Bloody Fat Sam again. Pardew was bad but The Walrus? Didn’t the Palace directors ask WHU about him and his style of football? I am sure Cabaye will be thrilled.
What can we expect from today’s game? You already know. FS will start his tenure at CP by “shoring” up the defence, which is just another way of saying Park the Bus, 6 at the back and rough up the opposition. We need to score early otherwise this will be another yawn-fest.
Of course, I could be wrong and Mr Allardyce may send out his team with a message full of attacking intent, he has the talent available, Benteke, Cabaye, Zaha and Palace could play some great stuff under Pardew but sadly, it seems, AP lost both the dressing room and his job.
Shame. Palace are a fine club. Their fans do not deserve to go through what the Hammers suffered under Allardyce who turned the Academy into a joyless club.
The England job: It shows the remarkable stupidity of the FA that they chose FS, but if we are honest they do not have a recent history of inspired signings.
So … the game plan is obvious. Lightning fast attacks or Tora, Tora, Tora if you are Japanese).
Mustafi is back so no need for two DM’s. Theo is out and Welbz isn’t ready yet. Ramsey is.
My Team:
Cesc
Bellerin Mustafi Kos Monreal
Ramsey Xhaka Elneny
Perez Sanchez Ozil
Mr Wenger will disagree and not be so attacking. We are likely to see the Coquelin start as he always does when fit, but as Elneny is about to depart for the ACN, I would like to see him.
Given the worrying form of all our rivals we have to win today. We had almost 80% possession and 23 shots against WBA, it could be more this afternoon.
Happy New Year and let’s hope 2017 brings some silverware
written by Big Raddy
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Yah, a BR pre-match.
Does anyone know if Iwobi is off to the ACN as well?
Although, even if he isn’t I envisage the same team as last week but with the Ox on the right. Until he signs his contract extension he plays, dems da rules, as soon as he does sign it is back to the bench.
Good question LB. I haven’t read that Iwobi is called up but he may have been.
Isn’t Ox injured?
Ox could be injured, not sure.
Thanks Erik
Love to Perez start, and I don’t think he’ll play Xhak, Aaron AND Mo. Two of the three maybe.
Nigeria did not qualify for the 2017 Nations Cup. Egypt knocked Nigeria out because the two were in the same group. So Iwobi stays.
Abetiaja. That is a surprise. Thank you
Wenger should bench Ozil n replace him with Ramsey.
That’s radical
Morning all and a Happy New year
Aah football,, the weather forecast is threatening heavy rain today but as I suspect our boys love playing in front of the Emirates crowd I’m certain they won’t even notice 🙂
In addition they probably slept in their own beds last night and didn’t have to travel to a crummy hotel 🙂
All bodes very well ………..agree Raddy, an early goal or two should set the tone.
Thank you Raddy for the pre-match, off to enjoy drinks with chas, Ant, Jon and Rasp catch up later.
Happy New Year everyone.
Great start to 2017 Raddy, thank you.
I like your team. Please let us take our chances – particularly the early ones. I’m lucky enough to be going today so for once I’ll be able to talk sensibly after the game. A victory and 3rd in the table beckons 🙂
Because Wenger bot u around 45 million pounds.a big money like this you have not scored from penalty spot, free kick before n you are demanding huge amount of 400 thousand pounds a week, no 200 thousand pounds a week. take it or leave it.
If the weather in N London is anything like Norfolk it’s going to be a battle. Cold drizzle suits a Fat Sam team.
He will certainly shore up the defence and has already talked of being better defensively as a team (i.e. All players he picks should try and Kick the opposition at least once each and keep rotating so no bookings are acquired).
The appointment nof FS could give us an opportunity though,? Attacking players Raddy has mentioned Zaha and Cabaye would certainly not expect to play week in week out for San, could Zaha be better on the right than Theo? At half the value of at yes. Does Canaye offer a Santi replacement?
Daniel Ozil does far more than you give him credit for.
thank you Raddy. Don’t you like Fat Sam then?
13th best paid manager in the world, outrageous.
unfortunately for us he gave Palace new wings and self belief. completely unnecessary as they are going nowhere, but a big obstacle for us if we really want to finish in top 4.
