An Afternoon Of Contradictions
Oct 2nd, 2011 by 'holic
“…this is the most difficult North London derby to predict in a very long time.”
So I wrote beforehand, too which now I can add, this is the most difficult North London derby to summarise, in a very long time. It was a game of many contradictions.
How could we claim to be the better side for over an hour although we had only one midfielder winning his battles and coveting the football? We were, and we did. Francis Coquelin has had a baptism of fire at Old Trafford and White Hart Lane. He was not disgraced in the former, and was arguably the best midfielder on the pitch today. If only those around him had shown such care for possession of the ball.
How could we argue that Tottenham grabbed the lead against the run of play when the chances that we were creating were being fired high or wide? They did, however, and that was acknowledged by Glenn Hoddle, no less, at half-time. He was more supportive of his old side though with his insistence that Van der Vaart’s bicep was in fact the ‘apex of his shoulder’. Now with Mike Dean in charge we were never going to get the free-kick there, but in fairness it was a tough call in normal time. Less understandable was the lack of a second yellow card for his celebration in the crowd. That rule may be a stupid one, but it is normally rigorously applied. Consistency? Of course not.
The scores were level as Arsenal took control of the early stages of the second-half, largely off the back of several good exchanges between Kieran Gibbs and Gervinho down our left flank. When the goal came the unlikely provider was Alex Song, on a foraging break from his central defensive duties, and the finish was provided by the biggest contradiction of the afternoon, Aaron Ramsey. Fair play to him, everything he tried just wouldn’t come off, but he never hid, kept making himself available, and the close-range finish was a reward for at least that.
Strange then that control of the game shifted with the departure of our right-back, Bacary Sagna, and let us hope his ankle injury is not as nasty as it looked. Bale, anonymous to that point, clearly fancied his chances against young Carl Jenkinson, and with Sandro now plugging the gaps in front of Tottenham’s back four the tide turned. The winner summed up our season, and Tottenham’s recent performances against us. Mikel Arteta let his man go from a throw, and the half-cleared cross ended up being met with a once-in-a-lifetime-strike by Walker. Even then the otherwise excellent Szczesny had to make a complete hash of his attempted save for the ball to end up in the back of the net.
Now to draw firm conclusions from a game on the second of October is clearly being premature, but there are alarming trends that need to be addressed long before we have the chance to spend some of that player trading account profit in January. Defensively, although clearly we are hampered by the injuries to so many central defenders, that does not excuse the number of chances we offer up from set piece plays, or the lack of cover provided by the wide players. It is a nonsense that we had to bring on a player to help our deputy right-back defend when a minute later we were chasing the game.
It is also noticeable, that even though the stats said we had the lions share of possession as usual, we have clearly become less assured at stringing passes together. The football looked like something of a hot potato this afternoon whenever Arteta and Ramsey had it. The need to keep it moving when confidence is low leads to waste. Therein lies the biggest problem. Confidence is built slowly, and the three home wins that preceded this game had built a little bit of belief at a time. Defeat this afternoon has put us back to square one.
I started the piece with a quote from the preview. I also said there that this season would see the seventeenth consecutive St Totteringhams Day. I stand by that. The neighbours were far from impressive today. The danger is however that we could finish above them and it might still not be enough to secure Champions League football next season. Neither of the two clubs in action this afternoon looks anywhere near challenging the Manchester clubs or Chelsea. The question is can either grab that fourth place. The evidence of today suggests not.
We will have better days this season, no doubt. With four defeats already though we cannot afford to wait much longer for them to arrive.
213 Responses to “An Afternoon Of Contradictions”
in!!!
So, the day hasn’t been completely wasted! 🙂
I’d like to buy everyone in the bar a drink….
So, what you having ‘Holic? 🙂
Good shout doc
A barrel of 6x for me please doc.
Bugger, Steve T’s here too…. right, I’ll get Lars’ credt card out….
Ramsey was aweful, it is disturbing that players dont give themselves enough sleep before a game like this-i dont care about his goal -he was sh—
fruss…… you know what he was up to last night???? Now that’s insider info….
I will dispute VDV goal, but the game was yours to throw away and that is precisely what you did.
Spurs were hampered by our line up and if we had not had parker we would have been wiped out in the midfield in the first half.
I will be surprised to see that line up from Spurs again this season. In Sandro and Parker we have what you lack.
Your goalie was terrific even if he is from Coronation Street. Until you get a midfield ball winner you will struggle and your prediction about St Totts looks quite ridiculous.
Yes we won but that was one of the worst NLD s I have seen in the past few years. Walker is going to hit more of those mark my words
Is there any point in Walcott starting any match?
walcott was certainly very poor, time for the O-C to step up. not sure about this big friendly german either, how many goals would we have let in if we still had almunia in goal – our defence seems much worse than last year – anyone know why?
Cusop = quite restrained. But still delusional. 🙂
Feel free to have a drink – I’ve filled your bowl up.
Fair play cus. Enjoy your win.
Guinness and Jameson please Doc 😉
Fine review, Holic. A day of contradictions indeed. In three short phrases, our defence wasn’t as good as it needed to be; our mid-field failed to control the ball and provide ANY quality through balls; absent of any quality service, Van Persie had to play deep while Theo capered and Flipper wandered.
There’s a mis-passing malaise running through the team at the moment. A major strength has become a major weakness and that is the single most significant aspect of our current situation. Remember these days, long, long ago and far, far away, when we used to take the ball for a collective team walk and smirk quietly when lesser mortals couldn’t string two passes together? They’ve gone. Quite simply, we need to get them back.
We look very much like a middle-of-the-league team, at best, at the moment. Today was a very important potential milestone. A win might have put us in with a realistic shout of “six points back” at Christmas. Unlikely that will happen ow and fourth place is the game we’re chasing.
Vermaelen and Kos at the centre of the defence ahead of Wojcieck with Song and Coquelin in the middle, is a platform I’d like to see us launch forward from.
Arsenal were the better team? Then why was their keeper their MoM? How many meaningful saves did 40 year-old Friedel have to make today? Hmmmm…….
WE lack the personality of winners that we used to have. Unless they come through the academy it seems AW has a problem with recruting players with attitude. Hence the meek players like mertesacker, park, santos etc. When we could have PL ready players like Parker, Cahill.
A fine choice ‘Holic. And nice post BTM.
Drinks are lined up….
Have to agree, what does he actually do? At least the club saves on soap as he doesant need a shower after a game……
my post was in response to the walcott comment……..
OKplayer – Santos and Park have played about one and a half games between tham. Nice to see you don’t jump to conclusions.
yes I will take that drink and buy you all one, I only gloat when it is deserved and we did not really deserve that privilege today. I will leave you all to ponder! Fuck me Gerviniho missed an open goal WTF was that all about?
I really thought we would stuff you and then I saw our line up and realized that Harry has no balls
I think the occasion was perhaps too big for players on both sides today, cus.
…but you celebrate. It doesn’t happen often, and that will remain the case 😉
Mertesacker is a very competent defender but we need Song in front of him and Vermaelen beside him.Our huge problem will be a long injury to Sagna.If we have to play many weeks with Jenkinson at right back we are in serious trouble.
Surely neither of these sides are good enough to finish 4th?
One of them is CERTAINLY not good enough for fourth!
Thanks for the drink Catalan, a Fosters if you will to wash down the many bars of chocolate I’ve just comfort eaten (actually I feel quite sick for many reasons more than mere excessive chocolate consumption).
‘holic-a very measured write up, unemotional accurate and well written.
*burp*
Sorry!
Guinness for me please, ‘holic.
I’ll add to Catalan Gunner’s reply to OKplayer that Cahill played in a defence that conceded 5 goals today.
Spurs fan not here to gloat although you will not begrudge me a little snigger 🙂 that is the worst gooner team I have seen at the Lane in a while and you actually didnt play to bad apart from the high line defending which in this day and age is bizzare to say the least. We never got out of 2nd gear to be honest and still won and had we taken all our chances your lot took yours could well have been 6-2 or something like that. Harry does my head in sometimes the reason you had so much of the ball is because of his team selection..again..but we won so well done I suppose. Anyways not to be the gooners day, think you have Stoke and Bolton next you should pick up a couple of points out of those games maybe get you into the top half of the table 10th-ish around about there.
COYS
Pardon – but The Coq looked The Bollox –
and we’ll beat’em back at our place to nick fourth spot while we spend a season rebuilding – b-bring it on u sp@rs c@nts!
*Weeps*
Still, at least I haven’t (yet) read that it’s just a loss in the loss column. The air of indifference after the United humiliation from some quarters was a surprise – today I feel like picking my heart out with a blunt spoon 🙁
Drama Queen?
No just sad at our demise 🙁
So, so, so avoidable.
Whistling min the dark like a little kid And Lester. What an erudite example to youngster. The inadequacy to post without expletives is an insult to decent fans of all clubs. Grow up and act like a MAN.Whistling in the dark is usually by anunder eight years old kid not a so-called adult with an IQ of 8.
fairly close game for us grown ups and decent kids. Could have gone either way during the first hour. Nothings settled about top four and all results are unpredictable except to the knowall cretin And….
Ramsey is amazing during a match, does something amazing, then does some basics really badly. He needs to stay forward more to keep the triangle midfield formation, sometimes he drops so deep to get the ball of the other midfielders he cramps the space and it makes it easier to dispossess players in the middle. Wenger should think about moving RVP back into Ramsey’s position and bringing in Chamakh or Park. Still a 4-3-3 but with more firepower.
Definitely need to see more of Chamberlain.. but we need to take care of him and not see him overplayed like Wilshere and Fabregas seemed to be.
Wenger new what he needed to do and
Refused to do it. We need a change
@30 – u can say that again – i think
Well sumed up boss,great post,a beer for all the gunners in the bar.
4th place no chance
Sagna has a break so we have Jenkinson for 4 months as first choice then a 16 yr old as cover hmmmm
Really cant se better than 10th place. Arteta and Benni really are nowhere near our fromer greats.
We will rise again but please dont disappoint yourselves guys it’s a 2-3 yr wait until we are anywhere near top 4 again
ps Before people say piss off and supports chavski or Spuds I dont want to I love Arsenal support them at games but need to vent my views we ARE VERY AVERAGE
Break is not confirmed.
Just saying like…
Evening ‘holics.
A nicely measured post ‘holic, with lots to think about.
It was my first trip to the noisy neighbours today, and in many ways it did not disappoint. The experience was indeed all I was led to believe it would be, including the behaviour of the home support on departure. And I waited almost half an hour to get a bottle of water, since they had stopped serving alcohol by the time I got to the head of the queue.
As for the game itself, I’d echo many of the points made above and in the previous drinks. The match didn’t really do either side much credit really, and I saw nothing to suggest that we are anything other than a very long way behind the Manchester clubs as things stand.
Sloppy errors, passing things to death instead of sticking it in the net, too many moments of “defensive frailty” – we’ve all seen this movie before. And it sucks. And to cap it all what looked like a rather horrible injury. Arsenal Bloody Arsenal, indeed.
I do like to draw some positives, even in the wake of poor results, and for me the young trio of Wozzer, the Coq and Gibbs were an absolute joy to watch. And Nutsacker seems to be adjusting nicely for the most part. As for the rest – they’ve all had better days at the office. It’s particularly frustrating because we’ve all seen them turn in better performances in the not too distant past.
So instead of picking on anyone in particular, I leave you with some well known phrases and sayings I would like to see making a return to match write ups about the Arsenal:
‘Prolific goalscorer’
‘Creativity in midfield’
‘Control of the game’
‘Impenetrable back four’
Now I don’t think that’s too much for us to ask is it? The season progresses apace. We need to progress too.
A round for all please, while I work out how to get the smell of marshland off me before I start my new job tomorrow morning…
😉
The reason why we can’t keep the ball and pass it anymore is simple. We sold the two best players at the club who could do that, and the third we completely overplayed due to lack of investment and is now cunted for 5 months.
Walcotts contribution today was pitiful.
There was a moment at the end when song and mert let the ball bounce between them from a goal kick and chimp boy should have scored. Sunday league stuff defending.
Total mismanagent from top to bottom
A nice calm post Holic – I expect this place will be a sea of tranquility compared with most of the rest of the blogosphere.
Disappointed and frustrated.
