The way I feel right now, this could be my last article. I’ve lost faith in people to think or behave reasonably. The negativity is stomach turning. Still, this is not another rallying call, or a dig at the fans, goodness knows we all have reasons to be unhappy.
Before I go on, let me first admit that what you are about to read is ill researched, and based on my thoughts, which as far as tactics go, are about as valuable as a handful of beans.
Lets first look at what we know.
A) Arsenal are worse than last year.
B) Arsenal are just not playing like Arsenal.
C) Something has gone badly wrong.
D) Something has happened to make A B and C come about.
When we were at our best last year, we had Arteta and Ramsey in the deeper positions shielding the back 4. That system basically won Szczesny the golden glove. In most games both players had passing % in the mid 90’s and sometimes upward of 100 touches each on the ball.
In front of them we had Mesut, a player you can give the ball to and he will cherish it, if he cant make a telling pass, he simple recycles it and control is kept, the ball is kept. Control is keep. Calm is keep.
Giroud could be given the ball, he would hold it up and lay it of to the MF, we know how effective Aaron was arriving from deep. We looked good, top of the league and going well . The system worked. The league standings for two thirds of the campaign proved it.
However, there was a problem. Without Theo (or anyone else with pace) teams could come out and pressure the MF sure in the knowledge that Giroud, or anyone else, would not run in behind them. Without pace there was a way of stopping us.
When we bought Sanchez my thoughts were that he would give the pace and goals that Theo gives in that system. he seemed the perfect answer. He could play wide right until Theo was fit, he could play wide left for Santi, and if needs be he could play at CF if a shake up was required. In other words we could rotate and have cover for injuries in all the areas where pace is vital.
Of course fate took a hand and we lost Giroud, Ozil, and for much of the time Arteta.
So rather than coming in to a settled team and improving us, Sanchez has come into a totally disrupted team and changed us.
For all his heroics he struggles to make 70% pass completion. That, from mainly the centre of the field, is shocking. For all his effort and endeavour his ball retention is pathetic. And yes , I know he he is a marvelous player and scores goals right left and centre, but he is like a rower in a boat that’s stronger than the other guys but because hes rowing out of sync the boat is going slower.
It gets worse when other players think it a good idea to play like that and go chasing the ball or turning it over for no obvious reason. It worried me when the Ox, said “we should follow the example of Alexis” . Thats fine if the example followed is chasing down the ball in the final third and scoring goals. However, if its giving the ball away time after time in the middle of the park and not managing to pass the simplest of balls to a teammate, not so much.
For a long time I’ve though our tactics have been to start fast and if we didn’t get a goal early control possession and run the legs off the opposition. Then go again in the last 20 minutes when they were tired and Arsene’s famous late substitutions were made. Now though its us who have no legs in the last 20 and have our legs run off chasing the ball.
We will just have to wait and see how it all works when we have the players back. But its not working right now.
Should we have bought a 4th choice CB ? Well yes, on the face of it
Should we have bought a player that can cover or replace Mikel ? Well yes, on the face of it.
But would that have altered any of the things I’ve mentioned ?
Ramsey is simply not the player he was last year ! Or does he just suffer from the loss of shape that saw him playing to his strengths ?
The greatest strength of our team has been weaving patterns of play that confuse the opponents and open up opportunities. There is zero chance of that happening with a 70% pass completion .
Of course if would be better if Koscielny and Debuchy were fit, but they would just be better defenders playing behind the same chaos.
Arsene cant be exempt from criticism. No matter what the circumstances its his job to find the answers. But I for one am willing to wait until we at least see something resembling our best 11 and he is given the chance to bring in the players of world class level I believe he is searching for, in the positions we all know are weaknesses.
I understand the frustrations of fans, indeed I share them, but I am not about to suggest throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
So thats it , my tuppence worth. Like it or lump it. I accept that it could be complete bollocks.
Now as far as this site goes, I’m going to see how the comments go and decide if the blog has a future or purpose. To be quite honest it feels like I’m pissing into the wind at the moment.
