Morning all.
Outplayed, out fought and beaten! And utterly deserved in my opinion. Well done to West Ham.
They were up for this game and worked non stop from start to finish, they wanted the ball when we had it and most of the time they got it too, either by their own means or we just surrendered the ball far too easily with a misplaced pass.
We were poor, really poor and despite registering double figures in the ‘attempts’ chart, not one was really clear cut was it? What supply did Ollie get?
West Ham had two chances and took them and both can be blamed on our defensive frailties.
Yes Petr Cech had a mad moment but what about the defence, who was tasked with marking Kouyate. Who was doing the tasking? Why was the gap between our back line and Cech so big? Five international defenders (including Cech) and not one could be arsed to organise our unit!
And to make matters worse, after the game Arsene Wenger said that he knew we’d concede a goal if the delivery was good!!
Their second was all about us being too clever, trying to dribble the ball out of defence instead of making a decisive pass to a team-mate and getting the ball clear or hoofing it clear up field. It was also about cute play by Zarate who caught Cech out….
So it seems little has changed, plenty of possession but too much faffing around with the ball and that kind of stuff won’t win Arsenal the league…..
The team didn’t look right and the players looked disinterested as if they only had to turn up to win. OC was the brightest spark during our better spells, but even his lights went out as the game went on. The midfield lacked balance and all this ‘cohesion’ we have heard talked about went out of the window for 90 minutes.
We still lack pace up front when Walcott doesn’t play and we seriously lacked width, especially on the left… And as for bringing on Alexis Sanchez, well that move smacked of desperation imo.
A dreadful Sunday afternoons work by all….
Arsene Wenger spoke after the game about whether or not he’d make any more signings before the transfer window closes:
I would like to think that we are responsible to buy the players and the coaches, not the media.
When you’re a pro footballer, you have to face your responsibilities and not always look at something else. Today we have to look at ourselves and think we were not good enough and not to think that these kinds of things are solutions for us.
We were not good enough, we were not convincing. And that’s basically it. West Ham played well. Congratulations to them and hopefully we can bounce back quickly.
Again, I can only repeat what I already said. If an exceptional solution turns up, we’ll do it. But after a defeat like that, it’s important not always to think we take a solution from outside.
I don’t think signing two more players is a solution from the outside, it’s about addressing the needs of the squad and imo we need another midfield player to dominate and another attacking player who will get us goals because yesterday showed that when up against an organised back line, we still can’t break them down and that’s not something new is it…….
If that performance is the sign of things to come, it’s going to be a very long season….
Transfer gossip:
Mario Gotze and Julian Draxler are the players being tipped to sign for Arsenal before the end on the month. That double dose is doing the rounds in many newspapers.
As for Benzema, well Man City want him now and they will offer Real Madrid more than Arsenal to get their man…
Arsenal have been given some encouragement that their pursuit of Real Madrid defensive midfielder Lucas Silva could be successful. That’s from The Telegraph.
Bored now? Me too….
Have a good Monday, if you can…..
Good read rico.
Now Wath and I will be happy with the Silva rumours.
silva is not getting games at RM but we wanted him before he joined RM and so…
Gotze and Draxler…. meh…
West Ham’s 16yr old stood up to the plate…..
Morning all.
Lee, happy birthday for yesterday, and the real present is surely in the mail 🙂
Do you think because we’ve had a good pre-season we got complacent and thought we’d just roll the Hammers over?
scott to me Aw is half right here- ”When you’re a pro footballer, you have to face your responsibilities and not always look at something else….”
The reason I say he is half right is that, he continues to be tolerable to players who are habitual bottlers or arrogant.
And I still can not understand why AW will his 35years + experience in management brought on AS17?
lee- is it not a worry that, that was the 16 y.o’s Reece Oxford first play as a CDM; he is a natural CB.
shocking result wenger has got to change tactics
Deep joy the game has started on the over head screens in the office! Oh to be a fucking Gooner!
Thanks Ts…
Morning again all..
Reece Oxford was pretty darn good Lee…
Not an Arsenal fan but for me the likes of Giroud, Ozil and Cazorla just aren’t PL material. Does Giroud actually know where the goal is?
A top striker plus a ‘thrusting’ midfielder would certainly help but with a defence which switches off and a goalkeeper who surprisingly was no better than those before him…. well Arsenal will do well to win anything this season!
TS he was naturally better than most of our team and didn’t mind being vociferous…..
Put pressure on the only options you have you are bound to get a reality checked.nowadays there are no bargains,you pay what you are asked to pay, not what you want to pay.wenger will always be asked why didnt he sign morgan when he had a chance
I honestly couldn’t see us losing that game.
I just didn’t think we’d concede.
None for two off two balls lol
Who the fuck are this team in Red and White?
Welcome Ann, or change jobs… lol
Switch them off Lee.. 😉
Neither did I Scott, thought it was a home banker….
Wenger saying that West Ham were fitter due to their Europa league games! What bollocks he spouts!
And called it an “accident!” ffs!!!
Giroud is not 1st choice if you want to win something big vietto was there but we didnt sign him.wenger is too weak to take this team to the next level because he too loyal to some average players
I haven’t seen the game, but from what I’ve heard, West Ham looked sharper and stronger,
I wonder, could this have anything to do with their competitive season starting off before ours?
Also there is the new manager, extra motivational factor to be considered.
There’s no doubt that it’s a massive disappointment, but we all know that our players are (must be) better than what they showed yesterday.
That wasn’t the team that destroyed Aston Villa a few weeks ago.
And West Ham are on the same level as Villa.
Let’s see if West Ham are still running around in May as if they’re on steroids?
It was just a bad day at the office…
Happy Birthday for yesterday Lee…
Welcome Adrian.
Jeez- Are you being serious about Cazorla?
