Official Football Discussion Thread 2011/12

[Keith]

Yeah that was amazing, but that is the sort of luck you need right now, and it is the sort of thing that convinces me that Blackburn will go down espically with that manager.

 

[Troy]

Incredible performance by Manchester City to win 5-1 at Tottenham. Dzeko had a field day with four goals. Nasri looked good out there and they didn't even have to use Tevez. It is early but it looks like it will be a battle between Man City and Man United for the title.

Man United vs. Arsenal is up next. Can't go past a Man United win here and I am predicting 3-1 to Man United.

 

[Aniking]

Man City are absolutely amazing when they attack. The fact that Nasri and Aguero have slotted into the side perfectly this season is crazy, not to mention Dzeko only arrived in January, Silva arrived last year and Yaya Toure and Gareth Barry arrived in around the last 2 years (not 100% sure when). The fucked thing is Tottenham weren't even crap, they played quite well I thought, but City just made it look easy up front.

At the moment it's 3-1 to Man Utd and it's half-time, with Walcott scoring for us right at the end of stoppage time. We're getting torn apart across the pitch and have had a penalty saved, which was disappointing. Ashley Young and Wayne Rooney both scored some fantastic goals, and Danny Welbeck's goal was mainly down to how bad Koscielny and Djourou are as a partnership. Welbeck pushed himself through both of them to head the ball past Szczesny, and our defence has been shocking all round. This Man Utd team is so different to last years as there are names like Hernandez, Berbatov, Park, Ferdinand and Giggs starting on the bench. Their depth is crazy, whereas ours is proving to be a little overrated by Wenger.

 

[Doink]

Ashley Youngs goal was world class. Man City look a different class atm.

 

[Andrew]

BOOOOOOOOM!

8-2

Shattered I missed the game and Man U didn't even use Berbatov... If only we used him, if only...

 

[Doink]

Woah, 8-2 with kids playing, imagine your full strength side.

 

[TheZig]

Well 8-2 to Manchester United, Brilliant result and Wenger really needs to step up and buy some new players. Usually i wouldn't advise teams to go and throw out cash but it really needs to happen at the Emirates now. Its not like they are short of money and they really need a defensive midfielder in my opinion.

 

[Aniking]

Although I'm an Arsenal fan, I found myself laughing during this match. Why? Because everything that's wrong with our team was exposed to the fullest extent at Old Trafford, most of which Wenger continues to go along with as if everything's alright.

The depth of our squad pales in comparison to Man Utd's. As I posted above, they had Hernandez, Berbatov, Park, Ferdinand and Giggs start on the bench (with Ferdinand and Berbatov not being used) and they still tore us to pieces. We may have had a few players out suspended and even more out with injuries, but that's something that has to be expected to occur at some point, and some of the players we have aren't good enough to compete against top class opposition.

Not only do we lack any real squad depth, but our defence was terrible. Jenkinson's inexperience hasn't been an issue until now as he was always caught out of position and just couldn't keep up with the pace of the game. Traore hasn't played in the Premier League for over a year and showed he isn't a challenge for Gibbs to retain the role as #1 choice left-back. As for Koscielny and Djourou, they continue to make mistakes when partnered together. Koscielny has been great when alongside Vermaelen, but when with Djourou our centre of defence is worrying.

I don't think our attack did bad at all considering we did score twice. Van Persie and Walcott are first team choices, with Gervinho prefered over Arshavin. Rosicky isn't consistent enough, but when he's on his game he plays very well. Ramsey doesn't do anything flash or memorable during matches, but he does play his role well. I didn't take a lot of notice of Coquelin even if it was his first ever Premier League game, but I don't remember him doing anything negative of note. He's better disciplined than Frimpong and Song as Defensive Midfielders, but he doesn't move the ball as well as the other two.