Positively Arsenal 
If this is your first visit today, dont miss Andrew’s wonderful piece from earlier today http://wp.me/p37nXa-17e
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Keep at it – really enjoy your posts. Thoughtful, realistic and sensible.
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Alexis is a great player but he has disrupted the teams game, maybe the loss of Giroud to act as a focal point has been understated, yes Welbeck is faster, and more mobile, but maybe having a big lump up front who all the team knows where he will be, is better for our style than someone running all over the place, especially as we have Alexis and OX already doing that. 2 doing it is ok, 3 might be a tad too much and may be the reason why so many passes are not finding their target.
Giroud was always good at feeding balls to Ramsey, so maybe again he is off form cos Giroud is not there, has Ramsey scored a goal since Giroud got injured.
Losing Giroud and Ozil was bound to affect our play. Bringing in a live wire like Alexis was also bound to affect us, add in making room for Wilshere, keeping Caz in the team, and missing Arteta’s steadying influence too has all gone someway to the failing we are showing at the moment.
Yes, yes we need a CB and DM, but not having either is not the reason we are not as fluent or fluid as we need to be. I for one look forward to the time we have Ozil, Alexis, Theo in the same team with either Giroud or Welbeck up front, now if we also add quality DM and another CB, then even better
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It seems to me the problem is going gung ho when we have the lead instead of consolidating.Yesterday we were winning 1-0 and after Tuesday we should have sat back and try to catch them on the break as we have pace up front.Instead for their first goal we had 8 players in their half when we lost the ball and only two players in our half.Consequently Gibbs had to chase back and give away the foul.The same thing happened last Tuesday for the last goal.We had 5 players on the edge of their penalty area when we lost the ball.Also as Chambers was getting beat all the game surely we should have tried to give him help by doubling up on Monteiro
Yesterday we had not learnt from last Tuesday.I hope they study the video of yesterday’s game and learn from it quickly for the next game.I will never give up on the team and will always support them through thick and thin.
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Don’t you dare stop this blog!
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I concur.
This team lacks balance, and organisation. The injuries and inclusion of such a rampant player has destabalised the team.
I’ve been to watch Arsenal 4 time this season so far, twice in the CL, once PL and the Capital One cup.
In all games, Alexis has roamed the pitch to the extent that he pushes others out of position or leave his own position vacant.
The ONLY time i’ve seen us organised and efficient as George talks about, was in the first half against Anderlect, before Arteta went off. Then we were excellent and Sanchez played his position.
Don’t get me wrong, I think he is a fantastic footballer, but he does need to be controlled.
Could this be why he reportedly didn’t get along with Messi at Barca?
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Can I say Pedantic George that I hope you keep fighting the fight, as until recently, when I came across this site, I was on verge of giving up the fight, the moaners and whingers had wore me down, and I was beginning to despair of ever finding an upbeat and level headed Arsenal site and group of supporters. Having Positively Arsenal to click onto and reasonable fellow Gooners to discuss Arsenal with has been a God send for me.
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Steady on George, no grounds for anyone locking themselves in the library with the club revolver just yet eh ?
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Don’t you bloody dare PG. This and Untold are about the only two sources of sanity in the bloggersphere. Arsenal (and AW) will always have its ups and downs…this unfortunately was one of them.
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The same thing re Sanchez crossed my mind.Im glad you wrote about it.Hes great but it seems to have thrown everyone out.The force against AW at the moment is very strong -poor bloke having to soak that crap up.
George don’t give up as this website is a place for deeper thought and reflection, and its important that those channels stay open, not everything should be reduced to the level of the loofer mind,and those manipulating them.
Britain needs a revolution, not a socialist one, but one in which sensationalism and greed and competitiveness are dumped, and an exposé on the chas-head media (etc).
No doubt Im pissing in the wind too.
Onward and upward! COYG!
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Spoken from the heart. Can’t really argue against much other than maybe Alexis.
I thought the same as regards giving ball away but I was seeing it as many of our players not being fully tuned into him as he is to them.
