As usual when wrestling with the match write up I was looking for the “word” that captures the victory at Hull. The keystone of text on which the rambling edifice depends, the one single expression that you, dear reader, will retain as you reflect on the five minutes you invested this morning on the PA site.
What exactly is the ‘word’ for that performance at the KC yesterday ?
I played with a few; Polished – professional – competent – refined – strong – organised – sophisticated – cultured – cultivated – developed – powerful – authoritative – razor-sharp – distinguished – well oiled – commanding – superior – unassailable – talented – clever but none quite fitted the combination of speed, skill and intelligence that characterised our performance and our victory against the Tigers yesterday.
And then I saw it – PROFICIENT
The combination of art and science I had the pleasure of watching yesterday was proficient, a performance in which all the elements came together and meshed perfectly.
It started at the back and the opportunities that the home side had Szcz dealt with, he commanded the box, punched or caught the high balls and saved what occasional goal bound shots. The back four deal gave very little away, no stumbles or errors and a welcome clean sheet after a few games I which we have not been at our defensive sharpest.
Ah the midfield – Ramsey, Ramsey, Ramsey …………………………. I can say no more – my superlatives have failed. Santi vigorous, Ozil cleverer than a fox, and Mikel in charge across, the middle, dental problems notwithstanding.
And our strikers , yes yes I know we play one man up but yesterday it seemed to me that Olivier and Poldi buzzed about in front of and behind each other, pulling the defenders out of shape, both strikers irrespective of their official; job title. Finest finisher in the club award ? Give it to the smiling German.
And a fine cameo from the Ox, my goodness you can expect some severe competition for Cup final places.
Proficient – yes that is the word.
Not sure what to make of Hull, damage limitation when it went to 0-2. I anticipate a brighter effort on the greenfields of Wembley.
Enjoy your Easter Monday wherever you are. I am off to Stratford for Henry IV Part 2 with Number One daughter.
“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
This morning we have Andrew @anicoll5 to thank for our little sunshine bus trip
Positively Arsenal 
For my voice, — I have lost it with hollaing, and singing of anthems.
Falstaff, Act 1 scene ii
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A well written, amusing and proficient Post that pretty much summed up the salient points of the game. 🙂
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Andrew – You are slacking my man.
Where is the outrage? Why did Venga overplay Ramsey up to boxing day? Now he can reasonably argue that it was injuries, not his coaching, that derailed our chances. Hang him and the board. They should have bought a striker, any striker in January. Hell even Long and Jelavic were available. Who needs those slight, slippery midfielders like Ozil? All they do is get injured. Is proficiency your best shot?
How can you be satisfied and happy? That is boring. This is a blog Andrew, not a happy, hippy commune.
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Was Podolski, now that he ihas fully recovered from what he described as the “worst injury of his career” playing like that inside-ish forward more obviously yesterday, linking up with the CF like Walcott had been doing more and more? Not in the same style (he’s not as quick. I’m a self declared expert on Pace btw!) but as some have mused when both we’re fully fit they have been almost competing for the starts? Some kind of….wait for it…a…plan?
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Shotta, where were the sports science enthusiasts when the f-word played on with a bruised bone after the Birmingham game and during the game with Bunga Bunga? Untold wrote a piece on this incident the flying kick from Gardner and the consequent damage/resulting injury.
Here’s a clue: all players/athletes would have insisted on playing on with the injury int he CL glamour tie (against their home team as well…), and all managers out there tend to indulge their players. It’s football. Vermaelana and Wilshere both ignoring physios and rushing themselves back? Happens at every club all the time because it’s the culture within the sport. Maybe there needs to be a slight change in culture. But, if the players started to actually listen to their physios they’d all be wearing padded helmets like Cech and Kevlar body armour. I bet the amateur enthusiast experts do not refer to the concussion stuff in the courts over in America, where they also have alien technology like video replay in their sports. They’ll never refers to he excess contact allowed in arsenal games when compared to other matches (stats available on Untold – or you could just refer to the incident where Arteta got kicked yesterday and Per got the yellow card!). In a word: disingenuous. A sliver of truth about how athletes and physios work has been used for them to work themselves up into yet another froth and lather. Do I need to mention Bunga Bunga’s stewardship of Messi over the last twelve months? Again?
As seen in multiple other examples a little bit of information has been used to yet again heckle the club. Same old bollocks.
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A very proficient post to end a nice Easter break.
