As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Have to say that despite his one effort that clipped the post again Giroud has proven easily containable for the defenders. His lack of movement is astounding - when our midfielders have the ball he doesn't come and show very often and he never tries to get in behind. He just stands there. Hence when they do actually play the ball to him half the time a defender can get a foot in because he's so flat-footed. I know that he gets constant stick from users on here, not least me, but it's infuriating to watch him not only failing to produce quality but also look so disinterested.
Should go on and win this comfortably but the longer it stays at 1-0 the more we'll sit back and you can bet that the 10-men of Fulham will be causing us huge problems in the last 15-20. It's such a lifeless performance, need Podolski and/or Wilshere (fitness depending!) to inject a bit of pace and urgency on the ball.
Blood_Gooner wrote:Can see our timid lot bottling this one....
Lucky if we come away with a draw. Really a pathetic setting when you support a supposed big club, but have to be so wary of them getting a much needed result against a pub team.
That clueless defeatist of a manager can't leave soon enough.
I have been critical of the club and team this season as have most, but what are you basing your sentiments of "we will bottle it" on.
We are in very good form and now he has had the guts to drop the weak link in defence, our full backs are fit and we have compitition for places in midfield and upfront we are playing well - even Tuesday, whilst a win would have been ideal we aquitted ourselves against a very good team well.
It seems that some are going to be getting the knives out if we dont qualify for the CL, or if we do (least we should expect blah blah).
We need to be in the top four, being out of it will hold us back further from the top level team we all want - will a decent manager come to a Europa team? Will decent players? Will we ever compete at the top level again if we have to play Thursday-Sunday....already a proven hinderence for the teams in it, with extra games in Neverland? Will we enjoy never having a game on a Saturday?
The answers to all of the above are debateable, but what isnt, is that we shouldnt write off the short term thinking we will benefit in the long run. IF we make the top four it will be a reasonable acheivement - given all but two clubs would cut their bollcks off at the moment to get there proves that fact. Is it enough? No, but given who these season has panned out it will be something to be a little bit proud of, albeit nothing to shout from the rooftops over.
How we then go forward is a different matter, but right now, for the next few weeks we need to get behind the squad because we all actually want the same thing - an Arsenal team competing for trophies again. Finishing 5th will do nothing but prolong the wait - can we compete in the cups with 20-25 extra games?
To answer that question I will point you to victims FC cos being out of champs league didn't prevent them signing the buck toothed rabbit from Uruguay and he is miles better that any signing we have made in the last few seasons.
A far more relevant comparison though is with the scum from the swamp - has being in the Europa lge prevented them from progressing ? In recent seasons their purchases have been of a better quality than our's despite no champs league football. Despite what the red tops would have you believe last summer, the scum have secured themselves one of the best up and coming managers in European football so again I have to say that thurs nite football hasn't altered their standing in European football.
One of the debates I frequently have with lefty (when he is being nice ) is regards to how we are viewed by potential sponsors when our trophy less run continues and our top players continue to leave us - he argues that our standing in the game is such that we will always have big companies wanting to be associated with us so if that is true then shouldn't the same apply to top players ? While I understand what he is saying I still don't think that it is as straightforward as that - these things normally come down to money and I would suggest that we could still attract top players (not under wenger's regime of course) but we would probably have to pay more in wages than anyone else to get them which is something similar to our sponsorship deals where we could still attract big companies but our asking price would be lowered to get them on board.
Hey mate I did post something nice about you the other day (well it wasn't derogative anyway, which is a start )........I should just not drink copious amounts of wine and then come on here
I still believe that as long as the emirates is full (ish) and we still have a world wide support of huge proportions that we will attract top players and sponsors but don't necessarily believe we will have to pay the players more or take a drop from the sponsors.
After all if that was the case regarding sponsors and for instance they maintain that because of our recent lack of silverware they will give us 30% less than the going rate, wouldn't we put in a clause that states that IF we then go onto win something we want that 30% back?
With regard paying players more than others I don't know about that or what would warrant it, maybe if a players agent comes in and says "look you pay diaby 65k a week, bendtner 52k a week therefore my client must be worth 3 times more as he will play more than 5 games a season and can trap a ball
I just believe our that our wage structure is fundementally flawed and once wenger and gazidis go that can be addressed.
I don't think anyone could convince me that kronke is happy with our huge wage bill and the amount of players on big wages that are out on loan or just clearly not good enough and unsaleable.
We are going to take some huge hits with regar to players leaving for free over the next 2 or 3 seasons because teams will not pay them the wages we do or anywhere near it
Anyhow I'm off to play footie in a minute, got a game tomorrow and played Thursday because so many games were called off we are playing 3 times a week, to say I fekin ache a bit is like saying DB is not very tall
if your not in the champions league you're nothing, your season is POINTLESS
we have to be there or it is an utter crisis
On the match...if it isn't 5-0 with 10 men, then it's an utter disgrace
Lucky to be 1 up, Sidwells tackle was very bad, but only one footed, probably still a red though
We are lazy, devoid of imagination, very hard to watch, Giroud crap, Ramsey doing those silly flicks again. just strolling around in the sunshine the lot of 'em
Money on a Fulham goal next, If we don't play with a bit more purpose.
Usual HD Ruski stream on Sopcast sop://broker.sopcast.com:3912/143011 (need to download Sopcast first obviously)
English streams here if you like that sort of thing http://www.wiziwig.tv/broadcast.php?mat ... art=sports
Is Arteta fucking retarded? Knew somebody would try and level things up.
Make a fucking change Wenger. Rosicky is doing next to nothing, Arteta is walking a tightrope and Ramsey is a complete waste of space in a game like this.
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