Morning all.
We desperately need a centre back, even Arsene Wenger has admitted that. He’s even hinted a signing one in January, not that that always means much but this time I think he’s telling the truth.
Over the other side of London, West Ham to be precise, Winston Reid is in his last year of contract. The Mirror suggest that he’s the man Arsene Wenger wants in January.
Of course rumours like this are inevitable but having watched him and his fellow team-mates limit a very strong Man City strike force, my own view is that he’d be a darn good signing. He’s tall too at 6′ 3″ and that’s something we lack at the back. West Ham are desperate to keep him and still hope that he’ll sign a new contract and I can understand why, he’s good.
Mind you, what a great performance all round by West Ham on Saturday, Big Sam seems to have his players well organised and disciplined, something which wouldn’t go amiss at Arsenal. Even Alex Song looked so much better than he did during his days of plodding around in our midfield. Going to Upton Park will be a difficult trip for many clubs this season if Saturdays performance is anything to go by…
We finally managed a victory and a clean sheet all in one game which makes a refreshing change. Like us all no doubt, Arsene Wenger is happy about that:
If you’re not capable of keeping clean sheets, you don’t move forward because if you always have to score three goals to win a game, at some stage it doesn’t work, so I’m happy..
[It was] very pleasing. [The team was] very focused, very united, very concentrated not to make mistakes.
In the end we got a good win with a clean sheet on top. I’m very happy about that.
It’s all very well not conceding against Sunderland but what we have to now do is keep those clean sheets more often and against sides which offer more up front and the next few fixtures will certainly put us to the test.
Up next for us is Burnley at home, Anderlecht at home and then Swansea away before we go into another boring International break.
I’m quietly confident we’ll keep Burnley out even though Danny Ings is a tricky little player but the other two sides possess a pretty good attacking force. If we can come out of all three with not only maximum points but more clean sheets, things will look a whole lot better.
A big if I know….
Are injury list still doesn’t look so good though as Kieran Gibbs is expected to be out for at least a couple of weeks. But Laurent Koscielny should return immediately after the international break and Theo Walcott is expected to feature this coming weekend having been on the bench on Saturday. Serge Gnabry could also be part of the squad as he stepped up his return on Saturday with the under 21’s.
All we need now is good news on Olivier Giroud, Mathieu Debucy, David Ospina and Mesut Ozil. Oh, and who knows, Abou Diaby might one day be fit and ready to play…..
That’s it for Monday, have a good day all….
morning all!
At that moment, Song is better like a DM then Flamini or Arteta.
Agree JM…
Reblogged this on FixSports.
Have to agree , Sad isn’t it , not saying that he would be my preferred choice but neither are the other two.
Just how I feel Potter…
Oh dear, another day, another transfer rumour – not your fault Rico.
Depressingly Reid would have made an excellent signing in the summer, when we had the same number of points as Chelsea.
Steve, they’ll get worse as we head towards Christmas…
Yes, shame we didn’t get him or someone similar in the summer but I bet AW looked at him and saw his contract situation and started rubbing his hands together…!
afternoon. bank holiday here in ireland, Just watching the dublin marathon go by. great sight to see.I keeps saying maybe one year, but never do it. Rico any views on how wenger, will accomodate both walcott and sanchez, I,d play sanchez on the right ,Walcott on the left, with the option to put Ox on the right ,and move sanchez in to play
off welbeck. Frightening pace, no doubt.
Dublin, I’d like to see Theo on the left, makes sense to me…
definitely looking forward to having him back, and playing alongside Sanchez and welbeck.
You and me both, the pace on show will be frightening. Just hope it all clicks…
Sadly i think we,re still missing that certain type of player,with the vision to make these players truly thrive with defence splitting balls, That we had a chance to bring back in the summer. I just dont think we have that type of player anymore.
Ozil could be that player though….. He would be if played centrally more often, and if he was fit of course.. lol
I see the Totts are trying to get Diarra on a freebie…
Afternoon All,
Reading the Ox’s comments on the hard work Sanchez puts In on the training ground,
and then reading the comments about how lucky he was to score 2 goals,
it reminded me of the famous golfie Gary Player’s comment:
…………………..”The harder you practice, the luckier you get”……………………….
Nice post
Seems we played 4-2-3-1 formation on Saturday.I didn’t see †̥ђƺ game but we didn’t perform well.I wish Wenger could swallow his ego and play †̥ђƺ right team and why is welbeck playing every match?
Diarra on a freebie, he will still demand a hefty pay package, could of been a Q.P.R player in september,Deal fell through late on.
This week it’s Winston Reid…
Last week is was some Dutch guy from Celtic, Van Der Valk or what’s his name?
The week before it wax Mats Hummels (always a fantasy rumour imo)…
Next week it’ll probably be Les Compton…
Frankly I’d like to see Hayden given a chance before Wenger spunks a load of cash on some superstar….
Very good post Rico btw….
Fred, shame a few more can’t put in the kind of shift Alexis does….
Thanks Sukky/Kev
Hope to see 2/3 rested this weekend but as Kev said the other day, the stubborn one is more likely to run Welbeck and Alexis into the ground..
That’s what he does…
Yes Rico, he isn’t gonna take any risks, but after a weeks rest, they should all be ok anyway…
Walcotf might come off of the bench vs Burnley and then start against Anderlecht….
There’s no point in the Belgian club defending as they need a result against us, so Theo could have some joy in that game…
I can’t recall where I recently read it, but I did see a comment re: Mertesaker holding his groin at the end of the Sunderland game. 🙁
He did hold his groin Kev, but seemed to run it off…
I’d have thought Burnley was the game to rest 2/3 though, play Tomas, Campbell etc…
Walcott-alexie-ox will be mouthwatering
Afternoon Rico.
