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.
Shane Long. Shane fukin Long. (Shane Short more like)
Must be half the size of Merteslacker and he was muscling him off the ball. I'll bet Gabriel wouldn't be intimidated and thrown around like a wet sock by Shane fukin Long. He might just have shown a bit of steel, a bit of fight.
But under Wenger who knows..........?
For years everybody made out that we were merely held back by not being able to cope with physicality and thuggery. Southampton and Swansea have made a mockery about that. Two sides who are dedicated to playing football and have regularly outplayed us.
Reality is that Wenger was yet again outmanouevred yesterday by a tactically astute manager. As usual Southampton sat deep with men behind the ball and we were completely impotent. They ruthlessly targeted Mertesacker so much that Koscielny made mistake after mistake because he was obsessed with covering for him. Whilst woeful from our point of view Fonte's goal was superbly worked - the only bloke who can win a header in our side is Giroud and they planted a runner who took him away from his post at the front stick and allow Fonte to run into the vacant space to score. It was a fantastic delivery and great execution but came down to basic preparation for the opposition which Wenger has unbelievably insisted he has no need for.
Pochettino is another manager who has Wenger's number - since he took over at Spurs we have found it really difficult against them and will continue to do so as long as he's there. In fact we have four wins in 18 PL attempts at Spurs under Wenger, not to mention 1 win in 8 at Stoke since their promotion. And of course we all know about Mourinho and the hold he had over Wenger. Extremely frustrating to see us sleepwalking into chucking away results with the same shit performances and same mistakes every year.
Mertesacker was just absolute garbage, Luzhny had more pace with the cart attached to the back of him.
This guy wouldn't get near the first team of any of the elite clubs yet we have to continually put up with him flinching out of challenges like a pansy, as the captain no less. I guess I was just lucky to have grown up watching Tony Adams.
Don't get carried away, we have been here before when the bfg has been exposed.
The next mistake Gabriel makes that leads to a goal, and he has made a few, and Per will be back.
The mistake which Gabriel made at Norwich was schoolboy beyond belief. Likewise as piss-poor as the refereeing was, it was so naive to get sent off at Stamford Bridge.
That said I think that he is a better option than Mertesacker overall. Centre backs always have a tough adaptation to the PL and I think the guy has shown enough to be given a proper run ahead of the Big Lumbering German.
Mertesacker will still retain his place though and in all likelihood will still be an arsenal player come 2018.