I rate OG12 but I can understand you questioning his quality but to say Ozil and SC19 are not EPL quality…
Are you Adrian Durham 🙂
Morning Rico and the House
Well that ruined a good weekend. I think the majority of supporters thought that was going to be an easy win. We needed hunger and got complacancy
Summed it all up for me when Giroud was running wide with the ball and crossing, to a phantom striker
Lol Drake- if you keep mentioning the same players, Rico and Micko are going to think we read from same script. 🙂
agreed about Vietto. I mentioned on here last year that he is going to be the new revelation in this seasons UCL
So the AW excuses start all over again….
Agreed lee, rico re Reece. I know he is 6’3 and all but he made our supposedly world class players look comical
Lee if you know wenger then you know that he always has something when ever we lose,one day i hope he becomes honest and say what is real
@ Adrian. All three are world class players, let alone prem league. Admittedly yesterday was an off day for Arsenal. Nearly everyone played badly. Saying that I think Cazorla actually played well. Mert possibly as well.
Lol.. lets not go too overboard here…; if we stop feeling about Arsenal and look at things logically we are not Champions quality.
The Arsene out Brigade will say it is AW’s fault for not buying enough players like Benzema. Being biased and all I will say the club will like to win the league but are using graphs and charts to chance their hands seeing as stats show Chelsea and City are in decline…
we are the 3rd best team in the league who in a lucky year can probably finish 2nd but possibly 7 points behind eventual champions.
Aw gets some wrong but he gets most right. Signing Falcao last January would have been an ego boast for 1 week until we realised he and Kanu have similar D.o.B. lol
Morning Retsub, the ‘phantom striker’ – we’ve had one of those for years… lol
Accountability…..
Agreed kev
Ts i say like it is COQ and GIROUD are the problem.coq only showed us what we can be with a true dm and hyped him because he was the only option we had
Morning Kev, they were up for it, we weren’t. Complacency at t’s highest imo…
Tbh,we need a CDM with good composure and can dictate games,i’ve alwys said coq is not our answer.Dang! That guy can’t even pass the ball,we need a CDM with power and vision not just for his defensive abilities alone.Plus, Kos does all the work for Per (i wonder why no one notices).
We play a sort of pattern which allows us to play a very high defense that should expect counterattacks anytime yet we stick with slow Per to cover up for us.Smh,i don’t know why Wenger can’t find a solution to that!
Last season and people hyped him
Topyjoey I agree kosser is so so under rated…
when I go to away games and Ox and Coq have songs and Kosser does not get one I feel realy bad for him…
Drake- OG12 is an honest 15 to 20 goals a season striker earning well under £80k per week.
Bacca earns circa £90k per week at Seville; Benzema stats pales in comparison to OG12 considering how much Karim will cost and earn just for the 20 goals a season…
Note OG12 and Benzema can’t play together as far as I have seen over the last 3 or so years…
Topy, Coquelin is quality and he can pass the ball. Easily the best DM in the second half of last season. Mert is slow but is very good defensively, which is probably why you don’t notice him (Players like Terry are also slow)… Kos is extremely quick but was even being bossed by Sakho yesterday.
The game was a wake up call having had a great pre-season. It happened with Villa 2 seasons ago and we went on a great run afterwards.
We thought wwe would easily win the game and were complacent. People always over-react..
Welcome to those joining HH today…
Good post Rico, definitely disappointing in attack. But for me, that stems from a weak defence. Its always going to be difficult for Arsenal to score after going a goal down because teams then defend deep and in numbers.
We blew it with the first goal. Line too high, terrible marking from Monreal before even taken, and with that space behind Cech had to make a split second decision and guessed wrong.
The second goal was classic Arsenal. Give it away in a dangerous position and they score.
Well played hammers, Payet looks a steal!
I hope this is the jolt we need to go on a massive unbeaten run. Because we look miles off a title challenge after watching that disaster.
Dodge- Flamini was accumulating 95% pass accuracy at one time.. look closely and one notices they were mainly 5 yard passes.
The number of times Coq was rescued by Sc19 and TR07 last season is always over looked by Coquelin lovers…
Coquelin is one for future but for one he should not be our main CDM.
Dodge, that was mentioned here yesterday. If we now go on as good a run we did after being beaten by Villa a couple of seasons, we’ll soon forget yesterday. Two additions would probably ensure we wouldn’t fade away like we did back then…
The club have the money, just spend some of it and stop ‘making do’…
To be fair, Coq was crap yesterday. Now he’s got his new contract and no viable competition for his place he knows he’s fireproof. Not a good situation to be in!
He played really well last season but, that was last season! He has to start over!
A shocking display of unadventurous, unimaginative and unsuccessful football. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of displays like this either. Anyone who thinks we’ll trounce Palace is living in cloud cuckoo land. Next week they will turn up and play the same game/tactics as West Ham. Will we get a result? Of course we should do but I’m not going to hold my breath.
Someone wrote, yesterday, about the huge sums of money swilling about in football and that ALL clubs can now buy and pay for high quality players and, that the ‘bar’ had been raised etc etc I think we find ourselves with a very good squad but most of the other clubs are only a player or two away from us in terms of ability and tactics.
I thought the squad Wenger had assembled for this campaign was strong enough but I I’ve rethought that position and can see we are at least two and possibly three players short, back, middle and front.
I’m off to stare at Arsenal.com I shall be eagerly awaiting the confirmation of at least 3 new players, plus the recall of Akpom! Yesterday was almost as bad as losing 8-2 to manure! It was definitely up there with one of the worst displays in recent living memory!
Morning all.
Agreed Roger- note how none of the teams that scored first last weekend lost their games.
The EPL is becoming like Serie A in the 90’s.
Unfortunately there is no Van Basten, Batistuta, Weah, Vialli, Baggio etc in this league
Thanks Roger, agree re Payet, he was very lively and dangerous…
Bilic has their defence well organised too. Thought they were very clever. Prepared to take a yellow card to stop us quite early in the game and it worked…
I’m surprised Joe has been on saying the free kick for the goal wasn’t a free kick and the ref was to blame… 😉
Friday 7th- “One of our targets is to start strongly. We had a good preparation, which should give us more confidence.”- Wenger.
