Everybody Needs Good Neighbours
Mar 16th, 2014 by 'holic
Well, what can one say about that? The strangest of derby days for this old boy. In need of some thinking time I made for a park in town and felt completely calm ahead of a fixture that usually gnaws away at the stomach. I used to love going to the Lane in the days when we had a decent allocation, or the game was not all-ticket. These days it is pints and sofa territory.
The calm was only stirred some 72 seconds into the match. Tomas Rosicky broke at pace, played a one two with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and produced an effort I can only describe as ‘a little bit Liam at the Lane’. A howitzer, and we had the earliest advantage ever in a north London derby, apparently.
The goal for the visitors set up a cracking opening half. Tottenham dominated possession as we reverted to the sort of rope-a-dope performance that yielded so many points in the opening half of the season. Despite that the clearer chances fell to Arsenal on the breakaway. Three of them to the Ox, but sadly his shooting boots were in for recalibration.
Inevitably it was Adebayor who came closest for the neighbours, but Per Mertesacker, one half of the solid centre of the Gunners defence, did enough to distract the occasionally motivated one. I’m not sure what the half-time team talk was, obviously, but it appeared on the face of it as though it was a plea for more of the same.
A draw wasn’t a lot of use to either side, and so Tottenham not surprisingly doubled their efforts to get back in the game, and we seemingly retreated ever deeper in order to preserve our lead. Chadli should perhaps have done better but the BFG and Laurent Koscielny once again formed an impenetrable barrier to preserve our advantage.
Against the run of play, it has to be said, we almost sealed the deal when the omnipresent rather large German brought the best out of Lloris in the closing stages. The last word was Szczesny’s, diving to keep out another Adebayor effort. The points were secured, and the best away support in the country were celebrating long and loud, as you can see below.
A word too for the referee. Mike Dean isn’t a favourite around our way, and for very good reason. However today he left a really good impression. He got the big calls right although both sides probably thought earlier punishments could have been handed out to one or two players, no names, no pack drill. I am usually the first to coat him off, so today, well played that man.
As Sunday becomes St Patrick’s Day we find ourselves three points closer to next weekend’s opponents at the head of affairs. Win Arsene’s 1000th game in charge of Arsenal and we will be a point behind the boys from the bus stop in Fulham with a game in hand. Title challengers? You bet we are, although we might just need more than one goal next week!
Here’s to Wojciech and the boys taking selfies at the Bridge. Bless the neighbours too. Six points and a comfortable passage to the fourth round of the FA Cup. How much more generous could they have been this season?
338 Responses to “Everybody Needs Good Neighbours”
Cock-A-Doodle-Dooooooooooo……
Nice one holic. Hope your enjoying a few celebratories as I am!
Where we’re at
Hoooo… I was thinking the whole time that one wasn’t going to be enough. But it was. A very nervy game but all’s well that ends well.
Triple over Sp*rs this year. 4-0 on aggregate and 9 points clear. No debate re: what color North London is tonight.
Lovely write-up as ever boss, and fair enough re: Dean, though he did miss a stone cold penalty on Koz.
And how ’bout little Tom? My God. Only 3 goals this year, but all 3 are well in the top 10 goals of the year. Get IN
Repost from last drinks:
Giroud – he needs players up with him to play off to and we were playing too deep today. He was isolated a lot of the time. He was also doing a lot of defensive work, tracking back and at set pieces, and must have covered as much ground as anyone on the pitch. No, not his best performance but special circumstances given that we let the Spuds have so much of the park. I wonder how we would have played if we hadn’t got that early goal – hopefully a little more offensively.
I think Alan Sugar’s comment is a bit sour grapes. OK, many shots from that distance and angle are not on target, but when a player hits one as perfectly as that, you’ve got to be a miserable old fuck (or a miserable old Spud – or both) to refuse to give him credit for it. Has to be a contender for goal of the season, especially given its significance.
But all said and done, we will have to play better than that to get 3 points at SB. And we need all 3 if we’re going to stay in this PL battle. Liverpool are really on a roll and Man City have those games in hand. We are certainly looking good at holding an advantage but I’d like to see a bit more adventure on Saturday. Fortunately we have 6 days to recover while Chelsea have a match to play midweek.
Top man ‘holic.
Not the best of games, but the result beats the hell outta feeding the squirels, right? 😉
I too thought that Dean controlled the game well, a lesser performance may of seen a few penalties and undeserved free kicks in awkward positions given, so indeed, credit, where credit is due.
Rosickys goal was a real thunderbastard, had me jumping around the bar like a madman, I’ve just watched it a few times again and it just gets better every time.
Next up the dispicable Chavs and their awful butt plunger of a manager, but there’s enough time to worry about that next week, for now rejoice and delight in yet another victory against our most unworthy of advisorys…. FOYS, FIOS.
A shout out to all our friends of the Emerald persuasion…
Happy St Paddys Day, Sláinte.
Spot on as ever holic.
One game at time.
If we beat Chelsea, I think we can win the league. Next week is arguably, the biggest game of the season imo.
HEH ‘holic – love that pic of the Arsenal fan celebrating.
Question for the stats men:
When was the last time we beat them home and away in the league AND knocked them out of the FA Cup in the same season?
“title challengers ?”
sweet mother of all thats good and holy in the world ‘hol
we’re there
and
we are
COME ON YOU RIP FUCKIN ROARIN
Glad to see credit being given where it’s due – apart from the penalty for Koscielny being dragged to the deck, Mike Dean had a good game. Certainly better than Clattenburg did for that 3rd Pool penalty. Every referee should be shown that – Sturridge is definitely learning from Suarez when it comes to simulation.
Cheers, ‘holic and ‘holics.
Am I the only one here who saw Rosicky give his shirt to an Arsenal fan who was sitting on a wheelchair? The sight brought a tear or two to my eyes. My love for Rosicky grew another hundred fold.
Excellent post guv’nor. Condemned as ever to following the game on 5Live I’m not sure how biased my “view” was, compared to that provided by our neutral providers of television pictures.
Whilst I remember being concerned about the amount of possession the neighbours appeared to be enjoying, I don’t really remember periods of sustained pressure from the home team that I feared would lead to an inevitable goal. I do recall fearing that one goal might lead to another and to defeat, but the days when sustained pressure led with certainly to a goal being conceded seem to be behind us.
Perhaps the days aren’t too far away when we fans begin to feel again that confidence in the defence that we had in the early days of Arsène Wenger’s management.
It really is still on,
COYG
What a week, three good results and today a superb defensive display to see out the victory. About time we won at that cow-shed of a ground! Normally over the past 5 years or so we play really well offensively there and come away with nothing. Not a day to moan about a pretty inept attacking display for most of the contest, just revel in getting back in the title race with a masterclass in how to defend the penalty area.
can’t find a happy smiley
to
suffice
Good review Holic, a win is a win and three points is gratefully accepted but did i enjoy the way we played ? Errh…. in a word NO.
That was a very difficult watch. I got so nervous that with 15mins to go I pressed the record button and decamped to the garden.
On the plus side a wonder strike from TR7, a remarkable defensive display from our Franco/German axis and a little luck saw us home and 3 points. On the negative side, we struggled throughout to keep the ball, the Ox had a mare in front of goal and Chesney put in one of his least secure displays in goal.
We now have a week to recover our breath and Drogba and Co could help our cause with forcing extra time and pens on Tuesday. We are still very much in the title race and a couple of wins against our rivals would do very nicely.
As always COYRs
you
do
not
need to be
irish
to
love this
you
need
heart
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYJO5fJgNSQ
Great recap on a great win ‘Holic.
I was nervous for the entire game. Damn I can’t remember when we last got away with all 3 points as we didn’t seem to have any control for the whole 90 minutes. But hey, sure I won’t complain. We all know that it takes hard fought dirty wins to be in there, and boy we are. Win the next and then the next and so on….
One happy gooner here 🙂
FUCKIN PROUD TO BE A GOONER
nice rest day post after an edgy game, guv. damn generous of the neighbors indeed, in line with how the rest of my weekend is going. also a great 16th birthday celebratory rocket off the boot of sir tom for my son. cent, a bit of a back drink will reveal that at least one of our number noticed at the time… 😉
Very well described Holic. Will take 3 points any way they come in a NL derby – such a beautiful strike by Tomas. Apart from a great backs to the wall defence not too much else to comment about.
Next onto a real show stopper – the bus stop in a Fulham and Mr Despicable. Cannot think of a better way to celebrate Arsene’s 1000 th game in charge than to stuff the blue knobheads up their own jacksies.
Yep – what cba said.
I second the motion.
Cheers, Scruz.
Massive heh at the picture of the travelling faithful 🙂
Agree that Dean had a really good game. He did miss the penalty that we should have had, but it was clear from the replays that he could not see it because there were three or four players blocking his view – but the lino should have raised his flag.
We weren’t at our best today but I really couldn’t give one single fuck, flying or otherwise. We beat Tottenham for the third time this season, and without conceding even once. We have all but secured yet another healthy serving of lasagna, and hopefully that can lift some of the pressure on the team – because make no mistake about it, the team knew what was at stake today. A loss could have had a really derailing effect on our league campaign but hopefully now we can play with a little bit less the handbrake on.
Just a word also on the early game today: fucking hell, ManU are a team in total freefall. They were absolutley atrocious today. Yes, Liverpool played very well but ManU is a team full of players who just don’t care anymore when things don’t go their way. Their season is over and Southampton and Newcastle must fancy their chances of finishing above them. Liverpool on the other hand will be given a massive lift by this and have a real chance of winning the league.
lol MotD “Sturridge was anticipating contact” “no he was not, it was blatant dive” XD
Thankfully doing the triple against the neighbors offsets the Arsenal’s profligacy against that pile of dung that swirls around in the Old Toilet up north. Almost, that is….
DKG: It has never happened in the Premiership era. In fact, 2004-05 is the only previous season in the Prem that we’ve done the double over the neighbours, and although we won the FA Cup that year, we didn’t meet them en route.
Lars, it helped Liverpool to look as good as they did that the Man U midfield is just pants right now.
may all your
enforced
greeniosity
be
acceptable
and
not
too
confrontational
tomorrow
.
i’m
on the dry
me
🙂
Ned, we did the double in 2007/8 as well. 3-1 at Shite Fart Lane (Cesc into the top corner from 30 yards to put us 2-1 up), and 2-1 (Bendtner bombed in a header from the corner to get the winner) at home.
Ned@30: that was certainly the case.
Holy moly.
We’re getting credit for putting in a good away performance on MoTD. 😮
Game still a couple of hours away from being broadcast here, but I had to look didn’t I. Usually that guarantees a loss but today proved the exception, obviously. And I’m glad I looked cos I don’t think I could have handled a one-goal lead for 88 minutes, never mind the extra 5!
So we’re still in with a chance of an unlikely) double. What makes this year so intriguing is the emergence of Pool into contention (the demise of Man U less so, as I saw that one coming). Right now the ball is firmly in Pool’s court, by which I mean Anfield where they have home ground advantage over both Chelski and City. We also play both of course, but one of them is at the bus stop.
Plus we have an inferior goal difference, so have to do better than the others not just match them. ‘Holic refers to the ‘rope-a-dope performance that yielded so many points in the opening half of the season’, which I recall as a period when we relaxed when the game was safe(ish) and never went for the jugular. I warned then about our goal difference but was put squarely in my place by holics who were happy with the tactic. Well, unless everything goes our way from here that laissez-faire tactic doesn’t look quite so clever now.
Öskar
Of course the funniest thing about goal difference currently has to be the spuds … lmfao.
