Today a guest post by @Swales1968
Arsenal, have not played anybody yet?
This is a term Arsenal fans have been forced to listen to from our hypocritical media over the past weeks. So let’s look at a few things
Arsenal, have played four teams in the top ten places winning two, drawing one and losing one. Two have been home (2 wins) and two have been away (draw and a loss). This does look like Arsenal have played nobody yet but let’s look at other top ten teams-
Southampton, have played three top ten teams winning two drawing one; they have yet to play a top ten team at home.
Manchester City, have played four games against top ten teams winning three losing one. The three wins have all been at home
Liverpool, have played five top ten teams winning two, drawing one and losing two. The two games away they drew one and lost one.
Chelsea, have played six games against top ten teams, two at home winning one and drawing one. Four have been away drawing two and losing two.
Manchester United, have played six games against top ten teams, four at home winning one, drawing two and losing one. They have lost both away games to top ten teams
Everton, have played five games against top ten teams, winning two, drawing two and losing one. Four of these games have been at home.
Tottenham, have played four games against top ten teams, drawing two and losing two.
Newcastle, have played five games against top ten teams, winning two drawing one and losing two.
West Brom, have played six games against top ten teams, winning one, drawing three and losing two. Only two have been at home.
When we look at the number of top ten teams, the other nine clubs within the top ten have played can similar questions can be asked of them. We can ask how will Manchester City cope away at the other eight clubs from the top ten they have to play. We can ask will Spurs win against any of the other top ten clubs this season. Manchester United how will they do away from Old Trafford etc
Arsenal and Spurs have played seven games against the bottom half of the table clubs but where is the criticism of the team from White Hart Lane from our media, why again have Arsenal been singled out by Mr Hanson, Mr Shearer and the rest of the media punditry circle for not playing anybody yet.
The media, the hypocritical media are again judging Arsenal by one set of rules and conveniently ignoring these rules when it comes to most other clubs. Their point is a relevant one to a point but not to the point they are making it out to be. Arsenal like all other clubs has to play everybody home and away during the season, it is not Arsenals fault as to how the season fixture wise pans out. Again all I ask is for the media to have balance in its questioning of clubs and how they are doing at this moment in time.
Another quick point on who has played top ten clubs most, four teams have played the top ten clubs seven times these four teams occupy positions Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty and Eleven. The team in eleventh would be lower down the league if the ref had done his job properly against one of the top ten teams!!!!
@Swales1968
Positively Arsenal 
Nice one Swales
My favourite piece of lunacy was someone on a BBC blog saying that we can’t judge Arsenal as they haven’t played anyone above them in the league yet.
Long may it continue!
Also where is the media auto-critique that Liverpool haven’t won the league in 18 years or the spud 53 years?
Where is the critique of City’s spending £1,000,000,000.00 for only ONE League title and getting nowhere in Europe, and playing in a free stadium.
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Morning all – good piece Swales.
I think laziness is an easy habit to fall into, the pursuit of the route of least resistance time and again being the default setting and I honestly think a lot of the media nonsense comes from lazy journalism.
Partly because they all seem so surprised when they are called out on it, as if they are being challenged on something everyone else takes for granted. As you say, the fact that Spuds and Loserpool get SUCH an easy ride in the press and elsewhere only really makes sense when viewed through the Laziness Prism. It would take actual effort to properly critique both those sides whereas the negativity born from disappointment that the Invincibles were unable to press on, doesn’t require even a letter to be rewritten in the tired old cliches that must be driving everyone mad by now (even the lazy ol’ journos).
This clearly won’t change until we force change upon them by winning competitions, alas.
Roll on that happy day.
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Nice one Stephen,I think it was John Cross I heard mention the other day in a radio interview that we have more bloggers and fans involved in social media than any other club,the radio/tv stations and newspapers would have done their market research to be aware of this,so which team do they consequently talk about and have daft opinions about that create reaction? Couple this with us having media hungry plonkers like Legrove & Timmy as well as an unhealthy number of knee jerk merchants & cry babies then if your a media pundit then who do you talk about? Most of us have of course seen through all this nonsense and can seperate the genuine pundits/experts from the lazy ones. There are others like Danny Mills who just doesn’t like the Arsenal and can never say a kind word about us,but then he’s probably still having therapy over Thierry at highbury by the corner flag…nice he’s finally come out of his pocket though.
