Arsenal Transfer Rumours And General Chat

PHB

It's clear that they just ran out of steam. More depth and especially in terms of wingers. Still, it ain't anywhere near over I think.

patrickc

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Full team out today, Rosicky aside. But I don't think you can even count him anymore. Eboue will get sent off again I reckon. Walcott should have started

Evil_Clown wrote: »

Gutted



Thought we might sneak it after goin 1-0 up but ran out of steam losing sagna was a blow aswell, hope hes not out for too long
Uniteds title now imo
Champions League now, they have to regroup and lets hope !!

yeh im gutted also, they had so much momentum in the 1st half, i totally agree walcott should have been in the starting 11, over van persie, he needs a kick in the behind,

yeh utd unfortunately IMO, however lets hope we get a good win over the pool and go onto the champions league semis, be nice to have a final again us and Barca amd beat the socks outa them:D

Mweelrea

looks like another season of winning no silverware:(
Can't see us wining the champions league not with man united playing the way they are at the moment.

Hopefully Arsene will strengthen his squad this summer, Arsenal just can't compete with the squad's chelsea and united have

gosplan

patrickc wrote: »

over van persie, he needs a kick in the behind,

Yeah, what a lazy git, getting injured and all.

Personally, I don't think we've a hope of the league now. We'd need to rediscover our form, win every game including away to Man U, and hope that Chelsea also beat them but drop points elsewhere allowing us to move past them.

The league is dead, long live the Champions League.

As regards postmortems, I just think the squad is too thin(not too young!!). Perhaps if Eduardo was still playing and Rosicky and Van Persie had been available we'd be top of the league now but that's basically an admission that our squad can't handle injuries.

To win next year we need more players. I still think Wenger is the best there is but the Premiership has changed a lot in recent years. We need a bigger squad and the fringe players have to be more effective.

In defence I'd look at getting one more player in. This wouldn't be necessary if we felt that Hoyte, Traore or Djouoru were up to the level required after another summer.

In central midfield we need some more quality. At least one more good central midfielder is an absolute must if we want to maintain a title challenge next year. Man U have 4, Chelsea about 40 and we really have two. Obviously a lot of this is down to Gilberto's massive drop in form, Diarra legging it and Denilson and Diaby not really being up to it. Fabregas and Flamini are being asked to run 10k per match each weekend (and often midweek as well) and somehow not lose effectiveness - not possible.

I think we need two more wingers. Walcott should be good for next year but we can't solely rely upon that. We can't rely on Rosicky either and Eboue just isn't good enough. I think the squad needs a left and right winger to go with Walcott, Hleb and Rosicky. Vela may come in but we can't rely on a kid on his first season in the premiership.

Attack I think is fine. Eduardo, Van Persie and Adebayor are all good enough and with Bendtner waiting in the wings, Walcott also able to play there and Hleb too an option, there's plenty of competition. Although another amazing striker wouldn't hurt.

This may not happen of course but I'm fine with that. Wenger's building a team and I say give him as long as he wants ... but in a perfect world I'd love to add Essien, Jesus Navas, Joaquin and David Villa to it.

Galvasean

I wonder if Wenger will start to prioritise the Champions league above the Premiership now?
Likely run in would be Liverpool - Chelsea - barcelona/United(can't decide between the two). No easy feat

OPENROAD

Galvasean wrote: »

I wonder if Wenger will start to prioritise the Champions league above the Premiership now?
Likely run in would be Liverpool - Chelsea - barcelona/United(can't decide between the two). No easy feat

I think we can't give up on the league just yet, we have to start with a good win over Bolton, if we drop points at Bolton then yes he may start to rest players.

keano_afc

There's no way of knowing what effect that defeat will have on the players mentally. The league is gone, and I see no reason to be optimistic about a good run in the CL. Our big hitters are knackered or out of form, and as usual we're not clinical enough in front of goal. There's a lot of work to be done in the summer, at which point it'll be 3 seasons without a trophy more than likely. What I dont want to hear from Wenger is "give the young players another season". Eh, sorry, some of them have had long enough and have proved they're just not good enough.

patrickc

gosplan wrote: »

Yeah, what a lazy git, getting injured and all.

.

i always thought he was the bees knees, but just seems a puff of wind has him out injured recently

tred

patrickc wrote: »

yeh im gutted also, they had so much momentum in the 1st half, i totally agree walcott should have been in the starting 11, over van persie, he needs a kick in the behind,

yeh utd unfortunately IMO, however lets hope we get a good win over the pool and go onto the champions league semis, be nice to have a final again us and Barca amd beat the socks outa them:D

They looked tired. I think myself, if Wenger had bought on Senderos instead of Diaby and pushed toure to right back. We would have luckily held on. Senderos would stick his head into a tank. One on one wiht drogba he never did well, but they started hoofing ball up and we couldnt handle it. I am starting to wonder about the worth of Gallas as well.
Against Liverpool, i think senderos should play.

