Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Hyzepher

The one thing we have going for us is that this is the CL and that means no chicken-siht referees taking the easy options and letting ManU away with everything

gosplan

Argh, too nervous to anything constructive. Reading about it on the web but none of the articles are telling me what I want to hear(a sound case for why Arsenal will surely win). Can't concentrate on work. Luckily have packing to do as I'm moving Friday. Gonna start fixing boxes together and filling them with stuff and emerge at 7:45.

See you after the game.

Come on Arsenal!!!

L'prof

gosplan wrote: »

Argh, too nervous to anything constructive. Reading about it on the web but none of the articles are telling me what I want to hear(a sound case for why Arsenal will surely win). Can't concentrate on work. Luckily have packing to do as I'm moving Friday. Gonna start fixing boxes together and filling them with stuff and emerge at 7:45.

See you after the game.

Come on Arsenal!!!

You won't find one...here's a depressing stat though! Uniteds players have 103 medals, while Arsenals have 11!

Link

keane2097

gosplan wrote: »

Argh, too nervous to anything constructive. Reading about it on the web but none of the articles are telling me what I want to hear(a sound case for why Arsenal will surely win). Can't concentrate on work. Luckily have packing to do as I'm moving Friday. Gonna start fixing boxes together and filling them with stuff and emerge at 7:45.

See you after the game.

Come on Arsenal!!!

Does it make you feel any better to know that a lot of United fans (e.g. me) are just as nervous as you?

L'prof

keane2097 wrote: »

Does it make you feel any better to know that a lot of United fans (e.g. me) are just as nervous as you?

No, not really! I think this tie could go either way, so if United fans weren't nervous too, I'd be very surprised!

yahoo_moe

jasonorr wrote: »

Definitely! Song is far too slow, which isn't a great quality in a defensive player. I like Song, but I hate nothing more than starting with both of them, it's far too negative!

On recent form, I'd prefer Song - he's had a few really good games and should be well rested (I'd imagine because Wenger has had him in mind for this game for the last couple of weeks).

Plus against Chelsea and 'Pool, Denilson seemed to have picked up a worrying habit of giving the ball away really cheaply in bad areas - his passing stats have been mostly excellent this year but he might just be tiring a bit from all the games he's played.

I think they might both play though.

L'prof

yahoo_moe wrote: »

On recent form, I'd prefer Song - he's had a few really good games and should be well rested (I'd imagine because Wenger has had him in mind for this game for the last couple of weeks).

Plus against Chelsea and 'Pool, Denilson seemed to have picked up a worrying habit of giving the ball away really cheaply in bad areas - his passing stats have been mostly excellent this year but he might just be tiring a bit from all the games he's played.

I think they might both play though.

I dunno, Song is just far, far, far too slow. Especially against United! I dunno about playing them both, probably will happen, but I'd much prefer to see Diaby in there!

L'prof

Right, enjoy the match tonight lads...come on you gunners!!!

Royale with Cheese

Agghhhh I can't watch, I'm too nervous. But I can't not watch.

I'm screwed either way.

Is it fair to say this is Arsenal's biggest match since the final in 2006?

Pepe LeFrits

Song isn't particularly slow at all. Certainly no more so than Denilson, and he isn't a weed.

Anyway, questionable decision by Wenger to play Silvestre. Let's see where Fabregas plays...

Frisbee

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Anyway, questionable terrifying decision by Wenger to play Silvestre.

fyp

yahoo_moe

Yeah when I saw on the site that Wenger was waiting on Silvestre's fitness, I was worried... and now he's in there... and Rooney and Tevez both start.

Bleedin' hell, this is nerve-wracking

Pepe LeFrits

My faith in Wenger is vanishing almost as fast as our chances of making the CL final...

tony1kenobi

I'm pinning my hopes that Wenger has adopted Ali's rope a dope tactic and that we'll get 6 or 7 goals in the last 20 minutes......

Pepe LeFrits

I think Wenger's losing the plot altogether.

GuanYin

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

I think Wenger's losing the plot altogether.

