The Skipper

Giroud got stick because it's obvious that the Arsenal fans naturally expect him to replace RVP's influence on the team, which is very hard to replicate. I wish Sturridge got the minutes Torres got this season so far. If RDM drops Torres for the City or Juventus game he'll make a big statement to Torres. I've had so much patience with this guy but enough is enough now.

Come on Gael, please keep it up. Prove that you can at least be a squad player here!

Exactly the type of striker we need. A Benzema/RVP type striker would be so sublime in our current set up.

DP.

How many times have you watched Atletico this season to make such an odd remark? Besides - no one said Atletico's midfield are amazing - the general consensus is that Atletico have built their team around Falcao's strengths. You've answered your own question.

People are finally waking up and smelling the strong coffee! Falcao is a great great player yes, excellent finisher and probably the best natural number 9 going - but for our team we need a different type of striker. Someone that can do a bit of everything - it's why I prefer Cavani over Falcao.

Add Bergkamp & RVP to that and notice they were all technically brilliant. Bony isn't IMO, he's all power - as mentioned above, he'd take a while to adjust to the league IMO.

Exactly this.

From that list, the only ones that genuinely might leave in January are Llorente, Bony and perhaps Villa. The rest will be more available in the summer IMO - and that's why I don't mind waiting till then to get a striker that we deserve.

Don't read the Mirror or believe anything it says, it's bad for your health. It's common knowledge that Falcao's release clause is at around £50m.

If Sturridge had the minutes Giroud had this season... Oh my.

If you bother to read the Sturridge thread with a brain, you'll see Sturridge is getting praised for being a threat - no one is praising him for missing the changes.

Let's forget he out scored both Torres and Drogba combined in the league last season...

Start Danny. Let him regain form and he'll finish his chances.

I don't think that's too true, he was getting a lot of stick because he supposedly took shots instead of letting play develop, not because he was missing chances frequently. Sturridge has a good finish on him, since his youth career the lad's scored tons of goals. He just needs a consistent run in the team - at Bolton he had a couple of great finishes and the same can be said about the first part of last season - you don't score 10+ goals from out wide after half a season without being a good finisher.

Is Marcelo going to be injured forever? Is Coentrao so bad that he can't even be a good back up/alternative to Marcelo? Come on man...

Sturridge's finish isn't at his best because he hasn't been given an extended run. Give him 2/3 more 90 minute games at CF and he'll regain his touch. He actually has a good finish as we can attest to last season.

Grow up man .

It's only a problem if you chose to naively believe it. Why the hell would Madrid buy Cole when they've got Marcelo AND Coentrao?

Any fellow computer scientist students?

Wow. Troll-nation.

Not just the back four but the whole team. You say that the Terry - Luiz partnership didn't really face strong opposition but neither were Swansea and Liverpool. Don't know why people seem to shift all the blame for being bad at the back to Luiz.

You're right it's quite ambiguous, but my point is that you can't say the defence is better because Luiz doesn't played.

Notice how our defence was even better when Terry - Luiz were paired at the start of the season.