This morning we have a guest post from @The_Beck_ .
We’ve come far since the start of the year, and it feels great.
It’s 2 A.M. and I really want to write.
Across my screen, news articles keep flashing every minute.
“Arsenal can win Champions League – Jurgen Klopp”
“Wenger knows best” – Nick Miller (SSN)
“Arsenal made them (Dortmund) look distinctly average” – Jamie (My Dad’s a Wheeler Dealer) Redknapp (SSN)
“I think we have to start saying it now (that Arsenal are the real thing), the questions are all being answered.” – Gary Neville (SSN)
I really want to share my joy with all the Arsenal supporters that read this site, it feels amazing for me, just to think how different it was to last year to how it is now.
And its not just one player, all of them, all of them, I love all of them.
Rosicky is composing heavy metal r & b rap based pop rock grunge classical and all sorts.
Being spoiled with both Flamini and Arteta, both proving doubters wrong, both pleasing Wenger’s tactically.
Giroud’s hold up play and how he always manages to find Ramsey is nothing short of beautiful.
Ozil can have quiet games and still find magic moments, as can Santi and Theo and Lukas (when they get back from injury) and the list goes on.
Our back four, our back six, our back even if you include Vermaelen, Jenkinson and Monreal all provide great back up and close games out for us excellently. We’re tactically fouling when we need to and our defence is just as beautiful to watch as our attack.
With Szczesny, like we were with De Gea last season, we are watching one of Europe’s best young goalkeepers steadily become one of the top 10 GK’s in Europe, his distribution and movement has improved massively.
Now I am writing on a high, and they don’t always last as you know.
But lets enjoy this high, lets enjoy what our club has done so far, in life you can’t always be worried about what’s going to come back to bite you in the ass.
Because you might be forever be worrying.
Forward,
Victoria Concordia Crescit
Positively Arsenal 
Very good.
We should enjoy it while it lasts.
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And treat those twin imposters just the same
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PG says:
“in life you can’t always be worried about what’s going to come back to bite you in the ass”
And this is my sentiment exactly! This has always been my response when the negative nellies tell me to curb my enthusiasm because we are only a quarter of the way into the season. Of course, they are fucking hypocrites. They were screaming that the end of the world has come after the Anthony Taylor inspired Aston Villa debacle.
Any Gooner who can’t enjoy this moment may need to look for another team to support or pursue a different hobby other than football. It is the occasional lows that make highs like this so great.
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Oh sorry, @the beck is the author and not PG.
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Good morning,
I was rejoicing after the game and still am.
Not wishing to sound curmudgeonly but I do not need to read or listen to the burblings of Redknapp and others.
I am as sceptical about their half-hearted praise as I am about their unwarranted criticism. That said, I am happy that you are happy!! 🙂
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Hahahahaha http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4zvwcG1bfBI …
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The BFG is having a massive season, and I would be more worried about an injury to him than anyone.
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pedantic george November 8, 2013 at 8:26 am
HAHAHAAHAHAAAAA
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..made my day…
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ive played it 13 times already…this needs to become a chant
i see you running round twon with united scum so i say …FUCK YOU…….
ahahah brilliant..awesome..genius
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Goodmorning all.
HENRY B
@ 811 my sentiments exactly. I don’t listen to their derogatory analysis and I could do without their praise.
We enjoy the ARSENAL our own way. Supporting and caring for every member wearing the RED&WHITE. and the way I see it we are in ascendancy so really enjoy. The lows will be few and far between.
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Love the RvP film
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Is it time to take stock of an Ozil? Partly, yes, he’s played a lot actually. I’ve been intrigued by his performances throughout. A few have expressed or used the word “subdued”, especially compared to the first couple or three exciting appearances. I’ve noticed two things about this young lad. First, the assist-machine is real. It is uncanny how often he does it, often from an unlikely or not overly promising situation. What is it? A kind of vision, or broader thinking about the possibility presented. Second, he is very skilled down the right, because being left footed he cuts in very smartly and that places him in interesting positions to 1-2 into the box, or cross, or shoot from the left foot, and partly being right footed to a degree, and fast when he wants, he has an excellent method of skimming the touchline. It’ll be interesting to see how Evra copes.
