I Don’t Get Moss, Moans Stones Fan
Jan 22nd, 2017 by 'holic
A strange yet also wonderful weekend took a variety of turns on it’s final afternoon. After a delayed journey caused a complete reorganisation of the timetable I found myself in the stomach, if not the bowels, of our no longer new home. Friends of distinction came and we shared the news that we were going into the match unchanged, so no starting place for Hector Bellerin. Raised eyebrows all round.
Why we worried I don’t know. Gabriel, robust on occasion it is true, had a wonderful match in a position he is growing into. The irony was that alongside him Shkodran Mustafi, mercifully back in the fold of late, was having a bit of an off day. It was his first I remember, and he would make it so much less of an issue later on.
We have been slow starters of late, a point acknowledged by Arsene Wenger in the build up this week. Today we were most definitely at the races from the off, and needed to be. The discussion beforehand was would Burnley try and play an open game as they did a couple of years ago, or would they come with a more pragmatic approach? The answer was a bit of both. They weren’t afraid to show adventure, but equally they retreated in numbers and killed time when under the cosh.
Under the cosh they were a number of times in the opening half of what promised to be a riveting fixture for the neutral, and so it evolved. Heaton denied Mesut Ozil, impressively from nearly half a pitch away. Both the German magician and Alexis were denied more than once. At the other end Petr Cech produced a smart save from Barnes and just before the break he took what looked a nasty knock in a fifty fifty challenge I would like to see again. Thankfully he was able to continue after treatment.
To turn around level given our first half improvement over recent weeks was frustrating, but the deadlock was broken by the man having a rare struggle. Given the opposition there was a certain irony that we took the lead from a set piece when Mustafi met Ozil’s corner with the deftist of headers into the far corner. Marvellous.
At such moments you sit amongst your fellow supporters and hope that the team doesn’t switch off, and that nobody does something stupid. We didn’t, he did! Granit Xhaka was sent off for a trivial trip the last time Jon Moss officiated at the Grove, so to make the reckless ‘challenge’ he did in front of the same ‘official’ was thoughtless at best. I’m interested to see some defending him on social media in the aftermath and I can’t wait to see it on MotD2, but in real time at the ground it looked like a red card was justified.
So were some flying Burnley elbows by the way, and how we didn’t get a penalty when Mustafi was taken out I may never understand. Sean Dyche and his coaching staff seemed to be taking it in turn to plead various imagined wrongdoings to the hapless fourth official, Anthony Taylor. The match was taking a dark turn.
The blue touch paper was lit not by the introduction of the strangely subdued Barton, but the awful challenge of Marney on Ozil as we broke at pace. It seemed worthy of a red card in real time, but as it happened the Burnley man injured himself in making the ‘challenge’ and was shown the yellow before he was stretchered off to warm applause from a generous home crowd.
At this point Anthony Taylor informed his inquisitors from the Burnley bench that two minutes had been added for his treatment break, so the signal of seven added minutes as the clock ticked round to ninety was baffling, although eventually rewarding.
The added time was just amazing. As a good friend remarked afterwards “If you go to an opera you know what the ending will be, but at football you don’t. I love it”. Burnley were rightly awarded a penalty for Francis Coquelin’s trip, and Gray converted. Cue lots of “we’ve blown our chance again” and a furious reaction from Arsene Wenger that led to him being sent down the tunnel, where he has been known to blow a fuse and did so again.
Let’s be clear, Moss and Taylor had made their errors long before this point. Arsene was in the wrong and apologised afterwards. I don’t think Moss or Taylor are man enough to follow suit. There was however another twist in the tail.
Mee’s attempt to decapitate Laurent Koscielny brought a penalty signal from the assistant referee and one cannot help but wonder if Moss would have awarded the penalty but for that. Imagine the tension in the stadium as the clock ticked past the mysterious seven added minutes. Karma moves in mysterious ways.
Alexis isn’t the most prolific of penalty scorers if my failing memory is a reliable guide. In slow motion from the halfway line my neighbour for the season strangled my arm as he took a huge chance on a Panenka, or in my view he sat Heaton on his posterior before cheekily chipping the clincher. Is your glass half full or empty?
Whatever happened we celebrated a remarkable three points in the pub afterwards and shared contrasting views on the talking points of the day. I cannot wait to see them again in the show which will be starting shortly.
