And not necessarily in that order?

I think the whole world is becoming American, and not just in sport, which means we will all be totally f...d

Rumours from Spain that Coquelin will sign for Valencia for £10m. Doubt we’ll see a midfield signing out of the blue, so I wonder if this means Wenger wants to tray Maitland-Niles in central midfield? I would honestly be ok with that for the remainder of the season.

Methinks you underestimate the significance. 2-3 Gunners may well have got a draw. 2-4 not on.

Imagining Lillee or Thommo reading a book is the greater feat of imagination.

And now there are rumours we're open to selling Elneny to West Ham. Apparently Wenger does not think we need to have midfielders in the squad. Watch him revolutionize English football again with a 5-0-5 formation.

El Nenny and Coquelin are useless and not up to standard. Surely better options using youth or an indicator somebody new is coming in.

Disagree that they're useless, but wouldn't mind seeing them replaced with someone better. If they're replaced by Joe Willock though, I don't see the point. No point in making the team worse just because we're probably not winning anything.

Why not start rebuilding (although with Wenger it's pointless), we will finish 6th and win nothing this year. Everyone can see it, knows it and has accepted it.

The process of rebuilding the squad is essential. Our talent pool is slim and we have barely any week to week match winners after Özil and Sanchez go. You have to start somewhere

I don't know, who says we shouldn't? However an important part of rebuilding is to replace players who are sold with better players, or at least players who have the potential to be better. Gutting the squad mid-season hardly helps our current situation much. That's why I'm wondering if we're looking to sign a midfielder in January.

Tickets on sale for red members now at 10 quid a pop for the lower tier for the 2nd leg v Chelsea.

The drop off of demand for tickets is incredible. This wouldn't have happened a few years back.

Fascinating situation at Arsenal off the pitch. On it it's tedious

You spelled 'years' wrong.

Perhaps this is the type of thing, more than the mediocrity we're routinely seeing on the pitch, that will make Kroenke think about whether it's time to bring in a new manager? If Darren is right though, I won't be happy with Wenger joining the board. He's such a control freak I just don't see him being able to stop himself from interfering. I reckon he'd want to choose the new manager who will be someone willing to listen to Wenger's advice, which is a way of saying do as he's told.

You spelled a decade wrong

Nah I will be disappointed on the day young footballers with a ton of money don't rent an Air B and B for a party the night before a cup game. Good on you, Alex. It sits nicely with Bellerin's yellow hat at London Fashion Week.

Like the Style Council, my moods are ever-changing and the Arsenal soap opera is becoming more and more entertaining by the day. Nobody could have failed to derive a degree of entertainment and amusement from the debacle at Forest which in a sterile football world is something. It is the Eighteenth Brumaire of Arsene Wenger - first time tragedy, second time farce.

You may be right I certainly worried we might snatch an annoying equaliser if that goal was disallowed. Although equally likely we would have managed a miss like the one that did happen right at the end.

Anyway, I don't think a highly marginal decision (I KNOW forum physicists, but you are just going to have to resign yourself to shrieking into the void on this one) really serves as a deodorant for the stench coming out of Denmark right now.

Nah, it wasn't a problem Paul Merson falling over pissed whilst on the wing at Luton because every once in a while he'd whack in a 30 yarder. Adams can crash as many Sierras as he likes because he stuck his head in front of strikers boots every week.

This geezer however needs to be liberated from his contract. The clubs primary purpose isn't to enable young lads to get Pum pum

His form's dipped recently but I still like him and wouldn't write him off just yet.

If you had your way we'd be playing 0-0-0 formation because they've all been sacked off at some time or another for being utterly useless and beyond redemption. OK maybe 0-0-1 if you take Sanchez into account...

ZZZZ

I like Iwobi as well. He has stagnated somewhat, but is still 21 and there is talent there. This current Arsenal side is probably a pretty difficult environment for young players. Very much negativity surrounding the entire club, a team that plays without proper structure, and a lot of our attacking play is based on giving the ball to one of Özil or Sanchez and hoping they will come up with a solution.

Losing Sanchez will not make us a better team, but I’m hoping it will have a similar effect to when we sold Henry in 2007 and a couple of players (most notably Fabregas and Adebayor) stepped up to take on more responsibility.

Sticking with The Kinks - and why not - this is actually up there with Waterloo Sunset for me even though it's much later.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M1l1Vjl6E4[/youtube]

And sticking with the metrosexual vibe that's been creeping in to the forum with John1's revelations I don't mind adding Ray Davies to Joachim Loew (prior to the finger-sniffing clips) as men I slightly fancy.

He'd end up blowing all his wages for the week all for a cuddle and a peck on the cheek...

Aww.

And for some weird reason the fact that he directly addresses his sister at the end always makes me slightly tearful.

Not true

Looking long term we have 4 players I consider to be at the level of quality to compete for the title.

Özil, Sanchez, Lacazette, wilshere

In addition to this you have Ramsey, mustafi and Kolasinic who aren’t quite that level of technical ability but could make a contribution if used sparingly in a squad that could be successful.

Outside of this I don’t see the remaining players as having much of a future with us or being technically Good enough to compete at the highest level.

We have the biggest drought of talent in the squad for some time and the next manager will rapidly need to bring in new firepower the moment he’s onboard if he wishes to prolong his arsenal tenure after the damage Wenger has caused

To give Iwobi the benefit of the doubt I’d suggest both he and Holding should be on loan somewhere and not anywhere near the arsenal first team. Wenger isn’t helping our younger players

It's a bit weird that you mention Kolasinac but leave out Monreal. They play the same position, and Monreal is much, much better.

Said thinking long term. Monreal has been decent ish but is well past his best

He's playing the best football of his life the past few seasons including this one. Great defender.

LOL

Truth might be boring but he's right.

He's not the Jedi you think he is Daz.


How often does he make you go "wow" . Never but he's solid enough to turn in a few reasonable games here and there. Gets nowhere near the first teams of the top 4 of the premiership clubs. Keeper but could do better

He's been a decent defender for us but I prescribe to Alan Davies Tuesday club comments these days (which I disagreed with at first ) that he gets brownie points for effort to make up for the fact he's not all that. Regularly gets destroyed by Zaha, Pedro and other wingers. 6/10

Zaha? Pedro?? When did that happen?

Do you even watch us or just question everything

http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sp ... rsenal-win

Listening to Sibelius when Manchester United are on t' telly?

PENALTY.

Watch out physicists we have a chemist on board as well...

So 'regularly gets destroyed' really means that one game where Zaha was really good?

And yes, I do watch most of our games. That's how I know that what Monreal does regularly is simply being one of the best full backs in the league and probably our best defender.

Not just one game. He's a player not without issue.

Any clearly you don't watch as you couldn't even remember that shocking focal capitulation in most recent memory

You can’t even remember what you thought of Ramsey as a player yesterday, so I wouldn’t go there. Great point otherwise, Monreal regularly gets destroyed in this one game from last season. Not really sure what I was expecting.

I would've gone with the United game recently where he had a really poor performance. Then again that would be criticism based in reality, not bad pundit narratives.