Spirit Needed Again On Monday Evening?
Dec 27th, 2015 by 'holic
Not a bad journey home for a holiday Sunday. A couple of hours door to door which incorporated a bit of the M6 carrying bargain hunters from sale site to sale site, and the stop start M5. I could have probably knocked thirty minutes off that by setting off before the shops opened, but I was still full of muscle relaxant on the morning after the night before.
I defy even the most committed teetotallers among you to say you weren’t reaching for min 40% pain relief after that performance, or rather, non-performance. And yet the day had started so well. The youngest grand’holic had made his biggest purchase to date, a Playstation 4, and was resplendent in his new home shirt. The eldest sported the gold away shirt. When the news came through of Leicester’s result we looked forward to cheering the Gunners to the top of the table.
The youngest must have had a premonition. At kick-off he opted to carry on blasting the living daylights out of whoever Galactic Empire stormtroopers blast the hell out of. Would that we had followed his lead. Less than two hours later, as the match ended with the Saints triumphant by 4-0, so the gathering storm outside crashed the Sky box. Why did it wait so long?
I haven’t watched it back in all honesty, for that was one of the horror shows we decide to chuck in every time a glimmer of hope surfaces. I have no wish to revisit the details and I suspect from what little I have seen on social media sites today that you won’t want to read them. No excuses this time. The better side on the night got their reward. From goalkeeper to striker, and further to include the substitutes bench, we just didn’t show up. Let’s hope we do on Monday evening, talking of which…
Bournemouth Preview
Quite what Arsene Wenger has to do to turn his disinterested strollers from Saturday night into the efficient and powerful force that did for Manchester City in our last home match is far from clear. Whilst a degree of rotation would seem sensible, that was our current best available starting eleven at St Mary’s and don’t anybody try to say they will be tired after that shambles of a no-show.
Given who is available to promote from the bench it is probably in Arsene’s mind right now to say to the same eleven, “Go and show everybody how you played against Olympiacos, Villa, and City, and how you should have damn well played at Southampton”. There is so much talent in that side, but such a massive failure to apply themselves against a team so lacking in confidence themselves raises question marks over the desire of these players that only they can answer.
Hopefully preparation for the match started with the fact that Bournemouth are unbeaten in six Premier League matches (W3, D3), which includes a run of seven points from nine away from home, including winning at Chelsea as well as beating Manchester United at home this month. In short, Bournemouth come into this fixture in much better form than the Saints did on Boxing Day!
A little bit of perspective, if needed, will come in the shape of the visitors Harry Arter who is likely to start his fourth match in less than three weeks since the loss of his daughter in childbirth. That is mental strength, should anybody bring up the subject in the coming days.
The ‘holic pound
“They have fantastic spirit and they will show that in 48 hours.”
Arsene on his players post-match on Saturday. Let’s hope this time he means the sort of spirit he expects his players to display and not the sort I had to chuck down my welcome hatch as Saturday melted into Sunday!
For all of the disappointment that surrounded the last match, the performances at the Grove this season have included many that would be good enough to blow away the visitors on Monday evening (and yes a few that definitely wouldn’t). In putting a hard-earned pound on the outcome of this one I am mindful of the fact that Bournemouth have a work ethic that prompts nervousness.
The bookmakers are convinced that we will see the real Arsenal back on Monday, and were the Cherries playing anybody else I would be wooed by the sevens being offered against the away win. I was going to apply the adjective shock, or surprise, there, but would it be? They have 2-0 as the favourite in the correct score markets and I will trust their judgement, grabbing a market best price of 15/2.
That result would give Petr Cech his Premier League clean sheets record, third time lucky. Yaya Toure denied him in the latter stages of the last home match, but hopefully he will be able to celebrate the feat in front of the Grove faithful this time out.
Have a good one, ‘holics.
69 Responses to “Spirit Needed Again On Monday Evening?”
‘holic, good to see you arrived home healthy and hearty.
Re rotation for the Cherries, maybe let the Ox have a run in place of Joel Campbell, and allow Gabriel to blow his horn for one of the CDs.
Apart from that, the cupboard’s still bare. Maybe Chambers on for Flamini, who could tend to aging legs with his wonder oil alternative?
Second?
Glad you made it safely through the floods, Guvna. Nothing more to be said about the south coast debacle.
I wasn’t optimistic about a win on Saturday but I didn’t expect a thrashing.
I am not optimistic about tomorrow but I will be there cheering us on until I am hoarse.
COYGs
Cheers Holic
Just have no way of knowing which side of this Arsenal’s personality is going to show – we are serially frustrating.
