Go N’ketiah Quarter Final Place!
Oct 24th, 2017 by 'holic
The expected eleven took to the pitch against Norwich and after a cagey start the match started to take shape.
In the seventh minutes shots were blocked at both ends. First to get a chance was Olivier Giroud while at the other end City’s Murphy was denied. That activity proved to be misleading as the game settled once again into a careful and controlled phase until Vrancic let fly from outside the box but wide of debutant Matt Macey’s goal.
Prompted by the adventurous Maitland-Niles on the left we started to boss the match and chances came and went the way of Mohamed Elneny, a blocked drive, and a Rob Holding header from a corner that was saved by the son of a Gunn.
Then in the 34th minute the Arsenal back three was unhinged by a straightforward ball between defenders and Murphy sprinted clear to chip the ball over Macey’s outstretched left hand. The championship team were ahead against the run of play perhaps, but we were very much the masters of our own downfall at this point.
The Arsenal 0-1 Norwich City
Seeking to rally quickly the Gunners went on the offensive but Francis Coquelin missed the target and Theo Walcott was twice denied an equaliser by Gunn as the Canaries rearguard held firm to the break.
If more had been demanded of the Gunners during the interval the pleas appeared to have fallen on deaf ears. Both Alex Iwobi and Olivier Giroud missed the target, but Oliveira was on target at the other end, fortunately straight at Macey. When the same player threatened again he was blatantly stopped by the last man, and Elneny would have been mightily relieved to see the yellow card that was waved in his direction.
Murphy’s header kept Macey on his toes as the visitors continued to seek a second goal. An Arsenal foray into enemy territory ended with a mistimed lunge by Francis Coquelin and a bizarre few moments before the referee produced, not unreasonably, his yellow card again. When play resumed Norwich launched a rapid breakout through Pinto who teed up Oliveira for a wild finish into the Clock End.
With twenty minutes remaining the Arsenal manager sent on striker Chuba Akpom for acting left-wing-back Maitland-Niles. That didn’t stop Norwich threatening again when Vrancic sent Murphy through for a one on one with Macey. This time the striker hit his chip too high and a quiet home crowd sighed in unison at what was unfolding before them.
Iwobi’s attempted drive from the edge of the box was deflected away for a corner as we tried to find an equaliser with the match entering the final quarter of an hour. Jack Wilshere, feeling a grievance for much of the evening it seemed, finally saw yellow himself for a foul on Husband. He was fortunate not to have picked up similar in one first-half incident.
Walcott found himself in the centre of the area with a clear header but just cleared the crossbar and a golden opportunity was gone. Six minutes from the end Reiss Nelson was withdrawn to make way for yet another striker Eddie Nketiah, and with his first touch the 18 year old put us back on terms with a wonderful near post finish.
The Arsenal 1-1 Norwich City
That sparked a frantic end game. Akpom picked up a yellow for a challenge on Zimmermann, then Trybull was booked for a bad foul on Wilshere. The latter was denied the winner by a wonderful Gunn save and Walcott’s attempt to get to the rebound was ended abruptly by Husband, the recipient of another card from the referee.
Four minutes were added on and Akpom almost made the most of the added time only to narrowly miss the far post when put in by Iwobi. The inevitability of extra-time became reality. Quite what the likes of Mathieu Debuchy and Jack Wilshere would have made of that is anyones guess.
A fairy tale was unfolding in the first-half of extra-time. Gunn denied Walcott once more but from the resulting corner he was left watching on as Nketiah rose above the Canaries defence to head the Gunners in front. “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie” rang out around the Grove.
The Arsenal 2-1 Norwich City
The arrival of the experienced striker Jerome hinted at more ambition from the visitors, but they had Gunn to be grateful again for an excellent save at point blank range from Giroud. Iwobi, his stamina being tested like never before, was treated for cramp and was withdrawn as a safety measure. Josh Dasilva came on, yet another of the class of ’17.
What a difference 25 minutes can make. The team walked off at the break in extra-time to a tremendous ovation. I wonder how many had walked out ten minutes from the end of normal time?
The miracle was all but complete when Nketiah was sent sprinting clear in a one on one with Gunn but the young Gunn denied the young Gun. The drama continued as the otherwise excellent Debuchy appeared to make contact with Husband in the box. To be fair the Norwich player made a more than theatrical tumble to ground which probably went against him in the referee’s mind.
