Heads We Win Away Again
Dec 29th, 2013 by 'holic
“I am very happy. It was a very intense game against a good Newcastle team. We got a big physical challenge today. Overall I felt that we were in control of the game until we scored the 1-0. We missed a second chance that would have certainly sealed the game. In the last 15 minutes we have shown another aspect of our team. Resilience, fight.”
Arsene summed up the performance as succinctly as ever. We saw a similar game. Our third game in six days, our second away match in three, and against one of the form sides of the Premier League. To win both of those on the road means we are back atop the pile at the midway point of the season and going into 2014. I’m not sure too many truly believed that would be the case when we kicked off in August.
Once again, as at West Ham, we started the match well but failed to take advantage of that early superiority. Jack Wilshere, Olivier Giroud, and Per Mertesacker were all off target and efforts from Santi Cazorla and Tomas Rosicky found the hands of Tim Krul. We were moving the ball, and the Newcastle team, around the park but all too often moves came to grief with a misplaced pass.
Newcastle were bound to have moments on their own patch and as the opening half drew to a close Wojciech Szczesny had to be alert to produce a great tip over from Sissoko. Even then we needed a combination of Jack Wilshere and post to deny Debuchy a headed opener.
Much of the half-time discussion centred around the referee, Lee Probert, lenient in the extreme, particularly with Cheick Tiote. In all fairness he angered both sets of supporters and would continue to do so in the second-half. Somehow we ended up with three players booked and Tiote survived without punishment for his repeated offences. Ironically it was a Tiote foul on Cazorla that brought about the free-kick delivered perfectly by Theo Walcott onto the head of Giroud for the decisive goal. The same two players missed an opportunity to double the advantage a few minutes later.
A word here for Giroud, much maligned in some quarters. Again today his hold-up play was to the fore, but it is goals that foster belief in strikers so hopefully that one today will lift him for the challenges to come. It was particularly pleasing that he should decide a tough away game that frankly could have gone either way.
The final phase became for some a nerve-wracking affair. With around twenty minutes remaining Kieran Gibbs, presumably injured, was substituted by Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini dropped into the left-back berth. Ten minutes later Carl Jenkinson came on for Walcott with Bacary Sagna slotting in as a third centre-back. The closest that back five came to being breached was from a risky Szczesny clearance that rebounded off Remy just wide of the post.
Newcastle’s closing pressure came to nought and we had the three points we needed to reclaim top spot. It may not have been the free-flowing, high-scoring contest that some, me included, thought we might see. It had something else to commend it though. It will be compulsory for all accounts of the game to mention that if the mark of Champions is to win when not at their best, then Arsenal are very clearly in the title chase. With nine points separating the top eight clubs it promises to be an extremely competitive second half of the season.
Hopefully what we have, we hold.
185 Responses to “Heads We Win Away Again”
Hot toddy?
I hate to ruin a single malt but needs must etc and so on…
CL spot?
Heh, evening Pip. Hope all is well? 😉
…and hello Lars.
Automatic qualification 😉
‘Cheers ‘holic!
All good cheers, ‘Holic. I have a happy 2 year old, and a very pregnant wife. Just need to shift this cold. Top you say?
4th place is a trophy.
Congratulations Pippy, that is fantastic news 🙂
Nice summary Guvna.
A toast to a sterling performance bringing home the bacon. Big win, that.
Top ten?
And congratulations Pip.
Nice one Guv, great review.
Not the greatest game I ‘ve ever seen, had quite a few mates here in the bar, as it was a kind of welcome home drinky, many of whom found it hard going watching, as it wasn’t a very high on entertainment affair, however I thought it was an extreamly hard fought and ultimetly deserved victory.
Half way through and still top of the league. I’m waiting with a morbid curiousity to find out what the couch potatoes on MotD will make of that tonight.
Congrats and good luck, Pip.
Cheers, 2014 is going to be busy.
Fair and balanced report marstro, especially the part about Probert and Tiote. I’ll settle for Arsenal top and Bath top ten. 🙂
Most gracious bt8b but as Pip and Holic are represented three times, you are well in that top 10. 🙂
A great Newcastle road trip – my boy’s first visit to SJP. Having negotiated the 7 flights of stairs I needed oxygen! Once we recovered we set about goading the locals: “where’s your famous atmosphere? Shall we sing a song for you? What? Speak up! They sang “4-0 and you fucked it up”! We replied “7-3, and we fucked you up!”. Just as they started singing about RVP up popped the HFB to shut them up again. Much as I love the North Bank an away trip is something special. Especially when we are Top of The League.
Actually I like the Geordies and the Mackems. As we walked back through the town, with colours, all we got was cries of “well done today lads”. We had a great weekend and finished it off with fish and chips at the Wetherby Whaler – it was packed with Gooners!
Right – onto New Years Day and Cardiff at the Grove, followed by an NLD cup match four days later. Let’s keep behind the team and hope this new run continues!
Great post ‘holic. Just home some 13 hours after leaving the house this morning, at which point I was a little anxious I confess – particularly as the dreaded ‘Rail replacement service’ sign greeted me at the station…
Long day but what a bloody marvellous result.
The downside of St James’ is that they stick visiting supporters practically on the roof. But if you survive the climb to altitude, you get a great view of the shape of the game up there. And make no mistake, this was a good Newcastle side that were asking plenty more questions than the one we saw off at the end of last term. Although quite how an official can contrive to make such a collection of baffling decisions as to piss off both sets of supporters is something quite beyond me.
Gritty wins – just love ’em.
Have a thermonuclear strength G&T at hand now to add to the glow. So MOTD pundits, do your worst, I’m proper ready for ya 😉
Meanwhile a cheeky back drink beckons.
Great review Holic.
Exactly as I saw it.
Have to say, I take immense pleasure from fielding a lessor team, playing averagely and still taking all the points at a tough away fixture. It was a real hallmark of Fergie’s teams.
There was a time we would have lost this game and its a sign of how far we’ve come. We’re not just good going forward, more importantly, we’re difficult to beat..!
Motm for me was Mertesacker, who has just been awesome since he arrived. Apart from the stoic defending, he’s providing a sense of leadership that we’ve badly missed.
Bath you have me seeing the glass half full. 🙂
Come to think of it that means time for a refill. 🙂
And good job Pip with the future Gooner production. 🙂
Hello Snowy, glad you got to see three points gained for your efforts 😉
Thanks all.
Great turnaround there Snowy and good job by the Travelling Gooners.
“Hopefully what we have, we hold”.
Indeed, Holic, but that is when I get nervous and the games become a wee bit tortuous. Actually, a big bit tortuous.
Much as I love a good “one-nil to the Arsenal”, taking off your main goal threats and bringing on extra defenders inevitably leads to the team sitting back and trying to ‘hold what they have’.
While we are getting much better at that too, it isn’t doing my nerves a lot of good.
Still, as you say, top at Christmas, top going into the new year – what could possibly go wrong now ? 😉
Oh yeah, the Spuds catching us up.
There go my sides again 😉
Nice one snowy, by the way. Glad you had a good day.
Nice summary.
