Following the post from anicoll5, here is one from our resident Spud, Yido6061 . Don’t forget to read Andrew’s if this is your first visit today.
You spend half a season moaning about the state of football and then when you actually sit down to try and think of how we, as supporters, can change it, you find yourself staring into space for the best part of a week. It’s easy to complain, far harder to find solutions and I can certainly testify to that, Spurs have a manager we can finally get behind after all these years of griping and grumbling. Arsenal have on their books my favourite player from the World Cup. Manchester United have a compelling maniac in charge and are still going through a period of transition, QPR have gone bonkers. I even enjoyed this week’s Match of the Day for the first time in a long time. Yes, even Alan Shearer. This is going to be a great second half to the season, and hopefully 3 point’s in the eagerly awaited North London Derby. Chelsea are classless in every sense of the word, there’s something hollow about Manchester City and Arsenal are for obvious tribal reasons, never going to feature highly in my ‘support for a day’ stakes.
Arsenal were phenomenal with the high speed passing that bamboozled Aston Villa, I’ve spent years seething at Arsenal, I’ve said it before and I’ll say again, I never got past the inherent arrogance of the so-called Invincibles, and last season the arrival of Mesut Özil, a player I’ve have admired for many seasons now. It’s led to me questioning whether I can summon the required levels of pantomimic hatred for someone I would love to have playing for my team. And if the rumours are to be believed and Jürgen Klopp (another football man who I hugely respect) is Wenger’s natural heir at The Emirates, but the job will come with extremely big shoes to fill, Wenger I cannot think what life would be like with out him. The Premiership would never have seen the genius of Henry, Bergkamp, Fabregas or Pires. The reason Arsenal did so well in the earlier years is because he was ahead of his time. However once the billionaire owners started wanting new toys it was inevitable that he couldn’t sustain the success, but he turned unknown players into world class players and revolutionised the way players train and eat which is now the standard across the Premiership and beyond. His only downfall is his faith in players when everyone else Could see that their time was up, Chamakh, Arshavin, Bendtner, Gervinho etc. etc. Arsene has always said he would never leave the club in a poor position financially and by securing the club’s future he will secure his status as a legend. His legacy has changed the style of that formerly ugly football club forever.
Anyway back to the NLD, In my more immature fantasies, I have become a multi-gazillion-squillionaire. What’s the first thing I do with my new-found imaginary wealth? Buy a football club, of course. But I don’t spend my Monopoly money gobbling up Tottenham Hotspur. Oh no, I’m far more devious than that. I become the majority shareholder at Arsenal and proceed to sell all their prized assets to their rivals up the road. With immediate effect, I announce that the club will now play in blue and white and that the crest will be that of a cockerel crowing abreast a dismantled cannon. I can hear the protests getting more vociferous from my headquarters somewhere on the Seven Sisters road. For one time and one time only, I’m happy to play the big, bad, baddie, as I swivel in my chair and stroke my white cat wrapped as it is in a Spurs scarf. Altogether now: Arsene Wenger’s Blue and White Army!
Seriously the pain from 89 will last my life time. I actually locked myself in my bedroom and stayed there for 5 days after the game. That was the first time I saw Arsenal win the league. Boxing day games at Highbury were always so exciting. There is not the same steel in the team, no Adams to marshal the defence, no Vieira or Gilberto Silva to sit and protect the back four, both teams are more evenly matched these days, but it does depend upon which Spurs team shows up, I hope it will be the attacking, fluent passing side that swept aside Chelsea, but remember one thing…….True satisfaction comes from your team’s achievements, not your enemy’s failings, but if you take a minute to think about it, Chelsea are the true enemy’s COYS
Positively Arsenal 
more one sided reffing today, the ref might as well have put on a man utd kit, the FAPL has become a joke with all this inept or corrupt match officials
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Eduardo, the ref not booking Mason and Bentaleb for rotational fouling had little to do with our being suffocated. We were suffocated because we had no speed on the wing and Pochettino was smart enough to play Demebele in between Coquelin and Santi, thus pulling our midfield into the middle even more. I’m not dismissing the rotational fouling, but it didn’t play a role like it did when we played Chelsea, for example.
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Jenks with the defensive error to give Manure the point. That’s too bad because he played incredibly today. Jenks, Bellerin and Debuchy are a formidable RB ensemble.
