Oh do give over.

Xhaka tracks the runner like any other player would and it's not a goal. Xhaka spends more time scratching his Arse than Joachim Low

I like this excerpt:
“I’m going to attempt to do everything I can to keep the Rams in St. Louis,” Kroenke said in April 2010, according to the complaint. “I’ve always stepped up for pro football in St. Louis. And I’m stepping up again. I’m born and raised in Missouri. People know I can be trusted. People know I’m an honorable man.”

He was a good enough prospect when we bought him.

So was Lacazette. So was Welbeck. So was Mustafi.

As someone put it - pretty eloquently, I thought:

“If Wenger coached a fish, it would drown”

Come on OMOH, those kind of schoolboy/pub team errors and that kind of inexplicably poor and indisciplined defending has been the hallmark of Arsenal teams for the last decade.

As for Xhaka and non-tracking of runners, whether its just a complete lack of awareness or laziness is debatable but it is clearly a massive problem because he does it over and over again.

Every player can track a runner. Just as pretty much any group of professional players can be drilled to form an effective defensive unit.

Learning to track runners is something that should be ingrained in every player from a young age, all our players are capable of doing it they aren't told to deliberately NOT track runners so the only reason they aren't doing it is because it is easier not to and/or they are not being made aware of, or being made to work on their off the ball work. I honestly don't believe anyone at Arsenal sits down with the players after games and shows tyhem their defensive mistakes and tells them what they should do and make it clear that if it happens again they will be immediately subbed and dropped. And it is not an individual thing as sometimes it might be difficult to spot your runner so you need leaders all over the pitch who are shouting instructions to everyone and making sure those standards are upheld. It really isn't that difficult

Mourinho spoke after the spurs game and said that Sanchez was dropping too deep to get on the ball. Certainly seen that before.

Unfortunately I think mourinho will fix it. Jose has bigger problems with the balance of his first 11. He went against us natural instinct and played pogba, lingard, Sanchez, martial and Lukaku v does and left Matic to be overrun. Matic has to start for them, Sanchez and pogba will always start due to their record fee/wages. Martial was playing really well on the left and was then shunted to the right to accommodate Sanchez. True to form mourinho has phased rashford out, he doesn’t trust young players and isn’t patient enough to work on their mistakes. I think martial could go the same way - wouldn’t mind us keeping an eye on martial in the next 18 months because I can see him being marginalised

No, I think there is a special category of extraordinary defensive cock ups and Monreal's horrid bicycle kick is right up there with the worst. Not surprisingly Čech is getting it in the neck for his awful miskick, but for me Monreal and Mustafi should get 50% of the blame for putting him in such a position in the first place. Over the season Čech has made many important saves, so he gets a pass from me on that one. What a strange game for Monreal though. He scores a good goal (albeit his marker didn't track him) and then helps give two away!

Just saw the Danny Murphy comment clip. Really sets the tone and the way lineker and Wright just nodded and agreed was expected.

Murphy is right. The new signings are irrelevant, there is no coaching taking place at all and now people are asking the US President on prime time TV if he could take Wengers place. The whole thing is a total embarrassment and indictment of neglect. *%^@ off wenger you useless *%^@

Its like when a professional cricket team is sloppy in the field. It indicates there is something seriously wrong in the coaching and motivation departments.

Word to the wise. being optimistic makes day to day life a more pleasant experience. There's enough going on in the world at the mo that is utterly miserable, one might as well find the positives where one can in life's relative frivolities...

If he fancies coming on a 6 month contract, I'd have him. At this stage another warm body over the age of 18 would be quite handy...

I'd take that in a heartbeat. I also speculated about it on our podcast 3 weeks ago...

I would have said that before, but you are talking about a guy who has been regularly tactically outwitted by Arsene Wenger...

It was me who mentioned the Murphy comment and was surprised dec, a poster I have big respect for, reacted in the way he did. The US President interview wasn't brought up on MOTD, but I think what Murphy said was right. Signing attacking midfielders or forwards for Arsenal is a complete irrelevance. He didn't say this but I have before, we could sign Messi and it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference.

I'm suspicious it has more to do with fan titillation than anything else. Season ticket renewal time, are there loads of transfer rumours? When we sign players, are they right for the balance of the squad? Spend a bit of money and the mugs who are fans, and as a fan who has now been going for more than fifty years I'm a far bigger mug than most, will get excited about it. Rich, I think you're falling into this trap. Don't harp on about not spending enough money on new players and tactics. It isn't important while Wenger runs the show. Nothing will change while he's the manager.

