Like every professional football correspondent I intend to completely ignore the football I have seen during the match and I will concentrate on my own pre-prepared agenda(s).
Anyway – I will get rid of the football bit first. This really was an end of season stroll around by both teams, the relative league positions before the game saw to that. There were a couple of beachballs bouncing around in the clock end – I don’t know if our fans or the baggies brought them but that spelt-out the character of this match. The Albion rarely even bothered to try and foul us, and if they did we didn’t even retaliate. A few yellow cards came at the end but there was not much at stake for either team to fight over – this game could have been played wearing flip flops.
The game itself was decided by a typical piece of Oliver Giroud finishing (i.e. excellent) from a Santi corner. Giroud has been exceptionally good for us this season – a fine example of Wenger’s shrewd purchasing policies [Giroud’s goals alone have been game-changers no less than 11 times this season, not even counting the contribution of his assists and general hard working hold-up play and defensive presence]. Lukas Podolski also came close yesterday with another chance, It should not be a surprise to us to think that Wenger was deliberately keeping him in reserve for this part of the season. Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla showed glimpses of their exquisiteness in a match that really didn’t need any. Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini will hardly ever get an easier day in the middle of the park, and Per and Kos didn’t have a lot to do and dealt with pretty much everything the Baggies feebly threw at them very comfortably. The biggest laugh of the day was Berahino’s slip and our fans singing “are you Gerrard in disguise?” to him. Diaby and Theo were walking around after the match, with Aaron Ramsey carefully packed away in cotton wool for the final. All told a nice n’ easy day’s work at the office.
So no excitement or drama from the Arsenal at the end of a season? The Spuds and Everton safely disposed of ? Sky, BBC and the press must be rightly disappointed with us: there goes the narrative and story arc they so badly wanted Arsenal to deliver for them. So here we are, comfortably ensconced back into the top 4 and an FA Cup final to look forward to; but isn’t there just a little sense of an anti-climax around ? A sense of the what might have beens’ this season?
Arsene Wenger promised us last summer that we were about 2 years away from competing against our rivals again for the title. This season we were 128 days at the top of the table, we have had a spectacular first half of the season and were right up there in the race until we went to Stamford Bridge. Arsenal don’t do bus parking at away games and there isn’t really a game plan for damage limitation when it sometimes goes a bit Pete Tong, as Arsene says – he designs his team formations for our attacking strengths.
We have seen very positive signs we are still improving: 23 wins so far, 76 or probably 79 points will have been gotten this season, it all amounts to a tangible improvement and when you look at the much tighter closing of the gap between Arsenal and the top of the table compared to recent seasons it should give us succor to know the same group of players can get even closer next season. We haven’t been this good since ’07-’08 and if we look back at some of the points dropped this season which might have been saved by a team with just a little bit more confidence in themselves that they can close games out, we could have been right in it to the very end. Were we to go on and win the FA Cup that will give this team a huge boost in self-belief. 16 clean sheets has been decent too, and if you ignore the away drubbings (I do all the time) then the defense has been reliably solid.
Every expert in the world has concluded that we need a new striker. All I want is Giroud, Walcott and Podolski to be all available for Arsenal next season then let’s pick and choose someone new who will complement these attackers and who can play along with a midfield of Ozil-Diaby-Ramsey. To be honest we do need more goal scoring options, we have scored 40 goals less this season that City or Liverpool and the team that scores the most goals usually wins the league in England.
It’s also a commonly held truth that Arsenal are in possession of more money hoarded away than Smaug the dragon. This is the club’s rainy-day savings, I suspect it has been kept for use when our rivals will be under a huge strain with FFP, so if the right players come into the market this summer, I fully expect Wenger will get whoever he wants – adding to the team we have now which is very damn close to being right up there as it is.
I will trust Arsene Wenger’s judgement only on who and who isn’t an Arsenal quality player.