Öskar
Undisputed Champions of North London for the umpteenth season. How many daggers to the heart can Levy take!. Surely it’s brown bag time for him anytime he’s in OUR neighbourhood. Better change their logo too as it is we who are now the undisputed cock of the walk. In this never ending battle against the forces of evil that still despoil Seven Sisters Arsenal has had no finer seasonal triumph – except of course for the game I witnessed with the same scoreline but much greater seasonal consequences 3 May 1971.
OTD @ 35: Given the team’s strengths and weaknesses, I don’t think if we had gone gung-ho in many of those matches after establishing a typical 2-0 type of lead we would have had so many points. It is actually rare to lose out on a league title on goal difference, extremely rare. It was important to play well within our abilities in some matches to establish a consistency and rhythm that also helped us in our cup run.
It was not laissez-faire, but intentionally controlled. Pool is enjoying an extraordinary vein of form, but they bowed out at the cups, had no Europe to contend with and have two mutually complementary strikers at the form of their lives. They have been a bit lucky with no injury and no drop of form to the front two, whereas we had to recalibrate multiple times due to two key injuries to Rambo and Theo. We would have had a few more points and a lot more goals if they were around for the second half of the season.
After exploding in ecstasy when Tomas scored his screamer, I later spent the rest of the match spewing at the missed chances by the Ox because I felt it would come back to haunt us.
Thankfully, we ended up being the spectres doing the haunting with the ghosts of the legendary back 5 swirling in and around Shite Hart Lane.
If anyone needs me, I’ll be watching the vine of Rosicky’s goal on repeat for the next few hours!
UTA
Faustus,
I agree. One game a week almost all season and 2 strikers who are in form allows pool to really go full attack.
If we don’t win the league I fear it’s because we played scared against ManU in both our games and dropped 5 points to a mid table team. That 5 points would sure look nice in our point total right now.
Also, if Rambo and Theo had remained healthy, I agree we would have a few more goals. Theo would have eaten the Tots alive today.
People can complain and moan all they want about this and that, but to be still playing for a possible double in mid march and doing the triple against that lot has me all smiles tonight!
NorCal @ 40 — Agreed. Not having Rambo around also cut out many of our more productive scoring moves. Giroud is also much more effective with runners from midfield as he is with fast wingers willing to get behind the defense and cut back. Hopefully Rambo still has some major part to play for this season.
What an awful, small-minded, miserable piece of sports journalism where even the simplest of compliment is undercut by some barbed criticism and defense of big money. One of modern football’s great manager’s 1000th match and this is the best Guardian could come up with? Shame…
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/mar/15/arsene-wenger-1000th-match-arsenal-third-era
Fine account H. Yet to see more than TR7’s fine strike.
Just back from the Dons’ victory to end 19 years without silverware. The most turgid game I have seen in years. I certainly ‘traded up’ when I swapped the Beach End for the North Bank.
WDYG!
Otd: some late breaking stats for you: The monks at Castle Ned say this is the first time we have done a league double against the neighbours and knocked them out of the cup in the same season. (Lars@32: that was Otd’s question, have we delivered a triple spanking before)
We have played Tottenham only six times in the FA Cup, winning in 1948-49 when they were in Div 2, losing in 1981-82 (a draw and a loss in the league) and 1990-91 (two draws) and winning in 1992-93 (two league defeats), 2000-01 (a win and a draw) and this season (clean sweep).
We can agree to disagree, Dr F? But if we DO lose the title on goal difference (4th by a large margin currently) I shall refer again to the ‘taking it easy’ phase of our year.
Yes Pool have had an easier schedule, and we have lost key players (hasn’t everyone?) but lack of scoring when we absolutely have to has been a problem (our major problem in fact) for years now. So when we just sit back and take the points without exercising the ruthlessness displayed by those we’re in contention with, I’m sorry but it’s not good enough.
Öskar
Not sure what question of mine you’re referring to, Ned. The unlikely double I was referring to in #35 was the FA Cup and Premiership double, which is looking surprisingly possible currently.
Imagine how much humble pie THAT would require to be eaten!
Öskar
Proper old result at Three Point Lane and a legendary goal for the legend that is TR7. The missus agreed to look at the first two minutes of the game on the replay and when Tomas scored she said “Oh, he’s cute.” I’ll spare you the rest of the gory details. 🙂
cab and all other wearers of the green.
Happy St. Pats Day!!
Dry or otherwise. 🙂
TR7 is cute isn’t he. Hate to admit it but he’s better looking than some birds I’ve dated. 🙁
Öskar
cab That would be Can’t Arsed Be, I suppose. Spell checker strikes again …
OTD @ 47: Yes, of course. Respectfully. Anyway, I don’t think I was disagreeing that it is always better to score more goals, or we should score more goals, simply pointing out to a different plausible explanation for the controlled ‘win the game first’ attitude which would appear not ruthless enough. It is a fine balance, and not having a very potent strike-force (missing your last season’s top scorer and this season’s best scorer is really a big blow) may have made us err more on the side of being cautious and less penetrative.
I seriously hope goal difference would not come into the picture this season, and it may not look like that very much now but if we can manage to win the rest of our matches this month the league table would take on a different complexion and the pressure would be on Chelsea and City. Pool is playing uninhibited carefree football because they are almost on the verge of achieving their target of getting back to CL, if they take on the title challenge seriously — as Gerard seemed to have declared today — then the pressure would be on them as well.
Personally I found todays game a difficult watch.
Delighted of course that we won, and therfore broke Spud hearts everywhere, but,in truth, I thought we stole the points. Not that the theft of three precious points will have me losing any sleep of course.
Gibbs was clearly unfit and I lost count of the times his side of the pitch was breached. Santi couldnt find a red shirt allday. Chesney worried the shit out of me. We created virtually nothing all game going forward.
I will concede of course that defensively our heroic centre back pairing was first class.
TR7’s goal was simply sublime, and coming so early in the game had me dreaming of a cricket score.
Not moaning, just think another performance like that against the Chavs will see us lose.
Ramsey cant return quick enough for me!
Kudos to the Depleted Arsenal though for grinding it out, although my nerves could do with a break.
Up the Arse.
Beautiful, ugly or dirty, 3 points especially at the expense of our generous neighbours are to be appreciated.
A very happy paddys day holics.
Relieved for the 3 pts. Nerve wracking at the end.
We can’t get away with that performance against the chavs.
I reckon we need 7 wins and 2 draws to get us over the line. With our growing injury list I feel it may be beyond us. Hope I am totally wrong.
How we miss Rambo lung busting runs. COYG.
We didn’t create much, we stole the three points, we should have scored more goals earlier in the season, excetra, excetra. I’m pretty sure we’ve all had to endure the agony of watching title-winning Manure and Chelski teams win at least 10 games each season playing like we did yesterday.
Cliche of the day; you won’t always win games playing beautiful football but the mark of champions is winning even while playing ugly.
Who let the scousers back up in the title race?
Hi good morning hölix
I wonder what else needs to be said. Well nice write up & what makes for a better quote?
“The points were secured, and the best away support in the country were celebrating long and loud, as you can see below.”
I was nearly trolled but I got it all.
Nice one ‘Holic
I like this season!
Cheers Holic! Looking good.
A game which should have been by a whopping margin ended up being a tense yet rewarding finish.
We played as calmly as i have seen in a long time, there seemed an assurance about the team that even with all the so called pressure in the second half, i for one never sensed that we will concede. Woj did try his best to beat me on that but with Per and Kos around, he dint get the chance.TR7 showed yet again that his best years maybe now onwards than having been lost. Not just the goal, his attitude was so refreshing and i think it rubbed on the team as well.
Arteta and Santi were average, Ox awesome but for the glaring miss, Poldi tried but needs to time his runs better, Giroud was poor, sorry he just doesnt read the play and annoys all of us, he is far better than what he was yesterday.
Spuds have a pathetic defense, i mean seriously that is worse than a championship team, we should have whipped them but then 3 points is what mattered, we got it.
Chelsea will be a lot tougher, yet we know we can go there and get a draw atleast. We need to beat them by pace and thats there only apparent weakness.
Pool have started to worry us, i mean everything is in their hands. They play city and chelsea at anfield and win that they may just go all the way, they need to drop points soon.
Great 3 points.
Gutsy win albeit ugly but none the less a vital 3 if we are to maintain the rage.
Agree with impressive @52 above re our goalkeepers in general. Everytime they come out they scare they shit out of me cause rarely do they take a high ball cleanly.
Fab doesn’t actually come out so he scares me just staying on his line.
Both our keepers are top shot stoppers but they do not command the air.
Can’t for the life of me understand how a 6foot something bloke with his arms stretched above wirh gloves on can not be safer or win a ball against another bloke without his arms above his head.
I am truly not sure who scares me more fabianski or chez.
Jeepers creepers our keepers……
Woj makes one mistake (yes, one – the first one should have been a free kick as Playswellwhenhecanbearsedbayor barged into him) and all of a sudden he always makes mistakes? Bloody hell, if there is one thing he’s done massively well this season it is to claim crosses. There isn’t a keeper anywhere that never makes mistakes, and I still maintain that Woj is possibly the best keeper in the league. Cech is the only one I can think of that can compete.
Mornin’ all. We still won 1-0 – well I never.
Back-drinking:
NBN@29: Thx for the stats – thought it would be you who replied.
Dr. F@42: I read that Guardian report differently. It’s pretty factual, certainly not a hagiography, but David Conn is generally non-partisan, which I like. Don’t see any defence of big money in it.
Vinay@61: “Ox awesome” – well, he was certainly testing them at times with his pace and strength, but apart from the glaring miss, his shooting was all over the place (except on target) and he gave the ball away to often for my liking. He needs to learn to relax more on the ball, which I admit was difficult yesterday when they had clearly decided he was the big danger man and surrounded him quickly when he was in possession in central midfield. His great strength is his running in the channels and he should be encouraged to do more of that. It’s one of the areas where we’ve particularly missed Aaron (the other being AR’s tremendous work rate).
Aussie@62: Lars already said it.
Excellent stuff, Holic. Double still on.
Loving the triple over Spurs, what a stat, and Rozzer’s goal, just awesome!!
I also have a question for the more footballistically astute than me in the bar (ie, quite a lot of people):
Does Manure’s hilarious season prove that Moyes is a rubbish manager or that United is a rubbish team?
And if the latter of the two is considered true, my other question is: How many fairly average United sides did Slur Alex cajole and threaten into winning the league?
And one more: If the answer to question 2 is “actually, quite a few”, what do we think was his main skill? Was it tactical, setting up his teams to negate the effects of the opposition’s tactics, or more motivational, making his sides just believe and feel they were going to keep going to the bitter end every time they got on the pitch?
Lars, never let facts get in the way of an opportunity to moan, Never.
Lars and dkg-
are you sure we are talking about the same keeper ?
1 mistake ? and claims crosses – Woj szcezney ?
The best keeper in the epl ?
Cmon boys – you cant be serious…..
Porco: I think most of all it proves that Moyes was given the managerial equivalent of a hospital ball, i.e. Fergie left him with a squad that had run it’s course and is full of players who more or less seem to think listening to Moyes is beneath them.
Aussie, let me turn the question around: what keeper is better?
Lars – I will save us both some time on this one.
There are a lot of good things around arsenal and this team, but goalkeeping is definitely not one of them.
I will repeat my earlier statement.
“Woj and fabianski are both excellent shot stoppers but in the air they are not very good” . They are both very shaky and fabianski is a diabolical disaster waiting to happen..
Fabianski is diabolical with anything not kicked straight into his arms.
