Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

premierstone

Did anyone else feel that Andy Gray was been very harsh/dissmissive of Fab, a couple of he's saves in the first half were very good and Andy 'take a bow son' Gray just sort of dismissed them as ''Saves you'd be expected to make'', Did Andy loose a few bob on Chelsea at the weekend or what?

yahoo_moe

premierstone wrote: »

While yes I agree Almunia has been fantastic of late anyone that thinks Fabianski was culpable last night needs a new telly or a new pass time, the problems were all in front of him, Sagna was clearly not 100%, Silvestre was well Silvestre, and Toure is not the same player when Gallas is missing and infact IMO none of the back four are,

Agree completely.

As for Andy Gray, I thought he was pretty much on the money most of the time - most of 'Pool's first half efforts were straight at him. I though he dismissed the save from the Torres near post half-volley a bit too easily but otherwise, he was unusually fair.

What really got me was the Liverpool-focussed discussion - I didn't mind it beforehand, given their guest for the evening, but how I'll never know how Smudger didn't brain Jamie Redknapp and Richard Keyes for banging on about Liverpool gifting Arsenal 3 goals without mentioning that we gifted them 3 as well.

wandatowell

Thought Nasri put in a hard nights work last night, always looking for a pass and got stuck into challenges. top player

gosplan

The last time we were leaking goals like this, Wenger went out and got Viera and Petit.

fingers crossed

Song's come on in leaps and bounds and Djourou looks OK but I'll be very disappointed if we don't start next year with a new quality DMF and Defender.

In Arshavin, it seems that Wenger has finished building either the best or second best attack on the planet.

A team with RVP, Ade, Eduardo, Arshavin, Nasri, Walcott, Fabregas and Rosicky has everything needed to trouble any defence, could change seamlessly between 4-4-2 and the CL favoured 4-5-1 and could also withstand a reasonable amount of injuries. However it'll all be for nothing unless we go out and buy a stronger spine.

So please Arsne, a DMF and a defender.

yahoo_moe

wandatowell wrote: »

Thought Nasri put in a hard nights work last night, always looking for a pass and got stuck into challenges. top player

Yeah he did very well.

gosplan wrote:

A team with RVP, Ade, Eduardo, Arshavin, Nasri, Walcott, Fabregas and Rosicky has everything needed to trouble any defence

And Bendtner. Also, I presume you mean 'squad' - not sure a team with all 8 of them in it would give that defensive improvement you want

Quazzie

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Yeah he did very well.

And Bendtner. Also, I presume you mean 'squad' - not sure a team with all 8 of them in it would give that defensive improvement you want

Its a disgrace to even see Bendtner even be mentioned with the rest of them players.

Hang your head in shame Moe!

Royale with Cheese

Yeah thought Nasri had a good game alright. Himself, Arshavin and perhaps Fabianski aside, nobody had a good game really.

yahoo_moe

Royale with Cheese wrote:

Himself, Arshavin and perhaps Fabianski aside, nobody had a good game really.

Song too, I thought.

Quazzie wrote: »

Its a disgrace to even see Bendtner even be mentioned with the rest of them players.

Hang your head in shame Moe!

He's been better this season than Rosicky

Royale with Cheese

Oh yeah, Song was decent enough.

Boggles

Was thinking last night if I were a manager playing against Arsenal and Wenger employed his tactic of bringing on Walcott, I'd bring on a fresh left back at the same time.

He doesn't even have to beat players, he just kicks it past them and runs faster than them.

Very potent weapon to have on the bench.

Quazzie

Boggles wrote: »

Was thinking last night if I were a manager playing against Arsenal and Wenger employed his tactic of bringing on Walcott, I'd bring on a fresh left back at the same time.

He doesn't even have to beat players, he just kicks it past them and runs faster than them.

Very potent weapon to have on the bench.

in 2006 Theo Walcott became the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year taking over from Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, an English Sprint athlete. Theo took over the reigns having a personal best 100M sprint time within half a second of Harry's.

By 14 he was doing 100m in 11.7sec. There aint too many left-back subs that can match that pace, or even get anywhere near it. You'd need to keep your fastest player on the bench just in case so he'd be fresh when Theo gets a run.

Boggles

Quazzie wrote: »

By 14 he was doing 100m in 11.7sec. There aint too many left-back subs that can match that pace, or even get anywhere near it. You'd need to keep your fastest player on the bench just in case so he'd be fresh when Theo gets a run.

Well...Plan B was to kick him very very hard. :pac:

Galvasean

Its great to see in Arshavin we finally have that goalscoring midfielder we've been lacking since Bobby and Freddie left.
Hopefully next year he can do a Ronaldo for us and score 30+ goals in a season.
Who needs strikers?

Frisbee

Boggles wrote: »

Well...Plan B was to kick him very very hard. :pac:

That'll work out better I reckon :pac:

tony1kenobi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHtz5NBFnus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxti0JEY7b4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MmfbSZhs44

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCYKfvS1BYs

Yea I suppose they were 4 jammy goals weren't they?

