An Ox Tale
Feb 3rd, 2014 by 'holic
“We needed to be intelligent, patient, to take our chances”
Pure Arsene. He knew it had been potentially something of a frustrating afternoon and phrased his post-match comments appropriately.
Strange it was to set out to the first game of February in bright sunlight, misleading though it was on a chilly day. A relatively relaxed journey culminated in a tasty haggis scotch egg brunch at Piebury Corner, followed by a sip or several of Guinness. The Tollie continues to attract a diverse and interesting clientele.
The opening half, it has to be said, did not enthrall. We squandered an early opportunity when Nacho Monreal, fed by Mesut Ozil (who else!) was foiled by Speroni’s legs. Thereafter we had to wait until after the half hour mark for the next chance, an Ozil free-kick guided goalwards by the head of Laurent Koscielny, and again Speroni was equal to it.
The opening spell of the second half awoke a home crowd from it’s slumbers, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain converted a superb through ball from Santi Cazorla. One nil to the Arsenal and surely time to relax and get our game going again? No, we almost gave up an equaliser, and once more owed a debt to Wojciech Szczesny for an outstanding save from Jerome.
If the points, and therefore leadership of the Premier League were to be secured then another goal was required. In the West Lower we discussed it earnestly. For earnestly, read talked a load of bollocks. Thankfully that second arrived. Once again it was the Ox, fully deserving his man of the match plaudits, who put it in.
The Palace support, however, earned respect. They got behind their team wholeheartedly and it made for a special atmosphere. Thankfully for us their team did not respond.
This was a day when Arsenal, once again, did enough but no more. The three points took us back to the top of the table once more until at least Monday night. Everything is crossed here for a favourable outcome to Chelsea’s visit to Manchester City. Having said that, our title chances are still firmly in our own hands, with both of those sides still to play.
The post mortem was brief. There are much bigger tests lying in wait for this squad, and one senses everyone knows it. Let’s hope we continue to confound.
230 Responses to “An Ox Tale”
first?
Succinct and to the point. One game at a time…
Morning. Nice write up. We watched the same game.
Have a good day people.
Thank you kindly for the words boss. I’ll have a beer for the heat and Bourbon for the uncertainty here in Bangkok.
Nice write up Holic and indeed the title is in our hands. I thought santi showed what a top class player he is when all is well and the ox will derive a lot from the blow out and a couple of goals.
Let’s hope the physios are equal to the task of keeping the benches full and the back rooms empty.
Top write up holic! Another 3 points, beat the goblin king, top of the league and a very enjoyable summer (down here!) of cricket!
I for one couldn’t care less about transfer malarkey and am content to support, albeit from along way away, my team.
Regardless of who buys who and who we could’ve,should’ve/shouldn’t have and bloody well had to buy! We should be celebrating our teams amazing season so far. After all we are top of the league aren’t we?
Keep the faith guys.
Stay safe Mondo.
The fact that a) we have yet to play anyone in the top 8 in this second half of the season, b) we didn’t beat any title rival except Liverpool in the first half, c) the suspicion that Man City would have put half a dozen past Speroni before half time yesterday and d) we are suffering persistent medium/long term injuries to our first eleven is keeping all our feet on the ground.
We all know it will take something really special in the next two months to end March still on top. In our heart of hearts we know it’s unlikely. But at least we’re still in the race. Same hasn’t been true since 2008.
Man City beat Palace 1-0 at home and took even longer to open the scoring than we did.
My tuppence worth of opinion and thoughts:
Contrary to some reports, I thought we played quite well overall. Tony Pubis may be representing a neanderthal approach to the game but he knows how to get his players worked up for matches like this. By and large we kept the ball moving and made them chase it and in the end they tired. Yes, a few more runs in behind the defense in the first half would have been prefferrable but let us not forget that we were inches away from breaking through the bus on several occasions in the first half.
I must say Chamakh did a defensive job I never thought him capable of and he looked far more like the player of the first few months at Arsenal than the last few years.
Someone also made the point that we don’t have regular goal scorers. I’m not sure I see this as too much of a weakness, to be honest. Almost every player carries a goal-scoring threat (of all the players who were on the pitch at some point yesterday I think Nacho and Sagna are the only two who haven’t scored this season) which means we aren’t as reliant on one or two players. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have a player capable of scoring 30 league goals in the team but that can also cause an over-reliance on that one player so as long as the goals keep going in I’m happy.
And then to the Källström debate. Like everyone else I wanted a striker, but I urge everyone to read these words from Wenger (copied from goonsterham’s drink in the last session) on the reasoning behind the deal:
Then, because we have the number of players needed in that area, not to be locked in a deal of three or four years, where you pay the players to do nothing. So to find a player on a free loan, of that quality, on Wednesday morning until Friday night, is not easy.
This is the vitally important bit. Yes, he’s out for a few weeks. It’s far from what I wanted in this window. But it’s better than nothing and when he comes back he will be… well, like a new signing, only he’ll be an actual new signing even if only for a short loan spell. This is a loan that costs us next to nothing and may possibly help us achieve things. He’s not exactly bought to replace Özil, is he? I honestly can not for the life of me see the harm in doing this deal. Ideally, he will not set foot on the pitch for us but if push comes to shove, in important matches would you rather play Kristoffer Olsson with a grand total of about one full game for the club or a player who has over a 100 internationals, has played in the CL for many years (including playing for a team that knocked Real Madrid out) and has been in Euros and World Championships?
I know who I would choose, that’s for bloody sure.
And just a word on Higuain, the supposed world-class striker we missed out on in the summer. He’s been properly banging them in in Italy. Or maybe not. I just looked it up and he’s got six goals from open play in 21 games. Wow. Impressive, two more than Chamakh has for Palace. He may of course possibly have done better if he had moved to us but I can understand if Arsene only thought him worth so much.
Anyway, got to go do some work. Drinks are on me as usual.
Lars knows.
For a tall goodlooking guy, Giroud really doesn’t have any steel… I dunno why the hell we didn’t get a striker but you can clearly see the frustration at the dugout. Having a wonderful manager is helping a lot too. We’ve scored 32goals from midfield which really isn’t ever going to dry up. We have the most crucial 12days of the season coming up and I hope the boys have got the guts for it. The defence is going to be sooo tested. A mixture of the finest attackers the game has seen this season. This is the time to earn that respect. The time to invoke the spirit of fear in our opponents. An invincible team is getting on nigh again, I can almost smell it. COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!
Anyone know the position re. Gibbs? Is he still first choice?
As much as I like Monreal, I get frustrated at what appears to be his inability/unwillingness to pass forward. Reminiscent of van Bronkhorst, especially in his later days at Barcelona, he seems to choose safe, backward passes, which stops the forward flow of the game. Just saying.
Great report ‘holic, agree about the Palace fans but I know where I would place those f’ng drum sticks – too old for all of that……..
The hypocrisy of Mourinho in slagging off City ( who deserve slagging off but not by Chelsea) is amazing . This is a very volatile man who has not impressed me in his return. Much as a draw is the result of choice tonight I would relish a Chelsea thrashing just to see Mourinho’s petulant after match comments.
FFP is becoming a farce as sadly many of us felt it would. We can genuinely claim to be on the side of the angels and take real pride in what we have done this season in building a real challenge. While I know not everyone shares my view that in player acquisition terms our planning is deeply flawed, and Wenger’s after match comments did little to reassure me in that respect, our improvement on the pitch in so many ways is very evident. We are much more secure and the spirit is enormously high. Plaudits should clearly go to Steve Bould as well as Wenger for masterminding this improvement . The emergence of the Ox is another new element to a building story and one we can be justly proud of. It’s an uphill task to overhaul City but if we can have reasonable luck with injuries ( haha) we can really keep our challenge going
OG has enough steel to be an essential defender at set pieces – countless clearances including yesterday, & enough ability to provide a superb layoff for the 2nd goal whilst not in top form.
I believe AW said Gibbs had a bit of an injury scare so it was decided to play Naco, who overall has played well recently.
Finally got around to watching the game, and the least said the better frankly … never out of third gear and disappointments all over the park. The exception being two cracking goals from Ox, one of which had the perfect assist from Santi, and our CDs.
Poldi tried hard and was seen in defence more often than I can remember. A pity then that he left his shooting boots at home. Özilla had one of his poor ones and ended the game looking thoroughly fed up. Apart from his assist Santi spent most of the game giving the ball away. And Palace seemed able to bypass both our FBs at will. Thank goodness for Per and Kos defending the middle like demons.
Why Palace failed to come out and play after the second goal beats me. I have to assume they were more worried about their goal diff than trying to win the game. Pathetic is my opinion of that.
