Stoke v Arsenal 19/08/17

[Globalgunner]

A belated match thread...is this forum still alive?

Hope we win.....Doubt we will

[Gooner23]

:tumbleweed:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experience/cps/480/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2017/8/19/820f392b-c275-470c-a657-b40ef44c074c.png

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/live-experience/cps/480/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2017/8/19/77004a55-f5ac-4005-98ab-779d172b5eae.png

[Globalgunner]

Psycho strikes again.
2 FBs as CBs. Against an Orc team managed by that cunt Hughes
Has Holding been dumped because of 1 bad game against the Foxes. Hes still better than Monreal as CB.

[Gooner23]

Bizarre from Wenger. Asking for trouble playing Monreal again in the centre. Was expecting Merts to slot in there.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Cech comes out to smother Jese.

[Niall_Quinn]

Stoke keeping it very simple, using tactics that are way beyond Wenger's comprehension. Like all opposition tactics.

[Niall_Quinn]

Bizarre from Wenger. Asking for trouble playing Monreal again in the centre. Was expecting Merts to slot in there.

Where's Kos? Is he injured already?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Zouma on loan. :rolleyes:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Where's Kos? Is he injured already?

He's still suspended.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Shit touch from Bellerin.

[Niall_Quinn]

Great coordination between the orcs on the pitch and the orcs in the sties. When a pitch orc commits an act of violence, the sty orcs boo when the victim goes down.

[Niall_Quinn]

He's still suspended.

Ah yes. His name is not Pogba.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Welbz scuffer or missed it completely?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Erik Pieters-Peters.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Mustafi. :lol:

[Niall_Quinn]

Hold on, Bellerin is on the left? WTF?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Ramsey gets an effort on target, bundled over a bit.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Hold on, Bellerin is on the left? WTF?

Makes more sense than Ox being there.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Good effort from Xhaka to Welbeck.

[Niall_Quinn]

Is Ozil a big Duran Duran fan then?

[Globalgunner]

Hold on, Bellerin is on the left? WTF?

Beyond your comprehension my friend. Leave thinking to the people who have made 50,000 substitutions.

[Niall_Quinn]

Makes more sense than Ox being there.

More like Le Nutter is determined to play every member of the squad in that position at least once. Some sort of bingo thing maybe?

[Penguin]

Welbeck wtf was that?!

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Butland saves from Welbz.

[Niall_Quinn]

Not a bad effort by Welbz, at least he got it on target.

[Penguin]

Bellerin was too weak and indecisive there. Playing them onside the whole move too.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Chupo-Moting. :lol:

[Niall_Quinn]

Luckily Moting doesn't know how to play football.

[Niall_Quinn]

Bellerin was too weak and indecisive there. Playing them onside the whole move too.

He's getting used to his new position I suppose. Next week he'll be in goal.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Shaqiri's hamstring. :rose:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Berahino on for Shaqiri.

[Penguin]

Xhaka overhits that pass. At least we're looking to go over the top and in behind today. Lacazette's tried to put Welbeck through two or three times already too.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Fuck off Butland.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

That was a pathetic corner routine.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Graham Poll...technically it's a penalty.

Would you gave given it Graham?

No I wouldn't.

:wacko:

[Niall_Quinn]

Are they seriously asking Graham Poll to say he'd give Arsenal a pen? What a stupid question.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Great clearance from Shawcross.

[Niall_Quinn]

Shawcross for England?

[Penguin]

Bellerin :haha:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Stay on a wing Hector.

[Niall_Quinn]

Why haven't we sold Bellerin to Barca yet?

[Penguin]

Xhaka needs to stop being so casual when there are players around him. We can't afford to lose the ball in that position.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Shots on target. :bow:

[Niall_Quinn]

If I was forced to enthusiastically make the comparison, I'd say Lacazette is about 50 times better than Lukaku. He just has more about has game, like control, passing and a brain.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Why haven't we sold Bellerin to Barca yet?

It's a bit harsh to during a match.

[Penguin]

Ox :doh:

He's better when he doesn't have to think :lol:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

I don't know what that even is from Ox.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

If that doesn't sum up the Ox I don't know what would.

[Penguin]

How was that not a foul on Ozil?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Why put it out of play?