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Manyoo lucky to escape with a point today from East London, great goal from West Ham’ s Kouyate should have earned them three points.
Bizarre that a side that has spent £100+ on strikers had had to rely in its past two games on lumping the ball up to Fellaini and hoping for the best. Van Persie and Falcao comical today, Di Maria not much better. For the umpteenth game this season DeGea the best Manc player.
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Eduardo is exaggerating the refs influence greatly imo. We have seen many winnable games snatched from our grasp as Arsenal fans that wasn’t one of em. Santi who has been absolutely crucial to us lately could have just walked off the pitch and we wouldn’t have noticed. He was a passenger for large spells. That wasn’t down to Atkinson. It happens to the best of em. That’s why we play the games instead of doing simulations.
Lucky lucky United. Poor Jenks must be gutted. Haven’t seen such tactics by United in my lifetime. Ugly route one stuff with no imagination whatsoever. Van Gaal is doing worse than Moyes lol. Just shows how inconsistent we have been this season.
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Loomer I am not exaggerating the refs influence at all, yes we were very poor, and yes tottnum played for the most part better than us, and they barely got the win, its true our midfield was poor, especially Cazorla, but to deny that the ref allowing constant fouling to go unpunished, some of which should have been red cards, let alone yellow, and they did not even get the yellow, did not aid tottnum and help stifle our own midfield play is beyond belief. A ref does not have to award a penalty or give a dodgy goal to have a direct impact in the pattern of play, and yesterday was a case in point.
Our players are not mugs, they know when a ref is being bias, when he is dishing out one sided decisions, and one sided yellows, when he is not protecting our players, they too know that when this is going on that their is a much greater risk of one of ours getting injured, so of course this translates to doubt, to hesitant play, to the touch being off, all things we seen in our play yesterday,
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Gainsy @ 6:14pm: I am glad you made the observation that:
“We were suffocated because we had no speed on the wing and Pochettino was smart enough to play Demebele in between Coquelin and Santi, thus pulling our midfield into the middle even more.”
Rosicky was better able to operate between the lines and drive us forward but it was toolittle toolate.
I need to rewatch the game again even though it won’t make pleasant viewing.
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the refs performance also put doubt in our players minds on tackles, they would have seen that we were getting yellows for very little, fouls against us for clear dives etc, this too goes some way towards explaining how we lost the midfield battle. You normally can’t win the battle when only one side is getting penalized, to do so you have to be really on top of your game, and we were not.
by the way I don’t blame the ref for the defeat, all I’m saying is he was one of the many reasons why we lost, one of the major reasons but not more so than silly mistakes by several of our players on both their goals. I would say the ref was one of the major reasons why our midfield had so little impact for us, and that in turn meant one of our major strengths was negated and so was a major contributor as to why overall we were poor. It does not excuse the goalkeeping mistakes, the defenders being poor at important times, but just like those things the refs performance contributed to the defeat.
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Gains
How come you would single out Jenks? Blind wasn’t his man to pick up.
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Nigel Pearson has been sacked by Leicester City according to reports, I don’t like it when clubs change their manager right before playing us, as the players usually raise their game for the match. Lets hope we score early to put them on a downer.
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In the most respectful way possible that is a load of crap. There was one potential red via Rose on Giroud but I can’t help but feel Giroud brings it upon himself with his whining and protesting of EVERY call. That kind of stuff doesn’t help his cause. Bentaleb on Ramsey was nothing happens all the time. We will just have to disagree here. My eyes saw us as getting bossed. I didn’t see us barely losing as you did. But thats the beauty of football I guess.
It’s not the end of the world Spurs will drop points home and away it’s down to us to sort out the tactics and pick up the points. We always do
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It was an awful clearance, double canister. Should of done far better imo
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I have seen many games like that one, yesterday, when one team has battered the other from the get go, and not really been given the credit they deserved.
Who am I talking about? Arsenal.
The possession stats, the quality of the play, the sharpness of the players and the confidence displayed when we have been on song has marked the team as deserved winners.
Let’s be positive and look forward to our next midweek match and hope the lads get back on track, and there is no reason they cannot do so.
Let us also be realistic and admit that, even if it is like eating glass to do so, that, on the day, the Spuds were the better team, and yes they deserved the win as they did not let us play, and it is pointless to try and rationalise our disappointing display by blaming the referee, hopeless tho’ he may have been, or bemoaning our lack of luck.
