Arsenal Banter Archive September 29 2014

29 Sep 2014 23:11:33
I have a masterplan.

Let's get rid of Prem League table and replace it with Physio-room table.

We are top of the league, say we are top of the league.

Blooming joke. 8 players on long term (at least a month) injuries.

This has become a regular occurence. Firstly, most of the injuries are to areas of the team where we have the least options. Last season we had no alternative to Giroud, so it comes as no surprise that he is injured. Defence-wise we started with only 6 first team defenders. Debauchy, following the world cup, was played without rest and picked up an injury. Last season Walcott came back from injury and was played without rest and as a result picked up a serious injury. Monreal came in for the injured Gibbs and was injured. We tend to have way too may muscular injuries, down to poor conditioning, over playing and out style of play. With 8 or so players out injured, I can't imagine the state of our squad by January. We have no serious alternative to playing Welbeck. With long/longish term injuries to Giroud, Debauchy & Ramsey, Welbeck, Chambers & Wilshere will be played virtually every match. How serious is Monreal's injury? Will Gibbs get a rest?

30 Sep 2014 08:32:07
Very good reply Robbie.

Clichy said the first thing he noticed at city was they were allowed to tackle each other properly in training something that was not allowed at Arsenal?
Is this part of the problem, I can't believe this keeps happening year after year and no one knows why.

What do you reckon is the root of the problem? its very strange.

Chambers is close to a suspension so at least he might stay injury free

29 Sep 2014 19:46:59
Was talking to one of my guvnors at work today, who is a gooner, and he feels that because AW remained loyal to us when Real Madrid and PSG came calling, the board feel that should be a two way thing.He went onto say that early exit from the champions league and not qualifying next season would push the board to act.I personally think he would have to go on his own accord, the board will never sack him.He also said that Ozil wasnt a Wenger signing and that the board told him to sign him has a statement of intent and to quell the anti Wenger feelings that were becoming more obvious amongst us supporters.You probably guess by now by my previous posts that I am very anti Wenger and that I geniune feel that a new manager is needed ASAP!!!!!!.The real eye opener for me is that were I work there are quite a few Gooners and nearly 90% I would say feel it would be wrong to sack him, but also that they cannot see it getting better anytime soon.So do we carry on down the slippery slope and let him live on his past glories or be brave and thanks for the memories AW but its time to go mate.
Take care people
Heybridge Gooner

This is sad and shouldn't be happening, Arsene has done so much for us and this 3 year contract should never have been offered or taken up.
Sacking him in my opinion is out of the question we have to honour the contract, we are the Arsenal not some two bob club with no honour pride tradition or principal.
2years 32 games may seem a long time but it will soon pass and as much as I don't believe Arsene is any longer up to it we can not and should not sack a man who's given so much of himself for our club for so long

29 Sep 2014 23:19:48
ozil is so an AW signing. He personifies how AW like to play football and been after him for ages.

If we had kept the ball like Ozil did on Saturday then there would not have been the counter attacks

Do you have any substance to your opinion or is it just - "my mate at work. "

AW has done wonders for the club and deserves respect. We have ambition and heritage - I am sure the board will get that balance right if the time is right

Try playing fantasy football when the opposition can play with a different set of rules.

He has his faults but he always puts the club first and has ensured our club will be at the top level for generations.

30 Sep 2014 04:00:15
"He has his faults, but he always puts the club first". Good words SY4. Top post.

Ozil wasnt a wenger signing and the thing about him signing to ease the fans is very true. sad but true.

iv been saying it for ages his times up its getting boring now and this season will end up pointless

29 Sep 2014 13:57:17
In a light hearted but also slightly serious way I'd like to put forward the argument for the Rather Pessimistic about Sunday Party.
1 Those very very bad away days last season
2 chavs are much stronger than when they thrashed us last season
3 their manager horrible as he is knows his onions tacitly and will change as and when needed
4 we have in no way shape or form done anything to stop it happening to us again this season over the summer.
I long to be won over by the The Optimistic About Sunday For No Other Reason Than Loyalty Party.
I await your manifesto and reasons to defect to you eagerly :-)
By the way as said this is inteded to be light hearted albeit true

I don't think we should go in there afraid of our own shadow, let's take it to them. We have a lot of talent at every position. Looking for Sanchez & Cazorla to score and take it 2-0. Too bad Poldi is on the outs would be a good one for a big game player like him.

