Good morning Positivistas and a bright and breezy start to the day in Norfolk. The detritus of cans and empty bottles around the premises reminds me it was a good night. I have a slight haze and a strange recollection of a heated argument about the Queen. It will pass.
I have perused the media this morning, social and mainstream. The content is warm in relation to Arsenal Football Club, its manager and players. Seemingly a light has been switched on among the ignorant and the malicious. No doubt a temporary aberration but it is encouraging not to see the usual clichéd trash of commentary concerning midfield “beasts” and “not liking it Oop North” recycled endlessly.
Turning to matters at hand however eight league wins on the bounce and three points hard earned at Turf Moor in the evening game. I say hard earned because the home side were thorough and organised. We know there recent impressive record against the top four. They massed in defence and made few errors. Boyd and Barnes ran and ran. Their central defenders, Duff and Shackle ( great names for centre backs btw) were resolute. Did you see just how many Arsenal players it took for Ramsey finally to whack the ball into the back of the net ? And if you are aiming to get a goal against a bottom three side, make it an early goal. Burnley were rocked on their heels in the 11th minute, the home crowd quietened, from then we had the 3 points to hold on to. Another fairy tale result was not on the menu for the plucky claret and blue battlers.
The match itself? After an opening phase when it looked as though we would blow the home side away with our speed and craft the game became more difficult, much more of a genuine contest. They did not back away from that effort however for the next 80+ minutes of the game. Not at any stage were we hanging on, not at any point were Burnley creating clear scoring chances, but even so there was pressure of a not entirely pleasant type. HOW IMPORTANT that early goal was !
There then followed 60 minutes of hard work from both sides. Alexis fizzed like a firework all over the pitch, we created a few chances, Burnley dabbled around the edge of the box, Ospina made a good save, Hector looked a little off his game once or twice, referee Dean displayed the patience of Job with players on both sides.
And so we moved into the traditionally tricky final fifteen minutes when I assumed that we would come under sustained high level bombardment, as Burnley pressed for the equalizer. That is after all what is supposed to happen, goal line clearances, finger tip saves, breathless finish, me hiding behind sofa etcetera – you know the form. You have suffered as I have often enough.
Not a bit of it. As the game drew toward the 90 we took total control again and our hosts were barely able to get over the half way line let alone put together an equalizer. As impressive an example of “game management” as you could ever see.
And so Deano blew his whistle and the contest was decided. Three points gathered, the Manchester derby to come with points dropped by one or both of the pursuers, and just a notch more pressure applied to Chelsea today. By 6 p.m. our win at Turf Moor may be an even more satisfactory result than on the day itself.
The Premier League now needs to be put aside by us and our full concentration directed toward Reading. A great opportunity for back to back FA Cup finals is open. As Burnley demonstrated yesterday though an organised, fit team can cause you problems.
Enjoy your Sunday wherever you may be.
Positively Arsenal 
Bayer Leverkusen have sacked Emir Spahic after he was filmed headbutting a steward
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GoonerChris1886 @GoonerChris1886 · 6h 6 hours ago
8 games ago we were 7 points behind Man City. Now we are 5 clear.
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sickening …..
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Utd are still only 1 point behind us, bizzare.
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i dont like hamilton…bit of a celebrity whore and a poser…a chav….but he is a superior talent to rosberg no doubt….just shut the fuck up nico ….
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Ed, Sparhic has passion whengarr should do that if he really loves the place.
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He’d be available on a free!
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The Utd game was always going to be a big game after the last result there. Reading next and then Gazprom. Not surprised with the Czech rumours after Green and Begovic’s recent auditions.
$ity’s collapse has been almost as bad as Tottenham’s since their victory in the derby.
Conversely a victory for Arsenal in the upcoming derby following some slippage in the Gazprom game against Utd could be interesting.
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Maybe we should go easy on all those blog warriors who so willingly give us their insights into Arsenal’s trannsfer needs. After all, they’ve been telling us all season that we need a holding midfielder whose name ends with . . . . . lin.
Perhaps they just got mixed up. It’s an easy mistake to make.
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glad you brought that up merlot, two things I’d like to know 1. why do so many of these AAA go on about Morgan Schneiderlin as being the world class DM we need, if the guy is such a good DM why do Southampton actually play an out and out DM in Wanyama behind Schneiderlin, don’t get me wrong I do think the lad would be great for us, but he is not and never has been an out and out DM
2. the Arsenal blog world and twitter today is absolutely full of lists of who and what we need if we are to challenge for the title and cl next season, you’d think we were on a losing run and not the best run of wins of any team in the league this season. Many are saying we need to sign a GK, CB, LB, DM, ST and a winger, most saying a left winger. so the AAA are sticking to their nonsense that we need more than half a team, it really is amazing how stubborn, myopic and deluded they are, its as if they want to be like Wenger – or their view of Wenger.
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TEAM NEWS: WILSHERE CAPTAINS UNDER-21S
Jack Wilshere will captain Arsenal Under-21s at Emirates Stadium tonight – and you can watch the game LIVE on Arsenal.com!