Sunday 9th- “We could see that, fitness-wise, we are not completely there yet.”- Wenger.
Which one is it dear Arsene?
Morning all,
Pretenders or contenders ?
We all knew how important it was to race outta the blocks this time around and yep will fell at the first hurdle !
Lee, think it’s Arsene who’s getting a bit accident prone !
🙂 Lee..
Pretenders I say Micko on yesterdays miserable showing….
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/watch-angry-arsenal-fan-tell-6226130
Oh dear oh dear….
Wavy i said that before the start of the season that coq will do a woj
I don’t think anyone can say Coquelin is not committed
https://vine.co/v/eHMwrbJ6BnT
Wavy, Coquelin wasn’t on his own for playing badly, in fact I don’t think any one of those players earned their salary yesterday, darn right disgraceful, the lot of them – including the manager….
Send them all back to Austria for proper altitude training next summer, we know that’s Arsene’s prefered choice.
Ts, is Bacca at Seville?
I like Coquelin Dodge but still think he needs a strong guy next to him… And I don’t mean Arteta, Flamini, Santi or OC either….
Ha ha Micko..
Another Sunday 1.30 fixture next weekend….
rico, I’m still waiting for someone to come on and blame the ref !
not against signing Benzema if it was true but will karim make us far far better than we are or will he be an alternative to TW14 in a already devoid of hard workers/
Benzema has played 188 games and scored 87 goals since 2009 playing for RM.
OG12 has played 98 games and scored 41 goals since joining us in 2012.
One player goes 100% probaly 9 out of 10 times whilst the other well in my view bottles it when it matters.
On paper benzema is only 0.2% better than OG12 but will cost 100% more than OG12. Will the board buy him?
Bt- he still is mate. He is playing in UCL and so he is staying.
Honestly i am sick to day and bored with this romours, we need action, pleeeaseeee
I thought he moved to AC Milan, Ts.
There’s time yet Micko.
Arsenal are the infampus bottlers. Am not being emotional atm but truth be told we have only two WC players (and one of them is ‘lazy’)
Our beloved Ramsey is too careless with the ball, Ox seems to loose the ball in the wrong places and good gracious! Giroud can’t win us the league. Henry was slated for saying this but it’s true!
All this hold up talk is weak justification. TH14 and even traitor RvP were sublime and knew where the goal is. Show me one WC striker who plays ‘with his back to the goal’ it’s a bunch of bull!
Wenger treats these guys like they are his sons. He’ll overlook that Coq can’t pass thus halting our build up and stunbornly stick with him. Ramsey ought to be dropped so he can learn the basics.
ATM we hace no spine- exactly the same way we were in May. Per, Cdm and stricking positions still need to ne sorted out.
I hope not Ts, I’d rather Austin or Berahino (spelling)
And a midfielder of course… 😉
The insurance premiums at Arsenal must be astronomical with all these “accidents” .
Maybe that’s why they can’t afford any more signings Bt….
Back later folks….
Morning , I didn,t see the game, so can,t comment much about it, but I,m sure tactics remain Wenger,s challenge especially against the more compact teams, maybe an air of self-entitlement and arrogancy had crept in after our last few trophy winning performances, I won,t start criticising us, just yet, but maybe it was needed to bring us back down to earth, and realise , this is the premier league and “by god”, you have to be 100% on top of you,r game for every single match.
Ginge, are you with me again…? 😉
I’m looking to see if there’s a clandestine figure hovering in the vicinity…. 😀
Oh yes he moved…Bt. my bad.
Not today Kev. I am stalking Micko today but that is another story. 🙂
Thanks for the correction Bt
Rico- I thought the sperds were after Austin.. pending Ade-bawhore moving
Rico agreed re. Berahino. He will be an awesome acquisition but maybe an understatement…
tsgh, that wasn’t your drone that flew over my house this morning was it ! You know I keep a shot-gun.
rico, didn’t you put up a post earlier this summer on how everything was finally in place to make the Emirates a Fortress like the old Highbury, didn’t take long for that one to go out the window, can’t remember which player was talking about it.
Micko- ah. That was the amazon mini-UAV’s about to deliver another selfie stick to you. 😉
One thing about the ref yesterday , he must have needed some paracetamols at the end the way that Noble was in his ear throughout the match. He gave some bookings early on but didn’t follow up when subsequent fouls were committed, however he isn’t why we lost. We did that all on our own , no organisation and proof positive that Coquelin is not the total answer to our midfield problems. Last year he was play it simple win the ball and give it to Ozil/Cazorla/ Sanchez. Yesterday he joined the club superstar elite , spraying overhit passes to row Z and going missing at times and trying one-two’s in areas where West Ham had congested space.If he sticks to last years system he will be useful but he will need someone strong to power things alongside him.
I watched the game on TV. We started brightly. It was F1 speed from the very beginning but somehow we keep making stray passes and by the 15th to 20th minute, Wenger already knew we were going to lose. Some losses are just unavoidable because it really wasn’t meant to be for us. I don’t understand why we can go completely mental over it. Those paying more for their tickets may be excused though. Still, that was the way it was written. Even if you had a Benzema in there, if it was not meant to be, it simply wasn’t.
Hi everyone, Good to be back again.
This was what I feared for after our community shield win over the chavs last week that we will become too complacent and lose focus in our first PL match. Wenger needed to focus the team quickly and now we’ve paid the price for having the notion that we just turn up and the 3pts is in the bag. At the start of the match we never set the temple(No pressing, but lethargic, lazy and loads of misplaced passes in the first few mins) Arsene didn’t help matters when he decided to play cazorla on the LW. The balance of the team was painfully comprised yesterday just to accomodate Ramsey in the CM role and Cazorla on the wing. Cazorla and Coq pairing in the 2nd half of last season was why we were so brilliant. We had the same issue at the begining of last season when arsene tried to accomodate both Wilshere/Ramsey and that cost us a lot of pts(and we were out of the title race after 8matches) before injury to wilshere in the mufc match made him to switch to status quo. It took an injury to Ramsey for us to realize the best pivot pairing was Cazorla/Coq.There are 37PL matches left excluding CL, Facup and carlingcup so there is enough room for rotation. Should have paired Coq-Cazorla yesterday, and probably next week Coq-Ramsey at Selhurst park and every one is happy. There is the problem of Wilshere to comeback as well. If arsenal are to achieve her goals of winning the PL this season, Wenger definitely needs to be ruthless, make bold decisions for the team and not individual. If anyone is not happy let him leave at the end of the season then get a replacement.