I'd have preferred we push for Martial for Sanchez. Mourinho doesn't seem to want to play him or play to his strengths. I've been big on Martial from the start and think he could be huge...given the proper set up.
I enjoyed seeing Man Utd spanked even if it had to sperz.

You do talk an awful lot of nonsense. You're talking about a guy who even now is still 25 but has 57 caps and 8 goals as a first choice midfielder for the 8th ranked team in the world (pushing it I know). As a player breaking through he was called the best player talent in Switzerland by his manager, and Ottmar Hitzfelt (no mug) thought he would emulate peak Schweinsteiger. He's captained his country. He was captain & vice captain of Gladbach. He was in the Bundesliga team of the season at 22. He was very successful at youth level. We bought him at 23. Bayern had been sniffing around but then discovered Vidal wanted out of Juve.

£30m for a player with his CV at the age of 23 is not in anyway out of the ordinary. Did we overpay? it appears so. Has he kicked on? No. Could we recoup our money if we sold him? maybe.

IT hasn't really worked out, but there is nothing particularly outlandish about the transfer.

Welbeck sadly has got badly injured every time he has started to look the real deal. Lacazette I still think can be a big player for us, though I always worried about his physicality in England.

Agree with every word of this.

Or they are Pakistan, and just spectacularly inconsistent at everything! They go through matches or a tournament looking like absolute amateurs, but, particularly in the one day game, can go from utter humiliation to utter brilliance seemingly without rhyme or reason. I've seen them spend half an innings having misfields all over the shop, and then suddenly start pulling out worldie catches. Part of what makes them compelling.

Actually, perhaps Arsenal are now the Pakistan of the Premier League. Capable of beating most teams. Capable of losing to anyone.

I 'd go further Monreal is 100% to blame ..... if he throws the &&**** ball forward it would never have happened

...but then I blame Arsene for not correcting this over reliance on back / side ways passes under the slightest pressure .

Watched about ten minutes of Tottenham yesterday ...and sighed ...we used to play like that .

Think I was just entering puberty it seems that long ago .

I suggest u look at the goal again. The throw was not ideal but watch Mustafi who is not urgent. Then Čech panicked even although he had adequate time to clear it. He is old and slow. Have a look a bit later when he messes up a cross. To suggest, as someone else did, that he has not made other mistakes is totally incorrect over the season. Čech is not good enough - again buying players from top 5 teams means we are getting players who are not good enough & past their best. The other team Chelsea or Man U have had the best of them or know they will not make the grade.

Think of it like this Fabianski was the better keeper on the day.

In relation to Xhaka ( and extends to Mertesacker & Mustafi) if they were good enough they would have been hovered up by Bayern. Just never good enough. Step below what is required to be challengers. Mustafi may be able to improve. Xhaka will always be too slow and not switched on defensively.

I will be watching with interest to see how the new players fit into a system of play. Looks to me as if Lacazette & Aubameyang both play exactly the same.

Your are joking right. That's admitting we are a shambles. Bouldy wouldn't be happy either as they had a dust up too.

We are finishing 6th as I've said for months, not higher or lower. If it doesn't matter now why not just try and integrate some youth or just work with what we have.

Martial could be Henry-lite for us. No one will equal Henry in my very subjective mind but Martial can be great IF we played to his strengths. Its mouth watering how well he could link up with Özil supplying sublime passes to him.

Chelsea seems to collect the best young players around London by offering them the most money simply to deny the rest of the London clubs and specifically us and sperz from them. Can anyone name the last youth player to even get a sniff at first team football? Maybe they have in a league cup match or FA cup match against a lower division side. I don't follow them but I'm willing to bet no.

Welbeck is likely the next to be culled. He won't see a future behind Aubey and Lacazette. Maybe with Giroud gone he feels he's moved up in the pecking order. Maybe he'll see the wing as the only way to get consistent minutes.

It will be interesting to see how Aubameyang's style of game fits into ours. He appears to be a jet heeled penalty box predator who plays on the shoulder of the last defender. A bigger, stronger and faster version of Lacazette really. Will we adapt our game to suit his specific qualities or will be become stifled by our slow and ponderous build-up play in the way that Lacazette has, to the point that Lacazette no longer even makes those near post runs that ought to be his stock-in-trade.