Woj goes to pieces when anyone is near him. One on one he is a poor decision maker/ gets beat on his inside post more than most/ Send offs/ mis kicks/ wrong position/ poor positioning/ mis kicks again/ arial clashes with our own centre backs/ coming out off his line and being lost/ coming out and missing the ball/ mis punching straight to opposition players….. Which area of szcezneys mistakes would you like to start with and in which game….
Aussie @ 70: Wow! We all must have been watching a different season altogether!
This season Szcz has won us or kept us in the match in at least 4-5 PL matches with crucial timely saves, has rarely conceded from corners or free kicks, has rarely looked troubled and has been one of the best shot stoppers.
The few little opportunities Fabianski got this season he has been mostly impeccable. He had a history of poor decision making in crosses and not showing enough strength, but not any more.
Both have shown tremendous improvement in concentration, the ability to make a save even when having nothing to do for a large period of the game.
Szcz is one of the most promising young goalkeepers in the world football with a head already matured for his age.
Goalkeeping has not been a problem for us this season at all.
OtD. Tomas’ goal is getting cuter every time the recorded reel circles through my head. And his sly little smile after he saw it had gone in. 🙂
dk @ 64: I wasn’t expecting a hagiography, but I thought the piece tried to perpetuate an idea that somehow Arsene is this anachronistic idealist who always felt uncomfortable around football’s changes, the Emirates stadium happened despite of him, and that he will now reap the benefits and spend money which he never wanted to do and hence slyly accusing him of hypocrisy.
The facts were all presented with a bent on persisting with a certain narrative about the football’s uneasy relationship with excessive money as a natural evolution. The comparison with Chapman — and putting him on a pedestal of timely, world-wise genius to take Arsene down a few notches — were superficial and irrelevant in the context of accurately assessing Arsene’s achievements of failures.
Afternoon all 🙂
Good stuff ‘H. Great title and heh at the pic of the travelling support. 🙂
Always lovely basking in the glow of victory over the lot down the road, especially at their place. I have to say though that I enjoyed the post-match gloating in the juicer rather more than the game itself.
What a stomach-churner it turned out to be.
Marvellous strike from Tomas (he’s surely never hit a sweeter ball) gave the red and white three quarters of the pub lift off but never really the team.
It was a weird first half. I thought Tottenham could arguably say that they were the better side but their suicidal high line meant that the clearer chances fell to us. I still don’t understand why Arsene didn’t go with pace down the flanks – Gnabry or Ox – given how inept Tottenham’s defending was. As it was, Ox still managed to break the line running from an even deeper position. His attempted finish was pretty woeful but I will forgive him his two later misses. Gunner Tim’s reaction to his first miss was so histrionically over the top that Ox was no doubt affected. This game is difficult enough without your own supporters getting on your back, and Tim will do well in the future to remember that and refrain from all that jacket throwing nonsense. We were all disappointed with the Ox’s finish Tim, but if we all started flinging various garments of clothing about every time one of our forwards misses, where would we be? Remember who you are and what you represent.
Second half we were woeful. Couldn’t string two passes together. Hey ho! I know that I have a personal preference for Flamini over Arteta, and that sometimes it is easy to seek out confirmation of that bias, but I don’t understand why Arteta was the preferred option yesterday. Arteta put in a massive shift in Munich, and at times yesterday he looked like he was running through treacle. Only when Flamini was belatedly introduced (and then, mystifyingly for Tomas who was by some distance our best midfielder), did we begin to look more secure.
On the plus side the Bfg Kos and Bac were all magnificent. Defended heroically, and such was their collective organisation and willingness to compete for every ball that in the latter stages I felt that we would only be pegged back by a wonder strike or a set piece rather than anything Tottenham might create from open play.
It was however a great relief to hear the final whistle and finally take all three points at the Lane. With perfect timing ,some Irish band then arrived at the Pub and immediately went into a rendition of ‘And Paddy stood up and he sang it again …’ Gooner voices grew louder, Tottenham faces grew longer. Some days are just good. 🙂
So then, didn’t agree with initial team selection and thought substitutions were unnecssarily delayed (and in Rosicky’s case baffling) but who cares!?! North London is red and the neighbours have been firmly dismissed. Again.
Can we turn local hegemony into national triumph? Still massive outsiders but still very much in it, and that’s all you can ask for really. The visit to the Bridge is gonna be epic. Wipe that smug smile off Maureen’s face ( and I can think of no better way of marking Arsene’s thousandth game), and things will be very interesting.
I’ve seen some shite posted on here but that one about Szczęsny – I mean, really?
He was a lucky boy with the Chadli chance yesterday but that apart, did he do anything that had us worried? He has been immense on countless occasions this season.
And for the record, Fabianski has not made any errors that have cost us in any game where he has been asked to play this season (or at least none that I can remember) and has looked like a different goalkeeper.
Spurs gave us much more of a game yesterday than I had anticipated, based on what I saw of them on Spursday night. I did not agree with Arsene’s team and yet here we are a day after with 3 points in the bag so what do I know…..
Onwards to the Bus Stop
Aussie @70
Yes evidence please. I’ll start you off. Poor opening game vs Villa, arguably at fault for the pen vs Bayern, and one spilt cross yesterday. Others please?
Sczcz has had a magnificent season.
Also looking forward to hearing the obvious welter of info out there which leads you to say that Fabianski is a ‘diabolical disaster’. He has let no-one down at all. On the contrary, he has been superb.
Hi all,
Just on the subject of goal keepers. Replays showed that Szczesny was impeded by adebayor yesterday when he lost control of the ball in the air. The ref should have picked it up, but they are not always reliable.
Just sayin. What’s for lunch?
🙂
Mashed Spuds Goonertown
tabs @ 74: Nice analysis. I was also baffled with TR7’s sub, but I think Arsene is trying to be extra careful managing him as TR7 is evidently one of the key players — especially with Rambo and Ozil still out for a while — for the rest of the season and despite all appearances medically speaking he may not be up to two high-octane performances in a given week. He played 45 minutes away at Bayern, but put a shift in and pressed as best as he does…
I also thought Ox down the wings, at least changed so in the second half, would have opened up more opportunities. I found Ox’s multiple missed shots rather strange because he is generally very accurate. I am not on tweeter but someone else told me apparently Ox had earlier tweeted that he was going to play with a brand new type of boot. Maybe?
Just look at Mertsacker:
http://gfycat.com/RedShockedCrayfish
That’s a fair point re the Rosicky substitution Faustus. I suppose I was irritated by the initial team selection more than anything. Really thought Tottenham could be got at with pace, and as said before the game, I would have liked both Gnabry and Sanogo to have started.
I thought all of our players who had battled all game vs Bayern – Arteta, Poldi, Giroud Cazorla, were all way below par yesterday.
Still, we won, that’s all that counts. 🙂
Sounds good Zico 😉
tabs@81 : Absolutely! Santi particularly was making simple mistakes in tight positions that we don’t see from him at all, that Bayern match must have taken a lot out of all of them.
Tried to read the BBC Football page today and the Liverpool love is getting nauseating. I really hope they don’t win the title, as much as I hope Chelsea doesn’t and City doesn’t… 🙂
Time for Luis to play to his true potential and bite someone again.
DF – I would rather Citeh win it than Pool!
All the media today are banging on about how Liverpool can win the title. Any mention of us comes with a ‘they won’t win the title though, too many injuries/can’t score’ etc
To which I can only say: good. Let them talk up Liverpool instead.
Oh how we miss theo and ramsey! we need to really look into keeping players fit throughout the season OR getting enough high caliber replacements for when they are injured.
It is my contention that if we had them we would have won the league by now! But all is conjecture, speculation and prophecy worth two cents at most.
…and FFS next season buy a striker and a replacement for Sagna!
Lastly, it boggles my mind how anyone can criticize Individual players this season, true the team has collectively played badly in a match or two BUT overall methinks they have all put in a decent shift!
Bring on chelski, we’ll show them how it’s done!
I actually think Liverpool’s form and their fixtures will work to our advantage IF we can get results against City and Chavski (by which I mean at least 4 points).
Whilst they have been pretty ruthless in terms of scoring at home, both City and Chelsea have the squad and means to get at least a point and you could argue that will be the most likely result in both games.
All the while we keep on winning and fly under the radar……
by they I meant Liverpool of course
Afternoon to you all. From my seat in the Paxton Upper I had a great view of the goal. He will never hit a better strike. Despite my fears before the game I thought Spurs gave you a game but never really looked like scoring. On the other hand, every time Arsenal broke I was convinced they would, perceptions eh? An interesting game rather than a classic but fair play to you lot, a massive 3 points. The atmosphere was terrific yesterday by the way, a proper derby. It just remains for me to say “next season….”!!
Nice one Maestro. Dim Tim’s support of the club that he really loves is much appreciated too.
Dr.Z – On current form and team spirit only, Liverpool are title favourites for me. I’d hate to see them finish above us and can you imagine having to listen Liverpool fans as champions again? *suppresses sick-in-mouth*
However, out of Chel$ea and €iteh, they’re marginally a lesser of 3 evils, I suppose.
UTA!
Hi All
TABs @74 Couldnt agree more, well put.
Zico@ 75 Couldnt agree more, well put.
As for the game it was a little squeaky bum at times and we did not pass it well at all in the 2nd half. We hooffed it upto Giroud or in his general direction any way and within seconds the ball was back in our half. It has to be said we didnt do ourselfs any favours in the 2nd half as the ball came back to quickly but the boys were lions in defence.
This was a massive 3 points and a job well done, we will have to be a little more careful against chelski as if we give the ball away that cheaply again we will be punished.
At the end of the day I couldnt be happier beating the sp**ds AGAIN ! The other positive is that last year we would have lost that game or drawn but now we can see games out and that is a major plus piont.
One look at our injury list also shows the calibre of players still missing which are all first teamers. So massive props all round to the boys.
Cheers
Nice one Dave.
It’s weird really – today we are 14-1 for the title yet Liverpool are 7-2. Win at chelsea (hard but not impossible) and then who knows.
Hello Dave.
Heh @ tabs’ Timmy reaction to Ox’s miss.
Aussie. Are you serious?
From what I can extrapulate from reading your posts over the last few months, it seems to me that watching the Arsenal must be a pretty excruciating experience for you, forgive me if I’m wrong, but it doesn’t seem to bring you much joy.
You have pretty clear and outspoken opinions on what you believe Arsenal should do and where they should be, and even though I probably disagree with about 85% of what you post, I respect your right to say whatever you feel and I try to put myself in your position and look at the subject at hand objectivly. Sun sider, realist, pessimest, whatever.
However I can find absolutly no justification for the slating of our keepers. What the hell do you expect? they are people not robots. The Saveatroc 2.0 maybe a welcome addition to our squad in the future, although the oiley bastards will probably outbid us for him, but until then we’re stuck with flesh and bones to guard the goals, so there will always be errors.
Woj has been top notch this season, his improvement is nothing short of miraculous, but you don’t have to take my word for it, just look at the goals against column. Even though our goals conceeded record is one of the best in the league, it too is slightly distorted due to the heavy losses to the mickeys and blue mancs, goals that hecan’t really be blamed for. He has won us a hell of a lot of points this season and I can’t remember him costing us many. There’s maybe one keeper in the league that I would rate as highly as him, and that is Cech, but unlike Woj, he probably has had his best years behind him.
As for Fabby, yes he was Flappy, but surely that can’t be said anymore? I don’t personally think he is as good as Woj, but I challenge you to name a beter back up keeper in the PL.
Heh @ Trigger.