Arsene pretty much acknowledged that, we were second-best, and in understanding where we went wrong, that is the first and most essential step in putting things right, and taking positive steps to enable us to win the next game, and the next, and………
It is a temporary set back, however upsetting to lose to the bloody Spuds, and does not mean our hopes and expectations should be put away for another season.
Positive thinking is essential in every walk in life, and I have no doubt we will come good again — soon!
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Boreham Wood manager Ian Allinson’s comments do not show Arsenal loanee Austin Lipman in the best of light – the loan has been cancelled
form jeorge bird
Austin Lipman has returned to Arsenal after his loan spell at Boreham Wood was cut short. The striker hadn’t featured as regularly as he would have liked for the Conference South side.
Boreham Wood manager Ian Allinson said: “In regards to Austin Lipman, It was agreed between the clubs that Austin would return to Arsenal. That has frustrated me, as the player, his agent and his family felt he should be starting each week. Again due to the other striker’s performances, myself and my management team saw things very differently”.
“I did want to keep Austin but I felt he would be an impact player. I also needed him to work harder, to defend from the front a bit more and in my opinion if he listened, it would improve his game and improve his game management. I like to play a pressing game if I can but Austin couldn’t press the ball with the intensity I wanted and I couldn’t justify changing my shape while we were top of the league, which again frustrated him”.
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Yeah DC – I don’t know what Carl thought he was dojng there – beating Fellaini in the air in spite of the hairy bastard climbing on him – shocking header out to the edge of the box – I mean he should have headed it to the half way line.
Well that’s what Gary Neville reckoned anyway.
Simple
One might ask wtf Carl was doing marking Fellaini but who am I to raise such a silly question ?
Brilliantly cunning shot from Blind though, scuffing it hard into the ground like that so it bounced just inside of the post. Quite superb skill – all part of the Van Gaal philosophy I guess.
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anicoll, [banned amused whatnot!!]
Mind you, mocking Gary is akin to sacrilege. [ho, ho]
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Shotta, if we’d had Theo a bit further along, they wouldn’t have been able to cope with us. Fine margins.
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Dembele spent most of the game barging Santi off the ball?
Which is all well and fair when both teams are allowed to play the same game, a bit of healthy barging as opposed to the more extreme Argie-Bargie is nothing strange. Welbeck’s punishment for similar and worse* on Rose *(humiliated on that first goal!) was a strong example of what Eddy is trying to articulate above. That the Arsenal were not allowed to play the same game. One rule for one team, another for the other = PGMO rules football. I agree with Loomer, Gains and Eddy too. All of you! Hope that’s ok.
Oxlade out for a few more weeks still *sobs* so there’ll be some fitness relative juggling between Sanchez, Welbeck and Walcott in the next few games. If we compare the astute handling of Walcott’s rehab, his choice of surgery etc. with the poor beaten and abused Mendes mule Falcao *coughs* then we can understand and appreciate why Walcott was rested. Chamberlain spoke last season of the hitting the wall after a few games following his mid-season return last year, Wally will benefit from a gradual return to the rigours of three games a week PL gr*t.
Possibly more minutes for Akpom coming up (FA cup) and probably a little bit too early for Gnabry to find some form after so long out – Gnabbers has always struck me as having more strikerish qualities whilst Chamberlain is more of a midifielder? They could both probably play anywhere but at this stage of their careers they are both exciting when they play in those wide areas.
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https://mobile.twitter.com/WeapzAFC/status/564585435603955712
Some things haven’t changed since when ZimPaul and others lived in London many moons ago. I guess they never will. Which is why we admire and respect those who conduct themselves with class. Those like the Arsenal.
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It will be interesting to see how Spurs recover from Saturday’s game. They reminded me of the way Borussia Dortmund played against us back in the Autumn: high, high energy pressing and not giving us a moment to settle. But whether it is sustainable over a number of games remains to be seen. And despite the reaction to our loss it remains true that the game hinged on small moments. A top effort by Welbeck very well saved, a great header by Kane looping in. Prior to the game all seemed to be going well: players returning from injury, reinforcements brought in, referees being even-handed, results going our way. One loss shouldn’t change that momentum, and I don’t think it will.
