WHAM - this (Last) Christmas

[shu]

Seriously there are a couple of people on here that need to sort themselves out. One in particular takes great delight in anything that the team and individuals do wrong. It just makes them look a bellend when the team turns the game round. Looks like trolling to me - if not I would suggest they don't entrench themselves in such a position they feel they can't be positive when someone they hate puts in a decent performance. As for Giroud, he looks knackered and is not playing particularly well, however that does not make him a donkey, Lee Chapman and least of all a useless c***! We will need him up in Newcastle because his hold up play is a lot better than Bendtner's.

27 posts on this forum and you feel qualified to label a member as a troll

I do actually.

Just because I don't post, it doesn't mean I haven't read the forum regularly for the last 7 or 8 years. I don't feel the need to make an arse of myself every 20 minutes on here like some.

Just because you've posted thousands of entries doesn't mean you are more qualified to have an opinion.

That's like saying because I go to more games than you you're views aren't as valid.

Never said that you aint entitled to an opinion or that you not allowed to express it but I absolutely don't believe that you have earned the right to label someone who has over 15k of posts as being a troll. I have zero problem with you disagreeing with my opinions but do so on the basis that you believe them to be incorrect and not because you see the poster as being a troll for having an opinion that differs from your own

I suggest you go back and look at my comments, I didn't specifically call anyone out as a troll. You seem to think I've accused you - which I haven't. Perhaps troll is the wrong word for someone that takes more delight in seeing there own view being proved right even if it is at the expense of the team. Maybe it is not done just to get a reaction our of people (which I believe is the actual definition). From the chats on this timeline there is one person that stands out a mile, and has consistently done so all season.

Ha ha so funny , i thought you meant Augie too

[Lee1]

Augie and milesgooner....grow up the pair of you. Fucking pathetic and tiresome.

[Yankee_Gooner_Dandee]

Midfield three at this point looks like it should be Wilshire and Arteta/Flamini behind Cazorla. Then with Wally right, Ozil left, Pods up front. Make it happen Arsene.

[QuartzGooner]

Yep, this Forum has a few who might charitably be labelled as 'Pessimistic".

But if anyone is obviously trolling the Mods do our best to warn them before it gets out of hand.

In the case of Steve O's devotion to Diaby it is so obviously a joke that we let it slide.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As for Cazorla, he looks best centrally, in the forward creative position, and sometimes even further back in the 1980's playmaker style position.

Thing is, so does Wilshere, and so does Rosicky.
And eventually Zelalem.

Nice problem to have.

Personally if playing Ozil centrally, then have Podolski wide left and Walcott wide right.

But otherwise, I really believe that as a team we would benefit from playing Ozil wide if he plays alongside Cazorla, Rosicky or Wilshere.
Ozil plays wide for Germany at times, and did so too for Madrid.

That way we get to play one of the others above in their strongest position.

Further back I would start with Flamini and Ramsey if both are fit.

[BFG4]

Love when im proven wrong when it comes to Arsenal, and glad that the 1-0 defeat I predicted, turned into a 3-1 victory, but there is still problems that are clear to see. Giroud is shit, only for Ramsey's injury and the introduction of Podolski, his misses would have cost us the game. Podolski should clearly be starting instead of Giroud, and if we continue to persist with such a shit striker as Giroud then it will cost us later in the season.

[Henry Norris 1913]

fair play to wally, he isn't the most technically gifted but he manages to bundle the ball over the line which is something Giroud will never quite get the hang of, at least not when we really need it

[Ryanswannell]

I just wan't to say that even though we did go one down I think at times we played so fantastic football particularly in the first half. Giroud linked up with Ozil several times and Santi held on to the ball fairly well in the first 25 mins or so whenever he got hold of it.
I was also fairly impressed with Gibbs today you could see how determined he was in the second half to get the ball forward and into the box. Sagna's crossing also looked pretty sharp today, and Podolski made a huge difference when he came on.

My only negative to take from this game are that Giroud missed a few good chances and it's very fortunate that he had Podolski and Walcott save us today or people would be calling for his head.

Also, I know it probably prevented a goal, but Szczesney needs to stop star-jumping into strikers because should we have had a 'strict' ref today *cough* Mike Dean *cough* or if her got it wrong they would have got a penalty.

Happy with the results today, back on top and we have very winnable fixtures coming up against Newcastle and Cardiff

[milesgooner]

Giroud is not shit and while he may not be world class be he is a good leader of the line. Podolski is clearly the best finisher but he is not a leader of the line. We are short of a world class forward, and unfortunately we are unlikely to pick one up in the transfer window. Costa at Athletico has a eur 35m buy-out clause at Athletico and Falcao who is wasting his time at Monaco are outside bets. I think if we buy anyone it will be a £15m prospect to give the squad more depth.

[topgoon]

Had the privilege of watching this at parents place with Scum and Chav supporting relatives

I was breathing a sigh of relief when Adrian returned the favour that Ches had already done for Wet spam.

