You have to have some depth in your squad to rest the kind of quality we rested last night. But it’s more than just the players who took a breather, who will therefore necessarily return refreshed and stronger for their recumbent relaxation, the significance of the sheer depth and quality of the squad Arsène has patiently put together is best exemplified by the example of Theo Walcott.
In recent seasons we would have missed Theo horribly. I believe that we have missed him this time and in fact would have been winning our games by a greater margin with him in the team. However the difference is that we haven’t needed to rush him back. Players are allowed to ease themselves back into fitness and contention. Players approaching the autumn of their careers to who’s form three matches a week would surely be injurious, can be omitted from the starting line up and then come back into it with the running and enthusiasm of younger men. Ask yourself what good it would have done to have rushed Theo back into the team after his operation, the weight of an expectant fan base on his fragile shoulders only for his stitches to burst and his spleen and various other significant organs to spurt down the front of his tunic spoiling the effect of the prettily designed red and white strip. This tasteless scenario was avoided because of the riches available to our illustrious leader and I think the gains will be long term and evidential.
In case you were wondering, I was planning to deliver one of my contemporaneous match reports but my wife contrived to find me something better to do and so I missed Nic Bendtner’s opening goal and spent a frustrating time stream chasing eventually finding myself in no fit mood to invent a match report for a game I couldn’t watch. However I caught up towards the end of the first half just in time to see Hull enjoy a few brief moments of possession in between our magical passing football. None of their moves amounted to much but I’m sure twitter went into meltdown because the opposition dared to have a go. I don’t join any social media based conversations during the match because people simply prove themselves, time and again, incapable of any calm sense of perspective or in fact the ability to actually enjoy the match they’re watching. Instead all you read are trotted out clichés about how we ‘need a second goal’ are ‘playing nice football but must kill off the game’, and how much they ‘hate Nic Bendtner but will support him as he’s wearing the shirt’. It is tiresome in the extreme and they need to get a grip on themselves.
Talking of our Great Dane, when I finally got to see the highlights of the first half I was amused to see how his goal (very very well taken) came at the end of some superb slick one touch passing culminating in contributions from two of the candidates for scapegoat of the season. Carl Jenkinson’s perfect run and cross and Nic’s beautifully skilful header were all the sweeter for those of us who support the entire Arsenal squad without the self serving need to add the word ‘but’ and some mealy mouthed qualification to that sentence. They are both excellent understudies to two extraordinarily good players. Carl has a huge future in the game, anyone who can’t see it is watching the wrong sport and Nic is a proven international goalscorer. Surely good enough qualifications for our or anybody else’s reserves?
I cannot talk about those who stepped up last night without a mention for one of my absolute favourite players in the first team squad. Nacho Monreal has accepted the second fiddle to Kieran Gibbs virtuoso Left back role with apparent equanimity. Never a murmur of discontent and always leaping from the subs bench to play out of position with an irrepressible enthusiasm and lively passionate ebullience and no little skill. I was delighted to see him given a start yesterday and I speak as one who has followed Gibbs career with a keen appreciation. I think if we have players of Monreal’s undoubted talent waiting in the wings we can put to bed the tired lie about us lacking depth in our squad. Theo, Jack, Mikel Arteta, Tommy Vermaelen, Bacary Sagna, Abou Diaby, Olivier Giroud, not in the starting line up last night and yet the team were scintillating.
All of this raises the question – what more do people want from our reserves? It really is pathetic how some supporters cannot just support without telling the world how important and hard won that support is, how the club and it’s staff must in some way ‘earn’ it. If you are one of those all I want to say to you is this. How about you just enjoy what the team have served up so far this season. How about you STFU and enjoy the beautiful football. How about you STFU and enjoy the wonderful goals. How about you STFU and enjoy the solid defending. How about you STFU and enjoy the winning runs. How about you STFU and just enjoy being top of the league.
Oh and if things start to go wrong and we suffer a dip in form and you are so distraught and spineless as to be incapable of getting behind the team when it needs you most, then how about you just STFU altogether.
By Stew Black
Positively Arsenal 
For some reason this post was not picked up By Newsnow,so I re-posted it.Sorry for any confusion.
LikeLike
Great blog. One of the best I’ve read recently.
LikeLike
PG
The football for the first 70 minutes last night was comparable with the first 45 against Napoli. The speed of passing, moving and thinking was utterly devastating.
Only some exceptional last gasp defending from Hull kept the scoreline respectable.
The last 20 minutes was all about controlling the outcome of the game.
It’s not too long ago when we used to worry about Arsenal being able to hold out with a 4 nil lead.
LikeLike
you forgot poldi and the ox in that long list oh and sanogo . The quality of Nacho worries me, I love Kieran and think he is still no 1 or 3 or whatever but the point is they are so close you just pray Nacho doesn’t decide to leave.
