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Arsenal Thread

Strange match. Monaco were pretty terrible, but survived, Arsenal failed to really build enough momentum after their 2nd.

Happens. You were just unlucky Carrasco took that moment in the first leg. He was utterly, utterly useless aside from that. Looked like a sprinter seeing a round ball for the first time. Still can't believe he scored...
 
Rentboy said:
As for Arsenal, I can tell you exactly how the 2nd leg will go. We will put up a fight and the team won't be this souless bunch we saw yesterday. We will mount a reaction and go like 2-0 up only to squander a few chances and fall agonizingly short.

Some people will think that I'm just a pessimistic, bitter bastard who likes to bitch and moan and rub salt in our own wounds... but those who have seen Arsenal in the CL in the last 4 years or so, will know we got hammered 4-0 at Milan and then won 3-0 in North London, then the next year got beaten 3-0 at home by Bayern with an abject performance, only to turn up and stick 2-0 past them in Munich, and so on.

This is typical Arsenal and while there was the consolation of being able to beat those teams by those margins, it brings out frustration and the notion that this team is not fulfilling its potential and that they can do much better if only they tried harder.
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There it is, I predicted it 3 weeks ago! :SHOCK:

This is the way things have been for us and it is so typical, it became predictable. We lose the tie in the first leg, year after year after year. Always the mental frailty, the self-doubt everywhere on the pitch, the shotting-ourselves-in-the-foot thing, the blackout, the collapse... whatever you wanna call it.

This team simply has the ability to muck things up so badly in the first leg, like the weight of the f*cking world is on their shoulders. And then when they know it is past salvation, they actually play some bloody good football on the 2nd leg.

Players come and players go and this trend remains. It's a managerial thing if you ask me.
I'm just so tired of the "almost there" feeling. This ain't good enough for me, not every year. I take heart in the way the team is playing and hope they continue carrying it out in the league and the FA Cup.

But something's clearly out of place when we look at these ties and the way we got punished.
 
Wenger is a politician these days for the club. We are just on the healthy side of the spectrum from the days of raising a certain amount of capital each season .
 
Seeing how Man Utd turned out after losing their long-time manager, hearing all these cries for Wenger to go, I wonder what will happen to Arsenal when that happens. Who will/can they bring in?
 
What MUTD is going through has nothing to do w/ Arsenal (tangerines and oranges look similar ,but they are different). Wenger has done great to get Arsenal through a hard financial crisis (stadium)time as the club gave him time to be trophy-less for nearly a decade.

I believe the club is in such a healthy standing and the patience the Club board gave Arsene. I know most managers at the top level would love to coach The Arsenal. The thing is Wenger is not know for winning today ,he know to save your club financially. Wenger own words were judge me after 2009 lol MCity came in (financial muscle) 2010 lol .Wenger no longer uses the words judge me in 20_ _ ?
 
No, Van Gaal uses this argument nowadays. "Judge me in 3 months" :LOL:
I never did like Van Gaal much, but at least he's doing the necessary things, changing some of the personnel that needed to be changed, unlike Moyes. The results tend to improve with time and if he gets a top 4 finish then people will be judging him on the strengh of a CL spot that his predecessor couldn't achieve.

As for Wenger, it wasn't the intention of my post to ask for his head. I really think that he will retire at Arsenal at this point.

What I did say is that the team has been lacking the necessary cohesion and the so called mental strengh in these important CL ties year after year. I'm convinced now it isn't the players' fault. Those lapses of concentration aren't just down to the players, but mostly to the manager. When the Ox scored that goal in the 1st leg, it was a valuable goal for us in an otherwise abject performance, as it put us right back in contention and we should have taken that instead of going all out attack on Monaco (that's how they scored the 3rd). Of course, Carrasco was incredibly lucky to pull that off to perfection, but my point is: what other manager allows his team to lose shape like that?

The whole "express yourselves" thing doesn't cut it anymore. That's how some of the trashings we got in the past seasons have happened - the manager taking too long to change some things around, after ignoring the signs.

