Match Reaction vs The 'Ammers (away).

[milla]

I would love us to sign Reus. I think he is ripe for converting into a Centre Forward and has pretty much every attribute we could wish for in a player. I genuinely believe we could sign him but we would need to be pay the market rate and move fast. I think he could be the one big signing we crave for in the Summer.

This is what I have been telling everyone but people here keep saying he is best as winger/wide forward. Reus style of play is perfect for Wengerball, fake no9 who can play anywhere up front and deadly in the penalty box.

[milla]

I think he could be a CF in the mould of someone like Aguero - he's very quick on his fit, can play long and short passes and reads the game beautifully. Like Mueller (Bayern), he's very clever in terms of the positions he picks and the space he gets into. Think Mueller is one of the most under-rated players around. And I think Reus is like that.

I don't think Reus could ever play up by himself. He doesn't in my opinion have the engine or the strength to do it. But off the shoulder of another striker, he's got all the attributes as Selassie says.

He'd cost north of 40 million in my opinion.

Love Muller but we don't need him (Munich will never sell him). We got Ramsey who just turned 23 today and Eisfield looks set to replicate Muller (they are carbon copy in style and the way they time their run into the box).

[IBK]

So relieved by this result, but we have to take some lessons from it. Wenger cannot play the likes of Giroud, Ramsey, Ozil into the ground and expect us to perform to the level our football requires. We need to muster more directness and tempo to put games to bed because for all our possession in the first half we were profligate and then West Ham - despite being down at the bottom of the league and finding it hard generally to score -should have been 2-0 up and we were unlikely to come back from that. Better teams would have punished us.

Poldi was a game changer but would he have been on the pitch but for Wenger's hand being forced by injury? Key players need resting and Newcastle will be a harder test than this lot.

[Penguin]

I think that is debatable. Having said that, you always make room for exceptional quality in a squad I believe.

In regards to the quality we are talking about if it is a question of 40 million on a wide man or 40 million on a forward then it is an easy choice for me.

That is since, most of us believe we will not spend 40 million on two individual players, neither do I think we need to unless they are both of a quality which is quite exceptional.

Some people thought it was debatable that we needed a first choice striker over Giroud a couple of months ago. Theo and Poldolski are good players but not great ones. There's a lot of room for improvement there.

I agree with you if we had to choose between a £40m CF and a £40m wide forward. We've already spent that kind of money on the wrong player. A lot of us spent the summer saying that we didn't need Ozil and that we needed one or two forwards and in the end we've had to move Cazorla on the left to accommodate Ozil, resulting in Santi stinking up the place on the left. It hasn't worked.

We don't even need to spend that kind of money, before the last transfer window I didn't think we'd spend more than £20m on one player. We can still find great players for that price, you just have to look harder.

As for playing Reus as the CF - he definitely has all the raw ingredients but you can never tell unless it's tried. Henry was a winger too before he joined us.

[milla]

[milla]

It looks [serious]. It looks like a thigh strain. I don't know how serious the thigh strain is but the Christmas period certainly is over for him. It was his birthday today.

So Ramsey is out for the weekends and probably on the new years eve as well. Apparently Rozza also has a small injury.

[Darknight02]

Not too upset about that. Would give Cazorla a chance to build up some form. And would give Ramsey a chance to have a rest and come back fresher given that he has gone off the boil a bit.

Mind you against City, Chelsea and again today, Ramsey continued to play some stunning through balls.

[Master Splinter]

So Ramsey is out for the weekends and probably on the new years eve as well. Apparently Rozza also has a small injury.

Rosicky's is minor. Hopefully he and Koscielny are back for Newcastle.

Why does it matter if Ramsey is out on New Year's Eve?

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Some people thought it was debatable that we needed a first choice striker over Giroud a couple of months ago. Theo and Poldolski are good players but not great ones. There's a lot of room for improvement there.

I agree with you if we had to choose between a £40m CF and a £40m wide forward. We've already spent that kind of money on the wrong player. A lot of us spent the summer saying that we didn't need Ozil and that we needed one or two forwards and in the end we've had to move Cazorla on the left to accommodate Ozil, resulting in Santi stinking up the place on the left. It hasn't worked.

We don't even need to spend that kind of money, before the last transfer window I didn't think we'd spend more than £20m on one player. We can still find great players for that price, you just have to look harder.

As for playing Reus as the CF - he definitely has all the raw ingredients but you can never tell unless it's tried. Henry was a winger too before he joined us.

The debate over our forward options is very different to our debate over our wide options....especially considering we have Cazorla, Podolski, Ozil, Walcott and Gnabry who can all do a convincing job wide and only 1 man who can do a convincing job at CF....and even that was up for more debate at the time.

Cazorla played a heck of a lot wide left last season. Even if we are accommodating Ozil by playing Santi left now, I think it is very unfair to attribute Santi's poor form to Ozil and 'shifting' Santi to a position he actually plays more times than not.

Henry was 6'2 had pace, power, and all the ball ability in the world. Reus doesn't have anything like the power or even pace. If we are suggesting giving him a free role (like Cronaldo or Bale at Spurs) then fine, but I really have been yet to be convinced by the idea of Reus as a CF in a 433. I just can't get my head round why so many think it's a great idea.

[fakeyank]

Think the injury to Rambo is a blessing in disguise. We have wheelchair coming back, Arteta, Santi, Flamini and Rosicky to play in the middle...

And Podolski is awesome