A guest post by Double Canister (stolen from the comments section)
All I heard last night from leaving the stadium to the pubs was whispers and guesses slowly becoming cast iron established facts as the pints went down and the tweets and blogs self referenced each other. ‘ 1-4,1-4 formation ain’t work in’ ‘Alexis should have come on’ xxxx player is shit for arsenal’ . I hardly heard a word about Arsenal’s attacking play constantly ripping apart the spuds, nor anything about the effectively Josesque game plan from the spuds. Nobody gave Arsenal any credit for having to change the whole game plan when our two leading midfielders were forced out of the game so early on.
Anyone who thinks or says that the game wasn’t a complete rout for the Arsenal is talking bollix. The goals didn’t go in, that’s the only thing, and a keystone kops episode at the back cost us all the points. Szez needs to wake up, a terrible pass out to a man in danger, who then passes it to the next player – also covered by a tottenham player. There is no point going overboard about this yet, there is a myth doing the rounds that Arsenal have one of the weakest defences in the league – in truth it’s far from it. We have conceded 7 goals in six games which is not ideal but a look at the table shows that City, Tottenham and Chelsea have also let in 7 with Liverpool and Man Utd. Have shipped 9 each. Early days of course, but it is only Arsenal’s title credentials that as are being written off.
Arsenal’s only real ‘problem’ at the moment is in goal scoring, we have yet to find the most effective way of combining our new attackers with the usual direct drive-on play from our midfielders. This I’m sure will come together soon. We had 16 shots on target most of which were snatched at, weakly scuffed or straight into Lloris’s hands. I’m also beginning to think defending teams against us deliberately kick the ball out for corners when under pressure; such is the poor quality of execution from Arsenal, and never mind the usually inevitable sprint counterattack. The Spuds conceded 15 corners and had 30% of possession, most of which was from very slow kick outs and restarts.They had 6 yellows and only the ref can explain why he didn’t hand out a red. It a frustrating to drop points and especially so when your neighbourly team’s only intention was to limit the damage to themselves.
If Giroud was playing instead of Welbeck, we would have destroyed Tottenham. No offence to Danny but he doesn’t do the same runs to the near post our attack system needs.
Watching Adebayor last night shows that the spuds are going to be in real trouble, what a lazy overpaid disloyal (to his current employers) nicking a living useless shitehawke that he is.
Positively Arsenal 
Great stuff DC, saved me a job.
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You’re a lazy fucker George…. but actually a good selection for the post. Nicely done DC.
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I hate writing and I’m shit at it.
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Great write up DC
I thought we played some great football. Spurs defended for their lives. We gave that game away with the sloppy play. Szczęsny needs to be a little less casual. Still disappointed we didn’t win.
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I had the dubious of listening to the game on the radio with Collymore and Matterface gibbering on, and watching the highlights late last night ( and perhaps not 100% sober)
We fucking battered them and, fair play to the Totties, they did not crack as is their usual weakness, they defended well. As you say we did not manage to convert domination of the football match into goals.
And I never want to see another corner kick again.
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Cheers for the headline George.
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I’d say we battered them 1-1, not the first that time it’s happened to Arsenal and will certainly not be the last.
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Arsenal were never going to lose the game. They never do that when DC is in town.
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well done for the post.
“if giroud was playing instead of welbeck, we would have destroyed tottenham”
best line for me. We do miss him
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Good post, DC. I hope your post-match engagement went well.
I saw a lot more good than bad in yesterday’s match. I thought Arsenal coped well with losing two key players. They just couldn’t get the second goal that, overall, their performance deserved.
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“The goals didn’t go in, that’s the only thing” – Great summary there. Other than the injuries, everything else was positive.
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I’m not sure if Arsenal were due a penalty or not, despite seeing the incident right in front of me in real time, it looked like Jack twisted his ankle first, but then Rose went in on top of him. There were a couple of half-hearted shouts for handball as well.
I was possibly remiss in the post in not mentioning Özil’s good work – but why point out as exceptional something he’s supposed to be doing well anyway? And from twitter it seems that Flamini had a terrible game, well not from where I was watching – defensive screw-up aside. Per gave him a terrible pass.
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Thanks for the pint, Out4aC, I owe you one.
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Nice one DC.
Took Giroud a little bit of time, not much, to get his bearings and find those near post goals from his news teammates’ passes. Took Judas longer I think, could be wrong (I usually am) but the near post finish was something I only felt he mastered in his last season/two seasons at Arsenal? I guess what I’m trying to say is I think it’s something that that guy Welbeck could or will add to his game in the future. That animalistic or hunter’s instinct as the gaffer said (I think that’s what he meant…!).