To follow up the result of our season so far with a performance as abject as that is so typical of the last 10 years.
Many have been bitching about the officials but we got what we deserved from the game. Hard work brought its own reward for the Saints and I expect Bournemouth to be cut from the same cloth – anything but our A game and we could be in for more angst.
Time for some stepping up.
Nice one H. Agree with all of that re Yesterday’s performance.
Time for The Jeff.
Nice one, Holic.
Agree with your sentiments and zico @3.
Sympathies are with your own loss, mentioned in the previous bar, and that of Harry Arter.
Bournemouth won promotion playing good football, struggled initially in the Premier League, presumably due to the step up in pace and intensity, but now seem to have found their rhythm again.
Complacency, lack of desire, bottle, mental strength, fit players or whatever else is responsible for our “(another) one of those days” performances, will cost us dear tomorrow.
With a “bare bones” squad, I’m prepared to forego the silky performance. Just get out there and win. We are still The Arsenal. We have to be good enough to do that.
Cheers H!
Nice to see you back Holic. I soothed my angst with lots of muscle relaxants over the holiday but little could take that degree of pain away. My youngest grandson slept in his Arsenal shirt and rushed down to find out the result this morning . This necessitated watching it again on MOTD taped from the night before. It’s hard to answer the question’ Why are Arsenal playing so badly ?’ In terms it is appropriate to use to six year olds.
I think he will rotate tomorrow more than others have suggested. I expect to see Gibbs, Chambers, Ox and possibly Iwobi tomorrow . I think 2-0 sounds about right and hope it will be for us ?
Tough as it may be to play two games in three days there are plenty of people earning a lot less who have had to graft this holiday and I hope our lads can raise their game tomorrow. I believe we are already certain to end 2015 as the highest points gatherers in the Premier League. It would be good to end it on top of the table
Holic, I hope your friend’s mom is better, and able to recover from what ailes her.
Your point about Harry Arter and giving your best under considerable personal burden is well taken. Our squad should be able to work as hard as any other squad, and our talent should then win the day. that didn’t happen on Boxing Day, to my great frustration. Let’s see it tomorrow!
And Lonestar, I hope all is well with you and yours after the deadly weather around Dallas…let us know, if you can.
Nice one, ‘Holic. I am with Trev@5. Three points any way, beautiful or ugly.
Cheers ‘Holic. I suspect the “muscle relaxant” would have gone down just as easily if last nights score had been reversed;-)
I hope the pride of the players will be up for the challenge tomorrow evening. There may be a couple of changes to the team as some players looked like they were in the red zone and not physically up for another game so soon. A win is essential for everyone’s mental strength – lets just do it! To go into the new year in second ( or even first ) place is a great position to be.
Evening all, and thank you.
Finally just finished the ham and turkey. The last of the trifle next.
Evening H
Cannot remember if i have ever disagreed with your summation of a game before,but i am going to have to over this one.
” Disinterested Strollers” is very very harsh.
For the first 20 minutes we were entirely comfortable and the Saints had produced no moments that had Cech or our defence in any bother.
Then out of the blue they score a goal that quite frankly was a complete fluke.
He will never ever score another goal like that in his life.
The goal did not result from an error by our players,but just a hail Mary shot that could have gone anywhere.
That upset our equilibrium clearly,and they were given a massive lift in confidence.
But until the 2nd goal,second best as we were,it was still only 1 nil,and we are a goal away from a Point.
You cannot then legislate for the ref missing a blatant foul on Kos which results in them getting a 2nd goal.
That injustice knocked the stuffing out of us,and from then on we are chasing the game.
Even without the 2nd illegal goal,the Saints may well still have gone on and won the game,because they were clearly playing well after the lift of the first goal,but equally we may have found a goal out of nothing and picked up a point we may not have deserved on our overall play.
The 3rd and 4th goals are immaterial to me,and were just icing on the cake for Saints.
But i didn’t see any player not trying,and sometimes you have to accept it’s not your day,or night in this instance. !!
The press and the trolls on the internet,and plenty of so called Arse followers had a field day post match, which i am sure, made them all feel very puffed up and important in their own spiteful vitriloic little world.
And no,i am i am not pointing the finger at any Arse followers in Holic’s Bar.
We got well beaten,but hey,we are still 2nd in the league,2pts off the top,with home games against Bournemouth and Newcastle to come,City have to go to Leicester and Watford,and 4th placed Spuds have to go to Watford and Everton.
We are right in the thick of the Title race,for the first time in a while.
