Still winning the battles …
That was painful.
Horrible.
Poor football.
Oh,and one of the best wins I have ever seen.
It was a war. Problem was that only one team had a license for violence.
As Gainsbourg69 said “I believe Tiote needs to slap a Lino in the face in order to get booked.”
Unbelievable, and I do mean UNBELIEVABLE.
Foul after foul after foul. Not just niggly break up play rotational fouls, oh no, nasty break you ankle fouls.
We started like a runaway train and finished like a broken down milk cart.
Some of the boys were so below par they would struggle to make the Spurs team.
Some others were so good they would have displaced an Invincible.
Top of the league at the half way point. Wowser !!!
A special mention in dispatches for Little Mozart . What a guy.
Imagine Arsene Wenger going five at the back for the last 15 minutes. A man with no tactical nous and fixed thinking. Bouldy must have come up with that ? (What he did it against Tottenham you say ? Oh ok )
Ar-sen-al the greatest team the world has ever seen ,And its Ar-sen-al ……….
I could not be happier.
Happy New Year you wonderful lot XXXXX
P.S. Here is what ZimPaul thought,a little bonus report ,if you like.
“We won, we won, we won, won, won, with a delicately deft and some would say a sublimely cheeky whisper of a softly-softly change of direction header from His Humbleness, Olivier G. Goal-scoring drought? That was some goal, a goal worthy of a good match, only a little piece of genius would break the deadlock.
Excellent sustained Newcastle effort all night by the way, some fine and composed players in their ranks, they are quite superior to Man United. Well done to them for making such a good match. One might say even-stevens, although I felt we were slightly ahead, a touch more dangerous through the middle, a tad less threatened by their bombardments and forays into our box. Jack lacks usual sharpness, but I think the issue is a little deeper, he’s in a transition period as a young player, finding his-self.
Lovely team stuff from our lads, no stand out player, except perhaps Tomas, but team passing and pressing was sharp, incisive and kept a confident Newcastle (7 wins in 9)on their toes. We played slightly within ourselves, and Newcastle defended very well.”
Positively Arsenal 
Tomas leads by example.. when your 33 year old midfielder runs and presses like that there is no excuse ffr the rest. He wants it and so does bacary
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Hunter ,your last post on yesterdays blog is going to appear as a article Or at least in an article as Paul’s has today.
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And until the colours of the championship are totally covered in white and red…me say war
Tu ru tuturu tuturu ruruuuun
War in the east war in the west war up north war in the south
And fuck you refs…you evil fucking refs
Me say war
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As you wish dear george!! Im currently considering to go study medicine and doctor science primarily blocked arteries and how to unblock them….. the cow, the pig, the bufallo, the turkey , the wine, the whiskey , rhe cakes and sweets…… dear god I want to live till may at least…
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And kindly spare a thought for poor zozephine and her hatred for players who provoke situations…..I think they have her picture next to the word hypocricy in dictionaries. Not like weve ever seen mourinho players provoking…no…never….may you choke on your food and die mourinho. Better you than schummacher ffs. ….tragedy.
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War in the East.
War in the West.
War oop Norf.
War down South.
War, War, War!
We shall win with unity, mental strength and solidarity. So says Bob Marley
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“This stadium was built for you and me
To come inside and witness history
My blood is red and white, a gunner till I die
And I will sing until the end of time”
Then a choreo of a loaded cannon shooting at the chicken on the basketball and schizophrenia from 8000 gunners yelling ARSENAL like the new zealand haka ritual. Please father xmas its all I ask.
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I think Hunter has been at the Eggnog
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isnt there anything arsenal can do about this referees bias against the club? it’s becoming ridiculous this season. maybe arsenal should compile all those decisions and penalties againts us, compared to other clubs and raise a protest to the premier league, FA and uefa. something must be done.
just look at the pen dean refused to give against chelsea and the foul on walcott by tiote worthy of a yellow pobert failed to call. we cant just keep quiet.