And again arsenal have the worse supporter’s
*comprise – compromised
Shanice, that’s a sweeping statement lol.
Emma, great to have you back.
Was there when we beat Chelsea last week and thought we would make a good start to the season, but we played like we would roll West Ham over with ease. We were pathetic and o.k. the keeper was at fault for the first goal, but didn’t even look like scoring!!! Too much tippy tappy rubbish as usual!!!
Would you care to put some flesh on the bones of that statement Shanice
hi scott, thanks
We will bounce back. I believe we have good enough squad and depth to win the league this season. Just hate to see us having this momentarily lapses here and then
Hey Emma, I mentioned your name on here yesterday.
Hope all is well with you..
good to see you back..
Just trolling. Ignore him/her..
Lets hope so Emma.
I personally do not see us capable of sustaining UCL and EPL challenge plus the lure of defending the FA cup for 3 consecutive times…
High tsgh, thanks
Busy Bee I have become but all is well
rico has done a pretty good work on the website
Thought I was in the wrong site when I logged on it
Yeah, it’s only one game.
We need to turn it around quickly, but it’s not the end of the world.
Funny that some fans think benzema can improve us. He plays in one fo the best team in the world in a shit 2 way league for the title and still can’t score 20 goals. What makes them think he can score 20 goals in a difficult league like the PL
*fo – of
Hi all. Considering how we couldn’t score in 3 of our last 4 home games last season, I can’t work out why we think this season will be different with the same players?
Good to hear Emma re. all being good. I was wondering where my fellow unpaid scout was… 😉
Agreed re. benzema but he is a big name and so another catalyst to get on the bandwagon…
Very good point BobJ
Hi Bob,
I think that’s an issue that needs to be addressed quickly.
Bob -I felt vs Sunderland, the team didn’t push for it as sunderland needed a pt to stay up, vs Swansea/westham, the team was complacent, vs chelsea, mourinho brought the bus
Emma, word on the street is she’s making millions with all these pop up ads lol.
Benzema>Giroud all day long….
Rico Kiam……
Lewandowski>Benzema…
West Ham fans tweeting that it was a nice touch that the Emirates crowd gave a 90 minute silence to respect the passing of Cilla Black…..
Lee now u re talking
Rather Lewandowski over Benzema
Lewandowski is like a shark that smells blood from a distance
http://dailycannon.com/2015/08/wolves-confirm-agreement-with-arsenal-for-martinez/
Emma trouble is that ain’t going to happen….. 🙁
Both won’t happen 🙁
Good Afternoon Rico and All
Good Read Rico… The only player that stand out yesterday with less errors was Monrel.
Le Coq passes were outrageous. He tried to duplicate the one on the FA Cup final that he passed to Theo, they were all out of target. I think he needs to ups his games more. Or else we are in trouble if we don’t get another DM.
Agree with your evaluation of Monreal’s performance yesterday.
it comes down to the same old point; when Ramsey is having a bad game we are less likely to score goals from midfield.
We need another bobby Pires imho…; Rakitic or Koke would be my choice but then I can only dream. lol
Logic tells me that a player like Berahino who scores 20 goals out of 45 games playing for WBA finishing 13th in the EPL is a better option than a 27 y.o not used to this league who will cost £50m+ excluding a 36m a year salary who ‘merely’ scored 22 goals from 47 games beside the ballon d’or winner
TS. I’m going to wait and assess Mancity squad today after there game. Right now Chelsea, ManU and Arsenal are all in par from what I’ve seen so far. Two more players are badly needed to make us whole.
scored*
I think we need a new manager, as controversial as it sounds but…..
We’ve shipped out a shed load of players and brought in Cech….surely Wenger has a master plan??
Controversial Lee…
I get what you saying Ng.
On the other hand I can’t see how a team like ours who finished 4 points behind city who also scored 12 more goals than we did can just be written off.
We Arsenal fans go on about how we played so well after Le Coq came into the team like it is the first time that us happened in the last 7 seasons.
Looking back over the last few seasons, we have pushed our November slump to December. We then start playing well during the January transfer window giving Aw this false impression that we are ok without additions.
We then lose a couple of games when the window shuts. We get eliminated from the UCL and then with all eggs in 1 basket we go on a winning spree until April where we drop 6 or 8 points out of a possible 12 points. In the last 2 season we have been lucky that City have lost Toure to the AFcon and also concentrating on the UCL and so they have not been concentrating on the FA cup .
That has been our record for 5 years now. A few years back Eboue was scapegoated for that false penalty in that dying minutes against Liverpool at home..
I think City with the addition of De Bruyne will be miles ahead of us…; if he settles ok.
The players they lost like jovetic weren’t key players.
it could be argued that Miller was but hey…
Chelsea I think we can finish above
I agree lee…
I like Aw but it has come to the point (after this season) where we need a newer pair of eyes.
If the new manager comes in and wins the EPL and UCL then we know.. if we sink and go through a transitional period like Ajax, barca, liverppol, AC Milan and lately yanited have gone through then we know AW was a true ‘god’.
Don’t you think that the misplaced passes, the advanced positions and the attempt at 60 yard over the top balls was somewhat reminiscent of Alex Song at his worst? I fancy Wenger has whispered in his ear that greater variety would really enhance his play! Sadly you cannot have the latter if the former role of defend and pass 5 yards is to be the successful plank on which to place your game and the team’s forward motion? If you’re not in the right place at the right time disaster ensues. Imo Wenger f..ked up Song’s game by giving him listen every to go too far forward and it seems he may have given a similar remit to the Coq.
