Arsenal Transfer Rumours And General Chat

AnCapaillMor

And it only tooks him 2 years to adapt, was always amazing on the ball but his final ball left a lot to be desired. He seems to have gotten that now. As for forwards i'd like to see more of Bendtner, really impressed me the last few games he came on.

L'prof

I've also heard we have a player called Fabregas and aparantly he's amazing but, surely not as good as Ronaldo or Kaka?

Oh wait, yes he is...easily! I'd take him over the other two any day :rolleyes:

eirebhoy

PHB wrote: »

They have one in Hleb. He's amazing.

I don't know. I think they need someone who, no matter how bad they're playing will still beat 1 or 2 players and produce something special. I don't think Ronaldo or Kaka rely on their teammates as much as Hleb would. As long as they have the ball they're a threat. Hleb is much more of a team player, one touch passing, rather than beating players, imo. I'm typing this in a rush so haven't really got a clue if I'm making sense.

Attractive Nun

Fabregas over Kaka? Steady on...

yahoo_moe

Deleted User wrote: »

Couldn't agree more with Galvasean. i think amongst the Arsenal stable of champion racehorses there is a few donkeys., namely Diarra, Eboue, Bendtner, Walcott, Senderos, Gilberto. Not good enough by the huge standards this club sets

Have to say, I think you're way off here.

I've only seen highlights of the Boro match but Diarra has impressed every time he's pulled on an Arsenal shirt and battled well in a poor team performance against Newcastle. I had no idea why Wenger signed him at the time but I'm very glad he did now.

Likewise Bendtner has made a difference every time he's come on this season - he links the play up really well, he passes intelligently, he's strong + pacy and he can finish. And he's just off his twentieth birthday. I think he'd be third choice striker ahead of Eduardo (on form) if it wasn't for the fact that Wenger wants to give Eduardo as much gametime as possible to settle in.

Walcott has also shown glimpses of what he's capable of this season (and we've only seen him in glimpses). I think if he continues to find his feet this season (and I think Wenger's being very careful not to overplay him or overexpose him), then he could play a big part from next year onwards.

Gilberto's form isn't great at the minute but that's mainly lack of gametime - when he came on for the last 20 or so against United he showed a lot of control and proved he's still capable of fitting into the side very nicely.

Don't see how you could call any of these donkeys that aren't worthy of playing for Arsenal...

cson

Attractive Nun wrote: »

Fabregas over Kaka? Steady on...

Fabregas is a much more rounded player than Kaka.

Pepe LeFrits

Can we stop comparing completely different players please? Infact, can we stop comparing players altogether?

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Have to say, I think you're way off here.

I've only seen highlights of the Boro match but Diarra has impressed every time he's pulled on an Arsenal shirt and battled well in a poor team performance against Newcastle. I had no idea why Wenger signed him at the time but I'm very glad he did now.

Likewise Bendtner has made a difference every time he's come on this season - he links the play up really well, he passes intelligently, he's strong + pacy and he can finish. And he's just off his twentieth birthday. I think he'd be third choice striker ahead of Eduardo (on form) if it wasn't for the fact that Wenger wants to give Eduardo as much gametime as possible to settle in.

Walcott has also shown glimpses of what he's capable of this season (and we've only seen him in glimpses). I think if he continues to find his feet this season (and I think Wenger's being very careful not to overplay him or overexpose him), then he could play a big part from next year onwards.

I agree with that. Diarra, Bendtner and Walcott are class.

Senderos and Gilberto should be sold in the summer, though.

I had hoped Denilson and Rosicky would step up and fill the creative void left by Hleb and Fabregas, but they haven't. I can forgive Denilson as he is still only a teenager, but Rosicky should be doing better. I'd be delighted if Modric was signed in January. I know January signings don't always work out as intended but he could play both LM and CM and he'd give the team the creativity required with others missing.

One thing that has been concerning me a bit lately has been Adebayor. His strike rate this season is the best he's had but the last few games he's been lazy. His attitude has been a little bit Henry-esque and he keeps trying to play like Henry too. He was absolutely **** in the last 2 games (wondergoal against Newcastle aside).

AnCapaillMor

Bert i dunno when he's bad he's really bad, but then again he can turn around and have some amazing games. When we're crap he's crap. Altho the fact that flamini's playing out of his skin and we got diarra and diaby i agree on him being sold.

Ade i think he suffers the same, when we're crap he's crap.

gosplan

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Can we stop comparing completely different players please? Infact, can we stop comparing players altogether?

I agree with that. Diarra, Bendtner and Walcott are class.

Senderos and Gilberto should be sold in the summer, though.

I had hoped Denilson and Rosicky would step up and fill the creative void left by Hleb and Fabregas, but they haven't. I can forgive Denilson as he is still only a teenager, but Rosicky should be doing better. I'd be delighted if Modric was signed in January. I know January signings don't always work out as intended but he could play both LM and CM and he'd give the team the creativity required with others missing.

One thing that has been concerning me a bit lately has been Adebayor. His strike rate this season is the best he's had but the last few games he's been lazy. His attitude has been a little bit Henry-esque and he keeps trying to play like Henry too. He was absolutely **** in the last 2 games (wondergoal against Newcastle aside).

