Lazy Sunday Afternoon
May 10th, 2010 by 'holic
So that is that for another season. Despite the best efforts of Transport for London I arrived at Holloway Road just after twelve and took a cursory look in the club shop for the end of season sale bargains. Sadly, they were well-hidden.
Unusually for an end-of-season game the pre-match refreshments were partaken in a chill wind in the beer garden. Talk was of the possibilities that lay ahead, but to be honest the consensus was that we would have too much for a weakened Fulham side, and so it proved.
The ascent of the north face of the upper tier of the green quadrant was just about achieved without mishap, although it clearly took a toll on the lungs at that height. Atmosphere was zero.
That was a shame because Arsenal were clearly enjoying the rarity of playing against opponents who showed no desire to stop them from producing their best training-ground football.
A rare howler from Schwartzer allowed Arshavin to plunder the opener, and it was just as well he did find the finish after ignoring the pleas of van Persie in front of the target.
The Dutchman wasn’t to be denied for long, however, and struck at the second attempt after being set up by Walcott. A few around me even woke up and offered polite applause.
Viewers of Friday night on ATVo will know that Stewart Robson has a pretty low opinion of Fulham’s back-up central defenders, so I had to smile when Baird put through his own goal to complete the first-half tally.
It was time to head downstairs in search of one of the multitude of empty seats that would get me closer to the action, and hopefully a little better atmosphere. Next to the tunnel is about as good as it gets, but still the air of the tea party hung in the air.
You could have forgiven the Fulham fans for sloping quietly off, but no. A rousing chorus of Kay Sera, ending in ‘We’re going to Germany’ brought about the most orchestrated response of the home crowd, who rose as one to applaud the visitors. Nice touch that. Good luck to the Cottagers in Hamburg on Wednesday.
They were making a hasty retreat, however, when Carlos Vela was introduced and produced the sort of clever chipped finish that we have seen from him before. A mention too for Lansbury, promoted to the bench after ending his loan spell at Watford, and who did not look out of place when he came on, although sterner tests obviously lie in wait if he is to make the step up.
By the time the final whistle brought the curtain down on the season news had filtered through of Burnley’s achievement in equalling our four goal haul. Why did we ever doubt them?
Those who sought some semblance of body language in the post match festivities were to be disappointed, unless you count the no-show of William Gallas. No exaggerated teary waves from anybody, and no sign of Arshavin, Clichy, or the skipper donning Barca shirts.
So back to the pub garden for more chilly tinctures and elixirs, and an interesting chat about the mixed backgrounds but good nature of the assembled throng. It was that sort of day. Pleasant, relaxing, friendly.
I really wouldn’t mind though Arsene, if next season’s finale could be a blood-and-guts grudge match for the Premiership crown. It’s about time we were a bit grizzly again.
57 Responses to “Lazy Sunday Afternoon”
Afternoon. Just a coffee please. Still a bit delicate.
How well I know that feeling, Steve. 😉
Love thesite Holic….long time reader…first time poster
Hope next season brings out the best in us with only half the injuries
Love a Guinness please just cos Im Irish
Thanks den, Please help yourself to the Guinness. The less there is for me in the next day or two, the better…
A stadiumFul of Gooners, Full of pre-match Fule and Fully hopeFul of seeing Arsenal Fulfil the bronze medal with a handFul of goals against Fulham, Fulfilled pre-match pleas for Fulsome support in the first Full minute. Would they feel Fulish by Full-time? Or, would a home hatFul, Fully justify the faith of the faithFul and leave Fulham fans feeling Fulhardy and Full of woe?
Arsenal’s team was far from Full of first picks while Fulham’s was fateFully Full of a handFul of Fulls, not good enough to make the Full team for the fateFul final they’re grateFul to be in finally.
In truth, Fulham were never Fully in it and the game never balanced on a Fulcrum. A plateFul of goals, inspired by a nearly Fully fit RvP Fully justified the plentiFul applause for a successFul finale and a seasonFul of fine football not always Fully appreciated by the BBB in the absence of a cellarFul of silver. A bit Fulish that. Not worthy of the lungFuls of vile they Fulriously spew every Full moon..
Tom Fulery played a fine game in the form of Eboue and Fab Fuled us all by keeping a Fulscap long clean sheet. Lansbury FulFilled fifteen minutes of promise before Full time and Velas’ chip was, beautiFul, MexicanFul and WonderFul to behold. And my heart skipped a Full, bountiFul beat to see Johann Djourou appear after Fully a year. I Fully expect him to challenge for a Full-Time, Fullback, berth next year.
