Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Nov 11th, 2009 by 'holic
An international break, nigh on a third of the way through the season. It is as good a time as any to review where we are, and how we got there. There being second in the Premier League, comfortably atop Group H in the Champions League, and in the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup. There really is ‘Something About Us‘.
Now before you tell me ‘One More Time‘ not to get too carried away, allow me to bathe in the positives from the opening three months. Nineteen matches have been played in all competitions, fifteen have been won, with just two consecutive defeats around the first international break, and two consecutive draws just after the second.
Even in those two defeats in Manchester the considered opinion afterwards was that we had probably been the better side on both occasions, but shot ourselves in the foot. Conversely we escaped a less than convincing performance at Fulham with a single goal triumph, and had to overturn a two goal deficit in the opening five minutes in Liege, thus exhibiting that we are only ‘Human After All‘.
The real test may arrive in a fourteen day spell as November gives way to December, when Premiership fixtures at home to Chelsea and away to Liverpool are wrapped around a Carling Cup date at Middle Eastlands where a much different looking Arsenal to the one beaten on the same ground in September may come ‘Face To Face‘ with the avaricious ingrate that is Emmanuel Adebayor.
There is little doubt that our impressive showing to date owes a great deal to the form of one Cesc Fabregas. I would love to meet you, skipper, and If I did so I would have to explain that I cannot believe you are still short of ‘The Prime Time Of Your Life‘. I’m certain he would remind me of the contribution of a number of his colleagues, as we have been far from a one-man band.
The goals have flowed from all over the park, but most notably from Cesc himself, Robin van Persie, and of course Thomas Vermaelen. The shrewd transfer business of this year has seen us trade Kolo Toure and the aforementioned Adebayor, for Vermaelen and Andrei Arshavin. Can anyone deny that ‘The New Wave‘ have improved us overall?
The high point for me, and there have been lots to choose from, was the comprehensive defeat of the neighbours after they hoofed their way to 42 memorable minutes of deadlock. We then had two goals in eleven seconds to celebrate wildly as Peter Crouch missed the chance to demonstrate his version of ‘Robot Rock‘.
Our own lanky streak, Nicklas Bendtner, is currently suffering a ‘Burnin‘ sensation after surgery on his groin, but Denmark’s player of the year will return and press for a regular berth in the line-up. He certainly has not disgraced himself on the right flank in the absence of Theo Walcott, hopefully close to a return himself.
So there we are. ‘Around The World‘ we are being acclaimed for the quality of our football, and rightly so, but can we ally our good early season form to the sort of run we went on last season after a calamitous November. That would certainly be good enough to keep our title hopes ‘Alive‘.
Let me know in the drinks what you think. Are we about ‘Da Funk‘ it up, or are we about to witness a ‘Fresh‘ triumph? Then again, have I just been listening to too much Daft Punk? You tell me.
33 Responses to “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”
‘No drinks’?
I’ll have a brandy please. Thanks
Armagnac, cognac, celeriac?
What?
Oh!
And if you want to know what I think: Daft Punk have turned really crap and are not worth my time anymore 😉
Unlike your posts.
Two blokes in crash helmets playing records?
I can’t see what all the fuss is about
Thank you sub-editor.
Jackster, a little artistic appreciation, please 🙂
You’ve really done your ‘Homework’ Holic! Perhaps not so much on brandy as on french musici… managers and their work.
I’ll go with a double esspresso with a few measurments of grappa in it, please – always makes me feel ‘Alive’
Heh ‘holic,
Excellent post as always.
Got to Give It Up for this Arsenal team. I just want them to Gimme me some more!
Right now they are a Supernatural Thing.
Did you happen to read Stone Cold’s guest post on ACLF today? I thought it raised some valid points regarding our support for Arsenal and how we choose to show it.
Love it!
Heres to Arsenes “Revolution 09”!
I think if we beat chelsea we can win the league, that will send the message out we are the team to beat!!
Great post very original!!!!
Nice post.
And Discovery is one of my favourite albums ever.
Respect! Here was me thinking only the young whipper-snappers like myself listened to Daft Punk. Though I must agree with Ollie, they haven’t been nearly as good as they once were.
I guess we all think we’re 18 inside, despite what the body tells us… 😉
Have you got any port in the house, by any chance?
Next 5 league fixtures – Sunderland (A), Chelsea (H), Stoke (H), Liverpool (A), Burnley (A).
lets see what we are made of. these are tough fixtures oveall. 12 points from that lot and I say we’ll be champions.
