Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2013

farna_boy

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

Giroud had 2 good chances to win it for us,not good enough from him.

Out of our hands again.

He had a bad night. It happens. The problem is that there is no one there to replace him when he does have a bad night. There is Gervinho but that could go either way. Podolski was good when he came on and he seems suited to the wing so replacing Giroud with him may not work either.

Walcott didn't have a great night either. If either him or Giroud had a good night, we might have won but at least we didn't lose which would have been a total disaster.

Soups123

Drawing at home to Everton isn't appalling. Failing to win yet again when we really needed to is. This team cannot produce on the demand. Only Ramsey worked his socks off, Jack was **** (he seriously needs to stop jumping on the ground every touch), Arteta yet again too ineffective just doesn't have enough in his locker, Cazorla only played when Jack came off that's a big problem. There was talk yesterday about Giroud being good enough tonight was another obvious sign that he ain't, we need something better. Back 5 was solid.

So pissed tonight that in a game we really needed to produce we failed. Arsenal teams of old played a quick passing & possession football this team can't do that, Everton showed they are our level tonight.

Roddy23

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

Giroud had 2 good chances to win it for us,not good enough from him.

Out of our hands again.

There's going to be plenty of josttling for the top 4 places between now and the end of the season. If we can beat Fulham at the weekend, I think the draw here isn't the end of the world. There's not a hope Spurs will win the remainder of their matches.

Good finish to the match there. Worrying that Cazorla and Wilshere don't seem to click and it wasn't till Jack went off we saw Cazorla have the impact we'd have hoped from the outset. I'm hoping when the two of them can have more game time on the pitch that they'll blossom but tonight was not the case. Anyway hopefully we can win at Fulham and not lose to United the following week.

.jacksparrow.

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

Giroud had 2 good chances to win it for us,not good enough from him.

Out of our hands again.

I think your being harsh tbh. Yes perhaps he could have done better but he has been decent for his first season. Dont forget he has had to come here and settle into life in a whole new country with a different culture to what he is used to so 17 is not a bad return.

Chelsea and Spurs must play each other yet so all is not lost but we cant drop any more points id agree with anyone on that for sure. The Man United game is absolutely massive now. We really need to win that one.

I still believe one if not both of the others will drop more points though. The Europa league could drain the challenge out of Chelsea and Spurs are rocked at the moment.

.jacksparrow.

Podolski should be starting,he offers the most from all of our players on the left,there was noone there in the first half.united game is gonna be so important now

.jacksparrow.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I think your being harsh tbh. Yes perhaps he could have done better but he has been decent for his first season. Dont forget he has had to come here and settle into life in a whole new country with a different culture to what he is used to so 17 is not a bad return.

Chelsea and Spurs must play each other yet so all is not lost but we cant drop any more points id agree with anyone on that for sure. The Man United game is absolutely massive now. We really need to win that one.

I still believe one if not both of the others will drop more points though. The Europa league could drain the challenge out of Chelsea and Spurs are rocked at the moment.

I'm only talkin about tonight,it wasn't good enough from him,nothing wrong with saying that.

dvemail

One of the bigger reasons Santi didn't play well when Jack was on was because he was playing out wide. He plays much better through the centre.
Also Ramsey was our best player tonight, with Kos not too far behind, great performance from them both.

farna_boy

Soups123 wrote: »

Drawing at home to Everton isn't appalling. Failing to win yet again when we really needed to is. This team cannot produce on the demand. Only Ramsey worked his socks off, Jack was **** (he seriously needs to stop jumping on the ground every touch), Arteta yet again too ineffective just doesn't have enough in his locker, Cazorla only played when Jack came off that's a big problem. There was talk yesterday about Giroud being good enough tonight was another obvious sign that he ain't, we need something better. Back 5 was solid.

So pissed tonight that in a game we really needed to produce we failed. Arsenal teams of old played a quick passing & possession football this team can't do that, Everton showed they are our level tonight.