Well, there’s only some variations of Ful than can be useFully used before a post becomes wasteFul of time and words. This one’s too fanciFul, so I’m thankFul that it’s coming to a merciFul, Full stop. It’s probably the most Fulish thing in the Full bar tonight. FrightFul!
A Full pint of Fullers wonderFul bar Fule, Mr Holic.
Top post ‘holic I will surely miss them during this long summer, also great to finish the end of the season on a high though.
Looking to some decent signings and a good world cup as well at least we won’t be completely without football this time around.
*applauds the man, again*
Touch of class that,
Thats why we are The Arsenal,
Id like to raise a pint to Holic for a great seasons writting and to all the Holics that make this the best bar this side of the Internet 🙂
Lets Hope England finally land the big one this summer and that by the start of next season we will be in good order and ready to start again with hope in our heart, a squad full of fit players and a little tinkering next year might just be our year 🙂
Up The Arse,
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St. Totteringham’s Day with a Burnley salvo to rub in the wounds. Djourou, RVP and Arshavin back from injury. Good day all around if a touch sad considering what might have been. Onward and upward and a good and healthy summer to all.
Well in ‘holic……. cheers for a fab season of blogs!
More of the same for the next one please… oh and I’ll have whatever whiskey is on offer.
Ta!
Thanks for a wonderful season at the bar, Mr. Holic! And a pint for Chippy for keeping things lively these last few weeks.
On another note, RVP’s free kicks have re-gained their ferocity I’d say! Ahh, what could of been… I fully expect he and Chamakh to form a fierce partnership next year!
Guinness, if you will. Cheers ‘holics, thanks for the relief and conversation.
PIK,
Your to kind Sir 🙂 All gratefully received and drunk in quick haste lol, Ill get the next ones !!
Its a grand bar this one you can have a good debate without all the sillyness that goes with it and the thing i like most is the trips down memory lane always brings a smile !!
Indeed Looking forward to Chamakhs signing altho i dont think hes a 30 a season goal man he will bring pace and an out ball to our side which we have been lacking since the lazy one left, If Wenger carrys on with 4-3-3 next year a Front 3 of Chamakh Vp And The Meerkat will strike fear into any opponents
top form as usual holic
btw, if you ever speak to or hear from the spud called cisco or something who was flooding your blog last week i’d really appreciate it if you told him i said hi and i look forward to not hearing from him for another 10 years or so
wish gunners were as consistently good as Holics posts
thx for it all this season ‘holic, great entertainment here to compensate for the pain and stress experienced too often this season
I have seen Chamaikh in French tv highlights a few times, playing just like NB52 only slightly more successful in scoring sometimes
A minor discussion point I think on signings generally – is it right that we must have max 25 in squad including a number of homegrown (or is that EU grown?)
2 all – enjoy world cup and lets hope all the gooners do well there
a large Cognac as usual
@cognacgooner: you are allowed 25 players in the first team squad, of which at least eight must be home-grown OR qualify as an under-21 player.
The rule for home grown is that the player, regardless of nationality, must have played in England or Wales for at least three seasons as an under-21 player.
You can also have as many under-21 players as you like in a squad, in addition to the 25 players listed as first-team players. You qualify as u-21 if you, on the 1st of January in the year in which a season starts, is 20 or younger.
You can buy new players in the January transfer window but the limit is still 25 players with eight HG/U21, so you have to take someone else off the list unless you have an empty space.
Evening Holic & Holic`s
Fantastic writing and views this season Holic, keep up the good work !
Ditto to most of the postee`s as well.
Will have a double Canadian Club please barman.
@17 Lars – thx 4 all that – so that means AW has his work cut out
according to club site there are 37 on the list at the moment
at least 18 of which to my calculations are foreign and over 21
although Im unsure of some ages and origins – see below
Manuel Almunia
Abou Diaby
Bacary Sagna
Cesc Fabregas 1 of 8 (was u 21 but does he count?)
Thomas Vermaelen
Tomas Rosicky
Samir Nasri
Eduardo
William Gallas
Robin Van Persie
Carlos Vela
Theo Walcott 2 of 8
Denilson
Aaron Ramsey 3 of 8
Alex Song
Mikael Silvestre
Jack Wilshere 4 of 8
Johan Djourou
Lukasz Fabianski
Gael Clichy
Andrey Arshavin
Philippe Senderos
Vito Mannone
Emmanuel Eboue
Kieran Gibbs 5 of 8
Armand Traore
Sol Campbell 6 of 8
Fran Merida
Craig Eastmond 7 of 8
Nicklas Bendtner 8 of 8
Jay Emmanuel-Thomas
Kerrea Gilbert
Henri Lansbury
Mark Randall
Gilles Sunu
Wojciech Szczesny
Sanchez Watt
any thoughts ‘holic or is it too soon to be talking
Denilson, Song, Djourou, Clichy, and would you believe, Campbell, also qualify for the homegrown list, cognac.
