I'm Off To Barnet, Love. Don't Wait Up!
Jul 16th, 2010 by 'holic
Right, the half past ten gets me to London an hour later. Round to Kings Cross, then to the end of the Northern Line, another three quarters – allow an hour. Five minutes stroll to the pub, sorted!
I can’t believe I’m planning the first trip of the new season already. If I am being totally honest it is not quite as exciting as last season, but then the biggest month in world football had not finished just six days before.
Barnet being Barnet good weather is once again forecast for Saturday’s traditional curtain raiser, and this being the opener most of the anticipation centres around the prospect of catching a first glimpse of the new boys, Laurent Koscielny and Marouane Chamakh.
The squad has been announced and if usual form is followed then all twenty-two players will get some sort of outing. That means I personally will also get a first glimpse of Ignasi Miquel and Conor Henderson, although for how long is anyones guess.
Purely for fun I will speculate on the starting eleven, assuming a continuation of last season’s 4-3-3 variation. Fabianski could get the nod in goal ahead of a back four of Eastmond, Koscielny, Vermaelen, and Gibbs. Perhaps Frimpong will be holding for Nasri and Rosicky, with Walcott and Arshavin providing the service from out wide for Chamakh?
Just to add extra authenticity to the preview we also have the first injury of the season to report. Apparently Denilson has already come a cropper and misses the trip to Hertfordshire. I do hope that is not a sign of things to come as this really is a big season for him.
So that is me, all prepared. Just the taxi to the station to book. If I don’t get too carried away with the pre-match Guinness I will try and get a snap or two of the new boys to post on Saturday night, or more likely Sunday morning. See you there if you are going, and if not try the three games for three quid offer from ATvO.
Finally, an acknowledgement to Snir, a regular who suggested I do a Cesc piece this week. I have tried to avoid the subject as far as possible because frankly I thought the topic done to death. Overdone, in fact. The number of people who dropped by and the number of comments suggests otherwise. Now I have made my feelings known I feel it is time to concentrate on other matters, for as I said on Wednesday, “this nonsense will go on for the next six weeks”.
Have a great weekend, ‘holics. ARSENAL ARE BACK!
58 Responses to “I'm Off To Barnet, Love. Don't Wait Up!”
Why do you think this is a big season for Denilson? Do you think Wenger would move him on if he just stays at the same level as previous seasons?
have a great one holic, wish i was going to be with you to take you to my local curry house in finchley, one day this will happen mate. have fun gooners, come on you reds
I’m off to Barnet tomorrow also, I hope to see the new signings in our new home kit, although we played in our away kit there last year.
Looks like I might head down ‘h, let me know which pub you’re at for guinness ahoy.
charybdis1966
Barnet play in Amber and Black so we should see the Red shirts, which I love being the old fart I am.
I’ll pm you when I get out of this lovely pub, ‘bine. I am being held hostage!
Haha, only to be expected! See you tomorrow hopefully.
goonerholic , r u from rom ?
Time really has flown this time. Can’t believe Arsenal are back so soon. But I’m far from complaining.
Cor Blimey, that was quick!
It’s time for the annual trip to Undehill already, man time flies.
I see from the squad that many of the young guns who were out on loan last season are in line to make an appearence, should be interesting to see how they’ve developed.
Unfortunatly, due to certain commitments, I won’t get to see much (if any) of the match, (won’t stop me from trying though) so a post match analysis from your good self would be highly appreciated.
Have fun mate.
Thanks for the update and as always an interesting read. I hope to join you for a couple of pints pre/post match during the season. Im a Holloway lad living (red member) in Ireland now. As long as we bring in a decent keeper (Given?) and another centre-back (Sol?) Im quietly optimistic for the season. Up the Gunners!
It’s great to have the boys back!
One minor complaint: ArsenalTV doesn’t work on Linux. Since I had to migrate for work I guess I’ll have to get my Arsenal videos elsewhere…
This is the season where we expect Denilson to be shine considering he reaches the age when Song and Diaby had their great leap forward so let’s hope this is just a little niggle… Still I’m afraid we will hear a lot about Trev and Catalan’s field of expertise this season.
Vodka today. Snow Queen, my latest discovery. Nasdrovia!
Arsenal are back and holic is on the spot, so all is right with the world. Enjoy the outing and apply the holic pound winnings judiciously;.
Matt, will it not work via Mplayer?
I know on the Mac I needed Flip4Mac installed to make it work.
Does Mplayer not do the same for Linux?
Sorry, I’m just a little bit of a luddite…
Hello dear friends;
I’m a big (old) Arsenal fan.
