Football: For Now We Are All Champions!

[Raja]

I *think* Ramsey and Sanchez are going to miss the start of the season. I am way too excited about the community shield tomorrow, and afc aren't even taking part! 

[Iskaral Pust]

4 minutes ago, Raja said:

I *think* Ramsey and Sanchez are going to miss the start of the season. I am way too excited about the community shield tomorrow, and afc aren't even taking part! 

Wenger hasn't committed either way but all the Arsenal bloggers expect Snachez to play as striker with Cazorla as #10 in the opening games. 

[Spockydog]

15 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Wenger hasn't committed either way but all the Arsenal bloggers expect Snachez to play as striker with Cazorla as #10 in the opening games. 

Oh, he's commented alright. 

Quote

 

Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s friendly with Man City, Wenger was asked about who might play up front for the Premier League opener.

“I like Walcott in that position and I like Alexis in that position as well,” he said.

“I might start Alexis on Sunday because Walcott played a large part in Friday’s game (the 8-0 win over Viking). I don’t know how ready Alexis is physically for that intensity.”

 

Leaving aside the fact that Sanchez only returned to training two days ago, the player has said he doesn't want to play up front. That's not his game, and the fact he's being rushed back (again) because we have the weirdest transfer strategy in the universe can only be described as gross mismanagement.

And he likes Walcott as a striker? Was he not watching last season? This is fucking ridiculous.

ETA: Sorry, Isk. I read 'committed' as 'commented'. Doh!

[polishgenius]

Even Walcott has changed his mind and says he'd rather be on the right. Baffling comments by Wenger.

I don't understand all of Arsenal's fannying about. I get they like being economical with transfers but you've got that ridiculous TV money now. If it takes an extra five or even ten million to buy Lacazette, just throw it at them for fuck's sake! You're gonna lose far more than that if you don't get in the CL this season.

And it puts players off too. Even if they do now come back with a better offer, Lacazette, and their other targets, are going to be thinking does Wenger really want them?

[Raja]

57 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Wenger hasn't committed either way but all the Arsenal bloggers expect Snachez to play as striker with Cazorla as #10 in the opening games. 

Eh - I'm not sure which blogs you're talking about. I barely read any so who knows, but again, I don't think any of those blogs have some sort of insider information about which forward we're starting.

Pretty confident we're going to see Walcott with either AOC or Iwobi on the right. Personally hope we start Iwobi. 

Can't be bothered about transfers, tbh. I'm in the 'if it will happen it will happen' phase. 

[Philokles]

Opening matches of the Football League earlier. Good to be back.

[Spockydog]

23 minutes ago, Raja said:

I don't read that many Arsenal Blogs - but at least the two blogs that I read don't have Sanchez as a striker. Unless you're reading some ESPN piece written by a guy who watches arsenal once every fortnight. 

Pretty confident we're going to see Walcott with either AOC or Iwobi on the right. Personally hope we start Iwobi. 

Can't be bothered about transfers, tbh. I'm in the 'if it will happen it will happen' phase. 

I'd not be too dismissive of ESPN's Arsenal writers. James McNicholas, aka Gunnerblog, often writes pieces for them and he goes to every game. And there most definitely is a very real danger of Sanchez being forced to play up front against Liverpool. Against sub-par opposition, Walcott has been utter shit in pre-season.

I'm in the 'I can't believe this shit' phase regarding transfers. Not bothered about the likes of Mahrez or Draxler, but we've been in desperate need of another striker for nearly two years.

And I reckon Polish is right. Perception is everything, and the constant dithering can only be off-putting to any potential signings. Not to mention how it must make our existing players feel. Ozil, in particular, must be gnashing his fucking teeth.

 

[Raja]

40 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

I'd not be too dismissive of ESPN's Arsenal writers. James McNicholas, aka Gunnerblog, 

I know he writes pretty often for them, I think Gunnerblog was the first Arsenal blog I started reading online. I'm talking about writers like John Brewin, Miguel Delaney, James Dall, etc 

I still don't think Sanchez is going to be rushed back, given that we have a fully fit Walcott. 

          Walcott
AOC - Cazorla - Iwobi

Xhaka - Coquelin/ Ramsey

Monreal - Chambers - Gabriel - Bellerin 

That's probably what we're going to see, I think. 

[Nas!]

In the last five PL seasons, Arsenal have only been out-spent by the Manchester clubs and Chelsea.  

[Tinker]

14 minutes ago, Fuchs, himself! said:

In the last five PL seasons, Arsenal have only been out-spent by the Manchester clubs and Chelsea.  

What about net spend?

[Jeor]

To be honest I'm more worried about Arsenal's defence than our attack in the opener. I expect our attack to be a bit stuttering without Ozil and Sanchez anyway, regardless of who the central striker is.