Lovely write up Holic. Captured the essence if what is an excruciating game in anticipation and during the actual match but is marvellous if we win. Interesting to contrast the flak we took for our defensive display last year with this year where we achieved our third successive shutout against them . How they miss Bale and how they wasted £100 million. If it wasn’t them it would be tragic.Also agree about Dean he was excellent and my favourite referee who has done a fine job most of the time for us this season, Clattenberg had the guts to give three penalties at Old Trafford. Most referees are too scared to give one. In fact there should have been five and I have to say that had Sturridge not jumped to avoid Vidic’s tackle he would have been badly injured. I thought it was a definite penalty.
ttg.
I thought it was a cynical dive. Sturidge knew exactly what he was doing, which was cheating, plain and simple.
Sturridge has learnt from the master diver. He needs to play against the likes of Ramires. Then he would have something to moan about.
Cheers Trig
Well in Steve.
Couldn’t have done it without Trigger.
😀
A great 3 points. Not the greatest performance but quite frankly who cares. Today at work has been fun. Reading various comments in various papers has also been amusing. Checking my phone to find several unanswered messages that I had sent was equally as funny. The resigned look on the deluded spud faces was a picture to behold.
Great report Holic and some good stuff above. Great strike from Tommy R. Wasteful from the Ox, but he is still very much at the learning stage. Back four superb. One Flappy moment for Shezza but like Zico, I can’t think of many other errors he has made this year.
Gooner Tim was a petulant and obnoxious when he was a player. He has not changed one bit. I heard him described as a PE teacher by some. Personally I think that is grossly unfair to PE teachers.
The chavs at the bus stop is massive. Then we have Swansea and then Citeh. Take 7 points from that lot and a few more may sit up and take notice.
Have a nice evening people.
the dry
has
sprunk
a
leak
Cheers ’71.
H2H – Ta, and agree with you on the keepers. Really struggling to find any legitimate basis for criticism of either since Woj was dropped last season.
Dave @89 – Played mate. 😉
Micky Hazard has got the right hump about Woj taking that selfie. “He could have caused a riot”, he says on Twitter… Yeah, outrageous that, fancy celebrating an important win in front of your own fans when the rest of the gound is all but empty!
What a monumental knobhead. Guess it hurts little old Micky to realise Tottenham aren’t actually that good.
Let’s hope he’ll be crying about his other old club next week, Lars.
Don’t forget your phone Woj. 😉
A riot in Tottenham?
Yeah, like that would happen.
To your point @95, H2H, the current Squawka points rankings for the top five keepers in the Premiership for this season to date are:
1. Szczesny 715
2. Mannone 558
3. Begovic 504
4. Cech 504
5. Howard 437
For the whole of last season, the points rankings were:
1. Czech 1254
2. Begovic 1048
3. Reina 999
4. Hart 859
5. Howard 837
Szczesny was No 7 with 810.
All of which, I think, speaks for itself about his performances this season and the degree to which he has improved over last term.
H2H@108: 🙂
Cheers Ned, done a bit of digging myself, this is from the PL official FFL;
Szczesny ARS 6.0 128
Cech CHE 6.3 123
Mignolet LIV 5.4 110
Howard EVE 5.9 110
Guzan AVL 5.1 109
Can’t be that bad then, can he? 😉
Thanks all (you too Dave),
Absolutely bollixed by Paddys Day celebrations. Great to come in and see all of you enjoying that win.
Trigger is a bit of a scamp 😉
Sláinte, guv’.
You too H2H 😉
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day sir. Pints o’ plain for all.
Exactly, H2H@111. However you count it, Woj is No 1.
Here’s to you aj 🙂
New contract for Arsene
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2892/transfer-zone/2013/10/17/4338988/wenger-agrees-to-sign-new-arsenal-contract
Lurky@118 – As far as I can see, the article you link to starts
and is dated 17 October 2013.
Sorry!
Pangloss, Veysey who has written the article is certain that Arsenal will announce Arsene’s new deal before Chelsea game, since it is his 1000 th. He says that the agreement has been done since October, but the club was waiting for the right time to announce it.
tabs @ 74 – nitpicking I know but for me, this is the sweetest strike Tomas ever produced in Arsenal shirt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgk8uvU9_-s 0:50 in the video…just …so awesome
and to goalie discussion – look at what Cech let in in our friendly against norway http://www.eversoccer.com/video-international-friendly-czech-republic-2-2-norway-cechs-howler-gifts-norway-a-2-2-draw-with-the-czechs/ at the end of the vid
..imagine the grilling Woj would receive for blunder like that… so yes, he is quality keeper and probably only one who can compete with Woj this season, but he has his best years behind him..besides he plays for Chavski which turns him from annoyingly likeable (like Kompany) to despicable cunt..so who cares anyway:P
Lurky, no disrespect to you or to Veysey, and I hope it’s true and Wenger will sign an extension soon. I’m just pointing out that the article is five months old, and speaks of an event “within weeks” that has yet to occur.
COYG
Cheers mate, hope he is spot on.
Excellent posts above,plus a couple of mystifying ones,but each to his own i suppose.
Having watched the game for a 2nd time,my initial thoughts were confirmed.
The Bayern game took a massive amount out of the players physically and mentally.
As Tabs pointed out in his excellent post,Arteta really struggled to keep up with the pace of the game.
Giroud who ran his nuts off in Munich as a lone front outlier,was another well off the pace yesterday.
You cannot underestimate how much those away Euro games take out of the players,the travel too and from,the enormity of the game itself,then the short recovery period before a massive match at the neighbours.
If ever we needed an early goal,then this was it,i really believe without Roscoe’s great goal we could well have dropped points.
So all credit to the players for diggin deep and snaffling a massive 3pts.
Whether we win anything this season or not,the fact that we are in Mid March and within spitting distance of the top of the table and in the Semi of the FA Cup,is a great achievement by the players and Staff.
Remember we bought 1 player in the summer and got one on a freebie.
Chelsea and City have spent a fortune again to try and buy the Title.
Whatever happens,Trophies aside,which set of true long time diehard supporters out of the 3,will get the greater pleasure from this season.??
Cheers
The Sweeper
The Sweeper knows.
Lurky: Report in Telegraph suggests that Wenger will not sign until end of season because he doesn’t want the distraction of negotiations at the moment.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/10703980/Arsenal-ready-to-present-manager-Arsene-Wenger-with-100m-to-spend-in-summer-transfer-window.html
Clive knows @125.
There’s still a magnum or two of Dom Perignon on the bar.
What on Earth does AW have to negotiate about? If he wants to stay he can. If he wants to keep a current player he has carte blanche to offer whatever terms he feels right. If he wants a new player he can buy him (subject to player and club concerned). If he wants more money for himself it’s just a matter of how much.
Either he wants all the autonomy he has at Arsenal or he wants another challenge. That’s about it.
Öskar
More late substitutions on Sunday? This remains my single major complaint about AW. What does he expect a player to do in just a few minutes? What benefit does a player taken off just a few minutes early actually get by way of ‘rest’? Messing with the team in a game still in the balance is very brave, imo … and I don’t mean that as praise.
Öskar
Thnks DK
Evening Bath,
Will have be Orange juice for me mate,even if we win a Trophy,althought i might,just might,allow a smidgin of Vodka to be added just this once,if we do happen to lift one.
In the department of it’s time to start grumbling.
I have to say Rosicky should have gotten that shot closer to the far post. It was good enough to beat Lloris, sure, but Cech or Joe Hart would have saved it, easy. 😉
h2h – yes i am serious, just as I was when I raised wengers management of injuries a few months ago, got roundly criticised by you also on here, then low and behold we are having an enquiry on injuries, now you seem to agree there is a problem.
if you look at each of our goals against this season you see similar errors from woj. I suggest you look for yourself prior to criticizing me in response. they are all on arsenal player and mainly involve uncertainty about coming out or not and when woj does come out he invariably misses the ball completely, just to name one consistent error.
the stat about goals against says a bit about the central backs AND THE TEAMS DEFENSE, not just our keepers performances.
fab hasn’t played much, so how do you all of a sudden decide he is now a great keeper and over all his bogeys of the past.
he has no confidence coming out, so now he doesn’t come out at all. bac didn’t seem to happy with him recently when he allowed a cross to float across the goalmouth with no call.
these simple small errors can be costly when it matters most, under the most pressure.
personally I just think both our keepers are young and prone to pressure mistakes. nothing more nothing less. they wouldn’t be my choice if it were my money.
I enjoy watching every minute of arsenal thanks, but can also be realistic in my critique of my team, the squad and the club.
any quality coach or manager always looks at the game with realism and looks ahead at how to improve, win, lose or draw, not just when you lose.
you seem to look at arsenal with as long as we are ahead of those teams you dislike such as Tottenham and we are in an ok spot in a few comps, bugger anything else.
we beat them unconvincingly 1 nil. what are you so excited about. tottenham are a shit side, whats the big deal, other than beating our rival.
we wont be playing them for the EPL title or the FA cup.
we still have a few games to go, so we have achieved nothing yet, accept an ok season in general.
you seem to believe because we seem to be doing better than our recent past average years, all is rosy in arsenal land.
sorry you don’t agree with 85% of my comments, but I don’t post on here to please you, and sorry I don’t seem to enjoy my football in line with your policy.
your defense of any critic of the team is certainly consistent.
Our recent past AVERAGE years, Aussie? 16 successive years in the Champions League? and 17 assuming we add this season to the list. With Man U out of contention Arsenal will have the longest unbroken run of qualifications of any club in Europe bar Real Madrid whose record is just one more. Most teams would kill for such a record.
Average it ain’t.
Öskar
Of course it depends what you mean by ‘recent’. Recent to me is anything since the millennium, maybe since 1990. You probably mean the last 5 years?
Öskar
aussie @ 132 — All I will say is that misery loves company. More you invite it, less likely it is ever to leave you. As OTD mentioned succinctly, Arsenal football club is anything but average, in more ways than one. And 99.99% of the football clubs in the Europe would dream of to be in a place like that.
Supporting Arsenal is a privilege, and the experience is one of jouissance, of celebration, and of solidarity.
Criticize all you want, but do not just always criticize. If you cannot even come around to acknowledge the scope of Szczesny’s improvement this season, and the extraordinary talent and confidence for someone so young, then well don’t be surprised if the more level-headed supporters find that to be an exceedingly miserable outlook of the world.
If you really want to feel miserable, think about all the wonderful politicians and statesmen and financiers at the mercy of whose caprice and greed and stupidities the well being of the rest of the humanity hang in the balance…
I’m with the Doc.
Re the keeper situation. Shezza has always looked like he has bags and bags of potential to become a world class keeper. Last year I thought he got a bit cocky and was prone to making poor decisions. This year he has improved massively. His decision making has seen the biggest area of improvement for me. I have always felt that we have hampered his development somewhat by not signing an older experienced keeper to act as a mentor before finally handing over to Shezza for good.
Flappy will always be flappy. He is and always has been a good shot stopper. But he terrifies me every time he comes out for a cross or there is a bit of a scramble in the air. I wish him all the best in the summer. He has never given anything less than 100% but for me is just lacking that bit he needs to become a top keeper. It may sound harsh but I do hope that he does not play in the semi or the final should we successfully progress.
I am with Esso on Doc.
Aussie didn’t have a response to the stats posted above too.
‘Jouissance’ … now that’s a word you don’t read everyday, Dr F. Love it! 🙂
Öskar
Woj and Fab are very good shot stoppers, but for a great team we need a great goal keeper, why did the famous back 4 then have such good records, because they had a David Seaman in goal, they had that assurance, for me the biggest let down with woj is he is not assured. He wants to have his moment under the sun and for a split second he losses that composure which is quint essential in a goal keeper. He is good but needs competition, why was he straight away drafted to the team back when Fabianski has had good games before? I would love to see a gk like Casillas in here, one he is brilliant, 2 woj can learn so much from him. Stats are nice but it only reflects one side of the story, simple, we need a great goal keeper to win us something not a good goal keeper, this is said with the belief that woj can go on to be a great but currently he is not.
