Jack Lifts Arsenal
Nov 26th, 2013 by 'holic
We lost and regained the ball in the opening seconds, and Bacary Sagna sent Jack Wilshere free on the right flank. Before thirty seconds were out the number ten wriggled inside Mendes and curled a gorgeous left foot chip into the far corner. One nil to the Arsenal.
Jack almost set up a second but for once Aaron Ramsey was thwarted at point blank range by Mandanda, who was to have a decent night in goal for the visitors. We settled back and waited for the onslaught to provide a comfortable evening, but something happened. The half took on an unfamiliar shape, with both sides guilty of being wasteful with their distribution.
A couple of speculative efforts from Morel and Gignac aside Marseille posed little threat, while Arsenal’s best moments continued to come down the right where Wilshere was enjoying a good evening. Arsenal were denied a clear penalty when Olivier Giroud was hauled down in the box, but awarded a fortunate one when Ramsey appeared to fall inside the area having been tripped the other side of the line. Regardless of the merits of the award Mesut Ozil’s casual spot-kick was saved by the advanced Mandanda.
The German’s fortunes would change as he set about making amends with a much more determined performance from that point, culminating in the pass that set up little Jack for his second goal of the night midway through the second-half, although words of commendation too for Giroud and Ramsey in the build up. It has to be said the second half proved more competitive, and more enjoyable as a result. Prior to the second goal Giroud’s deflected effort and Ozil’s saved cross-shot suggested Arsenal were pressing to settle the game early.
The arrival of Valbuena and Thauvin, the latter reportedly a target for the Gunners, breathed new life into Marseille, who for the first time appeared to carry a greater goal threat. Thauvin had a trio of opportunities, one of which was gleefully half-celebrated by Andy Townsend on the ITV commentary before being cleared. Poor form that from one who should know better and be more professional.
The final say should have been, indeed you may say was, Arsenal’s. Substitutes Santi Cazorla and Theo Walcott angled shots wide in the final three minutes.
So yet another clean sheet was recorded by a very solid defence, and the only blot on the landscape was Dortmund’s win over Napoli which means, astonishingly, that our twelve points does not assure qualification for the knock-out phase yet. Forget that for now. Regardless of the result of Dortmund’s visit to Marseille we have a three goal margin of error to qualify in Naples on matchday six, and we will top the group if we draw or win in Italy.
Arsene was very much matter-of-fact in his post-match interview, and gave what some might see as a masterclass in stating the bleeding obvious!
“We had a good control. Maybe sometimes we were missing the cutting edge to finish the game off early on but we felt so much in control that we just played on, thinking that would come. It came a bit late for my taste but it came.”
All in all, a good night for Gooners everywhere. Enjoy the rest of your week.
242 Responses to “Jack Lifts Arsenal”
Furst?
My Saturday started out with me catching up with my family (the secondary reason for my return to London 8) 😛 ) in the morning after my late arrival home a few hours earlier then departing for the Tollie once an Oyster card for transport had been secured, my mum being kind enough to let me use hers for the day 🙂 The ‘Thierry Henry’ at Piebury Corner was decided against once I reached Holloway Road Station due to lack of time, a quick trip to the nearest cashpoint followed and it was onto the Tollie. Past the bouncers with a flash of the Membership Card (they don’t ask me for ID anymore, guess I’m growing up 😉 ) out into a beer garden to avoid having to squeeze past people and back into the Tollie to spot the Holics.
H2H was embraced then mistaken for NorCal in that order (it had been about a year since I’d seen the American in my defence 😛 ), the Californian himself was then greeted and slowly but surely I began to see the main culprits: the birthday boy TaBS happily conversing with fellow Gooners, Top Man Snowy, Poppet, Lars with that Legendary Wallet, Ollie here and there, the maestro ‘Holic in the Tollington Road Beer Garden, Trev with his Half Pint. I was then able to put some new faces to old names: Bathgooner looking wise, Adam (who I now understand to be Bathgooner Junior? 😀 ), Bearded Gooner with beard mighty and American accent faint 😉 , Uplympian looking both bewildered but pleasantly surprised 🙂 Later on I was finally able to put Steve T’s face to his name, and Zico joined the thrall later, his arrival coinciding with Liverpool’s late equaliser for 3-3… 😛
I was able to have some great scintillating conversations with some of the Holics: one with Bearded about his move to London + the similarities between London & New York but the differences between New York and San Francisco’s transport systems, another with bathgooner about his career as a hematologist, one with bathgooner jr/adam about recent arsenal games and the day’s prospects + the Merseyside Derby that was on in the Tollie at the time, me and Uplympian chatted about the West Country and my University studies, and Steve T and I chewed the fat over the attitude of Arsenal fans in the Emirates, good away games to go to, how to accrue away points but also about his away game trips with his kids 🙂
Too soon it was time to leave for the Emirates, even if 15 minutes extra were had in the Tollie due to the delay in kick off because of the difficulty in getting to the stadium on the day via London Underground/Overground or the DLR (nice one TfL! 🙄 ) Assurances were granted that Holics would be seen again after the match but it was a fond farewell with the Holics that couldn’t return again after, and I set off down Hornsey Road with H2H and NorCal. This was one of the best parts of the day, as H2H provided a very accurate description tour of how the immediate area looked when he was a kid: the places that he lived, the school he attended and the shops that were present were all recalled with amazing clarity, giving a different type of presence to this particular walk to the Home of Football. The Matchday programme was purchased, as it has been at every Arsenal game I’ve gone to watch. H2H said I didn’t need one (and in all truthfulness I didn’t, but those are the sort of things I want to show my future kids when bringing them up as Arsenal fans 🙂 )
After me and NorCal had figured out with the help of a friendly steward which lettered gate area corresponded to our area in the stadium, we looked up to find out that H2H had already seized the initiative and entered the North Bank at the nearest electronic block! 😆 We duly followed & made our way upstairs to our area, only to find our Ollie & Silva from the Arses standing outside! Turns out they were in the same one by chance, only quite a few rows down. Seats found and taken, we awaited the arrival of both teams. A different & new experience it must have been for both of my companions on the day, for one the first time viewing Arsenal live from the lofty heights of the upper tier, for the other the first time viewing Arsenal in the Emirates full stop. The game kicked off, and I was pleasantly surprised with the increased chanting from the home crowd compared to the last time I’d been at the Emirates. Shouts of “We’re the North Bank, We’re the North Bank, We’re the North Bank Highbury!” and the counterpart chant from the Clock End were heard, H2H providing a bit of a history lesson on the chant in his Highbury days + other chants that originated from that stadium. Boruc had his cock-up and the Emirates laughed 😆 Every time he was near the ball, an “Ooooooooooohhh….” would go up followed by ironic cheers, it threw him off his game for sure. At Half Time or so Silva showed me a picture he’d taken of King Thierry in his box with his daughter, made sense with the great man currently training at London Colney.
The 2nd half was fairly uneventful bar us being awarded a penalty & Giroud converting, Lallana in particular coming off reduced the minimal threat that Southampton had. H2H did note that all of our play came down the left hand side, even with Walcott’s introduction.
Full Time came, the chants of “Top of the League” reverbating around the stadium, and we made our way back to the Tollington, even with NorCal doing his best to lose me and H2H in the crowd 😉
The birthday boy was in an even better mood as we arrived back to the Tollie & for good reason 🙂 Esso appeared allowing me to put another face to a name, apparently I’d met Esso before but maybe it was him who had met me, I had no recollection of it for some reason 😕 I got chatting to Lars’ mate Martin and one of the Swedish Gooners Liz as the West Ham/Chelsea game was on the TVs, I’d met them (along with TS & TaBS for the 1st time!) at a Arsenal Sweden pub quiz at the Tollie that Lars had invited me to. Holic’s burger had been eyeing me up the whole evening (although this may have been the other way round in all honesty… 8) ) and I could no longer resist the temptation, as by that time I was sure the maestro had departed without most of us seeing. For those asking for a picture of this now infamous burger…
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZx8r6JCEAA7VoS.jpg:large
The dual pint glass technique was applied, one hand with Staropramen, the other with Strongbow, that I could do such a thing was due to the generosity of the Holics on the day 🙂 I ended up chatting with Mario, a gooner I met at the second 5-2 NLD of 2012 (love how we can say that 😆 ) and his friend Christa (they’ve now become my two favourite Greeks 😀 ) so I missed the table top “Liar Liar” attempts from TaBS as a result, but all too soon it was time to leave. Goodbyes, handshakes and hugs were exchanged with the Holics that remained and me, NorCal and H2H ventured off into the North London night. H2H was all too happy to point out various other important landmarks as we walked towards Finsbury Park Station. A quick walk was taken partway down St Thomas’ Road to show NorCal where Highbury once stood, we could see the silhouette in the night sky.
H2H offered to treat us to a meal, so I used my expert eye & existing knowledge of the area to discern the best Chicken & Chips shop in Finsbury Park. It had been a while since I’d had some so it was wolfed down with vigour, but also with the hunger of a student 😉 (they just don’t do it in Plymouth like they do in London 🙁 , and even if they did, it would be a bleeding rip-off! 😡 ) It was soon time to depart after hugs were shared and handshakes were given, H2H walked to his hotel and I walked NorCal to the Tube Station.
It truly was a great occasion and with myself studying out of London nowadays, there are longer and longer intervals where I don’t get to see Arsenal live so I find myself appreciating these opportunities more and more compared to when I was still based in London and could go as freely as I wished. I hope that we can have more Holic gatherings like this in the future, with more far flung Holics joining us on their pilgrimages to the Home of Football.
Solid performance nothing to add!
We will never be able to play 110% of our beautiful footie throughout the whole season.
A two nil win is a well deserved win we worked our socks off tonight. Tomas was a bit off with his passing but he went forward and tracked back you could tell we was a tad disappointed when subbed, however it was the right call.
We lost our shape a little with those subs Walcott wanted to score a goal and didn’t tracked back Flamini was fuming! And rightly so!