This was an opportunity (missed) to show the superiority we all believe we have by scoring a hatful. That we didn’t was, prima facie, because we couldn’t be bothered today. But I can’t stop feeling that perhaps we couldn’t have even if we’d wanted to. We’ve been in this exact same position too many times this season for it to be just an attitude problem.
Öskar
*for ‘an attitude problem’ read ‘lack of motivation’. Plus I should have mention Sir Ches among the good guys, he well deserved his latest clean one.
Oskar
Feet up and bear time tonight.
Job done! 🙂
AW saying he ran out of time to sign a warm body in the window beggars belief. Oh puhleeeze!
Öskar
Oskar
Three points, a win, top of the league, clean sheet, nine wins in ten and one goal conceded in the last eleven home games.
Yet yesterday seems to have confirmed all of your negative prejudices about individuals and the collective. We must be doing something right. Or is every opponent not really bothering against us?
😆
.Cheers ‘holic.
I enjoyed watching the Ox geting his brace, but Santi was my MOTM, he was everywhere, lots of our good stuff flowed through him. Great to see Rosicky back too, he has a major part to play, all the players do, and that is what is great about this squad, everyone who comes in does a job, gone are the passengers.
Palace are not the same team they were under Holloway. Pulis, like him or loathe him has done a very good job in getting them organised, they looked pretty solid to me. For those of you blubbing that we didn’t score at hatful, I’d suggest you go and watch how well Citeh (the team you always love to quote) fared against them with their gazzilion dollar frontline. They probably scored a dozen, right!? What? Oh.
Good win by the Arsenal.
We could’ve scored more but at the end of the day three points and another clean sheet has me satisfied.
Liverpool, ManU, Liverpool, Bayern next.
Bring them on.
UTA
Time will tell, N7. I still believe we have the resources to win big games, I just don’t see it being demonstrated often enough on the pitch. Something seems to be missing. We should be dispatching teams like Newcastle, Cardiff, Aston Villa, Fulham and Palace far more convincingly.
I’m delighted we’re where we are (15 points clear of Manu? Whoda thunk it!) but it’s like a kind of dream, and unless the team shifts into top gear soon I worry that eventually we’ll wake to reality.
Öskar
Lots of good stuff flowed through Santi, H2H?? What game were you watching? He had a good spell in the second half, but overall he was guilty of giving away the ball with monotonous regularity!
Öskar
Further to H2H re: Palace, also take a look at Palace’s recent record; they’re not losing many and they ship almost nothing.
I had this earmarked as a bigger banana skin than Saints; well drilled side whose manager hates us come to the Em looking for a draw. Delighted we dealt with it so comfortably.
We aren’t going to win the league this season by shellacking everyone. We may, however, win it by nicking a goal or two and keeping things very very tight. I still recall the whole bar moaning when we used to go at opponents relentlessly and perhaps naively. Things have changed, and we’re getting what we asked for – we take a commanding lead now and shut the game down.
COYG
Oskar, sir, the reality is that we shouldnt be on top of the league but we are.
Logic would tell you that we shouldn’t really be able to compete with the FFF, yet we are first and they are second and third.
We are winning games and the fragility that has plagued us and cost us points over the previous seasons, has been replaced with a stealiness at the back that may have cost us a little going forward. It may not be the free flowing high scoring balls to the wall stuff, but we are now more solid as a unit and we are winning games.
What’s wrong with that?
@Oskar
That’s the million dollar question – can we go up the gears in the next few weeks. Hopefully so.
Either way, these slightly quiet 2-0 wins are a solid basis for a title push, and the habit of conceding nothing at home will hopefully serve us well in the run in.
I feel if we can take at least a draw at Anfield we will beat Utd at our place, and then we will be well placed for the decisive fixtures to come.
Main thing now is keeping people fit and getting people back. We cannot continue to have injuries as we have done so far – no team can win the title in such conditions, and no amount of January window fiddling would have negated that threat. The only blot on yesterday, for me, was Arteta appearing to struggle near the end.
Nice one ‘holic!
I also thought we did fairly well. Patience is a virtue in games like these. I like how there’s always one or two players who step up and brings us the goals and that we share them across the team.
If we can do well against scousers and manure we will be in a fantastic position.
Still think we will need at least 35 points from the remaining 42 to have a shot at winning this thing. It will be tough but far from impossible.
But we didn’t ‘shut the game down’, N7, any more than we shut it down against a number of other teams in recent weeks. If Palace or any of the others had had decent attacking capability we could have been caught out.
Öskar
Granted, I was watching the game from behind the bar with punters that I was paying attention to.
I just enjoyed how Santi played. His close control was amazing and he was always looking to get things started. That’s how I saw it anyway.
Oskar, I’m not sure I follow you.
You can only play what’s in front of you. We gave them one chance all afternoon and Chesney dealt with it. If that’s not shutting the game down then I really don’t know what is.
Look at our defensive record at home; we’re good, it’s as simple as that.
Good piece Guv’nor.
Three more points – it’s getting boring isn’t it. So much more fun when the team is misfiring and we can line up here to slag ’em off. As things are we have to look elsewhere.
Interesting to see positions hardening so fast, and so predicatably. I know somewhere you can buy cheap entrenching tools to help you dig into your positions.
Pangloss’s BBC balls-up of the day spot:
This morning’s 8:30 Sports Desk on the Today programme –
Presenter (don’t remember who exactly): Arsenal went back top of the Premier League thanks to two goals from Alex Chamberlain, unusually an Englishman in the Arsenal team.
Me: Do what? Unusual! WTF!! What about Gibbs? Walcott? Wilshere? If we were another team, you’d be claiming Ramsey was English too (see the cases of Giggs, Bale, Best, Law).
As for tonight’s game – I’d like to see Chelsea win it. I coould then sit back and throw more things at my radio as they tell me how “Mourinho’s Chelsea have now put themselves in pole position for this year’s Champeenship!” as they would be joingt second, 2 points behind the leaders.
It’s on
COYG
I saw the last 20 or so minutes after I closed up and Palace hardly got a touch, I do believe that constitutes shutting the game down.
Palace never came out to play, N7. They defended like the 24th Regiment of Foot at Rorke’s Drift apparently with the aim of protecting their goal diff. That their best attacker was Chamakh says it all really.
I think we’ve done wonderfully well to be where we are, but shipping six against Man City rather put it into perspective for me. I have a problem believing we can turn around that kind of shellacking when push comes to shove.
That said I don’t expect Pool to be a problem and Bayern Munich may be in for a shock. But when it comes to Manure I fear we have an inferiority complex about them and could struggle even at home.
But I’ll still be a gunner till I die. In fact I don’t intend to die at least until we win the CL, even if it kills me. 😉
Öskar
H2H Spot on. Last twenty minutes we kept possession well and forced them to shoot from thirty yards . Lots of slightly quiet 2-0 wins add up to a noisy title challenge
Palace are a rubbish attacking side, H2H, but our inability to score a third goal left the game open as far as I am concerned. 2-0 is never a safe score line.
Öskar
@Oskar
What about the other ten teams who failed to score against us in our last eleven home games? Were they all poor attacking sides as well?
If you look down the list of our results this season, the City game was clearly an aberration. If memory serves, it’s the only time we’ve let in more than two goals since the opening day.
In fact, if you remove that game and compare how well we’ve done against the rest of the division vs. City’s performance, the Mancs have let in full 50% more goals than us, despite having played a game less.
City aside, we’ve let in 15 goals in 23 games. That’s championship form, if we can keep it up.
I like your plan re: the CL. As Danny Baker once said; “It’s like my plan to live forever: so far, so good”.
I cannot dispute your logic, N7, but it’s not our defence that worries me. I’m still smarting from the inaction in the window with regard to our lack of striking options.
On the face of it we’re scoring very well, only the Shitty and Poo have scored more than we have. But it’s our inability to score when it would be more comfortable if we could, or when we absolutely have to that worries me. It’s possible to win everything providing sufficient goals come from somewhere, but it is illogical to expect their arrival from secondary sources when the simple expedient of signing a dedicated striker of real quality is available.
And while I’m convinced there must be suitable strikers who’d love to play for us somewhere in the world I’m unconvinced they are being properly identified and pursued by our talent scouts and negotiators. We should have had someone better than Bendtner to sub OG against Palace. And quite possibly someone better than OG for that matter, much as I love the guy.
Öskar
N7: you are right, Villa (two from incorrectly awarded penalties) and City are the only teams to score more than twice on us so far. In fact, the only other team to score more than one goal on us is Southampton. We have conceded one or no goals in 21 out of 24 league games so far which is really good.
Is it illogical to expect the arrival of goals from secondary sources?
Our midfielders seem to be scoring rather a lot of them.