From what I saw, Ramsey didn't contribute a whole lot until Jack went off and neither did Cazorla. That seems to be part of the problem we have at the moment: having too many centre midfielders and in trying to play them all, we end up playing some out of position which is nearly worse than not playing them at all.

HazDanz

emergingstar wrote: »

All in all not a bad point that

Agreed. The boys did a good job, fought hard.

emergingstar

I have been saying this alot to wind people up and have a laugh
But this time it's serious Ramsey is turning into a terrific player, MOM again and by far our most important player in this run in

Giroud squad player when you want to be up there your striker needs to take them chances he has bottled a few in big games now

AdamD

Roddy23 wrote: »

There's going to be plenty of josttling for the top 4 places between now and the end of the season. If we can beat Fulham at the weekend, I think the draw here isn't the end of the world. There's not a hope Spurs will win the remainder of their matches.

Good finish to the match there. Worrying that Cazorla and Wilshere don't seem to click and it wasn't till Jack went off we saw Cazorla have the impact we'd have hoped from the outset. I'm hoping when the two of them can have more game time on the pitch that they'll blossom but tonight was not the case. Anyway hopefully we can win at Fulham and not lose to United the following week.

Jack and Cazorla don't click because Wenger plays Cazorla on the left which leaves us unbalanced and with 4 CMs on the pitch. I think it would improve hugely with Jack deeper and Podolski on for Arteta.

Soups123 wrote: »

Drawing at home to Everton isn't appalling. Failing to win yet again when we really needed to is. This team cannot produce on the demand. Only Ramsey worked his socks off, Jack was **** (he seriously needs to stop jumping on the ground every touch), Arteta yet again too ineffective just doesn't have enough in his locker, Cazorla only played when Jack came off that's a big problem. There was talk yesterday about Giroud being good enough tonight was another obvious sign that he ain't, we need something better. Back 5 was solid.

So pissed tonight that in a game we really needed to produce we failed. Arsenal teams of old played a quick passing & possession football this team can't do that, Everton showed they are out level tonight.

IMO we needed to produce (win) all of our recent games vs poor opposition. We did that. Tonight we were hoping for a win but it wasn't as necessary as previous games, a draw isn't a bad result and when you look at our form its hard to say that we haven't produced when needed.

Deleted User wrote: »

I think your being harsh tbh. Yes perhaps he could have done better but he has been decent for his first season. Dont forget he has had to come here and settle into life in a whole new country with a different culture to what he is used to so 17 is not a bad return.

Chelsea and Spurs must play each other yet so all is not lost but we cant drop any more points id agree with anyone on that for sure. The Man United game is absolutely massive now. We really need to win that one.

I still believe one if not both of the others will drop more points though. The Europa league could drain the challenge out of Chelsea and Spurs are rocked at the moment.

All of the talk about a decent first season doesn't sit with me tbh, hes been alright at best. People throw the 17 goal stat around but 11 league goals is more relevant to me. That's not great playing for Arsenal and when he has a bad game, he has a shocker. He could have had 4 today if he had his shooting boots on and actually attacked the 6 yard box more, there's not an ounce of poacher between him and Walcott.

Poldi for CF, he holds the ball up brilliantly on the wing, is very strong and has a decent touch, don't tell me he can't play up top on his own.

Roddy23

Also thought Ramsey was immense tonight. He's a great example to any players going through a bad patch that if the commitment and talent is there they can still produce it. Also think the Ox is coming into a bit of form too. Podolski and the Ox coming on had a big impact on the level of intensity and you could see Everton sitting deeper by the minute. You could see Moyes on the touchline yelling out them to push out. I'm hoping Chamberlain is picked from the start against Fulham.

Soups123

farna_boy wrote: »

From what I saw, Ramsey didn't contribute a whole lot until Jack went off and neither did Cazorla. That seems to be part of the problem we have at the moment: having too many centre midfielders and in trying to play them all, we end up playing some out of position which is nearly worse than not playing them at all.