Great entry `Holic!
Around the world indeed. I’ve been reading quite a few forums/blogs recently and one thing is obvious: everyone supports their club for the title (be it EPL or CL) and after that the huge majority wants Arsenal to win it.
Chelsea, Pool, United, AC Milan etc. FFS even some Tottenham fans said they’d like us to win the CL!
Just some excerpts from Liverpool forums (redandwhitekop.com):
“Arsenal have the bets wingers out of the top ‘6’ clubs as you call them, so we are not the only club behind them in that respect.”
“Arsenal are better equipped to win the league than Chelsea and United.”
“Arsenal play magnificent football, Wenger is erudite, has a clear vision for the club and consistently develops startlingly good talent. Liverpool have just lost at Fulham. Arsenal seem miles ahead. ”
And absolutely everyone has been raving about the best goals of the season like Fab’s run or the team goal with Diaby scoring after a somptuous backheel pass from Eddie. Even Twitchy had to admit it was a ‘great run’.
It’s only the beginning as most of our players are very far from the finished article, Fab included. Caviar Wengerball for years to come, better believe it.
Champagne bartender!
Gazzap: for us the season is divided in 3 thirds as follow:
Until now: normal mix of opponents.
From now on until February: all the tough opponents, twice for most of them. The hardest run we’ve had in years.
Last third: the easiest run ever against all the bottom teams with the exception of City at home.
As long as we manage to keep close enough to the top during the winter we’ll win it.
If we reach February in top position, we’ll win it and we will also win the CL.
And in any case we’ll be blessed to watch the most scintillating football in Europe week in week out 🙂
You must not have seen them live a couple years back if you think Daft Punk aren’t great anymore. Best live show EVER. Woodstock was just a bunch of wanky hippie cunts compared. And the tour live album was perfect too. The last album wasn’t so great, sure, but they are doing the soundtrack for TRON 2.0 so how can you be so robotic and not feel the love?
Sorry, I’ll stop stanning for le Punk. Nice article ‘holic.
You have absolutely made my day.
Combining Daft Punk song names and Arsenal, two of my most favouritist things in the world.
Sir, I salute you.
Naming a single player as the catalyst to our current form is a tad bit myopic.
Fabregas’ form picked up from the Blackburn game, hence his comment at the end of the game [on his commitment being questioned].
The whole squad stepped up and they continue to improve.
Why do we consitently seek the need to iconize individuals when football is a TEAM sport?
Wenger doesn’t like the superstar mentality as it denigrates the selfless system he’s trying to develope within this club.
Once it seems like Fabregas’ status is overshadowing the achievments of this team, he’ll be dispatched just as swiftly as Henry and the rest that came before him.
just read some crap in the bbc. they still dont think we stand a chance, to win the title. they think 3rd at best….
alright…
common you gooners..
people keep talking about january and us fading the likes of collymore and co but they forgot that last season we had an excellent new year run so if we can match it then we r right there,chelsea gonna be really interesting game but b4 that we got a hard trip north if we can pass trough sanderland im confident we can out play chelsea at home. by the way my country is playing a live or death WC qualification game in egypt if we loose 1nil we go 2nil playoff 3nil they go. so wish me luck 4 it. nice post by the way
Matt, those comments from our “unworthy” opponents just made a tear drop down my face…
U know, ‘life’s a bitch’ gains new meaning when u see all of wenger’s hard work with his young geniuses go to waste unappreciated.
Anon (16), you seem to have read something I have not written. That must mean I have written badly. You may have missed the point of naming Cesc (yes, he is having an excellent season as well) in order to squeeze in another song title, in the same way that I mentioned Bendtner’s groin, which has probably been less of a ‘catalyst’ in all honesty.
I thought I had avoided any misinterpretation when I said “we have been far from a one-man band“.
Apologies if it spoiled your enjoyment of a piece that is meant as a bit of fun in a tedious break, although the underlying sentiments are indeed a serious indicator of my feelings about Arsenal right now.
and no mention of song, as i expected. before the season started everyone wanted someone bought in his position because they thought thats where the weakness was, NOT ME, i was convinced from the second part of last season. cesc has always been cesc but to me the real talking point for me in this first part of the season has been.
1) 4-3-3
2)the verm
3)goals, goals goals and cesc
4) song
5)gallas-the verm
Ha haa/boom boom….cracking synopsis of progress to date ‘holic!