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i think there is a little truth in what you all say but there is to many players playing out of postion because of injury, so lets see what January can do if we do get a CB & DM plus there will be some of the injurys back & fighting for a place.but wenger as to accept his part in this for not getting CB & DM we could have signed alex song & fabregas but no. we all know what arsenal are like for injurys we didn’t sign fabregas because of ozil , where is ozil know ,when he was fit we could of rotated players & may not have had all the injurys we have had, song could play CD OR DM.the proplems we have should not be there.
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George you can’t tell us you’re thinking of closing the site on the same day you put up such quality and brilliant articles. Not to mention Muppet’s efforts.
That’s just cruel!
I’d have tried to write something but Muppet and Andrew said all I had to say much better then I could. The thing is I can totally understand where you are coming from, it is dispiriting. What do I mean?
Dortmund fans were cheering their team on even though they are bottom of the Bundesliga. I felt embarrassed during the Anderlecht home game, when Arsenal were comfortably winning, because the Anderlecht fans were not just out singing the home support they were outwitting them too with their songs. Are Arsenal fans in spite of their bin bags or perhaps because of them far too focused on being consumers? Are they not entertained?
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I think Sunday’s game was the perfect illustration of Sanchez not really being in the game enough, it was one of his less better performances even though he scored. Has he struggled against teams that also have good possession play? If so he’ll improve over time.
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Though if Walcott wasn’t carrying so much rust that could’ve been a wonderful lobbed assist from Sanchez there at the end.
There’s so much promise in this squad.
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Arsene is human. We’ve had a lot of bad luck.
Please continue the blog.
Please focus on being positive rather than always highlighting the negative and comparing yourselves to those who are not. Just leave them be.
Keep the faith.
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This was a great read. I completely agree and I see Eduardo has already made a couple of the points I was going to make. It’s all about control and we’ve lost quite a bit of it.
Welbeck is a great young player with pace and skill but he’s still mastering the balance between running in behind and offering himself for a short pass that keeps possession, lets us recycle the ball, keep pressure on the opponent. And when he does get on the ball I’ve noticed he tends to come quite deep and take several touches, where as Giroud would use his strength to hold it up closer to goal, then release it quickly to a runner. I don’t think Giroud’s intelligence, awareness and speed of thought are appreciated enough. Danny still has a lot to learn when it comes to helping us manage the game the way Giroud does.
Alexis is a phenomenal footballer but he’s also a daredevil, he’s not the kind of player to just keep ball and see a game out and having him as the focal point of the side also detracts from our control of the match. I think the reigns of the team will be put firmly in Ozil’s hands when he comes back, it becomes too chaotic with Alexis in charge.
And I hate to say but the boy Aaron has also not been a great help of late. I don’t know what’s up with him – maybe his confidence is a little low, maybe it went a little too high after last year, maybe he’s not at his physical best. But I feel like he’s neglecting to do the things that led him to have such a great season. I don’t see him snapping into tackles to protect the back four with the same gusto, or picking up the ball from the defenders and driving forward with it, or helping us build attacks and retain possession in all four corners of the pitch like he used to. His level of involvement has been much lower, his range of movement more limited.
When you put all that together, plus the absences of Ozil, Arteta, Koscielny, Debuchy and an in-form Wilshere, the team has become quite fractured.
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Superb heartfelt pieces today by Andrew & George,I went on twitter after the game & said I still backed the manager and later got 2 Direct Messages and they weren’t asking me out on a date or where I was going on holiday next year! Like I said on here the other day,not signing another central defender was a mistake,hopefully we can fix that in January but until then we need to sort out a formation that gets the best out Alexis & Ramsey (and Mesut when he’s fit),it’s not easy but Arsene needs to sort it & I think he will,sadly the PL looks gone but the seasons not dead,but George will be if he shuts this place down,I’ll drive up to Blackburn with the toys and torture him.
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Well said, George. Don’t stop, my friend. This site was created for times like these. I can’t think of a time that we have needed this blog more. Chin up!
I agree about Sanchez. A brilliant player, skill wise but he does try some hero passes a bit to often and he ends up giving the ball away. I get so annoyed when players pass up a simple pass, trying something ridiculous! I trust AW to straighten this all out.
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Leo$ The boy Aaron wouldn’t be the first young man to have momentarily lost his strength and focus in the first few months of married life….
