A view from the ground from @foreverheady
I enjoyed the game and thought we were properly in charge throughout. The defence looked organised and apart from a spell in the second half when we seemed happy to concede possession, we always seemed in control of the game. I was very impressed with Campbell and felt he made a big impact: the ball seems to find him, and he was often involved. He provided excellent support defensively and his energy level seemed high – Monreal must have thought he was in heaven. Given that it was effectively his first proper match for Arsenal I thought he did well, and I would love to see him play again. There have been better players than him who have been one-footed and as the Tony Adams quote on the wall of the stadium says, “play to your strengths”. He seemed to give us a very different balance and it will be interesting to see how he is used. There is a line of thought that says that that left wing spot has been the hardest to fill effectively: Podolski, Ozil, Cazorla and Wilshere have all played there with varying degrees of success, and not all have embraced the defensive aspect of the role wholeheartedly, so it was good to see him trying so hard: he deservedly got an ovation when he left the pitch. Given the doubts over the fitness of our midfielders I wouldn’t be rushing to send him out on loan, although playing a dozen or so Premier League games for Palace, QPR or WBA would do him no harm at all I guess.
It was a good natured crowd, with a lot of youngsters there, and also a lot of empty seats, although I suspect that the official attendance was high as no doubt it was largely season ticket holders who were absent. Not many Club Level members seemed to have made it, and I can only guess that most were still on the ski slopes or wherever it is they head to over the Christmas holiday. Nice work if you can get it as they say.
And now we enter a period of brief normality with only a game a week for a while which will be very welcome for the players and rather dull for us. But thanks to our warriors yesterday we have the excitement of the Fourth Round draw to look forward to, and that is something to be more than happy about. I rather fancy an away tie at Old Trafford.
Positively Arsenal 
ordinarily mane wont get past a fit kos. but after he got past him kos still has the situation under control because as you rightly said, the ball took a ‘strange’ bounce and was going away from goal, which gives kos ample chance to rectify his initial mistake had szcz stayed on his line. so it is not that the ball was going away from goal because szcz came out. even if the ball didnt take any ‘strange’ bounce, the ball was still under control as we have seen kos done several times in tha past. the only blame that can be put on kos is his failure to continue to close mane down rather than running to tha goal to take szcz’s place because the ball had left the box and szcz could no longer handle the ball do in that situation. even then woj was so far away from his goal that he left the defender confused on what to do. the mistake is not because kos was not fit or that mane was fitter and faster, its started with szcz coming of his line unnecessarily.
in any case wilson was in total agreement with my first submission. szcz was not to blame for the second.
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Arsenal now being linked with a move for Pato, €14M fee
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if Arsenal want Bielik they will have to act fast
report on newsnow
It’s reported in Poland on Saturday that 17 year old Bielik has flown to Germany today. He’s not merely sightseeing, Hamburg are to give him the same tours and treatment that Arsenal did. Legia Warsaw president Boguslaw Lesnodorski confirmed the trip and said “Krystian is in Hamburg, the Germans are very determined. For them the money doesn’t matter, but let’s see what happens in final talks with Arsenal.”
That sounds a lot like Legia trying to take the initiative back and put pressure on Arsenal ahead of the meeting.
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Wolfsburg’s Junior Malanda was killed in a car accident this morning. He was in the back seat when the car he was in struck a tree. Malanda was only 20 years old
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reports that Arsenal have sold Benik Afobe, possibly to Huddersfield
from an MK dons blog
Benik Afobe is in talks with another Championship club as Arsenal look to sell the 19-goal striker.
Huddersfield Town and Wolves are rumoured to be interested in the striker, who is having a medical with a second-tier club at the moment.
“Benik is officially speaking to another Championship club,” said Dons boss Karl Robinson.
“We can’t say who that’s to but he’s having a medical somewhere and he is maybe moving onto other things.
“We wish him good luck.”
Afobe was not involved in the squad for the Crawley Town v MK Dons game
Read more: http://www.mkweb.co.uk/ARSENAL-LOANEE-Benik-Afobe-having-medical/story-25835866-detail/story.html?#ixzz3ORmbAisz
Follow us: @YourMKWeb on Twitter | mymkweb on Facebook
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Good on Alan Pardew’s palace. We should definitely give him Sanogo for that. If Palace had him up top they would of smashed the Spuds. Thats what Pochettino gets for ignoring us mentioning Spurs,West Ham, and Soton as CL candidates over us in his presser.
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I love it when the spuds lose especially when they think their so good and after going one up.
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Real shame if that’s true about Benik, injury halted his progression at a critical time when on the edge of first team squad. Chubas form probably hasn’t helped I wish him all the best
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The Pardew Out Assholes got their wish. Now they can see their ex-coach winning elsewhere.
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“Arsenal now being linked with a move for Pato, €14M fee”
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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In my opinion Karl Robinson shouldn’t be saying anything about Benik other than he’s unavailable. Truth is he is better than league one and should be playing and testing himself in the Championship. Sadly a number of serious injuries have curtailed his development and chances at the club, though I hope he and all our ex players make it to the top flight level of football eventually.