Watching the highlights of the Chelski game and if have seen it then fuck me they were fucking awful!
Wind
Great write up!
Good write up Holic.
I also thought “Was that bloke just about to celebrate an OM goal?” Just to see Woj diving to his left and hold on to the clean sheet 🙂
Terrible bias from the commentator but not entirely unusual with our Arsenal bashing press.
A very solid performance from our boys who controlled the game for large swathes and even when the game got bitty I never really felt like we were in any danger.
Another positive game and it keeps our momentum flowing which can only be more and more beneficial in the long term.
Datsyuk with studs
Too right that save was top notch couldn’t agree more, low powerful shot sticking to the floor and Wojtek managed to get down in time and get that clean sheet yet again.
What else can you ask for?
Another master class in succinct reporting Guv’nor. A comfortable win….just enough without breaking sweat. Wee Jack looking better irrespective of the goals and Nacho slotted in seamlessly.
Szcez also performed top class when called into action. Feel we are up to getting the right result in Napoli and top the group.
Top report Wind – getting more concise in your old age 😉
I absolutely adore Wenger. There.
Nice report Guvnor although I remain to be convinced that Ozil had a particularly productive second half. His stats are interesting to track. I haven’t seen tonight’s but on Saturday he had considerably less of the ball than our other midfield and attacking players and I would warrant his possession in key areas is less. His penalty tonight was pathetic. It was so obvious where it was going that with no run- up it was very difficult to score. Where I sit we all desperately want to cut him some slack but have been largely underwhelmed by his performances. There is division between those who try to suggest he is a genius whose contribution is so subtle and nuanced that you need to be grounded in the game at a very deep level to appreciate him and some who think we might be seeing a football version of the Emperor’s New Clothes.
We clearly do need to cut the boy some slack and I would love to see him come through. We may be expecting him to adapt far too quickly to a very different environment but his body language is subdued and he plays peripherally rather than integrally. My view at the moment is that there are some worrying signs and let’s leave it at that.
On the plus side we won at an absolute canter and Jack was excellent tonight. I also thought Sagna was excellent as were all of the defence bar Nacho who was playing his first match for some time and certainly did not let us down. OG worked his socks off as usual and I thought TR7 was his usual industrious self. And Ches made a terrific save having had nothing to do on a cold November night for 80 minutes.
Great post ‘Holic.
Heh, thanks Arthur and Uplympian 🙂
Fine summary, maestro.
Just back from the game. Not nearly as cold as predicted.
A distillate of Saturday’s Holics showed up at the Tollie: Lars, Snowy, NorCal, Bathley No 1 and myself with a brief cameo from Steve T with ST Jr across the fence and the addition of True Storey and a mate whose name escapes me.
I thought we were never in danger after our early goal (wot a cracker!) but culpable for not closing it out in the early stages as Rambo and Mesut spurned nailed on chances to do so.
However we were colossal in defence and Monreal gave a masterclass in wingback play both defending and attacking. We really do have two top left backs. Szcz made an excellent save at Gignac’s feet in the first half and another world class stop at his left post in the second as Marseilles suddenly woke up and pushed forward. Flamini has Napoleonic leadership skills – you can hear him yelling at the midfielders to get back and cover.
I think we are capable of getting what we need in Naples.
This team hit top gear for a brief period just before we scored the second – what a great ball by Mesut – but is capable of winning without doing so. One of these days we are going to click properly and someone is going to get hammered. Nice if it was Chavski.
COYG
This team
12th?
Nice one ‘holic!
It is pleasing to the stress levels of the past to watch this arsenal team control a champions league game without getting out of 2nd gear and barely out of 1st gear.
jack looked much sharper this evening and his first goal was top shelf. Credit to him and I admit not being his biggest fan of late.
Marseille pressed us for barely 5 mins each half and hence a fairly easy night for the boys even though we were only 1 in front for much of the game.
the second goal was quite a magnificent team goal to watch and I love that type of football at arsenal.
it seems the biggest single issue this team has is the Flamster and his cut off shirt. Seems he has won the battle v the kit man, even in champions league.
What a great issue to have….
no 13th…
Wind – good to meet you on Saturday – great account of the day – love the hamburger!
Pontus!
When are you coming back?
nicely done, ‘holic. love wenger’s blurb at the end. i think we take napoli cake, and off we go.
wind, you done good. great shot of the burger, meister.
Tradition is a big thing at this club. Flamini needs to grow up and learn how to roll his sleeves up. Otherwise, sadly, he’s history.
Same old same old. Well in control for most of the match but missing every opportunity to calm my nerves … then late on Marseille could easily have scored and had us desperately hanging on. Why can’t we kill off games like this?
Just as well Baup left his best players on the bench for most of the match!
Why wait so late to bring Theo on? Why didn’t he start in the first place?? Yes I know Jack did well to score a blinder and a tap-in, but half an hour of Theo at the end could have doubled the score. As it was he hardly touched the ball.
Disappointing Napoli couldn’t have shared the spoils against Dortmund. Losing means we have to win or at least draw against them to ensure top spot in the group – surely our goal now? – and that means we have to play a full side against them, which means rotating in the Premiership and risking dropping points there. And Napoli will be going all out to win against us, unlike Marseille today.
Still, I can’t see us being beaten by three goals, so CL qualification and major contenders in the Premiership in January is a lot better than we had reason to hope for after Villa on Day 1.
Öskar
Top report, Guv.
Wind, Epic drink for the 3ton in the last drinks/2nd in this set of drinks.
Ttg, Ozil has never been the type of midfielder to dominate a game by popping up everywhere on the pitch and he is also not a rocket-shot kind of player. He is rather a Player who consistently wins game through moments of brilliance, he is the type of player who can be quiet for 20 minutes but then pops up and creates a goal out of nothing the next minute. But that is not even the main reason he is special. He is special because during his 20mins of ‘silence’ he does the basic things so well and with so much ease you might not notice him. His appreciation of space(stats can’t show that) is way ahead of his mates just as the accuracy of his passes in tight areas(the opponents final 3rd) is one of the best in the game.
The downside to his game is that he is not a grafter. You won’t see him getting stuck in and quite frankly it’s not just his style.
He has his strengths and weaknesses but I believe his strengths greatly outweighs his weaknesses and his Strengths suit us perfectly.
Having said all that, I won’t want him taking our penalties because I don’t think his technique(placement not power) is what is needed to be successful in that regard, I think one needs a mixture of placement and power to be a great penalty taker.
Toby, from the last drinks, cheers.
Bath,
I think what differentiates this team from the 07/08 pretenders has been the defensive solidity. It really is impressive and I think alot of credit must go to Bould. Amazing what a proper keeper, a couple of reliable centre halves and some defensive shape can do to a team. But there are difficult tests to come. I feel we need to take points from Chelsea and Man City. When it came down to it, we failed at the first really big hurdle in the league. We should have taken a point at Old Toilet.
Ttg,
Ozil is very young and has just moved country, club, culture, language……..it does take a little time. His peno was careless, but if he scored, we’d be praising him to the rafters. I take your point about his intermittent role in games, but I still think he is one of the only players we have that is capable of being the difference at really big games.
Give me Lampard’s penalty against WHU yesterday any time. All power and top right quarter of the goal. Unstoppable.
Öskar
Evening all,
Spot on Holic. Sorry to miss everyone tonight – work finished later than expected and I had to go straight in from Drayton Park station.
Some great spells of play tonight interspersed with some irritating inaccuracy when so much was promised early on.
The win was all important though and was duly achieved so no complaints, apart from a very weak cameo from Theo. He is going to have to show a lot more determination to hold down a place in this Arsenal team.
A much improved Jack Wilshere is just about where Aaron Ramsey was this time last year after most of a couple of seasons out. He did have a pretty decent first half especially on Saturday and tonight was very encouraging.
Still top of two leagues.
*Saturday, not yesterday.
Öskar
Oskar, if you’re still worried about us losing points/games through blowing leads in games then I’m afraid your ticker is in for a long season.
Apart from that freak result against Villa on the opening day, when was the last time we lost points/games because we blew a lead?
Absolutely spot on, Trev. Jack is doing a repeat of Rambo last year when plenty were calling for him to be dropped – not because he wasn’t a great talent, but because he was so out of touch. I have no doubt Jack will be back to his old self (and improve further) given time, but I still would have started Theo ahead of him today.
And perhaps been proven wrong, but today’s goals aside Jack has a way to go yet to convince me he’s fully up for it currently.
Öskar
Cent knows re: Ozil. His touch did desert him on a few occasions tonight (he could have scored easily in the first have but flubbed it), and I think we’ll continue to see him improve in that regard as he gets more comfortable and confident in his new surroundings. But he’s never going to be a Wilshere or a Ramsey with their engine and drive. He’s a different type of player and anyone expecting it of him will always be disappointed.
The penalty miss was poor, and he knew it. He is a better penalty taker than that. A glance through some youtube highlights, Cent, will show that he has plenty of power as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oOsLw6JB4k
As Wenger said after Southampton, Arteta is our first taker, then Ozil, then Giroud. Both Arteta and Ozil were off the pitch on Saturday, thus Giroud took it. Today, with just Arteta on the bench, it was Ozil.
whoops, that’s the first *half
Nice report guv, unfortunatly I didnt see enough of the game and have just discovered that my HD thingy didn’t record the highlights either, meh. The bits and pieces I did see (on a very good ESPN stream, cheers Eandy) we looked well in control. One nice clearance off the lie from a Woj parry and a fine one handed save from our super keeper (in the form of his life) aside, it was all Arsenal.
I’m not worried about Napoli, not even a little bit. They are going to have to come at us, because realisticaly only a win for them will do, even that may not be enough, leaving them wide open at the back and vulnarable to the counter. Bring ’em on!!
====
Top account that, young Wind.
Standout performer of the night for me was Nacho. Looked well and truly at the races the whole night, busy, linked up well with TR7 et al, defended soundly, and had a crucial save off the line to boot.
