Arsenal FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

Quazzie

Seeing Clichy going up against Cole for a starting place for England would've be interesting.

greendom

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

He'd have been real popular in france if that happened.

Yes from the article I get the feeling that Clichy's dad would not have been too impressed

Frisbee

Too bad that the only two left backs who I'd rate as good or better than him play for England and France... :pac:

Frisbee

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/30537/injury-news

It has been a difficult week for Arsenal on the injury front but, when Arsène Wenger spoke to Arsenal TV Online on Thursday afternoon, he was finally able to report some good news.

The manager has scratched the names Lukasz Fabianski, Carlos Vela, Denilson and Armand Traore off his injured list. He also confirmed that, following nine weeks out with a back problem, the Brazilian midfielder would definitely make the trip to Sunderland on Saturday.

After the injuries collected by Robin Van Persie (ankle) and Kieran Gibbs (foot) during the international break, this was just the boost Arsenal needed.

The Dutchman will be out for around six weeks while, according to Wenger, the Englishman has a chance to return against Standard Liege on Tuesday - both less time than was first feared. With the likes of Abou Diaby and Theo Walcott also close to fitness, you could argue that, while hardly idle, Arsenal’s medical team are much less troubled than they might have been.

“We have no news yet on Andrey Arshavin,” said Wenger around lunchtime, before the Russian had reported back from international duty, “but it looks like everyone else will be available.

“Theo Walcott (knee) is short for the weekend and so is Jack Wilshere (ankle). But Denilson is available and in the squad for the weekend game. Traore and Vela are both fit and available.

“Fabianski is available too. Bendtner (groin) is out for three more weeks and Diaby (calf) has a little chance for Chelsea.”

Gael Clichy (back) and Johan Djourou (knee) complete Arsenal’s injury list.

So hopefully Traore will be fit for Sunderland on Saturday.

Then if we start with Rosicky and Nasri, one on the wing and one in the middle, we have the option to bring on Walcott or Vela later in the game.

Paleface

Anyone want to have a go at the lineup? I've left a few positions up for debate.


Almunia

Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Traore/Silvestre

Song

Cesc Nasri/Denilson/Eboue


Nasri/Rosicky Eduardo Arshavin


Walcott should feature at some point. I wonder will he be tempted to rest Sagna or Gallas after they played 120 mins for France?

Frisbee

---

Almunia

---

Eboue

---

Gallas

---

Vermaelen----Traore/Silvestre

---

Fab

---

Song

---

Nasri

---

Rosicky

---

Eduardo

---

Arshavin


Althoug Arshavin may get a rest with Nasri on the LW and Denilson or Ramsey in the middle?

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Frisbee wrote: »

---

Almunia

---

Eboue

---

Gallas

---

Vermaelen----Traore/Silvestre

---

Fab

---

Song

---

Nasri

---

Rosicky

---

Eduardo

---

Arshavin


Althoug Arshavin may get a rest with Nasri on the LW and Denilson or Ramsey in the middle?

Yeah I'd go for something like that. Nice to have Theo back in the squad too

Paleface

Forgot about Ramsey who is strongly pushing for a starting place at this stage and could well end up as a permanent fixture in what is now Diaby's position.

Roaster

---

Almunia

---

Eboue

---

Gallas/Silvestre

---

Vermaelen----Traore

---

Fab

---

Ramsey/Song

---

Ramsey/Nasri

---

Ramsey/Rosicky

---

Eduardo

---

Arshavin/Vela

Interesting to see what state the players who were involved in the play-offs will be. If they're ok then boviously play them but if not bench them.

I definitely think Ramsey deserves his chance.


With regards to the post about Randall, I don't think he's good enough. To me he looks fazed when playing with the 1st team. I saw him play for Burnley v Bohs in a friendly a couple of years back and he was muck. Too lighweight too.

cson

Ramsey is a much different player to Song and I definitely wouldn't have them competing for a place - We need Alex Song in front of the back four full stop. He could maybe play to the right of Fabregas;

Almunia

Sagna - Gallas - Vermaelen - Traore

Song

Ramsey - Fabregas - Nasri

Arshavin

Eduardo

That's be what I'd like to see although it may be a bit soon for Arshavin so maybe stick Rosicky in there.

Edit: Or else Vela up top with Eduardo and we play 4-1-3-2

cson

cson wrote: »

Ramsey is a much different player to Song and I definitely wouldn't have them competing for a place - We need Alex Song in front of the back four full stop. He could maybe play to the right of Fabregas;

Almunia

Sagna - Gallas - Vermaelen - Traore

Song

Ramsey - Fabregas - Nasri

Arshavin

Eduardo

That's be what I'd like to see although it may be a bit soon for Arshavin so maybe stick Rosicky in there.

Edit: Or else Vela up top with Eduardo and we play 4-1-3-2

Nice team. I'd say it'll be Rosicky and maybe Arshavin coming in as a sub

shano_88

Flying over to Sunderland in the morning to the match. Staying 2 nights. Cant wait. Hopefully its a cracking match. Il give a trip report when im back with a few photos of the match.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Wenger wrote:

"It's Eduardo and Carlos Vela who will have the main central striking role for now," said Wenger at Friday's press conference. "That is a very important part in our play as we have a lot of offensive players and most of the time their game comes off this player. They can do that very well, for me."

