Tame Onuoha KO, And Hammers Next Into The Ring
Dec 27th, 2014 by 'holic
Boxing Day football used to mean working out if British Rail could get you to wherever the game was being played and back, and then going regardless. We had cheap travel, cheap tickets, and it could be a way to work off the Christmas turkey.
Fast forward two or three decades and the trains won’t take you anywhere on the day, so from the wilds of Staffordshire we watched lunchtime and afternoon matches with assorted pates before tucking into a feast of cold meats and pickles with the Arsenal match courtesy of a telephone company’s television service. Young, impressionable eyes transfixed at the kick-off. Don’t let me down again, Arsenal.
The award of an early penalty eased the tension. “Santi scored the last one Grandad, didn’t he?” Of course he did, so why the fouled player, Alexis Sanchez, took this one with Cazorla on the pitch was a mystery. Rob Green makes saves at the Grove, so this one was no surprise, but two frustrated Junior Gunners groaned.
A free-kick on the edge of the box. “Santi’s good at free-kicks, isn’t he?” Olivier Giroud takes it and Green saves again. “Pass me the game pie, would you?” The assorted pickles were absolutely delicious. Then Alexis got on the end of a Kieran Gibbs cross and finally two lads are allowed to share the outpouring of relief. “Yessssssss!” A discussion about the relative heights of Alexis and Santi followed. Perhaps the right one of the two was in position this time.
Olivier Giroud’s rush of blood to the head, literally, gets a mixed reception. The youngest gives the idiot the doubt. “How can someone the size of Onuoha go down like that from a tap of the forehead?” It only adds to the foolishness of the retaliation. Ferdinand’s stranglehold going unpunished provides a deflection from the Frenchman’s stupidity. Atkinson is in the bottom rung of a particularly poor collection of PGMOL officials. Did you expect anything else?
When Alexis set off on a mazy run to set up the impressive Tomas Rosicky we had already lost the youngest to some virtual car race. Thankfully he came running back in to see the replay. 2-0 to the ten men meant a nervous few minutes for Grandad, praying for a 3-0 result to pay for the Christmas booze, and hopefully Per Mertesacker to score to add a healthy profit.
Atkinson’s penalty award for a perfectly timed Mathieu Debuchy tackle summed up his incompetence, and a young lad returned to his car race. A nervous finish had adults and the oldest lad muttering about “typical Arsenal, this”. The penalty that never was wasn’t so bad when Zamora was ‘negated’ by Gibbs, but we had another couple of decent shouts denied to us also. With everybody but West Ham around us winning this was an important three points, but at what cost?
West Ham Up Next
So we make the short journey to Upton Park with Giroud starting the first of a three match ban, and concerns over the ability of Rosicky to play twice in under 48 hours. There may be returns for Laurent Koscielny (a little chance according to Le Boss), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (a smaller chance), and Theo Walcott (he’s not far away).
Although our two matches in the coming week are away from home both opponents are within reach and two wins would put us back into the top four, at least. Returns for the three players in question would provide a more than welcome lift to the spirits both on and off the pitch.
West Ham, although defeated at Chelsea on Boxing Day when fielding a weakened side, are probably the surprise package of the first half of the season. Alex Song (rested at Stamford Bridge) and Carl Jenkinson (who cannot play against us) have been key contributors to the 31 points haul from 18 matches which have secured fifth place in the table, one ahead of us.
At home they lost their first two in August but have since embarked on an impressive seven match unbeaten run which has included wins against Liverpool (3-1), Manchester City (2-1), and Swansea City (3-1). The prospect of Andy Carroll attacking a less than full strength central defensive partnership isn’t one to think about for too long. Be prepared for another nervous afternoon.
The ‘holic pound assumes we will be able to start a fit Rosicky or Ox alongside Flamini, that Kos will partner the BFG at the back, and that Theo or Poldi will come in for Giroud. I’m on a 1-2 away win, available at eights with Paddy Power.
Right, more cold meat for this old turkey. Have a lovely Sunday, ‘holics.
188 Responses to “Tame Onuoha KO, And Hammers Next Into The Ring”
Happy new year.
3 points is 3 points. End of.
Second? Six more points wanted.
Nice write up H. I hope you and yours had a great Christmas.
Copied from the last set of drinks re the comments on referees. Re posted here.
“the refereeing cockups we’ve seen this season make me more convinced than ever that it’s time to introduce a second referee.”
I find it very interesting when you read do many critics of referees in the bar. The range from shocking, atrocious to my personal favourite, Thundercunt. Referees make mistakes. They are no different to you, I or anyone who took the field in that respect. However, one thing that seems to go a miss these days is the game they are sent to preside over. The fact is that their job is now a lot tougher. It is scrutinised for weeks on end via all sources of the media.
