Morning all.
Amidst the injury crisis and after the 1:1 draw against Norwich and the 1:2 loss to West Brom, it’s only natural to take the current 4th place in the league table with a pinch of salt. The position may be pretty good as of now, but it’s obvious that things can’t continue as they are if Arsenal want to keep it. The team’s barely pinching any points and the players can’t seem to keep healthy – could this be the beginning of the fall?
At the moment, there are ten players who have to watch the game from the bench – and that’s including, unfortunately, Alexis Sanchez, Jack Wilshere, and Theo Walcott, although to be fair the latter could make a comeback this weekend. You could try and argue that at least Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is back, but it’s rather apparent that the team is struggling.
Things were looking pretty well a few weeks back – Arsenal were winning against the teams whom they were supposed to beat, and managed victories against the tougher ones but the Spurs draw came as a warning sign – and things just went downhill from there. It’s a shame, too, as the schedule was pretty easy and was supposed to help the Gunners up the table– not have them scrambling for wins.
Currently it looks like just Alexis Sanchez will come back for the match against the Manchester team – so most of the side-lined bunch will be right where they are now. On the up side, that could be enough time for Arsenal to figure out how to compensate.
No one can deny that Mesut Ozil has been a delight so far this season, and that Petr Cech is absolutely world-class. Let’s not forget Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey, and Hector Bellerin either – although to be fair, they were all available for the last few games, too. Still, there’s a potentially brilliant squad right there for the taking.
Now the only trouble with the 4th place is that the points difference is pretty small going both upwards and downwards. Yes, Arsenal has just two points less than Man City (and Leicester City of all teams), but Spurs are also just two points down from being even with the Gunners, and Liverpool are only missing by four points.
The competition is pretty cut-throat, and it may very well be that the Boxing Day fixture won’t clear a lot up. It’s obvious by now who is positively lagging at the bottom, but up the top it’s a whole different story – the League has been nothing if not surprising this season. However, this is not the time to start feeling grim.
Every team will have these kinds of mishaps and unfortunate losses. While it’s true that currently only Bournemouth have more injuries than Arsenal, Liverpool was in a very similar position just a while back and they’re doing fine now, which shows that it’s possible under the right manager. Arsene Wenger has enough experience to figure this out – and it’s not like the other teams are trauma-proof.
The three upcoming games will be a better barometer of what’s to be expected of Arsenal this season, and after the game with Man City it’s a favourable schedule once again which should allow the team to sort this crisis out without actually sabotaging all their title hopes.
The situation isn’t what everyone wanted it to be and the injuries kind of ruined the hopes of getting to the 1st place right after the Boxing Day fixture but when it comes to the run for the title, there’s no need to get pessimistic. It’s rather unlikely for Arsenal to finish worse than in the top 4 anyway, and even if the things keep going south, there’s still Chelsea in 14th place, and that’s bound to make everything seem that bit brighter.
Morning All..,
Morning Rico, a good post and a nice surprise.
Another surprise is that I got a ticket for tomorrow’s game and I’m quite looking forward to it…
Morning Kev, it’s not mine 😉
Great news re your ticket, now we are into December, we might start winning again….
Santi could be out until March….
Arsenal have had the most injuries since 2010 422 of them to be precise! Tell you what don’t bother buying a single out field player!
Bloomin heck!
Big January surely…
Steve Clarke sacked.
I’m not surprised Lee…
That’ll teach him to talk to Fulham!
I would say that 99% of the footballing world would say that Arsenal have to buy at least 2 players in the next window to stand any chance of winning the PL.
It’s a shame Wenger will do the polar opposite!!
Not sure he has any choice Lee, I reckon he’ll get a player or two….
We won’t win the league this season and i expect us to lose a few more to injury this weekend.
We have a spuad and are not using it to its best advantage. Why dont we recall a few of the loanees?
Crowley, Zelalem,Akpom, Hayden and Gnabry are 5 there..OK they are not really ready but against W Brom Norwich and Sunderland, they owuld have given SAnti and Alexis a rest. I would play Joel campbell from the start . At least he is not burnt out.
Even if AW called the loans back in, he wouldn’t play them. He doesn’t have much faith in the fringe players, let alone the loanees….
