Three Points For Arsenal On A Difficult Evening
May 1st, 2016 by 'holic
A plate of first-class pasta, a little red wine, a tasty Guinness, and good spirits abounded as we took our seats and awaited an afternoon of mass demonstrations and sparkling football. Neither really materialised, although the potential for both to happen is real enough.
Frankly in the first-half we saw a pretty insipid performance from Arsenal. We’ve seen this match before. Slow, laboured build-up play allowing the visitors to shut up shop without trying too hard. Norwich, desperate for points threatened far more than their league position suggests and we had Petr Cech to thank for a couple of outstanding saves from Redmond.
On twelve minutes the first of the ‘Time for Change’ protests started. The number of banners on display was much lower than I expected and briefly united the home support with a chorus of ‘We love you Arsenal’, which quickly gave way to an unexpected but noisy rendition of ‘One Arsene Wenger’. I think there are many who may consider that Arsene’s race is run, but who want to voice their appreciation for everything he has achieved for the club.
We started the second-half on the back foot and before long the unfortunate Per Mertesacker was withdrawn with what appeared to be hamstring trouble. Gabriel was introduced and shortly afterwards Danny Welbeck came on to replace Alex Iwobi. There were boos for the withdrawal of Iwobi who has quickly become a fans favourite, but the decision felt like the right one and it was vindicated when Welbeck put the finishing touch to a twenty pass, ten player move.
Arsenal 1-0 Norwich City
Norwich were far from finished and only a last-ditch challenge by Gabriel prevented Mbokani from snatching an equaliser. Mesut Ozil came more and more into the match as we sought the security of a second goal. He set up Alexis for an effort that Ruddy saved comfortably and then drew another save from the Norwich goalkeeper himself.
The second protest with only twelve minutes to play was even more sparse than the first, but by then the protesters had achieved their aim of media interest. It was sad to hear of infighting again. Some people on both sides need to have a rethink about what constitutes reasonable behaviour.
Mohamed Elneny drew one more save from the visiting custodian and the match ended as something of a damp squib. The three points are so welcome and at least for a day we were back in third place in the Premier League. Come on the Saints today!
Arsene Wenger was more understanding in his post-match comments than prior to the match.
“I think this season we hoped that we could win the league. It didn’t happen and that’s why people are frustrated. I can share that frustration. The aim is to come back and do what is needed to do it next year.”
Which is indeed what everyone connected with the club wants.
PS I’m hearing reports of songs beforehand plumbing the depths. I doubt the pond life who wished Wenger dead read this, but if you do you need help, seriously.
200 Responses to “Three Points For Arsenal On A Difficult Evening”
No “gone in the fetlock” regarding Mertesacker? Standards are slipping
π
Totally agree with your PS
Nice one Holic.
I was glad, not only for the three points, but in beating Norwich we also gave Newcastle something to fight for – this can only be at the expense of a certain nameless club.
It was heartening to read some of the drinks in the previous post regarding the latest protest.
For the perspective of the football fans country- or world-wide, it may be interesting to look at the comments section on the Guardian’s report on the game. Be sure to order the comments by ‘Recommendations’.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/30/arsenal-norwich-city-premier-league-match-report
Thanks for the report Holic. 3 points and an important step closer to a rescuing finish ‘if you like’ (channeling my inner John Hartson).
Fourth place trophy.
Fine report Guvna
And you can lose the ‘this’, Holic.
“I doubt the pond life who wished Wenger dead read”
It was good to see the polite comments to the protesters in Block 32
If the banner wielders persist in standing up and waving their artwork at 12 minutes and 78 minutes, there will be violence; a ginger twat standing waving an A3 paper rag at 78 minutes nearly got smacked for obscuring the view of fans who wanted to see us defend our lead.
However the scum singing about Wenger’s demise should be preserved in a cage in a zoo; we may have found the missing link to our simian ancestors.
Horrified to hear of the appalling songs, thank goodness I was well out of ear shot. A pity the culprits cannot be identified and banned from the stadium.
I always thought genuine Arsenal fans were above this nonsense, just shows how wrong one can be. I fear I must be showing my age.
COYRs
Another fair and measured report ‘holic.
If those reported death songs are indeed true, then that’s an utter disgrace and shockingly disrespectful towards anyone, nevermind Arsene Wenger, and anywhere. Mature and measure Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Expression fine, but never in a dark, morbid, animalistic and primitive manner. That’s unacceptable no matter what the cause and motivation.
Up the Arse!
Cheers H! Great to see you yesterday if only briefly.
Thanks for that report GKS. I wish the Guardian would send reporters to the game so that they can follow the action. Anyone who thought the substitution of Welbeck for Iwobi was made to loud cheers must have been on the sauce all afternoon! It strikes me that there is more media coverage of Arsenal and the kerfuffle going on is out of proportion to the size of the problem. It doesn’t mean I’m happy about this season but I think some Arsenal ‘ fans’ have a warped sense of perspective especially those who only sit and blog and never go near the ground.
Great report Holic capturing the essence of the day much better than the Guardian. I’m so glad that there are fans like the characters on here who have a sense of reality and decency which characterises our club. It’s like a breath of fresh air particularly when you contrast it with the detritus who sang that awful song.
As I try to reflect on the current playing issues it does worry me that some of our players are so out of form and so lacking in confidence . Could it be a major psychological challenge to represent Arsenal at home in the current situation? Do those players lack the character of a Mclintock, Adams or Vieira? Certainly some look shot to shit and scared to perform.And do we need to revise the rhetoric that says we lost to a pathetic United at Old Trafford? Since they’ve had Rashford they have been close to the best team in the country. The Swansea defeat was another matter. Certainly today they look able to overrun Leicester and the Foxes will do well to come away with a point
Lesta showing us what real mental strength, belief, hard work plus a couple of decent players can achieve.
Hey ho, fair enough, the paying customers have spoken (or rather not spoken) and I can abide by that. Means we’ll be back in the same situation this time next year. The horribleness outside the stadium confirmed that inside, discreetly and during game time was the right time and place, raising a few A4s to back up the pub talk and online complaints. Advantage Wenger. Since apparently there’s only one Arsene Wenger. What produced the non reaction ? Civility ? Passivity ? Middle class good manners ? Guilt in fact that maybe he was right after all and it was the fans that did, do and will continue to create that difficult climate and non atmosphere ? Happiness or at least acceptance with top 4 and the last 20 years in it’s totality ? Who knows but I can accept that something fairly democratic took place yesterday and it’s time to shut up. COYG.
ScGooner
Fair play to you as I know you want Wenger to leave. Around me there was very little support for the demonstration. I think the reaction was partly respect for Wenger and partly a feeling that the club is more important than anybody’s personal feelings and we were in the middle of an important match . My neighbour now wants him to leave but to do so in a situation where he can leave with dignity. Oddly we can still finish second as things stand and if we did to a side that only lost three games in winning the title ( two of them to us) it might on reflection have been a much harder title to win than people suggest.
Interestingly Citeh have rested a lot of players this afternoon
ScG, thanks for that. Actually, as I wrote I think there are many more people who think Arsene’s time should be up who don’t want to be associated with some of those who have used the various protests for self-publicity and to spread the vile abuse witnessed yesterday.
I also think they are howling at the moon. Stan and the board don’t want Arsene to go, and he doesn’t want to leave. As for Kroenke out, how do you protest a man who owns two thirds of the club out of the door? It annoys that if you don’t campaign for change that you are somehow apathetic.
Everybody has opinions and are entitled to them, as long as they are always put forward with respect and without added violence and abuse. That applies to both sides in the debate.
Get In… Saints!
π
Get In again!!
Get that goal difference down…!!!!
π
2-0 Saints. City on course to replicate Arsenal result at this ground.
Fourth virtually wrapped up with today’s OT draw. On to third! And will Chelscum help make second realizable?
I think the rationales of why the “protest” failed misses the point a little and ignores the natural tribalistic instincts when someone attacks your group.
