Arsenal

[Rocafella]

I'm sure some of our players are injury-prone, but it's been happening for years.

Ramsey is one of the fittest footballers you'll ever see, somebody like him shouldn't be suffering so many muscular injuries. The Ox is another one. You wouldn't exactly call him lightweight.

We're clearly doing something wrong, but nobody seems to be able to solve it (or in Wenger's case, admit it) which is why this'll keep happening and we'll keep lamenting our 'bad luck' every year.

[emjay2kay]

A few weeks ago, Jermaine Jenas gave a comment (I assume during Final Score but I read it on the live text feed thing on the BBC website - I mention this only to pre-empt anyone asking for a link) that Arsenal's pitch was "sand based" which meant it was beautiful to play on and thus why Wenger liked such pitches, but whenever Jenas played on it he found it really heavy going on his joints.

No idea if what he said about the pitch being true, but it's certainly one other potential constant over all these years.

[Rocafella]

The Guardian reckon Santi is out for 3 months..

[Rev]

Who'd have thought that keeping a player on the pitch when he was injured could result in a worse injury. On top of the revelation that "warming up is useful" that Walcott taught us earlier in the season, this is a truly education time to be an Arsenal fan.

Fucking idiots.

[Gotters]

A few weeks ago, Jermaine Jenas gave a comment (I assume during Final Score but I read it on the live text feed thing on the BBC website - I mention this only to pre-empt anyone asking for a link) that Arsenal's pitch was "sand based" which meant it was beautiful to play on and thus why Wenger liked such pitches, but whenever Jenas played on it he found it really heavy going on his joints.

No idea if what he said about the pitch being true, but it's certainly one other potential constant over all these years.

The pitch has been a theory for years, the fact that the training ground pitches are identical to the stadium too would lend some weight to the theory.

[pinholestar]

We're fucked.

[The Fox]

4 months for Cazorla. Need to buy a January partner for Ramsey now. With Arteta's calves in pieces and Flamini a bit shit, I don't think there's any option. Just gotta muddle through till then and hope we're still in touch with the leaders in January.

It's also crucial now that Ox and Ramsey hit the ground running and stay fit for the next few weeks. Any issues with them and we're in serious trouble.

[Silent Runner]

3 minutes in and already caught pushing way too many players up the pitch. Borini had half the pitch to run into and not a tackle to be seen. Good save from Cech to keep it 0-0.

[The Fox]

I see the retard version of Arsenal have turned up today. Might switch off and do something more fun, like smash my balls between two bricks.

[Silent Runner]

Trademark perfect assist from Ozil there.

[Pavey]

Aside from Giroud putting it in our net what was the story with the marking? Two opposition players nearest to Giroud had loads of space around them.

[Silent Runner]

Another great save from Cech. Could do with these clowns getting the fucking lead out here and making a bit of an effort.

[Silent Runner]

YESSSSS - knew Olly G. would come good today.

And Theo is back as well. Decent.

[Silent Runner]

Delighted for Ramsey. He missed a couple of decent chances but he did set up Giroud for the second. Pretty tough day at the office though and needed some great saves/shit finishing to win it. Good weekend so far.

[Rev]

Nice that November ended at the end of November.

[The Fox]

Thought Ramsey was a bit erratic at times but did well considering he's not played CM for ages. He was certainly better than poor old Santi has been there for quite some time now. 114/124 passes shows he took on more responsibility to build the play then he used to, and was reasonably effective at doing so.

Özil and Cech were both hugely important again.

[Rev]

I can see the logic with the One Great Player and I'm sure Cech will secure as many points as Ozil or Sanchez will, but it's so infuriating that we didn't get an outfield player as well. We won today, but it could easily have been 2-2.

[Dude Ranch]

Haven't seen anything of today but I think we can all agree that Cech was a superb signing. Probably half a decade too late from our point of view but he commands genuine respect, top class.

[The Fox]

Yep I had some doubts but happy to say I was massively wrong based on most of what we've seen so far.

[Rev]

Since the other folk are doing it...Are we going to bid for Guardiola if he leaves Bayern at the end of the season? Wages are unlikely to be much of a stumbling block to match Bayern and I'm fairly sure he'd pick based on "the project" rather than money. Man Utd don't seem interested, I suspect he wouldn't want to follow Mourinho so Chelsea are probably out. Could Arsenal be anywhere near as tempting as City?