George because that is a logical thing to do?
Lee, how’s the City?
Plenty of celebrating…
Pretty quiet tbh Kev…..
It’s quite quiet on the streets Lee…
But thanks to TFL, there’s plenty of humongous traffic jams to sit in…
El George, how’s it going mate?
Hi Rico, Lee, Kev
True Rico he doesn’t trust the fringe players, true he won’t play them but would have to if we suffer more injuries. We all know he won’t buy in January and Kallstrom has retired.
Lee it isnt logical, but loaning out Gnabry and Hayden who don’t play seems a waste, given although they are not world beaters , they could provide some cover and get more playing time.
Crowley was recalled from Barnsley a few weeks ago George, and currently he is injured…
Hi George, odd isn’t it. He doesn’t trust them so why keep then….
Interesting to see that Real Madrid are, reportedly, quite keen now to sell us Karim Benzema….
Maybe we should test the water with a £5m bid..?
Hi Kev,
Redundancies and a slowdown here in Dubai mate…so far im safe
Rico, if they dont cut the mustard by 20, either play them loan them or just let them go for a half decent fee, i.e JET…
Seriously, Sanogo? Martinez? Crowley is back and does not even make the Bench. Maitland Niles and Toral are having great loans at the moment, but they wouldn’t make our bench…
Morning all.
In a word can we win the league…NO. unless we buy at least three world class players in January, which of course won’t happen.
The last two games were meant to be a given and on reflection we were lucky to get a point.
Mathematically we look in contention but so are 5 other clubs. We have Gibbs fit again, though I didn’t know he was injured and will in all probability play on the left flank and the seasoned pros of Jeff and Chamberlain will be in the squad as could be The Ox and Walcott who aren’t match fit.
We are in a complete mess and I and many others are getting fed up repeating the same thing time and time again.
Confidence must be pretty low and I don’t think AW can motivate this team anymore when you look how inconsistent we are, yet to lose 5 players in two matches would hurt the best of teams.
Of course we should beat Sunderland.The attacking play will be there but who will be the one to actually bang it in the net.
🙂 Kev, that much?
Kelsey or to start the season with three players out injured, have a squad littered with fragile/ageing players and NOT buy a single outfield player that was complete madness!
I think with the right additions we can still win the league, do I think Wenger will add these players? Not a chance, I mean he had 3 months and couldn’t find a single outfield that would of strengthened us, how the fuck will he find anyone in a month??
I’ll help you Carvalho, Bender, Xhaka , Kramer , Icardi , Aubameyang , Isco they’d help us!
Goerge, Martinez is meant to be pretty good. Could be he’ll soon take over from Ospina…
Kelsey, we should have won the last two matches but as you say, we can’t score for toffee and now our leading goal scorer is out for a few weeks.
If Theo starts tomorrow, he better be 100% fit…
Afternoon all !
yes, we can wait for the new signs (?) but they arrive when? In the begginin or at the end of January?
This is completely different
First week of January if AW has anything about him Jm…
I see what your saying about Martinez, but Chez is ahead of him and Ospina want the no 1 spot off Cech. We can’t expect Cech to stay fit the whole season
I fear Giroud and Theo to be next victims against Sunderland.
We won’t spend, we will play players out of position to field the 11 buts its not good enough for a club like ours.
We definitely need a morale lift from somewhere. Who will score for us tommorow? Can’t see whee the goals will come from. I’d take a Flamini deflection and a 1-0 tommorow. We look out of sorts and knackered.
I don’t think Ches will come back, not now we have Cech….
I’m staying hopeful Wenger finally grows a pair, and someone at the club gives him a hoof up the jacksie and gets a couple in, with or without his say so….
That would be nice Rico, if Chips gave Wenger the hoof to move, but i somehow doubt it…
Roman will not pony up for Ches, so we are stuck with him.
Then there is Matt Macy who reportedly is as good as Martninez..
I reckon some club will take him George…..
Makes a change for us to have a couple of good keepers waiting in the wings, AW has seriously neglected that position since the Mad one left…
Blimey George, if things are depressed in Dubai, then we’re all in the shite…
Sorry to hear that mate…
Yep, the glitter is all on credit card here…rents go up 20 % and salaries remian static , or you get the chop Kev…
May end up back in Lovely herts before you know it.