A couple of astute signings in the Jan window,to complement what we already have,and Alexis due back in 2 weeks,we can gird our loins for a roller coaster 2nd half of the season.
Clive@12: I don’t disagree with any of that post (and especially with the notion that Martina will never score a goal like that again in his career). I certainly didn’t think the team was disinterested. But it did look weary, and that is why it was second best on the day. One thing I didn’t understand was why Ozil, who was being double-team by Southampton’s five-man midfield didn’t swap position more with Theo to open up more space down the middle.
Evening Ned
Is it true the Monks don’t wear anything under their Cassocks,just in case.??
Fact is at no time against our feeder club did we play with the creativity and energy or at the speed we’re capable of. ‘Weary’ it looked and perhaps we should accept that as the reason after what most would see as a much higher pressure game midweek.
Problem is we’ve seen it happen far too often. Whether it’s a game that would see us go top, as this one was, or a game that comes after our nearest rivals have all slipped up and we can gain a points advantage, we always seem to cock it up. It’s like we’re overcome with the moment, as if we don’t think we’re worthy or something.
It’s been driving me nuts for years. WHY DO WE DO IT????
Oskar
On the injury front,
It now appears Jack will not be back til Feb or even later,according to the Boss.
His recovery is going much slower than expected apparently.
No surprise there then.
So only Alexis of the first team squad back before Feb,always supposing he doesn’t have a setback as well. !!
Missed watching the game being on the road so had to revert to the old days of following the game on bbc text description. Shane fucking Long with multiple goals against the Arsenal? Hard to digest with or without muscle relaxant.
Evening all. I have not bothered to watch any of the Southampton game. I could see no reason whatsoever to put myself through that. None at all. I have read various reports and like a few more now it abound appear, I’m bored with excuses. 5 days is more than enough to prepare for a game. It wasn’t the fault of the officials, the ball wasn’t too round etc.
Physio room shows us with 6 players out injured. They include Tommy R and Danny W who have hardly kicked a ball all season. There is Plastic Jack who sadly seems so be nothing but brittle. No one will be surprised that all 3 have been long term absentees. Add Alexis to the list who played we allowed to play with a suspect hamstring and then guess what happened??? Bournemouth go into the game with more injuries than we have so hopefully injuries will not be another excuse.
I don’t see any excuses for tomorrow. We should have more than enough to win the game. I would be happy to see AOC come into the side to replace Campbell. I also think that Gabriel needs to play games if we are ever to start to see what he can do. Time for Cech to break that record as well.
Will hope to join a few of the regulars pre match time permitting.
Bring it on.
I suspect the journos close to the club were correct in that Arsenal only intended to sign one player in this window. That looks to be Elneny who is something of a cross between Flamini and Arteta. It looks a typical Wenger deal. Shrewd and under the radar but will one in be enough.
As Clive points out Jack has relapsed, so gas Welbeck, Risicky has not played all season and Arteta breaks down every time he plays. Flamini is limited and doubtful for tomorrow. That gives us few options especially if Wenger believes the young players are not ‘ nearly’ ready for the first team. Cazorla and Coquelin are out for some time. So I doubt there is any truth in Chambers going back to Saints on loan but we look awfully short to me for a squad in three competitions and needing to mount a title chakkenge.
I get the frustration with buying for the sake of it and nobody appreciates the team dynamic better than Wenger but it really does look to me as if we may need to do more business. The problem is always that the best players may not be available but the other option is that we may need to pay over the odds to bring in someone who can make a difference.
That’s a big decision but this is a big opportunity and it strikes me as a sign of ambition to the top players if we bring someone in who is a marquee player. Having said this I don’t expect us to do this. But it would be a shame if we left ourselves short of key resource in a promising situation when we have a strong cash position.
TTG
The majority of the above could have been written 18 months ago and would have been equally as valid. Some will have you believe that an abundance of next best things will turn us miraculously into world beaters. 4 months ago the club would have you believe that there was not a single outfield player available that would improve our squad. But now our scouts have identified a 23 year old Egyptian who is plying his trade in Switzerland as our new star buy? I will be honest and say that I have never heard of him and I’ve never seen him play so I have no idea what he is like.
If we could not find one player 4 months ago I won’t be holding my breath in January.
“Plastic jack”. Steve T thats perfect. I am going to use that.
Massively frustrating for jack. Will he ever fulfill his initial promise and potential, that is the question. And how long will the club expend time, money, and opportunity (a la’ Diaby …) hoping it works out? Not writing him off yet. A (possibly) great player. But, ….
