Arsenal

[SantiSuk]

Hell's teeeth. Yes breathtaking - thought Arsenal should have cooled it down after Leicester's first. Allowing it to turn into a racing match from my end to your end and back is the sort of naive stuff we were seeing from the defence 2 years ago and we got killed then. No matter, high risk but it worked. Good to see Sanchez break his duck and for us to score two goals without including own goals.

Not a great fan of Arteta but its a good thing that he's taken over from the appalling Flam, Banging 2 goals in against Spuds B team defence is one thing, but we need someone to defend and help control the game here, not a red mist hero.

All to play for - lets make the ball do the work.

Just noticed - no Giroud on the bench. What's that about?

Edited September 26, 2015 by SantiSuk

[SantiSuk]

Leicester might have been up amongst the big boys but I don't think they had played many if any of the big boys yet. And we finally looked like the big boys today.Leicester were starting to believe the hype put about them by the press - always dangerous. I thought they played us smarter this time last year.

So Giroud was on the actual bench (if not on the one posted on the website I looked at), Annoying that Arsenal.com and BeebSport don't post the subs

Edited September 26, 2015 by SantiSuk

[Chicog]

They do on their twatter feed. Arteta is pretty crap, I hope Le Coq is back soon.

[Chicog]

Your lot look crap as ever....not buying a striker is gonna cost you this season.

Where are the goals going to come from?

[smokie36]

Your lot look crap as ever....not buying a striker is gonna cost you this season.

Where are the goals going to come from?

Letting in two though...tsk tsk...

[Chicog]

I'd let in four every game as long as we're guaranteed to score five.

[mrbojangles]

Ah. The school of Kevin Keegan

[SantiSuk]

Arteta and Falmini injured for tonight's home game against Olympiakos. Coq's injury may not be fully cleared, so that playing him has risks for the Man U game on Saturday.

Interesting to see what Arsene does. He will know best but I guess he could pull Koscielney forward to holding mid, Gabriel (back from 1 match suspension) at left centre (or BFG) and Monreal at right centre with Gibbs coming in to right back. It would be interesting to see whether Kos can play midfield. Certainly seems to read the game well, is quick and decisive and usually a safe passer of the ball. Arsenal's second best player for several seasons IMO. I guess it all depends on what Arsene sees as Saturday's team and who he wants to hold back on the bench.

Up front, probably Giroud to see if he can carry some confidence from his first goal last Saturday. He may hold back Sanchez on the bench and start with Ox with Saturday in mind - but then Alexis would probably be chewing Wenger's arm off until he was put on the pitch!

More clever understated masterminding from Ozil and we should get through this one (another 3 assists at Leicester). Teams will not learn that you have to go out and get him (in a legal closing down sense) before he does damage. That laconic roaming is deceptive.

[Chicog]

Arteta and Falmini injured for tonight's home game against Olympiakos. Coq's injury may not be fully cleared, so that playing him has risks for the Man U game on Saturday.

Interesting to see what Arsene does. He will know best but I guess he could pull Koscielney forward to holding mid, Gabriel (back from 1 match suspension) at left centre (or BFG) and Monreal at right centre with Gibbs coming in to right back. It would be interesting to see whether Kos can play midfield. Certainly seems to read the game well, is quick and decisive and usually a safe passer of the ball. Arsenal's second best player for several seasons IMO. I guess it all depends on what Arsene sees as Saturday's team and who he wants to hold back on the bench.

Up front, probably Giroud to see if he can carry some confidence from his first goal last Saturday. He may hold back Sanchez on the bench and start with Ox with Saturday in mind - but then Alexis would probably be chewing Wenger's arm off until he was put on the pitch!

More clever understated masterminding from Ozil and we should get through this one (another 3 assists at Leicester). Teams will not learn that you have to go out and get him (in a legal closing down sense) before he does damage. That laconic roaming is deceptive.

Completely given up on Ramsey have you?

[StevieH]

can't say i'm particularly a fan of alan davies - in fact i think he's an unfunny d*ckhead in the main - but he obviously doesn't plan on spending much time in certain parts of west london in the near future.

Read out on Arsenal podcast The Tuesday Club, Davies wrote it “at a time at the weekend when I was having a massive sense of humour failure about football. And then we went and won at Tottenham, and it all changed.”