But he is not everyman, not yet, or not quite. He is not Aaron. He is more nuanced and his contribution sometimes not obvious, but watch carefully, his positioning off the ball into space, nice and fluid is excellent and his team-play, unselfish, quite outstanding.
I find him a fabulous partner to Aaron, and I don’t doubt that a little part but significant of Aaron’s recent success is because of Ozil’s link-play, which Aaron, a more boisterous and driving presence, seems to thrive on, and vice versa. That partnership is worth pondering as one of the potentially great midfield pairings in European football, I really mean it.
He is still finding his feet and that’s natural. Wenger’s comment that Ozil could score more at Arsenal to add to his repertoire seems an exciting phase to come.
Let’s enjoy!!!
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Very true Henry B and Goonerkam – as Redknapp has the footballing intellect of a water vole it is very difficult to take anything he has to say about anything seriously
I will recognise any hopes of a title challenge are truly over when Hansen and Shearer announce we are well on course to lift the trophy !
And ZP the thing that has most struck me about Ozil so far is that irrespective of the speed of the game he very rarely does not have time to make a pass, to find space to turn in and sprint clear of a tackle. Even against Dortmund where the speed and pressing of the Germans was exceptional he managed to break free and eventually deliver the killer cross right on OGs head.
In the PL where the official wisdom is that ‘foreigners’ need time to get up to speed and cope with the high energy and impact of week in and week out games Mesut appears to have made that transition already.
There is surely more to come ………………..
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ZP – agree with your remarks re the Oz/Ramsey partnership.
And there are interesting partnerships appearing all over the pitch – the other biggie being the Koz/Per pairing …
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Beck’s expression of joy is so sincere and infectious. Enjoying-Agreeing with all the comments made so far. But I want to strike a cautious contraian stand. Beware of the media lovefest. These are the same characters that pre-season were generally unanimous in the view that we would struggle to make top-four much less challenge for the title. Worse was to come after the Villa defeat. Even after our magnificent run thereafter, the doubts about our prospects were pretty standard multiplied exponentially affter our defeat by Dortmund and Chelsea.
How come two weeks later we are suddenly now candidates for both the PL and Champions League titles? The truth is we are a much better team than we were last year and even last September. But we are not infinitely better than our immediate competition whether it is Chelsea, City or United for that matter.
The media and the anti-Arsenal pundits are simply covering their asses and playing catch up with their audience because they are looking absolutely stupid and out of touch by parrotting the same ignorant nonsense they mouthed in the summer into autumn. Hansen, Robson et al know if theycontinue to ignore the blindingly obvious they run the risk of being cut from the milk they have been gurgling from the teats of their paymasters. Lose to Manchester United which I personally doubt, but which is not impossible, they will be back with a vengeance to feast on the doubts and insecurities which they have sown for 8 long years.
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cant stop singing it george…..
i see you runningdown…nananannananan fuck you..woohoohoo
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I wonder how far managers think in terms of specific pairings, when two players understand and compliment each other. I suppose when it becomes apparent that a special link is forged it becomes a factor in the game plan. The obvious is centre-half, but what about say up the left flank, or right? I think Bobby and Thierry had that quality. Bobby would frequent the midfield left and had a knack of getting out of tight situations there (Freddy often close by, in attendance as it were) and Thierry would often drift into space on the left up ahead and attack from that side, often getting the ball from Bobby. So many of his great goals were a simple cut in with such speed and then right foot shot to far corner, like a fast pass. Bergkamp seemed more comfortable towards the right sided play. Another example in another part of play might be early Vieira/Petit.
Our left often runs into a cul de sac without a natural wide player there, although Gibbs is doing a job for sure. On our right, I’ve never seen Sagna play as well as he is now, offensively, and that’s saying something.
It occurs to me that one reason Aaron is scoring so freely is that Giroo and the rest are keeping the opposition so perpetually busy that space keeps opening for the attacker coming behind, like a number 10, but in our case a midfielder, Aaron.
