Arsenal Scale The Heights, Only To Slide On Their Asp
Jan 6th, 2013 by 'holic
The third round of the FA Cup. It still stirs the passions, and didn’t that become evident in the drinks and elsewhere today? The morning started in usual fashion. I try and catch up with who has written what in the Sundays’. I already mentioned the Amy Lawrence Guardian piece in the preview drinks.
“Watching Arsenal these days is like playing an elaborate footballing game of Snakes and Ladders. Turn up at the match and roll the dice. You may whoosh up the kind of ladder that sees them knock seven past Newcastle or slip down the kind of snake that frustrates…”
Why didn’t I think of that? (Oi, I heard that. It was a bit harsh!)
Right on cue, we turned up at Swansea dice in pocket, and the rolls didn’t favour us in the opening half. We made lots and lots of slow progress, but in all honesty nearly got caught by a sucker punch from Danny Graham. Wojciech Szczesny stood firm to keep us level. Half chances came and went for Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey as we continued to probe with the lack of creative quality that marks our darker days.
As the twelfth day departed for another year a ghost of Christmas past almost humbled us. Kyle Bartley got head and shoulders above Per Mertesacker and just headed over. The whistle, when it arrived, came as something of a relief. We had looked the better side technically, maybe, but the Swans had looked the likeliest to score. It was looking like one of our lethargic days.
Small snakes gave way to small ladders as the second-half got underway, with Jack Wilshere and Kieran Gibbs prominent in driving us forward with a little more urgency. Twice Olivier Giroud had the opportunity to put us ahead before the home side decided it was time to introduce their talisman, Michu. He is a very slippery character with the strike of a cobra.
Within two minutes the centre of the defence opened up and Michu scored his third goal against us this season. I am firmly of the belief that our best two central defenders were on the park this afternoon, but big Per had a rare day of uncertainty. It happens. All you can ask for is a response, and it duly arrived as we cranked up the pressure.
It is fair to say opinions both here and elsewhere were polarised with ten minutes remaining. Lukas Podolski’s introduction for Rambo had added to our firepower, but tempers were getting frayed. Play to the whistle is good advice for players and supporters alike. Ladders were in the vicinity. Podolski swivelled, and it was all square. Two minutes later Kieran Gibbs, as accustomed to scoring spectacular goals as I am to dancing in the Nutcracker Suite, capped an awesome attacking display with an incredible volley. 1-2 and the ‘holic pound safely pocketed, surely?
Except no. Swansea are not the sort of side that will lie down without a fight, and we are not the sort of side that acknowledges the space at the far post is a zone to be defended. Wojciech dropped to his knee, Danny Graham shot high, and a replay was added to what already looks like being a busy January for both clubs. That final snake sent us back to the start square all over again.
I have seen much worse down the years. It is no surprise that reactions were mixed. The draw gives the team that progresses an excellent chance of reaching the last sixteen. That is not a sign of disrespect of Brighton, conquerors of Newcastle yesterday, but a statement of the likely outcome. Getting past Swansea in between Premiership fixtures against Manchester City and the bus stop in Fulham is far from certain, however.
Time for a different board game, Arsene. One involving the spending of some cash. Monopoly, anybody?
437 Responses to “Arsenal Scale The Heights, Only To Slide On Their Asp”
Get in
Now pay me!!
Top 3?
Go forth?
Europa League spot?
And a fine report, Holic.
Excellent write up ‘holic, so where can we expect to see you in tights and ballet shoes? π
Nice and balanced Holic. The ups and downs. A competitive fixture. January will be the toughest month we have left in this season. Lets take it one day at a time. We need reinforcements and we need consistent play. 2 things that seem to allude us at this moment. Lets hope one brings the other.
Cheers Holic. Have a good one.
A fine and fair assessment Holic. Monopoly….spending cash??…you haven’t a Cleudo. π
A hotel on Park Lane rather than a 2 up 2 down on the Old Kent Road please holic.
Or am I just too fussy?
Nice write up holic.
Tenth is the NEW FOURTH π
…and I missed even that. π
I’ll check the vacancies at the ROH in the morning π
Hah, Cluedo. Nice one Mr U π
Definitely deserved at least a point from the game. Disappointing to see two moments of lapselapse in concentration ruin an otherwise great second half performance. I also thought AW got the balance between Ramsey and Poldi spot on. Ramsey provided the solid defensive platform down that side for 70 min and Poldi came on to provide the attacking finish. Just wish he was better at clearing headers.
Nice balanced review, Guv’nor.
Love:
“and we are not the sort of side that acknowledges the space at the far post is a zone to be defended.”
Too bloody true mate. Too bloody true.
Damn nearly got a “Get Out of Jail” card there and then we pissed it all away at the Community Chest.
Good stuff there ‘Holic.
I just cannot understand why this team seems to think that pressing the opposition is something that they only need to do when they are losing, even if they bother to do it then.
As for this…
“Swansea are not the sort of side that will lie down without a fight, and we are not the sort of side that acknowledges the space at the far post is a zone to be defended.”
…spot on sir. Although this again raised an interesting question…
If you can see it, I can see it, the majority of the fans can see it and, obviously, the opposition can see it, why the feck can’t Arsene Wenger, Steve Bould, Kieran Gibbs, Laurent Koscielny or Per Mertesacker see it?!
Genuinely worried that the next 5 to 7 games may well be the last thing we need in terms of a run of games. With Citeh, Chelski, ‘Pool, Stoke, Sunderland and Bayern in that list there will literally be NO easy games.
Of course, if the players actually get out of bed for the full 90 minutes in every game, we could find ourselves climbing above Chelski, in the last 16 of the FA Cup and in the last 8 of the Champions League.
Snakes and Ladders indeed, although I do hope that Arsene gets a “Cluedo” sharpish before he finds himself well and truly in the “Mouse Trap”. A smart “Operation” or two in the transfer window could help rather than the usual “Scrabbling” around. As ever, Arsene is playing his cards very close to his “Chess”.
“Sorry” Trev, really should leave that sort of thing to you π
Never going to get a result if we don’t take a chance????
Cheers ‘h
Decent performance. Thought we got on a nice ‘n’ eazee cheezee roll, played quite well second half. Sadly – our goals sandwiched ‘tween too rotten def errors. Still can’t quite believe we’re not better, oh well. And anyway that’s picknicking. We live to fight another day!
Up The Arse!
I like the way you rattled through the snakes and rung up the ladder, Holic. It would have been a bit of a boa if I’d tried that. So I went with a Welsh theme. Here’s my take.
Having been handed the toughest draw of this F.A Cup round, Arsenal found themselves at Liberty to scrum down to the valleys for a meeting with Genus Cygnus of the family Anatida β or more commonly, Swans to you, me and Michael Laudrup.
This would be no easy contest. Just to add some rarebit to the Welsh, for the second week in a row, the Holic Pound was on 2-1 for the travelers. Would Arsenal be goosed or worse, duck the challenge? Would they make a total Toshack, or in a clutch, lay an egg against a bunch of Jacks, who are still trumpeting and preening their plumage, over a well fought away win in London? Surely Arsenal wouldnβt be the ugly ducklings this time around.
Arsene has been Up and Under the spotlight, and in some parts, whooper swans are suggesting that heβs become the Black Swan, and that this season could be his swan song. But theyβre all paddling against the current, quite likely to spring a leak with their ducks ruptured at seasons end. The boss picked a strong starting eleven giving us the much wished for CB pairing, with Ollie G restored to his rightful position in the middle and the young Welsh Wizard adding horse-power on the left. Podolski was rightly rested after a dire outing last weekend and Ox given a breather before next weekβs Citeh game.
The Liberty was no Vetch field of vegetables, the surface looked good, the scene was set. Which Arsenal would turnip? The first half was no cracking carrot. Lettuce see you play with the hand brake off, please, Arsenal. Both sides had very good chances to score. Both failed to do so and, at half time, a draw was a very fair outcome.
Arsenal were fueled up and started the second-half firing like flaming Welsh Dragons. Swansβ gooses were cooked and reduced to cygnets as Arsenalβs midfield craft, Gibbs pace on the left and the guts and guile of Wilshere, everywhere, began to bring some welcome warmth in the valleys to the travelling faithful. Pace, power, craft β the hallmarks of the Arsenal β all on display for all to admire.
But, surprise, surprise β like his countryman Hans Christian, Laudrup the Fabler had a different finale to the gameβs storyline in mind. He brought on Michu, who carries some kind of Welsh magic beans over the BfG of German folklore fame. A deft pass, a switch, a wiggle and quite completely against the run of play, The arsenal were 1-0 down. The curse of Holicβs pound rearing its ugly head again.
Arsenal clicked up another gear, Walcott missed a sitter. Arsene timed his sub perfectly. Gibbs and Ramsey had pummeled Swans right side into a slurry, and when Poldi entered the fray a ball from left to Ollie G to Poldi and it was 1-1. Then a superb chip by Ollie G to Gibbsy and a βcareer goalβ into the roof of the net made it 2-1 and it should really have been all over. But it wasnβt, fighting like furies Swansea managed to pull one back and set up another great encounter – especially for Steve T and the kids at The Emirates β as Arsenal march on magnificently.
Never a dull moment and the rest of the january will be filled with moments. Carry on!
Did you get a litre of Lagavulin for Christmas, BtM? π
Another feature of Amy’s article was her suggestion that Wenger keeps changing his mind ( or at least saying different things ) in transfer windows as each day passes.Following him already this time his comments are all over the place. He generally tends to suggest windows will be very slow because there isn’t a lot of money about but FFS we are in a situation where we can exploit this. That’s why we moved to a bigger stadium and brought in all those American marketing people on very high salaries- so that we can leverage our stronger financial position.
We are in a position to test the resolve of clubs like Everton and Barcelona even with chunky bids for the likes of Fellaini and Villa. Wenger is so addicted to shopping in Aldi he doesn’t even think of going to Harrods . I’m beginning to think that although much is made of his CSE in economics he’s a pretty poor economist. That’s why we lose all our best players and can’t shift the dross on ridiculously high salaries. As you say January will make or break our season and we need an injection of class, depth and quality. But Im not holding my breath.
Heh! Great post Maestro, was an in-form Amy (ta for the link) pushing you to raise your game even further? π
I thought we played well today. No lack of effort and very decent performances from Jack, Gibbs the attacker and a nice cameo from Poldi the striker.
Unfortunately, Gibbs the defender, Poldi the defender and Sagna (worryingly bereft of form) contrived to allow the Swnas to hold us to a draw.
Michu continues to be a revelation and the form he is in doesn’t put him too far behind The Dutchman in my book. I thought Bartley looked a leader on the pitch for them too. I have no idea why we let him go but with JD now in the Bundesliga, it looks like he would have been a terrific replacement.
Anyway, that’s the way I saw it and if we get to play Brighton I’ve got a decent chance of being there.
Cheers all & UTA!
Talking of pressing (TW@17) I’ve just watched Barcelona, probably the most gifted skillful team I have ever seen, work with the hunger of a starving pack of wolves when the opposition had the temerity to take possession of the ball.
If the best players on the planet do it why aren’t we?
Watched the very same game Geoff and, as with every time I watch those arrogant twats play, they work so, sooo hard it is no wonder that they destroy almost all before them.
Arrogant and twatty they may be, but their is an argument that they have earned, are earning and will continue to earn that right.
Imagine the talent that we have working that hard every game too…
…make the mouth water at first but it dries up faster than the Sahara after rainy season when you realise that either with these players or this manager it just is not going to happen.
Such a sad waste of talent.
I think comparing yourself to one of the greatest club sides ever is a fool’s errand. Even Man Utd over the last 20 years or so would compare badly to Barcelona at times!
Sorry π
Cheers for the write up ‘Holic, got it just about right I think.
First half we flattered to deceive and at times were at our ponderous worst, but reading some of the drinks in the last Bar really did have me wondering whether I had watched the same game. We were away from home, against a good side, had largely controlled the game, (albeit without threatening too much), and had put in a shift. The much-praised home side had been restricted to a shot from Graham after a wonderful take, and a header from a set-piece. Not too bad at Ht in my book. What is it that people expect exactly?
After ht, there was only one side in it. We’d created at least 3 or 4 good chances to score before Michu capitalised on tentative defending to put them one up. Thereafter, we went straight on the front foot, and ABSOLUTELY dominated. Chances came and went, before Poldi and Gibbs both scored truly excellent goals. To compare that performance, with some of the non-events we have suffered this season – Norwich, Soton, Villa – as some chose to do is quite beyond me.
That we couldn’t see it out due to more shocking defending is regrettable, but for people to then go on and say that we were lucky to get a draw is a huge distortion of what actually went on.
