Last Gasp Gunners Win Again
Dec 4th, 2014 by 'holic
So how good does it feel when after 88 minutes of pure frustration that breakthrough moment arrives. The elation at the late, late show was elevated by what had gone before.
We had an early opportunity when Santi Cazorla freed Danny Welbeck, but the striker’s effort was off target. As if to remind us that the Saints are not top three material this season without reason Pelle squandered a real chance to put the visitors ahead.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain went close to netting against his former club but was denied by the first of a string of outstanding saves by Forster. Welbeck showed inventiveness and confidence with a blocked backheel before he too was denied by Forster.
The first-half closed with both sides probably thinking the game was there for the taking. The second opened in similar vein to the first with Ramsey missing the target and Pelle being denied by a Laurent Koscielny block.
As the crowd began to show signs of nerves Olivier Giroud was brought on to replace the Ox to the audible displeasure of many. It was a substitution that almost had an immediate impact when the striker hammered an effort that Forster parried, and then set up Welbeck who was again denied by a fine save.
As time was running out Giroud saw his goalbound header once saved magnificently, surely the clearest sign that this was not to be our night. Or was that the penalty we were denied for a clear handball? However Aaron Ramsey cut the ball back for Alexis Sanchez, who else, to drill home the decider. Those who had departed early will have heard the cheers and cussed their luck.
So a third win in a row, and a third clean sheet in a row for Emiliano Martinez, not as busy as his Saints counterpart but again giving a steady and assured performance.
We may not be at our very best yet, but the greater discipline that has been evident in the last week should stand us in good stead in the upcoming fixtures.
Quizzed afterwards on whether something was missing, Arsene confessed,
“In our fluency, yes. We didn’t have our usual fluency in the game but it’s important as well that you’re capable of winning the game when that is not perfect.”
And so to Stoke we go…
65 Responses to “Last Gasp Gunners Win Again”
Well in, Holic.
good article. Go gunners
After the Utd game, most of us asked for a return to collective discipline and structure. That seems to be what we’ve got these last three games, and clearly the lads are working on these areas.
We’re still not as fluent as we might be, but hopefully that will come – I think a run for Giroud in the side will make a difference to those around him (we all saw the difference last night with him on the pitch), and the return of Ozil in the New Year will also add a bit of extra cohesion.
Would be nice to see Theo Walcott in an Arsenal shirt again before too long. It feels like a very, very long time now, and his directness will help make the difference in games like last night’s.
COYG
THE trophy!
Well in, bath. The one we all wanted.
Nice summary H.
Has a new Law of the Game ben added?
“Under no circumstances should Arsenal be awarded a penalty.”
It’s just as well that Alexis scored that goal because there was no indication that Marriner was playing advantage either by his own gestures or by the circumstances in which Rambo found himself boxed in at the by- line and miraculously got that excellent cut-back out.
The Southampton defender’s arm was clearly elevated and blocked OG’s shot. Had the ball struck the arm by his side then the proximity would have been a defence but there was NO excuse for not immediately giving that penalty.
Inexcusable negligence.
We ironically mock the 4th place trophy and Arsene’s detractors regularly mock a club policy that seems to make that a minimal target as do ‘expert’ pundits and media hacks on a regular basis.
Nonetheless when it comes to other clubs, their coaches’ often explicit statements of a ‘top 4 place target’ are widely and uncritically accepted as legitimate objectives by the same pundits and the media. These other clubs include, from memory, Manure, $hitteh, the Bindippers, Sp*rs, Everton among other lesser lights.
Interesting double standards.
Oops I hope I’ve not italicised all the Drinks <
@bath
Man Utd are aiming for a top four spot this season. They spent £150m in the summer, have been confirmed this morning as having the country’s highest wage bill and are currently being praised for their form and their manager is being described as a genius.
They’re two points ahead of us.
Seriously Bath, that’s a Socratean observation. Never looked at it that way before but it’s so true. It just serves as stronger confirmation, if any were needed, of the anti-Arsenal agenda in the media.
In the words of Cypress Hill in a track I recently reacquainted myself with: Some suckers be driving me up the wall / hoping that I fall/ but they can lick my-
Sorry Holic, sometimes the hip hop community put it better than I ever could!
