Cannon wrote:Don't know where to post this. Was watching highlights of some of our previous seasons and i realized i miss the old Arsenal. Sure we were shit but we had some class footballers and played some real Kamikaze stuff! RvP, Song, Sagna, cesc, Rosciky, Vermaelen, chamakh!
You had me nodding until the last couple of names 
I stopped when I saw RVP.
Not a single squad member that I don't like these days, and that's important to me. There have been players in the past that I've actively disliked, and there are players I've tolerated. Feels really, really good to actually like all of our players.
I think Nasri's still the only player I couldn't like when they were here. Thank fuck he left.
Gallas towards the end and Diarra are the only ones I didn't particularly like. Adebayor too in his last year.
Bendtner most definitely, hated him from the very beginning. I always found it astonishing how many defenders and staunch supporters he had on A-M.
Nasri was a decent professional, to be honest. Bendtner was a frustrating oik.
The moments we had a fondness for Bendtner—and most of us had them—were only because the alternatives were players like Chamakh and permacrocked Van Persie.
Yeah, don't get the Nasri hate either. He's an idiot but hardly a nasty personality like Bendtner or Adebayor.
Never felt any fondness for Bendtner, maybe that header after being subbed on vs Spurs. Chamakh turned to complete shit after six months but he's much more of a footballer than the Dane, always thought as a unit we even looked better with him up front in 10/11 than with RVP aka Theo van Nasregas
Nasri is a bit spiteful, but not a waster. He copped quite a lot of flack for his humdrum partnership with Sagna. The version of Nasri we had would probably have combined well with the version of Bellerin we have now—in fact I'd like to see Wilshere get that chance.
What Chamakh did as a target man and link player set the stage for what Giroud does now about ten times as well. Bendtner wasn't completely useless but if he wasn't jogging onto the ball in acres of space thirty yards from goal, or leaping for a header, he probably wasn't going to have any impact.
Agree about Nasri. Chamakh not as much, thought he was a bit underappreciated during the first half of 10/11. He's a similar player to Giroud but not as slow.
Chamakh never occupied a defence the way that Giroud so many times, and was not as creative either.
It was really notable how much less aggressive he was for Arsenal attacking a header (especially after the first few months) than he had been the times I'd seen him turn out for Bordeaux in Europe.
I thought he was better in linking play. Giroud has better technique but Chamakh could drop deep and still be present to attack the box because he didn't run with a parachute strapped to his back.
Was spectacular indeed how he collapsed in the winter, there were some story about blackmail from a Las Vegas trip if I recall correctly.
GaelForce wrote:I think Nasri's still the only player I couldn't like when they were here. Thank fuck he left.
Same here. Hate his mentality, doesn't take any sort of responsibility. Other than him, I absolutely hated Denilson and Almunia because they are really shite.
Nasri is one of the biggest cunts to play for us, big time bottler as well.
I think Nasri made a rash and unfortunate decision to engage with the idiot Arsenal supporters who abused him, but I can understand why he did so. Other than that, he was a model pro for us the way I see it; he respected his contract, never refused to play, and he was prepared to see out his final year with us. I don't really have a problem with him, and I certainly didn't dislike him when he played for us.
jones wrote:Was spectacular indeed how he collapsed in the winter, there were some story about blackmail from a Las Vegas trip if I recall correctly.
Yeah, didn't he get fucked around by allegations of being gay or something? Quite a bad lot.
jones wrote:Yeah, don't get the Nasri hate either. He's an idiot but hardly a nasty personality like Bendtner or Adebayor.
Never felt any fondness for Bendtner, maybe that header after being subbed on vs Spurs. Chamakh turned to complete shit after six months but he's much more of a footballer than the Dane, always thought as a unit we even looked better with him up front in 10/11 than with RVP aka Theo van Nasregas
Agreed, never got the Nasri Ade hate, I can even view Lord Nik Eboue and Al Munia as amusing clowns (after the appropriate passing of time), thats why I defend the Flamster.