Mweelrea

patrickc wrote: »

i always thought he was the bees knees, but just seems a puff of wind has him out injured recently

He only played 10 games last season, not sure he'll even make that this season.

I hope Hleb stays, he's a very talented midfielder

PHB

Hlebs a great player, love to have him at United. Wouldn't say that about Rosicky though. They really need somebody who gets white on his boots, its essential for breaking down teams the way Arsenal play.

Still, I think people are being silly to write them off. It's not hugely unlikely that Arsenal and Chelsea could beat United, which would bring everyone back to evens
Also United have Villa this weekend, not an easy game!

patrickc

PHB wrote: »

Hlebs a great player, love to have him at United. Wouldn't say that about Rosicky though. They really need somebody who gets white on his boots, its essential for breaking down teams the way Arsenal play.

Still, I think people are being silly to write them off. It's not hugely unlikely that Arsenal and Chelsea could beat United, which would bring everyone back to evens
Also United have Villa this weekend, not an easy game!

I'd love to have your positivity PHB.

spockety

patrickc wrote: »

I'd love to have your positivity PHB.

If you're really feeling that down about your Premiership prospects, imagine for a moment you're a Liverpool fan at this moment in time. Now how do you feel?

Get back in there and make sure Utd or Chelsea don't get it, please.

PHB

Wenger does, and always will, scare me. Because when Arsenal get going, it's very very difficult to knock them off. If they bounce back next weekend, it would not surprise me in the slightest to see them win every game until the end of the season. Wenger has that in him. That's why Arsenal will always scare me, and why I'm not as worried about Chelsea or Liverpool [The reason Chelsea worry me more is because despite an average manager, their squad is just unreal]

Mr Alan

PHB, you're some lick arse

PHB

Just remember the next time I'm pointing out all the things wrong with Liverpool, it's not that I'm biased, it's just what I think You can tell this because I actually dislike Arsenal more than any team

gosplan

Hleb is great but is quite a central player.

I'd always have him in my team but we fell down as we didn't have any other alternatives when going through the centre stoped working.

Kind of like last year - camped on the edge of opponents penalty areas looking for the eye of a needle pass but not scoring goals.

It's a tactic that works against most teams and is very succcessful in the champions league, but when a tough team are only looking for a draw it gets difficult.

We need width!!!

As I've said before I'd like Walcott, Hleb and a quality left winger all available next year(with Rosicky probably available for the odd game).

Depending on the team we could play two out and out wingers or Walcott and Hleb or the 5 man midfield. the most important thing is that we'd be able to change our shape without having to involve Diaby or Eboue, who IMO are good enough for many games but will not win us any big ones.

PHB

I still find it amazing that Wenger doesn't employ a counter-attack policy. That have some pace around the pitch, and if they got a really pacey winger this year who provides width, but also a focal point of the counter attack (like Ronaldo for United) they'd get a lot more goals.

patrickc

spockety wrote: »

If you're really feeling that down about your Premiership prospects, imagine for a moment you're a Liverpool fan at this moment in time. Now how do you feel?

Get back in there and make sure Utd or Chelsea don't get it, please.

I know

"wenger as a personal plea, knock the feckers off the top...

PHB wrote: »

Wenger does, and always will, scare me. Because when Arsenal get going, it's very very difficult to knock them off. If they bounce back next weekend, it would not surprise me in the slightest to see them win every game until the end of the season. Wenger has that in him. That's why Arsenal will always scare me, and why I'm not as worried about Chelsea or Liverpool [The reason Chelsea worry me more is because despite an average manager, their squad is just unreal]

yeh one game and that could instill the confidence needed to win every other game,

gosplan

PHB wrote: »

I still find it amazing that Wenger doesn't employ a counter-attack policy. That have some pace around the pitch, and if they got a really pacey winger this year who provides width, but also a focal point of the counter attack (like Ronaldo for United) they'd get a lot more goals.

We did, and were brilliant at it, but then people stopped attacking us. (and our players changed - IMO pires, Cole and Henry down the left hand side was the best counter attacking the world has even seen)

The tactic against Arsenal for medium to lower teams is now to defend for the first half hour, wait for their defence to switch off, score from your only attack, and then let them try to break you down ... and who can blame them?

In fairness to Utd, they score loads from coutner attacks but are usually one up by then anyway.

yahoo_moe

tred wrote: »

Senderos would stick his head into a tank. One on one wiht drogba he never did well, but they started hoofing ball up and we couldnt handle it.