Disappointed that having got back into the game with a storming start to the second half we couldn’t keep it going. Frustrated that every time we get ourselves on the road to recovery we find ourselves back to where we started (as you rightly pointed out above).
Looks like we are going to have to win the Champions League this year to keep our qualification run going 🙁
not happy with the result less happy with the bloggers half are saying pers was crap half are saying he was outstanding even the fans can not tell if were a good team or a bad team been listening to the gutter press again without jack kos verm ros fully fit gerv a half fit walc i think we were unlucky on another day we would have won this match
I’m pretty certain that CL winners aren’t guaranteed an automatic place anymore.
2/3 rds empty stadium on a Thursday night beckons
Gutted, but agree absolutely with everything you said.
Coquelin could actually teach some of the senior players a thing or two and that is some hat eating I am doing there if anybody remembers my pre-season comments regarding him in general!
Mertesacker looks languid, but so did Vieira and it didn’t stop either from being fantastic players. I don’t know why so many people are on his back already. Playing alongside a central midfielder or Koscielny is always going to bring problems but he tends to snuff them out almost before they begin.
Possession? Non-existent for the bulk of the game. Spurs were NOT anytrhing special today and did not deserve the win, but to claim tha we did would be as ridiculous as Assou-Ekotto’s challenge that appears, if Canal+ are to be trusted, to have resulted in a broken fibula and 3 months out. Just what we need!
Anyway, still reading here but not had a lot of time to write since being “recruited” by Arthur. Enjoying blogging, just wish I could find more positive things to say.
Ah well, keep up the great work ‘Holic! My writing is inspired many a time by the good advice that you have handed down through these pages and for that I thank you!
Please have a drink on Lars tab 🙂
(Sorry Lars!!!)
We can still finish fourth with a little luck….this year. We can manage this team till January and then add 3qualit players. From what I’ve seen today I will suggest the following: put both Song n Coquelin in front of the back four, interchange with Frimpong occasionally, but never Ramsey. If we can keep it tight at the back I believe our attackers can get the odd goals we need against the lesser teams n scrap a few draw against the big teams. Arteta looked terrible today, the opposite of the terrific he’s looked since his first game. But I do blame Ramsey for all our midfield woes. Let us stop deceiving ourselves that there is a great player in there. There may not be any just like we found out with Denilson. That Coquelin played his second match today and looked sensational showed that Ramsey is not benefiting from playing or he is not good enough. I have been complaining abt him all-month but people only got to see that he slows our game down and gives away possesion because today we all got hurt. More than once I have watched Arteta pointing where to go to him to open up, falling just shot of shoving him off the road at one time and that is constituting a problem to Arteta himself. He is surely far better than what he played today. But as we all clamoured for a better midfield partner for Fabregas after Flamini left, then we should find one for Arteta before Ramsey does his head in. And i dont care if that midfield partner for him will be VP, he needs one badly. Song was amazing today. Per too. The defense actually played very well today (IMO). And I actually felt Theo n Gervinho played with injuries. Thats how bad things have fallen apart for us. Plus, now we can see the wisdom in selling Eboue now. Instead of addresing problems in January we now have to find a right back as well.
This week I will be mostly hiding in dark places…
Oops wrote my comment on the previous, didn’t notice this one.
N7 Gooner – Top post mate, you put my feelings and thoughts into words.
Usual High Quality post ‘holic.
It would appear that, at last,people have spotted that the Emperor,far from having new robes,is in fact bollock naked.I have been as blinded as others in the”he’s great,easily as good as Henry,Bergcamp Pires etc” stakes,but now I believe the scales have fallen from my eyes. For me at least the answer to the many bemused questions regarding our decline is simple.We dont have good enough players.
Mr Wenger bestrides the beautiful game like a collosuss, and will rightly be remembered as perhaps the greatest Arsenal manager of them all. Time,however, waits for no one ( as the Stones pointed out). Fresh ideas or fresh faces-preferably both.
Knee jerk? Well, no,not really. The last twenty or so games have me convinced that the spirral is heading downwards.
If I believed in God I would start praying.
Alcohol seems to work for me, although a celebratery dram is far more satisfactory than a consoling one.
Make mine a large Red please barkeep,and one for yourself
Holic, I have to say, this is one of your best posts.
So level headed, so accurate. I love reading your posts.
It seems like this season will really be a struggle as Tottenham was very average today and we still lost. Perfect title and summary for today’s action Holic, as Ramsey epitomized the contradiction. He scored the equalizer but he was dire today. Coquelin was our best player in the Man U game and again today but we still lost; poor lad. I thought the team played with a lack of passion, energy and drive today. It just didn’t seem like a North London Derby. I’m keeping my fingers crossed because if Sagna is out for a while, that’s a big problem as Jenkinson doesn’t seem to be quite there yet and opponents will exploit this, like Bale did today. As crazy as it might sound, now I miss Eboue a little bit as he was a good squad player who knew his place and never caused a fuss. Anyway, I guess we have to move on and hope for the best. Gunners4life!!
It’s not looking good for poor old Bac:
http://www.fff.fr/bleus/actu/539349_sagna-forfait,-debuchy-convoque
Dunno what the term ‘unstable fracture’ entails, or when we can expect to find out how long he’s likely to be out.
Big, big shame.
How is it possible that one team can suffer so many broken legs?
I thought I would wait a while and see how others felt after watching that. The fact that there is very little venom being spouted after a defeat at the shit hole against an average Spud team speaks volumes for me. People are almost resigned to it. All I now read is that well 4th is still very much achievable. 4th? Fucking 4th. We are the Arsenal. He we all forgotten that? Not that long ago we were winning titles and going whole seasons unbeaten. We have lost 4 league games already. Not that long ago we only lost 3 over the course of 2 seasons? Have our standards really sunk that low?
Holic, you make some great points as usual, but there is almost a resigned tone to your report. Not that long ago we would all be going nuts at a result like that.
I have seen the match, read the posts and the drinks and do not have much more to add really. We know it was poor and we know it was not good enough. Our strongest midfield last season was Nasri, Cesc, Song and Wilshere and one other. There lies your problem in a nut shell.
Holic, you say we can not judge on one game in October and of course you are spot on. But this has been going on since February. That is a big problem.
So how have we ended up like this? My views are well documented on this excellent forum. Lack of leaders, investment, evolution not revolution, be the best you can be, lack of width etc. Most will know my rants. So I thought for once I would take the liberty of trying to explain all of that.
We were not good enough in the 2008/09 season. Highlighted by many. During the close season we lost Flamini, Hleb and Gilberto amongst others.
Fast forward to April 2010. AW’s prog notes V Man City, (god I wish I could find that programme). After another end of season capitulation when we had promised so much he stated that not only had the club recognised the weaknesses but that even at this early stage we were in conversation with targets. What happened? Who of note did we bring in?
In addition to Hleb, Flam and Gilberto the notable departures from our club up to today include Kolo, Gallas, Clichy, Denilson, Cesc, Nasri, Adebayour, Bendtner, Eboue and Eduardo and of course mad Jens.
So during that period who have we brought in? I will leave out what I term as fringe players. The list is Mertseacker, Vermaelen, Kos, Squillachi, Santos, Park, Arteta, Chamberlain, Gervinhio and Chamakh.
Compare the list above with the Invincibles for instance and in my humble opinion you start to see where the problems lie. Of course during this period we have had various players make the step up from youth team to the starting 11. But that opens an even larger can of worms. There appears to be a large attrition rate when it comes to so called potential world beaters falling off tracks.
I look at those that have left, I think back to the invincible’s of only a few years ago and wonder where the hell it has all gone wrong. Evolution not revolution? Remember that one? In my opinion we have stood still. We have sailed by the seat of our pants and just done enough for the last few seasons. It has now started to catch up with us.
It was posted in the last set of drinks that AW in the 15 years he had been at the club had a net spend of only 16 million. Fantastic for the board but there I submit lays the other major problem. I do not want the earth spent on new signings. I do not want us to go bust. However I would suggest that we pay more than 16 million a year to players on the treatment table or on loan.
So, there you have it. We will all have our own opinions about individual players. Mine is that the ones we have brought in as a collective are nowhere near as good as those that have left. You also have to look at the list and realise that out of the 10 brought in, 6 have been at the club less than 6 weeks.
Hopefully now when I say I would like answers as to why situations have not been addressed people will understand why. I am not a doomer, I am not anti Arsenal or anti Wenger. Far from it. But I want to know why we have not addressed the weaknesses that we have all identified, I want to know where all of the money has gone, I want to know why we just seem to accept what comes from the board and don’t question it. Most of all I want to know when it was acceptable to get to the beginning October with our season’s objectives centring around playing for 4th? I for one do not consider any of that acceptable. That is not the ways of the Arsenal I know and love.
Apologies holic for spouting off but I felt this had to be said. I am hurting, not just from today but from events of the last few years. We are no way in the best shape we can be and again, it is not acceptable.
I want my Arsenal back and I want it back now.
Where’s that 6X Dr C???????????
First of all, great post Holic, as ever. Really measured and hits several nails on heads.
Secondly, get well soon Bac. Just when you think our luck with injuries can get no worse…
Next up Ramsey. As has been noted, the lad can’t do right for doing wrong at the minute. Fair play to him though, he works his nuts off every week and always shows. I’ve seen quality players have spells like this before, so I’ll not write him off, but I will suggest that his game might actually benefit from running a little less, perverse as that sounds. He’s covering a huge amount of ground every game at the moment and it looks to me like quite often he’s knackered by the time he gets on the ball. A little bit more of picking the correct run a little less of following his nose I reckon.
Finally, just wanted to say that my day has been brightened up by hearing that Clive Allen has complained that Arsene didn’t shake his hand after the game. He shook Redknapp’s and Joe Jordan’s but not Allen’s. Wenger’s reply in the post match presser was top notch: “this is getting ridiculous. How many hands do I have to shake?”. Hopefully he’ll send Allen a signed photo tomorrow morning, give him something for his bedroom wall.
Chin up and on we go.
Steve T
That’s a very reasonable post in my view – you’ve articulated pretty much every thought that currently keeps me awake at night.
I have no answers, and my own current remedy is just to grip the rail of the happy train and ride the rollercoaster as best I can, but I think it’s reasonable to ask, in particular, where the dough has gone and why an assumption appears to have been made that Arsene can keep us competitive in an environment of ever-increasing spending by our rivals, with an ever-decreasing amount of money in his pocket.
I said to a good mate as the last day of the last transfer window dawned that if we didn’t break our transfer record that day I thought wenger would be gone by next summer. Possibly because we’d have a god awful season without the necessary reinforcements, but more likely because he’d get sick of being a punch bag for the board. It’s also partly a reflection of the fact that our transfer record is less than a third of the British transfer record, and more in line with a mid table team.
Will that prediction come to pass? I hope not, but I’m still half expecting it. Something is clearly wrong at the club. The more money we seem to make, the less we spend. And as for what’s actually going on, those than know won’t say and those that say don’t know.
Anyway, that’s quite a lot of dark thoughts for a Sunday night. Weighed against it I’ll say that we do still have some excellent players and some promising youngsters and that I think we’re more than likely to finish 4th this term. The most heartening thing about our games with Liverpool and Spurs has been how average they’ve both looked.
Steve T – I know exactly what you mean in your post, and I know you’ve been saying it for years now.
I’m very interested to know, who’s fault do you think it is? Maybe fault is the wrong word ’cause I’m not really looking to blame people but the reason it happens (broken promises) really interests me.
I’d really like to know what your opinion is on that one…
And about what you said about 4th place. Today is the first day I have conceded to the notion of 4th being the maximum. Up until today, I was still talking to my dad about how important this game is for the title race ’cause Man U have 2 tough fixtures in the next 2 weeks, but I have to stop it because it really frustrates me even more. Maybe I too need to lower my expectations.
I know we’re The Arsenal, but saying that we can get better than 4th according to the start of this season is a bit farfetched. Nobody is more optimistic than me but I’m starting to feel a bit ridiculous.
Nice post ‘Holic, and BtM.
Great stuff N 7 from previous drinks – your write up around @222.
Tabs, TS – hope you made it out and back ok.
Personally I thought Coquelin was superb today, but even that young man seemed to despair at the sloppiness and lack of urgency around him.
Gibbs and Sagna work tirelessly and lend excellent support going forwards, but where are they when we are defending ?
