Arsenal Transfer Rumours And General Chat

yahoo_moe

PHB wrote: »

his pace makes up for his suspect positional sense.

That could just as easily be Toure as Richards - even though they can both go attack the ball, they're both very much covering centre halves...

EDIT: Oops, just saw the argument already went this way. Good post Pepe, great minds and all that Yeah, I'd agree that we need a Vidic-type player asap. As has been said, Senderos is the closest we have but he's slow as a boat when he turns to chase, which unfortunately happens occasionally when someone nippy gives him the slip

PHB

That's the thing, it's the same with Vidic. It's very rare you'll get a Vidic with pace, because the people with pace learn to defend with pace.

AnCapaillMor

Definately lacking in the height in the defence department when big phils out. Actually the avg height of our team has seriously decreased the past few years.

yahoo_moe

Yeah, when Vieira, Campbell, Keown, Henry, etc. were around, all you'd hear from Andy Gray was how we had loads of big lads but never scored any headers (in fairness, he discounted all those Pires 4-yard rebound headers).

Now we've got quite a short team and he's still feckin bangin on about it

Pepe LeFrits

van Persie went off injured in the Dutch game with a knee injury. Sounded like it could be serious, although nothing can be confirmed as of yet until a scan is performed.

A serious injury to Robin would effectively **** our league campaign up. Hopefully Eduardo and Bendtner are ready to step up to the plate.

Bounty Hunter

well Bendtner has been making noises about not being happy not gettin his game so now might be his chance, and i hope he grabs it with both hands.

jank

Heard this too but he walked off the pitch apparently so he may be ok in a week or so.
We will see tomorrow anyway,

AnCapaillMor

Yeowch!!!! http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/1160/77377117pr0.jpg

Does'nt look too good, it'd be good to see Eduardo get a good go, and Bendtner too, see what all his hype is about.

Evil_Clown

I reckon gAWd will go with Adebayor and Eduardo upfront
Eduardo scored again for Croatia this week so his sharpness will prob give him the edge over Bendtner

yahoo_moe

****

really can't afford to lose van Persie beyond this weekend. Bolton are in a bit of disarray at the mo so (fingers crossed) should be okay but with Liverpool and Man U coming up in the next two Prem games, we could really do with having him back... if he walked off, then he could be available (although remember he took a knock against West Ham as well)

yahoo_moe

And on a separate note...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/7050691.stm

BBC wrote:

Arsenal move to prevent takeover

Usmanov has said he is keen to up his 23% shareholding
Arsenal's directors have taken steps to prevent any attempt to take over the club in the immediate future.
They have extended a "lock-down" agreement on the sale of shares.

It means directors can only sell to "permitted persons" before April 2009 and must give fellow board members first option until October 2012.

Bounty Hunter

reports ay RVP could be out for up to a month with an injured knee

Galvasean

Wenger finally got his bronze bust today. i',m sure no one will say he doesn't deserve it.
http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=483070&lid=NewsHeadline&Title=TV+Online:+Wenger+-+I%27m+very+touched+by+this+gesture


Well, as for Bendtner, he has scored in his only competitive match this season against premiership opposition no less. He is just unfortunate taht Adebayor and van Persie are on great form this season (probably the best Premiership strike partnership at the moment). As well Eduardo is a big money signing who has been scoring very regularly on the international stage. Maybe with van Persie injured for a while Bendtner will get some lengthly run outs and a chance to prove himself. I watched him closely in the Emirates Cup, he certainly has all the attributes required to become a leading premiership striker (football manager terms) if he gets enough games under his belt.

AnCapaillMor

Sky sports says a month for RVP.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_2808520,00.html

Galvasean

Wenger dismisses talk of the England job again.

Good.

handsfree

Arsenal always get the length that players are out wrong. form this pic RVP injury looks quite serious

oh no.jpg

i would like to see bendtner given a spot ahead of eduardo from what i've heard, he's the real deal

PDN

Does anyone else think this season has given us the easiest opening run of fixtures ever? After tomorrow's match we will be a quarter of the way through the season, yet we will only have played 3 away matches! Also, we haven't played any decent teams yet.

Things look great now, but this means a run of tough games, and some consecutive away matches, is building up down the line.

handsfree

nah we did well against the big teams last year and i think we'll do well against them again.

AnCapaillMor

handsfree wrote: »

i would like to see bendtner given a spot ahead of eduardo from what i've heard, he's the real deal

You were'nt listening to him by any chance. Meant to be good but is meant to have a totally bloated opinion of himself.

jester77

PDN wrote: »

Does anyone else think this season has given us the easiest opening run of fixtures ever? After tomorrow's match we will be a quarter of the way through the season, yet we will only have played 3 away matches! Also, we haven't played any decent teams yet.

Things look great now, but this means a run of tough games, and some consecutive away matches, is building up down the line.

I've been thinking about that as well, but then again you can only beat what's put in front of you and Arsenal have been doing that.

Interesting that Lehmann has been dropped from the squad, not even on the bench. Was hoping he wouldn't get his spot back just yet but didn't expect to him to be the no. 3! Wonder is there more to this, he's not exactly subtle!

Pepe LeFrits

We have a horrendous fixture list in December.

Galvasean

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

We have a horrendous fixture list in December.

Interestingly, the time of year when our form is at its worst.

arbeitsscheuer

Galvasean wrote: »

Interestingly, the time of year when our form is at its worst.

Well unless I'm very much mistaken I seem to remember November always being our Mensis Horribilis... But in any case I'm probably just being pedantic.

AnCapaillMor

Aye remember losing 3 in a row in november once or twice. We always played catch up, from the middle of december on. We had an easy enough tun in, but the matches we've won\drawn so far are the ones we drew\lost the past 3 years..

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Just to let people know the match is being shown on Setanta Ireland today, no messing around with gee bag streams for me today!:D

Pepe LeFrits

And hurrah for that.

Some bad omens for the game today, let's hope this doesn't turn out to be a banana skin.

Mossy Monk

The banana skin is still dropped so I am hopeful.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Is Anelka definitely out? Because if he is then i think we'll be fairly alright

arbeitsscheuer

That was uneasy enough for about an hour. Once we got the goal though there was never any danger of slipping up... Also, FINALLY Touré nails one of those pure power drives of his in the bottom corner! He's been threatening to do that for about 4 years, myself and me bruv were always staggered he hadn't put one in cos he does strike the ball really cleanly...

Best players today: Hleb, Clichy, Cesc (again) and Walcott.

Eduardo still looked unconvincing but sure he's still finding his feet

mike65

Is Walcott getting many starts? When he does play it sounds like he's making a difference.

Mike.

arbeitsscheuer

mike65 wrote: »

Is Walcott getting many starts? When he does play it sounds like he's making a difference.

Mike.

He's predominantly being used as an impact sub, which is when his pace can be used to greatest effect i.e. when the opposition are a tad knackered.

In most of the games where he's started, and I'm only talking from memory here without having a gander at the statistics, he'll have 1 or 2 good touches, maybe create something, but then will disappear a bit, get frustrated and have a generally poor game. He sometimes looks uncertain what to do in the final third - shoot or cross. He's getting better all the time though...

Royale with Cheese

Adebayor was back to his old self yesterday, looking fairly woeful in front of goal. With Van Persie out and Eduardo not looking up to much as of yet, I don't think Adebayor can be relied on to get the goals. Especially with these big games coming up. I do hope I'm wrong, but I can see the great start to the season coming undone in the next month.

PHB

Van Persie's injury is a huge huge blow, Abedayor and Eduardo really have to step it up now.

eirebhoy

Liverpool (a)
Man Utd (h)
Reading (a)
Wigan (h)
Aston Villa (a)
Newcastle (a)
Middlesbrough (a)
Chelsea (h)
Tottenham (h)
Portsmouth (a)
Everton (a)

What a tough bunch of fixtures left in 2007.

Royale with Cheese

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Adebayor was back to his old self yesterday, looking fairly woeful in front of goal. With Van Persie out and Eduardo not looking up to much as of yet, I don't think Adebayor can be relied on to get the goals. Especially with these big games coming up. I do hope I'm wrong, but I can see the great start to the season coming undone in the next month.

tremendous optimism from Royale i see.. Adebayor worked his socks off, give him a break. he chested down one or two lovely balls yesterday and in general worked very hard. true he lacked the finish but your not going to be firing on all cylinders every game. Also Bolton had men camped in the box yesterday, at one stage only Almunia was in the arsenal half. If Arsenal can truly call themselves worthy championship contenders then the next fortnight is the big test. i believe if we come through them with 6 points, it could go a long way in terms of giving us belief to grind out results. hard to know what way the man united game will go and without trying to sound cocky, but i believe if Liverpool's ability to lose the ball creeps in to their game next week, we could well give them a spanking.

jank

I would be happy with 4 points from the next 2 games.
Even 2 points would not be bad

AnCapaillMor

Next 2 matches are the ones, will we go back to the old ways of beating eveyone but getting trounced by United and the pool. We have to beat united, they're on a run now and i think whoever loses will have their bubble burst for a week or 2. Losing to the pool could kick them off on a run as well. 2 very important games.

Loving fabs more and more, takes no sh1t whatsoever, and if he does he'll give it back double.

Galvasean

4 points from the next two is the minimum if we want to be recognised as proper title contenders.

DSB

2 or 3 points would do them grand really.

PHB

I'd say if Arsenal get 2 points they'd be happy. 3 points would be ok if they lose to Liverpool, as they have a decent gap on them. Losing to United would hurt them a lot I'd say. Personally I expect them to beat Liverpool and for it to be incredibly tight with United to the extent I wouldn't call it.

~Rebel~

Its an odd situation alright, where a lot of fans would probably prefer 2 points over 3, as it means neither rival gains any ground.

PHB

Yeh, the titles not won against the big teams, but it can be lost. 0 points from this 6 here would be very hard on Arsenal, but that said, they did pretty well against the big teams last year.

Mr Alan

Is van persie definately out for both of the games?

~Rebel~

a month was the reported time out, so if thats true then yes. You never know with those times, but id imagine it would be very tough to come back in half the time.

Definately missing the Liverpool match anyway which is a massive plus for us. idealy id actually like him back to help take points off ManU.

PHB

I'm getting a bit worried about Arsenal now, I'm kinda over my previous feeling of gloating after me being right about Arsenal pre-season, now I'm watching them, and instead of admiring them, hoping to god they lose points Just like old times eh

gosplan

Actually it's more than the next two games:

Our fixture list is pretty tough till christmas, we've got Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea plus a few tricky away ties. If we can get minimum of 5 from the next three games we'll be doing very very well going into the international break.

Sunday 28th October 2007
Liverpool v Arsenal

Saturday 03rd November 2007
Arsenal v Man Utd

Monday 12th November 2007
Reading v Arsenal

Saturday 24th November 2007
Arsenal v Wigan Athletic

Wednesday 05th December 2007
Newcastle v Arsenal

Sunday 09th December 2007
Middlesbrough v Arsenal

Sunday 16th December 2007
Arsenal v Chelsea

Saturday 22nd December 2007
Arsenal v Tottenham

Wednesday 26th December 2007
Portsmouth v Arsenal

Saturday 29th December 2007
Everton v Arsenal

Noelie

Yeah i'd prefer 2 points than 3.
I think we have the beating of Liverpool they were lucky the weekend to win and the fact that they don't have a settled team should help Arsenal. With the ManU game I'd be happy with a draw, obviously a win would be great but the most important thing is not to lose.

December could be a nightmare for us, Newcastle and Middlesbourgh away could be two tricky game, I'd be more concerned with the Boro game than Newcastle. then two tought London derby's followed by two hard away games.

If we manage to pick up 6 pointsi n the next two game it will prove that the team can beat anyone and would add a lot of confidence to the team. Losing both games could cause us to lose a lot of point in the next two months.

We also play away to Villa on the 1st December

yahoo_moe

Deleted User wrote: »

Adebayor worked his socks off, give him a break

As did Eduardo and I was delighted to see them both keeping going for the team (particularly before the goals) even when it wasn't quite happening for them.

it's not like they each missed a heap of sitters - the service wasn't always great and bolton's approach meant that the situations where they finally found a bit of space tended to be out on the wings with about 6 Bolton players between them and the goal... not easy

Evil_Clown

What do people reckon about tonight?

I think Walcott will start so hopefully he can put in another good performance this time for 90 mins
I reckon Bendtner should be given a start beside eduardo and give adebayor a rest considering he will be our main man for the next few massive premiership games
A double victory over slavia would let us rest a few key players in the last few group matches

keano_afc

I think we'll win fairly comfortably tonight. They have a few players out apparently also. Would like to see Theo start, think he's done enough to make the starting 11. Agree with resting Ade, and Eduardo does need game time. 3-0 I reckon.