I just wanted to see a more proactive Wenger on the touchline, because I see some evolution on some other aspects of our game. We are at a stage of proving we can beat the 'big boys' at their turf and if we manage to fight for 2nd place and avoid another trashing at Chelsea/Liverpool/United, then I'd already take it as an improvement.

PS: totally forgot to mention this, but is it just me or did we really have a Giroud goal not given at the end? I got the clear impression that ball crossed the line.
Not that those useless officials behind the goals would have the guts to make such a call, but I'm guessing UEFA doesn't use goal line technology, am I right?
 
UEFA doesn't use goal line technology, rentboy.

About yesterday's match, and without wanting to troll or being a WUM.
I was bored to death. While Arsenal were clearly the better team, they didn't impress me at all.

I don't like this new realistic Arsenal. As a Spurs fan i have always admired Arsenal (yes, it happens, some people will say that i'm not a real Spurs fan, could'nt care less) because they played very attractive football.

This new realistic Arsenal plays boring football and this with better players than two or three seasons ago.

On top of it all, this new realistic Arsenal isn't getting better results than the old romantic Arsenal.

Spurs would dream to be "as bad as" this Arsenal, you say ?

Of course, but there is an abyss between Arsenal and Spurs. Arsenal are a big club, Spurs are a club with a big reputation.
 
Maybe for the neutral fan it is worse, but I prefer the more pragmatic Arsenal. This Arsenal has more chances of winning stuff!

Yesterday's match was anything but boring in my opinion. Especially after Ramsey scored the 2nd I was glued to the screen. Real nail biting stuff.

The same way I was hooked to the PSG-Chelsea match. Mourinho's cowardly defensive approach even with one extra man couldn't make it a boring affair for me, mostly thanks to the bravery of this PSG team.

Come to think of it, I kinda hope Laurent Blanc's team win this thing. I don't like the idea of yet another oil rich club winning it, but they're playing with great spirit, the way football should be.
 
Arsenal has played defensive 'let them have the ball' and sublime attack! Then occasionally get the 35 touches around the box to try and make the opponent dizzy faint.

Arsenal surely has a plan A, B & C. I do think Arsenal can finish within the top 4. The players are mostly fit and only a few played more then 21+ games this season. We tend to go on a good run until the end of the season. We face Mutd/ Liverpool and Chelsea still n the FACup seems a separate from the league. On wanting Arsene to leave I just think it's a debatable subject. I think he reached his lvl, but could he pull a Coq ? Anything is possible .
 
I do agree that this Arsenal isn't as great to neutrals as the old teams. They don't have that flair anymore and that freedom to play yet all work in a system. It was very beautiful to watch as what joyful football should be. This side does lack some of it, but I guess there is always that debate of how much flair vs wins. (Just look at the Brazilian football team and that is very evident)

Rentboy, aren't PSG another "oil rich" club? They're owned by the Qatari Group too...
 
ss4_goku said:
Rentboy, aren't PSG another "oil rich" club? They're owned by the Qatari Group too...
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Yeah he said "he can't stand the idea of another oil rich team winning it" meaning the idea of PSG winning it is bad to him.

But then says they're playing in a way that shows the heart of football that he wants to see win.
 
Whilst Whinger and our board are here, we will ALWAYS be 2-3 players from being a good side.

Watch Man City come in and poach Sanchez next season whilst we replace him with some young unknown African guy.
 
ss4_goku said:
Rentboy, aren't PSG another "oil rich" club? They're owned by the Qatari Group too...
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Yeah, I said that I'd like them to win the CL despite being another oil rich club :)


Fray Bentos said:
Whilst Whinger and our board are here, we will ALWAYS be 2-3 players from being a good side.

Watch Man City come in and poach Sanchez next season whilst we replace him with some young unknown African guy.
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No, Sanchez won't leave and you know we're past that phase of replacing stars with unknown players. If anything, we might make another 35-40m pound signing in the summer, that's what's going to happen.

