1-0 Down, 3-1 Up.  MOTM: Arsene Wenger.

September 15, 2017

Here are some brief “feelings” on the back of last night’s game, pulled together from my own thoughts as well as picking through the excellent comments on here from genuine experts.

  1. Back three/four. I think it’s wrong to judge a system by the personnel. Throw Koscielny and Mustafi into yesterday’s starting XI and I’m sure things would have looked different.
  2. However, perhaps we looked better second half BECAUSE of the switch. Thoughts?
  3. I’ve stated my concerns over our midfield pairing of Xhaka and Ramsey. Chief amongst my concerns is the lack of back-up, and now heavily underlined by the injury to Coquelin. Has anything from last night changed the thinking here? I always have liked Elneny’s quiet, unfussy, business like approach to the game. I thought he was excellent.
  4. Maitland-Niles moved more central, and we also saw the welcome return of Jack. I reckon we saw enough to think we have real quality in depth waiting in the wings.
  5. Sanchez, oh Sanchez. How would he react to the boos on Saturday and even having to start last night? My answer, he plays against Chelsea.
  6. Alex Iwobi. Love the guy, but I think his role lies further up field as back-up to Mesut, rather than in the deeper Ramsey role.
  7. Arsene Wenger played a superb 15 minutes at the break. A rare half time substitution, a change in formation, together with a considerably upped tempo from the boys from the first minute of the second period means he gets my MOTM.

Thoroughly enjoyable game. We saw many exciting things. Bring on Chelsea. Cannot wait.

MickyDidIt89

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Posted by Rasp

We welcome the Billy Goats for our 1st Europa League game

September 14, 2017

This season we play Thursday night football in the Europa League and our first game is home to Fußball-Club Köln also known as FC Köln or FC Cologne in English. They play in the Bundesliga, the highest league of German football and were Champions in 1962/3, 1963/4 and 1977/8. The club’s nickname Die Geißböcke (“The Billy Goats”) refers to the club’s mascot, a male goat named after the veteran FC player and former manager Hennes Weisweiler. The first mascot goat was donated by a circus entrepreneur as a Cologne carnival joke.

The competition has gone through several changes and was previously known as the Fairs Cup then the UEFA Cup and now the UEFA Europa League.

Below is a comparison of both teams’ records in these competitions.

FC Köln – P98, W52, D16, L30, GF184, GA105, Win% 53.6

Arsenal –   P49, W24, D9, L16, GF91, GA51, Win% 48.98

Arsenal have won 2 European competitions the 1970 Inter City Fairs Cup and the 1994 European Cup Winners Cup.

As far as I could find we have only played FC Koln once before – in the 1971 Fairs Cup when we won 2-1 at home and lost 0-1 away.

My team (Oh dear where is Big Raddy).

An under par Arsenal lost to Liverpool 4-0 in our 3rd Pl game and then we dominated against an under par Bournemouth to win 3-0.  The boost in confidence we gained from the victory over Bournemouth should be used as a springboard and a reminder of how well we can play.

This competition is very winnable and to start with a home game is a positive; if the crowd get behind the team then I predict (always confident) that today we will have a comfortable 3-0 victory over FC Koln.

Written by GunnerN5

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Posted by D.I. Bongo

The Mesut/Alexis Conundrum

September 13, 2017

Question of the day from GoonerB

What do people feel we should do with Sanchez and Ozil? Options could include:

  1. Play them as 1st 11 choices all season and let them leave on a free in May.
  2. Show them the contract now and say sign or you go to the reserves, and we invest the playing time in our future players rather than you.
  3. Play them till January then look for the best deals we can get. If so should we look for player swap deals (but with which clubs?) or straight cash (but with which clubs?).

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Posted by Rasp

What we learned from the Weekend.