Back to basics for the pair of them. They’re too clever by half!! And we lost! No shape
, no cohesion, too much tippy tappy and not enough basics, pass and move, sorry pass to another team mate not to the crowd, linesman or the opposition! And, know your role and stick to it!
I’m suffering from a delayed attack of apoplexy here. The more I revisit the game, in my head, the worse it becomes!
I need a sedative and some happy pills. Hope I’m not in the same state this time next week!
So far with all the games that I’ve seen I do enjoyed Swansea City. Ayew was very impressive. I hope he last long.
‘Listen every’ was written……license…….but the Wenger iPad interfered with the meaning! And the pores soon of my sentence!
Ng- I think Yanited with Schweinsteiger, carrick, herrera and Morgan S. now have a midfield way better than ours imho…
carrick= Arteta
Morgan > Le Coq
Ramsey > Herrera
Ozil >mata
Fellaini > Flamini
Schweinsteiger > Sc19
saying that Fergie won titles with carrick who on paper is as slow as Arteta; Yanited fans are not still calling for Keano or Nicky Butt like we are still talking about PV04 who btw jumped ship when there was no need imho…
I guess AW sold him for the reported reasons.
‘Pores soon’ duck me it’s done it again! I didn’t write duck either! But I quite like it! Pores soon should have been ‘meaning’.. Stack my vitals more and more corrections…..I’m off for a lie down!
Lol wavy. spot on btw re. Song.
I have always argued Aw wanted song to play identical to Toure was playing for cityby trying to win the ball in opponents half.
Le Coq has never had ball sense imho that is why I will never rate him as our future no.6.
. AW said so (not in those words of course) by saying something along the lines of coquelin needing to change his game or simplifying it.
I still think a £25m bid for sissoko from NUFC may be a sensible option.
Schweinsteiger > Sc19 not in my eyes! But hey, it’s all about opinions!
. A few years back Eboue was scapegoated for that false penalty in that dying minutes against Liverpool at home..
I drove back to Norfolk seething after that episode, during the night my wife called a paramedic and I woke up in Norfolk and Norwich having had a heart attack. I still blame Eboue.
Wow… Potter. my apologies if my post was offensive.
Thank heavens you are ok ….
TS. You might be right with the comparison, but Schweinsteiger > SC19, I’d wait after six months.
You are probably right lee/ Ng.
maybe I have thinking of Bastian S. of 18 months…
I still remember that game. It was Eboue fault. All he had to do was stand behind the Liverpool player instead of pushing him. But I was surprised on fans reactions
Steady on Lee…..
Ng/potter- my reason for bringing up that Eboue incident is that yanited finished 19 points ahead of us in that 2011 season even though we finished 3rd, one point above the sperds.
The 2 points dropped that evening pales in comparison…
I think the fear was that finishing 4th that season was not a guarantee for UCL qualification round since the chavs were in the UCL final and they might have taken our place…
I don’t think Eboue deliberately pushed lucas btw…
BT I’m still seething…..what the fuck is wrong with this team/manager?
Imho- Our whole squad apart from the CB position is lacking in the ‘crème de la crème’
A player like Ox has played 79 times for us and has scored 6 goals for but is loved and adored like he scores 10 goals every season.
Yes, I know he is only 21 years old but Sterling at 20 years old was playing in a supposedly weaker team until a month ago but has scored 18 in 98 games according to wiki…
The goals to game ratio is 1 in 13 for Ox whilst sterling records 1 in 5.
His assist stats are not even coming into discussion…
Also, I defend Ozil very often but when compared to silva or Hazard again we get short changed.
David Silva averages 1 goal in every 5 games whilst Ozil averages just under 1 goal in every 6 games.
Even Oscar who is not rated by Arsenal fans I know rates tallies 1 goal in every 5 games
Only ramsey fares better when compared to players who play in similar position as him…
So maybe Aw makes this team overachieves even though apparently AW has £200m at his disposable tospend on players he so chooses.
Ts, where does it say AW has 200m to spend on tranfers?
Afternoon all
We had no leaders, no width and no one willing to take the game by the scruff of the neck. This is where I admire Tomas Rosicky, at 33 and he would have run more than our whole midfield put together.
Monreal Debuchy Ox and Rambo need a good kick up the arse.I would bring in gibbs and Bellerin, mert and kos as CB, play chambers with coq in dm. Also play walcott right , ox left and leave sanchez as a lone striker , with walcott and ox playing passes on the counter into pockets of space. Bring in OG o defend a slender lead.
We are clearly not as fit as we should be and Palace will smell blood.
Palace have power and speed and are lumps like the Hammers.
We should approach that game with a defensive mindset, and look to hit them at their game, the classic counter attack.
Anyone who thinks we are gonna turn Palace over easliy needs their head checked, as they are a better side than West Ham. We played crap and made them look good at times.
Lol Bt… just quoting Lord Harris… 😉
hi george
My observation is that Arsenal fans have little or none patience at all for foreigner players. Even Welbeck, is not better than Benny, even though Benny thinks too much of himself. If the OX was foreign, compared to his stats, fans could have called for him to be sold. My opinion btw.
Ah, i see,i must have missed that part. Ts
I don’t know about Lord Harris…this lot need a fucking rocket up the Harris!
When we started the game, we were playing decently. But when we hit the 30 mins mark, our passing were bad. We started to give away the ball in midfield too easily and too frequently. When we gave away the ball, inorder to get it back, some fouls were committed. One of those free kicks were converted by west Ham into a goal due to judgemental error by Cech and the defensive team hardly did anything to block their man. There was little panic in the air, spreading around the Emirates including in the minds of players. In the second half, players attrmpting to come back into the game, made bad decision of dribbling around near the box instead of clearing/passing away towards goal and gave away the ball infront of the box. Defense team left huge space fot Zarate to have a clean shot on goal. If you clearly watch the second goal, Cech was very poor in reacting to Zarate’s shot. Confidence level went down and we started playing like we don’t have a heart. Once the score became 0-2, desperate measures were taken by bringing in Walcott & Sanchez. But it was too late and West Ham holded on to the score with their organised back line. None of the players had spark in them, except Ox (he had it only for 45 mins). But it is a one day failure. As much as I love Arsenal, I have to admit that Arsenal have capabilities to disappoint us (fans) at times. It’s time for us to stand in our legs, see the ball, pass it without taking risk in unnecessary parts of the field. When we pass the ball correctly and keep the ball, we play our game not the opponent’s game, we get back our moves, we get back our game. As Always…
Ginge…be very interesting to see which Arsenal turns up!
which Benny-Ng.