The England international leads a strong Gunners line-up that also features Abou Diaby and Serge Gnabry.
Tonight’s game is free to view for all Arsenal members. Sign up for FREE Digital Membership to watch the game and enjoy all video on Arsenal.com and Arsenal Player.
Monday’s Matchday Show begins at 6.45pm (UK time) with kick-off at 7pm.
And remember to stay tuned to Arsenal Player after the game for live post-match reaction – plus our monthly Arsenal debate in the Clock End.
Tickets for the match are on general sale until 4pm on Monday, priced at £4 adults and £2 for concessions
SIGN UP FOR DIGITAL MEMBERSHIP HERE AND WATCH THE GAME FOR FREE
Arsenal team:
Matt MACEY
Julio PLEGUEZUELO
Brandon ORMONDE-OTTEWILL
Abou DIABY
Stefan OCONNOR
Krystian BIELIK
Daniel CROWLEY
Ainsley MAITLAND-NILES
Alex IWOBI
Jack WILSHERE (captain)
Serge GNABRY
Subs:
Stephy MAVIDIDI
Deyan ILIEV
George DOBSON
Glen KAMARA
Gedion ZELALEM
Copyright 2015 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150413/team-news-wilshere-captains-under-21s#gYwW3SKkogHMmIya.99
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u21’s losing after 7 minutes, once again a soft early goal let in by one of our youth teams, a free header at a corner
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by the way it was Niall Keown who gave Reading the lead, Niall is the son of Martin Keown
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HT: Arsenal U21’s 0-1 Reading U21’s
poor performance from Arsenal so far, too slow a tempo, and taking too many touches and passing around without enough end product
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Bielik off injured 53 minutes,
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Dobson was the sub on
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Julio PLEGUEZUELO
was ist das?
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arsenal.com – ‘The Spaniard, who arrived from Barcelona in the summer of 2013, is composed on the ball and reads the game well.’
have we snatched the next pique off them?
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mavadidi on
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you know we had that other spannish kid…very elegant ..very aristiocratic …ignacio micel ????? anyone know his whereabouts???
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ohhhh savvas mourgos from panionios….mmmmm interesting..panionios is the talentmother of greece……may not mean much to you guys hehe but they do produce good footballers there…always have…
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kamara on for Wilshere with a couple of minutes left
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FT: Arsenal U21’s 0-1 Reading U21’s
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Arsenal must be doing something right again as media in full on attack on the Gooners once again
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/11534041/Arsene-Wenger-deserves-no-credit-for-Arsenals-best-decision-this-season-recalling-Francis-Coquelin.html
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Poor Henry – that desperate for clicks he will say anything
To be fair to the man the slaughter of journalists at the Telegraph mean the poor bloke is fighting for his job.
It won’t end well.
And what a game from Anfield – poor football, unprofessional so called professionals, acting, diving, couple of good saves, referee shepherded of by Merseyside Constabulary at HT #YNWA
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lfc only 4pts off 4th
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For those who enjoy football as horror I can recommend toonforum.co.uk
Excruciating torture, makes most Spuds fans look cheery
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toon fans deserve all the torture they get, how many more managers are they going to force out just cos they(the fans) have this deluded self entitlement to a successful trophy winning team. The hounded out big fat sam and pardew, with both managers then doing well at clubs that the toon fans would look down upon. Who do Newcastle fans think they are, the won the league in 1904–05, 1906–07, 1908–09, 1926–27 – yeah 1926-27 is the last time they won the league, and the last time the won the FA Cup was in 1955. They are even more deluded fans than tottnum fans and that is saying it all.
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Anicoll
It’s grim oop North.
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Eddy
Morgan isn’t a DM, he’s more like Abou Diaby…
Who isn’t a DM either.
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It was great to be able to watch the Under 21s on the Arsenal Player, but I totally understand why many of their matches are away from The Emirates or played behind closed doors. It would be very easy to form misleading impressions of a player based on these matches alone, and it is certainly beyond my understanding of the game to do so. What I would like to know is whether the younger players also play for any clubs in local leagues, or whether their total match experience is just all that is posted on the Arsenal’s Academy Website.
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From my knowledge of the Norwich Academy, and I assume it is a standard format, once a youngster joins the academy they agree only to participate in Academy matches and that they will give up playing for either their local clubs or schools. The rules apply right from the age of 11 upwards and to boys and girls.
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yeah anicoll once signed up to an academy, even on only schoolboy forms, a player only plays club football for said Academy teams.
an odd thing about Arsenal’s U18’s, U19’s and U21’s this season has been the amazingly large amount of goals they have conceded in the opening 10 minutes of games, its odd that it keeps happening right through the season.
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I am not sure that Toon fans, all fans in fact, deserve ALL the torture they get.