On Spuds first goal, Gibbs ran infield – maybe due to the lack of midfielders challenging – leaving Barndoor unmarked and unchallenged to measure his cross to V d Vaart, who was equally unmarked by our absent right back.
Once our full backs go missing in defence, our centre backs are pulled all over the place, leaving our goal at the mercy of oppo runners.
But for Szczesny, I can’t think what our goal difference would be at the moment.
This is not difficult to see, but happens over and over again. Our midfielders do not defend with anything like enough urgency or awareness, and neither do our wingers.
Are they not told, or do they not care ?
On the subject of Adebarndoor the following comment is now going to look like sour grapes, but how the hell is he allowed to play for Spuds anyway ?
There must be many players AFC have wanted to sign but could not afford.
Result ? They are not at the club.
Tottenham could not afford Adebayor unless Man Citeh were paying half his wages.
So how come a player is playing for one club in the Premier League, whilst being paid for by another in the same division.
Tottenham can’t afford him and, therefore, should not have him.
I know this does not contravene any rules, but it cannot be right.
Get well soon Bac. Sure to be sorely missed.
Drinks for all in the bar, on yet another unnecessarily sad day for the Arsenal.
Congratulations by the way, to the ignorant Spud who jumped up to give Bacary Sagna the finger and a mouthful of his finest, as our right back crashed into the advertising hoardings. Sheer class you thick prat.
We need cover for Bacary
Steve T and N 7 @51, 52 – totally agree, with the proviso that most wanted to see the back of several of those on the departees list. But our best have not been replaced.
Sadly, I think “resignation” sums it up. I feel less surpised at each defeat, and less angry than I often would have.
I think that’s because I can see that, this season at least, almost all the players are doing their best. The sad truth is that some are just not good enough.
With the money the club now earns, that is hard to explain.
I was, instinctively, fairly optimistic when Kroenke took over. At the moment, I have absolutely no idea what he wants us to be.
Evening Gents ,
Interesting to read all the various comments on here , given that the view at the Shitpit , low and behind the goal , did not necessarily afford the best vantage point of all that occurred today .
That said , I have to say I tend towards those views that have sought to take the positives from today . We have had far more dispiriting days ( from a performance point of view ) ,this season .
At no point did I feel the embarrassment of the Old Trafford debacle , the sheer ineptitude of Blackburn , or even the uneasy exhalation of breath that followed Olympiakos .
A tip of the hat both to Holic’s restrained post and to N7 in the previous drinks who both summed up perfectly the events of the day .
First things first , the travelling Gooner support was magnificent . Relentless in their passionate encouragement from start to finish , simultaneously exposing the myth of a supposedly noisy SHL , and reaffirming the wholly knuckle-headed vacuity of those in white who were reduced to silently looking on as the travelling Gooners partied throughout like it was 1999 .
First half and I was encouraged . Yes , we had surrendered possession needlessly in dangerous areas , yes we had gone a goal down , but we had given as good as we got , and had never looked defensively exposed as a result of woeful organisation . With more calmness in the final third we would have been drinking our HT tea on at least level terms .
Second half and the increase in tempo led to us deservedly drawing level . Cue bedlam . So why didn’t we utilise this platform to go on and win ? Firstly the excellent Coquelin had begun to run out of steam , secondly we lacked any real creativity to capitalise on our periods of dominance ( why persist with a system built around Cesc when he is no longer here ? ) , and thirdly the wholly cynical challenge on Bac allowed the Spuds the opportunity to at last utilise the pace of monkey-boy to give them a constant outlet from the midfield hurley-burley .
Always a bruising experience to lose to the pond-dwelling scumbags , but that performance does not deserve the opprobium that will no doubt follow . We have been told all week that the pendulum in North London had swung , that we would get murdered , that today was gonna be scary . Well fuck that . We lost a game we deserved to draw and might have won . I’d still put my mortgage on us celebrating St Totteringhams Day this season .
Have to say that it was great to hear the travelling support belt out ” one Arsene Wenger ” at least twice during the game . Emperor with no clothes ? Bollocks . Select few fans with no balls more like . Luckily those that follow the misguided nonsense from Le Grove weren’t at SHL today . Same as it ever was .
TS – Cheers for the day , a privilege to be amongst the Gooners today .
We are the Arsenal , and they are the Delusional c*nts .
Steve T, N7, top posts or as Arsene would refer to them ‘super super quality’!
Enjoyed reading everyone here this evening, good medicine… ..
Hey Tabs, good stuff.
Must say I thought the Ass-Ekottu challenge was very poor, basically shoving him over as Bac jumped, but thought it might be my bias as no-one else really mentioned it.
I also think that with JW, TV5, Kos and Song in midfield, that we would still beat them.
BUT, we have to sort out the defensive organisation.
Glad you and TS had a good day, and the PARS suits clearly did their job 😉
Snir. I don’t like the word fault. Responsible is more a word I would use. Who is responsible? I really have no idea. My guess is that it is a collective. I do think that the likes of Stan and Gazidis are out of their depth. I have heard nothing from either that inspires me. I know most would not want him back but we miss David Dein. Of if not Dein someone that can perform his role. You look at today’s game and think that Scot Parker actually wanted to come to Arsenal to play in the Champs League. I can’t be the only one to think that would have been £5 million well spent.
Trev, I feel a lot like you. It saddens me because I think it is all so unnecessary. I wrote several posts ago that I feared for the way we were and that I thought we were in a downwards spiral. This needs to be reversed and rapidly. What do you think RVP will be thinking about when the club wants to open contract talks????? That is the kind of thing that worries me.
Some of our defending again today was so schoolboy it was embarrassing. We need to man up and man up fast.
Very sad news for Bacs. All the best.
Woolfgang and TS. Welcome back.
Hey Trev , great stuff from SteveT , N7 and yourself above .
The challenge on Bac was right in our eyeline . The agression of Assou-Ekkotu’s challenge was completely needless . His only realistic aim was to knock the ball out . This could have been easily achieved without sending Bac sliding into the hoardings . C*nt .
Cheers Steve T . Good stuff above .
Considered and well written piece Holic.
As for the game, well….big sigh!
Just a quick word on Arteta. I was disappointed today. With his big derby experience I was expecting him to be a more dominant force. Instead he just wasn’t very good. Okay he’s not Cesc but I hope with time he can produce the form he did for Everton. I don’t think that’s not gonna happen in the trophyless 4-3-3 formation. But what do I know.
Steve T – I’ve been on your page for quite a while. The problem is that there is no chance of the fans ever really understanding what the hell is going on.
All arguments have been exhausted and even those that have been vehement supporters of everything Arsenal have had to start questioning the clubs actions and why we we have gone so far backwards.
That said its done. The Tott’s will probably be getting the first part of the 2-disc DVD ready and we will be debating this bullshit until its sorted – which could well be a long long time.
Super Tennant’s barman.
G’night gents…
I really thought Colequin played well today, was our best player in midfield. While Ramsey got the goal and I appreciate his effort I think he is the weak link in the midfield at this time….I think it will take him at least one year to get back to where we thought he’d be at this point in his career. It’s maddening watching this team and when the opponent scores I don’t even flinch these days b/c I’m expecting the worst to happen vs. prior years when I would be going nuts. Walcott is either great or is a ghost, so frustrating.
At this point I’m hoping we can just grind our way up the table, slowly but surely and I think it’s fair to say that we just have to set our eyes on 4th.
Ugly game, and a reminder of where this team stands right now. For those thinking about 4th, consider last year’s table. Arsenal finished 4th with 8 losses, Tottenham was 5th with 8 losses but 3 fewer wins, and Liverpool was 6th with 14 losses. Given that Spurs and Liverpool both seem stronger than last year, finishing 4th with more than say 9 losses would sound like a stretch. We already have 4 yet haven’t played City or Chelsea yet and have to visit Anfield and welcome Utd and Sp*rs to the Emirates. If we win all those home legs but lose the 3 away games (and that seems like a generous set of results against the top of the table given our recent form) we’re already at 7 losses. The math alone makes top 4 unlikely.
But for the doomsayers – we have a big stadium, great supporters, gobs of young talent and a tier one Academy churning out more every year, and 50m in the bank to spend before the money we get from selling RvP and possibly Walcott etc. The core of the next great Arsenal team is here already – Jack, SZCZ, Oxlade-Chamberlain, some mix of Song/Frimpong/Coquelin, maybe Theo, maybe Ryo, maybe Ramsey, hopefully Verm and Gibbs if their health permits (don’t count on that, a maxim that Arsene needs to learn is that staying healthy is a skill), and the cash needed to buy a Gotze or Hazard level great young star to accompany what we already have. So chin up you Gooners, and drinks all around! Make mine a double Jameson on the rocks, cause in between now and those youngsters making good we’re gonna need to do some heavy drinking.
Alex Song’s burst forward for our goal emphasised the fact that he can be a creative and dominant force in CENTRAL midfield not in the ‘holding role’. I’d love to see Song with Coquelin in midfield, accompanied by Wilshere or Arteta for the time being (Ramsey’s performance today was abysmal IMO. He’s so bloody sloppy on the ball and too slow).
We’ve still got fantastic players at the club, especially Woj, Verm, Song, Jack and RvP.
It’s a pity that we rarely see more than 3 on the field at any 1 time. Gervinho and Walcott were poor today, really poor, but I do place some blame on Ramsey and Arteta for this. They’re getting no passes in behind. Last season Cesc found Theo with every run, now Theo doesn’t even bother making the run. Song and Jack can hit passes as well as Ramsey and offer more in terms of defense.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Ramsey, but the creative void left by Cesc’s departure is too big for anyone in our squad to fill alone. The ‘Cesc Role’ requires a world class player like Cesc (whom I consider the best midfielder in the world and in the top 5 players in the world). that we just don’t have at the moment.
Coquelin was outstanding last night, hoping he continues to improve in leaps and bounds…Really disappointed but all we can do is keep working and fighting in every game.
Btw, I found this article on the Guardian and thought I’d share it with you gooners:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/oct/02/arsene-wenger-arsenal-tottenham?fb=optOut
CoR – That’s exactly how I felt, it looked like we were comfortable and had the upper hand.
Steve – I agree. Both Gazidis and Kroenke haven’t done enough to convince me. I don’t know about Dein, I do know that I want whatever needs to be done to get done so that we won’t have these discussions in despair 🙁
Evening Holic and Holics,
Banana milkshake to go with my cheeseburger (definately not in paradise) and sweet potato fries.
I hate to be a mealy-mouth mamby-pamby but we played well enough to win and plain old missed the net. Two misses for theo a flat out open net shank for G-man and we paid for it.
It’s true it means were still stuck on 7 points in October but we easily could have and should have won. We had them pinned in there end and had what 4 corners in a row?
Even giving up a bad goal we should have scored 3 or 4.
The Sagna news just heaps it on for me and yeah I know Wenger isn’t at his fighting best but he’s still the skipper and he’s not giving up the bridge so I’m not even going there.
I’m hating it but I took the wins so I’m taking the loss in manly fashion it sucks but if it means we shed the fake gooners in time for our next winning stretch(and there will be a next winning stretch) it will be worth it (almost) If we go down to Sunderland in two weeks (is such a thing possible?) maybe I’ll hang my head but until then.
Come on you Gunners bounce back!
Oh, one more thing for “An Arsenal fan #67” and those of the ilk.
Fab was a damn good player for us for sure. But he never won diddly squat with a better,much better supporting squad then we have now. So to diefy him with this “if only Cesc was here” noise after he left on his own terms sort of ignores the fact that’s right fact that he never won us ANYTHING.
Nice post as always ‘holic. Measured, & precise but as Steve T said @50, I can read the sense of resignation between the lines….*sigh*…I honestly don’t have anything to say. I’m not in the mood right now to point fingers at any one player. Those who started y’day are all we’ve got at least till the injured players return or till the winter transfer window.
Something (I’d leave that to the experts to figure out) must be done
to stop the slide of this team to the oblivion of a below 4th place finish. The possiblity of a season without champions league football worries & sickens me…
I think Frimpong and Coquelin would do great if they were played together, in Song’s absence o’course.
Frimpong has got a much more all-action style than Coquelin and Song, who in my opinion are rather similar players, and I think he’d do well if he were played alongside either of them. Then there’d be the option of playing a purely attacking midfielder behind the main striker; either van Persie or Arshavin behind Chamakh or Park.
