A guest post from @anicoll5
Good morning from a sunny and mild Norfolk morning. Very pleasant.
A fixture we had all marked in our diary has finally arrived, and for that I am thankful.
Reading the media this week, and dipping into the frantic noise that makes up the sporting social media, I was struck by the Chelsea v Arsenal game broken down by contributors into a series of contests, the gigantic and the personal. The final Clash Of Footballing Civilisations, Good v Evil, The Oligarch v the Self Sustainers (Roman v Stan), Loyalty v Lucre, the beautiful football of Wenger pitted against the pragmatic brutalism of Mourinho etc. And then of course there is eternally circular the Fabregas/Smabregas theme.
Underneath the avalanche I sense a whisp of fear among some Arsenal fans, still reeling from the lashing of the 22nd March. I spy with my little eye a Chelsea quietly confident that they will sit nine points above us by 4 p.m. today
Resist this nonsense if any exist among you Positivistas, put aside anxiety.
Two very talented football sides will take the field this afternoon, both packed with players from all over the planet who have developed and perfected their skills for just this day. And each player knows he will have seconds, literally just seconds over the 90 minutes to display their talents. Chelsea are the bigger, the muscular, of the sides, but with the ugly rapier of Costa as their weapon of choice (hamstrings permitting). We have the speed and the quality of sharp passing, sufficient to open the lock on the gates of St Peter. Eight goals on our previous three games suggests that we know where the goal is. Two strong defences, two good keepers, little to choose between them.
Where will the contest be decided then ?
It will be decided in the collective mind, among the players who temper the quality of their play with discipline, who take the fleeting opportunities that will come their way, and chances will come as they always do for both sides. And should misfortune come their way, a stray pass intercepted, an ungiven foul, even worse a goal conceded, it is the side that ignores that setback, does not panic or lie on the ground waving their arms and yelling at Fate, or Martin Atkinson, that will prevail this afternoon.
“There are no tricks in plain and simple faith.”
So let that brotherhood of thought and mind be Arsenal this afternoon.
Enjoy the game !
Positively Arsenal 
The loss still rankles, of course, but with a bit of time to think rationally, there are plenty of positives to take from the game, and also some areas that I suspect need addressing. As I play the action back in my mind, I don’t see many of our players with time and space on the ball – and using those twin luxuries to advance the cause with purpose. Wilshere stands out for me as the exception, and leaves me with this question. Did he have time and space because his superior ability allowed him to create it – or did he have it because he was judged to pose no real threat and so wasn’t crowded in the way that Ozil was for instance?
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FH I think Jack’s approach on Sunday was much more physically robust than Mesut’s – he was not easy to push off the ball and if Chelsea did push him off the ball, nine times out of ten, the referee would blow his whistle for a foul.
You have to fight the bastards off to make the time and space you need !
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Atmosphere is an odd commodity LG – In big games where we are up against it, the Mancs, Chels or Spuds the crowd is up for it and noisy. If we don’t expect to win then everyone is on the edge of their seats, concentrating, joining in. A foul gets everyone on their feet, a near miss and the collective “OOOOOOOO” can be heard at White Hart Lane.
Contrast that to games we are nailed on to gather the three points, unless a goal goes in in the first ten minutes the crowd are tutting, talking about where they went on holiday, fiddling with their phones, groaning at every misplaced pass. Chanting gradually dies out. You can hear a pin drop by the 30 minute mark. The same people who arrive ten minutes into the game and left to get in the queue for a beer ten minutes before half time then leave fifteen minutes before the end. By Gawd I’ve had some long afternoons.
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FH
maybe the result could have been different if we had ramsey jack and flamini in our midfield. these are players who love physical contact. with oscar playing like he was possessed, he is definately no match to ramsey or jack.
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make no mistake, jack was equally marked but when fit, he is difficult to stop.
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I will be on the AFC podcast on Thursday night with Tim Payton and Gav aka Shewore, are their any points you would like me to raise or questions you might have? Don’t get giddy.