I am very concerned about this comming season. Spain winning the world cup was the worst thing to happen from an Arsenal fan’s perspective. Even though I’m a Spain and Argentine football fan, I think that Wenger is saying to everyone :[See that? I told you that possesion football is the way to play the game.]
Of course he will conveniently chose to ignore the fact that spain play with two holding midfielers. They scored eight goals in 7 1/3 matches (the final went into extra time). And conceded only one goal which makes them marvelous defensively. I think that the Italians are now studying the Art of Spanish Defence.
@Holic: when you click on a video link you get a message telling you straight away that Linux is not supported (“only” Windows and OSX are). If you try another user agent (Windows/non IE) you get past it but then it stalls at the license delivery part (Windows/IE it requires ActiveX enabled).
Otherwise Windows Media plays fine indeed (when it’s not DRM’d). Actually everything works impressively well, I consider myself a convert now.
Interesting that Matt. I have Parallels on the Mac and have considered running a virtual linux machine for a while. I must get round to it soon.
@Holic: It works! Thanks, actually you gave me the solution. Microsoft states on the download page that Flip4Mac does not support DRM-protected videos so I switched to a Mac/FF User Agent and bingo the free videos stream perfectly. I guess no license is required because Mac users aren’t pirates…
I know the Mac os is linux based but I cannot claim I knew that would work…
Throw enough darts and one will land in the treble twenty π
Wow, the comments take an unexpected, technical diversion ! Still, it prompted me to finally download Flip4Mac ready for the Barnet game tomorrow. Here we go again, come on you glorious Gooners…
Looking at that 22 players list and while impatiently waiting to see our new signings in action, I had a quick look at the premiership’s transfer activity and there hasn’t been much action so far. I know we’re only mid-July and there’s been a WC but I have a hunch it’s going to be a quiet transfer period (with Merc Citeh being the obvious outlier).
http://www.skysports.com/football/transfers/0,20367,11660,00.html
@Sean: Shay Given is paid 100K or 110K/week and is 33, why would he accept to drop 30K/week when he’s in the last few seasons of his career?
Hope you have a great day ‘holic.
Holic and Matt. Is that actually English? I have no idea what you are on about.
Big few weeks fo Le Boss to get the squad in order.
Enjoy. Keep the faith.
Thierry Henry spoke about his first game for New York against the spuds.
“I won’t even mention the name of the team that we are going to play on the 22nd. That’s how big a rivalry is for me.”
Legend. Absolutely top drawer. That is what playing for The Arsenal should really mean. Some of those a tad younger would do well to understand that.
Bring it on…………….
@Matt: To some players money isn’t the only thing. He would have no competition (at least this year, and maybe next year) for #1 keeper spot and would immediately playing in the CL. Get the feeling Wenger had the chance to sign him before, and for whatever reason did not… and won’t go back.
And yes I realise there’s probably not many players who care more about the football than the money. But I guess in some situations you can imagine yourself going to a much better job for slightly worse pay.
@jt: I know you’re right but when you’re approaching retirement money becomes more enticing. Barry is another example. Now perhaps CL football would be enough for Joe Cole to resist a more lucrative offer.
@Steve T: apologies for the tech bits but it was very helpful though. TH14 is a gunner indeed but I would hope some younger players are as committed. Clichy and RvP come to mind.
Blimey! and there’s me thinking Flip4Mac was something that happens in a well known burger restaurant.
@Catalan – can’t believe (actually I can) that we are talking about injuries already – we haven’t even played the first pre-season friendly.
We now have 2 groin injuries that have not cleared up since last season.
After a good amount of rest – esp in Denilson’s case – you would have expected “niggly” injuries to have gone, or to have been scanned, if their was any cause for concern, and a proper diagnosis obtained.
Or, as I have suggested before, that there is an alignment problem which only becomes painful when stressed. Of course, we get no real information from AFC so can’t be sure, but here we go again.
Hope I’ll wake up in a minute and find it was all a . . . . .
Will be very interested to see your article on Lower limb soft tissue injuries.
‘Holic, enjoy Barnet – my first club from age 5 – 14, when I started going to the Arsenal. Cups of tea from the hut in the corner and a climb up the bottom bit of the floodlight pylon if it was too crowded to see. How things change, eh?
Come om Reds!!!
Better make it a glass of Red, and a drop of Amber nectar.
Matt. I agree. Still made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up straight.
