I don’t know where to start, so this might be quite a disjointed ramble. It’s supposed to be the season of goodwill, but I’m not feeling it. Not one little bit.
Once again I don’t intend to give a detailed account of a game you have all seen and who all know enough to form your own opinions of what went right or indeed wrong. So I’ll just give you a feel of how I felt.
Before kickoff I had some good news, Tomas Rosicky was to start. Now, anyone who knows me knows I’m a huge for of the little Mozart. Well he didn’t let me down. He was my man of the match. I thought he and Santi were subline.
Sanchez got MOTM from Alan Smith and at times was unplayable. At other times he was annoying and wasteful. It was clear that Santi was the designated penalty taker and that Alexis pushed him into the shadows and stepped into the limelight. He them proceeded to do an impersonation of Mesut Ozil taking a penalty and rolled the ball to Green. He and Ozil might be our best two players, but neither should be allowed near a penalty kick again. Frankly, it was a pathetic attempt.
Had we gone one up in 7 minutes , the way we were playing, I am convinced the floodgates would have opened and Arsene would have been in a position to make early substitutions and saved some legs for West Ham.
Instead, with only a one goal lead at half time, a moment of utter stupidity in the second minute of the second half, saw Giroud leave the field and the game changed. Now it became more of an even contest and we ended up working hard to the very end.
However, despite the incompetence of the referee in giving a penalty against Debuchy for making an excellent tackle, we won. With 10 men for half the game and some third choice players on the pitch.
Once again despite winning, the usual twitter experts when into meltdown. Moaning that we should have scored double figures and talking bollocks about “in-game management” and poor substitutions.
The thing is that had it been me, I would have left Debuchy at right-back and had Chambers sit slightly in front with Flamini. But that does not mean I think that is what should have been done, I just think thats what I would have done.
It seem to me that no matter what Arsene does, these know-it-alls say he got it wrong. Even if he does what they would have done, they claim he should have done something else.
The bottom line is WE WON. And I cant think of a single player who had a bad game.
Its our job to support the team, not manage it.
Positively Arsenal 
I liked the way he covered Amalfitano. Amalfitano is a fucking beast.
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and just like song the boo boys hate him (until he left) they must hate it he outplayed anotherf barca player they said Arsene should of brought
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Le Coq, that is.
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Wenger’s after game comments, looks like none of the injured players back for Southampton, so only Rosicky to be added to today’s squad.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20141228/wenger-on-victory-coquelin-and-top-four
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looks like the klopp story is only a twitter rumor.
is it true that everton have lost 7 of their last 8,
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I nominate Gains!
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i doubt Klopp would do that shotta, except he was out-rightly sacked … he reminds me a lot of AW, including keeping the faith even in tough times
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Let’s poach the Armenian kid from Dortmund.
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I say we do a collage and keep the theme of being written off and the schadenfreude you inevitably feel after such a resounding victory as an overarching theme. A sort of fuck you to all the haters from the AKBs.
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@arse or brain – that’s what I was thinking! Our players can’t get a yellow for taking the steam out of the game and kicking the ball around the flag. After Anderlecht & Liverpool, teams think they will get something extra time if they keep pushing.
I am not sure why there was an extra 6 mins anyway.
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Monreal is turning into a bit of an unsung hero, battling on despite the hard dodgy tackles.
Also I agree that Santi deserves more of the plaudits than Sanchez too.
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http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/28/west-ham-united-arsenal-premier-league-match-report
No need for a match report. This will do.
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http://www.latercera.com/noticia/deportes/2014/12/656-610343-9-las-confesiones-de-alexis-sanchez-en-el-arsenal-soy-feliz.shtml
A rough translation of an Alexis interview with Chilean media, but worth a read. He seems happy with his choice of AFC judging by his Twitter post:
“3 points well deserved ! Happy to be part of a TEAM of great players and very nice people!!! Thanks! !! “
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just seen the disallowed Song goal, and anyone who says it was wrongly disallowed is an idiot. One of the West Ham players who was offside actually jumped over the ball, so clearly active, anyone claiming otherwise does not know the rules.
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I see claude the fraud on ArsenalFanTv is still a whinging moaning clown
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reports that an Arsenal scout was at the Newcastle v Everton game, McCarthy or Sissoko maybe, or could it be Stones or Taylor
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Coquelin made his home debut with Chamberlain against shrewsbury town, i think. Played well that day, don’t know what happened to him on loan in Germany but today alongside Chamberlain again he had a performance that he’ll be happy with. Enjoyed the bicycle kick at Liverpool too.
*
http://arsenalist.com/f/2014-15/whu-vs-arsenal/goal-welbeck-2-0.html
Chambo with the nutmeg on Reid. You can watch that goal over and over *coughs*
Very happy that goal won the match!
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Song looks distracted at the throw in? Pulling up his socks, stretching or something…that was ruthless from Arsenal and they came close on other occasions, you get the impression there is more to come.
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Missing from starting 11 today – Gibbs, Arteta, Ramsey, Ozil, Walcott and Giroud, that is more than half our best 11, Arsenal have a much stronger squad than they are given credit for, yes we could do with another quality CB and DM, with those two and a bit of luck with injuries we would be an outstanding team.
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Arsene Wenger v Big Fat Sam
won 15 drew 7 lost 5
and it is a number of years now since fat sam won a game v Arsenal. But we still hear bull about fat sam knowing how to beat a Wenger team.
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totally agree with this tweet
Tim Stillman
@LittleDutchVA
No forward line in the league puts Arsenal’s defence under pressure quite like Arsenal’s.