I thought Ramsey was quite poor yesterday; he seemed to provide absolutely no ideas in midfield as well as kill those made by Arteta and Coquelin. On yesterday’s performance the only difference between him and Denilson is that he runs a bit more. We need Wilshere back really fast!
This miserable morning reflects my mood. Another hit and hoper beats us to add to the rose,bently,huddleston list of oh for fucks sakers.
Honestly have no idea where we will end up this season but as the song goes no one promised me a rose garden. Good posts last night especially Steve T. My hangover is inconsoleble..if thats a word..
Sagna out for 3-4 months. I think he’s the position we have the least cover for – very worried. Wish him a full recovery – he’s been class these last few years.
For a NL Derby which I have to say neither side look top 4 quality at present, I saw only two players play with passion for the shirt
1. Coq who embarrassed those with more experience.
2. Wilshere on his twitter account with his busted ankle.
Is it me but this team looks so slow and lethargic at times that it looks like they just don’t care. I hope I’m wrong there though.
I suppose we have been spoilt in recent times and we are clinging on to the memories, but I suppose with the amount of new players in the squad we need to give them some time to gel and hope that Arsene can build another team quickly.
Up The Arse
After a harrowing week at work and a week-end in the wilderness I just had the time for the Olimpiakos game, the club’s financial statement, Silent Stan’s interview and a quick overview of the upcoming game. Now catching up with the week away from the bar it feels like an alternate reality experiment. Saturday morning I read:
– We had 5 CBs and 4 mids unavailable, of course our best players in those positions.
– Our probable team had 5 starters from last season (that’s counting Woj and Song as makeshift CB), the rest is either new to the club or new to the first team.
– Our central defense made of a newcomer to the league and a DM
– 3 MF players who played together for the first time one month ago, among them 2 youngsters in their first season.
– An opposition manager gloating it’s the best time to face Arsenal (or any team reaching this level of injuries for that matter) with his first-choice eleven ready to start.
– And all the neutrals betting on Spuds for the first time since I can’t remember.
All I could do is leave fearing another apocalyptic scenario. As soon as I regained reception I looked up the result and albeit saddened by the defeat I was relieved we narrowly lost, the game was surprisingly balanced and could have gone our way.
Now catching up with the holics’ hivemind I’m totally mystified by the pre-game groupthink and post match reactions. How could anyone think we were not outsiders by quite a margin is simply beyond me. Any team with 5 CBs and four MFs out injured would be outsiders vs full-strengths spuds.
Even if we weren’t so decimated and contrarily to those that think that there’s a magically immediate solution and that’s buying more expensive players, it takes time for a team to gel. Chelksi have leaned it, Inter have learned it and now Citeh and Madrid are demonstrating it again. No matter how expensive your players are they won’t make a team win overnight. Mertesacker, Arteta, Coquelin and Gervinho together haven’t even played 20 games at the club while Gibbs, Rambo and Woj not many more. They can’t magically find each other blindfolded on the pitch a la Barca it’s just impossible to click so early. It hasn’t happened anywhere else.
Some comments are totally surrealistic. In the current climate a young Thierry Henry would be burning at the stake with the mob cheering.
I know there’s a lot of knee-jerk reactions but all those claiming this game as a proof of how right they are with their prophecies of doom are in reality showing how the hivemind is totally disconnected with the most basic football realities. I’m not saying they aren’t any reasons for being short-fused at this point in time, still that no excuse for disregarding the hard cold facts.
And with Sagna and Wishere out for at least half the season at the moment the hard facts are getting colder. Now whoever thinks an injury epidemic is the proof of whatever theory about the club, please go ahead.
Let’s identify the positives: Coquelin was great, I don’t recall a mistake from him; Song was magnificent; Chesney terrific (apart perhaps from the second goal where maybe he should have done better); Gibbs continues to improve, is great going forwards and uses the ball well, but needs more defensive awareness; RVP is class and did what he could with very little service; Gervinho will probably be OK eventually – we’ll just have to wait and see. Lots of good young talent still to emerge; Alex Ox, Ryo, Bartley et al.
A work in progress? You bet! There are some positives and a return of confidence would work wonders but there is a long, painful and tortuous journey ahead. The rest are all getting better and sad to say Arsenal have got worse but it isn’t over yet and a full, or nearly full compliment of players would improve things no end. Fourth place? Frankly it looks unlikely at the moment but far from impossible and there are a lot of points left to play for.
Keep the faith, keep supporting – as I know we all will.
Tim@75
Didn’t Coquelin last season play at right back for Lorient?
Soberly surveying the wreckage of yet another car crash fixture this morning, and have to say for me it looks worse in the cold late of day, than it did last night.
Apart from anything else that’s 3 from our 4/5 best outfield players out injured now. Only the indestructible looking A.Song and the injury prone RVP (remarkably) remain standing, ready to fight another day.
OK a couple of the young’uns did OK yesterday – esp. Le Coq – but we’re being forced to place evermore pressure on ever younger and less experienced shoulders. Kids flourish and grow in the warmth of a positive environment but tend to go the other way in a negative one.This season keeps on getting tougher for us – and it pains me to say it may yet get worse.
Still, sp@rs didn’t look all that at home with a full side yesterday, and against them the other week Liverpool looked piss-poor. So finishing 4th’s not an impossibility.
And yes – we’re Arsenal and we should be aiming higher, but we are where we are, with all the attendant bollox that’s attached itself to us in recent times.
So if we spend a season re-grouping and sorting out how we can start competing properly in the face of oligarchs, sheiks and vacuous Yankee speculators (doh!), and still finish fourth i’ll settle for that – for a season.
CoMonUReds!
Just watched Van der Faart’s goal again. Is it just me or did he control it with his bicep?
Should have gone to Specsavers ref.
strong sense of deja vu here. i have been saying for yonks that walcott is a waste of space, and have been criticized for it. now its the accepted wisdom ? similarly with ramsey .
\the positive as many mentioned was le coq. quite brilliant given his lack of experience. meerkat got in some good blocks but is ponderous and theer were some comedy moments. arteta looked greta on the ball but just plain dozy without, poor old jenkinson looks like someone who brought boots to the game and jumped in out of the crowd. he looks terrified and 3 months of that is terrifying.
what was szczszcz doiing for that goal ) he built up some credit but very sloppy.
rvp will be off at this rate – he looked v good yday with the little ball he got
Coquelin did play at RB at times when on loan last season as well as the midfield role he performed yesterday.
I believe he has also played RB in the CC…
He should deputise for Sagna rather than have Jenkinson in the starting XI. It’s simply too much too soon for young Carl.
Ramsey is not comfortable with his role in the team. His early, albeit modest, success at Arsenal came when he was playing behind Cesc. I am not sure he is the type of player for the ‘Cesc’ role – as someone mentioned above, nobody really is. I think a 4-4-2 with Ramsey and Song central, Arteta on the left (where he did his best work for Everton) and Theo on the right might be the way to go. Van Persie will play up front supported by a more central Gervinho. I think it makes optimal use of our current players.
I’d like to qualify this by stating that I am not a manager and have more likely that not overlooked some glaring problems…
SteveT@50: not much I can argue against in that post. And don’t ever apologise for stating your opinion in a calm and reasoned manner like that!
Trev@54: I have argued for years that loan deals should be outlawed for senior players. Allow them – but only on season-long deals – for U21’s but not for senior players. This also ties in with the change I want to see to the squad rules, I would argue that if you have a full squad (which should be lowered from 25 to 22 senior players by the way) then you should not be allowed to sign any players before you have sold one. ManCity can just go “ah, fuck it, it we can’t flog him we’ll just loan him out or make him watch from the stands”. Likewise, Chelsea should have been forced to either sell us Benyoun or not buy Meireles etc etc. If clubs can’t stockpile players that would also mean that transfer fees would go down and, I believe, wages as well because then the mega-rich clubs would have to have re-sale possibilities in mind when signing players. Very few clubs can pay the wages City pay, but if they would have to sell before buying they would have to lower their wages as well. This would be far, far more effective in creating a level playing field than any financial fair play rule can ever be.
tabs@57: well said.
leftcoast: “But he never won diddly squat with a better,much better supporting squad then we have now”
Actually, that is not correct. He won the FA Cup in 2005. Now, I don’t know if that fits your definition of “won us” something, but it is a team game. No single player ever wins anything on his own and it IS a myth that Fabregas never won anything at Arsenal. One FA Cup is not very much, no, but it is still a fairly major title and one he was definitely a contributing factor in winning.
Lars,
Interesting point re changing the rules effecting loans and the downward effect it could have on wages…
Interesting ideas Lars@84. The stockpiling of good players by the mega-rich clubs is a depressing development and clearly detrimental to the game as a whole. And anything that has a deflationary impact on transfer fees/player wages has to be a good thing, surely. But I’ve an idea that ideas like yours might prove a tad problematic for the folk that run football…
Meanwhile On Planet FiFA…
Minion (bursting into Blatter’s private quarters breathlessly): Mr. Blatter news has reached us from one of our ancient outposts of an excellent set of ideas that will mean mega-rich mentalists will have less chance of buying up and dominating the world of soccer-ball.
Blatter: Are you mad u c@nt, can’t you see i’m in the middle of having my sphincter surgically enhanced so that the Qataries have somewhere safe to stash all that lovely cash they needed to, erm – deposit – with us to show us they were capable of handling the 2022 world cup you c@nt? Now fuck off – and knock next time. As u were doctor.
The End
Afternoon ‘holics.
Good old Clive Allen, has delayed the inevitable turning on each other by presenting a real target.
What a pathetic cunt he truly is.
Oh, and Harry, agree entirely about the chanting at Adebayor yesterday. The same condemnation of the swamp-dwellers for singing the same song to him last year seems not to have been recorded anywhere for some reason.
Nor their continuing vile abuse of your trophy-winning peer and opposite number yesterday.
Or did I blink and miss it?
We do need to see this game as it was and not as we wanted to see it to make ourselves feel good.
We deservedly lost- and were lucky it was not by more- 4-1 would have been a fairer reflection based on chances and near misses. The defence is wide open- and our full backs positioning is as bad as ever. The team – with the exception of Ramsey does reasonably well in possession and occasionally looked dangerous- but only occasionally, and when we lost the ball we are still crap without the ball. I have seen this kind of performance from Ramsey before- like when we played United at OT. Maybe he can’t play at this intensity every 3 days.
I think we have just become inured to poor defending and expecting our keeper to perform miracles all game- so it comes as a shock to see him let a shot he should have easily saved go through him. Many fans are as blind as Wenger is to our defensive weaknesses. How many more goals do we have to concede in this way against this team/ before we prioritise defending? It is not a luxury- but an essential and we do it badly.
With yet another major injury and no adequate replacement-we are 15th and deservedly so. We have not won away since we beat Blackpool a relegated team in February. Dreaming about top 4 is hugely unrealistic. Exactly who are we going to be able to beat away from home when we can’t do basic defending and have a one man forward line, surrounded by a stack of kids and squad players who play like strangers?
The best thing we can do is get out of the ECL as soon as possible in order to preserve player resources- for the dog fight we are going to face to stay in the EPL- our real challenge this year. When will the penny drop- relegation is a real possibility?
Clive Allen really is a cunt isn’t he? Why should the Boss shake hands with a nobody wearing a LWC jacket?
Re: Camberwell @81 Undeniably a hand ball, having watched it numerous times.
Afternoon all. Hypocrisy in football holic????? Who would have though that??????
Matt, I love reading your stuff but the fact you are relieved that we only lost 2-1 speaks volumes as to where we are. You rightly point to injuries but for me that does not tell the full story. We had 5 centre backs out. But with the exception of TV who is likely to have played better than Song has in the last 2 games. Of course if TV plays then Song can move back to midfield. So lets add Song to the middle and assume Jack is fit who else that is injured gets a start? My suggestion would be no one. So with our current crop does that make us 2 players short of our strongest starting 11? If we agree on that then we do have problems.
