Arsenal Banter Archive August 28 2016

28 Aug 2016 22:51:56
Pretty much following on from other post's.

Now all the bitching, biting, eye gouging, bottom lip quivering, scratching, name calling and finger pointing has died down, have we had a good window.

I was as vocal as anybody of late, but on the whole, I'm very happy.

Probably our biggest spend in a decade, we have not only added quality, but quality where needed most.

Xhaka, once settled, will be a fantastic player, very much in the Vieira mode.
He adds steel and bite to our midfield, as well as a varied range of passing to unlock defences.

Mustafi is top quality, and I believe his partnership with Kos will be the best in the Prem.

Holding has settled in straight away.
He has a lot of learning to do, will fit in comfortably as back up to Mustafi and Kos, and will be Kos's natural replacement.
Definitely England's future Centre Half, as well as possible Captain.

Perez, not heard much about, but from reports, will play an important role this season.
Very much a 'Vardy' type player, so his style should compliment Giroud, but has the quality to be our 'new striker'.

Happy day's everybody.

28 Aug 2016 23:08:22
Dags would it be rude of me to point out that your Holding summary is identical to the one you gave on Chambers in 2014 :-)

28 Aug 2016 23:36:57
We have all had our opinions and as to whether we have had a good window, i'm sure it will all pan out regardless of what we have said in the next few months. But what hasn't been addressed is the striking position, we never got our targets and again time will tell as to whether we sink or swim because of. We have our squad and mr wenger has spent a large amount of money, it is all now down to his judgement.

28 Aug 2016 23:41:13
Lol is that the same holding who got the runaround against Liverpool 2 weeks ago, anybody can look good against Watford, let's see how he cope's against golden boy harry Kane, Diego costa, sturridge, lbrahimovic etc.

28 Aug 2016 23:55:18
Gunner let's not be negative, although chambers did look like a future star and was he not called up to the england squad.

28 Aug 2016 23:55:55
You are indeed correct G62.
Let's hope I'm correct this time :-)

Steve, Lacazette was always my first choice, but have a feeling Perez is going to be a terrific acquisition.

Raver, is that golden boy Harry Kane who hasn't even had a shot on target in 3 games.
Nice to see him continuing on from his England form :-)

29 Aug 2016 00:18:21
Raver how do you think your boys will get on against costa, ibra, sturrige, aguero and sanchez.

29 Aug 2016 01:44:46
Dags are you saying sir harry kane is a one hit wonder.

29 Aug 2016 08:39:46
Steve,
Only to wind Raver up, but don't tell him :- (

29 Aug 2016 10:40:38
Thanks dags I got you to call Harry Kane a poor striker, you know what happens next he goes goal crazy everytime you put the knockers' on him.

29 Aug 2016 12:54:52
Raver is right for once! In which case Dags would you mind having a go at Olly and maybe just Maybe poking a questioning finger at Perez whilst back tracking on Harry and declaring Henry wasn't fit to lace Kane's boots :-)

28 Aug 2016 18:40:32
Hey. I was wondering if anyone knew about potential loan moves. We have a few players that are at that point where they need to try and make the step up now. In particular: iwobi, adelaide, chambers, beilik, zelalem and gnabry. and then there are a few players that look set to have an exciting future such as dragomir, sheaf, malen and maitland-niles.

I really think we have a decent team now but also for the next few years and if we were to add a serious striker (i really like the idea of sturidge) then we would have to be considered title contenders.

28 Aug 2016 20:54:34
I don't have any 'inside' knowledge, but from what I've read/ listened to and a bit of common sense, I think as far as loans go;

We know chambers is available for loan, Wenger himself said it on Saturday.

Gnabry has a future at Arsenal according to Arsene (I think the lads quality personally, just unlucky with injury last season) but may not play much this season with Theo, Oxlade, Iwobi, Alexis and even Lucas who can all potentially play right and left.
Schalke want him apparently and their sporting director said today he believes 'every club in Germany apart from Bayern would like Gnabry' which is praise indeed!

Debuchy could leave on loan or permanently.
We'd be short at Rb I think if we let him leave, but we do have Mustafi, Holding, Chambers (if he stays) and even at a stretch Coquelin who can play RB is Bellerin is injured.

Jeff is officially a first team player now, so he will most likely go on loan somewhere.

The others you mention are all u21's so I'd imagine they'll stay and train with the youth teams unless someone actively comes in for them, which is lilkely, considering how well some of them are coming along, like Zelalem, Bielik and Willock, who may benefit from playing somewhere else instead of learning in the u21's!

29 Aug 2016 14:07:38
Yeah i was thinking pretty much along the same lines. I do think a few of them could be doing a job for top end championship or lower end prem teams.

28 Aug 2016 11:12:27
Here dags I weren't far off with my prediction of 3-0 was I ;) for me MOTM was xhaka he's slotted into that midfield perfectly, he was pinging diagonal balls inch perfect all game e.g his ball the Walcott and to be fair to Walcott he struck it beautifully but Gomez made a great save. Still 3-1 was a great result, seeing the alexis and ozil partnership firing again was great so all round it was a great game :)

28 Aug 2016 11:40:39
Essex,
He was quality mate.

28 Aug 2016 12:02:42
Essex the win was a great result. Hopefully we can get some more wins under our belts in the next few games ready for the pointer games against manu, chelsk and citeh.

