Sorry to interrupt your Sunday morning with talk of a football match but there is one scheduled to kick off this afternoon and some of us used to consider it a fairly important occasion. I presume that in a few years when my generation are pushing up the daisies there’ll be no one left to care at all about matches played during the Transfer Window. It must be a terrible bore and unnecessary distraction for those of you who see this as the penultimate day in the single most crucial and exciting time of the season. I suppose you’ll have January to look forward to but the January window is really Europa league to the summer one isn’t it? This is the big one coming to a close right now and I must say it seems to have been a real humdinger with Spurs looking like runaway winners. There used, once upon a time to be an exciting rivalry between our two clubs back in the day where performances and results on the pitch were considered more important than following the activities of agents, ‘In The Know’ fans and sports journalists. Some of us actually enjoyed those days. For one thing our side generally came out on top whereas now we have to hide our Arsenal scarves in shame and just hope that the board and manager will commit mass hara-kiri in order to spare us the embarrassment of languishing at the bottom of the table yet again.
I remember so well when Queens Park Rangers thrashed us last season buying so many players and spending so much money, replacing managers with a breathtaking aplomb that quite simply dazzled us poor Arsenal fans. I even considered giving up on the years I’ve wasted following Arsenal and buying a hooped blue and white shirt, this time I might start supporting Spurs.
Twitter and football blogs have really taken the thrill of following the fortunes of a Premier League team to new heights haven’t they? I was reminded of this just yesterday. In a quaint flashback to the pre internet days I bumped into an old acquaintance whilst we pushed our respective wives around the supermarket laden down with essential supplies. As the trolleys, or carts if you prefer, chatted about this and that, he asked if I was looking forward to the match tomorrow. He is a Tottenham fan and I’m all Arsenal so you might have imagined he’d be more than a little smug about their imminent victory in The Window. Curiously though it seemed that we preferred to chat about today’s match and how much we were both looking forward to it. He acknowledged our historical supremacy and I pointed out their relative improvement in recent times and in due course after receiving the laser beams from our partners we parted with mutual bad wishes for each others teams and their respective prospects. It was like a scene from pre-history, a land that time has forgotten. Real people discussing actual football with a healthy rivalry and a shared and genuine love of the game.
Then I returned home and turned on my computer. Oh boy was I brought back to earth with a bang. I quickly realised how silly I was to simply look forward to a physical on pitch encounter with our oldest rivals. To be wondering if the unpredictable and shattering number of first team injuries we have suffered would cost us dear should our substitutes be needed and whether the opposition might struggle to accommodate so many new faces and miss their talismanic simian mascot. These were surely the deluded fantasies of a crazy person. For here on the internet the true meaning of football was being played out.
People were falling over themselves to outdo each other describing how nervous they were as the Deadline Day approached. Others were comparing how they coped with the righteous anger they felt towards the club which has so badly betrayed their trust and support. Many saw no reason to even try to cope with these overwhelming emotions and just lashed out at the manager, the board and any fan letting the side down by not expressing his indignation in the most bald and unambiguous terms. I couldn’t decide whether I felt let down, betrayed, lied to, disappointed, outraged or sickened. I panicked that I might choose the wrong emotion and be thought less of by my fellow fans. I realised how utterly silly I would sound if I dared to voice my private opinion that the depth in our squad was there for all to see. If we could field such a strong side against Fenerbache and comprehensively destroy them despite missing Thomas Vermaelen, Abou Diaby, Lukas Podolski, Alex Oxelaide Chamberlain and the division’s outstanding midfielder by any measurement Mikel Arteta then surely we couldn’t be so badly placed. Could we? As I say, luckily I came to my senses and refrained from pointing out that this weak and obviously failing squad had now lost a grand total of one match in the last sixth months. I realised that the days when such trivialities mattered had slipped into history along with bear baiting and Penny Black stamps. These distracting irrelevancies might interest drooling old men like me, senile and out of touch but in the real exciting world of The Window all that mattered is the number of signings, the amount they cost, which players journalists want fans to talk about and how appalling and inept our hapless management is, its inadequacies laid bare by their inactivity.
