Arsenal

[MrRed]

Yep good reply,after all they were not much better than you where they? but.....a derby is a derby and some teams live on it i still think you will finish higher than the Olympic boys.

Dreamers the lot of them.

[smokie36]

Yep good reply,after all they were not much better than you where they? but.....a derby is a derby and some teams live on it i still think you will finish higher than the Olympic boys.

Dreamers the lot of them.

Not bad when the shock wore off I suppose but he should look at the recent record against us and ask where his own side are....we are hovering around fourth for sure...his lot will be way lower...how low is anyones guess now isn't it?

Manchester sides are well out in front..so the target this season now is consistency against the lesser sides like the Arse (which we are achieving! ) and the likes of the Geordies next week.....beating the west London Fulham based rubbish would be a pleasant touch I will admit.

[carmine]

Ive been away most of last two months....but am back now!

so will my team!

Welcome mack migsy....I see your side as having to pull two or three big wins out of he hat now or sides will start to smell blood....even if hey go a couple of goals down they will feel you can be beaten mentally.

It could all collapse about the prof's ears very soon if he's not careful!

Now where has your mate tigerfish got to I wonder?

o.k. what do you want to talk about spuds ?

was it the right result ? yes ! we came to play football, but unfortunately the Arsenal and Wenger forgot that its not just about going forward and trying to score goals. bossed the midfield at times, the defence was woeful though.

did we make any noise ? well after the initial usual drab 5 minutes of "when the @#$%s go marching in" it was all Arsenal before you got the first goal and even then when we equalised, we were boxing above our weight. considering WHL is meant to be such a fortress in the vocal leagues.

now down to the Van der FARTs goal ............. hmmmmm.

notice i haven't seen one of you lilly whites post anything about whether it was a hand ball or not.

as for your newly signed striker, you'll learn and find out soon enough why so many teams have shipped him on. here is a clue, he has a tattoo on his left arm saying " only god will judge me " wrong ! ask all his past fellow team mates, especially the African nations ones what they think of him ?

<deleted> me ! you lot are getting as bad as that Chelsea lot. when you've done as much as say Man U and Liverpool in the game then maybe we can start talking.

Morning T'Fish,

No it catagorically wasn't a handball as was clearly shown in the video reply so not worth commenting on other than to say a good decision by the ref.

I think Mike Dean's a decent ref as it goes.

[Abrak]

as for your newly signed striker, you'll learn and find out soon enough why so many teams have shipped him on. here is a clue, he has a tattoo on his left arm saying " only god will judge me " wrong ! ask all his past fellow team mates, especially the African nations ones what they think of him ?

Well Spurs havent signed him, just borrowed him, so he is a bit of a decent two way bet.

Also I wouldnt bet against Harry getting the best of him. I dont like Harry (he talks too much and <deleted>) but it never ceases to amaze me the number of footballers who really love him. He does seem an excellent man manager of 'footballers'. For instance, Spurs handling of Modric over the summer was simply brilliant. Levy acted as the bad guy and Harry the good guy. Levy said he wasnt for sale and he had to honor his contract. Harry says Levy makes the decision but I understand that Modric's head has been turned and afterwards that he is a total professional that will put this behind him and always has and will give the club 100%. That he should have a contract to represent his value. He totally played down Modric's refusal to play. Wasnt 'no brainer' Gallas another awkward footballer.

I dislike Harry because while he is Spurs manager his sole intent seems to be to manipulate himself into the England job. I like the idea of him as an England manager though.

[carmine]

as for your newly signed striker, you'll learn and find out soon enough why so many teams have shipped him on. here is a clue, he has a tattoo on his left arm saying " only god will judge me " wrong ! ask all his past fellow team mates, especially the African nations ones what they think of him ?

Well Spurs havent signed him, just borrowed him, so he is a bit of a decent two way bet.

Also I wouldnt bet against Harry getting the best of him. I dont like Harry (he talks too much and <deleted>) but it never ceases to amaze me the number of footballers who really love him. He does seem an excellent man manager of 'footballers'. For instance, Spurs handling of Modric over the summer was simply brilliant. Levy acted as the bad guy and Harry the good guy. Levy said he wasnt for sale and he had to honor his contract. Harry says Levy makes the decision but I understand that Modric's head has been turned and afterwards that he is a total professional that will put this behind him and always has and will give the club 100%. That he should have a contract to represent his value. He totally played down Modric's refusal to play. Wasnt 'no brainer' Gallas another awkward footballer.

