Arsenal under Wenger

If Cesc does leave then I can see a few others following him.

Yea Almunia may be just an average keeper, but what good keeper is out there that Arsenal can afford?

BrianS wrote:If Cesc does leave then I can see a few others following him.

Yea Almunia may be just an average keeper, but what good keeper is out there that Arsenal can afford?

Said in the summer, Akinfeev should be a target.
CSKA aren't exactly a selling club but a decent offer I think would be enough to prise him away from the Moscow team.
.

Mandana @ Marseille and Diego Lopez @ Villarreal maybe as well.

Or just play Fabinski.

Lloris was available , Adler .
Where is Frey.

DS wrote:Lloris was available , Adler .
Where is Frey.

Fiorentina.

Landreu(sp?) is another one. He is at PSG. Admittedly I thought he would go onto bigger and better things. I think he is die hard PSG fan andhence his move there.

Ade Alves wrote:

Landreu(sp?) is another one. He is at PSG. Admittedly I thought he would go onto bigger and better things. I think he is die hard PSG fan andhence his move there.

Landreau would be a huge disappointment in Premier League (especially for current Arsenal team), lacks required physical attributes, he even isn't 6'0 in my opinion (On wikipedia his height is 184 cm, I don't believe it)...

stinger wrote:

Ade Alves wrote:

Landreu(sp?) is another one. He is at PSG. Admittedly I thought he would go onto bigger and better things. I think he is die hard PSG fan andhence his move there.

Landreau would be a huge disappointment in Premier League (especially for current Arsenal team), lacks required physical attributes, he even isn't 6'0 in my opinion (On wikipedia his height is 184 cm, I don't believe it)...

I was more throwing his name out there. He was rated highly of by some a few years ago but has never made the step up to a bigger club.

The keepers I mentioned above are better and more realistic targets.

Ade Alves wrote:Tymoshchuk, ex-captain for Shaktar Donetsk and Zenit is quality but is probably too old. Diarra from Real? Again too old for Wenger more than likely.

It is clear he was willing to spend £10-15M on a quality midfielder to complement Cesc in the summer... those being Barry and Alonso so I'm sure you will look to address that area. Both he thought were a little too high in valuation though for him.

2 names just sprung to mind.. Toulalan and Makoun, both who are at Lyon. I wouldn't think they'd cost as much as the Barry or Xabi.

Also there is Toure's brother, Yaya.

I think the 3 I mentiomned above are perfect and are realistic targets looking at Wenger's transfer history and where he obtains players. All 3 are 25 years old I'm pretty sure so are hitting their prime now if not in a year or two.

HANDS OFF!!

Glenn Hysén wrote:

TITO wrote:It's quite simply as far as i see it.
Arsenal lack experience and that's it.
No matter how good they play, or who will play in attack, the way it goes, regardless how much they score, they will always let in more than they should.
And this will happen again this season so i don't think they will win something significant.

against Spurs the centre backs were Gallas, 31 (68 caps for France, 2 EPL titles) and Silvestre 31 (40 caps for France, 5 EPL titles) that's more experience than most sides have.

Experience is important, but not as important as personell. Arsneal have weakness in key positions. I highlighted Almunia at the start of the season as the weak link, he's a solid keeper who doesn't make many mistakes, but he's not the sort of keeper who makes saves he isn't supposed to make. The opposite of a player like David James. Would Arsenal have conceded 4 with Cech or Reina in goal?

You are not serious, are you???
Gallas is in $h!t form since last year and he will never regained it again.
Silvestre?????
When i meant experience i was talking not only about experienced players but those that can also be in form at the moment of weakness of the team.
If they had Vieira, Pires (yes, him), Bergkamp and even Henry or Ljungberg they would have never let that happening.

DS wrote:Lloris was available , Adler .
Where is Frey.

That's why I said afford. Arsenal can't afford Adler or Frey. From what I seen of Lloris he's not better than Almunia.