[Penguin]

Why did we kick the ball out? Clear time wasting <_<

[Niall_Quinn]

Get a shovel and scoop him off the pitch FFS!

[Globalgunner]

HT.0-0. Two very average looking teams.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

0-0 HT. Pah.

[Niall_Quinn]

Ramsey penalised for not touching Butland.

Fucking appalling ref tbf.

HT 0-0

A real pub affair.

Xhaka and Ramsey dire.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Throw a few squares of grass turf on him and play. Prick.

Sooo many brainless individual moments, a general lack urgency and real sloppy play all over.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Had some nice slick passing moves at times but screwed them up in the final third.

Also some decent moments on the transition but predictably Ox decides to have his brain farts then.

Still promising though - as long as we can keep it clean at the back we should be able to score and win this.

[hobson's choice]

Welbeck is such a liability going forward. Not a fan of the Ramsey and Xhaka pairing, too much potential issues, with this pairing. One is too slow, the other doesn't seem to know he's playing the cm position.

Ozil offering nothing again.

[Niall_Quinn]

Poll insisting that an incident happening right in front of the ref's eyes can't be seen.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Poll insisting that an incident happening right in front of the ref's eyes can't be seen.

He isn't incorrect.

[Edinburgh Gooner]

That was a pelanty clear as day.

[Niall_Quinn]

He isn't incorrect.

Ref's insanity is final.

[Niall_Quinn]

For the next 45 Ramsey should abandon his role of marking Ozil and drop back a bit and do his fucking job.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-0 Jese. Shite.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Cock!

[hobson's choice]

Lose the ball in the central midfield, and our cms are nowhere to be found:rolleyes:

[Niall_Quinn]

Simple 10 yard pass - given away - defence asleep - goal conceded. We've been SHIT in the middle today.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Awful goal to conceed. Ball lost in midfield and a straight run back at our back three.

[Niall_Quinn]

Wenger plays 3 at the back, plays the wide men out of position, gives Ramsey license to abandon the midfield on a whim. Inspired stuff, but it's not working. He needs to revert to sanity.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Hate agree with slippy and McMannamam but it's way too easy to score against us!

[Globalgunner]

Awful goal to conceed. Ball lost in midfield and a straight run back at our back three.

We`ve been doing that for a decade now. Its not a problem, apparently.

[Niall_Quinn]

We need to break the orcs down now, so what's required is a lot of square passing.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Wenger plays 3 at the back, plays the wide men out of position, gives Ramsey license to abandon the midfield on a whim. Inspired stuff, but it's not working. He needs to revert to sanity.

The problem isn't the formation it's the players and manager.

[Niall_Quinn]

How much time does Welbeck think he's going to get on the ball? And what, in his career in the PL, has led him to conclude he has all the time in the world?

[Niall_Quinn]

The problem isn't the formation it's the players and manager.

Formation is fine, provided you at least stick a midfield in front of that back 3.

[Gooner23]

And have a centre back at centre back

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Handball?

[Niall_Quinn]

None of the officials seem to be able to see anything today. Perhaps they should get their eyesight tested. Poll chips in to confirm, no pen for Arsenal. Shocker.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

FFS Welbeck.

[Munchies]

:coffee:

normal day eh

ArsenalFanTV :popcorn:

[Niall_Quinn]

Just awful by Bellerin.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

FFS Bellerin you're meant to be a better finisher than that.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Welbeck shoulders it over.

[Penguin]

Welbeck :doh:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

FFS Bellerin you're meant to be a better finisher than that.

Is he? :lol:

[Niall_Quinn]

It's all just random with Welbz.

[Penguin]

Why are we strolling around like we're winning 1-0? Show some urgency FFS!

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Is he? :lol:

Don't you remember all those well finished goals he scored for us when he first broke into the team?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Ramsey poker.

[Globalgunner]

Why are we strolling around like we're winning 1-0? Show some urgency FFS!

Just because you are behind in the scoreline does not necessarily mean you`re losing

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Cech saves from Berahino.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Why are we strolling around like we're winning 1-0? Show some urgency FFS!

This is the ideal scoreline.

[Niall_Quinn]

Don't you remember all those well finished goals he scored for us when he first broke into the team?

