Arsenal FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

premierstone

OPENROAD wrote: »

The whole Eduardo thing might work to our advantage, the reaction has been hugely OTT compared to other players fore other clubs in the same situation. Arsenal against the World imo, it will bring the team closer together imo.

Hopefully, but off course there is always the possibility that some of the players are disgusted by it aswell?

Frisbee

UEFA have launched an investgation into the Eduardo dive and they may be imposing said two match ban.

Joke imo

Redzer7

Any predictions on tomorrows games lads
should be a close one.

WillieCocker

Redzer7 wrote: »

Any predictions on tomorrows games lads
should be a close one.

Eduardo hattrick!!!!!!!!!!!!

Frisbee

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11945_5519726,00.html

thorbarry

Redzer7 wrote: »

Any predictions on tomorrows games lads
should be a close one.

We're looking pretty good at the moment, very tough to call, we can win it no doubt, so can United tho...... i say we'll nick it 1nil

premierstone

Redzer7 wrote: »

Any predictions on tomorrows games lads
should be a close one.

Any word on the latest with Fab? Will Rosicky be in the squad?

Redzer7

Doesn't look like Fab is passed fit :mad:

Arsenal fans will discover if their team can truly put up a realistic title challenge when they visit Old Trafford to take on champions Manchester United on Saturday.
The Gunners were thought by many to be the team most susceptible to succumb to the challenge of mega rich Manchester City, with their top four place supposedly in jeopardy this season.
Such a prediction now seems well wide of the mark with Arsene Wenger's men winning all four of their opening games this term, scoring 15 goals in the process.
But Arsenal know the real work begins this weekend when two of the 'big four' meet for the first time this season.
The Red Devils have history for bringing their London rivals back down to earth. Goals from Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney put an end to Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten run in 2004 while United's thumping 4-1 semi-final aggregate win over the Gunners last season ended any hopes Wenger had of lifting the UEFA Champions League.
However the Frenchman will take comfort from the fact that the sting that accompanied many of the two sides' previous encounters down the years has disappeared.
Easy on the eye

Gone are the ferocious personalities such as Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira, instead replaced by the composed and easy on the eye talents of Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Carrick, Cesc Fabregas and Andrey Arshavin.
However the Gunners' influential skipper is only 50-50 to make the trip, with the hamstring injury he picked up in the 4-1 win over Portsmouth last weekend still hindering his progress.
Tomas Rosicky has now fully recovered from his long-term hamstring injury but he is expected to miss out at the Theatre of Dreams.
Aaron Ramsey, who could be an option to replace Fabregas, has had a scan on his knee after suffering in the Celtic clash in midweek. Although initial signs are positive the Welshman could still be ruled out.
Theo Walcott will also be assessed ahead of the clash following the back injury that has kept him out of the side so far this season.
Wenger will definitely be without the injured Samir Nasri (broken leg), Johan Djourou (knee) and Lukasz Fabianski (knee).
Meanwhile United will still be without the services of Rio Ferdinand (thigh), Edwin Van der Sar (finger) and Rafael (shoulder).
It should mean that Jonny Evans will continue to partner fit again Nemanja Vidic in defence after the Serbia international came through his first appearance of the season against Wigan unscathed.
Firepower

Van der Sar's injury means that Ben Foster should keep his place given he kept his second clean sheet of the season in a 5-0 win at the DW Stadium last weekend.
The debate rages on whether manager Sir Alex Ferguson has enough firepower at his disposal to cope with the loss of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez but Berbatov, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen were all on target against the Latics.
United have already used the most players this season, 18, and Ferguson is likely to rotate his squad again on Saturday, in particular his midfield.
Paul Scholes and Darren Fletcher both started at Wigan but Ryan Giggs and Carrick, who missed out completely against Roberto Martinez's men, will be vying for a start as will Anderson, who will be looking to put his reported spat with Ferguson firmly behind him.
Possible starting XIs:
Man Utd: Foster, O'Shea, Evans, Vidic, Evra, Nani, Fletcher, Carrick, Valencia, Berbatov, Rooney.
Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Vermaelen, Gallas, Clichy, Song, Diaby, Denilson, Arshavin, Van Persie, Eduardo.

Redzer7

Fabregas ruled out seen it on SSN :mad: this game just got alot harder :mad:.