I have a Rosicky top. And I Love watching him in full flight – its truly a lovely thing. But i fear for the little Mozart. The futbol injury gods are truly cruel.
Sorry, back to the point. Come on Gunners – fooking stomp Bournemouth. Theo – hat trick, my man!!
Clive@14: they are monks, not clerics.
TTG@19: does that make Elneny a Flamteta or an Armini?
Steve T: bit of background on Elneny:
23, with 40 full caps for Egypt, including 12 in the Africa Cup of Nations and seven World Cup qualifiers, mostly playing at DM (though Egypt is no longer the power in African football it was in the 2000s); 144 games for Basel, including 18 Champions League ties and 19 Europa League ties, with 68 as DM and 32 as CM.
So quite a lot of experience in the DM position for his age. Le Coq, who is a year older, has only played 23 more games as a DM.
Elneny has won three league titles in successive seasons with Basel and was in the Egyptian teams that got to the finals of the 2011 U20 World Cup and the 2012 London Olympics.
Big question about Elneny would be how quickly he can adapt to the pace and physicality of the Premiership week in, week out. As TTG says, typical Wenger under-the-radar purchase, and also one for the long-term, given Elneny’s age.
I’ll wager there will be more than one quality signing in January. Elneny seems a certainty, and there are strong rumours about Krychowiak and Nolito, plus a number of others including Riyad Mahrez – in my opinion a much better bet than Vardy who is on other’s wish list.
I don’t see AW letting this golden opportunity to end his Prem drought go without spending what is needed. His Arsenal tenure is running out of time.
Oskar
🙁 Apostrophe ooops in my previous … other’s should be others’.
I feel better for that, cba. 😉
Oskar
Morning Ned. Thank you for the detailed analysis. I’m not someone that gets the time to watch a massive amount of European football so that is very helpful. Two questions though if I may? I don’t like to make assumptions but I’m guessing that all of those caps, titles etc have not been won in the last 4 months? Assuming that is correct, is there any reason why those paid vast sums of money at the club could not have identified Elneny some time ago?
Working on the fact that the answers to both of the above is NO then I would like to propose Ned as the new head of the Arsenal scouting system. I would also like to suggest that he can employ as many of the monks that he feels necessary. Ned clearly has more knowledge than the current team all taken together.
🙂
Morning Steve
Trust you had a good Christmas with the family,till Boxing Day made you grumpy.
Which i entirely understand.
Just to add to the discussion re transfers,
The Boss did say in his Presser yesterday when asked,that we had made no bid for ‘ Alimony’ or any other Swiss gnomes,and that we were in his words.” not even close to any January signings ‘
Ned @ 13 – I suspect the reason that Ozil didn’t interchange more with Theo was that nobody realised Theo was playing, along with pretty much the rest of the side.
Otherwise, I excuse Bellerin and Monreal who I thought were ok – the rest were simply not at the races and the Saints deserved a victory. They also had one disallowed that looked ok to me and Kos could have received a yellow on more than one occasion so the poor officiating went both ways I think.
Anyway, shit happens. Move on. 4-0 to the good guys to shake those Cherries from their recently injury-improved tree.
UTA.
Good morning Clive. All well thank you. I trust you and yours are all fit, well and with the exception of those two hours on Boxing Day, all had a great time?
The fact that we are not close to signing anyone is more likely to be the case I would suggest. I would advocate Ned taking over had head of recruitment.
I’m guessing that the Ramblers never had these problems? It would just be a case of seeing who had got bail from the local courts, if they had boots and then getting them on the pitch? Ahhhhh, the good old days.
Flamini has a slight muscle strain is what i read, true is it?? if that is the case, chambers lines up in the middle or do we take the gamble and play ox and ramsey in the centre?? We need to lift our game massively from saturday and for that to happen everyone needs to turn up for none did against the saints.
P.S- so LVG to get sacked if he does not win today? well i hope it is a draw and both suffer.
Yes Steve
Great time with the family.
As for the Ramblers,you are spot on.
And of course we never had a January transfer window in our day,so we just had to keep our fingers crossed that the light fingered and the house breakers in our squad,didn’t get nabbed over the lucrative
Christmas/New Year period.
It was always a waiting game on the first Sunday morning after New Years day,and a collective sigh of relief when everyone reported for duty.
Of course it was a given, that the dodgy ones among us on that crisp Sunday morning,would have a real spring in their step,for obvious reasons.!!
They played like it as well. !!
Quite glad I couldn’t get on the site all day after our game, we were all shit apart from the full backs. The full backs were merely poor 🙂
8-1 later.
