Matchday Thread - Man City vs Arsenal - 18 Jan 2015

Nervous about this one. Especially with Debuchy out. From what I hear, he'll be out for about 3 months. Not confirmed though.

I wonder if Wenger is considering taking Jenkinson back from loan?

I would Love to see Jenko Back, but he wont be coming back. We will add another Center Back and Chambers would cover for Hector. I am sure we wont add more than 1 player in the winter. As far as game against Man City in concerned we will have to be at our best they have lot of good, technical, fast and physical players which can destroy our defense. Giroud would have to be his absolute best as Alexis is an average player when he plays away from home. Theo, Ramsey and Ozil are returning from Injury so i do not expect much from them.
I would be happy with a DRAW.

Alexis is an average player when he plays away from home.

Wow, you're right. I never noticed.

Just to lighten things up, all of Cazorla's three assists in the PL this season was away from home.

Well...it's clear he is nowhere near as good away from home as he is at The Emirates. 8.52 avg rating compared to 7.24, which isn't bad...but it's not even close to 8.52 either.

We'll definitely win this. Predicting a 3-1 win for us. Double for Alexis and 1 for giroud. A late goal from Kun, then the usual twitter meltdown, with everyone predicting an anderlecht. "Back in the title race bitchez!" -wenger after the match.

Nasri is off reversing a sex change operation in a bid to become more manly. Touré and Bony are off playing a tournament no one cares about. Edin Dzeko is probably stuck at home counting cash. Aguero and Kompany haven't started a game in a while so could be a bit rusty.

WhoScored predicts Ospina starts, with Chambers at right-back and Coquelin + Ramsey in the midfield pivot.

People say Bielik is on the bench today, but that is impossible. He said he was signing a contract on Monday, with a medical on Friday.

Unless he actually signed on Friday. It takes 48 hours to register a player, which would be ok if he signed before 4pm on Friday.

I'd love Coquein and Ramsey in that midfield. Wish Jack was fit though. We'll miss Welbeck as well. As long as we don't concede a silly goal and keep it 0-0 for as long as we can, we have a chance. I think Chamberlain's game might prove to be decisive. Hope his effort will have an end product, something he needs to improve on generally. Our bench is encouraging. Our bench, as far as offense is concerned, will be miles ahead of anything City could offer.

This is a TOP XI we could have picked up! We have a proper Target man, Speedy flanks, Creativity in the mid field and Coq on form. Only player that scares me is Per, I hope Aguero does not turn him turtle today.

Oh to be! Oh to be a Gooner! Le Coq has been MOM for me! Hector has been immense as well! All players really played well. just for criticism Mozart was poor and probably Theo should have come on!

and not to mention Ref was af**ing poor! Compamy should have been off for the challenge on Sanchez but he goes and books Hector for an earlier foul.

What a game! I was thinking we have good chance too win i really did, but not with such defensive solidarity, i expected something like in the 50-60 min, chaos of open midfield. Whole team played great, only one that is hot topic is Coq, he is simply fantastic, the loan too Charlton gave him that aggressiveness and tenacity he needed. Now if Jenko return to us like this.

WE made City so shit in attack !

edit: I more thing i need to add. I dont know if it was Giroud movement that got improved, but Ospina found him all the time today. And he managed even vs so big and strong CB's and DM's to bring the ball down so many times.

Not going to lie, it was strange seeing us defend that well. We were a exploited on a few occasions on Monreal's side, but overall really solid. Can't see Ozil getting back in the team at the moment honestly.

Average WhoScored overall rating was 7.77 which sums it all up really.

Cazorla was obviously MOTM, but Coquelin was such a monster.

Average position

Re: Giroud, saw him take down the ball at least a couple of times with some seriously great first touches. Someone's been watching Bergkamp videos!!

Who said playing defensive/reactive football was boring? That was fucking fantastic! Exhilarating performance.

Coquelin post-match comments:

We defended really well as a unit and that was key to the win. We scored at key moments in the game as well and that’s why we were delighted with the win. I try to do the best I can and I’m very happy that we won. It’s a tough game to win but we did that and now we need to move onto the next one because there is no point winning here and then losing at home in the next game. Hopefully we can win the next game as well.

It’s a big lift for the squad. We were waiting for this win and now we can move onto the next game and hopefully do well until the end of the season.

Frank Lampard looking like a clown.

Moment of the match?

Moment of the match?

That GIF is mesmerising.

Mmmmm