***The Official Arsenal Gunners" Thread***

[Krebstar]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

Park got the start tonight, which I think is good. He needs time with the team and RVP needs to rest. Also, we need to work on others stepping up besides him. Stuck at work so I'm reading the minute by minute on The Guardian.

[rsnomar05]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

Park got the start tonight, which I think is good. He needs time with the team and RVP needs to rest. Also, we need to work on others stepping up besides him. Stuck at work so I'm reading the minute by minute on The Guardian.

Yeah, and the others didn't step up. We still can't seem to score without RVP in the match, and that's a bit concerning, given RVP's penchant for getting injured. I'd like to think he's turned a corner in terms of injuries, but still, we need to be able to score without him.

74th minute right now and it's scoreless. I'll take a draw, but this is very much winnable. Hopefully RVP can make an impact.

[rsnomar05]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

I hear you, but a lot of that is positioning and reading too. I know first hand exactly how it feels to absolutely SUCK at judging crosses (on either end of the field) and while Per is tall he may not be the best at it either. Combine that with a completely different league where he is fractions out of position more often than not and he finds himself having to stretch for balls that are just out of reach rather than jumping to meet them from a good position. With time I think we will see him become a force, he's too experienced at high levels (outside the EPL obviously) to not be able to adapt. Come mid-January or early February I think we should have a tough time judging which CB pairing we want to see out there, which isn't a bad thing.

No, it's a great thing to have this much depth at that position, when CB is the position we had all been crying for to be upgraded. I think Mertesacker will adapt too, and maybe it is positioning, but hopefully we'll see him jumping for headers soon.

[Krebstar]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

Well, 0-0 isn't bad considering from what I heard, the opposition for the most part was playing for it after we took control.

[ZM Punk]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

Good lord I hope RVP can stay healthy because Park looked worse terrible today. Hopefully its just jitters but he was beyond terrible.

When did Rosicky turn into Paul Scholes? That guy was just flying into tackles today. I really liked the effort but he's going to find himself in some trouble if continues to do it. Unfortunately for Tomas, unlike Paul he isn't English.

[rsnomar05]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

Good lord I hope RVP can stay healthy because Park looked worse terrible today. Hopefully its just jitters but he was beyond terrible.

When did Rosicky turn into Paul Scholes? That guy was just flying into tackles today. I really liked the effort but he's going to find himself in some trouble if continues to do it. Unfortunately for Tomas, unlike Paul he isn't English.

I seem to remember Rosicky always flying into tackles in the past, and people thinking that might be a reason why he was always getting hurt, but I could be wrong.

If Park or Chamakh can't start scoring soon, we'll need to buy a striker in January (though I doubt Wenger will actually do it).

[rsnomar05]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

Just an FYI, according to my cable info Arsenal will not be shown live this weekend, but instead will be shown on delay at 6:00 pm Saturday on FSC.

[jt45]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

FC Dallas just announced the Brek Shea is going to spend a month training with Arsenal and return to Dallas in December. Potential future pickup?

[Krebstar]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

Just an FYI, according to my cable info Arsenal will not be shown live this weekend, but instead will be shown on delay at 6:00 pm Saturday on FSC.

Correct, but it will be live on FoxSoccer.tv at 10am. Yaaaay.

[Krebstar]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

Not sure if anyone else is watching, six minutes until kickoff. I'll keep updating my thoughts in this post for the hell of it since I'm watching on my computer.

Arsenal: SZCZ, Jenkinson, Koscielny, TV5, Santos, Ramsey, Arteta, Song, Walcott, Gervinho, RVP.

No surprises there.

---

1-0 to the Arsenal! Who else but Robin Van Persie. Great pass by Ramsey to Walcott, decent shot by Walcott and RVP grabs the easy tap in.

2-0! TV5 with a beautiful goal. Also, Carol Jenkinson is the best crosser on this team. By far.

[jt45]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

We are in great form right now. I'm loving watching this.

[Krebstar]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

Solid 3-0 win. Can't ask for more than that against WBA. They sat back but we never let them hurt us with a counter and even though we played at a slow pace most of the match, we were always in control.

[RoyceDa59]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

Positive note that Arsenal are now out of the negative goal difference.

[barryf1fan]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

Positive note that Arsenal are now out of the negative goal difference.

And a clean sheet versus another BPL side. That has to feel good for SZCZ, and the team. I know it was West Brom... but have to start somewhere.

[Krebstar]

Re: ***The Official Arsenal "Gunners" Thread***

And a clean sheet versus another BPL side. That has to feel good for SZCZ, and the team. I know it was West Brom... but have to start somewhere.

The thing is, that West Brom side is the kind of a side we'd normally struggle against. Big and tall defenders, fairly dangerous from set pieces and very well organized. Also, more than happy to sit back and hit us on the counter. However, we handled everything really well.

The return of Gibbs will be huge as Santos is still a defensive liability, but TV5 being back has already shown to be pretty huge. The fact that we now have three quality CB's is nice, even though Per isn't quite up to what we all hope he can be.

I don't want to say this team is better than last year, but they're definitely different and in a very good way. With the way Nasri handled business in the Summer, I think that speaks to his character a little and perhaps him out of this team isn't so bad. We now have a solid core of older players and younger players who are stepping up.

Any injury to RVP is still a massive worry, though. However, it's always been that way. I recall last year saying in the EPL thread that losing RVP would be the equivalent to Chelsea losing Drogba (this was before January). It was met with some ridiculous comments claiming that RVP doesn't have near the same impact on the team and that he's not as good of a player. What a joke. Nice to see him stay healthy and finally see people realize he's literally one of the best in the world.