I dislike Harry because while he is Spurs manager his sole intent seems to be to manipulate himself into the England job. I like the idea of him as an England manager though.

Redknapp is an excellent man manager. No doubting this. I'd also add Adebayor to the list of difficult footballers and i doubt Van Der Vaart is either. He has petulant written all over him. Lass Diarra perhaps another. They do seem to really like him.

Shame Harry is tactically retarded. There is no other rational explanation of a manager that would play VDV right midfield. Mindyou, Harrys effective surrender of our midfield for 63 minutes saved the gooners a real drubbing.

[SantiSuk]

Tight arse(nal)?

Gazidis says Arsenal can compete financially even if we do not make the CL next season. Expectation management rules!

[Abrak]

A few quick notes on the Arsenal results. I will just put the bullet points.

1) Headline profit fell from 45m to 2m - not great. The good news is that most the fall was due to a fall in profits on players sales which fell from 38m to 6m. Obviously the Fabregas, Nasri sales go into next year but, after that it is doubtful they have someone worth 38m in their team.

Overall the results were pretty disappointing as I will explain but I should preface that by saying that most Premiership clubs would give their eye teeth for results like these.

Ok the bad.

1) Sales were only up 1% for the year (clubs have got used to adding 10%.) More worrying wages which is the bulk of their costs rose 12% to 124m

2) Now Arsenal's wage bill which is about the same as Liverpool's has always surprised me that it is so high. They employ youngsters, cheap, Van Persie is only on 75k while Liverpool give Gerrard 120k and employ players to sit on the bench for 90k a week. The explanation for is that Wenger has an incredibly quirky idea where he believes there should be very little difference in salary between the players. It sounds an incredibly stupid idea on the basis that your best players are underpaid and leave and your crap players are overpaid and cant be got rid of.

3) What is most excitingly depressing is that these results include 30m of revenues from CL and if they dont make it this year, their results certainly wont look pretty.

Balance sheet

1) As always the balance sheet is being strengthened. Gross debt is 260m but Arsenal have cash reserves of 160m meaning that net debt is 100m compared to 300m - there have been decent cash inflows from the property business.

2) 160m of cash reserves unfortunately does not mean that Arsenal has a huge mountain of cash to spend on players. The business has varying seasonal cash requirements and they would also need to hold cash for debt reserves. However if you consider that cash reserves have risen 60m over the last two years while gross debt has fallen 100m, you have to fathom that Arsenal has at least 60m to buy players - helped of course by 18m negative net spend in the summer.

Ok so not very exciting.....but City's results should be out over the next few days.

[mrbojangles]

but City's results should be out over the next few days.

I think we now employ some very creative accountants

[MrRed]

but City's results should be out over the next few days.

I think we now employ some very creative accountants

And my god you need them not forgetting lawyers

[smokie36]

but City's results should be out over the next few days.

I think we now employ some very creative accountants

And my god you need them not forgetting lawyers

I hope they take a real real close look at that sponsorship deal with Abu Dhabi oops sorry Etihad.....

[somtampet]

Can't say much - still haven't seen the game.

What I have seen in recent days is every other EPL manager and his dog queuing up to say what a brilliant manager Wenger has been and why Arsenal should keep him. You'd think the management/ownership would get the message. His peers know he's completely lost the plot and that the longer we cling onto him at all costs the longer it will take for us to get back to any position of strength.

The Sanga broken leg is a real nail in the coffin. The Chairman painted himself into a corner and from a purely business perspective the owner has surely got to sack both or sell out. If he fluffs this one he's going to end up with only half the value he started the season with.

All the managers hope he doesnt get the sack,so the team can continue to be very poor defensive wise

[smokie36]

Can't say much - still haven't seen the game.

What I have seen in recent days is every other EPL manager and his dog queuing up to say what a brilliant manager Wenger has been and why Arsenal should keep him. You'd think the management/ownership would get the message. His peers know he's completely lost the plot and that the longer we cling onto him at all costs the longer it will take for us to get back to any position of strength.

The Sanga broken leg is a real nail in the coffin. The Chairman painted himself into a corner and from a purely business perspective the owner has surely got to sack both or sell out. If he fluffs this one he's going to end up with only half the value he started the season with.

All the managers hope he doesnt get the sack,so the team can continue to be very poor defensive wise

Everyone including the Woolwich lot want him to stay in his job. It just shows how thick they really are!