My goodness but we have two excellent left backs at the moment.
Great post Wind! I enjoyed reading that. The many emoticons make it risky to read at my work desk though!
Did Flamini cut his sleeves off again tonight? Hard to spot on a stream…
I feel like Mesut is still adjusting so I’m not ready to get on his back just yet. Over the coming month though, I wouldn’t mind if he gets a bit of rest from time to time for him to really shine when he’s on the pitch. We might be able to do so when Podolski comes back…
And this is interesting. The boss in the post-game was asked about Flamini’s sleeves:
“Yes. I don’t like that and he will not do that again. Yes [it is a club tradition] and I was surprised. We don’t want that.”
I mean personally I don’t give a shit but I can understand the boss’s point of view.
Ha Cannons, simul-post. Yes he certainly did cut his sleeves.
My ticker has learnt to suffer long seasons with equanimity over most of its beating years, Cent, but I still prefer to slaughter the opposition rather than give them a hint.
You call the Villa game a ‘freak’ one, but that is what can happen when you don’t kill off games early, which has been a frequent occurrence in recent years. In fact the only truly ‘freak’ game I can remember in recent times was losing the 4-0 lead against Newcastle.
This was a match we could, and should, have scored 4 or 5 goals. Indulging Özilla by letting him take the pen was indicative. He’s not our first choice pen taker, and demonstrated why, imo.
Öskar
Okay Goonster, I take your point about Mikel and Giroud re the pen!
Öskar
I hereby umlaut my möniker to underline my öngöing support of Özil and the new Arsenal.
I know I’m extremely late to this particular party, but it looks so damn cööl.
Cheers
Ozil is simply the type of player that every coach in the world wants on his side for his raw footaball talent and football brilliance, even if only for 30 mins out of 90.
For me, his first touch(usually), his vision, his passing and his positional play are beyond most others in the world.
He looks like he has so much time on the ball and rarely gets caught with the ball.
Im all for him and I’m all for flamini( shirt cut to pieces and all) and giroud.
3 top shelf players for us this season and well done to arsene for seeing the value in each of them.
Goonster, I will take your word for Ozil on penalties, I’ve not seen him take a lot of penalties so you would forgive me for not really trusting him in that regard.
Oskar, I know your ticker has been around for a while and has had it’s fair share of stress courtesy of the Arsenal. I’m just saying I expect the ‘score a goal, suck out the opposition and pick them apart’ strategy to be around for a long while.
Ozil also seems to me to be a fast learner/steady improver, I always thought he could learn a thing or two about running at and through the opposition with the ball from Rosicky so I was full of smiles when he did exactly that last night and held off two opposition players to play a through ball, even though the pass was a little bit too short for Sagna it was still nice to see.
Its been an interesting few days. Tonight was planned several weeks ago. It was the young man’s 10th birthday. Having squared it up with Mrs T the question was posed. Do you want to go to Arsenal v Marseille for your birthday? Before I had finished the question the answer was half way to being delivered.
Those plans were somewhat turned upside down after an incident egg chasing on Sunday resulted in three hours in casualty, a diagnosis of broken fingers and generally a right old Billy big lip. The plan was to head back to school on Monday. However, a disturbed night due to the pain ruled that out and put tonight’s appearance in a bit of doubt. Monday morning, school cancelled and curled up on the sofa the dilemma now was what to watch to put a smile back on his face. He took his bloke responsibilities very seriously by taking immediate control of both remotes. Having the choice of God knows how many DVD’s and channels that are available these days there was only one thing that would put a big smile on his face and help him forget about the pain. His choice was the MOTD highlights of Citeh putting 6 passed the Spuds.
Fast forward to today. Any parent will tell you that Calpol is a wonderful thing. So off we set. We arrive at Finsbury Park before six. There is no queue in the print room. Ramsey 16 is quickly added to his home shirt. A further trip to the shop sees more birthday money entering the tills in exchange for a rather fetching set of PJ’s. We head to the Tollie. Entry is of course barred but that does not prevent the chance to say hellos to several holics. A chat with Lars, who surprisingly has any recollection of Saturday at all, is always a pleasure.
Time to take out seats. I am glad we were early. Jack’s strike in less than 30 seconds set the tone. This was quickly followed by a raucous chant of “are you Tottenham in disguise?”
There is not much I can really add to the holic write up. I thought that we should have had the game home and hosed before half time. Generally we were sloppy by our standards against a poor side. Having seen the penalty again it’s clear that is should not have been. That said there is no excuse for Mesut’s effort. The TV replays show the keeper further off his line than the official on the line was to him. If the official claims his wages for this game then quite frankly he is doing so fraudulently.
It was a massive performance from Jack. Hopefully it will do his confidence the world of good. Tonight he showed what we all hope to see on a regular basis. I also want to say a big plus to Tommy R. It may not always og right for him but his work rate is phenomenal. The withdrawal of both was a surprise to me.
The solidness of our defence has also been praised. I think a lot of that comes from what appears to be an ever more productive relationship from General Flam and Big Per. The two works superbly together and seem to take so much of the pressure off of those around them. Both compliment each other so well and just help to provide the platform for those in front of them.
So 2 nil and it should have been more. Am I that bothered by that? No, of course not. Is Ben? No, of course not. The experience of his first Champions League game is only enhanced by the birthday announcement at half time. Something he talked about for a lot of the journey home. Only one hurdle for him to overcome now. How does he get the tags off his new PJ’s with only one hand???? A smile from me followed by some brute force and within seconds they are released, he is changed an in bed.
The facts are that we need to avoid a 3 goal defeat in Napoli to qualify. I am sure that when the draw was made that most of us would have taken that. If we cant achieve that then quite frankly we have to ask if we deserve to go through??? Personally I am with Zico. I think the fact that Napoli need something out of the game works in our favour and that we will get what we need to top the group.
To all of those I have been fortunate enough to share their company with of the last few days I raise a glass in tribute. I also include those who I only know through the power of this blog and a keyboard. Abb, I have never been afraid to give monster hugs to either if my two. The little man had his fair share today. He gets what it is all about and has had a ball. Sending the same love and hugs your way and hoping you are well.
Keep the faith boys and girls. Keep the faith.
Cent, cheers. I haven’t seen Mesut take a lot of penalties. Obviously at Madrid Ronaldo was always going to be first choice. I’ve seen him take a few for Germany, and I’d never seen him miss till today.
He is an excellent technician and has a ton of confidence, and for a young player plenty of experience as well. I trust Wenger to know his players and not choose a poor penalty taker to be his number 2. Even the best miss from time to time. The main thing is that fortunately it didn’t cost us anything tonight.
Great point too @40 about his run through the middle. I enjoyed seeing that as well. 🙂
Top stuff Wind.
Steve T, great reading your accounts of the games. It warms the cockles of my heart. 🙂 Especially to us with the bad fortune to live so far away from the ground, your write-ups make it feel more real.
Wind, helluva write-up. Great result. Waiting for highlights as I was in flight during the game.
Scrub, (and other left coast Gooners), I am in SoCal for Thanksgiving. Let me know if I can buy you a pint.
BMBD
A very solid game tonight, drinkers.
Chasing unneeded GD wasn’t important as it’s the head to head result now with Napoli that only counts.
Let’s do it for the pies!
Great write-up Steve. I wish that was my birthday present too!
Lonestar, if you have access to Wifi and an Iphone, download the free Footylight app.
It has highlights of all the games, not usually in English but that shouldn’t really matter…
Bearded Gooner and Lurky from the last drinks, bathgooner @ 16 (it was great to meet you too!), scruz @ 18, cent @ 21, H2H @ 30, CoR @ 32 (bet it was worth it 😉 ), Steve T @ 45 and Lonestar @ 48, thank you all very much 😀
But in all honesty, the prevailing thought on my mind was that Nurse abb would appreciate it the most as she seemed to be (to me anyway) the person who was most enthusiastic to hear about the events of the day so that’s what motivated me to type it up all up out of the maelstrom of information present in my mind. I’m glad I was able to provide a bit of cheer to such a lovely & deserving person 🙂
Steve T, I really enjoyed your drink @ 41, great account of the day. All the best to Ben, hope he heals up soon!
Beautifully put, Steve T. That what going to a game should mean for a 10-year old. And a big hug back to you for top parenting.
Thanks, CoR. Cheers, Wind. Of course I meant Scruz in 48. It would be cool to meet up.
BMBD
2-0 a luverly score, and one I could become quite comfortable with so long as we stick to the 2.
On to Napoli….we know that Gunners go through if they don’t lose by more than two goals. To finish first in the group, there are two obvious solutions — win the game, or draw the game. There is one other possibility, if you follow the UEFA bouncing ball rules for breaking three way ties in points (assuming BvB defeats Marseille):
BvB’s account in three way matchup is closed: first tiebreaker: 6 points from four matches; second tiebreaker GD is +1; third tiebreaker number of goals scored is 6; number of away goals is 3.
So, to finish first while still losing, Gunners would have to lose by only one goal — thus making them equal with BvB in GD in the three way round robin — but score at least 3. Losses of 4-3, 5-4, etc., would have Gunners go ahead of BvB on third tie breaker, which is total goals scored in the round robin matches vs. the other two sides (Gunners would have 7 goals in their four matches with 3 in Naples). Losing by two goals gives GD tiebreaker to BvB.
WE DON’T NEED TO GO THERE. Win or draw, please…
If Gunners go through but don’t top the group, they will rue the fact that they didn’t go all out to push for more goals in the first Napoli fixture — up two goals in fifteen minutes, but handbrake after that.
The Chavs advance with nine points. We could conceivably go out with 12. Such is the vagaries of the CL format, but it won’t change because the group stage is too lucrative for clubs.
Tonight’s game showed up the one area in which the new steel to the side still needs reinforcing, ruthlessness in front of goal. If we could have buried a couple more chances early on, we could have both killed off the game and gone on to score a hatful. That would have let some legs get some much needed rest.