Rico, Some club will take him if he stops smoking and shows some consistency and application.
I will be interesting to see what team he puts out on Saturday.
I reckon
Cech
Bellerin Gab Merts Monreal
Ramsey Flamini
Campbell Ozil Oxl
Giroud
Subs:
Debuchy
Gibbs
Ospina
Koscieln
Iwobi
Walcott
Adelaide
Kelsey…
Three world class players in January?
What are you guys smoking over there on AA…? ?
Two or three quality players would do me…
I wouldn’t call Coquelin ‘world class’ – an over used term imo – but we bloody well miss our midfield stopper…
So two or three players of his ilk would do.
Thank you…
But as you say, it ain’t gonna ‘appen….
Side kind of picks itself now George with all the injuries…
Kev, do we need world class in Jan or two really good players who work bloody hard on and off the ball….?
Hard to know really and who will let a WC player go at this stage of a season… Not many I’d say unless their contract expires in the summer..
That’ll teach me to read the whole of your comment Kev, seems we agree… 😉
George, for me, Szczesny and Ospina are gone…
Martinez and Macey will fight it out for the No.2 and No.3 spots imo…
I think there must be about 5 or 6 other goalkeepers in and around the U18’s and U21’s…
Hopefully someone will emerge over the next three years as a possible challenger to Cech..?
Frankly Rico, I’m not that keen on Benzema anymore, even at a knock-down price…
Madrid will be desperate to get him off of their hands, in case he’s convicted and ‘put away’…
Wenger, I suspect, will be looking elsewhere and thanking his lucky stars that any deal for Benzema, fell through, for whatever reason?
Afternoon all. Hi George.
Never wanted him Kev, just something about him….
Walk time for me….
I think your right Kev on the goalies and Benzema being a bullet dodged.
How far away is Rosicky Welbeck and JW from a return? I can’t see Theo nor the OX staying injury free for long
Afternoon Adam
Rico ?
Like you, I think we need a player or players, who can hit the ground running, we haven’t got time for acclimation, so I’d go for players who are already in the EPL, maybe even on loan?
Hi Adam…
George, I think that Wilshere could be back within the next couple of weeks…
Rosicky in early January…
Welbeck just in time for the transfer window to shut… ?
hahaha Kev…sadly i think your right re: welbeck….
I say bring ll the loanees back so when the carthorses break down , along with the kallstrom cheapo loans we at least can field a side that will not look like lambs to the slaughter (Shef wed)
George, I’m not 100% sure, but when you send a player out on loan, and especially for the season, the loanee club pays a fee.
Not all loan deals are the same, but if, say, Arsenal had a clause in Maitland-Niles’ contract, that said they could recall him, there would probably be a financial penalty clause…
Now we all know Arsenal, they ain’t gonna want to pay out unless it’s worth their while.
So unless a particular player is gonna go into the team, forget it mate…
allezkev, yea three world class players was a bit strong, shall we settle for two 😉
Come the end of the season 3 of the squad are out of contract, Mertesacker will lose another yard 😉 and who knows about Santi if reports suggests he will be out for 3 months, he isn’t getting younger and though I really like him, he maybe tempted to finish his career in Spain.
Szsney has burnt his bridges with AW a bit like Bedtner, so he is unlikely to come back.
What’s happened to Welbeck, anyone know? He’s been out since April.
We need a bit more forward planning but as long as AW is in charge he isn’t going to change dramatically.The proof of spending the going rate is shown with Ozil which was a strange last minute buy and the robot which is Sanchez, whose batteries finally ran out.
We are a non smoking blog only soft porn via NB 😉
Oh would we have recalled Coquelin if we hadn’t had injuries and anyone who knows the game can see that he is an immense player that will only improve, hoping he recovers from his injury, but it was a piece of misfrtune and then luck to have him in the side, nothing AW planned, was it.
Good afternoon all…
I have no energy to talk about lack of signings when we had a chance….
This situation is not strange to us, it’s a routine season in season out but Wenger and company doesn’t seem to notice this hence his instances that he never wanted to buy any outfield player.