Is everything rosy in the garden? No of course it’s not. Are we still in the Cup? Yes we bloody well are, and of the two managers Laudrup is undoubtedly the more relieved to get a second bite at the cherry.
Quite fancy a weekend in Brighton.
OK, so it wasn’t only Lars, my fine feathered friend BtM and I that thought we played a decent game today π
Steve T
You must be relishing the chance to fire up your SX200 and pootle down the A23 for a game of footie and a riot on the beach?
Ah yes Geoff – BarΓ§a – but don’t you think watching your team win every week would get a bit boring?
Funny that tabs – I watched the same game.
For an old-time Sussex Gooner, who started travelling up to Highbury from there in the late 70’s, this is a great draw. I was there in the away end at the old Goldstone ground for Albion’s first game in the old First Division. Arsenal won 4-0, and there I was baiting all my mates on the other side of the fence. Nearly got a duffing for it, too. If we get past Swansea – a big if – Brighton will give us a right good game – a well run club playing really good football in a great new, atmospheric stadium right next to the University where I taught for a couple of years. Love it to happen and can’t wait.
“Arsene timed his sub perfectly”, iBtM? I believe the game was screaming out for a sub from about the 50th minute … with the invisible man, Rosicky, the obvious choice.
A nice Poldi-goalski when it arrived, and an even better one from Gibbsy, but introducing a sub with less than 20 minutes to play risks them never getting into the game, imo.
Oskar
Cheers dk, beginning to worry here π
Interestingly, here in NZ ESPN showed extended highlights of the 2002 Arsenal – Chelsea FA Cup Final before the match… and our current problems immediately came sharply into focus for me. This was our team on that day…
Seaman
Lauren Campbell Adams Cole
Ljungberg Vieira Parlour Henry
Bergkamp Wiltord
With the possible exception of Sagna for Lauren and Walcott for Wiltord (neither by any means certain) today’s side would have struggled to make the bench – Wright (GK), Keown, Dixon, Edu and Kanu – never mind the starting XI.
We had some real class back then…
Oskar
Going to be an expensive January for Arse Followers
13th Jan
City home
16th Jan
Swansea home
20th Jan
Chelsea away
23rd Jan
West Ham home
26/27th
Brighton away [ Fact !!]
30th Jan
Liverpool home
2nd Feb
Stoke home
You might have to raid the kids money box Stevie boy.!!
As to the Swansea game,
Sleep inducing first half,followed by a much more enjoyable 2nd half.
Very easy for people to criticise from the sidelines,but as i found when playing with the GG Ramblers,in the heat of battle,sometimes the mind doesn’t compute quickly enough to make the correct decision,thus fractions of seconds can mean the diff between getting away with it or not.
Most times i didn’t,hence my world record number of Sunday league red cards in the 67/68 season.!!
So i can sympathize with players basic errors,particularly at the arse end of a very tough afternoon in Wales which cost us a victory.
I think the majority on here would have been happy to take a draw from this game before it kicked off.
With a full squad to choose from,for a run of 7 games in 20 days,it is going to be some roller coaster ride.
Holic’s fingers will be bashing out blogs by the bucket load.
What’s not to like.!!
Cheers
The Sweeper.
Good stuff Sweeper.
Nice tangent Mary, keep ’em coming please. All hail.
Clive, afraid it’s a measure of how far we’ve fallen if we’re happy with a draw against Swansea.
Unless of course you were talking about The Golders Green Ramblers π
Nice overview Sweeper and earlier tabs, though I’m not as sanguine as you about the overall performance. Lots not to like.
It really looked as if all Phillippe Auclair’s observations on the arsecast were coming home to roost.
As the Sweeper observes, most of us would have taken the draw when the round was drawn.
Certainly a better 2nd half performance than when we played the Swans at the Grove.
Let’s hope for better still over the next few weeks.
Fair enough Bath.
I genuinely think we played well in the second half, and would have won the game had Per not had an off day.
A facup weekend in Brighton hoves into view – fine town – i’m cup-game. And hopefully it may well still be right up Smallballs strasse, i reckon. Amen!
Up The Arsenal!
Sweeper, lots of games there which would of course also raise the issue of fatigue but we’ve had a relatively easy past month now so we should actually be relatively well-rested. After the Bradford game (Jan 11) we have had six, five, seven, three and five days between games and we now have seven until ManCity. That some fatigue set in earlier was in no small part due to most players having played two games a week every single week since early September.
If you want to be a bishop rev, you’ll need to avoid Smallballs strasse.
Holic, Your title π We clearly dominated the 2nd half. Jack and Gibbs were on a mission of intent! We easily could have had 4 or 5 goals if not for a lack of composure. π Anyway, this is what Cup games are all about π Hopefully Diaby and TR will be getting a go real soon. And Le Coq cause Santi is going to burnout with this fixture congestion. π Entertaining and thought provoking write up sir π
Bath – i’ve had those ambitions bashed outta me – want to remain close to my flock.
Bring yer bucket and spade AL (and yer speedoes) ! π
Bath π
I’ll be in the wetsuit. (Red – obviously.)
Abb:
π
You through so many in our direction I had to send you one back
Geoff – you might not have noticed, but Swansea are a decent side, especially at home. This was a tough game to get in the third round.
Oh well AL, as Wolfie says, bring yer speedoes π
howdy
been a while since i’ve dipped my feet in the ‘holic water
yup – that sounded better and less bladder based in my head
not that i’m sure his water isn’t more than worthy of mine or anybody else’s footal dippage
but
yeah
bla
stand up who’s had a drink
nope
my nom de arse says it all
anyhoo
i hope you’ve all had a nice christmas and new year
and thanks again ‘holic for another year of free big belly laughs from you and the ‘holics various
.
that’s the end of my state of the nation speech
COME ON YOU REDS !
Heh, cba’s in town – the evening just took a turn for the better. π
Happy New Year Sir.
Happy New Year, cba!
Blimey, almost midnight here. Guess I’d better be off to sleep then.
Hi Charlie, I agree, they’re a Cracking side but with the merest fraction of resources available to us.
A draw and two defeats in our last 3 meetings against a team with a turnover of Β£65 million and a record signing of Β£3 million is a great example of how we are not making the most of our resources
HNY cba π
Evening. Well, holic, what can I say? Flattery will get you…
… A drink on me! All the best to you and to those who frequent this fine establishment.
OTDog, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, I’d say. Sub comes on. Arsenal score two. Game should have been won. Over and out.
Did you notice when Old Red Nose sent on RvPrick yesterday? And the result?
:-), π If Geoff’s dispensing these, things must be loking up! So I will too π
howdy there Mrs Bowson’s favourite son Take a
always a pleasure
i have a month of ‘holics write-ups and all the drinks in the bar to catch up on
no doubt i’ll laugh like fuck and leak a wee bit – i am of an age after all
anyhoo
hope you’re well takeabowson – top man as always
tis for the gin and bitter lemon am i
s’nice – not my choice but the offy’s shut so thirsty beggars can’t be choosers – well – they can – but they’ll remain thirsty – silly beggars
happy new year fellas
You know me Amy. Never turn down a drink π
Enjoy your gin and your back-drink cba.
Easy on the bitter lemon tho π
Arse on ITV – this time it’s 4 reel!
#65
many would say i’m bitter enough already
i favour sour
but whaddya expect
i’m bustin for a pee and the toilet is the whole way across the room
there are a few stud walls in between of course
we’re not animals !
our animals are
ireland has moved on !
i drew the short straw
tonight i sleep with the sow
Blimey – hard-fought first-half.
Thnks Tabs/TS/Geof/Bath/Lars
With 5 of those next 7 games at home,the Tollie is going to take a right hammering.
Looks like Stevie T isn’t the only one who will have to raid the piggy bank.!!
Reckon we got lucky there – am CERTAIN Gibbsy/Gibbso/theFBeegee – meant to dink that to the back-post.
Nah, Rev, he was doing RvP impressions … as in his Liverpool killer.
Oskar
I am more inclined to tabs view of the second half having watched the highlights.
AW remarkably good humoured in his interview. Back to the Zen?
I need a word with my sub-ed. Typo in the headline? Unforgiveable π
O knows!
Fingers crossed we win 3-2 on ITV plus 1.
heh @75 π
Improving all the time – so possible.
oy with a few associated veys
just watched a video of Stout – the barkin but sane gingered haired wee nutt mutt – the captain beefheart of dogs
try as i might-ed-ed – he wasn’t a gooner
barked at anyone
what can i say
TART !
i saw him letting a manure fan pet him
but
i don’t wanna speak ill of the dead
wee ginger piss factory
Oops, pardon – hope we win 4-2 on ITV1 plus 1 #UDoTheMaffMuVVaFuKKa!!! (You’s rite Bath – gettin’ better evry time.)
BtM:
Cheers π
cba @67 Heh, π
And fine reminiscences of Stout.
I knew you’d agree with me in the end Bath π
Heh AL @75 and 78 Keep watching Saaaaarn. Give em a cheer from me!
In other news, I see the Chairman of Mansfield was batting well above his average. I wonder what on earth she sees in the peculiar looking millionaire owner?
Right, I’m ooorf, Night all.
Again – hard-fought first-half. Tho fort they edged it this time – CoMonUPurple’N’BlackHoops!
Nice Review Holic.
HNY to you and all. Thought we should have won but we could have lost it too – so will gladly take the draw, especially if we add a few players.
Baff:
Tried to get the benromach over the Chrimbo but the place I buy my scotch in Dublin didn’t have it in stock – which surprised. So I’ve ordered a dropeen.
So I have rang in the new year with a touch of Mortlach and a drop of Dalmore which I received as a gift – and a rather nice gift at that..!
I have a feeling in me bones that Arsene will surprise a few people in the transfer market and bring in 3 players…!
That’s the best left-footed finish i’ve seen from an Arse player in a wee while.
(Poldi in the champs league – since yer askin’.)
Two quality left footers today.
Father Ted and Dougall, if you will.
Feck. Not politically correct π
“The way I feel now I could convert gays!” π
howzabout ‘holic
.
“The chinese ”
“Great bunch o’ lads”
.
all hail the paddy/tim/intellectual overlord
Extra-time beckons.
“Do you believe in God then, Ted”?
wi my back and these feet
do i bollix
.
bed for you , youngfellamelad !
“I brought the normal scrabble and the travel scrabble, Ted.
The travel scrabble for when we were travelling, and the normal scrabble
for when we arrived!”
Penalties – perchance!?
I heard the replays were initially going to be the week beginning the 21st, not the week beginning the 14th *annoyed*
The FA Cup is the last competition out of the 4 that I haven’t seen the Arsenal play in with my own eyes, want to scratch it off the list but its exam season and I won’t be going to any games during it, my luck nowadays… π
Great reads, ‘Holic and BtM. Worth the price of admission alone.
Really thought we showed heart today to tie the game and take a one goal lead. A great cup tie.
Frustrated that as soon as we took the lead they came right back and tied the match. Now I realize it is a common reaction to perhaps take the foot off the pedal but we only had five or so minutes to go at that point to kill off the game. Thought we could have made a couple of subs to freshen-up the midfield given the amount of energy we expended chasing the game. I can’t recall the run of play..maybe they scored so fast that there wasn’t even an opportunity for changes.
I used to be gutted when the opposition use to score a late match winner or match tying goal….now I almost expect it to happen and don’t even twitch when it happens. Don’t get me wrong, I still get pissed but perhaps my expectations have changed.
Hoping for better results ahead.
Arsene will bring in 3 players, you reckon Joe? He could bring in ten without making much difference, unless they’re quality. Thing is that other clubs are chasing the likes of Cavani and Falcao, while we face losing our best players and are seriously linked to replacements such as …. well who?
Oskar
Sometimes I wonder if people want a loutish ‘Arry Redknapp type for Arsenal Manager over an educated ‘European’ (is that the inherent problem?) intelligent Wenger-type?
To each his own. *shrugs*
Morning Glory π
Great game, Swansea v. Arsenal. Too bad we couldn’t hold the lead. Again.
Some posts about to disappear later…..
Roberto, go play tig with the trains….
I see you’ve got a stalker ‘holic!!!
He’s a right funny bugger too!!!
IΒ΄m going to post now so that I might score later… once Holic has done some pruning!
Would that count?
The redkneck cull is over Doc. Sorry.
Customer service really isn’t Arsenal’s greatest strength.
