Koeman sacked.........................................

I get BBC where I am, just learned Koeman is no longer with Everton. I actually thought he'd make a decent manager for us at one time. Maybe he still could be. Given a choice between him and Wenger right now, I'd take a chance with Koeman still, given no other choices. For me at least, things have gotten that bad.

So, if a team performs poorly, they just sack the manager ?

Wow, can they do that ? /Sarcasm

Definitely dark horses for CL, I'd say.

Having made my views pretty clear on Özil and his attitude and effectiveness for us, fairness dictates that I comment on his performance yesterday.

I though he was excellent. His movement was a joy to watch and his passing was perceptive and penetrative. I can’t remember seeing him play better.

and I ask a question again. Does anybody like me want him to sign a new, reasonable, contract and stay with us?

Whilst I'm asking, would you also like Sanchez to also sign a new reasonable contract?

I don't really care. I'd prefer them to stay, I suppose. It won't happen though.

He was good.

I wonder in a few years time how we will all view his time with us. Clearly he's off in the summer but he never really had the supporting cast at Arsenal to enhance his platform. He was always missing the pacy striker and defensive midfielder.

If he was sold tomorrow and I was comparing him to Fabregas in his Arsenal stint I'd probably say fabregas was the better player overall. It's unfortunate that Wenger couldn't build the team around our 2 mega signings in him and Sanchez. We now have to start again.

I have some more views and thoughts on the Özil thing, and I will come back. But - I’ve just watched a programme on BBC2 about the Grenfell Tower disaster.

I don’t watch much TV these days but I defy anyone to watch that programme - Grenfell Tower: Life and Death on the 21st Floor - and not weep (I did) at the courage, resilience and life-saving improvisation of those poor *%^@ers.

Giroud has won the FIFA Puskas award for best goal of the year for his scorpion kick v palace.

I saw someone say Özil is the oil in a first class engine that makes brilliant individual players form in to an exceptional team. Asking him to be the main man, the catalyst for the team is not his strength, but when he signed for us for £42m that’s exactly the position he was put in - expected to win us games on his own like Messi.

I’m not excusing some of his displays because I think he has been poor at times but I think the biggest mistake when we signed Özil was not surrounding him with similar quality. The season we only signed Čech stands out in that regard.

Fifa FifPro World XI: Buffon Alves Ramos Bonucci Marcelo Modric Kroos Iniesta Messi Ronaldo Neymar

This world XI is basically the same players year on year, seems like very lazy voting. I get that Ronaldo and Messi are always there and it is usually dominated by the CL winners but has Iniesta REALLY been one of the top 3 central midfielders in the world last year? Last season he only played 23 league games - didn't score a single goal, didn't win the league and didn't even get close to winning the champions league.

No players from the amazing Monaco team that won the title and got to the CL semi? Kante from Chelsea?

Just had a look - 8 of those in the 2017 team were in the 2016 team. 7 of those 8 were in the 2015 team

Who does the voting for this?

Piggybacking on Rich's post. I said the same about Özil. Either build a team around him that plays to his strengths or sell him. People criticize his defensive nous at times but that was never one of his strengths. At Real Madrid he had other players to do the heavy lifting. For Özil to be fully effective that would have to happen or you change him and his style of play. The EPL is such that you can't have him perform in the role he did in la Liga. The EPL is a much different league where successful sides needs a much more team defense from all players. The pace is faster, counters happen quicker than a much slower paced league.
I think Özil to his credit has improved in areas he wasn't before. First of all he is a much tougher player. He takes tackles and physical play much, much better. He attacks and puts himself on the receiving end of passes much more than he has before. Now that we have made him more of an EPL player other sides want him now.

We also probably have to start again after losing both for nothing in the summer, or a fraction of their market value in January. Oh sorry, I forgot. Stan is our owner and will stick his hand in his own pocket to fund adequate replacements for both Sanchez and Özil.

Ye Gods, Stan and Wenger together. What a partnership, or should I say unholy alliance? Would we be any worse off under Philip Green and Iain Duncan Smith?

Where Özil suffers is that nobody criticises a workmanlike striker in a poor team for not scoring 20 goals a season, because he is paying to his maximum natural ability. The things Özil is torn to shreds for are seen as the things that come for free in football - effort, desire, commitment, tracking back etc. It is a tough one because I wouldn't ever excuse not doing those things every game and I think much of what has been said about Özil is true and at times he has looked uninterested but I can sympathise with players who are being asked to do a job without being given the tools or players around them to do that job.

Has anyone heard of the journo Duncan Castles? He's basically Jose Mourinho's biggest fan. Well, every FIFA affiliated country gets a 'media' vote for the best manager. Pretty much everyone went for Zidane (which in a non world cup or euro year is usually straight forward for the guy who won the CL) - Castles voted for Jose as the best manager of the year, 6th place in the prem.......
Worth reading F365 for their brilliant satirical take on pretty much anything Castles says about Jose.

