One of the reasons I often bang on about how a gripping, exciting game, preferably one where the lead changes hands or one or both teams stage unlikely come backs, where controversial decisions change the game, is this. I think they’re important. Now I know football isn’t really important. I understand the part it plays in our lives is peripheral to the make or break decisions which genuinely affect our future, and I see that a hobby, a diversion such as football will always pale into insignificance beside the more momentous and genuinely important aspects of our existence.
Sorry ignore that last pile of horse manure. Of course football is important. We have mortgaged our souls, bet our future happiness on it. But getting back to those kind of games, the ones I described above, this why I think they matter, because they can provide the spark, they can ignite in a young mind the imagination of the football fan and that fire can burn on throughout that young person’s life. I love that football and my crazy passion for Arsenal spins off back into the dank reaches of my past like a lifeline, a rope of memories, joys, miseries, thrills and many many spills which connects this wizened washed up old curmudgeon with his innocent boyhood self.
The draw against Fulham this season was a perfect example. I know we miserable grown ups with our corns, our back aches and our dodgy knees felt a little deflated at the perceived loss of two points. The ecstasy of the last gasp penalty, and the sharing of Mikel’s agony at the miss. But imagine if you can a youngster who, having had Arsenal foisted on them by a parent or having made that all too important random choice to follow the red and white, imagine them watching that match. The wild swings of fortune the moments of brilliance, the errors, the unlikely outcome, six goals,bad decisions, a missed penalty, Giroud’s brilliance, Koscielny’s miracle tackle, cheering, groaning crowds, wildly apoplectic commentators. Imagine the effect of all this on that young impressionable mind. That would be the kind of game he’d be boring his grandchildren about during the 2072 – 73 season. Before money ruined the game, he’d be saying. “And did they all wear funny shorts in those days Grandpa?” the kids would ask him, “Like on the old holo-reels you watch from the turn of the century. Was Carl Jenkinson Captain in that game Grandpa?” “No no, he’d only just started his career. He didn’t become Captain for another five years. You know we won the double three years running with Captain Carl don’t you kids” “Yeah yeah yeah Grandpa we know – you’ve told us enough times”
I was seven when I decided I liked the Arsenal kit. Or the badge. Or Charlie George. I can’t tell you now why I chose them. I know my Dad, a Portsmouth fan always told me that The Arsenal were synonymous with class. He spoke of innovation on and off the pitch, of marble halls, under soil heating and a beautiful stadium. Well for whatever reason I chose keeping a scrapbook of Arsenal newspaper clippings as my project at school that year and we went on to win the double. My formative memories of those early years in my Arsenal supporting career involve the bathroom, a small green plastic transistor radio and Stoke City.
You see as impossible as it may seem the name Stoke City hasn’t always conjured images of Broud from The Clan Of The Cave Bear. In my young life we were permanently playing them in the FA Cup. In the semi final. In a replay. On a school night. There was no internet just the unsurpassed voices of Peter Jones and Bryon Butler fighting to be heard above the roar of the crowd and the crackling static of the medium wave band. I would take the tranny and retire to the only room in the house where I could lock the door and lie there, eyes closed, bubbles quietly popping, water up to my chin picturing the floodlit battle taking place at far away romantic sounding places like Villa Park and Goodison.
Stoke had players to be reckoned with, names every schoolboy knew. Banks in goal, getting on a bit but when he still had both eyes, Jimmy Greenhoff, and um, Peter Dobing. Well, we knew the first two in any event. But we always seemed to beat them in the end even after controversial and drawn first matches, the quality shone through and won through. To be honest little has changed over the years between the two teams. We usually win, they huff and puff but seldom blow our house down, the only thing that has changed for me is that where I used to see them as worthy, difficult opponents to be respected and approached with care, I now see them as the most hated of all premier league teams and the ones I most want to see relegated. To be fair to them they have changed their style a little now. But they haven’t changed their revolting manager and nor do I recall them ever apologising for their Captain and his despicable cowardly assault on one of the flowering talents of British football.
I hope we get a game to inspire the youngsters today. But I’ll tell you what, I don’t hope for a nip and tuck, lead changing hands type inspiration. I want that other kind of inspirational performance. You know the type of thing I mean. The one where we utterly annihilate and devastate a bewildered opponent with fast free-flowing improvisational football and lots and lots of goals.