Evil_Clown

Redzer7 wrote: »

Fabregas ruled out seen it on SSN :mad: this game just got alot harder :mad:.

This is a blow but now that we have Arshavin the blow is softened a bit I think, he will create chances no doubt. I hope Arshavin, RVP and Eduardo start up top tom if so we still stand a good chance of turning them over. Song and Denilson have been excellent so far and Diaby should be the 3rd midfielder after his display against Pompey.

Souless

Evil_Clown wrote: »

This is a blow but now that we have Arshavin the blow is softened a bit I think, he will create chances no doubt. I hope Arshavin, RVP and Eduardo start up top tom if so we still stand a good chance of turning them over. Song and Denilson have been excellent so far and Diaby should be the 3rd midfielder after his display against Pompey.

Denilson got a great goal against everton but other than that dont see how he has played all that well this season, his tackling is still poor and his passing is very often missed placed or backwards. Song has looked much improved so far he's looked strong and has been making some decent tackles. I think Arshavin has looked a lot better through the middle rather than out on the left in particular, maybe with van persie on the left and arshavin on the right he may have a better time.

Anyway even with Fabergas not passed fit I still think we've definatly got the potential to bet United

keano_afc

We've potential alright, a lot more difficult now without Fab though. This might change the formation maybe? I'm expecting it to be a bit more defensive now we've lost our captain.

WillieCocker

Souless wrote: »

Denilson got a great goal against everton but other than that dont see how he has played all that well this season, his tackling is still poor and his passing is very often missed placed or backwards.

As was Eboue who had certainly brought a lot more wrongs to his game at his time at Arsenal.
But this season he has shown he can be a different player and like Denilson has helped his side to wins.
I've done a U-turn on Eboue and think if he keeps this up he certainly has a place in Arsenals future.
Denilson too needs time to show this and this season could be the time.

gosplan

That's a pretty weird sig Willie. For some reason it reminds me of black americans using the 'n' word.

WillieCocker

gosplan wrote: »

That's a pretty weird sig Willie. For some reason it reminds me of black americans using the 'n' word.

It was a funny quote i read somewhere.;)

Galvasean

I had a fiver riding on Eduardo to score first against Celtic and Arsenal to win 3-1 at 40/1. I've never been so happy to see Arsenal concede!

Redzer7

Galvasean wrote: »

I had a fiver riding on Eduardo to score first against Celtic and Arsenal to win 3-1 at 40/1. I've never been so happy to see Arsenal concede!

Thanks for the tip :rolleyes::P.

Galvasean

Frisbee wrote: »

UEFA have launched an investgation into the Eduardo dive and they may be imposing said two match ban.

Joke imo

Ibrahimovic and Pedro both dived today (Pedro was booked. Ibrahimovic was just waved to play on). Will they face investigations? Not bloody likely :rolleyes:
While I think Eduardo does deserve to be punished for such unsporting behaviour, if he gets punished so too should everybody else.

Was readig a piecein the Indo today. The writer was talking about how disgraceful Eduardo is and how Wenger nurtured divers because we all remember Robert Pires diving against Portsmouth.
FFS, its good to see anti-Arsenal sentiment still alive in sections of the media. How many players (more specifically non-Arsenal ones) dived since Bobby Pires left Arsenal?

Galvasean

Redzer7 wrote: »

Thanks for the tip :rolleyes::P.

It was 40/1 for Eduardo to score first and Arsenal to win 3-1.
I think Arsenal to win 3-1 was 10/1. Arsenal to win with Eduardo an any time scorer was evens.
Anyhow, not like it was premeditated. Last second thought on the way into the pub (strategically placed bookies and all that jazz).

Frisbee

Galvasean wrote: »

Ibrahimovic and Pedro both dived today (Pedro was booked. Ibrahimovic was just waved to play on). Will they face investigations?

Nope

Redzer7

Today's the big day

C'mon Arsenal :D.

Redzer7

Arsenal V West Brom 3rd Round Of The Carling Cup .

Galvasean

Redzer7 wrote: »

Arsenal V West Brom 3rd Round Of The Carling Cup .

Good test for the young guns.

Redzer7

Jammy Jammy Goals,
Only One Side Played Football Today
Hard Luck lads.