Ozil is going through his post-honeymoon adjustment to playing in England. He probably had no more than ten to 12 high intensity games a season playing for RM. He is getting two a week in England. He hasn’t yet settled to that pace. Like Giroud, he will once acclimatised. There is no doubt, to my mind, that he is the real deal. Some of his passing is sublime, in seeing a pass is on, in seeing it early and in delivering it. He will create goals that matter in games that matter.
Thank you for not responding to the retard. I could do without that right now and I am grateful.
lonestar, scrub says welcome to the gilded state, but he’ll be 350 miles north of you Thursday and under at least one table as well 😉 would love to share a drink sometime. happy thanksgiving to you and mrs lonestar, and the young one(s).
Steve t, you are a top dad. happy birthday to big ben, and quick healing.
holic, thanks again for running such a fine establishment.
oh, and Ned, dead right about özil. and even at his level the half dozen games past he always has the threat of magic in him.
I really am one pathetic fucktard.
Cheers Holic! Great reportage from Wind and Steve T in the drinks as well. Magic stuff all round.
Great write as usual Holic. It’s a good thing Arsene didn’t take your Flamini for Wilshere suggestion though :0
Back drinking a bit. Are we really debating the merits of Mesut Ozil on here? I’ll add mine then … He’s one of the best players in the world. Thanks for listening.
A very good morning all,
Playing catch up isn’t a very great idea, I’ve truly missed being here. Nice report Guv’nor.
Fair play to Wind & Steve for those inciteful accounts of Saturday & last night, hope to pen mine down someday when I visit the Ems in flesh.
I think we started the game well & ended well. We had a few patches of whatever you call it. But all in all, I saw individual & team brilliance every now and then. So delighted to see Monreal get a full game under his belt. I’ve always clamoured for it, if you ask me he’s got a bit of an edge over Gibbsy even though both are close.
Sad Özil didn’t put that away, but we can manage to forgive him. Love JW, a legend in the making. Did anyone notice his humilty after the second, “I didn’t do it, t’was Özil (pointing to the culprit who set him up)“.
I can’t pick anyone out, everyone put a good shift. The only part I didn’t like is not giving the fans the “headache” of seeing many goals. Theo, Özil, Cazorla, Giroud, Ramsey please take note. One reason I love $hity.
All in all not a bad day. Who’s next? ……. ok, bring them to the slaughter table.
Thank you ‘Holic, and Wind, I love your account of Saturday – fabulous. Delighted with the win. Will postpone any Napoli concerns to another day.
Good result, measured performance. I’ll take that
Ozil is the kind of player who you wouldn’t drop even if he has a few bad games. He has the magic touch and he’s the king of the assist
Another efficient win which the team is beginning to perfect. Defence is so solid at present, Giroud, Ramsey & Wilshere continue to work their socks off, same can be applied to Arteta (though he was poor on Saturday) and Flamini.
Ok, he made the second goal and in the second half he got looked engaged in the match but Ozil as some fans said to me after the match on Saturday is so poor at present, he should be dropped to the bench. Great player though he is on his day, but for 5 weeks now he has been utterly poor and to compound that, like with Carzola, he is next to useless at doing the defensive side of the game, in so far as supporting his full-back and closing down opponents. The hype is not being justified hitherto.
On a positive note, should Arsenal get a point in Naples to top the group I would have been proved totally wrong with the prediction I made back in September regarding Arsenal’s capabilities in matching our opponents in this group. Getting out of this group would be a superb achievement, and for that Wenger would deserve immense credit!
Cheers!
A very professional, controlled and neat win indeed. Great to see Jack on the scoresheet too, and Ozil’s reaction to penalty miss. Crowds sounded brilliant too. That’s the spirit.
Dortmund vs Napoli we had no control on. We are top of the group and it’s in our hands.
Spanish colleague I bumped into this morning watched our game and was impressed too.
What’s not to love?
– Cent, are you still typing these mighty reports on a Blackberry? :-O
I’m just not seeing this Ozil criticism. Drop him? Drop him for who? He’s the best we have by a good margin. Poor form or not, he plays unless he is unfit. He will play his way into form.
Nice headline, but I think…
“Arsenal Jacked Up”
…would have struck the better tone!
@Duttlenheim No I’m not getting the so-called debate about Ozil either. ‘Utterly poor for 5 weeks’? But still contributing assists – 1 against Scouse Cunts, 1 last night? Again an almost rabidly overstated criticism of his individual performances.
Think I’ve said it on here before, form is (very) temporary and class is permanent. And anyone who argues that Mesut Ozil is not class had a fucking screw loose. Always takes a while to settle into the English top division, Overmars and Pires being two very pertinent examples. He’s come from playing 4 games in 26 days for Real in sometimes having to play 4 games in 14 days for us. Acclimatisation to those demands in a very physical league is only to be expected.
I personally, think he has done literally as well as can be expected so far and have no doubt that in the New Year he will be spearheading our charge to glory on various fronts.
Still in the meantime we could always drop him for Frimpong.
Stick me in the “not concerned about Ozil” camp.
He’s in his first season, he’s contributing nearly a goal a game and his style is such that much of his work (space creation) goes unnoticed. I think he’s a superb player, even if his style is languid – take him out the team and you’ll see the gap.
Great result last night. Good to see Jack filling his boots.
Big game at the weekend now. Win that and and we’re in a great position.
COYG
Ozil makes a couple contributions that aren’t measured in goals and assists. One is the attention he attracts. Having a bonafide superstar allows the rest of our boys more space to operate. Secondly, he actually helps our defense because he can orchestrate an attack with as little as one in support like the very first goal he created for Giroud at the Stadium of Light. Former manager Carlos Bilardo said ” attack with 3 and defend with 7.” He won a World Cup with that model. ( of course one of his three attackers was Maradona but you get the point.) We can attack with 3 – 5 while still keeping solid at the back. No more watching 13 players storm forward followed by a slapstick sucker punch counter attack. We are a more sophisticated unit now.
what N7 said @70 as well.
I’m with Duttlenheim, Esso and N7 on Ozil. I just cannot see where the criticism is justified. The guy doesn’t have Rambo’s work-rate or all action style but he draws defenders, makes goals and relieves pressure. He does also track back and busts a gut to get forward if there’s a breakaway from defence which is more than can be said for one speedy little fella much of the time. Drop him? Not in a month of Sundays. He’s got the DB10 touch, out of the blue he makes things happen
Ozil has what every coach in the world wants.
A player with a natural raw football brain with football vision to match.
he has also bought arsenes team to life as everyone around him has lifted.
Romaldo and others are not pissed because they just miss seeing his hot missus.
He makes other players also look great because he can deliver the perfect ball.
Ozils quality is valuable on and off the ball and even 20 mins out of 90 from him are way enough for me.
The list is getting longer and I’m with Duttlenheim, Esso, N7 and now Bath re Özil.
The penalty was a mess last night but what really mattered was his reaction. He took off his gloves, hurled them at the touchline and, clearly annoyed, set about putting things right.
His determination to make amends was the important thing to me – the consistency and higher physical level will come as he, like every other player new to this country, adapts to the new demands.
He is a game changer, not a midfield general.
Takes all sorts.
I too am surprised that there are any grumblings to bench Özil. I agree that he has not hit his full stride with this team but I am not surprised. There is an adjustment period to any new team and league. He is just getting to know his teammates and this league. Do you really think it will help that adjustment to sit in the bench?
Wenger thankfully understands that. He played Ramsey while he was getting “back up to speed” and I am sure he will with Özil as well. I am also sure that we will be rewarded by this.
I had a great time here in Blighty and I’m already look forward to my next trip over.
Games seen live:
Arsenal 2-0 Montpellier.
Arsenal 0-0 Aston villa.
Arsenal 2-0 Soton
Arsenal 2-0 marseille
I see a trend. You can call me ” Clean-sheets NorCal”. 😎 I have yet to see us concede a goal.
Cheers all. Thanks for all the hospitality.
Morning All
Marseille’s second string were the poorest team seen at the Ems this season.We should have scored another 3 goals, at least, but failing to put away gilt edged opportunities didn’t cost us on this occasion.
The early great chip from LJW was a great start but from that point on we sat back, passing the ball around without purpose, looked static going forward and rested on our laurels. The game drifted along like a training session and boredom set in.
Perhaps I was expecting too much. Certainly we played within ourselves and didn’t expend unnecessary energy in claiming the 3 points, which was all we needed to do.
The second half was more entertaining and more competitive when they put on their main men. Natcho and our PIG earned their bacon (sorry about that one) and a delightful move resulted in our second goal.
I still feel Ozil is not quite right , some of us take quite a while to recover from the flu virus. He was livid at missing the pen, throwing his gloves off in disgusted. I was delighted LJW put in such a good performance, he was the one player last night who chased every ball and looked the part. He is well and truly on his way back .
With plenty of petrol left in the tank after last night ,we should be in good shape for our visit to the Principality and with Feo and may be Podolski available, rotation is available,let’s hope Rambo was saving his best for Cardiff.
As always COYRs
In English football we overvalue workrate. Ozil is one of the most efficient players I’ve ever seen, and his performances look much the same regardless of whether he’s creating and scoring or not.
On his home debut, for example, he played almost the entire game at jogging pace. But watching him, he drew Stoke’s centrebacks all over the place and gave them the absolute runaround.
What I will say is that there have been a few occasions in the last month where his final ball has let him down, particularly at Old Trafford, where he had a great chance to thread one and underhit the pass. Given time, he will correct this – he’s as good a passer of the ball as we have in the squad.
Last night he created more chances than any other player on the pitch, and as many as Marseilles in total. He’s still being criticized. That tells you that he has a style that can look a little lazy, even when it’s yielding results.
The pen was awful but, as Trev rightly says, the reaction to it was spot on.
I find it amazing that the press have his form under such scrutiny when he’s actually contributing on a regular basis. I don’t see the same level of analysis being applied to (say) Soldado, Jovetic, Fernandinho, Schurrle, Willian and so on – all of whom were big money summer signings, all of whom have contributed far less than Mesut to date.
