03/12/2016 | West Ham United 1-5 Arsenal | Premier League

[Big Poppa]

Performance 10/10

Sanchez 100/10

I actually thought it was a 5/10 performance. West Ham were absolutely awful. We missed a lot of final balls, made poor decisions on counter attacks, and made some mistakes in defence for which they were incapable of punishing us. Payet was dismal - none of their attacking players looked bothered about either pressing nor tracking back.

If we were anywhere close to our best, that game would've finished 10-0.

[Massa]

Great win!

[diesel]

Our first game at the London Stadium. Anyone going?

Yep, going but bad feeling. Any team looking to kick start their season can bank on doing it against the spineless frauds disgracing our badge in these kind of games. 2-1 up with 5 to go and we get beat.

Have a good time but be safe. Though most of the west ham fans I know are part time gooners so dont expect any rough stuff.

Total scenes in the ground today. Glad to be proved wrong

[Big Poppa]

Tbf that's about as good play as we would of got from any striker we could have bought bar the likes of Messi, Suarez, Ronaldo etc who we'd never fork out for anyway.

Count ourselves lucky he made the adjustment to the classic Arsenal false no9.

When has Giroud scored a hat trick? once in 5 seasons if that?

Sanchez 1st season up front, already a hat trick.

You're arguing against nobody here DG. No-one thinks Giroud is even close to Alexis' level, and everyone agrees that Alexis as our striker is when we play our best football. Giroud is a good plan B for when we're need to try something different.

I'm advocating people stop clamouring for Giroud just because we don't score 10 goals by half time.

As I've repeated many times here, Sanchez's early season performances showed us what we're capable of if we keep the faith.

A-F among others constantly call for Giroud at half time, I'm just saying he's only useful if we go full r***rd hail mary to nick a last minute goal.

(That's not a dig at A-F or whomever, we've had these convo's already)

Sanchez is certainly capable of anything at any moment but for a long time in this game we looked weak and toothless with no real plan or presence up top. In the end we smoked em with some lovely goals and got a nice looking scoreline but it doesn't suddenly mean Sanchez works up front in every game. I also still think he can do just as well from the wing.

Rather Wele than Giroud but he's not even close to the squad for the last 4 months so Giroud was the one mentioned.

I actually agree with you. It's always important to consider the opposition and other such factors. Alexis was completely anonymous at Old Trafford and struggled badly against Spurs. In both instances, those teams crowded the middle of the pitch, and pressed our two CMs to cut off the supply line forward.

West Ham, not only press Xhaka and Coquelin, but they defended with a high line, with 3 at the back. It honestly felt at points in that game that a bunch of their players had taken a bung to throw the match. That pitch, and the lack of atmosphere at that stadium v The Boleyn suited us to a tee as well.

I'm still concerned how reliant we are on Alexis to conjure up bits of magic like he did for that 2nd goal. Until that point I was fearing we'd concede an equaliser. After that, an already poor opponent (Noble - wtf?) took more risks in attack and left even more spaces in defence.

[Arsenal~Fanatic]

Giroud has been in great scoring nick this year from the bench. He offers something any of our Strikers can't which is presence n aerial strength. Yes he has his fair share of weaknesses too. I hate this philosophy where one player performing wonderfully like Sanchez makes the other one, Giroud in this case, automatically shit.

People need to have a perspective about football and see that sometimes football needs to be viewed beyond stats. Trying to link everything good with their favorite player and pinning the blame on someone they don't like is not in good taste. Everytime Sanchez or even Theo scores a goal people start taking a dig at Giroud who has done not much wrong this year, in fact he has handled himself admirably and managed to score consistently despite being largely reduced to a bench option.

When Ozil does well the contribution of all other players is pretty much dismissed and when he goes missing it is because of people around him. Ozil is a top quality footballer which large majority agree and he did a great job for us last year. This year hiz performances have ranged from extremely patchy to totally sublime. When he does well he should be given credit but not at the cost of overlooking the support of players around him at the same time excuses should not be found for some of his performances this season where he has uncharacteristically given possession cheaply n gone in to ghost mode.