However, what makes their job harder than ever is the fact that every single player that takes the field is prepared to cheat or con the red if he thinks it will gain their side an advantage. That can stretch from deliberate infringements, to diving, to feigning injury, to punching 5 yards at a throw in or claiming a corner when you know it’s a goal kick. It’s all genuinely pathetic in my book.
Anyone that watched MOTD last night will have seen more blatant dives and acts of cheating. They would then have been treated to Phil Neville coming out with the line, “of course he’s entitled to go down, he’s trying to win his side a penalty.”
Perhaps, rather than two refs we should try and get managers and players to show just a fraction of integrity on the pitch. Then, the criticism of the officials may have just a tad more substance.
Hard work but 3 points is 3 points. Dare I say it but tougher tests await us in the next few days?
Festive greetings to one and all.
Cheers H!
Standards of refereeing have deteriorated year on year for fucking years.
The process has accelerated since refereeing became a ‘profession’ rather than a voluntary activity, in fact since referees started to see themselves as essential within the grand scheme of things, rather than enablers to a football match.
You wanna see some proper refereeing? Drop down a few leagues. I saw Minehead Town this season, where the, truly excellent, referee – who took no fucking shit whatsoever, gained the full respect of the players, the crowd and the herd of abusive friends the away manager bought with him to try and stir the shit. Massive respect for the likes of that man, who still does it just for the love the game. Zero respect for the likes of Atkinson, Dean, Taylor, Clattenberg and all the other cunts who now do it for the Porsche, the trophy girlfriend and having their rampant egos stroked. Fuck the the lot of them.
Bring back the likes of Jack Taylor, Clive White and Roger Kirkpatrick. Proper arbiters.
Nice one, ‘Holic. Just avoid the cold turkey.
Six points from these next to games are must haves. As the pointy end of the season starts to take shape, no quarter to be given to any potential top-four challengers.
I have recently read Graham Poll’s book, Seeing Red, and it tells you all you need to know about referees at the top level.
Lower down they’re no better, but the incompetence is sometimes funny. Watching a local side earlier this season we had a ref who didn’t give a red card for a keeper handling outside his box because “He’s a decent lad who’d never cheat so he never meant it”.
🙂
Fine match report, H.
Here’s hoping this bet yields a reward.
When it comes to refs, Esso knows. However the point is well made Martin@3 that modern players take every opportunity to cheat and have less integrity than a colander.
“Holic’s man Zamora is coming on” I thought to myself. “He could stir things up”. Fortunately he didn’t 🙂
I was dead against it at the time but in retrospect your “Why don’t we get Zamora in this January to give Arshavin a break?” campaign may have had some merit 🙂
We’ll never know, but for evermore, Zamora will be, for me, ‘Holic’s man’
Bath, Brown’s with Jackie and Helen was quite something.
Shit, I’ve lost my ‘p’
That’ll be your prostate enlargement BtM. You need to get catheterised, pal. The cost of too much high living.
Jim Clark was the man for me. 🙂
Has the standard of refereeing really deteriorated that much? Or are they now 10 times more accountable now they are professional and because there are hundreds of different camera angles scrutinising every decision? In the days of Jack Taylor and all, refs would have been lucky to make one appearance a month on TV. I think it is tough to compare the different generations with any real measure of accuracy.
At least we got rid of Armand Traore.
Those QPR defenders are a touchy feely group. There’s Rio Ferdinand palpating Giroud’s neck muscles and then there’s another of them (Onuoha, perhaps) feeling up Welbeck’s nipples in the 8th video clip at Arsenalst.com
But you have to agree that from a solo rendition of “One Jackie Stewart”, through “and you must be the beautiful Helen” (“I am!”) to “Why don’t you join us of dinner” (says Jackie) all in one Fife move was quite slick?
Jimmy Clark the Flying Fifer? (Known locally as Clerk). You’ll see his statue just outside Cupar when you come to visit on your Pict tour 🙂
Cheers Holic,
No doubt another stressful afternoon awaits and will continue to do so until we get some players back.
Those mentioned would be a help. Think I would extend Chambets’ break for now. It will be a hot atmosphere at Upton Park and, at the moment, he is a bit too accident prone.
Tomas could probably manage another run out tomorrow and then there might be a crock ready to return at Southampton.
No really ! 😉
Indeed 8ball,
He’s completely nuts that Almond Traore. 😉
Aye, ye’re a richt auld smoothie, nae doobt.
Thank goodness I have just watched Whisky Galore again and I ken whit the pair of ye are on aboot. 😉
And that was arsenalist.com for the touchy feely bit clips.
Nice one ‘H.
Extra nice to hear you’re giving the grand’holics a good education.
Assorted Pates
Or Colin, as most people knew him.
And whose pate is that ?
Oh, that’ll be Our Den’s. 😉
Pate Jnnings?
Pate Ric?
Pate Viira?
QPR were very average.
We were slightly better then very average.
