Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2015/16 ( Mod Note linked in OP 29/12)

jonneymendoza

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/10154021/ronald-koeman-confronts-arsene-wenger-after-stalemate

Gringo180

Ol' Donie wrote: »

You forgot how lucky we were to beat United and City.

2 home ties we should be expected to win.

jonneymendoza

galwaylad14 wrote: »

I often wonder if some football fans (such as the ones posting in this thread) even watch the match or just look for the result make assumptions about the performance based on that.

Obviously the result is the most important thing and it didn't go Arsenal's way last night. But to look at the performance it is clear that it was just one of those nights when the ball wouldn't go in despite creating mountains of chances. This was a combination of excellent goalkeeping and poor finishing. But the actual performance was good. All it takes is 2 of those 11 shots on target to sneak past Forster and it's a solid 2-0 win and everything is rosy but yet it would have been the exact same performance apart from two shots on goal. It's not like they went the whole night without creating anything of note (ala Liverpool lately). They created loads just through a great performance from Forster, some poor finishing and plain bad luck they weren't able to make the breakthrough. It happens.

i was at the game!!

Ol' Donie

Gringo180 wrote: »

2 home ties we should be expected to win.

So really we should be expected to win every single game.

Sounds pretty fair and reasonable.

JustTheOne

JustTheOne wrote: »

What's worrying is its a repeat every season. Start off great then die around January February.

Same mistakes same pattern rinse repeat.

No, it's more likely that we have a rubbish start to the season and have to go on a good run at the end to get a top 4 finish.

Gringo180

Ol' Donie wrote: »

So really we should be expected to win every single game.

Sounds pretty fair and reasonable.

I never said that. City were struggling at the time (2 lge wins in 5) and Utd are a poor side.

extra gravy

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/694600697980047360

Ox having a little dance for himself in the tunnel before heading out for the warm up last night. Needless to say, it hasn't gone down well.

Gringo180

extra gravy wrote: »

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/694600697980047360

Ox having a little dance for himself in the tunnel before heading out for the warm up last night. Needless to say, it hasn't gone down well.

Looks pretty focused alright :pac:

Personally I don't see the harm in it but you can see why he is getting criticism from some.

farna_boy

extra gravy wrote: »

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/694600697980047360

Ox having a little dance for himself in the tunnel before heading out for the warm up last night. Needless to say, it hasn't gone down well.

People who give out about this kind of **** really need to cop on to themselves. Who gives a ****? He wasn't even playing!

Even if he was playing, we all have different ways of settling nerves or warming up or whatever, just cos it's different to how you do it doesn't mean it's wrong or bad.

extra gravy

farna_boy wrote: »

People who give out about this kind of **** really need to cop on to themselves. Who gives a ****? He wasn't even playing!

Even if he was playing, we all have different ways of settling nerves or warming up or whatever, just cos it's different to how you do it doesn't mean it's wrong or bad.

I can see both sides of it. You could say he lacks focus. Plenty of time for clowning around in training or after the match. The fact that he has played so poorly this season just enhances the criticism really.

JustTheOne

JustTheOne wrote: »

What's worrying is its a repeat every season. Start off great then die around January February.

Same mistakes same pattern rinse repeat.

No no, it'll be different this year because injuries fell at a different time.

As for being expected to beat United at home, any time I mention them someone says they're no threat. They shouldn't be, yet they're as close to us as we are to 1st.

jonneymendoza

jonneymendoza wrote: »

Congratulations to city for becoming champions of 2016! Well done. Been the better side overall and played some great football...

Cheers and best of luck for the next 3 seasons as I'm sure you will add more titles throughout those years.

Somehow as much as it kills me to say it but Spurs are the side with the momentum at the moment and to be fair to Leicester they aren't going away anytime soon.

extra gravy

extra gravy wrote: »

Ox having a little dance for himself in the tunnel before heading out for the warm up last night. Needless to say, it hasn't gone down well.

That's the livliest I've seen him in ages. If only he could replicate the liveliness at least on the field instead of the sad sheepdog look

Gringo180

On the upside, we were 14 points off top spot this time last season :pac: But have scored 8 goals less this season. Below are our goalscorers in the league so far.

Olivier Giroud 12
Alexis Sánchez 6
Aaron Ramsey 4
Theo Walcott 3
Mesut Özil 3
Laurent Koscielny 3
Joel Campbell 2
Mathieu Flamini 2
Gabriel 1
Kieron Gibbs 1
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain 1


Basically missing out on that 10-15 goalscorer from midfield. Girouds goalscoring return is decent enough but it would be good to have another alternative.

farna_boy

Out of interest looked at the goal tally at this time last year, posted by Greendom on 1/02/15.