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The fun thing about this season is watching this team smash all the benchmarks set by the sage pundits.
– This team will not qualify for the CL. We wrecked Fenerbahce over two legs.
– Arsenal is going to struggle in the group of death. We lead the group, we look likely to emerge with the most points and we may have ruined Dortmund’s chances of qualifying for the second round.
– They haven’t faced anyone important in the league. We make Liverpool look like a Sunday league team and SAS like a pair of U-13s.
This Sunday, for me, is the biggest test yet. Man U are going to be more than motivated to beat us and get their season back on track. If we can beat them and put them 11 points behind us, then I’ll start believing in all the hype.
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so…arsenal fans would rather have rooney over suarez? even though that short fat cunt has been cheating diving and pissing on us ever since 2005…make him pay laurent!!
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Man U are going to be more than motivated to beat us and get their season back on track.
spot on…and if we let them save their season against us i will be disappointed.. i want the players to play the way fans would play…..take no prisoners…..completely and utterly destroy them..no mercy.
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If ManYoo were to be defeated on Sunday, what with them struggling in the League so far, trying to cope with the trauma of Ferguson’s departure and Moyes’ arrival, and with the inevitable effects of time on an ageing squad, it would be like the End of an Era
So to speak
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or even the end of an evra
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Aaron said it, this week was always going to be a huge test, so far good, now let’s finish the job.
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But I believe Giroud is the man to watch on Sunday, not that he has more at stake, but that Yoo’s problems are in part defensive and he is the man to exploit it more fully. But let us not forget Yoo has a fairly decent run of late, unbeaten in 8, and appear to have turned a wee corner.
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them cunts will approach this game like a final and give it their all just to piss on our chips ……please no complacency from our part…..we are the ones 8 points behind..not them…. from the first second we must not let them feel any psychological superiority..we must do them like we did liverpool…LASER passing..
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Good times Beck. To be enjoyed. “Bad times” as recently described by some, apparently.They got lost in the woods, whilst looking for trees.
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It’s going to be tough. A bigger game for them then for Arsenal. We know what to expect from the cheatin’ mancs. 45 mins each for Flamini and Arteta should do the job, they should both be able to keep it to one undeserved yellow. : )
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http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2013-14/nov/talking-tactics-the-reasons-behind-arsenals-renaissance.html
Very good post from Clarke. Who needs to play FM when you can just stare at the diagrams of the different tactics (more or less game to game) and line ups* used so far this season and drool?
*Frank has always said that the players are more important then the tactics, and when you look at the options different players give when available, those words make perfect sense!
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The only teams to concede more goals to date than Yoo are the bottom three Norwich, Sunderland and Palace, Fulham and Newcastle. Cardiff have conceded the same, 13 in 10. Small margins and early days, but the trend is clear after 10 games. In contrast Southampton, Hull, Stoke, West Ham, Everton and West Brom are conceding less than Yoo. This is their main weakness. So often they would win, against odds, 1-0, 2-1, and so often a late goal, but the power of their style always was in not conceding, and seldom having to play on the backfoot.
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I SEE YOU RUNNING ROUND TOWN WITH UNITED SCUM SO I SAY….
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brilliance !
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..woo hoo hoo…
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Interesting stats Fins, and the most gratifying is leading in the stats pack, with Chelsea, on how many players have scored (10) or assisted (10), so far. Defensively we have conceded 9, Yoo 13; but the first match we conceded 3, and the next 9 we conceded 6, the third best defensive record, and that’s where that statistic gets a little distorted.
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Despite the fact that they wee 3-0 in twenty minutes last week when Fulham got a first goal the ManYoo house was on the edge of panic with very little composure or confidence anywhere on the pitch – I think Fellaini out which is no great loss for them – I am looking forward to Cleverely being tested
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ZimPaul – I’ve no idea to what extent managers consciously plan for pairings and partnerships but when they get it right the effect can be like having an additional player on that part of the pitch as so much ground is covered and so many opponents are taken care of by the efficiencies achieved by the relationship. Effective partnerships across the pitch are largely what leads to lesser sides being dominated by the more closely linked team. The power of partnerships is such that underdogs can occasionally beat teams that in theory should be vastly superior. Lack of partnerships can equally lead to expensively assembled sides failing to fire as one would otherwise expect them to.