Always nice to raise your head after a couple of victories makes a nice change to read some positive headlines on the web – Big Props to Martinez he commands his area like a Mad Mad German once did, Also nice to see the return of Kos makes a big big difference at the back and also installs confidence in those around him, As for Giroud I have lamented him in the past for his snail like pace but boy are we a better side with him in it, His hold up play is second to none.
Up The Arse
Nice report Holic!
I’ve got to say I’ll gladly lap up these 1-0 wins for the time being….
I’ll second what lots of people have been saying about Martinez. He seems to have that commanding, unflappable demeanour that all top keepers have – probably helped by the fact he’s large in stature. His kicking is excellent, his handling is secure from long-range shots, and he judges crosses well and always looks in control when coming for them. I guess Szczesny will come back in when fit, but Martinez (and to a lesser extent, Ospina) will be breathing right down his neck – and that can only be a good thing.
Slightly disappointed that Ramsey is getting a bad rap on this forum. Sure the goalscoring and some of the creative fluency is still missing, but the key part of his job (winning tackles, supporting the DM, getting box-to-box, being back in position when the opposition counter-attacks) is starting to come together now, and it was his relentlessness in keeping the ball alive which led to Alexis’ goal.
Also, not sure why the crowd booed the Ox coming off – seemed an entirely logical substitution to me. We’ve now got 6 class players competing for those front 3 positions (Giroud, Alexis, Welbeck, Theo, Ox, Poldi), and unless he can add more goals to his game – I think he averages about 1 in 10? – then he’ll always be lower down on that pecking order, and will certainly be sacrificed when chasing a goal in the latter stages of a game….
6,7 @bathgooner
Hear! Hear!
🙂
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20141204/-it-s-easy-to-play-behind-per-and-lolo-
I like how EMI was quietly confident behind every ball and was good coming out to intercept the crosses! He definitely should be given more game time. Be good to see how he performs against top opposition, especially those that take tons of shots at goal.
At this rate we shall have 3 top goalies at our disposal, depth is always good when we’re challenging on so many fronts.
Enjoyed this:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/dec/04/premier-league-talking-points
“That was a great story from Roy Keane recently, in one of his less embittered moments about Sir Alex Ferguson, when he recalled a game at Manchester United that had shown him that sometimes a manager does not need to go into too much detail in his team-talk.
“It was Tottenham at home,” Keane recounted. “I thought: ‘Please don’t go on about Tottenham, we all know what Tottenham is about, they are nice and tidy but we’ll fucking do them.’ He came in and said: ‘Lads, it’s only Tottenham.’ And that was it. Brilliant!”
Apologies for the source : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2860432/Calum-Chambers-caught-eye-January-checked-birth-date-interested-reveals-Arsene-Wenger.html
Chambers…. Debuchy ….. Alexis…… Welbeck.
Do not think Arsene has put a foot wrong in the transfers department this season! Phenomenal!
Eagerly awaiting Debuchy and Theo’s return!
🙂
Re: Chippy and Giroud’s snail like pace. I am right with you about having wished he were faster and that we are a better side with him in it, but I would add that we are an even better side with a rested Giroud who has benefitted from squad rotation. That should mean using Welbeck in that position on a fairly regular basis (at least more than once every few games) even after Giroud is back to full fitness. Also, the Giroud-Welbeck combination at the head of the oxen team has looked lethal so far so let’s take full advantage.
Ox is also part of the oxen team by the way. 🙂
As for Girouds pace, he can be surprisingly quick as he shown in the summer against Swiss http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/goal-assist-olivier-giroud-arsenal-individual-highlights-from-switzerland-2-france-5/ (around 1:45 mark)
Giroud has looked twice last season’s finisher in his cameos since return from injury. He was worked into the ground last season. The new rested (and rotated) Giroud will be even better alternating and linking with Danny and Alexis and Feo.
Well before every game from now i will predict 1-0 to The Arsenal and may it long continue to come true. Saints were excellent yday and proved that it is no fluke they are right up there. Now for them to take some points of united on monday and they have done their job.
I have never been a fan of Woj and havent been convinced at all but then i am in the minority and that is fine. Martinez was good when needed but i believe among the 3 gk’s we have, Ospina is the best. Time shall tell.
