A match report from Tim, @foreverheady
Saw the game (as live) very late in the day due to a disjointed and complicated Saturday, and would put it down as one of the odder matches I’ve seen. Almost total control in the first half never really looked like leading anywhere and a curious sense of detachment from just about everyone. At half time I really couldn’t tell whether we would win 2-0 or lose 1-0 as both scenarios seemed equally likely. In the end it was neither, but what a strange second half: more Arsenal pressure, more frustration and then a wonder goal showing what a magnificent signing Welbeck was – talk about a farsighted solution to a short term problem, Dat guy Welbz showing Dat guy Arsene still has few if any peers when it comes to deadline day transfer deals.
But then the legs ran out (and why wouldn’t they after International action, Man U and Dortmund in the very recent past) so the last 15 minutes which should have been comfortable ended up with us struggling to get hold of the ball and ticking the clock down with ease. But handsome is as handsome does and a decent and important 3 points that might not have been that pretty at the time but which will no doubt be worth their weight in disappointed banners come season’s end.
Martinez again looked solid and he has a size about him that could well turn into a commanding presence, and it was good to see Kos back in action. Poor old Nacho, limping off after a knock that was hard to spot, and even poorer Gibbs whose brief rest turned into no rest at all and perhaps another worrying injury to boot. The Flamster was OK and did his marshalling job sensibly, while Aaron again showed signs of a steady return to form that I suspect won’t come totally to fruition until he plays alongside Ozil once more – at times he and Alexis couldn’t get out of each other’s way, which didn’t really help: both will benefit from the return of the space-maker. And so it was left to Santi to provide his class and recent doubters wrong with a twinkle-toed display of impish magic that was an utter delight all day long. His new shirt seems to be fitting a little less snugly now than it did back in the early Autumn and you sense that he has decided that it is up to him to take responsibility for the team’s success.
The early start yesterday didn’t help after Wednesday night’s exertions, but at least provides more recuperation than Southampton will get as they have City to negotiate this afternoon ( let’s hope for a hard-fought draw there) before travelling up to us in midweek. So a day of rest for our players today, and although the matches now come thick and fast at least they do so for everyone and I just have an inkling that yesterday was the day when the luck began to turn in our favour.
And now Andrew has some comment on the halfwits with a banner @arsenalandrew
I can hardly bring myself to dignify the cause of the banner wankers by commenting on it.
Suffice to say, whilst they clearly relish the Arsenal spotlight, now that the wider footballing world is laughing at our residual embarrassment, maybe they’ll curb their ill-judged activities. Unlikely though as they must derive great encouragement from their association with all that is most hideous within the Goonersphere with the likes of Piers, Payton and Pedro as ugly bedfellows and the worst of the so-called Arsenal old-skool braying along in noticeably thuggishly aggressive fashion.
When a cause has to fall back on the underlying suggestion of threat, violence and intimidation, as evidenced on the more colourful Twitter exchanges, then you know it’s a flakey one.
But as I say, they do appear to be making inroads with their protests as not only are the majority of Arsenal fans pointing at them now, but so too the rest of the football world, whilst collectively enjoying a good old laugh.
Whilst on the one hand I slightly fear being tarnished by association, on the other, my confidence in the club enables me to thoroughly enjoy the ill-judged entertainment they bring as their preposterous behaviour gains ever greater exposure and they inevitably start to soak up the reputationally-ruinous ridicule.
They see themselves as robustly challenging the club but are much more widely recognised as the spoilt brats that they are; punch-drunk on self-entitlement, blind to their club’s successes and its undeniable progress and clearly oblivious to its massive long-term future potential.
Has anyone ever previously seen fans protest in the wake of CL qualification and a decent away win in the league? Most clubs and their fans would give their proverbial right arm to be playing in Europe next year.
Apart from having little in the way of convincing argument, some Goners, at least, have no sense of timing.
To display such a banner in front of a winning side as they walk towards you to thank you for your support is as rude and as paradoxical a situation as one can possibly imagine. And when some subsequently complain of the ‘outing’ of the banner-wanker’s identity well, you’ve gotta laugh, haven’t you.
Of COURSE you should be allowed embarrass yourself, in public, in complete anonymity.
Well done, lads, nice one.
Positively Arsenal 
As I have said before Eddy my view is that significant numbers of these people are suffering from a psychiatric condition manifest by constant and shifting dissatisfaction, irritability, an incapability to feel enjoyment and a tendency for melodramatic self promotion.