My best way of explaining this is through my old long deceased Nan, an Islington girl to her very soul ( long before Islington was ever considered fancy). She would “coat” every single one of the family and at some point in time we all her withering critiques and shaking head when we somehow fell below her expectations. BUT if anyone else had a go at the family (even one of us agreeing with her) then she would come down on you like a ton of bricks for not showing respect. She was a strong, often irrational woman, but she held the family together and we were never as connected once she was gone.
Even if you agree about the state of the club, plenty of us channel my Nan when someone else has a go.
Cheers TTG and thanks Hoilc, both for the comment and for not bouncing me out for repetitive slurring at the bar. Keep up the good work. COYG.
ScGooner
Tip of the hat for a very classy post.
Here’s to better days.
I think the debate has got to the stage where the anti- Wenger brigade not only don’t want Arsenal to win or be successful but they would want Wenger out even if we had won the league this season
Well well well, Soton are doing us a big favor!
The vile chants are no surprise, there are pockets of pure hatred for Wenger in the fanbase and it’s been going on for years.
I find his comments interesting, I wonder what he believes when he says what is needed will be done. We started he season with 22 players, some of them with long-term injuries, some of them made of glass. Hopefully he won’t make that mistake twice.
@TTG: Some of them clearly do. They were harping on 10 years without a trophy, after we won the FA cup they switched overnight to complaining about not winning the league. If we win it they’ll moan about not winning the CL.
Mane hat-trick. Whew!!
21@TTG
That observation is spot on.. and that is indeed sad.
On a more positive note.. come on Saints! Get a couple more!
π
Matt
Very well put, the degree of bile towards a very decent man has gone way beyond what is appropriate for supporters of a football team. You’d think he was systematically putting supporters with views opposite to his own to death or at the very least torturing them.
If we get a draw at Citeh next week( they play and will be beaten on Wednesday) we will get third.
Nice one N7. I’ve been on the end of a couple of your Auntie Nan broadsides but you’re good, regular reading. Bravo. At the end of the day, we are the Arsenal.
Good day, with both Man City and Manure dropping points we are almost guaranteed a top four spot even if we lose to Man City
Care and expertise as ever, Holic.
Good stuff too from Scgooner, TTG, bath, Matt.
Bath matt ? Oh well ……
Had my own confrontation with a “poster boy” yesterday but thankfully missed completely the vile and ridiculous abuse afterwards.
Give these braindead idiots enough publicity and they will exploit it to the point where they destroy their own cause – if they haven’t already.
Stupid really because many of us agree it is probably time for change but will not want to be associated with this kind of abuse.
Chris66 @18,
You’ve hit the proverbial nail smack bang on the middle of its head! It’s all fairly basic, primordial, psycho-social instincts of survival and self-protectionism in play! Everyone feels a sense of entitlement and there’s nobody who feels that they do not.
There was a little gem from Wenger about the protests in his post match comments yesterday… “I think it is more disappointed love than real aggression… ”
The club would do really well to find a replacement with half his intellect (hopefully at the of a trophy laden next season)
So I guess any fan that thinks Wenger’s reign should be coming to an end is somehow anti- Arsenal. This site used to be an open forum for fans of the Arsenal to say what’s on their mind in a respective way. As soon as somehow says something about Wenger, some in here will start calling such posters names and reminds us of how bad Arsenal was in the 1950s,60s,70s I don’t know. Holic, I respect what you have made of this site, and this is in no way or form referring to you because God knows you are open minded about your writing. I just don’t want people to start thinking this is a strictly Pro- Wenger site. It is a Pro Arsenal site. And yes I am one of those fans that think even if we won the PL this year Arsene should step down, my opinion of course.
SAG – There are lunatics who want him dead and lunatics who want him to get a new contract. Both sets of lunatics care more about the fate of the person than the club, IMO.
In between those two extremes there’s everybody else, talking the subject to death and with what is best for Arsenal basically at heart. Lots of disagreement in there and perhaps a bit more agreement than some would want to admit.
It’s all bollocks anyway.
SAG
In a funny sort of way if Wenger left on a triumphant note it would be the perfect ending for most people on this site, I guess. The overriding feeling is that we don’t want him tipped out by some of the gobshites that behave in a very classless way. Of course there is a very real argument that it’s time for change and under the very measured and fair gaze of Holic this debate on this site is way more civilised than any I’ve seen elsewhere. I thought the extremely classy post by Scgooner was a perfect example of what good debate should be about with real understanding and acceptance of the other side of the argument even if you don’t believe it yourself.
We now have a week where the Totts will attempt to stay in it tomorrow All of the Totts I know are desperately disappointed but it’s been the best season and best team they’ve had since the early sixties and they never contemplated getting close at the start of the season although they would have expected to be well above Leicester! If Chelsea beat them they will be in a real lather worrying that the last day of the season will be St. Totteringham’s Day! If they draw at home to a resurgent Southampton they must then face Newcastle in what will be a frantic day on Tyneside. If we draw or even better win at Citeh I think I could get eleven blokes out of this bar to beat Villa so it might be a very funny end to the season!
@ TTG & Cynic thanks for the response. Any fan that would wish death on any one talkless of our manager doesn’t deserve to be called a fan or even a human being. COYG….
SAG,
those are the people I was referring to – not those who simply wanted to hold up a poster – in case that’s what you thought.
The best way to avoid the confusion is to name people you disagree with, rather than the ambiguous “some on here”.
Just a thought …….
Some really great chat in here the last 24 hours, with Scgooner’s comment very much setting the tone.
I think this weekend has the potential to be something of a turning point in the discourse on this blog, and maybe elsewhere.
I think it’s fair to say that virtually everyone in here thinks we’ve had a bad season, that at least some of the responsibility lies with the manager, and that a change is either desirable or not a million miles away now. Equally, I think we all saw yesterday that there is not enough support on the ground to force the manager to leave, and given his age and general stature, it’s pretty unlikely that you will be able to mobilise enough of the support to turf him out before he retires. We also know the board won’t sack him.
Where that leaves us is all playing the waiting game, one way or another. Waiting for change, waiting for the end of an era, call it what you will. While we wait, we can either pointlessly slang each other, or we can kick back, try to respect one another’s opinions and maybe make each other laugh a bit.
That means not pretending Arsene is perfect and beyond criticism (I don’t see how anyone could possibly do so while watching Giroud go through the motions lately), but also not suggesting that he’s evil, doesn’t care about the club, is only in it for the money or is some sort of mad dictator. He’s none of those things – at worst, he’s a manager who has got old and isn’t quite good enough these days to take that final step we all crave.
I do agree that the thought of life without Wenger shouldn’t be a cause for fear. Five or six years ago, when we were still going through the stadium stuff, I used to worry that if the manager went and we replaced him with a dud it might spell absolute disaster. That’s not the case now. If nothing else, it will be nice not to have to watch the same cock ups being made (I’m sure the next manager will bring some new ones) and to escape the damaging and pointless soap opera that the Wenger Wars have long since become. But, equally, I feel it’s important he’s allowed to leave with a bit of dignity, because otherwise I really do believe we’ll look back on it all with no small amount of shame.
I guess what I’m saying is that the argument we’ve all been having for nearly a decade now is effectively pointless at this stage, that we’re not far from the end now, and that if everyone puts the guns down we may actually find that there’s more middle ground than it sometimes appears, and that we may all enjoy life a bit more if we meet on it from time to time, as it feels like we’ve done today.
That’s a lot of words, so I’ll sign off now with a confession that I’m still dreaming of a scenario in which the greatest Spurs team of the last hundred years somehow find a way to bollocks it all up and let us catch them. That Chelsea, Saints, Toon run in suddenly looks pretty uncomfortable, and a man can dream, after all….
Drinks all round, and COYG
PS – can I be the first to propose Auntie Nan as our next boss? She sounds fucking excellent!
I’m sitting right on the fence about Arsene ; you could say I am forming my own splinter group.
Boom.
N7 Gooner @37,
Now THAT IS a top drink! All very well said!
The LWCs imploding isn’t ever a dream, it’s a birth right for all Gooners! Schadenfreude of the Spuds has always made our 12-year long bitter-pill of wait, slightly more sweeter and easier to swallow.