I dont know why a lot here felt we played poorly and still won, i for one felt we were pretty good and yes we should have won this game far more easily than what it ended up being but i think it was basically a ploy of playing deeper and then hitting them on the counter, if only giroud had his running boots, we may have had a tennis scoreline.
Saturday will be a lot tougher, typical mourinho tactics, let Arsenal have possession yet not allow them to close to goal, then get a goal and play even more deep what with the hackman like matic amd mikel standing on the toes of the arsenal midfield. Wenger knows all this, mou wont change, can Wenger change and spring a surprise, for starters boss how about having gnabry start instead of poldi, they havent seen much of him, he can add the pace we lack and thats the best way to beat that shit club with no history.
Goalkeeping is not our problem, the inability to score goals when we absolutely have to is where we’ve been falling down since TH14 left. With the best keeper in the world, whoever that might be, we’ll still be struggling until we find that elusive world-class striker.
Öskar
Frankly quite amazed about this keeping discussion. Szczesny still young, but a very competent and improving keeper, as the stats this season – which don’t lie, prove. Fabianski is better back up for me than any other club in the Division.
Someone please name a game we have lost this season as a result of our obvious and constant calamity prone idiots in nets?
And don’t say Villa at home. A certain Anthony Taylor was primarily responsible for that fiasco.
I agree with most comments above.
We need to nick more points than the other pretenders. 4 points minimum from the shady blues. Points nicked by the scousers, then the scousers to eff up against a shite team (or two), while we ride Trigger all the way to the finish line.
That’s how it’s done for sure! 😉
All the best, gunners!
I can’t get my head around this claim that Woz “invariably” misses or drops crosses. I’m sure it’s possible to make a whole youtube video of mishandled crosses and also one where he catches them all. My recollection of Sunday’s game was that after the two drop incidents (one of which, as others have pointed out, was caused by Ade fouling him), he got his head together and handled all the crosses securely with either a catch or a good strong punch.
But that’s just it – I’m probably wrong, but that’s what I choose to remember, because I think Woz is a really good goalkeeper. If I thought the opposite, I would probably choose to remember differently. Objectivity is a myth perpetrated by scientists and now disproved by quantum physics. All is subjective – the observer’s experience of what he/she sees is governed by what his/her preconceived ideas about what he/she is observing.
It’s really easy to prove with footbal matches, but I can’t quite seem to get my wife to understand it in relation to my whisky/cognac intake.
There’s a “what” to many near the end of my 144 – ignore the first one.
“too” many, even.
Fingers not awake yet.
When Saturday Comes – feels like a long way off at the moment – have to keep working to get the days to go by quicker.
I reckon 0-0; 1-0; or 0-1 – very tight game.
Fair enough Eandy, he’s certainly hit some crackers.
Cheers Sweeper. Completely agree with you re the toll that the Munich game took on some – Arteta and Giroud in particular. That’s why I was a bit surprised with the starting line up.
Aussie must be on a wind up. He can’t possibly be serious, otherwise he would have come up with all that ‘evidence’ he promised us.
Morning All
Building up to the end of a very close season I have to say it makes me laugh just how badly we are looked upon as PL champions elict. We are 12-1 outsiders sitting in joint 2nd place on goal difference, Liverpool are 3-1 on the same points ? Then you have to listen too but Arsenal have to play Shitty and Chelski, do they not know that Liverpool have to play them both as well ?
Arsenal the under dog, sounds abit strange. All season we havent been taken seriously even when we sat at the top of the league for long periods. “Arsenal will fall away as they normally do” and shit along them lines. But here we are at the business end of the season still there ! To win the league will be fantastic and not only for the reason of being champions but to shut all the doubters up and say fuck you BBC and Sky pundits who all think its some sort of fluke for Arsenal to be there.
We may not be currently playing the free flowing football that just makes your bottom jaw drop but with the injuries we have had we have had to grind out some results. Thats sort of frowned upon if you are a Arsenal fan *not be me by the way* Murwingeoooo gets applaued as a football genius for grinding out results so if we win the title grinding out results with are current crop of injuries I for one couldnt give a flying fuck.
COYG`s
Cheers
I’m with A1971 all the way. Should we win the title this season, my only regret will be that, since he’s retiring from the show at the end of this season, I won’t be able to watch Hansen squirm all through next season as he has to describe the Arsenal as champions. Fucker.
It’s on
COYG
its all abt confidence in this Arsenal side. we can beat anyone. in england. not so sure against the likes of bayern and barca. yet.
but in england we can do it. confidence is the key. just who is going to get us going on a winning run like freddy all those years ago. need a ramsey like performance from some one. rosicky perhaps? santi? Ox?
I reckon 84 pts will do. hope the boys are really up for it against the chavs and celebrate wengers 1000th with a win. if we do that then the city game will be easier. how i wish.
Riding Trigger????? Don’t tell Wolfie.
😀
Heh Trigger 🙂
Aussie – If your ‘realism’ (hahaha) as an Arsenal fan leads you to ask other Arsenal fans ‘What are you all excited about?’ after a win over Tottenham, then your ‘realism’ is most certainly something I can do without.
“Why does everyone call you Rodney ? Dave.”
“Coz thats my name Trigg”
“So Dave is a nick name then?”
“No ! only you call me Dave ! Trigg”
Legend !
Morning all,
Some good stuff from the usual suspects and some bizarre bits too, following Sunday’s game.
Aussie – I’ve agreed with a fair bit you’ve had to say lately, but you’ve lost me with the goalkeeper comments.
As others have said, Szczesny has been excellent this season. The biggest compliment I can pay Fabianski – and I never thought he would recover from some of his early howlers – is that when we played Everton in the FA Cup, I wasn’t at all worried that he was in goal.
He has been pretty much faultless each time I have seen him this season, and I’m chuffed to bits that he has proved me conpletely wrong.
Arsenal1971 – agreed, agreed.
Just one thing: What, exactly, is a “flying f*ck”, and do you know anyone who has ever achieved this most difficult sounding gymnastic feat ? 😉
Sweeper, excellent stuff@125 and a very good point about the midweek exertions.
As for the Wenger discussion, I am fairly certain he signed months ago but it just hasn’t been announced. Why? Well, mainly because Gazidis pretty much said so in January but also because I think there would have been much more media speculation if he hadn’t and there would be rumours about who is going to take over. Also, Mertesacker and Rosicky signed new deals which I think probably had a lot to do with Arsene giving assurances he will stay and unlike Alex Ferguson Arsene would never lie about that to his players.
tabs@153: amen to that.
Aussie – and I clearly missed the bit Tabs is referring to @153.
Hear, hear, Lars,
and Gazidis would never lie about “very exciting things” that were about to happ …… Oh, hang on ….. 😉
Trev: of course he wouldn’t!
Ehrrm, hang on a bit…
I’d like to take a moment to encourage everyone in the bar to pipe down about trivialities like beating the LWCs at their place and instead focus on the really important stuff, i.e. identifying and then highlighting at length our weaknesses.
Modern football is fast paced. There is no time for joy. Personally, I don’t even celebrate when we score these days – I leave that to you bunch of easily pleased melts.
Instead, I’m hunched over Ollie Giroud’s heat map like a glamour model with a tabloid editor on speed dial, trying to work out if he ran more or less than the week before and whether there’s a striker we could have signed in January who scored this weekend.
You may scoff, but it’ll all be worth it when I turn my findings over to Arsene and Ivan in May. Obviously, they’ll ignore all my finely reasoned conclusions (amateurs!) and continue ploughing their own ignorant furrow instead of signing a world class keeper, centre back, defensive midfielder and striker, as I’m suggesting.
Right, got to go – I’ve some Youtube scouting to do.
Victoria Concordia Crescit
N7 – can’t help feeling you’re missing out on all the fun ??
Heh N7! 🙂
Personally, I’m looking forward to the endless TV re-runs, and hilarious accompanying commentary, of Gooner Tim hurling his jacket at the seat on Sunday.
I am completely convinced we will see round the clock repeats because that’s what they did when Arsene got his coat zip stuck, right ? 😉
Fun? FUN?!
I’m a football supporter. It’s not about fun.
It’s about conducting a systematic analysis of each and every member of our squad, working out who’s under-performing and then shouting it from the rooftops.
It’s about holding the manager to account. Particularly when some bloke on Twitter reckons he had £150m to spend in January AND HE DIDN’T SPEND IT.
It’s about making sure that everyone in that stadium realises that the last thing the team needs is support – it’ll only make them complacent. If it was down to me they’d be left out on the pitch at half time and booed senseless by the entire ground – nothing like a bit of motivation to get them going.
Most of all, it’s about ensuring that the rest of the support knows that if they’re not on internet messageboards complaining about how the club is being run then they’re doing the Arsenal a major disservice. I’m disgusted when I see people in here saying that they’re actually happy with how things are going. Just imagine! Wenger might read that comment, think everything’s OK and recall Djorou.
No Trev, there’s nothing fun about football. It’s a serious old business.
Sherwood has the tactical knowledge of the average PE teacher. Not my words but very true. Spuds and mancs on the radio phone ins have been awesome. Very funny indeed.
Blimey, N7 – I’m just glad I don’t actually go to games with you !
Steve T – please see N7 above. This is not supposed to be FUNny !
N7,
I’m a bit mystified and not totally convinced your right, ‘cos Mr Holic and Mr Bowson go to the games, and after their 14 pints of Guinness they seem to find EVERYTHING funny.
Good stuff, N7.
:s
heh Trev @168
Trev
“A flying F**k is what only handful of people can pull off, like superman, thor and maybe ironman with a few adjustments”
I suppose its a bit of a strange phrase. 🙂
Thats why i said I couldnt give one, hehehe
A flying fuck? An incredible and well practiced art until the chandelier gave way. Now I just have a big hole with nothing to fill it.
Heh Trev 🙂
Recovered from the celebrations Bath? Hearty congrats.
SteveT – haha 🙂
No were near as talented as Steve T- hehe
Thanks Trev – no time for celebrations, had to rush to the airport for flights home. However after a turgid 120 minutes, it was indeed a relief that they had clearly practised pelanties and the other lot hadn’t.
Steve T @173 – heh. Great mental image.
Surely a man of your calibre can fill that hole in the ceiling.
A flying fuck was initiated by a Flying Dutchman non?
N7… top class audition for Pedros job at Le Moan 😉
Aussie, I know you are a long way from Blighty and perhaps you are only just getting last seasons goalkeeping performances but both our keepers have been top class this season (stats as well as eyes). Of course goalkeepers will fuck up now and again, every single keeper does, but ours have done it less frequently than most. The PIG has made some outstanding saves which in some cases have gained us points and I can’t recall a match where he has cost us. He can still improve further over the next few years.
Right off to play an away bowls league match in the superbly named town of Beer – they are the current league leaders. Meanwhile please keep up the good work and pay your taxes so us old farts can keep the grand lifestyle going. Cheers. 🙂
Unlikely from the floor Bath but I will give it a go.
😀
From the Independant, quoted in today’s BBC Gossip column:
That’s quite an insightful analysis from Danny Rose. Do you think it’s an early application for Hansen’s “pundit” spot on MoTD?
COYG
What, exactly, is a “flying f*ck”, and do you know anyone who has ever achieved this most difficult sounding gymnastic feat?
Well, I wouldn’t try it with a dodgy knee. 😯
There’s a town called Beer and tabs isn’t in it? 😯 😯
Afternoon all.
Big heh @ N7.
