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

wawaman · 07-12-2015 11:23AM

DeclanRe wrote: »

Lets not get to ahead of ourselves, they are still the current champions. And on their day can beat anyone. Lets not forget that. On the 23rd of January, i certainly wont be expecting a walk over

If we are still in the hunt, that week in january will be massive for us. Liverpool (a), Stoke (a) & Chelsea (h)

DarraghF197 · 07-12-2015 01:22PM

shano_88 wrote: »

Watched PSG vs Real a few weeks ago and Rabiot was brilliant. If hes getting his game there, it really would be very difficult to push through a move for him. Ive no idea if he starts week in week out though. He would be an ideal foil for Ramsey though imo.

Once Verratti and Pastore are back fit (they could be now for all I know), Rabiot should be third or fourth place midfielder there. I think he would be perfect for us as well. He's probably PSG's future player so I doubt we'll mange to buy him off them, but even if we had a three month spell with him it would be great.

We need to buy at the start of January however. Too many times have we been in the situation that we need players in the team immediately, but hold off from a transfer until the last few days of January.

ronjo · 07-12-2015 02:11PM

DarraghF197 wrote: »

Once Verratti and Pastore are back fit (they could be now for all I know), Rabiot should be third or fourth place midfielder there. I think he would be perfect for us as well. He's probably PSG's future player so I doubt we'll mange to buy him off them, but even if we had a three month spell with him it would be great.

We need to buy at the start of January however. Too many times have we been in the situation that we need players in the team immediately, but hold off from a transfer until the last few days of January.

Yeah it would be nice to think that a deal or two is already in place to just be signed off on at the start of January.
Most likely not though

Godge · 07-12-2015 04:20PM

wawaman wrote: »

If we are still in the hunt, that week in january will be massive for us. Liverpool (a), Stoke (a) & Chelsea (h)

I got quite a surprise this morning when I put the last few results into a spreadsheet I have that compares this season to last season on the same fixtures.

This season we have 30 points after 15 games and a goal difference of 14.

Over the same 15 games last season (substituting promoted teams for relegated teams), we also got 30 points and a goal difference of 12. So far this season, it can be argued that we have shown little improvement.

What is interesting is that over the next 8 games, we only got 10 points last season. There is room for a vast improvement but even losing a couple of games over Christmas could leave us well up on last year.

emmetlego · 07-12-2015 04:31PM

All well and good, but there is no guarantee that we'll go on a run like we did at the end of the season last year, especially with these f****n injuries!

tayto lover · 07-12-2015 06:43PM

emmetlego wrote: »

All well and good, but there is no guarantee that we'll go on a run like we did at the end of the season last year, especially with these f****n injuries!

Correct. Dropping points at WBA and Norwich could come back to haunt us too. Having over 75% of the possession in those two games and coming out with one point is not good at all.

x PyRo · 07-12-2015 07:19PM

Drawn at home to Sunderland in the FA Cup. Not too shabby.

Mr Blobby · 07-12-2015 07:52PM

Saw this posted on the Arsenal Reddit page.
Its from a Rangers fan talking about how Zelalem has being doing.

Alright Gunner, Rangers season ticket holder here to give an update on how Zelalem has performed so far at Rangers.

I'll try and be as objective as possible without relying on stats. So as a player, Zelalem really excels when you consider vision, ball control and passing. He arguably possesses the best attributes at Rangers to play the killer pass to a striker. His physique is Zelalems obvious shortcoming, that and his tendency to reply on his right foot a little too much. I assume that I'm not breaking any new ground here, the above info was already known about Zelalem before he went to Scotland.

He has been a regular starter under Mark Warburton, who is a big fan of players like Zelalem, players are ale to pick a pass even when the pressure is on (in the form of a Scottish centreback brute bastard bearing down on you from behind) instead of just lumping it away. His range of passing has really impressed me, he is as comfortable playing a threading, direct ball to a forward as much as a square pass to another midfielder.

Due to the nature of the league Rangers are in at the moment, the opposition box can often be packed when Rangers attack, meaning that it can be difficult to play a killer pass without it being intercepted. Due to this, it is quite often that we will see the best of Zelalem during a counter-attack. When Zelalem picks the ball up from the centre of the park he is actually quite capable of driving forward. He isn't a speed demon by any stretch of the imagineation, and obviously lacks strength but his ability to change direction when driving forward means that he has had a high success rate when considering completed dribbles past an opponent.