Up the Arse!
AFCOF!
Arsenal for Cup of Fools?
N7 @37. What the drinks are all about. ??????????????????????????
Top stuff, N7.
always thought of and treated this place like a real bar
my favourite drinkers are those who also appear to too
don’t rightly recall ensuring perfect sense is made always
as being an abiding factor in opening your gob
in any swally emporium i’ve been in
anyhoo
regardless if people tubthump pontificate or bullshit
‘holic has attracted a fantastic bizarre collective
and if we have little or nothing to celebrate
Arsenalwise
a trip here always means something
even if it is to think
“ah, would ye ever just shut yer hole”
.
UP THE ARSENAL
N7: Superbly expressed. Top top post.
cba, ???
Some good stufff above, however I do think some of what the manager has said recently is extremely worrying. All this stuff about how he built the club, combined with the sort of reaction journalists get who question his tactics tends to suggest someone who is on a huge self-deluding ego trip. To me anyway.
I don’t say that with any hatred at all.
He’s kidding himself though and has been for a long time. Maybe all this stuff about how great our football is, how strong the players are and what great characters they are and the fantastic mental strength they have ISN’T just him protecting his players. Maybe he really believes it.
In which case, we’re in trouble because I don’t think he will ever voluntarily leave and he’ll keep signing extensions for as long as they’re plonked in front of him.
Even his biggest fans cannot believe the club could endure another three or four years of this?
cba,
Yer just mad as a wee hatter laddie! π
So here is my encounter with “poster boy” yesterday – just to demonstrate the level of thinking that some folks put into the protest.
Having said a brief “Hello” to Holic and Tabs through the Tollie railings – I had my daughter with me yesterday – we set off down Hornsey Road to the stadium.
About half way down, a chap in his mid-twenties and an Arsenal shirt, carrying a pile of posters, stopped us –
He: “Hello mate, we’re protesting in the stadium today, demanding it’s time for change as it’s twelve years since we won the title and that. Would you like one of these posters to hold up on 12 minutes and with 12 munutes to go, cos it’s 12 years since we won the title and that”.
Me: “No thanks”.
He: “Oh, why not?”
Me: “I don’t agree with it. I can’t see the point”.
He: “Ok then, buddy. You just go right on supporting a bank”.
Me: “Ok, as you’ve started it – I started going to Highbury in 1969 – I’ve supported The Arsenal ever since and I don’t need your advice on how to do it, thanks all the same.
I, and a number of friends who have supported the club just as long, are all pretty fed up with the way things are being run but tell me how waving sheets of paper around in the middle of the game, and protesting against the manager, is going to help us win a vital three points today.”
He: “Well this is our only chance to get noticed”.
Me: “So, why don’t you support the team through the game and stay and protest at the end of it ? And do you really think you are going to influence the owner or the manager with this?”
He: “I dunno – but you just enjoy supporting your bank”.
?
Bloody kids.
howdy trev
without sounding like a creepy stalker
i often wonder how yer oul knee is doing
a not inconsiderable pain and no mistake i’m 100% sure
as to protests
i’m a veteran of protests
in many forms
about things considerably more important than football
and i’ve found that
even if someone appears to have their head up their arse
and don’t have the sense they were born with
they aren’t always arseholes
despite what their incessant proclamations otherwise
would lead you to believe
on this occasion however
the guy was clearly a spanner
Cynic – I want Wenger to get a new contract. Strongly believe he is the best man for the job and has consistently over-achieved by any objective measure, while acknowledging this season is a little disappointing.
But I don’t think I am a lunatic. And I’m even more perturbed to be equated with people who want him dead.
Perhaps you would like to rephrase your comment?
At the extreme end of both scales there are people who are a bit bonkers is all I mean.
Wanting him to go doesn’t make you nuts and nor does wanting him to stay. It’s when you have people singing about him being dead or refusing to see faults and almost treating the guy like some sort of deity – the extremes are less than sane at both ends.
You own a bank, Trev? As it happens I need a loan… Just so I can fly over to watch the Villa match and join in the St Tott’s Day celebrations at the Tollie after you understand.
That’s if the chavs can be trusted to win tomorrow of course, which I doubt. The bastards won’t want to risk qualifying for the Europey League with too many late wins and beating new champs Lesta on the last day may be more of a priority.
I’ve been a great admirer and supporter of AW, Pete, but it seems to me that we’ve been marking time as a club for too long now and it is indeed time for a change.
Not that I expect our next manager to provide an instant return to the early Wenger years. To the contrary it wouldn’t surprise if he (she? Probably not) fails to keep us in the top 4, never mind wisn the Prem or CL. But it’s a risk I believe we should take in our longer-term interest – biting the bullet, running a new flag up the flag pole and see who salutes … or any number of other cliches.
But I would never join the litter bugs who wave disrespectful sheets of A3 at our greatest ever manager. This one said it all for me … http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/976/cpsprodpb/82A2/production/_89524433_supportive_fan_getty.jpg
ye see
the beauty of this place
no tuppence ha’penny pimple popper
calling me mad is offensive to me
it’s merely water off a taller,smarter,better looking duck’s back
.
off to bed
howdy chris
hope yer well
slΓ‘inte big man
cheerio
Scgooner and N7.
Hats off to you both and much respect for two “super quality” posts.
Half a decade you say, seriously ?, shit !
After half a decade it may just be time for guns down as he is still standing stronger then ever that stubborn old french bugger.
Maybe the firing squads shooting arms are starting to tire to the point where they cant even hold an A4 sheet of paper in anger.
It would seem after many shots fired, the only damage AW has sustained is a mere flesh wound to the zipper on his Arsenal jacket ?
A taller, smarter, better looking duck than yerself would be hard to imagine, cba, and you forgot to add more literate and entertaining. Good evening to you, if that’s what it is your end. And a nightcap on the bar, if it’s still open.
Top comments all around.
@SAG: “So I guess any fan that thinks Wengerβs reign should be coming to an end is somehow anti-Arsenal”
That’s not the point. We won a crucial game yesterday and Citeh lost today so both days were steps forward in the race for third spot. Finishing third makes it easier to buy top players earlier in the summer. This is important to make Arsenal better next season, be it with Wenger or someone else.
So when your comments focus only on the negative side of things as you perceive them on positive days for Arsenal you can’t expect to go along with it.
Superb post N 7!Perfectly encapsulates the current and likely future situation.
CBA- one of the best reasons for coming into this bar is you. And that’s from one of the judiciary!
We’ve had a really good debate in here but a debate among proper Gooners not the idiots who spout such vicious stuff elsewhere.
I’m off to Upton Park today to see England Legends before the Hammers get their extraordinarily unfair subsidy from the taxpayer to move to a new ground. Makes you wonder what sort of pictures those porn barons have of the Cabinet doesn’t it?!
cba,
“taller,smarter,better looking duckβs back.”
Fancy! You clearly haven’t yet seen or met this Dapper Dan! π
Finishing third makes it easier to buy top players earlier in the summer.
Problem is, we never do it.
cba,
The knee is generally very good, thanks. Walking in various types of terrain is good. Playing a bit of tennis. Never going to achieve much more than 90 degrees of bend so sitting in my Arsenal seat can be quite painful over 90 minutes.
Not sure my head hurts any less after 90 minutes of Arsenal these days though !
How’s your neck, while we’re asking ?
Apologies to all uninterested parties !
My definite opinion on AW depends on his performance in the last year of his current contract. If we finally win the league or CL than I am in favour of giving him another contract. Otherwise, I hope he will give a chance to someone else. This is in order to prevent AW from being assaulted by our own people and to protect his legacy.
I like people like Kouman and Bilic but whoever comes next rest assured we will experience a dip in overall results. But that is OK.