Of course as it’s the knuckle dragging Neanderthals we play today I’ll be just as happy with a one nil off a Shawcross own goal against the run of play and bugger inspiring the youngsters.
Positively Arsenal 
Lovely stew. Nice and romantic. Perhaps we are all too guilty of bothering ourselves with the nitty gritty of the game.
We have too much invested in the day to day results to enjoy those end to end games that get the heart pumping for the nuteral fan. I often watch a game that i have no particular care for who the winner is- much easier watching but perhaps not the same class the arse bring to the table.
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For me those games have an even higher octane when they involve your own team. You get all the excitement and drama of the match and you are also desperate for the win. When I watch as a neutral a free kick awarded ten yards outside the box is a meh moment, when it’s ten yards outside of our box I have the rosary beads out.
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Nice one Stew!
Funnily enough, when I was between about 9 and 14 years old, it was always Chelsea that kept cropping for some reason. Largely due to their being flavour of the half-
decade amongst a load of peers in my neck of the Kent woods. But at a time when Leeds were also riding high.
Grim time in some ways, the early ’70’s!
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Great stuff Stew.
Anyone got an idea who we will start with today?
I cant see Abou not playing ,trouble is I cant think who he might replace ..
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I like it Stew
To be fair to Stoke ( never said that before) in the early 70s they had some great players – Shilton followed Banks, Eastham was still going, they had a clever Paddy called Conroy and Alan Hudson put in a few seasons
Real cavalier team – great going forward but slack at the back – a combination of qualities that ring a bell 🙂
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Sir Chez in goal.
Kos (in for TV’s dodgy ankle), Mert, Nacho, Bac at the back.
AD, Santi, Jack, AR (for Arteta) in the middle.
Pod & Lord Olivier.
Theo on at 60 for AD to complete the rout.
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anicoll5 February 2, 2013 at 10:29
They were a good side and we had some great battles with them. Also with Leeds as Andrew says. As far as today goes I am shy of second guessing Arsene because he sometimes takes a totally unexpected route and throws someone straight into the fray and at other times cautiously eases them into the team over a period of months.
Personally I think he’ll start with the same team as against Liverpool with Andre replacing Gibbs. Just because we don’t need any instability or confusion at the back and an unknown player may cause that. Having said that Andre is just back from injury and so the new boy may be straight in, it could have been Arsene’s plan all along.
So neither scenario will phase excite or confuse me. I have total confidence in a guy who has won multiple caps for Brazil, he has been fearfully unlucky with injury since joining us but is undoubtedly talented and capable, I also trust that Nacho wouldn’t be here at this stage in his career if he couldn’t step up and slot right in.
Win win as far as I can see.
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I feel like a late comer to the world of football as I wasn’t supporting the arse til 88.
My team for today would probably be
Sir Chez
Bac
Merty
Kos
Santos (as I feel Wenger wont rush Nacho and Santos will need to be sharp for the ECL, also too many changes in the back four may not be the order of the day).
Diaby (in for Ramsey)
Santi
Wilshere
Walcott
Giroud
Podolski
As much as I’d like to see our new Mexican wrestler I think he may only come on as sub. Mind you I’m probably wrong. Also I’m hoping Diaby only does 45, and Ramsey can come on for him at half time. I love Diaby, he’s our best player in my eyes. I just hope we can keep him fit for Bayern.
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AA @ 10:29
is that a 4-4-2 set-up? If so, fat chance with Wenger. You know how stubborn the old coot is 🙂 . It will be the usual front three, methinks. The middle three is the mystery; Wilshere and Cazorla pick themselves with three players fighting for the deeper position. Then again Wenger may try a little surprise. You never know.
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Agree, Stew, as an established Spain international I think Nacho can certainly be trusted to step up against anything the Premier League has to offer.
I worry for Santos as I still have high hopes for him; he needs game time, clearly, but the competition for all places bar goalie & CF is intense.
Really looking forward to seeing Nacho this afternoon and the guys will be kicking themselves for not finishing off Liverpool in the week; despite the presence of Orcs, this really could be a rip-roaring match.