We should also recognize from the Ollie G example that sometimes overseas players need a season to settle in this league. Based on what I’ve seen so far, Ozil will absolutely tear it up once he hits the higher gears. Quality, quality player.
What he absolutely mustn’t do is start tearing around the pitch to appease a restless crowd. It’s not his job, it’s not his strong point and it will prevent him from relaxing and playing his natural game.
Well said N7, as per usual
N7 knows what the deal is!
Top parenting, Steve T!
Ollie, erm I think you meant Wind @66. 🙂
Nail on head N7. All those talented English ballplayers (including even Glenda) who were misused or not used by Ingerland managers (including even Glenda!).
What N7 said @78.
All of it.
Norcal, it was a pleasure to meet you. Have a good flight home, and come back soon.
Flamini cutting off his shirt sleeves ?
There’s no ‘arm in that 😉
Thanks Holic. And a big thanks to all I met. Really helps solidify that I made the right choice in clubs. I may have been a bit late to finally come over for games but it was well worth the wait. My 2 trips have been phenomenal. Great bunch of people, great club, now let’s help push this group into being a great team.
On board, on time. See you all next year!
For anyone wanting to make a pilgrimage to the Home of Football all I can say is, Do It!
Here we go…
Let the pun begin.
BMBD
Oh, and all the sensible folks (who are aghast with all the “bench Ozil” nonsense) know.
One day I will follow your lead, Norcal. #inspired, not jealous
BMBD
Özil is a game changer. Something we have been crying out for for years now. He will be phenomenal for us. A fantastic signing.
NorCal. Great to meet you. Safe flight home.
Trev with another off the cuff remark. Can’t you just sleeve it alone???
😀
Afternoon all.
And thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated.
Way to go, Clean Sheets! 🙂
Safe flight, NorCal.
Heh!, Steve T. 😉
“Just sleeve it alone …”
No need to get shirty with me mate !
Flamini will have to be the next captain – if he gets his arm banned. 😉
Bench Ozil? What a mad idea that would be. Yes he’s not a work horse type of player but split second magic from him and that is what he can do. He may be quiet for 60 min then for the other 30 he is pulling his strings.
And he does track back and even chases the opposition in their own half. Different league, culture, life etc… give him a chance!
Great account Steve T wonderful stuff!
It links in nicely as long as he learns to button it.
I haven’t noticed any clean sheets around here. Must do laundry I suppose. 😉 But I don’t want to overvalue work rate do I? 😉
Ozil is a footballer’s footballer, and not always a spectator’s footballer. He is not an obvious entertainer — though he has his bagful of tricks — of rambunctious style. His game is built as much around game intelligence and spatial awareness as around passing. He is the most efficient — in terms of movements and what he does with the ball — creative footballer we have had in the Emirates era.
One interesting statistics you will always see about Ozil is how much distances he generally covers. It is very high for a typical no. 10, but he is not a typical no. 10. He chooses moments to impact the game decisively with ball on his feet but other times he is a meta-orchestrator who opens up, by off the ball movements best in current football, attacking avenues for others to exploit. Just ask the others in the Arsenal team.
If we Arsenal supporters cannot be a little patient about some adjustment hiccups from one of the best current players in the world … words fail me.
You can call me ”Clean-sheets NorCal”.
We’ll have to ask Ivana to confirm that. 😉
Safe travels mate.
=====
Top report Steve.
Various hehs above.
Ozil no good!? Words fail me.
Oeps, I see they (words) failed Dr Faus’ too.
H2H @ 97 — Yes, I am sure same reaction is being shared among all the right minded people. And the players. Especially the players. 🙂
Interestingly, apparently Ozil’s ground covered last night was 2nd in the Arsenal team, 9th in the tournament round overall.
Bammm
Prefer 101 to 100…
Just a thought, as one who penned a criticism of Ö’s performance last night – have any on here calle for him to be benched, other than a suggestion he might need a rest?
I certainly didn’t intend to, and I don’t recall anyone else suggesting it.
COYG
Afraid I would have to spend many weeks in the kitchen snorting columbian icing sugar with Higella before I could be persuaded to participate in the “Ozil is no good debate”. Not since AP McCoy eclipsed Julio Iglesias 4,000 career winning rides have I heard something so extraordinary!
Pangloss.
Yes, someone above suggested it.
In fairness, I don’t think anyone is seriously suggesting Ozil is no good. There’s just a suspicion in some quarters that he can raise his game and offer us a little more.
That may be true, it may not be true. Frankly, I don’t much care as long as we keep winning, and the experience with Ramsey/Giroud/Wilshere et all tells us that players sometimes need to be given time to find their higher gears.
N7, I’m quite sure most people here know the difference between a post suggesting Ozil can offer us more and one saying outrightly that Ozil has been performing poorly for a while now.
Steve T @somewhereupabove
You said one thing that really resonated with me, that Per and Flam really works well together. And I have to agree. Flamini has the awareness and workrate to both help out further up on the pitch but also double up and do the job Kos usually does in front of our back line. Which makes Kos our spare centre back and yet another line of defence. Nothing spectacular about that statement, that is pretty much what a defensive midfielder should do, but we haven’t really had that in a while, and it is really needed when we’ve got both our full backs far up the pitch.
You could say that Flamini really does help us keeping them Arm’s Length.
Hi Holic and holics.
Holic, when you retire, please consider putting a Goonerholic Collective out which would include some of your best here. And a generous smathering of ‘on location’ reports from the various holics, over the years. Pictures should be included as well of everyone at the Tollie! Truly inspired by the beautifully written personal accounts by you and our holics.
HOLIC TO RETIRE SHOCK !!!
You read it here first……..
Doubting Erzil? Get the fuck out! 🙂
@ Cent
Yikes – just seen the post in question. Fair enough; that’s a daft thing to say.
Looks like there will always be someone that the more negative supporters will be lobbying to have dropped – quite illuminating that it currently appears to be the most naturally gifted player in the entire squad.
That’s a bit like the Daily Express claiming today that “Arsene Wenger was FURIOUS with Matthieu Flamini who had HACKED OFF the sleeves of his shirt – – – – the Arsenal manager LAID INTO Flamini and said, ‘NO he WON’T do that again'”.
Highly unlikely any of it happened on quite that basis, but hey, it’s a much more interesting story. EVEN MORE interesting than all the column inches (centimetres, WIND) given over yesterday to JOSE MOURINHO’S HAIR CUT !
People actually get paid for writing this dross 🙁
I’m out of the closet with Pangloss in that I was a little disappointed by Ozil’s performance last night. I’m delighted that he has been so positively received and my suspicion is that he is suffering from a low grade virus which might be impacting on his fitness and sharpness levels.
I say this without a shred of formal medical knowledge but it was advanced to me as an idea by someone in Harley Street who suggested that the lad has had three bouts of flu/ gastric virus since he started training with us in September. I sense he is a very conscientious and dedicated player and Esso makes a very relevant comparison with Pires and Overmars both of whom had difficult starts to their first season. I am sure he will come good and that in itself is a thrilling prospect. His performances against Naploi and Norwich were indications of how good he can be. I certainly wasn’t suggesting he should be benched and neither I think was PanGloss BUT anyone who has divined in some of his performances for us a level of genius much beyond most of our players is remarkably perceptive because he has been quite subdued in a lot of games. Fair enough and it’s much easier to be relaxed about his performance level when the team is riding as high as it is now, but I’ve been watching and playing football for well over fifty years and when you pay £42 million for a player you have every right to expect a very high level of performance.
We were discussing Ozil last night at the match and felt that he had had a remarkable effect on the club but not yet a remarkable effect on the team. The very fact of him joining has lifted the mood perceptibly, lifted his colleagues and lifted the media but frankly there are very few games where he has been pivotal so far. I’m sure that will change and frankly I’d be gutted if it didn’t but neither will I let myself acknowledge something I’m not yet seeing with my own eyes. The lad deserves 6.5/ 10 so far although he has produced a couple of performances meriting an 8 . In the future I don’t think its unreasonable to expect him to average 7.5/10 . But I’m prepared to be patient as I sense most of us in this bar are.
Oooff, ttg… No need to repeat all the wisdom above but suffice it to say I think It’s pretty clear he has made a crucial impact in a number of games already this season. Sunderland, Stoke, Napoli, Norwich spring easily to mind. Yes he is adjusting and yes he will continue to improve but the fact that he continues to impact games despite not being at his best bears witness to the class that he is. ‘Nuff said. Agree to disagree?
Elsewhere, horrible to read about the stadium collapse in Sao Paulo. The next two WC host nations are certainly having their problems, no?
Goonsterham I think we are agreeing that he has made a difference against the teams you mentioned. But did he against Dortmund in either game, United, Liverpool or the bit of the Chelsea game he played.? That’s why you buy a £42 million player.
Anyway last season I was critical of Giroud and am delighted to say be proved me wrong and has matured into a fine player so what do I know. . :)I have also said in the past that Bendtner was an arrogant, poncey lardarse . That’s possibly one I got right.
One further point; the knives have been out for Ozil in the press box since the Utd game. They had built him up, and now was the time to knock him down.
What triggered it? Well, it wasn’t his finest performance, although at the time few realised he was suffering with flu. But what I really feel lit the blue touch paper and gave the journos an opening to attack was his bottling the header in Utd’s box.
Yes, he should have gone for it, but it was hardly the crime of the century – he wasn’t bought because he’s particularly brave or good in the air, and he certainly compensates in other ways.
In ducking the header he did, however, fall foul of one of the great commandments of English football; thou shalt WANT IT.
How often do pundits tell us, in lieu of real analysis, that games are won by the team that “wants it more”? That it’s all about bravery and desire, Churchillian half time speeches and bleeding for the cause?
It’s probably entirely true at amateur level. Most games on Hackney Marshes will be won by the team with the greatest desire to win. But it’s a comical notion at the upper levels of the game. Spain don’t “want it” more than England, yet they run rings round us, because they’re technically and tactically superior.
