I’m out of step again. If supporting Arsenal was a dance I’d be treading on every toe in the room. It’s OK don’t feel sorry for me, I’m quite used to it. When we were playing in hugely entertaining games but coming out with honours shared in multi scoring draws or losing by the odd goal or as a result of hugely prejudicial refereeing decisions I often found myself in a minority of one. I stood like the little boy still waving his flag after the procession had passed saying to nobody “Wasn’t that a gay parade, colourful and exciting?” as everyone else in the street marched grumbling back into their houses angry, cheated, feeling the costumes were less flamboyant than in previous years, the music a little discordant, the majorettes skirts less high than they liked and the baton twirls not as extravagant as they might have been.
My final contribution, I genuinely believed it to be forever, to the world of Arsenal blogging was to ask, almost a year ago now and following a three three draw with Fulham, whether there was any other single person out there who could agree that the match had been entertaining and good to watch. Nobody could. I said that in that event I would keep my counsel. That I did until George and Adi inflated the enormous bouncy castle that is Positively Arsenal and enquired as to whether or not I might like to jump on and try a few somersaults. The rest is, to polish a very tired and already shining cliché, history. Or at least so I had assumed. Increasingly though I’m finding myself once more moving into a position of isolation. Remarks passed are missing my bulls eye by a fraction and the popular note is not, to my ear at least, always quite true.
Before you begin to berate me for a curmudgeonly, or as my Caledonian comrades would have it, a carnaptious outlook during this time of celebration and general rejoicing among the Arsenal cognoscenti, stay your sword hand, I beg, keep your powder dry, and hear me out. I am not miserable, nor am I deliberately dour simply in a spirit of perverse contradiction. I have been accused of such contrary instincts often enough in the past and so I must presume that there could be some truth in the accusation, one is put in mind of the old clench about a stopped clock being correct at least twice a day. However on this occasion I am certain I can defend my position against such a prosecution case.
In the first instance I believe I may meet with a favourable reception. I am hugely antagonised by the refusal of the media, exemplified by the apparatchiks at ЅҠЧ ЅРѺЯТЅ on Tuesday evening, to give simple unvarnished credit where it is manifestly due. Arsenal did not in fact play the most outstanding, beautiful efficient and yet inventive football imaginable. Instead Napoli were a disappointment. Napoli were poor. Napoli were sure to come out and show more in the second half. The script cannot be changed, Arsène cannot be given credit for what he has been building at the Emirates all these years because then the real power in football would have to admit they’d been wrong and force a different editorial line from the wooden lips of their ventriloqual dolls. I’m sure we were all as annoyed by the commentators search for excuses to prop up their tired arguments. Thank goodness for the French TV coverage I eventually secured. Where I differ from the rest of you perhaps is my reaction to the media circus where there is evidence or at least the suggestion of a change of heart. People are rejoicing that the papers are beginning to recognise that we are resurgent, that we have awoken and the bad or lean times are behind us. I hear folk talking with glee how this negative blog or that radio show are saying that from the depths of despair when we lost to Villa and inspired by our new Deutsche Wunderkind Arsenal are suddenly a different team. And this is one of things that really pisses me off.
The media are not saying “We got it wrong, we’re sorry for all the scurrilous nonsense we’ve talked about the great Monsieur Wenger and his long term plan” of course they aren’t and they never will. What they are actually saying is Arsenal were shit until Arsène finally caved in and spent some fackin’ money – just like they’d always told him to. I can’t celebrate that. I can’t celebrate when they propagate the nonsense that Mesut Özil inspired us to victory over Napoli as I heard this morning or that he was ‘at the heart of everything good about Arsenal” as I read. Apart from the fact that by any sensible measure no one stood out in what was the consummate team performance (except possibly Aaron Ramsey who was the best man on the pitch in the first half and by quite a long way) the comments are at best lazy –
Arsenal spend a lot of money on a player ergo he must be the best player at the club
or self serving –
we always said Arsenal would never do anything until they spent some fackin’ money so now we will ignore the facts and thus prove ourselves correct.