And so can I just say thank you to those who shared in a belated birthday celebration today with both Dubs and I. It was another fabulous day in great company, frozen extremities apart! Thank you Ian for the chips! Thank you Tone for the elixir of life! Oh, and by the way, we are second in the League again, despite not being the popular media darlings.
73 Responses to “I Don’t Get Moss, Moans Stones Fan”
Another Birthday Drink!!
Drinky
Great title ‘holic, now to read your ramblings.
Posted in previous after the final wistle:
No problems with Moss. As the rules are being applied this season Xhaka’s was a straight red, no question (he now has more red cards this season than anyone else in all the Euro leagues). Coq was a total cock and their pen fully deserved. And we were lucky to win a pen with Kos clearly offside, the offside ruling surely coming before the high foot? That was a linesman’s fault of course. As a result we won again with Moss officiating (that’s 15 wins out of 17 games now).
Apart from losing his cool Mustafi had a decent game. Mesut was relatively quiet, but welcome back from illness. Alexis needs to brush up on his shooting. I counted about 9 shots from him with maybe 2 on target. That doesn’t include the pen, which is the first he’s actually scored for us after two previous misses. But my motm was Rambo who looked keen and threatening every time he touched the ball.
And Cech … as someone suggested in a previous drinks, try just standing still for a penalty occasionally. Alexis’s similar dink notwithstanding!
Top 10?
First time commenting here. Away from all the twitter mess, ‘Holic’s wisdom is what we need 🙂
“Let’s be clear, Moss and Taylor had made their errors long before this point. Arsene was in the wrong and apologised afterwards. I don’t think Moss or Taylor are man enough to follow suit. ”
Well said on the 2-3 lines above.
Here is my 2 cents on the refs. There is a very suspect double standards of officiating with Arsenal and the rest of EPL.
Arsenal players are booked and sent off by applying the finest of details and interpretations of the football ruling by the refs. Nothing wrong there. Fair if correct.
…But for the similar (and quite worse) incidents committed by Man U, City, Pool, Spuds, Chelski week in -week out you see refs failing to give penalties against them and failing to issue red cards/second yellows.
Apologies for disrupting the mood of the win.
Up the Arsenal. 🙂
Strange that Burnley haven’t managed a win on the road this season.
They gave the Spuds an almighty fright at the Lane just before Christmas,and made life quite uncomfortable for us today.
Having said that we should have been more than 1 in front before dopey Granit got himself sent off.
He is fast becoming our new PV4.
We still looked a bit disjointed with Iwobi on the right instead of the left,where he plays much better.
This of course is to accommodate Giroud,as Alexis prefers the left side.
I think Arsene’s plan pre match plan was to hopefully see us comfortably in front around the 70 min mark,then bring on Hector and Coq for a 20 minute run out,and then Danny around the 80 minute mark to get a few more minutes,but of course that plan went out the window when we couldn’t convert our superiority in the first half.
But having conceded a late penalty to give up our lead,and then convert our own late late late penalty to win it,would have given the squad a massive boost.
Another clear week for returning injured players to get some more fitness under their belts before the trip to Southampton.
Arsene now has 2 games to work out his best midfield combo for the massive game at the Bus stop in 2 weeks time.
The linesman who missed the Koscielny offside is the same linesman who deemed the trip on Mustafi not to be a penalty. Six game touchline ban, minimum!
Having seen it, i do think Granit’s red was harsh, but understandable. I thought it was a red in real time, so that is the one I will forgive Moss. How he didn’t see the Mustafi penalty remains an utter mystery.Blatant.
I hope that Xhaka is becoming our new PV4. As I recall, Vieira picked up a few reds early on with us before becoming a club legend.
These are ugly games and I’m sure Watford will be more of the same but another three points are required before we go to the bus stop.
UTA.
Jon is normally incompetent but today he was so bias against Arsenal it was funny.
1) let Burnley get away with scything Arsenal players from behind without caution. Check. Not once but five time.
2) let Burnley get away with elbowing people out of the way. Check. Again not once but three times. BTW, commentators should know that using he is a good, honest but limited players without an ounce of malice and anyway you need your elbows to jump should not used as an excuse. It is reckless and is according to the law punishable by a minimum of yellow card. If a player is seriously injured and bleeding from such contact, a red card should be given.
3) Ignore a blatant penalty for Arsenal. Check. Funny how the British media seem to overlook that incident as well.