He's had plenty of time to train with Wenger since then.

Meanwhile Cech keeps us in it.

[Niall_Quinn]

This is the ideal scoreline.

If we divide the score by two it's still a loss.

[Globalgunner]

La Chupacabra also means to get a debut goal against us.

[AFC Leveller]

Little bit jaded from last weeekend and the sprit was fantastic.

[Niall_Quinn]

Xhaka slows our game to a crawl. He's a hugely irritating player.

[Niall_Quinn]

tbf to Ramsey and his tendency to abandon the middle, at least he moves. The rest of them freeze on the spot when we have the ball. Fucking zero movement in this team.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Kolasinac off, Bif on. :unsure:

[Niall_Quinn]

Welbeck has to score that.

[Niall_Quinn]

It was ANOTHER pen, btw.

[Niall_Quinn]

Swinging an aimless boot and lashing the ball into touch is ideal.

[Penguin]

Shit touch Lacazette...

Someone score please.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Needed first time Laca.

[Niall_Quinn]

Poor by Lacazette.

[Maestro]

not having a manager is a massive handicap, add a lack of genuine quality in the team and we are a mid-table mediocre outfit. based on what i'm watching, we are no better than stoke

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Jese off, Sobhi on.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

FFS Lacazette!

[Penguin]

Just saw another angle for Stoke's goal. Cech should have save it tbh, he's sooo slow at getting down. Being big is good but he has no agility at his age.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Wrongly disallowed.

[Niall_Quinn]

That's 3 pens and a good goal denied.

[Niall_Quinn]

As I said last season, it's mainly the refs who decide who finishes where. If the ref applies the rules in the Utd game then Pogba walks. If the ref applies the rules in our game we have 4 goals.

[hobson's choice]

And Ramsey stays on as alwayd

[Niall_Quinn]

Just can't break down Stoke's 14 men.

[Niall_Quinn]

Lacazette is the one player you most definitely don't bring off in this situation. What an absolutely crackpot decision by that cunt of a manager. Whether he lucks out of not, why bring in a top striker if we sub him when we need a goal. What's theory, you mad cunt?

[hobson's choice]

Team doesn't have quality depth at all

[Niall_Quinn]

Look at us. STATIC. Rooted to the spot.

[Niall_Quinn]

DO NOT KICK IT OUT!

[Niall_Quinn]

A brush against that diving playacting cunt. That's all it was. What a cheat.

[selassie]

Same old Arsenal, same old season.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Pieters is healed, it's a miracle!

[Niall_Quinn]

Oh look. The cheating diving cunt is just fine.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Arsenal Fam TV will be pretty lit I guess.

[Niall_Quinn]

Little bit of tippy tappy. Excellent.

[selassie]

We have lost our momentum since those final two substitutions.

[Niall_Quinn]

Keeps breaking down around the 50 millionth pass.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

We've been poor but the reffing has been abysmal.

[Niall_Quinn]

Pieters has a recurrence of the "injury" and has to limp off - SLOWLY.

[hobson's choice]

Oh well, things are back to normal.

We fundamentally don't have one great player on this team

[Niall_Quinn]

We need a fucking goal and both Alexis and Lacazette are off the pitch.

[Niall_Quinn]

Shit! Ball goes into the Stoke box but Bif is there to defend it.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Oh well, things are back to normal.

We fundamentally don't have one great player on this team

As said on the football weekly podcasts, a collection of 3 star hotels and only 5 star hotel (Sanchez).


Big bloated squad filled with medicority and very little outstanding quality.

[Niall_Quinn]

That was a pen too.

[Niall_Quinn]

Free header for Bif but statistics mean he won't score every game.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-0 FT. Good work all round.

[Niall_Quinn]

That cunt Wenger needs to go.

[hobson's choice]

Team full of slightly above average players, who we can't get rid off. Cause they are on too high wages.

Fukk this team

[selassie]

Oh well, things are back to normal.

We fundamentally don't have one great player on this team

I actually think we are quite far behind the likes of City, Spurs & United this season. We won't come close to top 4 IMO.

[Niall_Quinn]

Absolutely NOTHING to that performance. The midfield is a shambles. No tactics. No purpose. No movement. NOTHING.