Fact is, we don’t have a centre forward who will bang 30 goals a season. But then, neither do Chelsea (I believe OG is currently outscoring all three of their forwards), and I don’t hear people constantly going on about that.
City, meanwhile, score goals for fun, but have a defence like a sieve.
All of the above is what makes it (currently) a very open title race.
I believe the manager will take steps to address your complaints in the summer. The fact that he didn’t do so last month is highly likely to be because he couldn’t find anyone to fit the bill.
Yes, yes – I know, “we have scouts all over the world” – OK. But that doesn’t mean we can just pull a quality centre forward out of our arse in January of a World Cup year, any more than Chelsea could, or City could identify a decent centre half to cover Kompany. It’s not a case of just really trying hard – the market has to be there, and the club have made it quite clear that they do not consider January to be a fruitful month to go shopping.
Of the strikers who actually moved (and I know it’s hotly disputed in the bar whether this has any relevance at all, but I tend to think that when you go shopping what you find on the shelves will have some bearing on what you can reasonably be expected to bring home), only Berbatov looked like he might have the right profile for us. And I can see why we didn’t sign him – introducing a stroller like that into such a hard working and cohesive team might not have been the smartest move.
I also totally reject the “everyone is for sale if you throw enough money at them” idea that seems to be gaining currency in the bar. Sorry, but that’s utter nonsense – some players don’t want to move countries, others are focused on the World Cup and don’t want the distraction of a move, others have small children inside them who only want to play for Man Utd. These are human beings, not Champ Manager players, and if transfers were as easy as this notion suggests then City would be winning the European Cup every season.
Would I have liked a striker this month? Absolutely. Am I stunned we didn’t get one? Not particularly. Will I be miffed if we don’t address the issue over the summer? Yes. Am I going to moan about it now, while we’re top of the table and winning games? Course not.
Oskar – I know where you are coming from but again (and this is kind of my last two pences about transfers in January) as much as I am aware of our over-reliance on OG and as much as I would like us to have another striker as an option, the question is …who would that be?
I have read all over the net that we fucked up by not signing the striker, yet no-one ever gave me actual names and when pushed, only reply I got was “our scouting network should identify them, thats what are they paid for”.
So, can anyone name me few strikers who were realistically (no Costas/Falcaos/Lewandowskis) available in January who would be better than what we already have?
Also, if our scouting system identified someone somewhere who would love to play for us yet was not a proven name, would it not give another ammunition to those who want to moan? I can already imagine it “who? Is he any good? Why are we signing some unproven guy, we want stellar/ready-made players etc. etc.)
Once again, I would love to be told which strikers could we buy in this window which would improve us and failed to do so.
Hat tip in N7’s direction.
@Oskar: 🙂
“We should be dispatching teams like Newcastle, Cardiff, Aston Villa, Fulham and Palace far more convincingly.”
one thing I have realized, in my very short time of following Arsene and the Arsenal, only since the beginning of this season to be honest, is that in this league it is mis-leading to label ‘top’ ‘bottom’ ‘better’, etc. teams, that we should or should not be beating…every team is fighting for survival and none can really be over or under estimated. Yes, this or that team may have better or worse players, but that does not indicate some pre-ordained fate to win/lose…Chelsea/West Ham – a draw, ‘Pool/WBA – a draw, ManU/Stoke 1-2…who’d a thunk it?? I’ve given up on predictions (I was too disappointed after the draw with the Saints, who all my Arsenal friends in the gym predicted a 2-1/3-1 to the Gunners) and for me, a high goal fest is kinda wishful fantasy stuff…after starting to watch a lot of footie on my brand new BT sport BT vision (useless quality picture, btw compared to cable in the US) for me, 1-0 is enough convincing, as long as the points are in the bag
Öskar / N7 – Give it a rest lads. Neither of you is going to convince the other.
I agree with one of you and disagree with the other; everyone probably knows which is which – and I enjoy well-expressed views, but it’s got to the point thet even I don’t bother to try to follow your arguments.
In exchange, I’ll try to stop complaining about the lack of interesting debate in the bar.
COYG
@Pangloss
OK then, in the interests of switching up the topic and moving on to slightly cheerier terrain; who do we fancy this evening?
Oskar – have a drink on my tab. Don’t always agree with you, but you’re always a gent, and that’s what matters.
Has anyone else worked out that on Sunday we were only two minutes away from seeing both Chamakh and Bendtner together on the same Arsenal pitch?????? Now there’s a sentence I never ever thought I would have a use for?????
N7: regarding this evening, Boreinho is so wretched, every upcoming match his shtick is endless bordering on insulting that i would love to see Chelsea get well and truly stuffed (tho he has already prepared for that of course by saying that ManC have the more expensive team blah blah..)
but in reality, for league status for us, would be fine if they draw or Chelsea win…
ps: really glad we got a new striker -Chambo
so that makes a list of quite a few goal scorers or ‘strikers’ as sometimes they are called HFB, Bendy, Poldi, Santi, LJW, TR7, Ozilla, Chambo, Rambo…
🙂
N7@47 – I’m with Peter. Either Chel$ki to get well stuffed (>3 goals difference, please) or to win, by parking the bus and scoring a disputed goal on the break.
Option 1 may shut up some Chavs, and it’ll be fun watching Maureen coming to terms with a good stuffing.
Option 2 is better for us in terms of league position and it’ll be fun watching the meeja come to terms with their new, light blue favourites suffering a reverse. It will also be amusing watching the meeja failing to ask Maureen about 19th Century football.
Essentially, I don’t give a rat’s arse who wins tonight. Multiple long-term suspensions would be good but they ain’t going to happen so I’m not getting my hopes up.
COYG
N7: I don’t really care who wins tonight, we are too far away from the end of the season to really know at this point which result is the best one for us long-term. I’ll just be hoping for shedloads of red cards and long suspensions!
@Lars
Meteor strike it is!
One of those meteor strike events would be nice. 😉
Heh, N7, beat me to it again.
Had to miss seeing the game, so thanks for the summary, ‘Holic. If, at the end of the season we have done “enough but no more” to win the title, I, for one, will be satisfied.
Here’s hoping for a 0-0 draw in the megadollar derby, with all 22 getting reds and Mourinho spontaneously combusting.
Ha! Great minds, H2H…
BBC drew with Atl Bilbao yesterday…who would have predicted that one?
N7 and OtD good points on both sides. Glass half full for me tho.
Peter: Re: The cost of Shitty v. Chavski players. Not sure Shitty signed any striker who cost them as much as Torres cost the Chavs. Let them spend and gnash their teeth while we win.
And excellent match report ‘holic. May our good run continue. The fixture list looks daunting but our club has responded well to such situations in recent years.
just cannot get enough of watching this http://arsenalist.com/f/arsenal-vs-crystal-palace/cazorla-touch-to-bring-it-down.html …such skill, wow, very sublime..
I cant understand some here, if we win 10-0 do we get any bonus points?? its still 3 right. We had more than 70% possession, palace had one shot on goal albeit an offside not given, we had the ball for close to 10 minutes after the second goal quite literally and overall this was as comfortable as anything against a team that came for a draw.
Arsenal need not worry about city scoring gazillion goals, we just need to get that one goal extra in every game and make sure we dont have any more injuries.
The slating of Giroud and Ozil is appalling, these 2 are humans not machines. Giroud has better stats than Negredo, please check it and Ozil is Ozil, he is brilliant, its just that he makes everything look so easy that people feel he is not trying hard.
The night game today should be a draw or a city win, let chelshit go away first, city will drop points away i am certain of that.
..such skill…wow…very sublime… reminds me of Doge! 😀
BB – it was intended to remind those in the know 😉 😀
LOL… That brought a smile… Many thanks for that! Made my day! 🙂
Yup, exactly Vinay, when we beat lower opposition if it’s only 2-0 then it’s considered by some to be too close, and “not the sort of margins we should be winning those games by”.
It calls to mind a great scene in the Woody Allen movie Manhattan, where the following exchange takes place at a garden party:
Woman: I had an orgasm, but my doctor told me it was the wrong type.
Woody Allen: Oh really? All of mine have been right on the money.
N7 @42,
“The idea that if you throw enough money ……… is gaining currency” 🙂
Can someone already shout “2 nil to The Arsenal”!
Cheers all.
Ha ha @ Trev! Very good!
Vinay –
“Ozil is Ozil, he is brilliant, its just that he makes everything look so easy that people feel he is not trying hard.”
Did you recycle one of my posts? 😉
A draw tonight would rustle some feathers, I tell ya!
Trev knows – Hahahahahahaha! 😉
An unpleasant game as if anybody expected different from a Pulis side, but we got the points and the Ox looked magnificent which for me is actually more important than the manner of the win.