Wilshere was finally withdrawn, his match-fitness seriously tested, for Joe Willock. The impressive N’ketiah played the ball in for Willock who rather excitedly lifted his shot high into the North Bank. Who else but Nketiah galloped on again in search of a remarkable hat-trick, cutting in from the right hand side to curl one wide of the far post with his left foot. Again the stadium resounded, “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie”.
It was Eddie’s night for certain. Arsenal are into the quarter-final, and although that didn’t seem at all likely for long spells of this match this will forever be remembered as Eddie’s night. It will be hard to keep the expectations of what this lad could achieve in check. We need to try, but tonight let’s enjoy what he did on one Tuesday night in North London.
152 Responses to “Go N’ketiah Quarter Final Place!”
a rare thirst.
A drink on the bar for you Scruz!
And your speedy report Maestro!
cheers, arthur. and one for you!
eddie! eddie! eddie!
i shit you not, when arsene put him in i said to myself “save us, eddie” in an internal high falsetto…like we were tied to the train tracks in the old west with the locomotive bearing down on us.
and save us he did. i’ve seen goals of his from the u-21s (or whatever age group he was playing with), and he’s a peach.
a drink for all on the bar from santa cruz, where the fires are out and the redwoods cast drinking shade at their feet.
and a couple of bottles of dry local mead for the maestro, indeed.
I’ve said it before but ….I love it when we score from corners! Second goal reminded me of Bendtner against Spurs!
Bristol City away please
Amen to that, countryman. ??
countryman, that’s for sure. even the first did…eddie didn’t stop moving from the time he ran onto the pitch until he was stopped, celebrating his goal. tgstel did pretty much the same with that header…
Great report Holic- says me from a much later train than normal. I’m almost certainly going to stake the Theo debate again but both he and Coquelin were utter dustcart tonight. Nketiah and Akpom created an energy and enterprise that put those two and Giroud to shame. I wouldn’t have Theo anywhere near my team with boys if that quality around. It’s ridiculously early but Nketiah could be our Rashford. He was a revelation especially compared to the almost static Giroud.
Other plaudits should go to Elneny and Debuchy who were very sound although both got the benefit of the doubt from what I thought was a decent referee. Norwich May disagree.
We outlasted Norwich whose legs went about ten minutes from time but Jack looked seriously knackered. He wasn’t at his net but he tried and with Coquelin alongside him……
A late night but ultimately an enjoyable one
i saw none of that
racistsectarianism is the reason .. mmmm
.
.
homemade swally
OH FUCKIN FUCK THE FUCK YES INDEEDY
had home drop last week
this place fulla gulpins
whiskey is see through
.
coloured for the “discerning daisies”
“O yes we buried it in peat bogs”
FUCK OFF
whiskey now is as far from uisce beatha
as suits and beards allow
i make whiskey !
.
.
it’s coarse
.
.
fuck off ya shower
of course i do
*smiles winningly*
My impression was that we were less bossy in the first half than you suggest, ‘Holic. Also, too slow and too static.
I thought Theo’s main contribution, when not straying offside, was to clutter up the space out wide that Nelson should have been running into, because when he did he caused trouble. Nelson should be playing in Walcott’s position and I am not sure on today’s performance Theo makes the team.
And as Ttg said @10, both Elneny and Debuchy had decent games.You could see how they have 85 international caps between them.
.
‘holic ?
i do ok ?
anno you said go pfneurglehammer
but i’m tired now
8 ball could take over early
godwilling
the complete harummph
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJE7llT0wdo
.
life is shite and great
Spot on Ned I agree with your comments about Theo/ Nelson . Theo was continually offside. He even got offside when playing at wing-back. I wonder how much respect the young players have for him when they see him perform like that . Jack was not at his best but he continually tried to drive the team forward.
I’ve seen the penalty claim from Norwich and it was a stonewall award as it looked at the game from the other end. I think Elneny accidentally caught Murphy’s heels but I’ve seen them given as they say .
An eventful night. It was lovely to see lots of little youngsters there falling as it did in half- term but there were some morons who put me in mind of the idiots I sat next to at the Southampton defeat last year. I’d move if they sat there every week. On top of that there was a full- scale punch-up on the train home. Felt like the seventies again except it was Arsenal fans fighting. Perhaps Theo had got to them too!
Thanks for the report GH and for
the background man on the spot
colour TTG.
Fighting on the train – deary me.
I was going to say I hope the
Arsenal fans weren’t fighting each
other but then I realised it’s not
actually any better if they were
fighting with the Norwich fans.
Frustratingly, I couldn’t find a
decent stream so had to follow
on various liveblogs.