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Mr Pedantic, Keep on doing what your doing!!
As we all know Arsenal are an infuriating team to support, but that’s also the beauty of it when things go right, we as fans deserve it.
Your blog for me is a means to explore the reasons behind our form whether that be +ve or -ve. From Sunday to Monday after a bad result I can’t read football news without wanting to throw myself from a balcony. The Arsenal blogs provide me with the only medium of which I can accept what has happened and yours is one of my highlights.
I think we are over reacting as fans as to how poor this year has been, yes we have been poor but remove Hazard, Oscar Costa, Matic, Terry from the Chelsea and where would they be, i’m sure not too far away from a side without Walcott, Ozil, Giroud, Kos, Arteta.
The other way I am looking at it, is a puzzle!! Mourinho talked about it last year stating they weren’t going to win it, they were still building, then he completed his puzzle with Matic, Fabregas and Costa and now look at them.
I would suggest we are in the same bucket now as they were last year. After adding Ozil and Sanchez, those creativity and pace issues are solved. The issues remaining is an Anchorman DM and a CB to partner Kos as Mert approaches the hill. Mr Wenger has the simplest of tasks to create a title winning team, he has a 70-100mil transfer kitty for next year and only needs the 2 players above to complete his puzzle.
Szces, Debuchy, CB, Kos, Gibbs, DM, Wilshere, Ozil, Sanchez, Walcott, Giroud = TITLE CHALLENGERS!
What would Wenger do in your position Mr George? Sign a new 3 year deal and crack on!!
See you next week.
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Context and Perspective:
“Radamel Falcao having to ice knee after every session at Manchester United”
“Experimental” surgery, a recovery just in time for the close of teh transfer window.
Same injury as Walcott. It’s now November. Arsenal are using the England games to help get Walcott up to speed for the PL knocks. After a run out last week they made sure he didnt have to play again for a week. Walcott has been eased back and well looked after, he went for relatively proven surgery and is simply on schedule. His best is still a few months away, as seen with Chambo after the initial return the relative lack of fitness and conditioning will catch up with him. In fact its fair to say that Chambo has only now recovered and is finiding his best, amazing, form.
Compare this to Falcao. He’s fucked. He’s going to struggle to play through this PL season. And we can ask, even now, if he’ll ever be the same player he used to be. Did he follow this path under pressure from his agent. There is some evidence to indicate that the poor lad has been a bit of a Mendes pawn. the move to Monaco. etc.
in the light of all this, of those who call themselves “redzone experts” whilst trolling Arsenal fans (no doubt at the time asking them to sign a player on stupid money who had takena massive gamble with his fitness and career), how can you close this blog down? One of the few sites where it’s possible to talk like an adult about the madness, of the role of the agents behind Utd’s transfer and signing of Falcao. Of how AFC operate in a world where people turn up at say Bilbao pretending to be Utd in transfer negotiations (WTF was that all about? I think we are better off not knowing!).
There is some strong evidence that there are a few people who want Arsenal to start spending double their money on dross like Fernando. (AFC paid half the current rate fashionable with the Petro-clubs etc. for Sanchez and Chambers! And all the rest…) The only way they can get that to happen is by trolling gullible Arsenal fans.
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< same injury, at the same time, as walcott…
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Thanks George.
It’s hard to think there were many positives from yesterday, at the very least it should be a kick in the ass to several of the players who have been all over the shop on the filed recently.
Martin Keown dissected it quite easily and it’s hard to dispute his analysis.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29917344
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George: this is a really interesting and perhaps unwelcome idea. It had crossed my mind earlier this season and fuelled the odd exchange with my wife who is very much in favour of all things Alexis, but loathes one of the players I think is really good.
There is also the possibility that our extremely unambitious manager who is stuck in his ways saw that the approach we had last season, while good enough for fourth and a shiny bauble, was never going to take us to the next level – the level he has been dreaming of since before the stadium move. And so maybe he has torn up that script and is in the process of getting all his team to try to get to an Alexis level. They are fluffing their new lines a bit at the moment, but that is not the reason to turn back from the experiment just yet.