Yeah, he's sticking to the 4-3-2-1 thing which I have yet to see work....

gosplan

Very disappointing.

Though Man U weren't all that amazing, we were thoroughly second best and 1-0 is better than we deserve.

Well done Almunia.

Royale with Cheese

Fair play to Gibbs after his first half showing. Defence generally did well second half.

What is Wenger playing at with that awful formation and Fabregas in the hole. You waste Fabregas, isolate Adebayor and generally just play shit. It's awful and I will hunt him down and shoot him if he tries it again.

Frisbee

The formation we played tonight destroyed us.
Fabregas is wasted playing in the hole, he may aswell not have been on the pitch. From the start it should have been

---

Ade

---

Eduardo

---

Nasri

---

Fab

---

Song

---

Nasri



Song had a great game once again

Pepe LeFrits

It was probably the worst performance from Cesc I've ever seen.

If Wenger plays him there again in the second leg, then...

GuanYin

Frisbee wrote: »

---

Ade

---

Eduardo

---

Nasri

---

Fab

---

Song

---

Nasri

Nasri is good, but he isn't that good....

Sútalún

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

It was probably the worst performance from Cesc I've ever seen.

If Wenger plays him there again in the second leg, then...

I thought cesc was pretty good. I thought Diaby was fairly awful and was raging when he took Theo off and put Diaby on the left. The game changed when he brought Bendtner on, even though he was muck. The players prefer to play 4-4-2. Probably because that's the formation we play domestically. SUPRISINGLY. Anyway, hopefully Wenger will have Ade/Edu/VP up top in the return leg. I'd give my left testicle to have Arshavin allegible.

Frisbee

Frisbee wrote: »

The formation we played tonight destroyed us.
Fabregas is wasted playing in the hole, he may aswell not have been on the pitch. From the start it should have been

---

Ade

---

Eduardo

---

Nasri

---

Fab

---

Song

---

Nasri



Song had a great game once again

+1 on song.

So clone Nasri for the second leg?
To be honest it would be worth a go considering Diaby was so rubbish. why the hell was a man who left gibbs absolutely exposed tonight left on 94 minutes? imagine we could be heading out of europe again over 1 bloody player!! Last year it was senderos, 04 and 06 Lehmann.
Funnily enough i think we still have a great chance. We will score at the emirates but wenger MUST get it right!!

gosplan

If we start the return leg with anything other than a 4-4-2, I will be extremely peeved.

We simply do not have enough good midfielders for a 4-5-1.

tony1kenobi

GuanYin wrote: »

Nasri is good, but he isn't that good....

He is though......:D

Pepe LeFrits

My mind boggles at how anyone could have been impressed with Cesc tonight. Passing, tackling, tracking, all terrible.

gosplan

Cesc was very poor. Not good to see.

tony1kenobi

It looked like everyone didn't know where they were meant to be......Every time we went forward everything stopped instead of moving forward.

It wasn't a great Arsenal performance but 1-0 was a great result based on it.

United to score early next week then we'll score 3 or 4.......anyone?

itsjaybud

Disappointed we couldnt get Walcott into the game at all tonight and in the end i think we have to settle with the result we got as we didnt really look like scoring. Maybe switching Walcott and Diaby could have proved more successful but it wasnt to be.

When i saw the starting the line-up which was the one i called i was pretty happy with it but didnt want to see Fabregas ahead of Nasri like everyone esle here.

I thought Diaby could do a decent job for us on the left hand side but he didnt and seems to be finding it very hard to get going in games and tonight was continously drifting inside and exposing Gibbs who imo had an outstanding 90minutes considering the players he was up against and the lack of protection.

Silvestre who seems to be getting slated continously here and in the match thread also played well tonight imo.

Finally i cant understand how anyone would think that wenger would play 4-4-2 away to utd with no RVP in the squad. Eduardo was never going to start that game after not seeing him for the past few weeks on the field.


Cesc really did have a bad day at the office and i know adebayor was isolated but when you want your striker to hold the ball up untill support arrives he failed on almost every occasion to do that so that was also a disappointment for me.