I think you are right btw re. patience
lol lee
Ox played 42 times, scored 4 goals, 2 assists -2014
23 games, scored 3, 1 assist- 2013
Welbeck- 8 goals 1 assist out of 34 games
For a laugh Gervinho- 3 assist, 7 goals out of 17 games
Afternoon all…
Sorry to those stuck in moderation, you are all out now so welcome and hope you pop back…
I’m just glad I had a few things to do which kept me from thinking/talking about yesterday’s game…
Until now….. 🙁
They were still digesting Kev’s Christmas dinner, yesterday! Too much pudding and not enough passion!
Rico- Wath says GG does the trick all the time. 😉
George- supporting Arsenal is like tossing a coin in the air. 🙂
Ts don’t worry about mentioning the Eboue incident and my cardiac infarction . I laugh about it now. However I agree that there was no intent but having seen the way the game had been refereed there was no need to be so close and give Lucas the chance to stop and collapse . That’s why I blame him. The ref could not wait to even things up and I am not sure that the free kick that started the incident was a free kick at all.
Emma, good to see you back, glad you like the new site…..
TS. Nicklas Bendtner.
lol potter.Good to hear
George in the last 2 wins over Palace, Aw started with Flamini but had to take him off and bring on Arteta before we won. Last August it was a tight affair 2-1 in the end. A ramsey injury time winner otherwise eit would have ended 1-1.
Pardew is an interesting character. If he likes to heap more misery on AW for obvious reasons.
Ts, I’m not letting those useless b******s drive me to drink… 😉
lol…Nicky B in his final season played 9 times scored 2 goals, assisted 1’s; I being a winner for us and the other being an equaliser
he he he Rico.
Refined and expensive drinks are not bad for you I was told. ;0
A bottle of Cobra does me Ts… 😉
Wavy, 3pm; nevermind about blaming the iPad, are you on the gin again?
Seething Lee. 😀
Potter, thank God for the NHS
Erdinger, Rico that’s the one….
I’m happy to be driven to a few gallons of Erdinger 🙂
Not heard of that one Kev…. Lol
tsgh you will find that Lord Harris never said Wenger had £200M to spend on transfers, that was a misleading headline use by some of the rags and of course stupid Arsenal blogs and fools on twitter. Its very much like the greatest striker quotes so many idiots wrongly claim Bendtner made.
Eduardo, so not only are Arsenal fans deluded, they are idiots and fools too…
Must be great being perfect…..
Evening Rico. We’ve been here before many times haven’t we?
Evening Adam. Just a few times eh…..
As much as I respect Arsene Wenger for all he has done and all the hope I had that he’d changed, I really don’t think he has that much. A pro-active manager would have not only signed Cech, but also a midfielder and an attacking player by now. Someone who can shut shop, one who can unlock a well organised defence.
But no, still we wait whilst knowing all the time that £200m sits in the bank…..
Oh, and I thought he and the other coaches had finally realised that it’s possible to defend set-pieces…..
Rico and adam What gabriel has to do to be a starter?eduardo you have no right to call arsenal family with such words, we are one
Ts what do you think of paco of valencia?i like the kid and he would be great and i know he is short but so is aguero
Rico. If the team is playing well then you are a great manager but the opposite applies also. Of course, like you, I think that we need to strengthen but the team also needs a bit of re-inventing too perhaps. Different tactics, different pressure points etc. who knows?, but there is a whiff of familiarity about the whole thing these days and Arsene is getting on a bit. Having said that, yesterday was ugly.
Drake, that’s a good question….
Adam, had George Graham led that side out yesterday, I doubt we’d have lost….
Or Tony Adams!
You may be right Rico but when players cannot make simple passes and any sense of organisation vanishes you have to dig in and those reserves weren’t there yesterday. I could almost believe that they thought they would just have to show up and the chances would come. Surely not though. We got that out of our system last year didn’t we? 🙂
Rico A week ago i said when a board member goes public about our finance was to show that they back wenger.why does he not take the advantage?i wonder what is the hardest job to do,is it making this side win or signing players who are needed?im afraid he is failing at both,maybe it time to move on
an arsenal team led out by George Graham, with Adams as captain, at home to Coventry City lost 3-0 on the opening day of the 93/94 season
rico like every fan base we have fools, idiots and deluded included among our number, why pretend we don’t just cos the are Arsenal fans. Also I don’t see why anyone is upset at it being pointed out that Harris never said Wenger had £200M to spend on transfers and that this falsehood is one that is spouted by the poorer quality Arsenal blogs (as well as certain journos and media outlets) and those with a certain agenda, just like how NB is misquoted over the greatest striker thing. When these things go unopposed it gets to the point where a lot of people believe them as fact.
I always question what wenger says to the players during half time,he does not have motivational words with the players.when i watch other sides whether it a small or a bigger one you always see a change of reaction on players,which i have not seen with arsenal for some time now
Adam, I’ve never known so many players to have an off day at the same time.. Shame we have not got a player who could have knocked some sense into them at halftime….
Drake, if that was the intention of Lord Harris and that’s a big if, that would suggest to me that AW days are being numbered. That is of course if the owner and the rest of the board feel the same as LH….
I can see what you are saying though…..