But it is worth remembering that they had a full squad to pick from, while we were without key personnel. If all had been fit, I would have liked to have seen Debuchy, Wilshere, Oxlade and Alexis all in the team for that particular game. And I would have liked to see equal treatment for both sides from the referee, which would also have made a difference. This is not me in denial, nor is it being a bad loser – but it is me retaining a perspective that seems lost on some given a few of the things I have read elsewhere recently.
And looking at the crowd scenes on the TV it is no great surprise to read that which Fins speaks of.
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And lest I be thought churlish, Spurs played well and it is always nice (if irritating) to see a young player break through in the way that Harry Kane has. I have not heard him interviewed, but imagine he sounds like this. Good luck to him.
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As an American who has grown up in and around Los Angeles it’s fair to say I have absolutely zero faith in the Police doing anything right.
I’m not trying to be argumentative here but that shot from Welbeck was never troubling Lloris. We didn’t really create much I thought. Koscielny perhaps could have done better with his free header but one could easily say we got lucky for our first as well.
Now whether that was down to Atkinson enforcing two sets of rules I don’t know. He certainly didn’t help our cause and never does but I don’t feel that’s the reason we lost. Atkinson wasnt the one who failed to pressure Bentaleb for the second and Atkinson wasn’t the one marking Kane and protecting our far post for the first. We got caught napping twice and simply cannot gift goals like that at their ground. Two technical mistakes undid us as Arsene pointed out. Easy fixes on the training ground of course but it’s just unfortunate we gifted those in the manner we did.
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Take nothing from Kane his running and movement is fantastic. Fact is those were incredibly soft goals to concede
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Always good to read your thoughts Loomer.
At the least the officials performance was remarkable, or worthy of remark, which is not to say the Arsenal could not have played better, or had more efficient or effective attacks and shots. It’s possible to do both!
Of course no one expected any favours from the same official who sent off the wrong player off for an offence that wasn’t a sending off in the first place last season as he clearly tilted the pitch at the Bus Stop. For having the wrong colour skin. It is what it is.
Based upon the evidence from previous years and games it would be naive and hopelessly optimistic to expect Atkinson to perform as a competent (at best) referee. This crow is certainly no Dickie Bird!
But Atkinson is better at that Game then the crude apprentice Taylor, there is only one other comparable and subtle cheat officiating at the current moment.
Therefore I don’t have to be making an excuse for Saturday which I am not in order to affirm that Atkinson is a blatant and consistent cheat. We’ve seen plenty of evidence for that in previous games, seasons, years. But in regards to Saturday, when you’re playing up a slope game after game you can’t beat the gradient every time. Not least when a squad is getting hacked off the park and their players are carded for the slightest retaliation, injuries are bound to happen, are designed to happen in such circumstance (e.g.: the experienced Debuchy was an obvious miss for his leadership in such a derby game). I generally try to save my rantings on refs for the ref review site, sorry all!
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I think you’ll find that was Andre Marriner at the Bridge Fins
They all look the same though – referees (coughs)
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Haha!
It’s true! Apart from Dowd and odd man out Clattenburg – doesn’t like Utd (Yesterday he had to re-earn his stripes), has some hair etc…
If we’re going to be accurate it was our good friend Taylor who was 4th official that day who bungled up that call and made his colleague look a tit.
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Likewise, finsbury. Tough to disagree with any of that. You are right and those two points aren’t exclusive. Not sure they kicked us off the park but they sure made it uncomfortable.
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Atkinson, he was the chap who ignored as blatant a stamp as you can see, Cahill on Alexis plus the F Word’s raised arm in the area…the well known Chelsea fan! That’s the fellow.
Hard to tell these bogus bungling crows apart.
When you had Dickie Bird or Shepeard upon the field of play there was no mistaking who was who! My kind of officials.
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As you say Fins: probably best to keep these thoughts to the pages of Untold, but I knew the moment Mason got away with his first serious foul that we were in for a kicking. I wonder if the official had anything to do with Alexis not playing and Walcott on the bench?
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FH
What was your opinion of Umpire Constant who you must have played under?