In the end 1-0 and we're far from out of this tie, next week at home 4-4-2 and hopefully we can score early!

tred

Lads, reading the posts. Are ye mental. Fantastic result. this isnt a league game, this is a 2 match knockout. were well in it. Formation will change in emerates. After watching Barca chelsea last night, were playing the top team with all their top players fit. We could have being 3 nill down. Thanks to almunia, and even sylvestre played well. We need clichy back. and, i question diabys contribution tonight. Song was my man of the match. Toure up there as well. things will open up in emirates. if we can score one and not conceed were still in there. i watched it with fellow supporters in the west, i said after 20 mins, ill take 1 nil and they all agreed. u look at uniteds team tonight, they put on carrick, the scots man and the brazilian to basically stop Cesc. Evra didnt pass half way line...to stop Walcott. Were well in this lads. :pac:

itsjaybud

OPENROAD wrote: »

Guys got a notification to join the Arsenal group earlier, can't find the link though, anyone have it tks.

Private messages, then notifications thats where my invite was anyway,

then the link there should bring you to the group and top right handside click join this group!!:)

OPENROAD

itsjaybud wrote: »

Private messages, then notifications thats where my invite was anyway,

then the link there should bring you to the group and top right handside click join this group!!:)

tks mate, found it

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Disappointed with not getting an away goal cause i can't see us not conceding at home. But from how the game went 1-0 isn't too bad, Almunia was superb in keeping us in it. Also agree on Song being great again.

For the return leg we have to go back to 442 with Fabregas back where he should be and Eduardo or Van Persie up top with Ade.

tony1kenobi

OPENROAD wrote: »

tks mate, found it

For reference:

1st rule of Arsenal club is, we do not ta.....

....ah ya know where I'm going with it.....Don't forget to show your appreciation of Diouf.

Frisbee

GuanYin wrote: »

Nasri is good, but he isn't that good....

My bad...

wandatowell

Song is turning into a top quality player.


I did not see that coming

jank

Crap performance but a good result.

Still to play for but if Arsenal and Wenger perform like that again then its curtains.


Diaby is awful, just awful. Too many average players in the team tonight. Thing is we don't have the quality to replace them.
The team needs more energy and craft.

I suppose we do have 4th!

Royale with Cheese

I think Arshavin really makes a massive difference.

Indie18

playa3 wrote: »

For the return leg we have to go back to 442 with Fabregas back where he should be and Eduardo or Van Persie up top with Ade.

Adebayor done nothing last night to make me think he deserves a place in the starting line up for the second leg. I do agree with Eduardo or Van Persie having to start though.

keano_afc

We're really fortunate still to be in this. My faith in Le boss is at an all time low at the moment, in our 2 biggest games this season he has picked the wrong team, and not bothered his a*se to change it until its too late. The midfield was non existant, for far too long. Was Walcott even playing??? So frustrating.

Next week we HAVE to start with 2 strikers, and they have to be playing up front Arsene, not on the right wing (as Bendy was) or on the left. We've nothing left to play for except this trophy, so why not just go all out?

L'prof

tred wrote: »

Lads, reading the posts. Are ye mental. Fantastic result. this isnt a league game, this is a 2 match knockout. were well in it.

It is a much better result than it could have been on the night, although I was very disappointed with the goal we gave away! Of course we are still in it, but I honestly can't see us keeping a clean sheet in the Emirates so we'll realistically have to score at least 3 and win by 2!

Anybody more optimistic than this???

Royale with Cheese

jasonorr wrote: »

It is a much better result than it could have been on the night, although I was very disappointed with the goal we gave away! Of course we are still in it, but I honestly can't see us keeping a clean sheet in the Emirates so we'll realistically have to score at least 3 and win by 2!

Anybody more optimistic than this???

Well you never know. Clichy could be back, Arsenal have how many clean sheets in a row at home in the league? Have they conceded a goal at home in the Champions League all season?

Keeping a clean sheet is unlikely, about as likely as only conceding once last night based on the performance they gave. But that happened, so I wouldn't 100% rule out a clean sheet in the home leg.