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Alan Pardew remains an eejit, but I was very happy with his win today and hope he keeps Palace up. We need to keep the Southern clubs in the league especially as we lost recently Fulham & Reading in consecutive years.
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…And finally from me, I am so happy to see the return of Ozil & Ramsey as the two of those in midfield make the squad so much stronger and I can’t wait for them to find their top form.
But I am saddened to hear about Junior Malanda, he was on a number of top flight clubs watch list.
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its laughable but not surprising to see the negative mob whinge about the likely departure of Benik Afobe, all of a sudden they all know how good he is or how great he is going to be, this despite him never having played in FAPL, and only having scored 3 goals at Championship level, and lets not forget he is 22 next month.
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sorry not 3 goals but 4 goals in 40 championship games for Afobe, but we are told he is better than Sanogo, and is another Andy Cole we will live to regret.
Imagine if he belonged to another club and Arsenal were now about to sign him, in would be melt down from these same whingers.
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mirror reports that Wilshere could be back by end of February, a full month early.
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the express is suggesting that Arsenal will try to sign Ryan Shawcross
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Look at this from the spam bin
“yorkie 1h
Oh how funny.On the way home on Thursday I met someone who knows YOU George,martial arts person ain’t yer,originally from Wigan.And Guess what he said ?Said you have only been into football for a few years and that no way did you EVER see Bergkamp play,or the invincibles,he Laughed and said you didn’t even know who Bergkamp was a few years ago.I dunno we have Geoff the ticket tout with his Physio source,no wonder hes an akb as once Wengers out so is old Lewin and bang goes Geoff sourCE.Then we have old Payton and then we have you.As for the weekly car crash that is Arsenaltv well opposition fans love that.Then we have the fat Indians who reAlly should stick to cricket.At least the fanbase is more entertaining than the boring crap on offer on the pitch.Can’t wait to see ozil fall over when someone breaths on him lightweight cunt.Hilarious when he goes to City in the summer.Heres some gossip for you.He HATES IT AT ARSENAL and that georgie is true.”
Unbelievable.
I dont mind the lies about me. But ” the fat Indians who reAlly should stick to cricket.” Is more telling.
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george the most laughable bit about that shite, is that he call Ozil lightweight and then says he will be joining Man City, laughable logic
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Logic needs brains. Clearly he has neither.
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Wenger, Pardew, Poyet and Bruce must all be idiots, otherwise why are they ignoring our fan base and wanting Sanogo, and not going for the far superior Afobe
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going on reports Jenkinson had another fine game for West Ham today, I only seen last couple of minutes of their highlights on MOTD, and he made an outstanding goal denying tackle and then came very close to a winner with a long range shot.
I notice some West Ham blogs suggesting that it would be a good idea for them to swap Reid for Jenkinson. they seem impressed by CJ and with Reid not signing a new deal they see him leaving for free and so it makes sense to them for a swap deal to be done. Would be sad to see Jenkinson leave, but I think we have more of a need for a CB, so Reid would look more useful to us.
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starting to like Alan Pardew
Alan Pardew comes into his press conference: “Quiet in here, must be all Spurs fans.”
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That’s funny stuff, Eduardo. Cheeky.
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PG and Goon Gal, and everyone, sad/good stuff.
(It’s late, I’m done).
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George, although that bit was mildly amusing I think you should have left it in the spam bin. Quite frankly I couldnt give a fuck how long youve been into football, if you can win as many debates as you do with just logic and no experience then you should be running the bloody country let alone an ARSENAL blog.
Ed, if there was a swap deal with WH and swaps are very rare in the PL then they would have to top it up with a considerable amount of dough. With reid nearly out of contract and Jenks rising up the line of succesion to the England RB birth then we would reid and a decent pay out.
Cant see Aaron or Mezut starting today but it will be good to have Oli back but with Le Coq playing well and this being a home game I think Flamini will be on the bench as well. Whatever the line up its good to have a few more options and expecting a more solid performance from the back 5 today after a longer time training together as a fully fit unit.
It was interesting to see the chelski coach moaning about hazards treatment and lack of protection by the PL refs obviously he hasnt seen us play for the last ten years and maybe check some footage of the old chelski teams regulary going through the back of our players legs or alternatively just ask cahil, who would have already received severaal red cards this season if it wasnt for romans money bribing the men in black and no I dont mean will smith. Im not even going to mention jt, who by the way had a shocker against newcastle and i hoping has finally lost it.
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A tremendous day in prospect and bright sunshine and high winds up in PE31.
Stoke City – 12 defeats in a row at the Ems I see in the records, 13th time lucky for Sparky and his boys ? I think not. Stole will, as on the previous twelve occasions, come for the draw, lose a goal, huff and puff, then settle for the loss of three points with honour intact against a superior football team. To be fair Stoke are not as bad a football team as they were in the early Pulis years, but the mentality is not there to produce creative football. They are a club with the handbrake permanently on.
At long last I hope to see the attacking trio that I, and probably all Arsenal fans, have been keen to see with Sanchez on the left Giroo as the tip of the spear and Theo speeding in from the right. I find it difficult to think of a strike force in the EPL of the POTENTIAL striking quality of those three, but today is the day when potential must be converted to incisive and relentless offence, and goals.