The was I see it is as per my post earlier. Consider it like this. If you own a Ferrari you do safe in the knowledge that you own something a bit special. But owning such a finely tuned machine needs regular maintenance and servicing to keep it at its very best. There will be the odd breakdown and a certain amount of routine servicing required. Here you have two choices. If parts go wrong you either replace them with genuine Ferrari parts and get a fully trained Ferrari mechanic to fit them. If your Ferrari needs servicing to keep it in tip top condition you can do the same. Alternatively, you go for the cheaper option. You buy pattern parts. They are cheaper, look the same but just do not have that quality that you require. When it comes to a routine service you decide to save a few quid and take it to Two Bob Motors and leave it in the hands of Clive Allan. Sure you will get a service but not anywhere near the standard at a main dealers.
In the short term you are quids in. The Ferrari runs okay, if not quite as well as it had done. However, after a period of time the parts and service that were not quite as good as required, start to under perform and let you down. Not their fault, they just simply are not as good as the real thing. You end up in a situation where if you do not buy the genuine article then you are all of a sudden being beaten away at the lights by the Ford Escorts of this world. It is only when you you go back to the Ferrari dealer and get the correct service and the correct parts does your beloved car start to perform and return to its former glory.
Can’t work out why the LWC didn’t take the 40 mil for Modric as I’m yet to see him have a big influence on games and especially as by the time twitchy is finished they’ll be skint like all the clubs he’s managed
Afternoon all, I’ll keep this as brief as possible.
We can bemoan missed hand balls, unfortunate sending offs and myriad injuries all we like but the inescapable truth is this is an administration on the slide from the top down without direction or decisive leadership.
The speed with which we have fallen from grace is as remarkable as it is frightening.
Our club is too big, too valuable, too high profile to mishandle a summer like the one just gone. It is inexcusable not to have dealt with departures/arrivals earlier which have led to the club playing the opening two months of the season as if it was pre-season.
For goodness sake last years team with Cesc & Nasri wasn’t good enough and needed to be added to. We had £35 million to spend before the profit from transfer dealings and to see us so short of quality players with money in the bank AND to have ticket prices raised 6.5% is nothing short of stupefying.
Rant over.
Steve T@92- Afternoon mate, fantastic comment!
Dixon thinks we will not make top eight in the league!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15152030.stm
Steve T @ 92 – Love the Ferrari comparison and in all honesty you are correct!
We knew Arsene always had the good fortune of pulling out gems and young they were. These few years it’s not the same anymore we all have to admit it to it. Biggest problem was the summer the summer just gone.
Arteta looked disinterested yesterday and Ramsey was Ramsey looked lost at times.
Taking the forth spot is out the question for now if we are going to play the way we currently do, well even 8th will be out of reach. Perhaps then the Board, Silent Stan and Gazdis will take a closer look and use all that spare cash which was made from selling players to actually go and buy top world class players!
Arsene should also at least try to use these new players I haven’t seen anything yet of the other new forward Park and Ryo. Chamberlain should of started yesterday instead of Theo. Better ball control, good pace and plenty of trickery!
I will shut up now, I have moaned all evening yesterday infact as someone has mentioned on here? Did we expect anything better?
We were on top of our game and we eased off and paid the ultimate price as we always seem to do so. Big sighs and I told you so comments afterwards!
It hurts even more because we lost one of the best right backs in the EPL…and we will miss him badly! Someone needs to wake at Highbury House, this could really turn nasty for us if something won’t change.
Szczesny injured his spine during the game yesterday and wont be playing for Poland in two coming up friendlies.
http://tinyurl.com/6kgctpr link with Google Translate into english.
Injured his spine??? That does not sound like something that would be ok in just two weeks time, it sounds more like several months 🙁
I need something very, very strong from the CMC.
Great post @92 Steve T.
What happened to the barrel of 6x??? I expressly left in at the bar with your name on it. I suspect there may have been some lurkers in the bar ready to pilfer it…. Carlos, perhaps you could look into this?
I’m trusting that the abscence from Poland’s matches is protection for Woj after just a little tweak. Hopefully.
If not I’m available for running repairs….!!
Catalan you bastard, the 100 was my only consolation and now even that’s gone.
Begruding congrats.
Since Tottenham Hotspur last won the English First Division in 1961 (that’s fifty years ago, for those counting), Arsenal have won the league six times.
The Coq can indeed play right back – and I’d agree he’s probably a better option than Carl at present but it’s a big ask and a lot of pressure on either young lad. My point being we can’t just assume that Coquelin can suddenly last 90 minutes up to two times a week at the highest level, he’ll have some good games I’m sure but it’s a recipe for disaster and chucking him in at the deep end at his second position.
He may well be up to it – but I think Sagna has been the only vaguely consistent member of a dodgy mix and match back four for a number of seasons. You generally knew what you were getting. I hope he’s back on schedule and at the same level.
I think things can only get better now, I’m sure I’ve said that six or seven times already in the last 45 days. COYR
Steve T @ 50, 92 Thanks for articulating what I was thinking. I have to admit I always look forward to your comment in the drinks.
Based on our transfer activities of last summer, our current problems were not unpredictable. We know we have a great manager, his record shows that. If his hands were tied during the transfer market, I am angry at whoever was responsible for that.
On the bright side, this may be the best chance for Coq/Frim/OX to take full advantage and do a Wilshere/Szczesny.
Steve T, great posts as usual. Your honesty is refreshing in a bar where most are in denial of what’s “reality” at Arsenal. It pains me to see what is happening. We’re 80/1 to win the PL, it’s October 3 and only 7 games in.
In agreement with your Ferrari comparisons, I’ve posted on this bar before that “you pay peanuts, you get monkeys” & how many times have I heard “I felt we played with the handbrake on?”. Who’s responsibility is it to fix that then?
Talking of Monkey Boy, Bale thinks we’re weaker as a team than last year & legend Lee Dixon thinks we won’t make top 8 & another Arsenal legend Frank McLintock can’t remember a weaker Arsenal side. But what do Lee Dixon & Frank McLintock know?
We now have 160.2M cash in the bank though, that’s a boy Arsene. The last time I checked we were a Footbal team.
This team’s broken and no one is going to fix it. Why would we, we’re about to witness Wengerball 4. I can’t fucking wait. There’s only one Arsene Wenger.
From our last 19 League games, we’ve picked up 19 points dating back to February, we’ve not won away since April. That’s relegation form. Up next, another home game “6 pointer” v 16th place Sunderland. Thank God Bendtner ain’t playing. 6 of our 7 points have come from 20th placed Bolton & newly promoted Swansea at home. At least we’re beating those around us.
The power has shifted in N. London, Spurs will get the 4th spot this season. In 6th place with a game in hand, they’ve played Man Utd, Man City, Liverpool & Arsenal. They got 6 points from those fixtures. We haven’t played Man City, but our results against Man Utd, Liverpool & Spurs have yielded 0 points. We’ve beat Spurs only once in our last 7 Prem games. Friedel have fuck all to do yesterday, whereas Woj prevented us from a spanking.
Let’s face it, we’re not that good anymore. Bringing in Arteta & Benny(oun)Hill have “cheap parts” written all over them. Neither are close to Cesc or Nasri’s “super quality”.
I thought Woj, Song & Coquelin deserve major credit for their displays yesterday and sadness for Sagna…our only defender who was in the EPL’s team of the year last season. When he went off v Blackburn & yesterday v Spurs, we ended up conceding the winning goals without him on the pitch. Without him for the rest of this year will be another major loss.
Failure to finish 4th is going to drop us out of the top elite of football for years to come. Wengerball 4 will concentrate on developing youth players that are all eventually sold on. What a mess.
Hey Lars – good post on the loan / squad situation.
I bet you’re all in favour of driving down any prices you can, with your tab 😉
An illuminating but disturbing article in the Times today; a view from directly behind the dugout yesterday, by a journo, not a fan, and it is uncomfortable reading.
If AW is as angry and frustrated as this piece tells, it is not great news.
However, he said at the end of last season, “no more potential – we need quality and experience”. We did eventually sign some, but far too late, as we all know. His apparant level of anger though, smacks of the divide at the top of the club that many suspect. Interesting piece – read in a padded environment.
Catalan – have you got the magic sponge for Bac, or did that get left on the HT too 🙁
Trev and Tim –
I think we may need to get Bacary over to the Horse placenta lady ASAP!
GT
Does she fixed fractured bones an all? If so get him over there asap!
Hey ho ‘Holics,
Well it’s good to see that yesterday’s result gave the naysayers cause to show-up to the bar once again. I had missed seeing comments from our resident gloom-mongers.
Instead of harping on negativity or wishing upon a star, I suggest we all just sit back and watch the football. Sometimes it will be good, sometimes it will be breathtaing, and sometimes it will be apalling.
Query this: who at the team is responsible for psychology? Here is my point, how many times will we create 15+ chances and convert only one; while our opposition creates many fewer chances but convert at a much higher rate? What happened to cultivating a climate of ruthlessly efficient finishing?
Anyways, things could always be worse…you could be a spud.
BMBD
I was thinking the same thing Lonestar – some are never happy (or here) unless there is a wrist-slitting fest on offer.
Of course, I could just be in denial and not understand “reality”.
Nice one Lonestar. Fuck all we can do about it, may as well get on with supporting them!
Trev – think we might need a miracle sponge on Bac! Problem is that TV5 and Jack are hogging it….
Will be interesting to see who gets the nod at right back – Jenkinson or Le Coq.
Guys, does it really matter who’s responsible for all this?
The fact of the matter is, this is our squad and we have to deal with it.
We’ve gone on and on about this for the last three years (along with Steve’s width requests 😀 ) so I say, let’s just focus on what we have.
Nothing we say is gonna change anything, it will only frustrate us some more :\…
Holic, you’ve got mail…
AW NEEDS to buy M’villa,Gotze,Marten + Nilmar, Hulk ,Cavani, Inler,Lavezzi. Release Rosicky,Diaby,Walcott.
Too bad no team will release them midseason.
Get AOC and Miaychi on the pitch meanwhile.Get Keown,Adams and Dixon on the bench. Release Pat Rice. Apologise to the fans or just go.
Then I woke up and realised we lost to Spuds , AW’s lost sense of reality and injury crisis kicked in. Fab and Nas are gone.
RVP and Vermaelen , Wilshere and WOj willl follow.
Pat and AW will both go next season.
gooners unite! pray to the futbol gods to take their curse off our lads pronto…how many of our lads have suffered their rath?!injuries are THE reason arsenal is floundering. i myself have gained 15 pounds since the start of this season and smoke way too many cigs. it doesn’t help that my roommate is from italy and says arsenal sucks any chance he can (i’ve banned him from watching the games with me, his karma is real bad). add to this, the nearest pub to me is l i v e r p o o l all the way. what’s a proper gooner like me to do? i say, kick the damm ball any chance you can!
I never knew so many C@@”” had my phone number best I change it Pronto 🙂 Jesus the phone companies will be in clover this week!! If I hear or read the words power shift once more I think I’ll batter that fucked up Pidgeon standing on a sprout into oblivion,
Not much more to add my thoughts have been perfectly summed up by Steve T and Trev, This seasons going to be one of sporadic shit weekends the morals on the floor and injuries are following the trend of recent seasons past.
4th is a massive task now but maybe if not attained it will waken the club and board from it’s slumber,
The attendances over the course of the next few months will make interesting viewing,
Up The Arse,
Trev: I sure need to keep prices down as much as I can 🙂
zico: we’ll just have to accept that some will never understand the concept of the Happy Train.
What a wanker Clive Allen is. Vaguely remember when he signed for spuds there was talk of coming to Arsenal too. So glad that did not pan out, if that was an Arsenal coach the papers would crucify us. Classless prick.
Our problems are well documented holics.. But do you honestly see anyone in the current setup (management or players) who can singlehandedly bring us out of our rut? Don’t for a moment think that Wenger or Pat Rice are capable of doing something drastically different that will break the cycle. So then it is upto the player(s). And imho, the only such player we have is currently recuperating from an ankle operation and won’t be back till February.
In short, we are fucked with a captial F.
Round for the regulars please barman! And for all the doom mongers there’s a bowl in the corner that Ive just filled up, go fight cousin pre op for a sip from it. My feelings on the situation has been more than covered by those regulars in here. You take the shitty days with the good ones, no matter how bad things really are the classless mob from that cage down the road still manage to demonstrate their true scum nature, as lonestar alluded to it could be worse, but it will always be great to be a Gooner come what in may!
Hola holics,
home for lunch,waiting for the TV repairman or someone like him.