They’re ill mate
Sup with a long spoon
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Would you be mates with that guy Claude, Edu?
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no, he seems to be a clown.
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The goners can groan away but those watching the football would’ve seen two consecutive games from the Arsenal with obviously differerent tactics (apparently AFC varying tactics is some kind of state secret?), a result of circumstances and selections I would suppose.
I remember last season in the Southampton home game noticing that the two arsenal wide forwards played slightly differently to the preceding game (amongst other changes I presume), so tonight’s game will probably be the third game in a row with significant tweaking going on. But according to the bullshit blizzard within which the AAAA and their handlers try to troll other AFC fans this never happens!
Fortunately the football fans out there can look forward to a good game of footy between two old adversaries. Koeman once beat the proto-invincible squad when at PSV by pressing every AFC player except for the legend that was Sol Campbell (that’s how Koeman described it!) The game has moved on since then (Koscielny! The Merte-Goal signature move as seen against Dortmund etc…) but it appears based upon the evidence that the self-declared Experts haven’t.
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It’s been obvious for a long long while that the cartoonists at the Manchester Grunt have also been the best journalists, and it seems that this is true of the sports section too now. Unfortunately they own the copyright to one of these cartoons, a cartoon that appears to be saying things that none of the twenty four seven footy hacks seem capable of discussing when describing the modern oligarchs and their lesser brethren in the game today:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/cartoon/2014/dec/03/david-squires-fit-and-proper-persons-test
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Whilst the above cartoon is brilliant, not forgetting the Tottenham supermarket reference, for me this England cartoon is even better. The cartoons of the England players (three Arsenal players here) are too funny:
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Correction:
I could be confused on the date of that Koeman quote above – Arsenal played Koeman’s PSV in 07, but he might’ve made those comments after the earlier Ajax-Arsenal CL encounters when he was at Ajax in ’03? Probably ’03.
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Last time we played PSV in the CL knock out I remember we played pretty average in the first away leg although the Dutch side did not look much. we gane away a feeble late goal and lost.
Thinking we were on for an easy game at the Ems to retrieve the tie we then ran into Alex who played the game of his life. Every time we attached he was the man who blocked the shot or made the tackle. He then had the cheek to score and own goal before he got his head on an equalizer with five minutes to go to send us out.
God that was frustrating
I want Koeman’s side smashed therefore tonight – no banter
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He certainly was eager to impress his true paymasters that night. But thats not what i came to say.
COYG
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“He has got great faith in this team to move forward. I just don’t see that he sees his future as an issue at the moment. As far as he sees it, he is going absolutely nowhere.”
* i.e.: the manager who rebuilt a squad after losing (two not one) superstars without the horrors witnessed at Liverpool or Tottenham, who has just won the FA Cup and qualified for the knockout stage of the CL has the full confidence of his employers.
Said John Cross last week before the Dortmund game. As an arsenal supporter he went up in my estimation after he celebrated the stupendous hilarity and humiliation of Levy after the Özil transfer with his scoop on the haggle with Madrid. Unlike the Groaners: who can no longer celebrate victories against the 5pur2s or celebrate the funniest transfer in the history of transfer windows (embarrassing Tottenham no less), or an FA cup victory…etc. that’s not an opinion but a fairly easy to make observation.
–
Come on the Arsenal!
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Arsenal v Southampton: Martinez, Chambers, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Flamini, Ramsey, Cazorla, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexis, Welbeck
subs: Macey, Gibbs, Bellerin, Rosicky, Podolski, Sanogo, Giroud
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Macey ??
He will be nervous – lucky lad
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I think he is a very good prospect, anicoll [Macey that is] and at 6′ 6″ he is a big lad – like me!
We have a plethora of good young goalkeepers at the moment. Disappointment ahead for a number of them I fear.
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was hoping taf would be on the bench tonight but just checked on Jeorge Bird and apparently hes picked up a knock. Squad looks good tonight so would be a great for a positive result to keep the momentum going COYG
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Faster faster
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What do we think of that, guys?
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Bit sticky to start with but slipped nicely into gear in the final 15 minutes – everyone putting in the hard work
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Saints have shown the occasional flash of quality but nothing serious on target
I sense the longer the game goes on the harder wanyama is going to find coping with our midfielders
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I see that Jack Cork was unlucky
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We are working hard, anicoll, but perhaps trying a bit too hard?