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although we all are drunk on the essence of glory, please remember that ARSENALs war was with the ref and i for one refuse to give Newcastle much credit. without the ineptitude of the man in black the men in black and white would have been despatched long before half time.
I concede that to win despite the 12th man was almost heroic at times, the effort should not of been needed and if the football judiciary continue like this then our title challenge will drown in a sea of unpunished fouls.
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open way is upon you, whether you would have it or not.
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*war. of course.
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I also think the fact the toons got away with stuff especially Tiote made them look better than they were… they were worthy opponents though we could have even beaten them with more goals…
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a_or_b @11:31 am
It is indeed heroic how we have amassed 79 or 82 points in 2013 despite the odds. A constant battle against not only better financed teams but also referees who are utterly unwilling or unable to impartially apply the rules of the game. Let us hope we have the reserves to sustain the war until May. From our experience, the closer it gets to the finish line our opponents and referees and pundits will get more desperate. Eduardo anyone. One thing we the fans can do is expose the incompetent or corrupt refs every inch of the way.
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If you could see the trash bin with comments from Newcastle fans,you would laugh ’till you’re sick
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Thanks George.
If Tiote had slapped the Lino Probert would simply have played ‘the advantage’! Heh. We’ve seen a few interesting ‘advantage’ calls in other games…
It was not the first victory this season against twelve, and it won’t be the last.
You can beat some of Riley’s crew sometimes but you can’t beat all the cheats all the time.
There are only so many thwacks the old “soft tissue”* can take within a week before getting bruised (bones no less), I’d have thought that someone with a passing interest in Sports Science would’ve clocked that one, over the years *taps nose, you know*
Is the avoidance of the bias and the cumulative effect it has on the limbs of the squad deliberately ignored by the twitterati experts, or do they simply have too much soft tissue between the ears? E.g. Chamberlain *sobs*. You could say he went in for a fifty fifty, I only saw the injury live and haven’t seen it again, so my opinion could be gibberish. As I remember the bungling and transparent Taylor was happy for the game to spiral out of control (we know why) and the serious injury for England’s best young player was the result, soft tissue innit? This “style” of official is also another undeniable reason England dont have many stars above their badge. Happy to be corrected, but it was what it was, and hopefully Chambo will recover well and be fresh and up to speed for the run in.
In the meantime, Arsenal’s shallow squad and inflexible manager seem to have done OK. Wenger’s Windless Wonders were fun, but I like to see some Pace in the team too. Does anyone else indulge in the theory that Walcott plays really well when Henry is training at the club? I do.
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*ahem*
< Wingless
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Balls of steel yesterday,how good was Rosicky? Probably gonna be busy tomorrow & hungover and at the game on Wednesday so I’d just like to wish you lovely lot a Happy New Year! And a big mention for George for setting this little oasis up for us,Nice one mate.
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Newcastle fans don’t get me wrong the ref made some poor decisions for them as well, however mainly second half and had the correct calls been made in the opening 20 minutes three Newcastle players would have been booked, their play would then have been seriously hampered. it was those errors which allowed Newcastle to stay in the game. How could any right minded fan of any persuasion watch the game and not be totally bemused by the bookings alone. This is not a dig at Newcastle (although I do think they are good enough to concentrate on passing football rather than on stopping another side play especially at home ) but an appraisal of an incompetent ref and refereeing system which totally changes the style and sometimes outcomes of games.
over the last week we have seen city ( who just happen to be the richest club ) benefit greatly in big games, if their advantage wasn’t enough the men in black seem to trying to help them even more.
On this site it has been highlighted many times before that the game is being officiated, the attitude of the media and the direction of coaching is all having an effect on the home nations ability to produce technical players and sides with a high enough technical quality, this is something that all supporters of the game should be screaming from the rooftops.
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Tempting to have a rustle thru the trash can George …
Part of me attributes the current refereeing crisis with the emergence of refs attempting to ‘manage’ games rather than refereeing them. This is intended to keep all players on the pitch as long as possible. Among other things it explains how wanton thuggery by some of our opponents goes unpunished in the first hour yet the spectacle of an Arsenal player booked for chipping the painted finger nail of said thugs later in the game is a common one.
