Official Gooners Thread - A New Hope

[Norf Tyrone]

First away since January isn't that impressive of form.

Hopefully now with a more rigid schedule it can focus the players a bit better.

Some goal by Luiz!

[gerry]

I know Everton are a good side and still have something to play for. Hopefully it's not the start if the a a slide

[Main Street]

I haven't seen much of Fulham but I thought they were quite good against Arsenal earlier this season and considering they had Arsenal on the ropes at Craven Cottage last season when Arsenal had the remnants of a top team, one can reasonably suspect a repeat of last season's win for Fulham.
Jol has a good record against Wenger, since he took charge at Fulham.

Arsenal board should consider giving Pellegrini a call. What's the worst that can happen?
You'd think, considering how quick Chelsea dispose of managers, that an Arsenal with cash available to build a team, would be the perfect challenge for Pellegrini. Pellegrini is more Arsenal than Chelsea.

[Dinny Breen]

 

bad result yesterday and tonight for us

Didn't think it was that bad, Gerry. Everton are a good side. Spurs yet to play City and Chelsea. Chelsea have the Euro games to be thinking about as well as Spurs and Everton.

Need to be beating Fulham on Sat. Draw that and it's uphill.

What's that they say about teams who win while playing poorly. Falling over the UCL qualification line....

[Main Street]

What's that they say about teams who win while playing poorly ....... against 10 men?

I suspect that in the future, the name Sidwell (whenever mentioned) will raise a happy memory and yet some bemusement at the same time, as in a bizarre (assist) intervention which happened along the way.

[Dinny Breen]

What's that they say about teams who win while playing poorly ....... against 10 men?

I suspect that in the future, the name Sidwell (whenever mentioned) will raise a happy memory and yet some bemusement at the same time, as in a bizarre (assist) intervention which happened along the way.

[ONeill]

That was a dreadful last 20 mins to watch. The Gods are smiling on the Arse.

[tyroneman]

Massive win for spurs today. Arsenal barely scraping past poor teams. Will (as usual) be destroyed by Utd and will have to pray Chelsea and a.n.other do them some favours..

This is the tipping point season. At least every other year Arsenal have had a world class player to bail  them out. This year THFC have that player and Arsenal are stuck with the likes of Arteta and Ramsey.

The Diaby experiment was doomed to failure.  He's not even that good when fit.

Carzola is a less effective, less consistent Mata. A nice cog in a good team. Not the main man.

Wilshire is just back from (another) injury and Arsenal really need to find his best position. At present he is far from the saviour of English football.

Gervinho. Lets just say it hasn't worked in the EPL and leave it at that.

Gotta wonder how Verm has gone so badly downhill.
Giroud is a decent player with a solid return for his first season (more than Bergkamp and RvP in theirs) and should not be blamed.

Players in positions of need like Loris, Vertongen etc  were available - Spurs bought, Arsenal didn't. Blame lies either with the board or Wenger........

[ONeill]

What ever happened to that waster Van Persie?

[Dinny Breen]

What ever happened to that waster Van Persie?

He was no Jeremie Aliadiere.

Hope Man Utd go on the beer for the week.

[front of the mountain]

What do the Gunners & Ryan Giggs have in common???

Ans: Same amount of league titles......

[ONeill]

That is absolutely brilliant. Well done.

[muppet]

What do the Gunners & Ryan Giggs have in common???

Ans: Same amount of league titles......

Both scored with a late ball to Thomas.

[CorkMan]

It think I posted something like this before but,

Why Arsenal really COULD get Cesc Fabregas back.....

There has been an eruption of Arsenal rumours lately suggesting that Cesc Fabregas' emotional return to Barcelona has gone wrong and he is now regularly left on the bench. This could have something to do with his old "father" Pep Guardiola leaving the club last summer, and it seems that the new coach Tito Villanova wants to offload the ex-Arsenal captain to fund some new arrivals during the coming transfer window.

Obviously just because Barca don't want him doesn't mean he'll return to Arsenal. Or does it? Well the Mirror is reporting that as Barcelona were negotiating a cut-price return for their prodigal son, they also agreed that Arsenal would have first refusal if they decided to sell at some point in the future, and not only that but Barca would have to give the Gunners FIFTY PER CENT of the fee if Cesc was sold to any other club!

With that premise Barcelona would make much less money if Fabregas went somewhere other than Arsenal, and if you add to that the fact that Barca bought Cesc in installments which are still to be paid to us then it all starts to make sense that the best and most logical thing for Barcelona to do is to let Fabregas return to the Emirates.

I am sure that Wenger would like nothing more than to bring back his prodigy, as he said when the sale finally went through. Wenger said: "We sold Cesc for a reduced fee. If he was on the market to any club, we would have got more money; but we wanted to get a decent fee.

"You cannot say, because you want to get the deal done as quickly as possible, 'Just take him and give us what you want.' You have to fight for your rights.

"If Cesc is for sale and you can make an auction between Real Madrid, Chelsea, Man City, you will certainly get more money, but he just wanted to go to Barcelona.

"Cesc has given us eight years. It was a pleasure to work with him on a daily basis. I didn't know how determined Barcelona was to go to the end of this deal.

"But I think he was quite clear in his head. If you understand one thing, it is Cesc did not go for financial reasons, or that he did not love this club – Cesc went because he was desperate to play for his home town where he was educated.

"You know how highly I rate him. I think he is one of the best midfielders in the world for sure."

So although yesterday it seemed like Fabregas returning to Arsenal seemed to be unattainable, in reality it is LIKELY to happen if Barcelona do decide he is surplus to requirements...

http://justarsenal.com/why-arsenal-really-could-get-cesc-fabregas-back/22441

[gerry]

worth a read before tomorrow

This Sunday every Arsenal fans worst nightmare is happening. When Van Persie left and joined Man United in the Summer, there was always the possibility that he would win the league. Now he returns to the Emirates for the first time as a League Champion, and the Arsenal players will be giving the United team a guard of Honour.

As much as every Arsenal fan would love to vent their anger at Van Persie and jeer the Guard of Honour, the fans should instead change their attention to the board.

All the boards fault

Every year Arsenal fans have become accustomed to losing their best players during the summer, from Fabregas to Nasri to Van Persie last summer. These players leave and the board takes in all the money, without spending it on quality replacements. It is for this reason why the players are leaving.

When our best players are continually sold and not replaced, while ticket prices increase, it shows how our board lack ambition and are only after profit, so why would any player want to stay and play in a mediocre team when they could be off winning titles.

As much as Gunners may be in uproar with players decisions to leave, most notably Van Persie and Samir Nasri, you have to ask the question, can you really blame them? Since they left the Gunners they have both vindicated their decision to leave by winning the league (with Nasri looking set to add an FA Cup), whilst Arsenal have stagnated.

Don't disrespect the guard of honour

Many Arsenal fans will be looking at Sunday's game for a chance to take aim at Van Persie, and disrespect the Guard of Honour. I would suggest not to do this.

Arsenal is a club built on strong traditions and class, and to disrespect Van Persie or the Guard of Honour, would show a complete lack of class, diminishing what Arsenal stand for.

Instead Arsenal fans should turn their attention to the board, whose sole intent appears to be to increase their wealth, while Arsenal fall further behind the other clubs in the league, as we currently sit 21 points behind united. This simply is not good enough.

If Arsenal want to compete again in the near future then things need to change at board level, and we need to keep our best players, as well as spending the 'warchest' which we a promised each transfer window.

The board need a kick start to get them spending, so it is up to Arsenal fans to show the board what they think.