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 
< Rantings!
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Shearer:
Great player
Less then a great plundit
The less said about his stint in charge of Newcastle the better
Great players should never hold their clubs to ransom, or dictate no the coaches are This topic is the one issue where Slurgus was consistent with his praise for AW’s management.
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Anything will do Fins.
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who i shnery winter?
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Yes Fins
Write it, please.
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PG, the Henry Winter article has to be read, as printed in the DT.
A snide piece of winterfoolery! Intended to increase the hits from irate Gunners.
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here is something that will make you all laugh, the following is a title of a thread on Arsenal Times
“Against Reading, who will take-up the slake with our current misfiring Forward-3?”
yeah you read it correctly, “our current misfiring Forward-3”
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Llew @NoCLlew · 23m 23 minutes ago
Cristiano’s poor body language is because “he wants to win,” yet Mesut’s body language is because he’s shit. Makes u think dunn it.
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Wellington Silva just tweeted along the lines of – The good thing is slow in coming, but arrives and receipt with the greatest satisfaction in the world. Spanish nationality !!
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Culann Davies @CulannDavies · 4h 4 hours ago
We live in a world where you’re not allowed to like both Ramsey and Wilshere or Koscielny and Per or Coquelin and Arteta. Pretty weird.
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Good game at the Vincente Calderon though I would probably commit seppuku if I had to watch that every week. Technically very sharp.
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FK² @fkhanage · 11h 11 hours ago
I see lots being made of how ‘lucky’ Wenger was to have Coquelin but not much on the same luck that Chelsea & City had with endless £££s..?
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Here’s a Spanish show about Santi featuring Arteta and Bob Pires. Only bad thing is that it’s in Spanish.
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I see most of you read that awful article about Wenger not being responsible for the way in which Coquelin has been so successful.
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Gains: at least Wenger didn’t have to pay 21 Million to recall a Defensive Midfielder that his club had sold after initially loaning him out. Surprised that Winter didn’t mention that.
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anyone see Lee dixon have a nice dig at Roy Keane last night, RK was talking about a stamping incident in the CL game and LD said something along the lines of “I’ll bow to the opinion of the expert in stamping”
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Kick Arse @kickarseHD · 11h 11 hours ago
Walcott out, Milner in. At least the guys obsessed with Theo’s ‘tracking back’ will be happy.
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klopp leaving dortmund in the summer by the sound of it. seemingly he has asked to leave or step down. man city job maybe or is he just drained. is it a case of him not being up for a battle of rebuilding them
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Klopp’s formal announcement apparently to be made at a press conference at 1.30. Talk of a “sabbatical” according to the Guardian.
Strange timing with still a few games to go but, again according to the Guardian, a replacement lined up who earlier this week turned down Hamburg job.
Could this herald a spot of managerial merry go round over the Summer ? Klopp to MCFC I doubt. Pep to MCFC and Klopp into Bayern though ?!?
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Klopp’s being Klipped.
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Klippity Klopp
The mouse ran up the clock
George, I ran out of time or mind to write something earlier this morning, will email something over later on
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I guess that Klopp would sooner burn Munchen down then become their manager!
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Bundesliga current table:
BvB are 10th on 33 points,
6 games to go – 6 points above relegation zone but 20 points off Champions League places and can’t catch Br-MG at this stage.
I wonder what the promises to Reus and Co. for staying with the Club were?
I’d expect a few star players to move on too, whether with Kilppity or without.
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Can’t see Klopp going to City.
They are the antithesis of a club like BvB Borussia Dortmund.
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Klopp to Madrid, and Ancelloti to City?
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Borussia – Prussia, I can’t see him becoming the Prince of Bavaria.
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Hard work this rebuilding a squad marlarky after the vultures have been picking.
You’d have thought that hard-arsed gritty long toothed cloven footed football fans would recognise what hard graft and sterling effort is required in such circumstances, as opposed to carping on about…hey, I’ve just realised:
Klopp’s era at Dortmund has come to an end!
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anicoll its not really strange timing, Dortmund can not make CL position and even EL is looking very doubtful too. Also it seems he will not leave till the summer.
I find it funny seeing the AAA still going on about how he is the man for us, that we can not risk missing out on him and its time for us to sack Wenger and bring in Klopp this summer. Even sillier is how these AAA make excuses for Klopp’s failures this season, such as those that they refuse to allow to be used in defense of Wenger – losing star players(Wenger lost far more season on season), fighting against much more wealthy teams(Arsenal had 3 times as many as BD had to contend with, they had Munich, we had Man Utd, city and Chelsea),
but just as scapegoated players like Ramsey, Szczesny, Wilshere, Giroud and Walcott will always remain as scapegoats for these AAA, then so Wenger will always remain their target and of course Klopp remains their favorite high profile replacement.
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The timing is unusual in as much as managers do not usually announce at a press conference on a Wednesday lunchtime with six games to go in their domestic league season they intend to resign at the end of the season eddy. At least I can’t remember one (?)