H2H from previous drinks: If I may respectfully disagree, I don’t think comparing players — comparing, mind you, not equating — across eras are either irrelevant or useless. The basics of football remain same — despite all the changes in pitch conditions, the officiating rules and practices, the ever increasing commercialization and media frenzy — in terms of the technical skill, the tactical intelligence and the psychological aspects of work rate and team ethics.
Just like the set of human concerns, preoccupations and expressions are so limited compared to the number of human beings lived through the years and as a result the works of two different artists across different eras and different cultures without any awareness of each other may resemble, two footballers who have no direct line of influence on one another may resemble each other’s strengths and weaknesses and have similar career graphs. I thought a lot of the fun in sports is in talking about those patterns that repeat inevitably…
Neither do I think a statistical analysis of the game is entirely out of place. Memory is a tricky thing, past if successful is often embellished in our recollections of it, and statistical lens provides a somewhat fair platform across time … albeit a crude one devoid of the poetry of memory, but not entirely without merit because of it.
Arsene, to take an example, himself quite often indulges in these type of comparisons of players across eras… 🙂
Cheers ‘holic 🙂
I always get a bit sentimental when I go up there as it’s the place my Dad and his brothers all went when they were kids. Every time I go I’m reminded how much I miss all of them.
And I see from my mini back drink that some congratulations are in order – nice one Pip, all the best.
Then we will just have to agree to disagree, Doc’.
Nice reports from gooners on the spot, C100 and the top man snowy, great to see you back.
Aw hush Trev with your talk of ‘nerves’.
If you’re not shaking like a shitting dog at the final whistle it’s not proper football 😉
Countryman100 and snöwy – you and the other travelling gooners were magnificant once more and the HFB appreciated the support too, as ‘holic’s photo above shows. I remember watching him looking up and giving that salute to you all twice, once with each fist.
My folks were from Newcastle too – Wallsend to be precise. I was brought up on tales of Hughie Gallagher and “Wor Jackie” Milburn and one of my first football memories is watching the Magpies winning at Wembley – 1955 I think against City. I may have seen the 1952 final too because I can remember the names of the Robledo brothers. That dates me.
Anyway – that was all before I saw the light.
‘shaking like a shitting dog’ 😉
Love it.
Haha Nerves you say Never – I just turned the tele over to Soccer Sunday and crossed my fingers couldn’t bear watching those last 5 minutes as it was such a big big 3 points 🙂
See people on twitter actually fucking moaning I know I can be a miserable bastard at times but Fuck me we are Top and moving in the right Direction for the first time in Yonks and people still nitpick – We we to defensive they say, You imagine if we had opened up at 1-0 and got hit by a sucker punch they would be going nuts ! No winning at times, Fuck Em.
Up The Arse,
Chippy – they’re probably the very same people who moaned at us not closing shop against Dortmund and getting hit on the counter.
No pleasing some people.
thanks ‘Holic.
looking forward to a cringe fest on MOTD.
DKG,
Yep that’s the ones !! People moaned for years we couldn’t see out a game and now they moan when we do – Nuts haha!!
Good day all. What’s that? ‘Nother three points you say?! Thank you very much. This was a good Newcastle side that have been playing good football as of late. A win there was no guarantee. The last 15 were a bit nervy but even though they kept coming at us and even threw a Krul joke at us, we held firm.
I agree that Mertesacker was my MOTM. his positioning was excellent when they kept trying those crosses from the left.
Giroud or Theo really should have scored to help avoid that finish but neither that nor Jenks’ failure in game awareness came to bite us in the end.
Great away win in front of the best away fans. Top at the halfway point and to top it off I am going to have my ” Victoria Concordia Crescit” tattoo completed this evening. Good omen going into the second half of the season.
You and Arsene covered the bases between you Holic.
I enjoyed proceedings at 8.30 in the AM eastern standard time. What a joy to get up and find that the match is on at breakfast time and the TV in my uncle’s place is a 60-inch monster!
Great feeling to get another away win and hold the filthy oilers at arm’s length for a bit longer. Lee Probert was a feckless idiot whose misplaced intention to let the game flow went off the scale of permissiveness.
No matter. This team repeatedly do the business, and not even the familiar ineptitude of officialdom holds them back. They’re massively helped by the Pole in goal who’s having a simply immense season. Compare his heroics with the frankly laughable effort of Mignolet letting in the weakest of grass-flattening deflections trickle in off Eto’o’s boot.
More of the same please! Happy new year Holics, next time I’m in the bar I’ll be joining you from Colombia. Hard life I know.
“Shaking like a shitting dog.”
I am. And I don’t love it.
I want to bask – with a three goal margin 😉
Colombia you say, I think the medicine cabinet could do with some re stocking for the run 😉 I’ll happily take the role of chief taster 😉
lewandoski will be an arsenal player soonest
Won’t it be ironic for Moe-hoe when Everton with Lukaku go ahead of the Chavskovites in the league?
Starting to think we should sling £30m at the Chavs in the summer and see if they can be tempted to give us Lukaku.
It’s a long shot, but Maureen clearly has a common sense blind spot where the lad is concerned.
Porco@38 Lee Probert was a feckless idiot whose misplaced intention to let the game flow went off the scale of permissiveness.
Succinctly put, sir.
Interesting that Shearer chose to highlight Webb’s inadequacies (I’d agree with him on all points, except that Hazard was on his way down before contact was made, so that was a tough one) but totally ignore those of Mr Probert. I guess harping on about referees would have left the show a bit imbalanced and after all, that’s more important than what actually happened on the pitch.
A tough game to watch and an important result considering the necessary rotations.
Top of the league indeed and deservedly so being the most consistent team so far.
Areas for improvement:
1) Gibbs – simply won’t tackle and pulls out of all 50/50 duels. Defensively our weak link. If you watch his game, he consistently hangs off players like he is scared of being injured.
2) Jack – spending so much time on the ground after losing the ball or being pushed off the ball (as noted by lurky). Needs to learn how to hold the ball up more consistently. This is where ozil excels, he very rarely, if ever loses the ball and allows the play to tick along into the next attacking phase.
Our best 11 does not include jack.
Great stuff Holic. A lot has been covered in this round of drinks as well as the last. Great stuff from the travelling holics. Top reporting guys.
It’s been touched on by many but isn’t it nice that we can now grind out a result against decent opposition when we are not at our best? The half way point of the season and we sit top. I can’t honestly see how anyone can moan about that?
It must be a mark of how this team has developed that for the last 10 minutes I was not that nervous?? Of course you are on the edge of your seat but I feel a lot more assured with the way we play. I don’t remember Shezza having too much to do, apart from him setting up Remy???
On to Cardiff. Hopefully we can give them a right kicking and then give that twat Tan some abuse?
Happy New Year boys and girls.
DK Gooner – another Toon bairn? Who’d have thunk there’d be someone else here who knows what happened on the 9th of Joon, Eyteen Hunrit n Sicksty Tew on a Summa’s aftanoon 😉
Didn’t get a chance today to be gannin’ along the Scotswood Rooooooooood, but was as ever reminded of it as I took my seat at SJP.
43 DK
Shearer is a geordie, you could hardly expect him to criticise Probert.