Ox rested before his medical in Mancunia
Cech, Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal, Elneny, Xhaka, Iwobi, Sanchez, Lucas, Giroud
Subs: Ospina, Maitland-Niles, Mustafi, Coquelin, Reine-Adelaide, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain
Blimey
Here at the pub we’re going for 4-2-4 based on that starting line-up. Mickey should be happy 🙂
Hi Eddie
Good. Top company on the sofa. Have to say, I thought it was a 3pm KO.
Bloody Spuds 4-0. Must win game 🙂
Hello pubbers 🙂
Iwobi will play the No10, which I think is the most exciting thing I’ve ever heard. Mesut having a rest is a good idea, and if I was there I’d storm the bloody box because Ollie is starting 🙂
Tora, Tora, Tora……..
Just seen the team, proof if anyone needed it that Wenger is on drugs
micky – how was the father-in-law? Did he really talk 26/05/89?
Good ones
Thanks Randy. Hope my fears are unfounded but I can’t help but have some misgivings on this one. An allardyce team with the types of players we often struggle with and bad weather.
4-0 to us by half time will ease my concerns.
Did you see Bellerin talking with hands to Perez? You Perez get ball. You give ball to me. Understood? ☺☺
Late for ko
Too much bubbly
FPP misses his first sitter.
CORRRG
Oops No idea who the FPP IS🙈
OMG! What a goal
Was that really Giroud???
Amazing goal
Ollieeeee The Scorpian 🙂 🙂 🙂
Some really nice stuff
Horrible weather at THOF. hope the AA ears are dry
Ozil must have flu. Iwobi is excellent.
this goal we are bound to see for at least another year
it’s already making headlines
Agree LB. Very classy footballer
Should be two up, hope we sort that out sharpish 2nd half before Palace get any funny ideas
He well deserved it
Love that bloke
Who, Ollie? And so you should
One has to ask why C P didn’t attack like they have since the Iwobi goal.
It has been end to end exciting football in the last 15 mins
Elneny was very good today
Is the ACN on telly?
Perez wasn’t
Very enjoyable.
The Giroud goal made it. Fantastic, truly fantastic.
did you see that? we are 2 nil up, 90th minute and Sanchez RUNNING to take a corner. He is simply amazing
Happy New Year everyone at AA
Two wins, two cleans sheets… that’s all we can do and just hope the Chavs slip up somewhere.
I thought Iwobi did an excellent job today in the absence of Ozil. A lot of good performances – both CBs, Belli, Cech, Elneny, Xhaka, Sanchez, OG.
Lucas showed some promise but his first touch was off. He makes some great runs.
Roll on Bournemouth.
That was very entertaining.
Xhaka and Elneny moved the ball around well.
On Giroud’s wonder goa,l notice who got the intercept (Perez) and I believe he really adds fluid movement and quick passing in the Arsenal school of thought.
Ox made a few nice runs, Ramsey and Sanchez could have made the scoreline prettier.
D got the shutout and you could see Cech was smiling at the end of the game, with back to back clean sheets.
What a great way to start the year!
“I believe he (Perez) really adds fluid movement and quick passing in the Arsenal school of thought.”
Well done Aaron, I am glad someone was paying attention.
oh, meaning I wasn’t 🙂
😀 😀
Thanks for the pre-match,BR.
Especially given the hallucinogenic qualities of Timid Henrick’s mead.
We did the job well today against a pretty poor Palace side. Hopefully some energy conserved for Tuesday and on we go.
Where’s the new style short and sharp match report?
Chas
But we all agreed they were a waste of time and effort.
Didn’t we?
I believe the thinking was that Erik puts a lot of effort into his PM, so we don’t want something going up on the same day, and by tomorrow, we’ve done the game to death
At least I think that what we thought
Eddie
I was paying attention too 🙂
Eddie, I hadn’t read up when I wrote that comment.
Wow, thank you LB
Bang on with the player assessments
Micky. Forget you read them – they are tomorrow’s post or did I get this wrong and we continue today’s post until Tuesday? It’s done and dusted anyway 😦
Did anyone realise it was a pic of Allardyce in the post?
