectancy and accountability are the missing ingredient from all, expectancy from themselves and each other because at the end of the day there is no real accountability just cosy little dream that eventually it will all come right one season if we just carry on as always, hence we retain Flamini Arteta Rosicky Mertesacker because it wouldn't be the same without them around.

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27 Dec 2015 12:51:35
Massive problem, without Coquelin playing. We must buy two defensive midfield players during this window. One would be Wanyama and another, suggestions welcomed. We must also use our squad. We cannot expect Debuchy and Gabriel to sit on the bench, whilst. Playing so many matches in a short period, never mind Chambers and Gibbs.
Tommorrow, I would play:
Cech
Debuchy Gabriel Koscielny Gibbs
Chambers (Flamini is shocking) Ramsey
Walcott. Ozil. Oxlade
Giroud.

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27 Dec 2015 13:57:36
Chambers is NO better, he might get away with it against Bournemouth, but he is not the long term answer.

I didn't hear any complaints about Flamini against City, now he is a bag of pants, no matter who played infront of the back four last night we would have still got beat.

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27 Dec 2015 12:35:57
You are right though Steve you can't single him out. It was a bad day at the office, or at least I hope it was just that! Please let's not forget we were immense against city a few days earlier! Your also right about flamini who in my opinion has had some great games covering for le coq but last night reverted to the poorer side of his game but when you go 1 down to a great goal the natural mentally is to go look for the balls and you end up loosing discipline and get pulled all over the place.

On the other hand Southampton did play well and when a team hits a certain groove it happens that way sometimes! We are in good shape and with city v Leicester next we have a good opportunity to strengthen our position! Jan is coming up and I honestly believe that wenger will break the habit of a lifetime and edge his bets.

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27 Dec 2015 15:26:29
Harry arter could run rings around chambers tbh. I was impressed with his skill when he came on though but he needs loaning out.

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27 Dec 2015 15:49:06
I think it's very reasonable to say top 2 is a must do this season and failure to achieve that this season of all seasons would be probably our biggest underachievement yet under Arsene.
I'm just not sure we've got anything like a winning mentality at any point running through the club.

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27 Dec 2015 08:14:17
I have not posted on here for a while, mainly because I am very very critical of Arsene Wenger. Last night was what you call a bad day at the office. I honestly believe that we can win the title this year, but we can't afford anymore results like that. We need to get a quality dm in pronto in Jan not on the final day of the transfer window when we have already played 5/ 6 games but asap in Jan. Apart from that I think we will be alright, get Alexis back quickly, like to have Jack back but we got this far without him. Big game tomorrow have to bounce back, win and we go top,3times aginst Spurs, Norwich and Soton we have gone on the pitch knowing if we win we go top but on all 3 occasions we have slipped up so tommorrow we have a point to prove that we can handle pressure to everybody and therselves.
So with that of my chest I am off to have a full english take care everyone.

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{Ed025's Note - a full english sounds good to me mate..

27 Dec 2015 08:35:00
Ii don't think you are critical and you are as much entitled to your criticism as others are to their praise its your opinion. Good post but I've said for a while now have they got the balls to win the title, monday would prove nothing and neither will a run of four or five games. They have to show they can win the title by not losing 10 or twelve and finishing the season off, not winning the calendar year title again.

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27 Dec 2015 11:33:25
Our players attitude was a problem last night. No fight and thought that they could just turn up and win. I don't think it is doing them any favours when our manager puts the blame on a referee instead of asking questions of the players. Do the players have the stomach for what will be a fight for the league? Will wait and see . For me Mert should be dropped, I don't understand why Gabriel is not ahead of him as he is a liability at times and teams know how to exploit us when he is playing. The whole team should see this as a huge wake up call and realise winning has to be earned .

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26 Dec 2015 23:51:46
Lfc fan and always liked Arsenal. maybe it's the nice football more likely it's the tight fitted kits, but curious.

Start of season thought city were nailed on to win title but seeing as they and every other team want to throw it away, if Arsenal don't win the league this season is wenger's time up?

Not jumping on the bandwagon and but have a good shot of winning the title. City are terribly inconsistent and think Leicester's position shows title is there for who wants it most.

Chelsea have fallen apart, lfc are again 'in transition', city play when they can be bothered, LVG manages about as good as he handles the press, whilst Leicester and Spurs seem to be taking advantage.

Personally think you have a squad of top players and just need to buy 1-2 players to grab the title. but don't see it happening.

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27 Dec 2015 08:59:03
Hi Roland,
Whatever happens, Wenger is definitely hanging up his boots at the end of next season.
Let's hope its with a league title under his belt mate.

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26 Dec 2015 23:40:43
Normally, whoever win's the league loses approx 4 games.
Arsenal and City are the bookies favourites to win title, and both team's have already lost 4 and 5 games respectively.

It's just a weird season for everybody, remember City got thumped by Spurs and got slaughtered at home to Liverpool.

Suck it up Gents.
I'm very confident we will be top come Monday evening.

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27 Dec 2015 00:15:11
The winning team will be the worst team to ever to win it I guess

Also kompany is out once more mate. Big loss to them.

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27 Dec 2015 00:23:23
Monday! What about May Dags?
That's what matters.
I'd say about as much chance of us being champions as Jack playing 20 consecutive games,
We just don't do the right things or have the right attitude to make it happen.
Top 4 always but too many repeated mistakes both on and off the pitch to ever be champions IMO.

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27 Dec 2015 08:57:18
One game at a time from now until May, G62.
If you go top tomorrow, I will settle for that as a late Christmas present mate.

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27 Dec 2015 09:39:57
Fair enough Dags but personally I couldn't care less if we never see top spot until the first week of May as long as we stay there, Leicester are quite rightly very proud to be top of the table at this stage and whether they stat there or not its a fantastic achievement by them, for me its only where Arsenal finish that's important as we've been there and done the souvenir photo of being top at some stage during a season before.

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27 Dec 2015 10:47:23
Couldn't agree more gunner, the only thing that really matters is the final standings, everything else is just spar boxing, the knock out is what we want.

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27 Dec 2015 11:10:48
In the end it will come down to two things A who has the ability and B who wants it most.
I'd say A is between us and city as things stand subject to January alterations of course.
B its deffinately Leicester who haven't that I can remember been betterd in terms of 90 mins commitment all season, they may have lost games but never their passion.

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