I think Ade just can't create and that's where the problem lies. He needs decent service....But I was rather annoyed with him doing stuff like losing the ball and not runnning 5 yards to try and get it back. He's a player who wants to be on the end of things and maybe doesn't see that he has to have a bigger role at times.

I just really rue those damn injuries. I know it's part of the game but I really feel that any two out of Van Persie, Flamini, Hleb and Fabregas for the last two games and we'd be 6 points clear, not 1.

gosplan

The one good thing is that despite being linked there's no noise coming out of Arsenal about Modric. No one even dares mention his name.

Historically this often means that we'll get him.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Ugh its looking like we'll be without Hleb and Fabregas again for Sunday. Link
On the plus side Van Persie looks like he may be back along with the Flamster, and of course Drogba is out.

PHB

Gona be a really really really tough game against Chelsea with those injuries

OPENROAD

playa3 wrote: »

Ugh its looking like we'll be without Hleb and Fabregas again for Sunday. Link
On the plus side Van Persie looks like he may be back along with the Flamster, and of course Drogba is out.

Don't forget Essien is also out. Though with no Hleb and Cesc I am slightly worried, footballistically we will have to be at our best.

Mossy Monk

OPENROAD wrote: »

Don't forget Essien is also out.

Good news at least. He wont be scoring any wonder goals this time.

yahoo_moe

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

One thing that has been concerning me a bit lately has been Adebayor. His strike rate this season is the best he's had but the last few games he's been lazy. His attitude has been a little bit Henry-esque and he keeps trying to play like Henry too. He was absolutely **** in the last 2 games (wondergoal against Newcastle aside).

Against Newcastle, I thought he did alright for the first 20 or so - there were a couple of nice triangles between him, Eduardo, Kolo and Rosicky - but basically the longer it was 1-0, the poorer he became. He played some really loose (basic) passes, had a couple of horror touches, didn't work anywhere near as hard as he can and then compounded it all with the worst piece of running I've ever seen when he ran ahead of Rosicky with no Newcastle defenders to play him onside... basically, his head just wasn't in the game.

What disappoints me is that when he went 8 games without scoring after his hat-trick against Derby, he was working his b****x off every time I saw him and I was really happy with his contribution on the basis that once the goals came, he could stay working hard and be a key part of the team (like he showed the potential to be last year). Then he goes on a run of goals, scores early against Newcastle and does f*** all for the rest of the game.

His attitude this season (you could see how focused he was on Henry last season with celebrations and whatnot) has generally been excellent so I really hope this is just a patch of bad form/tiredness (in fairness, there's been a lot on his shoulders while RVP has been out)... he's got the ability to be great for Arsenal but he needs to make he works as hard as he can all the time, not just when he's going through a dry spell and feels he needs to compensate.

gosplan

New five year deal for Flamini who also looks like he might be getting a run out tonight.

Talk of Van Persie and Diaby getting some game time as well.

If they play tonight and all come through it ok, I think we can expect to see the three play against Chelsea.

Pepe LeFrits

Excellent news re: Flamini.

gosplan

Just to add some confidance, I feel that if the above three mentioned are starters for Sunday and either Hleb or Fabregas comes back, then we'll be good for a win against a Drogba and Essien-less Chelsea.

edited to include: just to point out this means that I think we'll stand a good chance of winning, it's not in the bag though.

yahoo_moe

My God, it'll be good to see Van Persie back... where did you see that Flamini might get a run tonight? Everything I've seen suggests he's still out (but I obviously hope it's all wrong)

ErinGoBrath

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Excellent news re: Flamini.

Before this season I thought I'd hear myself saying it'd be great if we had Flamini back in the first 11

gosplan

yeah, turns out that might have been wishful thinking on my part.

Royale with Cheese

Van Persie starts, no Flamini

keano_afc

Good run out for RVP, Bendtner looking good too. We totally dropped the performance in the second half.

Royale with Cheese

Grrr. Should never have finished second in that group after winning the first 3.

cson

Yep, could be in for a tough draw Friday week.

Walcott looked promising tonight, cupla good runs and shots.

gosplan

Bring them on I say!!

To be honest, the only team I would really fear is Barca. We can beat all the rest. We can beat Barca as well but our habit of making the odd defensive gaff would be just the kind of thing they'd exploit.

Inter/AC/Real don't look so strong this year and we'd lift our game massively against them.

If Walcott learns to finish he'll be dynamite.

PHB

I think Arsenal would like a team that attacks, teams like Barca or Real or Sevilla just won't try destructive football, they will let it open. If it's an open game, Arsenal have as good a chance as any to win it.

gosplan

Nikolai Dimitrov apparently to be given a trial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_T3HatWNLQ

looks like he's got some skills but I never trust these youtube vids.

yahoo_moe

great to see Van Persie back looking so sharp - a few of the passes he picked out were sublime. Even if Fabregas and Hleb are still out, we'll have more vision than we've had the last two weeks. We've also got Diaby back (very impressive I thought), which brings a nice replacement for Hleb's direct running

Bendtner was superb again (can't believe someone called him a donkey last week), Theo was 'almost dynamite' and Denilson was good too.

