The other day our good friend Bradyesque7 was musing upon the whole theme of racism, generalisations, football fandom and other such pertinent matters arising from the news of the day. Has his finger right up on the pulse of the Zeitgeist that lad and it’s a good job too because for yours truly the outside world seems to shimmy past the conservatory window like the mirage scene from Ice Cold In Alex. I wouldn’t have known about the hoo-ha on the Paris Metro at all if informed folk like him didn’t share their thoughts online and I certainly wouldn’t have had my own mental drink spiked without the provocative nature of his subsequent ramblings.
You see what bothered him most was this. If he suggests that all Chelsea fans are bigoted oafs with the mental acuity of a dried yellow split pea then isn’t he in a way committing a similar lapse of good sense and good taste as that performed daily by your average racist? It is the sweeping generalisations embraced by the intolerant that lies at the heart of their folly and so to counter such spiteful tomfoolery with generalisations of our own is surely an illogical and counter productive approach. I happen to despise all people who generalise ( they’re all the same aren’t they ?) and so I had to agree with his argument.
This whole thing got me thinking. Nationalism being the mother of racism and tribalism being the father of nationalism doesn’t Mr Bradyesque’s argument apply equally to this whole football supporting thing in which you and I like to indulge? Why do we curl the lip and pinch the nostrils at the sight of a Stoke shirt regardless of the content of the character of the fellow within it? Why does my wife have to restrain me from yelling at children as they frolic in our local park merely because one sports a Chelsea shirt the other a Manchester one? What is this seething distaste we all feel for Bristol City if it does not stem from the same tribalistic rivalry that has driven men and women to do such odious, unspeakable things to one another in the name of cause or country, land or creed ever since, well, since ever, I suppose?
The problem is that without the feverish support for ‘our own’, without the blinkered refusal to accept that we have just as many numpties as Chelsea do and just as many plastics as Man United I wonder if we wouldn’t struggle to make ourselves care quite as much. And if we didn’t care quite as much then the whole jumper of our football support would start to unravel and we’d be left naked at the conference table. Not a happy thought. So I’ll tell you what let’s carry on pretending that all things Arsenal are better than all things pertaining to any other club and get on with today’s game shall we? I think it’ll just work better that way.
The Crystal Palace was a giant greenhouse designed by the son of a farmer and erected in Hyde Park not to grow rubber plants as you might presume but for use as an exhibition hall. Cast plate glass may not raise an eyebrow these days but back in the middle of the nineteenth century people went boggly eyed at the sight of the place. What you may not know is that after they’d finished exhibiting in it they took the whole thing down, carted it to Penge and then told the poor bloody workmen to put it all back up again.
Despite being made of glass and iron the entire edifice somehow managed to burn down eighty years later, but the name lives on in The Crystal Palace National Sports Centre and in Crystal Palace FC, our hosts today. I’ve never seen the football team play but I did once attend the National Karate Championships at the aforementioned Sports Centre and won my fight because the other bloke hit me too hard – hey a win is a win, right?
Our brave boys will be travelling a little farther south of the Crystal Palace Park today to Selhurst Park which is according to Arsène an “old fashioned stadium with a soul” which is a fair acknowledgement that modern stadia, whilst things of beauty, majesty and grandeur often lack the magic ingredient of a Twerton or Ninian Park. After Christmas Palace enjoyed a run of six unbeaten games until they lost at home to Everton since when they’ve won one drawn one lost one so it’s fair to say you can’t really guess what kind of form they’re in. Anyway who cares? It’s Arsenal we care about and we looked pretty delicious in our last game didn’t we?
Remember what we were told about ‘Boro before the match not the way they were written off after it. This was a tough, tight, in form, up together team who destroyed the Champions in their back yard in the previous round of the FA Cup and we made them look like training ground mannequins at times. The movement, the passing were both top drawer and as for Larry’s finishing, well. That boy is a top class player even when he doesn’t score, he brings so much to the team, but when he produces a finish like he did for his second or rounds off the consummate team goal like he did for the first he takes your breath away. While we’re talking about the second goal, all credit to Alexis for his quick thinking at the corner. He was on the same wavelength as our sultry French bruiser and had the ability to drop the ball into the perfect pocket of air for that cultured left side-foot to guide it home.