I commented several times yesterday I was a little concerned as in previous seasons when we had rotated before a series of big games it wasn’t that players didn’t step up but we lost fluidity. well with many changes the first 20 minutes were scintillating and the movement excellent.
The question that was answered yesterday was yes we have team of quality, but we also have a squad who can gel and drop in and out without disruption.
im not saying that we don’t have key players that have form that drives the team but the collective is definitely of a higher level
LikeLike
Very good Post PG,
I only had a chance to see the game today and to be honest in the cold light of day I was simply blown away by the sheer quality and intricacy of some of the passing.
On occasion, some of the passing broke down with a defender poking out a judicious toe or a pass being intercepted, but this is no criticism, it is the luxury of nitpicking some beautiful football, and frankly if it had not happened the score would have reached double figures.
The glory days are well and truly back. 🙂
LikeLike
This is Steww’s work.
LikeLike
arse or brain – you know what? I did it off the top of my head and wondered if I’d missed anyone, isn’t it amazing? The numbers not my memory.
George – is it worth splitting the comments like this just for ratings? I don’t care how many read my posts as long as the quality regulars do.
LikeLike
I knew PG didn’t write todays post. Far too many long words and the comment about the wife. As a confirmed bachelor, George would choke on his early evening Pina Colada at the mere mention of such a thought.
Good blog Stewwy, although I think a little erm, abrasive towards the end my man! Or maybe I should just STFU!
LikeLike
Yes Stew,But new readers wont become quality regulars if they dont get the chance to read it,
LikeLike
The numbers are amazing and your not alone, in fact after any game ask someone who’s missing and they will always leave someone out, also we are not including the youth players who are of such a standard that they also could fill in for the odd game.
this month is scary but so exciting with the standard of football and the firm grip we take on games. I want the title to shut up the hoards of derision, but the football is already there and I’m loving it
LikeLike
I did wonder where the post was today!
Before the game, I felt that NB deserved a start, but was worried about the reception (at the ground and online), therefore I didn’t bother having a squint around the blogs n social meida malarkey. Surprised Theo didn’t start but against an away team who sat back, AW knows his onions… I wonder if he will get a start vs the Toffees, as I think they have a high line with more space to run in behind.
Sunday will be a tricky game, altho AW does have a good record vs Martinez’s teams.
LikeLike
Apologies to both PG and steww for my mistake in complimenting the wrong person.
On my occasional visits I seem to have unintentionally irritated PG so it appears I am persona non grata, so I will make myself scarce. You only had to say. 🙂
LikeLike
Sometimes I feel like I am pissing into the wind
LikeLike
That’d be a bit tricky today PG… You’d be in serious danger of splash back in that wind.
LikeLike
This is not my work this has been edited and sanitised to chase views.
LikeLike
Oh shut the fuck up
Bloody artists
LikeLike
That bloody PG! Trying to attract the mainstream… Going for the big bucks.
He’s such a sell out, like that arseblag fellow.
LikeLike
I’m a shareholder
I know my rights
LikeLike
Have you received your monthly PA dividend yet? Mine was a pittance!
LikeLike
I would like the site to grow,make more friends,have more people enjoy it-Shoot me.
LikeLike
Just watched the match on Player. Struck by the comment that when we last played Hull in 2010, the only one of the last night’s starting line-up who was in the team was (the much derided) Bendtner.
Easy to forget that in just three years AW has completely rebuilt the team to a level where they can play the sort of sumptuous football we saw last night – while missing key players and still clearly in second gear.
Unsurprising perhaps that AW’s detractors are keeping a low profile. In a more generous world, one could almost feel sorry for them.
LikeLike
“I only had a chance to see the game today and to be honest in the cold light of day I was simply blown away by the sheer quality and intricacy of some of the passing.”
It looked like that in the flesh at the game too, or at least it did to me!
LikeLike
For those with five minutes to spare a good piece by Tim Stillman on Arseblog yesterday on the ‘change’ issue
LikeLike
tim is alright..just them “cult” comments of his i dont like and after reading this from him
“the question I want to consider is, was it ever right to doubt Arsene Wenger or to want him sacked? Did doing so, in hindsight, reveal a lack of foresight and perspective?”
i had to laugh ….here is a passionate arsenal fan who never misses games, loves arsenal, is intelligent to understand the game and he considers to ask such silly questions ? LOL
you dont even need hindsight…..it was clear as day at the time it was happening that it was 100% wrong to doubt him and that fans moaning were an indication of how clueless and misinformed and manipulated fans can be…
LikeLike
Anicoll5 at 9:56 am
Maybe Stillman was reading some of the spirited comments on this blog earlier this week concerning the “new” Arsene. My thought as he took the middle of the road, trying to avoid what he describes as the internecine warfare, is if people like us had left the field open to the revisionists and weasels who hung Wenger out to dry in 2012-13, it would have been a dereliction of duty.