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Excellent points Finsbury. A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous in the hands of the ignorant or foolish.
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Sav
We had better not refer to Rooneh playing on so uselessly against Munchen with that injection in his toe. That was dumb. The F-Word at least scored his pelanty. Rooney’s form is suffering for it now. It’s possible that decision could have scuppered any hopes the lard arse had of getting himself even vaguely fit for the heat in Brazil.
But we know the drill. “Vengaaaaaaa……..”
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Lovely write-up.
So nice to have that calm and confident feeling back.
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I tought Santi was fantastic yesterday. He ran his little Spanish socks off,scurrying and harrying like a little terrier chasing rats.
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And I think this is a fantastic write up. Not one bit of telling me what I saw.
Great stuff, Thanks Andrew.
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I agree PG, very good post and it was lovely to see something like the old Arsenal back.
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A good weekend for the Arsenal. Former graduates Donny Vito and Seb Larsson making worthy contributions to Mourinhio’s meltdown.
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Fins – Poor me. Nobody bit at my attempt at satire. *Sobs
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I could pretend to take you seriously Shotta, and tell you to fuck off, if that would make you feel better?
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Thanks Andy: lovely piece and hope you enjoy the theatre as much as you enjoyed the match. What a top show they put on after the first 15 minutes or so, despite the unwelcome attentions of the bruisers and what looked a truly terrible pitch. Hard underneath, long yet uneven slightly slippery grass spoiled any chance of a slick and quick passing game. But how good to see them weather the storm, and, as you say, proficiently put the game to bed.
Podolski has caused me so much confusion. I was really excited when we bought him, but after a promising start nothing much seemed to happen. I’d resigned myself to thinking he wasn’t really going to fit in, but he has been increasingly terrific this season and what a dimension he brings when he is on song. I wonder if he could use his power to deliver hard to defend against corners and free-kicks. He has looked very different too in the last few games and full credit to him for his positive response to the serious injury he picked up in August. In fact, having seemed at one stage to have settled for the role of playboy Prince Poldi, he seems to have woken up to his responsibilities and is now ready to fulfil the sovereign duty he was so clearly destined for. There’s almost a Stratford play in that to be honest.
And just to put the record straight, I didn’t coin “Transfer porn”: it was the basis of a great post I read last spring/summer. I think it was written by 7am Kick off, or possibly Poznan.
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Good write up. Thought it was a very spirited away game performance. We were very focused on our defensive duties and when we had the ball we were very purposeful going forward. The game was decided after couple of brilliant moments, and that’s how top teams tend to win their away games. Have to give hull some credit for staying competitive in the first half, even if it was done with some overly physical play that was allowed by the ref. We can only congrat the team for matching up. Names been mentioned and rightly so but I also like to forward Woj here. Very focused which examplifies our game yesterday.
Oh and I also like how obvious Arsene and Stevie are not communicating with each other. I guess Stevie is just that kind of guy that like to run to our players during game and explain HIS game plan for them, with his own drawing that he kind of made up on his own, in his kitchen, the night before the game. And somehow it’s ok with Arsene and the players with that.
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Hmm it seems like agent moyes work is over. Shame, I was hoping he would get his hands on those 200 m first.
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But at the end I think he did a decent job. Keeping Rooney, no more fergie time, no more invincible aura, no more belief in turning the game in last minutes. He deserves his bonus.
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Who needs satire when we have (had?) Moyes? (IBSF)
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Is Moyes fired or not? The fact this story has any legs at all tells you this is a dead man walking. Sorry Gooners. The running joke that is Moyes and United is coming to an end
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PG at 2:45pm – As they say in show business, bad publicity is better than no publicity.
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@ shotta
I expect he hasn’t been sacked technically but perhaps his contract will be terminated at the end of the season “by mutual consent”. Or something along those lines. How did it take them so long to find him out?
And I still cannot understand why they appointed him in the first place. He is a cautious, conservative manager who has never won anything in his entire managerial career. Except for one lower league title, someone has whispered in my ear. Seems like a very odd choice to replace one of the most successful managers in the world at one of the biggest clubs in the world. Downside is they’ll probably get someone much better in for next season and the comedy will be over. What will we do for laughs next season without Moyes and Sherwood?
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If Pepe Mel gets a result at the Etihad tonight, I want to see what the sports physio amateurs have to say with regards to the most expensive team of all time throwing away the title.