I'm frankly getting a little tired of Wenger. Our defence lacks quality depth, our squad lacks quality depth, we're ill-disciplined, and Wenger continues to use the same formation regardless of if it's working during a match or not. Then you throw in the fact he continues to say "I'll buy a player if I see them improving my squad" yet then we get smashed 8-2 by the champions. That right there says that there is huge improvement needed, and splashing the cash is what's needed. It works, just ask Man City.

 

[Keith]

Well the pen miss was certainly the turning point, I actually agree that Arsenal weren't that bad, it was just more a case of how good Utd well on the day, and with the team the Gunners had out it was always going to be tough, it was a low light for them, but you just have to write it off as a one off result.

It really bothers me the way people are getting on Wenger's back, he has done more than any other manager in Arsenal's history, apart from Sir Alex nobody has had the success of Arsene in the last fifteen years, he has changed the whole image of the football club, produced some great young players and some great teams, has made the club a lot of money on playes sold, and has bought a lot of class to the english game. He has done it all except win the Champions League, and Arsenal did reach the final of that in 2006, that is not bad going, and the fans calling for him to leave need a reality and need to learn their history. Things could get much worse if Wenger was not there.

 

[Troy]

Wow I did not expect that. The 3-1 scoreline I expected occured at half time! Incredible result and it even more impressive when you see the big names United left on the bench. Arsenal simply have to spend some more money fast to get a couple of big names into the club.

 

[Keith]

Well Arsenal are signing people left, right and centre now LOL! A full-back, a centre back, a striker and now they are going after Alterta!

 

[Doink]

They better not get Arteta, we've already sold our best striker in Jermaine Beckford.

 

[Aniking]

What a crazy deadline day that was. Then again they're always pretty nuts. Here are all the transfers done on the final day:

Arsenal
IN: Andre Santos from Fenerbahce, Per Mertesacker from Werder Bremen, Mikel Arteta from Everton, Yossi Benayoun from Chelsea (Loan)
OUT: Henri Lansbury to West Ham (Loan), Nicklas Bendtner to Sunderland (Loan)


Aston Villa
IN: Enda Stevens from Shamrock Rovers (as of January), Jermaine Jenas from Tottenham (Loan), Alan Hutton from Tottenham


Blackburn
IN: Scott Dann from Birmingham


Bolton
IN: Gael Kakuta from Chelsea (6 month Loan), David Ngog from Liverpool


Chelsea
IN: Raul Meireles from Liverpool
OUT: Patrick van Aanholt to Wigan Athletic (Loan), Gael Kakuta to Bolton (6 month Loan), Yossi Benayoun to Arsenal (Loan)


Everton
IN: Royston Drenthe from Real Madrid (Loan), Denis Stracqualursi from Tigres (Loan)
OUT: Jermaine Beckford to Leicester City, Mikel Arteta to Arsenal


Fulham
IN: Zdanek Grygera from Juventus (Loan), Bryan Ruiz from Twente Enschede, Orlando Sa (Free Agent)

OUT: Rafik Halliche to Swansea City (4 month Loan)


Liverpool
IN: Craig Bellamy from Manchester City
OUT: Joe Cole to Lille (Loan), Christian Poulsen to Evian, David Ngog to Bolton, Raul Meireles to Chelsea


Manchester City
IN: Owen Hargreaves (Free Agent)
OUT: John Guidetti to Feyenoord (Loan), Shaun Wright-Phillips to Queens Park Rangers, Craig Bellamy to Liverpool


Queens Park Rangers
IN: Shaun Wright-Phillips from Manchester City, Anton Ferdinand from Sunderland, Jason Puncheon from Southampton


Stoke City
IN: Wilson Palacios from Tottenham, Peter Crouch from Tottenham, Cameron Jerome from Birmingham


Sunderland
IN: Nicklas Bendtner from Arsenal (Loan)
OUT: Anton Ferdinand to Queens Park Rangers


Swansea City
IN: Rafik Halliche from Fulham (4 month Loan), Darnel Situ from Lens, Federico Bessone from Leeds United


Tottenham
IN: Scott Parker from West Ham
OUT: David Bentley to West Ham (Loan), Jermaine Jenas to Aston Villa (Loan), Alan Hutton to Aston Villa, Wilson Palacios to Stoke City, Peter Crouch to Stoke City


Wigan Athletic
IN: Shaun Maloney from Celtic, Patrick van Aanholt from Chelsea (Loan)​

Hopefully I didn't make any mistakes. Any teams that were not mentioned at all obviously didn't have any activity on deadline day.

