I was going to do one of those clever invite the opposition blogs. You know, chat to my Sunderland supporting mate about how he sees Arsenal, what his own side’s strengths and weaknesses are and generally give the P.A. readership, erudite and urbane as you all are, the chance to see the world through their eyes.
Problem is he’s a bit blinkered with hatred for us (doubtlessly born out of jealousy) and tends to answer even the most ambiguous questions with a long drawn out “Aye”. Only the subtlest alteration in stress or inflection gives you a clue to his thinking. Wouldn’t have read well so I scrapped that idea.
Unperturbed and determined to pursue some semblance of the plan I searched for a few Sunderland blogs online so I could quote extensively from the comments they attracted. Unfortunately the first one I came to had me screaming at the monitor after they talked about Per’s injury which lead to their goal the last time we played up there. They seemed to suggest he was somehow inept or bumbling not to have stopped whichever clodhopping Sunderland player it was that lurched passed him as he lay injured on the floor. I fought down the bile and ploughed on. The next site I came to had robbed my idea. Well, ok it’s a pretty well worn and old idea but I had thought of using it so that much was down to me. This Black Cats blog had interviewed a man who shall remain nameless but writes for a leading allegedly Arsenal supporting blog. He used the platform of today’s opponents supporters blog to display disloyalty, dishonesty, dishonour and generally bleat in the most abject way about how miserable he was that we lost to Birmingham in the widdley diddley cup final and how it wasn’t fair that nasty old Arsene wouldn’t change his ways having singularly failed to replace any of the hundred stars he’s sold in the last two weeks. You catch my drift. I was angrier than ever by now so shut down my search and just started to think about Arsenal versus Sunderland without any outside help thank you very much.
Sunderland to me is two memories. The first shared by many of my generation features a trilby hatted man with a flapping mac and red tights who looked like a nineteen fifties car mechanic and part time Butlins Redcoat in his best clothes on a day out, doing a funny hop skip and bouncy jump across the hallowed turf of Wembley. Bob Stokoe had just witnessed his fabulously coiffured and bewhiskered Sunderland team hand out an unlikely FA cup final defeat to an infamous Leeds United team who were in their pomp back in 1973. The nation cheered as the red and white striped journeymen who had come down to London as little more than sacrificial lambs bullied Leeds (not many did that) and kept them at bay, thanks in no small part to some truly incredible goal keeping from Jim Montgomery. The double save from Trevor Cherry’s header and Lorimer’s follow up shot was so ridiculously good that even as I watch the youtube video now, knowing what will happen, I’m still convinced it goes in. Brian Moore commentating for ITV at the time was equally bewildered, shouting “And a goal … NO.. my goodness I thought Lorimer had got that one”. I’ll draw a veil over the fact that Sunderland knocked us out of the FA Cup in the semis to deny us our rightful chance of revenge against a hated Leeds side who had somehow beaten us in the previous year’s final. It’s a measure of how much Leeds were despised in the early seventies that despite the indignity of being dumped out of the cup by second division opposition I still wanted them to go on and win the cup.
My other memory when I think of Sunderland, shared only by me and my immediate family, is being driven around Roker Park about a dozen times on our way to a bizarre holiday destination somewhere on the North East coast. Mum was wrestling with a Bartholomew’s road atlas and Dad was becoming increasingly exasperated as no matter how many different escape routes she plotted for us the magnetic force of Roker Park pulled us back into it’s orbit. 
Of course Sunderland left their historic home back in 1997 exactly a hundred years after building it on what was originally farm land. Like Arsenal they built and moved into a new shiny stadium and despite the financial implications and inevitable stresses of a stadium move they stuck with the same manager and continued to play in an attractive, exciting style and remained firmly among the elite of European football, their beautiful pitch with it’s flawless playing surface being the envy of other less fortunate clubs.
Oh wait.
Sunderland like many others who’ve built new stadia have struggled to find consistent success. Or even consistent top flight status. In fact the last time they achieved consistent success was between 1891 and 1895 when they won the league three times in four seasons. That 1973 triumph against Leeds was their last ever trophy.
Strangely though, as I was trawling the blogosphere to find Sunderland quotes for my abortive article and whenever I speak to my Sunderland supporting friend the mood was and is always positive. The passion and support and self belief are everywhere self evident. One blog had at least five of the current Sunderland first team better than their opposite numbers in our team. And it’s been forty years without a trophy. Seventy seven years since they won the league. Something to ponder the next time you have to read or listen to some whining anti Arsenal ‘fan’ bitching because Sky told him to about seven years, and trophy droughts.
Modern day Sunderland as far as we’re concerned means packed defences and a lack of ambition at our place and a deliberately ploughed pitch with knee high grass at their place. I feel embarrassed for those passionate loyal supporters having to stand up and shout for a side that showed such a craven lack of self belief and desire at the Emirates or for a club that along with Milan should hang their heads for deliberately creating an unplayable surface just to stop their visitors producing decent football. Having said that their fans have been known to stand and applaud some of our players on occasions so hats off to them for that. O’Neill as a manager has always been an annoying waspish presence on the touchline but he knows how to organise his teams and does have some good players. It’ll be vital Theo has a good game to keep their speedy left back penned in his own half, but if we show the same patience we employed against the Orcs and the bravura with which West Ham and Liverpool were put to the sword we have enough to beat them.
Of course as Per can testify, sometimes a deep hoof print in the wrong place at the wrong time can make a mockery of even the best laid plans.
Positively Arsenal 
Did anyone see Santi’s face at the whistle? The man was knackered, as they say. The whole team did really well. We truly have the makings of something special. 1-0 to Arsenal suits me just fine.
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Look at the state of that pitch and the way their players went out to intimidate ours. That is not football, that’s a disgrace. And to think there’s a large number of people in England who claim that physical teams like Sunderland are what keep the league honest. Fuck off, I say. Like Stoke, they play right there at the edge of what is legal and ethical just to get a result.
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Shotta – he posted at 2.45 but the match was about to kick off and I didn’t notice the comment awaiting approval, sorry about that. Lovely, lovely post from him though, scroll up and see.
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I found Kitchen Sink @ 2:45pm. What a post? Damn the fence sitters. You’ve found the right place. We are the fuckin Arsenal!
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george is at the fox hq outisde that commentator’s studio on behalf of us all,
he has learned a new technique in kung fu and he needs to practice. we are all with you george!
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Kaaamaaaaan!!!!!!
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hunter13 February 9, 2013 at 5:05 pm
I tried to stay calm but I yelled at them a few times towards the end! No point in typing it here though, only makes you look stupid later.
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yes g69 like it was the most important game of their season…i wonder if they do same when chelsea city united go there…
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BELIEF DESIRE??
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KS – grit? Determination? Guts? Hard work?
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yes im guilty too, but you see the education we have from wenger and his japanese philoshy of showing no emotions is starting to pay dividents 🙂
we are showing mental strength
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Right – I’m off to polish my particulars in the bathroom. Pleasure sharing the match with you all, stay positive.
Bye for now.
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Hunter @ 5:05 pm. Bricking it indeed. I had to have a piss after the 1st point blank save by Chezzer. Rushed back for more horoics. He gets MOM by a country mile to quote or Frank.
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Fanx steww u gotta great thing going shotta its all love..
U could see the expansion of awareness between players in the 1st we’re finally ticking again..
What a game. Sagna u beast and scszesny u beauty.. Something beautiful is coming and I’m glad I’m in the place to share the joy..
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Kitchen Sink @ 5:10 pm – Glad to see you again. As you can see, most of the positive gang are here. Feel free to gloat unlike that other place.
Can i have two MOMs? Sagna was a man-mountain subbing as center-half. What a performance! We are putting real pressure on the top-four which according to the fence-sitters is no achievement. Hypocrites.
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Hunter: “yes g69 like it was the most important game of their season…i wonder if they do same when chelsea city united go there”
We don’t get protection when we travel to shit holes like Sunderland because a large part of the football establishment hates us for the awesome football we play. It’s almost perverse the way the football establishment (pundits, managers, officials) have near orgasms when they watch our kids get kicked in the air.
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Getting the job done on an afternoon that went from smooth to bumpy – important three points – impressed with everyone in rhubarb and custard
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a pleasure to meet you g69…i got to aclf a week or two after they banned you, and i had seen others demanding your return.
“because a large part of the football establishment hates us for the awesome football we play.”
and now i know why they kicked you out and it was the same with me..haha
i agree 100%
they dont like to hear this stuff do they? huh…. 😉
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Gains@ 5:28pm -These refs know they will get promoted by the establishment by allowing honest, old fashioned English tackling to persist against teams like Arsenal. No wonder when they play in internationally when such tackling is outlawed they struggle.
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Bye Steww.
Shotta I’m sure you love the pricks who are negative all season long, but right when we’re at the cusp of overtaking who ever is in front of us, they sheepishly proclaim how they’re ready to heat humble pie. Humble pie is not good enough anymore, I say. I think the new saying should be: I’m ready to eat a big, heaping bowl of dog shit.
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How can English football advance if players like Wilshere and Walcott, instead of being protected, are kicked out of the game? Yet ref Morgan will soon to be fast-tracked as the heir apparent to Webb. Mark my words.
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Nice to meet you too, matey.
Shotta, what teams like Arsenal? Crap like Liverpool gets protected because of their legendary aura. Even the Spuds have this lovable losers shit which the establishment finds charming. Can you imagine if the Welsh monkey boy played for us? He’d be hounded out of the game if he wore red and white. Why do you think his one game against a poor Maicon grants him legendary status, while a player like Theo, who has played in some of the most memorable games the Champions league has seen in recent memory, still gets treated as if he’s Usain Bolt pretending to be a footballer?
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Gains @ 5:39 pm – They are already having orgasms elsewhere after dogging AW and the squad from October onwards. Rather than being negative, be positive when the team is down, that is when it counts. Hypocrites.
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The English game is moving in the exact opposite direction of every nation with aspirations of winning a big tournament. Until nineteen sixty six stops being the point of reference for English football, nothing will ever change.
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Manchester City loses today and they’re done.
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This blog is still unbeaten and if George doesn’t turn up soon and start gloating,something’s up!, oh hold on Saturday tea time he has his back,sack and crack.
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fantastic win today against all odds bac,szcz,ramsey all excellent (and jack until he was kicked off ) theo and giroud caused problems up front but just went clinical enough shame the ref let them kick us all game and get away with it , a stronger ref would have made it alot easier today and we wouldnt have had so many knocks.apparently they only made six fouls today …………yeah unfuckingbelieveable and we had a player sent off.all this made the win even more enjoyable and impressive and another clean sheet all good and i love the way szczesny loves to win
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I was out and about so did not see the game, but it sounds like another 1 nil battering. Good to see the old “1 nil to The Arsenal” making a comeback despite the makeshift nature of our defence, we manage another clean sheet. This could become a habit!
I don’t understand how the referees allow England’s brightest hope to get kicked out of the game like that. Surely they would want to protect him for the National team? But I suppose when he’s wearing the Arsenal shirt they forget his nationality and he becomes foreign by association!
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I am here in full gloating mode.
Our team has more bollocks than some of our fans ,thats for sure
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a or b – Only 6 fouls by Sundland? What a travesty? One wonders how long Jack will be out. BTW – O’Neill has previous in kicking usoff the field. Few years ago Hleb in particular was ripping them apart and in the 2nd half John Carew literally kickedHleb out of the game to slow our momentum. I doubt if he only got a yellow. 4 or 5 years later very little has changed.
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Welcome back George. You are our gloater-in-chief. Not the same without you.
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That result should instill a lot of confidence into the players. Shame about CJ being sent off but he was very rusty with little game time.
I hate MO’N, he is a slimy little turd.
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PS
Did I say I hate that little turd MO’N? Well I do so there
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arse_or_brain : .apparently they only made six fouls today
not only that but even them 6 werent deserved …our players were looking for them fools..tricking the ref….constantly…..
hey passenal wenger ( the one who doesnt care about the fans) thinks of everyone givng even the moaners “our arsenal back”.
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sorry i wasnt listening, can you repeat that please
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Oh and a great post Stew.
Speaking of keepers & double saves (which Stew was) does anyone remember that lovely triple save by Manninger at the Old Toilet.
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I hate the little turd
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apparently jacks knock not to bad their saying four to five days i dont think he would have played in the blackburn game anyway hes got ten days to be a monster against bayern
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Speaking after the match, manager Arsene Wenger said that although Wilshere was having trouble walking properly he only expects him to be out for four to five days meaning that he should be back in time for Arsenal’s FA Cup match against Blackburn next weekend. Wenger also stressed that the injury was “nothing bad.”
Phew
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some mackam on twitter says we were the dirtiest team they have played this season …..what ! anyway with city having given manure the title real madrid need to beat them in the champs l or they will rest players in the league either side of cl games and prove difficult to beat
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Hope the boss isn’t being over optimistic.
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Shotta, unless Wenger uses him for the F.A. cup match, Jack will have ten days rest before we face Bayern Munich.
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Well boys.that was exactly what this team needed.
Free flowing football and battered them first half.Then ,with Jack kicked out of the game ,and down to 10 men,a huge display of heart and a backs to the wall effort .The ref against us ,yet holding on with a weakened back four.
Truly ,as they say,the stuff of champions.
I doubt we will see that description in tomorrows papers however.
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G69 – I think this weekend Mancini wrote his own pink slip. Those oily Emirs won’t take too easy to losing to team next to the drop zone.
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a quite interesting story …(forgive my poor translation)
about ten years ago, in a football seminar in amsterdam luis van gaal said
‘the teams i coach have a certain and well defined way of play/strategy, and that style does not change whether we play against real madrid or fc greonigen”
he was the barcelona coach at the time saying that, and if there is one team today that doesnt change its style for anyone, its certainly them ( with arsenal as close second i would say as personal note).
when van gaal said that, some coaches representing other schools of thought (latin, bielsa in particular) opposed the suggestion of the “one style” cause it doesnt allow for flexibility and that louis’ strategy was flawed and doomed to fail.
-“what happens when you concede and have to chase a goal and take a defender out to put in an attacker?”
to which van gaal answered in a thoroughly convinciing manner that when you replace a defender with an extra attacker then the attacking play of the team experiences confusion. while a team brings out on the pitch what they do in training in a certain and particular way, when the composition of the attack changes, the system ceases to exist. the flow changes, the formation changes and as a result you get errors , wrong positioning, wrong passing, players try to force play which leads to bad decissions and and the loss of alternative options which the original set up provides.
in the far corner at the back a person was taking notes ….someone who at the time was playing under van gaal, pepe guardiola. according to some in catalunia pep embraced van gaal’s teachings like no other and the results are known ( obviously here we also have the combination of a great philosophy with imoprtant players-ingredients- something pep was in a fantastic position to know of being head of barcelona b and knowing whats coming through the ranks)
van gaal stunned europe with his 94-95 ajax ..shall we remember a few players? van de saar, de booer (both), reizige, davids, seedorf, bogarde, canu, overmars, kluivert, litmanen. then barca where cruyff was there …barca continued with raijkard and ten kate and then pep took over…..luis at bayern…now pep….
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Boys and girls George (@7:08pm). I saw some ladies on Twitter comparing the bollocks of Ramsay, Chezzer and Sagna to some other well endowed beasts. Right Mel?
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George you won’t even see it on some supposedly Arsenal supporting blogs. One I shan’t mention featured people listing players and their specific failings today. In the immediate aftermath of a victory like that when most of us breathed out for the first time in 30 minutes and they were constructing little lists of how and why each of our players are shit.
You couldn’t make it up.
Thank fuck for Positively Arsenal.
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Steww…And slapping each other on the back for being so “smart.” The anti-thesis of support.
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Twats
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the above should tell us that what barcelona is today is something which has been worked at for many many years. the ducth and particularly the ajax influence has been a gigantic cornerstone of todays barca’s philosophy. this thing has been worked on for decades.
We started doing it very very late…to begin with i dont think we had any clear and defined playing philosophy before wenger, just whatever approach the whichever manager would take..we did not have something as obvious as it is today. Today we know about “the arsenal way of play”, we try to identify its properties in future players, we identify it in the quick passing of our game, the tempo of it. Thats one. that finally our club had/has a football man to install a playing philosophy which does not change for anyone. Two is that due to this principle, hence the hesitations to “sort out the defence” like some morons complain about all the time. If the playing philosophy of the manager requires his box to box midfielder to bomb forward and release assists when no-one expects it then thats what song/diabby/ramsey/arteta will do and we will ignore the cries for a back four shield wherever they come from.
three, is that just like barca had to wait for a generation to click , same applies for us. but who will be there to notice it ? hope its this bunch cause tight now in time we got the best “eyes” looking at it. four is that wenger is an avid ajax/cruyff/barca lover…he is integrating a lot of their positives into his own ideas and is practically on his own not only bourdened to impose the playing philosophy but also the financial philosophy that will allow for it to work ( one cog on the other) ..real mechanic..chemistry financial..so much multi-dimensional aspects about teh club that all have to tune in. barca waited 40 years..our fans have been crying since 09. its embarassing and its got to stop.
and 5. it worked for barca and it seems to be working for bayern and theres more to go for them….it will work for us too.its only a matter of time.. keep the m/f faith ..cannons rising aim fire and all that!
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