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Youth team currently 2-0 up(4-1 agg.) against man city in the FA youth cup semi. Watt in the first minute and Wilshere with a penalty after 20

Pepe LeFrits

3-0 up now. Bartley scored the third from a corner.

Arsenal - Liverpool youth cup final by the looks of it.

Pepe LeFrits

Mildly interesting statistic from the Telegraph's stats page - chances created in this season's CL:

1 Andrey Arshavin Arsenal 38
2 Xavi Hernández Barcelona 22
3 Frank Lampard Chelsea 21
4 Wayne Rooney Manchester United 20
5 Lionel Messi Barcelona 19

Shavva's had rather fewer games I would have thought...

Pepe LeFrits

Watt again, 4-0.

leninbenjamin

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Mildly interesting statistic from the Telegraph's stats page - chances created in this season's CL:

1 Andrey Arshavin Arsenal 38
2 Xavi Hernández Barcelona 22
3 Frank Lampard Chelsea 21
4 Wayne Rooney Manchester United 20
5 Lionel Messi Barcelona 19

Shavva's had rather fewer games I would have thought...

he played 6.

Messi 9, Rooney 10, Fat Frank 6, Xavi 10. Some acheivement really, twice as much as Messi the supposed worlds best player. I may have to withdraw my initial skepticism about the guy...

gosplan

gosplan wrote: »

The last time we were leaking goals like this, Wenger went out and got Viera and Petit.

fingers crossed

well now to be fair vieira is fairly past it and petit is retired

yahoo_moe

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Some acheivement really, twice as much as Messi the supposed worlds best player. I may have to withdraw my initial skepticism about the guy...

Yeah but practically everything Zenit did would have gone through Arshavin (and possibly Danny, though he seemed more a 'get on the end of it' player).

Whereas Barca have Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Eto'o, Henry, even Keita all creating chances, United have Rooney, Berbatov, Tevez, Giggs, Ronaldo and Carrick, and so on for each of the bigger teams.

If he'd been with Arsenal, I'm not sure if his numbers would be so high. Obviously still an excellent player though

yahoo_moe

BBC Sport interview with Flamini. Haven't watched it myself yet but could be interesting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/8010235.stm

L'prof

This season v previous seasons:

P   W   D   L   F   A  GD Pts
2008-2009:  33  17  11   5  58  32  26  62
2007-2008:  33  20  11   2  63  27  36  71 ( 3rd)
2006-2007:  33  17   8   8  54  30  24  59 ( 4th)
2005-2006:  33  16   6  11  54  26  28  54 ( 4th)
2004-2005:  33  21   8   4  73  33  40  71 ( 2nd)
2003-2004:  33  24   9   0  67  22  45  81 ( 1st)
2002-2003:  33  20   8   5  69  36  33  68 ( 2nd)
2001-2002:  33  21   9   3  68  33  35  72 ( 1st)
2000-2001:  33  17   9   7  53  32  21  60 ( 2nd)
1999-2000:  33  19   6   8  63  34  29  63 ( 2nd)
1998-1999:  33  18  12   3  48  14  34  66 ( 2nd)
1997-1998:  33  20   9   4  61  28  33  69 ( 1st)
1996-1997:  33  17   9   7  55  28  27  60 ( 3rd)
1995-1996:  33  16   9   8  46  29  17  57 ( 5th)

Rolling season:

P   W   D   L   F   A  GD Pts
2008-2009:  38  21  11   6  69  36  33  74

Current run:

P   W   D   L   F   A  GD Pts
2008-2009:  19  10   9   0  33  14  19  39

It would be nice to get a few more wins into that run!

Evil_Clown

This guy is impressing me more and more, he is playing brilliant and talking like a true future Arsenal legend

http://www.setanta.com/ie/Articles/Football/2009/04/23/FA-CupPrem-Arshavin-on-ChelseaLiverpool/gnid-49891/

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Haha what a legend

Asked if it proved he now had the fitness to cope with 90 minutes in the English game, he joked: “No – it proves I had a good rest in the first half!”

premierstone

Right lads we all need to enter a pact, now i know its goin to be hard but we must all commit to not getting Arshavin's name on our jersey cos we know what happens when we do

yahoo_moe

jasonorr wrote: »

It would be nice to get a few more wins into that run!

This seems to be our (and Liverpool's) key weakness the last couple of years compared to Chelsea/United.

Last year we only lost three times but we drew 11 - if we'd turned even just 2 of those draws into wins, we would have been level on points with United. 3 draws, 1 loss and 7 draws and we'd have been ahead of them. I know the season could have panned out differently if things had been going that way, but the comparison is still valid.

This year, Liverpool have only lost twice but with 11 draws, look set to do something similar to how we finished last year (although it's been a weaker season overall so you never know).

EDIT: Utd have drawn 6 so far this year, 6 last year and 5 the year before. Chelsea's 2nd title had 4 draws and while their first had 8, they only lost once that year. So 11's way off, unless you plan on pretty much winning everything else (the Invincibles had 12 by the way ).

yahoo_moe

premierstone wrote: »

Right lads we all need to enter a pact, now i know its goin to be hard but we must all commit to not getting Arshavin's name on our jersey cos we know what happens when we do

At least he's not number 9...