Afternoon all, just!
Clive, you can disagree with me anytime. You have earned the right, and I accept the piece was written more in frustration than with any attempt at detail. I do still think they worked harder and played better than us.
Cynic, I have the slow-loading thing quite a bit too, but it is the same on many other sites too. I had put it down to El Capitan and Safari being a bit shit. I’ve already had to stop using mail with it. Crap upgrade by Apple.
At least the cricket is going well (unless you are a Saffa of course, in which case apologies :-))
Steve T@26: four of the 40 caps were won in the past four months, but your point stands. I would suspect that Elneny has been on the Arsenal watch list for some time, especially given AW’s knowledge of young players in European football, but wouldn’t have been bid for as he wasn’t an clear upgrade on Coquelin and the club had Arteta and Flamini as DM cover plus Santi and Ramsey as the box-to-box midfielder (on which Elneny wouldn’t have been an upgrade either). Now we are down to bare bones, that calculation has changed. On the basis of a few Youtube clips, Elneny looks promising, with an eye for a pass, but far from the finished product.
Noosa@28: 🙂
‘Tis the same on three machines (each with a different OS) and with different browsers when it goes slow, H, so it’s not your machine/OS/browser. Might be Vagina Media?
200mb broadband and worse than dialup, but it’s only this site and Yahoo that dies the death when this one goes belly up.
Not that I’m complaining or owt, just explaining.
Gabriel for Kos, Gibbs for Monreal, Chambers for Flamini, and Ox for Joel.
Everything crossed here…
everything dotted there…
Thanks Cynic. Actually they have just upped me to 70mb here so maybe they are the problem.
Good evening cab. I trust Christmas went better than expected? 😉
They have a decent little deal on at the moment, where you can get 200mb broadband and half price for nine months. Big Kahuna Sports bundle. Which I think is everything apart from the films, 18 month contract.
Why are we playing at silly o’clock if it’s not on t’telly? 🙁
Come on Arsenal!
Hope everyone is well after Crimbo?
http://live.sports4u.tv/schedule/arsenal-vs-afc-bournemouth-live-stream/
If anyone needs a stream
We’ve got that fat twat from Masterchef reffing our game.
This won’t be an easy ride
COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hand brake off please!
Looking more and more like Saturday. Way below the required intensity. Worried.
Get in there Gabriel! Come on!
Get in. Gabriel!!!!!
Shocking defending there. It’s like watching us 😀
Gabbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbby!!!
GET IN!!!
I dunno who’s directing this match but he seems to have fallen in love with Eddie Howe
Another assist for Ozil, who else. Per almost gets another goal. Team showing more energy today. Theo misses another chance to score.
This match has 1-1 written all over it with the amount of chances we have missed. I am sure they will go and other end and nick 1. Hope I am proved wrong but we have been here before
Denis Law being interviewed yesterday.
Q. Would your united team beat the present one?
A. Yeah, 1 nil I think?
Q. 1 nil? Why so close?
A. Well, most of us are in our 70’s now.
Made me laugh.
Hopefully we will be more clinical in the second half.
We need to get a few more goals…
COME ON!!!
With a name like Gosling you’d think he’d be a better diver than that
Ozillll!!!! Brilliant.
Lovely football holic pound is on!
Tired of assisting….Ozil Scores!
Giroud…brilliant assist..back flip of the boot!
GET IN!!!
ozil!!!!
Gabriel run to the near post for a shot or flick on should remain a part of the set piece arsenal ?
Job done, three points in the bag. Could have won by a tennis score. Congrats to Cech on his breaking the record for most clean sheets in the premier league.
Good job Arsenal.
That was some combo by OG and Ozil. Bam!
Saints got beaten by west ham. Shows how poor we were. But top of the table. Nice place to be. Glad to see the team a bit more hungry today. Finishing poor though.
That was hell-ish
Not the performance ; but trying to keep up with it.
No TV and couldn’t find a decent stream or any radio commentary.
Had to listen to Chelski/Manure match (not exciting!) waiting for updates.
Oh well…good 3 points and top of the league.
Were you on the ‘holic pound. I was happy to assist you! 😉 >>>>>>>
Ozil created 9 chances….clearly we need to finish better!
Alexis….we need him!
At least six of those chances fell to Theo, BB. He seems to have lost his touch lately. Very disappointing, although not one was really gold plated.
But a win and topping the table makes me feel a lot better today. Plus Leicester and City playing each other means dropped points by one or both of them. I think a small HP18 is in order.
Spuds in third? And with a better GD? They need putting in their place…
Oskar