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 
harry?
thats a bit off target…… more like poking ian wright and/or fans who hold that era in higher importance than wenger’s….nothing to do with harry……
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sorry if you took it that way harry…i said all i had to say to you about the subject on fans divisions yday, my comments today were not intended for you or anyone in particular..
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pedantic george
November 20, 2013 at 2:14 pm
well she has to ask her bosses usmanov and dein first before letting any kittens out the bag…
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amy being a professional and all….
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Fins – Gnabry, to my untrained eye, always looked most likely to break through the ‘junior’ ranks first – largely on account, admittedly, of his obvious physical development. But we definitely seem to have some potential ‘worldies’ aside from Serge and my only regret about AFC dropping out of the League Cup early on is that we won’t be seeing the likes of Bellerin, Zelalem, Eisfeld, Chuba and one or two others on the more senior stage – at least not in the forseeable future. I’m just delighted that Gnabry has already made a mark as first out of that particular, immensely skilful, group.
And whilst delivery of a playmate for Giroud is all but certain in January via external suppliers, we have talent practically bursting out of the youth set up in pretty much every other position that can only be the envy of all our competitors who will most likely have to spend in excess of £100 M to garner the same level of talent.
One of the things I find most exciting about the strength of the current squad is that we are almost at the level whereby we can ‘blood’ in the youngsters, game at a time, here and there and not be noticeably weakened. When this will start is hard to call and depends largely on how well we are doing, how far ahead of our nearest rivals we can manage to get. But strength breeds strength in this instance, and couldn’t be further from AVB’s colossally misjudged ‘downward spiral’ remarks from last season.
In stark contrast to the disappointing impact our neighbour’s new players are providing, when it comes to Arsenal, I’m thinking more ‘virtuous development’ …
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with integrity…above all
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ArsenalAndrew
November 20, 2013 at 2:59 pm
avb is having a lot of fun lately with lloris vertonghne soldado and eriksen…long may it continue
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Hunter, I didn’t take your comments as being directed at me. Wasn’t being serious. I can see now why smileys were invented.
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hehe ..all good harry ..all good!!
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And whilst delivery of a playmate for Giroud
suarez and cesc in january?
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i would very much enjoy to see little jack developing into our de rossi
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I always thought I should read Amy’s stuff because she’s supposed to be Arsenal fan and pro Wenger. But honestly I stopped reading her articles couple years ago. I found them long, boring and never insightful.
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And I refuse to give martin samuel any clicks unless it involves a gunfight in the sunset.
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usmanov nina and dein want the cake so that they can eat it…some of our ex players and journalist/fans have been approached and promised a slice ..praise old pete who realistically said something in these lines :
“muaha.. fuck them all..arsene do as you want”
” i believe we can achieve success without spending too much money”
” you are the greatest Arsene..do as you want…Ivan get your sorry arse in here…you cover for him against media and fans, thats your job”
” what do you mean sir ?”
“watch some copola films and if you still cant get it ill book you a flight back to the states”
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Let’s bring back Smileys I say.
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No,I hate smileys,what is the point of a post if you have to let the reader know you were being funny.The doubt is what makes it funny.
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Finsbury: “Only after the special one pissed off his flair players through poor man management and they left were Chelsea unbelievably awful and bland.”
Only after the special one got rid of some of Ranieri’s better signings, were Chelsea unbelievably awful and bland. Had to fix that for you, Fin. Ranieri built an awesome squad, then he got dumped by weasel faced Abrahmovich and Mou got all the credit. If it wasn’t for Ranieri’s team, Mourinho’s lucky CL victory would have been no different than Rehhagel winning the Euro’s with the Greeks and he wouldn’t be so sought after.
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If it wasn’t for Mourinho winning with Rnieri’s team.
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3 points on saturday, nothing else matters
id be inclined to play the last samurai as giroud is still running naked drenched in champagne and singing in the streets of paris..he can have the weekend off ….
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I saw Stewart Robson chatting shit about Arsenal on ESPN. He’s still pushing the lie about us being weak in defence and being one Giroud niggle away from dropping out of the top four. His resentment is palpable. Oh, and his shaved head makes him look like a knob.
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Patrick Barclay, although not the best, is a fine football columnist. His pieces on Arsenal are factual and interesting for a reader. Maybe he thinks he knows something about Janu.. Janusz … well that young english chap at ManU that we don’t.