I just sent an email to boxoffice@arsenal.com to see if they could tell me if the replay will actually be on the Wednesday next week or possibly another day. On arsenal.com it says “Please use this Email address for all urgent membership and ticketing issues”, so I assumed that someone would see my email and at least reply with a quick “we don’t have that information” or something. What I got was an automated response saying that I will get a response… within three working days.
I think their definition of “urgent” differs slightly from mine.
Good morning, all.
Very balanced review ‘holic, and great posts above from BTM, TaBS, The Sweeper, and others, feels good to know i can always count on you gentlemen to keep your heads even when most others have lost theirs, or atleast seem to have lost thiers.
TW, sorry if my post from the last drinks offended you, but i really expected you to know better.
I took notes during the game yesterday as the game unfolded, i will post those notes (un-edited) later in the day when i’m done from work. Have a nice day, people.
Lars,
Can’t see the game being on anything other than Wednesday – we play on Sunday at 4pm after all…..
I will get back to you in three days if I change my mind…..
Right on this defensive lark.
Bould – what are you doing?
I have heard someone say that we have good defenders (might have been Wenger)- it is all down to individual mistakes – so Bould/Wenger – what are you doing?
Personally, I don’t think there is a decent defensive team in the English Premier League (someone said Stoke, but I cannot give credit to those barbarians for anything……and in any event Man City and Chelsea have conceded fewer).
We have had great defensive units under Wenger before so why can’t we fix it?
Discuss.
Thought some of the negativity during the match was a bit over the top.
Beforehand this was being earmarked as a tough game. Swansea are a bogey team and decent at their place. A draw (and very nearly a win) therefore looks a decent enough result to me. I thought we played well enough and the second goal was an absolute peach.
Still a lot to be done this window. If we emerge from January without some new blood in the squad I will be extremely worried. Even more so given that we’ve shipped players out.
zico, I will await your answer π
I can’t really see the game being moved to either Tuesday or Thursday as we play Sunday and Saturday but if it would be Tuesday despite that then that could save me a whole bunch of tenners. But I am starting to think I’ll go ahead and assume it will be the Wednesday and if that means one “unneccesary” night in the hotel then so be it. The likelihood of the game being moved to another week should be non-existent, there just isn’t any room in the fixture list for that.
N7: I’m not that bothered about the players we have shipped out. After all, their combined amount of minutes played in the league is a big fat zero and if we manage to sell Squillaci that will add another whopping zero to that tally. But we do need to get one or two in, preferrably a primarily defensive midfield player.
Zico@107. Perhaps our defenders are just not good enough???????
Breaking news on Sky.
Arsenal in talks with absolutely no one.
π
Only the weather will prevent it being on the Wednesday, Lars.
Cheers Holic, I’ll go ahead and re-arrange my return flight and hotel then!
That was a great offensive display in the second half.
Steve,
I think that the centre backs are good enough – Mertesacker has how many caps for Germany? (Although he had a bit of a mare yesterday).
Vermaelen is the weakest of the three and far too prone to impetuous “diving-in” which should/could? be eliminated from his game by doing the work on the training ground.
I have never been convinced by Gibbs as a defender and Sagna looks like he’s been taken over by the same bodysnatchers who got their hands on Chamakh.
But “someone” said it is individual mistakes – these are good players?
So I ask again, what are Bould/Wenger and the cones getting up to on the training ground?
Lars
I got an email from The Arse yesterday evening confirming the replay date for Swansea and when tickets would be on sale to the various grades of membership.
How long are you over for this time and how many games?
Blame The Cones
New band, single out next week….
Boy band?
I don’t have a big problem with the defence. They’ve shown a marked improvement over last season and have shipped fewer goals than the vast majority of the teams in the league.
What we don’t do very often, however, is keep clean sheets, which makes it look a bit worse than it actually is. I have no problem with a first choice CB pairing of Per and Kos, and I think Chesney is doing a great job in sticks.
I think Bac is a bit of a concern, but it appears that this is likely to be his last season with us anyway. I would also like to see another LB brought in to compete with Gibbs, who is not a player I would pick against every opposition.
My worry is far more the midfield and up top. We don’t move the ball anywhere near the way we used to, we don’t create enough chances and we’re lacking cover. We also don’t seem to have the tools to provide OG with the service he needs to really thrive.
There’s a real feeling higher up the pitch of players being pressed into roles which don’t really suit them.
Dr.z
Currently, by stats alone, we’re the fourth meanest defence in the premiership.
I believe, dips in form aside (i.e. TV & Sagna) we have decent defensive players.
For me, we have a lack of (defensive) leaders on the pitch which is also a mystery given the number of international caps in our first team.
My sense is that Arsene likes his players to conduct themselves in a certain way and that those who are selected regularly are of a certain personality type. Szcz aside, what I very rarely see these days is a snarling, fist-clenched ‘shouter’ barking instructions at team mates when we’re under pressure a la Adams. Yesterday, Kyle Bartley was doing that. Was that one of the reasons that he was let go?
Just to add: we’ve only let in 3 more goals than Chelsea and City, who have the best defs in the league.
That’s despite having been to most of the country’s horror show away grounds. In fact, we have the joint best defensive record away from home,
I agree that there isn’t really a stand-out back line in the league this season, but I really don’t think we’re all that far off the pace in this area.
TS, I subscribe to those emails too but they have that pesky “maybe rearranged due to tv selections” disclaimers. But following the Holic’s advice I have now rearranged my trip so I’ll stay from Saturday until Thursday so I’ll be there for both City and the cup game. I’ll be working from my hotel room Mon-Wed so I won’t even have to take any days off work which is quite brilliant.
N7, that’s not true.
We have 7 clean sheets this season.
Stoke is top with 9. Chelsea, Liverpool, and City have 8. United have 5.
As for our attacking movement – I’ve wrote what I think about it in the previous post.
I for one was thrilled to see our attacking play in the second half yesterday. We looked fluent.
I felt like we were United pressing on for an equalizer/a winner with ten minutes to go at Old Trafford and everybody knew we’d get it. Piling on the pressure.
Splendid Lars. Will be in touch…
SG @ 122
Good shout re: the clean sheets – I’d not spotted that.
I think there’s a certain negative perception about our defence, both amongst the support and the media, that’s built up over the last 8 years or so as the quality of our back line has declined.
We’re now showing signs of improvement, but it’s taking a while for it to register. We all still expect them to ship at any given moment.
Every time I look at the actual defensive stats and then compare and contrast them with both the posts on here/other blogs I find myself surprised by the gap.
I should add that I was also surprised to note that we’ve only lost one more league game than Man Utd so far this season.
What’s killing us right now is all the draws. We need to start turning those into wins ASAP.
Stats leave me cold.
We all still expect them to ship at any given moment.
Precisely.
And this zonal marking shit isn’t helping.
TS, both the BFG and Sir Ches do their fair bit of shouting and fist-clenching, particularlty the Pole in the goal.
And I generally speaking tend to agree with N7, we are not too shabby in defense after all (let’s not forget that almost half the league games were played with Mannone in goal) but it is also the nature of the goals we concede and at what points. The goal yesterday was entirely preventable, and I must say Arteta really didn’t impress in his attempt (if it can even be called that) to block the shot. We are the team that have blocked the least amount of shots, and this is something we really need to improve.
…. but the truth is, in the league, we don’t ship all that often compared to other teams, including Yanited.
Their second yesterday was primarily down to Podolski’s header and Arteta not bothering to close-down Graham.
Many prem teams mark zonally at set pieces.
N7, although we’ve conceded less this season I wrote how I feel we were better off last season both defensively and offensively.
I remember how confident we all were when we won 7 straight with Sagna, Kos, TV, and Gibbs as our back four. We were extremely comfortable, and a lot of that came down to how we press.
We pressed that way in the second half yesterday and weren’t under any danger.
The first goal was a classic example of how to break down pressing high up the pitch – break the first line of pressure and you’re in on goal.
We should change our way of defending, not our personnel.
In my opinion of course.
When I find enough time, I would like to calculate what percentage of our goals conceded this season have been due to blatant individual/collective defensive errors. My guess would be around 80%. That’s the problem.
I would like to see what our first choice back 5 could do with a specialist DM sat in front of them.
As much as I love Arteta, I think it would make a world of difference.
Lars, our posts crossed (heh!).
Yep, I did acknowledge Szcz shouting, most (all?) keepers do that. His presence over Don Vito’s has a big impact on the team, I’m sure.
It looks like we agree on Arteta’s poor closing down for their second too. It’s far too easy to point the finger, isn’t it? π
Good point N7!
Over to you Arsene (spend SOME f’in money please).
Uncle C, aren’t most goals conceded due to an opposition player capitalizing on a (defensive) error?
N7, I agree wholeheartedly.
Either a DM, moving Arteta to his role of last season, moving Jack to the #10 role, and Santi to the wing.
Or Arteta in his position of this year, Diaby/signing in his role, Jack in #10 role, and Santi on the wing.
I have a feeling it would make a HUGE difference.
No, TS, they are not. At least not as explicitly as ours.
Snir
I think you’re right. It’s more important to change how we defend as a team rather than who defends.
Hoping for Diaby to make a long-term return, however….
OK Uncle C, we’re going to have to agree to disagree on that one.
Iβve a neighbour whoβs a generation older than me and has been a lifelong Gooner. In the dark days before cheap flights somewhat liberated this Island making it easier and affordable for people to travel, he used to attend weekend games in Highbury by getting a bus on a Friday evening and travelling on an overnight ferry to London for the afternoon kickoff on Saturday. Another Bus / Ferry back again on the Sunday meant heβd usually have to take a days holidays to get the Monday off. A story many on here will be familiar with no doubt.
Today, you can have every goal downloaded onto your i-phone nano seconds after its scored and have a digital βreal-timeβ experience as the game develops whether you live in Tokyo, Scotland, Sweden, Americaβ¦β¦.Craggy Island.
Does the digital fan really want to watch Kos intercept a goal chance with a perfectly timed sliding tackleβ¦β¦β¦β¦β¦?
Is this what is championed by FIFA PS3..?
In preference to say watching Shrek doing a bicycle kick?
Or even worse, Nani showboating some acrobatic step oversβ¦β¦β¦β¦.?
I believe, the on-line digital world of video games and instant gratification has fundamentally changed the way the game has evolved and indeed, changed us all as people and as fans.
Its no longer acceptable to βjust winβ. Now itβs got to be entertaining as well.
Which is why, if we take Real as an example, they fired Vicente Del Bosque after he won every trophy on offer, in favour for an unknown other, because he hadnβt won βthe RM wayβ. In the same way I think Mourinho will fail there too, irrespective of what he wins.
Chelski have completely changed their set up, now seeking to become an entertaining side, despite winning trophies over the past few years playing in a defensive format.
And Barca, the team everyone wants to emulate and arguably one of the finest, if not the finest team thatβs ever been, are generally seen are the benchmark. Are they good defensively? I donβt rate any of their defenders above ours per se, but weβd all like to see their collective work ethic replicated at AFC.
So what does this say about AFC to address your question Zico in relation to our defense?
Our general defensive play over the past 7/8 years has been brutal. If it was even remotely better, weβd have more trophies to show for it because there were times during this drought that we produced some of the finest attacking football ever seen in the PL. And Wenger has to take full responsibility for the defensive shortcomings.
Are things right now? No, certainly not. Has there been improvement? Yes, I really do think so and would have no qualms about saying differently if I felt it was still being neglected.
I disagree with you on Gibbs Zico. I think heβs a better player both offensively and defensively. And Corp Jenks is practically unrecognizable so profound is his improvement. I think the emergence of Schesny has made a big difference to the defense and it provides us with more assurance than any of the hapless others have given us. We now employ a zonal marking system and defend a high line re-introducing the offside trap to our game. Our full backs don’t go carelessly forward as much as before and we retain some semblance of shape as a result. If you say, that Zonal marking doesnβt work, then I would contend that weβve been employing the contrary system of man to man marking over the past 7/8 years and this has hardly yielded results has it? It’s far from perfect, but it will take time and Nigel Winterburn has said the same thing recently in interviews having had discussions with Bould and referencing the number of monotonous hours they spent on the training ground drilling that sense of discipline.
Our problems of late have had more to do with a lack of creativity and penetration going forward. Itβs an entirely new team if you look at the changes that have been implemented over the past couple of years. There have been other changes too I feel. Our wage policy is currently being changed and thereβs a greater inclination to build a backbone of home grown players to foster club loyalty rather than just loose players to a higher pay packet year in, year out. It’ll be interesting…….
We used to be just like Swansea wouldn’t lie down without a fight that was a long time ago.It doesn’t matter what game we play we’ll always be going back to the start with this excuse for a manager.
That’s a great comment Joe.