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I think you know your ground on Arsenal subjects George, but God help you.
Ask Shewore for some LBGT Arsenal cufflinks.
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Here a few topics:-
What is this obsession with DM’s? when: a) Arsenal don’t need them for 95% of the games we play, b) no other quality European team uses them anymore, and c) they are tactically obsolete (unless your Chelsea).
Flamini is not a terrible footballer, neither is Jack; and Ozil doe’s not play out on the left touchline.
Do they understand that buying a player also means committing to the wages for 3,4 or 5 years?
Do they know that Arsenal just can’t go around kicking in the doors of other football clubs and kidnap any player who is the fans current flavour of the month.
Do they realise that they very though of considering to sell Podolski in January as being surplus to requirements shows just how very far ahead the club has moved since 2008?
Do they have one iota of how to run a business of the scale that Arsenal has become?
Name one good director of football at a rival (British) club?
City, Chelsea and Manchester Utd have been richer than Arsenal for 10 years, Utd have always been richer. Liverpool used to be and still have a bigger fan base. Historically Arsenal have never lasted at the very top table for very long. Now we do, and it’s because of hard work.
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Sorry
Got a bit giddy there……..
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You could ask then what they want out of supporting a football club ? What is ‘it’ that they are after ?
And if they do know what ‘it’ is what do they do if they get ‘it’, or don’t get ‘it’.
Is it important that ‘it’ is received and if not do they support the club less, or more ?
Is ‘it’ one permanent solid thing, or is ‘it’ something that changes from week to week, day to day or hour to hour ? I’d be intrigued to know as the target of their incessant whining, on the odd occasions it seeps through my blocking mesh, seems to alter.
Ask Tim if Arsenal football club never won another trophy in his lifetime, nor even reached a final of a Cup competition ’til the day he died, how would be “feel”, would it affect his support ? Would he be less willing to support the Arsenal or more ?
And finally, and crucially George, you need to know if they are aware of a psychological condition by the name of “dysphoria” ? It is important that they seek professional help in my opinion so do not miss this last one.
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One thing I agree with black scarf with is some of the commercialism that comes down hard on the fans, shewore I thought agreed. How does his current sales drive sit with this.
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I only have one question for them.
Why are they such a bunch of whining tossers.
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Excellent DC – truly excellent and for a moment you got me going there with your LGBT cufflinks question.
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George
Question 1. If you proclaim publicly that Arsenal are crap (or more specifically Arsène is crap) you can enjoy the gratification of saying “I told you so” on the odd occasion when we lose. If you’re really desperate – after all, we don’t lose very often – you can say it when we draw. What’s so clever about that?
Question 2. We’ve never been a Cinderella club like Chelsea or Man City. Does anybody really think we need a Fairy Godfather to take us to the Ball?
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George.
Q1. What should we do if having signed a DM that DM gets injured? Should we have more than one?
Q2. What actually are tactics?
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This AFC podcast George on Thursday night – where would I locate it ?
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They will advertise it on Youtube ect Andrew. It called Bergkamp Wonderland or some such thing
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This was a great preview ‘Coll, thank you.
“Powerful Chelsea v Dainty ‘Ickle Arsenal”, heh.
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Did Özil pick up a knock in that second half? Possibly, if these reports are true.
There was an interesting interview with Rodwell the other day: saying that he only now feels fit after a several games, and he only know now feels confident having regained that stamina and conditioning.
It’s all about the conditioning!
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Paul-N October 6, 2014 at 4:31 pm – Greetings bro. Glad to see you are alive and kicking in the spirit of ZimPaul. Hope you can pop in some more.
