Official Gooners Thread - A New Hope

[ildanach]

With the oportunity for a 5 point lead available, it is important to go for it with a 4-4-2. An ealy goal will settle us down and then take it from there. Lehmann, Sagna, Hoyte, Gallas, Clichy, Diaby, Flamini,Cesc, Hleb, Eduadro & Adeybayor. I would rather see Hoyte in the middly than gilberto at this stage. He has pace and mccarthy & santa cruz could be a handful. Lets hope bently doesn't come back with a point to prove . I predict 3-1 (hopefully!!!) . 

[ONeill]

Sendhimhome

[Dinny Breen]

Well they passed that test but never looked comfortable at 1-0. Helb was excellent, the maligned Gilberto was good and Cesc looked like he was returing to form and Flamini was again the heart beat of this team. Adebayor was terrible all night but took his goal brilliantly...no Toure, no RVP, no Rosicky.....looking good......

[The Real Laoislad]

They have played the best football of any club in the Premier League this year
They deserve to win it,I hope they do

[ziggysego]

They deserve to win it,I hope they do

Over Liverpool?

[The Real Laoislad]

They deserve to win it,I hope they do

Over Liverpool?

Ziggy there is more chance of Tyrone winning the Liam McCarthy than Liverpool winning the Premier League this year.....

[ONeill]

Passed the first test is correct. Senderos was fine again and he'll feel a little hard done by when Toure returns. Hleb has been effective all year and the Flamini-Fabregas-Hleb partnership is blossoming brilliantly. Adebayor had an off-night but was mighty determined to keep his run going and forged three chances towards the end. Eduardo is also increasing in confidence and will also feel a little cheesed off if RVP automatically replaces him. The speed and strength at which Clichy, Sagna and Gallas fire accurate passes at each other is frightening.

Lehmann's hop, skip and jump before the kick-outs is sublime. Nutter.

Onto Utd in the cup. Because of the way Arsenal's title challenge is panning out, it's away down in the list of priorities. Does a victory for either offer a psychological advantage?

[Minder]

arsenal should send out their youth team for united game

[Billys Boots]

Lehmann's hop, skip and jump before the kick-outs is sublime

Is Almunia injured?

[Declan]

Enjoyed that game last night and thought Blackburn played really well. Arsenal are a joy to watch when they move the ball at pace. League is over

[ONeill]

Lehmann's hop, skip and jump before the kick-outs is sublime

Is Almunia injured?

Yes, some kind of thumb injury. Lehmann's performed well since.

As for the league being over - Arsenal have yet to visit Old Trafford and Stamford. All it takes is one black patch and this week will seem a million years ago.

[ildanach]

[Yes, some kind of thumb injury. Lehmann's performed well since.

As for the league being over - Arsenal have yet to visit Old Trafford and Stamford. All it takes is one black patch and this week will seem a million years ago.

Your right there, but the one thing it does,is it creates a little breathing space. 
With regard to the cup game at the weekend. It is a tough one to call especially with  the champions league game on wednesday night. If we field a weakened team then any psycological advantage utd would gain is out the window. I think we will go with a full team though. Although i fancy man utd to take it. As long as we get a least a point in the league game there i will settle for that!

[ONeill]

I wonder if Utd will also have one eye on the trip to Lyon. I'd like to see:

Lehmann
Eboue - Hoyte - Toure - Traore
Walcott - Song - Gilberto - Hleb (If Diaby or Denilson fit - start them)
Eduardo - Bendtner

Give rests to: Sagna, Gallas, Clichy, Fabregas, Flamini and Adebayor (or on bench).

[ONeill]

Adebayor - Henry is keeping me focused on the title


By Richard Clarke

Emmanuel Adebayor has revealed that Thierry Henry is helping to keep him motivated for the title run-in.

The Togolese striker scored his 19th Premier League goal of the campaign on Monday night as Arsenal beat Blackburn 2-0 to go five points clear at the top of the table.

It is a far cry from the pre-season predictions of doom and gloom; much of which was based on Henry's departure to Barcelona. Since then Adebayor has filled his shooting boots with aplomb but the Frenchman is still having an influence.

"Thierry to me is like a big brother," said the 23-year-old in the tunnel less than an hour after the match. "He already sent a message to me after the game to congratulate me.

"He talked to me a lot during the summer when he was leaving, he calls me and we have a lot of chats. He believes in my strength and my quality so I just want to thank him a lot because he helped me out a lot.

"A lot of times he sends me messages saying that I may have scored 15 or 16 but I know you can score more if you concentrate in every game.

"That is what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to listen to the advice and at the moment it's working so I'm very happy. I think Thierry keeps in touch with a lot of people [here]."

Monday's victory put a little daylight between Arsenal and the chasing pair. However, if anything, it only adds to the pressure on Wenger's side. As the questions to Adebayor demonstrated.

"I don't know about it being our title to lose," he replied to one. "The feeling I have is that we have a good squad, we want to win it and we can achieve it. So we just have to keep doing our job and enjoy ourselves on the pitch.

"Five points [clear] is very good and we are very happy. Like we always said, the title is really something this year but we know Man United can always come from behind somewhere. We just want to keep our focus and keep what we are doing at the moment.

"We are enjoying ourselves on the pitch," he concluded. "We can talk about whether we win the title at the end of the season."

Arse.com

[new devil]

Enjoyed that game last night and thought Blackburn played really well. Arsenal are a joy to watch when they move the ball at pace. League is over