Tomas was fantastic and showed his class as the only decent arsenal player on the park considering his complete lack of match time. Alexis is better than most even with an average performance for his standards.
Some talk in the previous drinks that flamini had a better game than his last outing.
Flamini IMHO signifies this current arsenal squad.
Anywhere above “very average” is as good as can be expected
Arsene has this arsenal squad limping, both mentally and physically.
Next up Andy Carrol verus ” Per The Ducker”.
You were in the right place ‘Holic. I love my Boxing day football but that was the wettest, coldest night on the North Bank since Chelsea came and parked the bus 12 months ago. Thankfully this time Tommy, Santi, Alexis and others gave us a result to warm us at least a little as we wended our sodden way home. My boots and gloves still aren’t dry.
On the North Bank views of the HFB’s moment of madness right in front of us were probably coloured by the weather – to a man he was reviled. I hope AW throws the book at him and fines him to the max. But how wonderful to see Tommy buzzing around the park again, He absolutely twatted that one in – months of frustration in that one shot.
Two tricky away games now – we could have done with Giroud. Let’s start by blitzing the Irons tomorrow – as always it won’t be straightforward.
Trev
Didnt Traore make the usual move away for more cashew?
Oiy that was bad.
But Didnt want to let you pun solo… That’d be nuts.
Probably, Homer, ‘cos we were paying him peanuts.
He got have gone to a club in Brazil, of course, but with his lack of technique, would probably have been too far down the pecan order.
Surprised he didn’t sign for Hamilton Macademiacals. 😉
Nice report on a frustrating game.
Tomorrow will be tough but we are a much better team- if we are all fit.
Poldi and Theo did for them last year. Let’s hope for a repeat
“A tap of the forehead” you reckon ‘holic? Actual contact? What I saw was OG putting his head down to Onuoha’s face in an intimidatory manner. Only for the latter to make like he’d be Liverpool kissed. OG’s expression after was one of realisation that he’d been suckered.
“Injuries go a long way to explaining our season, but definitely not all the way” (Lars, last round). I think they go ALL the way, Lars. Our chronic addiction to the physio room is hugely disruptive of the kind of team rhythm that comes with continuity, especially considering the number of KEY players involved – Walcott, Özil, Ramsey, Giroud, Koscielny, Wilshere, Arteta etc.
Yet we’re only two points off 4th spot and five points off 3rd. If half of those had been regularly available it’s not hard to imagine at least a couple or three of our many draws converted to wins that would see us in our customary position and still with an outside chance of the title. With all of them available I imagine we’d be humming along like a well-oiled machine.
Öskar
The above doesn’t excuse OG. To do what he did was dumb whether or not there was actual contact.
Öskar
“typical Arsenal, this”
This echoed around me where I was sitting or standing for most periods by the Arsenal faithful. I thought one thing at the time, sounds like you lot give up to easily. We didn’t drop back and defended like in other games and Alexis was the key point for us scoring the second, he took the ball and just run at their defensive cover cut inside and Rozza was his best option and it has certainly paid off.
Rozza scored and stadium came up to life again, when scary moments came the faithful pushed on with loud encouragement for those left wearing our colours. Don’t sit so deep I heard someone shout, keep the ball was the other cry from another in the crowd. I was shouting myself don’t drop too deep it’s suicide!
Come on Arsenal!
BFG came around and thanked the Arsenal faithful! These were very precious three points and I can just imagine what negativity a draw would bring, it would be yet again unbearable.
Great to hear you had a blast whit the family Holic! Also a great preview! I should try and pound a 3:1 win to the Arse with Podolski scoring at any time!
Come on Arsenal!
Cashew? Sounds like somebody sneezed. 🙂
Oskar, our injuries are the result, not the cause.
The cause of the injuries are the real issue for our club..
They are indeed an issue we need to resolve, Aussie, but that wasn’t the point I was responding to. Lars claimed our injury toll didn’t go all the way to explaining our poor form, I believe it does.
With our team so regularly disrupted by changing personnel, or players returning from injury but match rusty, there’s little cohesion in our game and less understanding between players than if they played together regularly. An obvious example: check out Per and the problems he has with anyone other than Kos beside him.
Öskar
…and it’s the same to varying degrees all over the field.
Öskar
All Fair comments Oskar.
The squad look like they don’t train togeather and everything looks difficult and clumsy almost.
Against QPR was the first match where I thought even Danny and OG were both right off their games…they missed every touch and every pass that came their way.
Big game v west ham coming up.
Southhampton should get beat by chelsea.
Spurs should get beat by UTD?
We can take 4th spot (if my maths is right), if we can pull out a team effort as we did against dortmund recently.
Looking forward to Fat Sam getting put in his place!
Hammers to get hammered!
Up The Arse!
😀
Either Chelsea have signed a pact with the Devil ( perfectly possible) or they condition and treat their players better than we do. The difference in the injury records is utterly staggering. Cesc was always getting injured with us but I don’t think he’s missed a game through injury.
