Rival watch

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IIRC, a lot of Spurs fans didn't have a good word to say about Pienaar, and wrote him off before he even played for us. Another 'victory' for the 'negative tendency' in Spursdom.

He worked hard for us but was very unlucky with injuries. I doubt it helped that Redknapp saw him as a more defensive player for us though.
 
Arsenal were poor again today. This was their team:

Mannone, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arteta, Diaby, Cazorla, Gervinho, Podolski, Giroud
Subs: Martinez, Santos, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Djourou, Coquelin

To those who say we have a much weaker squad - which of those would be a shoe-in for our first team?

Vermaelen may be better than Verthonghen and Cazorla better than Sig but its quite close. Bale is way better than Podolski, similarly, Walker - Jenkinson and Ade - Giroud. Admittedly they have also got Szczesney, Sagna, Koscielny, Wilshere, Roscicky and Arshavin so they might have more depth but I think if we strengthen a bit this week we will have them beaten
 
Don't know about poor. That is the first game I've seen against Stoke away where we didn't look completely lost and in panic. Judging from past seasons Stoke away is among the toughest 2-3 games we face in a season.

Definitely a boring game though, but I'll take a draw away against our (and many others) bogey team as a positive.


During the game I mentioned the pitch looked very slow, almost as if the grass is taller than usual and it seems I was right. You could see that from the many short passes from both teams during the first 15 minutes. Now that Stoke can't **** about with the width of the pitch they've found other kinky tactics. <laugh>
 
He worked hard for us but was very unlucky with injuries. I doubt it helped that Redknapp saw him as a more defensive player for us though.

He was unlucky with injuries, that doesn't excuse the wholesale slating he got from many. One on here called him 'toilet' IIRC. How embarrassing.

I remember also pointing out he was captain of South Africa but still some kept slating him, and talked as if that was nothing. As I say quite a few wrote him off, when we signed him, just because they didn't see the need for him. Well maybe they do now, and what a bargain he was, Levy had worked wonders this time and a whole slice of Spurdom turned their noses up.
 
Don't know about poor. That is the first game I've seen against Stoke away where we didn't look completely lost and in panic. Judging from past seasons Stoke away is among the toughest 2-3 games we face in a season.

Definitely a boring game though, but I'll take a draw away against our (and many others) bogey team as a positive.


During the game I mentioned the pitch looked very slow, almost as if the grass is taller than usual and it seems I was right. You could see that from the many short passes from both teams during the first 15 minutes. Now that Stoke can't **** about with the width of the pitch they've found other kinky tactics. <laugh>

Now Stoke have been ordered to widen the pitch they will really struggle IMO
 
Arsenal were poor again today. This was their team:

Mannone, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arteta, Diaby, Cazorla, Gervinho, Podolski, Giroud
Subs: Martinez, Santos, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Djourou, Coquelin

To those who say we have a much weaker squad - which of those would be a shoe-in for our first team?

Vermaelen may be better than Verthonghen and Cazorla better than Sig but its quite close. Bale is way better than Podolski, similarly, Walker - Jenkinson and Ade - Giroud. Admittedly they have also got Szczesney, Sagna, Koscielny, Wilshere, Roscicky and Arshavin so they might have more depth but I think if we strengthen a bit this week we will have them beaten

I say they have a better squad than us

of their players Scezney Wilshere (presuming he gets fit) and Vermalen would be shoe-in for us, and of ours Kaboul Sandro and Adebayor (presuming he gets fit). the rest you could argue over all day

I'll say now, not even waiting for Sep 1, they will finish higher than us.
 
Arsenal were poor again today. This was their team:

Mannone, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arteta, Diaby, Cazorla, Gervinho, Podolski, Giroud
Subs: Martinez, Santos, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Djourou, Coquelin

To those who say we have a much weaker squad - which of those would be a shoe-in for our first team?