I am really disappointed with those who created the atmosphere in which there is only one dilemma: Is he going now or next year? That is very shortsighted. AW is still the best man around. It is not his fault if Theo plays like a schoolboy, Chech and Ospina making howlers; Mert and Coq making mindless errors in judgement; Giroud missing sitters…These players should have given more to the man who gave them his undivided trust. On top of all this…he is receiving the stick for them not giving their hearts in every game. I am very angry with some of our players. The way they reciprocated Arsene’s trust in them is disgusting.
Problem is though that he keeps picking Giroud despite him missing sitters and looking like he can’t be bothered (to just use him as an example) and he’s the one who never plays Theo for any meaningful amount of time, so he can’t try to get some form back and he’s the one who bombed Campbell out of the team for no apparent reason…
And if we haven’t got better options it’s because he hasn’t bought them or developed them.
You can’t really have the guy running everything from top to bottom, then when it goes wrong say, “Well it’s not his fault”, especially as it’s all his fault when it works.
It’s why change, not only of manager but in the way things are done at the club, seems so necessary. Apart the staleness.
The next guy has to be a man with a team he can rely on off the pitch as well as on. I mean, we look at the number two all the time and there’s been talk about freshening things up with a different assistant, as that’s what Fergie used to do… but we need to perhaps look beyond Steve Bould and wonder why Boro Primorac is still in place.
?
This season’s dismal results falls squarely on…
Santi!
He would have single handedly won us the league, FA cup and league cup as well..! (CL is another story..)
But now we’ll have to contend with being runners up after spuds lose their next few games and we put City in their place…!
It’s all your fault Santi !!!
π
(.. and you too Wilshere..not forgotten about you and your feeble bones..!)
π π
The failure :
The British core which failed to step in when Sanchez , Ozil and Santi C were injured during the Xmas time . In brief , the British core hasn’t established itself as a reliable core .
The financial fair play AW has hoped to limit the power of some club . The concept never materialize .
Beside that , changing a coach for the sake of changing and changing for what ? out of frustration ?
AW works for Passion and money . Any other new coach will work for Money and passion. He will make all kind of change to players , good and bad , to save his Job and Money .
For all his imperfections , we should enjoy AW when it last .
I suppose you mean when we lost to Southampton, when we had just two British players in the side (some core) and when fan favourite Campbell was in the team alongside Ozil and Giroud?
Because before that game we beat Manchester City (same two British players started that game and one scored a peach) Villa, Olympiakos and Sunderland and after that Southampton game we beat Bournemouth, Newcastle, Sunderland, drew with Liverpool and Stoke then lost to Chelsea.
There was no “British core” in any of those games just a fairly constant pair and we won most of them.
Would it be outrageous to suggest that the bad results have come when the supposed terrible British core hasn’t even been selected?
Two excellent pieces of statistical analysis by the peerless 7amkickoff.
http://news.arseblog.com/2016/04/arsenal-goals-from-distance-by-the-numbers/
http://news.arseblog.com/2016/05/arsenal-home-and-away-someone-is-wasteful-at-home-by-the-numbers/
In the penalty box and in 6 yards, our shot stats (hence, chance creation) are comparable to Barca, Real and Bayern — and much better than the PL competitors — whereas our conversion rates are evidently poor.
In PL this season our away conversion rates and home defense stats are above average and near the top. Our home conversion rates are astoundingly poor with Giroud (and I am a big fan) being the main failure in that respect, but Ozil and Rambo too being extraordinarily profligate. That is, we are creating chances home and away, making goal scoring opportunities but simply not converting at a rate of champions, especially at home. Against teams that sit very deep in Emirates and deprive us that extra time and space in the penalty box Giroud’s slowness and Welbeck/Ozil/Rambo’s lack of accuracy meant that we lacked the sharpness to get the shot on target even when opportunities were created. And in that sense we missed Alexis the most — both when injured and post-injury loss of form — and if we had Alexis of last season staying fit throughout we would have most likely won the league.
And in that respect the wise heads on this board (TTG, ‘Holic, Steve T, Trev et al.) who cautioned at the beginning that going into the season relying again on Alexis-Giroud-Welbz-Theo to get us the necessary goals would be a risky proposition have been proven right. The failure of Ozil and Rambo to score much more when opportunities presented have also been a significant disappointment.
If any consolation, we are also top of the mini-league of the top 5. So in that respect we made significant improvement since the couple of seasons back when we used to struggle against the top teams.
Some progress, but seems to appear all lost in vain because of a crucial transfer failure.
Transfer failure, yes as you say Dr. F., but on the other hand there is every reason to think (based both on Murphy’s Law and objective reasoning) that if we had made a couple of great signings they would have been injured just as everyone else was during the great wave of injuries that swept over the club in mid-season. Clean house in the medical staff for the second consecutive season, or stand pat and think that if we don’t have as many injuries next season that last year’s new medical staff will next season be “like a new signing”?
Well, maybe not based on objective reasoning exactly, Dr. F., but the rest of it sounds about right. π
bt8: Objective reasoning indeed. π
But point very well taken about our continuing injury problems. Especially in stark contrast to the two teams above us in PL. This is a topic that has been hotly debated here by many, including medical experts. One only hopes that the majority-fit scenario we now pleasantly discover towards the end of the season will soon be a pattern and not just the once-in-a-decade surprise it seems to be.
Playing Alexis so soon after his return from a long and tiring Copa America campaign was a bad mistake. It was worth dropping a few points at that time of the season to ensure his longevity in the remainder of the campaign.
“Injuries are to blame.” So that old chestnut raises its head up yet again?! Boo hoo! Poor us! π Didn’t we have an almost fully fit squad to choose from when we played at Old Trafford against their third team of under 18s when they were decimated by masses of injuries to their first teamers? Only Santi was missing for us and it seems he’s clearly now the new “Most Valuable Player” against such “strong” teams?!
Regarding injuries, wouldn’t it perhaps be better to now actually start asking, with one year left on his contract:
“Why does this keep happening to us every year Arsene?”
“Who do you think is to blame for this year-in your out?”
“Is it just good old mother luck, or lack thereof, with you and our players?”
The answers you’ll likely get coming back will probably be the usual generic form that blame everyone and everything under the Sun and Moon except for the management staff, coaching staff, physical conditioning staff, or the players themselves?! No accountability nor transparency whatsoever, yet again.
Up the Arse! AFCOF!
@DapperDan: βWhy does this keep happening to us every year Arsene?β
It doesn’t. It doesn’t fit your narrative but all the efforts and changes made to stop us being at the top of the injury league every season have paid off: http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/35313650
And with Arteta, Rosicky and Flamini out it the injury situation at the club next season will only improve.
Credit to Wenger, he did address that problem.
That link is nearly four months old, so we might be better or worse off than that table suggests
Last season we failed to even win the Most Injured Team title as well by the way, finishing second.
@73: I hope your diatribe is not in response to @69 or @72, because those posts specifically avoid any blame game but attempt data-based analysis of the areas where we have fell short over the entire season, and not taking one or two games in isolation.
That said, injuries do not help us. And everyone on this board have always acknowledged that it remains one of Arsenal’s most difficult problem throughout a campaign and the failure of the manager and the club hierarchy to address it over the years have drawn criticism even from the most vociferous Arsene supporters here.
I am also curious to know what you imply by “transparency”. What exactly do you want Arsene and the hierarchy to do “transparently” in terms of injuries? Transparent to whom? The fan base? The journalists? Shouldn’t the club’s internal analysis and findings about injuries, their causes and the remediation strategies be non-transparent, i.e., not a public knowledge?
Matt,
If it doesn’t fit “my narrative”, then why have some fans brought it up here once again as an excuse; and this time with reference to both Leicester and the LWCs who have played more matches than we have by virtue of their Europa League jaunts and their new “high-pressing, high-intensity, athletic” style of play under Pochettino?
Moreover, why only now this season (and I don’t agree with what you allude to) have our “injury-problems” only been seemingly better managed than in previous years when players such as Diaby and Vermaelen have pretty much been had their careers permanently scarred physically by recurrent injuries? Jack Wilshere is also going down this path too unless he is properly managed physically.
Dr F,
Transparent to all those that pay their salary. Who keeps gets employed and paid for a job that they never actually do?
