Well that was most satisfactory.
A three one win which could, and perhaps should, have been much more comprehensive. In the first half we were totally dominant with seventy three percent possession away from home, in the second we were less so but still much the better team.
One thing that worries me is Laurent and his tackles from behind that lead to the inevitable penalties. It does not matter that he is getting a touch on the ball, because it’s illegal to tackle from behind. So even if he is getting a touch the chances are a spot kick will be given. Do stop it son.
When you consider that Arteta, Santi, Tomas, Diaby, Podolski, Bendtner and AOC are out injured, the fact that we were able to field such a strong starting eleven makes talk of us having a weak squad seems a little ridiculous to me.
Our new shiny new superstar looked every inch just that. Given he was said to be under the weather the signs look absolutely fantastic.
However, it worries me that his acquisition is being talked about as the making of the team. This team has lost one game in six months, and that was to a referee rather than to a team. The growth of our existing players is the reason we look so formidable. When you think that the pre-Ozil team was built for a negative net transfer spend, huge credit must go to the manager.
The star of the show, once again was Aaron Ramsay. Most tackles (7), most touches (111), most passes (88), ninety two percent completion rate, two goals, and man of the match. The boy is quite simply the best player in the league this season so far. To think that as little as six months ago he was “not fit to wear the shirt” according to some expert fans and even pundits! Don’t tell me Arsène doesn’t know best; just don’t ok?
Imagine the Wengerball we will be seeing when the wounded return. Its frightening you know? It is !
Jack looked much improved. Its been clear that the two years out is going to take some coming back from, just like it did for Aaron and Tomas before him, but with his talent and will it is just a matter of time.
Oh, and how good has Flamini slotted back in? His signing could prove the master stroke of all master strokes.
So that’s it people, you likely all have seen it yourselves, so you don’t need a mug like me to explain to you what you saw.
Great innit ?
Positively Arsenal 
GEORGE. we’re number one mate……
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Come on you swans. You can do it.
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I agree with what you said regarding KOSHER. specifically now that the referees are looking for it. He is going to get called on it everytime no matter how well he executes the tackle.
Also agree on AARON. what a young man to come back from that horrific assault. And oh, thank god AW had faith in him. The kid is mental strength personified and now he is paying back the managers faith in him by these wonderful performances. Look and Learn rvp , you disloyal idiot.
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Madrid bought the wrong Welshman. Oh, bite your tongue.
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Good article, George. Before I logged on I filled in yesterday’s score and result in my little notebook, saw the line of “W”s and the single “L” at the top of the page and thought to myself, blimey, this is us *in an injury crisis*.
I haven’t seen Kos’s tackle yet but in general I think you have a point. The Aston Villa one was perfect, but some of those tackles are unnecessary. When you’re quick, like he is, you love the challenge of getting there in time, so that could be why he tends to go for the last-ditch tackle. But if anybody can learn a lesson, it’s Bosscielny.
And agree with the remarks about the Ozil-as-saviour narrative, I alluded to it in the comments of the previous post.
Aaron Ramsey. Unbelievably awesome.
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Aaron fucking Ramsey
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About as good an afternoon on Wearside as I could have anticipated And we emerged well set for what will probably be a good test in Marsellles
While Sunlun managed to get back into the game 2nd half our control of the whole match was far far better than some of the scrambled results of recent seasons.
Theo got a bit of stick for not adding to the goals scored column but I don’t think any of the chances were easy and Westwood did well in the home goal. 3-1 therefore about the right result.
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Aaron Feckin Ramsay indeed. I just watched one of those youtube vids. You know where they show all the touches of an individual during any given match. Predictably the first one up from Sunderland featuring Mesut Özil. What surprised me wasn’t his sublime touch and precision passing (boy are Theo and GAGG going to profit from his presence in the team) we all expected that, no, what surprised and pleased me inordinately was just how much Aaron featured in Mesut’s little video! I suspect it would be the same whichever outfield Arsenal player they focussed on. Aaron would be in almost every clip. Also he and Jack looked anything but out of place and overawed by the new boy. In fact if anything they looked even better with him alongside.
Great times to support the best team in the land.
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Moring folk,
Missed yesterday’s game but your analysis made up for it.
As PG says, when you look at the players yet to get back into the team, it’s really frightening. I’ve said enough about Aaron. Spot on about Kozzer, he needs to chill a tiny bit.
Theo needs to break his duck, but it’s great that Özil has slotted in like a natural gunner.