Imagine taking out Cahill, Fabregas, Matic, Hazard and Costa at the same time for two months. That’s what we’ve had to suffer. Would they be top after that ?
It’s a boring refrain but it is crucial to our success. Unless we solve it we will struggle. Shad where is your magic?
It’s true TTG, I heard them talking about this on 5live and they said Chelsea don’t have a single injury at the mo. We have all these top medical facilities but they’re run by the biggest bunch of quacks in the business.
The consistent patterns to our injuries are becoming almost systemic.
When you look at the history of players like theo/ gibbs/ wilshire/ Rvp / tr7/ diaby/ artetta / chamberlain and even cesc.
They get injured so quickly and easily after each injury return, as a fan you are no longer even surprised to hear of them having another long term injury.
How does theo make the long awaited return with a green light then go back out for another quite extensive breakdown almost immediately.
To then hear of players like cesc play extensively in successive matches at such a high level, does make you wonder where we get it so wrong.
@Martin Wellbourne.
I completely agree that players try to cheat the referee at every opportunity.
Unfortunately, it is consistently in the best interest of players to do so. Refs play the reaction not the foul. Andy Carroll and OG get a lot less free – kicks than many other strikers because they rarely make a meal of challenges.
Until referees sanction players like Onuoha yesterday for their cheating ways it is in their best interests to cheat. Once they start picking up cards and bans this will no longer be true. There would follow explicit instructions from managers not to do that stuff as it is no longer advantageous. Problem solved.
The only people who have the power to solve this problem are the referees. They bleat on about respect but by standing by and allowing all the blatant diving, cheating and everything else that players indulge in to continue right under their noses they are complicit in the sneaky, self – interested attitude that usually pervades football matches. The players’ priority is to win the match. The referee is the only person whose priority is to uphold the laws of the game.
They accept this responsibility. They do not live up to it though.
If I presume to refer back to my first guest piece on the injury situation, I did say that once these connective tissue injuries have been incurred at a very young age, it is very difficult to repair them back to a fully normal state.
That makes them more likely to recur as the body compensates for the deficiency. That, I believe, is the situation we are now in. Every year it is the same faces in the treatment room – Ramsey, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlin, Walcott, Diaby, gibbs, previously Fabregas, and more lately Arteta, whose legs, according to those in the know at Arsenal, have “gone”.
Interestingly, the one youngster who seems not to be constantly injured is Chambers, who escaped the rigours of The Arsenal until the relatively ripe old age of nineteen.
If this theory is correct, it offers an answer to the immediate question but, in the long term, poses a much bigger one.
Does the club accept that it’s young British core is going to be unavailable through injury for the majority of the time, or make the decision to offload those players and look for a more powerful, more mature alternative ?
Big question – very expensive answer.
Morning All
Thankfully the guests went home reasonably early yesterday and I have managed to dry out my sodden gear from Friday night.
Trev, thanks for the info re car parking . We were lucky to nip into a space as some shoppers returned from the sales.
The journey home was horrendous, driving rain and high winds followed by sleet and snow as we reached Norfolk.
Let’s hope there are one or two players signed off the sick list and no one apart from the stupid HFB is side line this afternoon. We need a fully fit 11 to face the high flying Hammers.
I’m sure this match will be a hard watch on what ever stream we can locate. Am hoping for the best but Oh how we need 3 points.
Cheers!
COYRs
Trev
I always value your insights into the injury situation at the club. Looking at your comment it still leaves the Cesc situation. I can’t remember his injury record at Barca but he is back in the EPL, playing for Chelsea and not getting injured and not being rotated .
People criticise Wenger for not rotating Sanchez but never criticise Mourinho got not rotating his star players. We hear how badly injured Costa is yet he seems to play every game with few ill – effects. It is this allied to the failure to fix holes in the squad which is putting Arsene under pressure. I suspect behind the scenes he is working hard to solve the problem but I’m surprised that Tony Colbert, for example, is still in his job with Forsythe coming in. The inference is that maybe Forsythe is operating alongside ( or handicapped by) the old conditioning and fitness regime, instead of replacing it?
Ttg,
The anomaly with Cesc is that he was the one really young player who didn’t incur a serious injury in his early years.
As far as I remember, he only started getting “injured” as the Barca situation hotted up in the final year or so.
As soon as he was back at Barca the injuries disappeared as he sprinted into the opposition box scoring goals for fun.
Can only assume that, in his final year for us, he had recurring imaginitis. 😉
Cheers for the review/preview ‘h.
I just got back from a Chrimbo break, meaning I only managed to catch highlights on yesterday mornings repeat of MotD, so I have nowhere near enough info to offer an informed opinion other then it was a much needed 3 points, OG is a very silly boy who has let his team mates and the whole club down, and the standard of officiating in the PL has gone down the Junior Hoilet.