Mack Danial my friend we have a slightly diffrent style of football compared to spain or barca. you are right about them they play possesion football, they tend to keep the ball even if they have to pass it all the way back to goal keeper, their game is mostly played in the middle where xavi dictates the game as a deep laying midfielder i.e diaby’s position where as arsenal style of football is called attacking football we play our game in the oppositions half where cesc dictates the game just in the middle of all our attackers. i.e iniasta’s postion at barca. iniesta messi and perdro etc find spaces to recieve passes from mostly xavi or somtimes from fellow attackers to take the ball farward where as our game is based on intellegent passing and movement around the box thats why we sometime tend to walk the ball into the net. its called wenger ball.
@Trev. I’ll have a search around for an abstract online. Otherwise I’ll summarise it once I’m back in the clinic.
Predictably it made a huge difference….
@reality check: Great synthetic comment!
@Trev & Catalan: Have you ever looked at the Physio room? They have a league injury table which they update frequently. Anyway here’s their take on groin injuries (thinking of Bendtner and Denilson): “As a general rule, grade one groin strains should be rested from sporting activity for about 3 weeks, and grade two injuries for about 4 to 6 weeks. In the case of a complete rupture, the muscle may have to be repaired surgically and the rehabilitation afterwards will take at least 3 months. ”
Looks like both won’t be available before the season starts…
http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php
@reality check – that’s right to some degree…
Xavi is deeper in Spain than Cesc in Arsenal but he’s not the deep lying midfielder as Busquets and Alonso are the ones lying deep, Xavi has freedom in the Spain squad to start the attacks much closer to the opposition’s 18 yard box a lot like Cesc in Arsenal.
I would say the Diaby position is Alonso, Busquets is Song (I know Busquets doesn’t have a holding midfielder’s dimensions but they have 100% possession anyway:) ).
Cheers Holic!!! Liked the piece a whole lot.
5 hous to Barnet !!! Why are our GKs Almunia and Fabianski????????????
Coffee please, enjoy Barnet.
I should have made plans earlier to make it, I feel like a cunt there.
Cheers.
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Nice article ‘holic. Enjoy the game. I’ve just settled in front of the laptop to watch the game with my old pal Staropramen.
As per usual I go into the new season feeling a tap optimistic. The players who were humbled at the end of last season will hopefully have learnt a lot from the experience. Arshavin knows exactly what the challenge is going into the new season. Theo has to grow up ~ I think he will. We can look forward to perhaps two new signings.
Keep on believing π
Hmmm it’s half time and up until now I’m quite pleased.
Koscielny – Liked his calmness, even when he gets caught out of position he regroups quite quickly, liked his direct passes – very accurate, didn’t like his lobs – not accurate but I think that’s the rust…
Frimpong is the best so far!!! WOW!!!! I actually think he should be on the team before Eastmond.
Rosicky is looking very sharp, gets to a lot of balls, intercepts a lot of balls.
Wilshere is great.
But MOST important thing – AA23 is not only sharp but he’s changed, started clapping when his teammates try to shoot, tries to encourage young players instead of looking disinterested and if there’s one thing I ask from Arshavin it’s that, show interest in the game and team.
@Snir: have to agree about Arshavin, he just looked much happier on the pitch today than he did last season. I really liked his positive attitude towards the younger players.
Other than that, Frimpong looked impressive but we really can’t make too much (neither positive nor negative) out of a game like this.
@Lars – It’s obvious I’m not taking a game against a fourth tier club as something to go by but I still thought his aggressiveness was very impressive, his reading of the play (even though it was very slow and obvious play π ) was impressive.
I’m talking about sizes, he seems bigger and stronger than Eastmond and that’s how I’d like the Song replacement to be.
so so so lovely to watch arsenal after a torrid world cup
@Matt
Sounds right – but the point that Trev and I are making is that to prevent recurrence is to look WHY they get the strain in the first place – if the body mechanics are in balance globally, not just at the site of injury, then there is a far less chance of injury.
Treat the cause not the symptoms.
I’m getting all excited after reading about some Arsenal goals.
Sign a keeper, sign Sol for one more year, and maybe rotate Frimpong and Eastmond as Song cover?
Sooo much better than the World Cup and that other story.
Here’s 3 of the goals !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeOGKzeNh7g
Has AA lost a bit of weight or is it the new kit?
Excellent – cheers Tim
Another Mojito, please Barman.
Thanks for the link Tim – love those shirts!!!
Good to see the Arsenal grace the pitch again. It was also great to see Wenger tell the press and Barcelona to shut up.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-cesc-stories-have-to-stop
Don’t you just love Wenger so composed, so classy in his dismissal of the distinct lack of class from Barcelona thatβs just why I love MY club & made my choice all those years ago. What was all the fuss about anyway!!!
As for today great to all the young lads out again, for me the gap is a lot smaller between the first 11 & the rest but AW needs to get the loans right this year, for me Jack, the two Emmanuel’s, Craig & Kieran need to stay @ the club. Can’t see the point sending them out for further experience they should all be getting game time in the 1st team as they look ready to me NOW…..