Anybody else have trouble with their BT today, had to watch it on a stream as logged on but the screen wouldn't load up for the game....only new spammers had scored when my stream suddenly showed Cole running off so haven't seen the howler. Saw Wally's header and had to wait for the stream to come back to see whether Poldi's shot rippled inside or outside the net.

From the little I could glean from my sh*t stream, we wasted chances before they scored and they could have gomne 3-0 up afterwards.

Glad we got the win, now lets hope he can pick Poldi,Wally and Giroud as a front three because as Milesgooner said, even knackered he is the best at holding up the ball that we've got, think he's actually one of the better ones at doing that and winning headers in the league.

Bad luck for Rambo, but I thnk he needed the rest, personally I'd like Ozil to join him instead of having a rest every 90mins for the past 4 weeks.

It's a shame the inbreds had to give permatanned Pardew and the 50,000 beer bellies a morale boost before we go up there.

[BFG4]

Giroud is not shit and while he may not be world class be he is a good leader of the line. Podolski is clearly the best finisher but he is not a leader of the line. We are short of a world class forward, and unfortunately we are unlikely to pick one up in the transfer window. Costa at Athletico has a eur 35m buy-out clause at Athletico and Falcao who is wasting his time at Monaco are outside bets. I think if we buy anyone it will be a £15m prospect to give the squad more depth.

7 league goals for a player who is the main striker, and two of those goals came against Southampton. when the keeper made a howler, and Giroud scored a penalty. He is average at best, and in no way should be playing for a club like Arsenal.

[topcat]

I don't know why everyone is going on about playing podolski upfront instead of giroud...I can't even remember him playing as an out and out striker ... He is a better player than giroud and plays far forward yeah, but he likes to drift wide left..i think girouds movement and runs into the box and the way he attacks a defenders blind spot are a lot smarter that what podoslki could offer.

Keep podolski on the left I say

[QuartzGooner]

Giroud has 10 goals in 26 games this season for us.

That is respectable.

I think Giroud is a better player than Podolski as the lone striker on what we have seen so far when either of them has played that role for us.
Giroud's worth cannot just be boiled down to how many goals he has scored, he also plays in other players and takes a physical battering so that others can make attacking runs.
He is not a top level striker so far, in the sense of a Cavani or a Messi but, he would be a noticeably good player to be regularly on the bench.

But Man Utd have that squad depth of forwards, so why can't we?

Podolski does well in the Pires role, a wide midfielder who cuts in and scores, rather than an old style out-and out-winger.
He does not do as much running/tracking back as some would like, but his goals and attacking passes go some way to make up for this.

[northbank123]

The moment that pissed me off most with Giroud today wasn't any of the 3 gilt-edged chances he unsurprisingly spurned. It was a fairly innocuous one that wasn't highlighted by commentators when Gibbs had a really dangerous overlap on with nobody tracking inside the box, but Giroud decided to run across the box into the same area and drag his marker with him meaning that not only would Gibbs have had nobody to aim for, the acres of space he would have had was cut out and it fizzled out completely. Utterly brainless football, I don't envy Giroud's job (well I do but figure of speech) but it seemed to me like he kept making the wrong runs today and pulling out wide which offers no real threat.

I do however agree about playing Podolski up front. He is a far better player than Giroud imo but after most on here crying out for him to be given a chance up top last year due to Giroud's dreadful form he proved to be even worse. I think we would get the best out of him as a second striker but given that won't happen we will have to hope he is employed as a wing forward and not a winger.

As said before Cazorla was superb today, I thought Arteta did okay but he was partly at fault for the goal due to a piss-poor clearance although this was overlooked due to Szczesny's howler. Ozil was quiet again but watching MOTD it surprised me how he is involved in just about every move with a fantastic flick or a perfectly-weighted pass slipped between opposition players.

[TeeCee]

Giroud would be great as a bench player and cover. He is NOT good enough to be the lone striker for a team who wants to win something. He's great if you want 4th place....... Same old story with Arsenal these days, we beat the shit teams but can't beat the good ones.

[StuartL]

IAs said before Cazorla was superb today, I thought Arteta did okay but he was partly at fault for the goal due to a piss-poor clearance although this was overlooked due to Szczesny's howler. Ozil was quiet again but watching MOTD it surprised me how he is involved in just about every move with a fantastic flick or a perfectly-weighted pass slipped between opposition players.

Agree that what Ozil did do was quality - watched Motd this morning and got the recorded game on now....

Thought there was much better movement, fluidity about our play - a few hairy moments when we could have gone 2-0 down.
Gibbs got forward to good effect and good to see Santi back as we will need him to step up to the level he was at last season if we are to maintain this years challenge.
Giroud is woefully sort of confidence right now but still held the ball up well and played his part, particularly for Podolski's goal. Think some of the players may also feel that he isn't good enough judging from the reaction to some of his recent misses.