Let's do this!

Not sure about this taking it to them plan Red, that scares me too.
How about we tell them jokes (obviously not Dags ones) funny ones that make them laugh and when the refs not looking tickle them with a big fluffy telescopic stick that handedly folds into a shin pad when not in use?
Not a good plan I grant you but at least its not a scary one

29 Sep 2014 22:58:58
Not the Arsenal way, but without the likes of Debuchy, Monreal, Ramsey, Arteta, Wilshere (possibly) and probably another 2 players who will probably get injured during Galatasaray game, we should go the The Bridge and play a more defensive formation.

I think we should play a 4-1-4-1 type of formation, with Flamini in front of back 4 and Welbeck up top on his own.

If we go all guns blazing, as Mourinho expects, than he will set up accordingly, and probably rip us to pieces.

I fully agree days, just to clarify that we can do and we can still get a 1-0 or 2-0 result. Because as the match progresses we will have our opportunities based on having Sanchez, Cazorla, Ozil etc big players. WE can play smarter and with confidence - let's hope Gibbs has learned a trick or two and does not get caught up the pitch like last year. Ah, progress ;-))

29 Sep 2014 13:20:10
Back again second round for me.
What was it over 80 percent possession in the first half?
Threw it away I thought. Still lacking that killer touch.
Lets be truthful and not kid ourselves here. Spurs were pretty awful compared to us and if we can't bury a team playing like that against us within the first half? well! I don't know what to think.
I have to agree with a few comments about up coming games, Chelsea as an example. We all know performances like that are just not good enough Chelsea will smash us if we don't liven up.
What was Sanchez doing on the bench? madness.
Pay all that money for a player then warm his backside up for him.
Now we are well and truly lumbered with the injuries.
A Ramsey comment was made and I have to agree " One good season so far " Now he is out again not his fault I know but its the same thing over and over again.
No games lost fantastic but too many drawn can be our nail in the coffin at the end of the season.
Unless we are going for another record of never being beat in a season then great but I don't think that is the plan somehow.
Do we need a new manager? Who knows?

On Aaron to be fair isn't he our top goal scorer still at the moment?
He's not up to last season standards so far admittedly but I'm sure when he's 100% fit we'll see him at his very best again this season.
Over one or two games players can fool you but Rambo's done much more than that for us

Arsene needs to & so do we, need to understand that possession doesn't mean wining. In the 1st 3 mins or so we made somewhere around 20-30 odd passes Al in our half.
I for one am fed up with us passing the ball square back forward back square then back to the keeper! All of this happens at walking pace, meanwhile the opposion get their defence organised. We then bounce the ball around looking for the perfect 5-6 pass goal. They then get the ball off of us mid 7th pass & 3 passes later are looking to score.
For the love of whoever get some direct fast football organised.

29 Sep 2014 10:56:16
Everyone keeps talking about how the lack of a DM cost us on Saturday, and sure we did look weak defensively and their goal was almost entirely Flamini's fault. But the simple truth is if Giroud had been playing, we would have won that game.

I'm not going to try and convince you that Giroud is a world class striker - he's not. Despite clearly having a lot of talent, his composure in front of goal at the crucial moments is poor, making him an often wasteful finisher. But this doesn't mean he isn't indispensable to our team.

Over the past couple of seasons, our play has become utterly dependent on our striker's ability to link the play. And this is something Giroud does well - exceptionally well - in fact. This is particularly true at home, where we usually dominate possession and our opponents play deep defensive lines against us. And most importantly, it works. Last season, bar the Villa game (where at one point we were playing Ramsey at centre back), we were undefeated at home in the league. We looked genuinely strong.

This tactic, however, broke down away from home, where teams just needed to play a high line to nullify Giroud's influence. Since we lacked pace, we couldn't punish these high lines. This is why Wenger invested so heavily on pace over the summer (Alexis, Welbeck). The idea being, we have Giroud to link up the play and our wingers to run in behind higher defensive lines. It's a very solid idea.