Let’s hope we pick up some points on Wednesday, then if we get points in the 3 home games in the group stage we will be sorted.
Missed Moe being back to form for the chavs, some things don’t change, and people laude this negative eye-poking bastard? It’s beyond me what the attraction is.
UTA.
More like depleted uranium armour piercing shells being fired by the gunners now, George!
Arsène Knows!
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Steww,
Aaron learned a fancy little Zidane style turn this summer.
All he really needed was just to sort out his judgement on where and who to make passes to, and boy has he sorted that out, but fancy turns is a cherry on top of an already very delicious Ramsey cake!
So what are we going to do with Arteta? If the Flamster is doing the DM cover, that leaves him freer to get forward. nice problem for le Boss to worry about.
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DC – Ref Zidane turn: I thought Aaron had also been practising his Tomas Turn in front of the mirror . No one does it quite like Tomas though. He’s like melted butter sliding over a Teflon griddle that’s been sprayed with WD40.
The boy simply needed confidence. Confidence to hold the ball if the pass wasn’t on, confidence to remain calm and see the right pass and confidence in front of goal. He has it now and you can see it. What I love is that Arsène could see it before it was even there.
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@ steww September 15, 2013 at 10:46 am
“DC – Ref Zidane turn: I thought Aaron had also been practising his Tomas Turn in front of the mirror . No one does it quite like Tomas though. He’s like melted butter sliding over a Teflon griddle that’s been sprayed with WD40.”
ha ha, love your way with words, steww
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FG – I was going with something entirely more rude but for Sunday morning I stuck with WD40.
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Great points George. I’ve just finished watching the game on Arsenal Player. Goes without saying that AR16 was fantastic once again, but it was also noticeable how well Jack played. I don’t know if the presence of MO11 had anything to do with it, but that looked to me like his best performance so far this season. When he’s fully up to speed together with the rest of our quality midfield options there will be endless possibilities for the manager dependent on the game he wants to play. I’m really looking forward to seeing our walking wounded back in the frame as we will have some breathtaking games to look forward to.
Sunderland’s second half rally was hardly surprising since 90% of our team have just come back from distant shores where they’ve played a couple of tough matches, whilst most of the Sunderland team were able to practice and relax for the last 2 weeks. A typical post international, tough away game loss against a group of experienced battlers might have followed a couple of seasons ago, but this is a newer, tougher Arsenal, able to dig in and with the quality to make the difference when it counts.
And I have to say a word for the new boy – considering he had to come off his sickbed to play and was probably way below his best, he was very impressive. His decision making is excellent and the quality of his passing is exceptional. Real Madrid really fell for the gold plated talents of GB and let a massive solid gold nugget slip from their grasp. Their loss is definitely our gain and I think he is going to love it in this team once he settles and gets to know his team mates better.
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Steww, if you saw any of the Far East tour, Aaron was really having a lot of fun with the ball. No pressure on him of course but he was really comming out of his shell as a ball player.
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Short and sweet George. Always a man to get straight to the point. BTW: That is why you are admired and feared in equal measure.
You made an excellent point; we “have seen it yourselves, so you don’t need a mug like me to explain to you what you saw.” Actually we don’t need the media and bloggers to “brainwash” us with their interpretation.
Excellent point about Kos. Overall the defense played very well. Despite that controversial one v one tussle between Sagna and Altidore, as center-half he won almost all his aerial duel duels and contained both SunLun forwards who are bigger and taller. Nonetheless I would welcome back Mert in a flash.
But I think you ignored the 800lb gorilla in the room: Theo is in a mini slump. He put himself about yesterday, making positive runs and was on the end of at least three great chances. Difficult yes, but at this level you would expect him to bury at least one. If he was Gervinho, the media and bloggers would have him slaughtered. Just hope he and his coaches are working on his execution, technically and mentally. I am convinced once he starts scoring, he will explode like Ramsey. He’d better as I am backing him for 25 goals this season. Hurry up Theo.
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“so you don’t need a mug like me to explain to you what you saw.”
PG – I beg to differ – having read such a wonderful article.
No. Tell it. (You did, beautifully. And look at the comments….)
Thanks.
I’m gonna re-watch the game sometime. I need to check if ref Atkinson was as bad as I thought. (Giroud hauled to the ground – free kick to the hauler. Jack (as always) – ankles kicked, blocked – nowt given. Sorry to mention negatives, but one reason we’ve lost games (and players) when playing the shit-kickers, is due to biased refs. Hell, we’ve lost championships due to ref-shite.