4) give a red card to an Arsenal player for an offence less dangerous and that did not result in any injury or treatment than the Burnley player. Check.
5) let Burnley deliberately waste time during the first half and not adding any time. Check. Funny how during the second half, He signalled to Peter Cech to hurry up to give Burnley to equalise.
6) Could not wait to give a penalty against Arsenal. Check. Funny how Sky forget to mention that the Burnley player was in an offside position.
7) Refuse to book a Burnley player for an off the ball incident until being indicated to do so by the fourth official. Check.
8) Refuse to give Arsenal a clear penalty. Check. See how the linesman flagging the foul and then moving the goal for a penalty make overruling him impossible without controversy. At least he did not even book the Burnley player who according to the law deserved a red for reckless and dangerous play.
As a good friend remarked afterwards “If you go to an opera you know what the ending will be
Opera? What the fuck is going on here? 😉
As for the ref, I didn’t see the Mustafi thing as I was making a cuppa and haven’t seen it since, but I thought Moss had a really good game. The red card was right, their penalty was right, I believe the lino gave ours and the ref took his advice, so blame the lino for that if it was a mistake (which it was as he missed the offside).
Moss is a rubbish ref but he was good today. It can’t happen again though so make the most of it.
Xakha is a very ordinary £35m spend in my view.
Ban the linesman who saved the game for us, bt8? Wash your mouth out!
I remember Paddy as you do, Clive, forever looking likely to be carded and putting us in danger when he wasn’t dominating the midfield and putting us in charge. The one thing about both is they usually did (Paddy), and do (Xhakaboom), their worst well outside the area. Unlike Coq.
Some very one-eyed opinions above, imo.
Be gratefful we got the points while playing below par. That’s the sign of a title contender, the chavs permitting.
As someone once said to Dan Quayle, ‘ You are no Jack Kennedy’. I’d say to Granit, you are no Patrick Vieira who was several classes above him ( and almost every other midfielder we’ve ever had) .Xhaka can’t tackle but he can pass sublimely but in midfield if your standard ball winning approach is a scissor tackle- and you lack pace to get to the ball in time, then you’ve got problems!
Glad you enjoyed your day Holic, it’s my big day on Wednesday and today was an enthralling warm up. Really pumped up by the end. Wish we could call on Jack Wilshere at present, I hope Egypt go out of the AFCON soon
More worrying for the Club than Granit’s 4 match ban,is the potential long term ban for Arsene.
If he did indeed push the 4th Official in the aftermath of the Burnley penalty,then he could be in big trouble.
The FA could make an example of him,talk around the traps is 6 -8 weeks.
He was quick to apologise, Clive, which may help a little. In the real world a push by a pensioner is hardly a major assault, and he may have been provoked somewhat in the scuffle to get him into the tunnel.
But it is the FA and they can never be trusted.
If Wenger gets a lengthy touchline ban (as he should), I think it will be interesting to see Bouldy call the shots from the touchline. I think we will see more in-game management, players hauled off at 45 if not performing rather than the pre-planned substitutions at 70 and 85 minutes.
Liverpool lost Saturday but the scouters are still excited about what Klopp is doing. Do any Arsenal supporters say, “Yeah, bit of a set back today, but I really like where Arsene is taking the team”. In a word, NO.
Wenger has to go at the end of the season and have no input into the new manager – see: Ferguson appoints Moyes. But with no football people on the board, that is a big risk.
That said, Wenger is one of the highest payed managers in the world, if not the highest paid. And Arsenal is a rich club. If we want Diego Simeone, we can get Diego Simeone. Thomas Tuchel probably already has people looking for a house in Hampstead,London, just in case. Wenger is done as a top manager. Thanks for the memories (of the first 9 years, not the last 12), but it’s time so say goodbye.
*scousers*, not scouters, 🙂
Arsenal gets punished far too easily by the officials. Lucky for Arsenal the same officials ensured 3points at the end.
AW is paid £8.3m pa, pinotnoir. Mourinho gets better than 50% more than Wenger at £13.8m, and Guardiola, nearly double Wenger at £15m. Yet, despite having ahugely more money at their disposal for transfers their teams are respectively 4 and 3 places behind Arsenal in the Prem. I guess they must be even bigger failures and should be fired immediately, right?
I don’t believe there’s another manager alive who could have kept us consistently in the top 4 and CL during his term given the odds stacked against traditional clubs like Arsenal when up against the megarich 21st Century oilygarchs.