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Hooray d-c. Your in-stadium observations simply confirmed what I saw from the limitations of broadcast tv. You have added color and context. As for those who simply repeat the typical moaning of the malcontents, I have no time for their gutless sniping. Either they expected the Spuds to roll over and have have us tickle their belly button or for us to lose so they could continue their anti-Arsene campaign.
It is self-evident that despite the number of chances we create, too few are in the the juicy 6 yard box or in that prime area so often described by @7amKickoff in his usually excellent By the Numbers blog (his match report provides conclusive evidence that we battered them). After 6 games it is apparent we are still struggling to bed-in Welbeck and Sanchez. You are right to observe how much we struggle without Giroud in and around the penalty area contrary to the self-proclaimed experts who are so quick to write him off as not good enough for Arsenal.
I think we at PA are too quick to join the mindless horde when it comes to corners. Our 1st real chance after they went ahead was that towering downwards header by Per from a corner which Lloris barely kept out (goal line technology to the rescue). Those late corners by Ozil aimed to the backpost for Per caused near panic among the Spuds. Evidently the Per to the near post routine is gone and something else is brewing.
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And Giroud or whoever is playing at CF has to mix it up as well, which is where those runs by Ramsey and others are so helpful…
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What do you all think about our barrage of crosses in the 2nd half? It worked to a point as we put the Spuds firmly on the backfoot but it seemed so inefficient in terms of output. It just doesn’t seem to match Welbez skill sets. Am curious for your feedback.
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I really don’t get how Szczesny is getting blamed for the goal, he gave the ball to chambers who had more than enough time to play it to Mert, who had even more time to play it to Flamini, it was MF who was casual, and who’s bad control and slow reaction to his bad touch that led to us losing the ball, but Szczesny is the latest scapegoat for stupid Arsenal fans, so its his fault, crazy stuff. If anyone other than Flamini is at fault, then it clearly is Mert, he had time, space, and full view of the pitch, so if in any doubt he could and should have cleared his lines, but the fact that he did not, should tell you all you need to know, and that is that there was time and space for the pass to flamini, and more than enough room for Flamini to control and play the ball out.
On the topic of scapegoats at Arsenal, I even see some idiots blaming Gibbs for the goal, seemingly in their scewed world Gibbs did not get back quick enough, it is amazing how the likes of szczesny and Gibbs are being added to the long list of scapegoats so many Arsenal fans indulge in.
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Eduardo
People do as they are told, unfortunately. And those critising Gibbo are simply repeating a simple point or observation made by the plundits on the Newscorp broadcast. Even though the plundits said they were “nit picking” when discussing Gibbs’ position.
Many regurgitate what they are fed*, which is why the lack of comments by the plundits on Rose catching Wilsher is simply remarkable. Strange. Maybe it was hard for the ref to spot, but that’s neither here or there when discussing the plunditry. It’s almost as if they think that no Arsenal fans are watching the broadcast!
*I listened to a podcast the other describing medieval mounted Mongol armies hunting down their opponents using some of the same techniques that they would use to hunt a herd of grazing animals, hunting was training,…they were playing Polo!
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Having tried to picture in my mind’s eye the Spuds goal from the hysterical yelping of Stan Collymore I imagined that Flamini had been performing some sort of outrageous showboating display, ball juggling or something, on the edge of the box for 20 seconds with not a Spud anywhere near before passing the ball direct to one of them !
And later I saw it on the box.
MF received a short ball he probably did not want, Eriksen did well to get in quick and rob him, then get the ball on to Chadli.
There is not some great fucking inquest required – what was MF supposed to do – Hoooooof the ball as hard as possible anywhere the moment it came to him ?
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It would not be an Arsenal game with no public humiliation of the guilty though.
Lets get him processed;
Mathieu Flamini you are charged that on the afternoon of the 27th of September in the year of Our Lord Two thousand and Fourteen and in the County of Islington known as Emirates Fields you did knowingly and maliciously allow a football be removed from your control by a person or persons unknown. The result of your criminal dereliction of sporting duty was a ‘goal’ to be scored by another person, a Belgian known by his English nom de plume Chad Lee.
How do you plead ?
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What difference does it make whose fault it was? Apportioning blame won’t change anything. The players just need to learn from it and try not to do it again. That’s all they can do about it now.
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Ha ha Andrew! Had I read your post first, I would not have bothered to post mine as yours was a much better riposte! I jokingly came on here after the game yesterday to ask whose fault it was that we had not won. “Never a truer word spoken in jest” it seems!