How much would Adler/Frey cost? Arsenal are hardly paupers, even if Wenger does try and go for cheap option quite a lot.

Leverkusen look like they will be playing in the CL next year. I doubt they will sell Adler and he would cost £10 million maybe more. I don't know about Frey, but I doubt he would cost less than £8 million.

TM wrote:"but Fergie opted for Michael Carrick instead."



Senna turned down the chance and signed a new deal with Villarreal that year.

Not exactly. Senna was set to join United with both sides agreeing to it. Ferguson decided to chase Hargreaves, having unsettled Senna. Bayern refused to sell then. At that point United went after Senna with an improved offer. Both Villarreal and Senna were no longer interested. Carrick had nothing to do with it.

Sack Wenger! What a clueless line-up. Was supposed to play his strongest team to get moral up again.

De Guzman wrote:Sack Wenger! What a clueless line-up. Was supposed to play his strongest team to get moral up again.

He gambled playing his highest line-up probably, but he have to understand that it was mistake, since still they conceded two goals off aerial battles.

I was out all afternoon, so only heard the score half an hour ago. I can't say I'm even slightly surprised, although I will reserve further judgement until I've seen some of the highlights. Wenger has created a real mess now though, and the frustrating thing is that the potential was there for us to really push on last season. He had the foundations and he let it get dismantled and made no effort to replace the key players that left. I was pessimistic before the start of the season, now I'm just fuming that he has taken such a negligent approach to our season and I'm sick of all the lame excuses as well. Three defeats in the league already (and it was nearly four) and we haven't played a good team yet. The team and Wenger need to get their act together fast otherwise we could be in a real fight for fourth place.

I watched the 2nd half, and Arsenal were very poor. Never in a million years looked like scoring a goal. And Stoke won almost every header all over the pitch.

Sheffield gunner wrote:I was out all afternoon, so only heard the score half an hour ago. I can't say I'm even slightly surprised, although I will reserve further judgement until I've seen some of the highlights. Wenger has created a real mess now though, and the frustrating thing is that the potential was there for us to really push on last season. He had the foundations and he let it get dismantled and made no effort to replace the key players that left. I was pessimistic before the start of the season, now I'm just fuming that he has taken such a negligent approach to our season and I'm sick of all the lame excuses as well. Three defeats in the league already (and it was nearly four) and we haven't played a good team yet. The team and Wenger need to get their act together fast otherwise we could be in a real fight for fourth place.

if you are interested in watching re-run, at 11:00 CET you will be able to do it through Setanta Sports US - http://www.veetle.com/viewChannel.php?cid=48e7786aaa3bd

You need to install Veetle software first.

I watched re-run of Bolton-Everton match on thursday, it worked according to their online schedule.

City is dependent on january. But Villa could really get that 4th if Young and Agbonlahor are not burnt out. Arsenal just have the weakest defensive defence of a big club anywhere.

kas wrote:I watched the 2nd half, and Arsenal were very poor. Never in a million years looked like scoring a goal. And Stoke won almost every header all over the pitch.

I had a quick chat with my friend who is a Stoke supporter and he said the same. Said we weren't in the game at all. This was always a game I thought we could lose, even if we had been in great form at this stage of the season, simply because Stoke are strongest in the areas where we are weak. After the Spurs result though I was sure we would struggle badly. Hopefully the injuries aren't too bad, because with the players we will (or could) now be missing we could have a tough spell coming up.

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Thanks Stinger, I think Sky show extended highlights before then so I will probably just tune in to that.

L.r.d wrote:City is dependent on january. But Villa could really get that 4th if Young and Agbonlahor are not burnt out. Arsenal just have the weakest defensive defence of a big club anywhere.

And it's become cliched to say this, but even their strongest back 4 is not adequately protected by the midfield. Also, with Fabregas off form, their attack is hindered.

Sheffield gunner wrote:

kas wrote:I watched the 2nd half, and Arsenal were very poor. Never in a million years looked like scoring a goal. And Stoke won almost every header all over the pitch.

