re: Arsenal Football Club 2011-2012 Season Thread

Yeah, that's what I have to keep reminding myself. Although injuries are part of the game, Arsenal's have been excessive.

If everyone on the backline was healthy, would Per start over Kos? I really like what Kos has done this year. I think what he provides in speed far outweighs what Per provides in height.

Mertesacker's experience is vital and is a nice compliment to TV5 and Kos who are similar players. It'd depend on who we were playing, but that will be a tough selection.

As for injuries, we always suffer from injuries and yet our depth still blows. I'm near the point of being ready to jettison Gibbs. The injuries he gets are freakish, unlucky injuries. Dude is just injury prone.

I have a feeling Wilshere will play more advanced than Arteta when he's healthy.

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Although injuries are part of the game, Arsenal's have been excessive.

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I think it is time to completely change up the training or just get some new players. For 3 years running now Arsenal have had multiple people suffer lengthy injuries and then injury setback after setback.

I really don't know if Gibbs will ever be good, people have been depending on him maturing and blossoming into England's next left back but the guy is always injured. He's probably only seen 10-20 or so first team games for Arsenal in the past few seasons.

I find the best way to take non-awkward mirror pics is to take off your pants first.

Interesting tweets from @thatsimonrose today that I actually largely agree with. We've stuck with a Barca-lite formation even though our Barca player is gone. The only player this current system benefits is RvP (and I'd argue Gervinho). Walcott and Arshavin are wasted as wingers. Ramsey has had far too much pressure put on him and simply can't replace Fabregas in this system. Chamakh is a square tool which we've tried to put in a circular hole. Experienced players have played out of position rather than inexperienced players playing positions they're comfortable in. Arsene's rigid tactics (he didn't use to be a strictly one-formation guy) have really hurt us this year. In fact, the only match were I can remember us switching it up from the onset was the first Carling Cup match where we played a 4-4-1-1 and Arshavin and Park excelled. Arshavin has world class talent but has been grossly underutilized at Arsenal was a main gist of his tweets today. Anyways, discuss y'all.

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Is anyone else optimistic that when guys return from injuries, we can really make a run and cement ourselves in the top 4? or did I just wake up on the right side of the bed this morning?

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I think it's a tad too optimistic to assume guys like Wilshere, Sagna, Gibbs, Diaby, Jenkinson, and Santos will have a big impact right off the bat. Takes awhile to recover from long-term injuries. In all likelihood, they won't get going until March or April and by then it might be too late.

incorrect use of Success Kid meme

That's more like i-- heyyyy! >:(

Arsene to real rumors...

Touché.

That said, I can't say I've been too impressed with Wenger lately