Have you been a gooner long?
Oh, and Simeone has said he wants to stay at ACM for another year, which puts him out of contention for Arsenal should AW not extend his contract.
Cheers H! Top result.
Was more excited with Roger’s win than with what I saw at the Ems. Another below par display in a very subdued atmosphere until the last 10 hectic minutes.
Granit’s enforced absence will cost us points but I feel there is a very good player in there somewhere, only time will tell if he gets that!
We lacked width and pace on the flanks. Why Gabby was preferred to Hector disappointed me as you can imagine.
As for Arsene losing it, I expect the FA to throw the book at him egged on by the media. Moss is another who needs a rest, too many blatant fouls by Burnley players went unpunished and then the frustration set in, me included.
The finale reminded me of last season’s win against Leicester, a mixture of relief and elation. There were happy Gooners on the train home, basically any win will do!
COYRs
Great to catch up yesterday, Holic, a sparkling day out on a beautifully crisp London day. Spot on too with the write up. That was yet another game that should have been done and dusted by half time. However, that ending and the absolute euphoria in the stadium when Alexis’ penalty hit the net, put more jojo in my mojo than a dozen incident free 1-0 or 2-0 wins could ever have done.
I thought Xhaka had an excellent game pre-incident. His distribution is superb. I was watching him carefully in the ‘shooting session’ in the warm up. He and Giroud are lethal from 20 yards. Interestingly, several of our other players (sorry Ox, you were the pits) were consistently unable to strike the ball correctly. Every picture tells a story. The red card for the toe to toe touch was harsh and theatrical but correct according to the prevailing rules. Arsene’s handbag incident was a damp fart. Move on media, we already know you hate the Frenchman.
For Finsbury Park underground station users. The situation there has gone from quite good to seriously crap since the installation of the new ticket gates. One hour after the game there were hundreds of fans queing patiently for entry. Once I got onto the platform, it was nearly empty and the train I boarded was only 20% full when it departed. Wouldn’t happen in Munich based on my last Bayern visit. The odour of Boris the Ba’heed lingers on.
Chris @ 20. Good man.
TTG @ 14,
So Xhaka with “a good pass but no pace and can’t tackle” made you yearn for Jack Wilshere who has a good pass but no pace and can’t tackle? Made me nostalgiac for Liam Brady who had a good pass but no pace and couldn’t tackle.
Some are way too harsh on Xhaka – I don’t blame Moss as he was acting on the lino’s recommendation but in reality it was a yellow, not a red. The player’s reaction was pure Hollywood.
Burnley offered nothing really and were very fortunate to get a (correct) penalty call. They are probably the worst team to play at the Emirates this season and they and Barton deserve each other imo.
UTA.
A beautiful crisp day and a nerve shattering afternoon. Ultimately you can’t beat a last minute winner and we all left for home happily. Many excellent comments from those at the game above so I’ll just make a few brief points.
1. Mustafi, apart from his excellent goal, had what Ray Parlour would call a complete Weston. By some distance his worst game for us, he was dug out of trouble by Kos several times and by Xhaka in one instance. I’ve seen some suggestions that he was MOTM. Absolutely not – that was Kos.
2. I’ve not seen the game back on TV, but from where I was stood Moss got every decision right (the Mustafi penalty looked marginal to me). I called the red card straight away and was not surprised – it looked awful. The Mustafi yellow was completely justified – he was a prat for charging the lino, especially when the lino had already given the decision his way! He gave the pen for us correctly, if it was on the lino’s advice for a better view so what.
3. Mesut had a great game for us. Alexis, although balls of steel for the penalty, had at least three chances to score that he missed.
4. Xhaka complete idiot. Should be heavily fined for being a prat. Shame because he actually played well apart from that.
5. The squeaky bum end of the season is now. Since the City defeat we have played 6, won 5 and drawn one. Keep that going and who knows ….
6. Time for Alexis back into the middle, starting with Soton next weekend, and the HFB back onto the bench for plan B. Perm any two of Theo, Iwobi, Danny and Lucas around him.
We had a great day, we are second in the table and still all the play for. Reasons to be cheerful!
Apologies in advance for the lengthy discussion appended below, but we must take advantage of Speaker’s Corner to vent on a favorite topic: penalty kicks. Yesterday, if both keepers had “stayed at home”, both the Burnley and Alexis’ kicks would have been saved. And maybe Cech would finally save a PK if he avoids picking a side, since he never seems to either guess correctly or reach the shot.
