Dont think he'll ever achieve his full potential, unfortunately.

in the current era where high pressing so in vogue, wilshere could've been bloody useful to us. his whole game is based on drawing overzealous defenders in and ghosting past them. the way he played through pressure against that 2011 bartha side was a good example

I miss him so much. He has mostly been brilliant centrally when he is not paired with Ramsey.

Me too. Fucking love watching him play

Szczsney costing Roma wtf. Time and time again he'd make these horrid mistakes.

Lol, let's get rid Szcz, and buy some mature guy who's happy to be a backup.

He's shit. Just get rid.

Savz wrote:

Szczsney costing Roma wtf. Time and time again he'd make these horrid mistakes.

lets try to put that in context..   Roma won the game 4-1..   was pretty much the only major mistake he made the entire game and had made a nice save minutes prior to that. 

He's had a decent season overall too hasn't he?

He'd mad though, and not in a good way. His decision making is off despite all the experience, I'd definitely take Ospina over him.

he hasnt been Roma's biggest problem.. he's had a couple howlers, just like he has with us.. he's basically been a lot like Roma have.. sometimes looks great, sometimes not so much

but agree about Ospina.. Woj has all the talent in the world, and the height.. but he will always be a "good" keeper who makes a few incredible saves here and there but lets in some soft ones... 'Spina is more consistent

If Ospina doesn't want to stay, and really he shouldn't he's too good not to play, then Szcz makes a good 2nd choice. Still think he'll come good but he'll be close to 30 when it happens IMO.

Ospina is too good to be a 2nd choice anyway. He deserves to be a first choice somewhere.

Anybody knows how's Martinez coming along?

that looks fun - nacho cheating his ass off at the end there

That's cute. Team bonding excercise. All our better players won it as well.

Gazza M wrote:

that looks fun - nacho cheating his ass off at the end there

Monreal's the first footballer to actually show some personality on twitter.

and a sad fridge.

God, I miss have goalscorers in the team. Genuine world class finishers of chances.

How Wenger describes Freddie's direct running and movement...why did he move away from that kind of player and subjected us to the likes of Giroud and Walcott

Ricky1985 wrote:

God, I miss have goalscorers in the team. Genuine world class finishers of chances.

So many one touch finishes!!! We now take at least three/four before even attempting a finish..

Clrnc wrote:

Quite a cool feature. Interesting that at 1.20 Wilshere is giving instructions to Alexis. 

Looks like he's motioning to a three, the middle of which will drop back and the two wide push ahead.

Clrnc wrote:

Quite a cool feature. Interesting that at 1.20 Wilshere is giving instructions to Alexis. 

tomas rosicky sighting at 4:52

Best player in the League. I really hope he gets more recognition for his utter genius in the next few seasons. A more central role in a winning German team would be a good start this summer, but Arsenal have got to do better for him.

He's a gigantic player.

Our defence looks a bit ropy, but forget that—it's a crime against football if we don't get some world class forwards around this guy.

Look at the missed chances.

The likes of Giroud and Walnut should give him their wages.

Re-watched this for the umpteenth time because of Rosicky's assist. Love, fucking love, RVP's goal against Wolverhampton after Fabregas pass to Theo....my how the mighty have fallen.

2010/2011 was a fun season...that team was very very entertaining

That RvP goal is one of my favourite goals. Love a good counter which involves more than one pass and a player running a long distance.

^ Reasonable music in a player comp for once and loving the nutmegs

Boy is very powerful. He has all the basics, but he also has very good running power to go with his big frame.

Kind of a sad collection we have this year.

That Flamini goal still makes me laugh every time. Best season in a hundred years, they still finish below us AND conceded a brace to Mathieu fucking Flamini

Yeah, not a vintage year for goals.

One thing strikes me though. Giroud scored three of our best goals and they were all genuinely quality. In isolation, they are the goals of a top CF, however he just doesn't deliver on a regular enough basis. Shame. Given the calibre of forwards we've had over the years, I do wonder what Wenger's opinion of him is.

If you look back Özil's assists this season - there's a video floating around somewhere - Giroud is invariably the one on the end of them and, as you say mate, with some genuinely quality finishes earlier in the season. I don't know what happened to him from January to April, and as much I wanted to head butt him during that time, he's not a donkey, far from it. At his best, I actually think he's a really good player, perhaps even good enough to start for us. Even if he's not my cup of tea personally.

Might be possible he had something personal going on during those three months or maybe he just buckled under the pressure of having to score the goals needed to win the League?

I have to admit I was sure he was made of the sort of stuff that would see him rise to the challenge down the stretch. Especially after he did exactly that to win the French League for Montpellier a few years back. I suppose this isn't an isolated incident though; he has gone missing for spells during every season he's been here, but I really felt that in the months before Christmas he was playing at a level he hadn't reached in previous seasons here.

Not sure what to make of it at the moment, but I  wouldn't be surprised if he reminded Arsenal fans everywhere this summer that he's far from the donkey he's now labeled as.

Giroud suffers from fatigue—both physical and psychological. And he doesn't like being an isolated goalscorer much, he's more prolific when there's someone else on hand who might score one or two.

Aside from that his intelligence and striking technique are of a good class, but his touch is unreliable, sometimes because he's too ambitious, and obviously he's slow.

I think it's when we're counter-attacking that Giroud annoys me the most. If he's high enough up the pitch when we transition then he makes poor runs that don't stretch the retreating defenders and if he's behind he ball when we transition then he's far too slow to participatee in the counter-attack altogether. What annoys me far more than that though is his passing and awareness on the counter-attack. For a player that is marked out for his intelligence and considering he has a really good left foot, he chooses the wrong pass way too often. Or plays it at the wrong time, at the wrong speed or to the right guy but behind him. I find it absolutely infuriating and it's bad even when he's good.

I'm not sure fatigue covers his second half of the season collapse. Seems like something more to me. He looked physically okay, looked up for it, but spiralled as things went wrong. It was strange to see.

I thought the lack of reinforcements in January gave performances a knock through the whole squad. They could all feel it slipping away, and at that point Giroud really started to choke under pressure and fatigue.

It's a gruelling schedule from Christmas through until elimination from the Champions League, and Wenger has never prepared us adequately to survive it.

You're right about Giroud on the counter, by the way. It's a very weak suit for him.