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Questions for the Groaners? Don’t get me started! Oh. Alright then. I have one or too for you:
Starting with a question about your hosts themselves. A few weeks ago they had on former manager John Gregory. He said some interesting things that they didn’t comment or respond on. He said the one player he’d have to rate above the others in this current squad was Arteta. But no comment from them on that choice! Interesting…
Secondly and most importantly why was there no response on their podcast/by the hosts to the comments from John Gregory praising AFC as representing the best in English football? What do they understand his words to mean? Could they understand them? If they agreed with him, why did they simply not say that they agreed? It sounded like they didn’t get it. Which is odd?
Is this because the Groaners never seem capable of acknowledging the marriage between Arsene and AFC. Instead they have chosen to attack the manager repetitively like sad rabid yet neutered and lame Newcastle or Blackburn fans, turning their own support against the values and history of AFC. Going to war against their own club. Yet we all know GG was sacked for taking a bung of a few grand, which is loose change to the ins and outs of the contemporary super agent bungs involved in the Neymar deal etc. Lui7 to PSG etc.
As Geoff tells ’em: “it’s not FIFA.”
Can they understand what he is telling them, between the lines, or are they too stupid? Or worse then that?
For experts in finance and football why don’t they admit and accept that AFC are operating in a different market to the one run by some super agents. It’s obvious to anyone who can count, they have no excuse. None. A market where Alexis costs half of di Maria, where Welbeck a regular England international costs a lot less then Lallana who is not a regular, and Welbeck is also younger. Where Chambers cost half of Shaw. So many other examples. Utd paid £20M or close to Mendes for Anderson years and years ago! They have absolutely no excuse for ignoring this data. The contrast in these transfer fees is not an opinion, it is a result of a policy. A fairly obvious and easy to understand policy, you’d think, and hope…
These Groaners want the club, not the manager, to change their historical policy and to sign players locked in with super agents etc. Why do they want the club to be like the specialist in signing players signed to special agent Mendes? Why do they want AFC to be like Gazprom on and off the pitch? Why do they no longer support AFC?* When even the Arseblogger points out that AFC don’t do business with the likes of Costa and Falcao’s owner and master, why and how are they in denial? That is a fair question! It is interesting to me that the Groaners chosen allies in the media just happen to be the sort that like to promote debt peonage in society. They’ve allied with people who could make Alan Partdrige sound like a good/sane plundit. It’s unreal.
*we all know about the problems in modern Football, the treatment of supporters by the broadcasters etc.: (and that the media report AFC as being the most expensive team to watch when below the top prices it’s cheaper then Tottenham!) but this has very little to do with their continuous attacks on someone who is acknowledged by all in the Game to be a Proper Football Man. Alongside many others the AST contributed to the Football White Paper in 2010 but since then they’ve blown all credibility, and now the real potential long term concern which is Kronke has no credible supporters group to keep an eye on him. Well done those idiots! The same idiots who of course completely ignored the incredible melodramatic deathbed handover story from Fizman to Kronke. For all we know it was Fizman’s intention to play the Wal-Mart feudalist off against the gas guzzling mobste: the only mandate they had was that they had to keep an eye on Kronke. Nothing to do with what goes on the pitch. But. Well, they took their eye off the ball, what with so much self-promotion going on, and now, as said above, as a result of their own bleatings they have neutered themselves and any credibility that they had. A public act of self-castration. Idiots.
It’s been a poor show from these ginormous football brains over the years. They have to much time and energy and probably money invested in being Groaners.
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PG
please ask Tim Payton why he is a twat?
Thanks
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Hmmm. I think GP’s question above may be more efficient then mine.
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Ask why does Shewore pretend the club has ceased to exist since 2004?
Why no Arsene Wenger badge? They prefer the inferior and corrupt GG.
The Highbury nostalgia is getting nauseating and only being used to show that they re old skool uber-fans and superior to so called foreigners and johnny come lately’s.
After TV5’s departure – there are no more Darren Dien agency represented players at the club?
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And who pay’s Payton’s wages?
Who paid for his trip to Brazil?
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Fins
Why can you now write a piece for PA? You have already written enough top stuff today…
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Clarification: the hosts I refer to above were not the people you are going on with, but others who host the show and who are most certainly Groaners.