Greendom wrote:

8 goals since I last updated this.......

Sanchez 18 (12)
Giroud 8 (7)
Welbeck 7 (4)
Cazorla 7 (6)
Ramsey 6 (3)
Ozil 3(2)
Podolski 3(0)
Walcott 2(1)
Rosicky 2(1)
Koscielny 2 (2)
Ox 2(1)
Bellerin 1(1)
Gibbs 1 (0)
Wilshere 1(1)
Chambers 1 (1)
Debuchy 1 (1)
Arteta 1 (0)
Sanogo 1(0)
Mertersacker 1 (0)

Goals scored (League goals in brackets)

19 different goalscorers - pretty impressive!

Essentially Giroud and Sanchez have swapped places (almost exactly) but we are missing contributions from everyone else. Now last year may have been a bit of a blip having 19 different goalscorers but it does show the importance of having the likes of Welbeck and Cazorla also chipping in with a few goals.

Boskowski

I was hoping to find some like minded Arsenal supporters in this forum. But I don't think I can hang out here as much as I thought. The endless whinging and whining is too much for me to enjoy it.

We're useless, most of the players are useless, Arsene is useless. We should spend we should this we should that we're a 4th spot team. Ffs. Some spirit in this place.

I must be a glass is half full kinda guy.

I make it 8 fewer goals scored and 5 fewer conceded than this point last season. Not exactly excellent, though at least we're top 4 this time.

Boskowski

Boskowski wrote: »

I was hoping to find some like minded Arsenal supporters in this forum. But I don't think I can hang out here as much as I thought. The endless whinging and whining is too much for me to enjoy it.

We're useless, most of the players are useless, Arsene is useless. We should spend we should this we should that we're a 4th spot team. Ffs. Some spirit in this place.

I must be a glass is half full kinda guy.

Plenty were like that until reality got to them.

farna_boy

Boskowski wrote: »

I was hoping to find some like minded Arsenal supporters in this forum. But I don't think I can hang out here as much as I thought. The endless whinging and whining is too much for me to enjoy it.

We're useless, most of the players are useless, Arsene is useless. We should spend we should this we should that we're a 4th spot team. Ffs. Some spirit in this place.

I must be a glass is half full kinda guy.

Think there are a few of us still left, it's just particularly hard to be optimistic/positive in the heat of the moment after a game like last night where we should won.

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Plenty were like that until reality got to them.

Until they caved in and decided "Oh well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em".

Being negative is just too easy. I think some people think they're clever picking holes in the team/club/manager, just so they can pat themselves on the back when things go pear-shaped.

Basil3

Basil3 wrote: »

Until they caved in and decided "Oh well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em".

Being negative is just too easy. I think some people think they're clever picking holes in the team/club/manager, just so they can pat themselves on the back when things go pear-shaped.

Being "positive" is even easier, no need to do anything at all, everything is good at all times, we can't sign anyone to improve us, etc.

That's why I prefer to be realistic. I'm not into tarot cards or astology so I'm not going to kumbayah and project positive thoughts or any other hippy rubbish that has somehow become part of many fans' psyches. Amazing really how much the average football fan has changed, anything but unwavering "positivity" is grounds for being told "you're not a real fan", it's like a liberal college cult or something.

farna_boy

Deleted User wrote: »

Being "positive" is even easier, no need to do anything at all, everything is good at all times, we can't sign anyone to improve us, etc.

That's why I prefer to be realistic. I'm not into tarot cards or astology so I'm not going to kumbayah and project positive thoughts or any other hippy rubbish that has somehow become part of many fans' psyches. Amazing really how much the average football fan has changed, anything but unwavering "positivity" is grounds for being told "you're not a real fan", it's like a liberal college cult or something.

No, it's exactly the same: Everything needs to change, nothing is good enough, why didn't we sign...

The reality that we are only 5 points behind first seems to pass some people by. They don't watch the match, only post in here when we drop below third and constantly whinge.

At his stage I don't mind that some posters are just more negative than others but I can understand that it gets to people some times. There are certain posters in here who post like we are in Villa's position constantly and I think the more generally positive fans feel a need to balance them out and probably in fairness go overboard.

As for not being a "real fan"? That seems to be thrown about by both sides, even simply labeling someone a Wengerite implies they care more about Wenger than the club which essentially amounts to the same thing.

[Deleted User]

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Being "positive" is even easier, no need to do anything at all, everything is good at all times, we can't sign anyone to improve us, etc.