To see the Bladon races 😉
Holic knows 😉
🙂
Sundry thoughts…
Congrats to the team for this win…def a morale booster and a tough one!
For all those moaning and bitchin about Ozil (admittedly not in this bar) and of him looking ‘disinterested’ or whatever…one can see what is missing if he is out…
Little Jack is so talented but hopefully he can find some maturity in his style…take lessons from Ozil for instance who is only 3/4 years older than him, or even Rambo…they bring a wonderful work ethic even though they are young…he seems to lose the ball quite a lot, should concentrate…he can be great!
Bendtner is probably a good striker but he has no pace or even inclination to pace…what a shame, because he has the power…
off the subject..but it’s difficult not to like Moaning Maureen…he does call it as he sees it…he said Arsenal played boring football that night at the Emirates, and its true..they did…so did Chelsea, but that was what Maureen intended, and he got it…Arsenal should have stuck it to them that night! then he turns his attention to the Pool saying that they are like ‘on holidays’…lol…gotta love that one…think of Brenda’s reaction…and now, he says that Suarez was doing some kind of acrobatic swimming dive during the match…hehehehe…all too funny 🙂
Anyway, onwards and upwards and let’s not get complacent with the fixtures coming up…they can be tricky
We’ve let in 8 goals from the top half teams this year. 6 against City, that leaves us with 2 goals in 8 games against the top. Pretty damn good if you ask me. Best defence in the league by a mile.
Cheers ‘Holic, seasons greetings etc…
Mertesaker was my MOTM.Love all that stoic defending as much as the silky artistry.
If we can take the league with dear old Nicky B on the squad then le boss should go down in history as a miracle worker.
Happy days.
Peter, I have to disagree about moaninho. no reason to like him. his proclamations are generally nausea-inducing, and the style of play he has brought to the league sucks big donkey wonga. I find nothing redeeming in his character, his style, or his personality.
just a quibble 🙂
Great result, great review, great job travelling gooners, and great news Pip. Top of the league … Life is great 🙂
I’m pretty much alone here in stating I actually like Mourinho a bit. If nothing else it’s more entertaining with him around.
@45 I also wasn’t particularly nervous either. Although on that last corner I did scream ” DON’T DO THIS TO ME!!! ” even though I was watching the match alone at 6 am in a dark and quiet house. lol
Those worrying how we would go without Özil now have their answer … about the same as usual. With a better result than our previous three games, even allowing for the usual dismal performances from Jack and Santi. How either of them stayed on for a full 90 minutes ahead of Flam beats me. Some worrying moments from Sir Ches also. All in all a hark back to ‘Lucky Arsenal’, imo.
Nice ones though from TR7, Merts, Kos, Bacs and a lot of hard work by OG who deserved his goal and was my motm.
Öskar
Nice post Holic.
Rosicky was my personal MotM, as outstanding as Mertesacker was. It was his relentless pressing when we were defending for our lives, constantly harassing the Newcastle players that were on the ball (take notes Nicky B…), the passion & desire to keep the lead & win the match was there for all to see & it makes me proud that we have such a player playing for our club, what a professional 🙂
As others have said or alluded to in previous bars, the likes of Sagna & Rozza deserve to win the PL or CL and it would give me the utmost pleasure if that could be achieved with us, however long they may remain as Arsenal players.
Otd: Ozil’s value to the team was well illustrated by his absence today. As noted by Aussie, Jack couldn’t match Ozil’s typical high rate of ball retention. But mostly we missed Ozil’s ability to work between the lines and pass through a packed defence, which is why we created so relatively few chances.
I may be alone in thinking this in this bar, but I think playing a five man back line for the final 15 mins or so was tacticly shrewd. Newcastle were playing three strikers, quite narrowly. Moving Sagna into the middle prevented a potential overload, while we still had two full-backs to close down their defenders pushing up wide. The lack of clear chances they created in the final phase of the game, despite their throwing everything forward, suggests the tactic was well judged.
As for the debate about statistics, no one will be surprised about which side I come down. But all the data in the world is of little use if there isn’t human judgement to turn it into information.
Good evening, night, morning, all. This is my first post to this finest of Arsenal blogs. I’ve followed this blog for awhile and am always impressed by the thought put into the posts, the camaraderie around the bar, and the respect for the sometimes diverse opinions on our beloved team. First and foremost, I want to thank ‘holic for providing this brilliant venue for those of us who follow Arsenal.
I’ve chosen the handle, “ECG” which is short for, “Emerald City Gooner” (aka Richard) as I live in the beautiful city of Seattle, Washington (nickname – Emerald City), and I have also been feeling a bit like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Arsenal at the top of the table at the beginning of the 2014?!?! Am I dreaming?!?!
On to the match.
As soccer (football to you on the other side of the pond, or pretty much anywhere else in the world) is a game of inches (see above) and minutes (a fifth of a micro-fortnight to you of the British Isles). A fifth? Don’t mind if I do. But I digress. It is often the small things in football that make the difference. For example, if perhaps Remy had a more pug-like nose, that ball from Chez could have easily rolled into the back of the net (am I a bad person for wishing it had been John Terry taking that ball in the thing he calls a face?). Which is why I’m not sold on the idea of Arsenal parking the bus at the end of a match. For one, it reminds me of Maureen and I become slightly ill. But it also seems to give the opposition a chance to score. One of these matches, a ball will carom off someone’s pointed noggin and end up in the net. It seems to me continuing to play our passing and possession game would reduce those chances and also give us another opportunity to score as the opposition presses forward.
On the other hand, that is why I’m making the small bucks typing on a laptop and Arsene is still Le Professeur.
Mert was my MOTM. He was solid and dominant.
TR7 was just unbelievable becoming younger n stronger. I think he deserve a new contract.
Jack was just sloppy n wants to do it all himself. I like his determination though, but he needs to study Ozil.
Giroud despite scoring d decisive goal was my worst player on d pitch. He just lack what in Nigeria we call ‘ball sense’. He isn’t a title winning striker. Podolski can do a better job.
Jenkinsen also shows the toddler he is in the game. He robbed Bendtner of a second goal of d season.
What won us d match was our defence not offence
yesterday was so satisfying. To top the win I got to see some ‘pundits’ having to eat their words. the turd alex mcliesh and some mongrel enrique(?) had this game as a nailed on victory for the toon. mcliesh: “at worst I see newcastle getting a draw”.
Ha Ha Plonkers.
Cheers Holic! Nice review.
A question. Why was n’t Monreal on the bench yesterday, is he injured? Also if Gibbs is injured (can not see any other reason for him being subbed) are we now without a specialist left back? Really hope not.
Have been informed elsewhere that Le Boss said Monreal and Vermaelen were sick, so should be back for Wednesday. Cant find any word on the state of Gibbo anywhere.
Good to have you around ECG! Make sure that isn’t the last contribution you make!