Yay it looks like Vela is gonna get a decent shot up front! Hope to see more of him and Ramsey the rest of this season.

Frisbee

playa3 wrote: »

Yay it looks like Vela is gonna get a decent shot up front! Hope to see more of him and Ramsey the rest of this season.

WAHEY!

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Arsenal
01 Almunia
03 Sagna
05 Vermaelen
10 Gallas
30 Traore
04 Fabregas
07 Rosicky
08 Nasri
16 Ramsey
17 Song Billong
09 Eduardo

Substitutes
24 Mannone, 18 Silvestre, 27 Eboue, 14 Walcott, 15 Denilson, 23 Arshavin, 12 Vela


That's a class team, and a really strong bench too!

In_tuition

Super line-up today, delighted to see Rosicky and Nasri in the same side.

Glad to see Ramsey start too.

Arsenal will pass them off the pitch, should be a very enjoyable game to watch.

Sunderland have a knack of scoring early, scored 5 times in the opening 15 minutes this season - on the same stat Arsenal have 0 goals in opening 15 minutes.

Joeyjoejoe43

Is the match on TV? Any good streams either?

In_tuition

Joeyjoejoe43 wrote: »

Is the match on TV? Any good streams either?

Not on tv.

Will PM you a stream when it begins.

L'prof

In_tuition wrote: »

Not on tv.

Will PM you a stream when it begins.

Me too please

Joeyjoejoe43

In_tuition wrote: »

Not on tv.

Will PM you a stream when it begins.

Nice one man

In_tuition

jasonorr wrote: »

Me too please

Will do, if it works!

IrishIrish

In_tuition wrote: »

Will do, if it works!

Can you PM me too please. Cheers.

Roaster

IrishIrish wrote: »

Can you PM me too please. Cheers.

Me too please

Joeyjoejoe43

http://hdfoot.net/

In_tuition

Joeyjoejoe43 wrote: »

http://hdfoot.net/

Thanks Joey - same canal link as me but mine was struggling to load.

Joeyjoejoe43

No bother, they're shipping few early chances to the Mackems..

In_tuition

11 of Sunderland's 19 goals they conceded this season in the league have come in the second half - although of Arsenal's 14 conceded 9 have come in the second half.

Arsenal have scored 8 goals between 40-50 minutes and scored 17 in the second half in the league.

Arsenal have serious fire-power on the bench.

wandatowell

Horse ****e performance

efb

Arsenal with a poor result after the international break...Quelle Suprize...

Royale with Cheese

utter piss

Raskolnikov

I thought Rosicky and Eduardo were especially poor today. Sunderland worked so hard though, well deserved win.

cashback

Now Chelsea is a must win, otherwise 11 points.

leninbenjamin

woeful performance tbh. nobody looked good today (although Traore had some deent moments in the first half I guess). Rosicky and NAsri are still well off the pace, and Arshavin's was anonymous. Cesc disappointed me the most though, seemed he was more keen in having a whinge than doing anything with the ball... same old sh*te really.

keano_afc

And yet again we concede from the oppositions only shot on goal. Really is a serious problem back there.

In_tuition

Arsenal did not deserve to lose, nor did they deserve to win.

RVP was missed - Eduardo was non-existent.

Arshavin should have started the match - match fit, total quality week-in-week-out yet he starts on the bench (don't give me the international excuse) if he's fit - he plays.

Poor performance by most of the team - little encouragement and lack of energy in their play.

Overall it's a point lost.

OPENROAD

Apparently we should have had a penalty late on in the game.


If so, I demand a replay

Frisbee

Not hugely unexpected from my POV

gosplan

In_tuition wrote: »

Super line-up today, delighted to see Rosicky and Nasri in the same side.

Glad to see Ramsey start too.

Arsenal will pass them off the pitch, should be a very enjoyable game to watch.

Sunderland have a knack of scoring early, scored 5 times in the opening 15 minutes this season - on the same stat Arsenal have 0 goals in opening 15 minutes.

Welcome to the forum Sir.

Are you sure you're not bad luck?



Anyway, annoyed we didn't get at least a point today but if you look at Sunderland's win against pool and draw in Old Trafford, it doesn't look so bad.

just as long as it doesn't become a habit again.

In_tuition

gosplan wrote: »

Welcome to the forum Sir.

Thank you :cool:

yahoo_moe

Roaster wrote: »

With regards to the post about Randall, I don't think he's good enough.

I wouldn't read a huge amount into a Burnley-Bohs friendly... I happen to agree that he might not make it at Arsenal but he's got the ability to be a success if he can harness that ability consistently (like he was in the Reserves 18 months ago). The abuse he cops on Young Guns is way over the top for someone who's actually very talented... he mightn't make it but I think people are writing him off too quickly.