Of the other potential returners I always prefer to see Aaron start against Stoke as it disconcerts the opposition and their fans. I would be surprised if he does start because of his lay off but at least I hope for an early introduction. We need to get outr boy back to his best for Monaco, Citeh and Spuds and the path starts today.
The back five will need to be on their mettle today, the unpredictable wind, the very unpredictable Crouch and the canny Bojan will all pose questions. I have no doubt Szcz will be the keeper and on a day when whoever is in goal will find themselves under a series of high balls and good and confident handling will be required.
I saw on Friday still plenty of sears for the game on offer and the Sunday lunchtime kick off, Stoke, in mid January and live on Sky is probably the least popular game of the season. Nevertheless I expect the occasional jewel to be turned up.
I shall catch you nearer game time !
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Arse. Wasn’t sure if work was going to eat my weekend. As it turns out only half! Should’ve said yes to that offer of a ticket *curses*.
Come on The Arsenal. Send this team owned by a betting company back into the Shadow.
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with us celebrating the fact we are down to just 5 injuries and with two due to return to training next week im sure we are all feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. It is no coincidence that chelski,city and the spuds have had little or no players unavailable all season. The modern ARSENAL stadium mystery, should they deam to rehash it, has got to be this perennial problem that has held us back and in my humble opinion stopped us winning many trophies since the magic, line in the sand, every to be reffered to 2005 cup win. I know we have discussed it on here many times and all thrown up our particular theories and even Arsene has insured an inquiry takes place about the subject although from what i hear no single reason has been found.
Although hang on, as big an unfathomable problem that is, I have surely missed the bigger one, its the mockery of those idiots who believe we should just be able to cope with injuries and thats what a squad is for. These include the doomers, moaners plastic PL glory hunters but most all the proffessional journalists, presenters and most abhorent the pundits who are mainly ex pros who claim because they have played the game at the highest level know what they are talking about. Unfortunatley with most of them this just isnt the case.
So is there in depth analysis with slow-mo and rewind functions. Is there a stream of data on how our playing style, players brought and training methods have impacted and aided the high injury list no of course not, there is just the constant mud slinging at Arsene and the bitterness of the anti-ARSENAL media that the gullable wob brigade have picked up the flag and ran with.
One of the biggest myths was our training methods cause these injuries. Well apparently on a recent visit to the training ground the romford pele said our basic methods had not changed, this was obviously used as evidence how Arsene has not moved on in the modern game, but if thats the case how could Arsenes first 8 years produce so few injuries and post 2005 so many.
Another absolute corker was the type of players we buy or produce are more surceptable to injury because of their height and frame. Apparently Marc Overmars and Freddie were more powerful than the Ox, Aaron and the massive Serge Gnarby and I might add at a time when the game allowed more robust challenges.
Although I have my own theory for our injury moutain over the years its just a theory, however what is fact is those that A, say it hasnt had an impact and B, say it was predictable and C, think it is easy to cope with are complete fuckwits.
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Fins, i got flu and so im not going today. However my mates got my ticket and is going to the Kings head before the game if you can get there.
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COYG
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Team in full: Ospina, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky, Cazorla, Alexis, Giroud
Subs: Szczesny, Bellerin, Flamini, Ramsey, Ozil, Campbell, Walcott
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Kosceilney makes it 1-0
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Debuchy injured when pushed into the hoardings after the ball had gone out of play, refs takes no action, typical. Bellerin on,
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what is Lee Dixon’s problem, having a go at Alexis and then laughably saying Giroud done a bad foul on Shawcross,
giroud with a great effort brings another great save from Begovic and then seconds later he shoots wide
arsenal should be 3 or 4 up already, lets hope it don’t come back to bite us.
the ref is having a mare.
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Arsene ignored my suggestions I see
I will see him later
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some poor defending by Arsenal in the last few minutes
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brilliant goal by alexis, 2-0
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Sanchez did his thing, that thing, again.
Come on boys – bury them
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Yes but it’s a dangerous challenge you fool Smith
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crouch elbow into Monreal head, and our left back seems to have a cut head
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this ref is another not up to standard
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ref ignores a clear penalty for Arsenal, no surprise there then.
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reports that Debuchy has dislocated shoulder
half time Arsenal 2-0 Stoke
ref has been awful
arsenal by far the better team without having played at their best
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if debuchy has indeed a dislocated shoulder that could well be him out for the rest of the season, if so lets hope Bellerin gets his chance at right back, but i would not be against bringing back Jenkinson from his loan at West Ham
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Whatever happened with taking the law into your own hands ?
Bit of informal vengeance required here – I think Olivier has cottoned on though
Moss is adopting a 3 monkeys style of refereeing today – time to take advantage
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Alexis is a genius
Referee’s a wanker (another one – where do they find them?)
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Setting aside the rant at the opposition and the officials a very good half I thought – cutting through Stoke with ease – everyone in red thoroughly at it – more goals required to add a little cherry on the cake
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Surprised at Hughes putting a brand new guy in the middle of his defence against us. He must have been kicking well in training.
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Is that Wolfshite Dk ?
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