I wish I knew how to do smileys so I could also not do them.
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Gainsbourg69
November 20, 2013 at 4:46 pm
when otto won it for greece ..he played 343 and in the final he played with two strikers ( charisteas + vryzas). do you remember how the media treated it?
“the death of football” plus endless pages of “why?..how the fuck ..?” – “destructive, negative football ” etc etc….
when mourinho does it with 200m squads they hail him as a master tactician. mourinho is herr otto’s left testicle and ten kate’s right right testicle when it comes to tactics.
off course the coverage and comments on greece/otto’s football vs mou is a reason why i want Arsene to piss on them all and ridicule them with another unbeaten record..this time with germans so it hurts more….
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Essien is the reason Ghana is not my top African team. Cote d’Ivoire may have Drogba, but they also have his majesty Claudius Eboue, Kolo and Gervinho. I have nothing but love for those three players. Eboue is one of the nicest football players I have had the pleasure of watching.
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I’m not sure whether to do a smiley with PG’s recent news of the happy coupling of Harry and Hunter. The names do go well through, even as a single name HH. But I think Harry is probably right, a drink first at the very least.
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If it wasn’t for Ranieri’s team, Mourinho’s lucky CL victory would have been no different than Rehhagel winning the Euro’s with the Greeks and he wouldn’t be so sought after.
sorry have i read it properly…you calling the 2004 win by otto and greece ….lucky?
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a drink first at the very least.
yeah no problem..dc is coming for soton game as well ..lets plan
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Hunter, Mourinho’s the luckiest man alive. If he hadn’t won that CL final, he’d be as obscure a figure as Rehhagel. And you’re absolutely right about the death of football rubbish only landing on Rehhagel and never on Mourinho. A coach who can’t fit Özil in his midfield, I’m looking at you too, Carlo Anceloti, has no business calling himself a football manager. He was found out at Madrid for being a coward and he may suffer the same fate at Chelsea for keeping Mata out of the team.
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Is all well in the Arsenal universe? Bit of a setback for Ox, oh well, next year. Otherwise AOK it seems on all fronts. If Diaby ever plays in our first team again, I will be very, very happy. And you know what. I think he will, considering what he’s gone through.
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ranieri got disqualified in that champions league season by monaco … mind you we were proper mugs for losing that game against chelsea at home …one of the worst memories ever..i remember i wouldnt talk to anyone at work for a few days i was so sad people started doubting my ability to treat football as a seperate thing from real life issues.
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One of football’s great moments was HE Eboue joining, standing, listening most intently, half-smiling with a bit of a nod, “yes I agree, um, I think …” to the Korean (Japanese?) coach giving instructions to his player on the byline.
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just a note for all those who remember Ryan Smith, a local lad who was found playing at a local park and then went on to play a few games for the first team before injury curtailed a promising career, he has re-joined ARSENAL but this time as a scout. It is good to see people with red and white running through their blood working for the club and helping young lads in the system they have already come through.
When families are deciding which club to send their young protégées to, it is because of our record of produced players that will get a chance at ARSENAL that persuades them to come to us rather than to go to academy’s like chelski even though they are offered bigger bunce to go there.
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I’m not calling Rehhagel’s victory lucky, I’m saying that of Mourinho’s CL win. He only got to the final thanks to diving and gamesmanship. It couldn’t have been at the expense of a more deserving bastard than Ferguson, but the way Porto made it to the final was dodgy as hell.
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i dont know gains i feel ozil is slightly overrated……
carlo knows 😉
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One difference with Gnabry is pure athletic strength. He’s 18. Most youngsters who have that bit of special skill quickly get caught out at top level by tough players.
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Theo said that Sanogo is unusually strong for his age.
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yes but earlier you said that had it not been for ranieri …then mou’s cl win wd v bn no diff than rehaggel winnign it with greece….
i read that as putting mou and otto in the same basket…that they got lucky.
mayeb im wrong..my english is poor…sorry if i got it wrong..
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Maureen’s tactical genius was confirmed in the way he inherited Drogba in a team and then kept him. That Chelsea without Drogba, forget it.
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And you’re absolutely right about the death of football rubbish only landing on Rehhagel
sorry ..sorry…my point is that the emdia and the english are so clueless and so spiteful that they termed a team winning it with 343 and with 2 strikers in the final as “defensive and destructive”
and that even if we accept the above absurdity for the sake of discussion then how come they scream murder for otto a/o greece ( who dont have drogba and robben in their squads) whereas mou doing it in epl with huge budgets is called a genius?
thats all..
that in their efforts to be sly and dismissive they are basically hypocrites.