It seemed generally across the
blogs that Theo, OG, Iwobi and
Jack got an equal amount of
stick for being ineffective, plus Coq
for being unable to pass a ball.
For me, considering we had several
players out of position and a very
makeshift defence (that has only
let in 1 goal in 2 and a bit games)
it was a good result in the end.
An inspired substitution or
desperate last throw of the dice?
Either way it worked and a new
Eddie to sing about – was the last
one Eddie Kelly?
2 games plus extra time in 5 days
for Debuchy after so long out is
a good effort and credit to him.
Well done Macey too on his debut
(I think).
Onwards and upwards for the young
Gunners in the quarters !
Jeez, here we go again the knves out for Theo who was, without doubt, the only player in red posing any sort of threat in the first half. And all with little or no support from a lethargic midfield incapable of passing the ball in a timely or accurate manner. If he was offside, and a couple were micromillimetres, blame whoever couldn’t get the pass away in time.
In fact I have rarely seen such a display of poor and inaccurate passing all match. Crosses from Nelson and M-N were nearly as bad as Iwobi’s endless punts over the bar. It was awful.
Nelson, obviously a talented player in the making, spent the game doing Ox impressions, plenty of speed and industry but no final ball. Jack and Elneny were both lucky not to see red, the Norwich goal was typical of our defence in recent times, but of course it was all the fault of Theo. Again.
Fact is you can’t approach a parked bus defence playing Barca tiki-taka (unless you have Barca players of course, which we donn’t). You have to attack with speed with players taking the ball to the defencive wall in order to drag one of them out of position allowing a defence-splitting through ball. The way the midfield played today was more like a Sunday kickabout on Hackney Marshes.
But lovely to see Nketiah in the right place at the right time, twice! Another lad with a bright future for sure.
not the complete harrumph, surely
scruzgooner @4 fires no match for the mighty redwoods you say? musta scared ‘em off 🙂
that and the thousands of firefighting heroes that are still keeping an eye on things (until the first soaking rains sometime between next week and christmas)…
I forgot Eddie McGoldrick but
never mind.
Cheers H. Not seen anything of the game yet so my only updates on last night come from here and the Sky Sports report. A win is a win and a quarter final place is never to be sniffed at. The Shitheads at our place would do me nicely rather than a trip down the M4.
Nice to see the headlines made by Nketiah. Let’s hope that they are the first of many and that he is actually allowed the time to develop.
Chris. You might want to check out other reports on last night. Sky said that Theo and Iwobi were our worst players. Both scoring 4 out of 10. Opinions are obviously subjective but it’s clearly not just those on here.
Agree, Steve, it’s everywhere. Theo has become the popular scapegoat whether or not merited. A case of lemmings.
Just a quick dip into the papers and the first one I found, The Mirror, had only 4 players rated higher than Theo. So it’s not universal. Just universal that he cops the most criticism.
Theo has probably clocked more Arsenal appearances than the entire rest of yesterday’s starting XI combined. He should be leading the youngsters by example. Personally I like Theo but it’s hardly surprising that his ineffectiveness is being highlighted.
Hardly a scapegoat if we won the game?
Funny Chris. I’m on the way home from work on the train so thought I would try and find the Mirror ratings. As I said, I’ve not seen any of the game so just catching up. The Mirror gave him 5/10, the joint lowest score of any Arsenal player. The comments were that he was captain for the night but failed to lead by example????? Now he shared that score with several others so I’m guessing that with the odd exception, no one really covered themselves in glory, but you might just want to take those blinkers off?
CBA@25. I saw that the other day. Incredible and heart warming considering the situation.
I’m almost certainly going to stake the Theo debate again but both he and Coquelin were utter dustcart tonight.
Apart from his two assists of course 😉
Half joking, I didn’t see the game so have no idea how anyone played, just using The Ozil Defence by clutching at whatever good came out of a gash performance across the entirety of his time on the pitch.
A couple of assists from corners would be justification enough for the “world class”, so it will do for the “utter gash” as well.
It’s quite likely Ozil and Theo will
go at the end of the season but
all is not lost because I guess
we’ll still have Rambo to completely
disagree about.
Chris
In the first half Theo took a decent corner which Holding headed over but did little else of note other than to make it difficult for Nelson a far better player already to get forward because he took his space. He also spent the evening getting offside. I’d love Theo to do well because he seems a decent boy but I’ve totally given up on him playing consistently. He has flashes of quality but they are too sporadic.