What a shambles of club they are at the moment. 50k virtually every week, and not a sniff of a trophy for the past decade, even the Europa Cup a fantasy aspiration. Lashings more TV money on tap. Manager after manager sacked for poor performances, hounded out by the owner or fans, or just walking away in disgust. Owned by Ashley whose approach to club ownership is buy players cheap and the moment they show any promise to sell them asap. Even the name of St James Park was sacrificed on the altar of Ashley’s commercial obsession. And even the players are a total shower. Their one striker gets a seven game ban for spitting. And the so called ‘captain’ last night picks up a red card for an pointless and vicious challenge.
The usual boycott planned at the weekend for Spurs game. I suspect if I were a Toon fan even I would reflect carefully on my active support, i.e. spending money, on watching or following the club.
Lucky I am not really.
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newcastle? …only worth watching when they had faustino nilberto solano and ginola
love colocini though…legend
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If I were a Toon fan I’d have had second thoughts on giving the club my hard earned Wonga since the days of the Shepherd and tabloid stings from the Fake Sheikh.
Which made it all the more strange to me see the AAA attempt to brainwash fellow arsenal fans into believing that the AFC board were the worst on football during the post 2010 WC trials and tribulations. the obvious squad rebuild which many Experts chose to completely ignore! A rebuild marked by the mid-signing statement of Nacho Monreal – Monreal or “The Harbinger” as I called him at the time, a harbinger of the clubs good intentions at that time which all these experts chose to ignore…). It was a sorry sight to see the “end of an era” believers eventually buy into that piss poor “worst board” meme all guns blazing (they’ve been out of ammo for a while now, you can occasionally hear the sounds of empty barrels misfiring).
I have no sympathy for the toon fans who turned on their decent manager this season because they didn’t have the footballs required to critise their owner. The same owner who sacked Bobby Robson for coming fourth…. It was pathetic behaviour on every level.
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< Mid-season signing or statement
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God forbid I’d ever say anything nice about Ashley but it was the previous regime of Freddie Sheperd that sacked Sir Bobby Robson in August 2004.
That worked well !
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Fins is on fire this morning and his three part rant against Henry Winter on the Untold site should be cobbled together and offered as a whole post.
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Anyone have a view on who is the Liverpool and Young player of the Year;
http://www.liverpoolfc.com/2015-player-young-player-of-the-year-vote
Its Mario for me, no doubt, vote early, vote often
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Oooops, that is correct!
Sacking Robson was another act in the distinguised career of Freddie Sheperd.
A bit of further digging hints that Shearer had a hand to play in the eventuaL fall of Newcastle FC, the end of Robson’s dream of building and leaving a legacy in his last job in Football. Shearer’s bruised ego eventually got a chance at the hot seat…now he’s a plundit on MOTD. Lucky us!
“Signficantly when Sir Bobby was presented with a special sword by the city of Newcastle at the conclusion of The Match, a pro-celebrity football show filmed at St James’ Park and recently screened by Sky, both Shepherd and Shearer pointedly vacated the directors box before the on-pitch ceremony.
…While Robson is understood to feel betrayed by Shearer after reviving his career on succeeding Ruud Gullit at St James’ five years ago – it is apparently no coincidence that he lost his job after dropping the No 9 for his final game in charge”
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A5, is right once a player plays for an academy they can’t even play for their school team. Players are often stolen from club to club and scouts are supposed to make their self known and ask permission to attend games. Basically even at five years old it is a very murky world. Also because of the numbers involved the boys are looked after while their doing well but cast aside easily when not required. By the time the lads have got through to the U21s they will be known by every club and will have seen hundreds of others fall by the wayside.
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Fins
Duty calls!
You can’t expect George and the gang to write every post.
You write plenty of good points yourself.
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when i was younger and inexpreinced i held big al as an equal to batistuta, romario raul etc …then he started to crap on arsenal so he had to be erased from memory and good lists….but i checked his stats again …incredible marksman really… scored in more than half the games he played….
big al 379 goals in 734 club apps ( all comps – epl/f.a/l.cup) = 0.516%
raul 396 in 910 apps = 0.435%
batistustuta 297 in 476 = 0.623 %
romario …… LOL……..688 in 886…. a bit like jeffers… = 0.776 %
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Anicoll
Job done, I feel like Gerry Adams now.
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Gawd, I loved Sir Bobby – proper manager, proper football nous, even made watching England tolerable.
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marco van basten 276 in 373 ….. 0.739% …. killer
thierry 360 in 792 …. 0.45%
suarez …. 236 in 394 ….0.598%
trezequet 273 in 557 ….0.49%
kloze 218 in 556 …. 0.392% …
ronaldo 352 in 518 …… 0.579% .. bomba
++++++
messi 410 in 501 ….. 0.818 % …… alien….
cristiano 424 in 612 …. 0.692 % …hahahahahhaha……
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darren hackerby 114 in 459 played till 2009 in san jose earthquakes …. our kenny powers !!!
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Fins. Write about Winter and Email it to me ?
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I’ll try and re-edit into as coherent a post as possible later tonight but I’d say my rankings were less about the individual hack Winter and more about the ability of people who spend a lot of time watching sport to ignore the impact of the uncalled fouls on Wilshere, Debuchy, Coquelin etc. & their careers…
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