I see the place is full of gloom. Oh well to be expected I guess and the best part will be two weeks of recriminations before the Sunderland match. Two bob Wenger!!! Ouchy-wah-wah!!
@Could be worse, you could be a spud!
THAT I think wraps it up so it isn’t going to get worse ’cause I aint gonna be no spud.
Cheers dudes e a proxima.
This is not a time to be happy. I can’t stand the “positive thinking”. Teenage hippy bullshit. It reminds me of that imbecile song – “Don’t worry, be happy”.
Either you happy or you’re not, simple as that. Right now I’m not, so I’ll go for some Glenshittish on rocks…if there’s any rocks left.
Evening Holic & Holic`s
@ Steve T @50
I agree and found your views very respectful and more restrained than mine. I am getting more and more concered with every passing game. Every post bar the very odd one has very insightful and whole heartly behind the Arsenal 100%.
Yet I think that are blind loyalty to are team has us covering over the cracks we all know are there and wont openly admit that the ship is heading straight for the iceberg staring directly at us with the captain oblivious to the inpending disaster waiting for us.
Regardless of what team sport you follow as well as football it is confidence that is key to good team performances, and while we are bereft of confidence we will struggle to win the games we need too. The problem is that once confidence has gone it takes one hell of a long time to return and as I have previously said we could be 20 points or more behind fourth place. Now that would be one monumental run of form to get us back on track.
I just dont see it in the team at this moment and that is why with every passing game the concern grows. As Steve T wrote, what we lost hasnt been replace with any were near the class of player we had.
I think AW should take this season as a major rebuilding project. The only expectation I have for this season is for the team to grow and gell. If we miss out on CL then so be it ! Will I still support the best team in the land ? YES !
I do no longer want to listen to eeerr mental strenght, eerrr team spirit, eerrr team belief. If all of these things are present then why are we in one of the most monumental run of bad form ? Surly its not all bad luck ?
Over are last 20 PL games we are in what can only be called relegation form. That is a fact and can not be argued. So to my mind this season should be used to its fullest in rebuilding and getting the team back on track before we reach the point of no return.
A gooner with a heavy heart to see my team in such distress !
Well it could be worse ATG and Co
…we could be swampy spuddies!
😉
Evening all.
I have to say I think it will be a while yet before most of the people at the Grove will be able to join in when I start singing “I was there when we were shit”.
I hope it never gets back to those days.
Evening all. Think you for the comments. I am not a doomer or anything near that. Like almost everyone here I am a mad passionate Arsenal fan. I just want us to be the best we possibly can be. If that is not good enough to compete with the billions of others then so be it. I can live with that. But for the reasons I have tried to highlight here and in various other sets of drinks over the years, I just feel that we are a long way short of that. I also do not think it makes you anti Arsenal or anti Wenger to sometimes sit back and ask the question.
Lonestar at 111.
“Query this: who at the team is responsible for psychology? Here is my point, how many times will we create 15+ chances and convert only one.”
Poor psychology or just poor finishing? 15 chances to score once are figures that should be confined to parks football?????? In my humble opinion.
Time is right for all of us to get behind those that wear the club shirt. Let us help hope that they wear it with the same pride and passion that has been shown by many fans both home and away. But that does not stop us challenging those who in the eyes of many have mismanaged our beloved club. That does not prevent us fans from wanting the best for our club. If anything it just shows exactly how much we do care.
Onwards and upwards.
Dr C, that barrel of 6X failed to make an appearance. You did not name it after our defence did you???????
Time is right for all of us to get behind those that wear the club shirt
Strangely, Steve, I had this discussion with someone today. It’s truer today than ever because this lot are so devoid of belief and confidence, and need that level of support in a way that teams we had in the past didn’t.
They also deserve our support because it isn’t their fault they have been put in a position where the expectation possibly exceeds what they seem capable of delivering.
Could not agree more. I refer you to my Ferrari analogy above. As someone less eloquent once said, “you can only piss with the cock you’ve got.” I think that is clear for most to understand.
I could never get annoyed with anyone that gives 100% for the cause. I just get frustrated with those that oversee it.
You have a reply by the way.
For the first time in many a long day,the Arsenal name is found down among the cellar dwellers in the PL.
Dismissed for the Title and odds getting longer every day about us even making the top 4.
Even the 3 promoted Clubs are above us.!!
Those supporters who have jumped on board since the AW revolution took shape,and have been used to CL football, continual appearances in the top 4,and the pleasure of watching some Great players grace our shirt,are now experiencing something new.
A team totally bereft of confidence,struggling to beat journeyman teams,Swansea, Bolton and Olympiakos at home,and giving out early Christmas presents to a Blackburn side that will be relegated this season,and a Spud team that we managed to make look far better than they actually were.
This of course is when Arsenal Football Club find out who their real friends are.
We are already seeing slews of empty seats at the Emirates,as
‘ Supporters ‘ vote with their feet and show their displeasure at our poor start to the season.
It will be interesting to see how many turn up for Sunderland and Stoke in a couple of weeks time.
The vocal minority are getting stronger with every poor performance,the vitriol on other so called Arsenal blogs is reaching new heights,and the Press vultures are circling,sensing an easy ‘ kill ‘.
At every Club there will always be ‘ fair weather ‘ supporters,who disappear in a heartbeat when times get tough,then resurface and pretend they never went away,when the good times return.
This is AW’s biggest test since he became a Gooner,
What happens this season,could define our future for seasons to come.
So whilst i understand the angst threading it’s way through our support base,we have to remain strong,show a lot of intestinal fortitude,smile graciously at the condescending comments from Chelski/Utd/City/Spud et al followers,and remember it is far easier to follow a winning team than a losing one.
I am absolutely confident that with just a little bit of ‘ Lady Luck ‘ going our way,and with most of our injuries behind us,we can fight our way back into contention at the ‘ right end ‘ of the Table.
Cheers
The Sweeper
Nicely tidied up sweeper 😉
Thnks H
Got to stick tight in a crisis.
Clive you have touched on the very point i feel is most valid to the current situation. It is far too easy to follow a winning side and unfortunately its a symptom of some of today’s fans and probably society in general that if we seek out instant gratification and dont get it there is all hell to pay. No one wants the troughs which accompany the peaks. Now i like most others on here realise that there has been alot of issues that needed to be addressed, nay should have been addressed but there is a man and his Team who are there to do so. Without the full facts who among us can say which way is right, all we can do is control what it is that we do. As mentioned above it is time for all and sundry who truly support this Team to get behind them, give these young guys and future legends the best chance to succeed and the only reason they will ever need to tell the farca’s and overnight chitty’s of this world to go do one when they realise their potential…or we could let the naysayers carry on with their agendas and watch the lunatics run the asylum into the ground! Round for all still here please ‘holic and one for yourself, this place reminds me always why its great to be a Gooner!
Clive @130 – great post, keep covering Sweep 😉
Your point about the support is a good one. There are more and more empty seats around me these days but, strangely, those who are still there do seem to have more understanding of the need to try and lift the team. Although results have been so poor, there has been less booing than in recent seasons. In fact I don’t recall hearing any booing yet and I have been at every minute of every game.
My only problem with the support is the idiots who turn up 15 minutes late – yes 15, at the last game – and then leave 10 minutes early. Not to mention their extended half-time breaks – so 4 times a game do they walk in front of you and block your view.
If they don’t care about the football, have they worked out the cost of the 35 (!) minutes a game they are missing? Where I sit in Block 91, that works out to about £35 for a Category A game !
zico – sorry forgot yesterday, but still enjoying the Diaries, even though they cast ever more aspersions at my, and my colleague’s, medical prowess! 😉
No Tabs or TS today ? Are they stuck inside the PARS suits ? Develish things to try and type in 🙂
*Devilish* even . .
Re: Trev @134: It does seem to feel at the moment that there’s a bit of a constant Peruvian riot going on so maybe Tabs and TS have picked up on it and decided to keep their PARS suits on? If so, I would chalk it up to their supreme intelligence. 😉
A couple points, Cynical tackle by Ekotto, please, they both went to for the ball and Sagna came off worse, In the first half SAgna challenged Bale and Bale went sprawling, Blame the small distance of the fans from the pitch not an honest tackle.
It may well be some time before Arsenal recover. I have thought this over and I was quite surprised by Arteta, He really dies not fit your style where as Parker has been a god send for us.
I do think your manager owns part of the problem, his failure to keep good players and his indecision in the trnasfer market has left you aweakened animal. But you still have quality in your side.
Getting wound up about chants is all Redknapp is good for, best all kept gobs firmly tight on this subject as there is no innocent party
Cusop, one thing.
That was dirty for Ekoto.
It reminded me of a defender pushing a player going for a layup while he’s in the air in basketball.
Sagna was in the air and Ekoto gave him a nudge which made him lose his balance.
*from
Clive @ 130 – top post.
Trev @ 134 – Feelgood cares about only one Doctor’s reputation 😉
Cus @137
“It may well be some time before Arsenal recover”. What like 50 years? Patronising AND delusional.
Enjoy your brief moment in the sun, it’s not as if you’re used to it.
The Sweeper, I take my hat off to a great post. Likewise for It could be worse @ 133.
Brilliant stuff as usual from Clive, Tabs, Steve T and of course all the other regulars
I know that the title is out of the picture already, I have come to terms with that but let’s take stock of the current situation and re-evaluate
Win the home games
As Clive said, it’s in times like these we should get behind our team
Trev @ 134
thnks mate,
It’s people like you who epitomise the true meaning of the word
‘ Supporter ‘.
Been there for every minute of every game,says it all.
Supporting the Team in person,through the good times and the bad.
Regarding your comments about the arrive late,take long half time breaks, and leave early mob,reminds me of the few times i went to Rugby Union Internationals.
I was up and down in my seat like a fucking Yo Yo,the number of times people kept filing out during the game to go and get a tray load of beers for their mates.
They then have the fucking temerity to ask as they pass on the way back to their seats,’ What’s the score mate.’
Unbelievable.
Zico @ 140
Thnks Buddy,
I trust the HT arrived back safely from it’s excursion to the Netherworld,and is safely ensconced back in the Sidings, alongside
Thomas/Percy/Edward and James.
Lars @ 142
Thnks for the compliment.
@Steve T: I certainly didn’t have you in mind with my comment (actually not the bar too much either) but I’ll bite for the little free time I have at the moment.
In your first analysis you raise salient points on one hand but on the other you forgot to mention our sorry state of injuries nor the odious refereeing theft that resulted in us behind instead of a cleat-cut sending-off, both if which had much more bearing on the game that particular day than anything else. This isn’t meant to counter your points but just to illustrate how the prism of the theory affects the analysis of current events.
You have often and rightly so pointed out that we would pay for the late transfer activity as it will delay the team from gelling but this point is curiously absent too. Had a stable combination of Vermy, Kos and Mertesacker (whom I’m really starting to warm up too) been able to train all summer together I’m sure you’ll be the first to agree our defense would be seriously improved over a newcomer and a DM. Then I’m sure you also agree that with so little time to work together and so many injuries there’s a valid case to be made that this team could well be very far from showing its potential. Individually many have shown they’re capable of excellent performances so it seems to me that it’s very premature to dismiss the quality we may have after 7 games in those conditions. Nasri has been anonymous much more often than not at Citeh so applying the same standards we haven’t lost much then. And certainly Henry who hadn’t scored in his first 7 games would fail the same quality criteria you’re now applying to all the newcomers in the middle to what is our all-time worst injury and red cards tally in the beginning of a season.
The results are not going our way at the moment but had the referees not made a Sunday league lapse of judgement we would likely have won the game and the outlook would be entirely different with what would have likely been 4 wins in a row in extremely adverse circumstances.
Again this is by no means meant as a rebuttal of all your points. It’s painfully obvious that this new-faced Arsenal is struggling at the moment and that we’re in for a really rough season. As others have said it better, this is during adversity that you can count on your friends and it’s been since before AW that an Arsenal team has been so much in need of support.
Also I’m well comforted by Clive, Lars and Trev’s posts. It’s undeniable that this season we’ve got the best home support we’ve had in a long time, it feels like a family again.
For my little tuppense worth please see Matts posts.
Couldn’t have said it better myself mate, well done!