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GP, I’ve been disorganised as usual, and busy. And groaning about the referee!
–
Correction above:
For all we know (and we don’t!) it was Fizman AND Dein’s intention all along to play the Wal-Mart feudalist off against the gas guzzling mobster…
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I managed only a couple of those Bergkamp wonderland podcasts. Geoff Arsenal the only voice of reason. They are characterised by simplistic, lazy and wilfully ignorant view and opinions. I’ll make n exception this Thursday…..best of luck PG
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Big shout out to Paul N too. He’s been busy with his own team i guess, haha!
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Fins
If that is you when busy and disorganised then I have no chance……my excuse is that I’m in front of a monitor writing all day long….
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Listening to the John Gregory episode was a rare exception for me. And stumbling across the silence in response to those two comments by the former manager, on Arteta and the club’s identity or reputation made it worthwhile.
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I should point out, just for context, that I’ve not bought a replica shirt in eons, and I will never purchase an overpriced season ticket (at any club! So that rules most of them out!). Ticket exchange in the lower tier and tickets forced upon me as a local residents by friends who can’t make it do me fine (it’s terrible, I know…). I don’t need to put a bin liner on my head in order to protest, and I also don’t believe AFC can dictate policy to the state (on seating etc. one blow for Celtic fans with the referendum was that they might have been able to get a new gov. to change the regs, haha!), so then, why do they attack AFC on these issues? It’s crazy.
I certainly wouldn’t groan at a recognised Football Man or Woman for working in the modern game and giving breaks to the likes of Jenkinson! Btw the plan IMO with Bellerin and Jenks is to swap the loans next season, so that in two years both are ready to compete for the first choice RB slot.
On one hand the Groaners groan about Modern Football. On the other they want the club to be like Gazprom. This is disingenuous gibberish.
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GP
I wrote that whilst nibbling my lunch and sipping my cuppa. Couldn’t pass up the opportunity of asking some questions *coughs*.
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Don’t forget this quote George from Lord Alan Sugar of Totteringham:
“Wenger knows the market”
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Woke up to the news that Ozil will be out 3-4 months with a knee. WTF?
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Well. There’s another question for you George:
If Ivanoivic can kick without a foul being called, if Cahill won’t get a red for as clear a red as you can see, why are these self-declared Redzone Experts confused about the frequency of the injuries at AFC? It’s not a mystery. Don’t they have football brains?
Anicoll didn’t agree, doesn’t have to, but many I respect including some physio’s felt that it was the unpunished stamp and then fall upon the knee that led to Walcott’s injury. Same with the two scissor tackles on Debuchy, he wasn’t moving the same after the second.
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finsbury
Your post at 12:34 gave me an interesting insight into the mind of those that hate Arsenal. Your questions for the groaners were so excellent that mine seems very insignificant. For a fleeting moment I understood how they feel and it helped me to understand their mindset. In the end it’s actually quite sad really. As for my question for the groaners. We hear our training methods are no longer good enough but what no one seems to want to tell me is: What are our training methods? How can they be improved?
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I see that Le Grove and The Daily Mail have linked up after the Chelsea game.Says it all really.
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Blaise
As I completely failed to explain to GP above, once I knew George was going to bother talking with these clowns I knew I had a few questions I wanted him to ask. I prepared a draft of my text above last week, hehe! Fortunately I didn’t have to email it in as he asked everyone for questions! Just a copy and paste from my notes! Have to say though, this Özil news is very depressing. Clearly he was niggled in the second half, yet still all these gallant podcastateers laid into him afterwards. Which given this injury was in extremely poor taste. What a poor show from these arsenal fans. Ignoring what happens on the pitch in order to groan. Özil doesn’t mis-control unless he’s not a hundred per cent. Wankers!
Some of us have long looked at the alliance between the Groaners and some facets of the Extreme Right Wing press (no one can even attempt to deny the character of these media outlets!) and came to the obvious conclusions some time ago now.
