A little teaser on this Bank Holiday Monday.
While Arsenal was a bit precocious in its rabbit pulling by having Coquelin blossom into quite a decent HM from nowhere, which team will benefit from the decisive contribution of a usual substitute or under performing player?
Your mission: look at the Top 5 teams and pick 1 sub or underperforming player that will be his team’s rabbit in the hat and which will secure points for the team’s title or top 4 spot?
Here is my pick:
Chelsea – Rémy
Man City – Dzeko
Arsenal – Walcott
Man Utd – Herrera
Liverpool – ? (Can we say Sturridge since he has been injured?)
Anyways – pick your Rabbit in the hat 🙂
Happy Easter and enjoy your Bank Holiday.
Written by RC78
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Thanks RC78, brilliant idea for a post. I’ve not been playing enough attention to the other teams to know who their pine riders are so here’s my stab.
Chelsea – Remy (I know he’s come off the bench and scored)
Arsenal – Rosicky (although I’d love it to be Walcott but the Boss doesn’t seem keen)
Man U – Blah blah, who cares?????
Man City – Bony
Who’s even in fifth at the moment?? Both Liverpool and spuds are too far off the top four now to worry about aren’t they?
Here’s mine:
Arsenal: Rozza.
Chelsea: I guess Remy??
City: Dzeko
United: err…. Mata?
Liverpool: idk man.
Rosicky is an interesting choice…I think he might help in Cup but I am not sure in the leaque…he has not been featuring much lately and with Arteta being back..,,
I like his playing style but to be honest, I would offload him this summer as he still has a contract with us and we can get a few millions pounds for him…
On another note – I was pleased to see Bellerin score vs Liverpool…If we can get our FB and CBs to chip in some goals, woud be great!
‘afternoon all,
Hmmm, a bit of a poser, not refering to you RC78, but your question. 😀
With Costa out for a couple of weeks, I could see Drogba getting a few extra minutes and maybe a goal or two.
I can’t see Dzeko doing much, he looks a class player but appearences can be deceptive. I’ll go for Na€ri, it’s time he earnt his over-inflated wages for once.
For United, Januzaj last seasons wunderkind, who everyone is wundering where he is.
For us, Theo of course, it’s a no-brainer RA. 😀
Just realised it’s top five,
I suppose we must lump ‘Pool and Spuds together as they’re both on 54 points so as Adybarndoor will be looking for a new job come the summer he’s bound to put on a bit of show.
As to the bin-dippers old Stevie Me owes the fans something for getting sent off recently, so he gets my nomination. The he can p*** off the the MLS and they’re welcome to him.
Quick visit
Thanks RC78
Chelsea Drogba
City Nasri
Arsenal Jack
Utd never heard of any of them
chavs – zouma
Arse – Danielk Welbeck
light blue oliers – Willy Caballero
mancs – jonny evans
dippers – kolol
cheers, RC78
Happy Easter Bunny
Evening all, Nice one 78
Chelsea Hazard, basically cause he’s quality
Arsenal Debuchey
City Ya Ya
United Mata
Liverpool Goakeeper
I know most have played a bit, but stand out players that will help out and be in focus
..
Good idea for a post.
Chavs. I agree with Chas. Zoom looks a fine prospect
MC. HAs to be Bony
MU. Herrera
L’pool Coutinho
Spurs. Adebayor
AFC. Ramsey
Akpom taken off injured after 40 mins at Forest.
Adobe scores his 29th of the season at Wolves.
Chelsea don’t need saving
MC – Jezus
MU – van Persie
Pool – Ballotteli
Spurs – nobody can
AFC – Diaby 🙂
RC78
Chavs – Remy
Arsenal – Jack
City – Dzeko
Dippers – Have they got a bench?
Spuds – Soldado (hahahajahahahahaha)
ManUre – Fellaini is their Coquelin (for different reasons) but probably Falcao
Has Koemans stock fallen a little since the turn of the year? Swansea look likely to finish above them if form continues.