Going forward, van Persie is really needed back. Back to 4-4-2 and things could click. Arshavin is a big big loss though.

Arsenal are definitely outsiders but they've nothing else to play for this season, I'd like to think they're capable of raising their game in the way that Liverpool do for these kinds of ties, I have my doubts though.

L'prof

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Well you never know. Clichy could be back, Arsenal have how many clean sheets in a row at home in the league? Have they conceded a goal at home in the Champions League all season?

Keeping a clean sheet is unlikely, about as likely as only conceding once last night based on the performance they gave. But that happened, so I wouldn't 100% rule out a clean sheet in the home leg.

Going forward, van Persie is really needed back. Back to 4-4-2 and things could click. Arshavin is a big big loss though.

Arsenal are definitely outsiders but they've nothing else to play for this season, I'd like to think they're capable of raising their game in the way that Liverpool do for these kinds of ties, I have my doubts though.

Just checked it there, we haven't conceded a home goal in the champions league since Liverpool last season! While it's a good record, we haven't exactly been playing any of the best teams in Europe since then and United are certainly that!

I just feel United will be all out for that away goal knowing that we'll have to score 3 then leaving it virtually impossible for us to claw our way back into the tie!

Quazzie

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Clichy could be back,

I've seen a few people say this, but to be honest I can't see how thats going to affect next weeks performance, as from what I have seen from last nights game Gibbs was one of our better players. He fought hard, concentrated and stuck to his task with great pleasure. He might have been the only player out there with such traits in fact. Bringing Clichy back won't be the saviour many hope it will be. He will do the same competent job that Gibbs done last night. I'll have a quick run through of the team and see will many agree with me.

AlmuniaGreat game and he kept us in it in the first half with some vital saves when required.
Sagna was too ineffective both offensively and defensively.
Silvestre Dire for the goal and didn't improve throughout the game. Got lucky with a header that went over the bar but could've just as easily ended in the back of the net. Worst player on the night.
TourePlayed OK. Was good at times and stuck to his task but lapsed concentration at time.
GibbsMy MOTM simply because he done the easy things right and put in 100% throughout. Great prospect for the future.
DiabyNever looked to get into the game and gave away the ball far too often. Did very little defensively.
SongI thought personally he was very bad. He look tired from the start. He lacked drive and commitment and muscled out of nearly every 50/50. Looked slow and uninterested.
NasriStruggled to get into the game and looked weak compared to the UTD midfield. His best attributes are offensive and he never got to show them.
WalcottDid he even play. Was lost for most of the match and done nothing of note.
FabregasVery poor showing from the captain, and one he will want to forget. He really needs a good performance next week to show what he is capable of. He was played out of position and it showed in a drastic way.
Adebayour Lost up front on his own, again like Song looked tired from the start and seemed to be pacing himself for a long game. Very ineffective as a lone striker and drifted to the wings far too often. For a lone striker he was often behind Fabregas, whereas tit should've been vice-versa.


Wenger desperately needs to play 4-4-2 next week in an effort to get back to the game we know and play so well. Attractive Attacking Football.

leninbenjamin

Quazzie wrote: »

I've seen a few people say this, but to be honest I can't see how thats going to affect next weeks performance, as from what I have seen from last nights game Gibbs was one of our better players. He fought hard, concentrated and stuck to his task with great pleasure. He might have been the only player out there with such traits in fact. Bringing Clichy back won't be the saviour many hope it will be. He will do the same competent job that Gibbs done last night. I'll have a quick run through of the team and see will many agree with me.