As for today’s match up, it will be tough. But if we really are a top team then these are games that we really should be looking to take all the points from, win this and we’ll be in the top 4 tonight. (can’t see the Saints getting anything from the Chavs).
I hope AW resists the urge to carry on with the Sanogo experiment, Poldi loves playing against the Spammers, so I’d like to see him get a run out. Probably won’t happen though. Anyways, no matter who plays……
COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!
A draw will do me here, given absences. Get through this difficult period, start getting missing players back and kick on. Really hoping Kos makes the line up as think we are in for a tough afternoon otherwise.
Midfield battle crucial, would start rosicky in the centre over Ox and would love a goal from Welbeck.
COYG
Agreed, H2H,
OG is not the Messiah, he’s just a very naughty boy. 🙁
Agreed N7, I would take the point today, all things considered.
Must not lose.
COYGs
I want all three.
I am gready. 🙂
Spertz and Manure draw.
COME ON ARSENAAAAAAAAL
Le Coq to show his stuff?
01 Szczesny
02 Debuchy
04 Mertesacker
06 Koscielny
18 Monreal
34 Coquelin
20 Flamini
15 Oxlade-Chamberlain
19 Cazorla
17 Sánchez
23 Welbeck
two holding midfielders away, good going boss, should give that back four some protection.
Cesc’s injury record, days out:
@Arsenal
2007-08 — 17 days
2008-09 — 6+15+5+91 days
2009-10 — 16 + 55 days
2010-11 — 31+20+10+25+25 days
@Barca
2011-12 — 19 days
2012-13 — 23 days
2013-14 — 0 days
@Chelsea
2014-15 — 0 days
Indeedy, Eandy.
Bench pretty strong too;
Ospina, Gibbs, Chambers, Campbell, Walcott, Poldi, Apkom.
Saints score.
Unbelievable NBN !!!
COYR- just beat that lounge lizard fat Sam
COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
😀
Another assist from Cesc. No stopping that lad. I guess we didn’t need him.
COYR’s
Fok Cesc!
Up The Arse!
COME ONNNNNN!
come on!
Cesc was “injured” when he wanted to move to Barca.
Fuck him.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
had to be him really
Come on boys! 3 massive points to go for today!
wheww
come on ox FFs
Good fortune there; would have felt hard done by if that call had been made on us.
Coq taken the ball off song twice now
it’s a Coq and ball story – no need to make a Song and dance about it ! 😉
LOL!
COMME ON! Give it to ALEXIS!
Areenal look off.
The team effort is good
Coq adding some much needed muscle in the DM area
Ok.. don’t take the penno Alexis!
😀
Get in there Santi!
Ohh Santi Cazorla!
Well deserved lads
Great pen by santi
We look much more solid with Debuchy and Kos back!
They probably need a game or two to get some understanding going again!
That should have been a yellow for the foul on Santi!
COME ON!!!!!!!
See alexis – thats how its done!
Danny get in there! Come on Arsenal!
dAnnnnnnnnnnnyyyyy
Ox! Welbeck. Nice!!
Bllody brilliant!!!!!!!
GET IN DANNY!
Give GIROUD A run for his money! Score a few more and we may have to start you ahead of him!
😀
Alexis first back to defend and first to break
Unbelievable engine
Another good break from ox
Danny was free again
Outplayed …and two nil up!
Sign of a great team in the makings!
😀 😀 😀
Our ability to score ranks with the very best… we so sorely missed our first choice defenders!
Here’s to the back four staying healthy…!
Ref doing ok for a change, so far.
Schneiderlin second yellow vs. Chavs; out of next vs. Gunners.
Half time.
Happy.
Santi Claus strikes again. 😉
FULL-TIME
Southampton 1-1 Chelsea
Ref not against us
Linesman calling in our favour
In front by two at half time
4 fit fullbacks
Chelsea, united and southampton drawing
Ozil to return
Is the tide finally turning
Cmon lads close this one out in style
Chavs drew… ahhahhahahhaha! 🙂
Totts drop points too Aussie. Come on Arsenal in this massive 2nd half.
Winston Reid not covering himself in glory.
Crap defending.
Pathetic goal to give away. Where’s the fucking full back and the cover?
COME ON!!!!!!!!!
keep it together and let’s get a few more!
We play best when under pressure it seems.. what a shot SANTI!
COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not doing the basics right. Ridiculous.
ohhhhh Debuchy.. what a miss!
ARGH.. come onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!
Keep it tight lads!
Noted BT8:)
Cmon lads
Only got my phone with text updates and you lovely lot… how are we doing?
Scesny distributin is crap.
Getting worse it seems.
Great run Danny!
Come on Arsene time to play Walcott! Come on!
GSD, We’re fighting to keep our slim lead!!!
Cheers abb *waves*
Get Walcott on… hit ’em on the break!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GSD 🙂
Alexis is brilliant.. got them on their toes!