The latest body blow to those of us unfortunate enough to follow such a feeble, backward and useless club as Arsenal is the signing of Mathieu Flamini. In a move now universally recognised as a deliberate and personal insult to every single fan in the world, made by a board that is at once out of touch and simultaneously devious and spiteful, they captured a player who failed to meet any of the criteria for a Window winning signing. Not only is he not an internationally renowned player with a Name but, and I can barely bring myself to type this, he didn’t cost anything. OK so he has bags of top level experience and once upon a time not costing anything would be a reason to celebrate the canny business minds at any club, and he knows the manager and his system perfectly, he can play well in multiple positions including those where injuries have left us needing experienced cover and he’s been training with us for a while now so knows the other players. Granted he made up a quarter of our most talented midfield of recent seasons and played right through to the European Cup final but all these mean nothing. His suitability, the precise way he fills a need , the fact that he didn’t cost us an obscene amount of money are all just sidetracking, bushwhacking baloney designed to distract from the fact that his signing means the club hate you and your family and would like to see you all drown in a vat of acid and piss.
Luckily enough everyone on Twitter put me straight and prevented me from looking forward to today’s match. I’m sincerely grateful to you all, everyone who has played their part in helping this poor deluded old man to see what really matters in the modern game. Regardless of the result or the final placings come next May, Tottenham have already beaten us, and were relegation from the Window possible we’d be going down and deservedly so.
Dark days to follow the Arsenal. I just hope the close season goes well between Tuesday and the January tournament and we come back stronger and ready to spend some money, faster, earlier and above all more and on the right names.
Positively Arsenal 
Prescient signing, eh? Thank god there’s an international break coming up after this game. The injury gods are crapping on us at the moment.
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we are killing them..
knife through butter.
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Their wingers have been worrying. Chadli gave Jenkinson a hard time at the start but he has been contained now, unfortunately though Townsend on the other flank is doing alright. The only threat Sp*rs have, but if we keep letting him take pot shots one is bound to eventually go in. I hope Flamini will make it his duty to support our full backs in that regard. Otherwise, I am very pleased with our performance. We were better, no doubt about it, having come close a couple of times and if the boys keep it up, we should win this.
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giroud is playing his best game in the arsenal shirt yet.
his hold up play has been nothing short of WORLD CLASS.
WHAT A PLAYER!
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Tight game – very impressed with Mert and Kosc in the centre – not allowed anything to penetrate in the air and on the ground so Spuds have been forced long range – might see Defoe soon
I guess Spuds will try to come out and go mad for the first 10 minutes of 2nd half – steady boys. A second goal will kill the opposition off
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Too close to call at the moment. We look the better team of course but they have threatened. I’ll take one nil at half time but I’d prefer five or six just to calm the old butterflies.
Any word on Jack?
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The rumour is Jack was told to come off if he felt any twinges. He now has a fortnight to recover and work on his fitness before the next PL game
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Hope that’s true – if so, for once the international break would be doing us a favour.
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Stand strong, boys.
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Can’t do that any more MF. Things have changed since your day.
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come on Arsenal!
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More unbiased officiating, I see.
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Aaargh. close.
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Still keeping it tight
Expect Spuds new recruits to feel the pace soon
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Screams !
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Monreal needed a few touches before being presented with a chance like that I fancy.
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Need a second to kill the game.
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How many minutes left?
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Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brave brave performance, boys.
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One-nil to the Arsenal!
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Joy
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What a performance by Giroud. He was winning almost every header he contested, and then he fought like a lion at the back when the Sp*rs onslaught came. We deserved this.
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I am bloody exhausted
4th eh ?
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Not at our best by a long way and still plenty good enough to put the pretenders in their box.
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Aha, let me address a few Arsenal detractors. I’m not gong to name names, because I quite frankly don’t give a shit what their names are.
No, there are not any Spurs players who would walk into our first team. As in not a single fucking one.
Is this what £100m plus gets you? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Levy is not a shrewd deal maker. He got robbed all summer long and was too stupid to notice.
Thank you.
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Are we still on that downward spiral AVB mentioned in March?
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Now on to the game.
I knew Santi was throwing things in the dressing room before the game. Look how he whacked the shit out of Capoue. Hahaha. Santi is our hard man.
What a finish by Olive.
Koscielny pocketed Spuds’ new, shiny £30m striker.
Ramsey and Theo are like a new signings. Those who think that’s cliché, can go eat a bucket full of donkey shit.
The two fullbacks were secure. The four future fullbacks for the England squad all played today, in my opinion.
Szczesny was very good today.
Flamster still has it.
One Arsene Wenger, there’s only one Arsene Wenger.
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@G69
That’s panic-buying.
He was hamstrung by the fact that top quality players aren’t going to go to a non-CL team, and they can’t afford silly wages, so his gamble is that sheer numbers will make the difference. But numbers are not a substitute for top quality. This is where they will miss Bale – that is the kind of game in which he would have been the difference last season.
Our CBs are colossi. In fact the team defending is about a million times better than it was two seasons ago.
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Flamini doing Arteta’s water carrier job well.
