This is what I said following the reverse against Spurs on the Fourth of March,Two months ago
”
There are thirty points still to play for.
All is not lost by any means. But even if it was, nothing is to be gained by withdrawing our support for the team. Every week I see a team of huge potential. We simply must give them to time to fulfill that potential. I honestly don’t see why people can’t relish the challenge. Rather than throw their arms up and ask for change. “
Since then we have played 8, won 6 and drawn 2.
That’s 20 points and undefeated.
Three of them came yesterday. And a fully deserved 3 points it was.
Were we at our irresistible best? No.
Do I care? Yes, I do if I am totally honest. I would have liked to see a Champagne performance. However yesterday I predicted a poor game, the pitch is a disgrace. You can not play one touch intricate stuff, as we do,with the ball bobbling all over the place .
Am I upset ? Hell no
The points are the main thing.Its not like we played badly.But after scoring within 20 seconds ,I think all of us thought we would have a more comfortable afternoon than that which was forthcoming.
As Arsene might say: “We played with the handbreak on”
In fact if you ask me its stuck on at present.Arsene might have to visit the nearest Pound Shop and get a can of WD40 if we are to take the last six points.We will have to create more chances if we are to see off Wigan at home and The Barcodes away.
Dont worry though, I am sure we will.
It was all a bit dreary yesterday. Of course the importance of collecting the points made it nail biting dreariness.
We dominated, without managing to dominate. If that makes any kind of sense ?
We are constantly told that title winning sides are built on a sound defence. Well no matter how often the dimwitted pundits and match commentators say “Arsenals back four are suspect” The statistics and evidence ,since the Per and Laurent partnership was formed,tell a very different story.Those two boys are consistently excellent.Conceding an average of a goal every other game,that wont lose many for us.
Nacho,despite getting skinned a couple of times by the Spurs player on loan(who’s name escapes me ,and as he is a Spurs player I wont give him the respect of looking it up) showed enough to convince me he is going to be a great asset.
Bac, the butt of endless abuse last week, showed class is indeed permanent. So can I just say to his abusers: Go fuck yourselves.
Arteta again displayed everything you want in a Captain.
I feel Aaron is hesitant with his through balls.Again its a handbrake thing.He seems to be more intent on retaining possession than taking a punt.And who can blame him with thousands of fans waiting for the next ball he loses so they can vent their anger towards him.The abuse he has had this season must make him think twice before he releases the ball.And that moment is the difference.
Tomas was good again.He always is.But not so much magic as efficient conjuring.
And Wojo, another much criticised young man, pulled off a magnificent save towards the death.
Once again the amount of negativity on Twitter and other Blogs,following and during the game,is quite sickening.I really wish these miserable bastards would STFU, at very least for the next two games.
This post is not intended to tell you lot what happened,most of you know better than I do. It is just a vehicle to get us to the comments section. That is what Positively Arsenal is really for.
So please do your bit by commenting.
Thanks for reading.
Positively Arsenal 
Calm the fuck down.
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@G69
Yes, and they’re only a point ahead of us, albeit with a game in hand, so they can’t afford to relax.
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I’ve calmed the f*ck down George. Giving myself a right good talking to. Man up ffs. I’m going to go and stand in the corner in disgrace.
It isn’t the top Four that particularly worries me, I think we may still scrape that anyway, and I believe we are set up to cope without it for once (the media celebrations if we miss it will be unbearable though). It’s……..his weakened team for this match. I knew it. It’s like rubbing salt in the wound.
Hey-ho.
Onward!
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That’s simply the way of the Ferg. He hates us and that’s that. I was expecting them to lose this one, simply to tick us off.
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That OT game had the makings of a conspiracy.
A very well orchestrated, bookie-backed stage play.
Red Nose’s post-match interview confirmed the non-chalance…(version 2 to finish the act that began last week @ our place)
What can I say?
I see the Spuds beating the Chavs on wednesday, say 2-1…(yes, I’m paranoid)
Which would mean, late wed:
Chavs 68 / +33…..Villa (A), Everton (H)……..aah, salvation.
Spuds 68 / +19……Stoke (A), Sunderland (H).
Arsenal 67 / +31….Wigan (H), Newcastle (A).
ok, forget the paranoia.
all 3 teams HAVE TO play to win to guarantee CL footy.
