Posted in match review on Oct 1st, 2014 484 Drinks »
Happy eighteenth anniversary, Arsene. A potential banana skin of a night became a celebration not just because Galatasaray lined up with an untested formation, but also because those in red and white displayed a sense of purpose and commitment. Almost down to the bare bones, we shall worry tomorrow morning about Alexis’ ankle. His contribution […]
Posted in match review on Sep 28th, 2014 241 Drinks »
Twenty six hours after the event I have finally seen the entire match. The strain on the wifi in the place where I found myself on Saturday meant I saw only the first-half, and that on mute. A second viewing of that first period on Arsenal Player confirmed the impression I had at the time. […]
Posted in match review on Sep 23rd, 2014 162 Drinks »
This won’t be a long piece, or a conventional report on the 1-2 defeat to Southampton in tonight’s COCup 3rd round tie at the Grove. In this, the least valued of the domestic cups, we like many others choose to use the squad available to us to give them first team experience in front of […]
Posted in match review on Sep 20th, 2014 230 Drinks »
Sorry about that! For half an hour or so we had an evenly contested match at Villa Park. The nerves prompted by the midweek performance in Dortmund were barely soothed by Villa’s first shot on target being saved by Wojciech Szczesny. The goalkeeper needed to be at his best, and was. His instinctive save from […]
Posted in match review on Sep 16th, 2014 322 Drinks »
“It was pressing, and counter-pressing, and perfection… In the centre midfield it was perfect.” Jurgen Klopp reflected on his team’s utterly deserved 2-0 triumph and yet study of those words will tell the story of the night. Yes, Dortmund had pace, power, desire, and an incredible work ethic. Arsenal produced a little bit of the […]
Posted in match review on Sep 14th, 2014 123 Drinks »
The grey of early morn turned into a sunny lunchtime gathering to see if this new-look Arsenal could prove a match for the champions. I said beforehand that much would deprnd on how City, so often negative at the Grove, set-up. Pellegrini showed faith in his selection and had clearly encouraged them to be more […]
Posted in match review on Sep 1st, 2014 449 Drinks »
Well, as days out go I think you could say that was mixed. The team news revealed a couple of surprises, namely the ‘resting’ of Jack Wilshere, so impressive against Besiktas, and the selection of Yaya Sanogo who was listed as out with a hamstring problem before the event. There was an understandable reason for […]
Posted in match review on Aug 28th, 2014 478 Drinks »
If you want to read a conventional report on the game tonight can I recommend the Guardian. I haven’t seen what they have come up with yet, but among the mainstream media they and the Observer get it right more often than most. Actually, I just checked, and it is here. For this blogger and, […]
Posted in match review on Aug 23rd, 2014 610 Drinks »
It’s August, and Arsenal are trailing at half-time in the northwest. Two second half goals get us a result. Next time out we are spared a home defeat against Portsmouth by the infamous Robert Pires penalty award. Now nobody is claiming that eleven years on that this Arsenal side is in any sort of shape […]
Posted in match review on Aug 19th, 2014 342 Drinks »
I feel the need for a somewhat defensive post about the goal-less draw with Besiktas tonight mainly because of the reaction on social media sites, but actually that is not how I feel about the game. For much of the ninety minutes I saw two commited teams trying to fashion an open contest on a […]
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