This theory collapses, however, when sustained bias is evidenced against any team playing Chelsea and Citeh in particular. The obscene, extreme leniency granted to Manure is well documented. Of great interest is the degree to which this is now happening to Liverpool as much as ourselves. A genuinely competitive league must be a nightmare for all those involved in the bribing of referees and the attendant administration associated with the practice.
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The excellent Walter at Untold Arsenal was on to this before the match. http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/33337
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Hunter
Should we meet up sooner rather than later? My god you sound as though you are in pain…..
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A_B, Andrew.
spot on. Couldn’t agree more.
I guess the toons must be so angry they could punch a horse.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=035_1365970173
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PG
Check your email account
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I saw one bad foul yesterday, Williamson on Giroud, deserving of a card – the rest I thought was fair enough. I don’t have a problem with a referee trying to keep it 11v11
Whatever the refereeing issues however I was very impressed with the way we met Toon challenge for challenge, steel with steel, sly trip with sly trip.
How very different to the 4 all disintegration of just two seasons back
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Great comment from Bootoomee over on Untold. I mention no names hehe.
December 30, 2013 at 3:08 pm
If you cried and moaned repeatedly while rendering your garments about how terrible things are going to be for Arsenal in the season unless we buy a quality striker but after all the teams in the league, including those with loads of such quality strikers, have played each other, we are ahead of all the pack, you can’t continue to sing the same song. It can be safely concluded that you suck at predictions and can barely see beyond your nose where the Arsenal team is concerned.
Please give it a rest already and support the players that are already in the team and have put Arsenal where we are today despite your lack of faith in them. It’s not too much to ask.
Maybe, just maybe having being proven wrong up to this point, you might want to drop the “buy this, buy that” nonsense and instead, support the team, warts and all. At least, us ‘deluded fools’ who have towed this line have been proven right so far this season. We have no reason to change our position now do we?
Of course, we’ll celebrate any new signings because they would be Arsenal players then and what we do is support Arsenal payers like: Sanogo, Flamini and Ozil. What we’ll not do is irritate other fans with impotent demands for players while depressing them with dire predictions of how terrible things would end for the team unless one of the greatest managers in the game does what we expert Internet commenters advise him to do.
It would be funny it isn’t just fucking annoying.
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Fin: “If Tiote had slapped the Lino Probert would simply have played ‘the advantage’! Heh. ”
I can totally picture Probert running by his slapped Lino and making the “play on” gesture with his arms.
With regards to thwacks on soft tissue, Olive has had two season ending tackles, from Yaya Toure and Williamson, leveled on him which didn’t even poduce a verbal warning. Then you have Obi Mikel’s tackle on Arteta and Tiote’s tackle on the whole team. This is getting ridiculous.
What worries me is this love affair with English blood and English ethics Mourinho has developed. Since our game against them, he’s making it look as if Arsenal players are crying when they get the crap kicked out of them. I hope Arsene counters this narrative and puts that bastard in his place.
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Anicoll, the problem with the referee keeping it eleven v eleven is that a player like Tiote gets away with stopping play over and over again. If Tiote had received a yellow early on, for one of the half dozen fouls he committed in the first half, the game would have been a lot easier for us. It’s not like the ref had a problem booking players. Rosicky and Flamini were booked for what ended up being pretty clean tackles.
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Anicoll has been abroad, seems like he has caught some strange illness that has blurred his vision.
I suggest antibiotics.
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“I can totally picture Probert running by his slapped Lino and making the “play on” gesture with his arms.”
Heh, you’ve seen that move before!
As for Mourinho, he’s been feeding the hacks the “protect English Football / preserve our precious bodily fluids” line since the beginning of the season. No surprises. He knows what he is doing. Arsenal will counter it by beating Gazprom in Fulham!
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Tiote seems to have mastered the trick of committing those niggling game disrupting offences just right Gains – push it to the edge but not over the edge. He has learned a lot compared to the psycho nutcase he was a couple of seasons back.