Nelson is not a wing back as he hasn’t got the build or defensive nous and is learning a new position at the age of 17. In my view he needs to play wide on the right in an attaking role rather than starting farther back
It only occurred to me later that Theo was captain. I find the thought of someone with his work ethic captaining Arsenal offensive. I’d have given the armband to Jack in the hope it might rein in his excesses.
We have a few players I would try to jettison – Ospina, Coquelin, Theo and Mustafi because I’m unconvinced they are of Arsenal quality. Iwobi is obviously a talent but doesn’t convince me but Akpom was extremely good. As for Eddie he looks a terrific asset
Thanks for the report Guvna. Makes up for me sleeping through the entire game as a result of jetlag. Pleased for Eddie but it sounds like we got out of jail. Nonetheless a win is a win. A home tie in the next round would do nicely as it seems likely that Arsenal B may be reaching their zenith.
Sorry Holic but I thought it one of the worst games I have seen at the Ems . This was virtually the same team that took the field in Belgrade but there were times when I began to wonder if they had even met before!!
The standard of passing was woeful. The defence was frequently outpaced by the City front men and had their finishing been better we would have lost in 90 minutes.
Theo our captain for the night, spent most of his time running into off-side positions. Mo was dreadfully exposed with his lack of pace. Giroud barely had a kick completely bottled in by the Norwich centre backs. Jack, who I had hoped would provide some craft and inspiration spent most of his time on the ball passing it across the park as no one was making runs into space.
The Ref was very kind to us, Jack got away with a very dodgy tackle in the first half and Mo should have been sent off for 2 yellow cards , how he escaped I do not know. Even I with my rose coloured specs would have given City that last minute pen claim. We were dead lucky.
BUT then on came Eddie and saved our bacon. That’s the sort of luck we used to be famous for. Perhaps our name is on the Cup but we will need to play a stronger line-up in later rounds. What’s the chance of drawing Bristol City at home in the quarters ?
Looking forward to watching our proper footballing eleven on Saturday.
COYR
Comparing Theo to Özil is like comparing a grasshopper to an eagle because both can go from point A to point B by moving in the air. 🙂
Neither of the two assists were Theo’s last night. First one was Coquelin’s who headed the ball from the corner towards the middle of the goal and Eddie ghosted in, Inzaghi-style. Theo I think did take the corner so he gets a pre-assist.
Second goal was a direct header from Elneny’s corner.
Theo has started to suffer from the same problem all forwards who built their career primarily on speed and don’t evolve much face. He has become just a little slower, and hence instinctively doesn’t fully trust himself anymore to beat the back line on pace alone and as a result strays offside.
[For US Gooners, if you didn’t know, this year the League cup matches are all shown live in watchespn.com in the so-called ESPN3 channel]
How were the trains back to Norfolk Delia? Norwich took loads of fans, were they philosophical? I’m sorry I missed Eddie’s dramatic launch onto the scene but your comments make me quite glad I didn’t go. However, like you I’ll be back in my place on Saturday. 3pm ko, old school!
Grateful for the reoprt, Holic, which I enjoyed although this was clearly far from a classic.
Very pleasing to see the emergence of these youngsters. We’ve seen great promise before mind you which has come to the square root of FA for a wide variety of reasons including cruel cruciates. Wouldn’t it be great if this was indeed a bright new dawn for the emergence of real talent from our academy as the previous strategy of relying on the academy on the banks of the Solent sinks slowly under the waves of wasteful off-sides and the desire to play in mid-field without the talent to do so? (And, of-course, for everything else there’s Calum Chambers).
2-1 home win guaranteed with bells on this weekend.
It’s the AGM tomorrow apparently.
I’m going to go out on a limb and
predict a 67-0 win. And that
nothing will happen.
Unless of course people say really
mean things to Silent Stan until he
sobs heartless tears of remorse
and promises to be a better Lord and
Master from now on.
Osaka Matt
AST have opposed the Re-e,ection of Sir Chips and Josh Kroenke. As a sign of solidarity I’m going to Margate tomorrow and am going to command the wa es to retreat. Paddy Power favours my chances above the AST
They also want Kroenke to speak. Not quite sure what this will achieve but at least they care.
Cynic
One assist – sort of- header flicked on by Coquelin
Second corner taken by Elneny
found REZILLOS badge rooting about
an UNDERTONES badge and a RUTS badge
and
the CAPITAL letter button
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpMoRS_9bcM
howdy he-y ho hooo
can’t stand the rezillos
the revillos
yeah
rev the fuck up
go to the top of the CLASS
?