Sanchez needs a rest, he is absolutely tired and he uses every ounce of energy he has to get through games. He has been our saviour but honestly if Theo were to be fit, Sanchez should be rested for a couple of games atleast, staring with the away trip to galatasary and more so the home against newcastle. Chances though are pretty slim because he wants to play every game and Wenger knows he is the match winner we have. My big concern is, Sanchez is used to winter breaks and this run in may exhaust him completely.
Spuds were spuds yday and they are wasting their time trying to prove they belong to this league, i mean they were clueless yday against those chavs and deserved the mockery.
Aguero has been the player of the season so far along with Sanchez, he can do no wrong and yday again vindicated that. City need to keep pushing chelsea and for the sake of all, chelshit should lose soon or else the league may become a mere formality.
Up next, the visit to Britannia. A place we never likes, never appreciated and havent won i think in the last 5-6 visits. Another scrappy 1-0 will do just fine please.
You can’t beat a last minute goal to send you home happy up the motorway!
Bit of a dust up in my bit of the North Bank yesterday. The guy who stands behind me is a salt of the earth Gooner, home and away for 30 years, normally the most placid of men, full of funny philosophical asides that keep you going in the tricky bits, always supportive of the team whilst having that self deprecating fatalism which is the lot of most fans. With ten minutes to go, to my amazement, I turned around to find him in full on rant mode at two on the end of the row who had been louder and louder in their criticism of Arsene. The gist of his attack was at johnny come lately middle class fans (he used the phrase toffee nosed c**ts – fair comment) speaking of that of which they know little. I thought he was going to call them out properly but luckily his mates pulled him off and calmed him down. He was happier by the end of the game 🙂 when we had a chat. My sympathies are entirely with him.
It’s still a bit tense in the stadium – let’s hope for a good run!
Eandy
Someone was taping that on Sky with the fast forward button on 🙂
bath: further to what you say about Giroud, the silver lining to the injuries we’ve suffered is that Debuchy, Giroud, Walcott and Özil will be a lot fresher and more rested than they would normally have been in the second half of the season. That may be a rather significant advantage for us at that stage.
We’ve still got work to do, but last night was very promising in the way we just kept plugging away until we broke them down. Southampton worked hard but were helped a bit by Wanyama getting away with quite a bit (apart from that Pelle chance which they got from a throw they took a good 15 yards too far up the pitch) and I also think they look very much like they are starting to flag a little. We’ve seen teams start in pretty much the same fashion as they have this season before and still end up in the bottom half of the table, and I think they may struggle a bit from here on. Hull in 08/09, for example, were just four points worse off after 14 games compared to what Soton are now and they escaped relegation by only one point in the end*.
That said, I do of course hope they fucking batter ManU on Monday 🙂
A word on Martinez also. He’s done very very well but it’s only three games so far. Woj is still my first choice any day of the week, but anyone can see why Martinez is so highly rated within the club and for every game he keeps being this assured and calm he puts more pressure on Woj. In any case there is no doubt that we have a very healthy depth in the goalkeeping department.
*no, I did not have all that shit about Hull in my head – I looked it up!
Good points there Lars @23
I look forward to the rested, motivated and energetic Mesut Ozil turning up and winning over his doubters.
Some of the Woj bashing that has gone on in the last 2 weeks has been ridiculous.
Kos is the main difference in our clean sheets in my opinion.
‘As the crowd began to show signs of nerves Olivier Giroud was brought on to replace the Ox to the audible displeasure of many.’ Not at all uprising, ‘Holic, the criticism pours forth when he doesn’t bring on substitutes, no reason why it shouldn’t when he does. It’s the Emirates fans’ New Plan B – confuse the shit out of OUR coach and players 🙂 and bleat when it’s getting chilly.
Even funnier, Ian in the Dark and Michael Owing were getting their nickers in a total twist. “Why don’t Arsenal get their substitutes ready to go on the minute they’re called – they’re always looking for shin pads or summin’……”
Had they been more focused and astute observers, they would have noted that Giroud was called at 63.5 minutes, thereby having exactly 1.5 minutes to doff hid bib and don his pads and enter the field of play at 65 minutes precisely (as planned by Arsene in his bath two weeks past Saturday). No Plan B on match day? Pfffft!