We will not win the league again and doubt if tomorrow we will win the game. My prayer is that we should not add Özil or Giroud to the treatment room as these players are also overplayed….
Now lets see where Wenger is going to find quality in January….I wonder and very much so….
Afternoon all..
Dark early today, hope AW has his lights on whilst watching Youtube to see who’s good enough to sign in January…. lol
Afternoon Rico and the house
I wouldn’t expect much movement on the transfer front in January, wenger won’t over spend
Another year of disappointment
Afternoon Mg. I wouldn’t if our injuries to key players wasn’t so bad, but he has little choice imo..
Simon, Ozil had a break during the international fortnight and Ollie has only really been playing a whole game since Walcott suffered injury so hopefully both will be ok for a while..
And Ollie should be fine, he doesn’t do a lot…. 😉
Real Madrid have been thrown out of the Copa Del Rey for fielding an ineligible player, according to Guillem Balague.
So playing an ineligible player is deemed worse than playing a side which includes a player on ‘drugs’… !!
Rico, it’s weird, but often and especially in Arsenal’s case, just when it looks like everything is lost, they come up with a positive result…
Now anybody who knows anything about Fat Sam, will know he’ll send his team out to park the bus, to harry to hassle and be a bleedin’ pain in the arse, so it ain’t gonna be a walk in the park tomorrow.
It’ll be ugly and frustrating but I think that Arsenal will turn up and do a job on Sunderland.
I hope so as i’ll be there! ?
Our players have had a weeks rest so no old bollocks about fatigue…
Defoe is apparently is out of the game…
Evening Rico and the House.
Great news to hear you are going tomorrow Kev, I seem to think they turn it on when you are there.
Kossy, Theo Gibbs Ox and rambo all played a full part in training today it looks like they will all be in the squad tomorrow.
I understand Jeff is in the Youth team tonight so you will not see him but you could see Iwobi.
Sorry Kev, nipped off for an early meal, I was hungry…
Agree, Arsene always seems to get fortunate. Wonder if Chambers will be the man this time…
Evening Rick..
I always thought Jeff looked the more ready to step up out of the two….
Match report then Kev? 😉
Tonights Team is
Keto, Sheaf,Da Grcia, M.Bola, Robinson, Tabi, Bennacer, Jeff, Hinds, CWillock And Malan
No Bielik looks like he is injured.
Rico in the case of Jeff I have not seen much of him but from what I have seen he looks a little bit fragile,on the other hand Iwobi is fairly strong
Just my opinion though could be wrong.
I only saw him in pre-season Rick, thought he looked a big strong lad, but I could be wrong too… 😉
Rick/Kev, have you looked at the training photos on afc.com? If so, who is number 54 in the second photo? Jeff?
Has the storm hit you yet Micko
Stay safe bud..
A header by Jeff has given us the lead on 15mins
Rico 54 is Jeffs squad no but that looks like Glen Kamara.
25 min Jeff pulls the ball back to Sheaf who makes it 2-0
Boys playing some very good football.
http://www.dailynewsservice.co.uk/when-will-arsene-wenger-go/
30min Willock wins pen but g/k saves Sheafs kick.
Thanks Rick. He looks a strong lad in the photo….
H/T still 2-0
I am being told Jeff, Willock and Hinds are playing some excellent football.
A very impressive performance so far.
That’s good to hear Rick… One day they might get into the first team…. 😉
I’m off guys, catch up tomorrow..
Night Rick, Kev and all….
2nd half different ball game.
Jeff on the receiving end is given stiches and then is replaced by Nelson
Still 2-0
Should be Stitches
Night Rico
2 more goals from Malan and Mavididi have given the Youth team a 4-1 win in the youth Cup.
Things are looking up this season.
Looking forward t seeing your report on tomorrows game Kev lol
Night all
Rick, thanks for info on the Kids…
Rico, I’ll do a post on the game then… ?
Night All
Very kind of you Kev, but I was kidding, please don’t feel you have to… 🙂
Morning all…
Reading want Dennis Bergkamp as their manager according to the Mirror!
No flying to worry about… 😉
New post up now..