Cazorla was predominantly a creative player. We already have Özil and Mkhitaryan. Can we fit yet another in the midfield without disrupting its balance? Perhaps we should see Mkhitaryan as the Santi replacement?

I notice the word hypocrite being mentioned on the forum. Perhaps you would like to comment on these 3 incidents:
The Zipper (2013)

Faf du Plessis pleaded guilty to the charge of ball tampering and was fined 50 per cent of his match fee.
The South African rubbed the ball on the zipper of his pants pocket, prompting umpires to award a five-run penalty against the Proteas.
Team manager Mohammed Moosaje insisted it was "harsh" to call it tampering, while AB de Villiers insisted "we are not cheats".
Not-so-subtle Scratching (2014)

South Africa paceman Vernon Philander was captured on cameras using his fingers and thumb to scratch the ball during a Test in Sri Lanka.
Philander dug his nails into the rough side of the ball. He accepted the charge and was fined 75 per cent of his match fee.
Mintgate (2016)

South Africa enjoyed a crushing win over Australia in Hobart, after which footage emerged of du Plessis using a mint to help shine the ball.
The ICC vowed to investigate and du Plessis was charged with ball tampering.
Du Plessis maintained his innocence throughout a hearing and appeal but never managed to beat the charge.The skipper still has the resultant three demerit points on his record.

Seems to me the ICC have been remarkably light with what would appear to be an ongoing history of cheating by SA. Plus if we follow your views it follows that most of your current team would have known and condoned it. Bit like saying that all the team must have known about Hanse. Following your views they would have to wouldn't they because it is hard to throw games on one players performance alone.

I await your response.

Yeah follow Tauranga Girl's example , I'll shout the coffees , couple of muffins whatever .

Never seen Blade Runner but Manchurian Candidate , Enemy of the State give food for thought .

Outfits like Monsanto , Dow Watkins should have a couple Barnes Wallis specials dropped on their headquarters .

Got rid of Sky so have no idea how the VAR is panning out . I'm over Arsenal ..... I get my rocks off watching the Aussie rugby League and the ocassional Super 15 game .... and of course the cricket if we are winning

Last weekend went with one of the sons , take a three seater couch to his flat in Tauranga [ Papamoa ] we returned with a little two seater he wanted to store at our place .... " Want me to tie it on " says I

He scoffs , he uses all these fancy truckers knots as opposed to my half hitches .

Howling along the motorway 100 kms per hour ... the sofa parts company with the trailer ... fifteen feet in the air CRASH right plumb in the centre of the two lanes ; cars , trucks all taking avoiding action .

Smashed all the feet , ripped the upholstery .

Oh no!

As my Mum used to tell me, "yr hen a wyr, a'r ifanc a dybia", which roughly translates as 'the old know their stuff, whereas the young think they know best'.

That'll teach him not to listen to his old man!

You will find that I have not defended the South African team at all. So what what you are doing is mere whataboutery. What I'm calling for is consistency, whether it be with simulation in soccer or various dodgy actions in cricket. Faf was punished for his action (too leniently I think--he seems to be caught between outright denial and saying 'it wasn't as bad as' what the aussies did). The three Australians have been punished appropriately. Hansie was punished. With regard to Hansie, the whole mess was investigated here by a full judicial commission of inquiry. Quite a few other players were implicated. Had there been any evidence of complicity by the management it would likely have come out. Hansie only escaped jail because the judge was convinced that he had come clean about the whole affair.

I see that CA say that Lehman didn't know about it and sent Hanscombe on to find out what was going on. If no evidence emerges to the contrary, fair enough. But I'm sure you can understand why questions were asked about him sending Hanscombe on.

Bould did the pre match press conference because Wenger is ill and has lost his voice. Not sure how the team will cope at the weekend without Wenger being able to bark orders at them for 90 mins.

Other punchlines available.....

Now that they have some free time on their hands ...

Hardman All Black Keith Murdoch dies .

Sent home from a tour of the UK in 1972 after punching a Welsh security guard ..... well who could blame him those Welsh can be pretty damn annoying .

A man of mystery after that .

Got off the plane in Singapore , disappeared into the Australian Outback for most of the rest of his days ......rarely returning to NZ .

Weak team managment ; " you want him out , we all go home " should have been the call .

I saw him at the horse races here , drinking in a little bar a decade later

Armed with pen and racebook

Me ..... "Gidday Keith ... any chance of an autograph "

Murdoch ...." No "

https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national ... rdoch-dies

Haven't followed boxing in a while. I was at a pub with various expats. It was suggested that Anthony Joshua is dodging Deontay Wilder.
Yes___
No___
It's complicated____

The Meyer player seems quality but we need a strong Vieira type box to box defensive center mid. The Watford center mid would suffice for now.