And as I said elsewhere, I personally am glad we brought in an injured player as it saves signing him and waiting for him to get injured 😉
Heh! Trust Trev, you can’t even sneak an unintentional pun past him!
That Porco Rosso bloke knows his film quotes. I very much enjoyed the one @66.
Seeing a lot of chatter that our deal for Draxler was all but finalised, until a last minute call from FC Bayern president Uli Hoeness blocked the transfer.
Some suggestion that Bayern see Draxler as a potential replacement for Toni Kroos – contract negotiations with Kross reportedly faltered late last week.
As ever, could all be b0llocks.
by the waay, I thought Özilla’s free kicks last night were fab…pity they didn’t get a finish, but what accuracy and perfect pace 🙂 I love that he’s become a Gooner good days/bad days and all and not Cristiano’s hand maiden any more
The best thing about this team is the absence of excessive dependence on a single player, especially in the attacking aspects of the game. The fact that many of our midfielders have found the net especially when needed — starting with Rambo, then Jack took on that role, yesterday Ox — with seeming ease is neither a coincidence nor an act of accidental self-discovery by the team. Even for someone like Santi whom we have now so become used to seeing score we forget that his goals per match improved considerably since he joined us: 23 in 127 for Villareal, 9 in 38 for Malaga, but 16 in 56 for us.
A team with such goal sharing attributes has multiple dimensions: the spatial-positional fluidity, tactical maturity and choosing the right moments to attack, a collective understanding and buying-in to these tactics, a degree of camaraderie and selflessness, trust in other players.
It is very hard to build a team like that. Very very hard. We haven’t had one for ages, the Cesc-RVP years for all the glorious football in patches had too much of focus on individuals and too lacking in mutual trust between the players, and too immature to be able to choose the moments to attack instead of betraying temptations for technical bravado.
As and when we strengthen the squad I think Arsene would definitely keep these variables in the equation of finding the best match. Giroud and Ozil, both receiving criticisms for the perceived lack in them (Giroud for the lack of match turning individual brilliance and Ozil for the lack of dominating games in an obvious manner) are perfect demonstrations: they are both extraordinary team players. We are used to saying ‘team player’ as a back-handed compliment, for someone who is limited in his abilities but compensates for that by work-ethic and spirit (a la Ray Parlour) … but Ozil and Giroud (and many others in the current squad) are team players in the sense that they mould, change, vary their very strengths to always make the team around them better and not necessarily to make statements of their personal abilities.
Just my impressions, I could be wrong of course.
Dr F: very well said, imo
Goonertown, hahhaha we do like Ozil dont we……
I still feel this team from last year has been magnificent but we get undermined with our bench strength, hopefully this time we turn it around, Arsenal have more than 15 points than they had last season this time around, if thats not improvement, nothing else is.
Dailyfail yday reported that the dutch c–t may come back to us,i said but of course he can come in 10 days, get booed and then cry like a little kid, which he is afterall. He seems to be doing everything to want to come back here, latest was favourite the 8-2 scoreline, remember the very game he missed a penalty which could have meant the score to be 3-2 in the first half, well well well, rot in hell u piece of shit.
Tonights game is being hyped to the hilt on my sports channel, battle of the big boys, el cashico, clash of the titans, feast of footy, fireworks, etc etc (pass me a bucket), which leads me to the conclusion that it can only end up as a dour ninety minute snoozathon (Maureens speciality).
I’m reading that the Chav’s will have to go for it tonight as a draw would be “disastrous for their title hopes”. Total bollox ofcourse. There’s no way that Josie is going to set his team up any other way then to strangle the life out of the game and try to grab something on the counter, he’s not a tactical genius, he’s just a better funded Tony Pulis with a tan and a greasy accent.
He does know how to manipulate the media though, I’ll give him that. He spoats all kind of horseshit and they just lap it up. His latest moan is about FFP. Any normal thinking person would call this putting the hype into hypocrisy and they would be right, however, if you delve a little deeper you could actualy class this as a mater stroke in the art of deflection, think about for a second……
What he’s basically saying is what most of us are thinking anyway, that Citehs cash injection has skewered the league, forget the fact that Roman has spent around the same amount as it would cost to have built a Deathstar, Citeh have spent more and doing so have made it “impossible” for others to win, in other words, regardless of tonights result,
ChelseaJose can’t lose. Take a beating and it was inevitable, but pull off any other result and it’s a great day for the underdogs and the boys from Fleet Street will be lining up on their knees ready to felatio his special one. YUCKY.Just a thought. As distasteful as a Chel$ki victor would be, I think a Maureen victory tonight better suits us. A Chel$ki victory should see us with a two point lead over both Merc €iteh and the Chavs. I am confident we can snatch a victory at the bus stop. A two point gap against the Blue Macs would also ensure the game is played more on our terms.
Regardless, win the next match. Oh, and good shout Vinay. I just don’t understand all the moaners, geesh, you’d think this bar was a “massage” parlour or sumfink. 😉
BMBD
As I said on my site, I’m rooting for Asteroid 33179 to hit the pitch ( google it )
Given that all outcomes are about even for us this evening, I thought I’d have a think about the preferred manner of the result. I’ve come up with three which I’d prefer:
(i) Chelsea win 1-0. City fail to score. Media have to shut the fcuk up about them for five minutes. Morale-crushing defeat at home.
(ii) A high scoring draw. Both defences rocking. Chelsea discover that John Terry’s legs won’t take him to May. City discover that it’s all very well and good scoring hatfuls of goals, but you’ll get caught out every now and then if you can’t defend.
(iii) City batter Chelsea 7-1. Mourinho eye-gouges Frank Lampard on the bench.
Any of the above will do me, I’m not fussy. Although I’d still take meteor strike over any of them.
COYMS
Who to win tonight
It’s a bit like choosing your favourite war criminal
Me feel city win or a draw, cant see them losing at home against the moaners. Has the mourinho aeroplane landed at the ettihad, afterall parking just a bus may not help,also are the actors ready, action- eden, ramires and terry.
Ideal situation would be a draw even though the whole world will go wow about jose and his men’s ability to stop the city juggernaut, who the hell cares, draw means both teams drop points and who stays at the top, yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Probably not the right time to discuss this but what are ur thoughts on Arsene putting a bid on Adam Lallana or Jay Rodriguez
Lallana – feel we have cover in this area. Good player though.
Rodriguez – I like him, but I don’t think he’s good enough for us. He looks to me a striker on a bit of a hot streak who might just as easily go very quiet next season. His record for Saints is a goal every four games, pretty much. He’s 25 this season, so it’s not as if he’s a kid with tons of time to develop. Think we can do better.
Really like both players, but I’d be surprised if we went for either.
Evening, Holics
I am hoping for a draw tonight.
But, if someone has to win, that has to be City. Just the thought of Maureen face after winning at City makes my stomach hurts.
City are mercenaries and all that, but Pellegrini is far more respectful person than Maureen.
After all, think of the simple fact that City don’t have Terry in their squad and Chelsea have Terry in their squad and that should be enough.
I think a 0-0 tonight is quite probable. I don’t buy this “Chelsea will have to come at them” theory, that’s not how Moaninho operates. Like others before me have said, he’ll line up his team to shut City out and hope to get something on the break. H2H put it so well when he said Moaninho is just a better-funded Tony Pulis.
By the way, just caught the last 10 minutes of the game on a replay and while Arteta was hobbling quite badly for about a minute, from about 86 minutes and onwards he was walking and running without any trouble again so let us hope that means he is ok.
Looking at the teams, Chelsea are set up to defend, but I fancy them to nick this 1-0. Don’t ask me why, just a hunch.
I’m also thinking 0-0. Special Cunt will think live to fight another day
This City bench is much weaker ours was last couple of months.
Add to that Demichelis in the middle, not looking good for them to be honest.
However, I highly doubt that Maureen is going to be brave enough to take advantage of all that.
chelski looking dire so far.
should have been a yellow on kompany. mike dean’s a cunt’s cunt, if you know what i mean.
I never thought I’d utter this statement … But thankfully I have to work today. Otherwise I might be at home watching that cunt fest
there’s one for chelski.
now let’s see if the sheiks can respond.
Nice!! Get ready for 20 behind the ball for 57 minutes
we should have beaten this city team…
we shall!
if this city team shows up, i would expect to. they really look woeful at the back.
BAMMMM
scruz – they were woeful at the back against us too, just that we played them tired as hell and two goals not approved by inept officials helped them outscore us. (still pissed about whole situation with fixtures in that time)
Citeh are being shown up for what they are, a team with a shoddy defence.
It’s not over yet though.
Always thought we gave too much respect to city and ManU last time around.. but then it could have been one of our off days when we played them.