I had a quick chat with my friend who is a Stoke supporter and he said the same. Said we weren't in the game at all. This was always a game I thought we could lose, even if we had been in great form at this stage of the season, simply because Stoke are strongest in the areas where we are weak. After the Spurs result though I was sure we would struggle badly. Hopefully the injuries aren't too bad, because with the players we will (or could) now be missing we could have a tough spell coming up.

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Thanks Stinger, I think Sky show extended highlights before then so I will probably just tune in to that.

The most worrying thing from Arsenal's perspective is that usually at least in such games (away against lower ranked teams), Arsenal's players keep the ball and try to pass it around, only suffering on counter-attacks or setpieces. But today none of the departments of Arsenal's games were working. It could be due to the lineup Wenger put out - 4 central midfielders

Walcott played in last 30 mins, and he got injured. Adebayor had a stunning tackle from behind, and lucky to be alive Perhaps if he had played Nasri and RVP, both of 'em would have been stretched off.

Btw, Chelsea look so dominating, in spite of scoring some crappy goals. And Anelka's hattrick is really one of his worst collections.

zizoued wrote:Walcott played in last 30 mins, and he got injured. Adebayor had a stunning tackle from behind, and lucky to be alive Perhaps if he had played Nasri and RVP, both of 'em would have been stretched off.

True actually. Sagna also got injured by a tough tackle.

Also, Stoke today played probably the most narrow defense I saw in a long time, which caused a big problems for Arsenal. Their long range shooting was off too, except for Clichy deflected shot.

kas wrote:

Sheffield gunner wrote:

kas wrote:I watched the 2nd half, and Arsenal were very poor. Never in a million years looked like scoring a goal. And Stoke won almost every header all over the pitch.

I had a quick chat with my friend who is a Stoke supporter and he said the same. Said we weren't in the game at all. This was always a game I thought we could lose, even if we had been in great form at this stage of the season, simply because Stoke are strongest in the areas where we are weak. After the Spurs result though I was sure we would struggle badly. Hopefully the injuries aren't too bad, because with the players we will (or could) now be missing we could have a tough spell coming up.

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Thanks Stinger, I think Sky show extended highlights before then so I will probably just tune in to that.

The most worrying thing from Arsenal's perspective is that usually at least in such games (away against lower ranked teams), Arsenal's players keep the ball and try to pass it around, only suffering on counter-attacks or setpieces. But today none of the departments of Arsenal's games were working. It could be due to the lineup Wenger put out - 4 central midfielders

No balance in that midfield whatsoever, and two or three players who simply wouldn't be in the starting line-up a few years back. They lack the quality of their predecessors. That, added to a weaker goalkeeper than we've had for a while, Toure's alarming drop in form, a Man Utd cast-off in the centre of our defence, a number of key injuries today and Van Persie seemingly returning to his petulant worst just as he had looked like finding his best form, it all adds up to a worrying situation.

We should be able to respond with a win against Fenerbahce, but if the team struggles I really wouldn't be surprised to see the crowd turn on the players and Wenger in a manner unlike anything I can remember seeing at Arsenal during his tenure.

Are Arsenal missing Hleb?

IMO, Nasri is a replacment for Rosicky because he is always injured.

Hleb plays for Barcelona now.

Batman wrote:Are Arsenal missing Hleb?

IMO, Nasri is a replacment for Rosicky because he is always injured.

Yes. Nasri may well turn out to be in the long run a better player but currently cannot do what Hleb did consistently. Furthermore, with Rosicky dead, we have no playmakers for the wings so without Nasri, our play becomes far too boring and not good enough. Hleb contributed massively to our good run of form last year due to his excellent use of the ball, relieved Fabregas of all playmaking duties. We no longer have this to the same extent.

Say what you like he was a fucking good player for us.

Ultimately though, the fundamental problems of this Arsenal team lie elsewhere.

Oh dear.