COME ON ARSENAAAAAL
Big 15 mins for our season now !!!!!
Comon reds
OHHHHH…so closeeeeeeeeee!
COME ON OX… COME ON ALEXIS!
COME ON ARSENALLLLLL!
Echo Alert 😉
C’mon the Arsenal 🙂
Not being able to see this is killing me.
My gosh.. we should have scored 6 by now!
COME ON!
Listening in, GSD. Real nail biter!
You said it abb…
2-2 at City!
Can it get any better?
😀
Yes BB, it can, if we hold on!
Welbeck off.. Gibbs on….. parking the bus time?!
hmmm.
5 min+
I expect us to score another ABB!
Our attacks been relentless, expect to get it on the counter!
😀
Ohhhh..just wide by the OX!
Would love that BB, but defense first!
FFS we have had some chances
Cmoonnnnnnnn gunners
Cynical by Reid!
Should have had a yellow earlier and off.
Chambers on and Ox off.. looks like you’re getting your wish ABB!
🙂
5 mins stoppage time… !
They’re finishing strongly.. sczesny flailing again at the cross!
OMG, fellas. This is brutal ☺
Alexis WINS The ball to relieve some pressure….
MOTM for me.. tireless!
Their goalie is up in our box!
Misssssssssssssssss, yes!
Well deserved
It was our day finally in the premier league
What a top game
Top win
Great 3 points
Best team effort in the premier league this season bar none
Full marks to all
OHHHH..
they just headed over our bar .. by inches!
Bloody inches! I tells ya!
whew whew whew, nervy but great result!
Hell yeah.
Excellent stuff. Chuffed with that!
Am going to say it, but what a performance.
They probably deserved a draw.. full credit to them, but sometimes you get hard done by luck.
BUT not taking anything away from our performance… brilliant by the whole team.. got stuck in and eked out a result!
ALEXIS .. brilliant brilliant signing!
😀
FFS
How long does it take the EPL to update the table
Everybody drops
We go up
How hard can it be
Ive been waiting at least 30 seconds
Thank you ‘Ammers – that’ll be a lovely 3 points then !
Ok if I start breathing again now ?
Great game, great results. Up the gunners!!
Breathe holics! 🙂
Btw, never drink red wine on an empty stomach whilst watching The Arsenal 😉
Wehave had our share of bad luck BB
Today was arsenals day all round
All the other results are fucking brilliant
GET THE FUCK IN!!!
City and Chavs drew!
Hahahaha
Anyone care to start a sweep on how often Auntie Beeb tells us that only one team in the top seven won today?
I’ll punt the Pangloss penny on “no times at all”.
COYG
@Aussie
Yes you’re right on that luck, on another day that last header would have been inches IN our goal!
Going to take what i can get.. not complaining on any road!
😀
Lovely, what a game! We should have been four goals head but for some real good saves (totally unnecessary) by their gk. All the players put in a superb shift, especially Alex, cazorla,welbeck and oxlade. Per made some good saves. Thank God for a well deserved win. Hopefully all the players will be fit in the coming half of the season and that’ll sow people what we’ve been missing. While signings are good, we should focus on keeping our players fit, that’s where we’ve been hurt, so to speak, this season.Night all, merry Xmas indeed.
And we’re on track… a win against the saints and we’re back in top 4 gunning for a shot at the top!
We’ll have Theo back surely and the OX and Santi’s form have been nothing short of exhilarating!
And did I mention.. ALEXIS! That man can defend and attack and he almost secured a couple of assists today too!
😀 😀 😀
Alexis is a freaking machine!
Hairy last 20mins, chances galore on both sides but we got the points. Only 3 points off 3rd place!
Theo to start on Thursday?
Get in lovely jubbly,out shopping with the wife so ta holics for keeping me posted.a lot less stressful than watching soccer sat 🙂
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger: “We had a committed and united performance. The keeper made some good saves. We knew we needed to be good in the air today.
“I didn’t know why Alex Song’s goal didn’t stand, I thought it would. We scored a good second goal and had many opportunities to score another. It didn’t come and at 2-1 I thought the last 30 minutes would be difficult.
“We did dig deep. It is down to consistency and we are slowly getting there.”
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We cashed in on some of our luck that we’ve been saving all year!
Hammers played well… all credit to them. Even Fat Sam look… thinner (am not sure if that’s a compliment though!).
Win the next few games… no draws.. crucial to get a proper run and rhythm going!
UP THE ARSE!
🙂
Brilliant result – well done lads!
Table starting to look healthy, and some great players to come back.
COYG
Some magnificent performances by twinkle-toe Santi and the tireless genius that is Alexis. And a great commanding control of the penalty box by Szczesny.
Flamini enjoyed Coquelin’s support, and to be honest defensively Coq looked better than Songy, who was probably trying to impress a bit too much. Both Monreal and Debuchy had tough games defensively, but having Kos around to nip troubles in the bud the defense looks so much better.