It was nice to see a lot of the fans stay for the lap of appreciation at the end. Bacary Sanga got a big shout-out to stay, and there was a big cheer for his little boy running onto the pitch and kicking a ball into an empty net, (see what I did there – that’s journalism!). You won’t get that wherever else you go Bacary, just remember that and thanks anyway for your time here.
As always, it was a pleasure to meet up with the fellow Positivista’s before the match. We are becoming quite the handy little firm. Anicoll5, ArsenalAndrew, Billy Boots, Georgaki Pyrovoltis and of course Hunter13. Their real identities will be kept perfectly safe with me.
Today’s post was brought to us by Double Canister.
Positively Arsenal 
Thanks DC. How the post flows. What a journalist you are! Loved the agenda.
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Outstanding DC – a fine summary of a season that delivered much and demonstrated the quality of our footballers and our football.
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Very enjoyable piece DC. That is just about how it was for me too. The highlight was meeting you and the other Positivistas. Ok, let’s get this monkey off our backs….
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Brilliant stuff DC. Positively Arsenal indeed. I already look forward to next season. Hopefully we will win the cup and the extra confidence gained can bring us closer to the title.
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Great writeup DC. never look back baby. Right about SAG too. Here he is with family. By the way , us overseas supports get really jealous of the game day experiences you guys are having. Meetups, drinks beforehand and afterwards. And of course the NEW HIGHBURY experience and all. Keep it up and I might take a transatlantic flight over with yous before a game next year.you did miss the little demonstration that was staged by the disgruntled fans. What the heck was that about??
UP THE GUNS OF ARSENAL!!!!!
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Great write up DC. It did seem like the players were doing just enough to win without risking injury etc before the big day at Wembley. I’m sure they could have gone up a gear or two if needed. But for all their huff and puff, the baggies were not able to muster much in the way of stern opposition. They were very well contained.
Something I’ve noticed before about OG that was reinforced for me while watching the goal of the month contenders for April – he is really involved in a lot of what we do going forward. If he is not assisting or scoring, he is often the one with the pre-assist. It’s a shame those who only care about price tags don’t actually watch the matches or they might spot just how important he is to how we play.
P.S. and that ‘flop’ Ozil is just sublime. When he settles into this league, we’ll run out of superlatives to describe the beauty and subtlety of his playmaking.
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I was going to mention something about the protests, but the proximity of a beer in my hand and chatting to the gang kept me in the pub right until kick-off.
In fact I only saw a handful of people prepared to sacrifice their pints to leave, I’ve seen nothing on my TL about it but then again I generally ignore those kind of people. There was nothing going on outside the ground before KO.
My tuppence worth is that while 3% is a below inflation increase in ticket prices (and there has been a freeze for last 2 years) there was no need to do it because of the extra revenue streams coming in. It just seems badly thought out by the club but the overreaction to it by some supporters groups just shows that they have a big agenda with complaining about everything – it just gives them an excuse to get the ‘neutrals’ on their side.
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Good summary, DC, and nice to meet you and the other Positivistas yesterday. With the beer, the sunshine and the slow pace to the match, you did well to stay awake, let alone to keep track of what actually happened.
Good point about Giroud. I have not seen any striker (he is actually more of an old style centre forward) do as well in winning balls in the air, retaining possession and bringing others into play. I like to think of him as the hub of the attacking wheel.
Some may choose not to see the signs of progress from this season, but, for me, they are there. Especially pleasing is the points tally – we are on course for 79 which would have been good enough for second last season – and that is without doing well against the top teams. There is a real feeling that we can push on next season.
I saw an interesting graphic on Saturday that showed Arsenal had been top of the league almost as many weeks as all the other contenders combined. Obviously, the number of weeks at the top is less important than being there after the final match of the season, but it is another sign of progress.
If people’s biggest complaint is about is a 3% increase, that in itself shows things are moving in the right direction. Roll on Wembley and the 2014/2015 season.
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Nice article DC, calling it right, as ever.
Agree that the game had a real end-of-term feel to it, not awful by any means, more playing little bit handbrake on. One felt the side could go up a couple of gears if required although Ramsey’s absence was the only real disappointment on a splendidly sunny north London afternoon. Players keeping plenty of reserve ahead of Norwich, the Final, the World Cup – who knows?