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Shotta – I think the surprise might be not starting Walcott; we’ll see soon enough.
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Do we even play a recognisable formation? As someone said here yesterday at times against the Dippers it was a 2 0 8 set up. We usually keep a nominal presence at the base of the midfield and so resort to a more defensive 2 1 9 formation, but seriously it is so fluid and so dependent on the state of the game and the score that we meld to many shapes. At times Lukas and Larry were defending while our ‘fullbacks’ were way ahead of them.
I think it’s total football and formations are just a shorthand for fans like us brought up on stodgy formulaic simpleton football.
Wengerball is a whole new thing.
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Fantastic stew, Peter Jones and Bryon Butler the 2 greatest commentators ever bar none, I fell in love with the arsenal like you very early,despite growing up in the east end everyone on our estate was Arsenal,it was a mixture of old east end and Irish families and everyone was Arsenal, I suppose geographically we were just as close to arsenal as we were to west ham or the big group of Irish players may account for it or the red top,white sleeves & cannon, who knows? it didn’t matter-you were born there and you were Arsenal,no questions or anything! A fleet of cars and vans would leave 1-30 for highbury every Saturday home game,like I said, you were Arsenal and that was that-thank god!- abou in for santi and arsenal to win 4-1! COYG!
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Mel ” Peter Jones and Bryon Butler the 2 greatest commentators ever bar none”
You will, literally, never read a sentence more demonstrably true and unarguably precise than that if you live to be a hundred and read every word ever typed on every blog ever published.
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Excuse me, please. Lost my manners for a moment. That was an excellent post Steww. You took me back to my childhood when I was a devout cricket fan, for obvious reasons. I too had those meticulously composed scrapbooks of my childhood heroes who I could only see in my fevered imagination fed by by the poetry of a commentator on a hissing transistor. If you think your tranny was bad, just imagine those of us in the Caribbean 30-40 years ago listening to cricket or an FA cup commentary relayed on long distance telephone lines via our not so modern radio stations.
I suppose and hope it taught me something about the love of the game and being in love with your team.
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Yes I struggle – in fact I gave up ages ago – trying to work out what formation Arsene’s Arsenal play; as Stew rightly says, it’s just so fluid.
I also think that the ability to play in a fluid formation is a key factor in determining whether a potential signing would ‘fit the system’. AW is always looking for value, supreme fitness but also that hard to define ability to play more than one role in the side.
It’s a tough call in most instances and, given the system, only one person is really qualified to call it, I’d say.
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Can people please stop mentioning the trannies; Mel’s bound to pick up on it and that will be that for the day.
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AA @ 11:30 am
Ha, Ha, Ha!
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Shotta – thank you.
Right everyone the curse of the footy fan wedding photographer has struck today so I’m off to Bristol to capture someone’s nuptials.
I will be watching the match tomorrow so don’t tell me the score please.
On a slightly superstitious worrying note I had to travel to Bristol on that fateful day when we played Stoke and poor Aaron was assaulted. But (fingers crossed) I’m not superstitious.
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Glad to hear that I’m not the only one who watches games with a rosary!
Shotta I think Santi is playing wide right in that formation. With LJW back in that Fabregassian Tennish role, like in some recent games. At the start of season I thought that would be a common site- one of Poldi Gervais or Theo wide, OG or Poldi at CF. But I guess the returning Wilshere wasn’t ready for a time.
It doesn’t fit certain narratives to remember that AFC can and do vary their tactics. Our old friend The Brain & Tim Stilman have made some sense of it all on a mainstream blog, which only highlights the myopia of so much pre-determined sniping at the team and tactics.
Steve Bould who has allegedly been at odds with the manager talks of an identity at the club from first team down to youth team. Other teams copy or are copying the trend of variable 433ish stuff we have seen over the years (along with other pioneering teams). No doubt he and others at the club wanted a new LB, they had one lined up,they got him (similar to the deal for Per: an arrangement that was brought forward). I think that the former Stoke player Mr.Bould is not as confused as many would have us believe. And that AFC do vary their tactics.
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Trannies!!
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You are a very talented man, Stew. Broadcaster, musician, photographer, rollerskater, ambulance man, raconteur. Brilliant article.