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I bet those whinging about Wenger and our results would have Klopp very high on their list of those who should replace Wenger, nvever mind the fact that dortmund in their 6 league games in Germany this season have lost 3 times, but Gooners all over the place have told me Klopp is a tactical genius, a far superior manager to Wenger, and of course that Dortmund are a far better team too, but of course this analysis is based on a few games and match of the day type highlights, that so much ill informed opinion are based.
Remember when we should have appointed Moyes, and bought Fellaini, Hoillett and rob green etc etc. the grass is always greener for these sort of Gooners. They set out to find fault, in everything Arsenal, from players, manager, medics, board, for God’s sake of late I’ve seen more and more complain about Wenger answering journo questions on the wider issues of the game, really with these its any excuse to find fault, with little understanding or knowledge of the facts.
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“It would not be an Arsenal game with no public humiliation of the guilty though.”
An excerpt from the comment of the day. I nominate anicoll for PA MOTM for that performance. I’ve been interested in the discussions dissecting who was more responsible for their goal. And by “interested in”, I mean “so fucking tired of”. Like Passenal says, learn from it and move on.
Good match report, too, DC. Well done.
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DC, cheers.
foreverheady on September 28, 2014 at 8:22 am
I agree with your conclusion. These people are not ‘supporters’ in the truest sense of the word. They should be known as ‘followers’ because, as has been mentioned above, they are only too happy to follow and propagate whatever anti-Arsenal narrative is doing the rounds. Ultimately (and, many cases, unwittingly), they are acting against the best interests of the club.
On the other hand, the uber-fans who create the narratives are only too aware of what they are doing. They are ‘fans’ only in the sense that they fan the flames of unrest.
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Flamini to the guillotine!
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the spuds were time wasting in the first half and the ref set the tone by ignoring it and several of their late fouls. Ive just put a stopwatch on the ball in play after we scored in the 74th minute to the final whistle. With the 5 minutes injury time that makes a maximum 21 minutes, unfortunatly it was 9 and a half minutes. That is ridiculas by anyones standards.
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Time wasting is a scourge on the game – Southampton did the same on Tuesday night. Fortunately the crowd let the referee know about it and the goalie was booked eventually, but I agree that it should happen early on to stop it rather than wait until late into the game. They never give the level of extra time required, so it doesn’t even out. Also, Szczesny, needs to learn how to time waste more subtlety, unfortunately he tends to telegraph what he is up to.
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Good article and I agree with Eduardo as well.
We’re clearly not in gear yet but we’re in a decent position despite that. I just wish I could wave a magic wand and stop us getting so many injuries. Nobody suffers like us, nobody.
I’m not sure the ball didn’t cross the goal line from Mert’s header. The goal-line graphic I saw showed the ball at the time that Lloris got his hand to it when it was in front of the line, but in real time it looked as if the ball hit his hand, then took a hop and then Lloris grabbed it. Before he grabbed it, I saw space between the ball and the goal line but whether it was space below or space in front of the ball isn’t clear. It would have been better to see a graphic taken after the ball jumped up again.
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Stones for sale! Stones for sale!
Come and get your nice round stones here, genuine ideal size and weight for a proper stoning.
Also for the ladies, special today: beards for sale! Beards for sale!
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We drew against City, Spuds, Everton and Leicester. It’s not like we dropped points against West Ham or Hull or some other bottom of the table team.
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stones for sale its not even january and I thought everton liked him. jehovah jehovah.
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A_or_B – we haven’t lost yet, and the invincibles had 12 draws, so we’re still on course for an unbeaten season! (banned winky, smiley thing here)
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id take a draw next week right now.
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“id take a draw next week right now.”
Me too, after last season’s result!
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I would take 0-0 at half time
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Pass
The fixture list gets kinder for Arsenal for a while.
Which is needed as points have to start being accumulated.
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For me the chelski game is really important because of a former judas whom we passed on. I fear that if we don’t acquit ourselves well against them we will have to deal with a full scale Twitter meltdown regarding a former captain.
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Ozil is starting to get comfortable in this new system. The last two games he’s played have been really, really good. Watch some of those every touch videos with Ozil the man is so good. And people saying he played more central against Villa and went back to the wing against Tott. need to open their eyes. I think this new system can get so much from him as he’s intelligent enough to roam where it most hurts the opposition, it makes it so hard to mark him.
When Sanchez starts to figure it out and connect his passes the goals will start to come for the team as a whole. It’s a little strange to me since he’s coming from Barce but he holds the ball a lot and makes some pretty bad passes from time to time. That being said he’s already been massive for us and as he gets more and more comfortable with his role in the team he’ll get better and better.