Excellent post. I wouldn’t underestimate Burnley myself. Knowing how fragile our home mentality is, all it would need is for us to concede and then who knows? Another afternoon of nail biting at the Emirates? No thanks.
Afternoon Adam, thanks..
Not underestimating Burnley but surely at some stage Welbeck, Alexis etc need time out. Surely Campbell and Rosicky are due a start….
Personally, I think Rosicky playing might just give us a bit of spark. Certainly a lot more than Santi is doing at the moment….
Rico. The whole Rosicky thing and the Podolski and Campbell situations are odd in my opinion.
Agreed about giving the guys a rest but they do have a whole week between games.
Adam, they are odd to me too and I suspect the players wonder what they have to do to get a game. I know they have a week off but then it’s two games in four days…
Fido keeps nudging me so best I take her for a walk, back in a bit…..
It’s getting dark out there……..
Still mild though Rico.
It is Adam. 21 degrees tomorrow….
Super.
As we all know,Wenger is not a fan of rotation.He will use welbeck and alexie until they can’t lift a finger again.Is a strong DM really our problem or †̥ђƺ way †̥ђƺ team is set up?
Bit of both id say….
Or should I say a lot of both… lol
DM won’t make us unscoreable,if †̥ђƺ team is not set up well,it will experience heavy defeats †̥ђis season.Last season,spurs have some physical players(that we call destroyers we want),dembele,sandro,capoue etc and they suffered many super heavy defeat last season.If Wenger bring him xabi alonso tonight,that doesn’t mean anything will change if Wenger don’t set †̥ђƺ team properly.
I personally believe a good strong Cdm would solve many problems, not all I know…
All quiet here so I’m off. Night all….
A DM of quality takes a hell of a lot of pressure of the back 4 which means out entire defensive unit works better, so of course we need one, and that would solve 90% of on field issues.
The other 10% won’t ever improve under Wenger because, as I’ve always said, he WAS never, and never will be a great tactical manager.
With the right players, it is not an issue, and I maintain that’s correct.
Look at the Invincibles……how many games were won or saved due to brilliant tactical changes??
Dennis.
Thierry.
Pires.
Adams.
Start with that core and you are a long way to winning any game.
Evening to the house. I know its late but there is some good news today.
Hayden, Bellerin and Akpom have today been promoted to the first team squad, long overdue ln my opinion.
That really is great news Rick and well overdue as you say…
Wenger may as well give these lads as much game time as he can in the EPL, as we ain’t winning the bloody thing any time soon and with the in/out form of our rivals, a top four finish should be the absolute minimum we should expect…
The penne was memorable, the company convivial and the jasmine tea quite superb…
Thanks buddy 😉
You are more than welcome Kev.
Morning Adam, Kev and all….
Nice morning…..
Morning all.
Great news on the kids.
Morning Scott, it sure is!
Morning Rico and all.
Morning All,
Love all the respect Sanchez is getting from the arsenal players,
Alexis Sanchez has fire in his eyes, like Vieira and Fabregas.
Balotelli could learn from Sanchez’s pressing and dynamism.
Welbeck is the latest in the line after Arsene Wenger, Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini to praise Man of the Moment Alexis Sanchez. Sanchez is Arsenal’s top scorer with 8 goals.
But the bit I like the best from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain:
He sees similarities with Luis Suarez, a description suggested a week earlier by Ian Wright.
After missing out on Suarez,…………has Wenger lite up a BIG Lah-de-dah.
Morning Fred,
Respect which is totally deserved..
Shame someone posted a headline on NN yesterday suggesting we are close to becoming a one man team. Some fans can never be pleased eh….
I remember saying he’d turn out our version of Suarez a few months back 🙂
But he’s not a goal scorer/striker ‘some’ suggested Scott… 😉
I might suggest we wait a while longer before giving Sanchez too many labels. When he went to Barcelona he played a different role from his previous one in Italy. As our team is in a constant state of flux I reckon the hardest part will be to persuade him to stay beyond the first season.
Did you get out the wrong side this morning Adam?? 😉
He’s not a centre forward in the traditional sense but he knows where the goal is . Albeit neither was Suarez. With Walcott , Cazorla , The Ox and Podolski , Welbeck and Sanchez rotated we have all the attributes to play the false 9 using pace rather than hold up play. when Giroud comes back we have plan “b” . Interesting times , all we have to sort now is the defensive side of midfield .The back 4 will sort out if the walking dead come back on schedule . We just have to hold on to the coat tails of the leaders and be in the pack at the new year.
Not at all Rico. Just trying to inject a touch of realism. :).
He’s got a way to go, but Sanchez is most definitely on the right track.
Agree Potter, the defence is a worry but going forward, things might be about to look a lot better….
Adam, got to enjoy the positives when they are around and Alexis is certainly that. I can’t see him leaving or even wanting to. He doesn’t look like a quitter to me and he must have known what AW dishes up. We all do…
Ok Rico.
I didn’t think you’d concede so easily Adam… 🙂
I feel the tide of optimism is against me Rico. 🙂
🙂 Adam, it’s with me this morning…..
Good to see 🙂
It’s always with me really Scott… 🙂
It just hides, on occasions hahahaha
🙂 Scott, when it comes to match day and transfer windows usually……. lol
And the Kroenke family…!
Dortmund 15th in the Bundesliga not had a clean sheet all season!
Hi Lee, hard to believe that after the way they battered us with ease….
New Post up now….