I thought Ramsey was good all night, he works hard and he is having much more of an impact now. He needs to be played centrally and nowhere else.

.jacksparrow.

emergingstar wrote: »

I have been saying this alot to wind people up and have a laugh
But this time it's serious Ramsey is turning into a terrific player, MOM again and by far our most important player in this run in

Giroud squad player when you want to be up there your striker needs to take them chances he has bottled a few in big games now

Yep I agree I already said in the match thread I was a big critic but fair play to him for upping his game,long may it continue.

Soups123

AdamD wrote: »

Jack and Cazorla don't click because Wenger plays Cazorla on the left which leaves us unbalanced and with 4 CMs on the pitch. I think it would improve hugely with Jack deeper and Podolski on for Arteta.


IMO we needed to produce (win) all of our recent games vs poor opposition. We did that. Tonight we were hoping for a win but it wasn't as necessary as previous games, a draw isn't a bad result and when you look at our form its hard to say that we haven't produced when needed.

All of the talk about a decent first season doesn't sit with me tbh, hes been alright at best. People throw the 17 goal stat around but 11 league goals is more relevant to me. That's not great playing for Arsenal and when he has a bad game, he has a shocker. He could have had 4 today if he had his shooting boots on and actually attacked the 6 yard box more, there's not an ounce of poacher between him and Walcott.

Poldi for CF, he holds the ball up brilliantly on the wing, is very strong and has a decent touch, don't tell me he can't play up top on his own.

I disagree we expected wins in other games but asked them to produce tonight against a good team, when they've been challenged at this level and above this year we haven't been able. As I said though a draw against Everton isn't bad

emergingstar

Bad leg break
Mentor commits suicide
Stripped of international captaincy
Own club fans turn on him

All this at 21/22

ONE AARON RAMSEY

cson

emergingstar wrote: »

Bad leg break
Mentor commits suicide
Stripped of international captaincy
Own club fans turn on him

All this at 21/22

ONE AARON RAMSEY

Yeah he was immense again tonight. One of the first names on the team sheet at the minute.

farna_boy

Soups123 wrote: »

I thought Ramsey was good all night, he works hard and he is having much more of an impact now. He needs to be played centrally and nowhere else.

I generally do think that Ramsey is a good player and he definitely needs to be played centrally. However, I also think the problem of having too many central midfielders needs to be sorted to get the best out of the team.

I thought Walcott was poor throughout. He gave away the ball twice inside the 18 yard box because of his poor first touch. If I thought the money would actually spent, I would nearly prefer if he was sold during the summer and whatever money we got from him could be used to buy a high quality replacement. The problem with that though is the money would probably just disappear as usual.

.jacksparrow.

emergingstar wrote: »

Bad leg break
Mentor commits suicide
Stripped of international captaincy
Own club fans turn on him

All this at 21/22

ONE AARON RAMSEY

Ok we get it!

He had a great game tonight but he didn't win it for us or anything so let's not get carried away!

emergingstar

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

Ok we get it!

He had a great game tonight but he didn't win it for us or anything so let's not get carried away!

Pfffffttt
It's Aaron Ramsey
I always gets carried away

Mr Blobby

Really not happy with Giroud in that match.

And Podolski should be starting.

dvemail

emergingstar wrote: »

Pfffffttt
It's Aaron Ramsey
I always gets carried away

If we ever hear reports that Aaron Ramsey has a stalker, i think we know where to look.

keano_afc

After speaking so much about not rushing Wilshere back, Wenger has gone and rushed Wilshere back. He's not fit, and was a passenger again. Rosicky needs to start against Fulham. Thats a huge game now.

extra gravy

The 4-4 at Anfield was just on Football Gold. Oh Andrei, what happened to you?

DenMan

keano_afc wrote: »

After speaking so much about not rushing Wilshere back, Wenger has gone and rushed Wilshere back. He's not fit, and was a passenger again. Rosicky needs to start against Fulham. Thats a huge game now.