And Stoke are AWFUL. We still should have beaten them. Even with the ref palying for Stoke.

No excuses.

All down to Wenger as usual.

[Niall_Quinn]

I actually think we are quite far behind the likes of City, Spurs & United this season. We won't come close to top 4 IMO.

Pick the manager form any of those teams and they'd transform our squad and our results. The squad is good enough but the stupid cunt in charge has no clue how to put out a coherent football team. He's a handicap that no squad could carry, not over a whole season.

There will be at least another 9 of these fuck-ups this season and that will be enough to relegate us to also-ran status, again. It's all on rails.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

I actually think we are quite far behind the likes of City, Spurs & United this season. We won't come close to top 4 IMO.

United and City I agree. Spurs are dodgy tbh and have zero depth.

Though they'll all struggle once Europe kicks in tbh. We at least can get away with playing more of our fringe players as our Europa games on paper won't be as tough.

[selassie]

United and City I agree. Spurs are dodgy tbh and have zero depth.

Though they'll all struggle once Europe kicks in tbh. We at least can get away with playing more of our fringe players as our Europa games on paper will be tougher.

Spurs have a great manager who will get the absolute maximum out of that squad, he's buying decent young talent too and still wants to strengthen his squad. Wenger said our squad just needs trimming, he's happy with what he has. Whilst I do agree with NQ in that we would fare better with one of the managers from our rivals with our current squad it absolutely needs strengthening under Wenger for us to achieve anything this season. Wenger is actually crazy if he thinks he can achieve anything with this squad if he continues with this scattergun approach.

I think the 3 teams I mentioned will all comfortably finish above us, we will duke it out with Chelsea, Liverpool & Everton for 4th place, are we really better than any of those teams?

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

The same protests and histrionics again

I find this result tedious but not in anyway did it make me angry. I expected it, I hoped for better of course.

However we don't have the excuse that we were bullied out of the game or that we looked vulnerable from set pieces. We just didn't seem to want to put ourselves out....the ball play was sloppy, half hearted. We gave this side confidence simply because we couldn't be bothered (look at how much we pressed, pressed and pressed when we wanted 4th last season)

Now we will see what Lehmann is getting paid for, if he's not making them eat their own faeces in training tomorrow he's not doing his job properly.

[selassie]

The same protests and histrionics again

I find this result tedious but not in anyway did it make me angry. I expected it, I hoped for better of course.

However we don't have the excuse that we were bullied out of the game or that we looked vulnerable from set pieces. We just didn't seem to want to put ourselves out....the ball play was sloppy, half hearted. We gave this side confidence simply because we couldn't be bothered (look at how much we pressed, pressed and pressed when we wanted 4th last season)

Now we will see what Lehmann is getting paid for, if he's not making them eat their own faeces in training tomorrow he's not doing his job properly.

I'm not angry and certainly don't think I'm being dramatic. Frustrated yes, surprised no. Sitting through this nonsense every season is becoming tedious. We all know who and what the problem is.

[Niall_Quinn]

The same protests and histrionics again

I find this result tedious but not in anyway did it make me angry. I expected it, I hoped for better of course.

However we don't have the excuse that we were bullied out of the game or that we looked vulnerable from set pieces. We just didn't seem to want to put ourselves out....the ball play was sloppy, half hearted. We gave this side confidence simply because we couldn't be bothered (look at how much we pressed, pressed and pressed when we wanted 4th last season)

Now we will see what Lehmann is getting paid for, if he's not making them eat their own faeces in training tomorrow he's not doing his job properly.

Lehmann will be sacked if he upsets the little flowers.

[Letters]

Pick the manager form any of those teams and they'd transform our squad and our results. The squad is good enough
:blink:

Few months ago I was saying the squad was pretty much good enough and would challenge with the right manager and you were saying we needed a mass clear-out.

[Niall_Quinn]

:blink:

Few months ago I was saying the squad was pretty much good enough and would challenge with the right manager and you were saying we needed a mass clear-out.

Good enough to challenge. And we do need a clear out. A decent manager could build a team out of what we have and maybe one or two additions (which a decent manager would have made). But they wouldn't need Gibbs. Wenger has no chance of challenging no matter how many players he signs, sells or divides by 2.