A pleasure to be reminded this morning that the return of domestic football is not too far away with the release of the PL fixtures.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the World Cup, even as an England fan, but international football does not have that total grip of Arsenal and the daily twists and turns of PL football. It does not have the means of inciting the same exquisite pain as following Arsenal.
I thought I’d have a look at the ten opening games and a possible 30 points in the bag. Lets face it by 1st November we will know if it is three more glorious years or back to marching, turquoise snoods and civil war.
We start with a visit from the nutcase with the drum on the 16th August. I am attending a wedding that day so that clears me of any responsibility for murdering the bastard. Assuming Mr Taylor is not handed the whistle we should get our domestic campaign underway with a positive result and some momentum. Next up A trip to Merseyside and the chance to make amends for the recent disappointment at Goodison in April that nearly, nearly, spoiled a good season. Will Lukaku still be there …… or even Coleman ? Who knows –who cares. I think we can assume that the Everton game will be televised.
Leicester, who apparently did not like it up ‘em, or was that us? I have no idea but I suspect of the three promoted teams it is the Foxes who will struggle most. We shall run the fox down and the hounds tear the quivering vermin to pieces.
And then the great blue Satan, at home. A real serious test of our, and Citeh’s, League credentials. No hiding place.
A ticket to the Citeh game somewhere has my name on it, the fixture falling closest to my the 50th anniversary of my first game at Highbury.
Villa away ? Three points, Spuds at home ? Well conceivably they will make a game of it though about six games into the season it seems reasonable to anticipate the N17 faithful will be calling for the head of Pochettino.
And then, the weekend of the 4th October, Chelsea – Stamford Bridge – no hiding place for them, and their new signing, and none for any Arsenal player – no sir – not that day.
Hull, S’nlunn, Burnley ? Ppppppfffffff !
So 30 points in the bag ?
Well that would be a tall, tall order. We do however possess the tools, we must make sure that we do the job.
Right, you can get back to the World Cup now, Lawrenson and all !
Today’s dose of positivity was brought to us courtesy of @anicoll5
Positively Arsenal 
Haha… Enjoyed this post. Why the hell not. Get a copy of this post to the Emirates and nail it down on the dressingrooms notice boards, all the doors in the cubicles and more.
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greaaaatt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no Taylor or similar as ref please! Balotelli to start off with a hattrick or even Campbell with a brace
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That’s the spirit! What a great little appetite sharpener. Important to remember that with a bit of normal luck we will have more players available for those games than we had for most of last season. If we do, then I see no reason why we won’t be exceptionally compettive. When do the CL qualifiers get drawn?
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I believe it is the 18th July the draw is made FH but please find attached the UEFA CL calendar for 2014/2015.
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2014/final/nextseason/index.html
Commendable Swiss efficiency – as befits a nation that hoovers its motorways.
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Saw this on the BBC live commentary… Thot it was funny
It’s a dog’s life
No England supporter wants to read the words ‘Rooney suffers cruciate knee injury’ during the World Cup.
But before you reach for the panic button, fortunately for fans of The Three Lions it is the England striker’s canine namesake – a 10-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier – who has been rocked by the injury, which he suffered when chasing a ball.
His owner, Richard Smith, 42, from Hull, says: “We’ve had Rooney since he was a puppy and we love him to bits. Our Rooney is like a baby and he’s as daft as a brush. We’ll all be cheering England on tomorrow and Rooney will also be watching it with us.”
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As I said on the last post, without knowing the squads, injuries, form and ref/luck involvement it looks a difficult start especially when you throw two CL games in there. But we wouldn’t be football supporters if we weren’t worried about things that hadn’t happened yet.
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“But we wouldn’t be football supporters if we weren’t worried about things that hadn’t happened yet.”
what ? like worrying arsenal will meet panathinaikos in the qualifying rounds …….. has been my nightmare since the end of season. 🙂
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bbpphwwwooaaaaaa cahill…. bwaaa
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Van Gaal didn’t look too clever there. What’s with these coaches and using their ultra defensive formations against minnows? De Jong should’ve been red carded.
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Without wishing to be too pedantic, shouldn’t it be Yield?
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Yes, bollocks.
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I just write this rubbish Tim – sub editing is another department
And on the topic of football what a bloody odd game in Port Allegre
The Dutch very lucky to get anything out of the game, a shocker of a penalty decision, poor keeping, dreadful finishing from both sides, crazy
And now on to Spain v Chile !
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There is no Spanish word for handbrake
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Great goal by the Bielslatronic Chile.
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Was the Marquis too generous with his axe?
Can we laugh at Costalot even though he probably isn’t fully fit? Yeah!
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Yup, del Bosque had to be ruthless with this selection, but I understand that it is an emotional game. Spain are out.
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Vidal and Sanchez were awesome at Udinese. Great players.
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Spain out Fins ?