This should not have a huge effect on us, although we will have to be careful about which senior youngsters we hang on to because effectively they will only be eligible for the domestic cup competitions with us.
Be prepared for a lot of the lads going out on loan next season.
Evening lads, anyone know what this Boateng fella is like? Apparently Man$ity have made a bid for him. He’s supposed to be a defender, but can also play in midfield. Quite versatile then. About £11mil.
Hope he’s shite. Otherwise, I wanna know how he’s not on our radar.
AFC1974,
he was on our radar from what I heard but I guess we cannot compete with citeh financially.
Never paid too much mind to this new ruling but now it’s on us time to take notice.
my views when I first became aware of it was, it can only be good news mainly for Arsenal because of the way AW has structured our club over the last 10 years with our youth set-up, but also but not as important the England set-up too.
Teams like the Chelski & both Manc’s side surly have many more problems than we have with the off the shelf buying they have all been involved with over the years. i.e. ManC literally buying a complete non-home grown team in the last year & seemingly abandoning their youth system?
Thanks Sajit, sounds about right! I bet the buggers offered him stupid money 🙁
Wouldn’t it be nice, to get on with the neighbours?
No.
A glass of your deepest full-bodied red, and failing that a large glass of Port please, ‘holster.
Funnily enough I have just chucked out about a third of a bottle of port, Snail. Bloody sediment. Must replace it so I have something to go with the stilton.
Pretty lively red on offer at Sainsbury at the moment. 35 South Latitude cabernet merlot, half price at £3.99, so obviously I bought a case 🙂
“little better atmosphere. Next to the tunnel is about as good as it gets”
I’ll have you know we were singing our hearts out for the lads
Bit of a strange old game really. I think we all knew that 3rd was safe, just had trouble coming to terms with it after recent events. Now we just have to hope that those making the trip to South Africa all come back safe and sound. Then the spuds can take their bunting down and get on with their qualifier. How funny would it be for them to get Martin Jol’s Ajax, and to get turned over? I think I would laugh quite a lot.
Bring on all the speculation. You know it is all shite when even the offiial web site takes the piss out of it.
Keep the faith.
I’ll have you know we were singing our hearts out for the lads
Well thank you, Marcel Marceau 😉
Heh you deaf old whatsit
Holic
Do you actually work.??
Or is all your time taken up with the website and all your postings.??
Just interested that’s all.
Regardless,another very enjoyable roller coaster season with the Arse which only faltered on the final lap.
Along with Arseblog,your postings have added to the indelible DNA that is a true Arse follower.
I only wish i could let my young No1 grandson read your and Arseblogs postings,but unfortunately i cannot take the risk that he won’t ask Nanna what a Fuckwit is at the dinner table.!!
Enjoy the summer ahead and thnks for taking the time to reply to some of an old weary Gooner’s postings.
cheers
clive
Holic, it’s that time of year when little white balls need to be hit and home-tied flies need to be cast toward more challenging fish than Marcus. So with this last epistle with a whistle, I’ll take my leave ‘til the sound of leather on leather resonates again from N5 and we reclaim the Emirates Cup in August. On reflection:
The Good
– Bronze medal, last 8 finish in world’s two toughest tournaments
– Quali 4 2011 CL, with more points than last year (suck it up, Jack)
– Alex Song & Denilson coming of age; really stepping up to the plate
– Cesc Fabregas’ leadership of the best young squad in the world
– Eastmond, Lansbury, Mannone , Bartley and Fabianski getting a start
– Samir Nasri’s Porto goal; Cesc’s broken leg penalty against ‘Barca
The Bad
– Disappearance of the full spine of the team just b4 the run in
– Andrei Arshavin’s haircut, a seasonal low point in prem league styling
– Nasri’s leg-break in pre-season training; Gibbs foot-break v S Liege
– Whining by many that team “wasn’t trying” (get a life – big time!)
– Phil Brown, Horton and Fat Sam (The Bad, the Badder, the Baddest)
– My Pal Al’s keeping howlers – I hated Manure home “throw in” most.
