WORLD CUP DAY!
Get in people. Beers in the sun. Hype for the lads. All day sessions. Chanting in the streets. Tears. Disappointment. Maybe a 22 man brawl in an All Bar One. Penalties. Germans. Ronaldo tears for sure.
Shame I’m in the US and I’ll miss all of this.
I don’t mean to denigrate the country I pay taxes in, but you have to find the real nerds to get a football experience (thankfully, I found them) over here. Mostly, it’s people politely asking what the fuck is going on over your shoulder.
‘SHUT UP BRENDAN I’M TRYING TO ENJOY THIS SAUDI GAME’
Anyway, it’ll be fun.
For once, I don’t have a lot of opinions about what’s going to happen. I’m hoping the ball works properly. I want the big teams to play their absolute best. I’m praying for all the elite players, no one wants to see Salah ping a hamstring after 10 minutes. I’m also looking for Nigeria to take their play to the same levels as their kit. Also, I’d love to see Southgate have a cracker… and I’d love to see Sterling destroy the critics.
Should be a fun tournament. We’ll get to see Torriera play tomorrow at 8am (EST). All the rumblings are that he’s basically a done deal. We’ve signed Kantzorla for our midfield next year. Bring in Bernd Leno and a Caglar, and shit me, we’ll be rolling.
Sven M, Raul and Emery will have made all the changes we’ve been begging for 10 years, inside 6 months.
Careful what you wish for? Get fuuuuuucked…
That doesn’t mean things won’t go wrong, there’s still a huge amount of uncertainty when it comes to how we’ll play when the season starts. That’s obviously not been helped by the fixture list. I could swear when United have started with new managers, they’ve been utterly blessed with easy games?
Arsenal have to roll out the new era against City (H) and Chelsea (A). As Matt quipped earlier, I’ll be happy if we’re unbeaten. Unfortunately, the ideas Emery is bringing will be in incubation stages, our World Cup players won’t be fit and may not be available, and we’ll be playing against a well oiled billion $ machine. As fans, we just have to keep the faith and not lose our shit if the worst happens. That said, we’ll have a very strong squad, and hopefully being at home will carry the same value as it did last season. Top 3 baby! Also worth noting that City won’t be as strong in season two, and Chelsea, as it stands, are in a right fucking mess.
If we can take two points from those games, we have a very comfortable run of 6 games heading into the international break. If we can finish that period with 18 points, we’ll be very much in the mixer, and really, that’s what our season has to be about. We need to be in striking distance of the top 4 come what March.
Coming back from the first international break to Liverpool isn’t helpful, but at least it’s at home, and they’ll be just as fatigued as our boys. One thing to consider here is Arsenal players will have the luxury of a midweek break, unless Unai thinks he needs to play the first team for the group stages of the Europa. We’ll be more physically prepared than them. They also won’t have the luxury of planning. Their players will be back on a coach as soon as they land. We’ll have a little bit more time, and our players will be a little more comfortable.
We also get fucked after the next international break, welcoming Spurs to The Emirates as the first game. Not ideal, but again, they’ll be more fatigued than our boys, and hopefully that new stadium is bad to them and their form is in pieces. Playing United 3 days later is also shite. The manager is going to have to hope he can take 4 points from those games, and then he’s going to have to do something Wenger never did… rotate the fuck out of his players for the four games after (Huddersfield, Southampton, Burnley, Brighton), because we play Liverpool at the end of that run. The great thing about the December crunch is the shite teams generally don’t have squads that can cope with three games a week. If we’re strong, they might rest their legs for easier points opps.
January has one tough game against Chelsea, Feb has us start the month against City away, then a pivotal start to March where we’ll play Spurs (A) and United (H) back to back. You’d like to think those games will have some meaning. Take 4 points there and then we have a real chance at top 4. Our final 8 games are a cake walk, we just have to hope we haven’t burnt down the bakery before we get there.
Right, I’m off to watch the World Cup,
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CC, Samesong,
Ronaldo is a goal scoring machine and that’s about it. He was non existent in the champions league final, even this game, a penalty and a Karius moment gave him two goals.
Right now, he’s a version 4 of Inzaghi.
