Up the Arse! Goons Thread

[Croweater]

Sub-standard effort today.

Always playing catch up. Crap passing, rarely putting in second efforts when things went awry.

Lolo getting injured hurt us, even though he buggered up defensively which led to a City goal.

Ozil and Ramsey has off games. BFG and Theo were great. Giroud tried hard but nothing went right for him. Sagna was okay, Monreal couldn't handle the pace of the City forwards.

Overall a pretty average game from the lads. Need to put in a far better showing against Chelsea if we're to be real title contenders.

 

[DardySingh360]

Good: Walcott, Mertesacker

Acceptable: Scezsney, Flamini, Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Bendtner

Poor: Monreal, Giroud, Ozil, Ramsey, Wilshere, Gnabry (Harsh, but didn't really make an impact when it was needed)

 

[windyhill]

Will lose the city game, will beat chels, comfortably.

This will still happen !

 

[Cruyff14]

At least Walcott looked good.

Wenger's subs were idiotic. If you want to go all out for it, buy some decent players.

Fixed it for you.

I'm just going to come out and say it:

Fabregas shits on Ozil. Win or lose - he is always in the game.

Ozil is a player who drifts in and out of games, is never fully involved. The guy had a poor game and still set up two.

 

[glenferry23]

Ozil apilogised for snubbing the fans after the whistle.

Was quite impressed with Bendtner's cameo late in the game. But quite strange we had Rosicky and Cazorla as unused subs.

Kos' injury is a cut to the knee but don't know how long he will be out for. Vermaelen will get his chance.

 

[Cruyff14]

A cut to the knee. Jesus Christ.

 

[glenferry23]

Good on the BFG for doing this. I actually don't mind seeing this between players, no necessarily on the pitch but you've got to have some campaigner in you to pull players into line and show strong leadership when needed. Too often it's been a gentle, friendly and timid Arsenal. Despite being spanked last night, we actually fought hard during the game and displayed some resolve.

 

[charcoalchicken]

Good games from Walcott and the tall lanky German. Koscielny injury is a concern hopefully it's nothing too serious.

Chelsea game is pretty much a must win now so go out and win it fellas.

 

[glenferry23]

Not a pretty sight

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/urgh-laurent-koscielnys-injured-knee-2926673

 

[CotchNCo]

A cut is fantastic news. When it happened i was thinking ligament damage.

 

[glenferry23]

Thankfully it's nothing stitches can't fix. A ligament injury was my first reaction.

 

[moomba]

Would still have him missing a week or two. Hard for that to heal as any sort of activity could re open the wound.

Yuk, the pics are disgusting.

 

[Benno_900]

Considering what it could've been, that is a fantastic result for him.

Good opportunity for Vermaelen then. Would be too harsh to judge him too much on last night as the midfield protection was non-existent but he was underwhelming.

 

[Northalives]

I was really happy with the way Wenger set up the team but unfortunately, that is probably the worst I have ever seen Wilshere play. His lack of a yard, maybe a yard and a half but probably more like two yards, really brings him back to the field: he was atrocious and made Monreal's task extremely difficult by his shocking display.

Last night was a very good game to really assess our players: Szczesny cannot handle the pressure games and as against Everton, when the screws are really turned, he lacks the mental toughness to be in control. A goalkeeper with a clear head would have saved Deulofeu's shot. Against City form the start, he was hyperventilating.

Mertesacker, no worries, the same for Koscielny and Vermaelen when he came on plus Sagna and Monreal although the last two were let down by thick-as-a-brick Walcott and Wilshere.

Ramsey and Flemini in particular are great and Ozil, he is not a crunching tackling machine, he is class and although his wasn't the greatest of performances, he has made a huge difference to our side and needs the other 4 midfielders doing their job for him to shine.

Spoken about Wishere and his kindie antics don't help him much either.

Walcott's finishing was great but he is not team orientated and does not play his position and when the team was pushing hard in the second half, this prick was coming into the center and not providing us with the width we needed and when he did get the ball, he was too busy looking to get his personal glory hat-trick rather than doing the team thing.

Giroud tries hard but is not top shelf.

In summary, against a team like Manchester City in a crucial game, you need to have every one playing as a unit and 11 players of the highest quality.

On last night”s performance, we need three players to be title winners.

PS. I was astonished that Wenger took off Flemini and brought on Gnarby. Surely it should have been Wilshere and at 4-2, we still looked like we could fight to a draw, as unlikely as that was but without Flemini, no hope.

 

[glenferry23]

I think the assessment of Walcott is harsh Northa. Was probably our best player on the day. I don't really recall him however tracking back much to try and provide some defensive coverage when we were under the pump, but at the same time I don't recall him going for the hat trick either?

Thought he had an excellent game overall and hope he stays fit from here on in. Crucial player.

Wilshere yes was sub par and I thought there'd be a case for taking him off at half time, but not for Gnabry. I thought Rosicky would've been a much better option on the left, is in better form than Santi and as we saw against Napoli, he's also a little terrier in midfield and has strong defensive abilities. Would've assisted Nacho much more than Wislhere did. Zaba and Silva really put on a clinic on that left flank.