Hate is reserved for Van Persie Fabregas Silvestre and of course Gallas.
If Welbeck works hard applies himself stays uninjured and continues to weigh in with the odd high profile goal he might be upgraded into the clown list from the cunt list.
Sicario wrote:Nasri is one of the biggest cunts to play for us, big time bottler as well.
He absolutely hated Gallas who was by far the biggest cunt who ever played for us.
Gallas went on to play for Spurs and Perth......N'uff said.
Rex wrote:I think Nasri made a rash and unfortunate decision to engage with the idiot Arsenal supporters who abused him, but I can understand why he did so. Other than that, he was a model pro for us the way I see it; he respected his contract, never refused to play, and he was prepared to see out his final year with us. I don't really have a problem with him, and I certainly didn't dislike him when he played for us.
Same here.
Ade is a moron and was an absolute cunt about how he originally tried to leave and then how he celebrated at the Arsenal fans. And I really liked Ade before all that.
Burnwinter wrote:jones wrote:Was spectacular indeed how he collapsed in the winter, there were some story about blackmail from a Las Vegas trip if I recall correctly.
Yeah, didn't he get fucked around by allegations of being gay or something? Quite a bad lot.
Those were the rumours at the time but in the end I think the claims were it was "only" a bunch of Swedish girls, one of which sent nude pics to some boulevard magazine. He talked about it in a Guardian interview to some extent I think.
Well if they were only a bunch of Swedish girls I can't see the harm in it.
Remember 1 pm yesterday when we compared our line up with United's and laughed? I sure enjoyed that hour.
Those were the days eh Mirth.....
We must take our pleasures where we can.
Saw this somewhere. Rocky was before my time, but he looks like he was a superb player. Real skill, speed and technique. It'll be 15 years since he passed away at the end of this month. Gone so fast.
He was a perfect Wenger player in a Graham team, and I don't mean that in a derogatory sense he was a class elegant passer too who was probably born before his time.
He certainly died before it, that shit can be better treated nowadays.
That's how he looks to me, Bigs; a modern day player. A really good all-rounder.
I only remember Merse at Arsenal in bits and bobs, I was just a bit too young, but I remember loving him and the way he played. I liked him when he moved on too, at Villa and at Portsmouth, if I remember correctly. That's one of the sad things about the evolution of football for me; the death of the mercurial Number 10. It's largely about physical qualities now and modern tactics are built around that fact. The (almost always slightly tubby!) genius forward has all but disappeared, but football was more fun when you had players and people like Merson around. Also found it interesting how different he looked toward the end of the video when Wenger had obviously taken over at Arsenal - slimmest and most athletic he looked in the whole of his career!
Ricky1985 wrote:That's one of the sad things about the evolution of football for me; the death of the mercurial Number 10. It's largely about physical qualities now and modern tactics are built around that fact. The (almost always slightly tubby!) genius forward has all but disappeared, but football was more fun when you had players and people like Merson around.
http://www.football365.com/news/top-ten-most-lovable-chubby-footballers
Merson was electric … one of those players I always used to look forward to getting on the ball because he was so entertaining to watch.
It's been 7 years since Arshavin's four goal game at Anfield!? Time really does fly.
7 years? fucking hell
We've moved on from lovable chubby footballers Est.
Still one of the best moments of our last decade, along with his winner against Barca.
Biggus wrote:We've moved on from lovable chubby footballers Est.
As Clrnc would point out, we still haven't moved on from fourth place.
Still irritates me a little bit that we couldn't hold on to win that game.
Sunderland 3 Arsenal 5
est wrote:It's been 7 years since Arshavin's four goal game at Anfield!? Time really does fly.
Just saw that replayed on TV now we are still making the exact same defensive clanged as we were back then. Headlessly following the ball and leaving players free in the box.
Watch that game again and Kolo Toure's performance and let it sink in that he is STILL a Premiership defender seven years on
1934/5 Arsenal Champions and Spurs relegated. Perfect season.
1960/1 Nothing of interest here