I’m not proud but I have some friends who are Liverpool season ticket holders. They are very unhappy with FSG the American owners who bought out the last unsatisfactory American owners. We have been debating if they are worse than Kroenke and each side thinks they have the worst deal. Certainly they lay no blame at Kloppp’s door but it looks to me as if the team issues are very similar.
Tomorrow will be an unsatisfactory day for our club and this May be why we are seeing rumours of Overmars and the Barcelona COO coming in. I will believe it when I see it
yer not proud , m’lud
WHY ?
i (for one) think you are fantabulous
FANTABULOUS
.
.
WOOOHOOOOOO
*runs round kitchen*
THE BIG SIX OVER TEN OF THE TON
pilgrim
.
.
.
*drops mic*
*kneels down and whispers into Mic*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Fy5w2klbg
TTG – I was going by what I read on Arseblog this morning, having not seen the game. My bad or whatever the current terminology is
word
RIP Fats Domino. I never got the chance to meet him but it hurts to see him go.
.
.
.
cynic
now now now now , now
blogs talks shite
granted he may be devilishly handsome
with the look of a wan wud have a sausage roll
for all or any occasion
secreted about his environs
.
.
.
DO NOT BE DRAWN IN
ah fuck 8ball
fuckin love Fats
R.I.P.
Dr. Faustus, Thank you very much for the info about the games being available on watchespn.com. It turns out that lets me see the games. How you find out about this stuff and I don’t baffles me though. 😉
arselicker
*winky round faced yellow cartoon*
One of the least discussed problems of livin’ in the usa is the inability to find a good sausage roll.
make america bake again
Her her. Spurs. Her her.
Go on you Irons. They hate Spurs almost as much as we do.
cm100 @75, it couldn’t happen to a better bunch of bottlers. ?
spurs, the jokes that keep us laughing, or something like that.
Congrats to England under 17’s who beat Brazil 3-1 to reach the World Cup final against Spain on Saturday.
Team features another promising youngster in the Arse ranks namely Emile Smith- Rowe,who came on as a sub with 20 mins left and provided the cross for the 3rd goal to clinch the game.
As with Eddie,England’s hat trick scoring striker,lad called Brewster,was also on Chelsea’s books,but left to join Liverpool for more opportunities.
A second successive hat-trick for Rhian Brewster in the Under-17s. England have now beaten Japan (pen shootout) Chile, Mexico, USA and Brazil (in normal time) to reach the final against Spain. And even more impressively than the Under-20s who won their world cup earlier in the year. Quite remarkable.
i lived in tottingham for many years
i lived in upton park for many years
.
great bunch o lads
.
.
.
i also lived in hounslow for many years
aaaahhhhhhoooooohaaaaaaahhhhh
shithole
Quite right, Steve, Theo was one of NINE players given the same rating by The Mirror, yet it was he copping most of the flak. I’m not saying he played well, or shouldn’t be criticised, just that he is invariably the principal whipping boy when the whole team performs poorly. As for making him captain that was another daft decision of the boss and hardly Theo’s fault.
As previously stated I hope he decides to move in the next window – for his own sake as much as mine!
vrancic is still looking for a husband
Here’s a suitable song with which to farewell Theo, although Milly has his number wrong. Should be TW14, not TW3 … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Bex0A6mJk
And for those who never knew the wonderful Millicent Martin here is a fun number (with apologies to bt8 and any other of the cousins in the bar) from a TV show the likes of which we will never see again … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-OEhboorDI
One of the least discussed problems of livin’ in the usa is the inability to find a good sausage roll.
You could always make your own. We used to make them in domestic science, or as we called it “Cookery”.
We used to make bread at school, with yeast and everything, when I was six. And bonfire toffee at this time of year.
Proper education that.
TTG,
🙂
I hope the weather’s nice for you.
Usual interview from Silent in the
Torygraph, it always depresses me.
Especially when he talks about the
generational thing. The son of
silent chips in sometimes like
that Spitting Image puppet of a
politician whose name I’ve long
since forgotten.
David Steel probably. Tiny, Scottish, “Prepare for goverment!” fool that he was.
Good shout but I remember him
and it was a different idiot, tory.
Might have been Archer now I
think about it.
Chris @83, that certainly was a great TV show. Many scenes live long in the memory.
First allow me to apologise for not being around to support yet more excellent previews and match reports – just had a quick catch up but not, sadly, with the drinks. Demands on time have been many and varied.