But it didn’t really matter and the clean sheet and OG strike contributed to a welcome feel-good factor which descended over the place, peaking with the lap of honoir and a second session in the bar.
Great to meet up with everyone, hopefully will do so again before too long; we should aim to add a minimum of one new face from the hallowed pages of PA at every subsequent gathering in my opinion, just to encourage new faces to tag along.
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What a class act is that boy Ramsey…..
http://tinyurl.com/o9ho82e
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I suspect the Brendan ‘PL manager of the season’ campaign has just encountered an obstacle
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Yes and 22 goals from Giroud – 1 goal less in the Premiership than Wayne Rooney or Sergio Aguero…he is a very good striker.
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anicoll5, perhaps they will realise it’s not that easy to win the PL after all!
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Poor Alan Smith tonight – gibbering on about how many the Scousers were going to score – fawning over LFC
Then KaBoooooooom
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The other funny thing is watching Jamie Carragher slagging off every Liverpool defender “can’t defend” “not a defender among them”
Oh the irony you clown – a player who served with season after season of total mediocrity at the heart of Liverpool’s defence
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GGG,
Giroud has 16 PL goals, but he will be in more competitions gain than Rooney or Aguero next season.
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I almost wish I was listening to that anicoll5! The back-peddalling must have been hilarious
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(0(
All them ex- liverexplodian players are going to pieces. WHAT HAPPENED??
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Ah well Pass the way our alleged betters are performing Citeh will fall apart against Villa and Fat Sam’s lads, the Scousers will lose 0-15 to Toon
And Jose will be crowned the genius we all know him to be
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Jamie C must have made a mistake with his post-match analysis. He said the Liverpool players looked tired towards the end. But Pedro has been telling me on his site that the way Rodgers conditions his players is far superior to anyone else – and certainly better than us. Perhaps if he had rotated a bit more or tried the tactic of defending …..
Thanks DC for a great post too: absolutely spot on.
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One game a week for most of the season and they are looking tired? Brendan must really know how to condition his players, unlike those super fit Gunners!
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Nice one DC.
Özil was as they say ‘different class’, especially before he tired in the second*
* Hope the self-declared Redzone experts (p.s. These are the same chumps that wanted to spunk the reserve on Melo and various agents’ pawns *coughs*) were paying attention to the subs, were they fwuck.
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Oh my god. This all puts Dowd’s performance (that’s what it was unfortunately) up at Newcastle into some interesting context.
Hehe.
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The “if only we were as good as Liverpool – see, you don’t need mega-money to win the EPL” bandwagon seems to have juddered to a halt at about 9:40pm.
I wonder if their supporters will be as vituperative as some of ours would have been in the same circumstances?
Welcome, friends from Liverpool, to the real world.
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I quite like Brendon.
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Sadly all their fans have drowned Merlot
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Oh my god. I left that match at 3-0 in the 79th minute. This league title was meant to be Shitty’s. What’s that three in their entire history?
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Nice one DC,spot on as usual,I thought it had a touch of pre-season friendly about it yesterday. As for the 3% rise,anyone who thinks that’s fine & dandy is just plain wrong-a terrible desicion by the club & as DC says-badly thought out. May I suggest a new pub I’ve discovered this season? The El Commandante-even closer to the ground than the George or The Tollington.
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Fins, just realised you were talking about the 4-4 up there. What’s the connection to tonight?
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Mel, but wont the girls (?) miss you at your old favourite haunt?
You could still dress in a bath towel.
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Chrikey, only 5 points off the top now, I’m really ruing that Flamini OG now – which came about from Podolski dawdling with the ball in midfield. Darn it, we didn’t get much luck this season.
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DC Podolski was fouled . He was not dawdling.
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Yes he was fouled, but he had the ball for too long, more midfielders available would have helped. I’m not blaming the team, it’s just a sign of regret.