And of course it doesn’t flipping well help that the best midfielder in the world is out of action for us just right now.
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Stop it George! Stop this talk about giving up. It is beneath you. Zimpaul must be rolling in his grave. We at Positively Arsenal (and Untold) are a minority that refuse to be moved by emotion and panic in the face of adversity. Your post today is a prime example of why your voice is essential in the miasma of negativity and gloom that the majority of “supporters” are caught up in. As Andrew described in the earlier blog, football fans worldwide, not only in England, are being suckered into being consumers of star players and moneyed teams rather than supporters of teams who compete the right way. Too many believe that benefactor-financed teams have any future. TV companies and advertisers don’t care whether Leeds, Coventry, Wigan, Blackburn or Bolton make it back to the Prem. There only concern is how long they can keep the merry-go-round spinning with more unwitting benefactors buying clubs in the hope of getting a share of Prem league riches. The present plight of Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine is an example of how sudden stars and riches can dissappear. Their owner is on the wrong side of the civil war in the Donbas, the stadium and the city have been destroyed and they are playing in front of 4,000 instead 40,000 fans. They are going out of business, sooner rather than later.
Like most of you, I take every defeat, every setback very hard because it is common knowledge of the sacrifices necessary to make our club financially competitive today. As Andrew correctly observed,there is very little chance of our stars being picked off as has happened at Dortmund and Southampton. Unfortunately transforming us into a footballing juggernaut is not as easy as even the most optimistic of us predicted. Just imagine how the less grounded fan feels when buying Ozil and Sanchez doesn’t turn us into worldbeaters overnight. We are especially fearful that our manager may become the victim of unreal expectations because despite our financial strength we can’t do a Chelsea or City and throw £1Billion at the problem even if we were so inclined. In an era when patience and objectivity is scorned and reviled I am grateful that George is willing to stand up and say thand point to a deeper source of our current problems rather than joining the mob who are just baying for blood.
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@foreverheady
I trust Aaron will be fine, the lack of Ozil and Giroud has probably been a hindrance too.
“They are fluffing their new lines a bit at the moment, but that is not the reason to turn back from the experiment just yet.”
I think this is a concept a lot of Arsenal fans struggle with. To make big strides forward sometimes you need to take a couple of steps back. For some people the arrival of shiny new players instilled unrealistic expectations of drastic and immediate improvement. Sometimes that can happen, like it seems to have done for Chelsea, but more often it doesn’t – Spurs last year; Liverpool and Man Utd so far this season. It can be a bumpy ride and a spate of injuries hasn’t helped us any.
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Is there any point saying Swansea were very very good yesterday?
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As Paul N says above: “This site was created for times like these. I can’t think of a time that we have needed this blog more.”
It’s easy to support a winning team and months like last May are a stroll in the park compared to the current Arsenal experience. But as someone wrote this afternoon on Twitter, it’s Arsenal with a flat-tyre we are dealing with, not Arsenal with the wheels fallen off. (@DarrenArsenal1).
I get where George is coming from, however – it takes no little effort to keep a blog going, even one with the consistently high quality of comments and commentators we routinely enjoy here at PA. The highs, when they come, are stratospheric but the lows seem to plumb new depths.
It’s all little bit black or white, isn’t it?
I think if we were to close down the blog there would be a gap in the blogoshere that would hardly begin to be filled by the likes of Twitter and that would be a sad moment.
It seems most Arsenal fans (me included) had very high expectations for this season but it turns out we, like so many other clubs, have a way to go yet. Personally I don’t think the League is anything like over and the second half is likely to be far kinder to AFC’s hopes than the opening few months. Team balance, delivered by familiarity, return of the injured and even a couple of key signings in January can all radically transform our outlook – and yes, even for this season.
So it’s my view that as a club, as fans and as a blog, we push on and keep fighting the good fight. There may indeed one day come a time when we can down tools but at a time and a place of our own choosing.
That time is not yet upon us.
Of this, I remain Positively Arsenal.
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Pissing in the wind? Also known as perseverance in the face of adversity. What would life be without it? What would ZimPaul do? Keep up the good fight George, we need ya.