Hmmmm – the evidence so far is very strong
I have a strange and entirely illogical feeling that we will see a very different ( better) performance from the holders in the next 45
3-2 at 90
But I’m not sure to who
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The way Spain are playing, even if they did manage to get somerhing from this game, I can’t see them beating Australia…
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Villa who had a good CL final on for Costa from the start would’ve helped! Still no show.
Carzola who had a great FA Cup final should’ve played by now.
I think Juanfran was the stand out full back in the Chelsea Atletico games, not much to go on I know but the Gazprom defender is not a special one. Even that selection is questionable, forget about the others.
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Some very strange picks by Mr Wood all over the pitch!
Throwing Costa into the mix, when they have had so much success without plumping for an old fashioned centre forward is the biggest, as Andy Townsend would say “for me.”
I would always try and make room for Javi Martinez though, he is dreamy!
Juanfran was the stand out full back in the entire CL Fins.
Alexis Sanchez is a very good player, not sure, but have Arsenal been linked with him yet? We seem to have been linked with quite litter rally hundreds of players and always with Liverpool too for some weird raison.
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Carzola comes on and within a few minutes takes a shot for Spain that that makes the ‘keeper work a change.
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This is further proof that Chelsea just purchased a plank full of splinters. I keep reminding everyone who lauds Costa that Adebayor once had a thirty goal season as well.
Are they not going to put a Barça shirt around Cesc’s neck when they fuck off from the tournament?
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Another perceptive prediction crashes and burns
Ten good minutes for Spain in the 2nd then not anything of note – inexplicably feeble – Chile in charge for 80 of the 90
Nice little trot from Santi
At least there is no chance the WC will have tired him
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I hope he’s had fun on the beach.
And comes back hungry.
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Yep it was the End of an Era
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What a melt down.
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£32 million for Diego Costa tho… Pfffffffffft!
Demba Ba will be keeping him firmly stuck to the bus stop bench…
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Hopefully playing Costa through injury of the Spanish final, the CL and now the World Cup and not playing the in form older Villa will ruin the start if not the whole of Costa’s career at Chelski! 🙂
Didn’t help Torres when he played through a summer tournament with injury following on from end of season niggles , and Gazprom couldn’t afford to rest their star signing.
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Well done Chile and well deserved!
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But they were smart in selling a player who can’t defend or play holding midfielder for about £30m.
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I think there must be some kind of money laundering/slush fund hook up deal going on between PSG and the chavs.
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Costa can come back in September, fit as a fiddle, and he will not make a difference for Gazprom because he’s crap. He was good at Atletico because he was the focal point of a team that played only one holding midfielder and some pretty decent creative midfielders. At the Chavs he’s going to have Hazard, Cesc and three work horses who can drop back. Also, the premiership is not La Liga. He’s going to get the shit banged out of him and something tells me he’s not going to cope too well with that.
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If we get some momentum going, eg starting with a win at Wembley in the Charity Shield, why not?
What a game. What a team Chile are! And commiserations to Australia earlier. This World Cup is absolutely the best I’ve seen. End-to-end and so many excellent goals.
*****
It’s “Yield”, by the way.
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Nah, that’s how they roll. The Qataris who own PSG have enough money to waste on hype. And if there’s one player who is all hype, it’s side show Bob.
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The Spanish looked ill prepared for the competition. Maybe they thought they just had to turn up and would get by on reputation alone. But if they play like that against Australia, I can see them losing again.
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FG it says yield. wtf are you on about.?
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Gains
Ok, but… If they come in for hazard and offer the reported astro-comical sums for Hazard (£80m FFS) then pardon me if I continue to go along with my conspiracy theory man.
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Well, I presume cazorla will start for the Spanish in their meaningless last game, then he can have a holiday and hopefully come back fit and firing. I don’t imagine Jack and Alex will be far behind him.
That’ll just leave Mesut and most of our defenders! That could be awkward. Do we have any yute players he could step in for pre-season and possibly after too?
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not he; who…
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Dex, I’m with you on the chelski/psg conspiracy theory. They are up to no good!
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George at 10.30 pm it says ‘yeild’ not yield!
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I like your predictions COLL , only one thing. Fox’s are beautiful animals and certainly not vermin. Unless your talking about the club. In that case , for certain.
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Alex Song, oh dear.
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Did Leicester not win league 2 (none of this Championship rubbish for me, sorry) by a huge margin?
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Interesting post. If the team continues their upward trajectory then who but the referees can stop Arsenal.
And in world cup news. What about Spain. Eh?
And I haven’t yet watched the match but I hear the Aussies gave the Oranges a bit of a scare.
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ffs
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Shouldn’t that be FSF George?
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Wow Africa is not having a good world cup. Its up to Coit Ivoire.
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Great stuff Andrew,the big games are spread out much more this season,think this might be our year for the PL,of course we have to wait for Sky & BT to fuck up all the fixtures yet,no Monday nights please..
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George is blowing a gasket. (0(
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