Raddy I have probably said this before an MK Dons fan was really annoyed after we sold Afobe to Wolves as he was playing brilliantly for them on loan. I asked how good he was and he said good Championship level, probably not Premier League, I do hope we have first dibs on a buy back because I fear he could be another Andy Cole sold because he wasn’t as good as what we had but bags of potential.
dearie me, just watching CP v MC game. Shitty have more than 80% possession, Palace get out of their half once and score 🙂 STupid game really
Chelsea – Oscar
Will need goals from midfield now Costa is crocked, and Oscar can provide them.
Arsenal – Ramsey
Has had a stop/start season, but starting to look like his old self and won’t be long until he finds his shooting boots. Won us the FA Cup last year. Can he do it again?
United – Di Maria
People starting to question wether he wants to be at United and not been in the team recently, but capable of winning big fixtures for his team.
City – Milner
For all City’s star players, they miss a bit of fight. Milner is capable of providing that and has shown he can come up with important goals.
Liverpool – Balotelli
Only joking….there is no hope for the scousers after the lesson we have them. I’m not even sure they will make the FA Cup final.
2 nil
Looks like Kolo isn’t the only Toure going past his best. Yaya doesn’t do his side many favours these days with his slow build up play and lack of work rate. He takes far too many touches.
Haha he can still finish though! 🙂
looks like Na$ri is their saviour. Big change since he came on
Hahaha hehehe second place is ours to lose guys, who’d have thunk it 🙂
We are second!
Ok come on serious hats on, we can get 84 points maximum. Chelsea play us in that sequence so assuming we win that Chavs will need 15 points from their other 7 games. For us to have a sniff and not be on goal difference we need them to only get 13.
Their remaining games:
Home
Liverpool
ManUre
Sunderland
Palace
Away
Leicester
QPR
Villa
Can you see them dropping enough points in those games? Loftus Road has never been a happy hunting ground for them, I doubt Leicester or Villa can prevent the inevitable, so our hopes lie with ManUre and Dippers.
I don’t see them dropping enough points unfortunately.
However if Villa get any kind of result on Tuesday the double is on 🙂
It’s starting to feel like we could have a squad capable of winning titles. Last season we had a great first few months, and this season we’ve had a great last few months. With a tweak or 2 in the summer and a bit more luck I really believe we could put together a full season of quality football.
There are definately trophies in this squad.
,,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUKL2KUsZ9I
Coq Block 🙂
‘morning all,
I’m with GiE on this, it’s great to be in the position we are. Second place is our’s to lose. Catching the Chavs is nigh on impossible, unless they totally collapse.
We just need to keep winning, starting with three points at Turf moor on Saturday.
Morning All,
Palace must have found a handful of 4 leaf clover.
MC: 74% possession 22 shots 11 corners
CP: 26% 5 shots 4 corners
Still, why should we complain? 😀
Terry and Cockie?????
Come back. We need you
BR, City also had a good penalty shout turned down. Complaining? I’m still laughing! 😀
Michael Owen – living proof that drug taking is rife at BT!
It was only a week ago that Phil Neville was claiming Arsenal wouldn’t finish top 4!
Some of these pundits are a joke.
Thanks to LB for his great post match and RC for his little teaser. Sorry I wasn’t about to comment on them at the time.
I had a funny banana skin feeling about the CP away game for Citeh, and it did work out well for us and Utd.
I agree with GIE that no-one is catching Chavs now. Even if we beat them, win all our remaining fixtures and make up the goal difference I can’t see how they can drop another 7 points.
That is the top 4 sorted as well as I can’t see any of Spuds, Pool or Saints making up the difference to Citeh. All that remains is to decide the order of 2nd, 3rd, 4th.
What I would really like is to send out a statement of intent for next year by beating both Chavs and Utd. That would likely see us 2nd (3rd at worst) and not have to go through CL qualifying. Making a statement with those wins plus being guaranteed to be in the CL should help Arsene with his summer targets, with no player waiting to see what happens or questioning our credentials moving into next season.
Also GIE mentioned Afobe. I didn’t say too much about it at the time we sold him but I was rather miffed that he never got his chance, just as he was starting to look a prolific finisher. It may be that GIE’s MK dons supporting friend is right and he is only an excellent championship player and not PL quality. In which case Arsene has got it spot on.