As far as injuries, poor defensive play and some atrocious refereeing have had a big impact, the most concerning area for me is midfield. The Arteta / Ramsey axis has not worked as we fail to retain possession which is the cornerstone of our game – the basis for protecting the defense and providing a platform for attack. Song’s absence from midfield exacerbates this all the more.
@Cusop: as much as its pleasant to get the zoo to pay us a visit rather than the other way around please let me suggest that you learn to enjoy your best team and manager since the sixties and probably until the upcoming 40s.
Your manager has come a long way since his Pompey days, certainly the short leash on which your Mister Levy is keeping him has done him a lot of good. The 2 of them seem to complement each other well and as a result you’ve got the stability of an half-decent core team with some good players who now have been gelling long enough to play collectively better than the sum of their individuals. This season will see Spuds reach the apex of their cycle until the summer when the predators will circle around your best players and the fans renewed calls for the manager’s head will lead to the circus of managers not lasting a season which is the norm for your lot.
We’ve seen what success does to fans. Mid-table feels like history that will never repeat itself, doesn’t it Cousin Op?
On this please have a pint on me gents. Steve had me talk much longer than I wanted to and I’m really parched now 😉
Interesting stuff:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/oct/04/premier-league-tv-coverage
Do not post regularly but follow the drinks closely.
Out of all the excellent points made above, one thong that BTM said has stuck on to me, “Vermaelen and Kos at the centre of the defence ahead of Wojcieck with Song and Coquelin in the middle, is a platform I’d like to see us launch forward from.”
In my humble opinion, this can work with a 4-4-2…with arteta/arshavin/theo & VP up top with chamakh/AOC/young
Some of you sound like an old broken record, where you forget I am about the same age as Holic and can remember that once upon a time the great teams did not dominate the league was open and football was much more about the fans than a Russian billionair or Stan your man! You Pikeys took a risk, and you ended up with an enviable ground and two types of fans. The old core and the younger glory hunters.
I predicted several years ago that Abramovich would try and sell Stanford Bridge, why because he wants to repeat your attempts to create a 60,000 seated. Nope it’s where his real investment lies.
As a spurs fan I would love a 60,000 seated, but not if it destroyed the core of the club, yet to compete with out massive investment requires becoming a trading club. Basicaly to all you bollix who think this ,ay just be an aberration I remember when you were a shit club too! So read your own words carefully and becareful they could become your epitaph.
Ekotto got the ball watch the game and take your Rose tinted specs off, and remember Sagna challenged Bale and luckily Bale got up.
So to add insult to injury we have cover in nearly ever department. Where as you have Carl Jacobsen
Hey Cus,
Can’t ever say that you are a glory hunter then, can we?
I mean you’ve seen Spurs win the league how many times at the Lane, whereas Holic has seen it twice. It comes from following a big club I’m afraid.
In fact, if you are nearly as old as Holic then you’re persistent gatecrashing of this bar explains a lot – you’re a wannabe Gooner, and who can blame you, since most of your sad life has been spent where the rest of it is liable to continue…..
Forever in our Shadow,
You lily white c*nt.
@Cusop
His name is Jenkinson and you seem to have cover for everything exept your dumpster of a brain and your own blog on which let your fattened flies buzz around.
Leftcoast…. me thinks he is winding you up re the name! 😉
Cus –
We all know we’ve never been a shit club. Behave now.
Well for me I was only 3 when we won the double and the reason I come here is cos I like Holic and therefore I abide by his rules and I never unleash vitriol
zicoineixle I understand you barbless attempts to wind me up, but if we look at recent history, your gonna have to admit your in the shit!! as a team and it will only get worse before it gets better. I hope it never gets better. But you all live in hope that the so called professor will get it right! But the true test is not when you have great teams but when you have the also rans and you get the best you can out of them and Wenger has failed you in two frounts.
He failed to get the best out of the latest batch when you were clearly in the running.
He failed to hang onto key players and sold them to pay off club debts. He has not been able to buy in the type of steel needed to play his style of play.
Mean while twitchy has slowly cleared up Commolis mess and he has bought differently and his league of British Coaches are bringing through some talent that could be first teamers in the future.
Its all bright being a Lilly White and calling me a cunt is fine.But its cunts like me that force pricks like you to stand to attention..
Our forum is closed, so you cannot read what goes on in there and it is pretty hard to read. But I do direct all gooners here!! Nice touch dont you think.
So here is my view!
One the songs are part of the NLD and it is basically harmless
Two Wenger, Adebayor and Twitchy get paid handsomely for doing what most people would kill to do. I cannot blame elements of your crowd screaming for Adebayors head as I cannot blame spurs fans formerly chanting against Campbell.
Football is about passion and pride and we all share that in own ways, yes I am please we beat you, but for me it is now 8 occasions in the league you have failed to beat us.
We look forward to the test because your teams have been better than ours. The test on Sunday was different. Our back 4 are faster and better disciplined than yours. Our midfield has more steel and still plays attractive football. We are on balance a better side and we know it and you know it. We did not role you over as I expected and you should take heart from that as it is platform to build from.
We will continue to improve and our glass ceiling is our wage structure and we are reaching it. So what do we have left .. Coaching and thats what redknapp will have to focus on.
Careful you don’t get sunstroke Cus.
The dark days will return down your way soon enough – and there’s more chance that we’ll win the league at your place again before you do. We both know it.
8)
157 cusop: usually my comments are not directed personally but in your case, i feel i must intercede! you obviously suffer from tottsitis and are in the final stages of this most dreaded disease…please for your own sake make post haste to emirates for treatment where gunners fans will do their very best to save your wretched, deranged soul! ps bring along bale, for i fear he is showing the first stages of this ailment.
Cusop,
Make the most of it:
Twitchys record and your next lol
A recent report had the spuds 4th in the league on transfer net spends on the income from that shambles of a stadium looks like twichy is up to his old tricks. at least he won’t be able to bankrupt England. See below his unenvious record from a report last season.
Bournemouth went into administration in 2008.
West Ham currently owe £100 million and have asked every staff member, players included, to take a 25 percent pay cut from next season.
Portsmouth are as close to going into administration as you can get and are expected to receive their £20 million relegation parachute payment early to pay off debts to the inland revenue.
And Southampton went into administration in 2009.
P.S Form is Temporary Class which your lot know nothing about is permanent.
NEWS FLASH!!!GARETH BALE AND 157 CUSOP have checked into EMIRITES for life saving treatment. unfortunately for the latter, it was too late! despite gunners’s fans doing their very best to save his lost soul with blood transfusions and readings of wenger’s bio, he succombed. as for bale, there might be a slim ray of hope. he is currently recieving instruction from RVP on how to do more then just run fast with the ball…however, it is far to early to predict his prognosis.
Evening gents.
Went into self imposed exhile from the net for a few days, to miss the inevitable shit feest, which I predicted would occur after Sunday’s result.
Glad to see our host and many of the patrons of this bar, stayed measured with their opinions, some great write ups, I particularly enjoyed Steve T’s contributions, it’s always a pleasure to read his views.
As for my opinion on the game, well, I think we’ve only got ourselves to blame. Spurs were not the better team, as Cusop humbily admitted (go easy on him guys, he seems a pretty decent chap, Spuddom withstanding) and if that’s their best team, then the so-called experts can kiss my arse with their power shift bollox.
We gave the ball away far too often and when we had it, we didn’t seem to have any kind of plan. I’m not going to go into individual performances, but as a whole, we did not play as a unit, more like a bunch of strangers who’d just met in the carpark before kick off. This is ofcourse is not that suprising really because the team is riddled with squad players replacing the injured, new arrivals and players out of position. Consistancy is the key to success and the only thing consistant about this team is in the fact that it is consistantly being shuffled around. We’re gonna need time to gel, but it’s gonna have to happen soon.
I also feel we’ re playing a sytem that is not suited to our recources, the 433 has got to be changed, we play with a lone striker, who is not a natural No9, RvP is a briliant player, but he needs a player in front of him. How many times does a ball get crossed into the box and there is no one there? Surely I’m not the only one who sees this?
Another thing that is badly letting us down is this new zonal marking tactic. It’s just not working, our defence gets cut open time and time again and it’s amazing how easy it is for the opposition to get their players on to a set piece, if it wasn’t for Woj our goal difference would be even more disastroius then it is now. Rafa Benitez swore by the zonal marking system and look what happened to his teams.
Maybe I could be a little less miffed about the defeat if it was against a different club, but this was against the Spuds FFS, a twitchy team including Adebayhoar. After their second goal we just weren’t in it and didn’t even deserve to pull level, there was no fight left and no passion, that for me was the real bummer.
Sorry to be on a downer lads, but defeats to the local rivals are the worst, especially when I feel it didn’t have to be that way.
We got two weeks to get the HT ready for the next trip, please no international casualties, pray to the football gods that there are no more absenties to our already decimated squad.
Next rounds on me.
Noel73 @119.
He actually did sign for us, if memory serves he was our first million pound signing, we got him from QPR.
He made a few appearances in pre season, but we swapped him for Kenny Samson with Crystal Palace.
I remember at the time there was a big stink about it in the rags, there were also allegations of shady deals between the three clubs, that Allen was used as a go between, but as far as I can recall it never got any futher then rumours.
H2H, just one thing…
Woj has expressed that AW changed the zonal set pice marking system after the Blackburn game…
In open play, we’ve been playing the high line for years.
This isn’t something new.
And it has to be done if we set out to press high up the pitch which is usually the intention but never the execution because our players are either lazy or shocked.
I shouldn’t be surprised but somehow it feels really weird to read more sense in Cusop’s comments than in the Arsenal glory hunters posts on Le Groan…
@Austrian Gunner: I really doubt Mister Levy is the kind to let Twitchy bankrupt him. As I said earlier `Arry is on a tight leash and that seems to do him a world of good.
I did not know that Snir, but, if true, doesn’t it raise more questions then it answers?
Why spend (waste) so much time on a system, just to dump it at the first sign of a setback. I admitedly feel that it’s a flawed system, but, surely this just smacks of desperation and seems to sugest that we’re running out of ideas.
We are missing a certain something at the moment, it’s easy to say we’ve lost x and y, but if we’re really honest, these same problems were present when x and y were still at the club. We added some decent players in the window, maybe not the marque signings that some were after, but good solid pro’s none the less, yet, the same problems are still plain to see.
I’m not sure if it’s a confidence thing, a coaching thing or a personel thing and I believe in footy, as in life, you make your own luck. However, what ever it is it needs to be dealt with sooner rather then later.
A glass of happy juice please, I’m starting to sound a bit moany.
*Off down to the bar………..
LOL!!! Enjoyed the read!! No chance of me checking in any where with Bale. If I got hold of him I would lock him up with the daughter for a month and then try and sell the off spring (smacks of Shergar) !!
I will say this one last time, you lack steel.. The old guard would not just out play us but kick the shit out of us. Yes your Lunbergs, Pires and Vierra. They were not just good players they were fucking ruthless. Eboue would kick us Clichy would kick us. They would unnerve us and give poor old Thudd the shakes. You have no steel you have no natural leader.
Your cuddley and play pretty football and if we rub your tummies you role over!! There is no fear playing the Gooners there are just points up for grabs. Wengers experiment has back fired and you all must know it by now.
In Jols era
Adebayor manhandled the poor old Candian we had at right back and ran off and scored. God I Hated you at the time, but it was accepted thats how you played.if we were to beat you we had to be on top of our game we never had any reserves at the end of the game we were always pushed to the limits.
Not now VDV can play out of position and we can have Parker running around like the energizer bunny cleaning up for our mistakes.
Im not saying you should have bought Mr Varicose Veins Barton but Noland would have been a start. No its “We have no Fear” thats what is depressing you its not that we beat you but I came on here last week and just knew we would and deep down you feared it would happen too.
So who would I take from Le Arse..
Diaby, VP and Chezney the lad from Corrie,
Why Diaby.. because he fights and kicks!! ( where was he )
VP he is an excellent striker and is alone at Le Arse
Chezney .. nope not gonna spell it right, (dont fancy his sister) Because you may have the best keeper in the league after Joe Hart!
Why not Wilshire.. TOO MUCH HYPE! JUST LIKE WALCOTT
What you need is Kaboul, Parker and Sandro ( who might just be as good as Viera in few months or years.. ).
