For those who travel to Arsenal games by canal there is great news, the Department of the Environment have banned water fern, parrot’s feather, floating pennywort, water primrose and Australian swamp stonecrop from these shores. Don’t put your machetes away yet though, these plants are pretty prolific. Only last Sunday Camden looked like a scene from ‘The War of the Worlds’. And several dogs, children and small adults have gone missing whilst walking beside the Serpentine and the lake in St James Park….though the latter might be down to pelicans.
Liverpool next, which is always special and full of memories, like the time I almost got divorced over that bottle opener that came as a ‘gift’ in the season ticket pack a few years back. I am told that a woman can only take so much of, ‘…Thomas its up for grabs nowwww..Thomas..’, every time her worst half opens a bottle of beer, which happens quite often. Either way even now, after my bottle opener was found broken into four pieces in a fish pond four houses away, she goes into an uncontrollable rage at the mere mention of the name Michael Thomas and it has wrecked our relationship with close friends John and Tina Thomas and their son Patrick……..oh and their youngest son, Michael..
Anyway that was an away game and the last time we played Liverpool, at Anfield (on September 2nd 2012) I remember wishing that I could watch the game in Saint-Denis in Paris, or Aubervilliers to be precise. Not far from the Stade De France. The game would have been screened in any number of bars in the area. There they love their football, particularly games featuring Parisian players and this game starred one of their own, for Aubervilliers is where Vassiriki Abou Diaby was taught to play football.
What a player. The last of the old French guard, Abou has restored my faith in football players. Although I have to say there were many new heroes on display that Sunday and I thought they were all superb. Abou though, has a special place in my heart. I was as enthralled by his display that day as I was in the games preceding the May Day match against Sunderland in 2006. I think it was David Pleat, but I might be wrong, who was waxing lyrical about Arsene’s ability to find ‘another Patrick Vieira’ just minutes before that horrendous Dan Smith tackle. ‘Dan went for the ball, unfortunately Diaby was quicker than him’, was the pathetic response of Kevin Ball. Unfortunately several other Arsenal players proved to be ‘quicker than’ their opponents in the seasons following including Eduardo and Aaron Ramsey, the career of both of whom was adversely affected by horrific leg breaks. The effect on Abou’s career has been palpable and is well documented and painfully followed by me and thousands of other Arsenal supporters.
Abou was imperious at Anfield. The whole team were superb and every one of them deserved a mention, including Olivier Giroud, whose movement was very impressive even then, of course we now know that he is a superb finisher and maker of goals and his ability to head the ball on is second to none. Vito Mannone, Carl Jenkinson, Thomas Vermaelen, Per Mertesacker, Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain, Mikel Arteta, Santo Cazorla, Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud, Laurent Koscielny, Aaron Ramsey, Andre Santos all stepped up that day. But for me, that Sunday, Abou was back, though not for long as it turned out. The imbalance caused by the leg break leaves him susceptible to muscle injuries, a condition which, I am advised, need not be permanent but requires a huge amount of hard work and patience.
In the event I watched that game in Pimlico, without my passport. Sorry about the passport bit but Pimlico always conjures up images of that film. Never fails. On TV in an apartment near to Tate Britain, that is where I watched the game. After and much later I came upon a fellow from Liverpool sitting on the kerb outside of a Peabody Trust building. He was singing ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’. I could tell he was lost and looking for Victoria Coach Station, they always are around those parts. I’ve lost count of the number of people who have asked me the way to Victoria Coach Station. They come from all corners of the world, even Liverpool.
‘Where are you heading’ I asked, with a wry smile on my face and feeling generous, as I always do when we win.
‘Home’ he said
‘Where’s that’ I asked, knowingly, fiddling with my long johns which I always wear to watch games even on TV and noting that I had put them on back to front again.
‘Camden…..now fuck off, Gooner’ he replied
I could just hear the strains of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ fading into the distance as he wandered off into the night weaving his way down the middle of the street to the tube……alone.
I seem to have told this story without mentioning a single Liverpool player, not even S….or G….and I am not going to because this game is about my team. I hope Abou will be playing he is improving by the game and is part of a fabulous group of players who to me look set to achieve greatness. Don’t care where Liverpool are in the table or where we are in the table partly because it is still January but also because playing Liverpool is always one of those special occasions particularly as they have performed very well in recent fixtures only conceding three goals to Oldham Athletic who are in…errrr…League 1. I think that Liverpool will know they are in a game.
I love going to the football to watch Arsenal.
Frank
Positively Arsenal 
Advantage ref?
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Justice. Now come on.
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Oi Theo
It’s time
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Arsenal are by far the better team but these little flukey things have gone their way.
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THEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~~~~~
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There was never a doubt!
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You will note I have the gift
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Giroud with the assist. Giroud is the top striker the doomers want. They just have to get rid of their black blindfolds.
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A goal and an assist from OG! the boy is class!
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Oh my God. What a team.
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Can we all agree that the Aaron is back. Yes OG, yes Theo but it’s been masterful from AR tonight.
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Santos is playing well. The Doomers will have a go at him for the goal but it was just unfortunate.
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Filthy bastard.
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Closing them down so well now.
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Number 3 coming now.
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Now?!
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I feel for our players, you can see their disappointment. We should’ve won. But good performance by the boys. The first goal was a proper freak goal, the second a stupid misunderstanding, we responded with proper quality and should’ve added a third.
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Yeh, Evil. This is tough to take. Overall there was only one team that was really in the game.
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Edge of the seat stuff. Really incredible second half, we were unlucky but to be fair they had chances to nick it.
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Lot of good performances out there tonight – cant see much more could have been done
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In the aftermath fingers will surely be pointed at Giroud, who didn’t covert a 100% chance, but they will ignore his fantastic goal and the assist.