[mrbojangles]

but City's results should be out over the next few days.

I think we now employ some very creative accountants

And my god you need them not forgetting lawyers

I hope they take a real real close look at that sponsorship deal with Abu Dhabi oops sorry Etihad.....

That goes without saying. It has already been stated that the deal will be looked at very closely. City seem confident of being able to adhere to the FFP element.

[smokie36]

If it doesn't mrboj will you be deducted a few points? What's the procedure for teams tho don't meet the criteria?

[mrbojangles]

If it doesn't mrboj will you be deducted a few points? What's the procedure for teams tho don't meet the criteria?

I believe the maximum penalty would be to be thrown out of the Champions League

[smokie36]

If it doesn't mrboj will you be deducted a few points? What's the procedure for teams tho don't meet the criteria?

I believe the maximum penalty would be to be thrown out of the Champions League

As long as you're not replaced by Arsenal that's not so bad.

[MrRed]

What happens if you are not in the Champions League?

[mrbojangles]

What happens if you are not in the Champions League?

I don't know. Does the sun stop setting? Will Bears carry on sh1tting in the woods? Nope, I can't guess. Go on then Red. Apart from losing some revenue, what happens?

[SantiSuk]

Unconvincing after an excellent first 20-30 minutes. Still a top 8 (just) outfit, not top 4.

Theo was rubbish yesterday, but the real issue behind the second half performance was the complete abrogation of duty by Arteta. Had to keep searching the screen to see where he was hiding - very odd. As a result no playmaker and no front to the midfield. Wenger should have replaced Arteta with Benayoun at about 60 minutes, but such a statement might have been too inflammatory for an already disgruntled section of Gooners fans.

Luckily Song realised these failings half way through and decided that he had to run the ball forward himself much more than normal.

Defence looked reasonably solid (even Koscielny) but this was Sunderland and they have a relegation-worthy attack and a manager who will be gone before the month's out.

Wait for vP to get injured. Then the season will be over and so will Wenger!

Edited October 17, 2011 by SantiSuk

[smokie36]

Yes Sunderland really are bad aren't they?

Edit: Just to say I thought Van Persie had an excellent game.

Edited October 17, 2011 by smokie36

[smokie36]

What a dire game of football. Probably deserved your 1-0 win. Piss poor advert for the CL though...Marseille were truly awful.

[bkkjames]

Smokes, despite your success last year, cl group stages are always dire-dont see the point beside being a cash cow.

Not as bad as intl friendlies though that serve only to get key players injured and raise expectations for no apparent reason.

[carmine]

Smokes, despite your success last year, cl group stages are always dire-dont see the point beside being a cash cow.

Not as bad as intl friendlies though that serve only to get key players injured and raise expectations for no apparent reason.

i believe the general consensus was that we brought flare and panache to the CL. Ofcourse, thats just what i heard

You lot brought......................................Darren Fletcher.

[bkkjames]

Smokes, despite your success last year, cl group stages are always dire-dont see the point beside being a cash cow.

Not as bad as intl friendlies though that serve only to get key players injured and raise expectations for no apparent reason.

i believe the general consensus was that we brought flare and panache to the CL. Ofcourse, thats just what i heard

You lot brought......................................Darren Fletcher.

Unsurprisingly, wrong again Carmine: Fletch was out sick most of the year

[MrRed]

Smokes, despite your success last year, cl group stages are always dire-dont see the point beside being a cash cow.

Not as bad as intl friendlies though that serve only to get key players injured and raise expectations for no apparent reason.

i believe the general consensus was that we brought flare and panache to the CL. Ofcourse, thats just what i heard

You lot brought......................................Darren Fletcher.

What positions did they play? Flair and Panache i must of missed them two playing for you.

Edit: good result for the Arse last night can be a tough place to go but they played well and deserve the win.

Edited October 20, 2011 by MrRed

[SantiSuk]

Haven't seen the game*, but I sure didn't expect us to be topping our group this morning.

It's a credit to Wenger that he seems to have kept the knack of avoiding defeat in Europe (until the world class teams arrive), even with a rather iffy squad.

* Something to do with an expectation that I would get long cold looks from my wife if I crawled out of our Jomtiem holiday hotel bed at 2am 'to watch the footy'. She knows about the other distractions on the way to the sports bars

[SantiSuk]

Getting a string of results but the improvement in form is oh so gradual.