I cannot forget Erik. He said Ollie scored a once in a lifetime only goal, and that the only reason he should ever be selected in the starting XI is if he scores goals like that every game 🙂
Personally, I think LB is hard on the lumbering lumbersexual 🙂
ps dear lord, imagine if this team had a Costa or Ibra or Sanchez’ taller twin brother
Firstly I would like to wish all AAers and all those close to you a very happy and extremely healthy 2017.
Gentlemen please remember to get your PSA blood work done, it’s an easy way to protect yourselves against prostate cancer which is nearly 100% curable with early detection.
Erik
Yip and the clue was in the first four words of your pm. Bloody Fat Sam again with his ugly bung taking mug straight underneath 🙂
LB, thank you for initiating the discussion on the AA daily format, although I will throw in the odd (very odd) post, I like the new format especially if Raddy continues with his great PM’s.
“Giroud scores goal of the year… and it’s only January 1! Arsenal cruise past Crystal Palace after striker’s outrageous scorpion kick”
“Olivier Giroud scores ‘goal of the century’ to send Twitter into hysteria”
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Just two of todays headlines after Giroud’s fantastic goal.
I think it’s rates up there with Bergkamp’s goal against Newcastle as the two best Arsenal goals that I’ve ever seen.
Chas it would make a great short post if you were able to pick out maybe 5 videos of the best Arsenal goals you can remember then we could all vote on the best of the best.
I was there, I was there when Giroud scored a goal of such athleticism and beauty that even the Emirates crowd kept singing his name to remind him.
As others have said it will be replayed over and over again.
Our fabulous, handsome, French prince …….. I can’t wait to see what picture Irish has put up on Twitter.
Whispering …… has a comment been removed since the game.
Happy New Year to those I missed earlier and where’s that GoonerB been?
OMG love it love it love it
ha ha ha ha. knot ear, but appy bunny,
Happy New Year everyone.
and before I forget, that was one gem of a PM, Raddy. 🙂
Wow, not only was it a quite extraordinary goal, I forgot what superb build up it was right from the Perez interception
I like GN’s idea of a best 5 all time Arsenal goals and a vote
actually LB and micky I was paying attention. But I was looking at Perez the striker, right? And I didn’t see him scoring or even attempting to score. Even that loon Xhaka had a go a couple of times
So have we accepted that he is no forward?
As for Ollie. Speechless, happy, self righteous. Ollie such a hard working man, so dedicated to the cause (he kisses the badge more often then others 🙂 ), booed by his own country; Giroud deserves recognition. I am pleased he is playing 90+ mins now, long may this continue.
the rest of the game was ok
chas – 2 questions for you – 1. how come you didn’t blog on the way to the game yesterday? 2. how do you extract a head from a photo? what software do you use?
Morning All,
What a wonderful start to the year. Beautiful day, 3 points and my hangover gone.
1. In the car
2. Do you mean, cut a face out to stick somewhere else? If so, I use Microsoft paint, the free form selection bit (not rectangular) where you can cut out any shape you want with the cursor. That’s why they are so amateurish. (p.s. when you paste elsewhere you have to click ‘transparent selection’ else you get a white surrounding square.)
And thanks to The FP there isn’t a whisper in the headlines about Spurs smashing Watford which is an excellent result for them.
raddy – I agree, it is probably best start to a year for me ever!! I even had all the people I love in my house yesterday! And Giroud’s goal…what else can a person ask for??
chas – 1. I see. I was worried that perhaps you or Ant are not all there. 2. ok, thank you, I will try. I want to extract my granddaughter’s face and make lots of copies on clean sheets of paper so she can paint in the rest, probably in pink 🙂
I often make personalised birthday cards using that technique and they always seem to go down well even if they are a bit crap. 🙂
ha ha ha ha, I don’t want a birthday card from you 🙂 🙂
you mastered Kelsey’s image to perfection.
raddy – I have to agree with you again. I noticed spurs’s win gone unnoticed 🙂 🙂
Gotta go out in a mo, so off to read the player ratings in wordpress.
Really good chas. Bet JC was thrilled
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