And so it was with a keyboard finger tingling with excitement that I finally entered this here bar about 15 minutes ago. What would the hottest topic of conversation be ? Finally, a bit of time to get involved again …… and .. hang on … it’s only Theo Walcott (sorry, Ray).
Slumping on my barstool, I am forced to accept I simply cannot join in.
I’ve only been watching him for 11 years and lack the understanding that would qualify me to comment.
So, I will just move into the centre of the bar and try to make myself invisible.
Oops ! There I go again …..
Come out from behind that barstool
Trev!!
I am bored so I looked up our 5
B team games so far. 5 wins on
the trot, 11 goals for and 4 against.
1 each for Alexis, Kola, Hector and
Rob. 2 for OG and Eddie. 3 for the
one and only, once and future
captain of Arsenal, Theo Walcott.
Personally I thought Theo was his
usual self the other night, useless
when he doesn’t score.
Make of Theo what you will of
course but try to keep in mind that
Ozil is a great player.
I hope Saturday comes soon.
2 come from behind wins in a row,
one home, one away. Should stop
the flow of annoying statistics for
a while. Apart from that one in
my first sentence of course.
And I see that Wolves and Norwich
queried the league about the use of
the 4th substitute – perhaps we
should send Norwich a bag of
straws.
In other news Ronaldundant
Exkoemanicated says that
he already had OG in the building
when HFB changed his mind and
headed back to London. I wonder
if it was the delights of Merseyside
or the sight of Jibey Rons stupid
face that was the clincher?
I suppose we’ll have to wait for
OG’s memoirs to find out.
In fact I hope OG can get a couple
of goals in the PL soon and stay
cheerful. I wouldn’t want him to
move on in January and his
thoughts must be turning to
his last shot at the World Cup next
year.
Also Pedro Losa left as manager of
the Arsenal Ladies team. Apparently,
winning the FA Cup last year wasn’t
enough to save him.
However, on to more serious
matters. How’s it going with
stopping the waves at Margate
TTG?
The Arsenal AGM went really well then…
Today’s joyous proceedings as reported by the BBC:
Arsenal’s small shareholders voted to stop chairman Sir Chips Keswick and Josh Kroenke, Stan Kroenke’s son, being reappointed to the board.
A poll vote was held but with 97% of the proxy votes in favour of both re-appointments (held by Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov) the rebellion was quickly quashed.
Manager Arsene Wenger addressed the room, speaking of how cash disparities mean Aston Villa could no longer win European Cup.
That prompted one shareholder to heckle the manager saying: “At least they won it.”
TABS couldn’t have made this stuff up.
Unless he did.
F…ing cold at Margate.
I nearly drowned !
TTG,
Perhaps getting the 100 will warm
you up?
My prediction of 67-0 was wrong,
it seems even Usmanov voted with
Silent. Maybe I’m too early and it’ll
be right on Saturday.
The Chips went cold after just three questions from the floor and closed the meeting then advised anyone with a problem to write in.
He’s got a new book coming out
How To Win Friends And Influence People (The Irritating Hoi Polloi Cunts) by Sir Cheerful Chips Keswick
“The Chips went cold after just three questions from the floor and closed the meeting then advised anyone with a problem to write in.”
Can’t think of a better way of utterly pissing off people who have spent time and money to attend a meeting of a club they mistakenly thought they were a part of.
This owner cares about his share price which, unfortunately, is in very good health. So long as that remains the case, he will change nothing.
Not even his favourite band which, naturally, is Status Quo.
Apparently, he was asked if Kroenke would be speaking and replied, and I’m paraphrasing here as I don’t know exactly what he said, “If you want to know what Stan thinks, read the papers”.
Other highlights include Chips saying Ivan is great and worth his money, Ivan saying Chips is great and an independent voice on the board who is a lifelong fan, Wenger saying he is great and hungry, Ivan saying we’re going places (backwards?) and spending shit loads of cash but we’re OVER ACHIEVING
There’s loads of stuff out there on Twitter but it all went down like a cup of cold, then reheated, vomit.
Is there a club with a board more out of touch with its fans (and reality) than us?
That’s a serious question and not just yet another moan.
The attitude on display is one of “Let them eat cake, but wait a second while I piss on it first”.
We used to get howlers from Peter Hill-Wood but Kewsick is in a class of his own, and at least you knew P H-W meant well and was a real Arsenal man.
@105
To be honest it’s difficult to think
of one.
Anyway, much as expected, although
I was startled by the over-achieving
claim, sadly it wasn’t a good sort of
startled. You really do have to be
some kind of a fucking idiot to stand
up and say that.