If I could add one more thing I’ve noticed about the modern, “digital” fan: they’ve realised that it’s a lot easier to have a negative opinion about football than a positive one.
People who know very little about the game can make themselves feel relatively expert by simply slagging off a player or two as “not good enough”.
It’s the M.O of fuckwits like Piers Morgan, who will rattle on for hours about how Ramsey is crap, Giroud is a flop, etc etc, but will never in their entire lives make a useful/original observation about the game, or engage in the sort of analysis seen in abundance above. Actually getting to grips with what’s going on out on the pitch.
At most, you might hear whatever a bland regurgitation of something Hansen or Neville said over the weekend, but that’s your lot. Beyond that, it’s just “this guy’s shit”, “that guy’s not good enough” and “if I were running the club we’d be champions every year”.
I’ll take a “we need width” over “our wingers are just all shit” any day of the week.
This board is blessed with quite a few regular posters who go the extra mile and regularly demonstrate that they love football and Arsenal. Love it enough to watch properly and think a bit about what’s going on. Some of them back the current manager, some would like him out, many others are somewhere in between, but it’s what keeps me coming back here month after month (despite the occasional outbreaks of punnery).
Drinks all round on my tab, gents. And cheers to ‘holic too for the running of the place.
Joe, knows!
And N7, also knows.
Joe. All good points. As to your last one, with the backbone of homegrown players, we always hear about players pulling higher wages because they are British, so if our wage policy is being changed at the same time as we are going with a British backbone, then I would think part of the change must be to accomodate the higher market value of British players.
Just noticed Podolski has ten goals and more than five assists, anyone remember when i said he’s quietly efficient and can be anonymous in a good way?
Zico. My comment was a tad tongue in cheek. I agree re both full backs and centre backs. I have said before that I think the problems could lay with the balance of the side. Others have mentioned it and I would agree that our midfield on a whole do not cover themselves in glory when it comes to defensive duties.
Word N7
I’m more tolerant of Osama’s Arsenal roots than Piers’.
Defending is an art in it’s self but every player has to do there bit,watching gibbs getting sucked in to the middle game after game is embarrassing,no help from the man in front of him Ramsey or pod,centre mid at times look like the only thing they like to do is pretty stuff,It takes time I understand but most of it is basics.I never slag off individual players or the boss but the book stops with him regards team defending/attacking,edge of the seat stuff watching us never comfortable even with a lead.I’d settle for a bit more guile and a pot or two at the expense of our technically gifted football,after all the Graham football wasn’t great to watch but v effective and you always felt like they wouldn’t surrender a goal or two lead.
Sigh. I missed Amy last nite π Arghhhhhh ! You know it’s a bummer for me cause I always have to go to work after we play and I miss out on all the fun here π Just caught up on all the drinks. I thought Ramsey was pretty darn good and took a lot of stick from the Swans ! π Kieran was so energetic and engrossed in his forward play; he had one chance in front of goal, where he passed the ball. Want him to shoot next time ! π So many good point made by you holics, but I must hit the sack π 8ball, your observation from last set of drinks @425, interesting!!! Will post more of my thoughts on what you all said, tomorrow π And Geoff thanks!
Joe,
Always a pleasure to read your posts.
Have to agree to disagree on Gibbs as a defender – I see too many mistakes – the only thing he has in his favour is he is still young.
Jenkinson has been a revelation, I agree (strange that he has turned invisible since he signed that new contract).
Anyway, getting back to the thrust of your argument – I want improvement and I want it now! π
A very patchy back drink, in haste, due to a malfunctioning router at home – again !
N7 – great stuff @141 and other Good stuff from the usual suspects.
I have to say I’m with Zico on the current state of our defence, despite a very long and thoughtful piece from Joe @139.
I take your points Joe, that most, if not all, of the individual defensive positions have been strengthened over the last two or three years.
That just makes it all the more perplexing and frustrating for me, that the security of our defence, overall, has not improved.
For example, Michu managed to smuggle the ball a long way, between two defenders and past the keeper, for his goal on Sunday.
Their second was the result of more Keystone Cops defending from a couple of set pieces.
I have said here, before, that our full backs rarely stop crosses being delivered into the box, and are positionally exposed by the lack of help they recieve from the midfielders – all aspects of defending.
Sadly, Bacary Sagna’s injuries seem to have caught up with him – let’s hope there’s a temporary problem with him that we don’t knoe about – and Kieron Gibbs, while a decent attacking left midfielder, is no natural defender.
In the home league match against Swansea, Michu, again, – shouldn’t alarm bells have been ringing – scored twice as the result of calamitous defending – failed offside traps, ball watching and lack of cover.
Sorry, the players, individually, do look better. I like Mertesacker and Koscielny especially, but collectively we look no more secure than four years ago.
Abb, Kieron scored ! π
Cent @145,
No I don’t, but he is !
He has also had to do a lot of defensive work which he didn’t have to do in Germany, and in less than his favourite position, which probably accounts for the fatigue which generally sees him substituted at 70 minutes.
Shouldn’t you be teaching ?!? π
Certainly Arteta had to make the effort to close down the Graham shot, but since when is your nominal DM supposed to be the one manning the far post? If he were a proper DM, he’d be in the mix with the CBs, FBs and striker in the box defending the corner.
Points out that Arteta is manfully taking on a DM role that he’s not well suited for as a regular diet, just as many other Arsenal players, currently and in the near past, have been slotted into places/roles that don’t suit them. We need that physical, defense-first DM to allow Arteta to provide the quality that he provided last season and in all his Everton years in the role that plays to his talents. This would also allow needed rotation among the “creative” midfielders (JW, Santi, Rosicky, Arteta).
Exactly!
If we’re going to buy sausages, let’s have nice big beefy – not too porky – sausagy sausages, that are meant to be sausages.
Not some kind of “king rib” sausage that has to double up as a ham sandwich every other week and spend most of it’s time trying to be a rasher of bacon.
No, sizzling specialist sausages are what we need, that know their place in the pan.
I saw the bare minimum of yesterdays game, not nearly enough to fashion any kind of reasonably informed opinion. Here in the Lowlands the F.A Cup used to be a big enough a deal that you would be able to catch a game or at least a highlight package here or there, no longer is this the case, A total blackout, a dessert of nothingness, no footy on TV, aaaarggh.
Not that it really mattered, Saturday my time was fully booked and Sunday, at the same time the second half was about to commence I had a reservation for a thirty man dinner party. I ofcourse couldn’t completly ignore the fact that the Arsenal were on, so a streaming I went using Eandy’s link on previous and managed to find a pretty decent link on Al Jeezer, crap comentry, but smooth images. When t6he party arrived, three quarters of an hour early, that was the end of viewing for me. One of the younger members of the group, a very football knowledgable, I’m guessing 12 year old, noticed the laptop and bogarded it, completly enthraled in the game and given me up to the minute updates, he was good at it too, just couldn’t tell the difference between Gibbs and Walcott, but I’ll forgive him for that as he could let me know when anything of real note happened and time willing I got to see the replays. That was some goal by
WalcottGibbs, wasn’t it?A replay is maybe not the best scenario in this busy month, but it beats the hell out of being out. Not the end of the world and we march on.
COYG’s.
Back drinky time……………….
Trev knows his sausages.
Great stuff Joe @ #139
I don’t agree with all the points you make but it’s an excellent post nonetheless.
I fundamentally agree with the basic point that we need to re-learn how to score more than we concede. That is how Manure are likely to win the league this year.
Our back five is no worse than theirs in fact I would argue that its better. However, their attacking play is irresistible far more regularly than ours.
Trev,
Excellent point about Poldi and his failure to complete a full 90 minutes. He is playing in a position that requires a lot more running and back tracking than he is used to.
Gibbs and Sagna relentlessly run the flanks in our system. Our system continually puts them out of position. That’s one problem. The other is this team does not block shots very well. We turn our backs and tend to make ourselves ” small” when a shot is taken. Both of these can be better with coaching and team defending.
Mert made a mistake on the first goal but I am shocked it hasn’t happend more frequently. We play a relative high line and his positioning is usually better to compensate for his slow turning. It’s actually a comment on his usual good positioning that this was a one off.
TS, Joe: the inability to create chances on our off-days is indeed our Achilles heel. We don’t get ripped to shreds defensively any more or less than the other top teams.
NorCal
All attacking fullbacks, not just ours, have to relentlessly run the flanks in order to fulfill the attacking side of their game. It’s one of those roles that call for a so-called ‘great engine’. See how even TV5 struggles with this when he fills in as a LB and you wouldn’t call him un-fit.
I beleive our issue is often the lack of cover provided by their team-mates and, as Trev correctly bangs-on, their lack of positional sense.
NBN
That’s how I see it. We tightened up a notch in the back only to take a step backwards in our attacking creativity.
Given our current first choice MF of Jack, Santi and Arteta that’s a real mystery to me.
I’m not certain but pretty sure Arsenal conceded few if any goals from set pieces early in the season when Diaby was healthy. They then conceded two against Chelsea the game he went off injured. Such is the drop off when your midfield three are all really short (Jack, Santi, TR) or just not good in the air (Arteta). I guess that is just a long winded way of saying “F*** you Dan Smith!”
Cent – Apology accepted and thank you for clearing that up π
I have two main thoughts on why the midfield three isn’t working (beyond the now commonplace “they’re too similar”):
(i) Arteta isn’t an out and out holding midfielder. He does the job well and has been a tremendous pro about it, but it’s not in his blood. This manifests itself in two ways: he sometimes sits deeper than he should, and the other two midfielders come deeper to compensate. This results in Jack and Santi receiving the ball too far from goal to do any real damage.
(ii) I’m not convinced by Santi as the tip of the spear. Convinced by him as a player, of course – he’s wonderful. But I just don’t know if his greatest strength is that killer final ball. I actually think Jack may be more penetrative than him (ooh-er) already. He’s also clearly tired and in need of a break. I’d like to see him given a week off at some stage and also tried in another position or two to see if we can get a bit more out of him.
A signing is clearly badly needed in this area because the manager can’t draw on Diaby (or, seemingly, the Little Mozart), and appears unwilling to give more than token game time to Le Coq. He’s therefore unable to shuffle his deck and is instead playing the same three week in, week out, in the hope that they eventually click.
Looking at the cold, hard facts, we’re not shipping that many goals and what is arguably our first choice front three (Poldi, OG, Theo) have a hatful of goals and assists between them. Yet we’re still painful to watch at times because the engine room is all out of whack.
It really shouldn’t be that hard to sort. I’ve paid a bit more attention to Capoue this season, on Snir’s recommendation, and he looks a good player to me who could do a job for us at a reasonable price.
Also, and I know he isn’t a holding mid, but I think we will rue our failure to pick up Dembele this summer. If, god forbid, the LWC’s somehow manage to finish ahead of us, it will be Dembele who will have made the difference – they seem to win whenever he plays and he looks the sort of player (physical, direct) that we could do with. I have no idea why we weren’t in for him, but I would guess that it’s Diaby-related.
What an upside down world. ESPN have apologised for their commentator calling Suarez a cheat (when they should have supported him) while Liverpoo’s manager supports his player (when he should be reprimanding him).
Seems bizarre to apologise for calling Suarez a cheat.
I don’t particularly dislike the player, but it seems completely self-evident, and perhaps even objectively verifiable, that he is a cheat. We often hear his antics justified on the basis of his culture, which is perhaps fair enough, but clearly, to anyone with eyes, the man dives, stamps, handballs and does whatever else it takes to win.
Between this and monkey-chops hitting out at the refs for having the temerity to repeatedly book him for diving, I’m starting to wonder if the world has gone mad.
We seem to have become adept at turning the perpetrator into the victim. An art perfected by John Terry.
Re: TS @158. Trev seems to know his sausages in a broad, general sense, but does he really know his sausage content?
N7 @ #166 – Also good stuff. So what do you see as our priority in the TW? Striker? Attacking/creative MF? DM?
I believe so 8ball and it’s ofally good.
N7@168: I could not agree more. And I think this is an extension of the “winning at all costs is all that matters” attitude that I am getting increasingly sick of. When the hell did it become a virtue to be disrespectful, to lie and cheat and just being a massive cunt in general just because you have “the desire to win”? Just look at the way the MOTD pundits laughed off Alex Ferguson ranting away at the ref, the fourth official and then the linesman the other week and then excused him with “it’s just a manifestation of his will to win”. I mean… seriously.
TS @170
I think the absolute priority for the window is a physical midfielder. Either to play out and out holding role, or as a Diaby replacement. That seems imperative to me for the reasons outlined above.