Main source:
Bar-Eli M, Azar OH, Ritov I, Keidar-Levin Y, Schein G (2007) Action bias among elite soccer goal keepers: the case of penalty kicks. Journal of Economic Psychology, 28:606-621.
“Goal keeping behavior explains part of the goal scoring successes. In attempting to stop the penalty kick, goal keepers jump to the right or left 94% of the time. In doing this, they guess correctly only about 40% of the time (i.e. jump left, shot placed left). However, even when they guess correctly, they only stop 25-30% of the shots. The most intriguing part of the analyses is that when goal keepers remain in the center of the goal and the shot is placed in the center, they make the save 60% of the time. Given that about 30% of penalty kicks are placed in the center third of the goal, remaining stationary in the center of the goal increases the keepers chances of stopping the shot from about 13% to more than 33%.
Thus, the best strategy for goal keepers is to remain in the center of the goal during the penalty kick. Thus the idea that goal keepers should jump left or right and hope they guess correctly is not supported by these numbers.
Why might there be more success when the goal keeper stays in the center of the net? When a keeper jumps in one direction, he/she is only able to cover about 1/9 of the goal area (usually the lower corner) plus a bit of the central area. Thus, if the ball is placed in the side or upper third, the keeper has very little chance of stopping the shot. The keeper is either out of position of in a poor position to stop the shot. However, if the keeper remains in the center of the goal area, he/she can cover closer to one third of the goal area (the upper-, middle- and lower-central areas).
If these numbers are correct, then why do goalies jump left or right in their effort to stop penalty kicks? Part of the decision may be based on experience, reading the shot taker’s body language and to opinion that diving is indeed the best strategy. Another reason probably lies in the concept of a “bias towards action”. This occurs with a decision is based on perceived need to “do something” rather than nothing. In sports, it is often said that mistakes are more forgivable if they are made at full speed. Diving to the left or right gives the appearance of effort and avoids the perception that he/or she didn’t attempt to make a save. In fact, a survey of goal keepers show that the vast majority feel worse if a goal is scored when they remain central versus diving to the left or right.
The take home message is that from a statistical standpoint, it may be more advantageous for a goal keeper to defend a penalty kick by remaining in the goal’s center rather than diving to one side. Despite the need to make a heroic effort, this situation may require doing less rather than more.”
My local non league club’s goalkeeper was once coached to stand still for penalties and has never saved one since. The penny has yet to drop that the best way is to make your mind up and dive one way or the other. The only time I have ever seen him save one was before his new coach advised him to stop diving. His only penalty save I can recall was a full length finger tipper, diving away to his left.
If you stand still you have a one in three chance of being right. If you dive to the side you have a one in three chance. I wonder how many penalty kicks go straight up the middle. I would estimate less than one in three.
You have not been charged for this information. 🙂
Egypt now in second spot in their group and will play Ghana, the group leader, in their next game. They are leading the third-placed team, Mali, by three points so must defeat or draw with Ghana, or if they lose, hope that Mali draw or lose to the bottom team, Uganda. Or, to get Elneny back to us ASAP, it is time to start supporting Ghana and Uganda.
Little stat for you
Points after 22 games (this season compared to last):
Chelsea +30; Arsenal +3; Tottenham +7; L’pool +14; Man City +0; Man Utd +4; LCFC -23
The Mancs have spent 718 million euros assembling a squad worth 700 million euros, according to CIES Football Observatory, which has looked at the transfer market effectiveness of the clubs in the five top European leagues.
http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2016/173/en/
Hull and Palace are similarly inept among Premiership clubs. Best in the Premiership and second in Europe behind Barca are the neighbours, who have spent 274 million euros on its squad which is worth 799 million euros. Next are Leicester (130 million euros spent, 484 million euro squad valuation; fourth overall). We are sixth overall with a spend of 381 million euros and a valuation of 660 million euros.
Cynic: one it is known that the keeper won’t move, the decision making for the person taking the penalty becomes a lot more straightforward.
btw, the table referred to above is ranked on the difference between spend and valuation.
On Arsene:
An FA statement says: “It is alleged that in or around the 92nd minute, he used abusive and/or insulting words towards the fourth official.