To touch on the point you made, I agree with you in principle, but I felt that yesterday, with mostly (young) attackers on the bench and Flamini at left back (even if something he did quite well during the Paris-season) it was time to shut shop and not ask Gnabry or Ryo to play possession football at One Nil away against the Mags. Again, I really do agree in principle, but having that make shift back four transformed into a five yesterday felt like the right move for me. Of course, noggins do decide games, and had we been a tad unlucky we would sit here regretting falling back, but the situation for me warranted it. That and divine karma rules clearly stating that Newcastle shouldn’t be allowed to score unless Tiote is booked, and at a rate of one-goal-to-each-yellow.
Thanks, Toby! There are so many rules in football that I sometimes forget the subtleties. Offsides, indirect free kicks, divine karma as applied to Newcastle…
Excellent point on the bench players. With illness and injuries we were somewhat limited. I just really wanted to see the left-footed hammer of Thor on the pitch for a few!
What we have, we hold indeed ‘holic. Well said
Fantastic result, and I too thought the back five tactic was well thought out. I mean it was not as if we were very good offensively yesterday. It made clear to the players that we were going to hold on to this and no fucking about
We saw the same game ‘h. Great report.
Great posts above as usual.
Wind knows @59.
Keep posting, ECG.
To the people who just can’t see what Giroud brings to the team; you’re watching the wrong sport.
Seasons greetings all.
Wenger’s a stats man.
He should love this one…
“Over the last 4 seasons, the team which has topped the league table on new years day, has gone on to win the league.”
…enjoy!
😉
“I’m not sure too many truly believed that would be the case when we kicked off in August”
Include me out of the “too many” group. Never a doubt. Not for one minute.
O T Dog, message received. You don’t like Ozil. I do. He genuinely merits the monicker “world class” and I’m very glad he’s part of the team. Watching him play every week makes my season ticket even more worthwhile.
Great report, Holic. Tottenham game?
Tottenham indeed, BtM.
Welcome to the bar, ECG. You make many sound points, as we should expect from a Seattle-dweller.
Completely knackered last night so to bed early and haven’t yet seen anything of the match, or even MoTD, but I have recorded it and will be settling down to bask later in the day.
BtM, you shame me with your confidence. Long may it prove well-founded.
COYG
Double Canister@47. You what? Probert’s from Gloucestershire, now living in Wiltshire.
Interesting that, apart from Probert, Roger East (also Wiltshire) and 2 or 3 Midlanders, all of the other referees on the PL list are from the North of England. Apparently G.Neville had a bit of a giggle about it yesterday, saying that they were all mad up north.
Thank you and welcome ECG.
The frequency of terrible decisions by Prem refs (who are supposed to be the best refs out there in England) does suggest that it doesn’t matter where they come from, it suggests that they are overwhelmed by the role and its pressures and that they all need help. A 5th official with a monitor and a microphone would be far more use than the geezers loitering beside the goals with walkie-talkies in ECL games.
Duttlenheim: I think Mourinho is funny too, but like all jokes he’s always funnier when he happens to others (like Tito!)..
ECG: Have to say I disagree about wishing it had been JT copping that clearance…his head is so swollen you never know it might create all sorts of angles to ricochet the ball towards goal…
Anyway, it’s such a happy occasion to win and be totl that everything seems funny now (even Howard Webb’s refereeing amused me 🙂
Maureen is definitely not funny. He is an utter cnut.
I think the FA should charge him with behaviour calculated to be detrimental to the reputation of the game. Such calculated hypocrisy and blatant disingenuous praise for the referee in his post match interview makes the F.A. official a total laughing stock and raises questions of integrity much more than Rodgers bleating about Greater Manchester.
Hanging is too good for the varmint.
These are the games that champions win whereas others draw/lose. I aint jumping the gun but the same win by a city or chelsea or united would have had headlines like champions show resilience etc.
Per and Kos outstanding, city was a blur, came to soon after the napoli game and i am sure in normal circumstances we wouldnt have conceded 6. Overall a team that is not good enough, manager knows no tactics, defence is poor, yet we are top of the league and the best team of the year, we will say cheers to that and Happy New Year.
This place has gone a bit funny of late.
First of all we have the miserabilist from The Antipodes suggesting we should sell Ozil to Man Utd, and now we have people floating the idea that Mourinho is funny.
He is not funny. He is an egotistical cunt and my only hopes is that his next shit is an oversized hedgehog.
A fantastic result yesterday considering those missing and a clear sign that we have at last matured from the team that conceded 4 under pressure from both a vociferous home support and an incompetent referee.
Up the Arse!
Does anyone have access to any stats about the mighty red and white over this calendar year? I bet they’re seriously impressive.
Football365 are saying Chelsea need to find new strikers in January. No joke.
SEL OZIL TO MANYOO, E’S OVERPRICED SHITE
SEL GIROUD TO SPERZ, E’S DUN NUFFINK ALL SEASON
SEL MERTASAKA TO LIVERPOOL, E’S SLOE
BUY LOIK REMIE, M’VILLER & BERBERTOFF NAAAH! THEY ALL WANT TO CUM TO THE ARSE.
SACK VENGAA, HIRE MOREINYOE
VENGAA AAAHT!
Maureen is about as funny as cancer of the bollix.
BtM – Will be at LWC’s game. A couple of us will have previous b’days to celebrate. See you you know where…
I always love it when rosicky starts a game, atleast we dont go down without a fight with him around. He plays like he’s on crack.
Its clear our tactics have changed. Unlike back seasons we had strikers that got fed to score in henry and van persie: now its more of the man upfront holding play for the midfielders to join in attack. Even on his bad day Giroud does just enough. But we would be a predictable team if we kept that play. We needed a suprise package, a more direct striker that does more than bendtner, giroud and sanogo (notice height n built of the lads)? Le boss knew that, i’be damned if he added berbatov in that mix as some seem to suggest. he wanted suarez,
all likelihood suggest wenger isnt going to buy a striker, when he wants a direct attacker, he has walcott and podolski. Not to worry, We do have depth, which other team in the EPL wud hav poldi on the bench after that cameo? Cant wait for the run-in. Cheers to the bar
The Guardian match report slates Pardew for not starting Ben Arfa, and intimating that AW might have an interest in him.
Ben Arfa at the Emirates would be like the second coming of $amir Na$ri; don’t need another moody, combustible, me-first type at the club. And to these eyes the reason Pardew didn’t start him is that Ben Arfa is on a Nasri-inspired fitness regimen; looks as if he’s taken down too many Christmas mince pies.
Speaking of possible strikers, former next big thing JET is scoring for fun in Division 1; worth a return?
Porco @ 81: I think it is 82 (or 84?) points from 39 games in PL, best in PL. And best defensive record as well.
Bayonne @ 87: Fully agreed about Ben Arfa and his absence of team-play. Saying that sometimes it does feel we can be better served by a direct dribbling winger on the field and I think (hope) both Ox and Serge would fulfill that role over the next few years…
About JET, wasn’t his performance less than average in last couple of years in the Championship? League one to PL quality gap is rather big I would think.
BJ: JET has found his level – joint 7th goalscorer in League 1.
We want top, top, top, top strikers :).