I though we could have brought in Poldi or Theo around 70th minute to get another goal, despite Adrian’s unbelievable saves we should have scored one or two more, both Danny and Ox losing composure in front of goal.
Southampton has Schneiderlin out against us with a red. Hopefully TR7 will be back with Santi to drive a train through their midfield. 🙂
Not seen or heard any of the game. A good 3 points won it what was a very tricky fixture. I’d take that any day of the week.
GSD above re refs.
“Unfortunately, it is consistently in the best interest of players to do so.”
I dont even want to contemplate a situation where it is in a players best interest to cheat. Not now, not ever.
A referee at The Grove has 60,000 experts all giving their opinion and all at the same time. Where the red is really lucky is that all 60,000 are obviously correct????? Each and everyone of them. The ref has a fraction of a second to make a decision. A decision that will be scrutinised by all 60,000 present, by every pundit, by everyone in the pub and by anyone both in the media or who has access to the media.
The best way forward for me is to dish out retrospective punishment. Let me explain. OG clearly deserved his red. The reaction was pure theatrics. It would take less than a few minutes on a Monday morning to reach that same conclusion. For me it’s really simple. Issue a retrospective yellow on the Monday morning. Use the level of proof as used in Civil Courts, ie: the balance of probability. When players start collecting yellows and the subsequent suspensions then I don’t it will take them long to wise up???
Proud of the boys, really stabile and inspiring performance.
Santi back to form is so important, I really enjoy watching him play.
I thought that Coq brought balance to the squad and kudos to Arsene for selecting him in the starting lineup. His pace and energy allows us to play with more freedom up front and gives us protection at the back.
With Kos at the back we are far more solid and I feel less nervous when watching us, our most important player along with Alexis.
Woj is finally starting to show signs that he may become important factor in the way we defend set pieces, with his decisive display today. Wondering why it took him so long to realise that he is tall and fast enough to go for the ball than to wait on the goal line, but better late then never.
And Arsene got everything right today against very decent West Ham side away from home. Defend well and with more man behind the ball and wait for your chance on a counter, or wait for an opposition mistake.
I like this type of performance way more than the possession football he insisted on at the start of the season with the stupid 4-1-2-3 formation. I always thought that 4-2-1-3 with two disciplined defensive midfielders suits our style the most.
Very important win, play like this against So ton and there is nothing tone afraid off.
Scary moments towards the end of the game. We held firm it has to be said but very nervous moments. Should have been away with the opportunities we had even further.
Holic pound spot on! Enjoy your bonus Holic! I thought my 3:1 was close as well.
A mixture of guts, dreadful defending, great defending (props to Mertesacker for one particularly brave header after all the flak for ducking) exciting breaks and terrible shooting, inspired keeping from their goalie, a couple of heart stopping fumbles from ours, a weeping Walrus, nerves, victory and three points, thank you very much bring on the next one.
Well in for the Holic pound.
Six hard earned points in three days.
Diggin’ deeeeeep. Today at Upton was a heavyweight game. Norton – Clay like.
Salute!
Re: Pangloss @151. Right so far and the day is almost done. Better for us to fly under the radar anyways. 🙂
Abb @147. Remember to keep a full stomach. 😉
West Ham deserve a draw? Where were they on our 2nd goal? Draw my arse.
How we didn’t score in the 2nd half is the miracle of all miracles. Adrian their MOTM.
A very good three points. We look so much stronger with a first choice back four.
Hello everyone. Haven’t been around the bar for several months and I’ve missed it. Happy holidays to all and sundry!
Have to agree with 8ball that the Hammers never deserved a draw today. If our finishing had been a tad better, or their goalkeeper a tad less excellent, we would’ve won by more. Arsenal with far more good chances.
So many players in the yellow and blue were outstanding today (Cazorla, Alexis, Szczesny, Coq spring quickly to mind), but I was especially struck by how much better we are with Koscielny in the team. Nipped trouble int he bud over and over and over again. He’s one of the best defenders around and we’ve missed him sorely. Dare I suggest that without him we lose that game? Fingers crossed that he can get/stay fit for the rest of the season.
Massive, massive win. Proudest of the season so far? Given the circumstances I’d say so. Got to duplicate it away to a very good Southampton all too soon.
In the meantime I’m very much enjoying this one. COYG!
By the way, happy to see a bit of a Twitter storm about Tony Gale’s abject commentary on NBC. He is a wanker. Sounded exactly as if they’d plucked a random West Ham fan from the stand to do the color commentary.
A collective fart in his general direction.
goonsterham
Not sure if it was Tony Gale or the other guy but near the start of the game he said Song had only played for Arsenal for about two years. Why are they paying these people to spout ignorance?
8ball@167 – Even I was surprised when the football roundup at the end of the six o’clock news essentially listed all the Premiership teams who drew today before finishing with something along the lines of “and Arsenal and Leicester won”.