And tropical disease it may be George but Probert and his impact, or actually the lack of it, was a tiny element in our win yesterday, totally irrelevant – a mere flea bite on the elephant’s arse
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Check it out, Fin. This is what a guy named Al said on Untold Saturday night before the game.
“Sadly, I agree with you; Tiote will kick out, harass and stamp on our players but it’s us that’ll get punished.”
He hit it on the head.
Someone should remind Mou about English blood when one of his Frenchies, whether they be Brazilian or Belgian, dives then writhes around in pain looking for a call.
By the way, are you all laughing at Mata? He could have had it all with us and now he can’t leave Mou’s bench. And for what, a few more quid? Hahahahahahaha!!!!!
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Actually it was a lot more quids. Double + £8 million bonus signing on fee.
Not to be sniffed at.
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Tiote hasn’t mastered that art, Anicoll. If he doesn’t lead the league in suspensions, bookings and red cards, then he’s tied for first with Cattermole. Thing is, he gets away with all types of dirty fouls against us and he gets to play the next game.
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Screw him, George. I hope he cries on his Ferrari’s steering wheel as he leaves training.
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I’ve always thought Tiote was a master at fouling. He knew what he was doing before he came to the PL. Remember the foul on Melo against Brazil at the last WC. He knew what he was doing (winding up Melo!), the foul was calibrated, he was in control and that’s why he didn’t break a leg. Like, you know, AdamsBouldKeownCampbellandalltheotherplayersoutthere…. Deserved a red, got the yellow if my memory is correct. And Brazil lost after Melo got sent off. Job done.
The least that we ask for is that when players make such fouls on Arsenal players that they are called as fouls. I hope that it is not too much to ask for.
–
Arsenal started well and then were pegged back because a number of fouls weren’t called. One of those was the foul worthy of a booking against OG. That the other non-calls in that early phase after Arsenals good start were not cards does not mean that they did not affect the flow and momentum of the game. The official knew exactly what he was doing. That’s what it was. Simples. Onto the next game.
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Fin: “Arsenal started well and then were pegged back because a number of fouls weren’t called.”
Yup. We started off in our usual fashion and the fouling started as they saw that the game might get out of their hands. From there it was pass, pass, hack, whistle. Pass, pass, hack, whistle. It went on like that nearly until the end, when they gave up all pretenses of playing football and relied on hoofing it into the box.
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Tiote was serving a suspension before the game against us.
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Gains & Anicoll
I’ve tried not keep all my comments on refs over on Untold. It’s the right forum for it! Just as 7am was able to predict an Arsenal booking seconds after a Chelsea booking from Dean during that game (he was right!) it was possible to predict how Probert would officiate the game, who would get the cards, and roughly what time in the game those cards would be given. Because it is now possible to predict the performance of some officials during a game* it’s fair to say the ‘discussion’ around them has moved on, and therefore for me Untold is the place to talk about referees.
* in the past I have been able to predict that say, a Dickie Bird would have a good game, respecetd by all players. But it was never possible to predict when and where he would give his decisions (i.e. against certain teams he would not give any LBWs before lunch for some weird reason…). Although, you could do that with an Umpire Hair, as the alternative example. And that is the problem.
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Fair enough, Fin.
By the way, did anyone watch Piers Morgan get belted by the Australian bowler? He should come have a run around with Arsenal’s first team. Obviously, Frimpong will be playing in the holding role.
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Tiote is a pro-fouler, those ankle and heel taps on the bone his nasty specialty, that’s his job. Otherwise, Newcastle went about their business in physical fashion as is the conventional trend for Arsenal, but played well especially on our left, pressed high and played to score. Their record speaks for itself, last 10 games, W7, D1, L2. That’s what makes this such a fine win, especially the manner of it. I wasn’t overly perturbed about the ref mainly because I expected it; so too did our players I would think, the looks of bemusement for the cards against us, especially Flamini’s, spoke for itself. While unheralded, I thought this was one of best wins I’ve seen because it took guts.