Speaking of which, our most expensive signing Özil finally looks like the player Wenger paid for. He's been playing really well and he looked like he cared a lot in that CL 2nd leg. Very different from his former self who just seemed to go through the motions,
 
I agree (Rent) we past the sell every year *bullocks* . We allow players to leave free :P . We are doing everything that goes against Wenger`s philosophy hence the 10 year trophy drought. We spend huge and got our (1st n 2nd) trophy (FaCup & Community Shield). We spend again w/ Sanchez and we look to get another FA Cup final possibly.

We see neutral here think Arsenal doesn`t play as good as they did during the drought lol .So, We leave loads of room to improve. Can Wenger finally get it right and become a title threat? That begs the question or will he just parade himself to be the unsackable gaffer to ever lived in our time.
 
I think Arse are a GK, CB, DM and ST away from being joint title favourites.

For this season a DM and ST might have been enough to challenge but that won't be enough next season as, for a start, Chelsea will strengthen again.
 
We're always the 'nearly men' and will be the 'nearly men' again next season.

Liverpool and Man Utd worry me most - I can see them developing into very good squads next season.
 
I'm sorry, I definitely not reading straight. :p

With regards to Arsenal next season, they really do need a better keeper and (if possible) a better striker then they can win. I think Giroud is immense talent and Carzola and Ozil are great as well, but they just aren't the strikers that can score at will like Henry or Bergkamp. Those you knew that you can rely on to win a championship with. Welbeck...as much as I love the kid just isn't cut to be THE striker. He's great off the bench or setting someone up, but he won't be the main guy to score and win and sadly Carzola hasn't shown enough consistency that he can be that man.
 
ss4_goku said:
Seeing how Man Utd turned out after losing their long-time manager, hearing all these cries for Wenger to go, I wonder what will happen to Arsenal when that happens. Who will/can they bring in?
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last time i checked they are also out of europe and only a point bellow...
 
I still want Wenger out. Every season is the same. Next season we will have the usual pundits saying "Arsenal look good for the title this season" and the same stuff will happen:

We will be out of league running by January.

We will be out of the CL in March.

We might have a decent cup run.

Meanwhile, Man Utd, City and Chelsea will seriously buy talent for their squads and compete for the league.

We're just not the club we used to be - Wenger accepts 4th as his trophy.
 
We're not out of the league by January, it is Chelsea who are running away with it - with some champion's luck too if I may say so, based on what happened yesterday at Hull.
 
Falling out of the championship race so early was definitely disappointing, and could be something to hold Wenger accountable for.

Also, some of the unacceptable transfer decisions like not signing proper defensive cover or a legitimate defensive midfield for so many seasons are not excusable. (Coquelin really came from nowhere and basically saved the season).

However, I don't consider the Monaco elimination such a negative thing. I saw the first leg and how many chances the team wasted and this cannot really be Arsene's fault. Every team has bad days and sometimes it costs them a tournament. Just look at Chelsea vs PSG.

Aside from these, I think our squad is definitely in a great position. We're stacked with talent, youth, and alternatives. The squad has been forming for 2-3 seasons now as well. I think all this puts us in a much better spot than most of the competition.

Man U have just started their revamp and yet to find the right formula. It looks like City are set for a large revamp and it is not even clear who their coach will be. Spurs and Southampton look good but it would be a stretch to say that they would make the leap to surpass us just in one season. Same goes for Liverpool. Although it seems they've finally found their form and their squad is coming together after Suarez's departure and all the new, young signings, I would say they're a few steps behind us in quality.

So, I think next year is looking really good for Arsenal and I can't see Wenger heading out. The signings will definitely come as well. With Flamini, Rosicky, and Arteta declining, I see Wenger going for a premium midfielder. Possibly a GK as well, as he took the decision to bench Sczc. It will be interesting.
 
5. Robin Van Persie (Manchester United): €25.6 million

He must really enjoy his remaining years. He should extend his contract :))

7. Andre Villas-Boas (Zenit Saint-Petersburg): €8.5 million
This motivates me, you fail everywhere and still you improve your economic stances
 
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