Oskar @ 58: Not really sure where this cockeyed perspective on Ozil is coming from. For a newcomer to a team and a league — notwithstanding the price tag — he has been quite excellent, if rather quietly excellent. He already has five goals and nine assists in 20 odd games (impressive for someone joining a new team in a new league at the final day of the transfer window) and if statistics is not a compelling enough argument for you then there is the remarks of all the players who cannot stop enthuse about him. And with the naked eyes — even when glued to merely a TV screen — one can see that his movements, ball retention, passing and an extraordinarily clever manipulation of space are really something that we haven’t seen at all in recent years.
As the understanding between him and TR7-Santi grows, as Poldi and Theo play more games and can directly benefit from his through balls we will see more and more of the impact of one of the best footballers of this generation.
Arsene knows Ben Arfa and if he thought him good enough, he’d have joined long ago. And right now, we need him like we need a hole in the head – same goes for Cabaye.
Dr.F@90. Yes indeedy.
Porco @ 81: http://www.arsenal.com/news/features/review-of-2013
“Arsenal won 35 of their 54 games in 2013, recording their highest win average for a calendar year since 2002.
In fact the win rate of 64.8 per cent was the second highest for any calendar year in Arsenal history, beating the 1971 and 1998 double years (63.9 per cent and 55.9 per cent respectively), the year of the ‘Invincibles’, 2004 (61.7 per cent) and even better than the statistically strongest year from the 1930s era (54 per cent in 1930).”
That is some record.
JET had the talent and then some but not the discipline or dedication. He was, to put it in plain terms, too lazy. Bit of a shame, he played in almost every position on the pitch for the youth teams and was, for a long time, often head and shoulders above pretty much anyone on the pitch in whatever position he played but didn’t have it in him to put in the extra work to take the step up to the top level as the competition got tougher as he got closer to 20.
Ben Arfa on a good day is almost unplayable, but on other days totally useless as all he does is run with the ball and tries a shot that goes in about one time out of a hundred.
Good analysis Faustus.
Clearly for these exceptional achievers, it’s time for some silverware.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/real-madrid/9988996/How-Jose-Mourinho-gave-a-Mexican-cleaner-the-most-special-ride-of-his-life.html
Mourinho doesn’t seem all bad. He just says what most people only think. And how everyone can get so wound up about a complete stranger is beyond me. Maybe a quick reevaluation of life’s priorities is in order.
A long clearance from California looking for anyone up field while I back drink.
Cheers
Clearly Maureen has a quixotic nature.
As to people getting worked up about someone they have never met – have you never encountered the world’s major religions?
Dinks the ball into the box for…..
BANG!
Suitably chastened bath
Moi? Jamais.
Well in SooopaSwede
Bath – I was referring to your truly re: Maureen & religion. You were right but from an illogical fan’s perspective, I find him way too easy to detest.
‘Super, super Lars’ indeed.
UTA!
@98 Bath … I come from a Catholic / Jewish mix therefore I’m atheist and don’t partake in that crap.
TS moi aussi – cf 78
😀
Very wise, mate. Imagine your guilt if you did? 😛
And here I thought I was certain to get the century, but got distracted (if only for a minute, mind!) by Hadid’s Al Wakrah Stadium. Not the first time I’ve been distracted by a yonic shape.
zico knows. Oversized hedgehog indeed 🙂
Oui bain-g, maintenant je le vois. Allez les rouges!
The consensus seems to be that Maureen is worthy of our (religious) contempt.
Yep. Back from my back drink to find us at 110. Glad I made my move early. 😉
Have a good new year everyone!
Inspired by Giroud getting back on the score sheet yesterday I made my return as well.
zico knows@80.
@106 So True 🙂
Dr F, cheers for the enlightenment. Killer stats.
Maureen is an oxygen thief. His presence I find quite repulsive. He is someone who serves no useful purpose. On his first arrival to the prem he had some novelty value. That rapidly wore thin until total and complete erosion set in. Now he is just one self serving twat who believes his own hype. This sadly is often to the detriment of others. The man has no honour or morals. Let’s see how the Chav fans feel about the special cunt if they finish out of the top 4??
The Feelgood Foundation Hogmanay bash begins at 3pm on George Street, Edinburgh tomorrow. I expect it to conclude, based on last year’s extravaganza, at 5:30 am the following year! 😎
We all know what we wish for in 2014 – so in addition to that I would just like wish all Holics health and happiness and ask that you raise a glass to absent friends.
Also, a big thanks to Goonerholic for his sterling work in the year just gone. Here’s to the future.
Nice one Zico. The voice of reason. Speaking of which, they’re must be a reason why Scruffy moaning lying Porto cunt still draws breath, but I cant think of a good one.
Enjoy, zico. Get some prophylactic thiamine in now.
Esso,
Haven’t seen anything official on Gibbs but I did notice he was limping on the way back to goal, at the corner against us, two or three minutes before he went off. Has to be an injury.
Zico @80,
Spot on. The sycophantic giggling of the hacks at every piece of Mourinho bollocks is just pathetic.
A lying piece of arrogance in a skin.
Special one ………. Ppffftttt.
Zico,
Bang on again @116.
Some sad losses this year – not out of mind though.
And some wonderful visitors to the bar – albeit in sad circumstances.
The media’s obsession with Mourinho that most loathsome of individuals
and producer of very dull teams underlines how poor their standards are. Motormouth blowhards are neat and drink to them and they therefore get coverage when considered and reasonable comment is ignored
Just ignore Mourinho. That is the best way to hurt him. I stopped caring about what he says a long time ago.
Wise words, Lars. Excellent advice.
*Deletes memory of any previous utterances by said reptile.*
Grown-up yet lethal from you Lars. Still, I prefer the next-shit-oversized-hedgehog method.
Jose who?
Trev, Gibbs listed as a hamstring injury with no return date set. Worryingly, Ramsey is also listed as no return date set, which may mean his thigh injury is more serious than first thought. Ozil said to be back for the Villa game on Jan 13, so will miss Cardiff and the FA Cup tie against the neighbours.
Porco Rosso@81: Bit of detail to add to Dr. F’s reply:
Calendar 2013
P54 W35 D8 L11
Premier League
P38, W25, D7, L6
Sequence: D,L,L,W,D,W,W,W,L,W,W,W,W,D,W,D,W,W,W — L,W,W,W,W,W,D,W,W,W,L,W,W,W,D,L,D,W,W
FA Cup
P4 W2 D1 L1
Sequence: D,W,W,L —
Champions League
P10, W7 D0 L3
Sequence: L,W — W,W,W,W,L,W,W,L
League Cup
P2 W1 D0 L1
Sequence: W,L
Sequences start in January 2013; — indicates break between seasons
We’ve really been in title wining form over the last 12 months. We just have to keep doing it for 5 more months and the title is ours, eh? Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Some comparables:
Man City: P52 W37 D5 L10 (Win percentage: 71.2%)
Chelsea: P63 W38 D12 L13 (60.3%)
Man Utd: P55 W33 D13 L9 (60.0%)
Our win percentage was 64.8%
Happy new year to all the fabulous good-natured ‘holics and especially to the godfather of the ‘holics, ‘holic himself. 🙂
N B Ned,
Cheers for the Gibbs info – thigh strains are never good.
They are the muscles that both propel and stop you (in concentric or eccentric mode) and also are heavily involved in balancing.
Can’t pretend it ain’t there if you do have a strain.