Unfortunately, Giroud got injured. This has led to us struggling (by comparison to last year) at home. The amount we are missing Giroud was abundantly clear on Saturday. Although Welbeck played quite well, he just didn't offer himself to the ball with his back to goal in the way Giroud does. And Spurs completely nullified his pace by playing a deep defensive line. This was particularly apparent towards the end, where at one point, despite our desperate attempts to seize a win, our centre backs passed it around to one another, desperately looking forward in the hope someone would offer an option.

I apologise for the excessive length of this post. But my points are these: first of all, lay off Giroud, he's not the best player in the world but he is so important to us; secondly, this team will be very, very good when Giroud and Walcott return, unfortunately that might be a little late for us.

Was missing Giroud myself against Spurs. Massive part of our team, very important. But like you say, could be too late when TW14 and OG12 return.

Disagree mate. This whole "striker with his back to goal theory" is a load of rubbish for me to be honest. The only striker good at that is Zlatan and Giroud is not 25% of what Zlatan is

29 Sep 2014 12:22:44
Rue - have you seen how many of our goals last season had Giroud related to them - even if it was a pre-pre-pre assist

He may not be an amazing world class awesome super fantastic player. But he can do a job - you saw how the whole game changed when he came on against Everton this year and last year in the cup he did exactly the same when he came on towards the end!

Giroud and welbeck are not good enough. its that simple. if a new manager comes in he would buy a top top striker

29 Sep 2014 10:10:37
We all know we didn't do what was necessary in the summer to be title contenders, we also know the Mesut is wasted on the wing and should be played in the middle but what's to do?
What's done is done and rather than spend a season looking back let's try and enjoy what is achievable this season.
3rd place has never been ours to lose so much as it is this season.
Liverpool without Suarez and with CL football are strugling.
Utd are far from fixed YET but will be sooner or later.
Everton haven't got going and have the added hurdle of the Thursday night league
spurs are probably 2 years away from mounting any kind of CL challenge and even that's dependent on not sacking this manager.
Let's accept what is achievable and should anything more than that materialize happy days, its going to be a very long horrible season if we dont
3rd place and no qualification games in next seasons CL is improvement even though we hoped for much more in the summer things are what they are
Now anyone know any jokes :-)

29 Sep 2014 10:47:24
Spurs' title hopes.

29 Sep 2014 09:04:44
Our fans are so rubbish.

"We will lose on Saturday"

"oh yes I am sure we will lose on saturday its just by how many"

"there is no doubt we will lose on saturday"

"I agree - saturday is a loss"

Wow.
No wonder our fans are laughing stocks for other clubs!

Support the bl***y team and wait until the game actually takes place!

What is it you see that we don't Robbie?
If my mate races Usain Bolt over a hundred metres should I expect him to win because we grew up together?
To win at the boot sale for me would be bigger than retaining the FA cup, I'd love it to happen but I also would like to win the lotto too, I'm just not expecting either

We massively under bought in the window, and it shows now with 4 defenders available and Wilshere, Ramsey and Arteta all out for Galatasary.

Once again shot ourselves in the foot.

Of course I'll be cheering if we win, I just can't see it, especially against Chelsea.

29 Sep 2014 09:41:51
I saw our best performance so far at the weekend and we just lacked that cutting edge. Which unfortunately made everyone look at the negatives (me included - it felt like a loss!)

I also saw Kaboul on the screen more times than any player - what a game he had unfortunately!

No point in expecting a loss - football is all about getting pumped and excited for the next big game.

We are underdogs for this game but do you think other fans in the premier league predict doom and gloom and give up on a game a week before it happened? If our team is going to show fight it would be mighty nice if our fans could as well right?

29 Sep 2014 09:42:46
Sorry, also i'm not expecting a win of magificent proportions - but who knows in football. Anything can happen :)

29 Sep 2014 09:57:58
"No wonder our fans are laughing stocks of other clubs".
Not sure about that one.

I'm a very optimistic fan. I'm very optimistic we will lose on Saturday.
Doesn't mean I want it to happen, but at this moment in time, I can't see Arsenal beating anybody, never mind a team like Chelsea.

Faith is blind, our lack of team structure is not.