TR7
Priceless mate.
Lol and here I was thinking that we were all in on the joke.
I think he was being facetious no ?!…. TR7…
Think CC may have missed the joke there….
It’s amazing how players like Ronaldo manage to stay consistent under the glare of immense pressure.
I’ve always though the Messi vs Ronaldo debate was just plain silly. We are privileged to live through an era with two excellent but different footballers. Just enjoy it and stop the contrived arguments.
Azed
haha not buying that mate, but that’s your call.
Tr7
NEVER break character! 🙁
Can you fucking bin these dipshits -Charlie, Eagle and Marko. Lowering the discourse here on Le Grove
Hey!!! Yeah alright
I truly wonder if Messi can stay at the top of the game in 2 years from now. He is born in 87, CR7 in 85. Ronaldo shows that he can stay relevant at 33. Wonder if Messi can do it as well.
Charlie
Apologies, you see I haven’t been a student of this game for over 3 decades,not my fault.
Man just have to salute Ronaldo for that!
How shit is Koke, though. Such a nothing player.
Cuntttttt!
Ronaldo is just an athlete of the highest level. Messi has a bit more magic about him and IMO is the more gifted but who cares anymore – we are just lucky to have lived through the pair of them.
My favourite is still big hair Ronaldinho anyway. Combined the best of the two of them for about 2 amazing seasons…….
Carts
I get the impression you don’t totally rate Koke. Correct?
Tr7
😀 you’re forgiven, method acting that role is torturous
Saul Niguez and Asensio need to get more minutes, they add variety to Spain’s game.
“My favourite is still big hair Ronaldinho anyway. Combined the best of the two of them for about 2 amazing seasons…….”
YES barking. My sentiments exactly, for a couple of seasons he peaked higher than all imo. Genius
Koke used to be really highly rated – looked a player at one point but has just dropped off a cliff.
Agree we need more Asensio (and Thiago)
For real, I’m not even trying to have that debate.
Simply enjoy watching both fuck shit up!
What are we saying: is it going to be a *Hold my beer* moment from Messi? Or is he going to levied wth the task of carrying everyone like a mother possum?
CC
Yeah, I know he wasn’t consistent over enough years and won’t get talked about in that way (and rightly so) but at his best he was just peak footballer. Full stop.
Also played like he was out in the park with his mates all the time.
CC
I don’t think you understand. The man just hides and seldomly toe pokes his way through certain situation.
Ronaldo Lima as well – magical as well as athletic in his prime.
My favourite is still big hair Ronaldinho anyway. Combined the best of the two of them for about 2 amazing seasons…….
Ronaldo Da Lima was the business. Combined pace, power and trickery.
Barking/TR7
In total agreement. Ronaldinho was the epitome of the game for me, sadly too short-lived to be in that convo. But consistency aside he’s peaked higher than anyone ever imo. R9 was glorious too.
Carts
He’s gone down in my estimations tbf, fizzling out fast I agree.
“Ronaldo Lima as well – magical as well as athletic in his prime.”
True he was good – but he had crap hair.
Coach 15
“You have to give it to him,he definitely walks the walk this fella,cracking fee kick,big time player who actually delivers time and again.”
He delivered in the Euro 16 Final.
True he was good – but he had crap hair
When you are that good, you don’t need hair.
Dissenter
Agreed.
They are both unique. One thing in they have common is this: they both seem to be able to score pretty much when they feel like, however big the occasion.
The two goals Messi scored against Bayern to win the CL semi is a case in point.
The game was deadlocked and it was as if Messi said to himself: ‘right I’ve had enough of this. Time to score a couple of goals’….and he did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_3946853487&feature=iv&src_vid=Sns-jvHD1ec&v=Sns-jvHD1ec
Ronaldinho was a circus act…joke of a player..
TR7/CC/Azed
To be serious Lima was awesome and consistent for longer but I still think Gaucho was for a brief period untouchable.
Difficult to compare though – different parameters would give different “bests”.
I think I’ll play it safe and say Gaucho was my favourite player.
“When you are that good, you don’t need hair.”
Ha ha – so true!
I’d trade my hair for his skills!