I hope tototopopopopo plays today.
Just off to the game…yeeeeehhhaaaaaaaa…..giddyup old girl
Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenal….Arsenal, Arsenal, Arsenaaaaal…Arsenal, Arsenal Arsenal….Arsenal….ARSENAL
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Beautiful, Steww. It was 1990 before I signed up. I don’t even remember Anfield 89. I’ve tried for years to force my brain to remember but it’s just not in there. So, obviously Stoke were never s big club in my eyes. To me, they were nothing, then the place where Robbie Williams comes from and then thuggish early-man. Stoke City, This is your life.
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Right off to the game, it’s my little brothers birthday-earl refreshments, wherever you are enjoy it, COYG!
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Fins – I thought we’d been led to believe AW and Steve Bould don’t talk to each other?
Funny, every time I watch them on the telly box or at the ground they are gassing away like like long-lost cabbies in a taxi rank.
So Stew’s trying to do a ‘Likely Lads’.
Good luck with that … (Shhhh).
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AA @ 12:15 pm and Fins @ 11:49 am
That AW – Steve Bould meme really did me in and propagated by someone I really respected. People change, it is their right. But don’t twist the facts to suit your new agenda.
Anyways, who suggested Santi playing wide right and Jack, Abou and Arteta in the middle? I can have some of that. it is amazing our midfield isn’t as thin as the nouveau experts kept hammering away. Upfront we could have used Villa but we fight with what we have. Lord Oliver, Giroud and Poldi are quite a handful anyway having collectively replaced Van Traitor’s goals. The defending is still a concern and I feel sure AW and Steve are working at it.
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Andrew I’ve always had trouble with the desire to believe that Steve Bould is not being honest when he fondly talks about his old youth teams and that he no longer shares in the (Football) vision that he spent years coaching into players like LJW and others.
I’d better begin my ‘march’ to the ground too. COYG.
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Brilliant Steww – I’m off to the game shortly too. Catch you guys later. Come on you Gunners!
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Rumour that Santi has had to go to Spain due to the death of his uncle.
Super post Steww
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Arsenal team: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Diaby, Arteta, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, Giroud
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Santi is on the bench so the rumour I posted must be false
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Hmm. Tricky intro to the PL for the Mexican takeaway!
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Funny, we are most dangerous after corners. Against “big” Stoke.
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Funny, we are most dangerous after corners. Against “big” Stoke.
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Oh Begovic…
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lets hope we play the second half like we have of late/
Diaby looking to be back to his best
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Excellent 1st half in my opinion. 3 clear cut chances created but they were saved by the goalie. As long as we keep creating the chances we will score.
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And a goal. Great decision from Foy, his linesman needs a good talking to.
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Well I got home in time to watch almost all of it.
Looks like my final paragraph was prescient.
#One nil, to the football team, One nil, to the football team, One nil, to the football team, One nil, to the football team, One nil, to the football team, One nil, to the football team, One nil, to the football team,
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It looks like simply playing for Stoke gets the worst out of human beings. Owen having a swing at Arteta for which he should definitely be banned retrospectively, Shawcross with another one of his “special” tackles (can’t he just be banned from football forever? I am sure no one sane would mind), disgraceful club.
On the other hand, the football team has won. Good job!
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What did Steww say about suffering to win. What estacy! 1-0 to the football team.
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Excellent!
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Steww – I didn’t even notice you were back. Prescient indeed.
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Chelsea lose after being 2-1 up. Oh my! What a fantastic day this is turning out to be. 3rd place is there for the taking!
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Paul – How sweet it is! Can I gloat at Positively Arsenal?
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#One nil to the football team
#One nil to the football team
#One nil to the football team
#One nil to the football team
#One nil to the football team
#One nil to the football team
#One nil to the football team
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Evil – 3rd indeed. How sweet it will be to be vindicated. They said we had no bench. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. After keeking the Orcs on the backfoot, on comes Poldi and Santi to change the game.I am loving it.
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You sure can Shotta.This is the home of gloating
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Sweet is the word, Shotta. Only one goal but a dominant performance. And, Nacho does look class, no?
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Gloat yes!
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