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George, I follow you on twitter & any day I realise this blog is down i’ll give you hell on there till you reopen shop!
I’d never have a downed PA be a blog topic on any anti-arsenal site! so pull yourself together man!! when the going gets tough….
I made an observation on another arsenal blog I visit & comment more frequently than on here, about 3-4 matches into the season, thay I felt sanchez was disturbing our team shape/balance with his “soloist” tendency.
I don’t know if at this point his #10’ish role right now is down to ozil’s injury or AW playing him there so as to limit the negative effect of that said “soloist” nature.
we had huge losses last season but in all that we always had shape. This season we seem to be all over the place sometimes.
it could be as some have said, players, both old & new trying to get used to a new system & themselves. I hope it is.
Anybody discounting the effect of injuries is not worth my effort in discussion!
& now I say this….
our players currently injured will return.
we will know what the Boss has in mind as his 1st choice 11 when all are fit.
& we will see a truly glorious team play beautiful football.
of all these, I have not an iota of doubt!
Forever Positively Arsenal!!!!
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PG
Of course you’re not going to shut down the blog – either now, or when the next setback comes along.
Nil carborundum.
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I saw the game late last night and went to bed disappointed. I woke to a dream where Ozil had just won a penalty against Chelsea, moments after a Santi overhead had whistled into the side netting. (What a sad old man I have become) And then there was that familiar feeling of dread and despair that crowded in when remembering the result, that kind of took me back to a much younger me and that terrible time when a girlfriend was impossibly late (god knows what she felt like) but all was well in the end then and today it was first Andrew and then George and all of the commenters that have steadied the ship as it were so now at the end of a difficult Monday at work and in my Arsenal life things don’t seem quite so bad and perhaps, just perhaps, all will be well again. I still think we will finish second in the league with a very strong finish that will get everyone remembering just what the plan is.
So a big thank you to everyone on this site, and also to the Untold mob. And, heresy of heresies, it doesn’t harm to be reminded that we are only talking about a game, and worse things happen at sea, or in schools, or wherever the latest unhappiness has happened.
And, of course, I don’t even know who took the penalty, let alone whether it was successful.
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One saving grace in our adversityis that the media favorite and their mindless echo chamber to be Wenger’s successor, Jurgen Klopp, cannot get his team to win a game in the Bundesliga to save his life. Remember he was once a miracle worker who could rebuild at the flick of a finger as Bayern and other big clubs picked off his prize assets at will. Now I am not anti-Klopp by any means but truth is revealed in time, eh..
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ffs Pedantic George
What’s all this, chucking in the towel? You big fucking girlie, sort yourself out, pour yourself a whisky (or whatever you prefer) put your knickers back on and reflect on what you are saying. So we are having a tough time and the negative elements are getting up your nose……….. that should make you even more determined to kick back and keep this site going. I don’t want to have to call you weak, wanker who couldn’t take a few punches.
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George, I hope you’re feeling loved today. You, too, Andrew, and everyone else who comments here regularly. I was down yesterday, like George, because it felt like even my touchstones were wavering. But the PA ship has been steadied today.
On Alexis, I told George yesterday on Twitter that I think you can make the argument that Alexis’ chaotic style may have upset the balance we had last season. It is, of course, up to the manager and the players to find some balance again, but I don’t think this can just be dismissed as a reason some of our better players have been out of sorts.
It’s a long roller-coaster ride, a season. I’m glad to have you guys to ride it with.
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I think we will see a reshuffle when Giroud comes back, with Welbeck moved to the left, Walcott on the right and Sanchez in the 10 position. Welbeck will offer us far in terms or ball retention and penetration that Santi, although i’m sure he wouldn’t be too pleased. The big question is will we see the CM that we desperately need in Jan?
Welbeck – Giroud – Theo
———— Sanchez ——–
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George you can’t stop. We need you.
I had become a bit of a wide and avid blog reader (never Facebook or twitter though), but lately PA is pretty much all I read. As an earlier commentator said PA is surely for times like these.