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Rumours of Jack and Diaby starting against Norwich. That will be interesting.
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Suarez’s tears are beautiful. I bet Ghanaians are laughing their arses off.
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DC
No connection really!
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Podolski could’ve/should’ve hoofed away that ball before he was fouled. But it was a foul. Playing football whilst allowing such fouls is essentially how you end up with Michael Dawson. Best avoided.
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Its almost as if the refs have been briefed to promote a particular type of muscular football this season in the Premiership. All about the brand. If that was the case pre-season then you can see how that absolute travesty against Villa in the ver first match happened. We’ve also seen a few dodgy penalites given this season for various teams – but I can’t remember so many really obvious ones not being called. Think the reffing has been very strange this year – and not jsut agianst the Arsenal, although of course we always seem to come out of it particularly badly.
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Inconsistent offside calls, disturbing application of the ‘advantage’ rule (Taylor and Dowd)…it’s such an obvious mess, best left for the number crunchers at Untold!
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This season I think referees have been far more inclined to wave play on and ignore spectacular dives by players this season FH where previously they would have been whistling and reaching for their cards.
A balance of evils between allowing the more “muscular”brand of football, and footballer, more leeway and trying to reduce the amount of cheating that goes on with some players crumpling if they are touched.
There are obviously going to be errors, with genuine fouls missed, but there were errors anyway. Anything that persuades players not to cheat has got to be good.
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Semi Ajayi (Defender) follows Jenkinson as joins Arsenal from Charlton.
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Retro. replays to punish divers and more. Any vagueness on the call and the decision goes with the on field official same as in every other sport. Job done…
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…Would be preferable to questionable if not blatant bungles that remind one of the 1919 World Series (don’t know anything about baseball, but I do know why they help their officials etc…):
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Such a brilliant morning-after in my part of the world. That glow in the cheeks after a night of …. watching Liverpool, the pundits favorite, simply choke on hubris and self-entitlement at the hands of Tony Pulis and Crystal Palace. What the hell were they smoking in the dressing room at half-time?
Karma is a bitch as many of us said on twitter last night. The lying and cheating in the Suarez buyout affair for one. Even more galling was the gloating that they were succeeding without oil-money despite having the 4th largest net transfer spend in the league since 1992 (nett £287MM according to transferleague.co.uk) was a stick the Arsenal 5th column and the media was swinging heavily at our club. All myths exposed and defeated in 10 minutes.
I must save a word for the pundits who are now hopping on the bandwagon of critics of Liverpool defending. Such amazing hypocrisy. I was monitoring the game online on the Guardian’s M-B-M service and later saw replay on America’s NBC network and all were urging Loserpool to go for more goals and put pressure on City. Turned out very well, didn’t it.
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Well it appears FFP is getting up the nose of Manchester City in a particularly annoying way – couldn’t happen to a nicer club – unless it was Chelsea of course
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shottagunna
May 6, 2014 at 12:39 pm
Eagerly awaiting articles titled “FLOPS” …. “CHOKERS”…… “SWISS CHEESE DEFENCE” for liverpool as well as “JOKEY SHOOTS LITTLE HORSE” for chelsea’s collapse.
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Schadenfreude, eh? You can’t beat it! Now let’s hope City don’t stuff it up tomorrow. They still have to win their two games to be sure.
@DC
Well done on the article, much enjoyed.
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hee-hee…hee!
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The Arsenal for everyone protest, who is behind it? Is it the same pricks who want us to spend at City and Chelsea levels?
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Great piece DC,
FG, semi has been at ARSENAL all season playing for the u21s although training with the first team.
A5, Alan smith has made it perfectly clear he is an ex ARSENAL employee only and a Leicester supporter, he has no reason to favour us at all.
To all those meeting up, you’ve chose a pub round the other side of the ground to me as I usually drink in the kings head although ill promise to pop round next season as I live to meet you all.
Everyone was singing we want you to stay to bacs but poor ol fab was walking round totally ignored, I felt sorry for our cup hero and I hope the fans recognise this at Wembley
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