I think he has massively improved from Saturday. I was very impressed with him tonight. He is a wonderful footballer. For someone so young he has the skill and composure of Bergkamp.

HazDanz

DenMan wrote: »

I think he has massively improved from Saturday. I was very impressed with him tonight. He is a wonderful footballer. For someone so young he has the skill and composure of Bergkamp.

He was better but still rusty. Everton were just so powerful down their spine it was a lot of work for the lads to muscle themselves onto the ball.


We battled tonight and I think that shows a character and maturity that's been missing in past seasons. Let's hope the boys keep it up because if they do we will get champions league football.

tayto lover

DenMan wrote: »

I think he has massively improved from Saturday. I was very impressed with him tonight. He is a wonderful footballer. For someone so young he has the skill and composure of Bergkamp.

he lost the ball several times in dangerous positions.
He was better than last Sat but not a great deal, he is not fully fit yet.

Galvasean

Notice how if you look up Arsenal transfer targets on Google all you seem to find is FM11 wonder kids...

.jacksparrow.

.jacksparrow. wrote: »

I'm only talkin about tonight,it wasn't good enough from him,nothing wrong with saying that.

Fair enough your right but lets be fair on him even on the basis of tonight alone. No striker scores every game. RVP just ended a ten game dry spell for example.

HazDanz

Deleted User wrote: »

Fair enough your right but lets be fair on him even on the basis of tonight alone. No striker scores every game. RVP just ended a ten game dry spell for example.

He needs to improve how clinical he is when in a position to score. I think he's a great player who has a great attitude but he lacks composer at times when you know he can put them away. He needs to relax because he has the skill to do it.

HazDanz

HazDanz wrote: »

He needs to improve how clinical he is when in a position to score. I think he's a great player who has a great attitude but he lacks composer at times when you know he can put them away. He needs to relax because he has the skill to do it.

Hard to disagree with that. I will say though that he is a great player to keep the chin up even after missing. Others would let the head drop but he ploughs on and gets involved everywhere he can until he can hit the target.
Great mental strength. Once he misses he puts it out of his head straight away and worries about the next chance.

2ndcoming

I thought Giroud did well, the chances that came his way might look easy in the armchair but none of them were, and Everton defended excellently as they are prone to do in big games. His best chance was arguably Ramsey's lovely whipped cross, a lighter touch might have just steered it in. Coleman's interception from Ox's ball on our last break was superb.

Jack was better, but still nowhere near 100%, and Cazorla's performance in the last half hour shows it clearly would have been a better option to rest Jack for Saturday and start Podolski with Santi in front of Ramsey and Arteta.

2 points that we wanted badly missed, but there's no shame in drawing with a side like Everton.

5 games left, 15 points available, and we'll need 12 of those to be sure of top 4. It's gonna be tough, but if it all goes tits up when we look back on this season it won't have been tonight's game that let us down.

Galvasean

Some of Cazorla's skill was absolutely GIFworthy tonight. Is he nominated for player of the year?

batistuta9

I think what you see/get with Giroud now is about as good as he's going to get

he's got some qualities but isn't very dangerous in the air for a big lad, scores at times but isn't going to be a clinical finisher, wastes far too many chances

not upto it in big games & you never get that feeling from him either

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Disappointed with the draw tonight, as i feel it gives Tottenham a big boost, after the weekends games, Tottenham play before Arsenal for nearly the rest of the season.

GW 35 - tottenham play wigan (A) saturday, Arsenal -Man U (H) on the sunday

GW 36 - tottenham v southampton (H) 3pm , Arsenal v QPR (A) 5:30

---

on the wednesday of this week tottenham v chelsea (A) this is both their GIH

GW 37 - tottenham v stoke (A) on sun, Arsenal v wigan (H) on the tuesday

Though hopefully Arsenal beat Fulham & Man City beat Tottenham this weekend, which would leave Arsenal 5 points ahead, having played a game more

TheGunns

I'd expect Giroud to get better next season, shows signs of being a really decent striker. Wenger's decision to take off Walcott when he did was a mistake, Wilshere should have come off instead. Disappointing draw but I think we will push on again, Need a win against Fulham now though.