As for Scznenzy, to be fair it's not like many of those goals were actually saveable. He perhaps could've done better for Fernandinho's second, but otherwise was left exposed from a number of defensive errors by his teammates.

Am a big fan of Giroud and he bleeds for the club, but can't help but feel that if you put say Suarez on the end of those chances and crosses from Ozil and Sagna, and the ball is in the back of the net.

 

[Benno_900]

That Walcott hattrick was all commentator talk.

He was flippant about Arsenal for much of the game. How about his comments on Bendtner's sub - so unprofessional.

Mertesacker, no worries, the same for Koscielny and Vermaelen when he came on plus Sagna and Monreal although the last two were let down by thick-as-a-brick Walcott and Wilshere.

Just because the midfield isn't tracking back, it doesn't excuse the defenders of their responsibilities.

Monreal was utter crap. Sick of our players picking up mystery injuries - where the **** was Gibbs?

 

[glenferry23]

I actually thought it was 50/50 between Gibbs and Nacho at the start of this season in terms of the first choice LB. but Gibbs is so much better. Not sure why he was missing.

And John Champion usually is anti Arsenal in his commentary. Bendtner actually did play well for the 15 minutes he was on the pitch.

 

[NTRabbit]

I was really happy with the way Wenger set up the team but unfortunately, that is probably the worst I have ever seen Wilshere play. His lack of a yard, maybe a yard and a half but probably more like two yards, really brings him back to the field: he was atrocious and made Monreal's task extremely difficult by his shocking display.

Last night was a very good game to really assess our players: Szczesny cannot handle the pressure games and as against Everton, when the screws are really turned, he lacks the mental toughness to be in control. A goalkeeper with a clear head would have saved Deulofeu's shot.

His vision of that goal was blocked by a really poor effort from Gibb, ludicrous to suggest it was a gimme save.

On last night”s performance, we need three players to be title winners.

On last night's performance we simply need to keep beating teams that aren't Man City at Etihad Stadium. You don't need to beat everyone to win the title, you just need to take more points than your rivals - how many times did we knock over Man United in a season only to see them win it by 5-10 points or so at the end? I distinctly recall a great home game where we finally cut down United, Saint Henry scoring a rare header while the devil himself scored an equaliser and broke a metatarsal when he landed on the ground after jumping in the air to celebrate. I think they won that season - we sure as shit didn't.

We played poorly, and we were well beaten. We're still top. There's still no evidence City are going to get their away form to match their home form. There's still no suggestion Chelsea are going to find some consistency. Welcome to the all over the shop PL season 2013/14.

I'm honestly more disappointed in the draw to Everton than I am in the loss here.

 

[Northalives]

It's a long season and that's what makes the EPL title such an achievement. I couldn't help but be agitated at our center forward telling our goalkeeper to calm down and keep his cool.

As for Walcott and the commentary, I don't pay much attention to the commentators and most times, I turn the volume off 'cause they irritate. Walcott just kept drifting into areas that he should not have got into and made it really hard for others to find space to work in. He has got too be more of a team player.

I was really impressed by Everton and the young star Barkley in particular but that's the Premier League and when you have worked really hard and found the lead, you expect your 'keeper to keep out shots like Deulofeu's. Our lad was on his way to ground before the Everton lad shot and as a consequence, his arms were in the wrong position to make a quick reflex but relatively simple save. He nearly stuffed up the same yesterday late in the game but to be brutally honest, I don't reckon any of the goals he conceded were because of his ineptitude although what the f**k was he doing when he gave away the penalty? Someone should remind him that he is allowed to use his hands and dive at the feet of opponents. All of this stuff is to do with his ability, or more to the point, his inability to be on top of the game; concentration.

Giroud is gutsy and has really worked hard but is not top shelf and Wilshere disappoints more often than not.

Man City are a superb side but I have not given up hope of being around the mark come the end of the season. We'll beat Chelsea next start.

 

[Arsene Wenger]

My thoughts are as follows:

• Monstored in midfield and didnt seem to have the legs once we went down by 2 goals (i.e. at 4-2). I thought we were in the game at 3-2.
• Simple goals caused by stupid mistakes. Fernandinhos first goal was a gift. We need to be better and more careful in our defensive third.
• We certainly looked jaded so the break will do us good.
• MUST beat Chelsea now, if only for the confidence of the team. Need a good result and a much better performance.
• Monreal was ordinary, as was Jack Wilshire.

We still need another striker in January, but bear in mind Podolski is back which will help (although i dont consider him a striker).

Echoing sentiments above, you dont have to win every game to win the league. If we win against Chelski and Man City lose this is all forgotten really. We just need to re-focus and get back to playing good football. Every team has a bad week or two, its how we now respond that counts.

 

[windyhill]

Boys, we'll beat chels , very confident, just not sure to either back a straight out win or halftime/fulltime

 

[Benno_900]

Bayern Munich again.

****.

 

[mad_monkey_j]

So we're playing Bayern in the round of 16.

 

[Flapjacks]

heckin'g Bayern again!

 

[Croweater]

We can take Bayern. Only lost to them on away goals last time around, plus we've added Ozil.

However, we need to improve on current form if we're to beat them.