It seemed a sensible time to review the “Closed Season” as 24 hours from now we shall be locked back into the 2014/2015 season. Either our first silverware, will be safely on its way to the trophy room at the Ems, if not then the scarved mob will be forming up, pitchforks at the ready. Not of course that there is ever a ‘Closed Season’ in modern football, far too many people’s jobs depend on the 24/7 sporting cycle, but you know what I mean.
In contrast to the Summer of 2013, the past three months have been a serene and very pleasant interlude. For our mighty club to finish the season with the FA Cup victory, achieved in such dramatic circumstances, brought me into the break on a high.
There followed a great World Cup, best for 20 years +. Brilliant football, plenty to talk about incident wise ( steady Hunter), and the final won by the best team in the competition. With Ozil key in the German victory, Per playing a good part earlier in the tournament and Poldi, errrr , there. I suspect Poldi is worth his place on character alone in the dressing room. Breaking into that German side would have been some feat for the boy.
And with the FIFA engraver’s tool barely back in its satin bag the REALLY IMPORTANT part of the closed season started, and the transfer window opened !
And Arsene moved, moved decisively, moved to secure the payers he had decided would take our club forward. And the Groaners made such a FUSS about his beach holiday. You know the names, you have a similar expectation of what they can and will bring to the club as I do. I need say no more.
Now there are 100 reasons presented on the internet and in the media as to how and why Arsene appears to have pounced like a panther into the transfer market and all or none may be true, partially true, or total bollox. I did not see one of the players who we signed as potential recruits on Cup Final day. “Callum who ….?” Now they all seem obvious targets. How clever am I ?
What is however pleasant for me as a simple supporter is that I have not had to put up to the usual CASCADE of abuse, contempt, disrespect, dislike, sneering condescension that degenerates over the weeks into outright hatred for the club from far too may who describe themselves as ‘supporters’. As I said in my opening remarks the pitchforks may only have been temporarily stacked but the past few weeks have nevertheless been a refreshing break from the civil war. Discourse has been sane, creative at times, funny even. It has led to a wave of confidence in the players and the club that will carry us over a few obstacles in the next few weeks.
A final thought on tomorrow’s game, and in fact the opening weeks of the PL season, that occurred to me as I have been watching and England v India this afternoon. If you find yourself in a hole, stop fucking digging.
I am in Block 140 tomorrow so if anyone is about give us a shout.
I thank you for your attention and your patience.
And Thank you Andrew @anicoll5
Positively Arsenal 
The Subnshne Bus is filling up quite nicely. Nice to know our little bus that has stuck it through the bad times and now the good. Not the prettiest, not the most popular but you can trust it for the long ride.
And contrary to the the most popular accounts on twitter and some of the big bloggers, arsene has made Arteta captain and Mertsacker his vice. That is how you reward the most loyal, experienced and competent professionals on your team. know-how. Just right for the Sunshine Bus.
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Just seen Alexis arriving at Wembley on the FATV tunnel cam, and I love the rakish Bond-esque way he wore his matchday suit. He really suits a suit – got the shoulders and the right proportions elsewhere.
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A great day for gooners in Kingston, Ontario! Congrats to Arsrnal humbling City in the CS! And congrats to my U7 Kingston United House League side, Germany, for ending as Crntral Division chsmpions and winning the league ending tournament with 2 wins and a draw, including a final victory over the East Division champions France!
My boys played with skill and speed despite being smaller overall and created chances with good set up passes. Limestonegunnerinho scored one, assisted two from excelkent dribbjes through three and four players to find space for a final pass in the box, kept a clean sheet one game in goal, and all around played like Aaron Ramsey. Lovely day in sweltering heat –the boys gave great effort and played some good stuff.
Happy for Arsenal–great end to preseason!
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Congrats, Lime.
I was blown away by the fact that Calum Chambers is only 19 years old. Can you imagine what he’s going to play like when he’s 26? Dayuuuuuuum!!!!!!!
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I am, not I was. I am blown away.
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Stuck in deepest country side with the outlaws so my knowledge of the game is down to your comments. Lovely result. Were we good? Was Sanogo OK? How was Jack? Is MA8 really captain? Hope so. Will it all be alright now? Please can one of you who saw it write a positively unbiased report for me?
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I don’t think relying in young players without much first team experience is the best approach now, but Chambers does look like he has some poise to play confidently and without being intimidated. Very good signs.