It was a De Gea howler and a penalty. I even blame De Gea for the 3rd goal where he should of twigged the ball was only ever going to go to his left.
Red
‘It was a De Gea howler and a penalty. I even blame De Gea for the 3rd goal where he should of twigged the ball was only ever going to go to his left.’
Agreed. Not sure whether the 3rd goal could have been saved but the wall set up and De Gea’s positioning was suspect.
De Gea has been average for Spain even in friendlies. Not sure whether he is lulled in to complacency/lack of concentration given Spain generally totally dominate possession.
De Gea is such a wanker, beaten at his near post in a previous tournament against Croatia.
RT
‘He delivered in the Euro 16 Final.‘
He was on fire for 8 minutes,then I’ve not seen a better 65 minutes cheering from the touch line.
Rory Mcilroy 13 over after 30 holes,now that is a brutal golf course.
Charlie
Back or front 9 ?
Hillwood
haha place is disgusting isn’t it? Benign right now by all accounts too, which is just mental when you look at the scoring.
Your average club golfer would be 150 shots around there.
Brilliant Iberian Derby. Fantastic showcase for football. Ronaldo, you just knew he was going to score that free kick didn’t you? Although I have to ay the 3rd Spanish goal was not for the faint hearted, what a shot.
All in all, I think a fair result.
CC
There’s your triple bogey round buster for Poulter,jeez this course is a monster.
Coach
Just doesn’t give a shit does it. Plodding along nicely too
“One of the most mistake-ridden midfielders of the last 10 years at Arsenal. Big job for Emery.”
– Pedro on Xhaka getting an extension
I remembered telling Ishola on here when Emery signed that Xhaka is going to be integral to his plan.
Xhaka is gonna be the base of his midfield. I’m quite impressed with xhaka 2nd half of last season
Sanmi
Weren’t you one of the guys who used to talk up Ryo Miyaichi (and other obvious zeros)?
Oh no way, THE Pedro said that?
Well that’s my opinion changed. Thanks for the copy paste
There’s a player in Xhaka, always said it.
He’s just a bit dense and need proper coaching, that he wasn’t getting.
Reckon he’ll change a lot of peoples minds this season
“Weren’t you one of the guys who used to talk up Ryo Miyaichi (and other obvious zeros)?“
What a classy guy.
Charlie is on 24/7 patrol of my posts, apparently. This guy is so fucking pathetic.
And I love that he talks about having “class”. This is a guy who called me a “cunt” at least once a day for three consecutive days recently despite the fact that I didn’t insult him once.
Class. What a farce. You have issues, mate.
Do One
“Reckon he’ll change a lot of people’s minds this season.”
Or he won’t — and he’ll instead be relegated to the bench or sold at some point down the line.
This remains to be seen, obviously, but there is little in any of his performances this season or last that would lead an objective observer to think that he will become one of the better midfielders in the PL. There’s just no reason to believe that. Sorry.
Bamford
You certainly have a way of phrasing things. He gave a reason why he thinks Xhaka will play better, he specifically said better coaching. No need to make it sound like anyone who thinks Xhaka can improve is a moron.
Banford
Just like to point something basic out…
You can still be a cunt without actually doing anything cunty on a given day, based on previous cuntiness. Be a lot like saying it’s classless to call Hitler a murderous fiend because he went a few days without doing it. Pretty dim logic you present as per.
Remember when you threw your toys out because someone didn’t address you? Well who are you addressing with your above comment. Talking about me and I’m right here. Stay consistent……cunt
🙂
All for opinions on Xhaka, but Pedros talk f him being “one of the most mistake-ridden midfielders of the last 10 years at arsenal” should be pretty easy to substantiate empirically you’d think.
I can make a case for how and why I rate aspects of his game, then provide data backing those claims up. Seems Xhaka is recipient of a lot of hyperbole unsurprisingly.
Great interview with Lothar Matthaus in which he speaks about German football and then discusses how he would set the German XI up if he were the manager. Illuminating in a number of ways, and interestingly enough, he would leave Ozil out of the XI.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/planet-futbol
The interview w/ Matthaus starts around 29:00 and he discusses the German XI beginning around 38:00.