It’s the reason the media still rate John Terry (has ever a player “wanted it” more, whether “it” is a big victory or a mate’s missus?), why Steven Gerrard is still considered a viable option at the World Cup, and why a player like Ozil – who shows no real signs of “wanting it” is an easy target.
By failing to put his head in where it matters at Old Trafford, Ozil triggered a suspicion amongst the hacks that maybe, just maybe, he’s not cut out for English football. And the articles we’ve seen since are the result of that suspicion.
Please be clear that the above isn’t meant as an assessment of TTG, Pangloss or anyone else on this blog. I’m talking about the mainstream media and their jerky knees.
The fact of the matter is that Ozil is a veritable lock to end the season as the Premier League’s assist leader. I’d love him to throw himself at headers under pressure, but I don’t consider it a major problem that he doesn’t, any more than I worry that Matty Flamini isn’t threading enough inch perfect through balls for the strikers.
As I say above, there is more to come from Ozil, but the benefit of spending £42m on a world class talent is that even while he’s finding his feet (and why shouldn’t he be?), he still weighs in with his share of goals and assists, still creates space with his movement and still worries the life out of opposition defences. I’ve been very encouraged with the start he’s made.
Esso @ 59, arsenic @ 62, Poppet @ 63, thank you 🙂
Ollie @ 66, I also think you meant me not Cent, and I have moved up in the world a little bit! I now type these mighty reports on a laptop 😉
Trev @ 112, column inches, centimetres, trust you to run the rule over them Trev 😛
Ah. I believe I too have tracked down the source of the “Özil is garbage” thread.
It emanates from a fine judge of the game who has still to respond to my request that he expand on his pre-match “Arsenal will be found out by Liverpool” posts.
Sir – and you know who you are – I consider you an Oxygen thief and shall no longer respond to your deranged postings.
Thank you, ‘Holics, that is all.
TTG @ 115
In fairness, he did nab an assist vs Liverpool, and his ball to Ramsey was a pretty tasty one, even if Rambo did the majority of the heavy lifting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9_QqBfm9Ec
The two Dortmund games – fair shout re: the first. The second was a superb team performance in which every player played a part, and he also picked out Giroud for the cross which was nodded down for the winner – check that cross out, it’s pretty sweet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iJQWONG4D8
Chelsea game – harsh to judge him as a second half sub.
Utd game – this was his worst in an Arsenal shirt, but he was evidently playing with flu.
So, if we tot it up, that’s two big games he’s not done much in, two big games he’s helped lay on vital goals in (and we could add Napoli at home to that list as well), and one second half sub performance in the Carling Cup that it’s hard to criticise him for too much.
Not a bad return when you add in the other games mentioned above that he’s helped run.
I “want it”.
And I want it now.
Waaaah.
Astonishing stamina, Wind @2 – I managed to grow my mo while reading that.
And Steve T,
I trust you got away with your Spud like vandalism –
“Time to take out seats”.
Tut tut 😉
Be careful what you wish for abb.
I think she was wishing for your retirement – some of us thought we had seen it with our own eyes on Saturday… 😉
N7
As ever your points are well argued and I entirely respect your views as a man who knows the game and loves the same club as me. This will be my last word on Ozil for the time being because I think we are in danger of causing a debate about one of our players that we all desperately want to succeed. I will be extremely sad if this boy fails because his signing has been a catalyst for a tide of optimism that we haven’t seen for yonks and it has been very good for the club.
I didn’t watch much of the TV coverage yesterday but noted holic’s point about Townsend’s premature celebration of a Marseille goal. While I think we can be accused of over sensitivity towards our team I did detect very strongly pro- United sentiment when we played them and the bias towards United has sickened me over the years even down to coverage of average United fixtures when much better games were available elsewhere. Which brings me to the problem we all have on Sunday. Who do we want to lose most? Tottenham who would get into a dangerous spiral of decline or United who hopefully if they lose would drop three further points on us if we beat Cardiff
‘Holic is immortal. Just like Darius’s silver shield hoplites, when one ‘Holic falls another will rise to take his place. No retirement here.
BMBD
I’m surprised anyone remembers anything at all from the post-match Tollie on Saturday. I guess that zico having missed the pre-match bevvification might have some recall of early events but I believe anyone else will be simply guessing and I suspect that even zico will have a hazy memory of events after 8.30pm.
@ TTG
Respect sir.
In answer to your question: a meteor strike on the stadium is what I usually hope for in these situations.
TTG, your query puts me in mind of an apocryphal Patton quote. When asked what he would do if he found his army facing the Germans on one front and the Russians on the other, Patton announced he’d have his soldiers attack on both fronts.
A spud-manc draw seems about right to me.
BMBD
TTG.
Who cares about those mid table teams? 😉
He’s a little yob Trev, what more can I say???
😀
Toby. My view is that the only time the Per really looks vulnerable is when confronted by out and out pace. The one thing that Flamini does is patrol the area in front on him. Part of the result of this is to break up moves and therefore cut out the pace. The rest is then down to big Per.
In greater seriousness, I think Utd are more of a threat to us this term than the LWCs.
I am utterly bemused as to what AVB is doing with the latter. No decent left back? Four half decent but very similar centre midfielders fighting for two spots? Slow centre backs deployed in a high line? Instructing his full backs to attack at the Etihad? A £26m striker who doesn’t know where the goal is and no alternative option that the manager fancies? A striker who needs crosses slung in being serviced by wingers who are switched around and encouraged to come inside rather than hit the byline?
It’s like he’s drawing his tactics out of a hat. I’d say they look in need of major surgery, except that they’ve only just left the operating theatre. The fans are turning too. All lovely to behold.
A draw would be nice, but I predict a comfortable Utd win and a lot of booing.
Main thing is we win (or at least avoid defeat) at Cardiff so we can properly point and laugh.
Do you think Leverkusen’s Son was sired by Sam?
These things keep me awake at night. 🙂
On AvB;
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/nov/26/andre-villas-boas-tottenham-manager?CMP=twt_gu
N7 , H2H et al
Sadly and it’s not an easy admission my five tear- old grandson is going to the Swamp on Sunday do I hope its a benign meteor strike but it sounds like a very good solution! As H 2H says they are too far below us to worry us!
ttg@124 My personal wish is for a 0-0 draw at SHL – both drop 2 points and the draw may mean that AVB lasts a bit longer which looks like a bad thing for the Totts. Haven’t seen anything that makes me think he might be successful, apart from a flash in the pan at Porto.
As for BFG, I just love that little trick of his where he puts one big foot on the ball and the opposition player goes running on, wondering where the fuck it’s got to. His timing is second to none.
Özil is pure class, even if he does seem to be going through an acclimatisation period – to the PL’s pace and physicality or the UK’s variety of viruses, I wouldn’t like to say. Suspect it may be a bit of both. Certainly you could say it was Ramsey’s delightful ball which opened up the OM defence last night for the second goal, but Mesut had made the run and had the calmness and vision to see that Jack was much better placed to stick it away.
I take back some of my rant last night about the lack of effort. I would just have liked to have had the game safe earlier. In view of the goal difference against OM not having any relevance, I can quite understand the players wanting to conserve energy for Saturday.
Wonderful picture of Bacs at the top, by the way.
N7 @ 116, excellent post.
I was a bit shocked that he missed the penalty, but I was beyond reassured with his 2nd half shift (didn’t see him even discard his gloves in anger though!) I wouldn’t have gone as far to suggest that he takes a seat on the bench from that miss though. I think Gooners are just so used to a high level of performance from Mesut in his RM days so him missing the penalty is inconcievable to some, along with failing to control simple balls and the like. Most likely, when people see him play, the standard expected from him is vs Norwich/Napoli when he wasn’t in the clutches & strains of whatever persistent virus. When he shifts the lurgy, he’ll be back to his brilliant best 🙂
Ooh, Chelsea at Home next month is all Tx. Not surprised, should have been on the ball from the 23rd when they would have been released to red members… I was at the pub/game 😛
I got an e-mail offering club level returns at £150 each,
.
Bath
That was nice of them. 😉
My thoughts exactly but if Wind was interested/utterly desperate and feeling flush (you know these students and their loans), I would forward the info to him.
Some bumpy on the bbc live euro scores has just posted about city’s lack of squad depth could cost them the title this season.
I shit you not.
And people like that are allowed to vote?
Ttg,
I would go for a culinary solution to the Totts vs Mancs poser. In the past we have taken that route to both teams, knackering the Totts with a dodgy lasagna and hitting the Mancy manager with a well aimed lump of pizza.
I would arrange a vast cauldron of steaming hot molten chocolate, crushed fruit and jaggedy lumps of biscuit in the ceiling of the players tunnel and, as they line up before kick-off, tip it by remote control all over them.
The gooey mixture would then set super fast, leaving twenty two chocolatey, fruity, biscuity statues rooted to the spot.
Disciplinary measures would surely follow though if it were discovered that Arsenal were responsible for the prank, so it could be a rocky road to go down. 😉
Heh @Trev.
Bath, my coundrum is, I wanna see Arsenal play as much as possible in the time I’ll be back in London for Christmas, but its only Chelsea as the opposition, I wouldn’t mind shelling out the money I’d have to pay right now if it was the NLD or United coming to down (even with those loans 😉 ), but with Chelsea, Liverpool or Man City, I have more inhibitions towards doing so, even if it is a ‘Category A’ fixture…
I’ve got something in the pipeline potentially thanks to someone I met on Saturday, guess I’ll give it some time along with randomly scoping the Tx scene, maybe I’ll get a lucky Lower Tier seat like I did for this season’s NLD 🙂
conundrum*
Also, knowing which Holics outside of the Season Ticket Holders like Trev are going would help me to justify the price… 8)
Back home now, or rather back home again after having stopped by to drop my bags off and then out again for dinner on my employer’s expense. Back-drunk on my iPhone on the way there and back and I enjoyed it very much. I don’t want to mention specific drinkers for fear of leaving anyone out but I’ve read it all with great pleasure.