Heh N7 🙂
N7, that was the best rant I have seen in here in a long, long time 🙂
I suppose if you jumped out of an aircraft you could have time to perform a flying fuck. Probably would be a good idea not to get too distracted to remember to deploy the parachute, though.
Steve T @ 180, JUMP man, give it everything! Be the best you can be! 🙂
Perhaps SteveT needs a little more width?
Just a reminder,Arsenal’s U19s quarter final UEFA Youth League game against Barca is live on EuroSport 1 tonight at 16.45.
Good stuff, N7, we the supporters have lost it! How dare we get excited about beating our closest and most-hated local rivals? Me must now proceed to sack all our supporters who celebrated that victory, extra efforts must be made to ban, for life, all those away boys and girls who dared to stay behind to sing and celebrate with the players long after the game had ended.
brilliant n7
brilliant
.
hangover
hung
less
low
cos of
.
howdy ‘hol an all
hope you’re all
fine and dandy
i feel
and
i’m guessing
look
like a big sack of boiled shite
.
where’s that hairy dog?
Aussie.
Firstly, I can’t really remember roundly criticising you due to Arsenal’s management of injuries, like i said I disagree with many of your points, so rarely bother to react to them as they mostly always seem to verge on the negative and are very repeatitive, so much so infact, that I believe you were requested to cease banging on the drum of glum, as it was getting tedious.
If you don’t want me, or anyone else for that matter criticising your point, then I would suggest not putting your point on a public forum, if your goodself or other posters disagree with my views, then fair enough, most discussions here are about opinion and everyone is entitled to theirs, but on the other side of that same coin, the right to disagree is there too. I’ve seen you playing the self pity card when (many) others disagreed with your stance, a bit of a shame. If you have a strong opinion and you stick to your guns, then good for you, but if that proves an unpopular stance, then don’t go acting the martyr.
Back to the disscussion at hand, you don’t rate our keepers, fair enough. I’ll go check out all their mistakes on ArsenalPlayer like you suggested, because from memory, behalf from the odd brainfart, which every keeper has, (even Seaman who had more then his fair share, Vinay) I can’t remember Woj costing us points this season. As for Fabianski, i never claimed he was a great keeper, I challenged you to name a better back up/second choice keeper in the PL, you neglected to do so. You also failed to acknowledge the stats that others have provided to show that Woj has improved greatly and is (statisicaly seen) the best keeper in the league, how’s that for a bit of realism!?
On the subject of realism, you like to paint yourself as a realist, sorry to break it to you, but you are not, not by a long shot. A realist would come to the conclusion that Arsenal could not challenge for the PL, a realistic target would be 4th or 5th place, yet you expect much more. A realistic view would probably have us in the CL two times out of every three years, a realist would have never expected us to qualify for the CL every year for the best part of two decades. There is no room for realists in football, if there was then there’d be hardly any fans at almost all games, why would they bother? There would be no way that Wigan could have won the FA Cup, even less chance they would beat Citeh again, away, less then a year later in the same competition. We ourselves should of just handed the title to the Mickeys in ’89, because there was no way in hell we were going to win at Anfield, let alone by two clear goals. Realism is a bitch eh?
No, no, no, you my friend are what can only be described as a pessimist, which is your perogative, but don’t go dressing it up as something it is not. You refer to posters like me who don’t share your pessimistic, sorry realistic, views as “sunny siders”, and you use the term as a very thinly veiled insult, like being supportive and optimistic is something to be ashamed of, I’d rather you call me a cunt and have done with it.
Futher down in your post you ask whats the big deal (sic) about beating Sp*rs?
Sorry, but that’s even more baffling to me then your slating of our keepers. I get that you don’t hail from north London as I and many others here do, but even so, if you don’t know what there is to get excited about while putting one over on those smelly swamp dwellers then I really start to wonder if you have fully embraced this whole Arsenal experience. That they are a crap team, which they are not (they managed more points against Manure then we did #forreal), matters not a jot, they are the scum and any win against them is a big deal, especially when we have a depleted team and it was in their ramshackle stadium.
You then go on to say;
we wont be playing them for the EPL title or the FA cup.
Eh, what was that now??????
Sunday we played them for the EPL title, as we did back in September, two games that meant six points that will be added to our total PL tally. The only reason we won’t be playing them in the F.A Cup is because we knocked them out in the Third Round…….. Is that real enough for ya?
Finally, I’m not above critiicising the team or the manager, I pretty much had a fit in the summer on a number of subjects, including our failure to bring in striking reinforcements. I was also dissapointed, although not entirely surprised, that we brought no one in during January. Just because I choose not to use Kim Källström as a stick to beat Wenger with every time something goes wrong doesn’t mean that I’m not saddened about our lack of activety, I just choose to express myself differently. But just as you are not here to please me or pander to my policy, I am not here to champion your views either.
oops
Fixed?
h2h
gonna need
a
corned beef. sandwich
and
a base camp
afore
i scale that
😉
*butters bread*
*applause for H2H*
Seriously, no offence intended to anyone, but if we as a bunch of Gooners can’t spent a couple of days jumping up and down in glee at winning our third (count ’em) NLD of the season then football really is well and truly fucked.
We all have our concerns and criticisms of the club, but there’s an appropriate time, place, tone and quantity in which to express them.
I would far rather celebrate with fellow fans than get into all this bollocks, so Aussie have a drink on me, stick this scarf on and let’s go for a dance in the fountain. We can worry about the quality of our reserve goalkeeper some other time.
COYG
made it
proper gooner h2h
Top stuff H2H.
Where is this town ‘Beer’ Dr Z?
Saddle up the horses immediately! 😉
Hehs @Steve T, 1971, 🙂
Bath, I think you have creditted me with Tabs’ congratulations for Aberdeen, but I will add mine anyway. A great day, I’m sure.
H2H – that is one stormer of a post.
I had actually taken some of Aussie’s posts more at face value than some of your own interpretations, me being a caring, trusting soul and all.
I don’t want to get involved though, other than to say that is a brilliantly put together post.
BOOM!
Well in Lars.
Cheers, H2H. I feel it was a very realistic goal.
198
tabs
there’s a wee town in donegal
called
Muff
.
adjust your
horsey
trajectory
accordingly
. ?
🙂
Bath, Pangloss, N7, H2H, Tabs etc..
A big 😀
Whether
or
not
they have Diving Club
i know not:
I laugh when anyone beats the spuds, not just us p
Cba, hmmmmm corned beef sandwiches.
We can get that over here, although the Dutch call it, cor – ned beef, always envokes a smile on my boat.
Thanks for the kind ones gents, but in the end, I think N7 nailed it, we really should be dancing in the fountains with the product named after the town called Beer.
I do enjoy a good rant though. 😉
Heh @ steve and cba, again.
Towns with funny names;
http://voices.yahoo.com/top-50-cities-funny-names-all-around-the-2931257.html
Some crackers on that list.
cba @205 – do they provide snorkels ? 😉
@209,
Austria also has Kumming and Going
Not a million miles from here is Prat’s Bottom
😉
Here in the vicinity we have Winkel (tee hee) which translates as shop.
But my favourite is Verlaat, it’s always nice to drive into a place that has a big sign which roughly translates as LEAVE.
Cba, – Howdy! Haha, are they twinned? 😉
Hehs at the other funnies 🙂
i’ll be driving through Muff
shortly
😉
fnarr fnarr
but i am
honestly
.
theres a bar called
the squealin’ pig
what that says
who knows
.
so
if
you”re in Muff
bout
5ish
give us
give us
give us a wave
Hahahaha lol 🙂
Thanks tabs @ 171 – I must be more hungover than I thought. Your dram is on the bar.
Masterful, H2H @ 191 – pure genius. Dram on the bar mate.
I did Trev @ 199, thanks to you too. A dram on the bar for you too. When’s the big knee day?
Cheers Bath. Slainte.
The usual suspects are on excellent form today. I thought in a derby form went out the window.
Back from a much needed break and into a new job. Great stuff as always, Holic. Hope all holics are well.
H2H@191 great write up sir
207
h2h
love a bit of corned beef me
mind you
Saturday
or
Sunday
dunno
apparently
whilst drunkenly bulshittin
i opened and ate
a tin of spam like an apple
.
sight to behold
i’m told
.
thats a
wee rhyme for trev
though not about
my finest hour
🙁
Great stuff at 191 H2H.
Arsenal have announced that Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla and Gedion Zelalem have all signed new contracts with the club.
——————–
Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now get sagna!
Well a good week gets better fellas. As we bask in the afterglow of the NLD we can also feel good about new contracts confirmed for Ramsey, Cazorla, and the promising Zelalem.
It seems that the club has learned from past mistakes and is putting a real priority on locking down its key players long term. There’s a strong core at this club, most of whom it appears are going to be around for some years to come.
Though it’s looking increasingly likely that Sagna and Vermaelen will be heading for the door this summer, along with Fabianski and TGSTEL. Not sure what to think of the Poldi situation…
According to Squawka Szczesny has the highest performance rating among keepers in EPL and its not even close. For comparison his is 715, Cech 454.
Corned beef with pickle, now thats a sandwich.
I hate to let facts get in the way of a good moan but Szczesny has also claimed 95% of crosses. Cech 94%
@129 … Sometimes a late sub is for the sole purpose of breaking up the game for a minute.
I truly hope 160 is sarcasm. Great drinks otherwise.
Again, thanks for the kind one gents.
Arsegonian. That can’t be right, those Squawka people obviously don’t have Arsenalplayer where you can see that when…..
woj does come out he invariably misses the ball completely
😉
Thanks for the heads up Delia.
Barca v Arse now on the box,
Penalty to Arsenal….
Hit the post. 🙁
Pretty high quality first half, Arsenal out Barca-ing -Barca for large periods with nice neat intricate passing.
Missed an early penalty and unfortunatly fell behind when a defender, trying to clear, kicked against a Barca player and the riccochet flew in. Definetly against the run of play.
Barca got a bit better after that, but Arsenal managed to equalise just before HT with a nice strike from Gnarby after a great through ball from Torel (who is looking very good).
All to play for in the second half.
Update.
Barca started the second half well, took the lead through a nice break away goal.
Arsenal let them come and another one on one situation sees the Arsenal keeper bring down their striker eaning them a penalty and him a red card.
Barca missed the penalty.
Is there a fountain in the town called Beer?
One-stop-shop for us time-poor Executives. 😎
Got the stream and saw the goal to make it 2-2. German commentators liked it too. Arsenal dominating from the 78th minute until the goal.
Arsenal fighting bravely, creating chances.
Apkom get’s the equaliser!!!!!
That is the same game H2H and Delia are watching. For Lonestar’s edification, BMBD.
Defensive errors. Barcelona 2 more goals in a space of minutes. 🙁
Meh. Two goals in a minute and it’s all but over for the Arsenal.
Brave display though.
Bastard Barca.
More than a cludge. 😉
heh.
Arsegonian@228: 95% eh? Mush be shum mishtake.
Aussie will never believe it.
dr Feelgood 235 regretfully no fountain of beer. Best purveyor of beer there is the Anchor Inn. Another is aptly named “Barrel of Beer”.
No doubt of most interest however is their very own Happy Train
http://www.pecorama.info/ 🙂
Arsenal1971@227: I use to enjoy corned beef with branston and corned beef with sliced pickled onions. Can’t get any of those things here in Denmark – don’t think so anyway – I’m a much healthier eater now.
Town names: here in Denmark, we have a town called Båring (pron. Boring) and another called Tarm which means intestine.
There was also the time we picked English friends up from Esbjerg airport and when we drove down onto the motorway, we were greeted by a big warning sign about Fart Kontrol (Speed camera traps). That kept a nine-year-old boy, aided and abetted by his father, going for the next 100 kilometres.