I can make a case for how and why I rate aspects of his game, then provide data backing those claims up. Seems Xhaka is recipient of a lot of hyperbole unsurprisingly.
There’s also data that supports the idea that he’s mistake ridden. His defensive side of his game is the big issue. To be fair
Look this season he either improves or he doesn’t and if he doesn’t I’d imagine Emery will drop him because he can’t risk his job persisting with someone who costs us or exposes us
Marko
I suspect Emery might be keeping xhaka because he’s hard to get rid of.
How he’s utilised will be telling. Xhaka is a good passer but apart from that he seems totally unsuited to arsenal and English football….. So far
Sanmi “I remembered telling Ishola on here when Emery signed that Xhaka is going to be integral to his plan. Xhaka is gonna be the base of his midfield. I’m quite impressed with xhaka 2nd half of last season” This sounds like crowing. What is there to crow about ? Just to clarify I never made a comment on here that Emery doesn’t rate Xhaka. I may have hoped he didn’t rate Xhaka but that is a different thing. It’s a bit daft to state that a manager doesn’t rate such and such a player if you have no idea… Read more »
I watched every single one of our games last season… Apart from three or so games I did not see this mistake ridden midfielder cost us points. In a season where we were absolute garbage Xhaka was one of our better players and if anything he never went into hiding like most of his other team mates. But just because he happens to be slow it’s become the fashionable thing to do to pick on him. I think this has something to do with Wenger picking him over Kante. That is the only reasonable explanation for the hatred some fans… Read more »
Fair enough to Emery, he’s made a big call in choosing to extend Xhaka’s contract. He must have an idea how to develop him for the future. It’ll be interesting to see what he can do. If Emery can rehabilitate him, it’s going to save the club millions in having to find a replacement or having to take the loss if he was sold on now. Bearing in mind he was brought in for £35m I dread to think what his present value is now. If Emery is moderately successful we can sell him off next summer with his value… Read more »
Some one was asking about the young people here. Just wanted to say I’m 27, but look Like a 20 year old. On the flipside, my career is going no where and my last girlfriend broke up with me cause I wouldn’t impregnate her.. maybe I dodged a bullet there though 🙂 only time will tell…
Xhaka is a scapegoat for the team because of his price tag. The truth is the whole team led by a washed up man stank last year. Elneny was not any better than anyone else but he doesn’t much grief because only cost £5m.
Leedsgunner
“Xhaka is a scapegoat for the team because of his price tag”
tbh I never think of his price tag when slating him.
It’s because of the position he plays. All I want and others from a player in this position is to be sound defensively and have decent distribution. To me his position in the team is not a star one. It seems some fans want to make this position a star one though.
Traditionally it has been the attacking forwards where price tag is more thought of if a player is seen to be failing.
@Leedsgunner
I think he is a scapegoat for one reason.. Arsenal fans believe Wenger choose ed him over Kante. Yet from what I read once Chelsea contacted Kante they were his preferred destination.
Even Pedro keeps saying he was chosen over Kante.
Xhaka is a player Wenger said was a box to box midfielder and Some wonderful why he struggled.
Let’s be clear Arsenal’s defence in recent years was a shambles and that was down to the way that Wenger wanted his team to play and the lack of tactical naus and discipline at the club. Xhaka for example may not have been the most naturally gifted footballer on the planet, but he was highly rated in both Germany and Switzerland. Under a different manager who is more focussed on putting the house in order defensively Xhaka could just produce a more solid performance in midfield alongside players like Torreira and Ramsey. Similarly our defence has the potential to improve… Read more »
Until a decision is made on the “key” player in Emery’s plans (Aaron Ramsey), it is impossible to predict what line up or system Emery will use. The decision on the said “key” player will have an impact on the midfield and attack. Does Emery see our “key” player as our playmaker or our general in midfield.. I note that Emery is actually quoted as saying that xhaka is an “important” player when discussing his new contract but there are no actual quotes from Emery in person on our “key” player, just 2nd party quotes that have just been regurgitated… Read more »
why must we have a key player under Emery
why can’t we have a team where everyone knows their job and get called out by the manager when they don’t do said job. Key players are usually consistent stars… Pardon me but we don’t have any of those. We have good players who need to be put to work on a training pitch and played to a system.