@Catalan: I do remember what both of you were saying, unfortunately with the resurgence of both injuries it doesn’t look like our physios are on the same wavelength.
@Tim: Thanks for the link.
Besides the game it was an eventful day!
– Sol tied the knot. Wishing them all the best!
– Arsene said “not really” to Schwarzer
– But Joe Cole is a “maybe”
– And we got a first bid for Jagielka rejected
The last one is an excellent news even if Nordveit impressed yesterday.
And for the gunners in the US plenty of good news:
The league average attendance this season is roughly 16,000 people per game and ticket sales have grown by almost 10% compared to the 2009 figures. Given that the MLS was founded in 1993, the growth of the league is impressive.
ESPN invested more financially in its coverage of the World Cup than any other event in its 30-year history and the viewing figures throughout the tournament were very impressive.
A total of 19.4m people watched the USA’s loss to Ghana in the second round of the tournament and 24.3m people watched the final between Spain and the Netherlands. This is compared to the 22.3m who watched the decisive games in last year’s baseball World Series, while ice hockey’s Stanley Cup this year pulled in just 8.3m.
From http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/8820433.stm
Good stats Matt!
@Catalan – Right there with you for the shout for Frimpong to be Song’s cover.
LOVED his size, aggressiveness, anticipation and strength!!
@Matt – Well, it’s nice that AW FINALLY admitted he’s looking to replace Almunia, but I don’t really know who will come if it’s not Schwarzer, it’s starting to worry me, I’m beggining to think we’ll start the season with Mannone, Fabianski and Woj.
One more thing, didn’t the club tell Jay Simpson he’s released???
Good day fellow Gooners π
Re yesterday’s game, I thought it was an assured and well disciplined opener. 1st half was better but overall we impressed. Highlights for me…
– Wenger had the whole squad pressing to regain possession. I was discussing with my son, perhaps he has learned lessons from the 2nd leg of the EC q/final against Barca, i.e., we need to be fighting more to get the ball back from the opposition. Just a thought?!
– I said upthread that Arshavin is one of the players who will have learnt a lot from his experience in the PL last season. His overall attitude seems to be that of a changed, more positive, man….playing more for the team (than himself).
– Frimpong! Sure the opposition was weak[er] but he was impressive. Needs a run of games in the first team IMO. Plays not too dissimilarly to Song but seems more of an athlete. He seemed incredibly solid.
All in all a very good opener.
NB. Didn’t see enough of Kos to form a proper opinion so will leave that for another day.
@ Matt 50. Just a sidepoint – isn’t it great that 3 years after leaving Arsenal, even the Beeb recognize Henry is still 100% Gooner?? Man….I can’t tell you how proud that makes me feel!!!
Keep on believing.
don,
I thought our pressing at the beginning of last season was very good. Not sure why we stopped doing it after a while. Hope we continue it throughout the season this time round.
Didn’t Puyol get the memo ordering to stop the talk from Rosell???? So it seems things haven’t been set “straight” with Sandro Rosell.
Arsene, don’t trust a word they’re saying!! Less than 24 hours after you said things have been set straight with Sandro Puyol has started talking shit again.
God, I hate that team. Such arrogance – “he is not just being deprived of a move to the best club in Europe but also being deprived of coming home”.
Please please Mourinho, slaughter them. Please!
What a legend.
‘It is hard because the guy is from Barcelona. I wouldn’t like to be in his shoes that’s all I can say,’ Henry told Radio Five’s Sportsweek programme.
‘I wouldn’t like to be in his position because [b]he is from there and he loves Arsenal.[/b]
‘I don’t know what to say about this, because I don’t want to talk for him.
‘But as an [b]Arsenal fan, for me[/b], I want him to stay at Arsenal, but I would also understand if he goes back home.’
‘What I want to do is when I retire, I don’t know how, but I want to come back to Arsenal,’ he added.
‘I have just come here (New York) to play and to compete and win another title. After everything is done then I will think about it.
‘Whatever it is I want to come back (to Arsenal), maybe as a waterboy, I just love this club.’
Coincidentally, Henry’s first game for New York could be against the Gunners’ north-London rivals Tottenham, with the teams to meet in a pre-season friendly on Thursday.
‘I’m trying to get back in shape (for the match),’ he added.
‘I’ve not done much since the World Cup. I don’t think I will play long, but we will see.’
@ Sooth 55
I completely agree. It was a shame to see them reverting to type but maybe it was a tactical switch imposed by Le Boss…..trying different modes of play etc.