“It is further alleged that following his dismissal from the technical area, his behaviour in remaining in the tunnel area and making physical contact with the fourth official amounted to improper conduct.”
————-
Hope it’ll just be a fine and not a touchline ban…!
he might’ve been silly
.
it’s not like he was dragged off
“the cunt’s not worth it , Arsene”
by big Martin
.
some o the fuckin officials
could do wi a good slap
and
my vote to deliver that
the steward who stood in front of
(as the mighty chris said)
the main man
.
UP THE ARSENE
.
oh yes
Fine report Guvna. ??
Sorry I missed the festivities. ??
Noosa @ 25
I’m not nostalgic for Wilshere ( who by the way when fully fit has a surge that makes him very dangerous going forwards) I just think without Cazorla, Elneny and Xhaka it would be very useful to have him available not playing down on the South Coast. I wouldn’t say Brady had no pace he could go past players very easily but I agree he couldn’t tackle!
Nobody can defend Xhaka , his record is appalling and mainly stems from a tackling ‘ technique ‘ that beggars belief. In the prevailing climate that was a red card. Everybody around us- we sit on the North Side Upper Tier- gasped as we could see what was coming. There is no doubt that a player’s reaction when fouled makes a huge difference to the referee’s view of an incident. Defour didn’t help him but I doubt our lads would have reacted differently in similar circumstances.
I thought Burnley were no worse than Palace, Boro, Stoke, Chelsea , West Brom or Bournemouth who all played pretty poorly at the Grove this season. I’d say only Liverpool, the Totts, Swansea and Southampton have played remotely well and the last two weren’t particularly good. But most sides are noticeably better organised and fitter than in previous seasons and are hard to break down in the early stages of the game. Only Chelsea have been blown away.
I feel a little sad for Jack. I don’t know what pressure was put on him to accept a loan, but accepting one without a call-back clause has prevented him actually playing regularly for us and making a case for a regular First XI spot during the latest injury ‘crisis’ and Xhaka stupidity.
At his best Jack has the ability to make very clever turns in midfield and dart between players creating space for others. Okay, he also makes wrong decisions after that, but he’s still relatively young and will learn.
I’ve always seen him as one of those increasingly rare birds, the one-club player. But now it seems the mostly likely next step for him is being sold.
Chris, Not sure where you got those figures on managers’ salaries but the numbers do seem to match the ones on this site:
http://www.totalsportek.com/money/highest-paid-football-managers/
Looking at the salaries of the dozen top paid managers in world football, it seems fairly clear that the most astute of the group, at least in working out a salary agreement, is Rafael Benitez who gets a higher salary for managing Newcastle, a tier 2 club, than all but seven managers in the Premier League. With extra cash like that lying around, I would be a bit worried about putting on a few pounds. Not that Rafa needs to worry about that kind of thing, of course. 😉
I understand you were not available bath. This is not a problem, understand you were undoubtedly missed by at very least a couple of fossils. 🙂
TTG @ 37
If pace, pass and tackle were the criteria, I can think of a few midfielders we’ve had over the years who somehow managed to lack all three.
I’m now getting nostalgic for Peter Storey. No pace, no pass but a serious tackle. I wonder how many games Snouty would finish if he were playing in current times?
Xhaka will hopefully learn from his mistakes and will be a key player for us in time.
UTA.
Doesn’t Wlishere’s loan include a call back, but we’ve chosen not to use it? I recall reading somewhere that he can be called back, we just don’t want to use that option.
Xhaka maybe instinctive but i rather have him in the midfield throwing in the tackles than allow teams to run past our ball players. Agreed he needs to be careful but i believe it is the pace of the premier league that is what he needs to get used to and then he will be fine.
Mesut was excellent and i wonder if it is deliberately unnoticed by most as he is expected to work miracles. He is clever and it is ability to create space for others to run into which makes him unique.
Arsene need not have touched the fourth official but for all the ones who say he has no passion, that should suffice. He cares and there should be no more doubts left.
Finally, if we have a remote chance of wining the league, we need to go the bus stand and get a result. before that, may pool beat the chavs and even if we get a draw, the final third of the season will be touch and go. If we lose again there, then good bye once again.
Oh dear. It’s the Daily Mail but… oh dear.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-4152456/Arsenal-s-Granit-Xhaka-accused-racial-abuse-Heathrow.html
Fuck the Daily Mail. The day I believe a fucking word of the garbage that cunting organ of untruth pumps out, I’ll be in a wooden box.