England getting revenge ...... NZ currently 53 for 5 ...send the Pommie bastards home

You can hold fire on that Kiwi, just woken up and it's 189-6. Test match 50-50 from here .

Just seen the Warner press conference. I for one have had enough of all this crying. Ok mate, you've got yourself in trouble but the world hasn't ended - get a grip for *%^@ sake.

There was not a single post between 2.16 pm 29th March and 9.04 pm 30th March (I presume Australian time). That's 8 minutes short of 31 hours. I wonder if that's the longest 'zero post period' so far on the forum?

Died this day 2001.

RIP Rocky.

The dullest interlull in history.

The only club he played for that I have any affinity with is Rangers. But it's sad to hear Ray Wilkins is fighting for his life after a heart attack.

For those who don't like 10 yard sideways passes, count yourself lucky he wasn't playing when Wenger moved Arsenal towards a possession game. Wenger would have broken the bank to get him.

Just seen a 'Wenger out' banner in the crowd at the test match in South Africa

Wenger, or Warner ?

Definitely Wenger. Warner is already out. As I'm sure you're aware he did his obligatory weeping apology earlier.

I've mentioned before, when the Pakistani fans were celebrating a wicket their team had taken in a limited overs game, probably a couple or so years ago now, they had a 'Wenger out' banner.

Perhaps for some reason our interest in Arsenal has waned this season. I would think there has been more posts about the cricket than Arsenal in the last 2 weeks.

I see Man City players were all tired after the international break and just scraped a win.

We should get 3 or 4 tonight. So it all depends on our defence whether that is enough goals to pick up a win

Yes. Well we're playing Stoke in matter of hours and the excitement is building .
I can see the forum is at fever pitch. I wonder what combination of overpaid underperforming millionaires our fuhrer will select today?
Burnley won again and are hot on our heels for 6th - what a success story they are. A historic club too it is nice to see them do so well.

Should we win today we will close the gap to 33 points to Man City and 17 points away from second placed Man U. Now at the beginning of the season I was hoping we would at least challenge until around April. I am probably going to class this season as a failure although I am sure Wenger still thinks we have had a good season.

I still don't understand why people are not excited about the Stoke game. We can help send them down. 3-0 to us.

This is the first time under Wenger we're not even challenging for top 4, let alone the title. Would be nice to see Stoke relegated though.

LA Galaxy down 3-0, Zlatan subs on and scores the last 2 goals to win it 4-3, the first goal truly world class from distance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwFgnGqMTws

Henry coaching with Martinez and Belgium.

A nice pairing for us but have they proved themselves?

Ospina, Bellerin, Chambers, Mustafi, Monreal, Elneny, Wilshere, Ramsey, Özil, Welbeck, Aubameyang

Subs: Macey, Koscielny, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Iwobi, Mkhitaryan,

Čech out with a groin injury. Protecting a few ahead of the European tie. Shame not to see some of the younger players on the bench. The end of season prem games should be used to give them experience.

Also looks like Bellerin is going to be asked to patrol the entire right flank on his own again. I can’t remever the last time we put out a team that had 11 round pegs in 11 round holes and looked well balanced across the pitch

Can't complain. We start without Xhaka but so many changes is ridiculous.

Expect us to struggle in the first half and not confident we will come away with a point let alone a win. Unless Stoke are dire we are in for a tonking..............

Both teams so low on quality. Arsenal struggling to play even the most basic of passes. Özil, Wilshere, ramsey and Aubameyang haven’t had a touch

So many empty seats

Stoke have conceded the most goals in the league and I don’t think we’ve had a touch in their box let alone a shot. He tempo is awful and once again we struggle to pass he ball out from the back against even a weak high press

I can’t believe that wenger is so blind that he doesn’t look around at this sort of performance and the thousands of empty seats in the crowd and doesn’t think ‘this is what I’ve done’

Wishful thinking, the guy blames others but himself

This is woeful. So many simple passes so badly played. 2nd to every second ball, no tempo. Not many players not playing today make the Europa team, very worrying.

This squad needs a new manager desperately, I’m not convinced a new manager suddenly turns this group around. Huge changes in playing personnel required as well.

I've got a big day on tomorrow so I've set a wake up call .... for when this is over.

Every time we have the ballot the back each player is passing it to the next man who is under more pressure than the one who passed it to him and that keeps going to the next man until someone panics and gives it away.

Crowd are not happy. Booing when arsenal go backwards

Seriously low quality game of football

Arsenal are so dull and dire to watch. Crowd silent. This team looks like a bottom half prem side. Wenger has ripped the heart out of it. Even if he goes this summer this will take years to fix.