So don’t expect me to cheer when these lying scumbags appear to be blowing smoke up our kilts. They will turn on us at the first bad result and won’t ever give credit for the fact that this team was already in the midst of an incredible run, which has continued and to which Özil is merely one contributing factor. The real story is the platform Arsène has assembled upon which the likes of Mesut can strut their stuff.
Another area where I find myself out of step with many of my friends is this mood of vindication, this feeling that the results have proved us to be right and yar boo sucks to anyone who doubted our positive support in the past. I’m reading Roy Jenkins huge and hugely enjoyable biography of Churchill at the moment and it has given me pause on this subject on more than one occasion. The old warhorse was very fond of saying “In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity” and a little bit of that magnanimity wouldn’t go amiss right now. Apart from anything else I don’t think it is the results or current form that proves us to have been right for standing defiant by the manager in recent times. Churchill was furious at Chamberlain’s betrayal of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and ’39 and made many dire predictions about the calamitous outcome of a continued policy of appeasement. My argument is he wasn’t proven right by the carnage that ensued in the following years, he was right to be appalled at the perfidious treachery shown by the Western allies to the Czech people regardless of the outcome. Even if Hitler had stopped there and Europe had enjoyed decades of peaceful prosperity it wouldn’t alter the fact that allowing the fascist annexation of another country would have been wrong. Full stop. Wrong because it was wrong by any moral measurement not wrong because of the way things turned out. In our perhaps less cataclysmic area of concern, we would have been right to support our manager and players irrespective of the results they went on to achieve. We are supporters and we could clearly see what Arsène was trying to achieve and how he was going about it. It was right and proper to support him in that quest. If we’d lost a few more games this season than we have that position would still have remained the correct one. We supported him simply because it was the right thing to do and this good run of results is not relevant. ‘I told you so’ has no place for me.
I know what you’re thinking – lighten up Stew and let us have our moment for goodness sake. Fine go ahead I don’t blame you and I too am revelling in the football and the results. I’m happy for players like Aaron and Tomas after their personal tribulations and I’m delighted for Arsène to be where he deserves to be, I am a little bit in love with Per Mertesacker and if it means the team is winning I’m content to be proven right. I just don’t buy the media line and don’t think it healthy for anyone else so to do, oh and I prefer magnanimity to gloating any day of the week. The former is sun kissed and virtuous residing upon lofty moral high ground, the latter lives in a squalid detritus choked gutter of self regard. Having said all that I’m not immune to the instinct to poke out my tongue at my detractors. To that end I have one delicious quotation to share with you from Jenkins’ weighty tome. Churchill was adept at putting people in their place with a pithy or elegantly turned phrase, in fact this remains one of the things for which he is most famous. However he was, unsurprisingly perhaps, occasionally on the receiving end of some pretty stiff stuff. When I consider some of the awful accusations levelled at us Positivistas, that we were living in the past, that events had left us behind and we were clinging to the promise of false hope based on Arsène’s achievements from a sadly bygone age, the words of the Marquess of Linlithgow from a written exchange with WSC in 1932 spring instantly to mind. “Forgive me then if I say that it is not, it seems to me, so much I who am mouthing the bland platitudes of an age that has passed away … but rather you who are hanging hairy from a branch while you splutter the atavistic shibboleths destined by some to retreat into the forgotten past”.
Now that is a put down.
Positively Arsenal 
Kam, Not Safe For Work.
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Anicoll
Point taken, Ipswich are the tractor drivers then, but whatever you and your cousins get up to in the barn it entirely your own thing. 🙂
Joking aside, (very sorry) I have no problem with the LWC’s taking the Y word to themselves as a badge of honour. I do however profoundly dislike any Gooner or other fans using the word. We would be pricks to use it ourselves, it died out decades ago in Highbury.
(Excepting the random complete fuckwit).
But, this guy from the black lawyers association needs to have some cop-on about another peoples culture. I want to join his association, but I’m white and not a lawyer – doesn’t that make him out to be a bigot too.?
