Norwich next

[supergeorgegraham]

Podolski, Walcott and Ox should start for Arsenal. Gervinho is utterly useless and has one good game and Wenger seems to love him. Its the reason Wenger should leave the club because he sticks with shite players.
Podolski does not set the world on fire but he gets into good positions and scores vital goals but he is off to another club by the looks of it and we keep slap head.

[Patsym]

Great win. We were unlucky go 0-1 down as that was never a free kick but no one mentioned or cared about that

[richpye]

Have to agree that the penalty was soft, but for all the decisions we don't get which look a lot more stonewall I really don't care. I thought the 3rd goal was a worse decision by the linesman to be honest as Theo was offside and directly in front of him and he didn't give it.
I have to think TV's time at Arsenal may be coming to an end, he looks unconvincing and totally shot of confidence at the moment.
The Podolski conundrum I just don't get. There's a rumour that Wenger thinks he doesn't track back enough...so f*cking what, that's why we are meant to have a defence. For me (and most importantly most of Germany) he's one of our few World Class players and - unless he still has fitness issues - we should be using him as such.

[SteveO 35]

Have to agree that the penalty was soft, but for all the decisions we don't get which look a lot more stonewall I really don't care. I thought the 3rd goal was a worse decision by the linesman to be honest as Theo was offside and directly in front of him and he didn't give it.
I have to think TV's time at Arsenal may be coming to an end, he looks unconvincing and totally shot of confidence at the moment.
The Podolski conundrum I just don't get. There's a rumour that Wenger thinks he doesn't track back enough...so f*cking what, that's why we are meant to have a defence. For me (and most importantly most of Germany) he's one of our few World Class players and - unless he still has fitness issues - we should be using him as such.

And yet he was happy to persist with Arshavin for 18 months consistently.......a player who never tracks back.....and Gervinho could hardly be categorised as a defensive beast either. Podolski has worked as hard as any of the others that have played in that position. There's clearly something else that Lord A-hole doesn't like about him because he has constantly subbed him when others have been far worse, and now this latest run where he can't get in the side.

Why on earth we'd sell him and persist with some of the other crap we have is baffling in the extreme

[northbank123]

Cast your minds back to the hazy days of August/September and remember how often Podolski was back defending to ensure that Gibbs wasn't getting isolated (and still bombing forward all game).

Funny how this supposed laziness/lack of tracking back has come since we decided to ditch our fast pressing game and tactical shape around the time of Chelsea home. If Wenger sends the team out there with no discernible shape and defensive tactic how can he expect a winger to track back at all the right times whilst still offering attacking potency?

[piresistible]

Funny how MOTD completely ignores the blatant dive that resulted in Norwich scoring, in the first place.

THiS.
Funny how all of the motd pundits and the media didnt make a deal about the Norwich goal. Their player trips himself up, they get a free-kick and score, yet Le Tissier and the 'pundits' bang on about the corner/goalkick/penalty

[northbank123]

Funny how MOTD completely ignores the blatant dive that resulted in Norwich scoring, in the first place.

THiS.
Funny how all of the motd pundits and the media didnt make a deal about the Norwich goal. Their player trips himself up, they get a free-kick and score, yet Le Tissier and the 'pundits' bang on about the corner/goalkick/penalty

There are times when I've come back from a game in time for MOTD and genuinely questioned whether or not they were even showing the same game. I recall one game (City a few years back I think) where they hit the bar but the bloke was about 3 or 4 yards offside and was flagged, yet on MOTD they showed the incident along with 2 or 3 different replays AND included it in their match analysis while declining to mention that he was flagged offside. They are quite prone to giving a skewed representation of matches by not including good chances/near misses and completely skipping over controversial incidents like bad tackles etc if it suits their agenda.

It is very much a show that caters to the masses. Which generally means giving United as much coverage as possible, failing to slam teams like Liverpool for how generally hopeless they've been for years and championing the little man where appropriate.

[piresistible]

Funny how MOTD completely ignores the blatant dive that resulted in Norwich scoring, in the first place.

THiS.
Funny how all of the motd pundits and the media didnt make a deal about the Norwich goal. Their player trips himself up, they get a free-kick and score, yet Le Tissier and the 'pundits' bang on about the corner/goalkick/penalty

There are times when I've come back from a game in time for MOTD and genuinely questioned whether or not they were even showing the same game. I recall one game (City a few years back I think) where they hit the bar but the bloke was about 3 or 4 yards offside and was flagged, yet on MOTD they showed the incident along with 2 or 3 different replays AND included it in their match analysis while declining to mention that he was flagged offside. They are quite prone to giving a skewed representation of matches by not including good chances/near misses and completely skipping over controversial incidents like bad tackles etc if it suits their agenda.

It is very much a show that caters to the masses. Which generally means giving United as much coverage as possible, failing to slam teams like Liverpool for how generally hopeless they've been for years and championing the little man where appropriate.

nAIL ON head mate.
Pity some of our fans are taken in by the utter media garbage that comes out.
That's not to say we've been stunning, on the contrary we've been, dare i say it, pinching results when the need was required...but hey if utd did it -that's the hallmark of the champions

[I Hate Hleb]

Difference between the two is that United do it when they are still in the hunt for the title - thus why it's called 'the mark of champions'!!

[SteveO 35]

Was extremely disappointed not to hear a single chorus of There's Only One Arsene Wenger yesterday

[g88ner]

Was extremely disappointed not to hear a single chorus of There's Only One Arsene Wenger yesterday

It's a very fickle song that only gets wheeled out when we're cruising to victory. We heard it loud and clear at WBA (before Mertesacker's sending off) so expect to hear it again if we put Everton and/or Fulham to the sword!

[Top Londoner]

Was extremely disappointed not to hear a single chorus of There's Only One Arsene Wenger yesterday

It's a very fickle song that only gets wheeled out when we're cruising to victory. We heard it loud and clear at WBA (before Mertesacker's sending off) so expect to hear it again if we put Everton and/or Fulham to the sword!

Hell yeah. When we beat those two and I'm gonna sing my heart out.
It will make up for ALL the past ten months of torture.
I might even get me one of those lovely Arsene (we love you) t.shirts too.

[DB10GOONER]

Thought Ramsey had a good game. For me Ramsey has been absolute pants for 2 years now but I was very pleasantly surprised with his performance on Saturday, so credit where it's due. Gone were the stupid wasteful backheels and flicks, gone (mostly) were the shit passes straight to oppo players, and in were some good passes, a simpler more effective approach, and he also retained the one thing I’ve always rated him for; work rate. The guy just never stopped. I’m hoping this isn’t a temporary thing and he can keep up this level into next season but have to admit I’m very very sceptical – like Diaby, Ramsey had has more false dawns than almost any Arsenal player.

Also thought Jack was appalling. Looked out of breath, a yard off the pace and slow. Obviously not fully match fit and Sith Lord Venger has admitted as much. Stupid risk to take and I would now not be surprised if Jack suffers a "niggle" and a "slight reaction" and we don't see him again until November.

[northbank123]

They could have try and justified taking a minor gamble if it wasn't at home to Norwich and if he was actually near enough match fitness to run the show. As it was he was clearly so far away from being ready that it was a reckless decision, and one that I really hope doesn't cost us.

I hope he leaves him out of the match squad entirely tonight, or at least sticks him on the bench. For the sake of rushing him back a game earlier it's not worth risking his long-term fitness.