Have I mentioned in previous posts that I REALLY like the way Giroud and Wellbeck play for each other rather than compete for Arsene’s eye? We are lucky Gooners indeed to have the Walcott, Ox, Gnabry, Giroud, Wellbeck, Sanogo, Sanchez, Podolski, Afobe, Akpom strike force what Arsene bought us when no one was looking.
“Socratean observation” PR? Did Bath spot the bloke who used to play for Brazil?
Martinez – “It’s only three games so far.” Lars knows and so does Zico.
EMI? Didn’t they sign The Beatles, BB? A steal – got in there just before Barcelona as I recall it.
Great points Lars. Although I have to admit, Southampton were much more resilient last night than I expected them to be. What impressed me most was how organised they were. Still, I’d love to see them finish in a top 4 slot ahead of Manu however unlikely it is in reality.
I’m with Zico on Kos. That lad is one of the top centre halfs in Europe. He makes such a difference when he plays.
Kos makes a big difference to our defence. Our best defender by a long chalk. However Martinez spreads calm, has kept three clean sheets and deserves to keep the number 1 spot whilst he plays like this.
Cheers H!
If anyone (not going to Stoke) fancies a pint on Saturday afternoon in the Highbury Barn, I may well be in attendance. Amy Lawrence is doing a signing session of her book ‘Invincible’ between 3 and 5. Rumour is (but I never said it) they may well have a dodgy satellite feed of the Stoke game as well.
Get yourselves down there, those who live nearby with nothing better to do like. I’m coming all the way from fucking Worthing!
BtM. Always looking for shin pads? It could be they are emulating the coach who is always looking for the right way to zip his zipper?
At least it’s not his pants zipper I should add. 🙂
I’m regularly told by Mrs TTG that I am becoming increasingly miserable and she daren’t go near me if Arsenal lose but I feel curmudgeonly tonight…towards the opposition. Southampton were extremely ordinary. The best you could say was that they were organised. Pelle missed a chance had a blocked shot balloon to Martinez and saw a great block from Koscielny. And apart from Shane Long looking like the shitehawk he is when presented with a chance they did nothing else. They ran out of legs with about half an hour to go and were utterly dependent on Forster who made about six worldie saves to repel us. Believe me when their squad strength is exposed by injuries and they pick up suspensions from their rotational fouling we will wonder what the fuss was all about.
They have Forster, Clyne who looks the best right back in the country and er that’s it. Pelle is a big Italian lump but he wasn’t anywhere near as good as our French lump who scared Southampton to death.
Davis , Long, Cork, Fonte and Yoshida were bang average. They didn’t get into our half in the last thirty minutes and literally didn’t after we scored. They are the Emperor’s New Clothes of the Premier League.
How’s that for curmudgeonly eh?
As for us I thought we did well. Koscielny transforms the atmosphere in the defence, Santi is working really hard and Welbeck and Giroud actually look as if they can play together. Ox is showing the benefit of a regular run of games before he gets injured and tends to make things happen and Chambers looks like a right back to me whatever people say.
Sanchez? Well apart from his fourteen goals , incredible work rate, flair, skill and charisma he’s been bang average too. That’s if your average is world class. If we can go to Mordor on Saturday and give them a stuffing we can go on a very good run beyond Christmas. Southampton will be in mid- table by then but the critics will love them.
I’d actually be inclined to start with Alexis on the bench v Stoke and play Ox-Giroud-Welbeck from the start to give him a bit of a rest and also the chance to play against a slightly more tired Stoke defence. At about 60 minutes I’d bring him on for either of Welbeck or the Ox, depending on who looks more fresh in the game.
ttg: Forster is probably the one factor they have which will keep them in the top half. They may of course get some decent players in January even though I doubt it, but I’d be quite surprised if they finish the season anywhere near the top four. I’d be much more wary of a team like Swansea who have been flying under the radar quite a bit and steadily improved as the season has progressed. They could potentially lose Bony in January though, that’d be a rather big blow for them.
@31 TTG, a fine right back and possibly an even betterCB or DM. Time will tell. One thing is for certain, there is no more self-confident 19 year old playing in the PL. Great addition to the squad (but don’t let anyone know that AW signed a CB in the closed season – they’ll have nothing to bleat about 🙂 )
Cheers, Holic !