One criticism I have of Zelalem has been his tendency to hang onto the ball in order to pick out an inventive pass instead of moving it on in order to change your opponents shape. Fortunately, quite often his decision to hang onto the ball proves fruitful because he can consistently pick out great passes that wrong foot the opposition. Another note is that he tends to refrain from shooting, and what shots he's had have been quite erratic, which is strange considering his technical prowess.

He has been my favourite player to watch this season, with both his deft touches and ability to shift his body shape to wrong foot defenders being particularly exciting. It's hard to tell whether Zelalem will be a started for Arsenal in the future. What I will say is that his play style really embodies Arsenal's philosophy as far as I'm concerned, and if he did add goals to his game and improve his physique then I wouldn't be surprised if he could feature in the future for you guys.
Apologies for repeating myself a bit, if you guys have any questions, please ask away. Cheers.

2ndcoming · 07-12-2015 08:59PM

Godge wrote: »

I got quite a surprise this morning when I put the last few results into a spreadsheet I have that compares this season to last season on the same fixtures.

This season we have 30 points after 15 games and a goal difference of 14.

Over the same 15 games last season (substituting promoted teams for relegated teams), we also got 30 points and a goal difference of 12. So far this season, it can be argued that we have shown little improvement.

What is interesting is that over the next 8 games, we only got 10 points last season. There is room for a vast improvement but even losing a couple of games over Christmas could leave us well up on last year.

And that's why football isn't maths. There's far too many variables. Most of the teams that finish 7th - 17th regularly just swap those positions at random. Promoted teams can be great and establish themselves for a few years at least. So the value of beating a Crystal Palace or a Swansea can be completely different in any given year. I'd take it on results against the rest of the top 6 that are the best indicator of real progress.

keano_afc · 08-12-2015 10:14AM

jonneymendoza wrote: »

biggest upset of the season so far is when chelsea beat us

I was talking to an Arsenal fan buddy of mine, and we both agreed that Chelsea would probably still beat us if we played them tomorrow.

08-12-2015 10:20AM

keano_afc wrote: »

I was talking to an Arsenal fan buddy of mine, and we both agreed that Chelsea would probably still beat us if we played them tomorrow.

It's not even that they would beat us I know it's essentially the same thing, but we would find a way to lose. Own goal, red card, or some other lose the head moment.

Colonialboy · 08-12-2015 10:34AM

2ndcoming wrote: »

I'd take it on results against the rest of the top 6 that are the best indicator of real progress.

I would take improvements in player fitness.
Filling glaring gaps , before the season starts.
Not underestimating lower tier opposition in English competitions.
Not getting turned over by minnows in the CL.
not having to struggle to get thru the group stages.
Not over playing our best players till they physically break down.
Not relying on the next french wonderkid to solve our problems.

Id take all that as indicators of real progress.

symbolic · 08-12-2015 10:35AM

Colonialboy wrote: »

I would take improvements in player fitness.
Filling glaring gaps , before the season starts.
Not underestimating lower tier opposition in English competitions.
Not getting turned over by minnows in the CL.
not having to struggle to get thru the group stages.
Not over playing our best players till they physically break down.
Not relying on the next french wonderkid to solve our problems.

Id take all that as indicators of real progress.

But you'd probably forget it all for a Premier League trophy!

Godge · 08-12-2015 10:41AM

2ndcoming wrote: »

And that's why football isn't maths. There's far too many variables. Most of the teams that finish 7th - 17th regularly just swap those positions at random. Promoted teams can be great and establish themselves for a few years at least. So the value of beating a Crystal Palace or a Swansea can be completely different in any given year. I'd take it on results against the rest of the top 6 that are the best indicator of real progress.

In results against the top 6 (Liverpool, Spurs, Utd, City and Chelsea) we have five points from four games this season as opposed to four points last. Again little difference.

08-12-2015 10:43AM

Colonialboy wrote: »

I would take improvements in player fitness.
Filling glaring gaps , before the season starts.
Not underestimating lower tier opposition in English competitions.
Not getting turned over by minnows in the CL.
not having to struggle to get thru the group stages.
Not over playing our best players till they physically break down.
Not relying on the next french wonderkid to solve our problems.