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blaise
ozil is not getting comfortable, he is simply fitter after a long season and a world cup to go with it. he can play on the wing because he is allowed to move inside or to the other wing if he likes.
thanks eduado. szcz had a good game in my opinion. we should have had a penalty as well for the foul on jack.
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We should have had a penalty, they should have received yellow cards much sooner, we should have had a goal given but the technology either failed or was over-ruled, they should have ended the match a player down,
And so it goes on, and so it goes on. Not sure whether it makes me laugh or cry, but what I do know is that for every proper fan the continuous blaring errors and outright chicanery of the officials only stiffens the resolve still further. I just hope that the players and management know that their significant efforts are properly appreciated in most corners – although given we are not very good at corners they are probably not looking there for positive affirmation.
PS. Do you think we ever train on the actual pitch at the Emirates, or is it all at Colney?
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i think emirates is for games only. except when the players warm up and try to kick the ball around before games.
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with the absence of arteta and ramsey, will it be a risk to start diaby? if he can get some minutes against gala on wednesday, i wont be surprise if he starts against chelski.
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I agree with Passenal that the Chelski match is a dangerous one for us, given our recent record against them and the hordes that will go out of their minds if Cesc has a good game. But our away form has been reasonably strong so far. A draw would be perfectly good. We do seem to have some problems creating the plum chances that are easy to convert into goals that 7am in by the numbers seemed to suggest. I don’t know why but versus Chelsea would be a very nice time to rectify that!
Obviously we dominated a pretty mediocre Spud team that sat deeply and were well instructed by Pocchetino to defend. If we had managed a couple wins out of the Leicester and Everton draws, we’d be cheering our starteven with this home draw in the NLD. But at some point we will have to put together some wins. Galatasaray us thus a big game to get us going in the right direction, pick up points in our CL group and get a boost ahead of Chelsea. I will be there with Limestonegunnerinho for our first European night at the Ems and we are pretty excited!
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The headlines of DOOM are even bolder today
Not only have we an ‘injury crisis’ in defence we have an ‘injury crisis’ in midfield too.
Add in the missing Giroo, Sonogo is looking none too healthy, and that Theo is still knacked we probably have an ‘injury crisis’ in attack !!
Sssshhhh – keep it to yourself
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layksite,
I agree he needed to play himself into shape but I do think he has gotten better in our new system. In the last few games he has found the ball (or the ball found him?) more and more and that to me shows he and his teammates are getting used to this more free approach on offense. Ozil only plays a set position when the other team has the ball and that is dictated by where he is when they receive possession. He previously (with us, Madrid, and Germany) has had a lot of freedom but I don’t think he has ever had this much, to play where ever he sees fit.
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Top of the injury list once again.
J Wilshere Ankle/Foot Injury 1st Oct 14
M Arteta Calf/Shin Injury 18th Oct 14
A Ramsey Hamstring Injury 1st Nov 14
Y Sanogo Hamstring Injury 18th Oct 14
N Monreal Back Injury no return date
M Debuchy Ankle/Foot Injury Dec 14
O Giroud Ankle/Foot Injury Dec 14
S Gnabry Knee Injury 25th Oct 14
T Walcott ACL Knee Injury 25th Oct 14
How many of those can be put down to bad tackles. Not to many I think
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Limestone: “If we had managed a couple wins out of the Leicester and Everton draws, we’d be cheering our start even with this home draw in the NLD.”
When you consider how those draws were against two teams which will take points from the other top four sides and came either side of two tough games against Besiktas, our start doesn’t look bad at all. As long as we keep the gap between us and Chelsea at six or less points before the international break, I will consider our start to be a success.
Here are our upcoming fixtures after the international break.
Arsenal:
Hull at home.
Sunderland away
Burnley home.
Swansea away.
Chelsea’s upcoming fixtures after the break:
Palace away.
United away.
QPR at home
Liverpool away.
Our fixture list eases quite significantly while Chelsea’s gets a lot tougher. Further, Chelsea has two tricky ties back to back against Maribor to contend with. And seeing as they need to take points from one of these two games, Mourinho will have to sacrifice Costa. If we don’t lose against Chelsea, we will be in a good position as our injured come back little by little.
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Gains, hopefully we can put a run in the league together (starting with Cheksea but at least taking advantage of the schedule as you point out). Leicester away looks better and better. Everton away is decent. City at home not bad. I do wish we had done better against Spuds who aren’t that good. By December things should be more balanced out–if we are in touching distance it’ll be ok. Last season we led in October-December and faded. I’d rather stay in the hunt and come on strong at the end.
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