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I always thought with poor old Moyes that MUFC were taking a leaf out of the James Bond situation when it was time to replace Sean Connery. I suspect they always had Roger Moore in mind, but knew that nobody could replace Connery. Moore was never going to be better than Connery, but he was always going to be better than George Lazenby. I wonder who they really have in mind?
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@ foreverheady
As a theory, yours has its merits, but would the ManUre hierarchy gamble with the future of the club like that when so much money is at stake? All their commercial revenue is predicated on continued success. I have read that they literally cannot afford not to be in the CL.
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“Seems like a very odd choice to replace one of the most successful managers in the world at one of the biggest clubs in the world. Downside is they’ll probably get someone much better in for next season and the comedy will be over.”
Moyes was just the convenient fall guy – he was not going to overshadow his predecessor and to be fair to him, manure have been living on fumes and in need of lots of fresh blood for the last couple of seasons. The mystique surrounding SAF and a purple patch from van judas just about saw them through his last season, but not many top managers would have wanted to follow SAF without heavy investment. At least this way they are following the distinctly average Moyes rather than the legendary fungus face.
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FG, if that were true, why allow SAF to pick Moyes? Maureen was lifting his skirt to manure but they snubbed him because he would have demanded investment being the cheque book manager he is. There is very little spare money to invest at manure so they needed a manager who is used to working on a shoestring. There were strong rumours in the summer that he was trying to get Fabregas, but a player of that quality was never going to leave Barca to play for Moyes. Instead he had to settle for Fellaini (another AFC doomer favourite!) who is even more out of his depth than Moyes.
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Hah. Six year contract. He was brought in thinking he is the long term choice and before the first season is over he gets the boot?. I wonder how much this is going to cost manure. Add to that the 32 mil they will lose by not making the ECL next year. This could be the beginnings of a negative spiral downward. After 19 years of making ECL competition under FFF , moyes will have failed them. How could he not have seen the poisoned cup of wine and how he was setup. It might take manure three to four years to get back in. That’s adds up to probably somewhere around 100 mil they will lose in funds generated.
Long my it last . Unless they start spending city and chelski type money to bring in players. At astronomical and disgusting transfer fees and salaries. Which they don’t have. (0(
See you at the bottom half of the table next year.
No ECL = no Great players making the move
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goonerkam at 7:09 pm
“See you at the bottom half of the table next year”…….I hope we won’t be seeing them there next year…….
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CHEVROLET and the noodel manufacturer along with the rest of their 35 sponsors can’t be very happy about this.
” another fine marketing mess you got us into. Lets go get our monies back” (0(
I wonder if there are any performance related clauses in the sponsors contracts. NO ? its still a sh•• load of fun and giggles reading about manure these days. How you like them apples robin? Is the little boy inside of you running and crying to his papas & momas yet ? thought so…
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GP
it might take a couple of years but I think you are correct in foreseeing them dropping down. Watch the rats mercenaries start abandoning the ship allready. Starting with wellbek and chicharones. (0(
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I’m really just baffled how the manure board is getting away with all this. Being responsible for a stock listed company they just let a vain old man play out his final act as some kind of football godfather. Very odd. Nothing wrong with taking recommendations but if moyes story is true, there were no interviews as such, red nose simple called moyes over to his home to do some ass kissing and it was all sealed.
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not only are they going to see the old far•• off this summer but a few of their up and coming players will try and leave also. Whom ever comes in will have to build from ground up. it will take years and years and they will have to part with s••• load of funds. many of us saw this coming four or five years ago. Of by one year but it is happening. Thanks in large part to robin last years tin cup might be their last one for eight or nine years.
Lets see if the media inject that line in every f•••••• piece and dialogue in regards to manure as they did with THE ARSENAL.
And they didn’t even have to build a new stadium.
I wonder if this implosion will open up the eyes of our doomers and groaners. fat chance…
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I bet the Dutch boy is looking back at the relative stability of Arsenal and thinking, “Fuck Me.”
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Kam, United will live off its fame as a sleeping giant for at least a decade. God knows Liverpool did. I bet David Moyes thinks what Arsene did, keeping us in CL football every season, is miraculous. Too bad our pragmatic supporters don’t see it that way.
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exactly, goonerkam and Apropos.