The defence is the key. If Chambers and Gabriel can have a good game then they'll gain in confidence, but if not, apart from Koscielny coming back there's not a lot of help coming and it could set the tone for an uncertain season at the back. For Chambers in particular it will be a big game. He hasn't had a decent run in the team for a while and this is his chance to impress.

[Winterfell is Burning]

4 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Even Walcott has changed his mind and says he'd rather be on the right. Baffling comments by Wenger.

I don't understand all of Arsenal's fannying about. I get they like being economical with transfers but you've got that ridiculous TV money now. If it takes an extra five or even ten million to buy Lacazette, just throw it at them for fuck's sake! You're gonna lose far more than that if you don't get in the CL this season.

And it puts players off too. Even if they do now come back with a better offer, Lacazette, and their other targets, are going to be thinking does Wenger really want them?

Wenger DOESN'T want them.

The problem with Wenger is that, at some point, his first priority shifted from winning to proving his critics wrong. Arsenal has money enough to buy a world class striker and central defender as well as a good DM in the Gilberto mold, but if he does that and Arsenal wins the league, then his critics will be proven right because they have been saying this is what he must do for years. 

So, Wenger will continue to do what he has done for years- play with Giroud and Walcott upfront, not spend a dime on a DM, spend most of his money in youngsters, see his players lose half the season due to injuries, etc. It took him nearly a decade to see he had to buy a great goalkeeper, so don't expect change any time soon.

 

[Nas!]

2 hours ago, Tinker said:

What about net spend?

Then Liverpool squeezes in ahead of them, too.  Still not a very sad story. 

[polishgenius]

3 hours ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

So, Wenger will continue to do what he has done for years- play with Giroud and Walcott upfront, not spend a dime on a DM

To be fair, while Xhaka isn't a true DM I think between him and Coquelin you're fine in that position.

[Mark Antony]

I thought Elneny was a DM.

[Spockydog]

Elneny's a true box-to-box midfielder. At a bargain £10m (actually, make that £5m), he's one of Wenger's best signings in years. He's better than Pogba.

ETA: I know that last sentence will probably strike some as utter bullshit. But I've never seen Pogba boss a midfield to the extent that Elneny does in almost every game he plays.

 

[Jeor]

Elneny was an awesome buy. Coquelin is the only midfielder who could be called a true defensive midfielder, but both Elneny and Xhaka offer some defensive industry so our midfield shouldn't be as soft as it has been in the past.

It really is a packed midfield. Just as well given our injury issues, I fully expect we'll need to use them all. But long-term it's hard to figure out what the first choice midfield will be. Assuming Wenger continues to play a 4-2-3-1, the only midfield positions I'd say are locked down are Sanchez and Ozil in the attacking three. The attacking right could be a mixture of Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Iwobi. And the base 2 could be any two of Elneny, Xhaka, Cazorla and Coquelin. Plenty of options and I haven't even mentioned Ramsey yet, who could really fit anywhere in the midfield.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

16 hours ago, baxus said:

I absolutely love how after Grujic scored twice against lower-league opponents at the early prep games a bunch of online haters came out of the woodwork to say he only scored because he was playing against lower-league opponents.

Today he scores against Barcelona and the silence is deafening.  

Yeah,i read some of that negative shit too.It was a pretty good header,overall i like what i've seen from him so far.

Origi to start ahead of Studge for me.He's more athletic,can physically bully defenders and can score.The trick will be for the coaching staff to keep him fit.

Firmino needs to score more from the no. of chances he gets.

Looking forward to the match against Mainz today,Klopp will surely get an amazing welcome there.

Also,loved Jurgen's 'fuck you' to The Sun at the post match presser

[Raja]

11 hours ago, Fuchs, himself! said:

In the last five PL seasons, Arsenal have only been out-spent by the Manchester clubs and Chelsea.  

Edit: Nevermind - I get the post now. Completely disagree with Winterfell is Burning's post, none of that makes too much sense to me. 

I can completely understand the frustration people have over us not getting a striker. We've needed another one for at least 2 years. To be fair, and I agree with Arseblog on this one, I don't think AFC thought Vardy would turn them down. He was clearly our first choice. That would have been 2 players before the euros ( one of them a racist, but ho hum) and that would have made most fans happy, but obviously it didn't work out. 

The lack of identifying a target after that is a bit disappointing, but we've still got 3 weeks till the end of the window. Personally, I thought we should have at least tried to get Gamiero, but I don't think we were ever interested in him. 

[Jeor]

Yes, there's still a possibility Wenger will get someone, and to be fair, he has said all window that he's been looking for another defender and another striker. It wasn't too long ago there was that year when he bought Mertesacker and Arteta right at the end of the window after the season had started. I won't hold my breath, but late buys have happened before.