Why do I care for a football team thousands of miles away? Why do I do a fist pump when we score, especially after giving everything? Why do I say “we”?
I just do. It is not just the characteristics of the club that has me in love with the club. There are other clubs like us, Dortmund being a prime a example. While I admire and respect Dortmund, there is something special about Arsenal that I cannot describe. Having said that, the character of a club is the identity of a club. If tomorrow, our club were to become Chelsea-3, I would love the new Arsenal no more. Damn! That sounds like the story with my ex-girlfriend.
In this post, I want to talk about how at Arsenal, we do fair play (generally).
On the pitch, I have seen opponents not playing fair and within the spirit of the game. I have seen referees pouncing on chances to give us a disadvantage. This list is big and I wont say more. If the opponent plays clean and beat us well, I could possibly, maybe, begrudgingly accept that they just played better. However, when they shove and kick us out of the game, it is a shame for fair play in sport. Different styles of play are needed in football, but you cannot call rugby a style of playing football. What happened to Diaby, Eduardo and Ramsey was horrific beyond words. That is not football. Teams like Stoke are needed though, to play the part of thugs. To be the guys Arsenal run rings around. Even such thugs should be limited though. They should not have been allowed to hurt Ramsey like that and get away with it. After the wobbles against stoke and the media glee that their “no-nonsense” style of play was spoiling our triangles, we have come to own their asses in the past couple of seasons. I hear that Cardiff city are joining the ranks of the football-dead. Bring it on bitches!
When our players are roughly tackled, given the short end of the stick, it is nice to see them rise above it while also not accepting being bullied. It is especially heartening to see players fighting for each other. That is one reason I really liked Fabregas. If a team-mate was being harassed, he would get stuck into the opponent and then ask what the problem was. I would like to reuse the Rocky quote used by Mel here: “At Arsenal we never started fights-we just finished them”.
The reason I hate Barcelona is the amount of cheating they do to win games and the amount that goes unpunished. You are one of the best teams in the world for God’s sake! You dont have to resort to diving and the assistance of the referees to make sure you win at all costs. That is why their records dont mean that much to me, which does belittle them, considering the incredible amount of hardwork they put in behind the scenes, but that is what a negative view can do. People, including me would respect Barcelona if they lost a few more games but fought valiantly and with honour.
I am proud in seeing our players not resorting to such tactics. There have been times when our players have dived to win matches, hugged a guy to death (yeah, you Koscielny) or shouted at the official. It spoils the experience of the game and I feel sorry if the opponent is a lower ranked team (minus Tottenham, Stoke, etc. obviously) and did not deserve to lose. Credit to Arsenal for making such incidents few and far in between. Special mention should go to Walcott who has only dived once, as far as i remember and duly apologised for it. What the hell? When was the last time a player apologised for diving? We are being told that it is ok for Suarez to dive and be racist because that is how they roll in Uruguay. Ah Suarez! Eventhough he is in the mould of a creative centre forward and even if he was offered for a tenner, I wouldnt want him anywhere near London Colney. I would like to think that Arsene would agree.
Off the pitch, the club has always conducted itself with dignity and fair play. Any transfer or even enquiry is done discreetly and by following the rules. True, the players we get seem like steals, but it more to do with us spotting potential rather than actually fleecing a club. I am sure that if we enquire about a player and if the other club says that the player is not for sale or they value the player quite a bit over our estimation, we move on. Eventhough Arsene these days answers questions about transfers more openly, he never says shit like “The boy wanted to come, but the club are being complete tossers and not letting him go. I dont get why they wont let him go. He wants to come, we want him, what else matters? It is not like he has a contract with them or something!”
We stay quiet until a particular player has signed for Arsenal. We do not tap up. Thank god we dont talk about DNA and force a shirt on a player. Hang on….maybe Fabregas has actually gone undercover, feeding Messi stories of glorious Arsenal and after we sign Higuain, he will force the Arsenal shirt on him at next year’s world cup. So by my calculations, Messi will sign in 2014 and Fabregas will re-join in 2015 (so as to not raise suspicion). To the rest of the world, it will look like sweet revenge, but the whole thing would have been Arsene’s master plan all along. We dont do evil, but if we do, even that will be classy.
Stay classy Arsenal!
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Editors note-Arsnal won the Fair Play thingamabob last year,despite being bottom after 2 months
Positively Arsenal 
I agree with Passenal. I’ve seen some petulant and unsporting behavior from Messi too. I’m not saying he’s as big of a villain as several of his teammates, but he doesn’t wear a halo. http://youtu.be/BnesOQTbWeQ
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Messi is no angel but compared to some of the squealing ponces who wear the blue and red of FCB his behaviour is exemplary imo – YES DANI I am referring to you, you pathetic Brazilian wanker, and pay attention Busquets when I am speaking to you
CR7 is another serial tosser – metaphorically and literally – and always was at ManYoo before he went to Madrid
Neymar appears to crumple if brushed by a defender – reminds me of Theo a few seasons back
A lot good about Spanish football but cheating is, and always was, rife
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suarez to madrid …….wheres our ambition damnit?!
hahaaaa..
hey dc no quibbles my friend , none at all… put it this way..had keown or adams play for manure wed consider them terry and shawcross… any other team playing the kind of football we used to play we would call them barbaric savages with no technique…. i am cruel i know but fair… :)..i still have nightmares of saragosa….david what was that all about? why were you going to the dressing room? the game wasnt over ….. we got lobbed from half the pitch david…. and our fans today take it out on 21 y.o sceznhy and konsicley for the cc? its these little things that drive me mad…. hehe..
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Compared to Sergio ‘Zero Gee’ Busquets Messi can be said to have his feet on the ground. Busquets is awful.
