Morning all.
Team news is out ahead of tomorrow.
Kieran Gibbs faces a fitness test today, Jack Wilshere is back from suspension but is a doubt. Yaya Sanogo is fit as is Theo Walcott albeit Wenger has said that our Englishman won’t start.
Serge Gnabry and Abou Diaby are not quite ready yet and Gnabry is closer than Diaby fitness-wise according to Arsene Wenger. I suspect Oliver Giroud is closer to being fit than Diaby!
I’d leave Gibbs out personally, let him get fully fit before returning. Play Monreal at left-back, Mertesacker and Chambers in the middle and Bellerin on the right.
Mikel Arteta has been talking about our hard working Alexis Sanchez:
Both goals [at Sunderland] came as a result of our hard work. You can force mistakes when you chase people and put them in trouble.
You do that again, again and again, and the opposition will make mistakes. That’s what we need and now we have people up front with the knife in their teeth who want to go for it, so we have to make the most of it. The more we do it, the more we will improve.
Alexis closed Sunderland down really well. His desire and his commitment, in addition to the way he wants to train and improve himself, is spot on.
How many times have we said the same on here and it’s one of many things we don’t do well. Sanchez, Welbeck and Giroud are always looking to put pressure on the defenders etc but in most other areas of the pitch, our players don’t get at the opposition enough. We don’t put them under pressure, in fact all too often, we do the opposite by giving them far too much time and space to ‘do their thing’. As a result, we’re often on the back foot, especially when we play the so called better sides.
The so called football experts have always said we don’t like it when other clubs ‘get in and at us or in our faces’ and to be honest, they aren’t wrong are they.
Instead of sitting back and letting the opposition play that way, why not turn the tables and start playing that way ourselves. I don’t mean play dirty or unfair, I just mean get at the opposition, don’t give the players time on the ball, get at them and put them under pressure at the earliest chance.
As Arteta says, if we do that time and time again, mistakes will be made and we have been and still are a prime example of that.
If Alexis can do it, then so can the rest!!
Stop being nice, nice doesn’t win football matches….
That’s it for Friday, have a good one all…
Sanchez is special, and I’m closer to match fitness than Diaby.
Morning all.
Stop being nice indeed. Our players need to learn that being too nice will always cost us games we should have won. perfect example, look at the game against Chelsea, Man City and Spurs we gave them enough space to think but they never gave us that to relax on the ball. Even if they do we do not trouble their back line.
We need change the chapter and do what Sanchez is doing if we want to be ruthless again. If we don’t then we will lose Sanchez.
Guguletu Gooner
Kharadonha
🙂 Scott, me too..
Gawd knows what happened to the photo lol
Kharadonha – agree 100%
Hi Rico and all HHers.
thanks for the nice post as always.
happy to be back on HH.
Hi Fatgun, thanks and good to see you back…
Hi Fatgun, good to see you back.
We most definitely need to be more ruthless.
Morning All,
Pretty obvious to me Rico that Alexis is 100% pissed off with his team mates, can see it a mile away… he is forever encouraging them to get forward and close players down and they don’t do it… He runs around working his socks off and the rest mostly stand and watch… I’d be pissed off as well and if Wenger deems it ok that the rest slacking off is ok then he has lost it more than I thought…! Back Alexis, get the team working harder and surprise surprise results may start to go our way… It’s called putting in the effort and commitment. I don’t think Alexis will keep quiet about lack of support and work ethic from the other players either so could be interesting.
Even Wath is back 🙂
How goes it mate?
Sanchez has every right to criticise as he’s backs his words with actions.
He’s a brilliant buy for us, and we’d better give him some help on the pitch.
Morning Wath.
Well put. Hope Alexis is laying into his team-mates on the training field. He has set the bar, it’s now down to others to match his commitment….
Wilshere is out of tomorrows game….
It’s up to the manager to kick them up the arse as well Rico, he is a world class player yet shows most of them up with his work ethic as well. You don’t have to be world class to put in a shift. Wenger should be telling the others that they need to put in the same effort as him or be dropped. To many passengers in the side and to many who think they better than they are…!
All good Scott just totally f’ked off with the crap going on with our team..! All we do is talk about the same problems yet they on going and won’t change so what do we do..?