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Thanks Gains. It really meant a lot to the boys. The whole league season we have dominated the play but not always earned the results that reflect that quality–not finishing the many excellent chances created or losing a bit of concentration and conceding silly goals. It was a bit like Arsenal of several years ago. Today was a real boost for my preaching skills over results as the two came together nicely.
As far as Arsenal, a big lift at the start of the season. We need a fast start and hopefully this gives us a good mentality for the important fixtures ahead, including Besiktas.
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@foreverheady
It was a great team performance – showing how to keep the ball and attack in the first half and how to defend and counter attack (and score a goal out of nothing) in the second. We started with verve and sharpness, we were tired in the second half but we hung in there. Basically, we fancied it and they didn’t.
Calum did superbly. He made a couple of mistakes but overall was calm and intelligent in his play. And Monreal did alright as well. Very intelligent reader of the game, also very calm and committed. I can see him playing in that position quite often.
@LSG
I don’t think we will be relying on Chambers as third choice CB – AW has been saying all summer that if Vermaelen leaves he will be replaced. So I am expecting either a DM/CB hybrid or an older player.
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The plonkerati are making all types of excuses for Giroud’s smashing goal and are convinced Chelsea are going to win it all this season because they signed Cesc and Costa. I’m talking about the plonkers who call themselves Arsenal supporters, by the way.
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“Far sterner tests await, though, than this weakened City, who had 58% possession and more shots on goal overall but still looked like a team simply stretching their legs”
Barney Ronay, The Guardian Monday 11 August 2014
There you have it Gooners don’t get too excited.
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Georgaki
In the famous words of George the Pedantic:
“CUNTS”
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Congratulations are in order to Arsene and the boys,…..also to every positive supporter of the club far and wide. It was a well deserved victory yesterday over Manchester city and I don’t care that the whole world and his wife are playing down the result. If they say man city was a weakened team, then so was arsenal. We started with a 21 yrs old unknown striker, a 19 yrs in the heart of defense and ended the game with 4 fullbacks. What still knocks my balls is that “arsenal fans” never seem to be satisfied no matter what the manager/team accomplishes. Now the meme is that Arteta should not have been named captain because that means Arsene won’t sign a DM……,what the fuck is a “DM”? I mean even after 22 odd goals last season and a screamer in yesterday’s game, there are fans who still think Giroud is not good enough to lead our attack! You really couldn’t make this up!!!
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Very pleasing to see Pat Rice presenting the trophy yesterday and out on the pitch before the match. He looked fit and hopefully his health problems have treated successfully.
The press coverage I have read this morning is generally positive and Sanchez, Ramsey, Santi, Chambers and even Jack get a good write up. I think the journos are probably a little too generous to Citeh and Pelligrini and if one of our central defenders had turned in a perfomance like Deydrick Boyata he would have been crucified with rusty nails. I watched the game again last night and I thought Pelligrini got it right when he said his players were not prepared for the game. Given that most of them have had a full 30 day pre season that is not very impressive.
One topic that also seems to have been ignored is the pathetic attendance figures for Citeh fans – maybe 2/3rds of their allocation sold I guess with whole sections of the upper tiers empty.
I do not understand why, for what is supposed to be a fund raising event for charity/community projects these tickets, or some of them at least, were not returned to us ?
Well we’ve had the Citeh fans whining about the prices of tickets, about how difficult it is to get from Manchester to London, about any number of alleged obstacles in following their ‘big’ club. Well the tickets were cheap. The trains and buses were running. And yet thousand did not bother to turn up. I hope their Chairman Mubarak has put his hand in his deep pocket to make good the shortfall caused by the fans’ pathetic support.
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It’s getting boring now. It seems every time we even look at Wembley we are walking away with a trophy.
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So what are peoples thoughts on Chambers. I wonder if he is playing as expected or simply ahead of schedule. He’s been very impressive so far. Fast, Strong and Calm.
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New post is up
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Booo I can’t post again.
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Interesting you should reference Pulis Andrew. He was a featured pundit on MOTD last night and he identified this as a strength of Arsenal. I expect them to sit very deep with two banks of four, clog the middle and hit us on the break with Bolassie, Dwight Gayle or new boy Frasier Campbell. Allied that with a smart dose of rotational fouling they could spring a surprise if we are not up for it.
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