@Cynic: That link is nearly four months old, so we might be better or worse off than that table suggests.
We’re around mid-table, give or take a few spots. That’s the progress that what promised and delivered. Getting Shad Forsythe on board was a great move by the club.
@DapperDan: In your narrative it’s an “excuse”, for the rest of the world it’s called an explanation.
Matt,
Hahaha. Ok. You clearly know best!
Injuries are less and the team is worse for it π
@Cynic: I suppose that’s as close as an acknowledgement to the good work done by the club on the injury front as we’ll ever get from you.
As for the team being worse along with your staleness mantra:
– we won 2 FA cups on he trot
– we topped he league over the past calendar year, first time in 12 years
– we topped the top5 league, first time since I can’t remember
So not as stale as your dooming it seems…
@78: I am assuming by that you mean the fanbase and more specifically the match day stadium-going fans. Unfortunately, how much unpalatable and depressing it may sound but we must accept that we are not the ones that pay the salary. We fans feel that the club belongs to us, but the club’s financial owner(s) most definitely do not think like that. They think the club is their asset, they value its footballing performance purely from its financial impact (where sponsorship deals trump gate revenues and an identifiable and marketable brand trumps transparency with fans) and some vague sense of prestige (CL, being talked about in the media, an identifiable brand) … and I am sure that the club’s management team (footballing and corporate) have to be fully transparent to the owner.
It is not to say that I think that is the best of all possible modalities of a fan’s engagement with the club, but unfortunately that is the way the football market structure had shaped the entire “industry”.
We are replaceable consumers from the perspective of the asset owners. I am sure they have a market analysis model that identifies the minimum success (and I am sure you can make a guess at what that is) needed to keep the gravy train rolling and the management team evidently meets that requirement.
I find it is our manager — despite all his blemishes and evidently waning abilities — stand apart with his singular dedication and his intellect. (Even though it is a little sad that the image of his persona itself has been transformed into a market-driving brand that the club has no qualms to leverage.) I think his craft can most likely now be replaced, but will that alone change the way the club’s owner perceive the fanbase? If there is no immediate improvement the way we are hoping will we be receiving a greater degree of transparency to us from them? I doubt it.
Congratulations to promoted Burnley who have a chance albeit a small one to be next season’s Leicester.
Matt,
do tell where they sell the rose-tinteds you are clearly wearing when looking at our injury situation.
At times this season we had 11 players out.
Welbeck was sent for surgery the day after the transfer window closed at the beginning of September, having not played since April.
Rosicky played for about 15 minutes – just enough to strain a thigh and be out for weeks and weeks again.
Arteta and Flamini have taken turns to start the bidding in the whist school.
Wilshere kicked his first ball of the season two weeks ago.
We lost Cazorla, Coquelin and Sanchez in the same game at Norwich.
Chamberlain and Walcott did a ten minute injury shuffle-and-off in Sheffield.
Petr Cech ran the length of the Emirates pitch to join a desperate corner attack and tore a calf muscle trying to run back.
Fitness, conditioning ? Do me a favour !
I have remarked before that the variation in quality of players warm up exercises is surprising, to say the least. Some are quite meticulous, while others barely go through the motions.
If the staff are telling them not to over-exert on the warm up exercises, just in case, or due to individual limitations, that probably says all we need to know. Our fitness, recovery, conditioning and robustness does my head in.
And here’s a poser on the fitness and conditioning front –
Olivier Giroud is 30 this year – not 60, while Aaron Ramsey is in his mid-twenties.
I appreciate that some people are genetically disposed to speed while others are not but how is it that both players have become so much slower this season than last ?
Last weekend AW had the entire first team squad available for training for the first time since September 2013.
Please don’t tell me that’s because we’ve got it sussed.
Cheers Trev. Big shame our paths did n’t cross on Saturday, I was with Junior, so did the same through the railings greetings. Gutted I was n’t walking with you down Hornsey Road to bump into the same mush.
Also, who the fuck above said Leicester had Europa league commitments? They nearly got relegated last season.
@Trev: You know it’s my pet peeve, we’ve discussed it enough times over the years.
The numbers are available for everyone to look at and they indicate without the shadow of a doubt that we’ve had significantly less injuries this season than in the past.
I have no doubt there is room for improvement, starting with a better rotation policy in my view. And Rosicky, Arteta and Flamini are gone this summer, we can reasonably hope the replacements will be less brittle.
Point taken on Wilshere (with all the detailed explanations you’ve given in the past).
Just curious: isn’t the variability in warmup and conditioning something to be expected since we hope it’s individually adjusted to each player according to his current condition?
As for the entire squad available for training, is it something that’s common? If we look at the injury table there are only 2 teams with no injuries currently, Southampton and Sunderland. We have one injury (Mertsesacker) along with 4 other teams: http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php
As for the team being worse along with your staleness mantra:
β we won 2 FA cups on he trot
Oh pardon me. You were talking about our marvellous injury record THIS SEASON, I didn’t know an FA Cup won two seasons ago and the won won last season counted as a sign of improvement THIS year.
That really is quite some achievement, to win things from the future.
And you have a nerve to talk about stale views?
β we topped he league over the past calendar year, first time in 12 years
β we topped the top5 league, first time since I canβt remember
Who gives a fuck about some Top 5 league nobody has even heard about before today?
Who cares about being top of the league for a few days?
It’s where you are after 38 games that matters in Reality World.
won won? WTF is that for English?
Matt,
When you say less injuries, do you mean fewer, as in a lower number of separate injuries ?
If you mean a lesser number of man days lost, I’m afraid to just don’t believe it. We’ve had several players out for practically the entire season.
Individually tailored programmes, yes, but if some of the warm-ups I’ve watched are all those players are capable of, they are in trouble.
The top four from last year. Days injured and total injuries. This is at the end of the season, not half way through.
Newcastle 1,871 days (37 total injuries)
Arsenal 1,466 (35)
Everton 1,423 (37)
Manchester United 1,348 (39)
@Trev: The link I provided for the first half of the season shows us as the eighth team with the least number of days missed in the first half of the season: http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/35313650
We’ve had injuries in January/February but as you said we’ve recovered all players so all in all our spot in that table ought to be very close to the middle for the entire season.
We should be able to compete with that level of injuries. Actually we would if we hadn’t (as you pointed out) started the season with 3 players on long-term injuries in a roster of 22 players when the league allows for 25.
@Cynic: “Itβs where you are after 38 games that matters in Reality World.”
The reality world which you love to abstract yourself from shows that we were top after 38 games in 2015.
I love to watch you squirm and foam at he mouth as soon as anything positive about Arsenal and Wenger is pointed out.
Also thank you for proving my point, last season we were indeed the second worst injured team in the league as we’d been many seasons in a row and this season we’re in the middle of the pack. Feel free to join us in thanking Wenger for having made good on his promise to address the issue.
That’s not quite what I said, as you well know.
Time to stop spinning. I don’t see the problem with recognising the true situation.
Rosicky, Arteta, Welbeck, Wishere, Cazorla, Coquelin, Sanchez – all out for months.
It’s not a success story however you choose to dress it up.
You win nothing for being top in a calendar year and the only one squirming to try to prove something is you.
What next? A trophy fest pies served at a Premier League ground in North London?
Ta-ta
My keyboard is shit.
That should obviously read “for the best pies”
Sticky Mac keys.
Esso,
Yep, was very much hoping to see you Saturday.
Next season hopefully, as we both know we’re not giving up.
Brand loyalty, innit ! ?
Trev – on yeah!
Cynic – get a PC.
Get thee behind me Satan. And Esso.
Glad you had fun on Saturday by the way.
I wish I had.
@Trev:
I genuinely don’t understand the point you are trying to make.
If you’re arguing that we should no have started season with a team already not deep enough and further thinned by 3 long-term injured players, I’m with you 200%.
“Rosicky, Arteta, Welbeck, Wishere, Cazorla, Coquelin, Sanchez β all out for months.”
And despite those injuries the numbers from physioroom’s injury tracker show we’ve had significantly less injuries and less missed days due to injuries this season than all other previous seasons.