There must be a lot of oil floating around in the bar ‘cos up above I detect a ‘bath’ on fire. Lots of good stuff, sir !
Countryman100 @21 –
” I thought he was going to call them out properly but luckily his mates pulled him off and calmed him down. ”
Ooo-er ! They must be very good mates ……. 😉
Gregoire @12,
My sense, in the ground, about the booing was not aimed at The Ox or Giroud, but that it was not Ramsey who was coming off.
He had been putting himself about quite a bit last night, but it would be fair to say it was not one of his better passing displays.
And then he gave the assist, so ……….
I agree with Trev-Ox is popular and it was more disappointment that he was coming off rather than poor old Aaron. There is an element who are unwilling to grant Wenger any credit. The bloke in front of me moans incessantly throughout the game and implores Wenger to ‘sort it out’ but when I ask him what he would do himself he hasn’t got a clue! He’s a lovely guy but a misery at football!
I always know exactly what to do but prefer to use thought transference to communicate directly with Le Professeur
Trev – Ha! Shades of Rod Marsh!
@Lars 23
That throw in was amazing. Their player ran the ball off (it nicked our guy as it went) but he brought it back on the pitch and continued running down the line. By the time he heard the whistle he was nowhere near where it had left the field of play. Oh well. He simply picked it up and took the throw-in. This completely (and illegally) bypassed our midfield and led to a chance that should have seen the take the lead.
Marriner was truly woeful. His assistants made terrible calls from three yards away all night. We all expect the reffing standard to be abysmal, based on the weekly performances.
However, even accepting their own standards, for a ref to let that situation occur is failing to do his job on such a basic and fundamental level that he should be suspended. I don’t care that it impacted the game less than a wrong penalty call or red card challenge. There is no debate. No replays needed or subjective opinions. He failed to enforce one of the simplest laws of the game. I thought I was too long in the tooth to be surprised by this stuff but when he did not call it back I was genuinely gobsmacked.
That he pushed us forwards five yards for one near their corner flag shortly afterwards added insult to incompetence…
Countryman
My mate in the East Stand said that the atmosphere where he sits is getting very edgy. I sit in the North Bank and we tend to ask anyone who has a go at Wenger who would replace him. It’s amazing that there are about ten managers who would be certain to win us the league and CL straight off. Never realised that.
I’ve resisted saying be careful what you wish for but I’ve said it now. In a few years regular qualification for the Champions League might be a dream.
Ramsey is getting back physically to the level he needs to be at to execute his game. He will continue improving his form and by squeaky bum time will be on fire. I am backing the lad big-time.
Two weeks ago I restored him to my fantasy football team.
In both of the last matches I have had money on him to score first or anytime.
Love him to bits. Just wind him up and watch him run.
Giroud looks better than ever. Assured, quality player. Brings so much to the team. He is striking the ball more like Poldi than like himself last year.
And BTM makes an excellent point about how Wellbeck and OG are playing for each other. I am really surprised by how good they look together- let’s let that develop.
Given Sanchez also plays for the team it will be hard for any player not to give their all when they can see the guys in front of them busting a gut.
And Santi is so ‘technically efficient’ it is unreal. His feet are made of magic.
Except he shoots like someone’s put a hex on them.
And Kos is immense. Just such a good defender.
Martinez could not have done any more but Schezza is still quality. He has not got any worse while he has been injured so i guess all of our well-worn views about how good he is still apply- regardless of the fact that one of his back-ups has performed better than expected.
I agree with those who rate Lolo’s return (never saw that nickname coming) and increased structure and awareness throughout the team as major factors in our last three clean sheets, Matinez’s good displays not withstanding.
Fair point Trev – Ramsey’s passing and ‘fineries’ are still some way off, but the other equally important elements to his job – the work-rate, tackling, defensive positioning, continuity stuff – are coming along nicely.
If the fans were booing the decision to hook the Ox instead of Ramsey, then it shows how short their memories are and their fickle natures! Weren’t they the ones complaining when our formation was all ‘shot’ and gung-ho a few games back?! So when Wenger makes a positive, invigorating change – more likely to get us a goal based on the players’ (Giroud/Ox) respective goal-records – without sacrificing a deeper-lying midfield player and our shape, he’s still booed?! And it worked if I’m not mistaken?…
I sense I’m in a minority, but I thought Ramsey had a difficult first half but was quite probably man of the match.
