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 
Oh get up Ffs Aaron
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So so close
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Cazorla has really had an off-day.
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Theo on for Bellerin, Coquelin to right back. Jack on for Cazorla. About 20 minutes left
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Santi not on song this afternoon for once – great opening for Jack and Theo against tiring Mancs
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De Gea has gone off injured, Valdes on.
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Victor who ?
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Young says welcome to the Coq.
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Run at Rojo Smalling Jones, get in the box, gravity and Mike Dean will do the rest
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Rock fucking on Tyler
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The coming of Theo. Excellent. 1:1
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deflected theo shot makes it 1-1
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Lucky they took Rojo off
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Giroud very close to scoring, hit post/side netting
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We are all over them but I am afraid of the sucker punch.
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Come on Jack – straight up the middle -the Mancs have gone
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the skunk had a great chance to win it for utd, thankfully he ballooned it over the bar
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Flamini on for Alexis, only injury time left
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AW is content with the point. Flamini as sub.
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Flamini ? Get in there Matt – there is a winner here like a pork pie on the pavement of life – pick it up
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3 minutes – time to collect
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Andrew – Your boy Mike has had a good game. You have been having a word in his ear?
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Thank Bergkamp. We showed real spirit and quality in the 2nd half.
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much improved second half, well deserved draw in the end.
Ramsey got lots of abuse on the web in the first half from the more moronic gooners, and he was our best player by some distance in the second half, but I’m sure these idiots will not feel at all foolish about it.
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two points needed for a 3rd place finish, one point might even be enough as we have 7 goal difference with utd. Hopefully we will get it done v Sunderland on Wednesday.
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He could have given us the three points if he had the service Shots ( banned smiley)
Good game – probably a fair result as we were grim in the first half – much better after about 50 minutes and pity we did not convert our control into a winner
Remind me though – did Robin touch the ball ? Total joke taking Falcao off and replacing him with the Dutch clown
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If Szczesny is going to start the FA Cup final then I hope he is selected for our final two league games to get match fit for the final.
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anicol yes the skunk touched the ball twice that I can recall, first he ballooned a great chance out of the ground and then his second touch was when he was offside.
Falcao played well, was surprised he was taken off.
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Yes, a much better second half display. Quicker to the ball, more accurate in the passing. Goal a bit flukey but we started getting the run of the ball. Jack’s looking very good.
Great result – only 1 point needed for third place. If we can get that on Wednesday, we can rest a few against West Brom before the Cup Final.
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Good to hear LvG being drowned out by the Arsenal
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Very decent point, almost at the end of a very long season comprising CL footie and the ultimate extended FA Cup run. Compared to United who played far fewer games and will find the going tougher next year. We were flat in the first half of both this and the Swansea game and that points to fatigue. Still the season’s not over, two tough games and a cup final to go.
Dig in lads; just hope the fans manage to stay the course.
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Steww wont enjoy that first half we were bad in all area’s. second hald we started to dominate more and more until all the subtitutions disrupted us a bit. we were unlucky in places so for the goal we were probably due abit of luck. hopefully we can sow the points up at home wednesday so we can rest a few against pullis and his team who he will send out the intention of injuring as many players as possible. its a shame hull didnt get apoint to make villa play at full pelt. Anyway unbeaten in manchester all season its got to be good.
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just trolled a utd fan on facebook with “come on you Gooners” and she thought she was being smart by asking did I mean “the Gunners”, have had to educate her in the finer details of following The Arsenal.
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Went on twitter post game. That place was a shit-house during the game especially after we conceded. Thank heavens I had Andrew and Eduardo to celebrate a brilliant 2nd half by the boys. So now we are no longer shit, we are absolutely going to walk the league next season. Yeah, you are right, twitter.
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Carl Bövis @CarlBovis_AFC · 15m 15 minutes ago
‘We need a reality check on Ramsey, he’s always a 7 or 8, today he was a 9 or 9 & half, he’s so consistent we take it for granted’
– Souness
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Don @onearsenewenger · 31m 31 minutes ago
Most expensive PL squad in history and they have done well to get 4th? Remarkable that when AW done that on scraps it was rubbish.
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Alexis was not half as sharp as he is usually. Without him stretching the play out wide the Mancs were able to pin us in our own half for long stretches. I counted at least three times in the first half where we were so narrow that Ozil was tackled by at least two players at the same time. Had Alexis been even a millimeter sharper, we would have had a much better time against them out wide.
Santi lacked his usual spark and he didn’t give us those little turns in the middle which draws out one or more players and opens up the pass just ahead of him. Given that he has played in almost every game this season, he’s probably knackered. We looked much better when Jackie replaced him there.
Everyone else had a decent game considering we were playing a team which has played at least twelve games less than us this season.
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‘We need a reality check on Ramsey, he’s always a 7 or 8, today he was a 9 or 9 & half, he’s so consistent we take it for granted’
– Souness
People look at me funny whenever I call Ramsey the Welsh Zidane. That boy is going to make Cesc look like David Bentley.
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They really did kick the shit out of the team today. It felt like the plan from the establishment was for Utd to win today. Lucky Theo didn’t read the script.
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606 full of moron wenger out brigade tonight, and idiot wright saying Arsenal need two world class defenders and several more top signings too just to challenge chelsea
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good God on 606 it takes a tottnum fan to ell Arsenal fans to cop themselves on and to stop whinging about Wenger and to realize how lucky we are to have him and to see how good we have it, as the guy said “these so called Arsenal fans”, have no idea about the real world at all.
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with 15 minutes to go Barcelona on verge of title in Spain, they are winning and Real are drawing.
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Tried to phone Stew. He wont answer.
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The trouble is with Aaron (also Jack) is the opposition recognise how influential they are. They will repeatly foul them, yeah rotating so not to incur bookings, meaning they are more prone to injury. With Theo, Serge and the Ox not ready for a start it is vital Aaron stays fit for the final. Pullis will target him as he has before and try and put him out of the game. Le Coq and Hector will need to protect him if he plays although I would prefer TR7, Chuba, Maitland -Nyles, Hayden, Flamini to suppliment the midfield and attack for the last two games.
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Souness basically said that you can shut this Arsenal side down by working at over capacity- but if you don’t kill the game during the first 60 minutes, you will struggle to hold on. And that is exactly what happened, and by the end it was a surprise we didn’t collect all three points. Dame Fortune, who had deserted us on Monday, looked to be doing exactly the same this time, with Giroud particularly ill-favoured. However, that capricious Madam smiled when Theo came back on (still my equal first favourite player), and we ended up getting at least what we deserved.
So, and please pardon my French, that was flipping excellent.
Je suis au-dessus la lune.
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I think Ed needs a girlfriend. As much as I love his info, his sources are so varied and I would imagine take up so much time that I think he needs a little woman to give him a break from ARSENAL every now and then. Yeah i know they can be a pain and expensive but when you need a release from football they are excellent. Im not being chauvenestic im sure Passenal uses the same system.
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Barcelona have won la liga with a game to spare.
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Aircraft and trailing banner flying across West Country as we speak.
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http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150517/wenger-on-the-draw-and-finishing-third
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Seebs; possibly just a little on the heterocentric side tbh.
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