AlmuniaGreat game and he kept us in it in the first half with some vital saves when required.
Sagna was too ineffective both offensively and defensively.
Silvestre Dire for the goal and didn't improve throughout the game. Got lucky with a header that went over the bar but could've just as easily ended in the back of the net. Worst player on the night.
TourePlayed OK. Was good at times and stuck to his task but lapsed concentration at time.
GibbsMy MOTM simply because he done the easy things right and put in 100% throughout. Great prospect for the future.
DiabyNever looked to get into the game and gave away the ball far too often. Did very little defensively.
SongI thought personally he was very bad. He look tired from the start. He lacked drive and commitment and muscled out of nearly every 50/50. Looked slow and uninterested.
NasriStruggled to get into the game and looked weak compared to the UTD midfield. His best attributes are offensive and he never got to show them.
WalcottDid he even play. Was lost for most of the match and done nothing of note.
FabregasVery poor showing from the captain, and one he will want to forget. He really needs a good performance next week to show what he is capable of. He was played out of position and it showed in a drastic way.
Adebayour Lost up front on his own, again like Song looked tired from the start and seemed to be pacing himself for a long game. Very ineffective as a lone striker and drifted to the wings far too often. For a lone striker he was often behind Fabregas, whereas tit should've been vice-versa.


Wenger desperately needs to play 4-4-2 next week in an effort to get back to the game we know and play so well. Attractive Attacking Football.

you didn't watch the same match as me i'm guessing?

Song awful? he was the only presence in the midfield for large parts of the game when Ade, Cesc and Nasri went missing. He's still young and inexperienced, needs to learn when to drop deep to cover, but he was far from awful.

Gibbs MOTM? he played decent, but only really considering his lack of experience. his positional sense needs to develop a lot more, he was caught out a lot and lucky not to get punished more than he did.

Silvestre actually had a pretty decent game. He had to cover a lot for Gibbs which made his job all the more harder.

Toure was the best player on the park at times. You're right about his concentration lapses, but some of the sprints he made to cover the full backs were outstanding.

Walcott actually did alright, hardly got the ball going forward, but in terms of defence he was back a lot to support Sagna who had a torrid time against Rooney.

Considering United were targeting the wings for most of the game which messed the shape of the team the CB pairing actually held up very well. The midfield needs to be sorted though, they really failed to give the full backs the cover they needed.

As for Ade, he just got no support. He had no one to flick onto, no one to cross to in the box, nothing. All he could do was slow the game down in the hope of support. I like playing Ade up front on his own, but you need someone who can get into the positions to support him, Arsenal haven't had anyone who can do this since Hleb left. I actually think the loss of Hleb is the main reason why Ade hasn't looked great this season.

I'm most disappointed with Wenger though. Nasri starting behind Cesc was a daft move, considering the were playing in each others best position.

Frisbee

Indie18 wrote: »

Adebayor done nothing last night to make me think he deserves a place in the starting line up for the second leg. I do agree with Eduardo or Van Persie having to start though.

It's the system we're playing that's making him look crap.
How many flick on's did he win last night that just went straight to a Chelsea player because there was no-one on the overlap?

Put him up top with RVP and he'll look much more effective as he won't be completely isolated.

Also, for the love of God, STOP PLAYING CESC IN THAT STUPID MOTHERF***ING ADVANCED ROLE!!!

_blank_

Frisbee wrote: »

It's the system we're playing that's making him look crap.
How many flick on's did he win last night that just went straight to a Chelsea player because there was no-one on the overlap?

What are you smoking Laura, and can I have some?

Frisbee

Des wrote: »

What are you smoking Laura, and can I have some?

If we play 4-5-1 someone has to be running on to support Adebayor when he does win the ball.

With Cesc playing in the hole it's not happening because:

(1) He has no pace whatsoever
(2) He kept dropping deep to try and get the ball which meant Ade was completely isolated and it was easy for Terry and Alex to deal with him.

premierstone

Frisbee wrote: »

It's the system we're playing that's making him look crap.
How many flick on's did he win last night that just went straight to a Chelsea player because there was no-one on the overlap?

Put him up top with RVP and he'll look much more effective as he won't be completely isolated.

Also, for the love of God, STOP PLAYING CESC IN THAT STUPID MOTHERF***ING ADVANCED ROLE!!!

That explains why none of the fcukers were playing in the nou camp they were trying to hijack the more glamorous semi final

_blank_

Yeah, but last night's game was against ManYoo, not Chelsea