Anyway, look forward to beating these guys next…hope we can have all our key first choice players available next time around!
spot on, eandy. and h2h. our next game we’ll be rested, and can hope to pick apart that shoddy defense.
Anyone that thinks that Chelsea win suits us better, think again.
They play the rest of the big games including us at home and they will not play again vs both Manchester clubs.
The title will be theirs to lose.
Lurky.
What you are basically saying is that todays result will decide the destination of the title?
You’d do well on Fleet street. 😉
There are still quite a number of games to go and home advantage doesn’t mean diddly, if it did the Chavs would of twatted Wet Spam and Citeh wouldn’t find themselves behind so that you could make such a sweeping statement.
And for the record (again).
It’s Man U’s title to lose.
Most would agree that Moyes is the epitome of consistency : http://i.imgur.com/BFqWOPh.jpg
H2H, I’d like to be proven wrong, but remember what I’ve said.
If Chelsea win this one, the title is theirs to lose.
City doesn’t scare me that much, Chelsea does.
Hoping for a draw.
I dont know if the link will work, but this is too cute to miss, first time I see Santi speaking English 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152023037357713&set=vb.20669912712&type=2&theater
It is, H2H – and they have pretty much already lost it 🙂
I don’t understand your prediction, Lucky. If the Chavs win this, they are still two points behind us. Alls we have to do is win our games.
BMBD
Lonestar, so do they. And they play home against us.
Indeed Lars my friend, indeed. 🙂
Since the goal, Chelsea have bossed City.
Matic is more than neutralizing Yaya, and Hazard is a handful.
Starting to think that Chelsea is the real threat…..
The title challenge is ours to win/lose 🙂
Josie better get his heavy duty industrial raincoat on.
The shower of jizz will be gargantial.
Say what you will, but the Special Cunt knows how to get a result.
Well, didn’t see any of that, but it’s palin to me that
WATOTL
Whoa, did they miss aguero or what. Have to say Chelsea came to play. Shocked the hell out of me. Wanted a draw, but hey I guess I will take a Chelsea win.
“I fancy them to nick this 1-0. Don’t ask me why, just a hunch.” – N7 #91
Spot on N7, well played. 🙂
Öskar
Chesea have always been a threat and will be towards the end of the season and we still can not say City will fold like a pack of cards.
A draw would mean City breathing down our necks we are two points ahead, we need to beat Mugmashers away and United at home!
COYR
palin = plain
Enough said about strikers, except see what just happened to Shitty with their #1 Aguero sidelined?
Öskar
Cheers Oskar.
That match confirmed some long held suspicions: City can’t defend, have an overrated squad and have got into bad habits, Chelsea are fucking ominous – their defence is very, very worrying and their fixtures are now soft.
This is going to the wire.
I see some cunts won and some other cunts lost. Cue transfer of wankfest from the Oilers to the Chavs. Either way meh….let’s continue on our own path to glory.
Oh Christ, we’re in trouble now.
As everyone knows, Manchester City are the Second Coming and destined to win the League this year. And yet, and yet, Chelsea have beaten them so must be even better.
What shall we do? Oh, woe is me, woe is all of us.
But wait, is this possible? Can it be? We seem to be two points ahead of both of them.
It’s on.
COYG
Also City’s first loss at home – breaks the aura of invincibility.
Two points ahead, N7, so we only need to draw with both now to stay ahead. Excellent!
Öskar
We come out of that winners. Last week we were looking at slipping to third, we are now two points clear.
The title is nobodys to win our lose due to this one result, if you think it is, then you havn’t been paying attention, any team in this league is capable of causing an upset and there will be more twists before this one is decided.
One thing I will say though, this game proves what a few of us have been saying over the last few weeks. It’s all well and good being able to knock a hatful of goals in, but if you are weak at the back you will eventually be found out. Man City got rumbled today, it was only one nil, but it could of and maybe should of been more.
Like I said last week, all the really great teams are built on the foundation of a strong defence. City are not.
We are the Arsenal we are the best so F**k All the Rest!
Not sure we can say Chelsea are ‘ominous’ less than a week after they couldn’t beat West Ham at home – all the last few games have proven is that things remain very open and (as mentioned) there’ll probably be further twists.
Don’t forget that City were quite weakened this evening.
Aguero who scored one goal against us and who is not just their most potent striker but a creative force too, Fernandinho who scored a brace against us and is their midfield dynamo and Nasri were all not playing.
Fascinating thing is that Chelsea didn’t have and still don’t have any major injury. Don’t normally wish injuries to any footballer, except Terry and RvP, but that Hazard fella needs to be stopped somehow.
N7
Well read sir!I hate Mourinho with a loathing but this sort of game suits his mentality fairly well. It may puncture City’s air of invincibility and certainly without Aguero they looked far less impressive than they have. You have to smother them in midfield , really smother them and then break on their static defence. We scored three remember and had two disallowed and a stonewall penalty turned down but we could have conceded 8 or 9.But City’s bench tonight was weaker than ours yesterday
The media will be all over Mourinho like a rash. Tonight he deserves it but could he do it without unlimited spending power?
In my best Arsene … Let’s prepare for Liverpool
Just PLEASE everyone stay match fit!! No more long term injuries and we’re good to go!
Sorry to mention strikers again but I’ve just been reading the gossip, and apparently we are interested in bringing Balloteli back to the premiership and RvP back to The Ems!
You wouldn’t read about it. Except I just did.
Öskar
Mmmmmmm that’s was interesting apart from a draw that was the next best, Will knock City of their stride for a little bit but on the other hand will give them cunts a boost – If we can come through that run of fixtures within 2 points we have a great shout ! To be fair the cunts were rather good tonight whilst the other cunts have let all the talk of being champions elect weigh them down a tad – Interesting times ahead.
Up The Arse,
NO and NO, in case you were wondering about my previous…
Öskar
Two things I’ll be interested in from here:
(i) will teams visiting the Etihad come to play instead of curling up into a ball? and
(ii) if the papers are less full of bollocks about City sweeping all before them and winning the Quadruple (hah!) will the officials see it as less of a done deal and stop giving them so many soft decisions?
Öskar – right there with you on both..although more lenient towards Mario.
RvP has so much baggage now that it is unthinkable for him to return.
Mario is a nutter with pretty much biggest ego I have seen in any professional footballer (Ronaldo included), but he is crazy talented and has all the attributes to be world class.
I still would not want him anywhere near our dressing room, but if there is any manager who could get him to behave and focus on football, its Arséne.
I sure do hope we beat Liverfool. My next door neighbor is a huge fan of liverfool. He already started getting at me with a match that’s not till Saturday, will love to leave the house that day without being worried about seeing him outside just smiling. COYG!!
N7, you think that Chelsea “played” against City tonight?
City had 75% possession versus Chelsea’s 35%. What Chelsea did, was not trying to play, but to press when don’t have the ball. And press high. And if/when the pressing collapses and City go through, get behind the ball with 9 men, with two fast wingers waiting for a counter.
That is what other teams needs to do against City. Not to play, but to press. Then sit back, absorb the pressure and hit them on counter. That is what we are capable of doing, with players like Rosicky, Ozil, Cazorla, Ramsey and Chambo.
As for the game tonight. It was typical Maureen tactic. It suits him when the other team is attacking. Lets not forget that when we play them. Let them come at us. Hazards’ pace is not good when defense is tight.
Lurky; are you sure about those figures? 🙂
On another night, Chelsea might have had four. They let City have the ball and then broke on them.
Btw – I don’t mean “play” as in “all out attack”. I mean come believing they can get something from the game.
I think the recent window illustrated how little journalists actually know about what’s going on. Those two striker stories are highly improbable. We couldn’t afford the wages for either. Balotelli is a nutter and RVP is a faithless injury- prone bastard. But in my opinion neither story is true.
Wenger doesn’t think about transfers much during the window so I very much doubt he plans them six months in advance. His focus will be ( rightly) 100% on trying to win the league . And I’m glad one of these sides will go out if the Cup in the next round. I think we should prioritise the Liverpool tie over the Bayern one( that’s if we feel we have to prioritise)
Mourinho is trying to claim his side aren’t good enough to win the league thereby ensuring if they do it is entirely due to his genius.
We look very reasonably priced to win the title providing we finally get good luck with injuries. It was pathetic to hear Pellegrini whinge about injuries given the relatively light injury list they have.
Heh, 65% it is of course 🙂
I get your point, Chelsea believed more. They were so confident that they even played some nice tricks and flicks.
I for one wonder if Maureen simply overlooked and maybe ignored West Ham game to prepare better for City. Not going to be surprised if that was the case.