And Song left to be his understudy, when he was so well suited to the PL. The plonker.
http://squawka.com/news/2013/06/26/the-premier-leagues-5-dirtiest-players-last-season-featuring-arsenal-villa-norwich-everton-culprits/2013062611793/grant-holt#main
Squawka says The Prince was one of the highest foulers in the league, which we all saw. Just one place behind Fellaini! For sure Arteta got called more often playing for Arsenal, but he is good at winning free kicks as well as the basic skill required to foul without ruining his opponents careers*. What does it mean?
Arsenal are D**Med. D**Med I tells you it’s true.
* As Sensational Arsenal wrote so well above, different styles are what all fans like to see. Those who had difficulty following the rules of the game Association Football were told (in a pub as the legend goes) about a hundred and fifty years ago to go and form their own sport.
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Replays would sort out so much of the diving.
Simples!
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diving is ok …its the pretending you got injured i dislike….i sure wish eduardo and ramsey had dived when taylor slid in like a neanderthal
there is diving to win a penalty like rooney does and then there is diving to avoid the wanker who is rushing to chop your leg off….
normally i shouldnt be thinking about diving to avoid an injury..thats what the ref is there for …but then again the rules here are different…… if you cant get the ball you are allowed to tackle on the legs and its considered ok and the right thing to do.
for me..if you cant play..then accept that you will lose..no need to kick me like a cunt..if you do kick me ill get you sent off… of course i will.
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what i hate the most is that you watch a game of ours and our players are getting kicked all over the pitch …and as soon as one of ours replies..Bang! automatic yellow….
rafael makes two penalties per game and pulls shirts , throws elbows. swears at everyone…nothing happens…jack got sent off for two technical fouls…..it is a joke…
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Biscuits was appalling the other night; so much so I can’t be bothered to try to spell his name correctly.
*juvenile*
A dive to avoid assault is hardly a dive H13; it’s evasive action. All diving is a form of cheating, whoever the perpetrator, whatever the cause – undermines the game, compromises results, ruins reputations.
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Good work S A as you can see from the replies.
I agree with kam your only slip was that teams like stok are needed, anti football should be destroyed in all its forms. This is the reason our national side has been left wandering in the hoofanian desert while the rest of the world drinks from the clear blue springs of the earth.
As far as Shrek is concerned remember game 50 all of you, this man has spent his life hating ARSENAL and even if he was puskas, pele , maradona and messi rolled in to a very fat one he shoudn’t be allowed near our wonderful club.
Getting on to the main point of your post.
ARSENAL are more than just a football club, I remember at a wedding two young lads were being presented as new supporters to an old red and white custodian, he shook their hands and said welcome to THE ARSENAL the best institution in the world. As they gazed up at him it all seemed like some initiation and I suppose it was something that become a part of them for the rest of their lives.
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WELCOME TO THE ARSENAL.
A OR B , GOLDEN WORDS MATE.
Agree regarding Shrek too.
Wow Roger F . IS within a whiskers of going out here…
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Bravo to Julio cesear. What a penalty save..
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Well off his line ‘kam, but ref didn’t notice.
Sure, nearly every goalie does that.
Such a dumb ass penalty to give away by Luiz, shirt pulling right in from of the ref.
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Bloody Neymar will fit in well at Barca. He dives more than Busquets & Alves combined
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Diving is part of modern football and this will not change. There are two types, the cheating dive that entails cheating the ref and the rules; and the artful bluff, tricking the opposition player and more typically the keeper into the foul with the aim, or option sometimes, of winning a free kick/penalty and “diving” or rather “falling”, (“anticipating” is perhaps a better sense) at the last split second to avoid injury, but drawing the foul. Tomas is rather good at this, as are Santi and Arteta. It takes experience. Henry was excellent. Theo is not bad, could be better. HRH King Eboue I was masterful winning free kicks at right back, but when he was bad and got it wrong, he was awful. Barca and many Spanish players are often skilled in this art; the overkill in the follow through (rolling several times and all that drama, ensuring that the ref “gets” that it was a foul and was pretty damn clever too) is perhaps just a cultural difference, but Barca also cheat insidiously and well, and the difference (cheating versus skill) is a fine line. African players are seldom much good at all this preferring to beat a player in the old-fashioned way, speed, trickery or agility, 3Gs and Kanu being excellent examples.
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I think Naymar just introduced a third category of diving ZP; achieving vertical lift from a slight horizontal shove takes some doing although admittedly he’d been warming up to this most perfectly executed routine all night.
Artless twat is the phrase that springs to mind; should fit in perfectly at Barcalona – take their ‘cleverness’ to a whole new level.
Just a pity the game will be rendered all but unwatchable.
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Will we be greeting Gonzalo soon? I suspect we will, and this week. Am I allowed to ask? I think so, it is far from speculative transfer nonsense by now. What does it all mean? Position aside, it seems to mean that Ivan and Arsene were deadly serious when they both indicated, separately, it’s not about spending or not spending money, it’s about identifying the right quality.
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drawing fouls and cards..yes …yes …yes..especially when the opponents are a bunch of thugs ( 90% of times) with one intention in mind..to stop you from ridiculing them with your slick football..
ok lets take xavi for instance..the lad has had i dont know how many surgeries…will he not dive , evade contact, draw foul /card when he knows he has to deal with a twat like pepe for 90 minutes ? likewise for us since we know we are dealing with idiots w might as well get them sent off and win our games comfortably as we should if normal refs applied the basics of officiating
i dont remember the name but it was some legend years back who got keanne sent off and as keanne was crying walking off the filed the guy taunted him with a ” write it on your book” gesture…genius!!
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