LikeLike
no sorry ive read it all now and its a lot worse than i thought. did he change or did things change balh blah blah ….. its a process…obvioucly you cant demand the same things from 19-20 and 21 year olds as you demand from 26-27 28 year olds…
he is right in one thing…168 hrs a week…you got to find shit to talk/debate/stir about….
noone can sit back and enjoy in the knowledge and trust that the club is managed by One Arsene Wenger ……..
LikeLike
“Yet it’s hard not to feel that Steve Bould has had some influence”
This bit cracks me up. I mean, seriously. So weak. It’s embarrassing.
Does he mean to imply that Mr. Bould is indeed the assistant manager* at Arsenal Football Club? Eh? Is he trying to infer that Steve has not spent the last several years turning himself into one of the best English coaches in the game whilst his former colleagues have been snorting gr*t of some sofa in a TV studio somewhere, or travelling to a gas state to inhale methane whilst coaching the presidents son….it’s a good job we have people out there to remind us that the club have staff.
Phew!
Though, he forgot to mention Doris.
Let’s not pretend that Moyes decision to get rid of Phelen and the Dutch dude was hilarious. During the summer whilst some were bleeding out of their Arsenal’s because they believed that Daniel Levy knew what he was doing others were cackling with delight at the comments coming out of the Utd camp on Moyes’ outdated pre-season routines.
*Don’t worry Mr.Banfield, the expert fence sitting splinter enthusiasts may have forgotten you exist, but we appreciate that you’re hard at work too.
LikeLike
finsbury
December 6, 2013 at 10:54 am
lol… ….i wonder who hired bould in the first place and promoted him…..could it be that wenger does with coaches what he does with players too?
woaaaaaah im shocked fins….
🙂
LikeLike
Did you know..
‘Ashburton Grove’
anagrams to
‘Robust hangover.’
How apt for Arsenal fans. Hehe..
LikeLike
Hunter
Are you trying to give the game away here? A club that churns out good British players. And coaches too. It is a crazy idea.
What kind of idiot would think it would make sense to have a coach bring through a bundle of talented kiddies and then have that same coach working with those same players who make into the first team when they are adults. Who does Bould think he is, Guardiola?
Ssssssssshhhhhhh!
LikeLike
ahahahah fins …when i say the fans in their majority are CLUELESS to judge or critisise or even have @opinions@ that exactly what i mean… wenger has redefined the club, has showed everyone what modern professional football is about and hwo it works ….and the bloggers are asking “questions” …ahah…mainly because trolls and media ask them questions….
oh well…168 hrs…devil…. idle hands…
LikeLike
would you say wenger aims for ….continuation….from gen to gen..players or coaches …?
could it?
im shocked….how can he think/see so far ahead ? he still played ramsey in the wrong position not too long ago.. 🙂
has he changed?
LikeLike
Hunter, the tragic thing is you don’t even have to mention modern football. The Liverpool boot room (way before my time) is not a modern concept.
Perhaps poor old Moyesie was trying to do the same when he brought in Phil Neville. Perhaps it would have been wise to, I dunno, leave Phil with a youth team for a few years, considering that he hadn’t really coached. A bit like…..heh heh heh!
I was glad to hear that Keown’s decision to not stay on as a coach was his choice. He now seems to have found himself upon a more evangelical path then Bouldie, preaching the good word outside the bounds of the club.
LikeLike
Hunter – I don’t think it is an issue of asking questions. What happened over the past year was a crystal clear choice; support Wenger in the transition from Highbury to Ashburton Grove OR sell-out to those who had adopted the benefactor (Chelsea, Man City) and LBO (United and Liverpool) models. Despite Wenger succeeding against the odds to keep us in the top four, many who should know better succumbed to the malcontents and the bottom-feeding media who blamed Wenger entirely for the 8 years without a trophy highlighted by Cesc and Van Judas losing patience with the transition. At the end of the day a significant group of fans lost the bottle when the going was toughest, when Wenger needed the support most.
Once again the law of nature has triumphed; it is always darkest before the dawn. Now that Wengers’s rebuild is as brilliant if not better than previous championship teams, the best the wobblers can come up with is Wenger has changed.
LikeLike
Or it is the influence of Steve Bould.
LikeLike
i agree shotta, been saying it since day one. have been called all kind of things but i will patiently wait for the last laugh, together with Arsene ! and should we do something important this season…it will only signal the beginning….lets see if fans will still insist if it was worth the wait/patience or not..