Koscielny was excellent. Can't believe I just said that! Mertesacker is gradually picking up confidence and rediscovering stature. When vP comes on Gervinho looks a bargain at £10m. When not on Gervinho looks worth about £3m. VP looks great because Gervinho supplies half his goals. Our goalie's confidence so far exceeds his capabilities, its comic - wait for the disasters to come.

Walcott was pi$$ poor for the second game running. Wenger needs to shake the boy by the neck and tell him to give up his stupid pretensions to play more of a striking role and go back to his strengths on the wing. Arsenal have so clearly lacked width this season, pandering to his desires.

I am so tired of the Sky broken record: 'it's not the Arsenal we know of old'; van Persie is their only world class player (not true - Vermaelen, and many teams do well with only one truly world class player anyway); they sold their best players (Fabregas just about maybe, but Nasri and Clichy? I think not); where will they be if vP leaves? I guess its a reflection at the disappointment we are not playing the kind of ooh-ah football we did, but it's getting tiresome when applied out of context. For me Arsenal were in control from the start (ok - not for 10 minutes after Stoke equalised - but for the first 25 minutes we were treated to the same old dirge as though we were heading for defeat. "Arsenal seem to be going nowhere" - oh they just scored. "Gervinho hasn't been the player Arsenal hoped" - oh he's just scored. Quit reading the script guys and read the game.

We could be a top 4 team again this season, but not until Vermaelen, Sangna and Wilshere come back - could be too late in the season to affect things.

[SantiSuk]

I always curse and spit at the mere mention of the Milk Cup. I'm staggered that 56,000 turned out at the Emirates to watch the reserves play a bottom of the table club. In my yoof you were lucky to get more than a few thousand at reserve games. They are probably all searching for some new messiah to put the ooh ah back into our game.

I guess I have to relent and say that now that cup has been accepted as a reserve team try-out for the top teams and there are people willing to pay, there must be some merit in it.

Nice to know that Vermaelen played 80 minutes and reportedly Park Chu-Young played well up front. We desperately need someone up front like that who can play the first 60 minutes for Robin vP

Edited October 26, 2011 by SantiSuk

[smokie36]

I always curse and spit at the mere mention of the Milk Cup. I'm staggered that 56,000 turned out at the Emirates to watch the reserves play a bottom of the table club. In my yoof you were lucky to get more than a few thousand at reserve games. They are probably all searching for some new messiah to put the ooh ah back into our game.

I guess I have to relent and say that now that cup has been accepted as a reserve team try-out for the top teams and there are people willing to pay, there must be some merit in it.

Nice to know that Vermaelen played 80 minutes and reportedly Park Chu-Young played well up front. We desperately need someone up front like that who can play the first 60 minutes for Robin vP

Nah the telly is <deleted> on a Tuesday.

[SantiSuk]

Can't work out whether we are in for a tight tense game or a goal-fest. Much depends on whether the apparent improvement in the confidence of Arsenal's defense will hold or not. Much depends on whether Torres chooses this game to frank his worth - I'm sure that day is not far away. If I had to bet on a scoreline I would go for 2-1 to the blues. One point would be great and it is not beyond us to take all 3. The difference this year compared with our win lst year is that Chelsea have a better squad and they will not be over-confident after that QPR experience (maybe they'll stay on their feet more too!).

Arsenal.com seems to have deteriorated this season - no injury news for free (£35 to view the premium service!). I'm guessing no real surprises except maybe Arshavin - had a good game on Wednesady - not Walcott - had 3 or 4 bad games in a row:

Szczesny

Djouro, Mertesacker, Koscielny. Santos

Song. Arteta. Ramsey

Gervinho. vanPersie. Arshavin

Bench: Fabiansky. Walcott. Park (had great game on Wednesday and would be used were this not a 'top 4 game'). Rosicky. Frimpong. Vermaelen. Oxlade-Chamberlain.

I'm assuming Benayoun is loan contract-tied. Chamak is an easy drop from the bench - he's been given more than enough chances and should be loaned out to see whether he can recover form

Other recent news and rumours:

Chuks Aneke, an 18 year old midfielder is attracting attention - several Prem League clubs want to borrow him for the rest of the season and Arsene seems keen to give him top level experience.

Inter-Milan want to buy Ramsey; shows how much better EPL is than Serie A? can't see that happening until Summer since Jack will not be back from his ankle break this year

Edited October 29, 2011 by SantiSuk