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HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!
have fun welcoming 2014…….. 😉
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Twitter will see this place off.
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Tiote was doing Newcastle’s rotational fouling all on his own.
Anicoll may be right, each one may have been a millimetre below a yellow on it’s own, but the accumulative impact was worth 1, and maybe two yellows.
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god help us PG
That place is a madhouse.
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Has A5’s account been hacked or did he watch the game in black and white.
Just look at the walcott incident, early in the game having stole the ball and the NUFC defence out of place and us with a chance on goal Tiote took one for the team a stonewall booking in any game and he new it. I think he was surprised as anyone he didn’t get even a talking to. This is nothing to do with keeping players on the pitch stopping the ” professional foul ” to stop attacks. With a booking this early in the game this would have dramatically effected both his play and as defensive cover in midfield the newcastle set up. The rest of his attacks would not of happened giving us more freedom to move the ball about and sharpen our attacks in turn. these sometimes may seem like little incidents but they have a major affect on how the game is played.
As A5 is usually so on the money I will allow him this one minor indiscretion however i sentence him to reading the ref reviews and previews over on untold and to never stick up for a ref again
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Incidentally, the sqwawka stats indicate Flamini with an incredible 94% pass success was not only midfield enforcer, a job I thought he excelled at, harassing and pressing but all legally done, including the “foul”; but he was also the midfield engine, releasing the ball. Not surprisingly those stats show Arsenal slightly ahead in every facet of the match, including 53/47 possession, shots, defense, passing, but only except corners. The stats also produce aggregate indicators that show a period of just about 25 minutes where Arsenal was not on top and in control. So, a reasonable and fair result all round; we might have had two, but take nothing away from Newcastle, they played to score when in possession, they did not “park the bus” as such, they kept the ball well and played effectively down the right, but lacked the means to penetrate our defense. Still, I agree that a Tiote yellow would have changed the match, more likely early in the second period. Few such yellows are given early in a game, this is not about the ref, it is typical as the pattern of fouling is established and the ref gives a few verbals.
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So half our squad are now injured thanks to the refs allowing the rotational fouling to go unpunished? But of course there was nothing wrong with what went down in the last 3 games? They really don’t want us to win this thing, do they?
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heh…..remember…26.12.00…so much pain…. they dont want to see that happening again…..in their home ground….by some foreigner french divers who have invaded the lands to distort OUR game…..we’ll show’em….lets not forget part of the football culture here is aggressive headless chicken running and kick-tackling with passion…its called being committed. a contact sport of course…..
someone has asked what can we do with the refs who allow opponents fouling to go unpunished…….this is ivan gazidis territory but unfortunately he is also foreign…roman is no mug, his first transfer at chelsea was peter kenyon…
our only hope is that the dumb establishment realises that “hey…arsenal’s got our future national team…should we really kick them and destroy their spirits? not really we want our new “bechkams and lampards” to compete with the messis and ronaldos of this world”……either that or we sign a mean MF whose role will be to cause havoc in the f.a and ref associations and PROTECT arsenal on and off pitch.
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there is also a third and fourth solution but you might find it extreme….solution 3 : mathieu flamini grabs the ref by the throat and performs judoka move till ref is left in a comma …solution 4 : per mertesacker together with arsene wenger order players off the field and ivan calls uefa to investigate while we go on strike till these neanderthals sort out their football and officiating. solution 5 : fans bring out huge banner with the words : “give the yellow or we come to your homes” ….. solution 6 : a hero from the stands invades the pitch and smashes the ref’s face and forces him to fall down crying in front of national television…. we all chip in for our hero to be released from authorities. solution 7 : podolski takes free kick and targets the refs ears. solution 8 :sagna mistimes his tackle on rooney and ‘accidently’ breaks the refs leg…occupational hazzard.
we have plenty of options ..its only a matter of deciding to deal with it..wenger being the higher being wants to beat them with football but he is a lunatic we ve been told……football? what football? passing and shit? nahhhhh we play the game different here…..
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