What you dont need is
Arteta could play at everton because he was protected he is so exposed in this team that he looks like a kid who has been on chemo wearing a wig!
Its time to Big UP lads and get on the blower to Stan cos your season will not get any better especially playing the CL.
Meanwhile we beat the Europa wots its with team 2!!
You forget we have Gallas, Lennon, Huddlestone, Dawson, Kranjar and Pienear. Our subs are Corluka, Dos Santos and Pav we actually have whole other team as back up all of which will take part and will play a part in our move towards that 4th spot. Our academy is full of bright young hopefuls, we have Kyle Naughton out on loan as well as Caulker.
Dont think that this is a one off we are here to stay its taken Levy 12 years of wheeling and dealing and hiring and firing.
Joe Lewis has his boat moored in the Thames its worth more than our club. We are a stable club with a Chairman with a busness head and ambition.
And it cost me 75 quid for Adebayor shirt for my son for christmas and a mate who was with me from the states could not believe the line to buy the all the junk from the spurs shop!
Cusop, from this moment on I’ll stop reading your posts.
Won’t even bother.
Why?
Because of your assessment of Jacky and Sandro.
Too much hype? You’re either stupid or very stupid.
Sandro? He’s a Craig Eastmond at best. Not better.
You just proved to me why I shouldn’t have read your posts in the first place.
Time to ignore the troll – he just guzzled a whole bottle of stupid with that Wilshere comment.
H2H, thanks your memory’s a lot better than mine, must have been all the tipex thinners.
Cusop, in fairness most of your players are journey men and lack that spark or inspiration to ever truly kick on, what makes it frustrating for us is we know our players have the individual talent to blow you out of the water but collectivley at the moment we cant string 3 passes together. The key word is potential, something we have in abundance just waiting to be realised, how and when that is going to happen I dont know. You’ll never see any massive improvement in the likes of Kaboul, Sandro, Parker etc and Gallas, Pav and King are on the way out. As for match winner Walker..purlease. Enjoy your measured posts but there is a bit of delusion there also.
C U S OP! what are you doing? you’re supposed to be succombed, remember? that’s the problem with totitis, you don’t even know when your’re a goner. but i know i’m a gooner, that’s for sure. lol
Evening all. Sorry, meant to be around a lot earlier and put something up. Obviously too late now so back 24 hours.
An observation. I don’t agree with a lot that cusop says, obviously, but he is venturing a combination of genuine opinion with a hint of wind-up.
He says some things that will resonate with a lot of us, but obviously won’t acknowledge openly that they are in a similar place to us at the moment. I said before Sunday, and stand by the fact that both sides face consistency issues at present. Ours feel more painful because it is a relatively new issue for us.
He also conveniently ignores their biggest problem. The ground is crumbling around them, and they desperately need Stratford. The problem is they have probably missed the boat, both for Stratford, and financing any redevelopment in the shithole of London.
Having said all that please moderate your responses to him. As someone alluded to above, I have seen worse from so-called Arsenal supporters this week. Let’s show some class.
Back tomorrow with something, probably history based. We need a distraction 😉
Holic, he should be disregard from today.
His Wilshere comment is an insult to football and to the visitors’ of this bar intelligence.
Why is it that imperative to Spurs to move to a new stadium? I mean, why can’t they just stay at WHL?
If you mean, it isn’t maximizing the income potential and they can’t be a class A European team with WHL, then I don’t see what the problem is.
They aren’t and shouldn’t be. They’re inferior and should always be. They should be thankful and grateful that they finish in the top 6 and STFU, those inferior cunts.
Heh heh heh @ Cusop
It’s been a tough week, but the idea that we should be scared of Kranjcar, Pienaar and (best of all) Dos Santos coming off the bench has made my night.
Big club on the up – don’t make me laugh sonny jim, you’ve got a 50 year old in sticks, your best player wants out (and will still want out next summer no matter what you offer him), your only half decent forward is on loan and you can’t afford him, Ledley King has already played three of his four games a season, your manager has spent the last 18 months batting his eyes at the England job and will be off in the summer, your stadium is a shite hole and Van Der Vaart is about as loyal as Jermain Defoe is tall.
Sure, we’ve got our own problems, but being lectured on how to run a club by an LWC is just comical.
You’ll finish outside the champs league spots again this season and the handful of half decent players you have will decamp to pastures new.
For now I’d just enjoy your jammy win and not get carried away.
Oh, and Jack over-hyped? Pffft.
Evening all.
Apologies Matt if my rants took up too much of your time. Have a drink on me. I will address your points as succinctly as possible.
I have mentioned the late transfer activity several times before and make reference to it in my post @50. My view is that it did not have to happen that way and we are now paying the price.
Re injuries. I make reference to that in my later post but my point is that with everyone fit the team against the spuds contained 9 out of our strongest starting 11. Of course injuries damage a side. I just do not feel that is an excuse we as a club can hide behind all of the time.
You make perfectly valid points about the decisions. VDV handled, should have been a second yellow and should have been disallowed. But is wasn’t, and until the powers that be allow video technology to play more of a part then we are stuck with it. We are not the only ones who suffer. Just ask David Moyes and Mick McCarthey.
Not sure if people have read today’s arseblog? It is an interesting read. My points Matt were really born out of the last few years, not just one game. Check out blogs, especially the 4th paragraph that starts, It’s not a case…….. Sums it up well for me.
But you are right re getting behind the team. Now is the time to support those that wear the shirt. I said that earlier as well. I just also thing that there is nothing wrong with questioning what actually goes on behind the scenes and asking, ” could we do better?”
H2H, cheers, and likewise. One day that bar of yours in Holland should become the home of the holic weekend abroad.
Snir, check your inbox.
Keep the faith.
Comparing the Spuds to us is like when two friends go out for the night. If the ugly friend gets chatted up, she feels good because she’s had a good night…but the fact remains, she’s still the ugly friend!
Goodnight!
GT, spot on.
As they say. You can put lipstick on a pig. But it’s still a fucking pig.
Clive – thanks for the kind words.
Cusop – @168
I was reading the exchanges between you and others above with some amusement and, as ‘Holic says, recognition of some of your points.
True to form of you and the marsh-dwellers though, you then spoiled the whole thing for me with your ‘observation’ that Arteta looks like a ‘kid whose had chemo wearing a wig’.
I used to coach a ‘kid who had chemo’ and died aged 7.
I had a lot of contact with a girl of 2 who had leukemia at the time.
Like so many, but not all, Spurs fans I have come in contact with, you clearly instinctively cannot recognise the boundaries between football support and human decency.
I am therefore joining Zico in his consistent suggestions that you quite simply “f*ck right off”.
Cusop – in spite of the above, I sincerely hope, for the children’s sake, that not even you have the misfortune to share my experiences.
Cusop – afraid I’ve bitten now.
You paid £75 for a Spuds shirt for your son with the name of a
Manchester City player on the back of it ?
And we are supposed to believe your comments are those of an intelligent man ?
Truly sad.
Cusop you truly are bizarre! Your inane comments gave me the laugh I needed to start my morning.
First of all I think most of the gooners on here know what needs fixing and besides your advice is ridiculous. Most of your players are enjoying an Indian summer and Harry is clueless at best. When the winter hits and the table truly starts to take shape with you LWCs in your rightful place this game will be just a distant memory.
And for all your talk of a “bright academy” why are so reliant on Arsenal castoffs then?
Steve, cheers mate, check your inbox.
CUSOP: could use some over-the-coals punishment
The sooner the better, actually.
Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?
Come on, now,
I hear you’re feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain
And get you on your feet again.
Relax.
I need some information first.
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts?
There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying.
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I’ve got that feeling once again
I can’t explain you would not understand
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.
Great song and lyrics, but I would have to say at this stage I feel more numb than comfortable about Arsenal’s situation.
But a few wins can get us rolling again. I think. 😀
Bt8b: It has been getting the few wins that has been the problem. Apart from OT, we haven’t been outplayed badly by anyone. We’ve just given away a lot of goals.
Now an unfortunate case of German coitus interruptus, maybe to lift a few spirits?
http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/oddballs/877554-bayern-munich-fans-thrown-out-of-hoffenheim-match-for-having-sex
Ned, what are you drinking on Lars’ tab?
Bt8b: Amazingly, only four teams have scored more Premiership goals than we have this season, but only two have conceded more.
Bt8b: Your generosity with Lars’s tab is much appreciated. A glass of ‘Holic’s finest claret, if you would. I trust you will join me, and our inestimable landlord, too.
Did someone mention coitus?
*gets excited and reaches for a red bull vodka*
*and moustache wax*
Found an interesting article on the interwebs…maybe this applies to all of them?
http://www.sabotagetimes.com/football-sport/johnnie-jackson-the-spurs-hating-arsenal-fan-who-played-for-tottenham/
I don’t know if Blogs reads these posts but if for some reason he does, I want to thank him for today’s blog. Talk about giving a good feeling to your readers.
This should be publicized on pravda. It is absolutely beautiful and everybody related with The Arsenal should absorb it. I just hope that the posters we have here only after things are bad would read it. Maybe they’d be here when things are good. Nahhhh no chance of that happening, eh?
You HAVE to read it holics.
Thank you blogs.
I’ll be lower tier clock end for the West Brom game on 5th Nov…
…Come on you Guuuneeers! 😀
A good read indeed Snir . A lot more reasons to love this club than loathe it.
Great read indeed, Snir.
What’s happened to TaBS and TS. Don’t tell me the trauma has kicked in from Sunday?
And it’s The Sweeper playing the ball out to Lars on the wing… oh, what a majestic run he makes and he lifts the cross in… who is going to get there first and grab the double centruy?
In and stick it in! Thank you, good night.
Cheers for the assist Lars 🙂
CoR, you’re welcome 🙂
Was indeed a good read Snir.
Holic, I belive that TS is over here in the Lowlands as for tabs, no idea, maybe Wolfie’s dragged him off to a speedo convention or to check out the new Jimmy Choo collection.
Trev@179-I too felt utterly appalled at the ‘chemo’ reference, it’s offensive and then some. Good for you for saying what I was thinking.
I know he may have a long tenure and contribution to this blog but that was a Rubicon moment for me.
Does anyone else feel the same as Trev and me or are we overreacting?
Usmanov is the second-richest Premier League owner behind Manchester City’s Sheikh Mansour. Kroenke is eighth on the list with a fortune of £1.8bn. The pair’s combined fortune make Arsenal the richest club in London,
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is third on the managers’ list behind Fabio Capello (£38m) and Sir Alex Ferguson (£27m) with £20m.
The Forbes top ten:
1 – New York Yankees (Baseball) – $340m
2 – Manchester United – $269m
3 – Real Madrid – $264m
4 – Dallas Cowboys (NFL) – $193m
5 – Bayern Munich – $179m
6 – Boston Red Sox (Baseball) – $173m
7 – Barcelona – $172m
8 – Arsenal – $158m
9 – AC Milan – $147m
10 – New England Patriots (NFL) – $146m
Let’s parade the Pound signs on an open top bus in May.
Yes snir, great blog at Arseblog today
I can’t wait for us to climb back up the table and go above sp*rs!
And your absolutely right in dismissing cusop- the curious LWC Re:Jack
Jacks performance against those catalan cunts last year was Fucking inspiring
Jack says all the right things;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/15185578.stm
Hear, hear – well played Blogs. For truly The Arse blogosphere first team (no names, no etc. – needed) has super, super quality running the length of its very spine. Some of the fringe players, however, still have a bit to learn – especially during these tricky times.
Up The Arsenal!
Geoff, you are not overreacting. He was way out of line with that one.
Lars, Geoff –
interesting that he (Cusop) who visits so regularly and has so much to tell us, cannot find it within himself to come and apologise for that remark.
And if he does, he can piss off anyway.
You do not write something like that by accident. He’s done as far as I’m concerned, lads.
Yes, nice one Blogs – up to you now ‘Holic to get us dancing in front of our laptops again. Come on The Guvnor ! 😉
Tabs, TS, zico – very strange ?
Alien abduction ?
Have they recruited new barmaids and taken them on an HT mystery tour in order to thoroughly “interview” them ?
Did someone leave the CMC unlocked – but wait, they have all the keys !
Don’t do it chaps – we’ll soon be ‘any good’ again 😉
Feelgood, alive and kicking.
The other two – do aliens abduct their own? 😉