Most managers tend to cling on to the final moment if they have a contract, and Klopp has a contract. Takes a bit of front to walk away, in my opinion.
As for Klopp being a candidate for the job at AFC he remains on my list of preferred possibles. I doubt if he does begin to look for a new job he will be short of offers. At 47 he is still well within the realistic frame to take over in two years at the Ems.
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should afc if interested in having klopp as wenger’s replacement in a year or two, actually look to bring him in this summer as part of wenger’s management team or would that be unworkable
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im inclined to say ‘fuck him …he only lost two players and nearly got relegated’….
however if he promises to bring reus and hummels with him then yes. but he has to sit with primorac for two years and learn from the master
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i might be one of the few, but i don’t rate hummells, always found him to be massively inconsistent, yes when he is good he is very good, but far too often he is poor, but it gets overlooked, much like how Kompany’s poor games gets overlooked. Hummells has always looked like a midfielder to me. there is a lot of the Vermaelen about him.
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Daniel Arsenal Cowan @thedanielcowan · 2h 2 hours ago
Piers is such a waste man. Klopp would be our Mourinho…. What a punk. Given the same situation as Wenger he tumbled down the table.
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Dortmund basically lost two first choice players over two seasons to Bayern Munich and fell apart, Arsenal lost a couple of players each season for four or five years and still managed to get CL football in a league with many wealthy clubs, Dortmund had only BM who is richer than them.
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i dont know edy…..id rather show mercy and not talk about overlooked mistakes for komp or humm when our very own per and wojo have done same or worse in first half of season.
kompany loves arsenal…has always respected us…maybe he can be our next sol…..who knows…but yes he is 30 now so perhaps late…hummels is not like kompany but he is similar to per in terms of being the ball playing defender and he is also faster and younger and does have leadership qualities as his teammates and national managers can confirm.
on another note..would you install a law in the club that whoever is cought having an active instagramm/facebook etc account to be kicked out the club for ever? i am contemplating it.
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the point cannon is that unlike those of hummells and kompany, the mistakes of our players are never overlooked, not even by Gooners, let alone the media and pundits as is the case with Kompany etc – its get a name as an early riser and you can lie in till noon
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A disappointing season for Klopp which might explain why he has packed it in after seven seasons.
Can’t think of a manager who has not had a disappointing season.
Even including one who was sacked with his club in 17th place at the time.
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oh yes they are. they just prefer to blame wenger than the players themselves….heh…. the easy target.
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What’s that? Gengepressing doesn’t work as tactic for every game when you are a big club and most opponents below in your league line up 5-5-0 and look to play on the counter/hack/ or simply deeeefend?
Blimey.
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Dortmund have some very decent players apart from Reus and Hummels, Subotic, Mkhitrayan, Grosskreutz, Gudongan, Sven Bender and even Weidenfeller reckon might attract a few predators.
Lucky Mike Ashley is not in charge!
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Its lucky I read the comments religiously. I would not have even realised BD were in a problem – let alone Klopp might resign – let alone that Dortmund and Munich have rivalry as cities and states – thanks Fins, history is underestimated but as followers of football some of us still remember the war of roses. I hear Lancashire and Yorkshire didn’t get along.
As stated above, our Arsene has done alot under extreme difficulty. Its a mystery that the media have not let up their assault (maybe different paymasters), but I feel that with the star power and money returning to Arsenal, the establishment does not feel as threatened. Hence, half decent refereering. Might also be due to a strong team and stronger mentality. But a Sanchez here or Ozil there and some ‘big money’ surely alleviates pressures of paupers winning prizes. But they do like to make it difficult.
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so do we do a dortenal or an arsemund ?
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Not often I have a “bloody hell” moment;
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/apr/15/bradford-fire-stafford-heginbotham-martin-fletcher
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and whats the short version of that anicoll5?
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Hunter@2.15pm
“there had been at least eight other fires at business premises either owned by, or connected to, Stafford Heginbotham, Bradford’s then-chairman, in the previous 18 years, resulting in huge insurance claims”
“the Forensics of Fire by Nicholas Faith: ‘It’s rare to have a coincidence. If we start having multiple coincidences then it’s not a coincidence.’ “
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ah normal business then….
cheers georgaki!!!
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If and when the vacancy arises in the foreseeable,
I’m sure Ivan and Stan will keep a copy of Klopp’s CV on file.
He will be one of the ones the will call in for an Interview.
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I’ll say this about BvB fans:
If it wasn’t for their much vaunted £105 season tickets, Klopp would still be running a comparative club.
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Eduado 1:04pm
“I might be one of the few, but I don’t rate Hummells”
Jeeze – don’t restart that war on here again!!
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“Jeeze – don’t restart that war on here again!!”
And if anyone mentions the ‘S’ word ………………………..!
And stop fidgeting Hunter
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