I shan’t be watching this afternoon. My wife has made other plans for me and if you’ve ever met my wife then you know how wise I am to smile sweetly and just miss the match. To be honest it’s only Man United and I shouldn’t have a problem avoiding the score until the game shows on Arsenal Player. Used to be this would chap my arse in a most disagreeable fashion and I’d be entirely out of sorts until I’d caught up with the match. Used to be I didn’t really enjoy the recording either. Not being able to interact via the net with other supporters took the spice out of the occasion, the sense that everyone else already knew the result and I was late to the party hung like a pall over the game.
Not any more. Interacting with all but one or two people during a live match adds nothing to the experience and often serves only to detract from my enjoyment. It has become apparent over the years that supporters lose their perspective and the ability to enjoy what they’re watching. Most simply cannot wait to show the world just how hopeless they are, in fact to share just how little they actually enjoy the act of watching a football match.
Combine this with the quite astonishing tendency people have to write off a performance if the result goes against us and I wonder if I shouldn’t just watch all the games a day later on Arsenal Player. Take our fabulous display against Swansea. I was completely gripped, the tension was incredible, the attacking play relentless, ingenious, fast and intricate. It was mesmerizing to watch – goodness only knows what it must have been to defend against. The Swansea midfield and defence probably felt as if they’d been run over by a truck at the end of that game. I was a little flat going into the match but ended up riveted. Sadly it seems that because Swansea defended so well and with more than a whiff of good fortune and then took their chance to snatch an extraordinarily unlikely victory our own fans have written us off and ignored the wonderful football we produced. The old adage ‘it’s the result that matters’ was wheeled out and whilst this feeble mantra has an attraction as a kind of subnormal logic which would appeal to a brain dead rock it seems to me that when we decide to immerse ourselves in ninety minutes of excitement and entertainment then the excitement and entertainment are surely of the greatest import.
I am, obviously, in a minority. If you don’t take any pleasure watching the match and believe only in the result then I say to you (again, I’ve said this often and will continue to say it) then just wait until the middle of May and go online and read the scores. There is no need for you to watch any football nor join in any discussion. If the result and the points are really all that count then count them and leave the rest of us the hell alone. Please.
The main reason I don’t mind missing the live game today is it’s against Man United. Even though most of the worst of their villainous crew have departed and the sorcerer in chief has retired to enjoy his wine and horses I still can’t warm to the lesser of the Manchester sides. It’s true I am growing a little fond of their manager. He has a disdain for the press which rivals my own contempt and says nice things about Arsène Wenger and that always gets my attention. He is struggling to force some pretty substandard players into the style in which he believes and has achieved stupefying success given the squad he inherited. I think getting a top four finish (the dreamed of Nirvana for every premiership team at the start of the season, and a huge achievement for everyone, except it seems, Arsenal) with the players he has should have seen him crowned manager of the season without any opposition. A truly astounding achievement.
So can we do the unthinkable today? In my absence will you be watching Arsène take a side to Manchester and return victorious for the third time in a season? I don’t see any logical reason why not. We are in scintillating form – just ask any Swansea defender! We have a fantastic group of players and the greatest manager you and I have ever known. However this is Manchester United. The thorn in our side for as long as I can remember. This is Old Trafford the graveyard of so many of our dreams over the years and a team who have, this season, surely led the most charmed existence of any side in the history of the game. A team who have been outclassed and outplayed over and again and yet still come away with three points. Make no mistake this will not be the walk over it ought to be. If it is then I will of course make a public apology for such a rash and baseless prediction. After all, that’s what bloggers do when they get it wrong isn’t it? When their wild speculation which they pass off as fact is found out by events they always issue a grovelling retraction, right?
Anyway, on to the standard pre match stuff. Formwise we have plummeted, having sat on top of the table for so long that I began to wonder if something had broken and we’d got stuck. We now sit in fourth position behind Leicester, Swansea and some other team. But as three sides are all on 13 points that’s a little bit misleading. Our opponents today are ninth having won three and lost three, so going on current form we should be a good bet for at least a draw. I’m sure Arsène will send his players out to win though. One of the purest delights of watching Arsenal since the great man came along is that you know we set out neither to draw nor to minimise damage in defeat. I love that if we go three down it might well end up being six or eight because that means we have gone all out to try to get back in the game no matter what the odds. When it works you end up with a match to savour, an event to live long in the memory, when it doesn’t you just forget the defeat and move on. That is why being a football fan is such fun. You don’t have to wallow in the negatives, to relive failure. The moment the final whistle blew on Monday I was looking forward to the next game. Yes I still remember the dazzling pass and move football with which we tried (unsuccessfully as it turned out) to break down the visitors but the result has been washed away. Any fan who spends any of their time scrutinising defeat has mental health problems and probably killed their pets when they were a child.