Xhaka
Cons -Not a good tackler ,can’t track back ,suffers from lapse in concentration rather too frequently and hesitates in possession when pressed
Pros – can ping long balls to overlapping fullbacks, for a DM his passing is decent
Cons outweighs pros for me and that’s why he gets criticized.
Talking about Kante, price tag, hate,system and new contracts is merely deflecting away from the core issue that is his quality or rather lack of it.
I think the extension is shrewd management. The lad is relatively young,if there’s no improvement in the future,we have a full international,who if not playing will want away to protect his career and we have an advantageous position to negotiate a transfer fee.
Receding
“I watched every single one of our games last season… Apart from three or so games I did not see this mistake ridden midfielder cost us points.”
The media have their favourites and they have their scapegoats for the failure of the team…. Normally özil and xhaka are the scapegoats and Ramsey is seen as the blue eyes boy.
I agree with you regarding the perception of xhaka.. His mistakes were early in the season and they were a stick to beat him with for the rest of the season..
Morning people, woke up to the news that Xhaka has a new contract. Let’s hope Emery knows something that we don’t, from the outside looking in its looks a terrible decision. How many times did Xhaka give away the ball that led to goals against us Last year. How many non existent tackles that resulted in players scoring against us. How many times was he caught out of position and couldn’t get back because he’s so slow and makes Per look like Usain Bolt. That’s before you even throw in the bad tackles that led to free kicks and ducking… Read more »
Xhaka day
Sunday
@ TR7 he is not a DM. And this suffers under the press thing I guess it has to do with Dembele of spurs.. Who many forget was actually an attacking player at Durham.. Being able go dribble his way out of a press coupled with his strength. That is not Xhaka. And frankly not many deep lying midfielders have that ability anyway. Also he hesitates because when he is pressed all his team mates including his fullbacks are already up field…no one shows for the ball.. Which is why he doesn’t do it when he plays with El neny..… Read more »
Dembele at fulham not Durham for Pete’s sake. These mobile keyboards are such busy bodies
Are we going to witness the French Smash the Aussie? Or a cagey affair? What’s your predictions?
Receding
So if you agree with the weaknesses I listed above regarding Xhaka then why do you take issue with those who criticize him. And also what aspect of his game you think he can improve upon that you show faith in him.
@ Samesong
I’m going for a French smash. Too much in attack and the Aussies aren’t exactly a defensively solid unit
We know Wenger bought Xhaka as a box to box player, But then played him as CDM. So please tell me what type of midfielder is he? He can’t defend so CDM is out. He can’t do box to box because he has no pace. That also rules out being a winger. He can’t create like ozil so attacking midfielder is out. And he can’t man Mark in midfield as he can’t tackle. So what is he? As somebody earlier mentioned on here, he can ping a ball long to a fullback. Great pack him off to Wimbledon or wherever… Read more »
I think xhaka can still come good. emery could make him the next xabi alonso. he’s got great long passing but his decision making needs to improve and he should stop doing back passes…
@ TR7 Again he is not a DM. He needs a reliable midfield partner who he can easily exchange passes with when pressed. That partner isn’t Ramsey obviously. He has a 71% tackle success rate out of 77 tackles he attempted last season so he isn’t exactly useless there. He only made two errors leading to goals last season so no he wasn’t to blame for our appaling defensive record. He is a relatively young player who can improve under a certain system. Unlike most on here I am perfectly open to watch Xhaka play under a different manager in… Read more »
the reason xhaka fails in the arsenal team is cause the team isn’t set up for a deep lying playmaker. Pirlo would have looked average playing for wenger, cause wenger left the defence and midfield open. May change this season. .
the hardest obstacle emery may have is to get rid of this easy going attitude that the players have. No one plays for the club. sure, they kiss the badge and all that bs. but none of them really mean it. more money somewhere else, look how fast they get away from arsenal…
Great news about Xhaka.
For Switzeland he is a different animal.
Emery knows this.
Those that criticise him are forgetting one thing…………Arsene Wenger!