Its winner takes all btw the Chavs & Spuds…or a draw, which would mean, late wed:
Chavs 69 / +34…..Villa (A), Everton (H).
Arsenal 67 / +31….Wigan (H), Newcastle (A).
Spuds 66 / +18……Stoke (A), Sunderland (H).
ok…no need to panic….sad we have to contribute to Wigan’s possible demotion….
at least they made an FA cup final..i’m rooting for them to win it.
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Ok, George – blood pressure is back down now.
Had to listen to that match on the radio and all I heard was 90 mins of chav attacking at OT and a lot of poor play from poor manure players in response.
We can expect Chavs to do ok at the bridge, even then all 3 teams have tough enough games.
All Arsenal can do now is get the 73 points and a few more goals, if they come our way.
Thank the Dennis we have OG back for the last game.
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When the going gets tough the tough gets going. Since we lost at the spuds our boys have been tough, they wont let us down. I cant see spurs winning at Chelsea, but i can see a knee trembler of a game at Newcastle.
Spurs on the other hand are regular chokers….pass the lasagne
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Fuck all. We will win our games first. Que Sera, Sera.
btw I am falling in love with this ref.
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Ferguson is an utter cunt. He hates Arsenal because deep down he knows…the bastard knows… that Arsene Wenger is better than him. Let him rot in hell.
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@ Fungunner, Yes sir, are you the same fungunner that posts on untold?
By the way, I got dragged into a debate between yourself and bob about the webster ruling. left a reply for you both or rather my interpretation of the current rules.
Agree about the United back hand compliment, the W*nkers
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My brothers mates were over on Saturday night. One of them turned out to be a Man Youuu fan. I thought of saying something polite, like, ‘Oh, well, we’ll beat you for the title next season’…or…’eh, good game last week’…or, etc. But all I could say was, ‘Well done, nice to have the referees in your pocket. No penalties this season? No red cards this season? Wish we had that!’ When Arsenal wins next season, and we all know its coming, it will be because the players earned it, not because shifty referees gifted it to us.
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Just so you lot know, Chelsea Vs Tottenham, Mike Dean has that game.
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That’s a spurs win then Adam.
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passenal, just get the feeling we’re being fucked over. Dean does a lot of London derby’s but he generally favours the chavs so following his history you would go for a Chelsea win, but this might be a good time to even out his stats and do his usual trick of bending Arsenal over for a rear inspection.
Chelsea can afford the loss but the Spuds cannot.
Hope I’m wrong, in fact I’m praying I’m wrong.
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@ Adam May 5, 2013 at 8:59 pm
“Fungunner, Yes sir, are you the same fungunner that posts on untold?”
yes, I am. I’m not a sir, though, I’m a madam. (Not that sort.)
I saw your reply, which was why I asked – I didn’t want to carry on the argument there because I felt bob was confusing the issue. I actually wrote a long answer which disappeared into the ether.
Basically, ignore everything bob claimed I said, because it’s inaccurate. My response is that I wasn’t saying that it would not be a breach of contract, or that RvP (or … as we are now calling him here) had an automatic right to cancel. It would be, and he didn’t. What I said in a nutshell is you can punish the player for breach of contract – after the fact – but you can’t stop him doing it.
I certainly never said that all he would have to do is pay up the remainder of his wages. But because the sanctions laid out in Article 17 for breach of contract without just cause outside the protected period are purely monetary, NOT sporting as well, the effect is that the player can force his way out if he is prepared to take the financial hit (or the new club is prepared to take it for him). In the protected period, the player can be banned from playing for 4-6 months and the new club would be assumed to have induced the breach of contract and sanctioned as well. The reason why just cause is not the issue here is that the player wouldn’t be claiming just cause. He would just be breaking his contract. As I understand it, the first club cannot force the player to stay with them OR stop him playing for another club. In the bad (good?) old days, clubs did have the power to do that. I have looked at Webster, Matazulem, (sp?) De Sanctis, which are all about the level of compensation only. Are there any cases as a result of which the player was prevented by the court from moving clubs?