Drake, or can I call you Ted, I agree, we Arsenal fans are family. And like all families we argue, bicker and name call…
For example, I often call Wath names like misery guts. 😀
Eduardo, do you honestly think I believe tha all Arsenal fans are perfect? Absolutely not but the difference between you and most here on HH is that we don’t feel the need to call categorise them or put them in a ‘deluded’ or ‘idiot’ box…
After all, freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, as is respect for others view despite not always sharing such a view…
Was the 1993/94 squad as strong as today’s??
Edoardo i can bet that 80m is avaliable for wenger to spend and we are not asking for expensive player,not every great player cost big money.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan – “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”
the 93/94 squad was full of league and cup winners, and players who would go on to win more leagues and cups.
Well Drake who are you asking Arsenal to sign.
rico, I don’t think anyone would begrudge you an early nite !
Kev ted would be nice lol
Rico, does the Board have any say in whether AW stays or goes?
Evening to all in the house.
So your view is factual Eduardo?
Evening, I think what Lord Harris was saying was, there is a healthy balance of more than £200million in the club’s accounts. And if needed we would back him to buy a top top player, to which we would most probably have to break the club record to get him.
Ha ha Micko, or perhaps an early season……
Eduardo i can name many but kramer and paco or austin will do for me,but i know if things keep on going bad i can see gotze(panic buy) who is not needed
BT, that my friend is a very good question…..
Think the board has little to no say in what goes on at Arsenal, they do what Krunkey instructs them…. They are there to keep the club ticking over but they make no decisions without the owners approval or say so..!
Dublin, exactly!
rico I do as much as I can to have a factual basis to the views I form. That is why for example I will not form the view that Wenger has £200M to spend on transfers.
Kroenke out then Wath! Mind you, we’ve said that for a while eh…..
Drake I don’t know the situation with Paco, but Kramer has stated that he does not want to leave Germany anytime soon.
Correct Wath, one man rules them all…
Yaya Sanogo scored a hat trick for Ajax in afriendly win v Umm Salal today
No-one has said Wenger has £200m to spend Eduardo, just saying spend some of the £200m that is in the bank….
When it comes to playing time, what the eye sees tells the truth more than most things imo….
Wenger of Kroenke Bt? Lol
Umm Salal, wow, Sanogo must be chuffed to get a few against such a strong side… ?
Now, that is a question Rico……..lol
Tough one eh Bt… Lol
Welcome back Emma. Miss your Twitter feeds.
I know we are all gutted about yesterday result and shambolic performance. Maybe we can give the boys a few games to see where we stand.
We deserved to lose. WHU were more clinical and worthy winners.
Cech will recover as he’s a consumate pro.
I agree with Emma that best pairing is LE Coq and SC19 in the middle.
AW must rotate depending on opposition. There will be away games when Ozil will not fancy an away day scrap. Likewise we will need TW some games to keep teams backline honest.
We have the squad to compete but AW must manage correctly and not care about upsetting the Crèche favourites.
Rico keep up the good work. Best Gooner Blog
Gooners Keep the Faith
Cheers
Rico,i think the old Syrup wins by a hair…..
Rico usmanov needs to be backed
rico many have said Wenger had £200M to spend on transfers, papers implied it, several arsenal blogs stated and comment sections have lots of it, arsenal fans on twitter spout it, even in this thread we have it stated in the comments
“AW has £200m at his disposable tospend on players he so chooses”
and when the poster of that was asked about it they replied that they were quoting Lord Harris.
So Lord Harris is being quoted but sadly its not an accurate quote.
Twitter went into meltdown 2 hrs ago,
Pogba had been spotted at Heathrow airport, and all Sky bets based on him have been suspended. Interesting.
Apparently city and chelsea fans getting veeerrry excited.
twitter full of rumors of an AFC €60M Benzema bid – approx £42.5M
good example Eduardo..
GG spent as much with the scums as AW did and he still had a mediocre defence.
Drake-Paco seems very good. I must admit I haven’t seen much of his except against the bigger teams so can’t comment further…
lord Harris
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/455595/Arsenal-director-Lord-Harris-Arsene-Wenger-has-a-200m-transfer-kitty-to-use-this-summer
serge did not make WBA squad tonight… 🙁
Thanks Andrew…
Think you are right re Coq and Santi, the odd thing is it hadn’t broken so why try fix it…..
Or a few hairs and a tube of pritt-stick Bt… Lol
Dublin, I would go into meltdown if Pogba is on his way to Arsenal….. ?
Who scored for Shitty?
Drake, many Arsenal fans don’t want ‘Jabba’, as he’s referred to, anywhere near the club. Not me I hasten to add….
Eduardo, I wasn’t on about LH comments…..
Micko I thought you were an ex- pro? 🙂
https://vine.co/v/ewIZwYF0Xuz
2-0 good finish
Toure 2 up already…
Eduardo I never for a second believe AW has £200m to spend if he chooses to.
What I was trying to imply was that we have some overhyped players but then when we lose Aw has to go and buy some new players who are also overhyped…
Arsenal opening day result after a long-haul overseas tour W1 D2 L2.
Previous 10 seasons W8 D2 L0.
Single malt, mostly from Islay are a favourite. I mostly don’t open a bottle very often as when I’ve started I have to……..! And it’s a dangerous thing to do! I may may be traumatised by Sunday’s debacle but it hasn’t driven me to drink…..yet!
Man City up and running then. We’re playing catch up already and we’ve only played one game!
Drake did you read about Hertha Berlin’s bus getting shot at?
Wavy, have you tried Talisker?
Unlucky Berahino
tsgh, that was my point re Austria earlier !
Not that it matters an iota but I bet Cech never lost an opening day home fixture for the Chav’s, no pressure next week.
Ts, i saw that last night, what’s that all about?…Think only the driver was present at the time.
Road rage apparently..
Toure scored a record 12th goal from outside the box… highest over 6 years period
ha ha ha ha….
Valbuena has joined Lyon for £3.5m. Bit of a kick in the teeth for OM who retired his no.28 shirt last Summer.
I’m off guys, night all….
Bt- are you watching Seville vs Barca in the supercup tomorrow?