I knew about Llanfair PG in Wales but that NZ town name is mightily impressive. I guess the “Welcome to …” sign is strung across the road.
Many hehs at TaBs, Steve T, Trev, Bath and the veritable epic by H2H.
Cba and Arse1971. Corned beef & pickle – love it. No relation to nbned 😉
dkG heh. 20 miles inland from the coast, there is a road sign pointing to a hamlet called Sea. The must have got some unsuspecting travellers going round in circles. Famously, one of my customers / major industrial company in Istanbul ( when I was working) is called Arcelik …kept the office staff permanently amused.
Nope that link didn’t work for me Ups but I can envisage dropping Anchor at the Anchor, of an Evening. 🙂
#230
#160
not sarcasm
genius
This Drogba/Mourinho stuff is enough to make you puke.
Dr Z….fukcing tryping mistook…try http://www.pecorama.info/ 😳
young maureen
.
a fat lip
and
a thick ear
.
howdy z
hope your day went
well
Uply.
Beer and happy trains….
Count me in.
this is a bit old now, but here’s some actual numbers for the keeper debate.
http://www.7amkickoff.com/2013/is-szczesny-the-best-goalkeeper-in-the-premier-league/
i think that unquestionably the keeper has improved in the past eighteen months. for me, the decision-making, distribution, positioning, claiming of crosses, and shot blocking have all improved to one degree or another. i always thought this keeper had potential, and with a keeper this good, we might not have to buy one until he’s in his late thirties. that for me, is the best business we can do.
H2H – there will be plenty of puffs of smoke ( I said puffs Wolfie 😉 ).
Mourinho claiming that the horror tackle by Ramires at the weekend was Chris Foy’s fault !
Foy is no favourite of mine but, come on !
Foy had apparently frustrated Ramires in to trying to break an opponents leg. As a result, Mourinho does not think Foy should be allowed to referee any more Chelsea games.
Who does this self-seeking little turd really think he is, and why does the FA let him get away with it ? Other managers would not be able to make these comments with impunity.
fat lip thick ear
Sat opposite two Chelsea Neanderthals tonight on their way to the Bridge. I was going to hear Daniel Kahnemann just to prove I’m not just a pretty face.
Firstly they spoke of a’ Jose’ like he was a God. and felt he had totally outmanoeuvred Foy on Saturday by his handling of affairs. They felt there was a major conspiracy against them because everyone wanted them to lose ( that’s true at least ) and then they started on us. They couldn’t believe how we celebrated at the Lane on Sunday. Do they not know how we hate the LWCs? Anyway they think that they are going go win the league…probably…unless Citeh do..or Liverpool or us. Truly the scales fell away from my eyes and I got an insight into the title race previously denied to me. If the average Chelsea fan doubled his brain cells he would be a plant.
Glad they won though.It improves the English coefficient, tires them out further and will ensure they are taken apart in the next round.
Trev,
I believe you are about to face the knife. Good luck mate but don’t try any flying f***s until you are off the crutches. And use the wardrobe to give yourself a launching pad
…and if you attempt the flying manoeuvre described by Lars in #185, please make it a quickie and be sure to get out of there in time…
Öskar
Ttg,
Yes, on Friday morning, and thanks.
I don’t think Mourinho outmanoeuvred Foy on Saturday, I think he just used him, and his own row with him, to write the cover story which would distract people from talking about the fact that Chelsea weren’t good enough to beat Aston Villa.
Of course, apart from disguising Chelsea’s failure, it did give him yet another opportunity to just talk about himself. His posture appears constantly calculated to promote some sort of gladiator like persona, while his intonation when he speaks betrays his complete disdain for authority, his competitors and anybody else who crosses him.
Psychologists have a term for people who display these characteristics –
Wankers.
Seriously though, narcissists are ranked on a nine point scale, and the higher the ranking the more unpleasant – and in social circumstances, dangerous – they become in their attempts to win, and control everyone and everything around them. At the same time, their reaction to failure or loss of face becomes more and more disproportionate as their ranking rises.
The more I see of that obnoxious, jumped up little jerk, the more he fits the bill.
Gladiator? More like a gladiola, imo.
Öskar
Mourinho: 9 out of 9 on the international Wanker scale.
OTD @ 262: Ha ha! How appropriate …
Trev @ 261: Precise and accurate analysis of that the archetype of obnoxious. That is why he suits best the teams and fan-bases that share or seem to thrive in this perpetual persecution complex. Like the perennial pariahs of Italian Football in Inter. More his continuous us-against-the-world posturing exasperated and infuriated the rest of the Italian football more he used that as a fuel to make his team fight for a non-existing cause. It may have given Inter a taste of success after many barren years but other than that he left nothing but sour memories in Italian football, and of course not a single new talent or any new system in place for Inter to maintain any degree of consistency going forward.
He devises the worst kind of ‘success’, something that is built on men’s lower impulses of insecurity and cynicism, and for all his trophy hauls outside supporters of really ‘nobody’ clubs no one will remember him fondly once he leaves the scene.
The sooner that comes the better it is for football.
@264: Reading back that post, I guess I allowed my dislike for Inter (following Milan in my formative years left its imprint ) to paint them less objectively. They are traditionally a ‘big’ club with lots of domestic trophies, even though spent much of the nineties in the doldrum, and their more right-wing supporters base (as abominable as that of Lazio’s) doesn’t take away from the fact that they are well supported … still I think they are a rather unpleasant team and was a natural fit for Moaninho.
Good luck to you Trev
Good luck for Friday, Trev.
Best of luck with the knee, Trev.
This is apparently an extract of an interview Diaby gave with French media recently.
Enjoy! 😉
“I never had such a long break. I never had a knee injury and it is really weird. You can feel physically there is something different.
“But I learnt a lot from my injuries. I can keep things in perspective.
“Even now I am very close to the end of my specific work, I keep things in perspective.
“I can master my impatience. I want to be back being strong, very strong and perfectly at ease in my body.
“I work hard without asking questions. I work hard because I know in the end I will play again.
“I am still a high level footballer in my mind, otherwise I would have given up. But I never think to give it up.
“It doesn’t mean I never had difficult moments, but I have always bounced back. Some people experience much more difficult things in their lives. I know my reward will be to have fun playing again.
“I will take stock with Arsenal medical staff early in April, but I hope to resume collective training sessions very soon.
“My priorities? Feeling fine and play again before the end of the season.
“I don’t think I will be scared to play. I trust my body. Nowadays I feel strong, but I know coming back to London I will also have some changes. I am watching closely my diet and recovering periods.
“The French team? I have never abandoned the idea to go to the World Cup.
“I have always kept that in a corner of my mind to go on working. As soon as I will be back on the pitch, everything is possible.”
Personally I think it would be good if Diaby could come back as good as RVP and Rosicky did. But if I were Arsenal, I wouldn’t rely upon it.
Mourinho is the Piers Morgan of football management.
Mourinho turns my stomach! 🙁
Nice one, Trev @261.
All the very best wishes for Friday.
The last time Sperz celebrated a goal against Arsenal was when Newcastle equalised.
Retweeted by The Gooner
All the best with the op on Friday, Trev. Here is a rehab exercise to get the knee back into shape.
http://www.billtidy.com/uploadedfiles/cloggies1.jpg
Good analysis of Woj by 7amkickoff. Thanks for the link, mf@254. As an aside, it seems AW was right not to replace Woj with one of the keepers he was being urged to buy and who, as it turns out, would have been a downgrade not an upgrade.
Howdy ‘hols.
Good luck with the impending op, Trev.
====
Saw this between the guff this morning;
http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/18/nicklas-bendtner-targeting-100-per-cent-pay-rise-when-he-quits-arsenal-in-the-summer-4639813/
He really is on another planet, isn’t he.
Good luck with the plastic surgery Trev.
How’s your knee these days? 😉
Here’s one to debate in the absence of a post from the Barman.
Arsene’s 1000th game on Saturday.
In the preceding 999 what has been
(a) The best result in terms of achievement versus expectation
(b) The best ever performance (assuming (a) does not equal (b) )
I’m still wrestling with this one…..
a) Inter 1 Arsenal 5
b) Yanited 0 Arsenal 1 (1998)
Spot on there with both Esso.
Zico,
(a) The best collective result was to win the league unbeaten. For all the money that is now in the game, no other team has done that and when Wenger first muted the possibility of it being done people laughed at him. No one expected it, not even the most ardent of his followers.
(b) The best (singular) team performance I think was beating Barca at home in the CL. That Barca team will go down in history as one of the all time great teams. Wenger is on record as saying it was the best team he’s ever seen. That was an amazing game.
Agree with (a)
Still ruminating on (b), esso,
a) Invincible season
b) Arsenal 5 Spurs 2, The one when we came down from 2 down, not only to beat them, but the ref too.
Fair enough Joe, but I was thinking individual games.
I mean if you want really individual performances from that team and that season think TH14 versus the Mickey Mousers at Highbury.
The first performance that came to my mind was the match against Juve? in the season we got to the CL Final. The on where Pires dispossesed Vieira.
Not even worth 2p
Made the same faux pas as Joe.
Probably have to agree with Esso on that one, or the win in the Bernabeu.
There’s loads.
That Wenger, eh, what the fuck does he know…..
We’d be better off with managers like Moyes or Laudrup.
Any one of the games during that Champions league 06 run for me. Apart from the final of course.
I’d go with Joe, the home CL game against Barca, for (b). That Barca side was not just one of the greatest teams ever but also at the height of their powers.
Esso’s pick of the 1-5 in Milan must be up there for (a) but how about the 2–0 win at Blackburn in 1996, game no 1 for ‘Arsene Who?’
Also Amy Lawrence has picked her all-time Wenger era XI. Only Woj of the current squad even makes the bench.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/mar/19/arsene-wenger-greatest-arsenal-xi
Her money quote: “Wenger’s football is at its best when based on devastatingly fast breaks.”
zico @284 – good call sir. I remember sitting in the North Bank that day watching that performance v the Mickeys with awe and saying to Miss B that we were witnessing history being made. That is right up there with the San Siro win and the win vs Barca.
nutmegs sandro
allspices kaboul
Afternoon all,
Trev – Good stuff on Maureen and good luck with the op on friday.
Goonertown – Good stuff about Diaby. Each lengthy absence makes the prosect of any prolonged period of fitness more and more unlikely, but I really hope he can do it. His willingness to keep at it and not give up can only be admired.
Dr Z – Good question. Too many to choose from. Difficult to disagree with choices made by Esso Joe and H2H.
Best performance Id go a bit leftfield and go for the 4-1 home win over Bayer Leveukeusen in 02. Our football that night was from a different planet. Leveukeusen were a pretty decent side (they got to the final that year), but we were in a different league.
Most unexpected – I’d go for the 5-3 win at the Bridge in 11-12.
Aaah, good call tabs, worth the nomination just for the JT chewing the cud moment alone.
Indeed H2H! Hoping for similar this weekend 🙂
Would be briliant. That, or something along the lines of the Kanu come back hatrick, that was sweeeeeeeeet too.
Too many to choose from…
And where did I ask Best Pint?
Interesting and rather counter-intuitive that this season we have the best winning percentage (66.67%) in all of Arsene’s time at Arsenal: http://www.arsenal.com/news/features/20140318/wenger-1000 . The next best is the 01-02 campaign (65%).
Let this be more than a statistical coincidence then 🙂
SHOOTS
Well in, H2H!
