The poster I remember as most critical of Giroud was Top Gun. It was nothing remotely like his stuff on Xhaka which I see as taking moaning about players to pretty well a new level on here. But he was critical of Giroud on a regular basis.

Partially true I liked Giroud but your not going to get anywhere with him and no adequate back up. At his most prolific he scored 16 goals in the league at a time when we had very good wingers and midfield players. He was kind of holding us back and the fact that we have great strikers now and the rest of the side is poor doesn’t all of a sudden make him a world beater.

Xhaka as you point out is a complete waste of space and the worst quality midfielder we’ve had since the 80s and early90s. My affection towards him didn’t increased when he was hugging the guy who got Pépé sent off the other week.

May I suggest....

The really good point about the NLD is that the game should suit us. We can park the bus and hope for a chance on the break.

Wasn’t it you who implied strongly that Wenger had stayed too long? I can’t recall the exact words you used but I’m certain you did, because it was you who OMOH replied to with his post mentioning Wenger’s ten trophies.

So let’s use your new system for measuring a manager’s performance. A manager who stayed at a club for fifteen years and won one trophy in that time would get 15 points (15 x 1). Then a new manager takes over and wins a single trophy in each of his first two years, then wins a double in his third season before being poached by a bigger club after three years. So he’d only get 12 points (3 x 4). So you’d consider the bloke with one trophy in fifteen years better than the guy who won four trophies in three years simply because of his longevity in the job?

Interesting way of calculating managerial performance, although I personally think it’s flawed. Of course, the trophy count alone is not the only thing that dictates how well a manager has performed and nor is it when linked to the time in post. As I’ve said.

But I do believe the time in the job offers something that should be considered in any assessment, but not in the way you do in your formula above. Myself, from the fictitious example I gave above, if I had the choice between a manager winning one trophy in fifteen years or a manager who wins four trophies in three years, my starting point would be to prefer the latter.

Citizen Kane it aint...

Giroud had the gall to be bought after RvP left after he had a great season. He was chided for not being as good. Guilty. And he was never going to be. Giroud is not a player you win the league with as your primary striker. Neither was Wiltord or Kanu and I seem to recall both did okay.

Giroud is simply another option. He was relegated to the bench, both with us and Chelsea and scored enough goals when we needed them to warrant keeping I thought. I am not sure why Giroud has to be discussed as a sole lead striker who can win you the league. You need all kinds of attacking players. Again, we have no one who can score the goals in certain situations as he can and we seem to have a few of those types of situations.

Partially true I liked Giroud but your not going to get anywhere with him and no adequate back up. At his most prolific he scored 16 goals in the league at a time when we had very good wingers and midfield players. He was kind of holding us back and the fact that we have great strikers now and the rest of the side is poor doesn’t all of a sudden make him a world beater.

Xhaka as you point out is a complete waste of space and the worst quality midfielder we’ve had since the 80s and early90s. My affection towards him didn’t increased when he was hugging the guy who got Pépé sent off the other week.

There’s always mixed opinion amongst fans about anything.

Having said that I can’t recall much feeling on here for getting rid of him.

Precisely. The consensus was that he was a good player but not good enough to be our main striker.

The point is that I agree with Top Gun that Wenger's first period was rather special, and that it is hard
a) to reduce that to statistics, or
b) to agree that what happened in the last few years diminishes that in any way.

I like Giroud. And Ramsey. And Wilshere. But I don't want any of them back. Even if things get worse, I want the club to look at bringing in players such as Tierney, Gabriel and Partey rather than Willian and Luiz or the three aforementioned former Arsenal players.

Is Lacazette playing himself in to the team for the NLD?

if We can get a fully fit Partey and Elneny in central midfield dare Arteta try to play a 4-4-2?

Maitland Niles is a better footballer than Xhaka and ceballos. How they are keeping him out of the side I honestly couldn’t tell you.

A central midfield of Elneny and AMN may not be everyone's cup of tea but in terms of physical attributes it is more of what I like to see, pace, power, mobility and just more of an eagerness to get the ball forward quickly.