Do you remember Gallas’ thigh strain ?
He did it taking an extra shot in training and was out for 14 weeks !!
With all the jiggery pokery in the new Med Centre though it only takes three wee ……. doh!
None of this needs saying, but still…
Mourinho – loathsome shitbag whose teams play dross football and who only maintains his rep because the media slavishly permit him to set the agenda
Ozil to Utd – we’d have to be out of our fucking minds.
Who has said anything about Õzil to ManUre ?
When you have a full view of the pitch from a seat in the stadium, as opposed to the view on TV, it is surprising how much covering Õzil does and how deep he goes to get the ball, for a supposed luxury player with a less than spectacular work rate.
A crunching tackler he is not, but he does a lot of running and making himself available to defenders.
Not every ball can be a defence splitter or an assist, but he plays very few bad ones and his vision is superb.
Are there really people who think we should get rid of him ?
I’m still surprised at the grief Ozil gets for not being a Messi- or Ronaldo-like player. As I told a fellow Arsenal fan (who was complaining about Ozil not stepping up and taking control of a match) as long as Ozil averages an assist every other match, he will have earned every bit of his price tag (7 assists in 15 league matches so far).
By the way, apparently I am a bad person regarding my above comment about Terry and that thing he calls a face. As punishment it was announced today that Seattle will host that crap team down the road for a friendly in July…
ECG. Welcome. I got very nervous about the omen for bad things that SZCZ’s shot off Remy’s face felt like at the time. But, combined with the ball not going in the net, I did feel very much better after they showed, in great slow motion detail, the contortions of pain the ball’s impact caused in Remy’s face. At the time I found myself wishing it had been Pardew’s face but that was never likely to happen, was it. Given a different opponent, JT’s face could also have been a very suitable, even better, substitute. 🙂
Back home on the Jurassic coast after spending a few post Christmas days en famille. Plenty of good food, schnapps (Aalborg Taffel ) along with other veritable drinks and the piece de resistance was watching the gooners smack the toon in a pub of chav$ki supporters. I never felt we were going to let the lead go in the last few minutes ( maybe the alcoholic ring of confidence 😉 ). We decided best we move on after cheering the bin dippers opener.
Just finished back drinking, lots of good comments from the regulars and welcome ECG – great place Seattle – possibly rains even more than here!
Loved the old fish house market.
Like Trev, amazed anyone could be suggesting we move on Ozil – must be an alcoholic enfused brain fart. When you see him live at a game, you can see how effective he is. The effortless accuracy of his passing is phenomenal – he is a real class act. He vision reminds me of George Eastham ( one for the real oldies here ).
I am 100% per cent happy….we are top of the league at the end of the year – who’d a thought it after our first home game.
Dr F, BtM … I was responding to the doomsayers who worried about Özilla being missing from Sunday’s game, and also to those who seem to think he’s the Second Coming (after Dennis). I simply believe he’s a very good player who fits in well at the Grove … but that his real worth is somewhere in the 30-35mil range. For 46.4 I expect more frankly.
Also, after starting with a hiss and a roar, he is currently going through a bit of a slump … pretty much how Santi started with us, except Santi’s slump appears to be almost permanent lately. Okay, I didn’t see Santi against WHU where he was a star, apparently, but he’s been ordinary in most other games this season.
As it was I was quite correct to say that we played no better or worse without Özilla against ‘castle. And at a time when several other of our midfielders are also underperforming. I still reckon he is an enormous asset to the club, but recently he’s been a bit disappointing, that’s all. Here’s hoping the rest will re-galvanise him.
Öskar
OTD, how exactly do you or we even know you were correct that we played no better or worse against Newcastle?
Oskar, I think there may be another perspective to consider when you look at the performance of Ozil. Now I admit that one match is not necessarily a good indicator but looking back at the West Ham match, Ozil created numerous chances to score that others failed to finish. Giroud missed 3 sitters and Walcott missed 1. I think Giroud missed an additional 2 crosses, plus Ramsey and Santi (?, maybe Gibbs) missing opportunities that they could have put away. If we had scored the easy ones, Ozil could have walked away with 4 assists.
As a comparison, we only had 11 shots against Newcastle. Now given that WH and Newcastle are different animals, especially defensively, I can’t help think that some of those passes that Tomas, Santi, and Jack attempted but didn’t quite have enough finesse, Ozil would have created scoring opportunities.
On the other hand, for 30mil we could have had Lamela. 🙂
Up, 8 ball, Pangloss, Cent, and ‘Holic, thanks for the welcome!
OTD, it’d be nice to know what you think is the real worth(s?) of Xavi and Iniesta.
Let me add my greeting, ECG. You seem to write a lot of sense. Certainly agree that we missed Ozil chance-making against Newcastle.
Ozil as a footballer is not measurable. You can’t define him by using simple stats. I am sure many of you remember Redondo. Well, Ozil reminds me of him, a lot.
Those who expected bags of goals, crazy dribbles, tricks and various skills from him, I am sure have never watched him playing before. The way he plays for Arsenal is actually his style of playing, always been. Clever and smart.
He does the basics perfectly, which is never easy as it seems (look at Wilshere and his over-complicating, for example), has vision, technique, speed, creativity.
But, the most important aspect of his game, and the moment where his genius is at the peak, is that when he has the ball, he always, absolutely always, finds the best possible solution. He is so full of ideas but never fails to choose the right one. Those backheels, and unreal passes he sometimes uses are just that- the best possible solution in the given situation.
He is pure joy to watch and I am glad we have him at Arsenal, in fact, the truth is that I still cannot believe that he is wearing our shirt. We have a very big player in our ranks, fellas, and he is going to be even better over the years.
A tip of the hat to Arsenal Ladies’ Rachel Yankey, who gets an OBE in the New Year’s Honours to add to her MBE.
Lurky knows!
Cheers Cent. Since you are here, want to ask you something mate. There is a strong rumor tonight that we might go for Diego Costa in January. I know you don’t like Suarez. The question is, what about Costa?
The reason I am asking is simply because I believe that he is far more cunt-ish that Suarez. In many aspects, both of and on the pitch.
Off to get some sleep, it’s late and I expect a busy day tomorrow. Night all.
Cent knows!
Lurky, the other thing I would add to your list is Ozil’s positioning. When he joined Arsenal, that one knock against him is that he can, “…fall out of matches”. And, I’ve heard this from fellow fans this season. But what I think they are actually misunderstanding (and I am making a bit of an assumption not being as lucky as some at the bar to attend matches and see the whole pitch) is while the camera focuses on the ball and the main action, Ozil has drifted off to an open space on the wings while our other midfielders are having a scrum in the center of the pitch.
Once some of our midfielders (e.g. Jack and Tomas) start to see better laterally instead of generally looking forward up the pitch and start making quicker outlet passes to Ozil on the wings, we will see Ozil punish the opposition with quick movements up the side finishing with pin point crosses to the feet of our forwards.