It would be enough to make me paranoid, if it had happened several years ago.
COYG
More news:
on Rosicky…
I just gave him a complete recovery today. When I took him off with 10 minutes to go against QPR he had cramps in the calves and in the hamstrings, so I didn’t want to take a gamble.
on whether he’s confident Podolski will stay…
At the moment nobody goes out. We have Ozil coming back now at the beginning of January, so of course there is a lot of competition up front.
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They should be available if selected! ..and Ozil looks set to return soon too!
A hard fought and well deserved victory (with a whole hospital worth list of key players) that will infuse the squad with belief and sets us up nicely for the task in hand to reel in the four clubs ahead of us starting with Southampton on New Years Day. Good work Arsenal.
Well deserved three points today, we should have had that wrapped up long before 90 minutes. Regarding the Song goal that was disallowed, I believe that was the right call. As I understand it, the instructions to the refs are that if you have to actively move out of the way to avoid contact with the ball then by definition you are considered to be affecting the game. And besides, I think the ball may have touched one of the two offside players, to me it looked like the ball changed direction and it is also worth noting that from what I could see there were very few West Ham players who seemed to object to the call.
And speaking of Song, I can’t say he made a particularly good case for Arsene having made a mistake in not taking him back. Maybe he tried too hard, but he wasn’t very good at all in my eyes.
But Santi Cazorla… Oh me oh my, he was absolutely brilliant. Won a penalty, scored it, won the ball in midfield, dictated the tempo of our game, barely misplaced a single pass and was simply magnificent.
Save for a bit of a wobble in the last ten or so when it seemed West Ham got free kicks for most anything, it is only fair to point out that Swarbrick had a very good game overall.
Oh, and for the “Arsene never adapts to the opposition” cliché: pfffft. We knew their main attack would be crosses from out wide for Carroll to head down or on target. What did we do? We almost always doubled up on him so he virtually never got to take a proper runup towards crosses – and did you notice that we pretty much man-marked him on all set pieces as well? It seems we DO learn from mistakes every once in a while!
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Martin Wellbourne: For me it’s really simple. Issue a retrospective yellow on the Monday morning. Use the level of proof as used in Civil Courts, ie: the balance of probability. When players start collecting yellows and the subsequent suspensions then I don’t it will take them long to wise up???
Could not agree more. In the case of Onuoha, he could in my opinion even be given a retrospective red for his push on Giroud which endangered the safety of Giroud AND Rob Green. But start dishing out yellows retrospectively for diving and watch it go away.
Cheers lars. Agreed completely re: retrospective yellows. Makes nothing but sense.
And yes re: santi. He’s been brilliant. It is his time of year after all!
A Christmas cracker of a game, we pulled it off and got the lucky charm. And no Christmas Carrolls to spoil the day.
Sir Ches motm.
Congrats to Danny for being in the right place at the right time for a change. But some poor shooting or this would have been comfortable.
I hope ffs that TR7, Poldi and Theo get a start against the Saints.
Öskar
Unusual to see us playing four fullbacks at the end!
Öskar
In the old days when there was a sensible offside rule there would be no doubt that the West Ham goal was offside. Three players in offside positions, one who dummies the ball in the keeper’s eyeline clearly interfered with play. The fat , loathsome cretin who manages them can’t see it. Well quelle surprise!
Delighted with the overall resilience of the side now we have the proper defence back and huge props to Szczesny for doing what you have to do against an Allardyce side.- take the crosses lumped forward for the ponytailed cart horse that is Andy Carroll and good to see that Welbeck, away from home on the break is a more effective leader of the line than Giroud and can finish . Sanchez, Ox and Cazorla are in prime form and working incredibly hard. Good festive period so far and a big game on Thursday.
Interesting we had 21 shots and their goalie is MOTM! Lucky Arsenal!
Ps- after winning six out of seven at Upton Park don’t we now own it?
Not sure if this means anything however Polish DM Grzegorz Krychowiak has announced he will be joining a Premier League club in January.
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/linked-to-arsenal-sevillas-grzegorz-krychowiak-confirms-hes-signed-for-an-english-club-tweets/
Now he did also mention this on his twitter account, he playes for Sevilla currently. I also know it’s April’s Fools day in Spain but surely he wouldn’t post anything like that as a joke would he now?
otd
I hope so they certainly need game time to get back to form too!
Three massive points today!
Now bring on the Saints!
ATG
Could be us. After all we are supposed to be signing Carvalho, Khedira, Perrin, Silva and Uncle Tom Cobley in that DM spot. He was linked with us a few weeks ago.
AW having a tough time understanding the questions here, and he is not the only one. 🙂
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/30616745
Pangloss @175. Maybe I’ll check some odds on us finishing ahead of Leicester. Also, it’s good to hear that paranoia is not increasing with age in your case. 🙂
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