It seems inevitable Wenger will pick his successor and you'd think that Guardiola's style is closest to Arsene's if we're not going with Henry or Bergkamp in 2017.

[Steve007]

Thought Ramsey was a bit erratic at times but did well considering he's not played CM for ages.

Ramsey, Ox & Theo were very clearly not match fit and had been rushed back. Towards the end of the game we had 4 full-backs on the pitch. That's how thread-bare we are.

Sunderland had so many chances and if they were clinical and put them away we'd have conceded 4 or even 5. It was only Cech and their unbelievable wastefulness that saved us. The highlights of the game didn't really tell the full story.

[Steve007]

Since the other folk are doing it...Are we going to bid for Guardiola if he leaves Bayern at the end of the season? Wages are unlikely to be much of a stumbling block to match Bayern and I'm fairly sure he'd pick based on "the project" rather than money. Man Utd don't seem interested, I suspect he wouldn't want to follow Mourinho so Chelsea are probably out. Could Arsenal be anywhere near as tempting as City?

It seems inevitable Wenger will pick his successor and you'd think that Guardiola's style is closest to Arsene's if we're not going with Henry or Bergkamp in 2017.

Guardiola will only pick easy jobs or a club that's prepared to give him 100's of millions each summer so there's no chance of him coming to Arsenal. If Guardiola leaves Bayern, I think he'll end up at City with £10m a year in his pocket and a kitty to buy whoever he wants. He won't be given that at Arsenal, or anywhere else for that matter.

In my opinion, Wenger should have been booted upstairs and replaced with Klopp as he was available, I think he was the perfect choice for our club. I think Henry or any player without top level coaching experience would be a terrible decision. Bergkamp would be a better candidate because of his coaching at Ajax over the last few years but I'd still like to see him take a job before coming to us & see how he performs.

[The Fox]

Surely Bergkamp's fear of flying rules him out of ever being a head coach anywhere. It's just not viable.

[Steve007]

I'm sure I read somewhere that he said if he took a job he'd fly again after having some kind of therapy.

Back when Bergkamp was playing for us, my friend used to drive the team coach when Hallmark Coaches had the contract. The team would fly to games whenever it was possible and be met by the regular first team bus at the airport & Bergkamp would be the only passenger on the coach as it made it's way from London Colney to pick the players up which meant often skipping a days training just so he could make an away game in the north. Sometimes the coach would set off the day before, so Bergkamp would often spend an extra night in a hotel & miss a training session. What a crazy way to live.

[hauk]

Good to have Theo and Ramsey back, with Wilshere and Wellbeck coming back the squad is not looking so threadbare, plus we are 2nd in the league.

Having said all that, I really hope the dreaded "like a new signing" statements don't start being throw around with regards to players returning from injury. The league is so open this year, surely Wenger must realize this is going to be his absolute best chance of winning it and a couple of decent signings in the January transfer window could be the difference between 1st and 4th.

[Rev]

Guardiola will only pick easy jobs or a club that's prepared to give him 100's of millions each summer so there's no chance of him coming to Arsenal. If Guardiola leaves Bayern, I think he'll end up at City with £10m a year in his pocket and a kitty to buy whoever he wants. He won't be given that at Arsenal, or anywhere else for that matter.

I don't think his transfers at Bayern back that up. From a quick bit of totalling he's spent £42m+£34m+£52m in the time we've spent £35m+£83m+£10m.

That's £128m vs...£128m.

[Steve007]

He already had a team full of world-beaters when he arrived so he didn't need to spend for spendings sake.

[Rev]

They'd got some great players at the top, Muller, Robben and Ribery, but even now I'm not convinced their squad was that much better. Even now, as demonstrated by the fact we keep beating them, even if we're clearly not better overall.

The same goes for City, really. I don't think there's that much difference between Arsenal and City in terms of the quality of the starting squad.

[The Fox]

Quite how City have spent all that money only to still have Kolarov and Clichy as left back options is beyond me. City have a CF who's miles better than ours but luckily he's constantly crocked. Beyond that I think the squads are reasonably comparable. Both struggling with injuries lately of course.

[Rev]

Man City are weird. Their recruitment policy really became quite wonky when they'd finished paying for our stadium.