I know that the compensation calculation is complex, worked out on a case-by-case basis and might turn out to be prohibitively expensive, which is why I called it the nuclear option. And just to reiterate, I don’t think RvP would have used it. But in theory, he could have. (I subsequently came across a legal opinion from Juan De Crespo who is the lawyer who represented Shakhtar and another plaintiff, basically setting out the current situation. If you are interested I can dig it out.)
As to why rival clubs don’t encourage players to do it all the time, two reasons – one is the gentlemen’s agreement amongst European clubs not to destabilise each other in this way and the other is the uncertainty about how much it will cost – uncertainty deliberately created by the CAS, to discourage players from taking this route.
The FIFA regulations are trying to balance two competing principles – stability for clubs and the free movement of labour. In any other job, you would not be forced to stay till the end of a contract if you didn’t want to – you would just have to pay damages if your employer had suffered from you leaving early. This is held to be the more fundamental principle and the one the European authorities wanted to apply to football as well, but the obvious problems that that level of freedom would create resulted in the compromise in the FIFA regulations. The protected period referred to in Article 17 was intended to give clubs a measure of stability and recognise that football is a special case.
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@ passenal May 5, 2013 at 11:25 pm
“That’s a spurs win then Adam”
Yup.
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Fungunner, hello fella.
Cannot disagree with you too much, although I will point out that RVP couldn’t get out of his contract via webster as he played in more than 10% of Arsenal’s first team games. so he couldn’t take the “sporting just cause” route as defined in the regs. So he had to adhere to article 13 “respect of contract”.
My assumption, is that he was testing the waters with sporting just cause via his statement about Arsenal’s lack of ambition, and, burning bridges as well.
Agree he could have walked out and then its only a matter of mathematics. But its the signing for another club which would put that club in the shit big time, with the powers that be. Manchester United would have been made to pay us compensation and cover our legal costs as well as being banned from further transfer activity. This is where the rules are set in opposition and need clarification.
We could have made RVP stay, but what would have been the point in having a stroppy little shite knocking about London Colney dragging everyyone else down?
Anyway, with the EU with its nose in football we can be sure that changes will keep on coming over a very long period, and FIFA and UEFA are just trying to stay ahead of them.
Its a game of cat and mouse.
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Sorry about the fella bit my dear
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Adam, I always thought Dean favoured the spuds? I certainly recall him celebrating a goal they scored against us, something I’ve never seen another ref do.
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Dean favours everyone over us. But he generally favours Chelsea over Tottenham.
There win ratio when Dean is in charge is up there with Manchester Uniteds average win ratio. Chavs win ratio under Dean 68%. Spuds win ratio under Dean is 44%.
So history should dictate a Chavs win, but don’t hold your breath.
Sa 20Oct 2012 Tottenham 2 – 4 Chelsea
We 17Apr 2013 Fulham 0 – 3 Chelsea
Sa 09Feb 2013 Chelsea 4 – 1 Wigan
Sa 05Jan 2013 Southampton 1 – 5 Chelsea
Su 16Dec 2012 Tottenham 1 – 0 Swansea
Sa 25Aug 2012 Tottenham 1 – 1 West Brom
This season as you can see Spurs haven’t won under Dean whereas the chavs haven’t lost.
Hope this comes out ok in the comments section.
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one mistake
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Fungunner, Yes you can pass on any info about legal cases, and I’d be interested in them. I have not, as yet, come across any cases where a player was stopped from moving clubs, that would be a restriction of trade and against current legislation.
That’s presumably why they ban some players, yet they still get paid by their new club, one way around the restriction of trade legislation I suppose.
I came across some information awhile ago and cannot find it again regarding Barcelona’s Pique. Arsenal was supposed to have signed him but Manchester United gazumped us and it went to CAS or an arbitration of some sort. If you have that info I’d be grateful.
The lawyer you mentioned has been instrumental in a lot of sporting cases, he really is worth researching, if your interested in that.
You mentioned the De Sanctis case, that was out of the protected period but the receiving club was made to pay compensation jointly with De Sanctis for his replacement, setting a precedent.
Some cases are setting precedents which only highlights how young the rules are, in that they are frequently being challenged and some of us try and keep up with the latest interpretations of them.
Anyway, I’m still learning as I go, so yes all information would be gratefully received.
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Sav 8:55pm
Exactamundo!
Lets send Wigan back to the Stone Age. That’ll be our answer.
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