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Nice one Swales.
Mel is right, the bottom line is that talking bollocks about Arsenal = good business. That Durham fellow, for example, a man who appears to make a decent living out of doing little more than winding up gullible Gooners. Can’t blame him really. The cunning stunt.
Andrew is correct also, in that the narrative won’t change until Arsenal start winning (major) competitions again. Until then, It’s slow death by a thousand cliches. Beyond tiresome, but on the whole, and taking into account I no longer read the rags, never listen to talkshite, and don’t visit more than 2 or 3 blogs (including this one) on a regular basis, I manage to remain blissfully ignorant of the vast majority of it. The odd moronic missive from the likes of Hansen & co still have a strange power to irk, but beyond that..I am immune. Arse.
Actually, should we go on to win the league, I expect some to start hastily rearranging the goalposts once more, claiming Arsenal have merely benefited from the the managerial changes around them or whatever other nonsense. And on and on it goes. Pfft.
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. “Until then, It’s slow death by a thousand cliches.”
Haha,classic Harry
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Harry
Well spotted,
we have already seen the media pundits spinning the spiel that this is a weakened league this season, so winning it will have lesser value.
It’s funny how now making the top 4 is no longer the media benchmark for Arsenal; now it’s win or fail, whereas it’s high 5’s all round if any of our rivals can get into the CL again.
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The League is stronger than it ever has been.
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By God there is effort in that review Swales – good job
We shall get there – I am off to see the Saints on Saturday so ticking off the days
Poor old Southampton – now they have joined the big league they have Lallana, Rodriguez and Lambert in the England squad, plus Shaw in the U21s, and not at home with their feet up during an international break
Welcome to our world
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One minor point I chuck into the pot is that Spuds are, as you say Swales, getting their usual easy ride in the media.
Not so the WHL faithful though – No sireee- AVB and the fans are not on good terms, they hate his tactics, they hate the lack of goals, they hate the lack of flair, they think the £100 million of Bale cash spent on players has brought in a gang of donkeys, losing to us did not cheer them up too much.
And AVB, not to be outdone, has pointed out they are crap fans
Our neighbours looking for a new helmsman before Santa is on the sleigh ?
You read it here first
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Hi Swales (?),
A very intriguing Post that I enjoyed reading, although I had to keep my abacus handy in order to work out the possible mathematical permutations. 🙂
In a way your very good article does highlight and bring some perspective to why the media pick out the bits that they headline, and which causes some angst to Arsenal fans.
With the best will in the world, unless the reader of the newspaper concerned was a dedicated Gooner they are never going to have their attention grabbed by all the detail you have painstakingly put together.
Hypocrisy? Possibly. But more likely it is simply a journo writing a piece to keep his boss happy and to fill the newspaper.
Just an observation. 🙂
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fair enough mel and harry…media can talk bollocks..they are professional trolls and get paid to do so….some of them even hate us…no problem. maybe we dont play the epl/sky axis game and they go against us since we refuse to get on their carousel.
what excuse does the arsenal fan/blogger have ? are they also looking for clicks???..or are they just stupid? or do they think democracy is about saying whatever they want without accountability??? i say they are small tiny little fans with no intelligence to judge the game or what arsenal went through and like to act as if they are involved and that they know better……
what excuse does the arsenal fan who takes the cameras and radios orblogs to cry like a mug about things he clearly has no clue about ?
spineless cowards with weak mentality who allowed years of media and rivals taunting to turn them against the manager and players and moan abou utitles when the timies were all about repaying stadium, getting into champions league and waiting for youngsters to mature…..
any arsenal fan above the age of 35-40 who moaned is a clueless bastard and doesnt deserve the success the club will obtain in future…the young ones i can accept…but all those wankers who hold the 89 epic as a more genuine representation of Arsenal than the redefinition of the club by Wenger and placing us and keeping us in the elite of world football while repaying a 450m stadium can go fuck themselves. Arsenal evolved and if they cant identify with progress then ..tough luck…
8..9..10 years without winning the league while repaying stadiums is not a big deal…in fact it shows how arsenal fans and arsenal were a pretty small club before wenger …small in comparison to the clubs we get compared to today.
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S’true DC.