Thanks to Cynic we know that we had 1,466 missed days in 2014/2015 vs 465 for he first half of 2015/2016.
What is there to argue about?
Are you still referring to January’s figures?
I’m quite happy to help by the way, as my original post said (if you actually read it) that we may be worse off or we may be better off, as the table you provided was approx four months old.
However, give or take a few days here and there, with those four players alone the time added between January 15th (date of the BBC table) and April 30th (being approximate on time frames for injuries as we don’t know the actual ate of the figures used by the BBC) is 4 x 106 days.
So it might not be that massive an improvement
@Cynic: “I wish I had.”
You would if you took he occasional break from your dooming.
“So it might not be that massive an improvement”
We all understand you wish there was none.
I do, it’s not my fault if light hearted posts about not even managing to win last year’s injury league go over your head.
And my Saturday had absolutely nothing to do with Arsenal at all, incidentally. I have a life outside Arsene Wenger’s Magical Kingdom.
Shocking, I know.
Oh dear, carry on making yourself look a complete twat. I’ll leave you to it.
There’s nothing light-hearted about you flooding the bar every single day with your constant moaning and dooming.
OK I’ll take the same delusion pills you are obviously necking by the truck load. What trophy can we invent to win on Sunday and prove all is perfect?
It’s called shades of gray, you should try it.
The Tiny Totts look likely to beat Chelsea tonight . Chelsea are bang average this season ( except against us) but this Spurs side is the first I can remember that has had any real bollocks.
They will be missing Dembele next week though !
Matt,
As you don’t understand what I’m on about, I’m giving up.
My last shot – what is the point of comparing a whole season with the first half of another one ?
The second half of this season still swa us with many long term injuries to add on .
Right, that’s it, for the sake of my and others’ sanity.
Trev: Point taken, although we’ve been top of the injury table from the get go in all other seasons.
Let’s discuss it again when the final numbers are out.
Cynic/Matt
Not sure how you guys managed to contrive this disagreement. Why not do some real research so the facts cannot be disputed?
Matt you beat me to it
Costa Mounrinho’ed: https://streamable.com/q166
I didn’t pick the fight, I merely pointed out that the data was old and out of date and things may be better or worse than they appear.
Get in the fucking net.
Let’s have another one.
Yeeessss!
Tottenham are complete scum, aren’t they. They’ve been playing like filth all night.
HAHAHAHAH!
How many spuds will be banned for the next match should be the wager now…!
π
Wish they had 15 more minutes….spuds will be left with half a dozen men by then…
π
Stick the free kick in the corner. Spurs have been a disgrace tonight
Tottenham with nine (!) yellow cards in that. Well done, Foxes!
Congratulations to Leicester!
..and now let’s win the remaining matches! May yet catch them dirty spuds!
π
Leicester CHAMPIONS!!!!
Dyer just had to be sent off for that awful scissoring on Cesc. And they’re still at it, both sides!
They deserve each other, the scum….
Over land,sea….And Leicester.
Tottenham lost it like the cunts they are. St.Totteringham’s Day is still on!
Hahahahahaha Spurs. Classy stuff, tonight.
Not to be left out ..backroom staff getting into it now…
TV replays and fine/ban them!
The mad thing is, they were kicking people from the first whistle. It takes a lot to out-cunt Chelsea, but they managed it with ease.
How did spurs escape without a red card?
Anyway Alderweireld and Dembele likely out for the last 2 games, not too bad.
Fabregas has stooped really low since his Barca internship, Spurs were frustrated but this Chelsea team is utterly despicable.
Well done Ranieri! First major trophy in his career, well worth the wait and fully deserved.
Well done Leicester!
Dr F @83,
I doubt that the lack of transparency alongside the most expensive ticket and match-day prices in modern football, and with the lack of winning or really challenging for major honours, is sustainable without increasing supporter discontent. Not even Kroenke will be able to curtail that kind of feeling.
No fan of a so-called “big club”, likes being in a perennial state of status quo indefinitely without seeing “where is this all going?” That’s why we’re even having these exchanges, along with many other Gooners.
Modern fans, just like modern people in this fast-moving “I want it all now” world in which we now live in, expect more than the fans of over four decades. We live in a more inpatient and rapidly-demanding world of quick gratification for their hard-earned money.
Esso,
“Also, who the fuck above said Leicester had Europa league commitments? They nearly got relegated last season.”
You must be referring to me. Like others I’ve told in the bar, read one’s rejoinder properly, to understand it fully, before responding to it the way you may choose to. The LWCs were the Europa league reference in that little piece of prose.
The Marshdwellers really showed their class tonight. Vile reptilian cunts.
2-0 and you fucked it up.
Tonight confirms that the Sp*dz really are the most despicable and disgusting of our local rivals.
All of London is laughing.
Congrats to Claudio and his scrappers.
Ha, ha, ha.
Now for second.
COYGs
Congratulations Leicester. It’s an amazing story and I’m still not sure it happened but Ranieri is a lovely fella and has shown massive dignity
Thank you Chelsea.
Now gonna go wash my mouth out with soap! Bleh….
Congrats Leicester. Well deserved.
First team in Premier League history to have 9 players booked in one game. Well done Spuds!
Meltdown…..
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha….
Forever in our shadow, Sp*rs. Forever in our shadow. Come on boys, St. Totteringham’s Day is in our grasp.
Well done the Foxes. Well done. I hope they stay up next year.
BMBD
Meltdown.
Implosion.
Tottenham be thy name
π
Points deduction, please…
@N7 Gooner: Lol, yes please π
Big Club My Arse! (phew)
I hope the replays will allow some well deserved bans to be handed out to some of the spuds.
Nine yellows..and the ref was still too lenient….
We must be at our very best for the remaining matches.. overtaking the spuds are extremely likely if we perform!
π
@BB: Dembele certainly out, not sure about others, would be sweet though.
Congrats to Leicester. I am so fucking jealous though, wish that was us winning the PL. This season still hurts so bad. Oh well, maybe that will be us next season.
Congratulations Leicester! This was a remarkable achievement. Only 3 defeats speaks volumes for their consistency. Who knew playing pure counter-attacking football home and away you can win PL. Kante, Mahrez, Vardy, even the old defenders Morgan and Huth have been excellent.
And we beat them home and away. π
Is it the first ever case of father-son goalkeeper duo winning English top league?
Kyle Walker could have been sent off twice but he was so shit Clattenburg decided leaving him on would be more harmful to them than sending him off.
Dembele deserves at least six matches as that went far beyond acceptable.
Lamela should get three games
Alderwotsisface is probably out for the season
Does ten yellows still get a ban this late in the season? If so, whoever got their tenth yellow will get a ban.
Spent so long being cunts they forgot to try to score a winner. Brainiacs they ain’t.
Soft underbelly, the spuds. Heh Heh Heh.
Not giving up on St. totteringhams day … not by a mile.
@Matt
They should be fined as well… nearly all out brawl at the end there.
Well Done Claudio Ranieri! Now that’s a truly classy Manager, Head-Coach and all-round gent that one would never begrudge winning a major title in his career! Molto buon signore!
Well done Leicester, well done Ranieri.
Tottenham are quite good at handling pressure, aren’t they ? ????
Well done Leicester fully deserved with so much praise it makes me feel like we really stuffed it this season! Well played! We didn’t deserve it it has to be said!
Spuds trying to win the league, is like these chaps trying to put out the fire: http://i.imgur.com/ojT0g0Y.gifv
π
and the Holic clock is safe.
Bath
Thank god for that it would be a massive pain resetting it ?
Well done to Leicester.
No use now wondering what might have been. Have to kick on to St. Tott’s day.
BB
Brilliant video ha ha that made me laugh!
Congratulations LCFC – worthy champions and Claudio Ranieri managed his team brilliantly.