.jacksparrow.

I think the blame has to be pointed at Wenger for the dropped points.

It was clear that santi on the wing wouldn't work,as soon as he was moved to the centre we pushed them back in their own half.Jack shouldn't have started.we had 2 wingers sitting on the bench from who would have made a huge difference.

Podolski looked frustrated when he came on but still made a huge difference.

We had the makings of a team who could have beaten everton last night,but half of them were sitting on the bench.It still seems Wenger isn't learning from his mistakes.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Probably not the best time to say this after a draw and when top 4 not by any means secured, but I really think we have the basis of a really good solid squad going at the minute.

In the summer shift more of the dead would and get about two 'super special' players (Jovetic/ other attacker and a DM maybe), an experienced GK and replace any other outgoing, (e.g. Sagna/TV) and I think we'll have a great team.

Also very happy to see Ramsey's form pick up again. Was a bit worried for a while but he's the sort of player that will only get better with age imo. He's had a very rough time of it thus far and so it's good to see he's on the up.

Rekop dog

I see Jo-Jo's reps were in London last night. Seems to be a foregone conclusion that he signs for Arsenal now, if they get him and a world class centre back they'll be back contending for titles next season.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Rekop dog wrote: »

I see Jo-Jo's reps were in London last night. Seems to be a foregone conclusion that he signs for Arsenal now, if they get him and a world class centre back they'll be back contending for titles next season.

Got any links?

Mr Blobby

Fuzzy_Dunlop wrote: »

Got any links?

Twitter i'm assuming.

farna_boy

TheGunns wrote: »

I'd expect Giroud to get better next season, shows signs of being a really decent striker. Wenger's decision to take off Walcott when he did was a mistake, Wilshere should have come off instead. Disappointing draw but I think we will push on again, Need a win against Fulham now though.

Really? I didn't think Walcott contributed anything last night. Anyway Walcott and Wilshere came off at the same time. When Ox did come on for Walcott he looked like a bigger threat and (according to Arseblog) created more in those 20 odd minutes than Walcott had done for the previous 67.

cson

Fuzzy_Dunlop wrote: »

In the summer shift more of the dead would and get about two 'super special' players (Jovetic/ other attacker and a DM maybe), an experienced GK and replace any other outgoing, (e.g. Sagna/TV) and I think we'll have a great team.

We need Bac to sign a new deal asap. He was class again last night. Jenkinson is the future for sure but Sagna is just quality and has another 3 years in him imo.

Rekop dog wrote: »

I see Jo-Jo's reps were in London last night. Seems to be a foregone conclusion that he signs for Arsenal now, if they get him and a world class centre back they'll be back contending for titles next season.

Jovetic is probably the type of player Arsenal need to kick us on a bit. Likely will cost £20m+ and break the club record but ultimately we need to sign 2/3 players of his calibre rather than 5 Gervinho's for £10m.

Don't think we'll be back contending for titles just yet. Little way to go before that; Squad probably needs about £80m of investment this summer; with a striker, defensive midfielder and centre back costing the bulk of that. You wouldn't mind seeing some competition for Woj in the form of Cesar either though I'm not fully convinced by him.

---

Woj

---

Sagna ---- Koscielny -- AN Other --- Monreal

---

Ramsey

---

Wilshere

---

---

Santi

---

Walcott

---

Jovetic

---

Podolski


Would give us a pretty good foundation to build from. I'm not fully convinced my either of the wing options though they do have almost 30 goals between them this season. I would like to see a top class winger come in but you can't have everything, plus Chamberlain needs a chance too after we spent £12m on him.