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Can you believe this sort of shit?
“Akhilesh Bagri @AkhileshBagri
Was actually hoping we got scored against and that would be the end of Santos here. There’s still one day left!”
Dont anyone tell me that a fan .That a cunt.End of.
Great fight back .Despite what Sky say we were the best team throughout..
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“Paul-N January 30, 2013 at 9:07 pm
I know, Steww. This is strange as hell. The boys will have to dig deep. I believe we are going to come back.”
That’s how to support and look how right you were Paul. Good man. Should have won but come on folks at 2 – 0 it looked all over, so we have to take pride in that fight back.,
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The hard part is how their goals came about!
You can see that this team is going to be something special though. The team is really clicking.
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Santos misplaced a couple of passes but he’s not even played a full match since coming back from injury. People need to give him time and support. Look at Aaron, slated by all and sundry and yet there wasn’t a player on the pitch better than him tonight.
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From a ‘pool fan I follow on Twitter
“Difference is Arsenal pass the ball with intent, we seem to pass the ball for the sake of it #lfc”
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Agreed, Steww. Most teams would not have come back to get a draw against Pool. It was an excellent display of heart. I really love this team, I see something very special even though we are still going through growing pains.
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If Gibbs is out for a longer time, those “supporters” should be prepared to actually do what they are supposed to: support the team. And Santos will be part of the team. I hope we won’t see the kind of pre-match booing that sometimes happens at the Emirates when some of the less-positive minded are given entrance. Still disgraceful that Arshavin was booed when warming up last season.
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OG, missed the cross from Podolski that would have won it for us. I had to chuckle when It on replay because he just could not get his feet right. Funny!
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when I saw it…
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WOW, Reading also came back from two down to get a draw against Cheslki.
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It’s a bit frustrating because this team has so many good things about it but in the end individual mistakes keep coming back to cost us. Vermaelen attempted clearance for their 1st is a carbon-copy of his missed clearance against United. Sagna still hasn’t rediscovered his consistency that made him the best right back in the league/world. But what can you do about those individual mistakes? I don’t know what Wenger is supposed to do on the training ground to get that out of the player’s systems. Our tactics are alright, our shape is alright, we have plenty of creativity up front and a strong squad. Just those bloody individual errors…
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And it seems like Southampton gave United a warm time but could not get the 2nd goal.
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Evil, the goals seemed fortuitous to me. I will have to watch the first again. I just feel this team is going to put it all together at some point. I am confident of it.
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Can’t dwell too long on this. Everyone knows that this team can turn it up at any moment. We play Stoke on Saturday at home. Lets see how they like Olivier.
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@Paul N
Me, too. I mean… it’s just so damn obvious that this team oozes quality. Technically, he attitude, the mentality, it’s all spot on. It’s just like there is some psychological problem, a minor one, but nevertheless one that envelops the whole team. Is it lack of belief? Fear of failure? Pressure? I don’t know what it is, but I don’t think it’s something you can fix by getting a new player in or tweaking the formation slightly.
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In other news: I was for a long time afraid that when Arteta is out we would lack a proper backup. When Mikel was out last season, we really struggled (in January, we didn’t win a game and Mikel was out). Thankfully, Aaron Ramsey has stepped up to be counted. I didn’t expect him to end up back there, but he is doing a damn fine job. Arteta is top class, but Ramsey is closely behind him. Really glad for the boy that he has found his niche in the team now.
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giroud, cazorla, jack, theo, aaron…very very good tonight. gibbs get well.
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And lets be fair ,this was the best place on the web to be?
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@PG
Don’t want to imagine what would have been going on at half time when we were 2-0 down at other blogs…
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Man we played some wonderful football in the 2nd half. Most teams will find it hard to contain us if we can find that level more consistently from the off. We are becoming a joy to behold when we get into a groove. Liverpool hung on in there, I think lesser defences will not cope.
Good to see no heads here dropping either.
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Evil January 30, 2013 at 10:22 pm
lot of mouth frothing and groaning syllables id imagine, plus lots of typos from the eagerness to dish it out…
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Zim Paul was here and he got shut in moderation .Sorry Paul ,It wont happen again
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We didn’t get the rub of the green today. Olly missed a sitter and both Liverpool’s goals were a result of bad bounces/slips/waffles.
The good news is that Spurs and Chelski drew.
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heh chelsea and totenham drew too, and united was defending like the alamo, fergie preparing them for the mourinho era, everton won. anyone think arsene should bring podolski and santos in his office, slap them both, then order them to sort it out between them and cooperate for the good of the team? or do we risk playing vermaelen there and kos next to per ?
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Poor Santos has lost his swagger .he is thinking everything and it slows the game to a stop when he gets the ball.It can only be that he is trying to hard .And that is not helped by abuse and derision.
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hi g69, waffles for sure but just like the keeper threw himself to deny sturridge, i expected a bit similar from per, just a littl ebit.
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true george, abuse never helps, i didnt mean a real slap, just a few words from the boss to poldi too, i thought i saw him doing a “theo on jenks” bullying act like that awful unmentionable day in the worst august i can remember. …no need for that..harmony lads harmony
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Fantastic game, this particular wenger team gets better going forward with every game, the defence? Well…. This is a positive blog right? lets just say there’s much work to do!, although both goals were desperately unlucky, I thought we deserved to win it tonight, as for twitter and the two-faced weak arsed weasels who abuse our players get dare to put Arsenal this, gooner that, afc whatever in their twitter name then George is right their not fans, their mike deans, me? I’ll be over there Saturday cheering us on against the orcs,come on you red and white hobbits!
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Seems the nutcase have lost it tonight regarding Santos
Comes on – does Ok – we get two goals back – miss out on the 3 points
“Not fit to wear the shirt”.
Different game I watched – different player maybe
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