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Fuck yeah!!!! Man, the silence is deafening.
How are you guys feeling? I am still doing random fist shakes.
This is a nice little downward spiral Evil.
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Lol. that was nervy affair. spend some money darn it.
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I love your comments Gains. Always so good and funny.
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CONGRATS ALL AROUND. AW FIRST AND FOREMOST… KEEP THE FAITH..
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What Gains said at 5:57pm and 6:08pm.
So it is 1984 all over again; people believe you because you spend 100m on quantity that is a substitute for quality. As Finsbury says we don’t give a fcuk what some other blogs say. It is plain nonsense. That is why we spanked the Spuds today.
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And Wilshere has an upset stomach, he isn’t injured. Phew.
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Bale to RM according to the BBC…
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Went to the BBC page on the Bale news and found this in the comments section
“24.Naggers2011
ARSENAL ARE THE BEST”
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132 million dollars, six year deal.
No idea about salary
this is insane. I thought Spain was on the verge of bankruptcy. Deplorable behavior.
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The absence of Bale was the big difference today
1-0 not 5-2
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A bit late in the day, but great post Stew and fantastic result – I was only worried because I knew how a defeat could have intensified the destructive negativity around the team, but I need not have worried. These Arsenal boys mean business! It can’t always be pretty, but if it’s grit you’re after, they have that too!
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Solid gr*t
–
found this in goonerholics comments
http://video.ak.fbcdn.net/hvideo-ak-frc1/v/1095020_162893233913732_254003549_n.mp4?oh=a5c52dc54051069001ad95246921495e&oe=5225380D&__gda__=1378249453_ca3831dd754c2e2927e08d1d5d0d47b9
–
On today’s evidence the ex-spud striker Postiga at Valencia looks better then the new spud striker (from Valencia).
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I had an American college football loving friend tell me today that the Arsenal match was the most exciting game she had seen all weekend. And this was kickoff weekend for college football in the States, so that’s saying something. This was an outstanding game, and I will point to it every time someone tries to tell me that “soccer is boring”. Grit and heart and skill and teamwork and desire to win were on display today. Well done boys, and well done Arsene for making them believe in themselves. This is going to be a great season.
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“on Mathieu Flamini…
I said it was a no-brainer [to sign him], I am just sorry that he did not cost £25 million! Overall his performance was exceptional. He hasn’t played since May but his performance was very convincing.”
Oh Arsène ! That comment is brilliant on so many levels. It’s like he is making fun of Sp*rs midfield acquisitions, the press and the doomers at the same time.
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an awesome day for positive fans.
-£12m > +£110m hahahahaha.
Wenger Knows, it’s about time some noisy Arsenal ‘experts’ shut the fuck up.
rumours building up that Ozil is coming, he is a wonderful player but that is a position where we have lots of options.
Awsome game, awesome team today.
1 nil to the Arsenal !!!
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The anti-support was traitorous today. The only people who were slightly less happy about our victory were the away, Spud wankers that came to the Emirates today. If you didn’t cum a little when you heard that final whistle, then you are not, any longer, an Arsenal supporter. Fuck it. Your hatred for Wenger and Gazidis have overtaken you. You are far beyond. You might as well start supporting Palce, QPR or West Ham and develop your love for them. Fuck you, your gran and her seven brothers and sisters, sly cunt.
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If I had a nickle for every time I saw some hack suggest he could run the team better than Wenger, I would own Dubai.
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its quite simple, really…
IN ARSENE WE TRUST!
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I sincerely don’t know how the dude who writes for Le Grove hasn’t been officially binned from any Arsenal supporters groups. That guy spews the most negative shit on the planet about Arsenal. And all because his spend, spend, spend bullshit always gets proven wrong. I think someone is trying to deliberately destabilize the club.
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we got the best defensive mid in the market this year for free.
for free!! by god arsene is a genius
and he already knows our system! is this the perfect signing there ever was?
and have you seen him play today..its like he was never away..like a lost son reunited with his old family..he means business
wow simply wow..arsene has pulled an elephant out of the hat this time.
to think, if we can get one more forward who is of arsenal stature..just to fill the numbers as arsene says!
and ramsey..what a player already..and he is still IMPROVING! same goes with gibbs jenks and wilshere..walcott too. the most wondrous thing is they are not done developing as yet and they are already so fking good. omg!!!
our defence schooled them..kos mert nacho sagna verm..teams would kill for such defenders
as somebody was saying earlier..we dint play our best game either..there were so so many moves arsenal could have converted..
god i am so happy today
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A23
The fucknuts are bitter that flambo didn’t cost us £25m.
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