What follows below is my rather long account of a few days in London, written on my iPad on the flight from Gatwick to Stockholm earlier today – it became a bit long because I had little else to do on the flight but to type 🙂
I have yet again had a blast. Saturday, as has been described by many already, was an epic day out. I was beaten to the punch of early Tollie arrivals by only the Holic himself and Poppet, and within minutes tabs, NorCal and H2H arrived. They were followed by many more, and it was very nice to put faces to names and many a beer and a laugh was shared. Three-ish hours went by in a flash, and it was time to head for that weirdly beautiful concrete-and-steel collossus we call our footballing home. The impressive Southampton (yes, I was one of those who went “WTF???” when Poccetino was appointed and Adkins sacked last season – Southampon Board of Directors one, Lars nil) were dispatched with a professional performance that for me showed how far we have raised our game. We just chugged along and although Southampton were not bad by any stretch of the imagination we simply had too much for them.
Also, at half time I overheard what I quickly decided was the best quote of the day. It was a young boy, maybe six or seven, who with astonishment and not a little bit excitment in his voice said “daddy said the f-word when he saw who the ref was!” 🙂
After the game Arsenal had arranged for a player to come out and a picture to be taken with the Arsenal Sweden contingent. We waited for a while outside block 1, and out came Thomas Vermaelen. He posed for a picture or two and – despite the club representative saying this was strictly not allowed – he signed autographs on a few shirts and other stuff. Then, to our surprise, out of the tunnel came Oxlade-Chamberlain who also posed for some photos. We asked him when he is due back and he said five weeks so any rumours about a setback do seem completely false.
Back to the Tollie it then was for more beer and merriment. There was the ubiquitous table-dancing attempts quickly curtailed by the presence of a certain Lin McDermott, more known as the female bouncer. There were laughs at Tottenham, tales of younger years as a Holloway lad, more beer, more laughs at Tottenham, a bit of tango dancing involving tabs and Liz, Arsenal songs whispered instead of sung due to noise complaints from wanky neighbours forcing the Tollie to tell everyone to stop singing past eight o’clock, a burger long left uneaten but then Wind decided enough was enough and ate it, some photos taken for documentary purposes, more beer and then I found myself walking away from the pub as, according to my rather vague memories at this point, they were closing and I was one of very few still in there.
As I got back to Highbury I realised I could still catch MOTD on the iPlayer, so I fired up my laptop and after struggling to enter my password at the login prompt because some evil spirit kept moving the keys around and at times adding keys that already existed I got things going just in time to rewind to where the highlights of our game started – upon which I managed to stay awake for about 30 seconds and then promptly nodded off!
Sunday was spent in a very relaxed fashion. I woke up early as I always do when I’ve been drinking, and flicked on the tv to watch MOTD again in a rather more conscious state. A few hours went by and a few of us went up to Highgate Hill to a pub called the Duke’s Head where we had a pint and even more laughs at Tottenham as they were demolished by Man City. It didn’t hurt to watch ManU drop points v Cardiff either.
A pizza at a place called Hana Maria on Stroud Green Road (if you’ve never been, go there if you have the chance, absolutely fantastic pizzas) and then one for the road at a nearby pub was a nice preparation for going home to await MOTD2 so we could all laugh at Tottenham again.
Monday served up a nice few hours down the Gunners, where my main memory is that the landlord got absolutely smashed and was struggling badly to stand straight as he was pouring the pints towards the end of the evening.
On to the day of the Champions League night (or, as Tottenham call it, Tuesday) and by this stage I was very very tired from all the fun and games but once you walk through those Tollie doors you are invigorated again. I had just the one pint and then it was off to watch a footie match that lasted for all of 31 seconds. Marseille were by far the worst team I have ever seen in any game I have attended at the Emirates, they were almost so bad it made it difficult for us to play well. Once again we showed solidity and professionalism and did we we had to do without using more energy than neccessary.
So back it was for two more pints at the Tollie and then back to Highbury Square to round off what was a couple of great days in London. The five of us staying in the flat sat and chatted for a bit before hitting the sack. Today has been about getting home, and for me also about reflecting on what an amazing thing that the community that has grown around this bar has become. We have made friends from literally all over the world, all thanks to this bar and our common love for the Arsenal. Holic, I hope you feel really proud of what this place has evolved into because you really should.
“Virtual bar, real friends”. Four words that capture the very essence of this place. Thank you once again everyone, you have given and keep on giving this Swede memories for life.
Trev,
Tasty!!
Astonishing recall Lars, thank you.
Top man, Lars. Well done.
BMBD
Superb Lars
Just had to get a beer while reading of all the pints you’ve enjoyed lately.
This place really is soemthing else.
But don’t get blinded. Everybody wants a friend that comes with such a wallet like yours 😉
Been out all day earning brownie points for next visit to the Ems / Tollie
and have just been back drinking. Epic report Lars, are Tabs and Lin now an item? From an old local boy, it’s great to see at first sight the fantastic supporters from around the globe. I didn’t manage to see the famous wallet but I guess due to the extra size required to cover the ever growling ‘holic contingent and the Swedish gooners massive, it was just too large to get past the “impressive” security staff on the doors.
Some fantastic contributions from all the regulars re Ozil. I am firmly in the camp that he contributes much in his own inimitable style but there is more to come once he settles down to a new league and country of abode.
Dr Z…..I would have thought that the size of Rox’s credit card bill would be more likely to keep you awake at night 😉
Good stuff, Lars! And I echo your words on ‘holic and this bar. I feel so proud to be a regular here.
Not to forget many hehs to Trev and another great report from Steve T on the trip en famille.
Wow, Lars !
You and Wind should become pen pals. 😉
Cheers, Uply.
Much as it hurts to write I thought Manure looked very efficient today, attacking for the full 90 minutes … exactly how I would have liked us to be yesterday. And they were playing away, us at home. If we go out of the CL on goal diff I will have to say I told you so … and hate saying it.
Still, always a silver lining since the neighbours have the pleasure of the in-form Manure at the weekend. I sense the early arrival of St Totteringham’s Day this season.
Lest I be seen as anti-Özilla his would be the first name on my team-sheet every game, providing he’s fit. With the occasional rest of course. He is the classiest player in the team and allowed an off-game occasionally since no-one is perfect.
My plaint this week was not so much that he took the pen as the nature of it. Side-foot placements, dinks etc look cool, but have no place from 12yds in my book. Nothing is so satisfying, or reliable, as a blast into either top quadrant. Usually unstoppable, and certainly incapable of being held so that the ball will likely come back into play if the keeper does, miraculously, get a hand to it without the ball taking the hand into the net with it.
Öskar
Öskar, I’m not 100%, but 99.9% sure that this match won’t matter at all(except the three points). Either we all end up on 12 points or we go through on top, in no situation will we need the goals from this game.
In a threeway-tie it’s all about the results against the other two teams. And the goals scored and poiints against Marseille will not count for either team.
So we’re +2, Dortmund +1 and Napoli -3 in this threeway-tie. If we lose by two goals we will still beat Napoli, if they win by 3 goals we will go out on goaldifference. Dortmund need to beat Marseille away first, they gave us and Napoli a run for our money even though Dortmund will likely take the game.
Not that I think it will matter. We’re a number bigger then Napoli and awayfans cannot sway our players. A draw or a win is what we can expect.
If we somehow lose by three to Napoli we wouldn’t deserve to be still in the CL anyway, Lovegood, but unless Dortmund fail to win we won’t be, and it will be because we eased up in the home game against Napoli where we scored twice early and then coasted.
Arsenal have made a habit of easing up early in recent years which made the comparison with Manure today so disappointing for me. It doesn’t always matter, and conserving energy in a crowded schedule is understandable. But not in the comp we are most serious about. You can make up ground in the Premiership if you slip up occasionally, but not in the CL.
Öskar
lars clearly is blessed not just with a big wallet. most excellent, sir.
Good grief, scruz, what on Earth are you referring to? Should Wolfie be informed?
Öskar
Top drawer @148
Brilliant stuff from Lars.
Sad news about Pat Rice this morning apparently he has been in and out of hospital fighting cancer. Hopefully he wins the fight.
Just read that as well Cent . Very sad. Hopefully his fighting spirit will see him beat this well and truly.
Top write up Lars.
Thought with Pat Rice and family.
True Arsenal legend. Good luck.
Sad to hear about Pat – it’s a cliche but “Arsenal through and through”.
Good thoughts for Pat coming from Oxfordshire (at weekends) and Cardiff.
Great stuff Lars
Nice read Lars.
It would appear that your stamina is better than Tabs.
🙂
Excellent account Lars @147. Your stamina is exceeded only by your memory. Good to see you again.
And thoughts are with Pat Rice. What a fella. Deserves the best of luck.
I hope everything goes okay for Pat Rice.
I was just logging on here to see if you holics knew… :/
Jack Wilshere doing a live chat hangout on youtube right now!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFPAIOXOyTM
Thoughts and prayers going to Pat Rice and family. This man has lived his entire adult life for our club and is indeed a proper Arsenal ledgend.
Great write-up Lars, filled in some gaps when I drifted around the bar socialising 😛
Ohh NorCal, batter up! 😉
As Aaron tweeted, “he has the support of everyone connected to Arsenal and beyond.” and I couldn’t agree more. Fight and win Pat.
Cancer is such an insidious, horrendous disease, that I am sure few of us have not been touched by it to a greater or lesser extent, somewhere along the line.
My heart goes out to Pat and his family.
Lars, that was boring! 😉
And at least Wind took a picture of the infamous, abandoned H Burger. 😀
Pure poetry Lars, good stuff.
Wishes for a speedy recovery to the legend that was captain of my beloved team way back when.
Get Well Soon Pat.
Cheers all!
Very sad news about Pat Rice.
sad news about Pat Rice. best wishes for a speedy recovery to an arsenal legend.