As for the marsh dwellers….they never fail to make you laugh. Mind you the DVD is still coming out but re-titled “Premier League Yellow Card Champions”. A points deduction is justified – we suffered points deduction for that match at Old Toilet all those years ago but still managed to win the league π
A day when all true football lovers congratulate and celebrate Leicester for their remarkable season…
…and all true Gooners fall about laughing at the neighbours’ crumbling inability to match it with 5,000-1 outsiders.
βRosicky, Arteta, Welbeck, Wilshere, Cazorla, Coquelin, Sanchez β all out for months.β (several quotes)
And therein lies the major problem this season (and recurring), cos it includes several of our most creative midfielders – the engine room of the team. No wonder Γzil has so many assists and creates more chances than entire teams, there’s no one competing with him much of the time.
And in general terms it’s not how many days are lost to injuries it’s which players are lost and when, and how long it takes them to get back to their best again when they are fit (Jack, apparently, takes at least half a dozen games to get back in it). There are no tables that can compute all the variables.
Holic, Thank God the clock stays on.
So glad Leicester won it not Spurs. Happy too for Ranieri, a delightful man. Stylishly, he flew in from Rome after lunching with his 96 year old mother to watch the game in Leicester. Spurs set a record for yellow cards, befitting their vileness. We picked up two more points on them this weekend, by the way. π
If further proof was needed that Ranieri is a class act, he called Hiddink to thank him and the Chelsea players just after the final whistle: http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36126924
@Trev: here’s a link which compares injuries this season with last season over the same period:
http://www.arsenalreport.com/injuryroom
In a nutshell:
– the number of injuries sustained is down 40%
– the number of days lost is down 13%
– most of our injuries were sustained in the first half of the season
We had less small injuries but more very serious/lengthy ones. Not sure what to make of it, I’ll leave the interpretation to you.
So is the title mathematically over or can our famed mental strength still get us over the line?
http://imgur.com/gallery/ABuL8Ij
AHHHHHHH!
π
Congrats again to Leicester!
We need to find the bones of Ethelred the Unready under the Holloway Road. It’s obviously a good luck charm judging by Richard iii!
Someone alerted to something… and this post comes from Glass Half Full World.
Spurs can finish with a maximum of 76 points. If you go back to the start of the century (it sounds so much better to put it in such terms) 76 points would never have been enough to win the league, and would only have allowed them to finish second on two occasions, and as low as fifth a couple of seasons ago.
If you look at what they’ve done this season, they are dressing it up as a fantastic season, when it’s actually pretty average. If you go further, you could say that as Arsenal habitually fail to threaten to win the league and don’t really count, as they haven’t won it for so long, the failure of Spurs to win the league after all of the champions is the last 12 years fell by the wayside means they are really the team that has blown it.
This was their big chance and they may not even finish second.
Happy Tuesdays.
Right, I’m off out to by a new keyboard.
That or some Slimfast for my fingers.
FFS
BUY
BUY BUY BUY
(repeat throughout the summer)
Cheerio.
Interesting watching the Spuds losing the plot earlier today and a couple of things stood out.
1) Fabregas and Rose kicked off the after game melee with the Spaniard appearing to ask Rose why he was wearing a cock on a basketball on his shirt.
2) Dier should have got a second yellow late on but seemed to escape because of play being allowed to continue and Clattenberg not wanting to inflame things any further in the last minutes. It was deja vu from our game this year where he was also lucky to escape a second yellow. Maybe he has incriminating photos from the refs pre-season retreat?
I’m still hopeful of St.Totts day this year.
UTA.
Even if Spuds lacked discipline last night, I’m left admiring the toughness, the nastiness and the physicality of both the swamp dwellers and Leicester this season. It’s a kind of grudging admiration, I don’t like it per se and it annoyed me continually that Leicester would have had underdog advantage with officials. But looking at last night, I doubt our guys could have picked up 9 yellows without at least one red ! We commit stupid fouls but somehow without stepping up the way these guys do, without showing we mean business the way they have done all season. And, yes, I know losing Ali and Dembele might prove pivotal but I stand over it. Tough, strong men mean less injuries too although the stats for the Foxes are almost dodgy, even for playing in just one competition. Interestingly both clubs have British cores THAT WORK too. Nearly all our guys (all passports) are soft and naΓ―ve and I think it comes from the top. So what did AW say to Theo about his little skipover ? Of course we have a couple of exceptions, thank god (I’m looking at you Alexis) but they’re never the home grown types. An example of what I’m talking about too would be the key skillset in recent years of the ability to win penalties and make sure your opposition get carded. We’re above that or we fail to learn and adapt – and maybe the people who refused to wave A4s agree that’s only right and proper – not the done thing. Will Wenger finally forget his fetish for Barca Cruyff-ball and sign us some real men ? Physical players that lead both by example and vocal demand. Surely it is no coincidence that AW’s dreadful fall from grace in his second decade (that’s what it is to me) has seen a radical downsizing of the players physically and a deliberate deployment of muzzled, weak captains who spend more time on the bench than the pitch. Personally I don’t think he enjoyed strong vociferous captains like RVP, Cesc (spits), Viera or even TH at times. Oh no, I forgot ; if you’re building a new stadium you must buy and play small, soft-spoken yes men. Silly me. The summer won’t focus on any of the above I fear, it will be Indiana Jones hunting down the Central Striker Holy Grail. Unless he surprises me with a really ruthless cull and frees up shirt numbers properly. COYG, Saints and Magpies too !
SC,
I’m afraid I can’t share your admiration.
Walker’s pathetic little kick at Pedro(?), Lamela standing on Cesc’s hand when the referee wasn’t looking, Dembele’s eye gouge on Costa, again when the referee wasn’t looking are not the sign of hard men to me – rather more like petulant schoolboys.
No comparison with some of the real hard men that we’ve had at the Arse over the years.
UTA.
9 yellows without a red… that’s a conspiracy!
Cock team and all…!
π
@Scgooner
I agree with some, but not all of that.
We could definitely do with being a bit more physical, but I wouldn’t want to see Arsenal players stamping, eye-gouging and flicking blood at people. Particularly if they still didn’t win anything as a result of it all. Doing that stuff doesn’t make you a hard man, it makes you a cock – Graeme Souness would have eaten this lot for breakfast.
On player sizes, I instinctively agree that we’ve gravitated towards a certain type of midfielder in recent years, but two things give me pause on that note. The first is that I can think back to half a dozen big lads I wanted us to sign down the years who I thought would mix it up a bit (Fellaini, Benteke) and who I now thank my lucky starts we “missed out” on, because their feet just aren’t good enough for a top club. The second is this table of average team heights in the league:
http://talksport.com/football/premier-league-sides-ranked-average-height-smallest-tallest-2015-151111173784
Basically, it shows that smaller teams tend to perform better. City are smaller than us. Spurs are almost exactly the same size and even Leicester are in the bottom half of the table for size. All the bigger sides are mid table at best.
The idea of signing a hulking great destroyer (William Carvalho?)and sticking him in the middle of the Arsenal midfield is tempting, but I suspect it would do us more harm than good. I think what we need isn’t physical, but mental – sadly, we remain a team of “son-in-laws”. Maybe Granit Xhaka will change the tone a little if, as seems likely, he joins this summer. His name is certainly rock hard.
All of the above said, two big lads I wouldn’t mind seeing join us; Lukaku and Virgil Van Dijk of Southampton, who has looked a player every time I’ve seen him this season and spent Sunday afternoon manhandling Mangala on corners.
COYG
ScGooner
I would have to say despite their success this season that both Leicester and the Marshmen are no angels. Drinkwater is a cynical bastard as he showed on Ramsey in our game with them and Vardy is a diver. As for the Totts they should face an FA charge and having five men sent off for cowardly stuff like the Dembele gouge or the Lamela stamp doesn’t mark them out as tough in my book.
It’s interesting that the rhetoric on Arsenal has changed. For the first ten years of Wenger’s reign the media kept a count of the number of red cards we got. This season we will win the Fair Play League by some distance and it’s only mentioned that we don’t like it up us.