After that, there are two positions I think we should look to strengthen: a left back to replace Santos and rotate with Gibbs (at the moment we are a Gibbs injury away from a very scary scenario indeed); and then probably someone for the left wing so that we can rotate Poldi and even give him some time in the centre. It’s in this latter context that David Villa makes some degree of sense, if the price is right.
To me, OG, Theo and Podolski looks a reasonable range of forward options. But we need that extra player on the left wing to give ourselves the option of releasing Podolski into the middle (and it ain’t 5head, for so many reasons). It also gives us the opportunity to add someone to the squad who can actually cross a ball, which would be a huge advance for us.
Beyond that, we’re into the realm of wishes and fantasy. I can see why we’re looking at French lad who can play CB/RB, as Sagna’s apparent deterioration is a worry. I would hope that between Santi, Jack and Rosicky we have enough attacking midfield options to get us to the summer, when better players are likely to become available.
Having said that, if it was me calling the shots, and I really did have the fabled Β£70m at my disposal, I think I would probably bid for Fellaini. Predictable, I know, but I think it would make sense: he’s the right age (23?) and will presumably improve further and add value, he has the size and strength we sometimes lack, he can play multiple positions, even bidding for him would weaken Everton (who, like it or not, are a rival club right now) and I just wonder whether with Chelsea having bought Ba we might find ourselves the only serious takers in this window. Most of all, if we could pull it off, he’d be the kind of marquee signing that would energise the whole club, rally the support and send a signal that we’re on the up again.
I know it’s not going to happen in a million years, but I can’t help thinking that it’s what the Arsenal of 15 years ago would have done.
If I had to make a prediction about what Arsene will do, I’d say we’ll end up signing Mapou Yanga-M’Biwa and either David Villa or someone vaguely similar.
Missed this one due to the fact I was stck on a Volcano ( Mt Ruapehu,since you ask). The ajacent Volcano was smoking in a rather worrying manner. Highlights reveal that our defending was at its worrying worst as well. Off to Sydney wih the good lady wife for a few days, so will have to set the alarm for a different kick off time. BTm’s optimism and enthusiasm a lesson in staunch support. Hats off, sir! If only I could find a pair of those rose tinted glasses! not expecting any recruits until 11.59pm on the last day of the window,if at all. Super,super quality is just around the corner……
Lars @172
That’s spot on.
I find it sickening that the same pundits who castigated Cazorla, who has never been booked for diving in his whole career, line up to snigger at Ferguson’s regular bullying of the officials, which has gone on, unchecked and in plain sight, for years now.
I cannot understand the hubbub over diving when you have the most high profile manager in the entire country attempting to gain leverage over the officials in the most flagrant manner, and clearly no one gives a t0ss about it.
I certainly know which I think is worse.
I also enjoyed the clear implied threat to Pardew: “He’s forgotten everything I’ve done to help him”.
One of the few bonuses of not being in direct competition with Man Utd these days is that all of the above is not so much our problem these days, but it’s still galling to watch.
Oop – just double checked and Fellaini turned 25 a couple of months back. Still the right sort of age though.
Think you pretty much covered it N7. I was already a huge fan of Fellaini and would have been happy if the club spent 20m on him last summer to rotate with Diaby (ie play pretty much every game), but after that headbut on Shawcross I think they should empty the coffers for him. I’m talking Wenger walking into Moyes’ office and sliding a blank piece of paper across the table to him.
N7,
If we add a DM to our midfield I think we can add Santi to the list if wide players. A little guile and crossing ability out wide would do us some good. TR7 and Diaby can add to the mix in the midfield along with jack , Arteta and the new DM.
An out and out striker would be nice. Someone who can get that goal when things are not clicking but I am not sure Villa is still that guy and not sure there is one available without going after a cavani or Falcao.
Cheers
I think the most exciting thing about Fellaini would be that it would concrete our intention to move away from over-reliance on a short-passing game, to a more fluid system that makes room for the pace of Walcott, the directness of the Ox, the technical abilities of JW and the willingness to sling heavily cushioned headbutts around the place of Fellaini.
What a prospect. Sign me up.
I meant headbutt as opposed to the more apprehensive version of it called a headbut.
Good shout Norcal.
I wonder how much Gnabry factors into Wenger’s thinking re: a new left winger. If the whispers are to be believed, the club have high hopes for the lad and it would be very un-Arsene-ish to buy in a 23/24 year old to block his development.
Again, this might make sense of the Villa rumours.
Joe @82; Sorry I missed you. I just crashed before your post.
Sorry also to hear you can’t get Benromach in Dublin. It’s a relatively small distillery and may not be exporting in large volumes though it’s begun to appear in airports, at least in Scotland. Might be worth a check if you are passing through any UK airports.
Now Dalmore, that’s a very classy drink – and a wonderful gift. They have a very very classy tasting room at the Distillery outside Alness in Easter Ross. You have to make an appointment for the tour if you’re ever up there. Well worth a visit.
Mortlach I have tasted on a single occasion, but have no memory of it as I kept tasting and tasting and tasting……. π By inference, I think I liked it a lot. Must revisit that cratur.
Yes Fellani is the best of all worlds. Can play as a DM and also push forward and get you a goal. Very versatile. And the nice thing is he wouldn’t be playing ” out of position” in either role.
I’m just not seeing Moyes giving him to us though.
N7 – I have to say I agree with everything you wrote.
Especially with putting JW as the tip of the spear. I’ve been banging on about JW being the perfect #10 ever since we sold Cesc.
Santi needs to go out wide.
Agree with both your posts NorCal @183 (esp the bottom line) and Snir @184. 100%. Fellaini is exactly what we need (though according to my Toffee pals he’s been “crap until this season”) and LJW is far more incisive and directed as a “10” than Santi.
Evening Bath,
I try to get to Scotland every few years for a weekend away with the lads which invariably involves a few rounds of Golf, a couple of Munro’s and a distillery or three……. Next time I’m over I’ll be checking out that tasting room for Dalmore so I appreciate the heads up..!
Afraid I can’t get the Benromach at all over here. Turns out its not sourced by my supplier in Dublin and having had a look at their website, there’s no appointed supplier over here. Pity. I will keep my eyes peeled for it when Im travelling again.
The Mortlach was my little find of the year in 2012. The 16 yr old is so smooth and has such a lovely sweetness to it – that it represents great value for its price. Its owned by John Walker distilleries and is one of the primary whiskies used to blend JW Black label. Seems a shame really – as the only thing I’d be inclined to blend it with would be a wee drop of water..!
Joe
Dalmore, Glenmorangie, the Singleton of Glen Ord and Clynelish are well located for the links courses around Inverness and Easter Ross. My golfing friends seem to like Dornoch (nice town too).
Munro-bagger Baff?
Going on Sunday? Let me tell you about a riotous weekend round the Glenshiel ridge in the Tollie….. 8)
Oh, wrong Munro-bagger.
Oops. π³
Drinks on me tell, that we wont get anyone before City.
http://goonertalk.com/2013/01/07/why-wilshere/
Loved it.
N7 @ #173
That’s a helluva shopping list, I like it a lot. I’d have Fellaini in a heartbeat too but my family name is not Wenger.
Hopefully, one or two quality signings is realistic. Plus maybe the contract renewal of Theo?
The only area not discussed is a keeper. I think we need a decent and experienced back-up for Szcz who will push him for his place and who will command the defence in a way that none of our existing options can. The sort of age experience combo that the LWCs have should work well. It’s the one area in their squad where they’re ahead of us, IMO only.
Zico@189
Not me. Hills are for skiing down not plodding up. π
Like the blushing zico. π
Question: If we offered Fellaini Chamakh’s + Djourou’s wages and a bronze statue outside the Ems of him loafing Sh*cr*ss, would he join?
TS @171. π
Re: Fellaini. He may be already past his best hair days.
Nice link Snir @ 191; nice idea TS @194.
Pings ball into midfield and runs up wing.
Calls for ball from the opposite wing, playing the decoy.
Returns the ball out wide
heads in !
Lurks
Fires at goal from ridiculous angle.
@ #195 – That’s what wigs are for.
@ #196 – One can but dream….
Sajit to face disciplinary committee?
One for the dubious goals committee surely? Well in H2H
Physically difficult that one Sajit π
I mean the autoassist subcommittee. π
Oooooh, I demand a recount.
Sajit, Suarezed it in. π
Haha..
I didnt know whether I was in assist-space or shoot-space.. Argh.. Caught in two minds like Chamakh’s 4 celled, gelled brain.
It was hand to keypad H2H. Let’s defend his behaviour.
Self-assisting makes you go blind Sajit. Did yer ma not tell ya? π
Hehs.
Messi wins the Ballon D’or. Fourth time in a row.
Oh to be a fly on the wall at Ronaldo’s house. I bet it’s put him right off his daily eyebrow sculpting.
Poor Luis Suajit. He clearly had no intention of self assisting.
It was a hand ball but not deliberate. It was just coincidence that he was swinging his arm at the keyboard!!!
Red cards myself for a 3 match ban.
We will appeal it cause your not that kind of cheat. It’s part of your culture.
Sajit Suarez, that’s a yellow card…
The man up top has spoken.
If only the FA were so consequential. π
Holic issues the sentence to Sajit:
http://restlesspilgrim.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/moses.jpg
Good evening, all.
Too many great posts above, i enjoyed everyone of them.
Trev @154, heh, i was supposed to be teaching but i’m in a part of the world where students are begged to come to school and today been the first official day of school here means most students will pratically start preparing to resume school to next week.
Replay to be shown on ESPN.
More drinking down The Elizabethan. On a school night.
The things I do for the love of Arsenal….. 8)
Fair appraisal ‘holic and an encouraging performance against a genuine “bogey” side.
If the same attacking performance as in the 2nd half is repeated in most of our matches for the remainder of the season, we’ll turn a fair number of them in our favour. So long as the “keystone copping” in defence is addressed with a modicum of purpose and please ditch that feckin’ Zonal Marking bollox! When did a piece of grass score a feckin’ goal?! Lets start with those Mercenary cunts this weekend!
Regarding Lionel Messi winning the Ballon D’or, fair play to him; he is certainly one of the greatest ever. However, for him to be considered “the greatest of all time” (because for me, Diego Maradona still holds that undisputed mantel) he still has to do two things in my mind:
1. Win a World Cup. That should actually be quite easy as he has a far more decent international side than Maradona had during his time.
2. Do what he has been doing at Barcelona and in La Liga at another club and in another competitive league.
Only once he has achieved these two milestones, can he truly be considered the greatest player of all time. Ronaldo can still attain that mantel if he wins a major international trophy with Portugal as he’s already done it both in the EPL and in La Liga. Whilst our very own TH14 has the full set of milestones! How’d you like them apples?! π
http://www.taytocrisps.ie/park/
howdy ‘holic and ‘holics
whether there are huge savoury slides down which a savoury slide can be had – i’m not sure
but it’s an indication that -as i mentioned a while ago – we take cheese and onion crisps very seriously round these parts
not that you’d want crisps round your parts
maybe you would – who knows – i’m not judgemental – each to their own – well – you wouldn’t share would ye
anyhoo
i’d avoid the salt and vinegar slide – the inevitable chafing would make a paper cut seem like bollocks – and your bollocks seem like
so
hello again all and apologies for the pointless ramble
i’m hopped up on crisps
π
In America, cba, you’d have had your chips….
they say toe-may-toe
i say tay-toe
I’m not going toe – tay – toe with you on that one…
π
i smiled wide at that one zico
and that doesn’t happen everyday
i’m a right miserable so-and-so
Did someone push the American button?
Here I am.
π
I was kind of trying to summon Ivana π
not me
i pushed bugger all
it was like that when i got here
*backs out of bar to the sound of his own crispy munches*
cba. Watch those crisps. They can be addictive.
Zico, Cba.
Ha
Ivana is summoned more by rubbing than pushing. π
Chips= crisps
Fries= chips
Umbrella= brollie
Simian= Bale
Cheat = Suarez
English is a tough language.
NorCal.
Elevator = lift
Garbage = rubbish
Election promisses = barefaced lies.
It’s not that difficult.
cba.
You’se lot gotta a theme park dedicatated to a crisp?
Briliant!!! Fuck Disney and their dirty rodent.
As for Messi wining the balloon thingy, well, I’ve got no problem with that, but WTF is he wearing? :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20937775
Tragic.
H2H
we’re a proud warrior nation with a notion for snacks
.
I AM CAN’T BE ARSED – HEAR ME R-O-A-A-A-A … . . . .
–
cheese doodle anyone ?
Zico,
Quit rubbing that button, Ivana is busy. π
H2H,
Bipartisan = screwed by both sides
Or is that just an American thing?