Id take all that as indicators of real progress.

There's plenty of indicators of real progress in the last 2-3 years. Maybe not the ones you list there (some of which I don't agree with), but there are plenty more sticks we were beaten with that no longer apply.

08-12-2015 11:06AM

Basil3 wrote: »

There's plenty of indicators of real progress in the last 2-3 years. Maybe not the ones you list there (some of which I don't agree with), but there are plenty more sticks we were beaten with that no longer apply.

Next to no improvement in the league, winning FA Cup, disimprovement in the Champions League, where the big dogs play. Not much progress.

08-12-2015 11:14AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Next to no improvement in the league, winning FA Cup, disimprovement in the Champions League, where the big dogs play. Not much progress.

But at the same time....

- No longer a selling club
- Now sign world class players
- Have won a cup in back-to-back seasons
- Most points of any club this calendar year (could be wrong, just assuming this)
- Can beat any of the big boys, mental block is gone (except perhaps Chelsea)

I know there are plenty of guys here, who will only look at things negatively. For every good thing that happens, there's a caveat, or something more important that is bad.

An example is how people constantly say that Arsenal can't perform under pressure. They have proven time and again that they can, you can't win Cup competitions without performing under pressure. If Arsenal manage to pull it out of the bag on Wednesday, it won't be because they performed under pressure when they needed to, it will be something like:

- They should have never been in that position in the first place
- There's no pressure, they have nothing to lose
- It's only Olympiakos

and so on. It's tiresome.

08-12-2015 11:27AM

Basil3 wrote: »

But at the same time....

- No longer a selling club

Meaningless.

- Now sign world class players

And? Sign me and leave me in the reserves, make no difference :P

- Have won a cup in back-to-back seasons

Meh on that tbh.

- Most points of any club this calendar year (could be wrong, just assuming this)

Happens every few years, pretty much meaningless.

- Can beat any of the big boys, mental block is gone (except perhaps Chelsea)

We beat Barcelona a few years ago, we got the odd win against the rest of the top PL teams. Overall our record against the other "big boys" ain't improving much.

I know there are plenty of guys here, who will only look at things negatively. For every good thing that happens, there's a caveat, or something more important that is bad.

An example is how people constantly say that Arsenal can't perform under pressure. They have proven time and again that they can, you can't win Cup competitions without performing under pressure. If Arsenal manage to pull it out of the bag on Wednesday, it won't be because they performed under pressure when they needed to, it will be something like:

- They should have never been in that position in the first place
- There's no pressure, they have nothing to lose
- It's only Olympiakos

and so on. It's tiresome.

The FA Cup is the only progress we've made. A while back I did out a graph of our PL points over the last decade and the overall trend is an improvement of about 0.2 points per season if I remember correctly which is negligible. We've regressed in the CL big time in the last 10 years going
Runners-up
R16
QF
SF
QF
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16

All the "not a selling club" "signing world-class players" stuff ranks around with "new medical team!!!!!" stuff. Results are what counts, not some intangible, subjective, unquantifiable idea of an "improvement".

08-12-2015 11:30AM

Hard to take the rest of your points seriously when back to back FA cups constitutes a 'meh'

emmetlego · 08-12-2015 11:31AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Meaningless.

And? Sign me and leave me in the reserves, make no difference :P

Meh on that tbh.

Happens every few years, pretty much meaningless.

We beat Barcelona a few years ago, we got the odd win against the rest of the top PL teams. Overall our record against the other "big boys" ain't improving much.

The FA Cup is the only progress we've made. A while back I did out a graph of our PL points over the last decade and the overall trend is an improvement of about 0.2 points per season if I remember correctly which is negligible. We've regressed in the CL big time in the last 10 years going
Runners-up
R16
QF
SF
QF
R16
R16
R16
R16
R16

All the "not a selling club" "signing world-class players" stuff ranks around with "new medical team!!!!!" stuff. Results are what counts, not some intangible, subjective, unquantifiable idea of an "improvement".

I couldn't disagree with a post more if I tried. If you can't see the improvements, then in my eyes, you're blinded by negativity! Yes, of course we've a lot more improving to do to win and run with the big dogs, but by Jeysus, you're so obtusely negative, it is quite baffling.