It is different though from some African Americans and Tarantino keeping the n word in vogue – grow the fuck up homies!
I’m no expert on this, maybe in the PA world there are folks with more sensitivity or have more experience about discrimination than me. Shit, I’m Irish but I still think Rooney is king of the Pikies.
BTW Gooner was a spud term to disparage us in the first place. badges eh?.
Our club has had loads of Jewish players and board members, the hammers had loads if east end Jews and are are owned by a couple of them now. To me its not a problem and I shouldn’t have the soapbox available to make it my personal crusade, even if it was.
Yossi Benyaoun? saved our fucking season 2 years ago. we sung our heart out for him, it never worried me what fucking religion he was.
Take it from someone who lives in a country where people kill each other over which version of the bible they read, bigotry and sectarianism is a cancer in society – never mind petty rival football hatreds.
Never mind that, fuck the LWC’s for everything else they are, apart from the sausages.
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Thanks Limestone.
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Anicoll
Sorry about the rant.
Not aimed at you of course – probably not aimed on target at anything.
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Moral high horse.
Do we have to use the term ‘ladies’ for our women’s football team?
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Fungunner
I was getting so smug, I forgot your comment.
wowzies, the gals won the cup?
That will make up a bit for being ‘unfairly treated’ by the FA ( I was going to use more Anglo Saxon terms) in the league.
Picking on a player trying to come back into the game after having two children is a new low, even by the FA’s Stone Age standards.
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A or b
Good points.
I’m no expert on sectarianism.
I am an equal opportunities bigot – I hate everyone!
But I have been told from Dutch fans that Rotterdam uses Ajax’s Jewish heritage against them.
To quite vile extents, sometimes.
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Aha, thanks. I suppose it’s subjective but I thought it was funny as heck. Damn Brits with that peculiar sense of humor.
Sorry if the nudity offended anyone. But it is funny and BBC ran it prime time.
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Truly great Stew. It’s easy to agree with you after you so perfectly put things. You’re not alone, the only one finding the media bs and plastic back peddling to bitter to swallow. But perhaps you are best suited to exactly analysing and putting into words your thoughts on the issue.
I do differ from you, probably due to a general moodiness. If we lose or draw I seldom see positives in it. Not due to dissapointment in the team but because we deserve better and the bad luck bear has reared its head.
We had an exchange on twitter after the signing of Ozil. I was excited, you were cool about the whole thing. Perhaps we both expected this outcome that the media would attribute any subsequent positivity to the German but I say don’t let it ruin your personal enjoyment. It’s a team game and ozil is great for the collective. Fuck anybody that can’t see that.
It seriously irks me that the negativity of last season and post villa are completely ignored by the offending posters/tweeters. They now peddle the “get a life, enjoy the results stop be negative” message now. Oh how delightfully, infuriatingly ironic. But at the end of the day you could tell them a million times but it would be like trying to teach a lump of shit it’s dirty. Wasting your breath. I take massive encouragement from the existence of the positive revellers. The fact that like minded fans are out here allows me to not feel the need to become the twitter keyboard warrior, that is fuming just below the surface. Keep up the good work. Enjoy the good times. Enjoy the bad times. Because lets be truly honest. They’re not that bad are they. We still have more class in the team, management, ethos and play than the rest of the league. And that is not dependant on results. Lastly we all know that when we win the league it’s more fun for us because we backed these players to the fucking hilt. To our last breath. Come on you gunners.
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morning all, hate ARSENAL less days, suppose we just have to concentrate on our foes losing
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As Anicoll said yesterday, a draw for city and the toffees would be best for us.
Manure and Sunderland looks like a relegation 6-pointer.
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Everton are unimportant.They will fade.Its not 1977
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Everton will remain a creditable nuisance factor to our rivals George.
The Merseyside derbies will take points off Liverpool.
They have a point to prove against Moyes too.
1987 was their last glory year.