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having just watched the awarding of the penalty at WHU today, I must ask how the hell Reid did not get booked, he raised his foot to bring down Cazorla, full intent, then he went mad at the ref not once but a couple of times, again a booking offence, he later got booked in the game, it seems refs are only quick to book and send off arsenal players
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Lol at Mourinho moaning. He is such a coward. Parked the bus at the Emirates last season when we had Theo, Ramsey and Özil in the lineup and still had to rely on Mike cunting Dean to nick a point. Only when pretty much every player in our squad was either injured, exhausted or both did he allow his team to play offensively and the result was the 6-0.
The 1-1 draws vs the Manchester teams were also a result of his negative tactics; not looking for a second vs 10-men City cost them that win and not looking for a second against a then struggling United cost them that win. Almost his entire career is built around short term success to boost his reputation and then leaving before having to deal with any long term issues.
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eduardo has sort of mentioned it when giving his points earlier, but I got the feeling today that Chezzer was coming out and taking more long high balls from free kicks and corners than I’ve seen him do before this season. A tactical decision to counter Carroll’s supposed prowess in the air? Whatever, it worked – Chez looked very commanding (apart from the one he misjudged and flapped at, but he’s allowed that, especially as we got away with it). Didn’t have to make as many vital saves as Adrian but still a very encouraging performance. He’s still only 24.
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Another point. The speed of our front three today caused them a lot of problems. Tony Gale may have thought Ox didn’t have a very good game but he made Cresswell look crap and set up the second goal. And while that Tim Stillman tweet above is very funny, let’s not forget how much harassing they did in WHU’s half, forcing back passes and balls into touch. Yes, they need to take more of their chances but we won.
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While Arsène says there are no more players returning for So’ton, looking at those we had on the bench fills me with confidence.
Özil due back early January but with Santi playing out of his skin in the middle, where is he going to fit in?
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I think that our attack will improve a lot when Walcott is back in the team,
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And lastly, while I may disagree with the WOB, they are entitled to their opinion. What I can’t understand is the vehemence of the hatred some of them display for Arsène, when you look at everything he’s done for the club. Just beyond me and a sign of the mindlessness some people flip into.
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The WOB are never entitled to have a moronic opinion, if it’s based on lies, deliberate misinformation and vehement hatred.
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I’m so happy the boss is shoving it down the haters throats right now.
Arsenal aren’t quite out of the title race yet you know,
If the rules can be bent to include the Man Utd jokers,
then Arsenals chances are at least as good.
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the cult of wenger out will be now praying that southampton can make them happy on Thursday, seeing as QPR and more so West Ham let them down
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arsenal game only third on MOTD,
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Holy fuck, I thought Tony Gale was bias till I listened to John Motson, what an idiot
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the MOTD pundits as usual showing they don’t know the rules of the game.
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@ eduardo – Watching MoTD for a change myself for a change too and have to say the commentary of game, particularly the Santi penalty spoken about as if it was an obvious clear cut decision was rubbish.
The Chelski Cesc – incident wasn’t clear cut as being made out, if Cesc was still playing for us, they would of been saying Cesc was already falling & anyway Chelsea shouldn’t of needed a penalty to beat Southampton. Maureen’s rant laughed off too easily too. Wenger would of been lambasted for days.
Not too mention how easily Terry got turned, poor defending and wasted chances…..I loved it! The League today just got a bit more interesting.
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Ruddy heck! that should of said ‘Watching MoTD for a change myself and have to say the commentary of our game, particularly the Santi penalty spoken about as if it wasn’t an obvious clear cut decision was rubbish (when it obviously was).
**Struggling to multitask…
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I’ve a Man Utd supporting mate and he says he can’t have the sound on when SKY, ITV or BT cover an Arsenal game, (also refuses to listen to MOTD coverage) he says he has to put on BBC Radio 5 for commentary if they are covering it, as he just can’t stand the total bias against Arsenal, regardless of who the opposition is, as a utd fan he has no love for Arsenal, but he is one of those guys who can’t stand full on bias being shown against anything or anyone.
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after 28 games of the season and we are yet to start with our first choice back 4 of Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs
we also have not been able to start our first choice attacking four
Walcott, Ozil, Alexis
Giroud
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Chris Wheatley @GoonerTalk · 7m 7 minutes ago
Sanchez: “#AFC is fantastic – very good team-mates and a world-renowned manager who really cares about his players.”
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seen a new moan,
“we should have brought on Walcott for OX and if it was still 2-1 late on take him off again for a defender”
you have to love the invention of these moaners.
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just wondering how most of you would feel about AFC signing Winston Reid, I see the Mirror saying we will try to bring him in, I know we had an interest in him during the summer, and according to the Mirror we have watched everyone of his games for two months now.
What you guys think of him, and if not him, what other tried and tested FAPL CB do you think we should go for in January. Would Everton sell John Stones(another we wanted in the summer)
for me Sneiderlin would be a great signing for DM role, and if we could get him and a good CB who is not cup tied for CL we could really give CL a run this season, especially if we can get most of the squad fit for rest of season.
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Francis Coquelin looks like a more than decent DM to me….
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do we need more players?..CB maybe yes..CM i dont know..flamini is having a very good period..another CM would be nothing more than a luxury especially when we have arteta(first choice)/coq..
if we win the next three matches plus the city match..i am sure we will be in top 3 and within touching distance of top 2. we will then see most of our players returning..i am really really excited about this season.
Arsene, as always, looks up for it! the players seem hungry and motivated..common Arsenal!
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I cant get my head around why the matter should always be about getting new [players when the one we have have not even finished fulfilling their potential… where is gnabry? has he not yet recovered? Why do we have players growing up when we must always buy? except it is a messi type player we do not really need to buy cos players are coming back from injury
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except it is a messi type player we do not really need to buy cos players are coming back from injury
perfecto!
CB area however, i think we are short..dont you?
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A23, more to the point. Arsene thinks we are short a CB,
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