I agree. Wenger had an arrogance which said 'don't even question me, I know it all' which left a bad taste as the second half of his reign crawled excruciatingly from disappointment to disappointment. I was one of those lucky enough to experience the fantastic years of George's two titles, and his fantastic group of young guns. Arsene's great sides weren't the only great sides in our history!! I can no longer look back with the kind of respect and fondness I should have for Wenger. If only he'd moved on years earlier.

Actual video of Xhaka being voted by the team as Captain and King in the North (London)

The same man coached the Invincibles, so what changed? We had a big loss to Man Utd at Old Trafford under the great side as well. The difference is those players were made of sterner stuff.

Must be financially related but who would take on his wages in a loan deal?
The few clubs that would possibly interested that I can think of are PSG, Barca, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, who else? Given his wages?
https://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/a ... 73343.html

Wow. The 'glass half empty' brigade is out in force tonight!

I prefer to remember Wenger and the most successful and most exciting manager we have had in the last 80 years. In my time (i.e. since the mid-late 1970s), we've been pretty mediocre except for his and Graham's spells, and his spell was more sustained and consistent. Graham produced one superlative season (91) which was easily topped by Wenger topped (04) and arguably matched (02, which was a far greater achievement than the 94 CWC, given that Liverpool and United were excellent that season). Wenger kept us at a high level for more than a decade. Both went very badly stale, but Graham left us in much worse shape than Wenger ... we were awful in the mid-90s.

I am glad you posted that twice! Some beds will be wet.

Please stop with this nonsense that Graham left us with a much worse side than Wenger left us with. I know which defence and goalkeeper I preferred to be left with. Yep not much talent in the Graham midfield but want to look at how most of the midfielders Wenger left us with we’re not good enough and we have moved most of them on. And as for resilience, I think Grsham’s Side are well ahead. Plus have a look at wages we were welded to. Do a comparison as to what was normal at the time.

Wenger left us with players who are not resilient and can’t be moved because of simply silly wages. How long do you think Walcott would have lasted under Graham or would Wilshire & That polish keeper have smoked after George told them not to. But if discipline in the club would not go astray.

Seems Liverpool may have fielded an ineligible player in their Carabao Cup win over M K Dons. Pedro Chrivella.

It is not Graham vs Wenger. That is not the comparison. The highs of Wenger definitely surpassed those of the Graham era. It is the final decade of Wenger which is the "bed-wetter"

No comparison between Graham and Wenger.
The former brought us back to domestic greatness. The latter to international promenance.

Wenger's positives vastly outweighed his negatives. Never lower than 6th at his worst. Phenominal. And still won cups.

Fans...anazing.

Why the need to compare GG and AW? Both gave us great joys and frustrated the hell out of us towards the end of their reigns.

Well during the Graham years you were supporting the Chattanooga Choochoos or some such team in the American version of Egg Chasing, so you're not best placed to comment.
For us Arsenal fans seeing a team with the home grown players like Adams, Rocky, Davis etc win at Anfield 89 and dominate the league in 91 was pretty special. Right up there with Wenger's best years for me.

That could be interesting. Could we get a bye, or it’d be more fair for whoever Liverpool beat to go through to play us.

I could definitely see Man Utd moving for Poch

https://www.foxsports.ph/football/premi ... placement/

I'm actually looking forward to facing them. No doubt their first eleven is miles ahead of us at the moment, but the team we fielded against Nottingham versus the team Liverpool started against M K Dons is another thing. Could be an interesting game, and a very big boosts for our youngsters if we would win. The game is right between two league fixtures for both teams, so I wouldn't expect many first choice players to be involved.

United are currently a pale shadow of some of their former sides and their form is poor. However given our own form I have no expectations of a win tonight.

Old Trafford is always a tough place to win, as OMOH pointed out, and I expect Emery will come up with some stupid negative tactic that won't work.

Our back four is far too porous although if Tierney plays we might see it slightly less open down the left side.

I think it would need a Villa-like performance from Guendouzi and a finishing masterclass from Aubameyang to get us a win and I think it is a very tough ask to expect Guendouzi to produce another herculean display, especially at OT.

There’s almost too much going against Manchester United at the moment. Poor transfer summer, squad filled with holes, a manager who hasn’t shown anything to suggest he belongs at this level, they’re potentially missing their only three attacking players of real quality…wish I could feel more confident going into this game. With the same attitude and belief we saw against Tottenham, and perhaps without the defensive cock-ups, we should win this.

I agree with some sentiment here but can’t agree that George left us in worse shape than Arsene.

George left, seaman, winterburn, Adams, Bould, Keown, Merse, Wright, Dixon, Parlour

Arsene left, Aubameyang, Lacazette and Bellerin and tons of inadequate players on huge contracts that can’t be moved.

This is the reason whilst having some doubts now about Emery I can’t give him too hard a time. It’s a complete rebuild required and even that’s not complete yet.

If we don't get something out of this game, the board should come out and tell the press they have every confidence in Emery as manager. They can then start the recruitment process the following day.