So you’re on your own this afternoon, I won’t be there to share the triumph or the tears and I hope you won’t go texting me the score before I get chance to catch up on Monday, that would be mean. Three points would be great but once again please try to remember you watch football for the joy of watching football not like a train spotter to just collect data. The game at its best is a living, breathing, unpredictable, unscripted blend of athleticism and physical art. We are lucky to have on the side we’ve chosen to support some of the greatest proponents of that art so why not do yourself a favour and actually enjoy watching them perform?
Positively Arsenal 
Morning Stew, Mrs B has spoken and your absence in the digital scrum this afternoon shall be mourned ( in an appropriately techno split nano second sort of Twitter style).
I love the ManYoo game – it has always always been one game on the calendar that is highlighted and I look forward to – even when there has been no real ‘football’ or trophy issues at stake. Even before the Mancs were the club to despise with Bluenose in charge it was theatre every time. It is very very rare that it is a flat game – there is something to catch the eye.
I have gone to lengths on occasions to see it, driving back from Rome overnight to get back in time for the Sunday KO ( that was the 8-2), finding a bar in Darjeeling with TV (2002), and today I am waiting as I tap the keys for a cab to take me back to my car in Ilkley. Despite the aggravation it is investment. There is no true joy without sacrifice.
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excellent preview agin Steww, your right of course the usual mantra of ‘it’s the result that matters’, injury is no excuse, luck always evens out at the end of the season and of course where ARSENAL are concerned the recent if you dont come first you might as well come last. All are complete bollocks designed to fit circumstances rather than a real appraisal of what has happened.
the swansea game wasnt really about failure to break them down, as we acheived that on many occasions, it was just about shooting accuracy and the shoot or pass decision a the last second. This is something which can change match to match or even half to half. The way we played our football was excellent only the way we conceeded the goal was disapointing especially as in previous close games we had avoided such calamities.
The result is obviously important today but like you say we must enjoy our football as well and with this team and Arsene we usually do COYG
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An added pleasure of supporting The Arsenal is the chance to read posts like this.
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Top stuff Steww. A shame more supporters do not share that enjoyment in football.
I do not fear this Man Utd team. I fear referee tilting. Anything like balanced refereeing will see Arsenal win today. Had my afternoon nap so I might be able to watch this one live hehe.
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Morning Posivistas.
Reports from the northern smog suggest Rooney is out.
This is a good thing.
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Sav
We had Mike Dean for the FA Cup game up there, and no harm came of it.
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Smeagol at City DC, Oliver in the cup. I hope we don’t get Gollum today!
Wilshere’s only just recovered from the Villan’s fragrant attempt to play the advantage (though Wilshere was of course in a much better position then Chambo) in the last league game.
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Nodding in agreement with Steww especially his observation that so many of our fans seem to take no enjoyment from watching a game. So much so, I have learnt to avoid Twitter like the plague during an Arsenal game, interacting only at half-time and after. (Perversely, if it is one of our rivals playing, twitter is the place to pour scorn on their efforts.) Our last game vs Swansea is a perfect example. Being in a different time-zone and work obligations made it impossible to see it live. Checking into my timeline post-game, it was a bun fight between tweeps trying to outdo each other in making the most negative assessments of our performance. Two days later I finally had the chance to watch a recording and, as Steww described, saw a totally enthralling spectacle, especially in the 2nd half, as our team used a combination of skill, technique and pace to lay siege on an odburate defensive set up, only to lose to to a ropey breakaway which seemed to have been clawed away by Ospina only to be decided by a bank of goal-line cameras. As Steww said.
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we won the cup game and di maria was sent off but the hairy one was allowed to get away with a million fouls of all different types. He clearly should have been sent off in the first half so the ref was brilliant however he wasnt fooled by their diving which was critical, today he has to contend with the PL best diver in young ( whos how family are gooners by the way so I was hoping they might kick him)
I cant imagine shrek will miss this game with a dead leg so expect to see him as well.
I was thinking would it be to left field or should I say right field for Serge to turn up unexpectedly in front of Hector as he is very Danny and Ox like with his power and workrate.
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Ramsey didn’t train until yesterday? Didn’t look a hundred per cent to me last week, but obviously he wasn’t going to place himself on the bench. A tricksy call again, glad I’m not managing a top flight football team on my day off on a Sunday, a beautiful sunny early summers day. Think I’ll take Steww’s advice and just try and enjoy the football.
It is also nice having more Football teams in the league, Swansea, Southampton show up the overspending cloggers. Too early to see what LVG, he’s at a club that have been happy to pay double at lest the market rate so that might make it hard for him to control his ins ands outs. But fair to say that like Pellegrini’s City he will not inspire the rest of World Football apart from the friends of the special agents and those gullible enough to believe them to see his work as “shit on a stick”.
e.g.:
Bolasie > The Mendes mule Willian
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Can’t see Gnabbers, Chamberlain, Aretea , Debuchy etc. getting many minutes till pre-season now. Sunderland won’t be on holiday. Tony Poolis will be doing his bit to protect the precious bodily fluids of the nation, for Nelson, for Britannia.