Before my time but from what I understand after having read a few biographies here and there that following repetive allegations of bias and racism by the Indian, West Indian and Pakistani cricket boards and their requests to have him removed from tours in the eighties that the ECB chose to ignore led to the eruption of Umpire Rana’s comical and deliberate provocation (cheating!), the sacking of an England Captain (he didn’t like it up ‘im?) and ultimately to neutral and video umpires in Cricket. From a distant perspective Rana’s spiteful self-sacrifice was ultimately to the benefit of the Sport. As intended. He knew what and why he was doing what he did, same as Constant.
–
Point is: these things do happen in professional and modern sport. With Riley ascending the PGMO it’s the equivalent of someone publicly exposed for their bias and prejudice like Constant or Hair rising to the top of their sport: not a good situation!
This understanding can help to explain why a former PGMO head has gone I the attack, why former refs are now breaking ranks and publishing books etc. if they who know are not happy then I think it’s fair to say that football fans have I right to question the structure and integrity of the PGMO.
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There is a problem that there are several really bad referees in the Premier League – all hand picked by Mike Riley and accountable to no one else, Howard Webb is on the assessment board – but that’s no help. The FA and PL are not interested in changing PGMOL’s status quo.
The mainstream media have not noticed or are not interested in the casual link between incompetency in games and the selection process.
These referees are not just averagely incompetent when it comes to key games concerning Arsenal, but have been shown over seasons to have very high statistical bias against our Club.
How many times have legs or ankles been broken in the last 10 years? Is it only due to the lack of milk in the Colney lunch time meals?
No one asks why.
Would it have meant Spurs were the poorer team on Saturday? – probably not.
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Not forgetting Lee Probert’s performance in the FA Cup final.
One set of rules for the Arsenal – indeed.
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Finsbury,
There is a recurring suspension of belief when I learn the appalling truth that it is going to be ‘THAT’ referee officiating at an Arsenal game against……….and then the gut wrenching realisation that there any number of very poor referees who officiate at Arsenal games, and none of them give us a break.
That said, it is a bit like having a pimple on the nose just when you are going out on a date – you just have to put up with it and be happy it is not in a much worse place, and hope it goes soon.
We are good enough to overcome that sort of incompetence when we are in full flow, but when we are not firing on all cylinders, like on Saturday, it can be a heavy weight on the teams shoulders.
To be candid, I get incensed seeing so many tackles go unchecked, like the one you mention, Mason on Özil, knowing the next tackle by an Arsenal player will draw a yellow card. What??
But that sort of refereeing has become the norm, and my feeling is that even if we had a top rate (?) official, I think we were likely to lose that game.
[I am not trying to gloss over our performance, but if Kozzer, who usually is excellent at heading the ball, had connected properly with the one chance he had, we would have gone 2 up, and I doubt we would have lost.]
Just an opinion! Wishful thinking? Both?
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Henry, I couldn’t disagree. But that doesn’t mean I can ignore the simple understanding that even the Invincibles could not win a game on a tilted pitch. We all saw it. Everyone knows what happened, took a decade for Ferguson’s players to be able to talk about it and only then because they are the presenters on MOTD. I believe Grandmaster Riley was the official that day.
Nothing wrong with the odd pimple but best to sure it’s not a sly parasite that upon further investigation reveals itself to be some kind STD
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If we can tell the pitch is titled then so can the players. And they can’t balance the scales in every (other) game.
One captain left the squad following an infamous “bruised bone” (tackle wasn’t even called a foul – we’ve seen a few of those…) and the team had to be rebuilt: in simple terms because the AFC players are not protected. It’s fair topic for conversation as there appears to be relevance.
And it’s been interesting to witness the slowly diluting hostility towards the work done at Untold. A few snide souls have sniped at the research from afar (never contesting the research!) whilst the likes of Keith Hackett were reading in earnest, and practising refs too! Some of those being reviewed no less. That is an unfortunate contrast for those who should know better.
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I wrote the above after reflecting upon the observation that there were far too many fans who don’t read Untold in the the pub on Saturday discussing the obviously partisan official during the game itself. More then usual or is healthy for the game itself.
The tilting was obvious, because it was obvious. As DC refers to above the same occurred in the FA cup final and just because that was a victory that doesn’t mean that such a strange and bizarre performance from the official PGMO representative in Wembley in front of a huge audience should be ignored or forgotten.