Arsenal squad on the new fifa is *%^@

Our left backs have no decent rating and Xhaka is literally a snail

Not looking forward to the game but you’ll never get a better moment to play United.

I hope we don’t line up too conservatively and we drop our captain

Is there any club in the league who expect to win at OT? Would Liverpool or City fans expect a win if they were playing there this week?

I'm kinda surprised people are talking win at OT. I think a good result for us is a draw. With some luck maybe a win. A loss wouldn't surprise me (nor should it anyone) given our defense and the players they have who can score.

They will be up for us. We are one of 3 clubs they always get up for. I predicted a scoring draw, 1 or 2 each and still see that as the most likely result unless either club is playing worse than usual or out of their skin.

Yes.

Poor on PES too, very disappointed.

No. No team "expects" to win at OT. They might fancy their chances but that's the height of it. I doubt teams expect to win at the Emirates either. We should on paper win but given the number of times we have let mediocre Manu teams off the hook I tend to have sense of trepidation going there.

Just saw a clip from RefWatch with Gallagher analysing our possible 50th unbeaten game and as usual he bottled it on every tackle.

Was it a foul - Fedinand's tackle on Freddie? wtf
Was it a red card offence - Neville on Reyes? wtf
Rooney's Penalty I didn't qiuite catch his response but it was just like Louiz last Pen when he waived his leg in front of the opponent with imo no physical contact.

What about van Nistelrooy's studs up on Ashley Cole. That was the worst tackle of the lot. He didn't even get a yellow as I recall. Mike Riley - totally in Fergie's back pocket. And that clown is now head of refereeing.

Yeah that was the biggest refereeing injustice I can ever recall

It was like match fixing

Saka starts apparently

I would take a draw tonight.
Not confident at all we can go there and impose ourselves and as someone already mentioned Emery will go with his usual cautious negative tactics.
Now less certain after hearing that Pogba and Rashford have been passed fit and Tierney not even in the squad.
We haven't won there in the league since 2006.
What's going to change tonight??
Even when we go there with a bit of confidence and they are in poor form they still turn us over.
I really hope I'm wrong but just cant see us winning.

I agree with your general point about not expecting much tonight, but one thing that has changed is that we're now the better team on paper. That should count for something.

Just had a peek at some stats. City has just started to do well there the last couple years but lost at home to Man Utd as well. And seems like each does well at the other's grounds. By no means a certain City fans think its a foregone conclusion they will win there, even now, with arguably the best City side ever and only a Moyes led Man Utd being arguably worse in the last decade or so. It's a derby and no fan thinks derbies are a certain win. Tottenham has been visibly the better side than us and their fans have no expectations of winning away to us. Liverpool haven't won there in the league since 2014, prior to that 2009.

I'm starting to question the sanity of Arsenal fans. We were known as some of the most sober minded, articulate fans but when I see fans talking about Emery out after a season given the circumstances of his arrival and him not losing ground in the league with an already weak side, and getting us to a cup final in Europe, well, one has to wonder. Neutrals are probably thinking, "wot are Arsenal fans about?".

A loss wouldn't be a surprise at all. It's why I think right now, a draw is a good result for us.

Didn’t count for much in 2016 Haz when we took on what was by common consent the worst Manc team for a generation. The child Rashford scored 2 (on his full debut I think) and they beat us quite comfortably 3-2.

I'm a very rare poster (but regular reader and forum fan) but just have to vent my years of fury about that game. I'm forbidden by the family from youtubing it often cos it still takes about a week for me to calm down, even 15 years later.
Having just watched it (couldn't resist and will probably find it hard to sleep tonight), was semi-placated by one of the comments about it needing MU/Riley's disgraceful conduct to stop that magnificent 49 game run. That's about the first time I've been able to get a tiny bit of perspective on it.
Grrrrr - time to skulk back to my cave and resume my never ending torment.

Grrrrr - time to skulk back to my cave and resume my never ending torment.[/quote]

This is not good - replying to my own post. But shows the extent of my never ending fury. Anyway.....

Was at OT for that game and, from where I was sitting, was furious with Sol re the penalty.

On the horrible way home on the train, was with mate who was able to get Sky on his phone and we immediately (at about Stockport - what a dreadful dump) realised that Rooney had cheated.
Carriage full of Gooners and Cockney Reds. How it stayed relatively calm is still a mystery especially as we did our bit to share the footage with just about everyone around us.
Right, will post again in about ten years when I'm next allowed to watch it.

Emery playing a crap defensive lineup. What is wrong with him. It'll be a minor miracle if we win, I'm sure they've been wound up by one of their haters..............

As far as I’m concerned it was match fixing,

The other one that sticks in my memory was when sol got sent off for elbowing or not scholes at Highbury. That morning I told a United fan at my work they were going to do that and when I came in the next day he nodded.

Emery has *%^@** up his team selection in my opinion.

No Özil in squad, no ceballos and no Willock

Even if we win that’s a mistake