Thanks again for an excellent post.
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Rambo was upset when before the game other players were compared to Zidane : )
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that third goal…my god…football at its finest….and also had theo scored that header from jacks beautiful cross after the one two with backheel with ozil…jeezz….
and of course flamini pointing yelling organising….seriously well thought out transfer..and free..the best
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Just had a peep at the comments sections of some other blog.
Miserable bastards most of them.I dont get it,I really dont.
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hehe.. like which one?
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Oh dear, what a bunch of deluded positivistas. This performance ‘papered over the cracks’. We have ‘no depth’. What’s going to happen if Flamini, Wilshere and Ramsey get injured? They’ll join Cazorla, Rosicky, Arteta, Diaby, AOC etc., I mean Wenger and the board during this transfer window stand accused of gross dereliction of duty…….
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I forgot to mention Podolski…..
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I see Wednesday’s opponents Marseilles only managed a draw with bottom placed Toulouse in yesterday’s Ligue 1 game, and even that relied on an 87 minute equaliser from Mendes – comment in reports they looked ‘distracted’ by upcoming CL tie.
And well they might !
OM are sitting in 4th after five games in the league.
Do I detect an opponent there for the plucking ?
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Our CL group a bit of a corker looking at the tables this morning
Us top in the PL
Napoli top in Serie A
Dortmund top in the Bundesliga
And if OM had beaten Toulouse they also would have been on top of Ligue 1
I love the European Cup
It’s like a trophy
Spuds pitting their wits against the mighty Tromso is also like a trophy – a small slightly misshapen award – but silverware nevertheless
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Anicoll
OM must be worried about the firepower being aimed in their direction on Wednesday night.
That and AW really, really hates their corrupt asses. He will make this very personal to beat them.
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Ramsey’s second goal pure perfection and as good a goal from Arsenal as I can (care to) remember. Feck you legrave, dim tim, highharold, piersmoron, and the rest, you do not deserve to enjoy that.
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Dortmund look bloody good. Reus, Lewandovski and company really hammered Hamburg
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It’s amazing how quiet it is on the internet when we win – the doomers are struggling to find things to moan about today!
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Some of the football between Aaron, Jack and Özil was breathtaking, and to think the new boy was sick and had only one training session with his team mates. He looked instantly at home. The blow of losing Cazorla was instantly eased by Jack’s performance on that left side, I thought he had a great game despite holding onto the ball too long at times. I imagine he will keep that spot in Santi’s absence, and maybe a spell out wide will do for Jack what it did for Ramsey.
For a team missing its two leaders and organisers at the back in Per and Arteta, and its most creative player in Cazorla, it was a mature and controlled performance. We wobbled slightly at the start of the second half but got back into our stride pretty quickly and once Ramsey scored the third I thought we saw the game out comfortably.
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We have eight players and more first team players missing, we win game after game in style and they say we have a ‘light’ squad??
Country fucking mile. Just sit and watch.
I love this squad.
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We were always going to win that game. Sunderland could throw whatever they liked at us in the second half but we always had the answer. Just pop up the other end and score a scorcher. This squad is developing and maturing into a world beating side. Very classy performance indeed.
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‘No names on the bench’ they say. ‘No-one we have ever heard of’.
Well, I suggest, hackpersons, that you commit names like Gnabry, Monreal, Vermaelen, Fabianski, Miyaichi, Frimpong, Akpom to memory, you may well have reason to recall them soon. They all play the Arsenal way. The best way.
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Shotta, I believe once Mesut learns where and when Theo likes the ball to be played, he’ll make sure to get it there.
Jackie was very good yesterday. The problem is Ramsey was incredible. He even overshadowed Özil.
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New to the party but have to say I agree completely re: Özil-the-savior nonsense. The two takeaways from this match for me were 1) Özil is truly a perfect fit and is going to cause major damage in the PL, but more importantly 2) we already had a strong, highly integrated side for him to fit in with. For that reason he was able to hit the ground running.
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I do love watching Aaron pull off that Tomas Turn he’s be working on. He does it in almost every game now, and it’s getting better and better. But my favorite move of his is what I call the “Top Gun” move when he’s being persued…”Hit the brakes, and they’ll fly right by.” Full speed, and he’ll suddenly stop and instantly change direction, leaving the persuer’s inertia to carry them forward a few more yards before they realize what’s happened. Love that.
Oh, and George? Are you trying to kill me? Just scrolling along reading the blog and, bam, that photo appears in the middle of it… Damn, son. (banned smiley; the winky kind)
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Olivier’s goal was as well taken than anything the bloke who went to the mancs used to score.
