Arsenal v Montpellier

[MegaGooner]

Is it wrong that part of me wants to give that goal a blowjob?

BBC text says that that was Van Basten ish...

oh, and the 'French Lee Chapman" set it up with a lovely flick...

To be fair, Giroud's flick was the ball of the night

If I were Wenger, I'd put the armband on Jack asap (but don't sell him!), that lad is just Mr Arsenal and now has the knack of saying the right thing at the right time

I would agree, but I think Jack is just a little too young for that atm. I'll give it to him about 2014.

[Tomáš]

Schalke win so we qualify as well,wonder who will get the chance to knock us out in the next round

Guys, fancy a re-match ?!
Congrats for qualifying!

Cheers,
Thomas

[clockender1]

cynic that I am,i am shocked that Jack has broken down yet.

i'll breathe a sigh of relief after the Villa Game...

bearing in mind that both the scousers and chavs won the ECL when they were pants, maybe we can dream after all this year. who looks unbeatable ?

[g88ner]

cynic that I am,i am shocked that Jack has broken down yet.

i'll breathe a sigh of relief after the Villa Game...

bearing in mind that both the scousers and chavs won the ECL when they were pants, maybe we can dream after all this year. who looks unbeatable ?

Unlike the Liverpool and Chelsea teams you're talking about, I'm really not sure we have the style or play, tactics, experience or personnel to win ugly... we have to play well to win, and I'm not sure we have the quality or squad to consistently do that.

[QuartzGooner]

Giroud is now showing what he has got to offer, and it's not bad.
Ridiculous those who wrote him off after three games.

[green gooner]

Giroud is now showing what he has got to offer, and it's not bad.
Ridiculous those who wrote him off after three games.

We can only hope that time spent with Henry on the Colney pitches will benefit Giroud further

[officepest]

Podolski's goal was superb.

[LDB]

[SteveO 35]

I think the overall point is that the fanbase generally are bored of the Champions League ; bimbling around in the group stage and then knocked out by the first decent team we meet has sucked the life out of most of us.

But there is a difference between being bored by a certain competition and actively wanting us to get eliminated ; they can be mutually exclusive.

That is exactly the point. No matter how much HighburyJD protests otherwise, fans are generally bored by the CL Group format and who can blame them. A Group stage strung over 3 months - fuck me its on a par with the Cricket World Cup. As far as I'm concerned playing Montpellier is a Category C game and judging by the gaping gaps in the crowd last night, many many others would tend to agree.

Its got nothing to do with wanting to see us knocked out - I have already been very critical of some other WUMs around here that take great pleasure when we lose, and I have already said that in a straight battle between winning a cup or Wenger out, I would take the cup every time.

HighburyJD - some of the stuff you post is very good mate, but this bollocks about people that don't travel away in Europe want us knocked out is exactly that - bollocks. I've done all of what you've done for years fella - travelled around Europe spending thousands of pounds every year watching Arsenal. You're obviously in a position where you a) can still do that and b) still want to do that. Not everyone is in that position - me included. If you somehow translate that into people that actually want us to lose then the debate is probably best left there, and I'll go and have a more grown up one with my 8 year old over I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here

[augie]

Giroud is now showing what he has got to offer, and it's not bad.
Ridiculous those who wrote him off after three games.

We can only hope that time spent with Henry on the Colney pitches will benefit Giroud further

I was one of those that called for more patience with giroud but at the same time I wouldnt call writing the guy off as any more ridiculous than calling for the return of a 35 year old

[DB10GOONER]

Giroud is now showing what he has got to offer, and it's not bad.
Ridiculous those who wrote him off after three games.

"FACT!"

I thought he was our MOTM last night. He never stopped working, winning balls in the air, even tracked back and put in a couple good defensive tackles. And he was superb in the build-up to both goals. Just a shame he didn't finish his chance too...

Is he a top top striker? No, of course not. But he has done brilliantly to keep going, keep working and has scored a few, set up a few and is a good addition to the team. Strikers work off confidence. All of them. No matter who they are. If Giroud keeps performing, gets his confidence high, I think we'll get a 10 to 15 goal return from him in the PL. And for his first season in a different country, different culture, new team in a far superior and tougher league, that's a resonable return.

Who knows he might push on and become a top striker over the next year or two.

Writing off a player after 3 games in those circumstances is (as Quartz says) ridiculous.

[SteveO 35]

Nice to see Le Chapman's fan club gathering pace

He's played very well in the last couple of games. The performances before that were between abject and average. I did say that the bloke would probably get around 10-12 PL goals this season even when he was completely misfiring which I hardly think is something to get all excited about for a first choice CF playing regularly for a team competing for the Virtual Trophy (Torres will probably score the same number and be labelled 'shit' in doing so). Yeah, yeah - different country, style of play etc - the bloke is 27 so he doesn't have time for an 18 month adaption period like Park.

I'm glad he is playing with confidence because we have no other option in that role other than the Chamster and won't be signing anyone there in January either. So we need him to be a major success - those other 15-20 goals that RvP scored have got to be made up from somewhere else though.