Vermaelen may be better than Verthonghen and Cazorla better than Sig but its quite close. Bale is way better than Podolski, similarly, Walker - Jenkinson and Ade - Giroud. Admittedly they have also got Szczesney, Sagna, Koscielny, Wilshere, Roscicky and Arshavin so they might have more depth but I think if we strengthen a bit this week we will have them beaten

Yeah but Arsenal have first team players missing so your not really comparing like for like.

You look at Arsenals squad and they are able to change it up by bringing quLity players like Walcott, Oxlaide Chamberlain and Ramsey off the bench. We haven't even considered Walcott, Arshavin, Rosicky etc. You look at Spurs and there isn't much in reserve hence why Jenas was turned to yesterday.

First XI there isn't much in it but in terms of squad depth at present Arsenal's squad is considerably better IMO
 
Arsenal were poor again today. This was their team:

Mannone, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Arteta, Diaby, Cazorla, Gervinho, Podolski, Giroud
Subs: Martinez, Santos, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Djourou, Coquelin

To those who say we have a much weaker squad - which of those would be a shoe-in for our first team?

Vermaelen may be better than Verthonghen and Cazorla better than Sig but its quite close. Bale is way better than Podolski, similarly, Walker - Jenkinson and Ade - Giroud. Admittedly they have also got Szczesney, Sagna, Koscielny, Wilshere, Roscicky and Arshavin so they might have more depth but I think if we strengthen a bit this week we will have them beaten

Like us, I think it's early days for them. It's a bit of a reality check though for those that thought RVP was just greedy and Arsenal had signed players that would get RVP challenging for the trophies he wants.

If we can sort out the transfers we need in the next week I think it'll be close again between us and Arsenal again this season and who knows, maybe Swansea can pull off a Newcastle this year and compete for European places.
 
Yeah but Arsenal have first team players missing so your not really comparing like for like.

You look at Arsenals squad and they are able to change it up by bringing quLity players like Walcott, Oxlaide Chamberlain and Ramsey off the bench. We haven't even considered Walcott, Arshavin, Rosicky etc. You look at Spurs and there isn't much in reserve hence why Jenas was turned to yesterday.

First XI there isn't much in it but in terms of squad depth at present Arsenal's squad is considerably better IMO

His point was based around the team they put out and we were missing Kaboul and Parker, had a not match fit Adebayor plus Modric on strike. They were missing Sagna, Koscielny and Wilshere from what I can tell.

In defence I'd say we have much better depth and we have a good choice of central midfielders available to us but yes they have more creative midfielders, strength on the wings and 2 good choices up top. If we don't remedy those areas before the window shuts though I'll be very surprised but Wenger seems quite happy with his squad.
 
His point was based around the team they put out and we were missing Kaboul and Parker, had a not match fit Adebayor plus Modric on strike. They were missing Sagna, Koscielny and Wilshere from what I can tell.

In defence I'd say we have much better depth and we have a good choice of central midfielders available to us but yes they have more creative midfielders, strength on the wings and 2 good choices up top. If we don't remedy those areas before the window shuts though I'll be very surprised but Wenger seems quite happy with his squad.

I don't think Arsenal's defence has really been tested yet. Neither you or Them have a great defence but both in particular Arsenal have fantastic attacking options.

Spurs squad is not complete yet so there isn't need to panic just yet but it appears Arsenal have completed their business (bar 1 player) and seem happy with their squad.... Which appears more than good enough to make top 4 but nowhere near enough to challenge which is what they want
 
looks like someone's taken a liking to Kolarov...

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I was surprised Brenda did not show intrest in Dawson to be honest.

I know he wants ball players but I think Skrtel misunderstood.
 
Lets play a new game...Noughts and Noughts.

Moving up 12 Arsenal 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2

Lets guess what all the noughts mean. :)

One of them is the "Now Van Persie is gone, Arsenal is a how many man team?" column. Another zero could be the "What do Arsenal fans and reality have in common?" column.