A quiet crowd seem anxious and my impression is that is the word for the team, too.
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not great so far, too many players taking the wrong option, running with it when easy pass on, and passing when they should be running with it. Southampton working very hard, lets hope they can not keep up that work rate. Expect to see Giroud brought on.
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Hopefully pick up now where we left off
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Back to untidy
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Ten minutes and pressing firmly – little spark required
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awful sloppy play today
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giroud needed to put a bit more power on that header
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alexis has had a poor game, but the right man in the right place, 1-0 to the Arsenal
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delighted that Ramsey got the assist for our goal, as I seen on a match thread on an arsenal site him being called a cunt, a tosspot and shite by several different so called Gooners.
Giroud coming on changed us to a much more potent force.
In the build up to the goal there was a clear handball which should have been a penalty, and my view is that we were denied 3 penalites tonight, it is amazing that we have so many penalty calls turned down.
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A hard working if slightly disjointed performance – bit like at the Hawthorns
Listening to the ‘unlucky Saints’ blather
The moment Giroud came on there was only one destination for all the points – as we gradually strangled the life out of Koeman’s boys
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Tadic was unlucky too
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These bitter as fuck pundits, including Ian Wright, do not even comprehend how foolish they sound. Fraser Foster is their man-of-the-match but Arsenal didn’t deserve to win. WTF. If Foster had to do a lot of work to keep us out, then who the hell was the most attacking team, had most shots on goal. But these whinging fuckers must take away from our performance pandering the the moaning doomers in the midst. How the hell do you in England tolerate such unadulturated bullshit!
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I hope when we play at St Mary’s on Jan 1 someone spoils Wanyama’s luck
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As for these fucktards who keep slating Giroud, what a difference the big man makes with his all-round play especially his ability to hold up the ball and spring the attackers around him. As Andrew said above, once he came on, there was going to be only one winner.
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It is because we are immune to it Shotts
I don’t care what Ian Wright says, or Owen, or any other of the ‘experts’ who can only manage to say the first thing that comes into their empty heads.
Good or bad it’s just empty noise, signifying nothing, a filler of the digital vacuum
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when opposing goalie is man of the match his team is always unlucky to lose, but when Arsenal lose where our goalie is man of the match our opponents get the win they deserve. No agenda in the media at all. Pity is our own fans are embedded in this nonsense too.
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Mutual admiration Mr Nicoll. Spot on.
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But Eduardo, it is plain as day, even before Alderweild was run ragged by us, we were the team creating the chances and most likely to score. So how come we are unlucky? Retarded fuckers must take us all for idiots.
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shotta you are missing the point, there is one rule for Arsenal and one for the rest of them, but so many of our own fans keep telling us that there is no media agenda, that its only AKB’s making excuses for their lord and master, yeah that is how pathetic the moaners are.
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The title on this blog is still relevant.
Arsenal bag the points. Not a pretty sight but a win nonetheless.
Three on the trot – now for the orcs. I’ll settle for 1-0 in the 88th minute again. Good for anicoll’s nerves too.
Glad to see the penny’s beginning to drop about what OG brings to this team and how much we’ve missed him.
Ramsey didn’t have a good game – too many wayward and overhit passes – but he never stops running and that won us the points. The sort of abuse quoted here just shows what lowlife there is out there.
I’ll give Andre Mariner the benefit of the doubt and assume he was playing advantage after that blatant handball. If he wasn’t, I think an extended spell as fourth official is needed.
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Both relief and excitement at the final whistle.
The good guys kept pushing till the breakthrough came. Better late than never as the saying goes.
My little observations: Sanchez is wonderful but must learn to release the ball quicker. I think he dwells too long on the ball and allow our attack to break down too often.
I guess all those who still don’t think Giroud is a fantastic player knows nothing about football.
The team is beginning to click and I think when Ozil, Walcott and Debuchy comes back, we’ll be unstoppable because there’ll be quite a lot of variation in tactics and personnel.
It’s a good night to be a gunner.
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Just finished watching and delighted with the win. Once again very assured from our keeper who commands his area nicely, and the defence, although not needing to be on top form, were very good indeed. But we were sluggish in midfield, and it wasn’t a vintage show at all. We were lucky with the goal, because it should have been a penalty, but for once it broke kindly, so well done to Ramsey for keeping it alive and for Alexis to finish it off. As previous posters have said, well played OG – and fun to see Podolski on the pitch too. If we have any players left at all after our next two matches – Stoke and Gala I think – I will be surprised, but how nice for once to see our opponents reduced to 10 men and having their first choice team disrupted: I hope none of their injuries are serious but that all take a frustrating amount of time to heal properly.