Personally I am very pleased with Arsenal's business. All four are fantastic additions to our team, not to mention all are vastly experienced and well known names. It's about time Arsene Wenger made some big signings, but the fact it took an 8-2 smashing to do so is a little disappointing. Nonetheless some great signings have been done and hopefully they all perform well this season.

As for our Outs, it seems that nobody came to us with a suitable offer for Bendtner so we have been forced to send him out on Loan for the season. Who knows, maybe he'll have an impressive season and decide to stay with us if Wenger uses him regularly. As for Lansbury, it's a shame to see him go out on Loan yet again. This is the 4th time since 2008 that we've loaned him out, so I wouldn't be surprised if at the beginning of next season he looks for a Permanant move away.

I was surprised to see Liverpool sell Raul Meireles and buy Craig Bellamy. Personally I don't think Bellamy's worth it because he's such a dick, but I guess you can't shy away from his talent. Also surprised with Man City picking up Owen Hargreaves considering his injury issues. That was the main reason why Man Utd let him go, but it's worth a shot considering he came for free.

What does everybody else think of these transfers?

 

[Andrew]

Great move here, things have shaken up nicely here.

Some good trades, Arsenal have picked up some solid ones.

Man U didn't need anybody so that's a good one.

 

[Aniking]

If we had all our players available, I feel that this would be our strongest 11. Those in brackets is how I feel the pecking order should sit for that position:

Goalkeeper: Wojciech Szczesny
(Lukasz Fabianski, Vito Mannone, Manuel Almunia)

Right Back: Bacary Sagna
(Carl Jenkinson)

Centre Back: Per Mertesacker
Centre Back: Thomas Vermaelen
(Laurent Koscielny, Johan Djourou, Sebastien Squillaci)

Left Back: Andre Santos
(Kieran Gibbs)

Defensive Mid: Alex Song
(Emmanuel Frimpong)

Centre Mid: Jack Wilshere
(Aaron Ramsey, Abou Diaby, Craig Eastmond)

Attacking Mid: Mikel Arteta
(Tomas Rosicky)

Right Wing: Yossi Benayoun
(Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain)

Left Wing: Gervinho
(Andrei Arshavin, Ryo Miyaichi)

Centre Forward: Robin van Persie
(Marouane Chamakh, Park Chu-Young)​

The likes of Arshavin, Miyaichi, Gervinho and Walcott are all capable of playing as a Centre Forward, but they have all been used on the Wings in the past 2 months, whether that be in the pre-season, Premier League or Champions League.

Now although Benayoun is listed as an Attacking Midfielder and not a Winger, I feel that if he was to be placed as an Attacking Midfielder than either Arteta or Wilshere would miss out on a first team spot. Therefore I feel replacing Walcott in the first team is a much better choice than leaving Arteta or Wilshere on the bench.

Out of my preferred first team, I feel that the Goalkeeper and the four at the back are guaranteed starters for their positions. I also feel that Song is the guaranteed Defensive Midfielder, as well as Van Persie as the guaranteed central Striker. As for the Centre Mid, Attacking Mid and Wingers, this is where Arsenal is most flexible as there are masses of options there.

As an Arsenal fan, I am now very excited to see what the new team can do, although I won't be holding my breath for our next few Premier League matches. After all we still have Gervinho, Song, Frimpong and Jenkinson suspended, along with Diaby and Wilshere out the longest out of those with injuries.