28 Aug 2016 11:45:47
Essex, the boy did real well. Put aside tackling etc as they were strong. I like his eye for a forward pass first, then sideways then backwards. After a sideways pass he moved so we could try to attack by creating a pass for the receiver. We miss this movement sometimes. He turned defence to attack pretty well and with pace up front it meant the next touch was going forward rather than hold up play.
I still like Giroud but liked the pace and quicker passing. Stops the bus being parked so easily.

28 Aug 2016 10:05:34
Good result yesterday and performance by Xhaka in particular, the two latest additions Perez and Mustafi won't do us any harm that's for sure whether they will do us any good we will all have to wait and see.
More than ever pressure will never be far away this season simply because so many fans have now ran out of patience with Arsene the club and some of our players, Theo Jack Ox Olly will always be one poor game that is coupled with a poor result away from people writing them off yet again simply because people are tired of going through the motions each season and the Arsenal double of top 4 and above Spurs that has been enough for so long has finally run its course and run out of steam as being even close to enough to keep the majority of fans onboard with where the club is going.
This summer the tide of patient unconditional support has firmly turned and Arsene and all his players are going to have to finally come up with a seriously credible title challenge to turn it back in their favour again and if they can't Mesut and Sanchez won't be the only ones leaving Arsenal next summer they will definitely be accompanied by Arsene and many long standing players who haven't been able to deliver.
Change is 100% on its way and the only question is whether it's this season or next summer but I really think it's unstoppable either way now.

28 Aug 2016 10:33:45
62 let's not forget that we bagged two FA Cups in the last 3 years and came second.
I think a FA Cup, serious title challenge and a quarter final in Europe would be a huge season and good target for us given the money in the game today
I think it's the challenging piece that we want - we want to seriously challenge for the league and feel like we have a decent run in Europe - that would change the feelings of everyone.

28 Aug 2016 11:04:31
A champions league run would be nice SY mate I don't think any of us would turn our noses up at a Qf or even a SF but none of the cups are essential imo its that really competing for a premier league title and the week in week excitement where every point really matters again that will bring about that change of feeling about Arsenal from Mesut and Sanchez to the fans to potential signings who haven't considered us as serious option this summer.
The FA cup alone didn't and won't do much to charge anyone's minds about the ambition or capabilities of Arsenal to be the best of the best again and only when we actually show ourselves to be capable and desperate to be the best again will peoples attitudes change about where this club is going.
The time for talking and excuses is very shortly if it hasn't already coming to an end and another disant 3rd or 4th place finish won't be anywhere close to enough to stop change coming only result will do that now.

28 Aug 2016 11:23:25
I think you are agreeing with me - we need to seriously compete all the way to the last week of the season. There's nothing like winning and I do want a trophy so FA Cup is the icing on the cake.

28 Aug 2016 11:34:58
I am most definitely agreeing with you mate :-)
Let's all hope Arsene Sanchez and Ozil are all still with the Arsenal this time next year because that can only mean change actually happened and we all got whar we all desperately wanted again.

28 Aug 2016 11:39:57
I agree gunner with every word, very well put. I think, let's just say a lot of fans patience is at 0 tolerance levels and with this being a maybe pivotal last year/ chance for wenger and possibly the board, a full blown challenge in the league and CL is the only outcome that will be accepted. Saying that I also think winning one is the only thing for some, second last season did nothing to help. I really hope we win the league.

28 Aug 2016 17:01:49
Wouldn't turn down an FA Cup, but for me it's not about the hardware, it's about our quality and compete level. If we comes in 1st to 3rd in the league but are in it to the end playing with confidence that will matter. If we get to the quarters or semis in the CL but go out to Bayern or Barcelona in a relatively equal thriller ok.

What stunk last year is we seemed overwhelmed against bigger sides and we were poor and stumbled in the league - 2nd was a joke as everyone stumbled and first would only have required us to be average.

So c'mon lads, if you want to be considered a big team started acting and playing like one with attitude and compete!

28 Aug 2016 17:58:12
I think only those who want to be fooled by last season's 2nd place actually rate finishing on 71points a full 10 behind winners Leicester in an unprecedented season when all the big boys went missing at once as a sign of improvement.
I'd take
Winners 83pts
2nd 82pts
Arsenal 3rd on 81 pts as a real indication of us turning the corner and reason for realm optimism way above last season's out of serious contention by April 2nd place.

28 Aug 2016 19:11:58
Red, gunner already when you look at the league you can eaxily predict the challenge ahead and who it is going to be with this year. It will be a proper league this year with a proper test and i think probably the strongest yet. Th quality of players ans managers has improved greatly.

28 Aug 2016 09:32:34
Happy with the squad we've got now, really jazzed up. Now we can implore any tactics to win a particular game. All we've got to do is play without fear while applying hunger and passion, making things unpleasant for our opponents. Let's send a message to our opponents that we don't easily concede. I strongly believe with this we could be touted as the new invincibles.
Oh and one last thing, I'd like each and every to be clinical in front of goal. I mean, one shot, one goal. lol
Bring back the fun, bring back the fear factor. I miss the free scoring Arsenal.

28 Aug 2016 10:40:16
I see your bank holiday BBQ is already well underway Willy, best to ease up on the booze thought mate :-)

28 Aug 2016 13:16:11
Willy is raver at your barbe.

28 Aug 2016 07:01:34
I know Wenger said that he will be busy in the last two days of the window, despite us more or less already completing Perez and Mustafi.
I think this is due to work shipping players out, some on loan

Sanogo
Debuchy
Akpom
Chambers
Gnarbry.