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unfortunately both manc teams will win easily today and so will Liverpool its important for us to win tomorrow just before the interlul
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Hart or Pantaloon to start for Citeh ? I fancy Pelligrini will bench his bumbling net minder before he does any more damage this week
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Well that will teach me to look at the news before choosing goalkeepers at the CofM
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DC I was refering to a time where a team could be cobbled together and win the league.
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Fair enough PG.
Point taken.
So the spuds have no chance then? Haha.
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A_B
All these Sunday kick-offs mean we will always be playing catch up with the pack, well at least it also means we have to avoid complacency.
The spuds are stuck in a Thursday /Sunday cycle while they are in the Europa cup.
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dc yeah we actually need the spuds to stay in Europe on Thursdays for a while I suppose it really a matter of winning our own games its ours to throw away at the moment all we need to do is win every game till June and nobody can touch us
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I wonder if Miranda Hart would do a better job ?
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I am little conflicted with this Everton. Started off looking like a decent footballing team but as the game wore on they displayed some of the same flakiness of Martinez’s Wigan. Am I over reacting?
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No Shotta you are not – As has so long been the case with Everton they look a different proposition at home compared to on the road – they were in it up to half time but very little in second half – unlucky with the penalty but even so they did not seize the game when they needed to – nothing on the bench to really pep them up when they had lost the impetus
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Laaa lalalalaaa laaa lalalalalAAAHH!!!
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Lalalalalalaaaaa
U classsy classy animals..
Congregating to celebrate the wonder and joy that is Arsenal
“He is getting it back and I think playing on the flanks helps him to find that back, because on the flanks you have to do a lot of that,” said Wenger. “Once he will have that back… his performances physically recently are like that.
“Deep-lying midfielder or wide [are his best positions] because higher up he is less comfortable at the moment. He doesn’t like to have his back to goal, he likes to face the game.
“Why? Because he has a burst to pass people with the ball at his feet. From deep he does that very well, he creates the openings for that little burst to run with the ball. He is a physically strong boy, he has a good body. He can win the challenge and make the difference and open the game up.”
Wenger cited Aaron Ramsey as an example of a player who can still thrive despite being stationed on the flank, and he thinks Wilshere’s natural versatility will help him thrive.
“You ask every good football player and he says to you [he wants to play] ‘in the centre’,” said Wenger. “Nobody says I want to play wide, I’ve never heard that.
“But on the other hand I had Nasri, he and Silva they all play wide. It’s not like they are forced to stay out there. Ramsey the other night, he played on the right side and had an outstanding game. Because he is not pinned there, he can move.
“Jack can play basically everywhere. He is an important player for the squad, and he will play. But there is competition for places of course. On one side, people want you to have good players, on the other, that means you cannot give any guarantee to anybody.”
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Oooh aaahhh oh to be a G…
Shout outs to shotta great form lately gains fins dc stewyyoooweeeooowweee hunter. Jorge and soo many many many more of u lovers of the beautiful tingz
The German playmaker arrived in north London last month for a Club record fee and has made an instant impact with a number of eye-catching displays.
“You have to look at the quality first and when you have high expectation levels you can’t turn down a world-class player,” said Wenger.
“There was no special emptiness in that position but the quality was so big it was too difficult to say no.
“I believe what is important is what you see when a team plays, the rest you have to cope with,” Wenger added.
“Look at Bayern [Munich] the other night, they have [Javi] Martinez and [Mario] Goetze on the bench.
“People said the team cost £92 million and Man City cost £190 million, but Bayern had over £100 million on the bench. That’s part of big clubs today, having big players on the bench.”
Laallalalallalalaaaahhh
And still so much splender still to return..
I may hardly ever comment but oh I remain spell bound with delight
Ooooohhh oooohh ooohhh to BE
Lalalalalaalla
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Looks like Hunter has some competition.
Welcome to the Party KS.
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It does seem Pool is better equipped to win the…err Merseyside derby this year. Top of the league indeed. Look out Everton.
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As it stands, the Red mancs are in 14th place and only 2 points above the death zone.
Oh, one can only dream…..