In_tuition wrote: »

(don't give me the international excuse) if he's fit - he plays

Why? If he'd been played and then picked up a strain in a couple of weeks, people would be moaning about bad luck with injuries. I'd say it was the right decision to rest him. Wenger looks at plenty of stats on these situations and I'd trust him to do the right thing - long-term though, not just thinking about one match. Arshavin was late back to the squad too, and nobody knows how strong he'd have been mentally after Russia going out.

Frisbee

Tbh look at most of the players who played competitive games this weekend.

Nearly every Irish player was benched or omitted from the squad for their club after last week.

Gallas looked absolutely wrecked. Senderos and Eboue should have been in at the back instead of Gallas and Sagna.

Managers know that International weekends can really run down a player, giving Arshavin a bit of a rest after he'd played 180 minutes in the past week, suffered the disappointment of being knocked out of the World Cup and a very long journey back to London which meant he rejoined the squad late.

Redzer7

Rubbish performance yesterday, hopefully we start the free flowing football again soon.

Roaster

I have to laugh when I read Wenger saying Nasri could be a DM. The amount of times he gets bullied off the ball is shocking. I thought Rosicky was bad too but considering these two lads are coming back of serious injuries, I'll excuse them.

However, what I can't excuse is Almunia's cowardice. I want a keeper that will put himself on the line for the team. He came out at Bent's feet with his legs. He could have easily dived head/hands first to try and block it but he decided to go with the legs so less chance of an injury and alas he still gets a whack.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we don't have goalkeepers that will win us those vital points when we're not playing well, but we certainly have ones that will lose us points.

Frisbee

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-fantastic-vela-is-like-fowler

Carlos Vela’s time has come.

Injuries to Nicklas Bendtner and Robin Van Persie have presented the Mexican with a chance to stake a real claim a first-team spot over the next month or so. In the meantime, the 20-year-old will be talking to Arsène Wenger about a new deal at Arsenal.

Vela has shown immense potential since joining from Guadalajara in 2008 and Wenger likens him to former Liverpool poacher Robbie Fowler. Even though top-flight chances have been limited, the manager clearly values the youngster.

“We are extending his contract at the moment,” said the Frenchman. “We are in a situation where we get these players in at 15 or16 and work very hard for five years with them. After that we do not want to give them away.

“At the moment we have very good young players but the players in front of them are young as well, so it is a bit harder for this generation than it was for the generation of Denilson and Fabregas.

“Vela is a fantastic talent and he is 20-years-old. We have invested a lot of time for him because we put him in Spain for two years, got him back and now we work with him every day.

“I believe he is a Robbie Fowler-type. He needs very little time to make a decision in the box. He is relaxed when he finishes and he has very short backlift. He is aswell left-footed and he is a similar size.”

However perhaps the most telling praise was Wenger’s final word on the matter.

He was asked whether Vela’s talent was the single reason he decided not to replace Emmanuel Adebayor in summer.

The manager replied: “Yes.”

L'prof

Good stuff, now all he has to do is play him!!!

yahoo_moe

In_tuition wrote: »

You are entitled to your opinion.

The above words in bold are just that.

No case for a response.

Sorry, I wasn't aware that you were dealing with cold, hard, indisputable facts

Anyway, personally I'm still happy enough to have rested someone who'd played a lot, came back late and probably wasn't in the best frame of mind. I'd also say that Arshavin playing or not shouldn't be the difference between losing to Sunderland or getting a point or three - there was plenty of talent on that pitch that should have done better.

SlickRic

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_5714054,00.html

legend of a man.

but do you believe him?

or is it simply a case of it being a way to tell the fans how much he does love the club? do you take what he says literally?

or is the general consensus still he'll be around 2/3 years and then be off to his boyhood club?

L'prof

SlickRic wrote: »

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_5714054,00.html

legend of a man.

but do you believe him?

or is it simply a case of it being a way to tell the fans how much he does love the club? do you take what he says literally?

or is the general consensus still he'll be around 2/3 years and then be off to his boyhood club?

I'd believe it to a certain extent, in that maybe at this point in time he's very happy and that is showing through his performances on the pitch.

I think he believes that success is close and if it does come I can see him staying for a very long tome but, if it doesn't then it will most likely be 2-3 years before he goes to Barcelona.

Also, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a massive transfer bid swaying Wenger either!

enfant terrible

jasonorr wrote: »

I'd believe it to a certain extent, in that maybe at this point in time he's very happy and that is showing through his performances on the pitch.

I think he believes that success is close and if it does come I can see him staying for a very long tome but, if it doesn't then it will most likely be 2-3 years before he goes to Barcelona.

Also, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a massive transfer bid swaying Wenger either!

I don't think so.

Wenger will not sell one of our top players at the age of 22 unless he asks to leave

Frisbee

In_tuition wrote: »

He came on after 59 minutes, so those extra 75 minutes helped him rest more and ease his mind?

The team we had out was more than capable of beating Sunderland. I'd imagine Wenger had no intention of using Arshavin whatsoever and his hand was forced when it was clear we were going nowhere.