Silly rude boy. However it’s basically a storm in a teacup but Granit needs to learn a bit of decorum.
Remember who you represent.
I resign. Shameless lying is part of my job description, but this is ridiculous!
Wondering if the ruling would have been the same if they had shown Busquets as a hyena.
http://en.as.com/en/2017/01/23/football/1485195652_729146.html
The original story was in The Independent, which is nicely centre/lefty for those of a nervous disposition.
I agree with bath. Rocky’s words are timeless.
Well he’s white calling some white is that racist? Unless there is an Albanian Gooner out there who could help out here?
I read somewhere he muttered this in German and someone overheard and translated back to to the person on the receiving end. All in all I believe the media are loving this right now. They love kicking us down at every opportunity. Silly of him for doing so but hey Wenger’s words weren’t any kinder. He needs to get his head down and work on himself.
I also want to know how much truth is all of this, I weren’t there and can’t really comment on what exactly happened.
Another disgruntled Trump voter.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38735358
Evening Holic, Holics.
Sorry to miss you on Sunday but I had a chance of a ticket next to me for Erin and you have to take’em when you can get ’em. She deserved it too, having been a huge help after Mrs Trev came out of hospital in early December,
Good stuff above from Chris @20 and some proper nonsense from pinotnoir @17. If you have had enough of Arsene Wenger and want a change of manager, fair enough but at least argue the case with a fact or two.
False supposition that we could get Simeone when he has no interest in coming, and stuff about people “probably” looking for houses in London ………
Really ?
Just a quick thought on Xhaka. No doubt the red at Burley was stupid and he is a bit rash on his tackles. But remember a young Kos in his first season at Arsenal (same age as Xhaka)? A red on his debut and 2 reds for that season. And now one of the best CBs in Europe. I think Xhaka will sort it out as he gets more comfortable with the PL.
Maybe Xhaka can bake some cookies and have them delivered to all the refs?
Wouldn’t want to violate the emoluments clause though I suppose.
esso – fuckin yes
bath – aye
trev – best wishes
bath – aye
eye – bath
see ….. ?
trev
lookin a house in london
any fuckin hoor
can get a house in london
known of a fine fella
shit and pissed in tin buckets
in his room
(one for each – he’s not an animal)
only heard cos a mate there
Where an elderly Irish woman who cleaned
discovered why the splashmarks
by her unannounced door open
that
the cunt pissed in one bucket
stood on a chair
and shit like a fuckin high diver
but
according to herself
he stored the shite in the other bucket
no cross contamination there
.
he worked too apparently
.
i dunno
english people are odd
So long as he hit the target, what’s the problem? I’d like to see an Oirishman do that, on a regular basis. On second thoughts, no I wouldn’t want to see that…
well
as a fan of the Arthur chris
any distance between arse and porcelain
is a no for me and many
we’re as a nation bound by our bowels
a proud handsome nation
forever to play mood indigo on the armitage shanks
Distance is a no-no, you say? Then I have just the bowl for you … http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jogWXOQctK4/S_4lIvdjMxI/AAAAAAAAAP4/2XuIu-qOp_k/s640/toilet+with+mouth.jpg
I see that Arsene made it into David Squires’ latest effort.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/picture/2017/jan/24/david-squires-on-football-in-the-age-of-president-trump
UTA.
Interesting article on Usmanov and links to Everton, in a possible breach of ownership rules.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/jan/25/everton-farhad-moshiri-alisher-usmanov-new-money-ownership
…ping…
…pong? ?
More media hate for Arsenal and Arsene:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/hit-arsenal-boss-arsene-wenger-9691591
It’s my 66th anniversary today and I’ve heard that my grandson is playing in a trial match against the Arsenal Academy on Feb 8th. Please say a prayer that he has a blinder and gets taken on. It would make a very old man very proud. A nice birthday present.
He is currently for the darkside but he was much impressed by Alexis’s stylish pen on Sunday and this might be the moment when he sees the light
TTG
Happy Anniversary!
Fingers crossed for your lad too! 🙂
Happy 66th young man. Everything crossed for the lad. >>>>>>>>>>
“It would make a very old man very proud”
66 ‘a very old man’, TTG? Pfft, you’re barely middle-aged!
I wish I was 66 again…
Thanks Chris, Holic and ATG. It feels old from here I can tell you?