Despite Sanchez's wonderful form this season if anyone tells me that Giroud has no role to play then i can only laugh. Giroud is a very good option not just as a plan B during games when we are stuck but also against specific oppositions which sit deep n are physically challenging.

Hindsight is the easiest way to try n substantiate the point cos it involves creating a narrative based on events already transpired. When Giroud has consistently come on n saved our A*s plenty of times this season why shouldn't people have a rightful opinion that him coming on during a game can change our fortunes.

This whole one upmanship when Sanchez does well n using it as a stick to b a beat up Giroud but then trying to give a face saving reluctant compliment to try n look magnanimous when Giroud comes on n does the business is pretty embarrassing.

Sanchez is our best player by far which i have maintained consistently. He is capable of producing the goods from the flank or as a Striker which is what makes him special. He tries to make things happen and works really hard even when it is not his day. However i don't understand Giroud getting called out whenever whenever Sanchez does well. I am sorry to say this but isn't it true that some on here want Giroud to fail which suits them rather than him producing the goods for the betterment of our team. Don't people get tired of this thing. Giroud is not a first choice material. I don't see anyone claiming that. Sanchez must be our striker with the kind of form he is in but with so many games n Christmas run in coming in should we be running him to ground without any rest?

[diesel]

Giroud has been in great scoring nick this year from the bench. He offers something any of our Strikers can't which is presence n aerial strength. Yes he has his fair share of weaknesses too. I hate this philosophy where one player performing wonderfully like Sanchez makes the other one, Giroud in this case, automatically shit.

People need to have a perspective about football and see that sometimes football needs to be viewed beyond stats. Trying to link everything good with their favorite player and pinning the blame on someone they don't like is not in good taste. Everytime Sanchez or even Theo scores a goal people start taking a dig at Giroud who has done not much wrong this year, in fact he has handled himself admirably and managed to score consistently despite being largely reduced to a bench option.

When Ozil does well the contribution of all other players is pretty much dismissed and when he goes missing it is because of people around him. Ozil is a top quality footballer which large majority agree and he did a great job for us last year. This year hiz performances have ranged from extremely patchy to totally sublime. When he does well he should be given credit but not at the cost of overlooking the support of players around him at the same time excuses should not be found for some of his performances this season where he has uncharacteristically given possession cheaply n gone in to ghost mode.

Despite Sanchez's wonderful form this season if anyone tells me that Giroud has no role to play then i can only laugh. Giroud is a very good option not just as a plan B during games when we are stuck but also against specific oppositions which sit deep n are physically challenging.

Hindsight is the easiest way to try n substantiate the point cos it involves creating a narrative based on events already transpired. When Giroud has consistently come on n saved our A*s plenty of times this season why shouldn't people have a rightful opinion that him coming on during a game can change our fortunes.

This whole one upmanship when Sanchez does well n using it as a stick to b a beat up Giroud but then trying to give a face saving reluctant compliment to try n look magnanimous when Giroud comes on n does the business is pretty embarrassing.

Sanchez is our best player by far which i have maintained consistently. He is capable of producing the goods from the flank or as a Striker which is what makes him special. He tries to make things happen and works really hard even when it is not his day. However i don't understand Giroud getting called out whenever whenever Sanchez does well. I am sorry to say this but isn't it true that some on here want Giroud to fail which suits them rather than him producing the goods for the betterment of our team. Don't people get tired of this thing. Giroud is not a first choice material. I don't see anyone claiming that. Sanchez must be our striker with the kind of form he is in but with so many games n Christmas run in coming in should we be running him to ground without any rest?

Couldn't agree more with your post, well said, my point is that Sanchez standard of excellence but more importantly his endeavour should set the bar for every player in the team. How often was it said that Dennis level of excellence and work in training inspired players around him to work that bit harder in training to raise their game and level and look where that took us and why he is idolised by fans and ex players. I don't see the current crop looking at chez and wanting or working to better themselves

[Yago]

City play Chelsea in the early game. Good chance for us to move up the ladder this weekend. Hope we take it.

Chelsea beat City and Aguero will get banned for 3 - 5 games. well, not too bad either.

City will out of top 4 soon, probably down to the 6th while United is coming back to form.

arsenalplan humiliated