Have faith in Emery and stop moaning about things that were only evident because we had a shite manager dishing out shite systems and tactics.
Wenger is gone but arsenal are still arsenal.
Signing Xhaka is essentially raising the white flag.
With Ozil and Xhaka in the team, we start every game with 9 men.
Nice to know Napoli were very keen on Leno. I trust their judgement on players.
Switzerland
Receding
I haven’t ever cared what Pundits say, I rarely listen to them. I don’t even know what Souness and Henry said about him, let alone get influenced by it.
I am not trying to put words in your mouth but I guess you are ‘hoping’ Xhaka will come good under a new system and till then you want to reserve your judgement. Your defense of him is not based on his abilities, right?
Remember shite will only surface when the drains are clogged.
Our drains were clogged up for ten years.
Did Wenger make Xhaka slow, and unable to tackle.
Did Wenger tell xhaka where to stand on the pitch so he was out of position.
He had a slightly better end to the season, did he? I must have missed that. Unless you mean he wasn’t as poor as he was at the start of the season.
Standards at our club have dropped so low that wasn’t bad is classed as good.
@ TR7 oh I see what u are driving at… sorry bro he has abilities alright. You might think it’s easy to pick outplayers on the run with pin point accuracy well it’s not because I have played football. If we develop a good counter attacking system that ability will be very important. Yes he might not be so good in a pressing game but contrary to popular opinion he has pressed and recovered a good number of balls that set us off on attacks So in summary I believe he has abilities the last manager did not have a… Read more »
Busquers is a slow player
Xabi Alonso was a slow player
Fabregas is a slow player
Pirlo was no speed merchant
This obsession with speed is a bit funny
And as for being a poor athlete…Xhaka is rarely injured.. He as as durable as they come. Compare him to the second coming of Christ Ramsey who needs a breather every mid season
And it’s actually difficult to “position” yourself well when all around you there are pockets of space where your teammates were meant to be but are not cos they have wandered up field or lost concentration but hey Xhaka is the only Arsenal player with concentration issues
Up for grabs now
Your paranoia holds no bounds.
Shit, we had to put up with ‘Bambi on ice’ Mertesacker for all these years but our clueless manager never acted on this.
Give it a rest and enjoy the WC.
I don’t get the obsession with speed either. If a team is well drilled, you would know that a player only has to cover a certain amount of space when defending. xhaka doesn’t need to cover the whole breadth of the field where he is positioned. Only thing he needs to do is make sure he doesn’t go to ground easily and instead push the player to the side or hold his ground till his team mates are in their position… hence why there’s only ever one real DM and not 2 rows of 4 players defending…
Graham,
No paranoia mate, just concern, we get rid of Wenger get a new manager, and have a new set up heralded in by Ivan and yet still see decisions like New contracts for elneny, Wilshire and now xhaka.
Awful midfield players, reminds me of days when our midfielders were the likes of selley, hillier, mcGoldrick etc.
Loving the world cup because I expect to see good football something we haven’t had much of at arsenal the last few years.
Quick prediction on todays games, for what it’s worth.
FRANCE 4 AUSTRALIA 1
PERU 2 DENMARK 1
ARGENTINA 3 ICELAND 1
CROATIA 2 NIGERIA 2
Corentin Tolliso starts for France.. hmm… now there is a player I don’t rate that much.
interesting to note the future of football Fekir is on the bench.
Bald cvnt
“I on the other hand don’t think Kante is all that”
Comedy gold
Second that RH, don’t like Tolisso too much.
Fancy French to put on a show, once they score the first the goals will flow.
4-0.
u4gn
Don’t worry, it’ll all work itself out.
Have Croatia beating Nigeria, and don’t see Iceland scoring today.
Otherwise agree.
Lot’s of goals today folks.
Gonsterous,
Some pace is needed, especially if you are constantly out of position like xhaka is.
Or like you say has gone to ground to early and need to recover.
Wenger made the same mistake with denilson and song.
That’s why it was never going to work with xhaka.
My worry and I hope I’m wrong is that emery will persist with xhaka playing the same way.
Will have to wait and see, a new manager with tactics will help but won’t turn him into The next Gilberto.
Nigeria may cause a surprise.