Actually ‘Coll is on to something re: Spuds, the natives are indeed getting restless, the peasants revolting (extremely). All that money appears to have been, er, spunked somewhat hastily on a lot of fairly middling talent, and the lack of goals in that team has become glaringly apparent. With that much investment Levi was surely banking on top four (at least), and I think they may struggle. Still early days of course, but they look devoid of inspiration at the moment.
To think in the summer, many Arsenal fans appeared to develop a severe case transfer/penis envy in relation to Spurs, as AVB signed player after player, some of whom we had never actually heard of but pretended we had, and the media assured us would now make them genuine contenders. All this whilst the hapless and tight-fisted Wenger merely looked on. And dithered..
Seems a long time ago now.
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when you hear your own fans saying the 89 anfield epic is what defines this club then you got to laugh……. or when they talk about what happened in the fucking 30’s…lol…
when you hear arsenal fans saying ” whats the point of qualifying for the champions league since they aint there to win it” then i seriously doubt the intelligence of the arsenal football fan.
same goes when they say ” we should have stayed at highbury”
they dont realise that arsenal at highbury reache dits ceiling..climax whatever you want to call it and thankfully at teh times we had a manager at place to supervise a very tricky and evry difficult transition.
and while in this transition we nearly won it in 2008 had it not been for them premiditated assaults on our players …a proof as to wenger’s ability as manager…but no..the arsenal fan preferred to listen to the media and agree that we were bottlers…nevermind the f.a and establishment “raped” arsenal at birmingham…….
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yes harry ‘To think in the summer, many Arsenal fans appeared to develop a severe case transfer/penis envy in relation to Spurs,’
indeed i remember a football guru in the arsenal intrAnet community…a warrior of light…..agitating for answers for the great distress arsene caused him during the summer transfer dealings….
🙂
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Jack is not starting tonight – a small mercy.
Townsend-Cleverly-Gerard-Llallana looks very weak to me.
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PG
Get with the program!
How can it be a strong league, with all our rivals spending hundreds of millions on reinforcements – only for Arsenal to be top?
There you go, bursting bubbles of BS again.
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Hunter,
We’ve been through all that mate. It’s old ground. There will always be shouty arseholes and eejits. The fact that people willingly read Legrove or phone into TalkSport is proof of that. If proof where still needed.
Idiots aside. I thought some folks came to hasty and premature conclusions re: Arsene’s demise (I did myself once, the one and only time, not long after the Dutch skunk’s departure. In retrospect I was totally wrong. Hey, it happens). Doesn’t mean I think they are “bastards”, or “spineless cowards” or don’t deserve to enjoy success when it comes. I’m just not interested in that kind of talk, in creating those kind of divisions. And I’ll leave it at that.
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i also remember the same guru as well as others …ADMITTING that the ref in opening game against villa did affect the result with his calls BUT the discussion was all about the summer and how we needed an anchor to guard the back four
RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR EYES WE GET ROBBED …but no…..lets blame the players, the manager..ivan..everybody else………….
how m,any jon-jons in the arsenal fans world went “meh” when they heard flamini is coming back …. 😉 ..eat shit you cunts now ! hehe…
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no we havent mate…..people in here were called deluded for trusting professionals and for doing the logical thing under the circumstances the club was in ..showing patience and faith ….
it is others who need to apologise and rethink what they have said in the past and whose opinions they have banned in favour of constant questioning and doubting of THE MANAGER and our policies….
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I thought some folks came to hasty and premature conclusions re: Arsene’s demise (I did myself once, the one and only time, not long after the Dutch skunk’s departure. In retrospect I was totally wrong. Hey, it happens).
lol..no no no….it happens? …and ok you expressed it in civil manner and who knows..maybe youre too a dumbass for losing faith just cause that cunt wanted out….
what about them ‘older and wiser” whove been around longer than the deluded likes of me and goonerkam for instance (hehehehe) …whats their excuse?
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Harry,I would happily stand in your corner if the culprits held up their hands.But no,they continue to justify their “wrongness” spouting such shit as “He only bought Ozil because the fans were kicking off” or ” we still failed to get the striker we needed”
If they repent and confess,I will forgive.
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well harry…who created these divisions ? who created them first? who was seperating fans into wengerites and telling us that we are blind followers instead of admitting they had got it wrong ???
😉
i tell you mate…them spineless cowards have no accountability and they think its just water under the bridge now……
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Lets not be calling people cunts when they cant reply.
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I have to say I agree in as much as its not water under my bridge.