For most unexpected, the away win at real 1-0 or the 5-1 at Inter . A depleted side, and a star-studded real line-up (Zidane, Beckham, Ronaldo, Guti, Casillas), and at Benabeau …
For best I will have to choose between the surprising beauty of the 2-1 against Barca (not only a good footballing but a very good tactical performance, waiting for them to tire a bit and then rely on counter-attacks and two fantastic goals, some great defending) and ruthlessness of the 5-1 at Inter where a very good Inter team was just bulldozed away. The first 5-2 against Spurs in two seasons back gets a special mention for the sheer ‘we have had enough’ bravado and quality of the comeback.
Heh Dr Z 🙂
H2H – Well in and aye on the Kanu hat-trick. Only player I’ve ever seen whose goals often just used to reduce me to a fit of helpless giggles, his last in that hat trick being one of ’em. There were many others – the back flick at Boro, his humiliation of that Spurs defender at the Lane, his quadruple dummy in that Euro game when he sent half the North bk the wrong way, and a goal against Sheff wed when he insisted on beating half the wednesday team whilst about two yards out rather than just tapping it in.
Ned – Great link. I’d go for Mad Jens in goal (thought Seaman was past it by the time Aw turned up). I’d also have Bac rather than Dixon at RB. Difficult to see Overmars and Pires in the same side so I’d pick Parlour or Freddie on the right instead of Overmars. Difficult to argue with any of the other choices.
Great Wenger pics in this article.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2582825/Arsene-Wenger-1-000-Arsenal-games-Golden-Years-special.html
One of the more memorable ones shows Wenger actually did not have any arms when he was managing Nancy. The other one I like is of AW bicycling during Austrian training camp. No wonder he didn’t want to go on these international tours. I would swap an airplane for a bicycle in a second.
Zico
A fine and devilishly difficult question.
The result that bowled me over most was the one in the Bernabeu because we had been rank awful just before that.
The best in terms of quality of performance is hard to rank because in the 7-0 win over Everton in 2005 they had clearly been in the pub for four days after qualifying for the CL qualifier which they did not qualify from if you get my drift. Similarly we have been brilliant against Shakhtar, Slavia Prague, Blackburn and so on but they were largely rubbish. I think the best performance was the 5-1 in the San Siro, a massive result and tied with it the Barca home draw where we enjoyed the benefit of some rather erratic decisions in the first half but were superb in the second. The fact that it’s so difficult to pick shows you how AW has raised standards and created expectations.
Winning the league unbeaten is the finest achievement in English domestic football history, he says biased ly but with a fair degree do belief
bt8b @ 304 – nice link (despite it being the Daily Fail). Thanks.
Great links gents.
I always rated Overmars, thought his stay at Arsenal a little too short to put him in that team though. Cole as good as he was left too soon too. I’d personly make a place for Parlour on the bench. As tabs has alluded to, David was on the wane when AW took over, still top notch though, but Jens was the invincible………
Woj will be better then both. 😉
Great pics 8Ball.
Worst Arsene side?
Almunia
Vivas, Senderos, Cygan, Santos.
Eboue, Denilson, Grimandi, Arshavin
Bendtner, Jeffers.
Tried to pick players who played quite a lot rather than those who played a handful (Park, Bischcoff etc).
Wright for Almunia.
You think H2H? Quite possibly. He let in a soft one at Tottenham which is always unforgiveable. I think my opinion on Almunia is skewed cos he was in the hotseat for over 3 seasons. That, and because he sat around for a couple of years picking up his cash when he was 3rd choice. At least Wright wanted to play and moved on when he didn’t make the grade.
tabs @ 308: A bit unfair to Arshavin, maybe? 🙂
He started very brightly and I guess eventually his lack of fitness and maybe the defensive unwillingness sidelined him…but despite all of that he was a tremendously talented player with a lot of audacious imagination and scored a few fantastic goals for us. He has given us quite a few memorable (in a positive sense) moments to be grouped with Denilson and Bendy.
I would put Gervinho (still unfair to him) and Nasri (really just six months of good form otherwise patchy and injured) ahead of Arshavin. Or better Djourou at RB, shifting the back line, and Santos as attacking mid a role in which he was tried a few times and had inconsistent performances.
You would of seemn ore of them then me mate, just never saw Wright as an Arsenal keeper.
From the outside looking in, I could never shake the feeling that he and Jeffers were brought in to appease the xenophobic meedja, who loved nothing better then to remind all and sundry at every corner that Arsenal were a team of foreigners.
Faustus – Yep very unfair on the Russian 🙂 , just couldn’t resist it because of his unwillingness to get fit in his last couple of years at the Club. Nothing annoys me more than someone who just can’t be arsed, far more so than lack of talent. Think Djourou would be a bit unlucky to find himself in that side. Had a good 10-11 until he got injured.
H2H – Quite possibly. Wright had a couple of spectacular games for Ipswich at Highbury when he had loads to do and I guess AW was swayed by that. As for Jeffers, no idea. Obviously influenced by that cup final vs Liverpool when chance after chance went begging and there was all that talk of the ‘fox in the box’. Could never see Jeffers nailing down a place given the competition.
I would put Igors Stepanovs in ahead of Senderos. Senderos was part of a team that reached the CL final with 14 shutouts! I also thought Wright was a better keeper than he subsequently proved to be but I am sympathetic to the arguments about Almunia and I think he made enough rickets to be included. I thought Stefan Malz should be in ahead of Arshavin and Alberto Mendes was worse than both. Gervinho would be in any team like this as I thought he was very disappointing . Kaba Diawara who never scored should take the place of TGSTEL who has notched a few important goals. Jeffers was not a fix in the box but was he worse than Fabien Caballero?
Fark me, that was a bloody long backdrink! Remind me not to let myself get 2 weeks behind anytime soon… Although there are fair reasons for this, with smashing Uni work, smashing tests and going out and doing my best to get bolloxed, it’s hard to keep up with the drinks 8)
It’s been interesting to read the predictions and assumptions in the match previews of you guys and see who was closest to the actual result after the actual result. I would give you the findings but its been so long that I can’t remember!
What’s been new with me? Well I’m two (passed) online maths tests from having passed my course at a relatively gentle canter and I got voted in as Kit Secretary for next year’s committee in my Uni’s Tennis Club (no opposition thankfully muhahaha), things are going well in general and I hope that the same can be said for the majority of you guys 🙂
On the Arsenal front, I’ve really enjoyed watching recent games, even in spite of certain players’ disgusting diving antics and the like. On the Rosicky goal, I’d just got into the house after having played a few hours of tennis and my housemate who doesn’t follow football at all was in awe at the quality of the strike. I didn’t really like the ‘he won’t score a better goal than that in his career’ spiel reeled out my pundits and celebrity haters in the wake of that game because as spectacular as that goal was, I personally think he’s scored better for club and country as others in this bar have alluded to. Just my two cents on that matter anyway. It was very touching that he gave his shirt to the fan in the wheelchair, what a guy Super Tom is 🙂
Two of my housemates played in a Varsity football game today against our local rivals (before you ask, the rivalry doesn’t have the gravitas of the NLD 😉 ) and it was interesting to see the difference between football at University level and the professional level as I’d never watched football at the university level live before. A lot of newfound but already known respect had to be awarded to the pros, they make it look a lot easier than it actually is (Diagonal Lofted Through Balls, for example). Saying that, I reckon if I could be bothered that I could have played in that team (the 2’s, so the 2nd best football squad in the Uni), thought they were a lot better than they actually were, although that may have been due to the hype generated by my two housemates, one of them is the captain to boot haha.
Anyway, I’m happy to be back, with the academic term coming to an end for Easter soon, hopefully I’ll be on the drinks more often than recently (Y)
Nice to see you back Wind mate, congrats on your smashings. 😉
Haha thanks H2H :p
Nice worst XI tabs, a bit harsh on Eboue though 😉
Some fantastic posts in these drinks
Arshavin deserves his place due to the reason that he literaly strolled through his Arsenal career. Had the god given talent to be a giant, but just couldn’t be arsed, Unforgivable.
He does H2H, but that goal vs THAT B*rca team to win the 1st leg for us… You could say it’s not enough for him not to be in the worst XI, but that goal along with the 4 vs Liverpool @ Anfield means that I will always think about his Arsenal career in a generally positive light, as wasted as it was.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/26655587
Ttg , all good shouts but I kind of discounted the likes of Diawara, Caballero, Malz, Stepanovs et al on the grounds that they never really played all that much. Gervinho is probably a good shout though. Fair enough on Senderos, he was excellent in that 06 run. How about putting Sylvestre in instead? 😉
Cheers Harsha. 🙂
Welcome back Wind!
It’s about fucking time.
So Maureen’s being done by the FA – one set of wankers accusing another.
I blame Sir Chris Hoy.
Thanks tabs 🙂
Nice post Harsha!
Mourinho’s finally gotten charged for his continual attention seeking (for himself) and redirecting (in the case that his team are bettered). Good.
tabs @ 322: Even if it were patently unfair I would find a way to put both Billy Gallas and Sylvestre in. Gallas particularly — for all his accomplishments and professionalism — was such a destabilizing and negative factor IMHO he deserves to be in that eleven. Did not deserve to be the captain. Sylvestre was very poor as well.
Almunia – Gallas – Sylvestre – Clichy – Eboue : A nightmare defensive line-up for the forwards…of Arsenal.
Szczesny – Per – Kos – Gibbo – Sagna … now that is called progress. 🙂
“I don’t know why I was sent off,” Mourinho told BBC Radio 5 live. “I asked, but the referee refused to speak to me.
Maybe because you shouldn’t of been on the pitch in the first place you dispicable testiburger.
Faustus – got there first on Sylvestre 🙂 Good shout! Harsh on Gallas though. Complete knobhead but on his day (and I accept he was inconsistent) he was a tremendous player.
H2H – ‘testiburger’ Hahaha 🙂
Come on Olympiakos, and please extend Manure’s misery. Not confident though, given the Greeks’ history in England. And two yellows already.
Just think — if Manure go through, they’d only need three wins and two draws in the remaining CL matches to win it all and knock out 4th place side. Not very likely, but remember Chelsea 2012….
Wow – attention span of a fucking goldfish.
The lot of ya. 😉
Many thanks for yet more good wishes regarding my blasted knee ! 😉
Really, much appreciated. And for any kind words re the Mourinho comments.
Haven’t had time to get involved with the best/worst results/teams/ players etc. but I was just thinking I would somehow find a place for Gallas in the worst XI I noticed Tabs had already covered it.
He may well have been far from one of the worst individual players but our defence with him in it was a constant utter shambles.
My recollections of those days were the inevitable crying on the pitch at Birmingham, defenders repeatedly staring at each other as yet another ‘oh so easy’ goal was scored against us, his refusal to even speak to team mates, unless it was to have a sulky row with whoever was in goal that day.
In short – a knob.
Anyone spot the common factor here with Mourinho ?
That’ll be the indelible stain of the chavs from the bus stop.
So Mr Gallas, consider my whole worst XI dedicated entirely to you. At least all the other nominees weren’t deliberately crap.
Campbell just skins Jones and his cutback should have been finished off by his partner. Shows pace and an eye for making the right pass; looks to be the real deal…
tabs @ 328: Very harsh on Gallas! But could I please be harsher? 🙂
How about an Emirates era first XI (sans Henry)?
Szcz
Gibbs – Per – Kos – Sagna (Clichy has a case for LB though)
Arteta – Cesc – Rosicky
Santi – RVP – Theo
Apologies, Tabs,
I’d read Faustus’ comments to you as your own.
Mourinho is a scümbücket. That may be the reason Foy refused to speak to him.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
..fuck off RvP really
Tabs
I had forgotten Sylvestre. He goes straight into Room 101 as far as I am concerned or our worst ever team. He was bloody useless except for the header he got agains Sperz. SAF saw Wenger coming there! I remembef