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otto has every right to sit tight and be organised and kill when opportunity comes…he has fkn stelios in his squad ….mou had players on 200k per week so for him to sit back its a million times disgraceful and that highlights the media hypocricy who hailed the latter and insulted the former…even though the german played anything but destructive football…..
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Maureen’s CL victories only served to devalue the competition,at least in my embittered eyes.
Very nice news about Ryan Smith, a_or_b, I’m sure he’ll do a great job.
Also excellent news that George has approved the use of smileys!
Or did I just misread that 😉
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People have been banned from ACLF for not obeying the instructions of the lord and master.No one gives a fuck what I say 😦
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I can’t agree Hunter that Ozil is over-weighted.
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And there-in lies the secret of success PG. We are fond of saying in my world, when you plant something just let it grow.
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lol zim ..just teasing gains …..in fairness i say carlo knows as if taking the piss …
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Exactly, Zim. I said it when Mourinho came back to Chelsea, they don’t have Drogba to bail them out anymore.
I read that Keown article in the Daily Mail and, although his heart is in the right place, Martin doesn’t see the big picture. Spain and Holland were perennial losers, but they accepted it before setting off on a course to improve themselves. Germany did something similar. They had a shit few years in the nineties and early naughts, but they accepted they were shit before moving forward with new ideas. I don’t think England has the capacity to admit they’re shit. I think they’ll improve once they can look at themselves and admit they need to let go of their past glories.
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Same here Andrew re: Maureen. Actually returning to the subject of Pat Barclay, I did actually hear him on the ol’ wireless, only a few weeks back, saying it would be a wonderful thing for football were Arsenal to go on and win the league this season.
He also said were Chelsea to win it instead it would be akin to an enormous and terrible black cloud descending across the earth to block out the sun forever more.
Well actually I made that last bit up, but I’m sure he meant to say that as well.
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Oh, and someone needs to tell Keown that the FA would never kill the goose that lays the golden egg. The prem is the most viewed league on the planet. It will not remain so if they keep foreigners out. Instead of putting quotas on foreigners, they should build up the academy system and start reaping the rewards in due time. The problem is English football is a generation behind from everyone else. Didn’t they just change the recruiting laws just last season? How crazy is it that geography was able to dictate what team a talented youngster could join?
Martin and other reformers also need to temper their reactions towards the likes of Spain and Holland as well. This Spain team without Xavi and Iniesta is not that great. And you look further down the line and you see Spain winning youth tournaments because other teams fear them. I’m not saying that theyre not producing talented players, but they have their deficiencies as well. I mean, Spain can’t produce a decent central striker to save their lives and Holland hasn’t produced a decent CB or fullback for decades. When this generation of Spanish and Dutch players retire, the trick will be to produce a generation of winners thereafter. Thanks to all the improvements those FAs have made, they’ll be able to bounce back quicker.
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I’ve not read Paddy B’s latest piece but in general he’s a step above all the other UK journalists bar none.
Usually he is to print what G Nev is to broadcasting so it’s probably worth not writing him off entirely.
ZP – as Eric Clapton once wisely wrote:
“Let it grow, let it grow …
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Gains don’t know if you can listen to the bbc podcast. Martin knows what he is up against and I can’t think off many better (or scarier!) candidates to confront the likes of Steve Claridge (a plundit) and friends with their own stupidity.
Thoughts on Spain and Holland: Holland can’t compete as others have more or less adopted their methods and they have a relatively tiny population. My guess or instinct is that Spain will do well with their next team if they don’t mess up the phasing from one team to the next. They don’t need to worry about or invest in as many facilities with their climate, scary talent on the horizon, I only see them doing well in the future unless the big two go bankrupt.
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Just to clarify the above thread (in case any Chelsea Daves get upset) Mourinho’s two CL triumphs were with Porto and Inter. It was just two titles at the Gazprom Fulham Franchise (Schalke and Zenit are another two), which for most people outside of Fulham is a poor return for all that gas.
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Jenkinson squirms one under the ‘keeper for the U21s. Sounds like he impressed (yes, we know who it was against).
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Oops. Wrong link above. Can’t seem to get it to work. If you click on the Youtube logo that should lead to the highlights.
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