Royale with Cheese

Jammy goals but as soon as they went in Arsenal didn't have an answer. Same old story. Can't help but think Cesc would have made a big difference in that game.

gosplan

Poor mistakes. Very unhappy. There is undoubtedly progress there given the gap between the two teams in the Cl semi last year but I'd love to know if it's Man U going backwards or us improving.

We were a much better team, even without Fabregas but two terrible mistakes. I accept that Almunia is a good shot stopper but he makes very poor decisions sometimes.

Also hard to tell this early in the season if that was two bad isolated mistakes or the mentality that saw us drop so many points last year.

Anyway, we deserved to win which is something but my god do this team need to learn how to close games out!!!!!!

Redzer7

gosplan wrote: »

my god do this team need to learn how to close games out!!!!!!

+1, happy with most of the performance but we really do need to know how to finish teams, PUT THEM TO THE SWORD :P.

WillieCocker

Redzer7 wrote: »

+1, happy with most of the performance but we really do need to know how to finish teams, PUT THEM TO THE SWORD :P.

Factor in Diaby's big boo-boo, and Eboue's usual antics and that would have been a great game and we could have gone on to win.:(

Redzer7

Really Devastated With The Loss Though :mad:.

My Saturday Night Ruined

DenMan

Yeah, I'm fcuked aswell. Just back from the bar and I'm not happy....plus I have women problems too!!!

Mossy Monk

Has Eboue got the intelligence of a plank of wood? After all the **** that happened since Wednesday and he dives at Old Traaford. What a ****ing idiot.

Redzer7

Really hate his guts Eboue :mad:
has he any fcuking sense in his head
Gobshíte .

keano_afc

I still cant accept that we lost that. Dominated for 90 minutes and were the only side interested in playing football. We can recover from this, and we'll be there next May thats for sure. Utd have work to do coz my goodness they're not even half the side of last year. they'll drop a lot more points this season.

SlickRic

be proud of yourselves lads.

that will mean nothing as results mean pretty much everything, but my God were you better than those Mancs.

very very unlucky.

jank

If they perform like that week in they will easily get a top four spot but the need to be more clinical

I don't know but I never rated diaby, much too inconsistent.

Chin up, big game against man city next week!

Green Hornet

Almunia seems to be all at sea so far this season. He made a mistake for the penalty. Okay. It was a penalty by the way.

Had a hand in Diaby's own goal too but essentially Diaby must take responsibility for the mistake.

It's not just those errors though. He seems to be unsure of when to come or when to stay. He was like that all game and in the previous games as well.

I was comfortable enough with him last year but unless he gets his act together soon I think he will be a real liability. If he loses the confidence of the defence in front of him we are screwed and we don't have an able deputy to come in instead of him either.

Fabinaski arguably has even WORSE decision making. He needs a bungie rope to heep him between the sticks and by all accounts Mannone is not great either.

This is not an Almunia bashing post. I like Almunia. All keepers make mistakes (look at Foster yesterday for that matter). I hope he gets it together and atones for his errors but I'm not sure if his mental fortitude is up to it.

Galvasean

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Has Eboue got the intelligence of a plank of wood? After all the **** that happened since Wednesday and he dives at Old Traaford. What a ****ing idiot.

That was the first team that popped into my head actually. And to think I was praising Eboue for his performance against Celtic and then he goes and does this.

The result is pretty hard to take. Arshavin scores a fantastic strike, then we give away a silly penalty and score an own goal.
Then there were our chances. There could have been a penalty when Arshavin was brought down. Penalties are often given for challenges like that.
Foster had that point blank reflex save from van Persie. 9 times out of ten those shots ricochet over the keeper's heel and go in.
We hit the bar moments before United's second and then had a goal in the last minute (albeit rightfully) disallowed for offside.
Had we had a bit of good fortune we could have won that game but we were poxed not to.

killwill

Galvasean wrote: »

That was the first team that popped into my head actually. And to think I was praising Eboue for his performance against Celtic and then he goes and does this.

The result is pretty hard to take. Arshavin scores a fantastic strike, then we give away a silly penalty and score an own goal.
Then there were our chances. There could have been a penalty when Arshavin was brought down. Penalties are often given for challenges like that.
Foster had that point blank reflex save from van Persie. 9 times out of ten those shots ricochet over the keeper's heel and go in.
We hit the bar moments before United's second and then had a goal in the last minute (albeit rightfully) disallowed for offside.
Had we had a bit of good fortune we could have won that game but we were poxed not to.