And the cunt has spoken
Mourinho—”What we are doing this season is what Arsenal have been building towards for years”
Is he fycking serious?
He is acting like he has no funds to buy players, like all the players he has were bought for peanuts and like he is building the team from a scratch.
God, I hate him.
Lurky,
I’m confused by your @143. How are we supposed to press them high up the pitch AND “let them come at us”.
What we mustn’t do is apply that effing handbrake. To me, City looked very uncomfortable when pressed and harried out of their stride. Teams do not normally do that to them, but no area of their team looked able to function when put under real pressure.
We could do that to them at the Emirates, but to sit back and let them come at us would be suicidal.
What has taken Arsenal years merely to build towards, the mighty More-whine-io has achieved in just one? Is that the jist of it? Which way do I salaam?
Öskar
Yeah right.
Mourinho just spent £30 million on Eto’o, £30 million on Willian, £21? million on Matic, to add to last season’s Hazard and Oscar …….
We’ve been doing that for years.
Special twat.
Trev
Rosicky in his interview explained what is Arsene’s way of pressing. You press them high on their half when they are building the attack. Every player has his own particular role in the pressing, feel sleepy now to explain what every player needs to do.
Anyway, pressing last only for 5-6 seconds if the opponent doesn’t mistake. Then all the players except 1or 2 wingers revert to a defensive formation, soak the pressure and prepare for a counter. That is what Chelsea did tonight. Simple in theory but quite hard to implement on the pitch if you do not have adequate players and desired concentration and determination.
arsenal have been building towards third for years?
oh.
what a special cunt he is.
Eto’o was a free transfer, btw.
I thought Abramovich paid his mate at Anzi Mikaklakaklakakchi a fortune for him ?
It was a free transfer.
http://www.transfermarkt.com/en/samuel-etoo/transfers/spieler_4257.html
Fair enough, my mistake.
I find the key to Maurinho’s well-publicized “success” at club football is not some kind of tactical genius (H2H and others have so much more eloquently put what that tactics is), and not only a collection of very expensive players, but the ability to somehow convince such a group of prima donnas to enthusiastically participate in his extremely reactive and regressive approach to football.
In that infamous CL semi-final second leg at 2010 again Barca in Nou Camp Eto’o gave a masterclass of a performance…as a defensive midfielder. Not just after Motta was sent off but from the get go. To see players as capable, proud and temperamental as Sneijder and Eto’o use their great abilities so enthusiastically in the service of such negative tactics remains one of the strangest thing I have seen in top level football.
The problem with such “success” is not only it means nothing to anyone other than the club he enjoyed such success with, but looking back in such successful campaigns there remains nothing memorable (except for the true bizarre like that Nou Camp match).
I have a close friend who is an Inter supporter (grew up in Torino, hates Juventus and AC…supports Inter and Napoli, sigh!) and I had asked him how many times did he watch the DVDs of their successful campaigns under Jose, he said never. What is the point of a sporting success if you cannot even savor it in your nostalgia!
Mourinho isn’t such a tactical genius. If anything he is predictable against top rivals. He puts out a team intended not to lose, with the hope it can nick a win on the counter: 4-3-3 which turns quickly into 4-2-3-1 when the opposition has the ball. The two holding midfielders in front of the back four cut the space between the two banks of defenders. No room for Silva to work his magic between the lines. Suddenly Citeh don’t seem the attacking powerhouse they were. And we know how dodgy their defence is when they don’t have a four goal cushion.
Actually Lurky it’s very common nowadays to “Press high” and “Let them come at us” you press initially and if they break the halfway line you fall into your defensive shape. Many teams try to create the quick turnover and if they don’t succeed they fall back to absorb pressure. As a matter of fact Arsenal do it a lot. Except many of our fans claim we don’t know how to press when the press is actually being called off. Bayern / Dortmund do it. The days of 2009 Barca hunting in packs all over the park has passed.
Sorry that was aimed at @148 not Lurky. My apologizes. Once again I shouldn’t be reading comments and posting on the train on a mobile 🙂
There was a decent article called Wengerball parts 1-3 on Ladyarse I believe about this topic
Mondo@4
Bangkok is still calm I believe?
I will be passing through this weekend before taking a plane back to Europe.Where will I find a Gooner bar to watch the Liverpool match on Saturday?I saw the Fulham match a couple of weeks ago at an expat bar on Sukhumvit but wasn’t to impressed with the atmosphere.
Lars,have Arsenal Sweden recieved an allocation for the away Munich match?Arsenal France were supposed to be informed on the 24/01 on tickets but we are still waiting on the club to let us know.
While I genuinely dislike Mourinho who is the most duplicitous character I have ever seen in many years of following football let us be fair. Dr F articulates it superbly and captured the reason why despite his success I could never stomach him as our manager.
But City had a 100% record at the Etihad and were blowing teams away for fun. Chelsea outplayed them ,stopped them from scoring and made them look ordinary. Just like the reaction we showed after losing that game at Old Traffird when we had gone 49 games without defeat, this may make them far more vulnerable for the rest of the season.
Hate him or detest him you can’t deny he can set sides upto win this sort of game very well.
Let’s hope the Good guys can prevail over the two financially doped scumbags. We may find ourselves the popular choice among neutrals
I would really like to go to bed, but the brain refuses to turn off. So my question to the bar, assuming everybody is healthy what is your starting XI? And who do you have on the bench?
Starting XI:
Chezz
Sagna Per Kos Gibbs
Arteta Ramsey
Theo Ozil Santi
Giroud
Bench:
Flappy, Verm, Flam, Jack, Tomas, Ox, Poldi
Which leaves out Jenks, Nacho, Gnabry, TGSTEL,and Diaby at a minimum.
City are tailor made for Mourinho: gung-ho attack, with a glass jaw.
The Ox tipped for Brazil in his full return since Sept. Not bad. If Theo can’t make it, we def want one of our own to replace him. No?
ECG – you just described my team in FIFA 14 😀 pretty much spot on with the line up, then going with three subs at once, Theo to the middle, OG on the right and subbed by Tomas, Santi out for Poldi and Arteta out for Jack.
This shows that when all players are available, we really do not lack any kind of depth, just look at that bench of yours…
Arsegonian@159: The days of 2009 Barca hunting in packs all over the park has passed.
Agreed. When that Spanish doctor was arrested which meant Barca were no longer drugged up to the eyeballs they didn’t have the stamina for that insane pressure game any more.
OK, maybe they weren’t drugged but the coincidence of that doctor being arrested and Barca suddenly no longer being capable of running like crazy for 90 minutes is a bit suspicious.
washed up: we got 12 tickets for Bayern away, which was for all our applicants. I’m not going this year as I was there last year.
ttg: I think N7 sums it up well@165, the way City play (particularly when forced to play Demichelis in midfield and don’t have Aguero as a creative outlet higher up) they are in many ways very ill-suited to play a Mourinho team. Chelsea may not have parked the bus entirely last night but they sure as shit didn’t exactly commit eight players forward in every attack either. Pretty much all their attacking was based on breaking quickly through primarily Hazard and that is also how the goal came about. The defending by City for that goal was criminally inept, and Yaya Toure (who had a poor game overall) lazily lumbering about and pulling out of the challenge when Ivanovic took the shot was right up there with the worst of Denilson’s darkest hours at Arsenal. Chelsea almost always attacked with only four players while the rest of the team sat back and conserved energy and due to City only having one defender (Kompany) who had turned up for work that was all it took. Zabaleta, for example, had a real stinker and is probably still running around trying to figure out where Hazard went.
We’ll see what happens later on and one game is of course far too little to cast any definitive judgement from but like many have been saying City have every reason to be worried about their overall defending. After all, while it was only 1-0 to Chelsea but it could easily have been 3-0 or even 4-0. And that against what was basically only four attacking players.
The Ox tipped for Barzil on his full return from injury since September. Not bad. If Theo can’t make it, we def want one of our own to replace him. No?
Breaking News:
Goonertown Sources understands that, Robin Van Persie will make a dramatic return to Arsenal!
The player is due to feature in a title deciding match against the gunners with his team Manure, on 12 Feb 2014! 😆
Too easy!
169 was a repeat of 166, but containing spelling mistakes – I hate when stuff like that happens. 🙁
Just a quick word to say thanks for all the comments last night. Some very interesting points made.
I would agree with N7, in saying that Citeh were set up for Jose’s tactics.
In fact thats a difference that sets Jose apart from Wenger imo. We play to a consistent style of offensive football. Jose sets his team up to play against the opposition. This season we’ve been more defensive and efficient in how we manage games by retaining our shape and pressing hard up front.