However, as good as our goalscorer was, as busy as Sanchez was, as good a début as Martin Keown’s ugly love child enjoyed it was the two best midfielders in the Premier League who really caught the eye. Honestly I would pay to watch Santi Cazorla and Mesut Özil unblock my outside cludgie at the moment, and no one has dared venture out there since the incident of mother-in-law and the Christmas pudding. We tend not to bother with tactics here on Positively Arsenal, there are after all many people better qualified, but you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t ponder just how the midfield jigsaw in our squad would possibly fit together if they all passed muster with the team doctor. The answer is I suppose that there are many variations and the manager can put it together any damn way he pleases. But the way we played the other day with Santi (nominally) deep and central and Mesut (nominally) farther forward and central is just a joy to behold. Stick any one of our three more defensively minded mids behind them and a couple of speed merchants either side and with Larry on point you have a frightening prospect for any opposition team.
The only thing that can cause the wheels to come off is if a side keeps and passes the ball really really well and attacks with such intensity that we just can’t get hold of the thing – credit where it’s due the team from Middlesex did precisely that the other week. They were of course in very good form and lest we forget had the Second Coming of The Son Of God in their team so we never stood a chance really. As far as I know Alan Pardew doesn’t have any specific divine connections and if we can move the ball around like Liverpool did against Palace in the Cup then we ought to be OK today.
In other news little Jack’s back and not before time. I think he can do a similar job to either Santi or Mesut and as such could give either a break to ensure they stay nice and fresh for the run in. Can we talk about runs in yet? Too early? OK maybe after next week but it’s looking like a pretty exciting time ahead as the season approaches its denouement with lots still to play for and plenty of clubs still with their dogs in the fight. A good performance today please and if we can grab three points as well then that’d be even better. But just remember, if we do lose then not every member of the WOB who rushes to judgement on social media is necessarily an annoying, spineless idiot with the wit and charm of a toenail clipping. Some of them may have marginally less charm than that, after all, as our good friend Ro has taught us, not everyone is the same.
Positively Arsenal 
The pitch was as bad as the Referee. No chance of flowing champagne football.
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Chelsea’s building bridges and equality bollocks rings hollow when their captain is a horrible racist.
Mourinhois moaning like a little beyotch.
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Well that was a very decent afternoon – good performance from us and our 12th game at Selhurst Park undefeated. Manyoo get the result they do often deserve and Chelsea stumble. Now all I require is Toon to do the business in Manchester and we can draw up to Citeh’ s shoulder.
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Handsome is as handsome does. Radio 5 Live spluttering with indignation over two referee mistakes that gifted Arsenal the game while Chelsea were denied their win by the ref. And they found Swansea’s win hard to cope with too.
Tee hee. Well done us on a pitch that should be reported.
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Atkinson was really horrible today. No surprise. Missed 2 clear penalties and horrible tackles for Chelsea but nobody has any sympathy for Mourinho cause he is so classless.
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Games like that tell us one obvious thing. When under the cosh we need someone like TR7 who is jealous of the ball and hates to give it away more than someone like Alexis who likes to try cheeky back heels on the edge of our box.
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And I speak as a huge fan of cheeky back heels on the edge of our box.
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FH at 5:30pm – TalkSport pundits, whom I have access, must be seething after years of glossing over over poor decisions vs Arsenal and to see Atkinson rob their poor little baby Mourinho of at least 1 penalty and to add insult to injury, Matic, one of their key players, is sent off.
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Steww @ 5:39pm Spot on re Tom. Unlike Fabregas, Nasri, Van Persie and Song from the other era he is so selfless.
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Suicidal opening from NUFC – even at 3-0 if they can get a goal Citeh will wobble
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I thought the bench Arsene picked was too defensive, once again I was wrong. Yes TR7 is another if he had stayed fit we would of won the league player and I love him. We ground out a good win however we aren’t to clever in our second half play, we didn’t use the option to pass when we had the chance and after Arsene sent on subs to stop the crosses we didn’t.
palace arnt some team from the lower division were playing in the F.A.cup and we haven’t had a bad winter. In the PL in 2015 that pitch is not acceptable and they should be fined it not only denied good football but was dangerous and although I am normally a heavy critic of refs I thought the pitch made his job very difficult
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Ianspace2014/Seebs @ 6:12pm – Too defensive? Remember when we had Fabregas, Cesc, Nasri, Song, Eboue et al trying to defend a 2 goal lead? Blasting forward and leaving the defending to defenders. Fun times wasn’t it?