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Sorry everyone for such foul language (haha!), but on reflection if you’re going to ignore an injury whilst slagging off a player I can’t refer to people doing this as harmless or affable plonkers. Nope, this is wanker territory.
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fins, you are being too mild describing such people.
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Fins
You are in form tonight buddy….more please….
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I was lucky enough to see Ozil up close on Wednesday sat behind the managers. Glad I did so now I won’t see him till 2015. One reason in pissed off today.
He’s incredible. The balance, the movement, it’s an amazing spectacle. Early on in the game he “did” Fabregas. Later on after we’d seen a few miscontrols and stumbles he tried it again but clearly he wasn’t able to do why he thought he could do. Not 100%!
And those gallant Arsenal podcastateers, some of them hosting podcasts about this game that were longer then the game itself, they didn’t pick up on this? Or even consider it? What! Instead they focused on the second incident and stared to wank off over the player who left the club because he was hacked off the park with a big injury before a WC which wasn’t even called a foul and had no protection: spot the irony! I couldn’t make this up, could I?
This is an online example of a Mob in action. Feeding negativity around the club I support. A clear example of conformation bias, though they won’t like to hear it or be told.
Very disappointing as I thought some of these people like to watch football games but clearly based upon these post match comments they prefer to stare in their own Arsenal’s and fish out any old bollocks after the game that fits their preconceived notions. Fuck watching the football!
They’ve exposed themselves to a broadside following such low conduct and sniping towards a player they say the support who wasn’t given the protection he deserves.
Sado-mashochistic tendencies.
It’s not a good look!
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George, some interesting stats (& not opinions) that you may or may not find useful Courtesy of Tasos over at untold.:
Tasos
October 8, 2014 at 9:28 pm
“Arsenal have received the most yellow cards (19) in the league so far this season.
Arsenal have committed only 74 fouls during this period.
That’s a yellow card every 3.89 fouls committed and that is the lowest average in the League.
Given our injury plight and bemoaned lack of physicality it’s amazing that it takes Arsenal fewer fouls to receive a yellow card than any other team in this league.”
No no Tas! you’ve got it all wrong. As various Experts told us on Monday, the players just aren’t trying hard enough. These stats are also a good example of “Gamesmanship”. From the referees, which means that it isn’t “Gamesmanship” (that would involve a player!) but something else entirely. I’m glad Phil Neville Neville made those idiotic comments which he should not have made if he knew better: they are proving to be very useful!
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“Woke up to the news that Ozil will be out 3-4 months with a knee. WTF?”
I did not mean to “like” this post! Stubby fingers on my phone while scrolling through the posts are to blame! When are we going to catch a break?
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Looks like 3rd party ownership will be totally banned in the next few years – http://www.espnfc.com/story/2056071/fifa-to-ban-third-parties-owning-transfer-rights
Good news, some agent leeches might just have to retire. Else, find more creative ways to rort the system.
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Tremendous commentary all round and especially from on fire Finsbury (who really needs to grace us all with a main post one day soon).
For me, as seems always the case these days, the disappointment felt from a relatively rare setback, be it a defeat or a draw, is as nothing compared to that felt with the reaction of some fans and the sound of the media going into negative overdrive in the aftermath. Their enthusiastic slagging of the club is never quite replicated on the occasion of our victories and one wonders where they get off, what their ever-changing point might be, and, if things are as quarter as bad as they say, why don’t they just abandon supporting Arsenal all together. (Oh that’s right, they already have).
I gather there are some splendid baking, singing and dancing programmes on (UK) telly, these days.
Go on, bake off, the lot of you.
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Big shout-out to Fins
(Does one say/write such things/acceptable?)
Alright. Thanks Fins. Great writing, here & elsewhere, but I now see why someone on UA asked you to copy your post to that site.
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Steady Rantetta, we’re still getting used to the new ‘Like’ button here on good old steam-powered PA.
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