I have to sayover 90mins ye were the better team but don't forget United's clear chances too. Fletch had a good chance at the start, Nani x2, Rooney and Berbatov, that is 4 clear chances in the last 10 mins.

Galvasean

killwill wrote: »

that is 4 clear chances in the last 10 mins.

Here's the thing, Arsenal were chasing the game in those last ten minutes and had completely thrown caution to the wind. Had they had more luck earlier and had been winning their defence would't have been as open, meaning United wouldn't have been catching us on the break like that so late in the game.

JerryHandbag

As a United fan I gotta say I though Wengers treatment at the end of the game was a disgrace....why do that to the man, the game was over....4th official was clueless. So he kicked a bottle, so what? Sam Allardyce did too, toward the crowd!!

And as for certain United "fans" singing a certain song about Wenger, if indeed thats what happened, utterly disgusting. I have great respect for Wenger and his philosophy on football.

Arsenal will be a major force this season, especially with Arshavin, and ye didnt get what ye deserved yesterday. I woulda been relieved with a point at half time.

Redzer7

Just seen on SSN there in Wengers press conference

"I kicked the bottle of water, when the goal was cancelled, out of disappointment," Wenger said at a news conference after his side's first defeat of the season. "The fourth official called over the referee and sent me off.


"I don't know what to say. There were 30 seconds to go. It must have been spectacular!


"I didn't even know where to go. He told me to go into the stand but there was no way to get into the stand. Just because I kicked a bottle of water. It was quite a good kick but..."

Legend even the way he says it with a little smirk on his face :pac:.

liamygunner29

Obviously its a sore one, good thing we're used to been heartbroken, but Wenger for the millionth time said "eh we can take alot of positives from this defeat" and this is one of the times I fully agree, did anyone else feel a difference from last season in last season when we we're one up it was inevitable the other team would score and that you had no confidence in keeping the lead? whereas this season I just see a more solid team a team I'm more likely to trust.

Also Eboue made a show of the club again like when the crowd is singing "same old arsenal always cheating" over and over again could you please not give them the satisfaction of diving. :mad:

We were unlucky but I really believe their is something in this season.:)

Galvasean

Read on teletext (my internet was down :P) that the referees union is to issue an apology to Wenger for sending him off.

killwill

Galvasean wrote: »

Read on teletext (my internet was down :P) that the referees union is to issue an apology to Wenger for sending him off.

In fairness it is the least they should do.

Wreck

Just read the Arsenal Man Utd match thread, man that was depressing. Lots of positives to take from the game though, and I imagine Wenger will be using all of this to fuel the us against the world mentality that is the hall mark of so many great sides.

Wonder if there will be any transfer in before the deadline. I thought perhaps we were waiting to guarantee the Champions League income before spending anymore, but it's really starting to look like there is nothing in the pipeline.

WillieCocker

We played great and got undone by mistakes by Almunia & Diaby.

My only dissapointment with the game was Eboue!!!
Back to his usual cheating antics, I'm convinced he is responsible for Eduardo trying it, as they seem to celebrate together.

If Wenger carrys on letting him play like that, then we deserve to lose these high profile games, as it's only the little teams that Eboue looks like being able to play against, and even then it's only his pace.
He made the effort to look like he'd grown up and changed his stupid little attitude, but he has undone all of that hard work and i won't blame any fans booing him again.

thorbarry

WillieCocker wrote: »

We played great and got undone by mistakes by Almunia & Diaby.

My only dissapointment with the game was Eboue!!!
Back to his usual cheating antics, I'm convinced he is responsible for Eduardo trying it, as they seem to celebrate together.

yea i was very surprised Eboue started the game, i thought he would have gone for Bentdner/ Eduardo, we've seen time and time again that Eboue can't cut it during the big games

Galvasean

I guess he got in based on his impressive performance against Celtic. But then again;
United >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Celtic.

thorbarry

Galvasean wrote: »

I guess he got in based on his impressive performance against Celtic. But then again;
United >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Celtic.

yea he did good against Celtic... its mad seeing him play in that attacking right role... i think back up for sagna should really be his position

Redzer7

thorbarry wrote: »

we've seen time and time again that Eboue can't cut it during any games

FYP :P.