I thought that Murphy comment was telling as he essentially was saying "there's no point in talking about Arsenal anymore whilst Wenger is there"

Also i remember me and you literally discussing the same point here about signing Messi or Ronaldo being pointless 1 or 2 years ago. Its like the world is on catch up.

Since then you have had Piers Moron talking to the US president about sacking Wenger then 2 days later ranting about Wenger on national morning TV saying he needs to go. I don't like Morgan but he's been spot on about Wenger and its funny watching him lose his socks about it over and over. I wonder what Gazidis thought as he watched that Trump interview and that happened, he couldn't avoid it as its been all over the press.

Then the comedian Jack Whitehall making jokes about it, Martin Kemp slagging off Arsene on social media etc etc etc

A few years back I had to go too Ghana of all places and i got chatting to an African business associate who said he was interested in football and a Arsenal supporter and his first comment was "I like Arsenal but Wenger needs to go!" this was over 6 years ago!!

It just feels like everyone in the world is saying Wenger needs to go now yet we all are still here waiting. There was a few ITK types on social media saying the board are working on an "exit strategy for wenger this summer" .... exit *%^@*** strategy !!! he either leaves or he's fired isn't it ? you don't need a strategy you just need a decision. If he does leave this summer the absolute guff about all his achievements will be hard to swallow in light of the mess he's made of Arsenal.

p.s your right about these new signings. They are more political titilation to keep fans at bay rather than proactive approach to create a winning team.

I could look at the incident a 1000 times and still be convinced Monreal should never have thrown it there in the first place .

Now I know it suits the Townsville Agenda to give everyone a spray , BUT Monreal throws it behind Mustafi , of course he is "not f***&&^ urgent"...... because never in his wildest dreams did he think that little ponce would throw it to him ,

He panics .... passes to Čech who also doesn't expect it and you saw the result .

Now I know it's difficult to concentrate when it's a constant 36 degrees and 98% humidity in the little hellhole you live in ...the ole judgment just sort of slips through the mosquito netting and out the window
..... but that's what happened

Doesn't seem the weirdest destination.

Although I went too Wales once. Started off as a few visits, ended up living there.

Now bloody Pochettino saying he lives, talks and thinks about football 24 hours a day.

As if this is a good thing.

People were really friendly there it's almost like the other end of the spectrum to Wales actually. Nice place if you get to go there.

Does he think retirement is basically assisted suicide like arsene does?

As good a player as he would appear to be the Aubameyang signing does feel like one last desperate throw of the dice to get us a CL place whilst at the same time appeasing the fans and keeping Özil onside. If he hits the ground running and bangs in the goals then we could blast our way back into CL contention knowing that our defence and defensive midfield areas are still massively deficient. He's 28 1/2 so it doesn't seem like a long term signing but who know, he could still be banging the goals in at 32.

Funny you mention 36 degrees. Mowed the lawn his arvo - it was 36.9 degrees outside but humidity was down to around 50-60 % so not too bad. So you have decided 100% Monreals fault. Čech's reactions were appropriate and perfect in your world. You may need to speak to the TV commentators who obviously thought differently. It would not be a proper forum without different views, no matter how warped your views may be.

Looks like Aubameyang has just viewed highlights of the Swansea game.

https://www.eurosport.co.uk/football/pr ... tory.shtml

So you therefore must blame Özil 100% for Swansea's first goal. If he hadn't sloppily given the ball away, what followed wouldn't have happened.

Saw a really good tweet which linked to a video highlighting all the individual errors in the lead up to that goal. So many players not switched on, it really was a collective *%^@ up.

GERMAN playmaker Mesut Özil ended speculation over his future at Arsenal by agreeing a new three-year deal with the Premier League giants on Thursday, earning a reported £350,000 a week

He doesn't have a pass on as nobody helped him out by making themselves to be available.

He should have hoofed it at Lacazette even if it's likely he would have conceded possession.

He simply can't account for every player in midfield and defence for being incompetent and not aware to danger. Ultimately the goal is Xhakas fault while there are collective errors. It seems bizarre that a striker can just run past him like that without him realising.

https://youtu.be/ZzN4pSgOm1U

Why? Defenders watching the ball rather than man happens all the time in football. It is one of the many ways goals are scored. In the same match the Swans defender didn't pick up Monreal for his strike.