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Nice win, conceding a goal when ahead at 2-0 is always a bitch, but with the help of the post we hung on.
Matic red card, am I the only one that saw the burnley player make a pass and Matic mistimed his tackle which resulted in Matic in effect spiking himself? Notwithstanding the fact I hate chelsea wasn’t this non call correct?
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Fabianski on the game v Utd: “I had a lot of crosses and set pieces to deal with, I was expecting more shots instead of crosses.”
on the topic of utd, my mate who supports utd rang me in great mood at the news that RVP left the ground on crutches, I find many of my utd supporting friends really dislike RVP, almost as much as my gooner mates do.
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Toon engaged in the football equivalent of assisted dying. I wonder if Pardew is watching
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http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150221/wenger-on-victory-defence-and-fortune
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what a surprise that despite committing less fouls today, that Arsenal got 3 yellows to Crystal Palace’s 1
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City rip NEwcastle a new one. Finishes 5:0.
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Giroud scored 50 goals for Arsenal, faster than Drogba scored 50 for Chelsea
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the ginger mourinho
Miguel Delaney @MiguelDelaney · 2h 2 hours ago
Dyche: “Have they anything else [to complain about]? Is the grass too short?”
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Anyone want to do a review?
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It seems that Parma FC have closed down, or been dissolved
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I’ve been out and about today, didn’t see the game so can’t comment on the performance, just glad for the 3 points. Onwards and upwards.
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well passenal despite AFC not being at their best, CP rarely had a chance worthy of the name till the last couple of minutes. Think it was 3 shots on target all game, AFC had I think 6 on target. We also had couple of good chances we put wide. For me I think it was a clear penalty, despite what the commentators ran with in the second half, also worth noting that they were happy to bring into doubt Giroud’s goal due to as they put it Welbeck being offside in build up, but they ignore that Ozil had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside and Giroud was also wrongly ruled offside when clean in on goal.
Clattenburg had a mare, we may have been lucky with Coqeulin’s early tackle, but Palace got away with constant fouling, Alexis and Cazorla two main targets of these fouls. In one instance Alexis was fouled on a breakaway but got away from the fouler only for Ledley to commit a far worse foul on him, but MC only booked the first guy, which by the way was the only booking Palace got today, while AFC got 3 yellows. Inept at best, you know the rest.
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I hope for a draw in the Southampton v Liverpool game tomorrow, and for tottnum not to win v West Ham, that would make it a great weekend for us.
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for fucks sake, I don’t think I’ll bother watching now
AFCPressWatch™ @AFCPressWatch · 1h 1 hour ago
.@BBCMOTD running order: #
cfc v Burnley
Man City v Newcastle
Swansea v Man U
Villa v Stoke
Hull v QPR
CPFC v Arsenal
Sunderland v West Brom
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Steve⚽Gööner⚽Martin @HarlowGooner · 1h 1 hour ago
Looks like BBCSport/MOTD a bit pissed off with Arsenal fans giving them grief over Monday night FACup tie. 6th on tonight.
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eduardo, I have not bothered to watch MOTD for years now as I gave up on them being even-handed in regards to AFC a long time ago. I’ve caught up a bit on the action from the game and I thought that was a really good ‘strikers’ goal from OG – he had the nose to follow up and be in the right place at the right time to convert that chance, but yet still there are those clamouring for a ‘world class replacement’. What will it take for them to realise how important he is for our team and the way Arsene wants to play the game?
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Chelsea not giving enough love to their pet Atkinson today.
Matic out for next 3 games will really hurt them.
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The frauds have been exposed yet again
roll on the FA Cup game.
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after seven minutes today with Arsenal 1-0 up and having already had an Ozil goal wrongly ruled out for offside, Ray Houghton said “Arsenal 1-0 up, against run of play”, you really have to laugh at how poor the pundits are at their jobs
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Eddy
Ray is good at his job, as a former Liverpool player it’s part of his remit to constantly undermine us.
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well yes DC, it could be said Ray is doing exactly what his bosses want him to say and do, any pundit who does not follow the agenda soon finds that media work soon dries up
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Matic should have done this
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wow… what a body slam!