Cant agree more re; Alexis and his work rate. Carzola and Poldi need to borrow a leaf from him. we have world beaters who watch some games while on the pitch instead of playing in them
thanks Scott and the lady of the house
We have a manager who watches the game pass him by as well Fatgun…. Ox is another who jogs around like he owns the place far to often…!
Couldn’t agree more Wath, but as we all know, Arsene Wenger doesn’t like to ruffle any feathers or upset his fragile favourites…
If we had a team full of players like Sanchez and Parlour, we’d win everything…
Giroud back after Intl break. Wow!! Is that Shad at work or does this have to do with Giroud’s fitness?
Ozil’s coming back earlier than expected, Wow!!!
Debuchy has even started work in the gym, Woow!! Lol
Now, it’s time we improved our work on the pitch
Xr’s, seriously? That’s an incredible recovery if true.
Has to be Shad’s work then if they are all back soon..
Will be a huge huge boost to this squad….
Actually, not only a boost but a bit of pressure and fight for places. Seems to me that a few too many of our lot know they’ll be on the team-sheet as Wenger has no other options.
Might see a few raise their game…
Not that they should need a reason to up their game other than earning their bleedin money!
so people are returning from injuries months before expected date. which year is Diaby coming back. he wil be like a new signing, play one game with the reserves on 29th Jan & wenger wil not buy the defensive mid we have been crying for. then he wil get injured putting on his boots after warm up before the next game…. then out till the next world cup
Hi HH… Like fatgun says it’s nice to be back.
Rico… Honestly you don’t really want 11 Alexis on the pitch? We will score a hundred goals and conceed even more than that. When he loses the ball he fights to get it back but if he were a defender or a Dm, he will pick the ball from the back of the net.
Hi Jeff, good to see you back too…
11 Alexis attitude and commitment I meant… 😉
If we had 11 on the pitch who put in the same effort as Alexis we’d hardly ever lose a game….!
Too right Wath…
Hi all
Good discussion as always. Talking of joggers – Theo is also back soon!
Hi Bob, no start for him tomorrow though according to AW.
Perhaps we’ll see him get ten mins at the end…
Afternoon All,
Watched Theo last week play,..He looked fitter,faster and stronger than he did last year,
so is not far off.
Who’s this then?
Stamina of a long distance athlete,
Speed of a sprinter,
Leaps like a salmon,
Chases after everything like a greyhound,
Hard as nails,
Can shoot like a sniper,
Skill of a craftsman,
And has the tackle of a game fisherman,
And now has a Twitter account.
Guess Who?
Off out with Fido now, catch up in a bit…
Fred. Is that Alexis?
HH has a new look?
our hopes was always Diaby…
Rico,
Me thinking that was hard question…not really is it.
Afternoon Rico and the House
The new format looks good Rico but where is everyone.
Was I right then?
No-one posted since Scott 5 hours ago , either things have gone arse over elbow or there’s something up with the new format. I had trouble getting into the house on my phone but i just put that down to the signal in Norfolk.
Afternoon all…
New format, new site so there may be teething problems….
Hi Rick, glad you like it…
Not sure about the latest post being at the top and the comments box being at the bottom , also I am having to sign in every time I post.
Don’t like change!
Humbug!
Joking aside, there needs to be a link from last comment to the Leave a reply box, if the sequence of remarks are going to remain on the new format.
But I like the new font and general layout.
I’m sure familiarity will breed……..acceptance!
Good afternoon Rico and everybody else.
Ha ha Wavy..
Having a few probs logging into the site 😉
Potter, just trying to get that changed….
Potter, am trying to get both changed now…
Rico back to business.
The U21 are at home to Middlesrough tonight in what should be avery hard game. At the moment it looks like that we will be in contention with them and Newcastle for the 2 promotion spots. On monday night Middllesbrough beat Newcastle to go above us so this is a must win Game.
This morning a very weak U18 lost at home to WBA 2-0. The side consisted of 3 15year olds and 4 16 year olds. 4 of the normal squad are withe the U21 team tonight.
The U 19 game is being shown on the player next Tuesday with a 2oclock kick off.
New post is up now, only as the site needs a test drive….
Thanks Rick, is the game on the player live?
Morning…..
Hi folks using phone
Can’t believe so few comments on a match day. Is the site sick? Has it suffered a Diaby?
Should be a straightforward victory today, but we are talking about Arsenal here, where nothing comes easy.
Good day all.
Familiar performance so far.
We can make the worst teams look decent
Another fabregas assist