Arsenal v West Ham United, 15:00 GMT (07/03)

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Come on Moyes, be a bit shit.

Must win given we have the annual loss at the Etihad next up.

[Marc Overmars]

Could we really win 3 PL games in a row? :o

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Fabianski won't be chucking in any for us, that's for sure.

[Mac76]

on paper we really ought to win given Auba has (Olympiakos miss aside) got his scoring boots on

but this is Arsenal - anything can happen ...

[fakeyank]

Dont play Lacazette. Play Nketiah or Martinelli and we should be fine. Would love to see Mari instead of Mustafi as well.. thought he did real well bringing the ball out the back.

[Mac76]

Dont play Lacazette. Play Nketiah or Martinelli and we should be fine. Would love to see Mari instead of Mustafi as well.. thought he did real well bringing the ball out the back.

:gp:

[GP]

3-0

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Arsenal: Leno, Sokratis, David Luiz, Pablo Mari, Saka, Xhaka, Ceballos, Ozil, Pepe, Nketiah, Aubameyang.
Subs: Martinez, Bellerin, Guendouzi, Willock, Nelson, Martinelli, Lacazette.

West Ham: Fabianski, Ngakia, Ogbonna, Diop, Cresswell, Noble, Rice, Fornals, Bowen, Antonio, Haller.
Subs: Randolph, Balbuena, Zabaleta, Anderson, Lanzini, Snodgrass, Soucek.

[Niall_Quinn]

Arsenal: Leno, Sokratis, David Luiz, Pablo Mari, Saka, Xhaka, Ceballos, Ozil, Pepe, Nketiah, Aubameyang.
Subs: Martinez, Bellerin, Guendouzi, Willock, Nelson, Martinelli, Lacazaette.

Random team selections :bow:

Which one is Pablo Mari again? Is that the Brazilian defender we signed whose former club won't speak to us any more?

[fakeyank]

Team looks good except for sokratis as RB. WTF is up with that? AMN is much better than Papa.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Random team selections :bow:

Which one is Pablo Mari again? Is that the Brazilian defender we signed whose former club won't speak to us any more?

Spanish.

We piss so many clubs off in the transfer market it's an easy answer to that one.

[Mac76]

Team looks good except for sokratis as RB. WTF is up with that? AMN is much better than Papa.



Agreed, i just think AMN has pissed off Arteta bigtime by not having Saka's attitude of just playing wherever he's asked

Really pleased to see Mari there, and also Nketiah. Mustafi not even in the squad :lol:

[Niall_Quinn]

Team looks good except for sokratis as RB. WTF is up with that? AMN is much better than Papa.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

AMN has a tendency to run toward the opponent's goal at pace. Papa is a much better back-passer.

[Niall_Quinn]

Agreed, i just think AMN has pissed off Arteta bigtime by not having Saka's attitude of just playing wherever he's asked

Really pleased to see Mari there, and also Nketiah. Mustafi not even in the squad :lol:

Mustafi got injured didn't he? Or maybe not. I can't (don't want to) keep track.

[Mac76]

Mustafi got injured didn't he? Or maybe not. I can't (don't want to) keep track.

Not sure either, but just glad he's not there, let's hope Mari plays a blinder and shuts him out, Mustafi's done enough for us to get some money for him in the summer hopefully without us playing him that often now

[McNamara That Ghost...]

He's injured.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Come on Arsenal. :bow:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Xhaka sends it sky high, again.

[Niall_Quinn]

Xhaka sends it sky high, again.

Remarkable consistency.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Fornals booked early on, run at him!

[Niall_Quinn]

Wow - one of theirs booked before one of ours? What's going on? I'm deeply, deeply suspicious now.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Saka cross cut out.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Antonio. :haha:

What was that?

[Niall_Quinn]

LOL - so fortunate Antonio is beyond bollocks bad. Easy goal on offer for the Hammers there.

[Letters]

Antonio. :haha:

What was that?

We got away with that one.
All he had to do was pass it to him properly

[Niall_Quinn]

Saka has been quite undisciplined so far. He's pretty much playing as a winger and ignoring the defensive bits.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Ozil shot blocked by Cresswell.

[Niall_Quinn]

It breaks down around Pepe. Otherwise good play. I won't mention it breaking down around Pepe from now on. Just assume it.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Another firm cross from Saka, Diop skews it wide.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Daft pass from Ceballos.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Leno denies Haller.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Noble corner hits the bar and goes over.

[Niall_Quinn]

Ceballos does what Pepe refuses to do - put a ball in the box.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Sokratis heads on to the bar!

[Niall_Quinn]

Sokratis misses an easy header for a goal. :doh:

[Niall_Quinn]

Antonio with a pathetic dive for a dangerous FK on edge of our box.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Cresswell free kick over,

[Niall_Quinn]

If we didn't have Ceballos we'd never get out of our own half.

[Niall_Quinn]

No FK for a foul on Ozil that was a thousand times worse than the pathetic FK the Hammers just got from the Antonio dive.