The thing is if you put yourself in Ozils shoes it must be frustrating when your clearly world class and you obviously know the players around you aren't good enough. I mean he was playing in front of Coquelin for a decent while clearly he must know from his career he's not good enough..... Giroud ... el Nenny etc It must affect your motivation

Bias or favortism in sports journalism, isn't limited to football. Baseball journos choose the Hall of Fame members. Hank Aaron who had the most home runs ever for a career was not a unanimous choice. He broke the long standing and iconic Babe Ruth's record which some thought could never be equaled. No scandal (your moral character is taken into consideration). They don't tell you who didn't vote for him but its something I wanted to know for years. I want to hear the reasons why certain journalists didn't vote for him.

By that reasoning he should buckle down now and start producing the goods, with Sanchez, Lacazette, Ramsey all buzzing around him making runs, creating space, and able to finish. The roll royce engine, the oil ... but are the spark plugs firing?

The other thing about Özil is that he 'looks uninterested' because of his natural body language and the conventional wisdom amongst the half-educated. Yet the stats say otherwise. People used to complain about Pires and Bergkamp too (although of course it is rose coloured specs now). Fans need to get a life sometimes.

Not only do we need a class defensive midfielder, we also need a new keeper. I've not been convinced by Čech since the beginning of last season, and if Mertesacker is 'past it' (I don't think he is) then Čech is definitely so. His errors are becoming more regular, and his performances aren't filling me with confidence.

Coquelin, Giroud.

You think you can win the league with those 2 in your starting line up. ?

We've got a manager who for 10 years thought we would with Theo in the team, so I am not sure you can criticise others for having views on Coq and Giroud.

I'm not criticising. Let's give bubblechris an award or something for being as stupid as Wenger.

again with the insults you little schoolboy. There is only one stupid child I know on this forum tht wants us to play without Giroud, and that is the dumbest *%^@ up of all. Need I remind you how many goals Giroud has scored for us. Goals that were in many cases invaluable.

Does anybody else think that Giroud is a waste of space?

I don't think he's a waste of space, but I don't think he's good enough to be a starter in a top side either.

I am really not interested in getting in this game but history will tell us a great team is formed because of all forming a cohesive unit with some great and some not so great players (balance). Ray Parlour was not one of the great players but he was a great team player and made a difference. Giroud has been a good player. We all have our opinions but I personally (my opinion) would prefer Giroud to many others.

One thing I forgot to mention - if you get the best goal of the year in an award he may not be too bad.

And its not like that goal was fluke. He has a nice collection of that sort of goal. Plus he does the 'blunt instrument' well too.

But there is no denying that his lack of pace is problematic.

Oh come off it that was a total fluke, expression of shock on his face.

He's not a bad player but he's not a top player. I take smudger over him every day of the week

I didn't say that.

Out of 100,000 sperm, were you really the fastest? Please confirm

Funny how others seem to agree with me that you are dissing Giroud and his value to the team.

At least I don't have to pick my father out of a lineup of possible or do I mean probable miscreants soft lad.

Isn't it usually between 100m and 200m, not 100k?

On your Giroud discussion, I'm close to bromley's viewpoint. He's quite good and there are a lot around who are below his level. But I'd normally expect the title winner's first choice striker to be better than him.

I’m not sure Bernard. I was way out in front and didn’t look behind me to see who was catching up

Since we’re on the subject, did you know that the woman’s body views sperm as unwanted invaders, rather like a virus, and mobilises their immune response to kill most of them? Any sperm that gets anywhere near an egg is a very lucky little blighter.

A spawny git??

So no-one disagrees with me that Čech is well past it? Or that Mert is still worthy of a place in the team?
Or do I have to insult someone to get a conversation going?

I definitely agree with you that Čech is not the best of the keepers out there and that we should be looking for his successor. But he's the least of our problems imo.

I think the position is the second most important to resolve, after a proper hard defensive midfielder who can shield the back four.

Have you got the time to list your concerns, in their priority order? I'd be interested in others' views on that too.

Reason being I'm having a good old argument with my dad (age 93 and a supporter since just after WW2) and his best mate (age 84 and another Arsenal supporter since the late 40s) about what we are lacking to enable us to properly compete again. Once you get past their assertion that we don't kick the ball far enough and quickly enough up the field (Charles Hughes POMO anyone?), or we don't shoot enough, they do show a remarkable tactical nous which I've enjoyed listening to.

They both argue a new keeper is our top priority - apparently Čech would not be fit to lace Kelsey's boots.