Apart from Ken Friar, who I think truly
is an Arsenal man, I’d be very happy
to see the back of the rest.
I totally agree with the criticism of the board. I’ve been very pissed off and worried about them since Kroenke was allowed to take control although to be fair Danny Fiszman was dying when he sold his shares to him. That was a sad day in every respect for the club.
Keswick is a City grandee who looked incredibly uncomfortable at the Supporters Christmas do I attended as if he was being exposed to a species he had no immunity to and wanted to be beamed up without delay.
He sat down next to me because I’m very sophisticated and urbane looking but appearances can be deceptive.
This board are a throwback to the 30s. The 1830s .
I’m fascinated to see the stories planted by Mark Gonnella this week about Overmars and the Barca person which will vaporise now the AGM has gone away. A good mate of mine sits in Club and sees Gonnella regularly and says that his world is devoted to keeping flak off Gazidis, Keswick and Kroenke. But not Wenger who draws most of the fire.
It breaks my heart to say it but this club will never win the Premier League or Champions League or challenge for it while Kroenke owns it. Sadly our best option is an Uzbek oligarch.
“spending shit loads of cash but we’re OVER ACHIEVING”
I realise I’m quoting some paraphrasing here but, really ?
We are spending shit loads of cash by making a £30 million profit on the summer transfer window ?
We maintain a cash balance of around £200 million ( estimates of those who know far more about it than I do ) – so what exactly is the purpose of that to a football team ?
That estimate also makes no sense to me.
Last season we were apparently sat on around £225 million.
We would have had Premier League prize money (£100 million ?), commercial income, season ticket revenue and sponsorships to add to that.
And we made £30 million on transfers.
My maths is clearly a lot worse than I thought.
However, we are “over achieving”.
So, winning the FA Cup is over achieving. We shouldn’t even be winning that – let alone any distant dreams of winning the league or Champions League.
I do realise that we cannot compete financially with the wealthiest of the Arab backed clubs – but the FA Cup is “over achieving” for a club that still charges the highest prices in football to turn up and watch !
The arrogance is staggering.
This owner and this board are achieving though – and something I never thought they could after all my years of passionate support.
They are actually making me not care.
..so it’s hammers then..could have been spuds but we know how that went. 😀
West Ham at home in the quarters of the Carabao Cup.
Other ties:
Bristol City v Man U
Leicester City v Man City
Chelsea v Bournemouth.
If those all go to form, doesn’t look as if there will be an easy semi for anyone.
You see, Trev, you shouldn’t have come out from behind that bar stool. What good has it done you?
Trev
I feel your pain. It’s plaguing me too.
The real fear is that as he stretches his financial empire Kroenke or KSE uses Arsenal’s cash stash to fund or secure other activity or the club is mortgaged to raise money, say for a new Rams stadium.
He operates in exactly the way that suggests such a thing might happen.
Still we’ve got a committed , on the ball board to protect our interests ???
Trev – The boast was something about spending £200m in the last three years.
I was following this on the Mail website and a Twitter feed earlier but forget which one. Darren’s I think
That, from memory, was something he said when defending the club against the charge of only being interested in money, and he also used not selling Ozil and Sanchez as proof that we are most definitely not in this for the profits, oh no indeedy, and we DO have ambitions. Yessiree!
This is a decent Twitter thread if you want to catch up on things
https://twitter.com/RobHarris/status/923591352675422209
Although that is brief. Darren’s feed gives more of a flavour.
Wenger has been widely praised for his speech today but he could have got to his feet and made seal noises and he’d have sounded like Cicero compared to the rest of them.
Ladies and gents.
I really do not know how many years I have been saying it now but neither the owner or the board give a flying fuck about anything other than making money. If you think that the club is anything more than a cash cow for Stanley then you are mistaken. We count for virtually nothing these days, and no one on the board cares one bit.
It’s all very sad but until there are big changes at owner/board level then I really do not see it changing.
Spammers in the League Cup quarters.
Could be a cracker and tempted to nab a ticket
But will they keep the cheap(er) seats now it’s the quarter finals and a London derby to boot ?
We won, but there’s over a hundred drinks. What? Oh, the AGM. Now I get it.
Great to see you back, Trev. 🙂
8 balls in the pot and all we got was some wet spam?
Gazidis quote:
“according to objective metrics – points versus transfer expenditure – no club has over-performed as much as Arsenal”.
Maybe if he spent less time coming up with these obscure metrics and more time on whipping the club into shape we would be in a better place right now.