I'll take a chance and say we might nab Cesar off QPR considering we were in for him before he signed for them and say the back up 11 might look something like this;

---

Cesar

---

Jenks

---

Mertesacker -- Vermaelen

---

Gibbs

---

Arteta

---

AN Other

---

---

Rosicky

---

Gervinho

---

Giroud

---

Chamberlain

That gives a nice depth to the squad. You've got youngsters like Coquelin, Gnabry, Yennaris, Bellerin, Miquel and Akpom coming through as well not to mention the loanees we still have hope for in Miyachi, Campbell and Frimpong.

So in summary what I'd like to see and what would be an amazing summer for AFC would be;

Outs
Arshavin
Chamakh
Denilson
Bendtner
Djourou
Park
Santos
Fabianski

Ins
Jovetic £25m
Cesar Free
Gonalons £10m
Turan £20m
CH £20m

Can't think of any centre half thats available who'd automatically improve upon what we have. But still, we'll hope the scouts have someone worth dropping £20m on in the notebook. Vertonghen would have been ideal but alas.

So if you indulged my Football Manager moment, I reckon we'd get £15m between the outs and £75m would be the cost of the ins. So for £60m I think you'd have a squad capable of staying the pace for most of the way in the League and put some decent runs in in the CL/FA/League Cups.

Edit: I would say that signing Turan and Jovetic would give us serious juggling opportunites up front; Jovetic can play that CAM role irrc and you could shift Poldi up front if for instance Cazorla got injured.

TL;DR cson dreamt of Arsenal's ideal summer.

TheGunns

farna_boy wrote: »

Really? I didn't think Walcott contributed anything last night. Anyway Walcott and Wilshere came off at the same time. When Ox did come on for Walcott he looked like a bigger threat and (according to Arseblog) created more in those 20 odd minutes than Walcott had done for the previous 67.

Pace. That's what won it against Norwich and Wilshere looked tired. The whole team didn't create in the first half really. The thinking behind leaving Podolski off is also crazy, he needs to start. Hopefully the squad is rotated more in the coming games.

Already heard reports that Podolski might leave?! Would be terrible really if he doesn't last more than 1 season

Galvasean

Is this Jovetic really in the £20m+ bracket. Just looking at his stats and he doesn't look all that great...

Mr Blobby

Galvasean wrote: »

Is this Jovetic really in the £20m+ bracket. Just looking at his stats and he doesn't look all that great...

He has 12 goals in 29 matches (Not bad by any means) But if he had Cazorla and Wilshere playing behind him. I'd say his goal tally would be better.

He's more raw talent than anything.

amiable

blobby360 wrote: »

He has 12 goals in 29 matches (Not bad by any means) But if he had Cazorla and Wilshere playing behind him. I'd say his goal tally would be better.

He's more raw talent than anything.

He's played over 160 senior games so I wouldn't call him 'raw' myself.
He does look very talented though and would be an excellent addition to Arsenal IMO if they got him.

extra gravy

Galvasean wrote: »

Is this Jovetic really in the £20m+ bracket. Just looking at his stats and he doesn't look all that great...

Was wondering the same myself. Is there anyone here that follows Serie A closely and would have seen him play regularly?

gosplan

batistuta9 wrote: »

I think what you see/get with Giroud now is about as good as he's going to get

he's got some qualities but isn't very dangerous in the air for a big lad, scores at times but isn't going to be a clinical finisher, wastes far too many chances

not upto it in big games & you never get that feeling from him either

Very few big front men are at their peak at 26 and in their first year in a new league.

gosplan

cson wrote: »

Ins
**** £25m
**** Free
**** £10m
**** £20m
**** £20m

I'd say no-hope but that's actually being too positive.

Arsenal will sign maybe a couple of players around the Giroud and Monreal level and put trust in Wilshire, Ramsey etc to progress.

L'prof

Galvasean wrote: »

Is this Jovetic really in the £20m+ bracket. Just looking at his stats and he doesn't look all that great...

Arshavin Mk. II

I'd love to sign him though. Him and Goetze and I might be happy