The battle for the top 4

Red Member · Post by **Red Member** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 3:54 pm

terry henry wrote:4th

Mid table if we are lucky.

Supagoon · Post by **Supagoon** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 4:00 pm

nasri is a better footballer than gervinho.

But he was hardly very effective, lets remember he had 4 months when he actually had an impact. Outside of those months he was AWOL for what 3 seasons?. He'd hide in away matches couldn't beat the fullback. He was fustrating. Not saying I was happy for him to go, but he could always be replaced, gervinho could still do that.

clockender1 · Post by **clockender1** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 5:48 pm

The one thing I like about Gervinho is he seems so far to be able to use his pace and skill to go inside or through the middle. Hleb and Arshavin nearly always went/go outside or nowhere.

Ramsay has made a couple of nice passes for goals for rvp and Gerv in each of the last two or three games, and scored one himself.

I'm beginning to think that 3rd is acheviable if we are lucky and push on with no new major injuries and don't get too far in the CL.

I'm optimistic but not confident yet.

SteveO 35 · Post by **SteveO 35** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 7:29 pm

Red Member wrote:
SteveO 35 wrote:How anyone can even be discussing our prospects for the "top four" at the moment is beyond me.

How about "when will we win an away game". When will we keep a clean sheet in Europe.

.....
ouch

Yep, well done you. Picking me up on a quote from the 3rd October. How about you making a prediction or two ? After all, you're some kind of self appointed gambling guru aren't you. Lets have a prediction for the next two Arsenal games - off you go....

And then we can all act like we're 10 years old and remind you when you're wrong.

Anywa, hope you enjoyed half term week. Best get off to bed now

Red Member · Post by **Red Member** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:04 pm

SteveO 35 wrote:How anyone can even be discussing our prospects for the "top four" at the moment is beyond me.

How about "when will we win an away game". When will we keep a clean sheet in Europe.

....

the battle for the top 4 has now been well and truly joined

we also appear to have addressed some points that Steveo mentioned a few weeks ago.
2 away wins in the league now and we showed against Marseille that we are very hard to score against in Europe.

at the moment we appear to be in a 4 way battle for 3rd/4th with the Manchester clubs soon to be out of sight. Out of our rivals Spurs look the best at the moment but I imagine they could soon hit a few problems.

Robsy · Post by **Robsy** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:13 pm

Start of the season I said 7th, maybe 6th if we're lucky.

Now, 4th is definitely possible.

We need the barcodes to start fading away and we need the sc*m to drop some points. If we continue with our current form, we may even be able to catch 3rd!

To be honest I am shocked that we've manage to catch chelski & 'pool, but fuck it, we are where we are and that - at the moment - is what counts.

Play up Arsenal!

Red Member · Post by **Red Member** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:17 pm

I didn't really understand the negativity at the start of the season.
we challenged for the title last season and strengthened some areas of the team so it was fairly obvious it was only a matter of time before we began to see the benefits.

Post by **flash gunner** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:19 pm

Red Member wrote:I didn't really understand the negativity at the start of the season.
we challenged for the title last season and strengthened some areas of the team so it was fairly obvious it was only a matter of time before we began to see the benefits.

Robsy · Post by **Robsy** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:22 pm

Red Member wrote:I didn't really understand the negativity at the start of the season.
we challenged for the title last season and strengthened some areas of the team so it was fairly obvious it was only a matter of time before we began to see the benefits.

Our squad was shit coming out of the summer.

It needed serious strengthening and then it needed the players to bed down. With that in mind there was no guarantee that things would come together.

We have been a bit lucky that the new players have worked hard, done well and directly contributed to winning important games.

Red Member · Post by **Red Member** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:29 pm

Robsy wrote:
Red Member wrote:I didn't really understand the negativity at the start of the season.
we challenged for the title last season and strengthened some areas of the team so it was fairly obvious it was only a matter of time before we began to see the benefits.
Our squad was shit coming out of the summer.

It needed serious strengthening and then it needed the players to bed down. With that in mind there was no guarantee that things would come together.

We have been a bit lucky that the new players have worked hard, done well and directly contributed to winning important games.

good management then must have contributed to this

frankbutcher · Post by **frankbutcher** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:34 pm

Red Member wrote:
Robsy wrote:
Red Member wrote:I didn't really understand the negativity at the start of the season.
we challenged for the title last season and strengthened some areas of the team so it was fairly obvious it was only a matter of time before we began to see the benefits.
Our squad was shit coming out of the summer.

It needed serious strengthening and then it needed the players to bed down. With that in mind there was no guarantee that things would come together.

We have been a bit lucky that the new players have worked hard, done well and directly contributed to winning important games.
good management then must have contributed to this

Mis-management contributed to the poor squad in the first place, so yes Wenger is responsible.

Robsy · Post by **Robsy** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:34 pm

Red Member wrote:
Robsy wrote:
Red Member wrote:I didn't really understand the negativity at the start of the season.
we challenged for the title last season and strengthened some areas of the team so it was fairly obvious it was only a matter of time before we began to see the benefits.
Our squad was shit coming out of the summer.

It needed serious strengthening and then it needed the players to bed down. With that in mind there was no guarantee that things would come together.

We have been a bit lucky that the new players have worked hard, done well and directly contributed to winning important games.
good management then must have contributed to this

Yeah, I think it did.

Over the summer I started to want AW out, then when the season started I definitely wanted him out (and voiced it at games); but now, I think I was a little hasty.

I think there are plenty of things he has done wrong, BUT, by the end of the year it could start to look okay again.

However, we do need to win something this year or we will lose the next batch of crucial players (RVP, Theo, Wilshire etc)

Red Member · Post by **Red Member** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:40 pm

better to admit to a U turn than to remain in denial

Post by **brazilianGOONER** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:52 pm

yes red member, thanks to our manager now we've returned from "absolute shit, relegation form" and we're back to our lovely "let's fight for 4th place and not win a fucking trophy, 'cause in the end what matters is playing beautiful football and being in the champions league, so we can get stuffed by barcelona again".

yay!

we're back to where we were - that's far from being back to trophy contenders.

when i see our captain lifting a trophy, THEN i'll say 'wenger did turn it all around'. so far what he did was take us back to where we've been in this 6 years of fuck all.

Red Member · Post by **Red Member** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:59 pm

brazilianGOONER wrote:yes red member, thanks to our manager now we've returned from "absolute shit, relegation form"
.

you mean when we lost 8-2 to the champions after we had played a more important game that week?

I respect your opinion but I don't share it.

after all we probably have a better chance of winning a trophy this season with Wenger than if we had exchanged him in the summer for a young portugese manager