H2H – you anywhere near Hengelo / Enschede?
Going to be in clog-land beginning of March.
PS – NorCal – I wasn’t rubbing – I was prodding.
Goddamn touch screens….. π
No, NorCal, that’s a worldwide thing.
===
Heh cba, I’ll have a cheese doodle. cheers.
Over here in the lands of Low, after years of bitchin'(mainly by me) they are finally starting to see the value of a good crisp. I’ve had to put up with weak arse cheese and onion and the only other flavours they had was Paprica or the recently added Bolog-feckin’- nesse, yuck. Now the market has finally grown with the influx of hand made crisps from various companys., After decades I’ve finally got me mitts on a semi decent Salt and Vinegar, bliss.
prodding
get a lotta that here
obsessed with their flags they are
much so recently
compensating for something else i’m guessin
i couldn’t possibly comment
Does anyone else think its weird that the ” team of the year award” had 10 stiffs from either Barca or Real Madrid and Falcao? Does only la liga get to vote?
No one out of Spain is top class?
a good crisp is a joy to one and all H2H
i understand your elation
Zico, not really.
Hengelo – Enschede is in the East, I’m in the North West.
http://www.aa-nederland.nl/images/groepen/nederland19.gif
You’ll be at an eastern point of Overijssel and I’m at one of the most Northern points of Noord-Holland, I’d say approx 200km apart. Not that far for some, but in Holland that’s considered a great distance. π
Not only that NorCal, but on the awards telecast Blatter nearly delivered a verbal love letter to Del Bosque, who mysteriously won the manager of the year award. Those Spaniards must have been dishing out free tapas to the voters. I certainly wouldn’t put it past them to dish out a few other freebies either, if you know what I mean. I hope so, because I don’t!
H2H. Is there no extra charge for the colored map?
H2H, not quite close enough to nip in for a pint then.
Happy Train has no compass, moral or otherwise π
cba @ 241 heh
Yippee.!!
Rebus is back,and so is Logan Mcrae.!!
Happy days are here again.!!
Heh, not that I know of 8Ball.
==
Indeed Z, it’s not exactly on the corner, but if you’re in the region of the capital, let me know.
Only if Interpol catch me π
i’m in a really bad place just now
slap bang between a 24 pack of meaty feast crisps and a 12 pack of beer
its a 8/21 spread at the minute but it may change
Cba…you bought back some good memories for me…back in the days when I worked for living, an Irish colleague regularly “forced” me into an Irish pub in Brentford, not only did they sell proper Irish Guinness and not the inferior stuff from Park Royal but even better Irish Murphys (not the Whitbread brewed stuff). The piece de resistance was of course Taytoes….best ever crisps in the whole wide world. Happy days!
please stop this talk
It reminds me of the local Irish pub here which ran out of of Guiness on a slow week before Xmas
andCog
.
much like chinese food in china
etc
perhaps some such
and what have you
perchance
or maybe
i think you’ll find
not
Uplympian
frequented many’s the bar in london
lived in the home of football for years
avoided all and every irish bar
however
one sunday afternoon
still aghast at what was occurring on a low stage to my right
a wee irish barmaid – when herself was going round with a pint pot – gave me the strippers coat and whatevers and said to her that i’d look after her gettin a taxi cos she must be in a hurry and its not the weather for hanging about and i had a good sturdy accent about me
she was fine by herself but i lied to the other herself that i saw her to a cab
happy naked times
Hmmm… all of a sudden a craving for Guiness has curioulsy just overtaken me!
na scoitear Homer
na scoitear
we’ll survive without you
There is not an hour of the day when a pint of plain would not improve things.
Evening cba, kindred spirit π
There is a T-shirt slogan for you, ‘Holic.
Headline on Prada: WE CAN ACHIEVE SOMETHING WITH THIS GROUP
The article starts with ‘as we’ll as competing for a top 4 finish.
How can anyone dispute we’re on the wane?
Oops, trigger happy, I’ll continue.
The implication is that competing for a top 4 place is a measure of achievement. Whoever allowed that to be published ought to lose their job immediately.
Rant over
Yes. Guiness all around.
I reckon it depends on what time line one is on with the group
This season; next season.
Such a statment is very open ended.
Cheers holics. Im off
Prada, Geoff? Or Pravda? Or is the club going into competition with ‘Holic for T-shirts with statement?
What think the brain trust of Lucas Biglia?
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/arsenal-consider-8m-biglia-to-add-muchneeded-midfield-steel-8441879.html
Brain trust?
*tumbleweed*
π
It’s ok for you lucky bastards with only one brain to worry about π
Consider the positives Andy: You’ll never be alone with schizophrenia..!
π
Nbn: Pravda! That’s what happens when you post in the wee small hours of the morning and you’re married to a label freak π
Got one of those eat and drink expos in Amsterdam today.
10 hours of alcohol and snack sampling.
It’s a dirty job………….;)
Very quiet in the bar today…
I missed that invite H2H π
Lars – That’s because I’m crying in the side booth after Sandra’s comments about Villa.
LOL. But seriously, I still don’t rule it out. I would expect nothing else from Barca as we’re probably in negotiations and there is no reason for them to say he’s available.
Do we really need to pay big money for a recently crocked 31 yo who hasn’t proved that he can still cut it at the top level?
We have had enough purchases of players whose talent has just evaporated for no good reason.
This guy doesn’t fit the bill for me.
bath – He’s not a crock. He’s had one serious injury in his entire life. He’s averaged more than 35 games a season up until 2011.
He’s started 6 games this season and scored 5 goals.
If that’s not proving I don’t know what it.
His problem is that he’s playing in a side where Messi and Iniesta play, and unfortunately for him, Pedro is one of Tito’s favorites.
Not to mention the fact that he doesn’t get along with Messi, which is like giving up on a Barca career.
He would instantly become the 2nd best striker in the PL, after the Dutchman.
He’s THAT good.
Bath,
Tend to agree. At his peak he would have been great but, as you say, he has not proven himself since the injury, and you have to wonder whether 31 years of age is the best time to try to do that, and in the Premier League.
Could easily turn into another Arshavin.
Oops, crossed posts with Snir.
I will await my Sn-ear bashing. π
Trev – He has proven himself. He’s just not getting games because he’s not Messi’s buddy (ask Ibra about what that does).
I find all this apprehension to buy Villa a bit weird.
If we woulda bid for Vidic, would you have had a problem with that? What about Arteta? What about Ibrahimovic?
He might be 31 but that doesn’t mean he’s useless.
Especially not as an Arsenal striker. If we go back to being Arsenal and bossing possession in the opponents’ half (like we showed signs of doing vs. Swansea), he doesn’t need to work as hard as a striker playing all on his own while his team hoofs him the ball hoping he’d create something on his own.
He is extremely clinical. Have him on the edge of the box and feed him.
Snir. Have him on the edge of the box? How does he get there? Place him there like a garden troll? π
http://t.co/TXtZde3P
This is too cute.
I tend to agree with Snir re: David Villa.
He’s been one of the best strikers in the world over the last 5 years and he’s played a fair few games since his injury.
My only note of caution concerns who we’d be buying him from. Barca clearly do not take us seriously as negotiatiors and, more importantly, do not need to sell (which is presumably what today’s statement is intended to remind us).
I think Villa would be a tremendous buy for Β£8m. I would be concerned if we broke the club’s transfer record for a 31 year old.
What I don’t want to see us do is wait until the back end of the window and then get bent over by Barca because it’s too late to follow up our interest in any other strikers.
N7 – Apparently they ruled out a loan, not a sale.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1292323/rosell-rules-villa-loan?cc=5901
That does change it.
Plus, player power is king in today’s world.
He can make the transfer happen.
Snir, I love the YouTube video…if only I could speak Norwegian..
And yes, David Villa for me will b one hell of a signing…a statement
Signing some may call it
Snir – that’s very interesting indeed. Here’s how the ever Arsenal-friendly Guardian have reported it:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/08/barcelona-arsenal-david-villa-denilson
“Rosell, however, maintains that the 31-year-old Villa, signed in a Β£31m deal from Valencia in 2010, is going nowhere. “I completely rule out the transfer of Villa during the winter market,” he said to the Catalan radio station RAC1. “He is ours and we need him, there is a lot of the season left.””
Hopefully ESPN are right. They’re generally more reliable.
Even so – http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11670/7930087/Malaga-play-down-Cazorla-talk
Remember?
Truth is just a recommendation in the football world. And rightly so. Don’t need to negotiate in the press.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, either way the Roselli comments suggest to me that something is going on.
It has the whiff of posturing about it – an attempt to drive up the price. Otherwise, if you really were intent on hanging onto him, why speak publicly about it at all?
I heard over the weekend that Barca-loanus actually still owe Arsenal cash for the Fabregas and Song deals. Someone even said for the Hleb deal too, but that seems stretching it.
Also heard the Fab deal was so sweet (first refusal, money from Barca when they sell him, and other add ons) that the club won’t touch those terms. But the Song deal: he was what, 20mil.? And as Barca is a financial nightmare they might indeed be interested. (also heard that Spanish parliment has repeatedly stepped in to save Barca from the laws of mathematics, credits/debits, and basic reality.)
If Barca still owes Arsenal a hunk for Song, and we really wanted DV, i’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to prize him out of there. Also, it strikes me that clubs (negotiators) who know how to negotiate: 1) don’t do it in the newspapers and 2) employ strategy and usually keep their true goals close to vest. So let’s not all get apopletic yet.
Off topic: that whole Song deal was so bizarre. If he wanted to go, and was being a twat about it, then I guess he has to go. But what on earth was that chuckle head thinking? And how badly is he damaging his future by never playing? Does anyone know if he’s going to the ACN?
I will now be told that these things are complicated, take time, there are many parties to satisfy, and probably that I am being impatient, etc. etc
However, these things are no more complicated in January than they would be in November or December.
If the need for a player has been established and there is a willingness, at least, to discuss a player, privately or otherwise, could this not be done so that, come 1st January said player is ready to walk through the door. With five games in thirteen days to negotiate, it would be handy to have new arrivals training with the squad, rather than scrambling over the line at midnight on 31st January.
Villa at Β£8 to Β£10 million may well be something worth doing. At Β£16 million and 31 years of age, I’m not so sure.
Homer,
The money for Hleb will probably dribble through slowly before disappearing up it’s own wallet. π
Trev knows.
Trev has never known.
Worst ITK ever. π
Zico knows “in the know”s.
Ha! Right on Trev.
Before i actually go back to doing real work, i was just wondering what ever happened to Ox?
Last season he was a good (but not as amazing as made out to be) impact sub. Ran at defenses, created general mayham around the box, which resulted in goals and chances as often as not. And he tracks[ed] back. Not perfect, but, didn’t feel like Sagna was exposed as often last term as he is now.
Loved the piece Holic
Frustrating is the best way to describe The Arsenal this season so far without a doubt.
“Life is like a box of choclates you never know what you gonna get”
It seems to be a bit of a lottery to which team turns up to every game. Who is to blame for such an inconsistant season ? Why is this happening ?
Will call off any witch hunt until I find someone to blame, this may take a while.
Watches the action from the subs bench
Hope David Villa comments are true. He will be yet another stop gap solution for our long term problems.
Now how much would Cavani cost? 30 mi? but here is a player, who will offer us resale value AND more importantly will be worth every single penny we spend on him.
N7 #284
I’m definitely switching to the AA now.
Exchanges a quick one-two with Barack. Nutmegs Sandro Roselli and fires a low ball across the six yard box.
It’s on a plate…
Homer @ 287 – Song isn’t going to the ACN as Cameroon didn’t qualify.
Cheeky lob?
BANG
Aargh, one minute too late..
I was there when Steve McMahon made a fool of himself with that one minute sign, best day of my Gooner life /)
Not even the tabs position π
Heh Geoff – thanks for cheering me up with that warm memory π
Stop gap?!? Are you for real???
Cavani has a lot to go to reach Villa’s level.
This is David Villa we’re talking about here fellas!!
He’s the best striker we could get apart from Falcao or the Dutchman.
Better than Lewandowski, Benzema, Higuain, Dzeko, Aguero, Gomez, etc.
You gotta be kidding me to think any of those are even close to his ability.
David Villa – 3rd best striker in the world Snir? Pfffffffffffffffffft!!
Is he your lover or something? π
Great stuff yesterday N7 – found myself nodding along to pretty much everything you said.
Don’t know about 3rd best in the world, but I would have D Villa in a heartbeat.