Well done us.
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B39rz6SIAAAR2Of.jpg:large
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We’re stacked in the number one position. Emiliano Martinez was amazing this evening. He’s good in the air, with ball to feet and can kick the shit out of a football.
Koscielny and Merts were their usual solid selves. Graziano Pelle was easily subdued. We’ve missed Kozzy something awful, haven’t we?
That kid Chambers is a beast. He defended well and was always, always up for receiving the ball deep in their half. Had Giroud started, I’m confident he would’ve scored off of one of Chambers’s inch perfect crosses
Where would we be without Nacho Monreal? What a consistent player he is.
Flamini was defensively solid tonight, but he just can’t pass the ball. He gave the ball away a few times, then he got scared and was a non-entity offensively for the rest of the game.
Ramsey was so-so. He put in a good shift, but he still lacks a bit of confidence.
Santi didn’t boss this game how he usually does, but he was still our best player. His drunken kung fu when he gets the ball generates a lot of space and it takes the pressure off the team. He’s an absolute gem.
The Ox was our busiest player in the first half. I love the way he was running at them and trying to make things happen for himself. I also like that he was pissed off when he was substituted. Hopefully he’ll use that anger constructively and makes it so Wenger never wants to take him off.
Welbeck was more efficient than good tonight. He ran his arse off and had a good couple of chances to put one in the net.
Alexis didn’t have his best game in an Arsenal shirt, but the guy just doesn’t know how to stop running after the ball.
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I don’t need to add anything to that Gains – that’s more or less how I saw it too.
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Very quiet Flamini last night and not sure why that was. One trick he does seem to have learned is to stop picking up stupid yellow cards which makes him a lot more use useful
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Great match to attend as I can imagine watching the first half on TV might have been a bit dull as we cancelled each other out.
I agree with a lot of that, Gains but differ on one or two points. I don’t think Martinez was as assured tonight and his kicking game was less precise, but tbh until Giroud came on he really didn’t have a good target for long kicks and might have done better playing it out from the back more. On Nacho, his defending was excellent. In their half, things were more mixed with a lot of miscommunication with Alexis, Santi, and Welbeck–they weren’t on the same wavelength with him and seemed a bit frustrated with him. But it was good Monreal was thinking defending primarily as one time he stayed far forward in attack and the Saints counterattacks with Long getting off one of their only threatening shots.
I think things really opened up when Giroud came on, which isn’t to say the Ox had a bad game. Far from it. Could be fitness. Just like v. City they started to crumble after a good game after 70′.
We seem to have a knack for shooting at the keeper. Danny really deserved a goal–some excellent chances.
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9 goals in the PL, 4 in the CL and even one in the League Cup – I would be interested to know the last time an AFC striker had that haul by 3rd December in a season.
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I think many are going way overboard about Martinez in his three games, and suggestion that he should replace Szczesny on a fulltime basis is madness. In case people have not noticed we have played a much more defensive way since the lad has been in and in fact in two of the three games he really has not had a save to make, he made no save last night, he made two saves v Dortmund. He has barely had a contested cross to deal with either. There has been a long running agenda by some arsenal blogs to discredit Szczesny, this all feeds into the old demand for AFC to buy a new keeper, we see it with Arteta in midfield too and any backup CB we have, and even Mert or Kos sometimes as you can’t praise the guy playing regular and then demand we sign someone for that position. Welbeck has been getting it in some quarters too.
Szczesny is an outstanding keeper, won golden glove award last season for 13 FAPL clean sheets and I’m sure if you put him behind a team defending as well as we have in the last 3 games then he will be faultless too.
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I don’t normally do this because I am at work but I NEED to get this off my chest. Am I totally blinkered? Is this another case of wearing rose-tinted glasses? How on earth can David Hytner, writing the the Guardian this morning, state that, “Southampton were comfortably the BETTER team for 70 minutes”?
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Search me – according to him Saints were better side, played better football, made better chances etcetera etcetera etcetera
The question might be therefore Mr Hytner, in your expert opinion, given their HUGE superiority on the night why did they LOSE ?
One to cheer you up GP;
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