Ahh…but ol (#21)…..surely there was plenty of mention of Song(s) throughout the piece? Could you not see it? 😉
Plus……it seems highly appropriate that, only a few days ago, I was playing a remixed version of ‘Around The World’, by a duo known as ‘Masters At Work’ (highly recomended for those that may not have heard it).
Seems to me they were much closer to the mark than they could have known?
It HAS to be our season: both Bosingwa and Cashley have picked up bad injuries. But as all the pundits have said Chelski have so much depth that it won’t matter, will it?
And the best news of the day is coming from our most gifted youngster, namely Carlos Vela who is about to sign a long-term contract with Arsenal. Let’s hope we will now see his golden touch more often on the pitch.
jonQue: I admit I am ambivalent about it. I am almost as much fascinated by the social experiment than by all things Arsenal. It’s mightily interesting/refreshing to see how “smaller” clubs have a more homogeneous supporter population, decent people with a lot of loyalty and reasonnable expectations. United and us have attracted a big chunk of dregs as it seeems this is the price to pay for success.
Anyway the most interesting thing is that it’s as much for our values than for our football that we are the envy of all the smaller clubs. “We have to emulate Arsenal” is the leitmotiv on every board.
quite good article, but Daft Punk suck goat balls imvfho.
by the way, if you love the first daft punk album and then wasn’t too sure about the straight fire disco of the second or the guitars of the third- i heartily recommend Lindstrom’s Where You Go I Go To. It’s possibly the best (for want of a better term) ‘dance’ record of the decade, maybe even better than Discovery.
Daft Punk’s albums have always been overly trite and poppy, but their live shows are brilliant!
A good summary of the season so far. I am guessing most of us wanted more signings at the start of the season? I know I did. If I am honest I still think we need some more cover in certain areas. I would like a decent experienced centre back to allow Gallas and The Verm some respite. I am still not sure about our goalkeeping situation and still would love a David Villa type striker on the books. But that is me being greedy.
Been a top start to the season. Almost all positives. Back 4 look strong. Verm looks the signing of the season. The side has much more fluency and shape to it now. Skill and flare in abundance. If we beat the chavs in 2 weeks then some doubters will really sit up and take notice. The big thing for me this year is that everyone to a man has made steps in the right direction
Not a massive Daft Punk fan but for those music fans out there I would thouroughly recommend The Courteeners and their debut album St Jude. Best album of the year in my opinion. As Laim said “you’re not 19 forever pull yourself together.” Kind of fits the way some of our lads have progressed….
Keep the faith.
Fantastic as always, ‘Holic. A very succint and entertaining summary of our season thus far. And while Cesc’s top form has certainly provided the motor for this coach, every member of the squad has had an important part to play, and all have done so admirably.
There have been quite a few candidates for “Goal of the season” so far already, but among my favorites would have to be Cesc’s against Wolves last weekend, due to the scintillating interplay of Sagna, Cesc and RvP, the Dutchman’s deft (punk) touch to lay the ball at the feet of el Capitan Catalan Fantastico an inspired one.
I’ve greatly enjoyed watching the boys play this season, there just seems a great unity and spirit about them. They say that winning breeds chemistry; I say selling off malcontents like our former Togoboggan certainly doesn’t hurt.
Keep the Faith!
Arsene and Fergusion could not be more different:
“Ferguson is a very complicated man,” he explained.
“He’s tough. If things are all right, then they are all right. But when he thinks something is wrong, everything is screwed.
“He can go from complimenting you to just plain trashing you in a matter of minutes. Has it happened to me? Hell, yes! He’ll say ‘Nani, how could you miss this or this’?
“He shouts at players in front of everyone. No one escapes, everybody is the same. Giggs and Neville suffer most, because they have more experience. It is ‘F**k’ here and ‘F**k’ there.”
Considering they’re going to win nought this season, the players better ready themselves for more abuse :p
Let the others talk about us not winning….
I, a gunner, always believe Wenger will prove people wrong again….
your post would have been adjudged good but for your childish rant at adebayo who had since moved on while you remain standing crying over spilt milk. This was Arsenals undoing when thy went to mancity instead of playing the team they played against adebayo and lost.grow up players go and come thats not percculiar to arsenal.
That double espresso could be just what Diaby needs to get him going at the start of some of these games, with the few shots of grappa being what our fans need to cheer him on. Mr. barman, I’ll start with just the grappa please.
I am surprised holic did not mention Song. Song has been massive for us this year!