But I have to say, I was very impressed with Chelsea’s win last night. Its easy to say he has loads of resources at his disposal, but he’s also won the CL with teams like Inter and Porto – so its more than just money. He’s very astute and sought to neutralise Yaya and run at Kompany – two players alongside Aguero who are the heartbeat of Citeh, in a counter attacking format. There was no parking the bus here! They could have won by 3 or 4 ! The use of both Hazard and William on the wings were to great effect and this was after he shipped out a player like mata..!
This counter attacking format, is largely the model we’ve adapted during so many games this season and has brought us such efficiency. Consolidate the defence and break with speed. The “Business end” of the season begins this weekend I feel. And I think we need to take 3 points at Anfield and against Manu a few days later.
Will be very, very interesting to see what Rodgers does tactically at the weekend.
He still has an issue with Gerrard and Sturridge. Hard for him to drop either of them, but equally hard to play them both without being overrun across the midfield.
I wonder if they might just set up to really go at us. If it’s a low scoring game then you’d imagine we’re likely to have the edge (given that we’re the ones who can actually defend). If it turns into a shoot-out then I think Liverpool will be more comfortable.
We need to keep it tight.
I’d agree with that N7.
I think we need to control midfield, impose our game and put them on the hind foot. If you let Suarez run at you then your asking for trouble. Prevention is better than cure and stop the feed at source. I think you need to be assertive and positive to take the points at Anfield. We have the players to do that, but if we start slowly, like we have in some games of late, then we’ll loose points.
I actually think a draw at Anfield would be OK, but if we win the game then we’re very well placed.
You’d have to fancy us at home vs Utd, given our current form at the Ems and their struggles. After that, it’s Sunderland, Stoke and Swansea, none of which will be easy (few games are, this term), but which are all winnable.
Then it’s down to brass tacks with a really tough run. But if we’re still within a couple of points of the others at this stage then I’ll fancy our chances.
Fantastic to be into February and still top of the table.
We play to a consistent style of offensive football. Jose sets his team up to play against the opposition.
Spot on Joe.
One of the Chavs said in an interview that they had been studying Citeh all week.
N7/Joe: midfield will most certainly be key. Stopping Suarez is about making sure he sees as little as possible of the ball early on and do what you can to frustrate him that way. If he sees a lot of the ball early on and is allowed to get into the game from the get-go he’s almost guaranteed to either score or set up at least one goal but the longer you keep him out of the game the more he tends to rush things and develop a slight case of tunnel vision – although it must be said he’s improved in that aspect as well, it is a lot harder to get him to lose focus and make him try do to everything on his own these days.
City were tactically and technically outplayed yesterday by Chelsea…they were all over the place…however Maureen sets things up, he gets the win…but does this game suddenly make Chelsea ‘ominous’? again, West Ham gave them a draw at the bus stop…so anything is possible in the remaining games…City losing last night has opened up the psychological doors for all teams to really have a go at them…I think that could be key for us even more than being on top now by only 2 points, the real possibility that City will also lose points in upcoming games has replaced the ‘they are unbeatable mentality’ Chelsea were very good last night, but they can also be drawn and not necessarily simply because they want a draw…Hazard on the wings is amazing…so have to stop him…for the upcoming ‘Pool match, Suarez has been more the assister to Sturridge recently as opposed to the scorer (am I right?) so that combination needs to be blocked (of course if Suarez has the ball in front of goal he won’t pass up the opportunity lol)
H2H@176: I’m assuming all teams study their upcoming opposition, would be a bit daft to go into a match just having spent the lead up days on Instagram and Twotter 🙂
The key to the Anfield game (IMHO) lays in the first half performance. From what I’ve seen of L’pool this season they start off strong in the first 45 but fade considerably in the second.
Their offence is good, sometimes very good, the rest, not so much. That they rely on a CB that Arsene thought not good enough to keep a good few years ago tells you all you need to know about their defence. I feel their keeper is prone to errors too, not a bad shotstopper but his distribution is pants, put him under pressure with the ball at his feet and he is likely to do a Boruc.
Rodgers still looks like he struggles to know how he wants to line his team up. Sometimes with three across the back, sometimes four, his options though are pretty thin. He’s brought in players that he seems unwilling to use. The west brom game summed up their whole season, steamrolled them in the first half, looked clueless in the second. Lacking creativity yet with players like Moses and Aspas on the bench, he chooses to bring on Kelly and Allen (sounds like a Dubliners Tribute Band).
If Kos and Mert can keep Hannibal and the awful dancer quiet then we should be in with a shot.
H2H@179: ‘awful dancer’…lolllll…what IS up with that? sometimes I just feel my age when I see things like that haha
H2H @ 176 – Twas Terry who mentioned it, post-game. Said they’d spent the last two weeks in fact, working on City’s strengths and weaknesses.
I’m assuming all teams study their upcoming opposition……
You’d think so, wouldn’t you Peter, yet I agree with Joe, I don’t think that that’s Wenger’s M.O.
Ofcourse he has a certain game plan, but I don’t think it’s particularly tailored to our direct opposition.
holics…was chatting with a very nice Pool supporter in the my local last night watching the match, and I made the comment that football players should be banned from giving media interviews by their clubs until end of season thereby keeping a tight lip on things and thoughts…but he said that contractually they have to give interviews and air their ideas? (like Woj in the Evening Standard saying that teams are scared of going to the Etihad…or Sagna pre-Saints saying they don’t want to let the Boss down, etc)
is he right that its in their contracts?
Chelsea ARE ominous, but not because of last night.
Partly because of their remaining fixtures, which are the best of the three challenges, but mainly because of this – their run of results since they lost 3-2 to Stoke in early December and went back to the drawing board:
Man City 1-0
West Ham 0-0
Chelsea 0-0
Stoke 1-0
Man Utd 3-1
Hull 2-0
Derby 2-0
Southampton 3-0
Liverpool 3-1
Swansea 1-0
Arsenal 0-0
Sunderland 2-1
Palace 2-1
Steaua Bucharest 1-0
Lots of tight wins, but look at the goals conceded. Ten clean sheets in their last 14 games, 9 clean sheets in their last 11 games and they’ve not let in more than a single goal on any occasion.
THAT’S ominous, at this stage in the season.
There are indeed certain media obligations, Peter, it’s all part and parcel of the game. Not that they’re going to say anything really worth listening to, they’ve all long had their personalities set to default and are just trotted out to tow the company line with bland soundbytes, empty rhetoric and mind numbing cliches.
I suppose it’s all good training for a follow up career as couch potato on MOTD.
An interesting debate taking place, regarding the set up between the fake blues and the chavs.
Admittedly, I was distracted somewhat during the beginning of the match. However, it was assumed that without Fenandino to add extra steel and Aguero to add extra creation upfront Chelsea would profit from City’s supposed weakness. City were aware of the injury to Aguero, but compensated by playing Silva over Nasri, who also played as back up to the ineffective Negrado and Dzeko. He was no Aguero and you could see he’s confidence eroding with each missed chance, although Jovetic forced a good save out of Chech after he came on. Then you have to look at the midfield battle, which was won by Ramieres and also Matic over Yaya Toure and Dimichelis. I understand that, Fernandinho’s replacement was more last minute than Aguero’s, but you could tell Dimichelis was not comfortable playing in midfield. It may have been all good in training but not so in practice.
I’m of the notion that City has a couple more beatings to come before the end of the season and hopefully Chelsea will drop a few more points too. As much as a draw at Anfield will be a good result, I believe we are good enough for the full 3 points, with Toure playing at the back and our defence standing firm once again.
After the past two day’s results, I am confident that the momentum must have returned a little once again.
absolutely off topic, but got sent this pic randomly 😀 http://cdn.acidcow.com/pics/20140203/acid_picdump_71.jpg pretty funny hehe
Just read a column in a Swedish paper by one of their their main Premier League reporters where it said “Chelsea can win everything this year”.
The words “Sunderland”, “League Cup” and “knocked out by” may be rearranged to form a sentence that begs to differ.
Lars – its same in every country I see, the jizzfest which Chelsea (and Petr Cech particulary) received in czech sports media today is sickening.
Wait: I thought City were the ones who were going to win the Quadruple?
Press too easily dazzled by oil money. Tell me again about City’s amazing “campus” – they sound like a real force for good in the game.
Thanks for the report ‘H.
Gotta say my view of the game accords very much with what Lars saw, and for the life of me I cannot understand the grudging praise that the victory has been accorded in some quarters.
Though we didn’t create an awful lot in the first half, I felt we zipped it about very well at times and I always felt that as the game went on, Palace would eventually pay for the energy required to continually ball chase. Certainly, I saw nothing of the complacency that characterised the slow start in other home games such as Cardiff.