On a night where there was very little fluency on display and virtually everyone misplaced at least one pass Rambo absolutely worked his socks off, covered every blade and came up with the assist for the winner.
I’ve been quite critical of him this season, but I thought this was a display which suggested he’s going to focus on what he does best, which is grafting. The rest: the goals, the fineries, will come with time.
Also think it’s worth bearing in mind that with Flamini next to him he was taking on more of the burden of distribution from central midfield than usual – second half in particular he frequently came short, collected from Flame and started attacks.
Speaking of Flamini, I noticed that about 80 mins in he (rightly) caught an absolute bollocking from Monreal for straying out of position. Have to say, I’m really starting to like Monreal – he seems to be benefited from a spell in the team, even if it was nominally out of position.
Gregoire,
I feel obliged to remind you that when fans were complaining about our formation being shot and going all gung-ho a few weeks ago that Aaron Ramsey was one of the major culprits.
He was not the only one, but he was one of those found ahead of the ball and giving it away needlessly against Anderlecht and Swansea when we were supposed to be protecting a lead.
And remember that ridiculous free kick in the closing minutes against Anderlecht that almost cleared club level.
He is still far from his best and so the silly sods who boo in the stadium – and I am NEVER one of them – take their opportunity. He has been very frustrating this season, probably made worse by the fact that he was the best player in the league for the first part of last season.
I am not a Ramsey basher. I have defended him many times in this bar, but he started this season like a big time Charlie trying constant back heels and silly tricks. His loss of form exaggerated that and he is having to slowly climb his way back up.
Yep, true re Ramsey last night, N7.
Agree Trev, and that’s exactly my point – that since that run of games (Anderlecht, Swansea etc), Ramsey has quite rightly taken on board that it’s his obligation as the box-to-box midfielder to support the defence and DM even more rigorously than the front 4 positions. Hence why, along with the return of Kos and a renewed air of discipline in the team as a whole, Ramsey’s return to positional diligence has led to this upturn in results – that’s why protesting fans (not you of course!) are fickle and would have been bonkers to want to jeopardise all that by taking Ramsey off and having 5 outright forward players on ahead of Flamini!
And your @46 re: Ramsey’s early season form is equally true, Trev.
Hopefully he will keep the work rate up and resist the urge to drift around the place trying aimless backheels and flicks.
How many points have we salvaged through goals in last five minutes (and injury time) this season? 1 against Hull, 2 against Palace, 1 against Everton, 2 against the Saints. So that is 6 out of 23 points, rather impressive.
It is not coincidence, or luck. It is a demonstration of attacking quality, patience and enough variations to make the dominance count. (Even in absence of Ozil, Theo and Giroud for the most part).
This, and the number of attempts we are making at goals (which has increased significantly compared to last season) point to a team which has made progress in its forward play (albeit the X-factor of Alexis playing a big part in it). It was the defensive regression — partly due to injuries, partly due to tinkering too much with formation — that has held us back. Now that the team has re-learned that it didn’t need to play Kamikaze football to win matches, I am sure we will see the attacking quality would start to count for more and more.
I will admit that I didn’t think, even as a big fan of Arsene, that after the turbulence of 2011 summer we would so quickly reconstruct such a quality midfield and forward line-up. And even defensively we now have excellent quality, just not enough numbers ( we need 1 or 2 more, at least one in DM to take over from Arteta who has been very good for the most part this season, and if that is Chambers then someone for the CB).
This has been a remarkable — and silently so, much impressively silent — squad building since the nadir of 2011 summer. Instead of randomly throwing away the money we had gotten from the sales of Cesc/Nasri/Clichy and then later RVP — the way other clubs had done after selling their superstars — we had patiently waited for our opportunities to get the players we need.
That patience and foresight is very hard to come by. Once a top club is decimated either the panic sets in and things turn feverish (example, Inter Milan) or the club starts to stagnate (example, Dortmund this season). Liverpool is a glowing example of both. Just how important it was to maintain the CL run in 11-12 and 12-13 while staying patient with the squad building opportunities we will learn to appreciate in decades to come.
I’ve bashed Wenger on here recently. The man is infuriating. But also an excellent manager.