@ passenal
The glazers rely on MUFC to subsidise them, so I can’t believe that they knowingly took the obvious risk of killing their cash cow. Anyone could have told them that Moyes would not get the same “respect” from refs as SAF, or that big players would not want to play under Moyes. And especially not fabregas – Moyes tried to get him banned or something. His advantage is that he is used to working on a budget and he has bought well. But that applies to Tiny Penis. They still had some money to spend, though – they blew a lot on Fellaini and some other bloke in the summer. If they wanted to keep the seat warm for someone else, why give him a six-year contract? I read somewhere they had ethical reasons (don’t laugh) for not taking Mourinho, but surely there must have been other options. They’d have been better off getting Martinez in. I also think such a quick sacking reflects badly on SAF.
Perhaps Moyes seemed like a safe choice, steady hand on the tiller, and he was confident of being up to the job as well. Big dollops of self-delusion on both sides, methinks. Or perhaps it was like the PSG situation and no-one else wanted the job in the circumstances? Or the Glazers just couldn’t stand up to SAF?
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Man City 1-0 up already
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This is funny
“GeoffArsenal @GeoffArsenal 1h
@ManUtd have moved quick to deny any rumours that David Moyes has been managing Man Utd this season.”
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GAINS
and they will never get it or if they do , they will never admit it. Short sighted agenda driven dumba.
FUNGUN
(0( … I feel so bad at being so giddy at their plight. Am I so bad??? times are changing and as the bear says it’s time for a NEW ERA. again. As far as manure is concerned. Watch them change managers as they often as they change their under ware. like the spudniks (0(…..
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I am enjoying it hugely, goonerkam, and I don’t feel the teeniest bit guilty. My only regrets are that the Moyes comedy show will not be going on longer and that the Dutch skunk may not be playing in the Europa League.
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& pool & shitty & chelski…
Keep your false glory and tin cups. I’LL TAKE THE ARSENAL!!!! any day , any time…
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I don’t know FG but it’s strange given the glazers unpopularity among fans that they are walking away with this so cleanly. Instead fans frustration seems equally distributed among moyes, the players and red nose. You could say moyes is actually the most innocent one here!
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From Twitter
“John Cross @johncrossmirror 1m
Interesting point mentioned by Alan Parry. He says West Brom fans boycotting Man City game in protest at ticket prices over 50 quid.”
Ha.
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Kam we are Arsenal fans, it’s part of our job to gloat at our rivals misfortunes!
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they just let a vain old man play out his final act as some kind of football godfather.
masons !!
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@ Apropos April 21, 2014 at 8:20 pm
Yes, it is odd, that. Perhaps THAT’S why the Glazers let SAF take the “credit” for hiring Moyes – if it went tits up he and his protege would take the blame.
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I other news it would see we did the tigress a huge favor by spanking them yesterday. By doing that we came closer to ECL spot and that leaves the second place finish in the cup final with the Europa league spot. Someone should have cleared it for them yesterday so that they would have kept their high kicks and elbows in check. they should thank us to high heaven.
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Proficient?
Apt choice of word and equally apt summary. Clinical is the word I would have personally found ideal to describe the performance. The difference in the last 2 games and the previous 4-5 has been having a striker in the box who can score without requiring 5 attempts. Podolski has been sublime recently. Demonstrating a true masterclass of finishing. World class instincts and technique on display. A perfect blend of skill sets you would hope a striker playing for The Arsenal would have in his locker.
I think overall we do tend to over-elaborate somewhat, only creating around 5 half decent, to decent chances per game, such is our insistence on overplaying. Therefore by logic, we need a quality finisher in the middle to take the chances. Especially against the top sides. Fortunately for ourselves – given the predicament we’ve found ourselves in after the tactical no-show against Everton and the no-show of anything against Chelsea and Pool, leading to another dramatic end of season collapse – the chances have been falling for Podolski recently. He’s made the difference come the final whistle.
I would like to see us adopt a system where he is more of a consistent focal point to our attack, rather than being isolated on the left and playing second fiddle to lesser able strikers. I would also like him to be given more minutes on the field of play. Although I do feel it’s a bit late for all that, if it were done earlier we might not have necessarily needed the 50 mil Euro striker we’ve required for 2 years. Alas, it hasn’t turned out that way, but there’s still a few games left to find a way to utilize our goal scoring threat to its optimum, in order to beat all mediocre teams before us and have our most successful season in 9 years. It’s been a long wait for an FA cup, maybe that’s something else that’s too late, although it’s never too late to win a trophy. In fact, if it’s Arsene’s last year, it will be perfect timing.
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roko ukic!!!!
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