I am furious about the way the manager (and board) were savaged by people who should have known better.
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What a lick spittle Chris Coleman is:
Bale will be rested for friendlies
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24983798
“But he’s playing a lot of games in Madrid. We have to look at it long-term as well. As much as we need him, we need to look after him.”
What about Aaron Ramsey, who saved your fucking job, you wanker?
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Lay off Harry guys.
He isn’t the spokesman for the others.
It’s important he can discuss topics here and elsewhere.
Evil, and others who can engage with the ones who don’t like the sunshine bus can do the arguing for us.
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Aaron should flip Coleman the bird
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Hey DC no one is having a go at Harry !
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I am furious about the way the manager (and board) were savaged by people who should have known better.
I guess they didnt know shit then…and lacked the insight/foresight not to mention the common decency to allow our young team to mature properly without comparing them to fucking drogba who was 27-28-29 and paid 200k per week to win the fucking league while we were playing with cesc and denilson and clichy so that they learn….
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the word “cunt” was meant for robin van persie 🙂
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There will always be shouty arseholes and eejits.
oh you are so right !! … like the ones in countless arsenal blogs or equally others who have the audacity to insert words like “cultured” on the top of their page……pmsl…..
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@ double canister 10:12am No mass or long term criticism of Liverpool is allowed in the media. Their recent history and fan base are not to be questioned.
@ ArsenalAndrew 10:27am When Arsenal does win a trophy it will be “they should of done this last season” etc. Arsenal will be judged by different rules again to other clubs.
@ Mel 11:27am The media do seem to troll Arsenal through social networking sites and forums pick up on the more negative points of view and run with them. Unbalanced blogs and some dubious comments from supporters groups do not help the situation.
@HenryB 12:13 I’m glad your abacus was useful, all I am asking from our ill informed media is some balance.
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a pedro or a morgan ,for instance, says/claims ‘wenger has lost it and needs to go asap’
the @cultured@ says ‘i doubt he still the right man for the job. who is there to judge wenger;s perfromances? ‘ ….LOL…..
is there any fucking difference? they both mean the same thing…. 😉
one is more direct in his critique of wenger and the other does it like a faggot ….with sly questioning and trying to pass it on as a legitimate question or to ‘create’…discussion and debate .. 🙂
i wonder how much questioning these same people do when governments fuck and affect their real lives in comparison to how they react to their football club which asked for time and patience till stadium is largely off their backs………
😉
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It is funny reading and listening to those who wrote off Wenger, some of the players and lack of transfer dealings in the summer. They are now back tracking at an alarming rate or have just fallen off the twitter radar but (and there’s always a but) their new found faith in Wenger, the players and transfers is tempered with a ‘what if…’ or a ‘but’ somewhere in the post, blog or tweet so should anything go wrong they have their ‘I told you so’ get out clause
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@ Hunter 12:52 I hate these divisions within the fan base they seem to be created as an ‘I’m a better fan than you’ thing. WOB’s-Wengers lost the plot I can see it if you can’t you don’t know about football (or words to that effect). AKB’s-Wenger knows best I can see it if you can’t you don’t know about football (or words to that effect).
Now we are getting ‘my fan group does more than yours’ or ‘we are a real fans group your just a mouth piece for the board’ crap. It drives me mad!!!!!!
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check arse2mouse and arsbloggers arsecasts of late last season…..LOL…and check what they say now….LOL…..
imo the only blogger who showed a spine and never gave up was arsenal vision. fucking credit where its due. !! …7am arsblog yoggi gunnerblog = fence sitting debate creators
blogs by supporters are created with one thing in mind..to support…not critisise like smart arses or create divisions and debates….but then again who the fuck was Arsenal to have big fans who understand and appreciate the change we went through…???
most of these shitheads think arsenal was big because they beat liverpool in 89 and had floodlights in 34…. …..
fact is graham’ arsenal was loathed for playing the game like bastards yet somehow we are meant to identify more with that than with what WENGER has done for us????
yep…..really BIG club with BIG fans this Arsenal …… 🙂
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You’re all correct.
But back on topic, I remember the Invincibles didn’t get the credit they deserved. There were a few pundits who believed the following:
Kolo was too short to be a CB
Henry did not play like a proper CF
Lauren was not a RB
Pires was too French
Etc.
This kinda crap was written after that team had been successful! Slightly weird I thought.