But would Chelsea not have then just tried to get Drogba running the channels against Senderos? With Anelka and Drogba on the pitch, running the channels is an extremely potent option but instead, they did a very good (and smart) job of employing the most effective tactic against the Arsenal defence

I am starting to wonder about the worth of Gallas as well.

I think that's just mental - Gallas has been outstanding for much of this season and wasn't exactly terrible the other day. He'll never be a Vidic or a Terry when the ball's being hoofed in repeatedly but he still got his head to more balls than any other Arsenal defender on Sunday (and let's not forget the amount of ball he cleared over 2 legs against Milan).

It was hardly an entirely unexpected defeat so let's not exaggerate - the current league position is down to a number of less than impressive results (a loss to Boro and a draw against a piss-poor Newcastle before Christmas at a point when Arsenal were the stand-out team in the league, the uncreative 0-0 against Portsmouth over Christmas, 2 draws against Birmingham and another uninspired 0-0 against Wigan), not just a loss away to a team that haven't lost at home in about 80 matches

Pepe LeFrits

Arsenal's counter-attacking game went the way of the dodo as soon as Fabregas replaced Vieira; Pires and Henry losing their legs was also a factor. The team is built around Fabregas and a continental ball-retention style now. We don't have as much pace in the side anymore, and neither Fabregas nor Flamini are going to break up play in advanced positions as much as Vieira used to.

It's funny how things changed, because United now play in a very similar way to how Arsenal used to. One important difference is that United's forward players are all young and around the same age, whereas Arsenal's players weren't and as such never peaked together.

patrickc

wengers verdict on the match

Dear Arsenal supporter,

Sunday's defeat at Chelsea was a big setback for us, especially when you add in the four games we drew. The only thing we can do before we dream of the title now is to come back and win our games.

I felt we should have beaten Chelsea but we paid for some lapses in concentration. It is difficult to swallow because we played quite well and were in control of the game but, when Chelsea reverted to long balls, we did not deal well enough with it.

Our spirit was right and our mentality was fantastic. Overall the team played very well but, at the moment, I feel we have some defensive problems which we need to sort out. We got caught on the long balls and the physical battle.

We were a bit unlucky because Chelsea's first goal was offside and there was also a foul from John Terry before that. That had a big impact on the game and recently we have been hard done by with things like that.

It was a missed opportunity because we were 1-0 up and had it all in our hands. We needed a bit more defensive authority as the game was there to be taken. We had plenty of chances on the counter-attack when they went 4-4-2 but we were not serene enough defensively.

I feel the team got a big blow when we went 2-1 down and then we lost a bit of patience in the build-up. We wanted to go too much through the middle instead of going wide.

The players were very disappointed because they gave everything but went home without any points. That is why we have to show our strength. I believe we have the strength, but at the moment we are six points behind Manchester United. We have to win our next game at Bolton to get back on track.

L'prof

v Top Half

v Bottom Half

yahoo_moe

crap, sagna out for three weeks according to BBC... looks like the Liverpool matches just got harder

PHB

That's a huge loss. We've seen Arsenal so far this season without their first choice fullbacks, they really suffer. Gona be interesting to see what Wenger does.

mike65

And Mascherano will be nice and fresh for Fabregas, Van Persie and Ade.

Mike.

PHB

I wasn't sure of which way the FA were going to decide about Mascherano and extra games, but mike has just assured that he's gona get an extra 2 game ban.

tred

yahoo_moe wrote: »

But would Chelsea not have then just tried to get Drogba running the channels against Senderos? With Anelka and Drogba on the pitch, running the channels is an extremely potent option but instead, they did a very good (and smart) job of employing the most effective tactic against the Arsenal defence


I think that's just mental - Gallas has been outstanding for much of this season and wasn't exactly terrible the other day. He'll never be a Vidic or a Terry when the ball's being hoofed in repeatedly but he still got his head to more balls than any other Arsenal defender on Sunday (and let's not forget the amount of ball he cleared over 2 legs against Milan).

It was hardly an entirely unexpected defeat so let's not exaggerate - the current league position is down to a number of less than impressive results (a loss to Boro and a draw against a piss-poor Newcastle before Christmas at a point when Arsenal were the stand-out team in the league, the uncreative 0-0 against Portsmouth over Christmas, 2 draws against Birmingham and another uninspired 0-0 against Wigan), not just a loss away to a team that haven't lost at home in about 80 matches

Hes not a Terry or a Vidic, but id say hes payed as much as both.
Thats my point. Regarding Senderos coming in, if they had played the wings toure and clichy would have done fine and senderos would just thump into everything. Eboue is a waste of space. Am i the only one that thinks this. ? I am an ardent arsenal supporter by the way. hes just not up to it. And Gallas behaviour after bermingham plus, hes big speach on the pitch, load of muck. Hes on the independent today saying hes not friends at arsenal, there all at chelsea ah i am sick of him to be honest.