I mean, how much did we pay for Gervinho? And he is obviously super-quality….. π
I am massively in pro-Villa camp, his finishing is really superb and he still has reputation of being one of the best strikers in the world. Imagine what that makes to defenses of our opponents, focusing on him like they did last year with van Pigsty, opening a space for others, while he would still be able to score.
Just one thing kinda nudges in the back of my mind, how quick would he adapt to much more physical style of play in PL.
Not for Β£16m I wouldn’t, not on your nelly Dr Z. π
Yeah, but you’re tight π
I love this place. It’s January and apart from announcements that something will happen there has been no word about any transfer movements. Nothing from a “reliable” source, and certainly nothing official.
This hasn’t stopped the drinkers here forming a number of groups and discussing things quite warmly each other.
In one corner we have a group moaning that we won’t spend the, assumed to be, vast quantities of money that we haven’t yet made by selling players that we all describe as dead wood.
In another corner are a group who believe that we are about to sign David Villa, a player about whom I know little other than his name. This group is very much in favour of our signing Villa and thanks to them I now know that Villa is a very good player indeed.
Ranged opposite this group is one that also believes we’re about to sign Villa, but this lot are very much against the signing. Thanks to them, I know Villa is 31 and recently had a pretty bad injury.
Another corner is currently empty apart from the debris left by two groups who were discussing Marouane Fellaini with as much animation as the two David Villa groups today.
Don’t get me wrong, I love to see this kind of thing going on, and the high light/heat ratio in the discussion is a tribute to this bar, but, if you want me to take the prospect of Villa or Fellaini signing for the Arse seriously – and there’s no real reason why you should – then please, please can you cite a source for these rumours?
Barman, please put one behind the bar for any I have upset by any remarks above.
COYG
(Leaves the bar until later this evening.)
Snir,
I do admire your optimism and enthusiasm but I don’t think Villa is that high up the flag pole when it comes to world class strikers but having said that, I too would have him in a heartbeat, but only at the right price as Trev / Bath have alluded to. Almost all the other strikers you mention are not only much younger, but would come with big prices tags and wages.
And may I say, while all the speculation will undoubtedly surround whatever new striker we do sign, (assuming we find one of the, ahem, “right quality”), and the general level of bollox surrounding the re-signing of Theo, I feel that its gone somewhat under the radar just how important the recent deals we’ve done are. I would argue, that we’ve already signed the single most important player over the past few years and certainly the most important player over the next 5 years for the club: Jack Wiltshire. Unlike Theo, Im sure this guy could have walked into any other team in England and earned far more than what he’s currently being paid – but unlike Theo, he chose to just stay and not make such a song and dance about it in the process..! This guy just knows where he belongs..!
I wouldn’t go so far as to say third best in the world, but who would you rather have to put on when we’re chasing a goal – David Villa or Gervinho? I know who the opposition would fear more, that’s for sure.
And Oxon, do you really need any better source than Snir’s crystal balls? π
At least spell his name right, Joe π
Oh also if there are rumors of us signing Fellaini, I would take that player in a heartbeat too, but it seems highly unlikely we would sign him given his profile in PL and how important he is for Everton.
Deluded. Warped. No, I don’t mean those who are saying we should sign David Villa if the price is right. They are showing good judgment of the player’s abilities. But talk about a player showing bad judgment of a club’s achievements, that’s where Deluded and Warped barely begin to describe the bad judgment of Daniel Sturridge about Liverpool.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20948372
As someone here said the other day it’s a big window as it could be his last if he doesn’t get it right,no pressure then.
BREAKING NEWS………..BREAKING NEWS.
FIFA have just announced that Gareth Bale has just won this years Fallon D’Floor.
Just saying like.
π
@312 π
Steve T,
I believe Bale refused to accept his award for fear of getting an injury while reading his acceptance speech. ( papercut, I believe)
He did however want to thank all the witch hunting referees that clearly don’t understand what he is trying to accomplish. He is trying to add performance art to the sport of football. And hoping next Olympics will add a artistic component to its Football games.
He was also the winner of the Baboon D’Or but again refused acceptance for fear of the scientific community being alerted to his missing link heritage.
The Daily Mail and goal.com are apparently at least speculating that Walcott is going to sing a new contract with Arsenal.
http://football-talk.co.uk/72604/theo-walcott-set-to-sign-new-contract-with-arsenal-after-positive-talks/
Either sing or sign a new contract, don’t know which one.c
So Messi won the Ballon D’Or,
Ronaldo was runner up,
Gareth Bale was top of the chasing group in positions 3 – 10, otherwise known as the Prime-Eight group. π
If Walcott signs a new contract, knock on wood, will the behavioral psychologists be using Arsenal’s strategy as a model for contract negotiations, i.e. putting him on the bench for a few months, followed by giving him a string of appearances in his preferred position? A bit of the old stick and carrot approach, as it were. It looks like ESPN beat the others to the story:
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport/video_audio/187301.html?genre=1;sport=3
Good points wrt. David Villa, Snir..
However, as Ive said before my concern is that Villa is coming to the Premiership at a stage where it might be too late for him to adapt to its style of play / pace.
8ball,
AFC have learned well from Wolfie.
Put someone in their favoured position and use a carrot and stick. π
Trev,
It would have been a simian event if he did win. π
I have mentioned on here before,that i have never understood the need to stoop to calling Gareth Bale all the silly names like Chimp/Monkey/Simian etc.
All very childish.
I wonder whether the fact that he plays for the mob down the road has anything to do with it.
I happen to think he is a bloody good footballer,who i enjoy watching.
So what if he falls over regularly at a puff of wind.
I can think of a few at the Arse who would have given him a run for his money.
Bobby Pires for one,whose swan dives when an opposition player breathed on him,made even an old cove like me blush with shame.
Talking of heartbeats,Bale is one i would take in one of those.
He is to the Spuds now,what JW will become to the Arse in years to come,Indispensable.
Cheers
The Sweeper
Nah, Clive.
He’s just a chimp. Who can’t stay semi-upright. π
Hey Trev. Carrots and sticks? Maybe so but I have a feeling Wolfie is more a sausage kind of fellow. Actually, who am I to say? Maybe the answer is in the diary of his personal trainer. π
http://i43.tower.com/images/mm118059642/crossdressing-humiliation-student-nurse-jo-santana-paperback-cover-art.jpg
Clive. Very valid points as always. However, he is a diving chimp who peels bananas with his feet. There is no getting away from it.
And yes, you were spot on earlier. The next few weeks could be very expensive indeed. Well up for a run out to Brighton though. Blow the dust off the parka and chuck a few rockers in to the sea.
Zico/Stevie
Sense of humor still intact i see.!!
Bradford leading Villa 3-1,into injury time.
Christ we did well to draw up there.!!
@FourthOfficial_: Fellainiβs release clause is more towards Β£30million than the Β£22million being reported #efc
Well would you believe it…
Bradford 3 – 1 Villa!
Still can’t see Villa failing to win this over two legs though.
Fair enough Clive. It is childish. I’ve been called worse, probably today even. Enough Bale jokes from me.
How about that little team Bradford? First Wigan then us and now they took it to Villa. Well played.
Steve
Plenty of blood spilt on the Brighton seafront back in the day.!!
Those punters who lived in Brighton then,and are still their now,are still dining out on the stories today.
Although much embellished i am sure.
Hi Norcal
Never did commend you for your kindness towards Wind on your trip to London.
So i will now.
Trust you had a good Christmas/New year with the family.
Clive,
Absolutely had a wonderful time. Both on our trip to Europe and for the holidays. Thanks for asking. Hope you did as well.
If you get a chance to meet Wind in person you will see that your kindness did not go for naught either. He is a neat, respectful young man. Cheers.
All things been equal i can assure you, gentlemen, that Villa will arrive at the Emirates on the 23rd.
Snir knows π I read up on zonal v man marking (very interesting stuff π ). One of the articles pointed out that man marking in dangerous areas can lead to fouls whereas in zonal marking, this is less likely to happen. So my question is this. Are our defenders quick and skillful enough to mark their man without committing forced fouls? I think they are π And this includes our Bac π
Cent – well, if they do they’ll bloody well have to wait their turn while we smash West Ham.
It looks like we’re about to sign a player. its Theo
Baboon DβOr ….
Oh, my…. my stomach hurts.
Does anyone else think its weird that the β team of the year awardβ had 10 stiffs from either Barca or Real Madrid and Falcao? Does only la liga get to vote? No one out of Spain is top class? NorCal @242
————————————————————————–
It has always been thus, NorCal.
Of course it’s always easier to look good when you’re playing in La Liga where the top two teams invariably finish 20+ points ahead of whoever finishes third. That’s closer to the difference between top and bottom in the EPL (or to 17th place anyway).
We’d all like to see how well these guys perform in a really competitive league, but Christiano aside they very rarely get tested.
Notice how rarely Messi, for example, gets seriously injured? That he can avoid injury while still scoring for fun says it all for me…
Oskar
N7, knows.
Hey Nursie *waves*
Biglia looks value. But why is AW only ever interested in value? Why aren’t we in for Fellaini who looks the real DMF deal? At least he’d be guaranteed playing time at the Grove.
Villa is all class, imo, but I guess AW is waiting for Walcott to sign, at which point he’ll decide we don’t need him. Who believes Walcott WILL sign, btw?
Oskar
Oskar,
I agree with la liga. However, this year Real is in a scrap to even get second. This again shows what an incredible run of consistency we have had in the PL under AW.
Real Madrid have spent god knows how much on their squad and they dominate the TV money with Barca and yet this year they are struggling to reach 2nd. Like I have said before, money in itself does not dictate success but it gives you more wiggle room.
Also on Messi, he does score at will and is an incredible talent and I would never wish an injury but no one really ever tries to tackle the ball away from him. Different league and style for sure. He will never leave Barca and why would he. In the PL he would not score near as freely.
Hi Cent π !
I’m obviously younger than Steve. Never did the mods and rockers stuff. Did go down there late seventies early eighties while they were top flight. Outcome was usually similar…
Agree totally about Messi, NorCal, no negatives intended towards him. In fact I now have him in my all-time World XI…
Lev Yashin
Djalma Santos Franz Beckenbauer Bobby Moore Paolo Maldini
Garrincha Diego Maradona Lionel Messi Johan Cruyff
Pele Marco van Basten
Oskar
Is Fellaini really a DM? He looks more like a lamppost to me. π
Biglia is poor.
Not even close to PL level.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2259124/Ash-Wednesday-Arsene-Wenger-sign-David-Villa.html
Agree wholeheartedly
I still find it ridiculous how the League Cup semi-final remains two legs when no other round in the competition has that. Aside from the fact it creates an extra game in an already crowded schedule, having two legs reduces the chances of a shock result. By rights Bradford should now really be in the final, but Villa have an extra 90 minutes (maybe even 120) to turn it around, something ourselves and Wigan didn’t get. It just makes no sense.
Good point Charlie.
Charlie,
Good point, but remember it did work to our favour a couple of years back against Ipswich.
Also seems silly that the FA Cup Semi-Final is now a one-off fixture when all other rounds go to replays.
Yeah, I’m just looking at this from an objective viewpoint (if we’d have gone out to Ipswich, so be it), it should be made consistent, and it feels like an old rule they’ve never got round to changing.
Anyone read this morning’s Arseblog?
An outstanding piece of blogging, highly recommended.
The Guardian claims: ‘The 23-year-old, whose current deal expires at the end of the season, would be paid about Β£90,000-a-week with a significant signing-on bonus, thought to be worth around Β£3m, written into the agreement should he agree to extend his stay at the Emirates stadium for a further five years.’
The Mail slightly differs, claiming it will in fact be Β£88,000-a-week. It’s an indication of how warped football has made our perceptions that this difference seems a miniscule amount of money, but actually equates to Β£110,000-a-year.
Morning All
Good point Charlie but still can’t bring myself to think too hard about the COCup and the debacles of recent years. Sometimes I hope that we never enter that competition again.
Clive, Bile is indeed a terrific footballer and so, in my book, it makes him even more of a target especially as he plays for the LWCs (for now). It’s all good j-apes.
Steve T, oh we do like to be beside the seaside…
Clive,
I’m with TS i’m afraid. I might enjoy watching Bale play if he didn’t play for the Spuds, but the fact that he does makes him fair game for me, and especially ‘cos he’s such a blatant cheat too.
He’ll have to leave the Spuds anyway if he wants to play in the Chimpions League again. π
Have we signed anyone yet? :p
Charlie I think it’s a joke they should be through now end of!
