Arsenal vs Southampton. 2nd Feb. 19:45

[Maestro]

Arsenal 1 - FY 2

Oh shite, people are seriously underestimating the FY Jinx effect. Do you know if he has landed yet? Is there anything we can do to stop him reaching the ground please??

The boy is jinxed, seriously!!!!

[Niall_Quinn]

You say that now about Giroud but if he plays anything like his last couple of performances, I'm sure you'll notice the lack of movement and chances he's getting on goal.

What was farcical about that team and what does that have to do with being out jumped in a one on one situation? Stats say otherwise about Merts in the air also. In fact, it doesn't make sense to blame other players for the Kos and Gabriel performance on Saturday but then also say others have to cover for Merts weaknesses. Who played on Saturday that made Kos and Gabriel look that bad?

It's not a pointless discussion. It boils down to your perspective on what you think he should be doing instead. I've got my problems with some of Wenger's decisions but what your suggesting with the team isn't always right either. Gabriel was sent off against Chelsea when he started and when Merts was sent off, he came on. But we conceded minutes after the sending off. It's not clear cut that we'll do a lot better without Merts because so far we haven't.

I'm not talking about one-off games, I'm talking about Merts as a glaring liability over the course of a season. Our entire defence was shit against Burnley. Not surprising considering Wenger sabotaged it before kick off? What was wrong with the team? Wenger. He doesn't do rotation, he does vandalism. You put a jumbled up defence in with a jumbled up midfield including a player making his first appearance and then you say to them just play any way you want to. It's a unique style of management, that's for sure.

All fan discussion is fun but ultimately pointless when it comes to Wenger. I think one post yesterday summed it up. We'll be rid of him when the owners get sick of making money hand over fist.

[Letters]

Oh shite, people are seriously underestimating the FY Jinx effect. Do you know if he has landed yet? Is there anything we can do to stop him reaching the ground please??

The boy is jinxed, seriously!!!!

It's too late, he's in the country.
Will try to mug him for his tickets at The Pins later.

[GP]

Hello, police?

Yes, there's a shifty looking brown gentleman talking about Alan's Snackbar and bombs and stuff...

[selassie]

Still having nightmares about the 4-0 at St Mary's. We should be able to turn Southampton over easily, they've gone backwards IMO, saying that it's Arsenal and you just never know with us. Think we'll pub it 2-1.

[IBK]

My 9 year old nephew (and my sister) are watching this game in a box with Robert Pires, who is taking him to the changing room to meet the players afterwards. Lucky b'stard!

[Power n Glory]

I'm not talking about one-off games, I'm talking about Merts as a glaring liability over the course of a season. Our entire defence was shit against Burnley. Not surprising considering Wenger sabotaged it before kick off? What was wrong with the team? Wenger. He doesn't do rotation, he does vandalism. You put a jumbled up defence in with a jumbled up midfield including a player making his first appearance and then you say to them just play any way you want to. It's a unique style of management, that's for sure.

All fan discussion is fun but ultimately pointless when it comes to Wenger. I think one post yesterday summed it up. We'll be rid of him when the owners get sick of making money hand over fist.

If Merts was playing with that team would you excuse that same mistake and blame the team around him?

Coquelin was back in the squad, Gibbs and Chambers are hardly strangers at wing back. It's no excuse really. You'd have a stronger case if Gabriel has a solid record for us but he doesn't. It's patchy so it's very hard to assume he'd be miles better than Merts.

[Niall_Quinn]

If Merts was playing with that team would you excuse that same mistake and blame the team around him?

Coquelin was back in the squad, Gibbs and Chambers are hardly strangers at wing back. It's no excuse really. You'd have a stronger case if Gabriel has a solid record for us but he doesn't. It's patchy so it's very hard to assume he'd be miles better than Merts.

Of course his record is patchy, he hardly plays. I'm talking about taking out a recurring liability and playing two CBs who are suitable for this league and giving them the time to strike up a partnership. I believe the risks in allowing the time would be smaller than allowing Merts on the pitch. We won't find out though because Wenger probably doesn't even see any problems in Merts. And no, I wouldn't have been singling out Merts for that hyper-shit performance against Burnley.

[Özim]

Expect us to win this game comfortably, they may have thrashed us earlier in the season but they aren't a great team this season.

[Letters]

Expect us to win this game comfortably, they may have thrashed us earlier in the season but they aren't a great team this season.

They've been on a good run recently and you keep saying we're no good under pressure - and this is surely a pressure game given our recent results.
So why would you suddenly expect a comfortable win?