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I see there are no shortage of seats on the exchange for tomorrow night’s visit of the Foxes all over the ground – for a game that is not on the box and is cheap the number I doubt I have ever seen so many empty seats at this stage.
Could it be the old spirit of “FuckitI’vehadenoughI’mneverwatchingthisshiteagain” is making a return ?
Fair play to them I say, much better to storm out than find yourself trapped. The complaint expressed through absence.
I shall staying away in protest at the protest, obviously.
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Thanks for heads up I’d thought all tickets had gone.
Wasn’t sure till today if I’d have the time to make the Leicester game but I’ve just managed to snag seats in the sweet spot, lower tier halfway line. Thirty squid! Not bad. Too much for teenagers and younger adults but compared to most clubs not bad at all.
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Looks like the “Wenger is too arrogant he will never change” ideologues have poked their heads back out.
They cry when we concede and lose via our ultra attacking style and then they cry when we concede and lose playing a conservative style many fans were baying for. He cannot win can he. They moan about not spending money and then when we do they ignore it unless it’s the player they want. We win a trophy against all odds and they dismiss us as not being up for it. LOL
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Bielik left out of our U21 team tonight, maybe he is in the senior squad tomorrow, Wenger had said on Friday that he would play for the U21’s tonight, good to see Gnabry finally back in action
Arsenal Under-21s to play Newcastle United: Iliev, Smith, O’Connor, Dobson, Bola, Kamara, Maitland-Niles, Zelalem, Crowley, Gnabry, Iwobi
subs: Huddart, Wright, Chatzitheodoridis, Eyoma, Lipman
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Well – if there are that number of competitively priced tickets on sale it will be a wonderful opportunity for all the loyal local fans to show their support. I would love to go myself, but will have to be content with the Arsenal Player commentary.
Fins: I am afraid I can’t help you with any inside info on David Constant. I was too naïve in those days to know what was going on. It would have shocked me to the core to think of any institutionalised bias, and I wonder if that is also the case with the young players these days. But thanks for giving me a fresh perspective on Umpire Rana – that is magnificent and well played him.
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Did not know Iwobi is Jay-Jay Okocha’s nephew.
I’ll be very surprised if Spurs keeps up the intensity against other teams lower down the table.
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Official: Chris Willock has signed his first professional contract with Arsenal
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ah the media have reported as Wenger going into meltdown over tottnum defeat, but in reality this is what at today’s press conference for tomorrow’s game, and to think some gooners still say there is no media agenda against arsenal
Journo: “it’s a nightmare for #afc fans at work this morning”
Wenger: “Do you have questions about tomorrow’s game?”
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Very interesting news, Eduardo. Ramsey perhaps the next victim of Wenger’s supposed new found ruthlessness? Bielik was penciled in to play and reading the tea leaves from reports he may just be coming along faster than we thought.
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Iwobi has given the U21’s the lead, 37 minutes gone
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well seemingly Bielik was left out of U21’s as he was needed for first team training this morning. don’t know if that mean he will be in the squad tomorrow, but I’d expect it will mean he will be in the squad for FA Cup game at weekend.
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loomer I see no reason why Ramsey should be dropped,
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Arsenal FC @Arsenal · 30s 30 seconds ago
Half-time: Newcastle United Under-21s 0-1 @Arsenal Under-21s
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FH
The story on Umpire Constant and the requests for his removal from tours by numerous boards came from your old teammates autobiography!
The conclusions on Rana are my own but seem reasonable because his decisions were so preposterous: I’ve watched the match highlights and you can only pretend to give people out for lbw when they are about a foot outside off stump when you are trying to wind up your friends in the park, or are taking the Mickey in the middle of a test match! Seriously silly decisions, equivalent to say letting a player race fifteen yards along the touchline to take a throw in during a top flight game of football or ignoring four nailed on pens in a cup final for one team…Rana must have known his career was going to be over following such a ridiculous performance. Either he had the support of the PCB from the off or he’d have been given some financial support following his hari-kiri manoeuvre. I felt a little bit sorry for Mike Gatting when considering this understanding but then if Mike had been able and willing to acknowledge that his colleagues on the opposing teams (plural!) had felt that they had to deal with similar though less farcical circumstances over numerous preceding tours perhaps he’d have been able to keep his cool (& his job) under such deliberate provocation? As far as Rana was concerned was creating such a scene a job well done? I think so.
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