Injuries, suspensions and player departures are the biggest enemy of teams comprising the best partnerships. Maverick players rarely seem to fit in too well to such environments. It’s one reason I think Nick Bendtner may end up under-achieving in the long-term. That’s not to say all mavericks are doomed to failure or even that Bendy won’t find a successful berth somewhere but not fitting in closely with one’s immediate team mates is often unhelpful.
One of my favourite Arsenal partnerships was that of Petit and Viera who complemented each other with a degree of effectiveness similar in scale to that being showcased today by Per and Kos. Teams struggled to get past both Pat and Manu much as Per and Kos are proving problematic to most today. For me the most interesting sequence of partners was that of the old famous Arsenal defence of the Winterburn-Adams-Bould or Keown-Dixon era. This was a group that was drilled to know exactly where their player partner was on the pitch and Lee Dixon recently ‘confessed’ in an interview that he would use the advertising hoardings around the pitch in order to gauge precisely where his mate was even if he was temporarily out of eye-line. The overall effect was to make the defence appear to work as a single bloc but it was comprised of individual pairings actually making it work.
The truly great players are capable of establishing several partnerships concurrently on the same field of play. In this I think we today see signs of genuine greatness in both Ozil and Ramsey in similar measure, to name but two from the current Arsenal crop.
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The boys saw lightning quick football on Wednesday. If they are still in the same wavelength as they were against Dortmund, then we can expect a cracking match from them. I hope Tomas isn’t too tired.
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From Fin’s article: “Critics of Arsene Wenger have often claimed the Frenchman ‘does not do tactics’ but they are wrong.”
No shit.
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so then …
……….wojo…….
bac..per..kos..gibbs
……..art..flam……..
…ozil..rosi..ram……..( in whatever combo/sequence)
……..giroud….
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oh shit..i forgto cazorla…criminal
reverting
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……….wojo………
bac..per..kos..gibs
……..art..flam…….
…ozil…ram….caz
………giroud…..
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this is so difficult…..
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arsene knows..ill leave it to that…
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who is the referee for the game. hope its not mark dean.
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I think a huge reason for why the Kos-Per partnership is as successful as it has been is Arteta. Look how he played gainst Dortmund, for example. He was anticipating and getting in ahead of Dortmund’s passes days before they got to where they needed to go. He was all up in Sahin’s face and made it so Lewandowski saw very little of the ball. He dropped back to help out Gibbs and broke up the play before the centre backs had to face any danger. More than a partnership, there is a triad in the middle and Mikel Arteta is a very important part of it. Mikel is like a Pirlo who can defend. Awesome, awesome player.
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We played Santi, Ozil and Mozart in front of Mikel and Aaron away to one of the best teams in Europe. Why then should we drop Santi for Flamini against a mid-table side who caused no problems to a very poor Real Sociedad?
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hunter
we dont need two defensive midfielders against united. either of arteta or flamini wil do. we dont lose the ball that often, do we?
when walcott or ox is back, maybe.
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Agree Gains, superb player and a brilliant acquisition by AW; Per and Kos benefit from him in much the same way Ches benefits from Per and Kos … and so it goes on.
The more linking partnerships …
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one thing about manure is that if you prevent them from scoring in the first five minutes of both half, they can be contained and well beaten. they start fast and fade out if they dont get the early goal.
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Agree that we shouldn’t need both Flamini AND Arteta on at the same time; we’ll be going for the win rather than to merely tame them.
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twitter says its michael oliver for the game on sunday. the guy is good but too inexperience for this kind of game. we have lost too many games to poor referee in the past. oliver need to be at his best on sunday.
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yes we do ..one to kick robin and one to kick rooney for the full 90 mins
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