Oskar, I was thinking of his, shall we say, prodigious talent on display. Wolfie can make of that what he will. though it seems he hasn’t recovered from his bar walking attempts of Saturday…
Here here.
Go. Fight. Win, Pat.
Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Ameri-Holics.
BMBD
Sad news indeed about Pat Rice. Best for a full recovery.
It’s addictive trolling blogs, i am a sad excuse for a man.
In just under an hour from now Spurs will kick off for the 8th time in 5 days.
Happy thanksgiving holics.
Was away last week at little brother’s wedding in the flatlands. 6 days later and i’m just now sobering up. Wheww … an epic party and event all the way around.
Great reading in the bar the last few days. Sounds like a real doozy for the Soton match. Must try to make one of those next time.
Cheers all.
Oh, and I’m with those who rubbish this Ozil-is-crap nonsense. He’s amazing and will get better with more games in the prem.
Steve T 😀 😀
Heh Steve T @185.
happy thanksgiving to you lonestar, and to bt, norcal (welcome back!), abb, faustus, pik, and all other ameriholics… and on this day of giving thanks, I do so here for arsenal, for the holicbar, and almost all its denizens. a case of bourgogne des flandres on the bar for your pleasure.
All my best wishes to Pat Rice in his fight against Cancer. So sad his well earned retirement has been interrupted so cruelly, so soon.
Steve T, 😆
Tottnum struggling to contain, er, Tromso on another wonderful Spursday evening.
trev, they really are dire, in the most amusing of ways.
Soldado or, Old sado, looks a very poor £26 million worth compared to Ollie Giroud at £12 million.
I don’t think this has been posted here yet
but due to seven kick offs Soldado’s average heatmap against Citeh is rather amusing.
http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2013/11/25/the-tottenham-vs-city-heatmap-that-will-amuse-arsenal-fans-most/
Washed up, 😆
Hey scruz,
If you have a turkey as big as Soldado for Thanksgiving you’ll be a touch overfull tonight. He looks very, very poor.
Happy Thanksgivikkah to all Ameri’holics. May you turkey be as stuffed as the Spuds at Citeh.
Stuffed turkey and roasted spuds with a selection of the season’s vegetables, and no doubt there’ll be sour grapes to follow.
Happy thanksgiving to all our American friends and…
Assist.
Never in doubt. Score when he wants!
Heh and thanks for the assist, Trev.
Well in, Cent.
claims tabs position – the vertical one not the horizontal one 🙂
*misses the tabs position* – both of them.
No problem, Cent.
Lars, delightful read at @147.
Best wishes to Pat Rice.
Well in, Cent.
Cheers, Gents.
Wishing Pat Rice and his family all the strength, courage and luck.
Happy Thanksgiving to fellow Gooners.
Sorry for the repeat post, a line got deleted …
Wishing Pat Rice and his family all the strength, courage and luck and wishing him a speedy recovery.
Special wishes of strength and fighting spirit for Pat Rice, behind you all the way!
Happy Thanksgiving to all the American Gooners!
Lars, enjoyed your read.
Sad about Pat Rice, best wishes for him and his family.
Re. Ozil debate.
I was annoyed when he missed that penalty, but as far as I am concerned he can miss three more penalties in the next three games as long as he creates opportunities and assists to his teammates. Because that is what he does. He makes his teammates flourish.
Knowing Ozil since his Werder days, I knew what to expect from him when he signed, as I am sure most of us did.
He will never score a hat-trick but will get three assists,
he will never force the play, but will rarely lose a ball,
he will always rather pick pass than shoot, but will always pass to a best placed player,
he will rarely tackle but will he will always defends with intelligence and coordination
he has a bad body language, he may look exhausted,
but, that is the oldest trick of the natural born footballers
as he is always first to attack
He still has many things to work on, but who does not. He still learns his new teammates, their style and speed of play, because for a player of his characteristic knowing your teammates strengths and weaknesses, building good communication and relations to them is the most important part.
Great signing.
For anyone doubting, here is a fantastic video as a little reminder what a player he is for us. Please, take a notice of a number potential assists and preassists he has.
Mesut Ozil – The Difference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfTANf9EDeY
December 10th Keane V VIeira 10Pm interesting ITV4
Good clip, Lurky. Ozil has two traits reminiscent of DB10. The first is getting away from a marker by knocking the ball into a space that is a few feet away from him but is also the furthest possible distance from the opponent tackling him. The second is the ability to make passes seemingly in mid-stride. Several of those in you clip, Lurky, and each one left the opposing defence flat-footed.
scruz @ 189: Happy Thanksgiving and many thanks for those delectable Bourgogne des Flandres bottles, a bottle of Romanée-Conti vintage 2005 for you sir!
Cheers NBN.
DB10 along with Zidane are the most intelligent and brightest football players I’ve seen. Xavi, Ozil and Mata are not that far behind.
Nice post Lurky.
With you on that one.
Thanks Homer.
Ozil is a perfect signing, don’t let anyone tells you the opposite.
Anyway, I still feel we are short in striker department. We need fast, creative and mobile striker that can complement Giroud and be able to play as a second striker, but also to play on the wings or behind the striker.
In the summer my choice was Suarez and to be fair he still is, although I highly doubt we will sigh him.
Couple of weeks ago in this bar I mentioned about a eventuality of playing Chambo (when fit) as a striker and I am still feeling confident about the idea that he play that role for us.
He has the needed qualities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDevPJJLpvw
The obvious Giroud support for me is Poldi, IF he ever gets and stays fit. He is our most naturally gifted striker and when he’s on (remember v WHU last season) he’s at least as good as any possible signing.
I still don’t think we’ve seen the best from him yet, not on a regular basis anyway.
Öskar
Oskar, Poldi is a good option I agree. Not the type of striker I had in mind, though.
He is the best finisher in the club, has a powerful shot, can score, can hold the ball, can play one-twos, can track back, does defense duties, does basics right.
However, not sure that he can hold the line by himself, doesn’t use the channels, average in the air, he is not mobile enough, not creative enough, can’t dribble and can’t create a a goal by himself.
cheers, Faustus, that is rare, and generous!!
and wonderful video, lurky!
Evening, All holics. Just want to join in and wish Pat and his loved ones, the very best. Cancer is a fucking bully. Hopefully his has been detected early. So holics, please keep up with your screenings, pretty please. xx
Switching gears. And then along came Lars 😉
Seriously all the posts directed at are last 2 games, have been simply outstanding!
Enjoyed all the contributions on Oxil. To me he will always be other worldly.
And since this is a day of giving thanks, hope all my American friends enjoyed their day. Now Mr Holic, umm you surely must know your day job is whatever mischief you get up to during the working week! THIS PLACE, is your LABOUR OF LOVE, and for that we all give thanks. Goodnite everyone!
Missing Poldi for sure hope he will stay injury free for the rest of the season. I have to tend for my little Gooner his hamster is dying right now. Trying to keep those tearsto a minimum.
Please forgive the typos. Headed to work without bringing in a covered dish, and am sure to get a frosty reception, from my work mates 😉
Lurky … I was thinking of Poldi as support for OG, ie playing with him. I agree he wouldn’t be the ideal replacement when resting OG, but who would be? The most important thing OG brings to the team, imo, is his aerial ability … winning balls booted out of defence and nodding them down to our midfielders. We haven’t had someone who can do that so regularly for as long as I can remember. Until Ollie you could almost always guarantee such balls would be won by defenders and we’d lose possession.
I’m not sure who we could buy with that sort of ability, hence I’d be happy to go with Poldi plus one of Theo, Ox, Gnu or even NB (in a real pinch) when OG is rested in less important games. But Poldi retaining fitness is key, otherwise we should buy.
Öskar
With you on Poldi Öskar,
when there was discussion about players from which you expect the most this season, I had Poldi on my list.
He has been really unfortunate with his latest injury, since he has shown in Fulham game that he was on his way to some form.
WHU last year really is good example what he can do and I really wish that he stays injury free for the rest of the season, might prove to be really really important player for us in the second half of this campaign.
Can I just express my admiration for the other drinkers in the bar for their pointed ignoring of ‘you-know-who’. Best way to kill a troll – total oxygen starvation.
And happy Friday all.
Porco
He or they get quiet quickly ha? Well, who the hell tries to troll around in the bar of the league leaders??? Whatever team you are supporting is behind us so you should have bigger problems to solve 😉
Not so sure we will ignore those wankers that easy should we face some disapointments ourself.
Afternoon all.
Hope all our cousins on the otherside of the pond enjoyed their day of giving thanks.
Various hehs above and some great vids.
My cousins from that side (i.e. Québecois, although to be fair it was the whole of Canada) had it a lot earlier, H2H.
I never knew of Canadian thanksgiving being different until this year.
I’d never heard of that either Ollie, do they put maple syrup on their turkey? 😉
And now we go to the studio for the latest headlines….
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZ2n-Q5IQAALBXY.jpg:large
Don’t suppose I have any takers for a guest preview tonight?
Oh all right then…..
Cardiff 0 Ozil 6
The end.
😎
We need to take revenge for that cup final defeat. Still harbour a grudge on that one. 🙂
HEHS
I’d love to help guvna, but I’m still struggling to finish off my report from last week. Work getting in the way.
Sorry Holic, knowing me I’d probably over do it and do the preview and review in one 😉
Heh@Wind 🙂
I’ll take that as a no then 😉
Holic, if the offer is still up I can write down a few words and send it to you in about an hour or two.
Sorry, Holic, just finished work and spotted your plea but I have to go and collect my daughter from her dance class now.
I have been working on the medical piece though – will try and finish it this weekend for your use as and when.
Enjoyed zico’s preview though. 😉
Word in the office this afternoon was that Cardiff City should be happy with anthing closer than 0-2. I’d be happy with that, but it’s certainly not a gimme. I await a preview (any author) with interest and bated breath.
COYG
Cent, thank you. I would have snatched your arm off an hour ago. Brief preview now scribbled. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>