The Ugly
– Italian dump truck that ran over RvP, killed season with one dump
– Shawcross on Rambo – “I didn’t mean to do it again, guv, honest”
– Paedophile chants from dung heap beetles in Manure pile of horshit
– Manure 700M, Chelsea 500M in debt – to win some silver
– “We want that debt too!” – BBB
– 32M Berbatoss, Nani 20M, Rooney 25M, Ferdinand 30M
– Only the beer cup 2 show for it
– 90M Renaldo, 60M Kaka – Sweet F A to show at Real Madreadful.
– The bus stop from Fulham buying the double again
At the pinnacle of world football – and make no mistake, that’s where Arsenal play, Lady Luck plays a big hand; sometimes, a bigger hand than talent does. Had Chelsea lost Dogbreath, Manure lost Rooney to injuries – neither would have finished above Arsenal. The fact that Arsenal finished third while playing a huge proportion of the season without the spine of the team, 8 world stars missing, is a magical mystery tour of a season for me.
If AW is reading this, can we PLEASE have a new keeper, Felipe Melo AND Eden Hazard please? (Failing that – bring back Ade! – for Steve T)
Finally, Holic, sincere thanks for the sandbox. It’s a really great place to play. I’ve enjoyed the year greatly. See you all in August.
Finally, finally, I’m a Jock and I won’t be following your talentless pretenders. With Shawcross the scythe merchant in the squad it’s Robin and Holland; Cesc and Spain for me. Enjoy though! I’ll be wearing my Ramsey top for every England game.
And with a peeeeooooooiiiiiiing, btm was gone from the roundabout.
Haha, thanks Clive. Yes, I do have a real job, I’m afraid. Arseblogger is the lazy one that spends all day in front of the screen 🙂
Apologies to grandson, who probably reads this when you aren’t looking anyway, for the odd bad word that slips in. Generally I try not to be as x-rated as the rest, but sometimes nothing quite captures the essence of the sentiment like a good old Anglo-Saxon expletive!
BtM, I have a horrible feeling we will be missing your excellent contributions for a couple of months from what you are saying. I’ll start playing a few holes of ‘bugger and blast’ myself now. Good luck with your flies.
Cheers all for another night.
BtM is a sweaty?
Aye, Jackster. Couldn’t swim, or you might have been cousins 😉
I don’t recall significant water between the picts and the Caledonian Road ‘holic
Well played! ‘Holic, another great season from yourself.
Thanks for the chance to chip in now and then – good to connect with other Gooners.
A red Lambrusco for me please – I hear it’s a ‘lively keeper’. Hey, maybe we could all do with one of those.
Excellent posts all season long holic. this is the best pub to connect with other gunners also. Atleast this season we atleast had dreams and hopes of silverware unlike the previous year where it was over by November. The RvP effect seemed to actually come through as we had missed him all season long but that was almost expected from other seasons.
Hopefully next year will be different on that front and we won’t have to see our 6th choice CB ( at best) Sylvester playing a one-two with Lionel at the top of our box in the CL. Boateng is a very talented CB who played excellently in Germany’s U-21 squad vs englands this summer. a man amoung Boys that day. but Citeh will no doubt inflate the price. We have been linked with YaYa again ( via arseblog) but not sure the truth to that.
@ Steve T —– I was thinking the same thing about Martin Jol haha. that would be classic if that happened!
also my high of the season was Nasri scoring late winner vs Birmingham…. but I’m sure you can guess my low point too.
If our season matched yours or Arseblogger’s in terms of commitment we’d have won the league in early April….alas.
Stat from the Guardian today – our subs scored more goals (15) than any other team in the league this season….
Does that speak to:
The quality of our bench?
The wrong players starting?
Great timed subs?
Overall fitness?
Commitment?
I suppose its a bit of each – I’d lean most on overall fitness and the quality of our bench (it’s better than we give it credit for)
@holic:
“This should not have a huge effect on us, although we will have to be careful about which senior youngsters we hang on to because effectively they will only be eligible for the domestic cup competitions with us.
Be prepared for a lot of the lads going out on loan next season.”
Not so sure about that. Ramsey, Wilshere, Lansbury, Szczesny, Eastmond and even Theo Walcott (and a few others) are still young enough to be eligible to play for the Arsenal in the Premiership without being listed as part of the 25-man squad next season.
@Tim: agree, if there was a Premier League trophy to be won for best blogging it would be a joint victory for Arseblogger and the ‘Holic!
Back for a drink, ‘holic. Of your choice.
I think Fulham fans chanting ‘stand up if you hate Chelsea’ and us standing up there was fair play too.