But put into the context the reactions from the plundits yesterday evening on BBC5live to what Martin Keown had to say about coaching in blighty. Not just hilarious, but mad. In this same programme they interviewed the architect behind the scheme which has helped to produce the Özils and Gnabrys of todays world. Klinsmann spoke about the need for a cultural change here in the way the game is coached, and these plundits were the very definition of what needs to change. They did not even realise how absurd their responses were. In response to Keowns recommendations that more coaches would be a little bit useful, their comfort blanket was that these things happen in cycles. Good teams and good plays are formed by luck. Later in the programme they interview an older Icelandic pro to talk about their current team. He spoke about his generation being all over six foot, and going onto the field to fight, the current (better) team had a core of several smaller players (not everyone was +190cm) who had been brought up with a more technical game (possibly, like, some kind of strategy? Programme? Doh!). The same story was told about the famous Hungarian team (what, fifty years ago? So one current and one ancient example…), they were coached from youth team to first team in a certain way. So, just two examples that completely contradicted these idiots.
As for Keown. What a Star. And further, from his own mouth: he didn’t stay coaching at AFC after that initial season because he felt he made a mistake going straight into coaching from playing and needed a step back for a period. Family etc. Since then he’s more focused on national coaching, alas the FA have completely ignored him volunteering to help their coaching set up. They like the kinda dude who pioneered Cambridge Utds long long ball game. Pearce. etc. Dinosaurs.
“A cultural change is needed” – Klinsmann.
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swales it goes without saying 😉
trusting a pro like wenger and after what he has delivered/accomplished for the club is a no brainer. it is the logical thing to do.
the opposite…turning against him because media and spurs/manc/chav trolls say so is what a spineless manipulated bigot does….. and its not logical at all
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The thing about the AKB term: it was inveted and used by WOBs for their own purposes of self-promotion. I just call ’em KNOBs.
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finsbury
November 19, 2013 at 1:44 pm
lol wait…wenger inheritted the invincibles !!! remember ? 🙂
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@Harry at 12:44 pm
Harry speaks fro me too….
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Finsbury have you ever met an AKB? I have spoken to many fans and yes some have been very pro Wenger but they have always stopped short of what I think an AKB would be. There is always ‘I wish he would do better timed subs’ etc, never a ‘he is faultless’ comment. I have seen many WOB’s though and many WOB deniers those who are closet WOB’s but are too gutless to admit it and hide behind ‘it’s all the boards fault’
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Hunter
We mustn’t forget that it was GG who coached the back five/six in 03/04.
He made ’em the players they were. 😉
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@Swales1968,
Exactly!
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finsbury
November 19, 2013 at 1:56 pm
hahaaa…i also remember how in the early nineties the european superforces of football were petrified of gg’s arsenal and how adams was always in milan and madrid;s shortlists….
if ten is the maximum…before wenger this club was somewhere between 5-7 ..since wenger joined we are in the 8-10 category, but no…some local shitheads would have us believe that being a 5-7 category is BETTER than being in 8-10 ( even without winning trophies) …. 🙂
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Hunter!
GG was only 1 game away from an Invincible season, you know.
Until the lad’s went back on the sauce!
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not in the same style though DC….there is a reason we were called boring and loathed as thugs…. lets not hide behind our finger.
what i find strange is how an arsenal fan identifies more with that, than what Wenger has given him. thats my problem. how dare the arsenal fan come out and say he wants his old arsenal back..wtf does he mean saying that exactly?
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Hunter,
Also don’t forget that it’s possible to see AFC as having been a Big club in the pre-UEFA era, before the Second World War. But, that was, well, it was a different era! Heh.
So I agree with you and disagree with you,if you know what I mean.
The interlull is another good excuse to watch this classic. Still very funny, this sketch could well have inspired the ArsenalGent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc2To-pKMSg
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DC,you are only one game away if its the last game of the season that is lost.Lose the first one and you are 38 games away.
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Hunter
What He means is that he is blaming the Arsenal managr for changes to our society, to football. All seater stadia etc. Nope. It doesn’t make any sense to either.
One thing we will see now after the nadir of last summer is that some of the former gripers will finally work out that some of the problems afflicting Football and football fans are not caused by AW and the AFC board. Better late then never i suppose. However there are plenty who will still choose to believe this lunacy that AFC have ruined Football, trolled on by the meedjah, I kid ye not.
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