I am sad to see Immobile fail at BVB and joining Sevilla.
That’s a bit rough, must have really pissed someone off…
Night rico…
micko, I thought you skipped my stats? 🙂
It must be said Pulis is making some solid signings
Night Rico, enjoy your evening….
Shaqiri about to join stoke… whoa… the mid table teams are catching up…
Dev-Alessio Romagnoli set to join milan from Roma for deal worth £21.2m.
Hopefully i will catch some of it Ts. I had forgot about it to honest, ta for the reminder.
Just think if Wenger had his way we wouldn’t be doing pre-seasons in Asia and Africa, he knows Austria like the back of his hand, it’s all about the money, we just gotta spend it on our record signing now !
I thought the Shaqiri deal was of Ts?
Heard an interesting fact, today. the last 5 winners of the premier league, played their first match of the campaign on a monday night.
Micko- I take it you are a fun of the old school high attitude training?
Aw was never keen on the Far east tour but for man who who leads us to believe he makes all the footballing related decisions, he was overruled by IG who allegedly is the yes man of AW. lol
WBA is with us at the bottom of the table…
Is it Bt?-Re. shaqiri deal
Who Micko?
True Dg re. your stats about MNF and EPL winners
Its actually the team that does not play at 3’oclock on saturday tends to win…
Ts, i read it yesterday i think but things change….lol
Yeah, run till you puke tsgh…….these days it’s more about who can do the best belly flop in the swimming pool !
Bt, only Adam knows but he’s keeping schtum and Drakes source of course !
I know Micko, Adam is not giving anything away..
Interesting, it was reported Saturday and then Sunday and now today, that Benzema is flying in for his medical…
Three days to fly from Madrid to London?
Is he travelling by balloon?
Night Rico…
He’s taking the Jules Verne route.
Iberia Airlines…..hhmmm.
Either that, or he’s coming by canoe BT..
Malaga gooner must be flying him over. 🙂
bender took off from Cologne airport 4 summers ago in Mg’s private jet and he still hasn’t arrived yet. 😉
It’s all a conspiracy Ginge
A canoe with no paddles…..
That’s me done…
Night BT
Night Ginge
Night All
And Mick
Apparently, the reason why bellerin was missing yesterday was, he had to pick Benzema up from the airport. Lol. you have to laugh.
🙂 Kev
Well if its all pre-determined then no wonder Aw has his book of excuses at the ready for every defeat. 😉
Night Kev, have a good one…
Kev, re 9.30 cracked me up,
night all
Dublin, it was all too convienient for me him pulling a muscle, knew there was more to it !
Nite kev, keep it real.
Nite Gooners.
By, yes I have tried it. I still have the empty to proof it!
Tonight was a real triumph for us, we are no longer bottom of the table and ripe for relegation. I hope I’m not speaking too soon!
Nite all.
By= Bt. It’s at it again! It’s neither gin nor whisky it’s Apple!
10 of 30 goals on 1st wkend of Prem Lge scored by African players. Mahrez 2, Yaya 2, Ighalo, Cisse, Ayew, Kone, Gestede, Kouyate.
Night all
Night Ts or is it…..
It’s neither gin nor whisky it’s Apple!
Calvados ???
Kev, pie and mash?
What happened to toast for breakfast…….
Morning Lee and all..
What a shock again,never see that coming,
Managing a team ain’t that easy,when
you think and the players think 3 points,
before the game starts.
But..Criticism has to be dished out.
So..Ramsey running around like a headless chicken.
where was he playing,he worked hard with his
head down.
Santi where was he playing..not once did
we see his Hamsteads..He hated it.
Ozil..Marked out of the game.But tried.
All we really had was the Ox.
No service up front..Hard to judge
The great Petre……Cocks up twice.
Maybe Ramsey will end up centre mid.
but not yet.
Wenger blamed the players,in the press.
We will see next game how we line up,
I hope he admits he got it wrong and reverts
back to Santi/Coq balance or gets a back up
in there.
Morning all.
Fred, players were to blame, but so was Arsene 🙂
Morning Rico and HHers…
Where are you Scott and Dev.. you must be cyber skulking. 😉
Another dull and grey day. You wouldn’t believe it is early August.
Morning All…
Morning Rico…
Hiya Lee, day off today.
Stuff to do and all that shit.
This week for sure.
Will text… 🙂
Bendtner quotes…
The over-confident striker responded to questions regarding his future at Arsenal by telling Danish reporters: “I’m going somewhere where I know I can be happy to play. With a team where I can score goals and preferably to win something. I do not want to sit on the bench and staring. I love playing lots of games.” When asked which clubs would be able to offer him that, he responded: “Real Madrid and Barcelona”.
“I want to be top scorer in the Premier League, top scorer at the World Cup and, within five years, I want to be among the best strikers in the world. Trust me, it will happen. I look around at other players, I see my own ability and I can’t see anything that tells me it won’t happen, I’m sure people will think ‘What is he talking about?’ But as I have done before, and as I will do again, I will sit at the other end and laugh at those people when it is all
done.”
“If you ask me if I am one of the best strikers in the world, I’d say ‘yes’ because I believe it.”
“I should start every game, I should be playing every minute of every match and always be in the team.”
“My body is my livelihood and I was desperate to find out if I was OK. So I took off all my clothes, even my pants, picked up a wing mirror that had come off the car and checked myself over, front and back. Then I climbed back into the car to find my phone. First I called my dad, to tell him I’d had an accident but that I was OK. Then I rang the club to say I’d be late for training.”
Cool Kev….
Morning Ts and Kev…
Morning folks,
Quotes from a young confident player. Unfortunately ones that left him exposed to social media scrutiny and ridicule. It’s too easy nowadays for people to take the juice in public and start a trend which goes as they say “” Viral “”. Bendtner was a good player that had he been handled better could have been the £42 million striker that everyone is crying out for, however the celebrity circuit got to him . Something that Raheem Sterling needs to be wary of.
Come on Lee, you know those words from NB were made up by some idiots….
New post up now…