Till next season, with less transport woes and more trophies hopefully!
Thanks for all.
@Lars, Tripe. ‘Holic and Blogger don’t hold a candle to Messrs Pedro and that other windbag whatisname over at Le Grove 😛
latest rumour from local French press ahead of 23 man French squad coming out this p.m.
Gallas if fit by May 18, Sagna, Henry, Anelka with Clichy, Diabi and Nasri as possibles
will update later
btw why is Capelli announcing 30 down to 23 today
Like BTM, I too, am what you quaint neighbours call “a jock”.
You will excuse me, but I cannot possibly root for a team at the World Cup that has Messrs. Terry, Cole, Gerrard in it. I have family in Holland so like BTM I will probably follow them a bit closer than the rest.
In the final analysis, may the Arsenal players have a good world cup – the rest can go fish.
And have a good close season, ‘Holic.
Will be supporting Spain for world cup glory. It was a great ride at the Euros 2008 and I would love to see a repeat. Hopefully Cesc will be fit. Does anybody know if he is scheduled to be recovered by then?
@47 behind the ball
allegedly looking good
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/may/09/cesc-fabregas-world-cup
The Youth Team is 4-3 up in the Premier Academy League final v Nottingham Forest with just under 20 minutes to play. I have only been able to see the past 15 minutes, but these kids play exactly like the first team – right down to the sometimes comically poor defending…
theo in cappello’s 30!!
Good show lads, glad to see them go out with a 4 goal thrashing of fulham (even though they were a second string side)…. Didn’t AW say that he should be judged at the end of the season, meaning on how the club performed, and where they ended up come the final day?? Well I think he should be judged, I think he got alot of things wrong this season, but he also had alot to deal with meaning injured players…. I think AW is the best thing to happen to Arsenal Football Club, I’am by no means an AKB person, but I do believe there is nobody better to lead this club into the future, I also think he needs to re-think about some of the players at the club and thier roles they play or don’t play for that matter… I do believe we need to chop some of the dead wood off, there are some players that just aren’t good enough to don the Arsenal jersey, and then there is others that has stepped it up and played their guts out (Verminator, Song, Eboue, etc…) All I’m saying is we need some need blood in this squad, if done right then the sky is the limit for these boys, anything is possible including European glory, and the Prem title, Up the Arsenal y’all 🙂
Re:45.
Typical Domenech fashion, announces 30 instead of the promised 23.
Keeping it Arsenal.
In: Gallas, Sagna, Clichy, Diaby.
Out: the other ones, (well mostly Nasri then).
Overall a rather typical ridiculous Domenech-type list (on top of some logical choices quand même!)
Thank you also Holic for giving your views and humour over the season and providing a bar for all of us who didn’t feel at home elsewhere on the web.
I,for one look forward to your posts during the close season even if you never know when they are going to turn up?
On another note I knew that we had all appreciated the Verminator this season but was surprised to see that he made the team of the season in 7 out of 10 of the Guardian writers.http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/may/11/premier-league-season-review-football?showallcomments=true#start-of-comments
Song didn”t get a mention ,but was superb all season and I look forward to seeing his progress in SA more than Cesc or VP,
Calvados for the road and goodnight
Thanks to cognacgooner for the article about Cesc’s status. Let’s hope he and all our recovering players don’t aggravate their injuries in South Africa.
´Holic
Thanks for a superb season of blogging, to echo the others. I started with a daily list of 5 or 6 arse sites to read, and all good quality they are too. But my apologies (if you are reading); by half way through the season the daily ritual was a simple read and chuckle at the maestro of irreverence, and then on to ´Holic and all the posts.
Everything you need in two sites.
As people seem to be declaring their allegances, maybe we should all stand up and be counted? I reckon ´Holics drinkers challenge the team for a veritavble United Nation of stars …
From what I can work out so far (or guess);
Chippy – London, but not now?
Arthur – Poland but in UK
BTM – Scot in USA
Zico – another neighbour
Pires – Chile?
BT8BBNN – Spain???
Cognac – France
Chicago – errrr
Sajit – India??
Lars – Sweden or Denmark
´Holic – Norf Landon, now the west country
Sorry to all the others that i´ve missed out.
So, hands up, everyone…
@Catalan: I’m Swedish and I live in Stockholm, but I do have some English heritage – my mother’s grandfather was an English sailor so I consider myself one eigth English 🙂
First time posting here but religeous follower of arseblog, and of course goonerholic..
Checking in from South Africa, and cant wait to see Cesc playing live next month!
🙂