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I see united’s team line-up for this evening is sticking rigidly the formula of 2 central midfielders and 2 wingers. Antique tactics these days.
Pity those CMs are carrack and not so clearly.
Drag queen Nani is out on the wing, and the latest new hope is not the other wing.
how’s that transfer working out for you Zaha?
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City’s record at home is impressive, very few way teams get a point there.
Toffees were a tad unlucky, but city were stinger.
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Pool are on top of the League. Am truly impressed by their top 6 credentials. I hate myself for saying this but the Spuds are a better bet.
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Happy that Fulham have beaten the orcs. Hell, I’m happy with anyone beating the orcs.
Manure, orcs, Fulham, swans (surprisingly), and the canaries all down to just above the drop zone on 7 points.
A great incentive for the hammers to go for it against the spuds tomorrow.
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So, everyone braced for the Manure match? A game they should walk through with eyes closed. But what if they don’t?
Panic stations up north?
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Shotta, you mean spuds are a better bet to be above the mickymousers at the end of the season?
Yes, that’s worth a bet. Sad to say it but spuds look better than most of the other rivals.
Palace just walked through Liverpool’s non existent midfield several times in the first half, a bit more ruthlessness in front of goal and they might have got a point out of that game.
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Oooooo to be a GOOONA!!!!
another weekend , hopefully another bunch of favorable results. Good morning all. Juggernaut picking up that all important momentum.
Doubters? Doomers? Gloomy bigots.
Just throw HUNTER 13 & THE KITCHEN SINK AT THEM. lol
Welcome aboard.
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Shotta – honestly think Manure’s main rivals this year are Liverpool and Spuds.
For 4th or 5th, obviously.
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AA their eyes seem to be closed a lot these days.
Rafael, Jones(who is decent), Vidic and Evra at the back is worrying for the Surrey faithful. Rio is dropped from the squad. ( at least Moyes has got that right).
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SHOTTA
agreed, at the beginning of the campaign I felt them and chelski and us would fight it out for top three. Seems like chelski is spuddering while spuds are not.
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There in no way I can seem Manure losing this to Sunderland, even in the stadium of shite, with Ill Canio gone.
There, that’s truly jinxed them red bastards.
All I need to do now is put a 20 on a manure win and they are fucked.
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Guys: I am very bad at the prediction lark but there is something iffy about Pool despite their United win. Having to play Suarez and Sturridge is their strength but also their weakness at it deprives them of the extra midfielder. Better teams should be able to exploit that. Lets see.
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Meanwhile
They are playing rugby league today in Old Trafford.
Really they are.
Wenger is on record as telling the rugby authorities to fuck off if they ever think of borrowing the Ems for a rugby match, not on our beautiful pitch.
The old Trafford pitch is a disgrace at the best of times.
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Totally agree Shotta,
I watched much if the game live on TV and ‘pool were flattered by the score line.
They have no clue about what to do with a Stevie G in decline, but as he has to play, their midfield is unbalanced.
Brenda isn’t big enough or proven enough with the Koppites to be able to drop Stevie.
For England’s sake, Roy has to, but he is an arselicker.
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Way hey!
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How is PG enjoying it so far on twitter?
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At the moment, and if all tomorrow’s games go the right way, the red scum could be in the bottom 3 on Sunday night.
Counting chickens, I know.
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Corneilius is still injured for Really Mad.
My Heat sign bleeds.
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Giaccherini is having an outstanding game so far. How fit are Sunderland? Can they keep up this intensity of defending and pressing. Hope the double sessions of Di Canio pay off today!
For us WBA will be on a high after torching ManU at OT, so this will be a tough but open game which should suit us with our away strength and high level of quick passing and attack we showed vs. Napoli.
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From the BBC live text stream
Miracle Roch: I honestly believe Man Utd will win the league under Moyes next season. They’ll face stiff competition from Brighton & Watford.
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Hi LSG.
What do you think of WBA’s performance, considering the way yawnited are playing at the moment?
I can wait for our game on the 10th November. Bring it on!
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