September 11, 2017
  1. Lacazette is worth the money.
  2. We can win without Sanchez.
  3. Mr Wenger’s experiment of playing Bellerin on the left is over.
  4. Kolasinac needs PL experience but looks a fine addition.
  5. Welbeck can finish!
  6. Mustafi central with pacy CB’s outside him works against teams who have no attack
  7. Our midfield excel against teams lacking confidence and ability
  8. We are better without The Ox (but good luck to the chap).
  9. In Xhaka and Ozil we have two wonderful creative players who will propel Lacazette towards 25 goals this season
  10. Arsene will struggle to find game time for Walcott

And from elsewhere:

  1. MU are flat-track bullies and will struggle against better, more organised sides.
  2. Chelsea remain a quality team
  3. De Bruyne is a marvellous player and should be sold to Real Madrid – immediately.
  4. The same can be said for Harry Kane
  5. Liverpool played exceptionally well when beating us and were rubbish on Saturday
  6. West Ham are doomed.
  7. And this hurts to write …. Spurs are serious title contenders.

I also learned that it is not a good idea to go walking in torrential rain

written by Big Raddy

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Posted by Erik the Red

Is a Clean Sheet possible ?

September 9, 2017

Seems an age since we got hammered up at Anfield. Why? Not just the International break but also thanks to the poisonous atmosphere around the club. Let’s be honest, it has never really disappeared despite a decent end to last season and an encouraging win on the opening day. Sadly, it will be just below the surface until Mr Wenger leaves the club. Some people, especially the media want him out and will not be satisfied until he departs, all I can say is “you don’t know what you’ve lost ’til it’s gone”.

Enough of that …

The only way to silence the critics is by playing well and a win today is the start of the process.

images-2.jpeg

Are Bournemouth ready to be thrashed? I doubt it. They are compact, efficient and organised – they will be tough to beat. In particular Begovic is showing why he such a highly rated GK having left the Chelsea bench. Afobe will be trying to show the club that he should not have been sold. Defoe loves a goal against us.

We all know about Eddie Howe. Could he be the next AFC manager? The name certainly fits – we have had a Howe as manager in the past (Don) and he was an Arsenal legend.

Will Sanchez start after a depressing time with Chile and a long flight? It must be difficult to live under such scrutiny and it is starting to show.

And what of the Back 3 experiment? Like many I would go back to a back 4 which suits our squad but why buy Kolasinac if not to play him as a wing-back?

My Team:

Cech

Mustafi    Koscielny    Monreal

Bellerin    Ramsey    Xhaka    Kolasinac

Ozil

Lacazette     Welbeck

I would love to find a place for Iwobi but it will have to be a 20 minute sub appearance, same with Sanchez. We need to see Lacazette  take a more central and involved role, so far he has been peripheral and for 50+m I expect more. Bellerin has been pants and needs to get a grip or get dropped, though it may help the young Spaniard if he were played in his preferred position (are you reading AW?)

Defensively this has been a carcrash of a start. 8 goals conceded in 3 games. Not good enough. Solution? Play Mustafi on the right of the 3 with a RB in front of him – AW trying Holding and Ox was an unmitigated disaster and quite frankly was one of the most baffling decisions of his 20+ year reign at AFC.

We need a win – nothing else will suffice.

Let it be So

COYRRG

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Posted by Erik the Red

Arsenal 2017/18 Squad

September 7, 2017

Now that the summer transfer window has closed here is our First Team Squad as shown on Arsenal.com.

Now here is the Academy squad.

I’m not and expert on either squad formation or tactics, all I can intelligently discuss is my opinion of the players skills, attitude and team contribution based on viewing them during televised games. But nonetheless I would enjoy an open dialogue on the merits of this squad.

Written byGunnerN5

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Posted by D.I. Bongo

Now we host the Cherries at the Emirates

September 6, 2017

Bournemouth FC was founded in 1899, 118 years ago, as Boscombe FC.

They have had 28 different managers in their history including Harry Redknapp; who famously took them to memorable victory over Manchester United in the 1984 FA Cup, Tony Pulis and an ex-Arsenal manager Leslie Knighton.

Their current manager is Eddie Howe who has taken them from League Division Two and now they are enjoying their 3rd season in the Premier League.