Is it just me that finds it a strange coincidence that Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U and Man City all avoided each other in the League Cup QF draw? Have I become Cynic Mark 2?
Devon Stu@124: The monks are involved in a deep philosophical debate over the League Cup draw. Which is the potentially more lucrative for the sponsors, broadcasters and the League — a quarterfinal between two of the big names and an underdog slipping through to the semis or two semis involving all four of the big names? There is no unanimity that the latter is the answer, which would torpedo your conspiracy theory.
More tales from our flickering democracy.
https://apnews.com/877ee1015f1c43f1965f63538b035d3f/APNewsBreak:-Georgia-election-server-wiped-after-suit-filed
Always good to see you, Trev. If I’d known you were coming I might have ignored the obloquies accorded you-know-who. I only say might of course…
A drink on the bar for you sir, to dispel the dyspepsia resulting.
Gotta love ‘objective metrics’. No doubt an example of synergistically actualised high-payoff paradigms created by one of those buzzword generators that were so popular in the ’70s.
Here’s one everyone can use … http://www.atrixnet.com/bs-generator.html
Home tie in the quarters isn’t so
bad. Semis are shaping up similar
to this years FA Cup.
Team news for the weekend and
Red Star was good too. The same
starting 11 for Swansea I imagine.
Swansea have already got two
0-0 draws away (spuds & soton)
though, so I hope we will get an
early goal and then shred them
on the counter.
With Hector, Rambo, Ozil, Alexis
and Laca we’ve certainly got a
team that can do it.
Cheers H! See ya tomorrow!
Potential banana skin tomorrow. We’ve won only one of our last four home games against Swansea.
And only one of our last five in the league.
Chris@128: Here at Castle Ned we love an objective metric as much as anyone, but surely the main objective metric for any football club is number of trophies won?
@133
High time we won then Ned!
At least they don’t have Montero.
We have had a few bad results
and performances against them
though. The 2-2 home draw really
stuck in the throat.
Spot on, Ned. Trophy winning is definitely a long-term high-impact quality vector that could energistically generate fungible enterprise-wide matrices conducive to opening up an expanded array of success portals, imo.
That’s the most sense you’ve made in years Chris. ?
https://jimsworldandwelcometoit.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/thurber-touche.jpg?w=500&h=430
thanks bath. 😉
??
It does however put you in pole position for the vacancy for the new post of Director of Operations. Stan will love that. It’s so high on his obfuscation metric it almost achieves his ultimate success criterion: the totally mute metric.
😀
It could be worse our Chairman might be heavily into guns and hunting and the glorification of animal slaughter…sorry what was that …?
The competition brewing in the streaming market with major digital giants queuing up to get their hands on PL rights is absolute manna from heaven for Stan and KSE. What’s a little verbal punch up 5,000 miles away when you’ve landed an asset that’s doubled in value since you had it and is a major player in arguably the most high-profile league of the most high-profile game in the world based in one of the great cities of the world. Added to which if you are a classless Yank ( I’m only insulting Kroenke not all our American friends) what better acquisition than a blue chip sporting insitution
That utter bollocks in the Telegraph about watching Ozil and Sanchez ‘ in the black strip with the pink trim’ ( see he knows our colours who says he doesn’t take an interest? ) made me sick . He only came over to watch the LA Rams play at Wembley which I believe they did on Sunday .
Hehs @ Chris @136
and Bath @137 ?
Just needed Kenneth Williams at the AGM to stand up at the end of Gazidis’ speech and say,
“Ooooh Matrix !”
My coat’s where ….. ?
Sorry I meant to imply the owner not the Chairman was into hunting!
Will Barca still be in la liga….?!
Hope they don’t send in the spanish inquisition..
That metrics shit would never have existed under the imperial system. Fucking meddling, decimalising, EEC cunts.
Give them an inch and they take 1609.344 metres
Go read the newspaper.
Let them eat cake.
Similar pronunciations have been made by despots down through history.
Trump is one of the masters.
Harry Kane is injured tomorrow. Now we will see how dependent they are on him
I saw Kroenke quoted in the paper today saying that he loves Arsenal, loves being involved with Arsenal …… and will NEVER sell his shares.
In case anyone was in any doubt, the Arsenal he was loving watching were the ones in their black strips with pink trims.
Ye. Gods.
What Chris said @136 whatever it was he said.
If you could pour cba into Chris’s random management gobbledygook generator, heaven only knows what would come out, but it would be on a different astral plane of communication.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>