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Aaron doesn’t get caught with the ball these days, and he has mastered the art of the little toe in to dispossess and to push the ball to one of our advancing players, really wrong foots (feet? feets ?) the opposition.
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Yup. Olive is very clinical.
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Great players like to play with great players and I reckon that Mesut is very pleased with the quality of the players around him in this squad. Seamless two way integration.
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I believe he came to Arsenal because he gave up trying to play under hacks like Mourinho and Ancelotti.
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Frank/Gains, the media just cannot come to terms with how a player of Ozil’s quality would come to Arsenal and they are twisting in the wind in an attempt to make it seem that he would have gone to one of the Manchester teams if he could have. What they fail to appreciate is that a player who loves to play football could not be at a better club with the quality we have around him. Olivier is a quality striker and those who wrote him off last season will be eating their words.
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Passeral, what the media hate IMHO, and what the doomer blogs hate too is that Özil specifically said he wanted to join Arsenal because of Wenger. That really galls the haters, that a world class footballer sees a world class manager totally supporting him.
Has AW put a foot wrong in the last 3 years? please tell me, as I think no one could have played the hand of cards he was dealt with better for the last 3 seasons.
No tin cups but FFS, how could we win when we still had daggers stuck in the teams back each season?
Özil (and I didn’t see him coming) makes everyone else in the team look a bit extra special, Jack and Aaron are now under less of a spotlight and can really flourish -especially with Flamini minding the shop behind them.
Up front Ollie has found his mojo, let’s hope Theo finds his soon. Özil will learn to pass the ball a few metres in front of Theo’s runs – that way he catches up with the ball and doesn’t need a first touch to control it. ( ’cause we all know that’s not his strong point.,..). Sliding crosses and goals from the right and side of the box IS Theo’s main ability, he ain’t going to learn a new way of playing so we have to use what he’s got.
Can’t wait to see the Özil Poldi axis at work either. Those two have a telepathic understanding of where each other is on the pitch when playing for Germany.
Lets stuff the cheating Marseilles bastards on Wednesday.
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Have to say, Arsène Wenger really used the bench well yesterday.
Of course, the other blogs keep saying he doesn’t know how to.
Like he doesn’t know tactics….yawn.
A shout out to fellow Positivists Poznan and NLIR. Not all other Gooner bloggers are dickheads, these guys always have good writing posts.
George, no one in the Gooners blog verse seems to posts links to PA, have we some kind of plague?
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DC good .We are alone in this.So be it.
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hehe..love how some bloggers are trying to disguise their betrayal towars wenger and Arsenal and lack of a spine with showing now their love and respect to the players…..and how they give credit to the players for responding with straight wins….haha…
who kept these players then and supoorted them when everyone was calling them “not good enough”.. ?
who kept them believing and playing in our own way ? who kept them focused and motivated..even with so many injuries and “attacks” from the outside?
i take it they arent men enough to admit they were wrong in critisisng the manager so harshly or admitting they dont have any bottle as supporters …
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double canister September 15, 2013 at 10:33 pm
and arsenal vision…mean lean is a legend…never turned against the squad manager or clubs policy..always positive and always reasonable and composed. and he had a lot of trolls to deal with too…
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“That really galls the haters, that a world class footballer sees a world class manager totally supporting him.”
.spot on! i guess it hurts their pride and ego to admit they know fuck all and that wenger has got it right again! …what happened to noone bigger than the club..does it count for bloggers and fans and their opinions too or only for players and managers ? ….
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Guys:
This link Mean Lean sent me from Arsenal Vision is a must read http://t.co/F34gBi7HXG
Al Brookshaw has used the recent developments to vindicate AWs actions over the past 8 years and to demand respect for the manager. Many of us spent the last 7-8 years saying the same things on ACLF. What pained me the most was the betrayal of Arsene Wenger when it got most difficult, when Cesc and Van Judas decided it was easier elsewhere. Those of us who refuted the declarations of the “end of an era” were made to look like extremists and deluded fools, laughed at, mocked and some eventually binned. I will forgive but never forget.
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Those of us who refuted the declarations of the “end of an era” were made to look like extremists and deluded fools, laughed at, mocked and some eventually binned. I will forgive but never forget.
spot on mate! ……and they still insist on calling those mature enough to let wenger do his work and trust his methods as deluded and bad fans for not pressing the club to do as a minority of the fans WANTS…..
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