Club Honours:

Football League Championship

Champions: 2014–15

Football League One (Division 3)

Champions: 1986–87

Runners-up (2) 1947–48 (Division 3 South), 2012–13 (Division 3)

Football League Two (Division 4)

Runners-up (2): 1970–71, 2009–10

Play-off winners: 2002–03

Promoted: 1981–82

Southern League

Runners-up: 1922–23

Football League Trophy

Winners: 1983–84

Runners-up: 1997–98

Football League Third Division South Cup

Winners: 1945–46

Not much I can say about Bournemouth as our experience is minimal and we’ve only played them on 5 occasions, winning 4 and drawing the other.

Here is that record –

Even in the aftermath of the transfer window I can only foresee a decisive victory.

Written by GunnerN5

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Posted by D.I. Bongo

Media maelstrom inspires Arsenal fans

September 5, 2017

We have just witnessed the biggest “much ado about nothing” period in the history of the Arsenal Football Club. It was ably driven by the usual culprits, the Arsenal hating Media, the fans (those that believe the nonsense they read) and, of course, the “expert pundits” who fuel the fires of discontent.

During the past few days we have seen the worst show of support in my living memory, even going back to the horrendous period between 1953/54 and 1987/88. This was a period during which we only won – 1 League title, 2 FA Cups; I inter City Fairs Cup and I League Cup and zero Charity Shields, only 5 trophies in total over 34 years.

During Arsene Wenger’s 21 seasons in charge we have won 3 League titles, 7 FA cups and 7 Charity Shields a total of 17 trophies in 21 seasons, despite this fact the intensity of criticism is far greater today than I have ever known.

In my opinion it is 100% media created and driven and they are the only winners as our club, our players and potentially our results will all suffer due to the unrealistic expectations that have been created. No other club in England has to endure the amount of negative/destructive press that is directed at Arsenal – why?

Now in the aftermath of the current maelstrom what has actually happened?

Players in –

Sead Kolasinac – Left back.

Alexandre Lacazette – Centre forward.

Players out –

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – Right midfield (sold)

Wojciech Szczesny – Keeper (sold)

Gabriel Paulista – Centre back (sold)

Kieran Gibbs – Left back (sold)

Yaya Sanogo – Centre Forward (free transfer)

Emiliano Martinez –Keeper (loan)

Carl Jenkinson – Right back (loan)

Lucas Perez- Centre forward (loan)

Joel Campbell – Right wing (loan)

My summation of the window is that I prefer Lacazette to Oxlade and Kolasinac to Gibbs even though they may play in different positions. I liked both Gabriel and Lucas and I’m sorry to see them leave, the others have rarely played and we knew we needed to scale back the size of our squad.

Sanchez and Ozil have still, as expected, not signed new contracts, so nothing changed there – except for a lot of wasted ink.

Now we can look forward to a season where the black flag wavers, the media and a section of attending fans will do their level best to shovel the players/manager/club into the hole they have already dug/created for them.

Written by GunnerN5

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Posted by D.I. Bongo

What would a successful season be?

September 4, 2017

The transfer saga has ended and our squad will remain as such (barring injuries) until the end of the year. Given our current squad, our management, the current spirit around the club as well as given our competition at national and European levels, what would success look like at the end of May 2018 for you?

A short but interesting post from

RC78

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Posted by Erik the Red

Beginnings v Endings. Liverpool v Arsenal

September 2, 2017

So, and this is a fact, The Ox chose Liverpool over Chelsea and Arsenal

Smoke signals from some fires suggested both Lemar and Virgil fancy Pool.

I’m not basing anything here on what we all witnessed at Anfield last week, because I’m talking about the bigger picture. There does appear to be a new wave of optimism surrounding Pool, like the dawning of a new era. A certain dynamic energy envelops the place, whereas I feel Arsenal has a rather tired, end of empire kind of feel. We’re going through some motions before a rebirth.

Some players are not rushing to re-sign, whilst others clearly want a move away. I think we can all accept that in the short term nothing fundamental about the club will change.

Given the personnel we’re stuck with, and I’m talking from Board downwards, what do we think can inject some spark of life into the club?

Written by MickyDidit89

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Posted by D.I. Bongo

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