I think we do lack the right sort of characters but I can’t think of a Spuds player that has a will to win that I’d like in our squad other than Kane or the two centre- backs
The Holic clock keeps a ticking normal progress is resumed, Congrats Leicester fully Deserved,and a spit in the Eye to Money,
As for that lot hahahahahahahahahaha Cunts !
Good call N7 Van Dijk looks excellent as a footballing centre back to me.
I will settle for him, Kante and Lewandoski this summer
TTG- If we cant get Lewandoski, give me Reus. I will give them Theo for free, if they want more add Ramsey and Giroud.
Reading N7 Gooner @139 reminded me of the Arsenal- Man U brawl of 1990. The FA decided that it warranted a 2 point deduction for us. Not that it made any difference, we still won the league.
But do we want the spuds to suffer a similar fate? Would we like a similar deduction to allow us an advantage against them? Oh, yes. But do we expect it? Not in a month of Sundays.
But don’t worry, that slight time in the sun will make that lot scurry back into our shadow next year.
The clock will continue.
Thanks H.
Congratulations Leicester.
Have a good one, Holics… St. Totteringham here we come!
Forgot what a complete and utter tool M Hazard was/is just chuckling at his Twitter timeline – Nothing beats a whinging LWC also goes to show just how in fucking bearable it would have been if they did win it !!
Arseblog posted this on the arses. It underlines Chippy’s observation @181:
90min on Twitter: “A night in the life of a #Spursβ fan. What an end to the title race! ? https://t.co/IZNXQd50WN“
To quote one of their own more despicable ex-players, the spuds’ behaviour last night was definitely “two-bob”.
This is a good read and food for thought:
Read Leicester Cityβs title win is the worst thing to have happened to football – http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/leicester-citys-premier-league-victory-is-the-worst-thing-to-have-happened-to-football/
Bath,
Thanks for that brought a little more joy to my day :)!! Nothing quite compares to that lot in distress lol 55 Years of pain and counting !!
I am an Arsenal fan, not a football fan, only an Arsenal fan. I dont care that Leicester won the league. In fact all this euphoria is nauseating. Victory for football, the underdogs glory etc is plain sick. Sorry i dont care. Yes they deserve to win and respect where it is due but thats about it. Stop it, enough, i am hurting here that we lost our best chance to win the league since 2008.
We need a revamp, yesterday night even though two scums played a football game, showed the fight needed. I havent seen one game wherein we had an altercation. Gabriel costa apart shown me a game where there was a fracas. Sorry football needs such altercations to show the intensity. Not the eye gore or apparent stamps etc but those tackles and those shoulder pushes etc. We are a bunch of softies.
The protest were in poor taste. It was a joke. The best banner i saw was “we need change- better fans”. The worst was the ranieri wenger comparison. He did it in 9 months, wenger could not in 12 years, that is demeaning beyond words. Leicester will be the blackburn story. One league and never again in their history.
@Bath: Excellent article indeed, expectations are key.
Looking at the table and remaining fixtures there’s a very real possibility of West Ham making 4th ahead of Citeh and Manure. Just imagine if we were the only big team to make top 4… Every single fan in the country will expect their team to make top 4 next year. Lots of bitterness ahead!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/05/03/cesc-fabregas-accused-of-sparking-chelsea-brawl-by-slapping-tott/
Cesc Fabregas has been accused of sparking the ugly scenes at the end of Chelseaβs Stamford Bridge battle with Tottenham Hotspur by slapping the nether regions of Spurs players and staff.
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Oh Cesc…you slapper… !
π
Cesc, you scamp.
I’ve watched the Foxes fans and team celebrate at the expense of spuds and it is way more entertaining than I thought it would be. Or probably should be, if I’m honest.
With all the bans surely coming this could be curtains for spud. In this season of the unexpected, st. totteringham day … it may well be on.
I guess I’m the only man in the world who doesn’t give the rat’s ass about new champions.
“The Greatest Football Story Ever Told”
“Football Fairy tale”
“Claudio And His Foxes”
Pleeeeease…Throw me a bucket so I can vomit for the rest of me life.
I can see them in my little crystal ball, five years from now, in the Championship….with Bowyer as the manager.
In all honesty there could have been red cards for ;
Walker– sly kick on Pedro, also booked but could have gone for first offence.
Rose- should have been booked again but only punished for spat with Willian
Lamela- booked for scything tackle, should have gone for stamp on Fabregas- possible straight red
Dier– ( the unsendoffable one) – booked with about five minutes to go when the dummies were really coming out , then scissored Fabregas but ref played advantage. It was a second booking all day and all night
Dembele- a Mourinho – like gouge of the eye of that nice Mr. Costa. That would have been a straight red.
The Totts have 70 yellows this season, almost twice our total but no reds. I’ve not studied their games in detail but certainly Dier should have gone against us.
We’ve had Coquelin, Mertesacker, Cazorla and Gabriel sent off in the League but are top of the Fair Play League.
Moral- be more devious
@Silly Second Yella: “I can see them in my little crystal ball, five years from now, in the Championship”
5 years from now maybe but they stand to pocket Β£150m from the title so it may carry them in the league for quite a while…
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36181320
SSY
I can’t remember a time when most English fans were happier that if their side didn’t win the league another did. Leicester will become wildly unpopular in three years time if they keep this up but they have no pedigree and they have a really nice guy running them and we beat them twice!
I am genuinely delighted for them. I know a few Leicester fans and they are shell- shocked but genuinely humble. The alternatives were much less appealing and it is good to see that for once the spoils did not go to the vulgar richest clubs and we have a little less predictability. The dream ticket would be if we can get second. Imagine the Marshmen having their best season since colour TV was invented and still finishing below us when we have had a ‘nightmare ‘season. And Lord Sugar seems to think it might happen!
TTG.
The Dier “phantom second yellow” was arguably the worst of the bunch and I was certain Clattenburg was about to pull out the card but apparently he was distracted and only gave a yellow on that particular passage of play to another Spud at the other end of the pitch.
But the referees hate us and please don’t anybody accuse me of conspiracy theory when it is demonstrable fact. There would have been at least two red cards in it if it had been Arsenal. π
Fair play to Leicester: the stars aligned and they took full advantage. United and Liverpool were rebuilding, Chelsea imploded unrecoverably under Mourinho, City were in Pellegrini’s out year and we were our usual inconsistent selves; Ranieri built an effective system around the players he had and his physios kept his stars fit. Silly Second is right, though. They will be one-hit wonders. Winning a title and keeping are two different things. The second season is never a fairytale.
Also we might think we have blown a title that was there unexpectedly for the taking (and indeed we did), but we won’t be the only ones. Can’t be too many in Manchester, Liverpool or at the bus stop that aren’t kicking themselves over Leicester’s success.
Congratulations indeed to Leicester… It is an unbelievable achievement considering they were rock bottom just over a year ago… The thing I like about this Leicester team is that when the focus was firmly on them for the last 4-5 games, they did not panic at all and played exactly the way they were playing earlier. None of the bullshit about ‘they don’t know how to win trophies so they will panic and choke’. Spurs on the other hand had epic meltdowns against West Brom and Chelscum… St.Totteringham’s day is on for sure now…
The most telling statistic about Leicester is that they have made only 27 changes to their starting eleven whereas the average for champions in the past decade is about 95 across an entire season. We made 102 starting eleven changes in the invincible season. It reminded me of us two seasons ago when we led the league for 180 days. During that season Wenger kept picking the same starting eleven every week and Ramsey was having a dream season. And then at the end of January( if I remember correctly) Ramsey, Theo and a couple of other players got injured in a short span of time and our title challenge fizzled out. The crux of it is that playing the same starting eleven week in week out is most definitely an advantage. Anybody who claims ‘injuries’ are an excuse is factually incorrect. And ofcourse it only means that we need to improve drastically on the injuries front next season – and as pointed out by Matt earlier, the departures of Arteta, Mozart(what a sad day that would be) and Flamini will help us in that regard.
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Bath: you are so right about the ridiculous crush of expectations. Just read a comment on the BBC that Guardiola will be “a failure’ at Bayern if he doesn’t win at least a treble of titles and the Champions League.