LikeLike
Don’t even need to mention the Liverpool boot room:
Pat Rice!
But then we were recently told by the experts that Pat did nothing but sit there on the bench (in order to do so you must drink from this sweet flask and forget that he coached a title winning team that lost no games during one season, and I think he was coaching the title winning team under GG that lost only one game all season as well…)
To summarise:
Pat never did anything because Wenger had lost it.
And Steve had to do something, because Wenger had lost it.
LikeLike
Fins and Hunter – It was Gazidis who dropped the dime last summer when he disclosed the strategic goal is not to compete with Spurs, it is to be a super club like Bayern. That is what the years of sacrifice was all about. You can bet your bottom-dollar or pound that Wenger has something to do with that vision.
LikeLike
finsbury
December 6, 2013 at 11:41 am
and its crucial to remember that the fan never lost it…..noone bigger than the club and all…
🙂
LikeLike
it is to be a super club like Bayern. That is what the years of sacrifice was all about.
no no now….remember …asrenal was big before wenger…. 🙂 huge!!!!
LikeLike
“To summarise:
Pat never did anything because Wenger had lost it.
And Steve had to do something, because Wenger had lost it.”
You have missed out option three – neither Pat nor Steve able to do anything cos AW is a power mad dictator who refuses to let anyone contribute (While enjoying a huge salary)
LikeLike
ani youre forgetting number 4. the legitimate question about ‘optimal use of resources available’
LikeLike
5. The lack of a real ‘football’ man to challenge AW within the club
Calls for Paul Merson to be appointed Director of Football
LikeLike
Alright that last bit is just slightly made up ( I think )
LikeLike
“What has changed at Arsenal?” said the Goldfisch before it swam off for another lap. Round and round it goes.
Adrian Clarke: “Arsenal haven’t fluked it, and their success has been building since the summer of 2012…Even those who gleefully declared Arsene Wenger a busted flush are putting themselves through a slow and painful U-turn…(through a U-bend?)… a distorted view peddled by some suggests the Gunners boss and his players somehow spent the summer magically cleansing themselves (AKA: Cha-cha- changes!)
That’s pie-in-the-sky baloney.
(He can write that again)
Since then, and in spite of a few blips and plenty of forthright opinions (AC is much more polite then I), the spiral taken has been a positive, upward one…a near perfect 18-month storm of change.
http://sport.bt.com/sportfootball/football/adrian-clarke-arsenal-can-be-worthy-champions-S11363856050446
Has AC been reading the comments section at PA? heh. Clarkies top top comments during the Hull game after twenty one minutes summed up how most around me in the Stadium felt watching that awesome opening spell.
LikeLike
Yes Tim likes to show how smart he is.Stating the obvious in a tediously long winded way.
Just another mug realigning his position without admitting his stupidity. Justifying his “legitimate questions”.
LikeLike
and lets not forget the panic buys people…..unlike big clubs buying world class midfielders ..errhmm felaini….no panic …cool as cucumber.
LikeLike
After reading through the comments today I think most of the complaints of those who can best be described as disaffected fans have been covered.
One that I do not think has been mentioned is the “I have paid high prices for my tickets and that gives me the right to complain.”
That has always rankled with me, not that anyone should be faulted for wanting value for money, but that does not give anyone the right to bleat about it incessantly to all other fans, the majority of whom disagree with them and are rightly offended by their unfounded, and unsubstantiated views.
Everyone has the right to make a judgement about how they spend their money, and those who felt short changed by Arsene and the club should give up their tickets and spend their money elsewhere.
So, here’s some advice for such people:
A) Stop your prattling complaints — we do not want to hear them.
B) Stop paying for your season ticket — let one of the many thousands of other true fans, still on the waiting list, have it instead.
I wonder how many of them voluntarily gave up their tickets — none?
For those with different view perhaps focusing on the positives and ignoring the apostles of the negative would be more productive and satisfying?
LikeLike
What a wonderful article.
And as always – some tasty comments too.
STFU STFU STFU STFU. I love it. STFU. FU2. Steww? There’s a song in there somewhere.
As for the Arseblog writer-bloke, Tim, he’s another one I’ve had trouble reading. I’m not sure I want to read him, though I can’t remember what he has written, exactly, that I’ve previously taken umbrage to. I just know it was somewhat politer versions of spewed negativity.
I’ve just read A Clarke’s piece. V Good.
LikeLike
HenryB
December 6, 2013 at 2:01 pm
spot on..!! .. .fans vs customers
i think this was also started by spunts and manc trolls taking the piss out of high ticket prices mocking the arsenal fan that he is getting ripped off
not like wenger ivan or the board put a gun in anyones head threaenting them to buy anything….
LikeLike