Arthur – I had a dream
We signed Ba and Fellaini last night
Then I realised that I’d had too much cheese with the Cognac last night – It happens here you know
Now I find that the PSG captain (who I dont know from Adam) came back to his house 300m away from us to support his dad who has some political aspirations – what this says about me, my knowledge of my neighbours, or Jallet’s political ambitions ….
Cheese + cognac = thinking man’s LSD?
368 π
Notice To HT Passengers / Customers:
========================
A cheese and cognac supplement is due for inclusion in the CMC in the near future.
Anyone wishing to apply as a guinea-pig for early trials please apply via the usual channels.
Regards, Edwin.
TS’s favourite player has just scored for the U21s!
Arsene, sign him-up,
Arsene, Arsene, sign him-up!
π
Akpom and Eisfeld:
Like A New Transfer?
Cognac on Cheese? Fumes from that will get you going π
Diaby is like a new transfer π
Mannone, Jenkinson, Angha, Hajrovic, Santos, Coquelin, Diaby, Frimpong, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Eisfeld, Akpom.
Some have suggested this could be the basis of our team vs The Swans on 16th?
Ollie @ #371
Did he chip it in?
is u21 showing on any stream?
heh TS, no idea. Salt & vinegar may have been involved.
Akpom has apparently nearly scored too, Ollie.
U21s much more fun to follow these days π
Cognac, not a chance but PravdaPlayer usually show highlights. Arsenal Live is providing tweet updates on the game, however…
OK TS ta
So just as I make a clock end lower debut near the away fans, they run away: they fear me.
Ollie – They knew their grammar and spelling wasn’t up to scratch. The high prices excuse was a smoke-screen, I’ll wager.
Snir @ 356.
Greetings sir! And happy new year.
Its the Daily Mail … not too quick to believe anything they publish.
And OG has struggled to settle, it says. 9 goals and what .. +/- 5 assists, halfway thru the season? Stuggled to settle indeed.
Any credibility in that piece totally lost for me. By that metric, IF a new player, from a different country, the first time in the Prem fails to be top scorer and not on a Messi-like run, then he’s crap, a flop, struggling to settle, etc. Rubbish.
Don’t get me wrong – I think Villa is brilliant, but not based on what that fool wrote!
There was a great Leo Messi/messainic pun in there, but I’m just too lazy to put it together.
Surley, signing a proven winner/goal machine like David Villa would be a boon for the young strikers on the team. Not to mention Arsenal’s win/draw/loss ratio!
Think about the young guys (yes, that includes you, too, Feo) practicing day in/out with David Villa!
The dude is getting up there in years, so its not like a 4/5 year deal would even be possible. 25 million would be absurd, but for 15 I’d take a punt. Super impact sub/game changer. Berba was key for ManIOU for a lot of matches in that role. C’mon AW, take a cue from Sir Purplenose’s playbook!
Just a thought.
Frimpong red card?
Homer – It’s actually 7 assists π
I don’t think Giroud has struggled to adapt.
I just think that Villa would be the best signing we can sign in this window.
Glad I don’t live in the UK any more.
This headline from goal.com appeared on newsnow at 13:26:
“Arsenal meet Walcott representatives to finalise Β£90k-a-week contract”.
And this one at 13:40:
Arsenal meet Walcott representatives to finalise Β£110k-a-week contract”.
Inflation seems to have reached Weimar Republic levels – and we all know what that led to (or at least, I hope we do).
The joke is that both links are still live and were written by the same guy. The right hand … etc.
π
Same old, same old Ollie. That must be what’s preventing him from being allowed to become our first-team MF beast.
I see also that Theo is due to sign “within a week”.
I just hope the signing week is not as long as the injury 3-weeks.
Wrist injuries take long to heal, dk π
But now he can afford private medical treatment Ollie π
Snir, i’d take villa in a heartbeat but the price has to be right, below Β£15M. As BTM would say Ollie G 20 goals every one of them a peach.
Ollie and Dk, Theo can literally afford a new wrist.
He’ll need one cent after the amount of w*nking he and his agents have done over his contract.
So Diaby is back (until he wakes up tomorrow with shin splints).
But then I didn’t expect Gibbs to last as long as he has, so maybe there is hope yet.
TS, massive Heh.
Dk, i really have high hopes about Diaby’s fitness this time around. Remember Van P finally came to stay around this time 2011?
Diaby hobbles on and taps the ball carefully on to Theo who bombs forward and avoids tripping over his contract…..
Santoss
8)
And lays it on a plate for…
And he disappears into the shadows… π
Oooooooh fuck me! The bloody wind made me TaBS it.
Wind celebrates with a fish dinner for Santos, a tenner for Walcott and a bionic ankle for Diaby.
Goal of the drinks.
Well lurked, Wind. Hope work is isn’t been too stressful to you.
Wind lurking in the shadows. Well played
Looks like the self-appointed spokesperson for us all has spoken in the Standard. Don’t tell tabs π
Congrats on the Job/Change of Scene thing Cent π
Thanks for the plaudits Cent + Ollie, and lovely assist True Storey, I sensed the opportunity and like the Dark Knight sans Gravel Voice, I was there π (Belated Happy Birthday BTW TS! π³ )
Work isn’t too hard Cent, (I haven’t finished on time once because of my supervisors’ demands -_-) but I’m in a rut regarding it.
I get paid (on time? Don’t make me laugh π ) eventually (1st wages when towards paying back an older sister who helped me out in my time of need) but all my working days seem to be on matchdays so the joy of working so close to the Home of Football but not being able to go has put me in a metaphorical birdcage effectively as I never get to watch the Arsenal live anymore, at the Ems in person even though I have the means to do so now or through a stream at home, don’t remember the last time I missed this many games in a row since I discovered streams.
Going to miss watching Sunday’s game against Citeh, well the 2nd half of it anyway (should be able to catch the 1st half in the Tollie before I have to scurry down the road for a 5pm start, anyone gonna be there and does anyone know if the game will be shown there? Any idea Ollie?), have no choice but to work on Wednesday and Sunday as they are the only days I don’t have exams next week (along with Saturday but we’re not playing Swansea or Chelsea on that day so its irrelevant π ) so I’ll miss those games as well, knowing my luck I’ll miss the West Ham, Mugsmashers and Orc/Goblin Brigade games as well, its a hard knock (working) life.
The Blackberry (Hallejuah!) is back in action with a new Lithium-Ion Battery but I don’t want to commit to a Internet, E-Mail and BBM Booster for it until after I finish my exams so I’ll be in the bar sporadically (when I get home and manage to get on using the Wi-Fi) but I’m always following the drinks, whether I load them at home and then read them on the tube on the way to or on the way from work or wherever, always good stuff and keep it up π
And he drifted away into the shadows again, but to backdrink this time… π
Thanks for the update, Wind!
Citeh game being live on Sky, of course it will be on in the Tollie!
Good luck with the exams!
(PS my Blackberry battery is getting worse and worse)
I really didn’t expect City to sell out, given how it looked a couple of weeks ago.
Bit gutted now, I see plenty of North Bank on Tx.
So I could have paid less (standard fees apply for Tx, not the inflated F&F including P&P for tickets they don’t send…) and be sitting in my preffered North Bank.
Gutted really.
Makes me wonder what I should really do for Stoke. buy tomorrow or wait in the vague hope that this sells out too?
Today’s post on Arseblog was quite a read.
Reminds me of a guy I spoke to in the pub this past Sunday at the Swansea game. (the lad was from Kansas).
Kept saying just spend the money Arsene. “We” have it. We gotta keep up. All the other clubs are doing it. ManIOU does it. Real does it. I don’t care about thtat FFP stuff, noone does. And then going on about what HE would do … and quoting The Sun of all things. Go buy Iker Casillas. Buy Villa. Cavani is looking at the Prem, and … etc.
There was another fella in the pub, listening. Nice guy. British. Born in Brighton, raised in North London and a Gooner to the core. He was standing behind the lad from Kansas. Just listening at first. Then after a minute or two … listening with mouth agape, and a look of disbelief — and I noticed that the pint of Strongbow he was holding began shaking little by little. I could tell by the eery (and somewhat disgusted) sneer that crept over his, a sneer that became more and more a tortured, a veritable Mr. Hyde face – that he was about to lay into this lad. Am glad to report that he was a happy drinker, and terribly witty.
Was all i could do to let the lad finish his piece. Thankfully, we all (several others joining in) calmly discussed issues like: Leeds, Portsmith, Rangers, how Barca stays afloat, and all manner of related stuff. (Watching footy with finance types I always find very interesting, btw.) The Kansas boy was, though listening, not too convinced of the prudence of not living on debt. He said he knew of Stan Kronke from out where he grew up and from teams like the colorado avalanche, Denver Nuggets and the st. Louis Rams (his NFL team) , and one or two others. And complained that Kroenke is cheap. An overly conservative owner .
Which, ironically, elicited an audible sigh from the guy from Brighton!
Anyway, just thought I’d relate that little tale. Seemed fitting after reading today’s Arseblog.
Cheers holics.
I don’t mean to sound snooty or snooby with #411.
Just that the modern game seems truly gone crazy.
And i did enjoy speaking with these people. Footy fans are an odd but excellent bunch.
Even at Β£16m Villa is a steal.
Billy Twelvetrees? What will they think of next, and who is the writer who comes up with these names? π
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20956920
Evening all.
I’ve been wondering about “like a new signing”. As far as I recall, the expression was first used about ten years ago when Henry, Pirès and Vieira all signed new contracts over the course of a week or two. If I’m right then I’m going to conduct a survey about whether people who moan that “like a new…” is the closest we ever seem to come to a signing also complain that we should just pay Theo what he wants, we should never have let the Greedy Badger get so close to running down his contract, we should never have allowed Flamini to leave, we should have offered Pirès a contract longer than one year after he turned 30 etc. etc.
Oh sorry, there I go looking for consistency and rigour again.
COYG
Re: Oxon. This is also why the website “Football365” has the title it does. These people probably wouldn’t stop moaning if we made a signing 365 days a year, even if the rules allowed it. By the way, have we made a new signing yet? π
Oxon, Consistency and Rigour? What clubs do they play for? Can either of them fill in at left-back?
π
Speaking of Football365, it looks like we have been linked with most of the names on this list. Good thing F365 knows, but don’t tell Snir about David Villa. Please. π
http://www.football365.com/topical-top-10/8385544/F365-s-Top-Ten-No-Villa-No-Problem…
On second glance, the list of players not to sign may have one we should consider based on the incredibly difficult spelling of his name:
“10. Guillaume Hoarau
Hoarau’s inclusion in this top ten is partly motivated by his recent record at PSG and partly by the selfish consideration of how incredibly difficult it is to remember the spelling of his name.”
I’d play Rigour there, but I think Consistency would be welcome to play up front, Lars.
bt8, Hoarau has just signed for the even more difficult to spell Dalian Aerby (it’s a Chinese club apparently) today.
Heh@420 π
8ball @ #411
Any relation to Arthur Twosheds-Jackson?
heh, TS!
I’m still waiting for the e-mail from the club telling me I’ll have to collect my ticket on the day on Sunday.
At least last time they had the decency to send one, even if it was cheeky.
Hope they do again, otherwise I suppose I ‘have’ to phone and so pay yet another further extra for their deceit.
Ollie. You seem to be right about Hoarau. Even more interestingly, he was born on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. What a catch to let slip through our hands. π π π
TS. Twosheds must be a keeper?
Michu strikes again!
Seriously, why are we dragging our feet here.. Spend the fuccking money
Hey Eandy…
Bloodzeed is back to streaming.
Can you decipher what program he’s using because every channel I have for him, Sopcast tells me is offline (132927).
Michu is a kung fu master in front of goal, including both mental and physical attributes.
Snir, Sopcast have been a bit wonky lately, it usually works if you try a channel a few times. If it says “can’t connect” then just clic the arrow to the right of the field where it says what channel number you are on so it tries again. Just repeat until it works. I’m on channel 134715, and it is not that far from HD quality.
Something in the back channels for you Ollie, hope it helps! π
Snir, I noticed that too …wiziwig has a disclaimer saying that Sopcast shuts lot of channels down after they start streaming and you have to connect to them early in order to watch it (as odd it is ..if you are connected before the channel is shut down it continues O.o).
I saw that Bloodzeed is back in business, but I was unable to watch his streams on few occasions because I was late.
How the hell did we tie Bradford away and then lose on PK’s. They couldn’t even beat a team like Aston Vil….. Oh wait.
And tie Swansea away? What a crock they will get stomped by Chelsea ….. What?
Aw shit. Never mind.
Any team especially in cup games can win.
Ha ha @ Bus stop in Fulham!
Chelsea 0 – 2 Swansea.
Hehe >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
NorCal knows@433.