Pepe LeFrits

Never going to happen, but reading today about Ronaldinho and Lucio potentially being on the move in the summer, they'd be great signings. Risky given they are both 29 and Ronaldinho's form has been slipping, but they'd be worth it I think.

mike65

PHB wrote: »

I wasn't sure of which way the FA were going to decide about Mascherano and extra games, but mike has just assured that he's gona get an extra 2 game ban.

Hang on there! The FA ban does'nt apply to European games, does it? :eek:

Mike.

PHB

Ah, thought you meant the Arsenal league game

mike65

He'll miss the league game no doubt (3 games minimum I expect)

Mike.

gosplan

tred wrote: »

Hes on the independent today saying hes not friends at arsenal, there all at chelsea ah i am sick of him to be honest.

He was asked specifically about English friends. Of course, how could that stop a 'foreign captain doesn't like his own teammates' story?

Ronaldhino would be great but not really going to happen, is it. I'd love to see Arsenal go out and purchase one of the really top level players as opposed to bringing them through the ranks.

David Villa could be on the move as well. I was undecided about him but he scored an excellent goal the other night against Italy and he's way above Torres on international goals recently.

I think it'll be a really interesting summer as regards Arsenal transfers. Man U surely can't keep spending as they did last year (and they actually don't need anyone bar an extra defender and maybe a big striker). I imagine that Benitez won't be given too much cash. No doubt Chelsea will push to make a couple of signings, but Arsenal have the cash and a lot of the high-profile players on the move will be considering moves to the premiership. Our style of play and performances against Milan (and hopefully Liverpool) must surely appeal to players like Ronaldhino and Villa.

PHB

I don't think Arsenal need another striker, Abedayour, Eduardo, Van Persie, and Bendtnar is a pretty fantastic striker force.

Arsenal need to spend money on central midfielders, wingers, and defensive cover. A world class winger with pace would really add something to Arsenal.

Evil_Clown

PHB wrote: »

A world class winger with pace would really add something to Arsenal.

Very true, looking at Ribery the other night makes me wonder the difference he would have made to our squad this year. he was €17 mil (i think) but money well spent by Bayern IMO
Quaresma is a little selfish but despite that he is a player I would love to see with Arsenal but again he would cost big bucks

Galvasean

yahoo_moe wrote: »

crap, sagna out for three weeks according to BBC... looks like the Liverpool matches just got harder

Im thinking move Toure to RB with Gallas and Senderos in the middle. I wouldn't trust Eboue or Hoyte against 'Pool in the Champions league

Galvasean

mike65 wrote: »

And Mascherano will be nice and fresh for Fabregas, Van Persie and Ade.

Mike.

Ah yeas, mighty Mash who was also going to keep Rooney, Ronaldo and co. at bay, then went mad.

PHB

I wonder will Wenger target Mascherano, it wouldn't be the worst idea. I'd say Flamini is the type of guy who could get under your skin if he tried.

kryogen

PHB wrote: »

I wonder will Fergie target Mascherano, it wouldn't be the worst idea. I'd say Flamini is the type of guy who could get under your skin if he tried.

Fergie = Wenger??

PHB

Yeh, I get confused

Galvasean

I suppose thats a compliment (?)

Royale with Cheese

If he really wanted to get under his skin he'd play Lehmann in midfield.

yahoo_moe

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

If he really wanted to get under his skin he'd play Lehmann in midfield.

:eek: get under gilberto's skin too, i'd say

yahoo_moe

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Never going to happen, but reading today about Ronaldinho and Lucio potentially being on the move in the summer, they'd be great signings. Risky given they are both 29 and Ronaldinho's form has been slipping, but they'd be worth it I think.

Not too pushed about Ronaldinho given transfer fee, wages, form, attitude, etc. but Lucio would be a cracking signing - I've always thought he was a great player.

keano_afc

We dont sign great players. We sign potentially great players. And watch as they dont fulfill it.

Galvasean

Wenger says he may rest Adebayor for todays game
http://www.arsenal.com/article.asp?thisNav=News&article=489559&lid=NewsHeadline&Title=Wenger+-+Adebayor+maybe+needs+a+breather

On one hand fair enough he does look jaded, but surely we need the big fellow up front to break down Bolton's stubborn and tough defense.
Or is this the first sign of Wenger prioritising Europe over the league?

PHB

From what Fabregas is saying about how he thinks Arsenal are hated, Wenger seems to have created a magical seige mentality somehow, impressive stuff

Galvasean

PHB wrote: »

From what Fabregas is saying about how he thinks Arsenal are hated, Wenger seems to have created a magical seige mentality somehow, impressive stuff

It worked for Chelski under Mourinho.

PHB

But in all fairness, everyone did hate Chelsea