Diarra was great in his little cameo - I say stick him central mid against Chelsea and let him show them what they let go. He's playing well and he strikes me as the type to rise to that kind of challenge rather than shirk it (just look at how he played at a level above the rest of his teammates when he came on last night)

Galvasean

Arsenal sure are getting a lot of TV coverage

Our next four games are on Sky Sports and the one after that is on Setanta

AnCapaillMor

Galvasean wrote: »

Arsenal sure are getting a lot of TV coverage

Our next four games are on Sky Sports and the one after that is on Setanta

Considering we got SFA games up till the pool game, they bloody had to.

cson

I'd imagine its because Sky thought Arsenal wouldn't do any good this season.

yahoo_moe

and they still sit there and say things like "a lot of people were writing arsenal off this season - they couldn't have been more wrong, could they?" with a straight face :rolleyes:

herbieflowers

It's funny because I couldn't envisage Arsenal beingt top at this stage (kids, inexperience etc.) just as I didn't envisage another club winning the title after selling their main striker...history repeating itself...?

OPENROAD

herbieflowers wrote: »

It's funny because I couldn't envisage Arsenal beingt top at this stage (kids, inexperience etc.) just as I didn't envisage another club winning the title after selling their main striker...history repeating itself...?

Have to say I'm not surprised at all, just had to look at us last season at home in particular, we were so so unlucky in many matches, Cesc was never afraid to shoot, was just very unlucky last season not to score a handful of goals, we played teams off the park and to be honest I never bought the afraid to shoot rubbish,stats did not back this up.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Great article about Clichy
http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2228039,00.html
It really is amazing to see how far he has come and to think he's only 22. You can tell he is genuinely a good guy and its great to see how dedicated he is...Now if only he could hurry up and improve his final ball and he'd be perfect:D

Pepe LeFrits

Anyone watching Real Madrid vs Osasuna? Vela is having a good game against Sergio Ramos apparently.

gosplan

****, was so nervous towards the end of that Chelsea match.

Terrible miss by SWP.

MBC

Great win yesterday.......played some very good football at times........just hope Cesc, Flamini, Helb & RVP can stay fit now for the rest of the season.

How many games will Toure & Eboue miss when they head off to the african nations???

Galvasean

Gallas scores the winner against Chelsea. Couldn't have written it better myself.
I can't believe Adebayor's goal was ticked off. If anything he was the one being fouled!

Evil_Clown

great win yesterday
Gallas just had to be the winning goal scorer
Looks like Ca$hley is in trouble for this shortly after the final whistle
http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/article.html?in_article_id=80092&in_page_id=43&ito=newsnow

Is anyone else glad eboue is injured, he just frustrates me so much sometimes

gosplan

y'know, he's been frustrating me too


..and then he charges in and puts Terry out.


I'm beginning to come around.

Im_No_Superman

Not a very patient player is he.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_2979809,00.html
I presume he wasnt expecting Flamini to be playing so well this season.

PHB

In all fairness, he did leave Chelsea for first team football.

yahoo_moe

just saw this quote from clichy (about cashley) in one of the articles above:

If they decide to boo him, I would understand that. I hope he will handle it because he's a good guy but I just want the fans to help the team to get the three points

great stuff

as for diarra, i'd be very disappointed if he leaves. i was seriously confused when wenger signed him but i think he's shown a real touch of class mixed with the ability to get stuck in. in fairness, i guess it doesn't help his patience that he had the exact same experience just before we signed him...

Im_No_Superman

PHB wrote: »

In all fairness, he did leave Chelsea for first team football.

Yeah, I wonder was Wenger's original plan to play Diarra and Fabregas as his main central pair but as Flamini is playing so well and forming quite a good understaing with Fabregas he couldnt drop him.

Evil_Clown

Im_No_Superman wrote: »

Yeah, I wonder was Wenger's original plan to play Diarra and Fabregas as his main central pair but as Flamini is playing so well and forming quite a good understaing with Fabregas he couldnt drop him.

This could very well be true, but Flamini deserves his place at the moment so Diarra will have to wait.
With this talk of Gilberto leaving for Juve aswell it could be a problem, can afford to lose one but not both in January

I wouldn't like to see Diarra leave but if he does it will be for a nice profit
A tenner of which can be used for Jussi

yahoo_moe

but flamini was ready to go to birmingham and wenger talked him into staying... i'd be very surprised if he overextended himself with promises to people, wouldn't have struck me as being his style at all.

kinda emphasises that gilberto was never really in wenger's head as a first XI man for this season... mad

Galvasean

I wouldn't miss Gilberto and Diarra leaving in January. I think we would have adequate cover if we signed in some young central midfielder. Having Fabregas, Flamini and Diaby + 1 other is enough

cson

Evil_Clown wrote: »

A tenner of which can be used for Jussi

No way.

Artur Boruc ftw.

Almunia's done good but it was a bit unnreving to see him flapping at one of Shevchenkos shots in that match. Reminded me of vintage Almunia. :eek: