Backlash.
That’s what we need today. A backlash against the boo boys and bad luck and a disappointing first half of the Bayern tie. We need a victim, a sacrificial offering to the football Gods. We need them gagged and bound and prostrate on the alter of The Emirates. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the programme Dexter, but the hero is a deranged serial killer for whom you can’t help feeling a certain bizarre sympathy. His favourite thing is anaesthetising a bad guy (or gal – he’s an equal opportunities sociopath) then fixing him (or her) to a table with acres of clingfilm. When the victim regains consciousness Dexter selects one from a glittering array of surgically sharp bladed weapons and despatches him (or her) with care, brutal precision and evident relish. That’s how I want Arsenal and Villa to look this afternoon.
Anaesthetise them with the kind of scintillating attacking play we saw against, say West Ham, or in the second half against Liverpool, literally have them punch drunk, reeling and chasing shadows and then when they are reduced to prone, helpless prey deliver a series of viscous and yet beautifully crafted killer blows.
We all know the team have it in them. We know it because we’ve seen it, plenty of times. I’m watching highlights of some of our matches from this season and we have played some seriously joyous football, we really have. Even before the season started we saw some breathtaking stuff against FC Cologne. At just after 23 and a half minutes into the game a good interception by Gibbs led to a counter of such sure footed, quick passing that it was a travesty when Giroud’s curling shot was saved at the end of it. Personally I’d have given the keeper a yellow at the very least for Deliberate Ruination Of A Lovely Move. If it isn’t actually in the rule book then it bloody well ought to be.
Then when Southampton visited in September they ended up looking like one of those trailer parks after a tropical storm has landed. The quick thinking and freedom with which we moved the ball around, the intricate passes in and about their goal area and the merciless way we finished left their defence in tatters. They weren’t the only side to end up being designated a state of emergency after a visit from Hurricane Arsenal this season. Coventry, West Ham, Spurs, Reading and Newcastle have all been declared a disaster area after meeting our boys on the wrong day and in the wrong mood. When it’s worked for us this season it has worked to devastating effect.
Now I know and you know that there have been moments where things have gone less well. Sometimes we’ve been the architect of our own undoing, and even in the games where the opposition have been shrink wrapped on the table staring in wide eyed astonished terror at the shining blade they’ve somehow managed to sneak a goal or three. Doesn’t matter when you bag six or seven but as Liverpool proved it matters when you only match their two. But what is the point in dwelling on the negatives? It won’t cheer us up, it won’t send us into the match filled with optimism and hope and so what possible good would it do anyone beyond a criminally deranged masochistic depressive who has deliberately stopped taking his meds? Frankly, fuck that for a game of soldiers. I’d much rather watch and rewatch the opening one minute and thirty one seconds of the second half of the West Ham game at the Emirates:
Whistle.
Jack to Santi back to Tommy V. Tommy V wide to Bac who slips it first time down the line to Theo. He wriggles and squirms, takes three or four feather light flickering touches then passes to Giroud who plays the most sublime pass across his body, one touch, infield to Santi as Jack and Theo take off like greyhounds one inside the other out wide. Santi needs no touch to control Giroud’s perfectly weighted ball but rather sweeps it forward down the inside right channel for Theo to race onto. Twenty five seconds have elapsed when Theo sends the perfect cross into Jack’s flight path and only an heroic intervention from Tomkins who very nearly scores an own goal prevents us from taking the lead.
From the corner, taken short, Jack loops a high cross over their area and they head it clear. Gibbs picks up the knock-down and at this moment we still have eight players in and around their area. Gibbs plays a one two with his Captain then puts over a cross which is headed clear, Ramsay on the edge of the area, performs some ball juggling acrobatics off his chest and then delivers what looks like a contortionists pass with the outside of his right boot. It loops perfectly into Santi’s path and he Lukas and Gibbs tie a cats cradle through and around the visitor’s defence who just manage to hack it clear for another corner. One minute seventeen seconds gone.
Theo’s corner, from our left this time is driven to the near post where Per is waiting for his trademark flick on. Except he isn’t there. For some reason he abandoned his position peeling away back towards the penalty spot. And as we looked on bewildered Olivier Giroud appears from nowhere to redirect the ball inside the near post with a touch so exquisite, so skilful that the extraordinary difficulty of playing such a shot is not immediately apparent. One minute and thirty seconds gone and West Ham who had managed only four desperate touches of the ball were looking into the eyes of a remorseless killing machine, and could barely twitch in response.
That is what I’m hoping to see against Villa. When all the countless hours of work that Arsene and his coaching staff put in with the players pays off, when the beautiful engine he has assembled from so many diverse components of world football purrs into life then growls and then roars. That ninety seconds of play is what I see in my mind’s eye when someone tells me this team are past it, not good enough, didn’t cost enough, that Steve Bould can’t coach and Arsene can’t manage. Because believe me that wasn’t a fluke, that was what they work towards every day and that is what they can deliver. With confidence and consistency those special passages of play will become too numerous to separate in our memories. The deft touches, the assurance that a pass into space or made fast under pressure will find a team mate ready to nudge it around his marker or already be running onto the expected return, these things are all there, sometimes bubbling frustratingly close to and yet under the surface but ready to be unleashed in a venomous backlash.
Let it be today, please Arsene, let it be today.
Positively Arsenal 
Just a quickie. I’ve just finished season 4 of Dexter so no spoilers please if you have seen any of the more recent stuff. Unless you want to wake up shrink wrapped on my kitchen table that is.
LikeLike
A doozy indeed,Stew
Just the ticket
LikeLike
Thanks George. Now spread the word lets whore this blog.
LikeLike
Good morning
Lets stuff villa for starters……
COYG
LikeLike
Killer post my man…..
Hunter 13 will be seeing blood when he reads it. God help them niny moaners..
LikeLike
18 rated Steww – unleash the fury
LikeLike
And to think I always thought Dexter was an English cricketer!
I AM expecting a backlash tonight. COYG!
LikeLike
another great post i apologise for my lack of input over the last week however sky managed toscrew my internet. i again wake up excited and looking forward to a real performance to warm us through the cold snap .after a week where our teams were beaten by blackburn saturday,everton youth on monday and bayern on tuesday i need to go out tonight having drunk from the cup of victory and wonder and not just the few pints from the kings head hope everone(positive) has a good day today COYG
LikeLike
gone
LikeLike
Good morning everyone,Stew-you are our Dennis on here,no question. A good start with an early goal would be just the tonic and allow the team to slip into that groove of lovely flowing football but most importantly give us 3 points to be breathing down the LWC’s necks, a quick word on Mancini deflecting his shortcomings by having a pop at Wenger,he is as we say in East London “an out and out” oh you know what he is.
LikeLike
Andrew,I am tempted to delete that post and have it published as an article.
Or you could slightly doctor it and do it yourself.?
LikeLike
Taking a little poetic license:
“I would love it if we could stuff them. Love it.” But a scrappy 1-0 would suit me fine.
Cracking post Steww.
LikeLike
you made your own blogg George? :O
LikeLike
“Killer post my man…..”
Inspiring stuff
LikeLike
“At Man U, Ferguson has largely been able to manage player exits so that ‘fallow’ periods have been relatively few and far betwee”
that goes to the heart of our problem. After all United still hold onto Scoles and Giggs. They are the same age as Henry no?
LikeLike
“that was what they work towards every day and that is what they can deliver. With confidence and consistency those special passages of play will become too numerous to separate in our memories.”
bravo steww, when you know what youre watching you know what youre supporting.
and yes zimpaul….can you imagine wenger winning the epl title with …almunia eboue fabregas clichy eduardo walcott 19 years old and the rest , spenindg 15m per summer ..against chelsea and united who had world class players at their peak with 200m budgets per summer ? not nice for the system is it? enter webb dowd dean etc etc etc
LikeLike
Thanks folks. Part of the fun of watching Arsenal is never quite knowing when the mask will come off and the dripping fangs will be revealed.
LikeLike
from wenger press conference : “Well, I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. You cannot come out and say, ‘Look, we cannot win the championship’.
george remind me what people would say when told that wenger will reply with diplomacy in mind,,,,that since the target from the company is 4th and since we want to educate and wait for youth to mature 4th will do but we cant come out saying it cause the education is also about ‘always going for the top”
remind me what people would say when told. that wenger cant come out saying “forget the titles for a decade, we are targeting the money of 3rd-4th place finnish”…..would the club sell tickets ?
the answer was either
1) targeting 4th is unacceptable for a club like arsenal
2) i thought we moved to compete with the big boys
3) why didnt they tell us from the start.
all 3 are bollox…all three of them is what a 9 yearold would answer back…
LikeLike
mancini is pissed off he got nasri instead of robin and he is taking it out on wenger…hahahaa..what did you expect roberto..arsene knows…. he has helepd the establishment win it and he is next in line with his wilshers walcotts gibbs etc … ..forthsight roberto..you got none…cant come ot this system “all foreign” ..they wont like it…
LikeLike
The meet in Coronet not clicking so far
Me – table – front of Pub – white – fat -54 – glasses – no hair – blue Barbour
#stoodup
LikeLike
Poodle,Did United go through a sustained period of austerity?
LikeLike
yes poodle but united were able to keep their “special” generation and add to it, plus fergie needed them as characters if not necessarily for their form. wenger could not do that. wenger could not keep his vieiras silvas henrys etc , he had to offload them and bring in money for the stadium. so its not the same. besides manchester united did not build any stadiums and their target was to win the league and compete directly with chelsea, whereas ours was to get into top4 and the money. the transfer budgets and expenditures of the respective clubs gives clues as to what their objectives are in a season. we cant put arsenal spening 15 million in the same bracket with united spending 80 million or chelsea spending 120 million. yet we have always been close.
LikeLike
@hunter13 yep, and you can only admire AW for that. All i meant is that that is the explanation for why they have sustained. If AW was allowed to keep his core, he would never have gone 8 yeras without a trophy. That is obvious imo anyway. You can only work with what you got really, and if you due to outside circumstances are forced to sell your best players then its very little you can do about that unless you wanna do a Leeds.
What pisses me off though is how “second tire” clubs now moan because “how can they compete with Arsenal when they got such a huge stadium. its not fair”.
Do they think it was free and grew up from the ground by itself?? bleh…
LikeLike
1 nil to The Arsenal. Sense of inevitability about the goal. Even from that early on.
LikeLike
What a pass from Giroud. Unfortunate MA couldn’t get on the end of it.
LikeLike
Diaby lost it a bit there. The ball and his cool.
LikeLike
another goal for us would be nice
LikeLike
Looking decent, but as George says, I wouldnt mind a goal (or even two or three!) extra in the next half. And some gametime for TR!
LikeLike
Brilliant tackle from Nacho
LikeLike
Awww OG snatched at it. Great move.
LikeLike
Santi is different class at times. What touch. What control.
LikeLike
Bloody hell what pressure. How good has Jenks been today?
LikeLike
Ah the sucker punch. Very good fast break from Villa. Of course they don’t deserve to be level but that’s the nature of the game. Luck can play a part just as much as skill.
LikeLike
Where are you all?
LikeLike
Oh my lord
LikeLike
Cue all the bullshit about the performance being poor , scraping a narrow victory blah blah blah. We could easily have scored six, we were all over them. Give them their due they came to attack but Arsene’s superb substitutions did for them,.
LikeLike
haha to the haters 🙂 well done monreal!
LikeLike
You OK George? That was never in doubt, I was relaxed all the way through. Like Hannibal Lecter my pulse never rose above 10 bpm
LikeLike
Dropping points to Villa would have fucked up my week-end.
I wish we played like the team ahead on the score sheet and stopped being so rushed and desperate. These players have to realize that they have the ability to pass the ball around any team.
Good three points, though. The celebration for the second was like a huge sigh of relief for the players.
LikeLike
A scrappy 2-1 win will suit me fine. My team never gave up. So proud.
But this is bloody awful on the heart.
LikeLike
10 beats per millisecond, Steww?
LikeLike
Is there a bigger cnut than Piers Moron?
LikeLike
Anywhere in the universe.
LikeLike
Steww @ 4:55 pm
You are the killer on this blog. My heart rate was over 100 bpm.
Gains – We can pass it around the best but it is the bloody execution at the end. I am looking at Walcott and Giroud in particular
LikeLike
I wish I could have remained as cool as you, Steww. At around the eightieth minute, I started to throw things around a bit. First the pen, then the crossword puzzle, then my shirt and then I stopped because we scored. The memory of the F.A. cup loss to Blackburn is still too vivid. I thought we were going to fumble at the end.
LikeLike
Bound to be tension after the last week or so. I’m just glad we got the three points, and it wasn’t a bad performance by any stretch. Enjoy your weekend boys and girls!
Oh btw…..nice post Steww.
Btw part 2….No there isn’t KnysnaGunner. A bigger one. Anywhere in the known universe. Probably.
LikeLike
Shotta, we need to play with the confidence which comes with being ahead in a game. Today we were breaking our necks trying to kill the game early and Villa knew if they absorbed the pressure, they could get something on the counter. It’s been the M.O. of far too many teams who have played against us this season and it has reaped success for them. What we should be doing instead, is put the onus on the opposition so we can capitalize on their mistakes and not the other way around. We’re just too good to have a team like Villa turn up and cause us a headache.
LikeLike
So relieved we got the three points. We deserved it. Nice post by the way steww. You are the man on this blog.
I must say Ramsey is really such a utility player. Twice in a row he has played right back in the league now. Even got the offside trap right on a couple of occasions. Good lad.
LikeLike
Upped the tempo when required – a difficult but deserved 3 points
LikeLike
I don’t know about you guys but I hate making comments during games. Not only does it interrupt complete attention but comments are tinged with emotion, not based on reality. Much like the Fox Soccer comments man Dean Sturridge today. How many times did I hear him say Arsenal defence is stretched, they don’t defend well etc., which is a complete cock. Our goals against this year is among the best and substantially better than last year. Later he admits we are the team doing the attacking. So what do you expect, we would be stretched since we went for the points. Lady justice gave Villa what they deserve, zero points.
LikeLike