08-12-2015 11:32AM

Deleted User wrote: »

All the "not a selling club" "signing world-class players" stuff ranks around with "new medical team!!!!!" stuff. Results are what counts, not some intangible, subjective, unquantifiable idea of an "improvement".

OK, so signing world class players isn't the best way to improve a team's results?

Not selling your best players isn't going to help with results?

Scoring more points in the Premier League than any other team isn't going to help you win it?

I look forward to the day we win the Prem again. I won't be coming on here afterwards though, guaranteed to be a bunch of people finding some kind of negative to moan about.

L'prof · 08-12-2015 11:39AM

Basil3 wrote: »

But at the same time....

- No longer a selling club
- Now sign world class players
- Have won a cup in back-to-back seasons
- Most points of any club this calendar year (could be wrong, just assuming this)
- Can beat any of the big boys, mental block is gone (except perhaps Chelsea)

I know there are plenty of guys here, who will only look at things negatively. For every good thing that happens, there's a caveat, or something more important that is bad.

An example is how people constantly say that Arsenal can't perform under pressure. They have proven time and again that they can, you can't win Cup competitions without performing under pressure. If Arsenal manage to pull it out of the bag on Wednesday, it won't be because they performed under pressure when they needed to, it will be something like:

- They should have never been in that position in the first place
- There's no pressure, they have nothing to lose
- It's only Olympiakos

and so on. It's tiresome.

Top in 2013 and top so far in 2015 while also winning back to back FA Cups. If that isn't a sign of improvement, I dunno what is!!!

08-12-2015 11:44AM

AdamD wrote: »

Hard to take the rest of your points seriously when back to back FA cups constitutes a 'meh'

I'd love to go back 3 years and see how differently you all felt about it.

Basil3 wrote: »

OK, so signing world class players isn't the best way to improve a team's results?

Why hasn't it happened?

Not selling your best players isn't going to help with results?

Why hasn't it happened?

Scoring more points in the Premier League than any other team isn't going to help you win it?

Funny enough someone else posted that we were top of the calendar table in 2013 as well. Was that a sign of progress over the previous few years? :rolleyes:

08-12-2015 11:56AM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Funny enough someone else posted that we were top of the calendar table in 2013 as well. Was that a sign of progress over the previous few years? :rolleyes:

In 2013 we stopped selling and started buying world class players. Coincidence?

Ken Shamrock · 08-12-2015 12:00PM

Are people really posting calendar year tables!? Is that like our new 4th trophy?

08-12-2015 12:01PM

Basil3 wrote: »

In 2013 we stopped selling and started buying world class players. Coincidence?

What happened to us in 2014 then? 18 points off top in that year after buying our first world class player. Coincidence?

08-12-2015 12:03PM

Ken Shamrock wrote: »

Are people really posting calendar year tables!? Is that like our new 4th trophy?

Soon enough we'll be doing alternative tables with expected points returns.:rolleyes:

L'prof · 08-12-2015 12:10PM

Ken Shamrock wrote: »

Are people really posting calendar year tables!? Is that like our new 4th trophy?

It's simply an indication of progress. How anybody can't see that is beyond me. Sitting 2 points of top despite a very poor November is also very encouraging.

I just don't see why it's always doom and gloom for some people.

Ken Shamrock · 08-12-2015 12:15PM

L'prof wrote: »

It's simply an indication of progress. How anybody can't see that is beyond me. Sitting 2 points of top despite a very poor November is also very encouraging.

I just don't see why it's always doom and gloom for some people.

I think we have progressed slightly In certain ways but I'm still met with the overwhelming feeling of same old same old, I can't help that.

We're still falling short, we are still suffering with the plague, we are still struggling against weaker teams, we still can't beat Chelsea even If they're dreadful this year etc etc etc. That's not being negative I'm just stating facts.

On a positive side we beat United and Bayern, we are still In the title race and we have a solid goalkeeper I can't think of too much more, I certainly wouldn't be using a make believe table to measure progress.

greendom · 08-12-2015 12:20PM

Spanish press is saying that we've bid €19million for Nolito. Barca are also interested in the forward but only want him on loan until the end of the season, so seemingly we are in the front seat for him...

http://www.mundodeportivo.com/futbol/fc-barcelona/20151207/30653382717/el-arsenal-ya-negocia-por-nolito.html

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

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