“Be advised, this delusional personality disorder starts at the top. Of all the reprehensible scumbags masquerading as talented successful stars in their field, you have to start with Abramovich. Now he is the billionaire with yachts, legit. business interests and helicopters; and the grim reality of the blood-stained gold rush that was the break-up of the former USSR: the handing over of huge state utilities, of the right to print money to oligarchs to keep them out of Western business hands. There are bodies buried, make no mistake. But now, he cruises clear in ugly legitimacy in needy London, where we’ll sell anything to any dubious foreign national, without asking what crimes or human rights violations they committed to amass their sickening wealth. Of course, a man like that would hire a man like Mourinho: a walking narcissistic personality disorder. And of course, he would have the racist Terry as his leader, and the sociopathic violent thug as his centre forward; and they would be paraded as heroes in front of millions of impressionable children worldwide. It’s inevitable. It’s a disgusting institution that’s rotten from the top all the way down to its racist fans pushing black people off tubes. This is far more than a ‘shit club with no history’, this is a stain on football, on London, on humanity.”

[SantiSuk]

Completely given up on Ramsey have you?

Assued he or Cazorla would be alongside whoever. Havent seen either play sole holding mid have we?

[Chicog]

Never heard of 4-2-3-1?

[Chicog]

Well it's not Rambo but should be good enough.

Arsenal lineup

Starting:

David Ospina

Héctor Bellerín

Kieran Gibbs

Laurent Koscielny

Gabriel Paulista

Santi Cazorla

Francis Coquelin

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Mesut Özil

Alexis Sánchez

Theo Walcott

Substitutes: Petr Čech, Calum Chambers, Mathieu Debuchy, Per Mertesacker, Nacho Monreal, Aaron Ramsey, Joel Campbell.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Chicog

[SantiSuk]

Horrible pub league goalkeeping from Ospina and once again Wenger looks like being caught out playing without his best available team, Every corner another goal given away?

Edited September 29, 2015 by SantiSuk

[nev]

Buck your ideas up you need to win or England lose the 4th spot

[SantiSuk]

Front of midfield misfiring badly. No time for sentiment - Ox off and Ramsey on please. Ozil gone missing this time. No strategy in the final third.

I know that Theo is scoring one goal a game but I still don't like the game we play with him up front - too reliant on the ball over the top.

Apart from Palace and Leicester games it looks to me like this year's Arsenal set-up is way short of the team that Wenger (and nobody else) thought he could run with as a Prem contender. Fail to win this one and it's looking like his last season.

Still, 45 mins is enough time to claw this back, but needs much more aggression/invention up front and seemingly we need BFG back on the pitch for corners.

Edited September 29, 2015 by SantiSuk

[Chicog]

Wenger: "Must win game". Drops his #1 keeper.

Nope, I'm lost.

[SantiSuk]

Pathetic, In Wenger we bust. New low for the club in 19 years.

Have to get a point out of Bayern and beat Olympiacos well in Athens now.

[SantiSuk]

The old boy's way past his sell-by date. Stan won't see it that way unfortunately.

[jellydog]

Wenger: "Must win game". Drops his #1 keeper.

Nope, I'm lost.

When your DM's are too old, beat up, or overworked you play your #2 keeper.

[carmine]

Wenger: "Must win game". Drops his #1 keeper.

Nope, I'm lost.

When your DM's are too old, beat up, or overworked you play your #2 keeper.

Is there any point in premier league clubs competing in the CL. Just give them the money and <deleted> 'em off!!!

[SantiSuk]

Makes you wonder (re Arsenal) doesn't it when our esteemed experienced-in-Europe manager seems to prefer consolidating his Prem position at the foolhardy expense of Champions League performances. 6 changes away to the Croats and 2 (arguably 3) last night. Wrote the same sentiment last night in a foul mood, but then deleted it thinking it too hyper-critical. Seems a fair charge this morning.

Wenger: 'sorry Stan - we lost last night in the CL'

Stan: 'is the money already in the bank for the qualification?'

W: 'Oui, bien entendu',

S: 'forget it - who cares about darned europeans anyway (ooh sorry my French friend) - concentrate on top 4, top 3 if you can manage it old boy'

Edited September 30, 2015 by SantiSuk

[alfieconn]

Look on the bright side, at least you will brake your run of going out in the last 16

[champers]

Piers Morgan for manager.

[alfieconn]

Look on the bright side, at least you will brake your run of going out in the last 16

Sorry sb break before one of the grammar queens pick me up on it

[SantiSuk]

No grammar queens here. Spotted it, but I knew what you meant. I continually type form instead of from - can't shake it off - and the spellcheckers don't pick that up either.

[Chicog]

With two games back to back against Bayern, I can see us finishing bottom of the group.

Which would be better than scraping second, which realistically is probably beyond reach, or third.

Edited September 30, 2015 by Chicog

[StevieH]

come on, make an effort arsenal. we could have all four english clubs dropping from the champions league into the uefa cup here, it'd be brilliant.

[BangrakBob]

And EPL must be in serious danger of losing that 4th CL spot this summer

[SantiSuk]

And EPL must be in serious danger of losing that 4th CL spot this summer

Think I read it would be 2017, not next year