In the event, we didn’t have to wait for Palace legs to tire. The early goal in the second half meant we could light up our cigars, conserve energy and put the game to bed. This we did admirably, and once again the two centre halves were outstanding. Those that decry that achievement with grumpy assertions of ‘it’s only Palace’ need to take a look at how many opportunities City offered them to equalise on their recent visit to Eastlands. It was rather more than the one solitary chance they got at the Emirates.
A comfortable home win with very few scares that it would be anything less than that once we made the breakthrough, and top of the league. I’ll take that all day long.
Great to catch up with various in the Tollie.
Watching the match last night everyone mentions Hazard of course, but David Luiz really is a trouble maker too…good player!
Is anyone else nauseated by the media reaction to Chelsea’s win?
Oh god, the tired old arse-kissing cliche mill must need a new service after the extra mileage it’s done today!
‘Masterclass’
‘Tactical genius’
etczzzzz……
Luiz was defiant last night. Shame about the free kick though. 😆
Was said ball retreived from Mancs city centre? 😆
Media lock down Porco, even though it was a good result for us.
Porco@193: it has taken on a kind of ‘season changing’ status it seems
4 points out of 6 against fools and manures, well thats what we need as a minimum, i fancy a win against pool than united because we lose to united in the mind.
Chelsea though were excellent yesterday, cant believe how well they played after the first 20 min when city looked like running riot.This takes me back to our game against city, when we scored and made the scoreline 3-2 i was crying hoarse not to concede immediately and viola we just did that ( silva/fernandinho goal),if we had just held on to the 3-2 score and got into the last 10 min, i am certain we would have had a chance to draw atleast.
The title race is far from decided, yet the next 3 weeks may hold the key for our chances, i know i am stating the obvious.
The meedja love Maureen, Porco, it’s as simple as that, and like i said above he is a master at playing them, he spouts, they pucker up, tongues hanging out and lap it all up.
Pre match it was FFP and impossible to compete. Post match it’s humility (Yeah right, the Oscar goes to…..) about transistion and that this is not the year they’ll win anything, even going as low to try and compare his purchased with excessive blood money squad to our within our means collective.
The media blinded, probably from all the cockjuice in their eyes, have given him “special” status, he is their chum, an alright chappy and as long as he keeps giving them those juicy
creamy loadssounbytes they will continue to adore him.Floats a hopeful one in……..
Scores?
Lars@168: Spot on. We could have scored seven against Citeh.
One reason that Zabaleta had a stinker was that he actually had to defend and couldn’t spend most of the game charging down the wing, where his defensive frailties aren’t exposed.
Well in, Lurky.
Giroud!
wow very late with that strike O.O
And the award for Most Graphic Ejaculatory Metaphors goes to…
H2H!
😀
Cheers NBN
Peter@183: It is probably a PL requirement, just as teams are required to put up their managers and some players to speak to TV after the game as part of the broadcasting rights deal (another import from American pro sports). I am guessing that there is a complementary practice for print. It may be done on a club level. Players will mostly have a contractual requirement to do some promotional and marketing work for the club as part of the section of their contracts covering image rights. Sponsorship deals will require the club to supply players for various events, too.
Well in Lurky.
Heh Porco, a GEMMY.!?
Not sure if I’ll pick that one up myself. 😉
ha ha H2H, just don’t turn up to the ceremony too early, that would be a little…premature?
Sorry, i’m not cuming.
Tabs – agreed about the game and the ‘meet up’.
Couldn’t face any more time on my feet after the game – it’s a chuffing long way to Finsbury Park on crutches.
Lars – great point up there about Barca’s playing style and the arrested doctor.
Re: the Chelsea love-in.
Strange how the brilliant sports journalist, Neil Ashton, formerly of the Screws of the World and latterly of the Daily Fail – don’t wait up for a Nobel Prize, Neil – said on radio today that he does not see Chelsea’s lack of a top draw striker as a problem.
He feels that with Oscar and Hazard they have enough goals coming from midfield and, naturally, Mourinho is such a genius that he will find a way of playing to enable them to keep scoring.
He may well be right but, if so, why the huge contrast with the predicted fortunes of Arsenal – by the media in general – due to our failure to sign another top striker. And hasn’t Arsene Wenger already found ways of keeping our midfielders scoring.
I’m not going to complain about the bias though – it just makes our eventual triumphs so much more to enjoy and be proud of.
For all of those interested in the progress of Draxler, I came across a tweet from the Draxler boss today, which was reported by Journalist Raphael Honigstein
“I can rule out, 100 per cent, that Julian Draxler wants to go to Bayern” Schalke boss Clemens Tönnies.
Hmmm? 😉
Sorry I meant the Schalke boss 😆 (One of my best there)
Trev if you think that’s bad, somebody (I can’t remember who, well actually I do, but I won’t mention any names – but they know who they are), called Hazard the best midfielder in the premiere league at the moment. I presumed he meant, at the moment, whilst Aaron Ramsey is off. Nah he can’t have meant that! Could he? Ah I don’t know
Goonertown – Hazard is a good player, but also was really quick to adapt overal cuntishness of Chelski players (ballboy incident for example..even thought that was little bit of dick move from the ballboy aswell but still, should have known better).
Speaking of Hazard, one just have to sit back and marvel about the job with the youth they did in Belgium over the last few years, when you look at their national team, there is lot of talented players some countries can only dream about having.
Hello Trev, not surprised mate, it looked hard going on those crutches. Think you made the right decision, I had to be chucked out at closing time with a few other stop outs from the the other garden. I could have done with your crutches at that point 😉
Hope all goes well with the leg in the coming weeks mate.
On the subject of getting goals from other than The strikers … Ox became the 14th player to score a league goal for us. That’s tops in the league ( Nope, shitty have 12 )
Backdrink complete. Great stuff throughout from N7 and H2H.
And agree with just about everyone re the special cunt. There was a good article in the Torygraph yesterday from Jeremy Wilson (Arsenal fan?) which took apart Maureen’s emetic and quite ridiculous attempts to characterise Chelsea as some sort of penniless and plucky underdog. The media love in with him is nauseating but not everybody is dancing to his tune.
Eandy.
This Belgium team will have a hell of a lot of expectation heaped on them this summer, personaly I don’t think they’ll fair that well. Yes they have quite a few decent players, but many are overrated in my humble opinion.
No doubting that Hazard is good, but then you’ve got many that were hyped up last year but don’t appear quite as good this season. Players like Benteke, Fellani and Mignolet seemed to be on everybody’s wish list, yet they’re struggling this time around. Even the great Kompany is nowhere near what was percieved to be his best, Tommy V can’t even get a game in our team.
The wierd way that the Fifa ranking works have ensured that they are one of the seeded teams, but this is only really due to the silly friendlies that the FA and the KNVB (Dutch FA) arranged. Actually what the Dutch did could be classed as gross mismanagement, setting up a tour to Indonesia the year before the WC, games in which they won but cost them countless and valuable points.
Due to the seeding they got a pretty decent draw, but let’s not forget that they are a pretty inexperienced, tournament wise, squad. Personaly I wish them all the best.
Cheers tabs.
Heh @ the crutches. Sounds like a great session.
It was H2H 😉
The day the media gives us credit will be the day the asteroid will actually hit us hahha, i dont give a damn about them.
Mou actually knows how to get the job done in big games, thats something we seem to be lacking and need to rectify it now.
Eden is good yet he is praised as if he is god, Santi does the same and he is ok????? well done to the press and the pundits, i am not complaining as i still cant believe my eyes at times that we have santi and ozil playing for us at the same time, god bless Arsene and Arsenal for that.
Laudrup gone from Swansea.
How many here were touting him as a replacement for Le Boss not too long ago?!
I realise Swansea’s form is terrible at the moment, but seems mad to get rid of a manager less than a year after he won you a League Cup.
H2H & Charlie — that is a very strange decision, given the injury ravaged squad Laudrup has now, and given that even in this season when most of his players were fit he had some great results, including that away win at Valencia.
H2H — I could be wrong of course but I think eventually he will turn out to be a very good manager. Not ready for a big club yet but in 5-7 years time, maybe. He will probably go back to Spain now…
Arsegonian @ 218: And that just didn’t happen accidentally. I think it is a result of quite meticulous planning to get the best of the resources. See my post @78.
And I also think this is trend is going to be picked up by many other clubs. It reduces the reliance on big name flair players to be “Strikers” as well as it best adopts to consistently improving tactical awareness and ball-playing abilities of defenses even in the smaller teams across all top leagues.
Talking of sacked managers;
When Fulham got rid of Jol they weren’t all that great.
A short time later, they are bottom of the league and looking absolutly awful.
Fulham are already gone, mate. I will miss them next season.
Swansea deserve to go down after this decision.
BMBD
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>