Thank you so much for this and all the other posts I’ve read and valued (but shamefully never bothered to comment on!).
Keep the faith!
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It is in the worst of times when you begin to doubt yourself especially when the tide against you looks like a tsunami.
Are the wobs really right is Paul merson the real professor.
Nah of course not, the world will sort itself out soon its just shit while we wait.
Ive said a few times on here about our great Alexis losing the ball and not being on the same wavelength as the rest of the team however that to will sort itself out we just have to wait for the stars to aleign and we will be flying we’ve done it before and we will do it again.
Both posts today were excellent, don’t ever stop!
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Looking at the voting so far it is 37 ‘Yes’ votes in favour of the continuation of Postively Arsenal for the forseeable future
And one ‘Don’t know’
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PG, how dare you!
This site has allowed Muppet to breathe. This site has allowed Anicoll5, to write some real reviews. This site has Passenal, where will Passenal find a site where she can “be herself”? This site has Hunter, and others banned for being positive.
Give up twitter, yes.
As for the “don’t know” – off with his head!
COYG
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PG
DONT EVEN THINK OF IT!
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George
This will help you get things into perspective. Just imagine the Emirates as a small spec of dust on earth…
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Northbank69, that was great to see,it does help.How ironic that our egos are bigger than the universe itself! Theres another on YT with Alec Baldwin I think its called “to the edge of the know universe”.
Still, enjoyed Fins roasting the AAAA bloke on UA tonight!
George, hope youre seeing how much PA is need!!
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*coughs*
I wasn’t there
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Fourty five plus twelve at the last count. Make that fourty six?
George where else can I come and chat with interesting football fans like. Gains on how Chambo has been progressing? Because all the other blogs apart from Meanies and Untold are full of arsenal-holes scratching their, well, their wotsits. And then sniffing each other’s fingers.
Of course we knew the next step up from Chamberlain it was coming, but we weren’t sure exactly how good he could be, when it would happen, and then he lost a big chunk with injury. And really, in spite of the results this week, we can see what a player he is. Like Theo, and others before him, like some who’ve come in this year will be.
In the summer some of you will remember that I thought Welbeck played on the left for England only because Chambo was out. So, its going to be really interesting when we see a vaguely fit squad to see how they will do. Where they will play. This prolonged spell with others out is probably the best thing for Welbeck if he wants to work on his CF play, to work on that ‘instinct’. One thing is like to see him improve upon is his near post running, but seriously, I don’t know anything about that! Much happier talking about defenders myself, it’s why I get on so well with all the Defensive experts…
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e.g.: we’ve been wanting to see Bellerin play here on PA for a while now! Only now are the Groaners elsewhere suggesting he might be ready, just because it’s another groan. There could be a bazillion reasons for the selections. I honestly can’t beat myself up about that which I know nothing about (you should’ve seen the state of me when Eduardo would get shunted out to the LW to close out the game by his occasionally over-defensive (hey, what can I say, if Vengargh gave this idiot the keys I’d be a little bit more kamikaze with my selections*) manager who allegedly doesn’t do tactics.
*At extra-time at Wembley I’d probably have pulled of Ramsey. That call and my disdain for the over defensive tactics of that exhilarating 07-08 team with its uber-defensive defensive phase five man midfield have convinced me that I might not make the best football manager.
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its all so easy for the moaners to call for a change of manager, one even admitted to me that it would not matter if the next man fails, as it will be easier to sack Wenger’s replacement, and we can keep doing that till we have a title winning manager.
We all know that if Wenger was to be sacked and the next guy or even the next few guys all fail badly, no of those who are so vocal in demanding Wenger go, would ever admit they were wrong, it would be the fault of the incompetent board who appointed the wrong replacements, or who did not plunge the club into massive debt making oil club like signings, or indeed it will be Wenger’s fault for leaving such a poor squad and club structure behind, the one thing it will not be, is the fault of the morons who force him out
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The reason why for me it’s been interesting to follow Chamberlain’s progress is because he is the player the club chose to spend £15M odd upon during the darkest hour. When money was still relatively tight. The signing who more then any other was a sign of things to come.
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A statement of intent, if you like.
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