That's why I prefer to be realistic. I'm not into tarot cards or astology so I'm not going to kumbayah and project positive thoughts or any other hippy rubbish that has somehow become part of many fans' psyches. Amazing really how much the average football fan has changed, anything but unwavering "positivity" is grounds for being told "you're not a real fan", it's like a liberal college cult or something.

Wouldn't even know where to start with that comment, and don't know who's accusing who of not being a real fan.

Gringo180

farna_boy wrote: »

Out of interest looked at the goal tally at this time last year, posted by Greendom on 1/02/15.



Essentially Giroud and Sanchez have swapped places (almost exactly) but we are missing contributions from everyone else. Now last year may have been a bit of a blip having 19 different goalscorers but it does show the importance of having the likes of Welbeck and Cazorla also chipping in with a few goals.

Totally agree but I still think a goalscorer was needed in the summer. So many times we seem to create chance upon chance and still fail to score. I would love to see how many clear goalscoring chances we have missed all season I would say its quite high. If Giroud gets injured we are totally ****ed. We cant really rely on Welbeck for many goals as he is only back from a lengthly lay off.

Gringo180

farna_boy wrote: »

No, it's exactly the same: Everything needs to change, nothing is good enough, why didn't we sign...

The reality that we are only 5 points behind first seems to pass some people by. They don't watch the match, only post in here when we drop below third and constantly whinge.

At his stage I don't mind that some posters are just more negative than others but I can understand that it gets to people some times. There are certain posters in here who post like we are in Villa's position constantly and I think the more generally positive fans feel a need to balance them out and probably in fairness go overboard.

As for not being a "real fan"? That seems to be thrown about by both sides, even simply labeling someone a Wengerite implies they care more about Wenger than the club which essentially amounts to the same thing.

People are frustrated and rightly so because we have been in this position many times before and always faulter. Its the exact same situation over and over again. When was the last time we actually strenghtened our starting XI? When we paid big money for Sanchez and Ozil that is when.

We also this season signed a world class goalkeeper in the summer in Petr Cech. He has probably saved us around 6-10 points this season already. He came in about 6 years too late, the manager again trusting average goalkeepers like Almunia, Chesney and Fabianski. Almunia especially who cost us in big games most notably a Champs Lge semi final v Man Utd.

The best man for the job is still Wenger but why o why doesnt he start signing players that will improve our first 11 instead of bringing in squad players.

farna_boy

Gringo180 wrote: »

People are frustrated and rightly so because we have been in this position many times before and always faulter. Its the exact same situation over and over again. When was the last time we actually strenghtened our starting XI? When we paid big money for Sanchez and Ozil that is when.

We also this season signed a world class goalkeeper in the summer in Petr Cech. He has probably saved us around 6-10 points this season already. He came in about 6 years too late, the manager again trusting average goalkeepers like Almunia, Chesney and Fabianski. Almunia especially who cost us in big games most notably a Champs Lge semi final v Man Utd.

The best man for the job is still Wenger but why o why doesnt he start signing players that will improve our first 11 instead of bringing in squad players.

Yeah I agree people have the right to be frustrated, at this stage I think we all are, no matter what we think of Wenger or whoever else in the club. I just think the hyperbole (from both sides) gets to people.

Everything isn't rosy and improvements are needed and probably should have been made but at the same time everything isn't ****ed, all our players aren't **** and we do now have Cech who has improved us.

Gringo180

Gringo180 wrote: »

Totally agree but I still think a goalscorer was needed in the summer. So many times we seem to create chance upon chance and still fail to score. I would love to see how many clear goalscoring chances we have missed all season I would say its quite high. If Giroud gets injured we are totally ****ed. We cant really rely on Welbeck for many goals as he is only back from a lengthly lay off.

Also he's just not very good.

Also as for we should've signed, I thought Hernandez from united would be a good fit for us. Looks like he's enjoying his football since he left United anyway.

Gringo180

Gringo180 wrote: »

Totally agree but I still think a goalscorer was needed in the summer. So many times we seem to create chance upon chance and still fail to score. I would love to see how many clear goalscoring chances we have missed all season I would say its quite high. If Giroud gets injured we are totally ****ed. We cant really rely on Welbeck for many goals as he is only back from a lengthly lay off.

At the start of the season our conversion rate on chances was extremely bad. Leicester's for example, is crazy high. Over the course of a season, these things are meant to even out, but it seems like we still aren't converting. This season is a bit of an outlier in that sense, even with the players we have, we should have a load more goals based on the good chances we create.

I'd love to see a current stat for the season on goals scored and chances created. Will have a look online later tonight.

Gringo180

Deleted User wrote: »

Also he's just not very good.

Giroud is excellent. He just blows too hot and cold. Only for his goals this season we would be sitting in the bottom half of the table.