[Niall_Quinn]

In case people didn't know, Saka is "the 18 year old."

[Niall_Quinn]

Xhaka has been shite since the first whistle.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Xhaka makes it obvious how to telegraph his pass.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Fornals shot, fairly comfortable for Leno.

[Niall_Quinn]

Pepe takes on the whole WH team, then runs to Selhurst Park and takes on their 11 too. Decides not to shoot though.

[Niall_Quinn]

Eddie gets in but shoots at Fab. Offside anyway. Bit lazy by Eddie there because Pepe had held the ball for over 2 days but still Eddie remained offside.

[Niall_Quinn]

Auba fucks up a very favourable counter-attack.

[Globalgunner]

We are diabolical on the break. Miss pass or wait for the other team to catch up is our usual fare

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Antonio fluffs it. :lol:

[Penguin]

Nketiah should have left it for Pepe ffs :doh:

[Niall_Quinn]

Hammers should have scored there. Antonio is really, really shit, but he's having so many chances he's bound to pub one in.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Everyone is in the pub.

[Niall_Quinn]

Auba has been so poor also. Really sloppy half of misplaced passes and slow, slow, slow tempo. Hammers there for the taking if we step it up by 2%

Defence really poor too. Antonio has kept us in the game.

[Niall_Quinn]

Was a dive by Eddie.

[Niall_Quinn]

HT 0-0

RUBBISH!

[McNamara That Ghost...]

0-0 HT.

Our players just love to half arse it through matches.

[Globalgunner]

Nketiah with a dive when he needed to put his foot through the ball. To round up a dismal 45 mins

We would be greatly improved with the deletion of Ozil.and Xhaka in the 2nd half

[Letters]

Some people paid to go and watch this.

Them :pal:

[Niall_Quinn]

Nketiah with a dive when he needed to put his foot through the ball. To round up a dismal 45 mins

We would be greatly improved with the deletion of Ozil.and Xhaka in the 2nd half

Ozil? If not for him and Ceballos (50% of the time) we'd have no forward play whatsoever. Such negative play from our backline (excluding Saka). All they do is slow everything down and allow the opponent to recover their shape, usually at a leisurely stroll.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

I just don't get why we can't have Martinelli, Aubameyang and Pepe as the front three.

[Mac76]

Sokratis has almost completely killed us on the right, just passes back to Luiz nearly every time

Xhaka doing his best to give a goal away, and generally we're just not being quick enough

Hector should come off the bench for the second half and Martinelli not long afterwards

[Mac76]

Pires doing the half time pitch interview :bow:

[Niall_Quinn]

Pires doing the half time pitch interview :bow:

Get him a pair of boots.

[Letters]

We would be greatly improved with the deletion of Ozil.and Xhaka in the 2nd half

Xhaka has been fine.
Ozil has been one of the few people trying to make things happen up front so no not really.

[Mac76]

I just don't get why we can't have Martinelli, Aubameyang and Pepe as the front three.

Clearly Martinelli's not working hard enough in training... :rolleyes:

[Mac76]

Xhaka has been fine.
Ozil has been one of the few people trying to make things happen up front so no not really.

Yes to Ozil but no to Xhaka, he's given the ball away in dangerous positions and mainly passed backwards

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Training is where all the sycophants come to party.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Come on Arsenal FFS.

[Letters]

Yes to Ozil but no to Xhaka, he's given the ball away in dangerous positions and mainly passed backwards

Have less of an opinion about Xhaka tbh although I hadn't noticed him being particularly useless. It's just been a nothing performance all round

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Pepe crosses, clears everyone.

[Niall_Quinn]

That's so poor by Xhaka. Fucking useless.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Woeful from Xhaka.

[Niall_Quinn]

Fabianski didn't even let us score. Ingrate.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Saka. :bow:

[Niall_Quinn]

Was Eddie a bit slow there? Or else he didn't see Fabianski coming.

[Letters]

Few little tentative more positive signs.

[Niall_Quinn]

Antonio again, but Leno saves. If we keep giving him chances...

[Globalgunner]

We wont give 2 fucks until the Hammers score

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Leno slam dunks the save to deny Antonio.

[Niall_Quinn]

Laca coming on to miss a few sitters. Guess it will be Eddie making way.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Nketiah off, Lacazette on.

Hopefully Lacazette remembers he is a footballer.

[Niall_Quinn]

It's remarkable that we don't have enough against a team like WH to get the ball wide to our best crossers, Saka, and have our strikers run within 375 miles of the goal.

Tip, tap, tip, tap... any year now...

[Globalgunner]

Laca coming on to miss a few sitters. Guess it will be Eddie making way.

Eddie has done diddly squat tbf

[Niall_Quinn]

Eddie has done diddly squat tbf

Not true. He dived when he could have shot.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Good hold up from Lacazette, then boots it out of play.

[Niall_Quinn]

Laca gets a medal for the 500th misplaced pass today.

Sokratis gets booked for doing what everyone has been doing all match.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Cafu booked.

[Niall_Quinn]

Western style pubbery in our box. Everyone hoofing for all they are worth (which isn't much).