I can promise you now we will not lose on saturday. trust me

Rob I'm with you on the performance on Saturday I thought It was our best of the season and if we play like that every week with that level of commitment we will not only finish top 3 but also be enjoyable to watch again.
Yes football does throw up some amazing and very surprising results now and then, usually when either the favorites have a very bad day or the under dogs out smart the favorites with their game plan.
I suppose we have to hope chavs have a very bad day at the office then :-)

29 Sep 2014 10:44:05
G62 - pretty much! i'm not saying we will smash them or completely outplay them - but the game is a week away! let's have a bit of passion! I bet teams like Leicester Love going to the chavs and giving it a go! We have a competitive team so we should love going there and really really giving it a go

Dags - there are some of our fans who just make you want to quit being a football fan all together (luckily most of them never even watch arsenal and just follow updates on twitter)

All in all hopefully there isn't another spanking like last season!

29 Sep 2014 21:02:38
Rob,

I hope you are correct mate.

29 Sep 2014 06:50:23
With Arteta out injured, I would prefer to use either Coquelin, Hayden or Abu Diaby in the defensive midfield position. Flamini has performed terribly this season and along with Arteta should have been replaced during the last window. Against Chelsea we need to play with two defensive midfield players, to protect the defence. Assuming Abu Diaby is still, unbelievably, not ready, I would use Coquelin & Hayden. I would play Ox, Wilshere & Sanchez in front of them and Welbeck up front. The defence picks itself, as we are down to our last 4 fit defenders.
I can't believe Wenger went into the season with only 6 first team defenders & 2 aging, inept, defensive midfield options. One of which, Arteta is not a defensive midfield player and the other Flamini was a desperate stop gap measure and should have been released during the summer.

No Ozil? Is he out?

Sin Gooner - I wouldn't start him against Chelsea, but definitely on Wednesday.

28 Sep 2014 23:06:00
For all wengers good points, youth development keeping the club financially secure, playing good football he has some major problems being a top club manager in football at the mo. He is tactically very weak he doesn't understand or is too ignorant to ever change our tactics except a slight change in formation. He will never win champs league he would have ****ed up barca 09 team he simply is getting stale at arsenal he picked up the best number 10 in world football and turned him into a lost boy who hinders are team. He will never improve defence, defensive signings(vivas, luzny, stephanovs, cygon, monreal, almunia, eboue, djouruo, senderos) are a joke and there are loads more, I know there has been some good to but take sol Campbell and koscielny away the rest are average at best. How long have we needed dmf since gilberto silva 8 odd years. Could have had one possibly song but wenger was too busy wanting him to be himself and express himself that he never got the defensive side of the game but he was sold anyway and replaced with arteta and would he still be in evertons midfield no way would he and its not as if the whole time he had a plan a youth player coming through, no he had coquelin who plays at left or right back for us and by the way he is rubbish too. watched the saints game at emirates and defending corners was a joke, it was so bad, conference stuff and we wernt really punished for it. I know attacking wise he is a good coach and some of the attacking players brought have been really special but its not good enough. He won lots early when he was fresh and had ideas, diet ect. o and the best back 5 in premier league history. who loses to sam allardyce for like six years solid when he managed at Bolton and stuff, mourinho destroys him regularly in the end fergie couldn't even be bothered to have a rivalry with him by the end as we wernt serious contenders. We will never win league or champions league under him and he will never win champs league or another top domestic league again. People get worried our players will leave if he does, well leave then we where here before u and we will be here long after. I am not generally a wenger hater but its been going on for too long, and I am sure we will finish 3rd put in a good run at some point then we will get some big games in a row and we will go out all the cups and get a 5-0 drubbing in the league and it will be, arsenal good team soft belly can't handle the crunch time.

29 Sep 2014 08:55:44
Great post.

Nice post mate.

Agree with you that he is stubborn and weak tactically, we've never seen a win over a Mourinho side, and like you say Fergie couldn't be bothered and tbh Wenger couldn't either! Selling Rvp to them got us some cash, but also won them the league and it was soul destroying.

Bring in a young manager with ideas. Someone who has a clue when it comes to defending and doesn't stick to the same weak tactics against obviously stronger teams.

Replace; Mertersacker, Flamini, Arteta and diaby IMO, With quality first team players, then add depth by buying 3-4 more defenders and 2 defensive midfielders.