Having seen a bit of him and Sanogo though I feel Afobe was more deserving of a chance than Sanogo on recent evidence. Sanogo is a big unit and bigger than Afobe but doesn’t look to have a natural shot on him or be a natural finisher. Afobe has been scoring with both feet and regularly, has a reasonably powerful shot, seems quicker, and although not as big as Sanogo is still powerful looking.
I really didn’t get that we didn’t first take an opportunity to find out first hand how he would be at the higher level playing among better players. I have a gut feeling that a midish table PL side will take him and I hope if that happens we (or more importantly Arsene) doesn’t end up with egg on the face.
Dennis forbid imagine if Spuds take him and he hits 25 goals next season. How do you think the Arsene waverers will react to that situation? Only an EPL title would likely dowse those flames.
It is very rare that AW and his U-21 coaches make a mistake about a young player. Can you name a single one who has gone on to have a stellar career?
It is an amazing record.
Do we do the right thing by sending young players out on loan to Championship clubs?
I know that they stand a better chance of getting game time in the lower division and thus get more match experience but would they be better off going abroad? It would certainly broaden their minds and give them a flavour of something a bit different.
Perhaps it is that the forieign clubs don’t want English youngsters who are deemed to be over-paid and lacking technical ability.
Very few senior players get to go to continental sides, I can think of just two at the moment, Bale and Ashley Cole.
Beyond Europe only MLS in the States attracts Premiership players and then only the has beens like Lampard and Stevie Me.
We can all see how quiet the blog is if we do not have a post.
If we all write one a week which doesn’t have to be in-depth or an 800 word study then AA thrives.
https://twitter.com/GunnerJane/status/585499377596239874
Hi Raddy, good plan, can you sign up 7 bloggers to write a post a week? 🙂 Sometimes I just write on the spur of the moment if I get inspiration but I do find it hard if I knew I have to come up with something. I agree it only needs to be a few words
Morning All,
Great pic 9.16.
Little one in drafts if desperate.
Another in drafts slightly longer 😀
Thanks GiE, that’s great. I’ve just had a look and it appears to be missing a bit at the end – are you still working on it? 🙂
Aha, got there before me 😀
hey y’all – sorry did n ot manage to respond to your comments but I see that the Bank Holiday affected the usual traffic on the site…
Anyways –
– Milner will be available for free this summer. Would you go for him?
Regarding Afobe, I think he will do ok in a smaller team in the EPL. He might hight 10-12 goals for such a team as a starter.
I think our main concerns regard:
– PiG, Jenkinson, BFG
– Flamini, Rosicky, Wilshere, Diaby, Bielik, Zelalem
– Walcott, Gnabry
– Podolski, Campbell, Sanogo
What do we do with these guys?
I am all for cashing in on valued assets to ensure that we can buy 3 quality field players + 1 GK…
For some players – we can get good value for money and I would not mind selling them:
– > PiG, Jenkinson, BFG, Rosicky, Podolski, Campbell – we could make about 50 Mln ponds from them
Others will be released: Flamini, Diaby (unless he accepts the ludicrous contract)
Others should be loaned out: Bielik, Gnabry, Sanogo, Zelalem
Others should stay unless we receive a HUGE offer: Wilshere, Walcott
We have a good squad, just needs a bit of touching up:
CECH – Debs, GARAY, Kos, Gibbs – Ox, BENDER, Ramsey – Ozil – Sanchez, Giroud
Ospina – Bellerin, Chambers, Gabs, Monreal – Cazorla, Coquelin, Wilshere – Walcott, Wellbeck, RECRUIT (Depay? Pedro? Jese? Insigne? Merteens? Lavezzi? El Sharawwy? Shaqiri? Salah? Xherdan?…)
+ Arteta, Akpom
And I forgot Milner, Fekir, Lacazette for that last spot for RECRUIT
We could also go for Sterling but then we put Ozil on the bench
OK, it’s a bit early, but there is a poll included to entertain 🙂
Thanks to GiE, we have a …….
….. New post …….
Hi Peaches, 🙂
Just got back – sorry about that.
You remember I told you years ago now, that I am aware my Post writing is el crappo, nothing has changed unfortunately – so if you read it and think “codswallop” — I will now as then, not be offended!! 😀
THE VAGARIES OF SUPPORTING ARSENAL
There is a lightness of spirit among Arsenal fans, particularly bloggers, at the moment, and the cause of this happy state of affairs is clearly linked to the welcome turn of events in the past few weeks which finds us perched high on the tree in the lofty position of second. Yay!