NBN, thanks for the welcome! And don’t worry, I won’t always talk sense! 🙂
Okay, really looking back but I must say, at THE final in 2006 when A. Cole started ahead of Flamini after Matty had gotten us to where we were up until that point, my immediate thought was, “He (A. Cole) is our left back, but horrendous decision to let him in ahead of the guy who was there for all of the activity which got us to the final.” And Cole’s performance looked every bit like the left back returning after a long injury absence.
Inasmuch as everybody still heralds T. Henry as the second coming of Christ, I still wince at his one-one-one misses with the keeper, either of which would have put immense pressure on Barca in the match.
So every game I watch my beloved Arsenal, I watch and analyze, who is/are the weakest members of our eleven? Because, if I am the opposition, that’s who I would target.
Sometimes it is a presence, sometimes an absence. When we played the Manc’s, it was Mert’s absence which was most clearly felt, and we paid the consequence. Same with Sagna missing versus the rematch with Napoli and young Jenks “deer in the headlights please target me ” the entire game. With City, Jack’s presence definitely helped City/hurt us. When we played Chelsea, even though Kos was not there, Verm did not enhance the Oil’s chances such was the objective of Maureen to play for a tie.
With respect to the Newcastle game, again Jack looked out of his league (clearly someone who has read all his press and believes that his reputation as a footballer has been enhanced with his injury absence;) his performances on the pitch (City, Newcastle) convey the opposite.
I want our Arsenal players to do the simple things right; no Hollywood back heels; simple passes to the open man. Seek out THEIR weak links and capitalize. Giroud to (try) to finish rather than lay off.
We have sufficient players. Just have to instill the mindset and belief that they themselves see all of us coming out as winners. We must, however, be honest about where our weak links are and compensate cover accordingly.
Victoria Concordia Cresict,
mec
Good stuff ECG, sorry I missed your earlier work.
ECG @140:
Lurky @143:
re: Ozil…I think both of you have got it right…many chances were there at WHU which were not finished…and at Newcastle his incisions were missed…rarely does he lose a ball and usually finds somewhere great to put it…both Santi (intricate little dance tackles that more often than not result in loss of the ball) and Jack (always up for losing the ball) should study Ozil’s ball retention and placement…I think Ozil is a bit in shock with the English Premier league and its intensity…let’s see how he adjusts to the second half…
by the way, all this talk about a striker…how about a ton of bricks center back/defender for the new year…this Arsenal team seems all kinda short…cept for Per and OG which is why he keeps playing OG to give some sort of heft up front…please lets not ship 6 goals again…well, at least not in one match 🙂
ECG: Don’t think Rosicky is guilty of not passing to Ozil fast enough….Looks to me that he’s the quickest in terms of releasing the ball. If we had 10 Rozzas on the pitch you’ll be watching ping-pong!
Okay, as I said I didn’t see the WHU game so I missed Özilla’s blinder against the second to bottom club in the league. I was thinking more of his anonymity against the chavs and toffees and other recent efforts. Frankly I think you guys see stuff about his play that you want to see and ignore his shortcomings.
More important currently is the lack of weight being pulled by most of our supposedly star midfield. We don’t have a killer striker (no disrespect to OG who contributes in other ways, and Theo who has been out with injuries) and that makes it incumbent on everyone to contribute to goal-scoring. But apart from Rambo and to a lesser extent Özilla, they’re not. In fact Merts is our next best scorer with two, same for Jack, and better than one each from Santi, Flam and Mikel (a penalty). This is not good enough.
Öskar
Gibbs (standard) soft injury for the season will allow nacho his spot in the first 11.
For my money nacho is a much more rounded player than Gibbs and definitely a better defensive player.
With Injuries to Rambo and ozil, and a deserved rest for giroud, my starting 11 v Cardiff would look like this.
Woj
Jenks Per Kos nacho
Arteta TR7
Theo santi Poldi
Gnabry
Gnabry has the speed and skill to play up front and With wilshire and flam starting on the bench.
Poldi and theo could also play up front, but are both too valuable out wide.
Feng, don’t get me wrong because I love Rozza. I love his energy, the directness, and the long sliding tackles. And when he and Ozil start trading short passes, it can be like ping-pong. My point being that when Ozil drifts off to wings into space, I think the directness of Rozza’s running (same with Jack) doesn’t necessarily allow him to see the wide man for a medium to long pass, whereas someone like Arteta, Santi, or Ramsey, who are more lateral runners often look for the longer wing pass.
Oskar, perhaps we simply have different expectations for Ozil. In my opinion, he has performed admirably to date especially coming into the Premier League. There aren’t many players who come into the Premier League who have been immediate stars. Once Ozil adapts to the speed and physicality of the Premier League we will see even better play.
As for the lack of scoring from the midfield, I totally agree. Early in the season we had Giroud and Ramsey scoring goals by the bunch. Now that they have slowed down in production, only Theo coming off an injury is showing signs of scoring prowess (it feels weird to use Theo and scoring prowess in the same sentence!). Hopefully, with Theo and Poldi back and healthy we will see more balls in the back of the net. And Santi, Jack, and Tomas need to start scoring.
On the other hand, we are top of the table and made it through the CL group of death. So I’m not going to complain too much and instead sit back and revel in my team’s success.
Cheers!
ECG, a belated welcome to the bar.
I’ve enjoyed reading your articulate drinks as I’ve been backdrinking, keep it up 🙂
ECG welcome. I’m over in Portland so we are practically neighbors. At Oksar … I respect your views but quoting transfer fees and what you expect based on your own valuation ( how you came up with 35M I’ll never know ) is pretty pointless. Fact is we are 12 points better than same time last season so he seems to be worth that.
I would have loved to see what the intertwitterblogosphere would have looked like when Henry took 8 matches to get off the mark. He was shit wasn’t he? 🙂
Trev, Wind, and Duttlenheim, thanks for the kind comments and the welcome! 🙂
Wind, I hope you don’t have Ozil-like expectations for my future drinks! I’m still in the honeymoon stage, and once that is over expect me to regress to poor grammar, Americanized English, lack of punctuation, random capitalization, italics, or bold, and various grunts or snorts (similar to a Stoke fan but not quite as loud).
Duttlenheim, please tell me you’re not a Timbers fan… 🙂
Duttlenheim, we should have traded Henry to Manure!!
Almost nobody hits the ground running in EPL. Christiano Ronaldo had 9 EPL goals over his first two seasons ( 62 appearances ) and took 4 seasons to hit double figures. Drogba 22 in 59 his first two seasons. Suarez 15 in 44. I could go on and on. So 4 goals and 7 assists with 87% passing is quite acceptable for Ozil in his first 15 EPL matches. More importantly, we are top of the league and he’s been a big part of that.
I don’t follow MLS at all, only Arsenal. I tried to watch a MLS match once, saw the gridiron lines on the pitch and turned it off after 20 seconds. I know … I’m a snob 😉
Ha! You are not a snob, just a realist. I’ve been able to compartmentalize the Sounders. I once tried to watch a Sounders match following an Arsenal match at the pub. I had to leave after 15 minutes, and I don’t miss many Sounders matches. I explained my Sounders fandom to a fellow Gooner by comparing to a parent with a child playing football (I don’t have children so I’m just imagining all of this). It’s like watching your kid’s under 14 select match – you are a fan and focused on the match. Except there are 40,000 fans and I get to drink beer.