Don’t think they’ll be back in contention for a start till pre-season.
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< see his work as anything other then "shit on a stick"
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was it not michael oliver?
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Steww you just superbly stated why I am an Arséne Wenger’s Arsenal fan. It’s the football stupid…..
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I’m hoping to get to the FA cup screening at the Emirates. Would love to meet up with any positivistas again…..
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It’s a brave face from Stew there as he prepares to do a Likely Lads, avoiding the result until he can get to the highlights! I know in the unlikely event of being in similar shoes on other occasions I simply can’t concentrate on what I’m supposed to be doing while the game is on; the Likely Lads is one ’70’s tradition I’m delighted to leave behind.
Opening minutes of the City-Swans game and the blue Mancs know they have a game on their hands from a suitably buoyed up opponent who has already played more attacking football in the opening 10 minutes of today’s encounter than they mustered throughout 90 last Monday. Bloody typical.
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So Swansea used up its full quota of luck on Monday. Today, playing at home, they are bound to set up in a more attacking formation and City hurt them twice, first with a bit of luck and second with a devastating counter attack.
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AA ahh those likely lads what an episode that was! Well it looks like were playing for third excited earlier on now starting to get nervous hope we play to our full potential and have a bit of luck as well COYG
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Amazing to think the first episodes were broadcast in 1964 arse_or_brain; for some inexplicable reason I have little difficulty imagining Stew in the role of Terry, I don’t know why.
So, another staple from the ’70’s (80’s?), Tales of the Totally Predictable being recreated in match form with Swansea being picked off as a result of their attacking set-up and Fabianski fumbling in a way the very Laws of Physics would have forbidden on Monday.
Still, a jolly decent game which (taking Stew’s advice) I’m enjoying, albeit through gritted teeth. Could go either way here …
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cackling out loud here mrs and the dogs giving me funny looks
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6_igisgS3s
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Typical Fanianski, typical Mangala, typical Mangala. 2:2.
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Go Swansea – 2 all!!
With a quality Monday-nightesque save from Fabianski immediately preceding the leveller.
Ain’t over ’til it’s over …
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Gomis redeems himself!
Can Swansea hold on or find a winner?
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From Guardian MBM: “Zabaleta is booked for booting Shelvey up into the air.”
But I bet Zabelata thinks it was worth it – who hasn’t wanted to boot Shelvey?
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Stew,you’re a better man than me mate,I even dragged the wife & kids into a Hooters bar in San Diego because it was the only place I could find the Arsenal game on at the time. Happy days.
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YT settles it, 2-3
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I meant: Typical Fabianski, typical Mangala, typical Gomis.
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same team again must say im a little surprised Aaron must be rocking again COYG
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We should be favourites here – no RVP, Carrick or Granny-Shagger versus a settled, confident and unchanged Arsenal.
Enjoy the game!
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Arsenal team: Opsina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud.
Subs: Szczesny, Gibbs, Gabriel, Flamini, Rosicky, Wilshere, Walcott
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150517/team-news-arsenal-unchanged-once-more#uHYjos09TF5AEGPD.99
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United XI: De Gea, Valencia, Jones, Smalling, Rojo, Mata, Blind, Herrera, Young, Fellaini, Falcao
subs: Valdes, Blackett, McNair, Di Maria, Januzaj, van Persie, Wilson
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poor defending from Arsenal, and utd take the lead, ospina beaten at his near post.
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You forgot to add eddy “and United are playing us off the park.”
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They are out-passing us, out-fighting us – everything they are doing is better than us. It’s like we don’t have a game plan.
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yes dkg we have been very poor, as Wenger would say we are playing with the handbrake on, Alexis is losing the ball far too easily, Giroud has no support, midfield poor.
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HT: Utd 1-0 Arsenal
Arsenal been awful so far, need to put Ramsey in the middle and take off Cazorla, bring on Wilshere or theo to wide right.
Players really need to step it up big time in second half, that was as bad as we’ve played all year.
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That was embarrassing to watch – not even steww would have enjoyed that.
Let’s hope AW has some idea of what to do about it. No chances at all for us and a whole string for them.
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we were poor I think… passes are one step ahead of who we are passing to.. too many long balls forward. okay not really too many cos the long balls have actually seemed to create more chances than our other passing
we have to step it up… no other way… or else some one needs to chance… Carzola or Alexis….
The game can still be won though
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Against Swansea it was the same one or two steps ahead of ho we are passing too hence the keeper got to many of those balls first cos Theo certainly has pace to meet a pass. what happened to weighted passes?
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We need a spark
In fact the game needs a spark
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We are just on our game today. I have got to agree with Lee Dixon, at last.
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If it wasn’t 1-0 it would have 0-0 written all over it
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Bit sharper in the past 5
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Here comes the cunt. I just hope we don’t allow him to score.
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It’s coming
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In charge now – time to strike
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Cazorla should have done better with that chance
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What a show of speed by Bellerin.
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I just hope it is not a case of too little, too late.
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