Cast your minds back, for a moment, to a bleak Thursday, on the 1st January this year to be exact, when we were convincingly larruped 2 : 0 by Southampton as a result of some extremely dodgy goalkeeping, so folklore has it, for which our then No.1 Keeper was roundly abused, and is still paying the price having been deposed as the main man.
Wasn’t it also just a short while ago when Chezzer was being hailed as one of the best keepers in the Premier League? Even Enn Gee said it was a ‘no-brainer’.
But fans are fickle, and such an accolade soon became an orphan with no one prepared to own to it — after all, no one likes lame brain ideas – or confused goalkeepers – do they?
It’s one of life’s little oddities, don’t you find, that when things are going poorly for a football team there is an almost universal chorus of complaints from committed fans, or should that read disgruntled larrikins, as encapsulated in the rather unpleasant game of ‘find the scape goat’, and to enthusiastically hurl abuse at the selected victim, and feeling better by dumping their frustrations and vitriol on the goat curry. [Goat curry – where did that come from – Enn Gee will know as it is probably another no-brainer – mine hurts sometimes – so I must have one, somewhere.]
Anyway, back to matters current – It seems that we just cannot function without finding a target, no matter how innocent – someone upon whom to vent our more base feelings, especially as it can safely be done far from any possible retaliation.
Hours of internet blogging are devoted to dissecting the team, the tactics and the supposed attitude of the club towards spending lots of lovely lolly on acquiring, or not acquiring, the latest fad for a sooper-dooper player
That largesse with splashing the cash is made much easier, of course, when the money in question is not your own.
I would not be surprised if you had heard something along the lines of; “I would not pay him more than £120k per week” says the man earning the average wage of £400 per week, or – “He is worth every penny of that £50m transfer fee” quoth the man who would need to work 2,500 lifetimes to earn the money he has so cavalierly advised the club to lash the cash on just one player, and all at the stroke of a pen.
Someone else’s pen – someone else’s cash — as for other players he/they deem be essential, he will have plenty of advice on their salaries and how much they are worth in the transfer market too, no problem.
Then, naturally, when the club buy the player he has been so desperate for them to spend their money on – say – a £42m transfer fee – with the commensurate £40m salary spread over 4 years, on -say – Özil – just for example, you understand – and the acquired player is subsequently deemed not to be as good as expected, or is not trying hard enough, or is showing little interest, or is too lazy, or is just too ……… (fill in the blanks) – despite evidence to the contrary – then the same people will declare that the club has wasted good money on him, which has allegedly come out of their season ticket!! Yee Gods!!
Enough. We are happy – aren’t we? Second, and yet to meet the Chavs – everything is possible isn’t it, so what is to stop us from dreaming of the top spot?
Wait! Hold the ‘phone! What is this I am hearing on the blog vine?
——— We-have-not-improved-year-on-year.
——— It-is-only-the-weakness-of-other-teams-which-has-allowed-us-to-go-second.
Sheesh – what I mistook for a lightness of spirit due to our lofty position near the top of the table, is in fact a delight, in some quarters, at being able to trot out some half-assed derogatory assessment of the ‘real worth’ of our recent winning streak.
Apparently. it is not that we are playing well, and Özil and co are showing their true worth – no – it is because the other teams are crap. Seriously?
Apparently this assessment does not apply to the Chavs who are deemed worthy leaders of the league, it seems – presumably because they play different teams to the ones we meet every week?
Well, mock outrage aside, I do not really care about the inexplicable attitudes of others towards my team.
No. For me, I am simply enjoying the return to the joyous style of football that we seemed to have forsaken for a while back there, and the fact that there is a more resolute attitude displayed by our defence in recent times is welcome too, and does not in any way detract from our attacking virtuosity, but adds its own subtle nuances to our overall gameplay.
Fortunately, AA is an oasis of calm and there is a genuinely upbeat attitude towards the club, the team and the manager.
Long may it stay so! [It’s a ‘no-brainer’, innit?]
Arsenal forever. Come on you Gooners!! 🙂