[Mac76]

Once again Auba is totally wasted on the lef

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Bowen shoots, Leno saves.

Mare from Ceballos.

[Niall_Quinn]

Ceballos with the killer through ball to... an opponent which triggers the counter-attack.

Now up the other end where Pepe has a go but drives it into the ground.

[Niall_Quinn]

Nelson coming on. Hopefully for Pepe.

[Globalgunner]

Officials cheating again

[Niall_Quinn]

Utter crap by Ozil - passes it into the box to the one place where we have no players.

[Niall_Quinn]

Pepe off, Nelson on.

Pepe was rancid again today.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Rice. :lol:

Pepe off, Nelson on.

[Niall_Quinn]

Outrageous dive by Noble. Ref gives it, of course.

[Niall_Quinn]

Luiz clattered by Leno. Somebody needs to tell him not to wave his legs around when he's pretending to be unconscious.

[Niall_Quinn]

So, so, so, so poor by Laca. Time to cross. Gives it to opposition.

Another nothing FK to WH. Ref starting to become influential.

[Niall_Quinn]

Antonio tried to foul Luiz but ends up getting tapped by a fingernail. Which instantly kills him.

[Niall_Quinn]

Another ball given away in the box by us. Shit.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Fucking hit it Mesut!

[Globalgunner]

Why I keep harping that Ozil is shit. That's why in a nutshell. Coward will always pass when all logic says a footballer should shoot.

[Niall_Quinn]

Laca literally hasn't put a foot right since he came on. Everything ends up with the opposition.

[Niall_Quinn]

Last straw by Xhaka. Fucking shit. Has options but tamely kicks it nowhere. Fucking shit.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Hopeless from Xhaka.

[Niall_Quinn]

And back it goes... YAWN!!!!!!!

[Niall_Quinn]

Laca nets but offside.

[Letters]

Lineswomen :rolleyes:

[Niall_Quinn]

Laca WAS NOT offside because it wasn't a forward pass.

Daylight robbery.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Disallowed goal for Lacazette.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Goal has to be given surely?!

[Niall_Quinn]

If they rule Nelson offside for this then it is a direct contradiction to the shit they let go last week.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

LACAZETTE!!!!!

[Niall_Quinn]

GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VAR :bow:

1-0 Laca

[Letters]

:haha: Goal given about 2 weeks after the ball went in the net!

[Letters]

Always rated VAR, tbf

[Niall_Quinn]

Ref :haha:

Lino :haha:

Unlucky!

[Niall_Quinn]

I told you Laca would score.

Me :bow:

[Globalgunner]

Now let's not let the officials equalise it up. Keep playing like we are behind

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Female lino. :lol:

(Not sure if it was her tbf).

[Niall_Quinn]

Although, it's a stupid rule. Of course Nelson was offside and clearly interfering with play - because he's on the fucking pitch. But that's the stupid rule and at least it has gone in our favour this time.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Leno saving our arses.

[Niall_Quinn]

Here we go, trying to give them a goal.

Sokratis dropped dead there. It might take him several minutes to come back to life.

[Letters]

Female lino. :lol:

(Not sure if it was her tbf).

She probably flagged for the other player who was offside.
No one knows the sodding rules any more.

[Niall_Quinn]

Time's up - blow the fucking whistle!!!!

[Niall_Quinn]

Another dangerous ball into our box. We've dropped back and are letting them have the ball and attack as they please. Good tactics tbf. Always work for us.

[Globalgunner]

Here we go, trying to give them a goal.

Sokratis dropped dead there. It might take him several minutes to come back to life.

Seems we prefer draws to wins. If you win this week. The fkn fans will expect you to win again next.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

All Arteta's defensive work gone out the window in the last two weeks. :bow:

[Niall_Quinn]

Bellerin getting ready? Why?

WH bring on some bloke with really silly hair.

[Globalgunner]

Ozil off 350k well earned

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Fornals off, Anderson on.

[Niall_Quinn]

Bellerin for Ozil.

[Niall_Quinn]

5 mins extra - I guess because VAR took so long.

We have a break but Nelson snuffs it out.

[Niall_Quinn]

Antonio booked for being so shit.

[Niall_Quinn]

Pathetic dive by Antonio, Ref gives it.

[Globalgunner]

We were shit

[Niall_Quinn]

FT 1-0

Daylight pubbery tbf. But the run goes on.

[AFC Leveller]

FT 1-0.

We are officially safe. Arteta deserves a statue.

[AFC Leveller]

Level on points with Spuds.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

1-0 FT!!!

ARTETABALL BABY!!!

:lol:

[Niall_Quinn]

Puts us level with the spuds I think. Hot on the heels of Sheff Utd. Good times.

[Letters]

Bloody hell we are awful :lol:

[Niall_Quinn]

FT 1-0.

We are officially safe. Arteta deserves a statue.

Staying up, staying up, staying up!!!!!

Ah, ha, ha, ha, staying alive, staying alive!!!

Are you watching Norwich City!!!!!!