Despite my occasional conniption fits those in the bar usually take it easy on me. Either out of pity, or just ignoring my rants. Either way, much obliged.
Yet; the M-N B above. Despite my irritation and irrational exuberance, I am compelled to defend AW and the club.
You know this lad is off his rocker when he cites ESPN’s miquel delaney as being an authority on anything other than…, well … being named “miquel delaney.”
Got me to laugh out loud though. Well done troll.
MNB. How’s the Kanadian Kannabis these days? They say medicinal marijuana cures for Spurs fans are all the rage these days. The only thing that works apparently.
Tim Stillman sums up pretty much exactly what I am also thinking re: Theo Walcott:
http://arseblog.com/2014/12/we-need-to-talk-about-theo/
I really, really like Theo as a player and I absolutely want him to stay but I am not sure we can convince him to.
My feeling is that if he comes back anywhere near the old Theo, we’ll keep him because there will be other attacking players on the way. Podolski and probably Ozil in the summer, maybe even Cazorla will move back home before he gets much older.
Then you have Joel Campbell, who can’t even get on the bench, to leave along with an ageing and rarely used Rosicky and the squad starts to look thin in the summer.
I like Theo.. but demanding in a contract that requires to play a certain position.. think that’s a bit much.
Speedy recovery.. we’ll have him for this season anyways and hopefully for many seasons more, always good to have depth!
Welbeck is getting better every game, more industrious and hardworking, maybe Alexis is motivating him. He’s already a good winger, remains to be seen if he can make the transition into a world class striker if that’s what he wants. So we’ll have plenty of attacking midfielders.
Hope we bolster our defence with an addition or two and we’re on our way!
😀
Speaking of Theo, I really want him to stay with us, remember the first match Mesut played for us? Those two created like 5 goal chances in span of one half and if Theo wore his shooting boots that day he could have easily scored a hat-trick.
That said, he is going to have it much tougher to get in a team with Alexis and Danny around now, but I want to see those two play and lay havoc in opposition defences.
Contract extension is becoming farcical. Boss says if fully fit, Diaby will get a contract extension. Fully fit and Diaby in the same sentence, oh my Dennis.
Same way comes the contract discussion of Theo. He has hardly been fit and he needs to first play and then talk, he meaning he or his agent. Theo needs to stay for the belief we have shown in him and stood by him throughout hoping for him to finally give back towards the team.
Stoke away and the usual rumblings have started. Shawcross saying they dont like us, boss saying it is not a hate game but a football game etc.
I mean Ryan Shawcross is a piece of shit. Stoke fans have a problem with us and more so Aaaron because he did not accept an apology????? The man’s career may have ended because of that tackle and he should say what- no issues, never mind etc, bollocks.
I agree that Sanchez can be rested tomorrow and we can play Giroud/Danny combo with ox on the wings. Galatasary as well we can rest Sanchez for we dont really need him to go there because i do not see us finishing first even if we win the game.
We need to keep winning till say pool at anfield which will be tough irrespective of what form they are in. hence again a scrappy 1-0 will be just fine.
Holic, can we have the ‘centre aligned’ look again please? Most excitement we’ve had around here for years 🙂
Hehe BtM, indeed.
I wish you and her nellieness an enjoyable weekend. I have not forgotten your contributions either, thank you. They will be up before the mince pies are left on the mantelpiece 🙂
Oh and all, can we avoid using post numbers and abusive responses when the preview is published later. This fixture attracts trolls like no other and they will be zapped.
Thank you.
“he Gunners’ last couple of games have resulted in scrappy and unconvincing wins against (theoretically) inferior sides, which could be spun as more evidence of their underperformance, but if Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United had done similar, then the phrase “the mark of champions” would be tossed liberally around.”
– The Guardian
Of course, they went on to say that we DON’T have that mark anyways, but still.
A wise man once said,
“We are what we are;
They are what they are.”
Go figure.
My friend bath knows 🙂
Questions about dot.con training picture #1: Szczesny walking in front of Martinez.
Posed so as to indicate Woj’s return to the top spot?
To indicate Martinez creeping up behind him in the pecking order?
Either way I have noticed this week that Martinez’s first name has apparently changed from Emiliano to Emi so a lot of people seem to be feeling friendly toward him for whatever reason.
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