If you ever in the Seattle area let me know, and we will go partake in an Arsenal match at the George & Dragon. The owner is an Arsenal fan. Drinks are on me!
I’m up there 3-4 times a year for work so I’d love to meet a fellow holic. 🙂
Arsenal FC @Arsenal 1m
TEAM NEWS: @MesutOzil1088, @aaronramsey are still out, Giroud and @KieranGibbs are also out for the Cardiff game”http://po.st/2EzL9S
Arsenal FC @Arsenal 26s
Boss: “We are on alert for transfers, if something special turns up we will do it” http://po.st/2EzL9S #AFCvCCFC
Morning all.
What is all this bollix about Ozil?
He has the 2nd most assists in the premier league alone this season and has played one game less than the player with two more assists (Rooneh).
We are the only club who have more than one assister in the top 5 in the league, if you include Rambo…
This does not include creating chances, or the Champions league either!
…enjoy!
😉
Lurky @146, sorry I couldn’t answer earlier. I’m not quite sold on Diego Costa’s ability on the pitch yet. I’ve not watched him a lot to be fair but the little I’ve seen of him I think he is faster and just a better finisher than Giroud but less hardworking and is not really the Suarez type of striker that runs at defenders with the ball or creates goals out of nothing. I’m not convinced he is a ‘world class’ striker.
On his behaviour off the pitch; I’ve heard he is a bit hot-headed and has had some disciplinary issues but I doubt he has abused anyone racially, refused to shake the man he abused racially or taken a bitten opponents’ twice.
Some interesting points of debate during the night, I see. My tuppence worth:
Like I’ve said before, Özil is so good we don’t even see it at times. Just like with Cesc, many of the passes he makes look so simple and easy but they are anything but.
As for statistics, I object just as much to people saying “stats are useless in football” to those just blindly reading them and saying “hey, player X has 0.2% more than player Y for ability Z so he’s clearly better!”. Stats are incredibly useful but only if you understand how to make sense of them and know how to put them in context. Goalie stats are a particularly good example of this, where saves percentage is often quoted but this on it’s own is an absolute joke of a stat. That tells nothing about where the shots came from, if they were a one-on-one, if they were deflected etc etc. In a sport like ice hockey, those things aren’t really relevant for a number of reasons (simply put the sheer number of shots they face cancel out pretty much any variances from other factors) but in football it matters a hell of a lot. Hell, There doesn’t even seem to be a clear definition of what counts as a shot, compare these two for example:
http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/premierleague/stats?table=defensive&stat=saves
http://www.thescore.com/epl/goalie_splits/clean_sheets
The former has Woj facing 77 shots this season, the latter has him facing 227, i.e. if you do the maths one source claims he’s saved 76,6% of the shots face while the other one has him at 92%. Now, imagine two people debating saves percentage where one is using the former source and one the latter…
(btw, my guess is that thescore.com probably include shots that are off target but that I even have to guess shows how usless stats are if you don’t know the definition of the various items)
Esso: cheers for the update, I more or less expected Giroud to rest against Cardiff but an injury to him is not good news at all. Let us pray to Dennis that it is not too bad.
Lars, after the Toon game Ollie(our own Ollie not Ollie Giroud) Tweeted something to the effect that Giroud said(probably on French TV or to French journos) that he sustained a cut to his ankle when he made the tackle that got him booked and he was happy he scored with his head because the cut was so bad he felt there was no way he could score with his leg.
The most important stat that ozil brings is the entire team and club sprung to life at his signing.
The most useless stats ever invented is the successful passing percentage stat that also includes passes measured in your own half or sideways or backwards (aka the denilson stat)
Cent: cheers mate, now that you mention it I remember that.
I have also seen some tweets about a bad tackle by Charlie Adam on Paulinho in their game on Sunday, and I just saw a retweet from Sp*rs saying Paulinho has suffered “significant ligament damage”. Stoke just never change, do they?
Lars, only from the Mail, but you get the picture.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2531387/Spurs-call-FA-punish-serial-offender-Adam-late-Paulinho-challenge.html
Esso: cheers for the link even if it was the Fail 🙂 Hadn’t really realised Adam in particular had such a history of ugly tackles. I’ve always seen him as a rather nasty pice of work on the pitch but it seems he is even worse than I thought.
As the new year starts to make it’s way around the world let me just take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy 2014, and take the opportunity to thank you all for what you have given me in this past year, in the shape of drinks in this virtual bar or real ones at the Tollie or elsewhere – and in particular a massive thank you to the Holic himself for running this place where we can all meet up and have a drink and a chat.
You are very welcome Lars, despite my sporadic appearances. It should all even out at the end of the season. 😉
Lots of injuries piling-up Esso.
I reckon it’ll be tough to un-park the Cardiff bus tomorrow with what will be a makeshift side.
Walcott and Rosicky are doubts too, I think.
Right back atcha Lars. A prosperous 2014 to you and yours.
As ever, Lars knows @ 168 and also @ 175.
I remain astonished that there is a perception out there that Ozil is not a good signing and goes missing in matches. He has a languid playing style and seems not to make any major physical effort (but look out for his runs back to help defend when a.n. other loses the ball on the edge of the opposition box – when others are nowhere to be seen) and his first touch and passing style seems effortless.
Sheer class. The comparisons with DB10 are legitimate (and yes, he is not exactly the same type of player) in that he lifts the players around him, raises their games and makes killer pass after killer pass. Now Poldi is back he will have a player who knows his game intimately and I think that will prove a very productive partnership for the second half of the season, starting tomorrow.
Can’t wait.
COYG.
and….Happy Hogmanay, Holics.
Slainte
Looks like we’ll need to start Apkom or Bendtner, Zelalem and Gnabry tomorrow. And put Flamini as a LB.
What is going on with these injuries?
Well, it certainly has been a year full of ups and downs, highs and lows, in outs, in outs and shake it all abouts. 😉
Footballing highlight for me, without a shadow of a doubt, the home game againt Southampton last month. Not necessarily the greatest game ever witnessed, but it afforded me the honour and priviledge of meeting the guvna himself and a whole bunch of ‘holics from near and far, top gooners all.
Here’s hoping the new year brings you everything you desire. Happiness, prosperiety and most importantly good health to you and yours.
Cheers.
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Quite a good piece to chuck into the Ozil debate;
http://www.squawka.com/news/2013/12/30/how-arsenals-classy-creator-proved-his-vitality-without-even-playing-vs-newcastle/2013123048176
By James McNicholas AKA Gunnerblog.
Lurky, I’m confident Monreal, Vermaelen (both ill not injured), and one of Rosicky and Walcott will all be available tomorrow. Monreal will play LB, Bendtner will start as may Podolski on the left.
Hello All,
Thank you ‘holic for providing us with such a lovely interpub for us all.
It’s nearly the New Year here in Bangkok, and I would like to wish everyone a healthy year filled with Love.
Duttlenheim and ECG I’m from Portland originally and am a timbers fan but hey we can’t all be perfect.
Anyhow, wherever you are and whomever you’re with enjoy yourself and Four Roses Bourbon all around of you’ve got it gov!