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well written as per usual. Steww… As for the game and results round us, quite good…. so we actually enter 3rd at last. e have been trying to get that since the Southampton game! Come on poll…a nice goalless draw will do just fine
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giroud got his 50th AFC goal in way less games than it took RVP to get 50 AFC goals
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Evening, PA folk, albeit a late evening. Just barely had time to read Stew’s most excellent match preview before running out the door this morning to get to the pub in time for kick off. I watched the match this morning with 6 20-somethings. All lovely folks, but it was interesting to listen to a couple of them just regurgitating what they’ve heard commentators spouting on TV. It reminds me how much the media drives the narrative, unfortunately. Ozil can’t defend, Per is slow, Alexis is our only savior, blah, blah, blah. I wondered if they were even paying attention at all. Seems I have some educating to do.
Anyway, a good win, hard fought on a horrible cow-pasture of a pitch, made it almost bearable that I had to work this afternoon. Now, we just need a Liverpool/Southampton draw to make the weekend.
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one man team that has the most scorers of any team in the league, the one man also not scored in 5 games, Ozil a flop despite being outstanding since his return
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Due respect to the Palace groundstaff. It must take a great deal of dedicated effort and considerable technical know-how to create a pitch like that.
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merlot
I suspect 20,000 gallons of water were put on it last night.
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Been a bit tied up today (no,not like that) so have just got round to Stews fantastic blog,didn’t know we had another martial artist on our firm on here..still heavily outweighed by us piss artists though…:)
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Doesn’t do tactics, ya right.
Claude Puel:
“He was the first manager I worked under who did specific tactical training, painstakingly going over video footage in preparation. He worked around the clock, constantly preparing the next session or reviewing the drills he’d put us through that day.”
There would be 45-minute tactical “lectures” before each game, outlining opponents’ strengths and weaknesses, and a reliance upon a data collection program called Top Scorer, a precursor to the modern-day ProZone. Every player’s decision on the pitch was analysed: such statistical analysis is a matter of course now but in the late 1980s it was something of an innovation.”
Here is the whole article, a very good read. Keep the link for the tactical useless wobs. .
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/feb/21/arsenal-arsene-wenger-scarred-monaco-marseille
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And brilliant as always stew.
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And seriously, psychological mastermind? Bourinho is starting to alienate both press and refs who tended to favor him. Soon enough some of the more intelligent players will wake up from the manipulation too, just as they did in Madrid to his cheap tricks. Good riddance.
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There is nothing special about this chelski team. They have had an injury free season so far while the other top teams been inconsistent due to injuries or in manures case in-aptitude. And now they lose a key player to red card and their title chance is seriously dented? Ridiculous.
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What is it they say about class? Oh, Mesut Ozil. Been surprised to see Welbeck start last two games shortly after coming back but he is doing well and deserves a goal.
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well foreverheady I would actually say that yes the first foul on him was just outside the area, but the biggest foul on him and the one that actually brought him down was clearly inside the area, so a penalty all day long, anyone remember when Steve Williams in an FA Cup loss at York gave away a last minute penalty, this despite the foul beginning almost ten yards outside the area, but the ref waited till Houchen got to penalty area before giving it, seemingly when it happens against AFC its not where the foul starts but when its for AFC it is.
As for Welbeck being offside in build up to second goal, all the replays I seen with the offside line actually shows Danny on side, the last defenders foot is in line with any part of welbeck that he could score with
also nice how all the channels and pundits and media ignore that ozil was way onside when his goal was wrongly ruled out, many did not even mention it at all, let alone say he was well onside, it don’t fit the agenda
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I went to the Emirates screening. Good picture with Arsenal commentators. Not as fun as a pub though. Strange how the club can show it live at the stadium but it is illegal anywhere else. Not sure about the rights etc… But I was glad to be able to watch. For a mere 8 pounds. But I did get a cup of Pepsi included!
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The angle used in most replays of the foul for the penalty isn’t the best and would only increase any impression that the initial or first foul was possibly the other side of the line. Not conclusive. The kind of instance where you’d imagine and hope that any third video ref would defer to the judgement of the onfield officials. Especially when the camera angles are restricted in angle or number as they are at Selhurst Park.
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Interesting to see all the sympathetic coverage given to Matic’s reaction. As Shotta so astutely observe Cazorla could’ve reacted like Mr.Khan above in eddy’s link on several occasions yesterday* had he chosen to respond to deliberate ankle taps etc. in a similar vein. That was a funny clip! A perfect example of why such sly hacking is cowardly.
*only the best plunditry on PA
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