Galvasean

Good news: Ade, Almunia and Djourou should be back for Sunday.

Bad news: RvP and Clichy will both miss out on the 1st leg against United.

keano_afc

RvP we can compensate for but Clichy is a big loss. We need to protect Gibbs, Arsh to play off Ade maybe instead of left midfield? Gibbs needs more solidity in fornt of him.

Royale with Cheese

premierstone wrote: »

Right lads we all need to enter a pact, now i know its goin to be hard but we must all commit to not getting Arshavin's name on our jersey cos we know what happens when we do

Already got it. Oh well, the only other Arsenal shirt with a name on it I have is van Persie and he's turned out ok, apart from being injured for the game next week that is. Grrr :mad:

I hope to God Eduardo plays against United and not Bendtner. Hopefully Eduardo will get some game time at the weekend at the very least.

Pepe LeFrits

keano_afc wrote: »

RvP we can compensate for but Clichy is a big loss. We need to protect Gibbs, Arsh to play off Ade maybe instead of left midfield? Gibbs needs more solidity in fornt of him.

Agreed. I'd like to see Samir playing LM for the remaining league and CL games. Play two of Ade/Eduardo/Shava in attack.

leninbenjamin

keano_afc wrote: »

RvP we can compensate for but Clichy is a big loss. We need to protect Gibbs, Arsh to play off Ade maybe instead of left midfield? Gibbs needs more solidity in fornt of him.

that's where Arsh should be playing anyway imo.

tony1kenobi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WD25BrL_UU

Top drawer.

enfant terrible

Who got semi-final tickets

Never seen the site so busy, was in the queue for 50 minutes before i got in

Eventually got a ticket for myself and my father, orange quad upper tier by half way line

Think they sold out by midday, a friend of mine wasn't able to get one at all even thought he was trying since 10am

newballsplease

Anyone with a good knowledge of the team , would they be able to tell me, will adebayor play a part in the game on sunday? i know hes just coming back from injury and with the game against utd next wed, is it likely he would be on the bench and not risked?

Frisbee

newballsplease wrote: »

Anyone with a good knowledge of the team , would they be able to tell me, will adebayor play a part in the game on sunday? i know hes just coming back from injury and with the game against utd next wed, is it likely he would be on the bench and not risked?

Most likely on the bench with Bendtner and/or Eduardo up top

Frisbee

Rosicky in injury setback shocker

Pepe LeFrits

Hope we can get him back for pre-season. Would be a nice player to have in the team again.

I'm a bit worried by the lack of Eduardo recently. We really need him fit if we're to beat United in the CL.

Frisbee

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

I'm a bit worried by the lack of Eduardo recently. We really need him fit if we're to beat United in the CL.

+1, was really hoping to see him against Pool or Chelsea

yahoo_moe

Frisbee wrote: »

+1, was really hoping to see him against Pool or Chelsea

+2. I was sure he'd get the last half hour against 'Pool and maybe the first hour on Sunday to try and ease him back without another tweak and at least have the option of involving him next week.

Then again, it wasn't exactly the type of match to let you execute all your pre-prepared plans...

itsjaybud

The two fans were funny tuesday night, i might have a listen to these two sunday if the match is any bit boring and i need a good laugh!

Id say it will be pretty ridiculous tbh, pitty the arsenal one is rough enough looking!:)

cashback

itsjaybud wrote: »

Id say it will be pretty ridiculous tbh, pitty the arsenal one is rough enough looking!:)

She's not the worst of them to be fair. Have you seen the Wigan girl?

itsjaybud

cashback wrote: »

She's not the worst of them to be fair. Have you seen the Wigan girl?

I dunno about that now in fairness I can only agree on that she has good taste in football! Its a pretty bad bunch except the boro one imo!:)

Frisbee

Frisbee wrote: »

Rosicky in injury setback shocker

i think arsenal should make a decision on his future. personally i think his career is over.

Royale with Cheese

His contract is probably up soon enough. Let it run down, if he manages to stay fit then give him another year. If he refuses and leaves on a Bosman he would be the biggest wanker ever to play professional football.

Royale with Cheese

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

His contract is probably up soon enough. Let it run down, if he manages to stay fit then give him another year. If he refuses and leaves on a Bosman he would be the biggest wanker ever to play professional football.

nah i just think his legs are buggered. i don't think anyone would touch him at that considering his wages

Another contrasting story with Rosicky's agent today stating that wenger wont risk him this season and that he is fine only to get more preparation for next season rather then training at a high intensity level this season. what to believe! anyways djourou rumoured to be back.who knows we might get 10 minutes from him

yahoo_moe

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

His contract is probably up soon enough. Let it run down, if he manages to stay fit then give him another year. If he refuses and leaves on a Bosman he would be the biggest wanker ever to play professional football.

Winston Bogarde II?

I agree though - no point trying to ditch him now after the investment we've put into him. Plus if he ever does get fit, he's pure quality and perfect for our game.

Deleted User wrote:

what to believe!

Not the agent