[DB10GOONER]

Nice to see Le Chapman's fan club gathering pace

He's played very well in the last couple of games. The performances before that were between abject and average. I did say that the bloke would probably get around 10-12 PL goals this season even when he was completely misfiring which I hardly think is something to get all excited about for a first choice CF playing regularly for a team competing for the Virtual Trophy (Torres will probably score the same number and be labelled 'shit' in doing so). Yeah, yeah - different country, style of play etc - the bloke is 27 so he doesn't have time for an 18 month adaption period like Park.

I'm glad he is playing with confidence because we have no other option in that role other than the Chamster and won't be signing anyone there in January either. So we need him to be a major success - those other 15-20 goals that RvP scored have got to be made up from somewhere else though.

No fan club, but credit where it's due. Totally disagree that he was abject in those early games. Sure he missed some chances but he worked hard, got into the right positions, made the right runs and contributed some good work winning and laying off balls in the air.

I wouldn't compare him to Torres. Torres comes with huge baggage and a massive reputation and had delivered in the PL, but then went to shit. Different entirely to Giroud's situation, SteveO.

As for his age? What age was Wrighty when he joined us? Giroud is not going to be our top striker for 10 years. But if we get 4 or 5 out of him that's a result.

I agree we need him to be a major success and there is no guarantee he will be, but so far he has done well and last night (in a turgid game full of mistakes) he was our best player, I reckon anyway...

[SteveO 35]

Nice to see Le Chapman's fan club gathering pace

He's played very well in the last couple of games. The performances before that were between abject and average. I did say that the bloke would probably get around 10-12 PL goals this season even when he was completely misfiring which I hardly think is something to get all excited about for a first choice CF playing regularly for a team competing for the Virtual Trophy (Torres will probably score the same number and be labelled 'shit' in doing so). Yeah, yeah - different country, style of play etc - the bloke is 27 so he doesn't have time for an 18 month adaption period like Park.

I'm glad he is playing with confidence because we have no other option in that role other than the Chamster and won't be signing anyone there in January either. So we need him to be a major success - those other 15-20 goals that RvP scored have got to be made up from somewhere else though.

No fan club, but credit where it's due. Totally disagree that he was abject in those early games. Sure he missed some chances but he worked hard, got into the right positions, made the right runs and contributed some good work winning and laying off balls in the air.

I wouldn't compare him to Torres. Torres comes with huge baggage and a massive reputation and had delivered in the PL, but then went to shit. Different entirely to Giroud's situation, SteveO.

As for his age? What age was Wrighty when he joined us? Giroud is not going to be our top striker for 10 years. But if we get 4 or 5 out of him that's a result.

I agree we need him to be a major success and there is no guarantee he will be, but so far he has done well and last night (in a turgid game full of mistakes) he was our best player, I reckon anyway...

He has definitely improved beyond recognition from those first few games. Wrighty was an exception to the rule but had also proved himself at the top level in this country before he joined us. Funny but I thought last night's game wasn't too bad - even the first half. At least we played at a high tempo with a bit of pace and were pressing them in their own half - something that was desperately lacking against Norwich, ManUre and Schalke. Giroud did well but I thought Wilshere was immense and back to the pre-injury level of performance

[DB10GOONER]

Nice to see Le Chapman's fan club gathering pace

He's played very well in the last couple of games. The performances before that were between abject and average. I did say that the bloke would probably get around 10-12 PL goals this season even when he was completely misfiring which I hardly think is something to get all excited about for a first choice CF playing regularly for a team competing for the Virtual Trophy (Torres will probably score the same number and be labelled 'shit' in doing so). Yeah, yeah - different country, style of play etc - the bloke is 27 so he doesn't have time for an 18 month adaption period like Park.

I'm glad he is playing with confidence because we have no other option in that role other than the Chamster and won't be signing anyone there in January either. So we need him to be a major success - those other 15-20 goals that RvP scored have got to be made up from somewhere else though.

No fan club, but credit where it's due. Totally disagree that he was abject in those early games. Sure he missed some chances but he worked hard, got into the right positions, made the right runs and contributed some good work winning and laying off balls in the air.

I wouldn't compare him to Torres. Torres comes with huge baggage and a massive reputation and had delivered in the PL, but then went to shit. Different entirely to Giroud's situation, SteveO.

As for his age? What age was Wrighty when he joined us? Giroud is not going to be our top striker for 10 years. But if we get 4 or 5 out of him that's a result.

I agree we need him to be a major success and there is no guarantee he will be, but so far he has done well and last night (in a turgid game full of mistakes) he was our best player, I reckon anyway...

He has definitely improved beyond recognition from those first few games. Wrighty was an exception to the rule but had also proved himself at the top level in this country before he joined us. Funny but I thought last night's game wasn't too bad - even the first half. At least we played at a high tempo with a bit of pace and were pressing them in their own half - something that was desperately lacking against Norwich, ManUre and Schalke. Giroud did well but I thought Wilshere was immense and back to the pre-injury level of performance

Yeah, have to agree on Jack - probably a MOTM there too! Some of his touches and passes and just his vision of the pitch reminds me alot of Fabregas.

I thought we made alot of mistakes, but agree our tempo was better. I think maybe the amount of niggly little fouls the French put in on us disrupted our play alot and that might have made the game appear a bit turgid at times.